National Research Organizations Research Articles

The wheat tan spot pathosystem in Australia: A showcase of effector‐assisted breeding

AbstractTan spot disease of wheat (also known as yellow spot) is caused by the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Pyrenophora tritici‐repentis (Ptr). Initially described as a grass pathogen, Ptr has become a wheat pathogen of global importance. In Australia, tan spot was first recorded in 1952 as a minor wheat disease. However, by the 1970s tan spot had reached epidemic levels in Australia with yield losses of up to 49% reported in the north‐eastern region. A national survey carried out in 2007/2008 placed tan spot as the most economically important wheat disease with an estimated yield loss of 6%, corresponding to nearly a quarter of all disease losses. The incidence of tan spot in Australia has now markedly reduced with some wheat breeding programmes no longer considering tan spot disease resistance to be a priority trait. The disease can be effectively managed with integrated control strategies such as crop rotation, timely application of fungicides and removal of surface stubble. However, the key to the success of controlling tan spot disease in Australia has been achieved through wheat breeding programmes. The development of tan spot resistance resources suitable for the Australian climate was a concerted effort between national and international research organizations and Australian wheat breeders, supported by the Australian Grains Research Development Corporation (GRDC). While traditional breeding was essential to combat the disease, this article highlights the value of effector biology in assisting the development of resistant cultivars.

Using hierarchical network data envelopment analysis to explore the performance of national research and development organizations

Using hierarchical network data envelopment analysis to explore the performance of national research and development organizations

Approaches to the development of platform employment in the BRICS countries

The main goal of the paper is to examine the process of development and institutionalization of platform employment. Using statistical data from national sources and international research organizations, the authors study the evolution of platform employment in China, India, Brazil and South Africa in comparison with the development of this type of employment in Russia and then create socio-demographic portraits of the each country’s platform workers, classify and systematize the national platform models and define specific characteristics of their formation and functioning. This is followed by the authors’ comments and recommendations concerning further development of platform employment in Russia which largely depends on the evolution of government regulation of this sphere.

Introduction: Lessons for Locally Driven Research Responses to Emergencies

This article summarises learning from Southern-led research designed to influence the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The case studies are drawn primarily from the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) programme, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The article examines: (1) the characteristics of local research institutions’ organisational readiness in times of crisis; (2) the form and function of knowledge that is fit for purpose in emergencies; and (3) knowledge processes and engagement strategies for rapid mobilisation. Organisational readiness hinged on the strength of research institutions’ networks, access to key decision makers or affected communities, and resources and capabilities that allowed them to mobilise quickly. Hyper-local knowledge, combined with inclusive research methodologies, facilitates the positioning of research for use in emergencies. The pandemic has demonstrated that local and national research organisations are well placed to deliver impactful research, as both critical friends of government or outsiders advocating for change.

Implementing Electronic Discharge Communication Tools in Pediatric Emergency Departments: Multicountry, Cross-Sectional Readiness Survey of Nurses and Physicians.

Pediatric emergency departments (ED) in many countries are implementing electronic tools such as kiosks, mobile apps, and electronic patient portals, to improve the effectiveness of discharge communication. This study aimed to survey nurse and physician readiness to adopt these tools. An electronic, cross-sectional survey was distributed to a convenience sample of currently practicing ED nurses and physicians affiliated with national pediatric research organizations in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Survey development was informed by the nonadoption, abandonment, scale-up, spread, sustainability framework. Measures of central tendency, and parametric and nonparametric tests were used to describe and compare nurse and physician responses. Out of the 270 participants, the majority were physicians (61%, 164/270), female (65%, 176/270), and had 5 or more years of ED experience (76%, 205/270). There were high levels of consensus related to the value proposition of electronic discharge communication tools (EDCTs) with 82% (221/270) of them agreeing that they help parents and patients with comprehension and recall. Lower levels of consensus were observed for organizational factors with only 37% (100/270) agreeing that their staff is equipped to handle challenges with communication technologies. Nurses and physicians showed significant differences on 3 out of 21 readiness factors. Compared to physicians, nurses were significantly more likely to report that EDs have a responsibility to integrate EDCTs as part of a modern system (P<.001) and that policies are in place to guide safe and secure electronic communication (P=.02). Physicians were more likely to agree that using an EDCT would change their routine tasks (P=.04). One third (33%, 89/270) of participants indicated that they use or have used EDCT. Despite low levels of uptake, both nurses and physicians in multiple countries view EDCTs as a valuable support to families visiting pediatric ED. Leadership for technology change, unclear impact on workflow, and disparities in digital literacy skills require focused research effort.

Leveraging Taxonomical Engineering for Security Baseline Compliance in International Regulatory Frameworks

A surge in successful Information Security (IS) breaches targeting Research and Education (R&amp;E) institutions highlights a pressing need for enhanced protection. Addressing this, a consortium of European National Research and Education Network (NREN) organizations has developed a unified IS framework. This paper aims to introduce the Security Baseline for NRENs and a security maturity model tailored for R&amp;E entities, derived from established security best practices to meet the specific needs of NRENs, universities, and various research institutions. The models currently in existence do not possess a system to smoothly correlate varying requirement tiers with distinct user groups or scenarios, baseline standards, and existing legislative actions. This segmentation poses a significant hurdle to the community’s capacity to guarantee consistency, congruency, and thorough compliance with a cohesive array of security standards and regulations. By employing taxonomical engineering principles, a mapping of baseline requirements to other security frameworks and regulations has been established. This reveals a correlation across most regulations impacting R&amp;E institutions and uncovers an overlap in the high-level requirements, which is beneficial for the implementation of multiple standards. Consequently, organizations can systematically compare diverse security requirements, pinpoint gaps in their strategy, and formulate a roadmap to bolster their security initiatives.

Counseling and support services for healthcare workers in German university hospitals during the pandemic-descriptive results of a Germany-wide cross-sectional survey.

Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) are experiencing tremendous levels of emotional and physical stress. Hospitals are trying to help personnel cope with work-related pressure. The aim of this study was to assess HCWs' awareness and utilization of counseling and support services during the pandemic, HCWs' unmet counseling and support needs, and the type and content of these services. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted from January to June 2021 through the German national research organization Network University Medicine (NUM). All participating hospitals (6 in total) were asked to inform their employees about the study. A total of 1,495 HCWs were included in the analysis. Of these, 42.8% (n = 637) were frontline HCWs (who had contact with COVID-19 patients), 23.1% (n = 344) were second-line HCWs (who only had contact with non-COVID-19 patients) and 34.1% (n = 508) had no contact with any patients. Participating hospitals offer various counseling and support services for their staff. The percentage of respondents who were unaware of available counseling and support services ranged from 5.0 to 42.0%. Depending on the type of counseling and support services, 23.0-53.6% of the respondents indicated that counseling and support services were provided but not used, while 1.7-11.6% indicated that, despite the need for them, such services were not available. HCWs' overall satisfaction with the provided counseling and support services and their unmet support needs differed by patient contact: Frontline HCWs reported more unmet needs for counseling and support than second-line HCWs, while second-line HCWs reported more unmet needs than HCWs without patient contact. The results indicate that hospitals should make more efforts to inform HCWs about available counseling and support services. Hospitals could also create networks where HCWs could share information about the type and content of services and their experiences with various counseling and support services. These steps would enable hospitals to respond more quickly and effectively to the problems facing HCWs during pandemics.

Science-policy-public interface toward ocean sustainability: An empirical study using legal documents, scientific publications, and public inquiry logs in Japan

Many countries have governmental fisheries science organizations, each of which should play a critical role in achieving ocean sustainability by leading the fisheries science in each country’s specific contexts and beyond. In the context of the UN Decade of Ocean Science (UNDOS), understanding the interface of science, policy, and public interest around fisheries is increasingly recognized as critically important for realizing effective knowledge exchange and co-creating desired futures. This study aims to illuminate the interface of the above three facets as a guide to have better outcomes in the UNDOS timeframe. We used a case study of Japan – a country with extensive seafood production and consumption, and analyzed 1) the scientific performance of the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (JFRA), a national fisheries research organization in the country through peer-reviewed papers published by JFRA researchers from 2004–2018, 2) policy needs through annual white papers published by Fisheries Agency from 1989–2018, and 3) public interest around fisheries through public inquiry logs accumulated at JFRA from 2004–2018. The results indicated the following: 1) JFRA was originally a part of fisheries policies, and both science and policy were inherently based on the fisheries practices in the “real world” in Japan. However, over the last fifteen years, the scientific performance has heavily focused on bio-physical dimensions of fisheries such areas as “Stock assessment,” “Fisheries Oceanography,” and “Stock enhancement.” 2) Japanese fisheries policy priority has shifted from relatively simple, straightforward keywords focusing on primary fisheries production (from 1989 to 1998) to more complex, multidimensional fisheries systems, including marine resources, producers, processors, and consumers in/outside of the country (from 2009–2018) over the last three decades. 3) Public fisheries/ocean literacy seems limited, despite the rich history of seafood consumption, cultural bond with fisheries, and inherent close relationship among fisheries science, policy, and resource users. Based on the results, we discuss that JFRA sciences, fisheries policy, and the public are contemporary pursuing different interests. To overcome this situation, one important area that JFRA (and any other marine/fisheries research organizations) needs is to reconnect science and public interest through strengthening human dimension works and science communication. For the public side, literacy development among wider stakeholders is one of the most emergent works to be addressed. This is one of the first case studies of science-policy-public interface through empirical data, particularly with the public inquiry log, and the “non-Western” country case study on this topic. This will encourage other empirical studies from countries with various social/cultural/political backgrounds to enrich the perspective of fisheries science-policy-public interface studies globally.

Integrating geological data in Europe to foster multidisciplinary research

The European Plate Observing System (EPOS, www.epos-eu.org) is a multidisciplinary pan-European research infrastructure for solid Earth science. It integrates a series of domain-specific service hubs (Thematic Core Service, TCS) such as the Geological Information and Modelling, which provides access to data, data products and services on European boreholes, geological maps, mineral occurrences, mines and 3D models. TCS GIM services are hosted by a group of European Geological Surveys and a couple of national research organizations. This paper presents novel data discovery and integration, facilitated using borehole logging information with on-demand web services to produce 3D geological structures. This domain interoperability across EPOS was created for the purpose of research, but it is also highly relevant for the response to societal grand challenges such as natural hazards and climate change. European and international interoperability implementation frameworks are well described and used (e.g., INSPIRE, ISO, OGC, and IUGS/CGI). It can be difficult for data providers to deploy web services that support the full semantic data definition (e.g., OGC Complex Feature) to expose several millions of geological entities through web-enabled data portals as required by pan-European projects. The TCS GIM group implemented and innovatively extended two standardized descriptions, i.e. GeoSciML-Lite and EarthResourceML-Lite, with an important reuse of content from Linked Data Registries. This approach was applied to design and implement the European Borehole Index and associated web services (View-WMS and Discovery-WFS), extended to 3D models, geological maps as well as mineral occurrences and mines. Results presented here apply the Linked Data approach ensuring optimal semantic description and enriching the data graphs, with complex descriptions and contents. In this way, it is now possible to traverse from one Borehole Index instance to linked richer information such as the borehole geological log, groundwater levels, rock sample description, analyses, etc. All this detailed information is served following international interoperability standards (Observations &amp; Measurements, GroundWaterML 2.0, GeoSciML4, amongst others).

Can slogans prevent gambling harm?

Can slogans prevent gambling harm?

Caring for Young Adults With Diabetes in the Adult Care Setting: Summary of a Multidisciplinary Roundtable.

A multidisciplinary team of clinicians and researchers, patients and family members, and representative from national advocacy groups and research organization met to review the literature, highlight gaps, and identify best practices to improve adult care delivery for young adults (YA) with diabetes. The participants prepared presentations in advance, rotated through sessions, and contributed to group discussions in three areas: physical health, mental health, and quality of life (QoL). Session moderators and scribes used thematic analysis to summarize discussions for each topic. Thematic analysis revealed four foci for addressing physical health, mental health and QoL: 1) best practices to facilitate the process of transfer; 2) age-specific curricula and guidelines for prevention and management of comorbidities and complications; 3) collaboration with behavioral health clinicians to address diabetes distress and mental health disorders; and 4) research on the impact of diabetes on QoL in YA. There was substantial interest and need among adult clinicians to work in concert with pediatric and mental health professionals to identify best practices and future directions to improve healthcare process and diabetes-related outcome measures in YA with diabetes.

India and a historical perspective of open access

PurposeThe environments of the library under open access (OA) are distinctively found as less expensive which ultimately reciprocates better services and technological support for the users as well. Focussing on the Librarians’ perspective, the purpose of the study is to highlight and establish a balance between the vision of OA initiatives and the support of Librarians in India. The principal and philosophy of the study are based upon the exploration of open source initiatives and their significance among the Library & Information Science community.Design/methodology/approachThe study reflects the historical perspective of OA in India and around the world. The study further focusses on how the OA movement has taken a leap in adaptability by the librarians on the basis of acceptance model given. Considering the reviews of the librarians, the study reflects the librarians support OA initiatives in India. OA is a “provocation to thought”, it is a “social contract”.FindingsExploring beyond the researchers have come across that OA is a belief where knowledge evolves best when shared. Based on the acceptance the study given significant. It describes the librarian’s attitude while embracing the OA model with an increased acceptance towards OA, which supports in building Institutional Repositories and broadening the research horizons based on budgetary implications. The librarians and libraries adopt and work to build up a resilient model for OA to bring out awareness among the users.Research limitations/implicationsThe scope of the study is limited to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The focus of the study is purposely laid down on the three given states of India keeping in mind Delhi being a capital city of India, Uttar Pradesh being the largest state of India (area wise) and Haryana state, which opened up multiple educational opportunities for the students and researchers Rajiv Gandhi Educational city plans to host many educational institutions including medical and engineering institutions.Practical implicationsThe study describes the librarian’s attitude while embracing the OA model with an increased acceptance towards the OA, which supports in building Institutional Repositories and broadening the research horizons based on budgetary implications. The librarians and libraries adopt and work to build up a resilient model for OA to bring out awareness among the users.Social implicationsThe present study brings out the need of different policies and mandates by Government of India for OA along with University Grants Commission, National Knowledge Commission and Research Organisation to promote the culture of OA. The study further recommends that LIS communities come together and build the learning culture to promote limitless sharing of information and knowledge for scholarly society.Originality/valueThis research work aims to make a difference in highlighting the librarians’ support on OA initiatives in India due to the role of librarians on transitional point. Dissemination and management of information using digital technology during pandemic have had a significant impact on divided environment. With this paradigm shift, the world struggles with the pandemic. The librarians try to keep themselves in pace by embracing the technology and LIS professionals do adopt the radical reventure the info technology.

Distance teaching of the history of architecture and urban design?

Since at least the 1990s, the educational sciences have generally criticised the format of lectures1 and have instead encouraged active teaching methods2. However, in France, lectures without teacher-student interaction remain the most common teaching format in many subjects. The lack of change in this situation can be explained by the fact that this format is more economical in terms of staffing rates. In addition, the teaching of certain subjects, such as history, is not really conducive to work based on experience and collaboration. However, even in the context of a lecture, some active teaching exercises can be put in place by teachers who are interested in trying new approaches. The main obstacle is then the lack of training in teaching and educational sciences for the teachers in France. Having worked for nearly a year on an ANR Program (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, a national research organisation in France) on the hybridisation of higher education courses on bio-geo-sourced resources for renovation and construction, my research and training in this context encouraged me to think in this direction.

Editorial introductions

Editorial introductions

The Genesis and Performance of Gender Focal Person Structures in Rwanda and Uganda National Agricultural Organisations: A Critique

Gender Focal Persons (GFPs) are commonly recruited by organisations as part of institutional efforts to mainstream gender. Despite their wide usage, these structures often struggle to achieve the intended goals. The underlying factors that explain their limited success are not well understood; yet, this would inform strategies for institutionalising gender in research institutions. This paper traces the genesis and operationalisation of the gender focal person structures in Rwanda and Uganda national agricultural research organisations, to unearth factors influencing their performance. Results presented are based on document reviews and qualitative interviews with scientists, managers, and GFPs in the two organisations. We found that the GFPs hinged on individuals and donors, and operated in an ad hoc manner without streamlined procedures. The structures were not embedded in institutional frameworks, hence their low visibility within the organisations. They were characterized by informality, voluntarism, unclear terms of reference, and accountability frameworks. We conclude that the ineffective performance of the GFPs in both organisations is explained by the informal approach used to establish, operationalise, and nurture them. Institutionalising the structure would require that the pioneering champions and donors successfully negotiate the embedding of GFPs into the mainstream; eventually, guaranteeing allocation of adequate human and financial resources from national budgets, as well as the establishment of accountability systems.

Effects of Nanosecond Repetitively Pulsed Discharges Timing for Aeroengines Ignition at Low Temperature Conditions by Needle-Ring Plasma Actuator

These days, various national and international research organizations are working on the development of low NOx combustors. The present work describes the experimental and numerical characterization of flow dynamics and combustion characteristics in a rectangular burner. A ring-needle type plasma actuator was developed and driven by a high voltage nanosecond pulsed generator under atmospheric conditions. Smoke flow visualizations and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) were carried out to identify the relevant flow structures. Electrical characterization of the non-reactive flow was carried out to predict the electrical power and the optimum value of the reduced electric field (EN), which is useful for the implementation of a numerical model for the study of plasma-assisted ignition. A detailed plasma kinetic mechanism integrated with all excited species was considered and validated with experimental studies. Numerical modeling of plasma ignition has been performed by coupling ZDPlasKin with CHEMKIN. Energy and power consumption for methane/air plasma actuation is higher than the air plasma actuation. This could be due to the excitation and ionization of methane that required more energy deposition and power. The mole fraction of O atoms and ozone was higher in the air than the methane/air actuation. However, O atoms were produced in a very short time interval of 10−7 to 10−6 s; in contrast, the concentration of ozone was gradually increased with the time interval and the peak was observed around 10−1 s. Plasma discharges on the methane/air mixture also produced radicals that played a key role to enhance the combustion process. It was noticed that the concentration of H species was high among all radicals with a concentration of nearly 10−1. The concentration peak of CH3 and OH was almost the same in the order of 10−2. Finally, the mixture ignition characteristics under different low inlet temperatures were analyzed for both air and methane/air plasma actuation in the presence of different plasma discharges pulses numbers. Results showed that it is possible to reach flame ignition at inlet temperature lower than the minimum required in the absence of plasma actuation, which means ignition is possible in cold flow, which could be essential to address the re-ignition problems of aeroengines at high altitudes. At Ti = 700 K, the ignition was reached only with plasma discharges; ignition time was in the order of 0.01 s for plasma discharges on methane/air, lower than in case of plasma in air, which permitted ignition at 0.018 s. Besides this, in the methane/air case, 12 pulses were required to achieve successful ignition; however, in air, 19 pulses were needed to ignite.

Developing a Risk Governance Framework on Radiological Emergency, Preparedness, and Response for Emergency Responders: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.

BackgroundRisk governance involves processes and mechanisms to understand how risk decisions are taken and executed. This concept has gained a reputation over time as being essential for emerging comprehensive management that defines the success of an organization. While guiding documents that explain the use of risk management related to nuclear safety and security are available worldwide, few locally conducted studies have explained risk governance practices in areas where hazard usage is known, such as in radiological emergencies.ObjectiveThis paper describes a protocol that was used to determine several factors that influence emergency responders’ perceptions toward radiological risk practices and visualize the risk radiological framework for emergency preparedness and response.MethodsA mixed methods study with a convergent design was performed. A qualitative analysis was performed using a case study approach where 6 key informants were purposely sampled for in-depth interview, and a cross-sectional study involving a self-administered questionnaire was conducted among approximately 260 emergency respondents from national regulatory, research, and services organizations. NVivo (version 12, QSR International) was used to analyze the interview transcripts and emerging themes were identified through abductive coding. Simultaneously, multiple logistic regression analysis was used to determine significant predictors that form the equation model.ResultsThe study is still underway. Qualitative findings were based on transcript-coding that informed the relevant thematic analysis, while statistical analyses including multiple logistic regression analysis measured the adjusted odds ratio of significant variables for the equation model. The study is expected to conclude in late 2021.ConclusionsImportant emerging themes and significant factors that are related to the emergency responders’ perceptions regarding radiological governance practices were determined through the convergent design. This potentially facilitated the development of a plausible radiological risk governance framework. Furthermore, our results will provide key insights that can be used in future studies.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/25877

Preface

The volume of the content has been published through ICAMBC_2021 (International Conference on Advanced Materials Behavior and Characterization_2021) conducted as virtual online conference on 24-26, April 2021. The conference was organized by Mattest Research Academy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and India.The focus of the conference is to promote the innovative works from core and diversified fields of materials engineering for different applications. Materials engineering is one of the very most important interdisciplinary fields that focuses on studies fundamental physical and chemical basis in order to develop new materials and compounds through manipulating atoms to form desired structures and properties. Any revolutionary changes are always through the breakthrough in new materials.The manuscripts were submitted to the conference from multidiscipline of Materials, Engineering and Sciences. The authors and participants from international universities and National institutions and Research organizations were joined through online via Google Meet. The experts and session chairs have provided talk related to recent research innovations and importance of the virtual conference in this pandemic situation due to COVID’19.The forum comprised around six invited talks in the area of Bio sciences Medical sciences Recent Advanced Materials such as Nano Materials Polymers, Ceramics Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites, Phase Change Materials, Surface Engineering, tribology and biomaterials.The conference had received a good opening to the research society and everyone encouraged about the event was conducted for three days in pandemic situation. Each presentation is around 20-30 minutes as parallel sessions in front of subject experts. The interaction session provided the real experience to the participants and they had good exposure with the students and delegates from global Institutions. The global participants from all states in India, South Africa, Nigeria, Iran, Turkey, Morocco Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Canada had presented and participated in the conference. Indeed it was a wonderful experience for the global researchers to share their research innovations and the feedback is the evidence from the participants registered in our website. https://www.mattest.net/feed-back Dr.I.Saravanan Convener-ICAMBC_2021Mattest Research Academy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.List of Editors, Committee Members are available in this pdf.

Management of Technical Training to Augment the Understanding and Expertise of Water Professionals to Attain the Anticipated Outcome of the Scientific Organization in Keeping Pace – A Case Study by the Way of DoPT Approved Methodology

Scientists in the national level water research organizations are facing problem to submit technical reports in time on account of their insufficient knowledge about the software used for analysis of the field data. The line departments working in the water sector are in need to enhance knowledge and to build the required capacity on the software to present the scenario in the form of technical reports and interpretation of the facts thereto. Therefore, the effective management of the scientific trainings especially on the software is mandatory for achieving the desired goal of any scientific organization. An effective management of the technical trainings would useful to strengthen the professional competence of the officials working in the various Regional and State Unit offices of Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), which would ensure the stakeholders participation to achieve the set of objectives of the organization as well. Being national level apex body, the CGWB is entrusted with the responsibilities of providing scientific inputs for sustainable management, exploration, monitoring, assessment, augmentation and regulation of groundwater resources of the country. CGWB is consisting of Hydrogeologists, Geophysicists, Chemists, Hydrologists, Hydrometeorologists and Engineers and its headquarters is located at Faridabad, Haryana. Major groundwater oriented activities undertaking by CGWB include research and development (R&amp;D) studies, exploratory drilling programme, monitoring of groundwater regime followed by judicious management. The Rajiv Gandhi National Ground Water Training and Research Institute (RGNGWTRI), the training institute under CGWB is the training and research institute of CGWB and is envisaged to function as a `Centre of Excellence’ for imparting training to the personnel associated with the groundwater sector with an objective to develop a pool of trained resource persons, who would be working towards sustainability of this precious natural resources. The aims and objectives, performance problems, various environmental, motivational and behavioural problems have been considered for the Management of Training (MoT). The paper includes the major components like Training and Non-training Recommendations, Training Plan, Priority List and Design Brief. The paper recommends training and non-training implications along with training design. The post training external validation is a step of MoT, which to be carried out after obtaining report on the performance of the trainees from Line Managers or Senior Manager.

Acquiring the proceedings of scholarly events to the collections of RAS Library for Natural Sciences

The research libraries thoroughly analyze new information resources emerging on the information market as well as the dynamics and vectors of information and communication processes in science. The author discusses the findings of the study of acquiring the proceedings of scholarly events to the collections of the Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This type of publications comprises information on the most recent developments, vectors in fundamental and applied research accomplished by national and foreign research organizations. With this information resource, researchers are able to find like-minded colleagues and to assess their own possibilities and prospects for their own studies. The reference materials, conference proceedings and other scholarly publications are of undoubtful interest to the scholarly community; however, the circulations are small, and, as a rule, the book-selling organizations do not distribute these publications. The circulation depends on the number of participants attending the scholarly event. Therefore the conference, symposium, seminar proceedings can be categorized as rare publications. The accumulated experience of collection development with these publications enables to analyze other types of small-circulation scientific publications acquired to the collections of the library.