University at Albany, State University of New York
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IT Assessment in ARL Libraries
Get PDFWith the rapid pace of change and the high cost invested in information technology, it is important for academic libraries to evaluate the information technology solutions they use in their institutions to determine whether they are meeting the needs of their students, faculty, staff, and other users of their libraries and resources. This study presents the results of an online survey of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) academic library members to benchmark the assessment strategies that they used to evaluate their IT activities. This article compares their responses with earlier studies to identify trends and make recommendations for effective assessment practices
A Research Data Services FAIRytale
Get PDFWhether for assignments or research, the faculty, staff, and students at all academic institutions will work with data. Some patrons seek assistance finding open data for their projects, while others would like lessons in data analysis or visualization. Data sharing is increasingly required by journals or funding agencies, and researchers may find this challenging while also navigating Data Use Agreements, confidentiality concerns, data documentation, locating a suitable repository, and more.
Furthermore, most funding agencies require a data management plan be included in grant proposals to ensure that researchers are prepared to follow best practices regarding the collection, storage, security, and sharing of their data. Therefore, data literacy education and research data services are essential. Unfortunately, research data services are frequently decentralized at academic institutions, with services being offered by many departments who don’t always collaborate on outreach.
Research reproducibility and ethics, as embodied in the FAIR principles for data sharing, align with libraries’ values, making them a natural home for data support and services. In the last several years, our Libraries have made progress with outreach to campus departments involved in aspects of data literacy and management, resulting in a coordinated Data Services group with representatives from those departments led by librarians. In this session, we will discuss the role of Data Services as a larger part of the institution’s Research Data Management agenda, highlight some of our accomplishments, admit some of our challenges, and share some of our near-term next steps and big picture goals
Silozi Possessives: A Description and Analysis
Get PDFThis thesis investigates the behaviors of the possessive in the language of Silozi. Possession words in Silozi hold layers of complexity that are not seen in the English language. Common possessive words such as my, are influenced by an element known as noun class agreement. Silozi has a total of fourteen unique noun classes which results in multiple distinct ways to form possessive words like ours and theirs. This paper presents a discussion and analysis of data collected from a language consultant fluent in the languages of English and Silozi. A strong focus is placed on the structure and behaviors of the possessive and its interactions with other lexical elements, particularly adjectives and demonstratives. Also examined is how the structure of the possessive changes when introduced to more complex syntactical environments. Since Silozi is an undercommented Bantu language, the findings presented in this thesis provides a valuable contribution to the study of possessives in Silozi while also shedding insight into some of the complex linguistic structures of the language
A study of Cranf 1927: Woo Kwang Kien and Translation-cultural Capital
Get PDFLargely ignored by Gaskell scholars, the early Chinese translations of Gaskell’s works have not been carefully looked at. From 1920 to 1945, the publication of four stories by Gaskell-- Cranford, Cousin Phillis, Hand and Heart, and The Old Nurse’s Story, witnessed the transformation from politics-orientated to independence in China’s publishing history. With their growing understanding of foreign literature, Chinese scholars had been translating and criticizing Gaskell’s works, and gradually formed a focus on Cranford. It was not by accident that Cranford has received great popularity: there is no similar novella in contemporary Chinese literature that has ever treated the topic ‘balance and modernization’ so gently and delicately, yet the translators’ handling of the texts indicates cultural compromise too. As a result of that, I argue: the reception of Gaskell in China, especially during this period, sheds light on how western literature has been domesticated and accepted in another language, which also showcases why in that way could Gaskell become popular in an eastern country
The Organization of Information Technology Activities in North American Research Libraries
Get PDFThis study presents the results of an online survey that benchmarked the organization of information technology (IT) functions in academic library members of the Association of Research Libraries. The survey investigated whether responsibility for 14 key areas resided in the libraries or in an institution-level information technology department, whether responsibilities have shifted over the past 20 years, satisfaction with services provided, assessment methods used to evaluate information technology services, and top challenges facing library IT. This paper considers the survey results addressing where the responsibility lies, satisfaction with the support, and whether and when the responsibility changed
Mapping The Dynamic Literacy Practices Of College Bilingual Students
Get PDFIn this study, I investigated how bilingual college students engaged in literacy, language, and spatial practices while working on in-school writing assignments across time and space. To do so, I conducted a semester-long collective case study (Stake, 1995) that incorporated the principles of a multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995). During this study, I collected the following data on four participants: participant observations, field notes, participant writing logs, interviews, artifacts, and a researcher journal. As I collected data, I used Lefebvre’s (1991) spatial triad as a lens to understand how the participants socially constructed space as they participated in their spatial routines to complete their writing assignments. I employed deductive coding, using Lefebvre’s perceived, conceived, and lived space, and inductive coding, using process coding, to analyze the data. Based on my data analysis, I argue that the social construction of space played a significant role during the participants’ spatial routines as they engaged in literacy and language practices while working on their writing assignments. This included adhering to and repurposing planned space as the participants managed and adapted their literacy spaces to achieve literacy goals. Planned space also pertained to their essays, and the participants engaged in literacy practices to build their essays’ architecture as their instructors conceived. Although participants built their essay’s architecture, they personalized the writing process as they completed them. This personalization included using bilingualism as a resource to create meaning; however, their bilingualism was concealed because their essays were monoglossic spaces. These findings show that students have complex lives where they integrate and manage their responsibilities throughout their everyday lives rather than separating them based on an in-school/out-of-school dichotomy. Furthermore, this study provides hope that bilingualism can persist in monoglossic spaces
College decisions and earnings over the life cycle: the effects of timing
Get PDFUsing a rich and unique nationally representative sample of a cohort of young adults selected in the late 1970s and surveyed routinely through the 2010s, this study characterizes patterns in college enrollment with respect to the timing of initial enrollment, enrollment interruptions, and graduation (or non-completion) and investigates the relationship between such timing decisions and earnings trajectories from high school graduation to more than 30 years later. The study relies on information collected through the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) with details on college attendance, work and earnings at each follow-up, background characteristics on each cohort member, and attributes of the college attended linked from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.Descriptive analyses reveal that among the population represented by NLSY79, about one-third of the college attenders delayed initial college entry, with more than one-quarter of college delayers entering 10 years or more after high school graduation. Delayers are more likely to have commenced studies at two-year colleges and to have chosen a major field of study in STEM than non-delayers, a tendency that appears to become more pronounced for those who delay entry the longest. Of those who enrolled (with or without delay), about two-thirds ended a first enrollment spell without earning a degree and, of those, seventy-five percent returned later re-enrolled at the same or a different college to continue their studies. Generally, non-delayers were more likely than delayers to complete a degree by the end of the first enrollment spell, to return for a second enrollment spell if they had not earned a degree, and to complete a degree eventually. However, periods of enrollment following interruptions do appear to enable completion of degrees. Interestingly, among delayers who also interrupted college enrollment, those who started at two-year colleges and later went on to four-year colleges ended up with a bachelor’s degree at a higher rate than those who started at four-year colleges. Through a novel application of multilevel growth curve modeling, associations between college timing decisions and the level and rate of growth of earnings trajectories were explored by gender, college type, and degree completion. The results point to several important and, in some respects, counterintuitive findings. First, the relationship between initial college enrollment delay and changes in earnings at, during, and after initial college enrollment differed between women and men. Second, among those who delay initial college enrollment, those attending a four-year college without earning a bachelor’s degree fared worst in terms of lifetime earnings. Third, men who delayed entry and earned an associate degree at the end of the first college enrollment spell manifested lower earnings trajectories than men who did not receive the degree. Men who stayed longer in college or earned the associate degree following at least two interruptions appeared to fare somewhat better. Fourth, short-term interruptions appear to have been more favorable to earnings trajectories than short-term delays in college entry. Fifth, for those who leave the first college enrollment without earning a degree, returning to college appears to result in higher earnings than if they had not re-enrolled provided that the interruption was short or a degree is earned at the end of the second enrollment spell. Taken together, the findings suggest the relevance of college timing decisions in accounting for differences in earnings trajectories. While explanations likely reside in labor market conditions, college practices and access to finance (subsidies in particular) at each age and stage as the cohort passed through the young adult years into middle age, specific implications for college practices and higher education policy follow. Colleges, whether four- or two-year, might draw on both the magnitudes of the patterns and then pursue inquiries to gauge the extent to which existing practices enable and support choices that can be best aligned to learning goals. Further, a particular need is for more complete information on the consequences of timing choices. Policies establishing eligibility for student financial aid subsidies and loans can be evaluated, in the light of financing constraints that might oblige delays, interruptions, barriers to re-enroll, or shorter enrollment spells that are less favorable in terms of eventual earnings trajectories. Further, accreditation might allow for more nuanced appraisal of campus effectiveness with respect to conventional measures of retention and completion. Future research to extend and apply the results of this study might consist of replication that tracks a more recent youth cohort, to gauge the extent to which the patterns of college timing decisions and their associations with earnings trajectories persist, under different college practices, financing arrangements, and labor market opportunities and constraints. In addition, future research might undertake more detailed, complete cost-benefit calculations evaluated at each age/stage of college timing decisions
Olfaction and puberty : the study of the development and migration of the GnRh-1ns and their migratory partners the olfactory unsheathing cells
Get PDFSexual development and puberty are two key developmental processes that are crucial for the propagation and evolution of species. The hormone Gonadotropin releasing hormone-1 (GnRH-1) is a key hormone in regulating both processes by controlling the hormonal Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal axis in the release of sex hormones (Testosterone, Estrogen, Progesterone) at the correct developmental time points initiate puberty and progress sexual development. A subset of hypothalamic neurons known as the GnRH-1 neurons (GnRH-1ns) release GnRH-1 in a pulsatile fashion during embryonic and post-natal development to specifically regulate these processes. The GnRH-1ns are an interesting group of neurons because they are formed in the periphery, specifically the nose, and must migrate to the hypothalamus during mid-gestation. Disruptions in GnRH-1ns formation, migration, or signaling can lead to a human disorder known as hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) that is characterized as an individual with low levels of GnRH-1 followed by decreased levels of pituitary gonadotropins and low sex hormones, which phenotypically leads to delayed or absent puberty. HH has two versions, normosmic idiopathic HH where only pubertal defects are seen or Kallmann Syndrome (KS) where pubertal defects co-segregate with olfaction defects. The close association of olfaction and puberty phenotypes as well as the developmental origin of the GnRH-1ns have led many to believe that GnRH-1ns migrate on the axons of the olfactory system. However, the relationship of GnRH-1ns and the olfactory system had not been thoroughly investigated. Furthermore, the migratory partner of the GnRH-1ns known as the Olfactory Ensheathing Cells (OECs) has not been thoroughly characterized during development.My doctoral research focused on understanding better the relationship of GnRH-1ns and the olfactory/vomeronasal/terminal nerve system and characterizing the developmental progression of the OECs. In the second and third chapters of my dissertation I discovered that the migration of the GnRH-1ns from the nose and the brain are independent of olfactory bulb formation and correct olfactory connections. I propose instead that the GnRH-1ns migrate on the axons of long forgotten nerve known as terminal nerve/nervus terminalis/cranial nerve 0. In the fourth and fifth chapters of my dissertation I identified two transcription factors, Ascl1 and Isl1, to be expressed by the neuronal progenitors of the GnRH-1ns, providing for the first-time markers to identify GnRH-1ns during early development. And lastly, in chapter 4 and chapter 6, I discovered the importance of a transcription factor, Gli3, in forming the OECs. Specifically, my data suggests that OECs are coming from a multipotent cell type known as Schwann Cell Precursors (SCPs) that are derived from the neural crest and can form many different cell types, including the many glia in the periphery. Furthermore, Gli3 may cell-autonomously regulate the transition of SCPs to OECs. My work has progressed the field substantially in better understanding the development and formation of both the GnRH-1ns and the OECs
Classification accuracy of i-Ready Diagnostic for high-stakes exam outcomes for elementary school students
Get PDFThe purpose of the present study was to compare the classification accuracy of a previous year’s end-of-year state assessment, a computer-adaptive diagnostic assessment (i-Ready), and the combination of the previous year’s end-of-year state assessment with the following year’s i-Ready performance to predict the rate of students passing or failing the following year’s end-of-year state assessment in English Language Arts (ELA) and math. This was conducted to determine whether i-Ready as an additional screening measure is necessary to identify students who are at-risk of failing the upcoming end-of-year assessment and are in need of tiered intervention supports, or if the previous year’s end-of-year assessment is sufficient for this purpose. Overall, for the population of students represented in this study, the previous year’s end-of-year state assessment yielded stronger classification accuracy over the use of the fall or winter i-Ready diagnostic assessment. The combination of i-Ready with the previous year’s state test demonstrated minimally greater strength in determining student risk level. Moreover, the previous year’s end-of-year assessment serves as economically advantageous over administering i-Ready as an additional screening assessment to determine risk and inform decisions within a multi-tiered system of supports. Implications of these findings and recommendations for further research are discussed
Gestational epigenetic aging : prenatal influences and early life associations
Get PDFDevelopment Origins of Health (DOHaD) evidence suggests that prenatal exposures have an important impact on offspring health throughout the life course. Environmental and psychosocial exposures during fetal development are associated with a range of health outcomes for offspring, and effects are often sex specific. One of the mechanisms which may explain differences in health outcomes is epigenetic alterations, which are the molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression and can be modified during fetal development. Many studies have shown that psychosocial stress and social adversity can modulate epigenetic mechanisms and affect health. While there are several methods for measuring epigenetic alterations, this dissertation was focused on gestational epigenetic aging. It examined the effects of maternal stress and socioeconomic status during pregnancy on gestational epigenetic age of the offspring. Specifically, this dissertation examined how whether prenatal exposure to stressful life events, and individual and area level indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) affect epigenetic aging and how epigenetic aging in turn affects birth size and growth in early childhood. Gestational epigenetic age can be estimated by a number of epigenetic clock variables. Epigenetic clocks are built by taking a panel of informative CpG sites and methylation extents into consideration and creating a measure of biologic age in a given tissue. When epigenetic age is greater than chronological age (according to birthdate), such epigenetic age is said to be accelerated and thus indicative of accelerated development of body tissue. From a DOHaD perspective, this gestational age acceleration (GAA) could be indicative of fetal response to an adverse in utero environment. Thus, GAA may have implications for health risk later in life. Using data from the Albany Infant and Mother Study (AIMS), we explored the association of psychosocial stress and SES with GAA, in addition to the association of GAA and infant/age 2 size measures. AIMS is a prospective examination of 300 pregnant women and their infants. During the enrollment visit, each participant completed a self-report questionnaire to assess exposures (including stress scales) during pregnancy and prior to pregnancy. Umbilical cord blood samples were collected and sequenced, allowing for the calculation of GAA. Paper 1 tested the association between GAA and SES at the individual and area levels. We hypothesized that children born to mothers of a lower SES would experience accelerated GAA. Paper 2 examined the association between GAA and maternal psychosocial stress. We hypothesized that children of mothers with higher stress levels during pregnancy would experience accelerated GAA. Additionally, we fitted a model testing for effect modification by SES to determine whether the effect of psychosocial stress on GAA varies according to SES. Paper 3 examined GAA and birth size and age 2 growth and body size. We hypothesized that infants with higher GAA will experience more adverse birth size measures and higher BMI percentiles at age 2. In addition, as most DOHaD programming effects tend to be sex specific, we tested for effect modification by sex. In paper 1, we found that individual and neighborhood level socioeconomic status was not associated with GAA. Testing for joint effects of individual and neighborhood level socioeconomic status yielded null results. This was similar to previous research that found that socioeconomic status, measured by parental education, is not associated with GAA. In paper 2, stress was not associated with GAA in our study. Additionally, testing for statistical interaction between stress scores and maternal education yielded null results. We found that depression scores were associated with a decrease in GAA in all regression models, suggesting that depression may be influential in epigenetic patterning of offspring. Prior studies have also found associations between depression and GAA. In paper 3, GAA was associated with birthweight and cephalization index score (a marker of intrauterine growth restriction), but not with age 2 BMI, in this study. Finally, testing for statistical interaction between sex and GAA yielded null results. Our findings suggested that there is a relation between GAA and birth size, but the effect may fall away over time. Previous research has also found mixed associations between GAA and size over time, suggesting a role for postnatal environmental influence. Together, these papers contribute to existing literature that seeks to explain the role of prenatal psychosocial adversity and epigenetic methylation patterns in offspring growth and development. This literature helps to inform how social-environmental and psychosocial factors may affect offspring programming in utero, an important aspect of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease theory. Ultimately, the gestational epigenetic methylation mechanism could provide biological evidence of of what forms of stress and socioeconomic status affect GAA at the earliest time in the life course. This can strengthen the rationale for providing support and resources to individuals and offspring who are at higher risk of the adverse outcomes associated with environmental and psychosocial outcomes