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The aim of this paper is to discuss how new technologies for supporting scientific research will possibly influence the librarians' work.

The discussion is conducted in a context that takes into account the emergence of e‐infrastructures as means to realise a new model of producing, using and sharing information resources and even to change the concept of information resource itself. At the core of this innovation there are virtual research environments, i.e. evolved versions of the current “research libraries”.

The environments provide scientists with collaborative and customised environments supporting results production and exchange around the globe in a cost‐efficient manner. The experiences made with these innovative research environments within the D4Science project is reported.

On the basis of this experience, possible professional profiles are suggested for librarians working in these new evolved “research libraries”.

The purpose of this paper is to present the architectural principles and the services of the D-NET software toolkit. D-NET is a framework where designers and developers find the tools for constructing and operating aggregative infrastructures (systems for aggregating data sources with heterogeneous data models and technologies) in a cost-effective way. Designers and developers can select from a variety of D-NET data management services, can configure them to handle data according to given data models, and can construct autonomic workflows to obtain personalized aggregative infrastructures.

The paper provides a definition of aggregative infrastructures, sketching architecture, and components, as inspired by real-case examples. It then describes the limits of current solutions, which find their lacks in the realization and maintenance costs of such complex software. Finally, it proposes D-NET as an optimal solution for designers and developers willing to realize aggregative infrastructures. The D-NET architecture and services are presented, drawing a parallel with the ones of aggregative infrastructures. Finally, real-cases of D-NET are presented, to show-case the statement above.

The D-NET software toolkit is a general-purpose service-oriented framework where designers can construct customized, robust, scalable, autonomic aggregative infrastructures in a cost-effective way. D-NET is today adopted by several EC projects, national consortia and communities to create customized infrastructures under diverse application domains, and other organizations are enquiring for or are experimenting its adoption. Its customizability and extendibility make D-NET a suitable candidate for creating aggregative infrastructures mediating between different scientific domains and therefore supporting multi-disciplinary research.

D-NET is the first general-purpose framework of this kind. Other solutions are available in the literature but focus on specific use-cases and therefore suffer from the limited re-use in different contexts. Due to its maturity, D-NET can also be used by third-party organizations, not necessarily involved in the software design and maintenance.

This paper gives an overview of the prevalence, symptoms, diagnosis and management of coeliac disease and associated disorders. It also gives some background to gluten testing in foods and developments in identification of gluten‐free foods at consumer level.

The most up‐to‐date literature on various aspects of the disease have been considered and included in the report.

Coeliac disease is now known to affect one in 100 of the population, including both adults and children. As more is understood about the pathophysiology of the disease and antibody screening techniques improve rates of diagnosis are increasing. The biopsy is still required for a firm diagnosis. The range of symptoms that is now recognised is far wider than previously thought, but symptoms are still often missed, or mis‐diagnosed as IBS. The treatment for coeliac disease is the gluten‐free diet, which controls the symptoms and reduces the risk of complications such as osteoporosis and gut cancer. Prescriptions of gluten‐free foods are known to improve adherence to the diet, and with the range of suitable foods in supermarkets increasing rapidly, gluten‐free living is becoming easier.

Information on several aspects of coeliac disease are presented in this paper to give the non‐expert a general, up‐to‐date overview of the disease.