The role of Omani academic libraries in supporting the knowledge economy

This study aims to Identify the role of Academic Omani Libraries in supporting knowledge economy, through Bryson's five indicators appeared in 2001: library infrastructure, information services; activities carried out by the libraries for creative ideas, and for supporting innovation. In addition to building collections that are capable to new requirements of Knowledge management. The study adopted the questionnaire as a tool of the descriptive method to collect and analyze data. The results indicate that Omani academic libraries have a good infrastructure in communications and information technology that supports research, and facilitates the use of electronic services. Moreover, Library catalogues and databases have been indicated by respondents as sufficient tools for exploring relevant information, especially in libraries, which are continuously organizing training programs in new developments of knowledge economy. On the other hand, the results show weaknesses of Omani academic libraries in supporting creative ideas, and in encouraging their employees to find out creative solutions for various problems facing them. The study concluded with many recommendations, the most important of which are: the need, for Omani academic libraries, to keep up with developments in the fields of knowledge management and economy, and to support creative ideas through collaboration with local and international professional associations. In addition, to encourage creative thinking with collaboration with organizations concerned with innovation in the country.

Worlds First Offshore Horizontal Well Using Jointed Pipe Cemented Frac Sleeve Technology

The Valdemar field, located in the Danish sector of the North Sea, targets a Lower Cretaceous, "dirty chalk" reservoir characterized by low permeabilities of <0.5mD, high porosities of >20% and contains up to 25% insoluble fines. To produce economically the reservoir must be stimulated. Typically, this is by means of hydraulic fracturing. A traditional propped fracture consists of 500,000 to 1,000,000 lbs of 20/40 sand, placed using a crosslinked seawater-based borate fluid. The existing wells in the field are completed using the PSI (perforate, isolate, stimulate)1 system. This system was developed in the late 1980s as a way of improving completion times allowing each interval to be perforated, stimulated and isolated in a single trip and has been used extensively in the Danish North Sea in a variety of fields. The system consists of multiset packers with sliding sleeves and typically takes 2-3 days between the start of one fracture to the next. Future developments in this area now require a new, novel and more efficient approach owing to new target reservoir being of a thinner and poorer quality. In order for these new developments to be economical an approach was required to allow for longer wells to be drilled and completed allowing better reservoir connectivity whilst at the same time reducing the completion time, and therefore rig time and overall cost. A project team was put together to develop a system that could be used in an offshore environment that would satisfy the above criteria, allowing wells to be drilled out to 21,000ft and beyond in excess of coiled tubing reach. The technology developed consists of cemented frac sleeves, operated with jointed pipe, allowing multiple zones to be stimulated in one trip, as well as utilizing a modified BHA that allows for the treatments to take place through the tubing, bringing numerous benefits. The following paper details the reasons for developing the new technology, the development process itself, the challenges that had to be overcome and a case history on the execution of the first job of its kind in the North Sea, in which over 7MM lbs of sand was pumped successfully, as well as the post treatment operations which included a proof of concept in utilizing a tractor to manipulate the sleeves. Finally, the production performance will be discussed supported by the use of tracer subs at each of the zones.

Automatic Coding of Facial Expressions of Pain: Are We There Yet?

Introduction. The experience of pain is regularly accompanied by facial expressions. The gold standard for analyzing these facial expressions is the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), which provides so-called action units (AUs) as parametrical indicators of facial muscular activity. Particular combinations of AUs have appeared to be pain-indicative. The manual coding of AUs is, however, too time- and labor-intensive in clinical practice. New developments in automatic facial expression analysis have promised to enable automatic detection of AUs, which might be used for pain detection. Objective. Our aim is to compare manual with automatic AU coding of facial expressions of pain. Methods. FaceReader7 was used for automatic AU detection. We compared the performance of FaceReader7 using videos of 40 participants (20 younger with a mean age of 25.7 years and 20 older with a mean age of 52.1 years) undergoing experimentally induced heat pain to manually coded AUs as gold standard labeling. Percentages of correctly and falsely classified AUs were calculated, and we computed as indicators of congruency, “sensitivity/recall,” “precision,” and “overall agreement (F1).” Results. The automatic coding of AUs only showed poor to moderate outcomes regarding sensitivity/recall, precision, and F1. The congruency was better for younger compared to older faces and was better for pain-indicative AUs compared to other AUs. Conclusion. At the moment, automatic analyses of genuine facial expressions of pain may qualify at best as semiautomatic systems, which require further validation by human observers before they can be used to validly assess facial expressions of pain.

Where to prospectively register a systematic review

Background Prospective registration aims to reduce bias in the conduct and reporting of research and to increase transparency. In addition, prospective registration of systematic reviews is argued to help preventing unintended duplication, thereby reducing research waste. PROSPERO was launched in 2011 as the first prospective register for systematic reviews. While it has long been the only option to prospectively register systematic reviews, recently there have been new developments. Our aim was to identify and characterize current options to prospectively register a systematic review to assist review authors in choosing a suitable register. Methods To identify systematic review registers, we independently performed internet searches in January 2021 using keywords related to systematic reviews and prospective registration. “Registration” was defined as the process of entering information about a planned systematic review into a database before starting the systematic review process. We collected data on the characteristics of the identified registries and contacted the responsible party of each register for verification of the data related to their registry. Results Overall, we identified five options to prospectively register a systematic review: PROSPERO, the Registry of Systematic Reviews/Meta-Analyses in Research Registry, and INPLASY, which are specific to systematic reviews, and the Open Science Framework Registries and protocols.io, which represent generic registers open to any study type. Detailed information on each register is presented in tables in the main text. Regarding the systematic-review-specific registries, authors have to trade-off between the costs of registration and the processing time of their registration record. All registers provide an option to search for systematic reviews already registered in the register. However, it is unclear how useful these search functions are. Conclusion Authors can prospectively register their systematic review in five registries, which come with different characteristics and features. The research community should discuss fair and sustainable financing models for registers that are not operated by for-profit organizations.

Evaluating Human Mutation Databases for 'Treatability' Using Personalized Antisense Oligonucleotides

Genome sequencing in the clinic often allows patients to receive a molecular diagnosis. However, variants are most often evaluated for pathogenicity, neglecting potential "treatability", and thus often yielding limited clinical benefit. Several collaborative efforts now aim to provide a therapy based upon the genetic variants, even if the drug will benefit only a single patient. Antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies, among others, offer attractive "programmable" and relatively safe platforms for individualized therapy. The landscape of "ASO-treatable" variants is largely uncharted, with new developments emerging for loss-of-function (LOF), haploinsufficient, and gain-of-function (GOF) variants. ASOs can access the genome to target splice-gain variants, poison exons, untranslated/regulatory regions, and naturally-occurring antisense transcripts. Many of these approaches have yet to be proven clinically beneficial, and it is unclear if disease in some patients has progressed past the point where benefit could reasonably be expected. Here we mine public variant databases to identify potential future therapeutic targets. We found that the majority of human pathogenic genetic variants have one or more approaches that could be targeted therapeutically, advantaging the many ways that ASOs can regulate gene expression. The future might see medical teams considering "treatability" when interpreting genome sequencing results, to fully realize benefits for patients.

“Back to Sender”: Re-Visiting the Belief in Witchcraft in Post-Colonial Zimbabwean Pentecostalism

This paper is a critical analysis of the witchcraft beliefs in Pentecostalism in post-colonial Zimbabwe. While Pentecostals claim “a complete break from the past”, there have emerged new dimensions that show that the belief in witches and witchcraft is deeply entrenched among Pentecostals. It also brings to the fore the underlying aspects of the creativity and innovation that are informed by African spiritual or metaphysical realities. Research since 1980 (when Zimbabwe got her independence from the British) indeed confirmed the existence of witchcraft beliefs and practices, although it was heavily suppressed in the churches. This paper re-visits the belief in witchcraft activities in Pentecostalism through examining new avenues of expression in both older and newer Pentecostal churches. The newer Pentecostal churches, in particular, those founded after 2010, have demonstrated unique innovation in theology. Thus, the belief in witchcraft and witches warrants a fresh examination in light of these new developments. We, therefore argue that the emergence of diverse newer Pentecostal churches in the midst of strong older Pentecostal churches has opened new ways of negotiating the Bible and Shona culture.

The new EU Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions in the context of new forms of employment

The article examines the reach, protective effects and limitations of the recently adopted European Union (EU) Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions. After explaining the need for a new instrument, the article analyses the Directive’s protective provisions. Cases of the European Court of Justice are presented to provide the wider context and explain how the EU social acquis impacts upon the implementation of the Directive. Finally, new developments in the EU labour and social field are discussed, making recommendations of possible avenues for providing protection to a larger category of workers.

Red Light Optogenetics in Neuroscience

Optogenetics, a field concentrating on controlling cellular functions by means of light-activated proteins, has shown tremendous potential in neuroscience. It possesses superior spatiotemporal resolution compared to the surgical, electrical, and pharmacological methods traditionally used in studying brain function. A multitude of optogenetic tools for neuroscience have been created that, for example, enable the control of action potential generation via light-activated ion channels. Other optogenetic proteins have been used in the brain, for example, to control long-term potentiation or to ablate specific subtypes of neurons. In in vivo applications, however, the majority of optogenetic tools are operated with blue, green, or yellow light, which all have limited penetration in biological tissues compared to red light and especially infrared light. This difference is significant, especially considering the size of the rodent brain, a major research model in neuroscience. Our review will focus on the utilization of red light-operated optogenetic tools in neuroscience. We first outline the advantages of red light for in vivo studies. Then we provide a brief overview of the red light-activated optogenetic proteins and systems with a focus on new developments in the field. Finally, we will highlight different tools and applications, which further facilitate the use of red light optogenetics in neuroscience.