Finding Sources for the Literature Review

This workshop is for instructors who work with graduate students who are starting work on a literature review for their thesis or dissertation. The graduate workshop begins with an overview of the role of the literature review in a dissertation or thesis and then transitions to a discussion of the ways that writers use different types of sources to accomplish different tasks in their writing. The main focus of the session is on general strategies and resources for finding scholarly literature using an academic library. Tracking citations, locating systematic reviews, using discipline-specific databases and research tools, and identifying relevant subject headings and taxonomies will addressed

Supporting Scholars in Training: A User Needs Survey of a Graduate Study Space

A separate study area reserved for faculty and graduate students was established at Auburn University’s Draughon Library in 2008, but, for many years, there was no formal effort to study the use of the space. In 2016, recognizing that the needs of these user groups differ in significant respects from those of undergraduates, the presenters developed a questionnaire to gather information on the faculty and graduate students using the area and the adequacy of the space to support their work practices. For two weeks in the summer and four weeks in the fall of 2016, users visiting the area were asked to complete a survey that asked about their departmental/college affiliation, how often they used the space and the length of time they spent there, the type of work they were doing, and whether anything was preventing them from accomplishing their goals. The questionnaire also invited users to provide additional feedback they had about the space. The presenters will share the results of their research, the steps they took to improve the study area based on the feedback they received, and the campus partnerships they forged to support the graduate “scholars in training” who are the primary users of this space. At the outset of the talk, audience members will be asked to lend their voices to the question of what elements are most important to library environments that aim to facilitate the academic work of graduate students

Tailoring Boot Camps to Graduate Student Needs

In an effort to strengthen the academic and career preparedness of graduate students at their public land grant university, library faculty organized a one-day boot camp, featuring workshops focused on research and scholarly productivity skills. Organizers of the boot camp recognized that the needs of their graduate students extended beyond the discipline-specific curricula of graduate programs and the content of library orientations and one-shots. The workshop series they developed, informed by input from graduate students, focused on skills and strategies needed throughout the research lifecycle. Graduate student response to the weekend boot camp was overwhelmingly positive, and attendance has grown with each iteration, from 56 attendees at the inaugural boot camp in February 2019 to 117 graduate students at the most recent event in September 2019. The panel presentation will be structured as follows. First, panel members will report on two research studies they conducted to understand the role of the boot camps in addressing the research needs of graduate students. The first study looked at feedback from students who attended the boot camps. Student responses were collected via paper forms and a follow-up Qualtrics survey. Panel presenters coded and analyzed responses to open-ended questions to develop themes that were unique to specific boot camps as well as themes that appeared across multiple boot camps. A second research study, conducted in fall 2019, featured one hour, in-depth interviews of five boot camp participants. The study explored the perspectives of two subgroups of interest: international graduate students (n=3) and non-traditional graduate students (n=2). The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed to develop themes and patterns in participants’ responses to semi-structured questions about (a) challenges the participants faced in conducting research, (b) skills they believed were needed to address these challenges, and (c) preferred methods or venues for acquiring these skills. In the second part of the presentation, panel members will share strategies for implementing a workshop series based on lessons learned from their research and experiences with their own boot camps. The final part of the presentation will report on steps taken by boot camp organizers to establish partnerships with the library’s Media & Digital Resources Lab and the University’s Graduate School, Graduate Student Council, Office of University Writing, and Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. These campus partnerships were instrumental in extending the scope and content of the workshops offered

Bridging the Skills Gap: A Boot Camp for Graduate Students

Graduate students have information literacy needs that are distinct from those of undergraduates and faculty. As they prepare for academic and professional careers, graduate students must acquire skills needed to conduct scholarly research; organize and work with information sources; and effectively communicate research findings. These competencies are often not addressed by the curricular content of their graduate programs. To help bridge this gap, library faculty at a public land grant university organized a one-day research skills boot camp. The boot camp’s workshops include sessions on locating scholarly sources, writing literature reviews, organizing citations, managing data, creating engaging presentations, and increasing scholarly impact. Student response to the weekend boot camp has been overwhelmingly positive, with 550 students attending six boot camps during 2019-2020. The presenters will share results from two studies they conducted to better understand the research needs of graduate students. The first study examines survey feedback from boot camp participants, and the second analyzes focus group interviews to gain additional insight about two subgroups of interest: international graduate students and non-traditional graduate students. Panel attendees interested in sponsoring a similar event will receive practical tips on event programming and registration, branding and promotion, and assessment. The presenters will also report on successful collaborations with campus partners focused on student success (e.g., graduate school, writing center, and teaching and learning center)

Characteristics of successful puma kill sites of elk in the Black Hills, South Dakota

Elk Cervus canadensis nelsoni in the Black Hills, South Dakota, have been declining since 2006 and there is concern by resource managers and hunters that puma Puma concolor predation may be contributing to declining herds. We evaluated characteristics at sites where puma successfully killed elk in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We evaluated characteristics at coarse (79-ha plots) and fine (0.2-ha plot) scales across the landscape. Our primary objective was to obtain a better understanding of vegetation and terrain characteristics that may have facilitated greater susceptibility of elk to predation by puma. We evaluated effects of road density, terrain heterogeneity, probability of elk use, and vegetation variables at 62 puma kill sites of elk and 186 random sites to identify key landscape attributes where elk were killed by puma. Elk were killed by puma in high use areas. Elk were also killed in areas that had greater amounts of edge and intermediate ruggedness at the coarse scale. Further, elk were killed in areas with greater small tree density and woody debris at the fine scale. High germination rates of ponderosa pine trees are unique to the Black Hills and provide dense patches of cover for puma. We hypothesize that cover from small trees and woody debris provided conditions where puma could stalk elk in areas with optimal security cover for elk. We suggest managers implement vegetation management practices that reduce small tree density and woody debris in areas with greater density of meadow—forest edge if they are interested in potentially diminishing hiding cover for puma in elk high use areas

Assessing Public Issues Knowledge and Needs of Extension Agents in Florida

It has been argued that to remain relevant in today\u27s society, Extension must expand its role to provide public issues education. We conducted a web-based survey to determine whether Extension agents in Florida were prepared to deal with contentious issues. Survey respondents identified issues affecting their clientele, levels of frequency with which they addressed the issues, and self-perceived levels of knowledge related to the issues. Results were analyzed by agent type (i.e., programmatic area). Results revealed that the issues of immigration, crop diseases, and food security held particular potential for improvement

The Antarctic Peninsula Under a 1.5 degrees C Global Warming Scenario

Warming of the Antarctic Peninsula in the latter half of the twentieth century was greater than any other terrestrial environment in the Southern Hemisphere, and clear cryospheric and biological consequences have been observed. Under a global 1.5°C scenario, warming in the Antarctic Peninsula is likely to increase the number of days above 0°C, with up to 130 of such days each year in the northern Peninsula. Ocean turbulence will increase, making the circumpolar deep water (CDW) both warmer and shallower, delivering heat to the sea surface and to coastal margins. Thinning and recession of marine margins of glaciers and ice caps is expected to accelerate to terrestrial limits, increasing iceberg production, after which glacier retreat may slow on land. Ice shelves will experience continued increase in meltwater production and consequent structural change, but not imminent regional collapses. Marine biota can respond in multiple ways to climatic changes, with effects complicated by past resource extraction activities. Southward distribution shifts have been observed in multiple taxa during the last century and these are likely to continue. Exposed (ice free) terrestrial areas will expand, providing new habitats for native and non-native organisms, but with a potential loss of genetic diversity. While native terrestrial biota are likely to benefit from modest warming, the greatest threat to native biodiversity is from non-native terrestrial species

Local alignment of generalized k-base encoded DNA sequence

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>DNA sequence comparison is a well-studied problem, in which two DNA sequences are compared using a weighted edit distance. Recent DNA sequencing technologies however observe an encoded form of the sequence, rather than each DNA base individually. The encoded DNA sequence may contain technical errors, and therefore encoded sequencing errors must be incorporated when comparing an encoded DNA sequence to a reference DNA sequence.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although two-base encoding is currently used in practice, many other encoding schemes are possible, whereby two ore more bases are encoded at a time. A generalized <it>k</it>-base encoding scheme is presented, whereby feasible higher order encodings are better able to differentiate errors in the encoded sequence from true DNA sequence variants. A generalized version of the previous two-base encoding DNA sequence comparison algorithm is used to compare a <it>k</it>-base encoded sequence to a DNA reference sequence. Finally, simulations are performed to evaluate the power, the false positive and false negative SNP discovery rates, and the performance time of <it>k</it>-base encoding compared to previous methods as well as to the standard DNA sequence comparison algorithm.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The novel generalized <it>k</it>-base encoding scheme and resulting local alignment algorithm permits the development of higher fidelity ligation-based next generation sequencing technology. This bioinformatic solution affords greater robustness to errors, as well as lower false SNP discovery rates, only at the cost of computational time.</p

Low-Bandwidth and Non-Compute Intensive Remote Identification of Microbes from Raw Sequencing Reads

Cheap high-throughput DNA sequencing may soon become routine not only for human genomes but also for practically anything requiring the identification of living organisms from their DNA: tracking of infectious agents, control of food products, bioreactors, or environmental samples. We propose a novel general approach to the analysis of sequencing data in which the reference genome does not have to be specified. Using a distributed architecture we are able to query a remote server for hints about what the reference might be, transferring a relatively small amount of data, and the hints can be used for more computationally-demanding work. Our system consists of a server with known reference DNA indexed, and a client with raw sequencing reads. The client sends a sample of unidentified reads, and in return receives a list of matching references known to the server. Sequences for the references can be retrieved and used for exhaustive computation on the reads, such as alignment. To demonstrate this approach we have implemented a web server, indexing tens of thousands of publicly available genomes and genomic regions from various organisms and returning lists of matching hits from query sequencing reads. We have also implemented two clients, one of them running in a web browser, in order to demonstrate that gigabytes of raw sequencing reads of unknown origin could be identified without the need to transfer a very large volume of data, and on modestly powered computing devices. A web access is available at http://tapir.cbs.dtu.dk. The source code for a python command-line client, a server, and supplementary data is available at http://bit.ly/1aURxkc

Chemical data evaluation: General considerations and approaches for IUPAC projects and the chemistry community (IUPAC Technical Report)

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has a long tradition of supporting the compilation of chemical data and their evaluation through direct projects, nomenclature and terminology work, and partnerships with international scientific bodies, government agencies, and other organizations. The IUPAC Interdivisional Subcommittee on Critical Evaluation of Data has been established to provide guidance on issues related to the evaluation of chemical data. In this first report, we define the general principles of the evaluation of scientific data and describe best practices and approaches to data evaluation in chemistryinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio