Emergence of antibiotic resistant pathogenic bacteria poses a serious public health challenge worldwide. However, antibiotic resistance genes are not confined to the clinic; instead they are widely prevalent in different bacterial populations in the environment. Therefore, to understand development of antibiotic resistance in pathogens, we need to consider important reservoirs of resistance genes, which may include determinants that confer self-resistance in antibiotic producing soil bacteria and genes encoding intrinsic resistance mechanisms present in all or most non-producer environmental bacteria. While the presence of resistance determinants in soil and environmental bacteria does not pose a threat to human health, their mobilization to new hosts and their expression under different contexts, for example their transfer to plasmids and integrons in pathogenic bacteria, can translate into a problem of huge proportions, as discussed in this review. Selective pressure brought about by human activities further results in enrichment of such determinants in bacterial populations. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand distribution of resistance determinants in bacterial populations, elucidate resistance mechanisms, and determine environmental factors that promote their dissemination. This comprehensive review describes the major known self-resistance mechanisms found in producer soil bacteria of the genus Streptomyces and explores the relationships between resistance determinants found in producer soil bacteria, non-producer environmental bacteria, and clinical isolates. Specific examples highlighting potential pathways by which pathogenic clinical isolates might acquire these resistance determinants from soil and environmental bacteria are also discussed. Overall, this article provides a conceptual framework for understanding the complexity of the problem of emergence of antibiotic resistance in the clinic. Availability of such knowledge will allow researchers to build models for dissemination of resistance genes and for developing interventions to prevent recruitment of additional or novel genes into pathogens.

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Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms in Bacteria: Relationships Between Resistance Determinants of Antibiotic Producers, Environmental Bacteria, and Clinical Pathogens.

Measuring the effects of business intelligence systems: The relationship between business process and organizational performance

This Handbook charts the growing area of journalism studies, exploring the current state of theory and setting an agenda for future research in an international context. The volume is structured around theoretical and empirical approaches, and covers scholarship on news production and organizations; news content; journalism and society; and journalism in a global context. Emphasizing comparative and global perspectives, each chapter explores:
Key elements, thinkers, and texts; 
Historical context; 
Current state of the art;
Methodological issues;
Merits and advantages of the approach/area of studies;
Limitations and critical issues of the approach/area of studies;
Directions for future research

Offering broad international coverage from top-tier contributors, this volume ranks among the first publications to serve as a comprehensive resource addressing theory and scholarship in journalism studies. As such, the Handbook of Journalism Studies is a must-have resource for scholars and graduate students working in journalism, media studies, and communication around the globe.

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The Handbook of Journalism Studies

Use of test collections and evaluation measures to assess the effectiveness of information retrieval systems has its origins in work dating back to the early 1950s. Across the nearly 60 years since that work started, use of test collections is a de facto standard of evaluation. This monograph surveys the research conducted and explains the methods and measures devised for evaluation of retrieval systems, including a detailed look at the use of statistical significance testing in retrieval experimentation. This monograph reviews more recent examinations of the validity of the test collection approach and evaluation measures as well as outlining trends in current research exploiting query logs and live labs. At its core, the modern-day test collection is little different from the structures that the pioneering researchers in the 1950s and 1960s conceived of. This tutorial and review shows that despite its age, this long-standing evaluation method is still a highly valued tool for retrieval research.

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Test Collection Based Evaluation of Information Retrieval Systems

Based on a literature review, this article identifies and assesses measurement approaches for two different purposes: determining the value of BI and managing the BI process within an organization.

The Measurement of Business Intelligence

Examination of the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science as part of the virtual library website.

Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science

The paper argues that competitive intelligence is a vital function and attempts to study how it is distributed, especially by technologies, within organizations. Related topics, the sources of competitive intelligence, and who distributes and receives competitive intelligence, are also addressed. A literature-based study is extended by a quantitative survey of members of the Society of Competitive Information Professionals (SCIP) and email interviews with a self-chosen sample of respondees. The paper concludes that the distribution of competitive intelligence can be aided by technology but to be effective must be primarily 'person-focused'. Competitive intelligence itself needs to be seen as a form of knowledge management rather than an information provision function. This has implications for sources and for the professional roots of those who provide competitive intelligence. Evaluation of competitive information provision is seen as a next step for research.

Dissemination of Competitive Intelligence

Purpose – This article seeks to propose a new vision for public libraries in the digital age.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper is based on an understanding of the recent developments in ICT, internet and digital libraries; and also on the authors' personal experience in research and development in library and information science – especially in relation to public libraries – and digital libraries.Findings – The study argues that currently there are no proper mechanisms for capturing, preserving and disseminating community knowledge, and proposes that public libraries in the digital age should take a new role whereby they should act not only as a gateway to knowledge, but also as a platform facilitating the creation of, and access to, local community knowledge. Proposes a model for PL2.0 where public libraries can take on this new role to build a network of community knowledge.Research limitations/implications – The paper proposes a conceptual model for the second generation of public lib...

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Public library 2.0 : towards a new mission for public libraries as a network of community knowledge

One ring to rule them all

This definitive textbook is the most up-to-date introduction to the profession of librarianship for students and new entrants to the profession available. It is also the first to give a complete overview of all aspects of professional librarianship in the 21st century, and to offer authoritative analysis of modern libraries and librarianship. Key areas covered include Libraries and information services: evolution or revolution? Information resources and services, Information organization and access, Library and Information users and society, Library technologies, Library and information management, LIS education and training.

Alan Poulter

Papers

Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science

Dissemination of Competitive Intelligence

Public library 2.0 : towards a new mission for public libraries as a network of community knowledge

One ring to rule them all

Librarianship : an introduction