Analysis of monograph obsolescence at two levels of an interlibrary loan network

Requests for monographs generated within an interlibrary loan network are analyzed for half-life statistics. It is suggested that demand represents use of the literature more completely than satisfied requests or circulation statistics. Demand in this study is characterized as either regional demand or statewide demand and is related to the level of the network where final processing of the request occurs. A negative exponential distribution is found to adequately characterize both levels of demand as a function of publication date for four subject categories. Corrected demand data is obtained by removing the growth rate of most of the available literature represented by American book publisher output. Based on over 10,000 interlibrary loan requests, negative exponential distributions describe the raw data as well as the corrected data. A shorter half-life was found for regional library demand (10.47 yr) than that found for statewide library demand (15.75 yr). Applying the correction factor to reflect the growth rate of the available literature tends to increase the half-life when compared to the raw data, and changes the ordering of subject classes with respect to ascending half-lives.     

Inflammation and haemostasis

Inflammation and haemostasis are interrelated pathophysiologic processes that considerably affect each other. In this bidirectional relationship, inflammation leads to activation of the haemostatic system that in turn also considerably influences inflammatory activity. Such, the haemostatic system acts in concert with the inflammatory cascade creating an inflammation-haemostasis cycle in which each activated process promotes the other and the two systems function in a positive feedback loop. The extensive crosstalk between immune and haemostatic systems occurs at level of all components of the haemostatic system including vascular endothelial cells, platelets, plasma coagulation cascade, physiologic anticoagulants and fibrinolytic activity. During inflammatory response, inflammatory mediators, in particular proinflammatory cytokines, play a central role in the effects on haemostatic system by triggering its disturbance in a number of mechanisms including endothelial cell dysfunction, increased platelet reactivity, activation of the plasma coagulation cascade, impaired function of physiologic anticoagulants and suppressed fibrinolytic activity. The two examples of pathophysiologic processes in which the tight interdependent relationship between inflammation and haemostasis considerably contribute to the pathogenesis and/or progression of disease are systemic inflammatory response to infection or sepsis and acute arterial thrombosis as a consequence of ruptured atherosclerotic plaque. Close links between inflammation and haemostasis help explain the prothrombotic tendency in these two clinical conditions in which inflammation shifts the haemostatic activity towards procoagulant state by the ability of proinflammatory mediators to activate coagulation system and to inhibit anticoagulant and fibrinolytic activities. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the complex interactions in the bidirectional relationship between inflammation and haemostasis.     

Grand Innovation Prizes: A theoretical,normative, and empirical evaluation

This paper provides a systematic examination of the use of a Grand Innovation Prize (GIP) in action – the Progressive Automotive Insurance X PRIZE – a $10 million prize for a highly efficient vehicle. Following a mechanism design approach we define three key dimensions for GIP evaluation: objectives, design, and performance, where prize design includes ex ante specifications, ex ante incentives, qualification rules, and award governance. Within this framework we compare observations of GIPs from three domains – empirical reality, theory, and policy – to better understand their function as an incentive mechanism for encouraging new solutions to large-scale social challenges. Combining data from direct observation, personal interviews, and surveys, together with analysis of extant theory and policy documents on GIPs, our results highlight three points of divergence: first, over the complexity of defining prize specifications; secondly, over the nature and role of incentives, particularly patents; thirdly, the overlooked challenges associated with prize governance. Our approach identifies a clear roadmap for future theory and policy around GIPs.     

Can the government really help? Online information for women experiencing violence

Domestic violence against women is a significant social and public health problem that requires a varied social service response for abused women and their children. Increasingly, this service response includes online sources and resources. Using content analysis methods, we examined the Canadian provincial E-Government response to providing information to women exposed to domestic violence. Our overarching question was “if an abused woman went to her province’s government website for information and help and used common search strategies, what would she find?”     

Fresh thinking about academic development: authentic,transformative, disruptive?

We highlight three ways of conceptualising and enacting academic development: firstly as authentic, practice-based activity, secondly in terms of a new transformative paradigm for academic development units (ADUs), and thirdly as a space for disruption. We illustrate these conceptualisations through our investigation of the practice of internal secondment of faculty to ADUs. We report our findings from a sector-wide survey of Scottish higher education institutions and a series of in-depth interviews with secondees and their managers in two Scottish universities. We recommend further investigations to identify new ways of enacting authentic, practice-based, transformative, and disruptive academic development.