Walking a Mile in Their Shoes: Designing Inclusive Surveys to Level the Playing Field

Are you ready to make your library a better environment for employees and users from all walks of life Surveys are a great way to gather useful information about how to optimally serve excluded communities. The prospect of surveying marginalized populations can be intimidating. What if your questions offend the very people you wish to accommodate and include The presenters defuse this potential minefield by sharing their lived experience of ethnic identity (Latina) and disability (Parkinsons disease). In a recent PLOSOne article it was noted that researchers establish trust with participants by designing questions that resonate with participants lived experiences. In this session we advocate that the participant experience should be central in the survey design and input from community members is critical. By involving members of the marginalized groups in the design, librarians can find solid footing that gives them confidence that the questions they ask are respectful and inclusive

Data (Mis) Visualization and its Impact on Academic Advancement and Public Understanding

Cultures across the globe are increasingly visual—whether this be due to the popularity of video streaming, advances in the graphic arts, or the rise of accessible software, apps, and other technologies. In fact, while globalization endures as a prominent force, it seems that the rather universal languages of images and numbers do as well. Visualizations—in particular data visualizations—are valued for their efficiency in communicating messages and their efficacy in spurring emotion and instigating action. This gives such images great power. Although all media consumers must ultimately be accountable for their own ability to interact responsibly with the visual media, educators have a duty to prepare students in higher education for the unique burdens and challenges that accompany their disciplines. However, instructors rarely focus on visual literacy when it comes to the learning outcomes of many programs even when source evaluation and the use of reliable research is prioritized and expected. According to the Association of College and Research Libraries: Visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. . . . A visually literate individual is both a critical consumer of visual media and a competent contributor to a body of shared knowledge and culture. When visual literacy is covered in the curriculum, there is a tendency to emphasize the state-of-the-art technologies, artistic process, and proper methods that accompany the creation of such imagery. Yet, the skill set of abilities listed in this definition is more heavily weighted toward the consumptive aspects rather than the productive. To better equip our students for both their professional and personal lives after academia, it is imperative that we give them the tools and skills to critically read data visualizations This panel will address questions regarding the implications that various forms of data and information visualization have on the pedagogy, research, culture, and public face of their respective academic fields: Dr. Dale Edwards is the Program Coordinator and a Professor of Journalism & Media Studies at the University of Northern Colorado. The practices of journalism and the mass media have perhaps the furthest public reach and highest influence when it comes to the effects of visual information on the public. Appropriately preparing and balancing the responsibilities of the producers and consumers of this content is a longstanding problem with new dilemmas and complications. Dr. Rob Reinsvold is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the Coordinator for the Biology Secondary Education Program at the University of Northern Colorado. The proliferation of large amounts of data in the sciences has led to concerns of misinformation as seen with the recent climate change skeptics and flat earth theorists. Dr. Reinsvold strives to develop data-literate science educators that will in turn teach others how to effectively access, interpret, and communicate data. Maggie Shawcross is an Assistant Professor and the Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Northern Colorado. Maggie has previously worked as a Consumer Health Librarian and a Public Librarian focusing on health programming and health literacy. She is keenly aware of how imagery affects the work of healthcare professionals and consumers, and she instructs students on how to use reliable and credible resources in the ever-changing environment of health information. Jingying Crystal Zhen is a graduate student studying Digital Media at the University of Northern Colorado and Computer Graphics at Shandong Normal University. Crystal’s work focuses on digital illustration, and she is interested in how data visualization can help data be communicated more clearly. In discussing this topic from the vantage point of their respective disciplines, participants offers specific issues, experiences, and suggestions that help define the current context of visual literacy and illuminate a path forward for responding to this modern state of affairs

Effect of rifaximin on infections, acute-on-chronic liver failure and mortality in alcoholic hepatitis : A pilot study (RIFA-AH)

Background & Aims: Alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is associated with a high incidence of infection and mortality. Rifaximin reduces bacterial overgrowth and translocation. We aimed to study whether the administration of rifaximin as an adjuvant treatment to corticosteroids decreases the number of bacterial infections at 90 days in patients with severe AH compared to a control cohort. Methods: This was a multicentre, open, comparative pilot study of the addition of rifaximin (1200 mg/day/90 days) to the standard treatment for severe AH. The results were compared with a carefully matched historical cohort of patients treated with standard therapy and matching by age and model of end-stage liver disease (MELD). We evaluated bacterial infections, liver-related complications, mortality and liver function tests after 90 days. Results: Twenty-one and 42 patients were included in the rifaximin and control groups respectively. No significant baseline differences were found between groups. The mean number of infections per patient was 0.29 and 0.62 in the rifaximin and control groups, respectively (p =.049), with a lower incidence of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) linked to infections within the treatment group. Liver-related complications were lower within the rifaximin group (0.43 vs. 1.26 complications/patient respectively) (p =.01). Mortality was lower in the treated versus the control groups (14.2% vs. 30.9, p =.15) without significant differences. No serious adverse events were associated with rifaximin treatment. Conclusions: Rifaximin is safe in severe AH with a significant reduction in clinical complications. A lower number of infections and a trend towards a lower ACLF and mortality favours its use in these patients