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Controlling microbial communities could help restore ecosystems and maintain healthy microbiota. Here, the authors introduce the notion of structural accessibility and develop a framework to identify minimal sets of driver species, manipulation of which could allow control of a microbial community.

One of the benefits of using digital games for education is that games can provide feedback for learners to assess their situation and correct their mistakes. We conducted two studies to examine the effectiveness of different feedback design (timing, duration, repeats, and feedback source) in a serious game designed to teach learners about cognitive biases. We also compared the digital game-based learning condition to a professional training video. Overall, the digital game was significantly more effective than the video condition. Longer durations and repeats improve the effects on bias-mitigation. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference between just-in-time feedback and delayed feedback,and computer-generated feedback was more effective than feedback from other players.

In this first exploration of europium-doped carbonated apatites the location of carbonate was determined using the environment model for the analysis of IR and NMR spectra. Europium-doped carbonated apatites, containing Eu/(Eu + Ca) mole ratios of about 10%, were prepared by aqueous one-step and addition syntheses. The IR and NMR spectra of the carbonate in the samples are described using the environment model: A-type carbonate is assigned to channels containing only calcium ions (A = Ca6) or to channels containing one Na+ or a vacancy (A’ = Ca5Na or Ca5). The presence of the channel Eu3+ and the use of triammonium phosphate in the synthesis produce considerable A-type carbonate. For the apatites reported here, the carbonate is distributed in approximately a 60 to 40 ratio for channel occupancy versus replacement of phosphate. The europium is assumed to have replaced calcium ions in the Ca(II) (channel) location and the stoichiometry of the products is used to propose that, contrary to much of the Eu(III) substitution literature, the charge-balance mechanism is likely to involve the substitution of two europium ions for three calcium ion with the concomitant formation of a calcium vacancy. The environment model is also used in the correlation of the a-axial lattice parameter with the percent A-type carbonate.

Portugal stands out among nations that have embraced open access to scholarly communication because of its early adoption of institutional policies, creation of a network of repositories, and effective system of governance. And,nonprofit international publishing initiatives play an important role in opening up entire runs of Portuguese academic journals. This article provides an overview of the open access movement in Portugal.

As more books, journals, and newspapers make the inevitable transition to the electronic format, academics get the sense that the only scholarly materials one really needs can be found in the digital realm. Through the imagined voice of the Journal des Savants—the world’s oldest scholarly journal still active today—this article brings to the surface valid concerns about print scarcity, familiar terrain for not only Europeanists but for anyone who works in area studies. It objects to conventional metrics for determining scholarly value and reconfirms known perils of relying solely on the mass-digitization efforts of Google Books. Most importantly, the article questions an over-reliance on digitalpreservation repositories such as LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, Portico, and HathiTrust—key players in the so-called Cloud Library, or external network of trusted digital library collection and service providers. The push toward cloud-sourced collections comes at a time when research libraries are hastily embarking on ambitious cooperative regional initiatives to systematically de-duplicate their costly, problematic,redundant, and very much terrestrial print collections.

This article reports the results of a pioneering and in-depth survey of the research and information-seeking behavior of the student members of the Latin American Studies Association living in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The results suggest that the new generation of Latin Americanists in the universities surveyed are confident in their abilities to carry out research on the region within their respective disciplines. However, most of these students have not received formal instruction by course instructors or librarians on how to carry out their research on Latin America. Use of the Internet as a research resource is popular but has not replaced the use of the library and long-standing research strategies such as footnote-chasing. While the reported use of library electronic resources is very high, awareness of Latin America-specific and electronically-available research tools such as HLAS, HAPI, and LAPTOC is low. The survey is the first step in reassessing the ever-changing needs and research patterns of this cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary group of academic library users and future leaders in Latin American studies.

The identification and characterization of lead-bearing and associated minerals in scales on lead pipes are essential to understanding and predicting the mobilization of lead into drinking water. Despite its long-recognized usefulness in the unambiguous identification of crystalline and amorphous solids, distinguishing between polymorphic phases, and rapid and non-destructive analysis on the micrometer spatial scale, the Raman spectroscopy (RS) technique has been applied only occasionally in the analysis of scales in lead service lines (LSLs). This article illustrates multiple applications of RS not just for the identification of phases, but also compositional and structural characterization of scale materials in harvested lead pipes and experimental pipe-loop/recirculation systems. RS is shown to be a sensitive monitor of these characteristics through analyses on cross-sections of lead pipes, raw interior pipe walls, particulates captured in filters, and scrapings from pipes. RS proves to be especially sensitive to the state of crystallinity of scale phases (important to their solubility) and to the specific chemistry of phases precipitated upon the introduction of orthophosphate to the water system. It can be used effectively alone as well as in conjunction with more standard analytical techniques. By means of fiber-optic probes, RS has potential for in situ, real-time analysis within water-filled pipes.

Objective: This study sought to examine the efficacy of inoculation message treatments to facilitate resistance to health nutrition-related (HNR) commercial food advertising claims. Design: Data were collected across three phases extending across a 5-week period conducted over two semesters at a Midwest US university. A 2 × 3 between-subjects factorial design was adopted, with multivariate and univariate analyses being used to interpret the results. Setting: Pittsburg, USA. Method: Participants were emerging adult undergraduate students (aged 18-25 years) recruited from introductory communication courses. A total of 167 students participated in Phase 1 of the work, of whom 152 completed Phase 2 and 145 completed Phase 3 (resulting in an 86.8% retention rate). Among these, 45% were men. Results: The results indicated (F(3, 129) = 9.83, p < 0.001, partial ?[superscript 2] = 0.18) that compared to control (M = 5.20, standard deviation [SD] = 0.84), participants who received an inoculation treatment experienced greater Phase 3 attitude strength (M = 5.73, SD = 0.77) to the position that eating healthy food is necessary to maintaining a healthy life. Inoculated participants reported greater Phase 3 attitude certainty (M = 77.15, SD = 19.21) for the above position than the control group (M = 65.43, SD = 25.48). Inoculated participants held less favourable views towards the source of the HNR claims (M = 4.80, SD = 1.18) relative to controls (M = 5.73, SD = 1.36) and generated greater numbers of counter-arguments (M = 3.90, SD = 1.74) compared to control groups (M = 2.75, SD = 1.69), thus demonstrating resistance to persuasion. Conclusion: Inoculation was demonstrated to be an effective preemptive strategy against potentially deceptive HNR advertising claims. Hence, it may offer an effective strategy for helping to protect the health conscious attitudes of emerging adults by providing resistance to the "pufferised" appeals used by many commercial food advertisers.