Happy Birthday LSU!

On Saturday, April 24th, Louisiana State University will celebrate its 150th birthday. The Baton Rouge Advocate has produced a special section in anticipation of the anniversary on Sunday, April 18th.

The LSU School of Medicine was part of the main campus in Baton Rouge (even though it was in New Orleans) from its inception in 1931 until the Medical Center became its own campus in 1965.

Which tooth aches?

Ever notice that sometimes it’s difficult to tell exactly which tooth is hurting when you have a toothache?

Researchers in Germany have studied just that issue and will soon publish an article in the journal Pain with thier conclusions. It would seem that when it comes to pain in the mouth, the brain doesn’t descriminate location nearly as well as it does in other regions of the body.

A summary of the research was recently posted to the Wired Science Blog. The article, currently only available as an electronic proof, will be published soon.

I sure hope the volunteer test subjects were well compensated for their participation!

Link to the pdf of the article is available to LSUHSC faculty staff & students. It can be accessed off-campus with a valid LSUHSC library barcode & PIN. You can find more information at our remote access webpage.

3-D TV Potential Health Hazards

Before you go out and purchase that 3-D TV to enhance your theatrical home experience, you might want to know that they pose a potential health hazard.?á Although itÔÇÖs a bit too early to determine a full list of hazards, some makers are releasing warnings about watching 3-D television which may cause:

  • Nausea
  • Dizziness
  • Seizures

Other reports include:

  • Eye twitching
  • Convulsions to disorientation

Dr. Nicolas Bazan, head of the LSUHSCÔÇÖs Neuroscience Center, is concerned about the effects it will have on children. Since the connection between the brain and the eye are still in developing stage, the extent is not known about how harmful it can be. Like most other things, moderation is recommended.

To find out more information, visit:

http://www.abc26.com/news/local/wgno-news-3d-tv-health-hazards,0,3938270.story

Puppies! Aid in Cancer Research

The official LSUHSC New Orleans twitter account posted a message this morning that read: Slobbery kisses from ‘man’s best friend’ aid #cancer research. #lifescience #research http://cli.gs/sveR7b. As a dog person, I’m all for research that benefits humans and their best friends.

And what do the pound signs mean before certain words in that message? The pound sign is called a hashtag and it allows those terms to be searched in twitter.

Elevators in the RCB

Elevators #3 & #4 will be out of service from Thursday, April 15th through mid-June, according to Facility Services. The elevators are to be modified for future flood issues. Plan on leaving the Isché Library a few minutes earlier to get to your next class or meeting.

Mobile Medicine Video

Here’s a nice 4 minute demo of 10 different iPhone medical applications from Nature Video. Two coolest:

  • iCut DNA lets you search the Restriction Enzyme Database (REBASE) for enzymes and the DNA nucleotide sequences they cleave.
  • Thinklabs Digital Stethoscope is a somewhat pricey app that allows you to listen and record heart beats on your iPhone. Caution: remixing patients auscultations into your next dj set may constitute a HIPAA violation.
  • Donate Life Month

    donorlogoApril is Donate Life Month!

    Did you know that as of the beginning of April, 2010, there were 106,759 people on the waiting list to receive donated organs or tissues?

    Each day, about 77 people receive organ transplants. However, 19 people die each day waiting for transplants that can’t take place because of the shortage of donated organs.

    Signing up to become an organ and/or tissue donor is easy and very important.

    You can save a life!

    newcard

    Back in Time

    Pubmed has expanded its coverage to include articles back to 1947, according to the National Library of Medicine:

    Harry Truman was President, gas cost 15 cents a gallon, the transistor was invented, and internationally renowned surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey was publishing articles on the US Army’s World War II experience with battle injuries, military surgery, and the use of streptomycin therapy. Citations to these and more than 60,000 other articles indexed in the 1947 Current List of Medical Literature (CLML) are now available in the National Library of Medicine?« (NLM?«) MEDLINE?«/PubMed database.

    That brings the number of citations available in PubMed to a whopping 20 million! That is a lot of biomedical research for only 63 years.

    Child Abuse Prevention Month

    April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The CDC states that “in 2007, approximately 794,000 children were confirmed by Child Protective Services as being abused or neglected.” Of that number, over 21,000 are in Louisiana. Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana is a state-wide, non-profit organization dedicated to preventing the abuse and neglect of our state’s children.

    Human Genome @ 10

    Nature.com has a special news section celebrating the Human Genome Project’s 10th anniversary. The contents are mostly included in the April 1st issue. They are asking scientists to participate in a survey to calculate the impact of the sequence.

    Link to the pdf of the article is available to LSUHSC faculty staff & students. It can be accessed off-campus with a valid LSUHSC library barcode & PIN. You can find more information at our remote access webpage.

    Pathophysiology Resources

    It seems like only yesterday we were writing about pathophys resources for nursing, but another semester brings another round of students scurrying to gather and regurgitate the pathology, physiology and pharmacology of a motley crew of diseases.

    Whether its Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm to Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome, these resources should have you covered:

    CURRENT Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2010
    A single-source reference for practitioners in both hospital and ambulatory settings. Annually updated, this book emphasizes the practical features of clinical diagnosis and patient management in all fields of internal medicine and in specialties of interest to primary care practitioners.

    EbschoHOST ÔÇô CINAHLplus with Full text
    Database of journal articles in nursing. try a key word search of your topic (i.e.: Necrotizing fasciitis and pathophysiology) Limit to full text under ÔÇ£search optionsÔÇØ on the right side of the screen.

    StatRef
    Online textbooks in nursing. Search many textbooks at once for your topic.

    Nursing Consult
    Search 30 nursing books and journal articles from MEDLINE/PubMed.

    MEDLINEplus
    Simple overviews on health topics from authoritative sources on the web.

    Genetics Home Reference
    Free access to consumer-friendly information on medical genetics and disorders, with references to scientific journal articles

    Off campus access instructions

    Happy Easter Hours!

    Just in case you were wondering- the Isch?® & Dental Libraries will have special hours for the Easter Holiday. They are as follows:

    Isché Library

    ÔÇó Wednesday, March 31st 8 a.m. to 12 midnight (Regular Hours)
    ÔÇó Thursday, April 1st 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
    ÔÇó Friday, April 2nd CLOSED University Holiday
    ÔÇó Saturday, April 3rd CLOSED
    ÔÇó Sunday, April 4th CLOSED
    ÔÇó Monday, April 5th 8 a.m. to 12 midnight (Regular Hours)

    Dental Library

    ÔÇó Thursday, April 1st 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (Regular Hours)
    ÔÇó Friday, April 2nd CLOSED University Holiday
    ÔÇó Saturday, April 3rd CLOSED
    ÔÇó Sunday, April 4th CLOSED
    ÔÇó Monday, April 5th 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (Regular Hours)

    Be safe and try not to eat too much candy!

    Neuroscience Info Framework

    Neuroscience Information Framework
    There’s a new, free portal to neuroscience information from the NIH called NIF: Neuroscience Information Framework.

    NIF is a free, web-based, portal to a wide variety of neuroscience-relevant resources, funded by the National Institutes of Health. We have an extensive registry of over 2500 resources along with a custom web index and literature archive. Through the NIF Data Federation, we provide a direct query of over 40 databases, with new ones being added regularly.

    Type a key word on the homepage to see find information about NIH grants, projects, neuroscience tools, and biomedical literature. A search for LSU gives search results from a variety of sources, from grants to clinical trials, even gene info. Other tabs link to web resources and literature from Pubmed.
    NIF search for LSU
    The NIF registry is a useful way to locate neuroscience research resources from a network curated by the NIH. The Registry could be a starting point to find jobs, mentoring and educational opportunities in the neurosciences.
    NIF Registry

    You can also recommend neuroscience resources such as materials, training, software, funding, services, data, jobs or people.

    The Librarian’s Review:The search results screen can seem a little overwhelming, but clicking on the arrow by ‘log in preferences’ will make the search box disappear. If you’re used to using Excel, the NIF search result interface is similar. Categories can be sorted or removed to customize the view, and results can be exported, which is useful if you want to put them into Refworks or Endnote. Abstracts appear if you hover your mouse too long over the field, which can get annoying when trying to scan results.

    Overall, NIF is a useful portal, acting as a clearinghouse for a number of different to resources, tools, grants and programs in neuroscience. The interface is fairly simple to use, though first time users might get overwhelmed by the amount of information available. It’s a good attempt to make a useful, curated portal for a specialty. Would like to see more of this.

    NIF: Neuroscience Information Framework
    http://www.neuinfo.org/
    also available under our online resources

    Happy Anniversary, Blog!

    Today (March 29th) the Libraries’ blog (LSUHSC-NO Libraries News is the formal name) will celebrate it’s 3rd anniversary. This post will be the 736th since we started with 17 authors, 48 categories, and 50 tags. The 18 authors is the most significant number to me; the entire Library Staff (both at the Isché & Dental Libraries) is only 22 people. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to make the blog a success.

    As for our readers, is there a topic we’ve been missing? Or something you’d like to see more of? Please don’t hesitate to let us know. On to year 4!

    And in case you were wondering, the traditional gift is leather and the modern gift is crystal. The leather would probably be more practical in the Library; perhaps a donated volume?

    More Commotion @ Ische

    On Monday, March 29th the old furniture from behind the Isché Circulation Desk will be removed beginning at 8 a.m. The old circulation desk will be broken down on Monday afternoon and the new desk will be set up Tuesday morning. In preparation for all these changes, reserve materials will be removed from behind the desk on Friday. We apologize for any inconvenience to our patrons.