bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Beryllium Measurement in Commercially Available Wet Wipes
Authors: Youmans-McDonald Linda D. , Brisson Mike , Bernard Maureen , Agrawal Anoop , Cronin John P. , Adams Lori
Published: December 2011

Analysis for beryllium by fluorescence is now an established method which is used in many government run laboratories and commercial facilities. This study investigates the use of this technique using commercially available wet wipes. The fluorescence method is widely documented [1,2] and has been approved as a standard test method by the ASTM International and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The procedure involves dissolution of samples in an aqueous ammonium bifluoride solution and then adding a small aliquot to a basic hydroxybenzoquinoline sulfonate fluorescent dye, (Berylliant™, Inc., Detection Solution Part #CH-2) and measuring the fluorescence. This method is specific to beryllium. This work will explore the use of three different commercial wipes spiked with beryllium as beryllium acetate or as beryllium oxide and subsequent analysis by optical fluorescence. The effect of possible interfering metals such as Fe, Ti, and Pu in the wipe medium is also examined.
Evaluation of Asbestos in Dust on Surfaces by Micro-Vacuum and Wipe Sampling
Authors: Kominsky John R. , Millette James R.
Published: December 2011

Micro-vacuum and wipe sampling methods are routinely used to measure surface dust contamination in both occupational and environmental settings. Both methods are subject to variability in their efficiency of dust collection resulting primarily from textural surface characteristics and dust loading. As part of a study to determine contamination levels of asbestos and other World Trade Center related contaminants in the wall cavity of a high-rise office building, paired samples were collected from 15 locations. The surface type of 14 locations was concrete-masonry block; the remaining surface type was a polyvinyl chloride coating. Micro-vacuum wipe pairs were obtained from the same wall component at contiguous locations. A template was used to ensure that equal 100-cm2 areas were consistently sampled. Micro-vacuum and wipe samples were collected and analyzed for asbestos using ASTM Methods D5756 and D6480, respectively. The average surface concentration reported by the micro-vacuum samples was numerically higher than the wipe samples, but the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.195). Both methods yielded an equal number of samples below the analytical sensitivity; the false-negative rates were the same for each method. Micro-vacuum and wipe sample concentrations were not correlated (R2=0.207). The length and width of asbestos structures collected by wipe samples was significantly larger than by micro-vacuum samples (P=<0.001). Micro-vacuum sampling for asbestos in dust on rough surfaces yields numerically higher concentrations of asbestos. Despite variations in the relative efficiency of particle collection by these methods, the data pairs demonstrate that micro-vacuum and wipe samples produced statistically equivalent results, with micro-vacuum samples being more efficient on the rough surface tested.
Use of the ASTM Inter-Laboratory Studies (ILS) Program in Developing Precision Data for ASTM D5755 — Asbestos in Dust by Microvacuum Sampling
Authors: Millette James R.
Published: December 2011

ASTM Standard D5755 “Standard Test Method for Microvacuum Sampling and Indirect Analysis of Dust by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) for Asbestos Structure Number Concentration” uses a microvacuuming sampling procedure and transmission electron microscopy analysis to (a) identify asbestos in surface dust and (b) provide an estimate of the surface loading of asbestos in the sampled dust reported as the number of asbestos structures per unit area of sampled surface. In a precision study of the method, ten laboratories analyzed chrysotile asbestos-containing World Trade Center dust that had been resuspended in a test room and collected off of non-asbestos floor tiles following the microvacuum cassette (microvac) collection procedures described in ASTM D5755. Each laboratory analyzed the same sample twice. The Inter-Laboratory Studies (ILS) Group of ASTM International performed the statistical examination of the data set and found a repeatability limit (r) of 61.80 and a reproducibility limit (R) of 239.30. The study data was also used to calculate coefficients of variation of 0.15 intra-laboratory and 0.6 inter-laboratory.
Developing Acceptable Surface Limits for Occupational Exposure to Pharmaceutical Substances
Authors: Kimmel Tracy A. , Sussman Robert G. , Ku Robert H. , Ader Allan W.
Published: December 2011

Acceptable surface limits (ASLs) are developed in order to establish a quantitative measure for the potential risk from exposure by dermal contact. In the Pharmaceuticals industry, ASLs are used for protection against active pharmaceutical ingredients that are known to cause pharmacological or toxicological effects. An ASL can be used, together with appropriate analytical methods and industrial hygiene monitoring, to assess workplaces for potential dermal exposure and to protect the health and safety of individuals who might come in direct contact with contaminated surfaces in the workplace. ASLs are also used to evaluate the adequacy of housekeeping measures and the effectiveness of engineering containment approaches, or to determine whether a chemical is present on surfaces where it is not intended to be (e.g., in lunch rooms or offices, or on the outside surfaces of packaging materials). However, they should not be confused with cleaning limits for the surfaces of manufacturing devices that might come into contact with the drug product, which are set to minimize cross contamination between drug products and to protect end-users (e.g., patients taking drug products) as opposed to workers. A number of parameters must be evaluated in order to accurately develop appropriate and scientifically supportable limits. These include the dose or concentration that will cause the potential effect, the degree of chemical transfer from contaminated surfaces to the skin, and the rate or amount of percutaneous absorption. In practice, this information is usually limited or unavailable. Additionally, there has been very little regulatory guidance on the setting of ASLs. Consequently, in order to calculate an ASL, various assumptions must be made by health and safety professionals regarding how dermal exposures might occur. As quantitative data become available, the ASL can be adjusted accordingly. An overview of the setting of health-based and performance-based ASLs for pharmaceutical substances from animal and human toxicological data is provided.
Assessment of the Bacterial Contamination and Remediation Efficacy After Flooding Using Fluorometric Detection
Authors: Reeslev Morten , Nielsen Jan C. , Rogers Lisa
Published: December 2011

In the aftermath of flooding, rapid response assessment and cleanup is critical to recovery. In this study, the level of contamination of bacteria on surfaces in flooded houses was estimated and compared to the level found on surfaces in non-flooded houses with a rapid field test based on hydrolase enzyme activity present in bacteria and by measuring endotoxin. Sampling was performed by swabbing a 9 cm2 area using sterile cotton swabs wetted with a bacteriostatic buffer. A correlation between endotoxin levels and levels of hydrolase activity was seen (R2=0.6469, P<0.0001). The median value and the variance ofthe result distribution were higher in flooded buildings as compared to non-flooded buildings. In the non-flooded buildings, surfaces were divided into visually clean and visually dirty. As expected the level of bacteria was higher on the visually dirty surfaces, and overall the hydrolase activity correlated well with the visual inspection. Using the results from the visually clean surfaces in the reference buildings as the criteria for clean, four methods of cleaning were tested for their ability to reach these criteria.
Use of Direct Reading Surface Sampling Methods for Site Characterization and Remediation of Methamphetamine Contaminated Properties
Authors: Snawder John E. , Striley Cynthia A. F. , Esswein Eric J. , Hessel Jeremy , Sammons Deborah L. , Robertson Shirley A. , Johnson Belinda C. , MacKenzie Barbara A. , Smith Jerry P. , Walker Cynthia V.
Published: December 2011

Residual methamphetamine contamination in Clandestine laboratories represents a hazard to emergency response personnel, remediation workers and the general public. To address this threat, two rapid, sensitive surface sampling techniques to assess the location and level of methamphetamine contamination were developed. Both methods employ established industrial hygiene surface sampling materials (wipes and swabs) but differ in their sensitivity and detection technology. One method, based on colorimetric disclosure, detects and confirms a collected sample or visible residues. The second method uses a lateral flow immunochemical assay (LFIA) for semi-quantitative detection of trace contamination. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) partnered with public health agencies to develop applications of the methods for assessment of methamphetamine contamination of suspected properties. These applications focused on safe strategies for site assessment, hazard characterization, and remediation effectiveness. To conduct the field studies, NIOSH researchers and their partners visited more than a dozen suspected laboratories including mobile labs, abandoned properties, occupied residences, and motel rooms. NIOSH found greater than 95% agreement between positive identification of the presence of methamphetamine by LFIA and laboratory-based, liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) methods. Test results were used to develop site assessments and make personal protective equipment recommendations. Results were also used to conduct process-based decontamination of properties and to make health-based decisions on remediation, re-occupancy of residences, as well as determine the degree of contamination of personal property in an inactive clandestine laboratory. By partnering with stakeholders, NIOSH was able to achieve two primary goals: (1) to develop a level of awareness in health department sanitarians, law enforcement personnel and other first responders that methamphetamine surface contamination was a potentially significant route of exposure; (2) to validate our methods in the field and to develop protocols for proper use and interpretation of the results.
Surface Characterization of Replicate Wood Surfaces for Cleaning Studies
Authors: Lewis Roger D. , Kennedy Jason , Andruskiewicz Mason , Brown Christopher A. , Condoor Sridhar
Published: December 2011

A need exists to develop realistic surfaces, with differing degrees of surface roughness, to standardize methods for sampling and cleaning of environmental contaminants. This study reports on development and characterization of a novel means to create reproducible wood surfaces that are approximately 7×10cm2 and have differing degree of surface roughness. Three unique specimens were prepared by creating 3-dimensional digital-scans of actual wood surfaces found in three St. Louis homes. These surfaces had distinct depressions that likely arose from tool marks. A reverse image die of each specimen was made from high density plastic. Replicates of the three specimens were created by placing a die and wood veneer section into a rolling-press leaving the original topographies gathered from the homes. These specimens were used in a separate study to evaluate cleaning leaded dust using wipe or vacuuming treatments. The separate cleaning studies found no difference in cleaning due to the effects of the different surfaces. An in-depth examination of the three specimens was held to determine if differences in surface roughness of the specimens explained removal of lead from its surface. A method using optical, 3-D laser profilometry was used to determine if there were statistical differences between the surface roughness of the three specimens and within the specimens themselves. Area-scale analyses were made to calculate relative areas as a function of scale as a way of characterizing the roughness. Statistical differences were found for surface roughness between each of three surface specimens at a scale where small particles, deposited in the cleaning studies may adhere to the wood. However, within the specimens, surface roughness, at the scale where fine particles may lodge, were not consistent inside or outside tool marks. Therefore, differences in surface roughness were found within and between surfaces but they may not be large enough or different enough for detection using simple cleaning methods. Specimens with larger differences in surface roughness may be needed to simulate differences in cleaning effectiveness. This work should be continued to understand the scales for the different interactions of particle deposition, adhesion, and removal toward development of standard reference surfaces with well-characterized textures.
Expression and therapeutic relevance of heat-shock protein 90 in pancreatic endocrine tumors
Authors: Mayer Philipp , Harjung Andreas , Breinig Marco , Fischer Lars , Ehemann Volker , Malz Mona , Scherübl Hans , Britsch Sarah , Werner Jens , Kern Michael A , Bläker Hendrik , Schirmacher Peter , Bergmann Frank
Published: December 2011

Pancreatic endocrine tumors (PET) represent a heterogenous group of neoplasms. Although surgical resection is considered a safe and effective treatment for many PET, therapeutic options for inoperable and progressive PET are limited. The expression of heat-shock protein (HSP) 90 was investigated in 120 clinically and pathomorphologically well-characterized PET from 84 patients using immunohistochemistry. In addition, in 19 snap–frozen PET and in three healthy pancreatic tissues, we performed immunoblot analyses, and in 15 snap–frozen PET and in three healthy pancreatic tissues, we investigated the expression of HSP90 isoforms by means of semiquantitative RT-PCR. Functional tests were conducted using the human pancreas carcinoid cell line BON and the mouse insulinoma cell line β-TC-3. HSP90 was expressed in 95% of the PET patients. The transcript levels of the HSP90 isoforms HSP90α, HSP90β, glucose-related protein 94, and TNF receptor-associated protein 1 were significantly increased in PET compared with non-neoplastic pancreatic tissues. The treatment of the cell lines BON and β-TC-3 with the HSP90 inhibitors 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin and 17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxy-geldanamycin resulted in significant, dose-dependent reduction of cell viability, cell cycle arrest, and increased apoptosis. Furthermore, HSP90 inhibition induced the degradation and inactivation of several oncogenetic HSP90 client proteins in a time- and dose-dependent manner. HSP90 inhibitors increased the therapeutic effects of doxorubicin and 5-fluorucacil in BON and β-TC-3 cells. HSP90 is expressed in the vast majority of PET and its inhibition reveals significant treatment effectsin vitro. Thus, HSP90 qualifies as a promising new target.
Occurrence of second primary malignancies in patients with neuroendocrine tumors of the digestive tract and pancreas
Authors: Kamp Kimberly , Damhuis Ronald A M , Feelders Richard A , de Herder Wouter W
Published: December 2011

An increased association between neuroendocrine tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas (GEP-NET) and other second primary malignancies has been suggested. We determined whether there is indeed an increased risk for second primary malignancies in GEP-NET patients compared with an age- and sex-matched control group of patients with identical malignancies. The series comprised 243 men and 216 women, diagnosed with a GEP-NET between 2000 and 2009 in a tertiary referral center. The timeline, before-at-after diagnosis, and the type of other malignancies were studied using person-year methodology. Poisson distributions were used for testing statistical significance. All data were cross-checked with the Dutch National Cancer Registry. Out of 459 patients with GEP-NET, 67 (13.7%) had a second primary cancer diagnosis: 25 previous cancers (5.4%), 13 synchronous cancers (2.8%), and 29 metachronous cancers (6.3%). The most common types of second primary cancer were breast cancer (n=10), colorectal cancer (n=8), melanoma (n=6), and prostate cancer (n=5). The number of patients with a cancer history was lower than expected, although not significant (n=25 vs n=34.5). The diagnosis of synchronous cancers, mainly colorectal tumors, was higher than expected (n=13 vs n=6.1, P<0.05). Metachronous tumors occurred as frequent as expected (n=29 vs n=25.2, NS). In conclusion, our results are in contrast to previous studies and demonstrate that only the occurrence of synchronous second primary malignancies, mainly colorectal cancers, is increased in GEP-NET patients compared with the general population.
Local and Systemic Cellular Immunity in Early Renal Artery Atherosclerosis
Authors: Kotliar Carol , Juncos Luis , Inserra Felipe , de Cavanagh Elena M.V. , Chuluyan Eduardo , Aquino Jorge B. , Hita Alejandro , Navari Carlos , Sánchez Ramiro
Published: December 2011

Background and objectives

Modern imaging techniques have increased the incidental detection of renal atherosclerotic disease (RAD). Because immune activation may hasten RAD progression, identifying cellular immune markers might provide clues to clinical activity. In this study, cellular immune markers were assessed in early RAD.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements

Immune cell markers in peripheral blood of two groups of hypertensive patients with normal carotid and coronary arteries were evaluated: 28 patients had incidental RAD and 22 patients had normal renal arteries; 21 renal arteries obtained at necropsy from individuals with history of hypertension and tissue evidence of RAD were examined and matched with 21 individuals with normal renal arteries. Cell subpopulations were measured by flow cytometry in peripheral blood and direct cell count, respectively, using T and dendritic cells monoclonal antibodies.

Results

Peripheral blood of RAD patients showed increased numbers of cells expressing CD3, CD4, CD83, and CD86. CD4 to CD8 ratio was 8.3 ± 1.4 (RAD) to 3.4 ± 0.9 (normal; P<0.001). No differences were found in CD25, CD8, and S100 among groups. Postmortem samples from RAD showed increased CD3+, CD4+, CD86+, and S100+ cells, whereas CD25+ and CD8+ were unmodified between groups. CD4+ to CD8+ ratio was higher in the RADPM group.

Conclusions

These results are consistent with an increased expression of immune cell markers in early RAD. Additional studies will explore if they may potentially turn into treatment targets to prevent disease progression.
Prolactin Levels, Endothelial Dysfunction, and the Risk of Cardiovascular Events and Mortality in Patients with CKD
Authors: Carrero Juan Jesús , Kyriazis John , Sonmez Alper , Tzanakis Ioannis , Qureshi Abdul Rashid , Stenvinkel Peter , Saglam Mutlu , Stylianou Kostas , Yaman Halil , Taslipinar Abdullah , Vural Abdulgaffar , Gok Mahmut , Yenicesu Mujdat , Daphnis Eugene , Yilmaz Mahmut Ilker
Published: December 2011

Background and objectives

Both prolactin clearance and production are altered in CKD. In nonrenal populations, emerging evidence suggests that prolactin participates in the atherosclerotic process. Given the elevated cardiovascular risk of CKD, this study examined links between prolactinemia, vascular derangements, and outcomes.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements

This observational study was conducted in two cohorts: one with 457 nondialyzed CKD patients (mean age 52±12 years; 229 men) with measurements of flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and carotid intima-media thickness and one with 173 hemodialysis patients (65±12 years; 111 men) with measurements of pulse wave velocity (PWV). Patients were followed for cardiovascular events (n=146, nondialyzed cohort) or death (n=79, hemodialysis cohort).

Results

Prolactin levels increased along with reduced kidney function. Prolactin significantly and independently contributed to explain the variance of both FMD (in nondialyzed patients) and PWV (in hemodialysis patients), but not intima-media thickness. In Cox analyses, the risk of cardiovascular events in nondialyzed patients increased by 27% (hazard ratio [HR], 1.27; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.17–1.38) for each 10 ng/ml increment of prolactin. Similarly, the risk for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in hemodialysis patients increased by 12% (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.06–1.17) and 15% (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.08–1.21), respectively. This was true after multivariate adjustment for confounders and after adjustment within the purported causal pathway (FMD or PWV).

Conclusions

Prolactin levels directly associated with endothelial dysfunction/stiffness and with increased risk of cardiovascular events and mortality in two independent cohorts of CKD patients.
Editorial
Authors: Buneman Peter
Published: December 2011

Peter Buneman introduces the third issue of the International Journal of Digital Curation.
PRONOM-ROAR: Adding Format Profiles to a Repository Registry to Inform Preservation Services
Authors: Brody Tim , Carr Leslie , Hey Jessie M. N. , Brown Adrian , Hitchcock Steve
Published: December 2011

To date many institutional repository (IR) software suppliers have pushed the IR as a digital preservation solution. We argue that the digital preservation of objects in IRs may better be achieved through the use of light-weight, add-on services. We present such a service – PRONOM-ROAR – that generates file format profiles for IRs. This demonstrates the potential of using third- party services to provide preservation expertise to IR managers by making use of existing machine interfaces to IRs.
Report from the PV 2007 Conference, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, October 9–11, 2007
Authors: Ball Alexander
Published: December 2011

This is a report from the conference PV 2007, held at the German Remote Sensing Data Centre, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, on October 9–11, 2007. The PV conference is held every two years, and is concerned with the preservation of scientific and technical data, and the activity of adding value to the data to ensure it can be widely used and re-used. The theme for 2007 was ‘the Challenge of Heterogeneity’, not only in the data being supported but in the tools used to access and process the data, and in the uses to which the data may be put.
Report from the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, September 10-13, 2007, Nottingham, UK
Authors: Neilson Colin
Published: December 2011

This is a report from the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting held at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham on September 10-13, 2007. This event was the 5th annual All Hands Meeting. The proceedings of the meeting are available from the UK e-Science 2007 All Hands Meeting Website.
Emulation for Digital Preservation in Practice: The Results
Authors: Van der Hoeven Jeffrey , Lohman Bram , Verdegem Remco
Published: December 2011

In recent years a lot of research has been undertaken to ascertain the most suitable preservation approach. For a long time migration was seen as the only viable approach, whereas emulation was looked upon with scepticism due to its technical complexity and initial costs. In 2004, the National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, [KB]) and the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands acknowledged the need for emulation, especially for rendering complex digital objects without affecting their authenticity and integrity. A project was started to investigate the feasibility of emulation by developing and testing an emulator designed for digital preservation purposes. In July 2007 this project ended and delivered a durable x86 component-based computer emulator: Dioscuri, the first modular emulator for digital preservation.
Report from the DCC Workshop: Legal Environment of Digital Curation
Authors: Whyte Angus
Published: December 2011

This is a report from the Legal Environment of Digital Curation workshop held at Glasgow University on November 23, 2007. The event provided an overview of legal considerations for non-legal professionals who work with data, focusing especially on intellectual property rights and licensing, data protection, freedom of information and privacy, and data as evidence. The workshop was organised in conjunction with the SCRIPT-ed journal of law and technology, and supported by JISC, the AHRC and Edinburgh University.
Editorial
Authors: Rusbridge Chris
Published: December 2011

Chris Rusbridge, Chief Editor, introduces the Summer 2008 issue of the International Journal of Digital Curation.
What to Preserve?: Significant Properties of Digital Objects
Authors: Hockx-Yu Helen , Knight Gareth
Published: December 2011

This article reports on the JISC/BL/DPC workshop on significant properties, which took place on April 7, 2008 at the British Library Conference Centre, London. The intention of the workshop was to bring together the relevant projects and report on progress to date. It was also hoped that the workshop will lead to collective recommendations for future areas of research and development.
The Fit Between the UK Environmental Information Regulations and the Freedom of Information Act
Authors: Pelton Colin , Thorley Mark
Published: December 2011

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is one of seven UK Research Councils. It delivers independent research, survey, training and knowledge transfer in the environmental sciences. All the UK Research Councils are public bodies falling under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. This open access legislation came into force on January 1, 2005 and since then the authors have built up substantial experience in managing NERCâ€™s data and information under both the Act and the Regulations. This article aims to explain how to manage the, often blurred, boundary between these two pieces of legislation, and the overlap between data management and the legislation.
â€˜Grand Theft Archiveâ€™: A Quantitative Analysis of the State of Computer Game Preservation
Authors: Gooding Paul , Terras Melissa
Published: December 2011

Computer games, like other digital media, are extremely vulnerable to long-term loss, yet little work has been done to preserve them. As a result we are experiencing large-scale loss of the early years of gaming history. Computer games are an important part of modern popular culture, and yet are afforded little of the respect bestowed upon established media such as books, film, television and music. We must understand the reasons for the current lack of computer game preservation in order to devise strategies for the future. Computer game history is a difficult area to work in, because it is impossible to know what has been lost already, and early records are often incomplete. This paper uses the information that is available to analyse the current status of computer game preservation, specifically in the UK. It makes a quantitative analysis of the preservation status of computer games, and finds that games are already in a vulnerable state. It proposes that work should be done to compile accurate metadata on computer games and to analyse more closely the exact scale of data loss, while suggesting strategies to overcome the barriers that currently exist.
Digital Preservation and Copyright: An International Study
Authors: Besek June M. , Coates Jessica , Fitzgerald Brian , Mossink Wilma , LeFurgy William G. , Muir Adrienne , Rasenberger Mary , Weston Christopher D.
Published: December 2011

The aim of the International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation was to review current copyright and related laws and their impact on digital preservation, as well as to make recommendations to help libraries, archives and other preservation institutions sustain digital works. Study partners are based in Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. The study found that, in many cases, digital works are not being preserved in a systematic way. This is partly because digital preservation entails more difficult copyright issues than preservation of non-digital material. All the surveyed countries have some form of exception for preservation activities. However, there is inconsistency in the details between the countries’ laws and uncertainty in how they apply in the digital environment. None of the countries surveyed have a uniform national system yet for collecting digital materials. Technological protection measures and licensing arrangements may, in some cases, present significant practical barriers to preservation. Current approaches to address these barriers are ad hoc and include requesting permissions from individual rights holders and some use of model licence terms that permit preservation. Moreover, as yet, there are no effective solutions to the general issue of orphan works. Recommendations of the study include suggestions for drafting national policies and adapting laws to allow digital preservation to be undertaken as necessary, in accordance with international best practice standards, and for promoting national systems for the collection of digital materials by relevant state and national collecting institutions.
Applying the Digital Curation Lessons Learned from American Memory
Authors: Madden Liz
Published: December 2011

American Memory, launched in 1995, was the Library of Congressâ€™s debut web presentation and the primary product of the National Digital Library Program. More than 700,000 described digital items in 90 collections were added to American Memory in those first five years, including content from 23 external organizations. These materials were digitized, assembled and presented without tools designed specifically for the work and before the development of approved standards for the creation, presentation, or exchange of digital content. Valuable lessons about all levels of digital curation emerged from this early foray into digital library work, and many of the issues have persisted into current digital library efforts at the Library. This article focuses primarily on lessons learned about the conceptualization, creation, receipt, and preservation actions for digital content. It describes how strategies developed early on to manage the diverse and heterogeneous digital content helped inform later practices and were applied to legacy data in an effort to ensure their sustainability, flexibility and shareability into the future.
Access to Data for eResearch: Designing the Australian National Data Service Discovery Services
Authors: Treloar Andrew , Wilkinson Ross
Published: December 2011

Much work on data repositories has derived from effort on document repositories. It is our contention that people do not access research data for the same reasons that they access research publications. We argue that it is valuable to understand information needs, both immediate and contextual, in establishing both what information should be collected, what metadata are captured, and what discovery services should be established. We report on the information needs that we have collected in our efforts in establishing the Australian National Data Service. These needs cover much more than data – there are needs for information about the data, their creators, a need for overviews, and further requirements to do with proof, collaboration, and innovation. We provide an analysis of those needs, and a set of conclusions that has led to some implementation decisions for ANDS.
Preservation Is Not a Place
Authors: Abrams Stephen , Cruse Patricia , Kunze John
Published: December 2011

The Digital Preservation Program of the California Digital Library (CDL) is engaged in a process of reinvention involving significant transformations of its outlook, effort, and infrastructure. This includes a re-articulation of its mission in terms of digital curation, rather than preservation; encouraging a programmatic, rather than a project-oriented approach to curation activities; and a renewed emphasis on services, rather than systems. This last shift was motivated by a desire to deprecate the centrality of the repository as place. Having the repository as the locus for curation activity has resulted in the deployment of a somewhat cumbersome monolithic system that falls short of desired goals for responsiveness to rapidly changing user needs and operational and administrative sustainability. The Program is pursuing a path towards a new curation environment based on the principle of devolving curation function to a set of small, simple, loosely coupled services. In considering this new infrastructure, the Program is relying upon a highly deliberative process starting from first principles drawn from library and archival science. This is followed by a stagewise progression of identifying core preservable values, devising strategies promoting those values, defining abstract services embodying those strategies, and, finally, developing systems that instantiate those services. This paper presents a snapshot of the Program's transformative efforts in its early phase.
An Institutional Framework for Creating Authentic Digital Objects
Authors: Jantz Ronald
Published: December 2011

In the future, a scholar or researcher will want to know that a digital object is trusted - that it is authentic and reliable.Â  Digital objects can be surrogates, resulting from a digitization process, or they can be objects whose only form is digital.Â  Much has been accomplished in existing open source digital library platforms to provide capabilities for preserving digital objects including now ubiquitous features such as persistent identifiers, integrity checks, audit trails, and versioning.Â  However, achieving a level of digital object authenticity will require a multi-dimensional approach involving policies, processes, and continued technological innovation.Â  This paper proposes steps that the institution can take to insure the availability of authentic digital objects in the future.Â  In this proposal, authenticity is based on definitions from archival diplomatics and relies on methods from public key cryptography for digitally signing an object with a secure time stamp. Trustworthy processes, re-definition of traditional roles, and the implementation of technologies to support authenticity are all required to meet the needs of digital scholarship.Â  Implementation and policy issues are discussed with specific attention to transformations required of the archival institution and the professional archivist.
Strategies for the Curation of CAD Engineering Models
Authors: Patel Manjula , Ball Alexander , Ding Lian
Published: December 2011

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has become increasingly important in the engineering community over the last decade or so, due to the globalisation of markets and the rising popularity of products provided as services. It demands the efficient capture, representation, organisation, retrieval and reuse of product data over its entire life. Simultaneously, there is now a much greater reliance on CAD models for communicating designs to manufacturers, builders, maintenance crews and regulators, and for definitively expressing designs. Creating the engineering record digitally, however, presents problems not only for its long-term maintenance and accessibility - due in part to the rapid obsolescence of the hardware, software and file formats involved - but also for recording the evolution of designs, artefacts and products. We examine the curation and preservation requirements in PLM and suggest ways of alleviating the problems of sustaining CAD engineering models through the use of lightweight formats, layered annotation and the collection of Representation Information as defined in the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model.Â  We describe two tools which have been specifically developed to aid in the curation of CAD engineering models in the context of PLM: Lightweight Models with Multilayered Annotation (LiMMA) and a Registry/Repository of Representation Information for Engineering (RRoRIfE).
UK Government Web Continuity: Persisting Access through Aligning Infrastructures
Authors: Spencer Amanda , Sheridan John , Thomas David , Pullinger David
Published: December 2011

Government's use of the Web in the UK is prolific and a wide range of services are now available though this channel. The government set out to address the problem that links from Hansard (the transcripts of Parliamentary debates) were not maintained over time and that therefore there was need for some long-term storage and stewardship of information, including maintaining access. Further investigation revealed that linking was key, not only in maintaining access to information, but also to the discovery of information. This resulted in a project that affects the entireÂ  government Web estate, with a solution leveraging the basic building blocks of the Internet (DNS) and the Web (HTTP and URIs) in a pragmatic way, to ensure that an infrastructure is in place to provide access to important information both now and in the future.
Guest Editorial: Research Data: It’s What You Do With Them
Authors: Atkinson Malcolm
Published: December 2011

Malcolm Atkinson, Director of the e-Science Institute and e-ScienceÂ  Envoy, has been invited to write a guest editorial for Issue 1, Volume 4 of the International Journal of Digital Curation.
Missing Links: The Enduring Web
Authors: Guy Marieke , Ball Alexander , Day Michael
Published: December 2011

The Web runs at risk. Our generation has witnessed a revolution in human communications on a trajectory similar to that of the origins of the written word and language itself. Early Web pages have an historical importance comparable with prehistoric cave paintings or proto-historic pressed clay ciphers. They are just as fragile. The ease of creation, editing and revising gives content a flexible immediacy: ensuring that sources are up to date and, with appropriate concern for interoperability, content can be folded seamlessly into any number of presentation layers. How can we carve a legacy from such complexity and volatility?
ContextMiner: Supporting the Mining of Contextual Information for Ephemeral Digital Video Preservation
Authors: Shah Chirag
Published: December 2011

Emerging information media present new challenges to the curators. While archiving objects, and building meaningful collection for long-term preservation and access, have been well-understood practice for centuaries, digital objects present new issues. In the previous article (Shah, 2009) I identified a number of these issues related to digital objects, specifically digital videos of an ephemeral nature. I argued that while preserving such objects, adding contextual information is essential. One of the interesting challenges is to identify what to collect and preserve as contextual information. For ephemeral digital videos, I proposed to harvest four kinds of relevances and five kinds of contexts. In order to implement this proposal, I presented ContextMiner, a framework and a system to support digital video curation. In this article, I will take a closer look at ContextMiner, analyzing it for its functionalities and usability. This is done by usability inspection and content analysis. For the former, we simulated two curatorial tasks, asked our users (curators) to use ContextMiner, and provide us feedback on its usability and functionalities. For the latter, we mined a collection prepared by ContextMiner for its potential usage in preservation. Finally, I have summarized the lessons learned from developing and using our system, providing implications for digital library curators interested in collecting and preserving digital objects of an ephemeral nature.Â Â Â
Creating Virtual CD-ROM Collections
Authors: Woods Kam , Brown Geoffrey
Published: December 2011

Over the past 20 years, more than 100,000 CD-ROM titles have been published including thousands of collections of government documents and data. CD-ROMs present preservation challenges at the bit level and in ensuring usability of the preserved artifact. We present techniques we have developed to archive and support user access to a collection of approximately 2,900 CD-ROMs published under the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) by the United States Government Printing Office (GPO). The project provides web-based access to CD-ROM contents using both migration and emulation and supports remote execution of the raw CD-ROM images. Our project incorporates off-the-shelf, primarily open-source software. The raw data and (METS) metadata are made available through AFS, a standard distributed file system, to encourage sharing among libraries.
Data Stewardship: Environmental Data Curation and a Web-of-Repositories
Authors: Baker Karen S. , Yarmey Lynn
Published: December 2011

Scientific researchers today frequently package measurements and associated metadata as digital datasets in anticipation of storage in data repositories. Through the lens of environmental data stewardship, we consider the data repository as an organizational element central to data curation. One aspect of non-commercial repositories, their distance-from-origin of the data, is explored in terms of near and remote categories. Three idealized repository types are distinguished – local, center, and archive - paralleling research, resource, and reference collection categories respectively. Repository type characteristics such as scope, structure, and goals are discussed. Repository similarities in terms of roles, activities and responsibilities are also examined. Data stewardship is related to care of research data and responsible scientific communication supported by an infrastructure that coordinates curation activities; data curation is defined as a set of repeated and repeatable activities focusing on tending data and creating data products within a particular arena. The concept of “sphere-of-context” is introduced as an aid to distinguishing repository types. Conceptualizing a “web-of-repositories” accommodates a variety of repository types and represents an ecologically inclusive approach to data curation.
A Compound Object Authoring and Publishing Tool for Literary Scholars based on the IFLA-FRBR
Authors: Gerber Anna , Hunter Jane
Published: December 2011

This paper presents LORE (Literature Object Re-use and Exchange), a light-weight tool which is designed to allow literature scholars and teachers to author, edit and publish compound information objects encapsulating related digital resources and bibliographic records. LORE enables users to easily create OAI-ORE-compliant compound objects, which build on the IFLA FRBR model, and also enables them to describe and publish them to an RDF repository as Named Graphs. Using the tool, literary scholars can create typed relationships between individual atomic objects using terms from a bibliographic ontology and can attach metadata to the compound object. This paper describes the implementation and user interface of the LORE tool, as developed within the context of an ongoing case study being conducted in collaboration with AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource, which focuses on compound objects for teaching and research within the Australian literature studies community.
DCC DIFFUSE Standards Frameworks: A Standards Path through the Curation Lifecycle
Authors: Higgins Sarah
Published: December 2011

DCC DIFFUSE Standards Frameworks aims to offer domain specific advice on standards relevant to digital preservation and curation, to help curators identify which standards they should be using and where they can be appropriately implemented, to ensure authoritative digital material. The Project uses the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model and Web 2.0 technology, to visually present standards frameworks for a number of disciplines. The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) is actively working with a different relevant organisations to present searchable frameworks of standards, for a number of domains. These include digital repositories, records management, the geo-information sector, archives and the museum sector. Other domains, such as e-science, will shortly be investigated.
The eXtensible Access Method (XAM) Standard
Authors: Todd Steve
Published: December 2011

Recent developments in the storage industry have resulted in the creation of an industry standard application programmer’s interface (API) known as XAM, the eXtensible Access Method. The XAM API focuses on the creation and management of reference information (otherwise known as fixed content). Storage vendors supporting the XAM API will provide new benefits to applications that are creating and managing large amounts of fixed content. The benefits described by this paper merit consideration and research by developers creating applications for Digital Curators.
Enabling Product Design Reuse by Long-term Preservation of Engineering Knowledge
Authors: Brunsmann Jörg , Wilkes Wolfgang
Published: December 2011

In the highly competitive engineering industry, product innovations are created with the help of a product lifecycle management (PLM) tool chain. In order to support fast-paced product development, a major company goal is the reuse of product designs and product descriptions. Due to the product’s complexity, the design of a product not only consists of geometry data but also of valuable engineering knowledge that is created during the various PLM phases. The need to preserve such intellectual capital leads engineering companies to introduce knowledge management and archiving their machine-readable formal representation. However, archived knowledge is in danger of becoming unusable since it is very likely that knowledge semantics and knowledge representation will evolve over long time periods, for example during the 50 operational years of some products. Knowledge evolution and knowledge representation technology changes are crucial issues since a reuse of the archived product information can only be ensured if its rationale and additional knowledge are interpretable with future software and technologies. Therefore, in order to reuse design data fully, knowledge about the design must also be migrated to be interoperable with future design systems and knowledge representation methods. This paper identifies problems, issues, requirements, challenges and solutions that arise while tackling the long-term preservation of engineering knowledge.
Multi-scale Data Sharing in the Life Sciences: Some Lessons for Policy Makers
Authors: Pryor Graham
Published: December 2011

Drawing on the final report on a recent series of case studies in the life sciences at the University of Edinburgh, this paper explores the attitudes and perceptions of researchers towards data sharing and contrasts these with the policies of the major research funders. Notwithstanding economic, technical and cultural inhibitors, the general ethos in the Life Sciences is one of support to the principle of data sharing. However, this position is subject to a complex range of qualifications, not least the crucial need for sharing through collaboration. The kind of generic vision for data sharing that is currently promoted by national agencies is judged to be neither productive nor effective.Â  Only close engagement with research practitioners in the identification of bottom-up strategies that preserve the exercise of informed choice - a fundamental and persistent element of scientific research - will produce change on a national scale.