Organizations supporting translational research and translational science, including Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs, provide a diverse and often changing array of resources, support, and services to a myriad of researchers and research efforts. While a wide-ranging scope of programs is essential to the advancement of translational research and science, it also complicates a systematic and unified process for tracking activities, studying research processes, and examining impact. To overcome these challenges, the Duke University School of Medicine’s CTSA hub created a data platform, Translational Research Accomplishment Cataloguer (TRACER), that provides capacity to enhance strategic decision-making, impact assessment, and equitable resource distribution. This article reviews TRACER development processes, provides an overview of the TRACER platform, addresses challenges in the development process, and describes avenues for addressing or overcoming these challenges. TRACER development allowed our hub to conceptually identify key processes and goals within programs and linkages between programs, and it sets the stage for advancing evidence-based improvement across our hub. This platform development provides key insight into facilitators that can inform other initiatives seeking to collect and align organizational data for strategic decision-making and impact assessment. TRACER or similar platforms are additionally well positioned to advance the study of translational science.

Archaeologists seek to improve our understanding of the past by studying, preserving, protecting, and sharing nonreplaceable archaeological resources. Archaeological collections hold information that can assist these aims as long as they are properly cared for, identified, and accessible. One of the most serious barriers is the lack of large-scale coordinated efforts to make archaeological collections findable and accessible. This article suggests that developing and implementing the use of a standardized set of attributes regarding collections provides solutions and strategies to find collections. These attributes can connect and standardize existing archaeological collections from a variety of sources (federal and state agencies, CRM firms, Indigenous and descendant communities, and academic departments), serving the profession in multiple ways. Most critically, the baseline data can be synthesized to inform and direct priorities for future fieldwork, thereby decreasing redundancy in archaeological collections and improving curation efforts nationwide. Such efforts would also provide a resource to students and researchers looking to understand and interpret the past at multiple scales by encouraging more collections-based research and less archaeological site destruction. Access for descendant communities will also be improved with information about their cultural heritage. This, in turn, encourages transparency and collaboration between those communities and archaeologists.

We present the ‘SISAL webApp’—a web-based tool to query the Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and AnaLysis (SISAL) database. The software provides an easy-to-use front-end interface to mine data from the SISAL database while providing the SQL code alongside as a learning tool. It allows for simple and increasingly complex querying of the SISAL database based on various data and metadata fields. The SISAL webApp version currently hosts SISALv2 of the database with 691 records from 294 sites, 512 of which have standardized chronologies. The SISAL webApp has sufficient flexibility to host future versions of the SISAL database, which may include allied speleothem information such as trace elements and cave-monitoring records. The SISAL webApp will increase accessibility to the SISAL database while also functioning as a learning tool for more advanced ways of querying paleoclimate databases. The SISAL webApp is available at http://geochem.hu/SISAL_webApp.

The European Congenital Heart Surgeons Association (ECHSA) Congenital Database (CD) is the second largest clinical pediatric and congenital cardiac surgical database in the world and the largest in Europe, where various smaller national or regional databases exist. Despite the dramatic increase in interventional cardiology procedures over recent years, only scattered national or regional databases of such procedures exist in Europe. Most importantly, no congenital cardiac database exists in the world that seamlessly combines both surgical and interventional cardiology data on an international level; therefore, the outcomes of surgical and interventional procedures performed on the same or similar patients cannot easily be tracked, assessed, and analyzed. In order to fill this important gap in our capability to gather and analyze information on our common patients, ECHSA and The Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology (AEPC) have embarked on a collaborative effort to expand the ECHSA-CD with a new module designed to capture data about interventional cardiology procedures. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the concept, the structure, and the function of the new AEPC Interventional Cardiology Part of the ECHSA-CD, as well as the potentially valuable synergies provided by the shared interventional and surgical analyses of outcomes of patients. The new AEPC Interventional Cardiology Part of the ECHSA-CD will allow centers to have access to robust surgical and transcatheter outcome data from their own center, as well as robust national and international aggregate outcome data for benchmarking. Each contributing center or department will have access to their own data, as well as aggregate data from the AEPC Interventional Cardiology Part of the ECHSA-CD. The new AEPC Interventional Cardiology Part of the ECHSA-CD will allow cardiology centers to have access to aggregate cardiology data, just as surgical centers already have access to aggregate surgical data. Comparison of surgical and catheter interventional outcomes could potentially strengthen decision processes. A study of the wealth of information collected in the database could potentially also contribute toward improved early and late survival, as well as enhanced quality of life of patients with pediatric and/or congenital heart disease treated with surgery and interventional cardiac catheterization across Europe and the world.

The IntCal family of radiocarbon (14C) calibration curves is based on research spanning more than three decades. The IntCal group have collated the 14C and calendar age data (mostly derived from primary publications with other types of data and meta-data) and, since 2010, made them available for other sorts of analysis through an open-access database. This has ensured transparency in terms of the data used in the construction of the ratified calibration curves. As the IntCal database expands, work is underway to facilitate best practice for new data submissions, make more of the associated metadata available in a structured form, and help those wishing to process the data with programming languages such as R, Python, and MATLAB. The data and metadata are complex because of the range of different types of archives. A restructured interface, based on the “IntChron” open-access data model, includes tools which allow the data to be plotted and compared without the need for export. The intention is to include complementary information which can be used alongside the main 14C series to provide new insights into the global carbon cycle, as well as facilitating access to the data for other research applications. Overall, this work aims to streamline the generation of new calibration curves.

Adaptive façades (AF) present a promising approach to reduce environmental impacts in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction sector. However, the automatization of the façade produces new challenges as the complexity of the system increases. To support the early phase of interdisciplinary development, solution collections such as databases are helpful. Previous research identified that existing solution collections of AF do not meet the requirements that such a method demands. In the effort to develop an optimized database, this paper investigates how the state of the art can be structured in terms of content in order to present it in the database. Here, a set of design parameters is developed based on identified requirements and on the main characteristics of AF that were previously elaborated. This set offers a comprehensive perspective on the previously realized functions and mechanisms of AF and can also contribute to finding creative solutions in the form of new concepts by combining the design parameters in new ways. Finally, 40 case studies of previously implemented adaptive façades are used to evaluate the set of design parameters.

Radiocarbon (14C) measurements undertaken by the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) are now freely available on a new online database. The data presented covers measurement of the wide range of sample types that are processed for research projects in the fields of Earth and environmental science, supported by the United Kingdom’s Natural Environment Research Council. Sample types within the database include organic remains, soils, sediments, carbonates, dissolved organic and inorganic carbon, and carbon dioxide. Currently, the database contains 14C data for over 2400 individual samples that were measured and reported between 2005 and 2013, but it is envisaged that this will expand considerably as more data are made available. Contextual information such as sampling location and associated publications are provided where available, and searches can be performed on sample location, sample type, project number, and publication code. This new database compliments an existing, publicly available database of measurements performed using radiometric methods by the laboratory which has recently been expanded to present over 2000 measurements. It is hoped that this archive will prove useful to workers in the community who would benefit from greater availability of measurements for particular locations or sample types, and for the purposes of performing meta-analyses, and/or synthesis of larger datasets.

In many countries scientists planning research that may involve the use of animals are required by law to examine the possibilities for replacement, reduction or refinement (the Three Rs) of these experiments. In addition to the large number of literature databases, there are now many specialist databases specifically addressing the Three Rs. Information centres, with a mandate to assist scientists and lay people locate information on the Three Rs, have also been established. Email discussion lists and their archives constitute another, although less quality-controlled, source of information. Furthermore, guidelines for the care and use of animals in research have been produced both by regulatory bodies and scientific organisations. The growth of the internet has put an enormous amount of data into the public domain, and the problems of accessing relevant information are discussed. Suggestions are also given for search strategies when using these information sources.

Researchers searching for alternatives to painful procedures that involve animals may find that the dispersed relevant literature and the array of databases make the search challenging and even onerous. This paper addresses a significant gap that exists for researchers, in identifying appropriate databases to use when searching for specific types of information on alternatives. To facilitate the efficient and effective searching by users, and to ensure compliance with new requirements and improved science, we initiate an evolving guide comprising search grids of database resources organised by animal models and topics (http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/Animal_Alternatives/databaseapproach.html). The search grids present organised lists of specific databases and other resources for each animal model and topic, with live links. The search grids also indicate resources that are freely available worldwide, and those that are proprietary and available only to subscribers. The search grids are divided into two categories: ‘animal models’ and ‘topics’. The category ‘animal models’ comprises: animal model selections; mice; rodents — rats/guinea pigs/hamsters; rabbits; dogs, cats; farm animals, sheep, swine; non-human primates; fish, frogs, aquatic; and exotics. The category ‘topics’ comprises: husbandry; behaviour; euthanasia; toxicity; monoclonal antibodies; teaching; endpoints; disease models; analgesia/anaesthesia; emerging technologies; strategies for specific intervention procedures; and standard operating procedures (for example, drawing blood, behavioural training, transportation, handling, restraint and identification). Users are provided with a selected list of linked resources relevant to their particular search. Starting with an appropriate database that covers the type of information that is being sought is the first step in conducting an effective search that can yield useful information to enhance animal welfare.

In 1981, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research endorsed a program for ship-based collection of Antarctic iceberg data, to be coordinated by the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI). From the austral summers 1982/1983 to 1997/1998, icebergs were recorded from most, and up to 2009/10 by fewer research vessels. The NPI database makes up 80% of the SCAR International Iceberg Database presented here, the remainder being Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition observations. The database contains positions of 374 142 icebergs resulting from 34 662 observations. Within these, 298 235 icebergs are classified into different size categories. The ship-based data are particularly useful because they include systematic observations of smaller icebergs not covered by current satellite-based datasets. Here, we assess regional and seasonal variations in iceberg density and total quantities, we identify drift patterns and exit zones from the continent, and we discuss iceberg dissolution rates and calving rates. There are significant differences in the extent of icebergs observed over the 30 plus years of observations, but much of these can be ascribed to differences in observation density and location. In the summer, Antarctic icebergs >10 m in length number ~130 000 of which 1000 are found north of the Southern Ocean boundary.

A substantial database of published excavation and other reports has been used to map the character and distribution in Roman Britain of whetstones, those unprepossessing implements essential in the home, farmstead, workshop and barracks for the maintenance of edge-tools and weapons. The quality of the geological identifications in the reports varies considerably, but a wide range of lithologies are reported as put to use: granite, basalts-dolerites, lava, tuff, mica-schist, slates/phyllites, Brownstones, Pennant sandstone, micaceous sandstones, grey sandstones/siltstones, Millstone Grit, Coal Measures, red sandstones, ferruginous sandstones, sarsen, Weald Clay Formation sandstones, sandy limestones, shelly limestones, cementstones, and (Lower) Carboniferous Limestone. On distributional evidence, some of these categories are aliases for alternatively and more familiarly named lithologies. Bringing ‘high-end’ products to the market, the long-running industry based on sandstones from the Weald Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous) emerges as a British economic feature, evidenced from the Channel coast to the Scottish Borders, and with a recently demonstrated, substantial representation on the Roman near-continent. The distribution maps point to another and more complete British industry, based on the Brownstones (Old Red Sandstone, Devonian) and Pennant sandstone (Upper Carboniferous), outcropping close together in the West Country. A more systematic and geology-based treatment of excavated whetstones in the future is likely to yield yet more insights into the role these artefacts played in the economy of Roman Britain.