National Science Digital Library Research Articles

Understanding the Information Needs of Large-Scale Digital Library Users

This paper reports on the results of a comparative study of user search logs in two large-scale, domain-specific digital libraries functioning in the United States: the National Science Digital Library and Opening History. Results demonstrate varying levels of use of advanced search options and substantial differences in the search query lengths, search query frequencies, and distribution of search categories in queries. The empirical data on how the members of the target communities search can be used in deriving important information for domain-specific digital library developers’ decisions regarding both the details of information organization and support of various search features.

Telbivudine during the second and third trimester of pregnancy interrupts HBV intrauterine transmission: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BECKGROUND: Evaluate the efficacy and safety of telbivudine during the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy in intrauterine transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV). Based on the principle of Cochrane systematic reviews, a database was constructed from Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, the US National Science Digital Library (NSDL), the China Biological Medicine Database (CBM-disc), and contact with Chinese experts in the field from November 2006 to February 2013. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) of Oxford, Cochrane Collaboration's tool, and Review Manager Version 5.0 (Rev-Man 5.0) for assessing the quality of clinical trials, risk of bias, and statistical analysis was used. We analyzed the effects and safety of telbivudine treatment on intrauterine mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HBV from HBsAg and HBV-DNA positive mothers. All newborns received an immune prophylaxis schedule consisting of simultaneous hepatitis B virus vaccine and hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) postpartum. Of 32 studies, 7 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria in the study. Either the Mantel-Haenszel or Inverse Variance fixed-effects model or Mantel-Haenszel or Inverse Variance random-effects model was applied for all analyses indicated by odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The meta-analysis based on new onset of HBsAg seropositivity of infants at 6-12 months postpartum revealed that the control group had an intrauterine transmission rate of 8.25-42.31%. This rate was reduced to 0-14.29% in the telbivudine treatment group (OR 0.09, 95% CI 0.04-0.22, including seven trials, p < 0.001). The rates of intrauterine transmission based on new onset of HBV DNA seropositivity of infants at 6-12 months postpartum were 8.25-19.23% in the control group and 0 - 3.57% in the treatment group (OR 0.07, 95% CI 0.02-0.22, p < 0.001, including only five trials, since two trials had no data on HBV DNA in infants). With the exception of CK elevations, adverse effect frequencies were similar in both groups. Telbivudine is an effective and safe drug for preventing intrauterine transmission of HBV.

A Blended, Multimodal Access eTextBook in Computational Physics

A complete eTextBook with multiple executable elements has been created and Web-based versions have been placed in the National Science Digital Library. The book's file formats and executable elements were chosen to be platform-independent, highly useable, and free. Although future technologies and operating systems promise improved executable books, this eTextbook highlights some of the features possible with existing technologies. The prototype eTextBook includes text, computational laboratories, demonstrations, and video-based lecture modules.

Physiology for the 21st century: a sourcebook of laboratory activities in physiology

this issue of Advances in Physiology Education ( Advances ) sees the debut of a new section, the Sourcebook of Laboratory Activities in Physiology. The original sourcebook was developed in the 1970s and published by the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) Commission on Teaching

Can intermediary‐based science standards crosswalking work? Some evidence from mining the standard alignment tool (SAT)

We explore the feasibility of intermediary‐based crosswalking and alignment of K‐12 science education standards. With the increasing availability of K‐12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) digital library content, alignment of that content with educational standards is a significant and continuous challenge. Whereas direct, one‐to‐one alignment of standards is preferable but currently unsustainable in its resource demands, less resource‐intensive intermediary‐based alignment offers an interesting alternative. But will it work? We present the results from an experiment in which the machine‐based Standard Alignment Tool (SAT)—incorporated in the National Science Digital Library (NSDL)—was used to collect over half a million direct alignments between standards from different standard‐authoring bodies. These were then used to compute intermediary‐based alignments derived from the well‐known AAAS Project 2061 Benchmarks and NSES standards. The results show strong variation among authoring bodies in their success at crosswalking, with the best results for those who modeled their standards on the intermediaries. The results furthermore show a strong inverse relationship between recall and precision when both intermediates were involved in the crosswalking.

Toward broader impacts: Making sense of NSF's merit review criteria in the context of the National Science Digital Library

Scholars in library and information science are under increasing pressure to seek external funding for research. The National Science Foundation (NSF), which is often the source of this funding, considers proposed projects based on the criteria of “Intellectual Merit” and “Broader Impacts.” However, these merit review criteria have been criticized as being insufficiently specific and not appropriate for all types of scientific research. In an effort to examine the extent to which funded projects represented Broader Impacts, the researchers performed a content analysis of the abstracts from projects in the National Science Digital Library, an NSF project that crossed many disciplines and applications, but is of particular relevance to information scientists. When the results of these analyses are placed in the context of the controversy surrounding the Broader Impacts merit review criterion, it is clear that this criterion is interpreted broadly and that even successful proposals often include aspirational or incomplete claims of impact. Because current proposed revisions to the merit review criteria that include emphases on demonstrable innovation and economic benefit will likely only complicate proposers' abilities to describe their projects' potentials, researchers may benefit from a greater understanding of Broader Impacts and how they can be clearly expressed to reviewers.

Exploration and study of multilingual thesauri automation construction for digital libraries in China

PurposeThe paper aims to explore multilingual thesauri automation construction based on the freely available digital library resources. The key methods and study results are presented in the paper. It also proposes a way that terms are automatically extracted from multilingual parallel corpus.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted the technology of natural language processing to analyze the linguistics characteristics of terms, and combined this with statistical analyses to extract the terms from technological documents. The methods consist of automatically extracting and filtering terms, judging and building relationship among terms, building the multilingual parallel corpus, and extracting term pairs between Chinese and foreign languages through calculating their associated probability. The experiments run on the Java test platform.FindingsThe study obtains the following conclusions: finding the similarities and differences between the Chinese thesaurus standard and international thesaurus standard. The methods for automatically extracting terms and building relationships among them are presented. Eventually the multilingual terms' translation sets are generated based on real corpora. The results of the study show that the proposed methods can obtain better performance. The effect of automatic terms' translation alignment method is better than that of traditional IBM model method.Practical implicationsThe study results can provide references for further study and application of multilingual thesauri automation construction using Chinese as a pivot.Originality/valueThe paper proposes new ideas on thesaurus automation construction in the digital age. The presented method based on linguistics and statistics is a new attempt. According to the experimental results, this exploration and study is innovative and valuable. In addition, these ideas and methods give a good start for improving information services of the PRC's National Science and Technology Digital Library.

Insulin and hypertonic glucose in the management of aseptic fat liquefaction of post-surgical incision: a meta-analysis and systematic review.

A meta-analysis and systematic review assessing randomised controlled trials (RCTs) was sought to determine whether subcutaneous injection of insulin with hypertonic glucose promotes healing in postoperative incisions with aseptic fat liquefaction. We searched the Cochrane library, Pubmed, EMBASE, National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and China Biological Medicine Database (CBMdisc) for literature published from 1 January 1990 to 30 September 2011. RCTs that evaluated subcutaneous injection of insulin with hypertonic glucose as a treatment for postoperative wound with fat liquefaction were sought. Wound healing was the primary endpoint. Jadad score and Cochrane Collaboration's tool were used for assessing quality of studies and risk of bias. We abstracted data regarding time to wound healing, cost and adverse effects. The random-effects inverse variance model was used for all analyses using weighted mean difference and 95% confidence interval. Eight trials (414 participants) were identified that met the inclusion criteria. Subcutaneous injection of insulin with hypertonic glucose significantly reduces time to healing by 6·33 days compared with conventional drainage, with less cost. There was no report concerning adverse effects. Subcutaneous injection of insulin with hypertonic glucose may improve the healing process in postoperative wounds with aseptic fat liquefaction.

Sharing your instructional materials via ensemble

Ensemble is a Pathways project of the NSF NSDL (National Science Digital Library) dedicated to supporting computing education. This tutorial will introduce Ensemble and enable faculty members to take advantage of the Ensemble facilities. The session will also provide an opportunity for the CCSC community to provide feedback about the Ensemble facilities and suggestions about the on-going development of the portal.

Breastfeeding of Newborns by Mothers Carrying Hepatitis B Virus

To perform a systematic review of prospective studies to confirm the role of breastfeeding in mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of hepatitis B virus (HBV). A database was constructed from MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, National Science Digital Library, and China Biological Medicine Database and through contact with experts in this field from January 1, 1990, to August 31, 2010. All studies were peer reviewed and met the preset inclusion standards. Breastfeeding. Data regarding HBV intrauterine infection, MTCT, maternal blood and breast milk infectiousness, infant immunoprophylaxis methods and response, and adverse events. The Mantel-Haenszel fixed-effects model was used for all analyses using odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Ten qualified studies were included. All were clinical controlled trials, involving 751 infants in the breastfeeding group and 873 infants in the nonbreastfeeding group. As indicated by infant peripheral blood hepatitis B surface antigen or HBV DNA positivity at age 6 to 12 months, the odds ratio of MTCT of HBV in the breastfeeding group compared with that in the nonbreastfeeding group was 0.86 (95% confidence interval, 0.51-1.45) (from 8 clinical controlled trials, P = .56; I(2) = 0%, P = .99). As indicated by infant peripheral blood hepatitis B surface antibody positivity at age 6 to 12 months, the odds ratio of development of hepatitis B surface antibodies in the breastfeeding group compared with that in the nonbreastfeeding group was 0.98 (95% confidence interval, 0.69-1.40) (from 8 clinical controlled trials, P = .93; I(2) = 0%, P = .99). No adverse events or complications during breastfeeding were observed. Breastfeeding after proper immunoprophylaxis did not contribute to MTCT transmission of HBV.

Where in the World of Sustainability Education is US Geography?

This paper investigates latest developments in sustainability studies, sustainability education and geography's place in sustainability education, with a focus on the USA. The investigation draws on latest information on sustainability education, from a survey of the 29 sustainability degree programs in the USA and interviews with the program directors and faculty and data from the Association for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education and the National Science Digital Library. It explores where geography should be in sustainability education, why geography is not there and what geography should do to get there.

The Open Metadata Registry: An update

AbstractEditor's SummaryStarted in 2005 as the metadata registry for the National Science Digital Library (NSDL), the NSDL Registry has undergone significant changes. It has expanded, shifted from its original support source to JES &amp; Co. and been renamed in 2010 as the Open Metadata Registry (OMR). While serving end users seeking vocabularies available for a project or group, the OMR focuses on supporting the primary providers of vocabularies by facilitating publishing and tracking evolving versions of their vocabularies. Work is ongoing to enable the OMR to support multilingual vocabularies and separate but associated language versions. To promote consistent term labels, the use of uniform resource identifiers (URIs) is promoted as well as concept representation by numeric strings. The OMR is currently being reengineered in Drupal. As it undergoes dramatic changes, the OMR is offered as a valuable infrastructure tool for data sharing.

High Marks for Transformative Teachers

As an educator working to reform introductory undergraduate courses, I was perplexed by B. Alberts's announcement about a Science prize for inquiry-based lab modules (“A new college Science prize,” Editorial, 7 January, p. [10][1]). Given that inquiry modules are readily available in a variety of excellent, peer-reviewed resources ([ 1 ][2]–[ 6 ][3]), students' inexperience with this lesson format is likely not due to lack of access to such materials. The persistent deficiencies in college science teaching discussed in the Editorial point to a problem much larger than availability of inquiry modules. Real transformation, as outlined in the recent AAAS Vision and Change “call to action,” for example ([ 7 ][4]), requires much more than inquiry teaching. For instance, faculty need to assess how well students entering a course can apply scientific thinking to questions about major concepts, and then assess whether such critical thinking skills improve after instruction. In my view, faculty who teach truly transformed science courses, as defined by elements such as these, deserve the honors. 1. [↵][5]The National Science Digital Library ([nsdl.org][6]). 2. Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning ([pogil.org][7]). 3. Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College ([serc.carleton.edu][8]). 4. Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology ([tiee.ecoed.net][9]). 5. Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning Online ([taste.merlot.org/merlotcollection.html][10]). 6. [↵][11]Association for Biology Laboratory Instruction ([ableweb.org/][12]). 7. [↵][13]Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, 2010). [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1202096 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-6 [4]: #ref-7 [5]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [6]: http://nsdl.org [7]: http://pogil.org [8]: http://serc.carleton.edu [9]: http://tiee.ecoed.net [10]: http://taste.merlot.org/merlotcollection.html [11]: #xref-ref-6-1 View reference 6 in text [12]: http://ableweb.org/ [13]: #xref-ref-7-1 View reference 7 in text

Evaluating the National Science Digital Library for learning application readiness

The usefulness of open-access digital libraries for K-16 education depends on the readiness of the collection to be placed in the path of users within diverse contexts across a variety of learning applications. The National Science Digital Library (NSDL) employs the concept of Learning Application Readiness (LAR) to assess the capacity of its collections to be deployed into applications such as learning management systems, educational resource registries, and customized curriculum services. This paper describes a multi-year evaluation of the NSDL and the notion of collection assessment as it relates to Learning Application Readiness. It then outlines steps that have been taken to increase NSDL capacity for contextualization into a wide array of K-16 educational applications.

Higher Education: the Future

More and more, higher education is transforming from closed, instructor-led classrooms to open, student-directed communities of learning. College-level content is accessible anywhere and anytime. Formal courses, such as those from MIT OpenCourseWare and the Open University (United Kingdom), are available to all of us. In addition, learning resources from collections such as the National Science Digital Library, Open Educational Resources, and Public Knowledge Project bring up-to-date information to the public. Wikipedia, YouTube, and Flickr convert and organize content into accessible formats for students from diverse learning, lingual, and cultural backgrounds. New communities in Facebook, LinkedIn, and WordPress facilitate sharing and discussions. Smart phones and other mobile devices bring content and people to students continuously. I believe these platforms and others will continue to transform the lives of college students, faculty, and others involved in science. Anyone wanting to discover new content and attempt new experiences will do so using emerging technologies, information, and experts from the Internet.

Adhesion formation after previous caesarean section-a meta-analysis and systematic review

The optimal technique for performing caesarean section with respect to minimising postoperative adhesions has not been determined. To evaluate adhesion formation for three common caesarean section techniques in women undergoing repeat caesarean section surgeries. A database was constructed from Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, National Science Digital Library, China Biological Medicine Database and through contact with experts in this field from January 1990 to May 2010. Studies were included if they examined adhesion formation in repeat caesarean sections as a primary objective, delineated a clear study design, specified an adhesion scoring system, and had sufficient patient exclusion criteria. We abstracted data regarding adhesion formation. The Mantel-Haenszel random-effects model was employed for all analyses using odds ratio or inverse variance, along with 95% CI. Thirty-three qualified studies including 4423 women were analysed. There were 406 adhesions among 571 women and 238 adhesions among 596 women in the Stark's caesarean section (also known as Misgav-Ladach method) group and modified Stark's caesarean section group, respectively, with pooled OR 4.69 (95% CI 3.32-6.62; P < 0.01, 12 studies); 1173 adhesions among 1555 women and 1179 adhesions among 1625 women in Stark's caesarean section group and classic lower-segment caesarean section group, respectively, with pooled odds ratio 1.28 (95% CI 0.97-1.68; P = 0.08, 21 studies); and 29 adhesions from 102 women and 115 adhesions from 193 women in modified Stark's caesarean section group and classic lower-segment caesarean section group, respectively, with pooled odds ratio 0.28 (95% CI 0.10-0.82; P = 0.02, two studies). Closure of the peritoneum in modified Stark's caesarean section resulted in less adhesion formation and should be recommended.

Lamivudine in Late Pregnancy to Interrupt In Utero Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus

To evaluate efficacy of lamivudine in reducing in utero transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV). A database was constructed from Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, National Science Digital Library, China Biological Medicine Database, and through contact with experts in the field from January 1990 to October 2009. We used the Jadad score and Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias. We abstracted data regarding HBV intrauterine infection, mother-to-child transmission, maternal HBV DNA level, treatment methods, and adverse effects. All newborns followed joint immune prophylaxis schedule of hepatitis B vaccine and hepatitis B immunoglobulin after delivery. The Mantel-Haenszel random-effects model was employed for all analyses using odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval. Compared with the no-treatment group or placebo group, newborns in the lamivudine group had a 10.7–23.7% lower incidence of intrauterine infection, indicated by newborn hepatitis B surface antigen (0.38,0.15–0.94, six randomized controlled trials [RCTs], P5.04) and HBV DNA (0.22, 0.12–0.40, four RCTs, P,.001) seropositivity, and a 12.7–33.2% lower mother-to child transmission rate at 9–12 months, indicated by infant hepatitis B surface antigen (0.31, 0.15–0.63, five RCTs, P,.01) and HBV DNA (0.20, 0.10–0.39, two RCTs,P,.001) seropositivity [corrected].No significant higher adverse effects or complications in pregnancy were observed. Lamivudine in HBV carrier-mothers with high degree of infectiousness in late pregnancy effectively prevented HBV intrauterine infection and mother-to-child transmission.

New regional editor

Ranjit Kumar Verma joined the research group of E. B. Singh in 1983 after joining the University Department of Chemistry, Magadh University as a lecturer where he was subsequently elevated to the post of Reader in 1986 and later he became Professor (1993). Prior to that, he taught undergraduate students for 6 years at H. D. Jain College, Ara, which is now a part of V. K. S University (India). Prof. Verma (M.Sc., Ph.D.) formed a small thermal group at Bodh Gaya and has popularized this field in the area. His research interests are thermal analysis and particularly its applications in solid-state kinetics. He has also presented nearly 60 papers at national and international conferences. He has been a referee for 11 journals including J. Therm. Anal. Calorim., J Indian Chem. Soc., Indian J. Chem., Sensor Lett. Spectrochim. Acta. He has been an author for the Chemistry text book for senior secondary students (NCERT—which is the main body for curriculum and text book development in India) and for the e Book on Inorganic Chemistry developed under the National Science Digital Library project of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, Govt of India). He was the Convener of the Verma Committee for Educational and Administrative Reforms, which suggested wide ranging curricular development in his university. Ranjit Verma has been

The Analytical Sciences Digital Library (ASDL)

The Analytical Sciences Digital Library (ASDL) is a collection of electronic resources for teachers, students, and practitioners interested in chemical measurements and instrumentation. The ASDL collection is freely accessible at www.asdlib.org. This project has been funded by the National Science Foundation’s National Science Digital Library (NSDL) program. The NSDL (http://nsdl.org/) is an online library for education and research in science technology, engineering and mathematics. All NSDL content, including that in the ASDL, is freely available on the Internet. The ASDL was launched in 2002 following discussions at regional and national meetings about ways to implement the recommendations embodied in a report from a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded workshop on “Curricular developments in the analytical sciences” [1]. The analytical sciences include analytical chemistry, and other disciplines in which measurement plays a central role, for example, chemical engineering, public health, forensics, and environmental science. The ASDL provides an annotated collection of electronic resources and serves as a resource for curricular development in the analytical sciences. Materials cataloged in the ASDL are selected for their educational value through a peer-review process.

A Nobelist's Passionate Pursuit of Excellence

In its role as a collection of collections, the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) offers more than 1.5 million resources to science educators. But even that impressive figure doesn't capture the work of everyone who is generating serious online content. One academic who operates outside NSDL's network is Harry Kroto, 1996 chemistry Nobelist for his co-discovery of fullerenes.