Tablet users: watch your posture! Recent research indicates that the way you hold/look at your tablet device affects how much pain you may experience as a result. A recent write-up states,

"Study participants' heads and necks were in more flexed positions while using the tablets than those typical of desktop or notebook computer users. Working for long periods of time with the head slumped forward and the neck flexed can result in neck pain."

Here's the original study, from the journal Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation.

Happy computing!

Informing the Future: Critical Issues in Health is now in its 6th edition, and is freely available online. The report illustrates the recent work of Institute of Medicine committees, followed by a description of IOM's convening and collaborative activities and fellowship programs. The last section provides a comprehensive bibliography of IOM reports published since 2007.

The chapter on Public Health describes work in:

• National security
• Emergency preparedness
• Public health law and policy
• Women, children, and families
• Oral health
• Vaccination
• Emerging genetic technologies
• Examining the value of cancer care

There are also chapters on:

• The healthcare system
• Food safety and nutrition
• Shaping research priorities
• Global health

and more.

All IOM reports are available from their website, and many are also available at the Public Health Library.

Has anyone not had one of their Facebook friends post a link to a story about the UC San Diego study that concluded that eating chocolate makes you thin? I just did a Google News search using the phrase eating chocolate makes you thin and came up with a ton of results - many of which are misleading news items about a study with perhaps dubious conclusions.

Here's the study, recently published in Archives of Internal Medicine, an AMA journal. And here's an evaluation of the study which points out several methodological flaws in the study design, including:

1. The purpose of the original study was to look at the non-cardiac impact of statin drugs, not diet, weight, etc.
2. The authors looked at only chocolate, fruit and vegetable, and saturated fat consumption. They did not ask study participants about any other foods they did or didn't eat.
3. The authors posit assumptions as facts, with no reference to pre-existing literature.

But - read it yourself: what do you think?

SCIRUS ETD (Electronic Theses and Dissertations) allows you to search the records of over 1 million theses and dissertations from around the world. Search by keyword, title, author, language, date, and more. You can also search the entire text of the document, and full text PDF is available for many of the dissertations. This collection is sponsored by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.

UCB licenses other dissertations databases, including Dissertations and Theses @ University of California, where you can download the full text PDF of nearly all UC dissertations from 1996 to the present, and Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts via ProQuest), which has the full text of dissertations worldwide from 1997 to the present, and citations going back to 1861.

See the Public Health Library's Dissertations and Theses web page for more!

EndNote / RefWorks Basics

Tues, April 3 2012, 1 - 230 PM

Location: 550C Moffitt Library

UPDATE, April 26, 2012: Handouts from the class, including an exercise set, are now available online:

» EndNote X5/RefWorks handout (PDF)

» EndNote X5/RefWorks Exercise Set (PDF)

EndNote automates the creation of bibliographies. Save hours of typing by simply selecting the publication or style by name and generating a perfectly formatted document. EndNote currently offers several thousand styles. EndNote allows you to store PDFs and other files in your database. EndNote is available for a substantial student discount; staff/faculty discount also available.

RefWorks is a web-based tool that allows users to create their own personal database by importing references from text files or online databases. Use these references in writing papers and automatically format the paper and the bibliography in seconds. Web-based means you can access RefWorks from any computer with Internet access. Access to RefWorks is provided by the UCB Library to UCB students, staff, and faculty.

In this class, we will cover the basics of using both EndNote and RefWorks: how to add citations to your database, organize your citations, format your bibliography, and how to use EndNote and RefWorks with Microsoft Word to create reference lists and bibliographies. This class will be useful for you who are EndNote/RefWorks novices, for you who want a little tune-up, for those of you struggling a bit with the software, and will be useful for you who are trying to decide which one to use (if either!)

The PCs in 550C Moffitt have EndNote X5 installed. If you already have EndNote installed on your laptop, you can work on your own computer. You can also download a 30 free EndNote trial from http://endnote.com/endemo.asp.