Dark Patterns

Annoying pop-ups you can’t get rid of: Why Govt is going after ‘dark patterns’
Dark patterns, also known as deceptive patterns, is a term used to describe ways or tricks implemented by websites or apps to make users do things that they didn’t intend to, or discourage behaviour that’s not beneficial for companies. Source: Indian Express

LIGHTS

 Library of Guidance for Health Scientists (LIGHTS)

This is a searchable database for methods guidance. Here one can find information about the scientific background of LIGHTS, methods, and plans for the research development process.

Find more about this wonderful database for scientists HERE

 Poverty, educational inadequacies, or socioeconomic disparities is often overlooked when developing national policies.

What do these reports have to say about inequalities? Find out here

The State of Inequality in India Report- PIB 

World Inequality Report -WORLD INEQUALITY LAB, Paris

First Responders Manual of Prehospital Care

 Received First Responder's Manual of Prehospital Trauma Care by Dinesh Vyas; Scientific Publishers; 2022

It serves as an educational tool for all conscientious citizens willing to serve fellow companions in an adverse scenario of trauma and emergency.

The Scientific Publishers were established in 1976 in India. It publishes books and journals in the field of science and technology.

National Suicide Prevention Strategy

REFERENCES 

Vijayakumar L, Chandra PS, Kumar MS, Pathare S, Banerjee D, Goswami T, Dandona R. The national suicide prevention strategy in India: context and considerations for urgent action. The Lancet Psychiatry. 2021 Dec 8. DOI: 10.1016/s2215-0366(21)00152-8 PMID: 34895477

From Indian Express:

National Suicide Prevention Strategy: Framework and objectives

NCRB report 2021: 7.2 percent increase in death by suicide; experts say ‘busting myths, stigma is crucial’

Access to the government policy is available HERE

Antimicrobial Resistance

 Key facts

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health and development threat. It requires urgent multisectoral action in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
WHO has declared that AMR is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.
Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials are the main drivers in the development of drug-resistant pathogens.
Lack of clean water and sanitation and inadequate infection prevention and control promotes the spread of microbes, some of which can be resistant to antimicrobial treatment.
The cost of AMR to the economy is significant. In addition to death and disability, prolonged illness results in longer hospital stays, the need for more expensive medicines and financial challenges for those impacted.
Without effective antimicrobials, the success of modern medicine in treating infections, including during major surgery and cancer chemotherapy, would be at increased risk.

Source: World Health Organization

In an anxious world, time to redefine progress: new UN report

In an anxious world, time to redefine progress: new UN report: People’s sense of safety and security is at a low in almost every country, with six in seven worldwide plagued by feelings of insecurity, according to new data and analysis by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) published on Tuesday. 

Structured Abstract

 Structured Abstract: An essential tool for medical researchers

It covers:

Main headings: Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions

Research Question: It should be crystal clear as to what you wish to demonstrate/purpose of your research

What made your program a success?

Which form of teaching results in students searching effectively

Which information resources are used the most?

Objectives:

To demonstrate how this program was a success.

To determine if teaching MEDLINE in the class room teaching resulted in improved search skill.

To measure electronic resources usage at the campus increased during 2020 as a means for predicting future use

Methods/Design: Documenting your research steps

Prospective cohort study

Randomized controlled trial

Series of three focus groups 

Settings: 

Settings headings might be followed by the following sample statements:

A small library with one librarian and two technicians serving 400-bed hospital

A small research library that serves an MRI research facility owned by a health care corporation

An academic health sciences library serving a school of medicine, a college of nursing, and two allied sciences programs

Population:

First year medical students with no previous formal MEDLINE training

Third year internal medicine residents

All users of an academic health sciences library

Physicians and research scientists

Intervention: 

A 30-60 minute interview in the faculty members' offices

A  120 minute in-depth MEDLINE training session for the study group whereas the controlled group received only a 15-minutes overview session

The heading Exposure also has a specific research design meaning.

Some examples are:

Access to information resources during the 2002-2003 period

One 60-minutes required training session on MEDLINE search strategies

Teamwork training lasting two days for all managers

Results: Reporting your research

What you have discovered?

Source: MLA Publications 

 Planned Parenthood and Safe Abortion App

 

Hundreds of ‘predatory’ journals indexed on leading scholarly database 

Source:https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00239-0

 Data Gravity

Data gravity is the ability of a body of data to attract applications, services and other data. The force of gravity, in this context,  can be thought of as the way software, services and business logic are drawn to data relative to its mass (the amount of data) Source: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/data-gravity

Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (LILACS)

This virtual library is a comprehensive database of Health Sciences from Latin America and Caribbean Region. It has large number of records from peer reviewed journals, thesis and dissertations, government documents, books etc of those published since 1982.

This database covers systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, evidence synthesis, health technology evaluation studies, economic evaluation studies, clinical practice guidelines, technical reports, case reports and other materials of significance for health care professionals.

This site is maintained and updated by a network comprising of over 600 educational, government and health research institutions coordinated by BIREME/PAHO/WHO.

BIREME stands for Biblioteca Regional de Medicina also known as the Regional Library of Medicine. It is a specialized center of the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization committed to technical cooperation in management of health scientific information. This center is situated in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It promotes democratization of access, publication and use of scientific information, knowledge and evidence.

Read More about LILACS HERE

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)

The PAHO is a specialized international health agency that works to improve and protect people's health. It engages in technical cooperation with its member countries to fight communicable and noncommunicable diseases and their causes, to strengthen health systems, and to respond to emergencies and disasters.

PAHO is committed to ensuring that all people have access to the health care they need, when they need it, with quality and without fear of falling into poverty. Through its work, PAHO promotes and supports the right of everyone to good health.

To advance these goals, PAHO promotes technical cooperation between countries and works in partnership with ministries of health and other government agencies, civil society organizations, other international agencies, universities, social security agencies, community groups, and other partners. PAHO promotes the inclusion of health in all public policies and the engagement of all sectors in efforts to ensure that people live longer, healthier lives, with good health as their most valuable resource.

Read More about PAHO HERE

National Librarians Day

 Dr. S.R Ranganathan (1892-1972) is a father of Library Science whose birthday that falls on August 12 is celebrated as Librarians Day in the country. His brief biography is available at Encyclopedia of Knowledge Organisation for those interested in learning more about him.

Excel & Tableau softwares help to transform data into powerful visualisation forms for its better understanding. Learn more about them  at BrightTalk

I learnt about yet another text mining tool- Distant Reader. This tool empower researchers to use and understand large amount of textual information residing in scholarly journals or the complete works of a given author and much more.  Further details are available at its site HERE.

There is Voyant Tools as well that provide almost a similar service. It offers an open-source, web based application for performing text analysis. This is for interpretation of texts and corpus supporting scholars in digital humanities. Read more on its site HERE