The myth of freedom of information.

The article discusses the myths surrounding the founding of the U.S. and the freedoms of information supposedly conferred by its founders in the drafting and ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Particular focus is given to the efforts of libraries in defending the public\u27s right to know and their attempts to inform and instruct the public on the significance of openness in government. The misuse of a quote by former U.S. President James Madison about freedom of information is explored

Investigating and improving medical education and library resources at the Tamale Teaching Hospital in Northern Ghana : a case report part 2.

In part one of this case report, published in the Spring Issue of Kentucky Libraries (Volume 76, Number 2), I described my journey to Tamale, Ghana to provide a series of training workshops at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), Nursing Training School (NTS), and the University of Development Studies (UDS), and to conduct a needs assessment to gather information to develop a series of grant proposals to assist the local health sciences libraries with improving their collections. Part two of this report briefly describes the consultations that took place and the planning and project outcomes to-date

Western Christianity and the origins of antiblackness, eurocentrism, and white supremacist ideology.

This qualitative study investigates the cult(ural) and intellectual history of Western Christianity to address a significant gap in the literature pertaining to the origins of whiteness/antiblackness in the West and its subsequent socialization worldwide. Western Christianity’s seminal role in the social construction of the whiteness/antiblackness dichotomy has been undertheorized, neglected, and ignored. This study finds early Christian theologians categorically imposed conceptual metaphors about Blackness on African people that depicted them as the exemplars of evil to teach Christian doctrine about sin and salvation. It connects these original antiblack discourses directly to the theo-political arguments Western European Christians used centuries later to justify African hereditary enslavement, western colonialism, and the ethos and polity of white supremacy. It contends this identical rhetoric currently facilitates the relegation and confinement of African Americans post-emancipation to a permanent racial underclass that constitutes an afterlife of slavery in its perpetuation of colonial-era structures of exploitation and oppression. It concludes by finding whiteness/antiblackness, i.e., white supremacy, is a form of religion, the belief system of a cult based on White Christian animus to symbolic blackness that literally is directed at real Africans and their descendants worldwide. In closing, it recommends re-envisioning the global “Black” struggle as a struggle for re-existence It thus calls for Africana peoples to reject Western Christianity’s symbolic blackness and re-imagine Africana identities with a self-awareness and social consciousness able to defeat the gravitational pull of the massive “white” hole of White Christian Supremacy and the negative valence of whiteness/antiblackness it manifests and maintains

Dismantling the master\u27s house : deconstructing the roots of antiblack racism and the construction of the other in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

This critical inquiry into the social constructions of black and white identities analyzes the roles of the three western monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) in the cognitive and sociohistorical developments of racial slavery and antiblack racism. Specifically, it investigates the sociohistorical consequences of the inherent dualisms of the western monotheisms and how those dualisms are expressed in the production of social theories and systems that rely on believer/non-believer oppositions and binaries defined by a Manichaean view of the universe and a teleological conception of history that fosters and sustains an eternal holy war against infidels. What emerges from this analysis in the end is a reconnection of Islam with Judeo-Christianity, resulting in the (re)formulation of a Judeo-Christian-Islamic complex as a specific instrumentality in the formation of white and black identities and the creation and preservation of white supremacy

Investigating and improving medical education and library resources at the Tamale Teaching Hospital in Northern Ghana : a case report.

This article discusses a service-learning trip I took in the summer of 2011 to conduct a series of consultations and workshops for librarians, administrators, faculty, and students at Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) and the University of Development Studies (UDS) in Northern Ghana. The visit was organized in support of a series of programs and collaborations that have been ongoing for several years between the University of Louisville (U of L) School of Public Health and Information Science (SPHIS) and TTH and UDS. The goal of the visit was twofold: to provide a series of training workshops to improve the research, database, and digital skills of clinicians, faculty, and students; and to conduct a needs assessment and gather data to develop grant proposals to acquire financial support for education, training, and information needs of the teaching hospital and schools of nursing and medicine

From citation management to knowledge management : developing and implementing innovative endnote training and support services on the health sciences campus.

In addition to providing basic and intermediate Endnote instruction and training, clinical librarians at the Kornhauser Health Sciences Library (KHSL) now offer faculty, physicians, researchers, and students individualized training and technical support via EndNote Housecalls, assistance in the creation of specialized research libraries, library and bibliographic consultation and organization, and the delivery of patron-requested literature search results in customized EndNote Libraries via email. This paper will focus on the design and implementation of KHSL\u27s EndNote citation management software training program, and its subsequent transformation into a service to address the knowledge management needs of our constituents

The efficacy of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in the treatment of ulcerative colitis

Abstract Introduction: UC is a chronic, idiopathic disease of the colon with current treatment including immunomodulating medications with severe side effects or curative total proctocolectomy with lifestyle implications. Intestinal dysbiosis has been considered as a component in UC progression and FMT has been shown to restore intestinal dysbiosis in patients with refractory C. difficile infections. Therefore, this review investigates, in adults (18 years+) with ulcerative colitis (P), does Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (I) reduce the symptoms or initiate remission of ulcerative colitis (O) compared to placebo treatment (C ) in patients where standard of care treatment fails to induce remission? Methods: From an investigation in November 2018 in using PubMed, Academic Search Ultimate, and Biomedical Reference Collection, a total of 6 articles including RTCs and open label studies were selected as the best articles currently available based on publication date, method of treatment delivery, and sample population. The selected articles were then evaluated on the basis of their study design and reported results and compared. Results: Three of the analyzed studies were RTCs and compared a control placebo or autologous FMTs to an experimental group of donor FMTs who had been previously diagnosed with UC. Three studies were open-label studies and therefore reported the results of FMT on participants without comparing the results to a control group. Some studies found statistically significant results of the FMT on participants’ Mayo scores or in inducing remission. The included studies provided study follow-up of less than or equal to 12 weeks. Discussion: Statistically significant results showed FMT had a positive influence on participants Mayo scores. However, outcome measures varied between studies. In addition, the use of RCT and open label studies limits the ability to directly compare FMT as the variable responsible for disease improvement in this analysis. Therefore, the efficacy of FMT in treating UC cannot be confirmed by this analysis despite positive findings with statistical significance. Further investigation is warranted into the efficacy of FMT to treat UC. Conclusion: Although this analysis shows some statistically significant results, the treatment effect of FMT needs to be further investigated. It is clinically important to continue to research the efficacy of using FMT as the current treatment modalities present a multitude of complications and quality of life considerations. Therefore, further RTCs are warranted to address the efficacy of FMT while addressing the weaknesses of the current research

Working the Margins: Women in the Comic Book Industry

Women have been involved in the writing, illustrating, and production of comic books at almost every step of the genre’s development. The years between the late 1960s and the late 1990s were tumultuous for the comic book industry. At the societal level, these years were saturated with changes that challenged normative ideas of sex roles and gender. The goal of this study is two-fold: it documents the specific contributions to the comic book industry made by the women interviewed, and it addresses research questions that focus on gender, change, and comic books. This project asks: What was the role and status of women in the comic book industry between the early 1970s and late 1990s? By utilizing moderately scheduled, in-depth interviews with women working in the comic book industry during this period, this study explores their experiences and treatment while working in an insular, male-dominated field

Gas Phase Diagnostics of CVD Diamond Growth From Chloromethane and Chloroform

Low energy electron impact ionization (LEEII) time of flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) has been used to interrogate gases sampled through an orifice from a diamond growth surface. Methane, chloromethane and chloroform precursor gases were examined to produce electron energy plots of the fragment ions that occur using LEEII. Filament temperature studies were completed covering temperatures from room temperature to over 2000 °C, and the results were compared to the LEEII plots. The monochloromethyl radical has been detected in the experiments using chloroform and the effect of a pretreatment with this radical present has been shown to enhance diamond nucleation. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy have been used to confirm diamond growth

Desertification and Metaphysics in Nietzsche and Abbey

The truth is neither simply culture derived from nature, nor nature from culture. Can we (qua humans) merge with nature and still maintain our self-intelligibility? –This is the question that the anti-anti-naturalist concentrates on. The author looks at Nietzsche’s critique of metaphysics, which posits a new metaphysics that requires us to enter the violent, heartless desert that is the paradoxical dual immanence of nature. The paper looks at the desert in the Genealogy’s discussion of the ascetic ideal, and how it relates to Edward Abbey’s isolation and book Desert Solitaire. Importantly, the similarities in-part stem from their similar post-modern sensibility. In the end, it turns out that the desert is a purifying place—that humanity’s meaning comes from a turning away from that is at the same time a turning towards