Entries for June 2006

June 30, 2006

Film Cameras Lose to New Technologies

CNET News.com on May 25, 2006, took a look at various film cameras following the announcement that Nikon and Canon will no longer be developing film cameras.

June 29, 2006

NASA Rocket Science 101

Do you want to know more about the Delta II, Atlas V, or Pegasus rockets? Check out Rocket Science 101 produced by NASA. This Flash tutorial explains the parts of a launch vehicle and how its constructed.

(VIA: The Scout Report, June 02, 2006)

June 28, 2006

Chemistry Between Women & Science

The Chronicle of Higher Education (Volume 52, Issue 38, Page A10, May 26, 2006), in an article called The Chemistry Between Women & Science, interviewed three women about their career paths and why so few women are in academic science careers.

(VIA: Quick Picks, May 29, 2006)

June 27, 2006

PROGRESS - Women Chemists and Chemical Engineers

PROGRESS is a three-year pilot project launched in 2002 by the American Chemical Society to develop, test, and evaluate 7 new programs aimed at facilitating the full participation and advancement of women chemists and chemical engineers. Its goals are to assist entry-level professionals find employment and guide and support early and mid-career professionals seeking advancement.

(VIA: Quick Picks, May 29, 2006)

June 26, 2006

25 Worst Tech Products

PCWorld.com (May 26, 2006) released its list of 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time. I will not give you the entire list, you can read the article for that, but number one is American Online.

Number 13 was the IBM PCjr, which I had as a kid. As a kid it was great, and I am now having flashbacks of the hours of playing Zork.

(VIA: Stephen's Lighthouse, May 29, 2006)

June 24, 2006

2007 Multi-conference in Computer Science, Engineering, & Information Technology

The 2007 Multi-conference in computer science, engineering, and information technology will be held in Orlando, FL, USA during July 9-12 2007. The multi-conference is a major professional gathering in the world and it consists of the following 4 important events:

• International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition
• International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems and Web Technologies
• International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking and Communication Systems
• International Conference on Software Engineering Theory and Practice

(VIA: Beyond the Job, June 01, 2006)

June 23, 2006

Study Shows Corporations are Watching Your Email

A recent study reported by Wired News (June 2, 2006) shows that a third of big companies monitor email content. What surprised me was that inappropriate content and attachments were not the main corporate concerns. The companies are monitoring to prevent confidential information from being released.

June 22, 2006

First Open Access Nanotechnology Journal from Major Publisher

Springer and the Nano Research Society have announced a new partnership to publish Nanoscale Research Letters (NRL), which will be the first nanotechnology journal from a major commercial publisher to publish articles with open access. The new journal provides an interdisciplinary forum for the open communication of scientific and technological advances in the creation and use of objects at the nanometer scale. The first open access articles are scheduled to appear on Springer's online platform, SpringerLink, in July 2006.

Read the full announcement for more information.

(VIA: LISNews, June 12, 2006)

June 21, 2006

Stupid Engineering Mistakes

Wired Magazine (Issue 14.06, June 2006) listed the The Worst: Stupid Engineering Mistakes. It includes various failures such as a dam collapse, transportation disasters, and poorly designed tires.

June 20, 2006

Internet Tracking of Activities

The New York Times (June 2, 2006) reported that the Justice Department wants Internet companies to keep records of web-surfing activities of their customers to aid in law enforcement.

Do we really want legislation that allows the monitoring of our Internet activities? The government typically does not monitor our phone conversations or written correspondence without warrants. Is the government intimidated by new technologies or just hoping that Americans are not paying attention?

Beilstein database exceeds ten million reactions

MDL Information Systems GmbH is pleased to announce that the Beilstein database now provides more than ten million structure-searchable reactions. Passing this important milestone emphasizes the enduring value of the Beilstein database as the essential first step in chemical discovery. See the full press release for more information.

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Beilstein Crossfire is one of the several hundred databases available to the Case community.

June 19, 2006

Top 100 Technology Products

PC World (July 2006 issue of PC World magazine; Online: May 31, 2006) released its annual 100 Best Products of the Year. The top two were the Intel Core Duo and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core. Others highlights in the top ten included Craigslist.org, iPod Nano, Google Earth, and YouTube.com.

(VIA: TVC Alert Research News, June 1, 2006)

iPod & Facebook

According to USA TODAY (June 7, 2006), a recent college survey shows iPods are more popular than beer on college campuses. Facebook.com tied with beer for college popularity. The last thing to upset beer's ranking in this survey was the Internet in 1997.

June 18, 2006

$1.5 Million Endowment Gift for CSE

From the June 15, 2006, Case Daily:

The Case School of Engineering recently received a $1.5 million endowment gift from brothers Charles and John Phipps. Both are 1949 graduates of the Case Institute of Technology. The donation is named in honor of their late father, Myron Phipps. Dean Robert Savinell said the money will allow the school to devise and sustain new initiatives.

June 15, 2006

MOLTABLE - Chemoinformatics Portal & its Application in Bioinformatics

When a potentially useful drug is designed or discovered, it must be delivered in a way that maximizes its ability to benefit patients.

The Moltable initiatives to discover drug candidates against CANCER, AIDS, Malaria and other potentially devastating infectious diseases through chemoinformatics research. Drug candidates in various stages of research are being analyzed to discover new and promising candidates. Dynamic QSAR initiatives through 'focused' virtual library design and the results will be made 'open access' through Moltable portal (National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India).

The portal includes links to projects, a repository for molecules, and various other resources.

June 14, 2006

Understanding RSS Feeds

CaseLearns Workshop: Understanding RSS Feeds
June 14, 2006, 1:00 PM
Instructor: Brian C. Gray

View the full presentation from the June 14, 2006, Understanding RSS Feeds workshop.

Continue reading "Understanding RSS Feeds"

Isaac Newton's "Alchemical Notebooks" Available Online

The Chymistry of Isaac Newton is producing a scholarly online edition of Newton's alchemical manuscripts integrated with new research on Newton's chymistry. To date, about seven hundred pages have been transcribed and encoded in TEI/XML. Of these, roughly six hundred have been edited and are available online, including Newton's Most Complete Laboratory Notebook.

Isaac Newton, like Albert Einstein, is a quintessential symbol of the human intellect and its ability to decode the secrets of nature. Newton's fundamental contributions to science include the quantification of gravitational attraction, the discovery that white light is actually a mixture of immutable spectral colors, and the formulation of the calculus. Yet there is another, more mysterious side to Newton that is imperfectly known, a realm of activity that spanned some thirty years of his life, although he kept it largely hidden from his contemporaries and colleagues. We refer to Newton's involvement in the discipline of alchemy, or as it was often called in seventeenth-century England, "chymistry."

(VIA: Librarian In Black, April 14, 2006)

June 13, 2006

International Conference on Chemoinformatics - August 2006

National Chemical Laboratory Pune, India is planning a two-day International Conference on Chemoinformatics during 7-8 August 2006 which would be participated by eminent scientist and professors in this specialized area from both academia and industries.

Several distinguished scientists from Germany, UK, USA etc. along with Indian scientists are participating in this important meeting. The conference will bring together more than 100 participants for this scholarly event focusing on the futuristic application of cheminformatics in medicinal chemistry, material science, structure elucidation and structure activity/property/toxicity relationship studies, high performance computing, chemical data mining etc., Other participants would present oral and poster presentations of their work.

June 12, 2006

Biointerphases - New Open Access Journal

The Biointerphases journal, an open access journal for the biomaterials interface community, provides an interdisciplinary platform for scientific exchange among the biology, chemistry, physics, and materials sciences communities. It offers a discussion forum for rapid dissemination of scientific theories, results, and interpretations. Biointerphases serves as a global vehicle for the biomaterials interface community as well as a platform that encourages dialog between scientists and the public with respect to cogent policy issues.

[About Biointerphases]

Biointerphases is devoted to Articles of original research, Reviews, a "Myth and Reality" section addressing controversial models and experiments, Editorial Commentary/Letters to the Editor, Perspectives on Evolving Research, Reports on Interdisciplinary Research Programs and Opinionated Essays.

Biointerphases will include all topics relevant to the study and understanding of interfaces and confined phases in biomaterial science and biophysics, e. g. such as interface spectroscopy, in vivo mechanisms, in vitro mechanisms, interface modeling, adhesion phenomena, protein-surface interactions, cell-surface interactions, biomembranes on a chip, biosensors / biodiagnostics, bio-surface modification, the nano-bio interface, biotribology / biorheology, molecular recognition, cell patterning for function, polyelectrolyte surfaces, and ambient diagnostic methods. Biointerphases is freely available online, and will be available in an annual bound volume for a nominal fee.

June 08, 2006

Student in Materials Science Receives Scholarship

David Poerschke, a third-year student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, was recently awarded the Charles W. Finkl Scholarship by the Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation.

(VIA: Case Daily, June 6, 2006)

June 07, 2006

Closing Session or Just the Beginning

This is my first time to attempt to blog an activity while a session is in progress. Well here it goes...

I was glad to hear others have similar thoughts as me at today's Closing Session - OK lets get started! I am not suggesting that we did not work hard already, but the group has really learned a lot and are eager to look to the future now.

I was amazed how much beyond a "workshop" that this ALA Library 2.0 Bootcamp developed. Beyond just looking at the technology from a hands-on playground, the group flushed out much more about user expectations, organizational implementation, online/social implementation, etc.

The work products of the ten teams were amazing for "virtually" working on the topics, while potentially many of the participants were exploring these 2.0 technologies for the first times themselves.

I think we only can see the tip of the iceberg right now after our 6-weeks of collaboration, but ALA cannot avoid the collision with Web 2.0 that we have created. There comes a time when people must realize that we do not always need to avoid every collision, because the past principles and the future technologies can blend to meet the needs of today. ALA and all libraries can be great leaders in pushing not just the technology of Web 2.0 but the principles of collaboration, social interaction, and the user's control of their experience.

One thing I hope this exploration demonstrated to ALA and the membership is how much work can be accomplished outside the traditional face-to-face meetings of conferences. It appears from the discussions and team projects that we can be seeing an amazing transformation in ALA and libraries in general in how business is conducted, how users are reached, and how ALL people can contribute to an organization's success and resources.

I look forward to continue growing the relationships I developed, and helping in anyway I can to continue this wonderful process.

Team 1 Project Summary - Public Commenting

This document provide a summary and some additional information to our videocast. We have offered it in either Word or PDF format for your convenience.

PDF Download

Word Download

Mathematical Imagery

Explore the art in mathematics from the American Mathematical Society's Mathematical Imagery website. Explore the cover art of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, the math and artwork of origami, the art of mathematical formulas, and various other galleries.

(VIA: The Scout Report, May 26, 2006 - Volume 12, Number 21)

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[Overview of the AMS]

Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.

The Society has over 28,000 individual members and 550 institutional members in the United States and around the world. Programs and services for AMS members and the mathematical community include professional programs such as meetings and conferences, surveys, employment services; publications including Mathematical Reviews (a database of nearly 2 million items covering over 60 years of mathematics literature), journals, and over 3,000 books in print; support for Young Scholars Programs and the Mathematical Moments program of the Public Awareness Office; resources such as MR Lookup for researchers and authors; and a Washington office that connects the mathematical community with the broader scientific community and with decision makers who determine science funding.

June 06, 2006

ALA L2: Team One - Final Project

Join us in the exploration of the best practices for utilizing public comments on an organization's blog or website.

We will be issuing a summary document shortly with more details.

Open Access in Medicine

Open Access for the Medical Librarian
Heather Morrison & Andrew Waller
Delivered at the Canadian Health Libraries Association 2006: Pearls of Wisdom, Vancouver, British Columbia.

ABSTRACT:
The most important aspects of open access for the medical librarian are presented. Reasons for open access include access to research information, access to taxpayer-funded research, facilitation of evidence-based medicine, equity of access, promotion of author control, and controlling library costs. The two primary approaches to open access, via author self-archiving and open access publishing, are presented. Key open access policy developments are highlighted. Many of the major policy initiatives of the moment are from the research funders. From the researcher funders' point of view, open access means more research impact, more real-world impact when professionals can access the literature, and value is illustrated to the taxpayer, building support for further research funding. The world's largest medical research funders, including the U.S. National Institute of Health and the Wellcome Trust, have public access policies, and many more policies are in development. For example, two weeks ago the Federal Research Public Access Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate. One of the essential elements of open access policy is ensuring that researchers are required, not requested, to deposit works. In Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has a policy in development called Access to Products of Research; public comments are due May 15, 2006. The dramatic growth of open access - over 2,220 journals in DOAJ, over 7.3 million items in an OAIster search - is discussed, as is the idea of new roles for librarians in an open access environment.

Public Commenting on Organizational Blogs or Websites

I have been participating in a virtual workshop designed by the American Library Association (ALA) to instruct in and establish best practices in utilizing Web 2.0 technologies. ALA Library 2.0 included many components from blogging, wikis, RSS feeds, etc. My personal ALA Library 2.0 blog also includes various details and links.

One part of the virtual workshop included an interview I conducted with some of the Kelvin Smith Library Freedman Center staff.

My group just completed our final project. We explored the best practices in allowing public comments on formal organizational blogs or websites.

Here is an alternative link to the presention.

UPDATE: The ALA blogs mentioned above have since been taken down. Any entries that I was involved in were moved to this blog and the links fixed.

June 05, 2006

CaseLearns Workshop - Understanding RSS Feeds

CaseLearns Workshop - Understanding RSS Feeds
June 14, 2005, 1pm-2pm
Kelvin Smith Library (KSL) 215
Registration required at: http://library.case.edu/caselearns/

Learn about RSS and how it has changed the information world. We will explore what options are available to access RSS feeds (readers or aggregators), how KSL and CASE are using RSS feeds, and look at various RSS feeds and other resources available for free on the Internet or within our Library databases.

This course is NOT technical in nature, and will not explore the creation of RSS feeds or blogs. Blogs are not covered by this session, since they are not the same as RSS feeds, as some people mistakenly think. If you can surf the Internet, you are prepared to participate in the class and utilize RSS feeds in your daily life.

If you use RSS already, please share this with your colleagues that do not enjoy the benefits of RSS delivery of information.

Contact me if you have questions:
Brian C. Gray, MLIS
Librarian - Engineering, Math, & Statistics
Email: brian.c.gray@case.edu
Blog: http://blog.case.edu/bcg8/
Engineering Reading Room: http://library.case.edu/ksl/engineering/
Phone: (216) 368-8685

Improving Science Education in the U.S.

Nudging the NSF on Education
Inside Higher Ed
May 4, 2006

American science and math competitiveness couldn’t be a hotter topic in Congress right now if it were made in a fusion reactor.

Proposed legislation would have the National Science Foundation get to work on cultivating science and engineering majors at the college level, and providing extensive professional development for pre-college science teachers.

The legislation includes funding for science and engineering departments at universities to create training programs for school teachers, improvements in undergraduate instruction in sciences, and scholarships.

June 04, 2006

Another Library 2.0 Job Description

Here is another Library 2.0 job ad: Wiki Analyst.

From EBSCO Publishing:

Description:
The basic function of the Wiki Analyst is to monitor information creation on TWiki, EP's web-based collaboration platform. The ideal candidate will be responsible for tracking wiki usage, guiding and shaping it's organization, and helping EP to get the most out of this powerful tool. Develop best practices. Other responsibilities include training and educating users, monitoring projects and activity, and linking content for maximum usefulness.

Qualifications:
Work with departments and authors to ensure that content is linked appropriately and uses the best methods and practices. Monitor Wiki technology to understand the latest state of technology and plugins and make recommendations for usage at EP. The ideal candidate will have a solid understanding of web technology and be wiki savvy. Excellent communication, training, and writing skills are required.

June 01, 2006

OU Engineering Plagiarism

UPDATE:
Plagiarism panel recommends firing two OU professors
Associated Press, June 1, 2006

Two Ohio University faculty members should be fired for allowing cheating in an engineering graduate program, a university committee said.

The committee, formed to investigate plagiarism in master's degree theses, recommended dismissal Wednesday for the chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and another unidentified faculty member.

Read the full story (Akron Beacon Journal) for more details.

Engineering School at Ohio U. Investigates 44 Cases of Alleged Plagiarism by Graduate Students
By THOMAS BARTLETT
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Volume 52, Issue 27, Page A9 (March 10, 2006)

Ohio University is investigating 44 possible cases of plagiarism by current and former engineering graduate students, all of which were discovered by a former graduate student who believes professors there have fostered a culture of cheating...

The Case community can access the full article from the E-Journal Portal. Several of the sources have a one month embargo before the article is available.

National Academy of Engineering

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) mission is to promote the technological welfare of the nation by marshaling the knowledge and insights of eminent members of the engineering profession.

Engineering Projects and Programs
The National Academy of Engineering is tasked with identifying and illuminating issues at the intersections of engineering, technology, and society that impact our quality of life. Studies, symposia, and public information activities are carried out both independently by the NAE Program Office and jointly with other units of the National Academies.

[About NAE]

Founded in 1964, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. The NAE operates under the same congressional act of incorporation that established the National Academy of Sciences, signed in 1863 by President Lincoln. Under this charter the NAE is directed "whenever called upon by any department or agency of the government, to investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art."

(VIA: The Scout Report, Volume 12, Number 20, May 19, 2006)