81 research outputs found
U of M Crookston to host author Sarah Stonich at Fournet Building October 23
No full textBengtson, Jess. (2024). U of M Crookston to host author Sarah Stonich at Fournet Building October 23. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/270925
Why I Can’t Love the Homemade Semantic Web
No full textCitation: Bengtson, Jason. "Why I Can't Love the Homemade Semantic Web." B Sides Jan (2010) : n. pag. Web.Almost all information professionals agree that the web needs to move to a semantic structure. While work is proceeding in this area, movements to get individual web authors to use semantic markup tools have also been on the rise. This author argues that such efforts are ill conceived and he proposes an automated alternative
Imagining Emergent Metadata, Realizing the Emergent Web
No full textCitation: Bengtson, Jason. "Imagining Emergent Metadata, Realizing the Emergent Web." Journal of Library Metadata 12.4 (2012) : 345-361. Print.While metadata is a key ingredient of machine-semantic technologies, it has drawbacks. As it is currently formed, metadata lacks dynamic responsiveness and requires top-down system modeling. The author proposes a schema and process of emergent metadata that will, if successful, allow metadata to respond to environmental conditions dynamically and to exhibit self-organizational features
Preparing for the age of the digital palimpsest
No full textCitation: Jason Bengtson, (2012) "Preparing for the age of the digital palimpsest", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 30 Iss: 3, pp.513 - 522Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to define and stimulate interest in a potential new specialty within the information science field. Design/methodology/approach: Sources on digital forensics and digital archeology are discussed, and the topic is examined critically from a librarian perspective. The author examines the possibility of an information science specialty pursuing the reconstruction of “digital palimpsests”, where data that later becomes historically significant has been deleted or partially overwritten on digital media. Findings: The author identifies at least one key incident (the NASA moon landing tapes) where this potential field has already started to be defined. Examination of the literature indicates that emphasis in data recovery to this point has centered on the needs of law enforcement and disaster recovery rather than on the considerations of manuscript preservation, recovery, and curation. The author emphasizes the need for librarians to bring together the skills of multiple fields, especially that of information technology, in order to shape the tools needed to take the lead in “digital palimpsest” recovery. Originality/value: The author asserts that the recovery of “digital palimpsests” will become important as digital archives age and society's position on what has historical value inevitably shifts. The author further asserts that members of the information science field must actively work to take ownership of the field before it is subsumed by information technology or another discipline less equipped to manage its nebulous considerations effectively
Transmitting Religion: A Look at Vern L. Bengtson\u27s \u3ci\u3eFamilies and Faith: How Religion Is Passed Down across Generations\u3c/i\u3e
No full textOver the past hundred years, social scientists have tended to take one of three approaches with respect to the topic of religion. Approach 1 typically pathologizes and intellectually scorns religious beliefs, practices, and faith communities, although there are now hundreds of empirical studies that link religious involvement with increased mental health, relational health, physical health, and longevity. Approach 2 politely ignores, minimizes, or marginalizes religion. Approach 3 engages in actively studying religion but typically with a cold, arms-length, agnostic-like feel. For nearly thirty years, sociologist Vern Bengtson, the author of Families and Faith,3 practiced this third approach
Traces of Humanity: Echos of Social and Cultural Experience in Physical Objects and Digital Surrogates in the University of Victoria Libraries
No full textThe relationships between primary source materials and their digital surrogates warrant consideration about how different materials translate into digitized forms. Physical primary source materials found in library special collections and archives and their digital surrogates challenge the viewer to consider what these objects are communicating through their materiality or lack thereof. For example, how does a clay tablet represent itself digitally, as compared to a parchment manuscript, or a paper accounts book? What qualities, stories or narratives do these resources communicate in their original forms, as digital surrogates, or when engaged with together, and how do these differ? How do both physical and digital resources serve as archival objects with the ability to reflect our social and cultural experiences—and indeed our humanity—back to us? As more and more library and museum resources are digitized and made open to researchers, such questions must be addressed as the use and reuse of digital surrogates becomes increasingly complex as digital scholarship evolves
Development of DNA diagnostics of neglected tropical diseases in resource-limited settings
No full textThe aim of this thesis was to develop a DNA-detection scheme for a point-of-care diagnostic test for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) for use within resource-limited settings. The scientific innovation is to develop an adaptable DNA-detection scheme, using CRISPR-dCas9 (catalytically inactive Cas9), that can detect the DNA of any pathogen in bodily fluids i.e. in a blood or urine sample. This detection of DNA of the pathogen will be much more reliable than antibody-based tests as it will work independently of the persons immune response. Unlike current antibody-based diagnostic tests, it will be able to distinguish between current and previous infections. Specifically for visceral leishmaniasis (VL), the current rk39 antigen-based rapid diagnostic test lacks specificity and sensitivity in sub-Saharan Africa, where VL remains prevalent. We aim for a DNA-detection scheme that does not require infrastructure, electricity, or skilled laboratory personnel to operate. Furthermore, the DNA-detection scheme will need to be functional at a broad temperature range, yet remain highly sensitive and specific. Such a DNA-detection scheme can be a promising tool for effective diagnoses of NTDs within resource-limited settings, though it needs to be further tested, incorporated into a packaged test format, and validated in the field. Integrating this DNA-detection scheme into a potentially low-cost diagnostic test is a very promising alternative to current diagnostic tests in both high-resource and resource-limited settings.BN/Cees Dekker La
Cellular and nuclear morphology…and calcium signaling: revealing the interplay between structure and function
No full textPoster presentation: Calcium plays a pivotal role in relaying electrical signals of the cell to subcellular compartments, such as the nucleus. Since this one ion type is used by the cell for many processes a neuron needs to establish finely tuned calcium pathways in order to be able to differentiate multiple tasks, [1-3].
While it is known that neurons can actively change their shape upon neuronal activity, [4-7], we here present novel findings of activity-regulated nuclear morphology, [8,9]. With the help of an experimental and computational modeling approach, we show that hippocampal neurons can change the previously spherical shape of their nuclei to complex and infolded morphologies. This morphology regulation is demonstrated to be regulated by NMDA-receptor gated calcium, while synaptic and extra-synaptic NMDA-receptors elicit opposing effects on nuclear morphology, [8].
The structural alterations of the cell nucleus have significant effects on nuclear calcium dynamics. Compartmentalization of the nucleus, due to membrane infoldings, changes calcium frequencies, amplitudes and spatial distributions, [8,10]. Since these parameters have been shown to control downstream events towards gene transcription, [11,12], the results elucidate the cellular control of nuclear function with the help of morphology modulation. With respect to processes downstream of calcium, we show that histone H3 phosphorylation is closely linked to nuclear morphology. Investigating the nuclear morphologies of hippocampal neurons, two major classes were identified [9,10]. One class contains non-infolded nuclei that have the function of calcium signal integrators, while the other class contains highly infolded nuclei, which function as frequency detectors of nuclear calcium, [10].
Extending this interdisciplinary approach of investigating structure/function relationships in neurons, the effects of cellular morphology – as well as the morphology of the endoplasmic reticulum and other organelles – on neuronal calcium signals is currently being investigated. This endeavor makes use of highly detailed, three-dimensional models of neuronal calcium dynamics, including the three-dimensional morphology of the cell and its organelles
Zora’s Legacy: Community, History, and Decolonial Methodology in Central Florida
No full textThis essay is a reflective letter from myself, the author, an undergraduate anthropology student at Rollins College in Central Florida, to pioneering anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. Arising out of an anthropology course on the U.S. South, I reflect on Hurston’s foundational contributions to the discipline of anthropology, to her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, and to my own institution, Rollins College, where Hurston directed and organized stage performances of folklore in the early 1930s. Despite Hurston’s works falling into obscurity towards the end of her life and the decades following, her contributions to Southern literature and anthropology survive to this day, inspiring scholars, Eatonville residents, and students alike to pursue more decolonial methodologies in ethnographic research. I ask Hurston many of my unanswered questions about her life, relationships, fieldwork methods, and messages from her works. I end with a call for anthropology students to continue stewarding Hurston’s legacy by engaging further with her work as an exemplary founder of American anthropology. 
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