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HIV/AIDS reference questions in an AIDS service organization special library.

Librarians in many venues may anticipate a wide range of reference questions related to HIV and AIDS. Information on HIV/ AIDS is now available in medical, academic, and public libraries and on the Internet, and ranges from the most complex science to the most private disclosures about personal behavior. In this article, the 913 reference questions asked between May 2002 and August 2004 in a special library in a mid-western community-based AIDS service organization are described and analyzed.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

[THE INSTITUTO DE NUTRICI'ON DE CENTRO AM'ERICA Y PANAM'A: SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION SERVICES IN AN UNDERDEVELOPED AREA].

Pioneering scientific information in underdeveloped areas poses several problems, such as (1) lack of understanding on the part of key functionaries as to the why, what, and when of information services; (2) lack of trained personnel to assume the responsibility for such services; (3) lack of economic resources; and (4) lack of information pertaining to available bibliographical sources in the particular area or region.The Bibliographic and Documentation Service of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) provides, in addition to the customary services, technical assistance for the organization or reorganization of biomedical libraries and makes INCAP library materials available to member countries, either by loan or photocopy. Although the program was designed for the member countries, INCAP tries to make its services available to other Latin American nations, Africa, and Asia, where similar nutritional problems are being studied.

Academies and Institutes↗

An M13 phage library displaying random 38-amino-acid peptides as a source of novel sequences with affinity to selected targets.

We have examined the potential of isolating novel ligands from a library of M13 pIII-fusion phage displaying peptides composed of 38 random amino acids (aa). The library was panned with streptavidin (SA) and a polyclonal goat antimouse IgG Fc antibody (Ab) preparation coupled to paramagnetic beads. SA selected two classes of phage from the library. One class exhibited the aa motif, HP(Q/M) theta (where theta signifies a non-polar aa), similar to the motif identified by Devlin et al. [Science 249 (1990) 404-406] using a 15-aa random peptide library displayed on phage. The other class of phage had no discernible motif. In binding experiments, the non-HP(Q/M) theta phage had a slightly higher affinity for SA than did the motif phage. Both classes of SA-binding phage failed to bind native and non-glycosylated forms of avidin, even though SA and avidin are structurally similar and both proteins possess extraordinary affinities for biotin. The polyclonal goat anti-mouse IgG Fc Ab preparation selected phage displaying sequences similar to a region of the mouse IgG Fc. Thus, a single immunodominant epitope on the mouse IgG Fc was identified. Furthermore, a second phage displaying peptides with no discernible sequence similarities to mouse IgG Fc was isolated. Thus, an M13 library displaying 38-aa peptides can yield phage with affinity for various targets. Finally, we have observed a biological bias against odd numbers of Cys residues in the displayed peptides.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Parent-training programmes for improving maternal psychosocial health.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of mental health problems in women is 1:3 and such problems tend to be persistent. There is evidence from a range of studies to suggest that a number of factors relating to maternal psychosocial health can have a significant effect on the mother-infant relationship, and that this can have consequences for the psychological health of the child. It is now thought that parenting programmes may have an important role to play in the improvement of maternal psychosocial health. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this review is to address whether group-based parenting programmes are effective in improving maternal psychosocial health including anxiety, depression and self-esteem. SEARCH STRATEGY: A range of biomedical, social science, educational and general reference electronic databases were searched including MEDLINE, EMBASE CINAHL, PsychLIT, ERIC, ASSIA, Sociofile and the Social Science Citation Index. Other sources of information included the Cochrane Library (SPECTR, CENTRAL), and the National Research Register (NRR). SELECTION CRITERIA: Only randomised controlled trials were included in which participants had been randomly allocated to an experimental and a control group, the latter being either a waiting-list, no-treatment or a placebo control group. Studies had to include at least one group-based parenting programme, and one standardised instrument measuring maternal psychosocial health. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: A systematic critical appraisal of all included studies was undertaken using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published criteria. The data were summarised using effect sizes but were not combined in a meta-analysis due to the small number of studies within each group and the presence of significant heterogeneity. MAIN RESULTS: A total of 22 studies were included in the review but only 17 provided sufficient data to calculate effect sizes. These 17 studies reported on a total of 59 outcomes including depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, social competence, social support, guilt, mood, automatic thoughts, dyadic adjustment, psychiatric morbidity, irrationality, anger and aggression, mood, attitude, personality, and beliefs. Approximately 22% of the outcomes measured suggested significant differences favouring the intervention group. A further 40% showed differences favouring the intervention group but which failed to achieve conventional levels of statistical significance, in some cases due to the small numbers that were used. Approximately 38% of outcomes suggested no evidence of effectiveness. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that parenting programmes can make a significant contribution to the improvement of psychosocial health in mothers. While the critical appraisal suggests some variability in the quality of the included studies, it is concluded that there is sufficient evidence to support their use with diverse groups of parents. However, it is also suggested that some caution should be exercised before the results are generalised to parents irrespective of the level of pathology present, and that further research is still required.

Anxiety↗

[Acquisition of a large collection of medical theses defended in Paris from 1798 to 1860].

The Library of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science of Florence has recently enriched its special Collections with the acquisition of a set of medical theses, theses presented and defended in Paris between 1798 and 1860. This extraordinary collection, some 10,000 items, documents the development of the medical sciences in nineteenth century France and Europe.

Academic Dissertations as Topic↗

Medical libraries, bioinformatics, and networked information: a coming convergence?

Libraries will be changed by technological and social developments that are fueled by information technology, bioinformatics, and networked information. Libraries in highly focused settings such as the health sciences are at a pivotal point in their development as the synthesis of historically diverse and independent information sources transforms health care institutions. Boundaries are breaking down between published literature and research data, between research databases and clinical patient data, and between consumer health information and professional literature. This paper focuses on the dynamics that are occurring with networked information sources and the roles that libraries will need to play in the world of medical informatics in the early twenty-first century.

Databases, Factual↗

Information-seeking behavior of nursing students and clinical nurses: implications for health sciences librarians.

OBJECTIVES: This research was conducted to provide new insights on clinical nurses' and nursing students' current use of health resources and libraries and deterrents to their retrieval of electronic clinical information, exploring implications from these findings for health sciences librarians. METHODS: Questionnaires, interviews, and observations were used to collect data from twenty-five nursing students and twenty-five clinical nurses. RESULTS: Nursing students and clinical nurses were most likely to rely on colleagues and books for medical information, while other resources they frequently cited included personal digital assistants, electronic journals and books, and drug representatives. Significantly more nursing students than clinical nurses used online databases, including CINAHL and PubMed, to locate health information, and nursing students were more likely than clinical nurses to report performing a database search at least one to five times a week. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Nursing students made more use of all available resources and were better trained than clinical nurses, but both groups lacked database-searching skills. Participants were eager for more patient care information, more database training, and better computer skills; therefore, health sciences librarians have the opportunity to meet the nurses' information needs and improve nurses' clinical information-seeking behavior.

Adult↗

Vitamin K and the prevention of fractures: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Observational and some experimental data suggest that low intake of vitamin K may be associated with an increased risk of fracture. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether oral vitamin K (phytonadione and menaquinone) supplementation can reduce bone loss and prevent fractures. DATA SOURCES: The search included the following electronic databases: MEDLINE (1966 to June 2005), EMBASE (1980 to June 2005), the Cochrane Library (issue 2, 2005), the ISI Web of Science (1945 to June 2005), the National Research Register (inception to the present), Current Controlled Trials, and the Medical Research Council Research Register. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials that gave adult participants oral phytonadione and menaquinone supplements for longer than 6 months were included in this review. DATA EXTRACTION: Four authors extracted data on changes in bone density and type of fracture. All articles were double screened and double data extracted. DATA SYNTHESIS: Thirteen trials were identified with data on bone loss, and 7 reported fracture data. All studies but 1 showed an advantage of phytonadione and menaquinone in reducing bone loss. All 7 trials that reported fracture effects were Japanese and used menaquinone. Pooling the 7 trials with fracture data in a meta-analysis, we found an odds ratio (OR) favoring menaquinone of 0.40 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.25-0.65) for vertebral fractures, an OR of 0.23 (95% CI, 0.12-0.47) for hip fractures, and an OR of 0.19 (95% CI, 0.11-0.35) for all nonvertebral fractures. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review suggests that supplementation with phytonadione and menaquinone-4 reduces bone loss. In the case of the latter, there is a strong effect on incident fractures among Japanese patients.

Bone Density↗

Shock wave therapy for lateral elbow pain.

BACKGROUND: This review is one in a series of reviews of interventions for lateral elbow pain. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness and safety of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) for lateral elbow pain. SEARCH STRATEGY: Searches of the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2004), MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Science Citation Index (SCISEARCH) were conducted in February 2005, unrestricted by date. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included nine trials that randomised 1006 participants to ESWT or placebo and one trial that randomised 93 participants to ESWT or steroid injection. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: For each trial two independent reviewers assessed the methodological quality and extracted data. Methodological quality criteria included appropriate randomisation, allocation concealment, blinding, number lost to follow up and intention to treat analysis. Where appropriate, pooled analyses were performed. If there was significant heterogeneity between studies or the data reported did not allow statistical pooling, individual trial results were described in the text. MAIN RESULTS: Eleven of the 13 pooled analyses found no significant benefit of ESWT over placebo. For example, the weighted mean difference for improvement in pain (on a 100-point scale) from baseline to 4-6 weeks from a pooled analysis of three trials (446 participants) was -9.42 (95% CI -20.70 to 1.86) and the weighted mean difference for improvement in pain (on a 100-point scale) provoked by resisted wrist extension (Thomsen test) from baseline to 12 weeks from a pooled analysis of three trials (455 participants) was -9.04 (95% CI -19.37 to 1.28). Two pooled results favoured ESWT. For example, the pooled relative risk of treatment success (at least 50% improvement in pain with resisted wrist extension at 12 weeks) for ESWT in comparison to placebo from a pooled analysis of two trials (192 participants) was 2.2 (95% CI 1.55 to 3.12). However this finding was not supported by the results of four other individual trials that were unable to be pooled. Steroid injection was more effective than ESWT at 3 months after the end of treatment assessed by a reduction of pain of 50% from baseline (21/25 (84%) versus 29/48 (60%), p<0.05). Minimal adverse effects of ESWT were reported. Most commonly these were transient pain, reddening of the skin and nausea and in most cases did not require treatment discontinuation or dosage adjustment. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Based upon systematic review of nine placebo-controlled trials involving 1006 participants, there is "Platinum" level evidence that shock wave therapy provides little or no benefit in terms of pain and function in lateral elbow pain. There is "Silver" level evidence based upon one trial involving 93 participants that steroid injection may be more effective than ESWT.

Adult↗

Modification of the home environment for the reduction of injuries.

BACKGROUND: Injury in the home is extremely common, accounting for around a third of all injuries. The majority of injuries of children under five and people aged 75 and over occur at home. Multi-factorial injury prevention interventions have been shown to reduce injuries in the home. However, few studies have focussed specifically on the impact of physical adaptations to the home environment and the effectiveness of such intervention needs to be ascertained. OBJECTIVES: To review the evidence for the effect on injuries of modification of the home environment with a primary focus on interventions to reduce physical hazards. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the following databases: APId, ASSIA, British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Cochrane Library databases, Dissertation Abstracts, EMBASE, HealthSTAR, ICONDA, ISI Science (and Social Science) Citation Index, MEDLINE, National Research Register, PREMEDLINE, SIGLE and Urbadisk. Conference proceedings and reference lists were scanned. Experts in the field and trialists were contacted. Searches were not restricted to English language. Handsearching of relevant journals was not conducted. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials, non-randomised controlled trials, controlled before-and-after studies and interrupted time series studies. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: All abstracts were screened by two reviewers for relevance, outcome and design. Two reviewers independently evaluated methodological quality and extracted data from each eligible study. MAIN RESULTS: We found 28 published trials and one unpublished study. Trials were not sufficiently similar to allow for the combination of data by statistical analyses, so this review takes a narrative form. Studies were divided into three groups based on the primary population sample: children, older people and the general population. None of the 11 childhood studies demonstrated a reduction in injuries that might have been due to environmental adaptation in the home. One study reported a reduction in injuries and in hazards but the two could not be linked. The majority of studies used hazard reduction as the outcome. Of the 15 studies in older people, none demonstrated a reduction in injuries due to hazard reduction, although two demonstrated a reduction in falls that could be due to hazard reduction. In the mixed age group there were two trials; neither demonstrated an effect on injuries. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: There is insufficient evidence to determine the effects of interventions to modify environmental home hazards. Further interventions to reduce hazards in the home should be evaluated by adequately designed randomised controlled trials measuring injury outcomes. Recruitment of large study samples to measure effect may be a major consideration for future trials.

Accidents, Home↗

Telephone follow-up, initiated by a hospital-based health professional, for postdischarge problems in patients discharged from hospital to home.

BACKGROUND: It is known that many patients encounter a variety of problems in the first weeks after they have been discharged from hospital to home. In recent years many projects have addressed discharge planning, with the aim of reducing problems after discharge. Telephone follow-up (TFU) is seen as a good means of exchanging information, providing health education and advice, managing symptoms, recognising complications early, giving reassurance and providing quality aftercare service. Some research has shown that telephone follow-up is feasible, and that patients appreciate such calls. However, at present it is not clear whether TFU is also effective in reducing postdischarge problems. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of follow-up telephone calls in the first month post discharge, initiated by hospital-based health professionals, to patients discharged from hospital to home. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the following databases from their start date to July 2003, without limits as to date of publication or language: the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group's Specialised Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, The Cochrane Library), PubMed, EMBASE (OVID), BiomedCentral, CINAHL, ERIC (OVID), INVERT (Dutch nursing literature index), LILACS, Picarta (Dutch library system), PsycINFO/PsycLIT (OVID), the Combined Social and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E), SOCIOFILE. We searched for ongoing research in the following databases: National Research Register (http://www.update-software.com/nrr/); Controlled Clinical Trials (http://www.controlled-trials.com/); and Clinical Trials (http://clinicaltrials.gov/). We searched the reference lists of included studies and contacted researchers active in this area. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials of TFU initiated by a hospital-based health professional, for patients discharged home from an acute hospital setting. The intervention was delivered within the first month after discharge; outcomes were measured within 3 months after discharge, and either the TFU was the only intervention, or its effect could be analysed separately. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently assessed studies for inclusion and for methodological quality. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the criteria from the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Review Group. The data-extraction form was based on the template developed by the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group. Data was extracted by one review author and checked by a second author. For as far it was considered that there was enough clinical homogeneity with regard to patient groups and measured outcomes, statistical pooling was planned using a random effects model and standardised mean differences for continuous scales and relative risks for dichotomous data, and tests for statistical heterogeneity were performed. MAIN RESULTS: We included 33 studies involving 5110 patients. Predominantly, the studies were of low methodological quality. TFU has been applied in many patient groups. There is a large variety in the ways the TFU was performed (the health professionals who undertook the TFU, frequency, structure, duration, etc.). Many different outcomes have been measured, but only a few were measured across more than one study. Effects are not constant across studies, nor within patient groups. Due to methodological and clinical diversity, quantitative pooling could only be performed for a few outcomes. Of the eight meta-analyses in this review, five showed considerable statistical heterogeneity. Overall, there was inconclusive evidence about the effects of TFU. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The low methodological quality of the included studies means that results must be considered with caution. No adverse effects were reported. Nevertheless, although some studies find that the intervention had favourable effects for some outcomes, overall the studies show clinically-equivalent results between TFU and control groups. In summary, we cannot conclude that TFU is an effective intervention.

Aftercare↗

Identification of the amino acids comprising a surface-exposed epitope within the nucleotide-binding domain of the Na+,K(+)-ATPase using a random peptide library.

Monoclonal antibodies that bind native protein can generate considerable information about structure/function relationships, but identification of their epitopes can be problematic. Previously, monoclonal antibody M8-P1-A3 has been shown to bind to the catalytic (alpha) subunit of the Na+,K(+)-ATPase holoenzyme and the synthetic peptide sequence 496-HLLVMK*GAPER-506, which includes Lys 501 (K*), the major site for fluorescein-5'-isothiocyanate labeling of the Na+,K(+)-ATPase. This sequence region of alpha is proposed to comprise a portion of the enzyme's ATP binding domain (Taylor, W. R. & Green, N. W., 1989, Eur. J. Biochem. 179, 241-248). In this study we have determined M8-P1-A3's ability to recognize the alpha-subunit or homologous E1E2-ATPase proteins from different species and tissues in order to deduce the antibody's epitope. In addition the bacteriophage random peptide or "epitope" library, recently developed by Scott and Smith (1990, Science 249, 386-390) and Devlin et al. (Devlin, J. J., Panganiban, L. C., & Devlin, P. E., 1990, Science 249, 404-406), has served as a convenient technique to confirm the species-specificity mapping data and to determine the exact amino acid requirements for antibody binding. The M8-P1-A3 epitope was found to consist of the five amino acid 494-PRHLL-498 sequence stretch of alpha, with residues PRxLx being critical for antibody recognition.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

Assessment of lateral cephalometric diagnosis of adenoid hypertrophy and posterior upper airway obstruction: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Our objective was to evaluate the capability of lateral cephalograms in diagnosing hypertrophied adenoids and obstructed posterior nasopharyngeal airways. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature by using several electronic databases (Cochrane Library, Medline, Medline in progress, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Lilacs) was performed with the help of a senior health-sciences librarian. The electronic search was followed up with hand searches. After applying our inclusion-exclusion criteria, the search yielded 11 articles that were then scored based on their methodological validity. RESULTS: Lateral cephalograms performed reasonably well in evaluating adenoid size; both quantitative measures of adenoid area and subjective grading of adenoid size on lateral cephalograms had reasonable correlations to actual adenoid size (range of r, 0.60 to 0.88). However, evidence suggested that cephalograms were less ideal for evaluating the size of the posterior nasopharyngeal airway. The diagnostic difference is likely because the adenoid is a simpler 3-dimensional structure than the nasopharynx; therefore, it loses less information when compressed into 2 dimensions by the radiograph. CONCLUSIONS: Being used as a screening tool to determine the need for more rigorous ENT follow-up appears to be the greatest utility of lateral cephalograms. Because no consensus could be reached on what are the most useful landmarks, we recommend that clinicians look for multiple deviant measures of adenoid size rather than one definitive quantification.

Adenoids↗

Biomarkers of cardiac injury: an update.

Conventional and promising new markers of myocardial injury have become an important diagnostic tool and their prognostic significance is also recognized. In addition, they help identify patients who will derive the most benefit from therapeutic interventions. The literature was searched from the websites of the National Library of Medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and PubMed Central, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's digital archive of life sciences journal literature (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/). The data were accessed from books and journals that published relevant articles in this field. The diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has traditionally relied on the combination of chest pain, ECG features, and elevation in serum markers. However, chest symptoms are frequently atypical or absent and ECG changes may be nonspecific or absent. Hence, the diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes has become increasingly dependent on serum markers of cardiac injury. Among them, creatine kinase (CK) is an effective and widely used test, with the recent CKMB assay offering greater specificity and sensitivity. Cardiac troponins facilitate early and rapid diagnosis, enable effective risk stratification in patients with AMI (with or without traditional criteria for MI), and identify those who will benefit from aggressive medical or surgical intervention. Recent data suggest the potential of myoglobin and CKMB isoforms as sensitive markers in the early hours after symptom onset. Cardiac-specific troponins help in rapid diagnosis, prognostication, and treatment of AMI. Troponins also facilitate early detection of recent infarction owing to their prolonged diagnostic window and also aid in the detection of "microinfarction.'' CKMB is used to detect reinfarction or infarct extension, if levels rise again after declining. Finally, novel biochemical markers are receiving attention in ongoing trials. They may prove to be more effective in diagnosis and prognosis than their existing counterparts.

Biomarkers↗