Ephemera in the art library

Art libraries acquire a large amount of ephemeral material which creates a unique resource on the history of contemporary art. Librarians have to decide what should be retained, how it should be stored, and how the material can best be accessed. Increasingly there is pressure to digitise in order to promote collections, but how effective this process is in terms of ephemeral material remains a real question. A survey of prominent collections in London and New York has helped to inform future plans for the ephemera held by the library at Chelsea College of Art & Design

Exploring household dynamics: the reciprocal effects of parent and child characteristics

A burgeoning line of literature has shown there are strong effects of maternal mental health on child socio-emotional development (Cummings & Davies, 1994; Downey & Coyne, 1990; Mensah & Kiernan, 2010; Smith, 2004). This literature is often based on the examination of dyadic relationships, where maternal mental health is hypothesised to have an effect on child development and well-being, and the mother-child relationship is examined in isolation of other household relationships. This may also be true in clinical practice: while family dynamics are often considered when treating children for behavioural problems or other psychological symptoms, this is often not the case when the parents are treated. However, household dynamics are complex, and other household members may have an effect both on the well-being of the mother and the child. Furthermore, children’s characteristics can also have a feedback effect on their parents’ outcomes. While the literature often concentrates on the effects of parents’ characteristics on child outcomes, the reverse might also occur. In this paper, we employ a structural equation model with crossed lagged effects, to understand the reciprocal relationships between the mother’s mental health, the child socio-emotional development, and the quality of the parental relationship. Analyses were conducted using longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a prospective national birth cohort of children born in the UK in 2000-2001. The Millennium Cohort Study has a wealth of information on the socio-economic background of the household, and has collected data on the mother’s mental health, the quality of the parents’ relationship, and the children’s socio-emotional development. In this work we look at data relating to the pre-school age, a crucial developmental age which has often been missing from the literature

Initial Accuracy of HIV Rapid Test Kits Stored in Suboptimal Conditions and Validity of Delayed Reading of Oral Fluid Tests

An anonymised dataset produced as part of a study on initial accuracy of commonly used HIV rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) when stored in suboptimal conditions and the validity of delayed reading of OraQuick oral fluid tests. It contains HIV results for each RDT, age, sex, previous testing data and an indication of whether or not there was a change in the reading of OraQuick oral RDT over the 12 month period of re-reading. It may be used to validate results related to analysis of sensitivity and specificity of each sub-optimally-stored test kit compared with optimally stored Determine and Uni-Gold conducted in parallel

Change in commute mode and body-mass index: prospective, longitudinal evidence from UK Biobank.

BACKGROUND: Insufficient physical activity is a determinant of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Active travel to work has declined in high-income countries in recent decades. We aimed to determine which socioeconomic and demographic characteristics predicted switching to or from active commuting, whether switching from passive to active commuting (or the reverse) independently predicts change in objectively measured body-mass index (BMI), and to ascertain whether any association is attenuated by socioeconomic, demographic, or behavioural factors. METHODS: This study used longitudinal data from UK Biobank. Baseline data collection occurred at 22 centres between March, 2006, and July, 2010, with a repeat assessment at one centre (Stockport) between August, 2012, and June, 2013, for a subset of these participants. Height and weight were objectively measured at both timepoints. We included individuals present at both timepoints with complete data in the analytic sample. Participants were aged 40-69 years and commuted from home to a workplace on a regular basis at both baseline and follow-up. Two exposures were investigated: transition from car commuting to active or public transport commuting and transition from active or public transport to car commuting. Change in BMI between baseline and repeat assessment was the outcome of interest, assessed with bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models. FINDINGS: 502 656 individuals provided baseline data, with 20 346 participating in the repeat assessment after a median of 4·4 years (IQR 3·7-4·9). 5861 individuals were present at both timepoints and had complete data for all analytic variables. Individuals who transitioned from car commuting at baseline to active or public transportation modes at follow-up had a decrease in BMI of -0·30 kg/m2 (95% CI -0·47 to -0·13; p=0·0005). Conversely, individuals who transitioned from active commuting at baseline to car commuting at follow-up had a BMI increase of 0·32 kg/m2 (0·13 to 0·50; p=0·008). These effects were not attenuated by adjustment for hypothesised confounders. Change in household income emerged as a determinant of commute mode transitions. INTERPRETATION: Incorporation of increased levels of physical activity as part of the commute to work could reduce obesity among middle-aged adults in the UK. FUNDING: UK Medical Research Council

Gold-Gold Bonding: The Key to Stabilizing the 19-Electron Ternary Phases LnAuSb (Ln = La-Nd and Sm) as New Dirac Semimetals

We report a new family of ternary 111 hexagonal LnAuSb (Ln = La-Nd, Sm) compounds that, with a 19 valence electron count, has one extra electron compared to all other known LnAuZ compound. The "19th" electron is accommodated by Au-Au bonding between the layers; this Au-Au interaction drives the phases to crystallize in the YPtAs-type structure rather than the more common LiGaGe-type. This is critical, as the YPtAs structure type has the symmetry-allowed band crossing necessary for the formation of Dirac semimetals. Band structure, density of stats, and crystal orbital calculations confirm this picture, which results in a nearly complete band gap between full and empty electronic states and stable compounds; we can thus present a structural stability phase diagram for the LnAuZ (Ln = Ge, As, Sn, Sb, Pb, Bi) family of phases. Those calculations also show that LaAuSb has a bulk Dirac cone below the Fermi level. The YPtAs-type LnAuSb family reported here is an example of the uniqueness of gold chemistry applied to a rigidly closed shell system in an unconventional way.Comment: 32 pages, 8 Figure

Parental absence in early childhood and onset of smoking and alcohol consumption before adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Parental absence, due to death or separation from a parent, has been associated with smoking and alcohol consumption in adolescence and adulthood. The aim of this study was to investigate whether parental absence in early childhood was associated with smoking and alcohol uptake before adolescence. METHODS: Data on 10 940 children from the UK's Millennium Cohort Study were used. Logistic regression was used to test associations between parental absence (0-7 years) and reports of smoking and alcohol consumption at age 11. RESULTS: Children who experienced parental absence were more likely to have smoked (OR=2.58, 95% CI 1.88 to 3.56) and consumed alcohol (OR=1.46, 95% CI 1.25 to 1.72). No differences were found by child sex or age, or parent absent. Children who experienced parental death were less likely to have drunk alcohol but those who had were more likely to have consumed enough to feel drunk. CONCLUSIONS: Parental absence was associated with early uptake of risky health behaviours in a large, nationally representative UK cohort. Children who experience parental absence should be supported in early life in order to prevent smoking and alcohol initiation.European Research Council [Grant IDs: ERC-2011- StG_20101124, ERC-StG-2012-309337_Alcohol-Lifecourse], Economic and Social Research Council International Centre for Lifecourse Studies in Society and Health (ICLS) [Grant ID: ES/J019119/1], Medical Research Council/Alcohol Research UK [Grant ID: MR/M006638/1]This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from BMJ Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2016-31044

Does a Carbonatite Deposit Influence Its Surrounding Ecosystem?

Carbonatites are unusual alkaline rocks with diverse compositions. Although previous work has characterized the effects these rocks have on soils and plants, little is known about their impacts on local ecosystems. Using a deposit within the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence forest in northern Ontario, Canada, we investigated the effect of a carbonatite on soil chemistry and on the structure of plant and soil microbial communities. This was done using a vegetation survey conducted above and around the deposit, with corresponding soil samples collected for determining soil nutrient composition and for assessing microbial community structure using 16S/ITS Illumina Mi-Seq sequencing. In some soils above the deposit a soil chemical signature of the carbonatite was found, with the most important effect being an increase in soil pH compared with the non-deposit soils. Both plants and microorganisms responded to the altered soil chemistry: the plant communities present in carbonatite-impacted soils were dominated by ruderal species, and although differences in microbial communities across the surveyed areas were not obvious, the abundances of specific bacteria and fungi were reduced in response to the carbonatite. Overall, the deposit seems to have created microenvironments of relatively basic soil in an otherwise acidic forest soil. This study demonstrates for the first time how carbonatites can alter ecosystems in situ

New Intersections for Student Engagement in Libraries: A Qualitative Exploration of Collaborative Learning with Multimedia Technologies

Objective – The purpose of this study was to explore new ways librarians can provide meaningful learning experiences for students beyond the traditional classroom assignment and the one-hour library instruction session. Methods – The study was done within a qualitative framework using participative, interpretive, and personal experience methods. The research team consisted of two librarians and a graduate student. Data collected included transcripts of audio-recorded team meetings and interviews, field notes, and a post-project survey, where students described their experiences negotiating the conceptual and technical processes of authoring a multimedia story. The instructional layer was built upon a constructivist approach allowing for a collaborative learning setting to foster learner control and self-efficacy. Results – Findings illustrate the benefits of collaborative approaches for enhancing the learning experiences of students in the library, in this case with multimedia. The data also suggest promising new ways for librarians to facilitate learning and to engage students in the library. Conclusion – Through a multimedia project that involves both librarian-guided exploration and collaborative learning processes, libraries can offer students formal and structured opportunities to explore their own interests or underlying curiosities beyond the classroom assignment and the one-hour library instruction session