Independence Day Weekend

The Isché Library will be closed on Friday, July 3rd & Saturday, July 4th for the Independence Day Holiday. In addition because of a facilities project (resurfacing the elevated walkways) the Library will also be closed on Thursday, July 2nd at 12 noon and all day on Sunday, July 5th. There will be no access to the building during this time.

The Dental Library’s Hours are as follows:

Pay for Print

Pharos Pay for Print is down campus-wide (downtown & Dental). We do not have a timeframe for this outage.
~Edit~ The system came back up by 3 p.m. today.

Nursing Certification Guide

Wondering what it takes get certified in a specific area of nursing? From Flight Nursing to Foot Care, the American Journal of Nursing’s Guide to Certification is an annually updated document in the Career Guide Supplement to the January issue.

LINK:
http://www.nursingcenter.com/upload/static/60627/Certify_online.pdf (pdf)

National HIV Testing Day

According the CDC “Ever 9 1/2 minutes someone in the United States is infected with HIV,” and according to AVERT “In 2007, the highest rates of new AIDS diagnoses were in Miami (33.1 per 100,000 people), New Orleans (31.5), Baton Rouge (31.4) and Washington (30.5)”

So what can you do?

June 27th is National HIV Testing Day so take advantage of the testing opportunities taking place around you and learn the facts about HIV.

The list of local testing sites can be found below, or you can find information for other cities by visiting this site.

Who: EXCELth, Inc. HIV Prevention Program
What: Free Rapid HIV Testing
When: June 27, 2009, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
Where: Dillard University w/ The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, 2601 Gentilly Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70122
Info: Free Rapid HIV testing, incentives. Contact: Barbara A. Peters, 504-524-1210, bpeters@excelth.com.

——————————————————————————–

Who: NO/AIDS Task Force – Community Awareness Network
What: Free Rapid HIV Testing
When: June 27, 2009, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Where: 7800 Earhart Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70125
Info: Free HIV Testing with free food. Contact: Allison Vertovec, 504-821-2601 ext. 257, allisonv@noaidstf.org.

——————————————————————————–

Who: NO/AIDS Task Force – Community Awareness Network
What: Free Rapid HIV Testing
When: June 27, 2009, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Where: 507 Frenchmen St., New Orleans, LA 70116
Info: Free, confidential, Rapid, HIV Antibody screening tests. Contact: Allison Vertovec, 504-821-2601, allisonv@noaidstf.org.

Ische Bookdrop on the Move

In preparation for the walkway resurfacing next week, the Isché Library bookdrop has been relocated temporarily. It is normally between the guard’s booth and the vending machines, but is currently located in the 2nd floor lobby. It will be moved back to it’s original location the week of July 6th.

Death by Cell Phone

Were you too distracted talking on your cell to realize it’s Distracted Driving Week?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driver inattention is responsible for about 80 percent of all traffic collisions. In recognition, the National Safety Council has deemed June 22-28th Distracted Driving Week, part of National Safety Month 2009. Get fact sheets, traffic safety policies and watch the video Death by Cellphone on their website.

Geaux Tigers!

Congratulations to the LSU Tigers, who defeated the Texas Longhorns 11-4 at the College World Series last night. The title is LSU’s sixth championship and the first since 2000.

Complete coverage at http://www.lsusports.net/

Anatomy of Sarcasm

(Eds note: I stumbled upon this article and didn’t notice it was from 2005 until after I wrote it up! However, I think it deserves a little more limelight. For more recent press releases about psychology and mental health, visit http://www.apa.org/releases/homepage.html)

A 2005 press release from the American Psychological Association announces new research in the field of sarcasm. Israeli researchers at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and the University of Haifa, studied 25 participants with prefrontal-lobe damage, 16 participants with posterior-lobe damage and 17 healthy controls. All participants listened to brief recorded stories, some sarcastic, some neutral, that had been taped by actors reading in a corresponding manner, then answered questions that gauged the participant’s comprehension of the speaker’s true meaning. Participants with prefrontal damage were impaired in comprehending sarcasm, whereas the people in the other two groups had no such problem.

According to the APA, “The findings fit what we already know about brain anatomy. The prefrontal cortex is involved in pragmatic language processes and complex social cognition, thus it followed that participants with prefrontal damage had faulty ?óÔé¼?ôsarcasm meters.?óÔé¼?Ø At the same time, damage to the ventromedial area, which is involved in personality and social behavior, will disrupt not only understanding sarcasm but also understanding social cues, empathic response and emotion recognition. The authors write, ?óÔé¼?ôUnderstanding sarcasm requires both the ability to understand the speaker?óÔé¼Ôäós belief about the listener?óÔé¼Ôäós belief and the ability to identify emotions.”

CITATION:
?óÔé¼?ôThe Neuroanatomical Basis of Understanding Sarcasm and Its Relationship to Social Cognition,?óÔé¼?Ø S.G. Shamay-Tsoory, PhD, and R. Tomer, PhD, Rambam Medical Center and University of Haifa, and J. Aharon-Peretz, MD, Rambam Medical Center; Neuropsychology, Vol. 19, No. 3.

Free Health Education & Screening

Next week on Wednesday, July 1st the various schools of LSUHSC will be offering screening for high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, lung function, colorectal cancer and oral cancer, as well as vaccinations and education on a variety of health topics. The event will take place from 1 – 6 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal St. It is part of the Congressman Cao AAA Health Care Initiative. For more information, see the official LSUHSC press release.

Ische Library is Kind of Shifty

If you’ve been in the Isché Library in the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed some shifting projects going on. The Library Staff has moved or will be moving materials on all 3 floors of the Library. The 1st phase of shifting on the 4th floor (the section in front of the elevator) should be completed this week. The huge shifting project on the 5th floor will begin on Monday, June 29th. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience that the noise of shifting causes.

Prepackaged cookie dough & E-Coli

The FDA has just released a warning for consumers to not eat “prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7.” They recommend that all dough be discarded because handling the dough to cook it could spread the bacteria.

When poor oral health causes death

This month AJN, American Journal of Nursing features a case study of a patient that proves this point. A severely disabled man received such poor oral care from nursing home personnel that his oral and nasopharyngeal secretions built up (?óÔé¼?ôinspissated?óÔé¼?Ø), and he died from asphyxia. The lead author, Joseph A. Prahlow, was the pathologist in charge of the autopsy; the article features graphic photos of the thickened secretions that blocked his airway. A companion article by two dentists, Pamela S. Stein and Robert G. Henry, gives nurses suggestions on how they can overcome barriers to providing oral care to patients.

Here is a link to other articles on the subject of oral hygiene of the elderly or patients in long term care.

Health Info Translations

Hospital sign: “All Patients Go Here” in multiple languages

An article from ACRL News pointed me to a new resource offering health information translations:

Health Information Translations
This resource, sponsored by several medical centers in Ohio, provides education and procedural instructions about health topics for patients with limited English proficiency. Search by keyword or language and retrieve a short document in English about that particular health issue followed by the translation of the article. Some documents have audio files. For example, the document on ?óÔé¼?ôbreast biopsy?óÔé¼?Ø explains the different kinds of biopsies, the procedure the physician will follow and instructions for the patient, all in Spanish. This is a source for timely, accurate medical vocabulary as well as practical application, since the translation of common procedures and instructions into Spanish is ready to be handed out to the patients. Includes translations of disaster preparedness plans. Access: http://www.healthinfotranslations.com/.

One of the best things I like about it are the common hospital signs with multiple translations (see photo above). The signs are available for download in PDF format for free on their site.

Summer Newsletter Available

The latest issue of the Library?óÔé¼Ôäós Newsletter has been released. Archives of the newsletter are also available from 1998 to the present.

Get a Healthy Start

The city of New Orleans has been chosen as one of the 100 sites for the Healthy Start Program.

According to The Gambit’s Blog of New Orleans, “Healthy Start is a federally-funded initiative that was introduced in 1991 to lower the alarmingly high rate of infant mortality in the United States by addressing the disparity in prenatal care afforded women at different economic levels.”

Take the time to learn more about this great initiative providing prenatal and postnatal care to the women and children of our city.