Classics in Science

In common with most readers, excepting the fanatical culture seekers, the concept of a list of "great books, " which every educated man or woman must read, strikes me as dreary and dull. Despite Robert Hutchins 1 and Clifton Fadiman's exhortations, nothing could induce me to wade through such sleep-producers as a majority of the titles urged upon us in The Lifetime Reading Plan and the Great Books Foundation list. Far more rewarding, significant, and exciting, in my view, is to try to single out those books that over the centuries have made the most profound impact on the history, economics, culture, civilization, and science of our time. Admittedly, some works of prime importance are intangible in their influence. That is especially true in such fields as literature, philosophy, and religion. Most measurable in their effect are certain seminal works in sciencethe trail-blazers, creating new frontiers, often dramatically extending man's knowledge of the visible and invisible universe around him. Often these books represent the culmination of the efforts of many minds. William Harvey on blood circulation built upon the researches of sixteenthcentury anatomists and physiologists; Linneaus came at the end of two centuries of systems of classifying plants. Sir Isaac Newton, after acknowledging his indebtedness to Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and other predecessors, remarked, "If I have seen further than other men, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."published or submitted for publicatio

Archives In University Libraries

In this article, Robert B. Downs sets forth his vision that a university repository should not be limited to print materials, but should include media of all types. He also outlines what an archive and an archivist are, and how both can be more effective

Latin American Union Catalogs

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The Role of the Academic Librarian, 1876-1976

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The declining representativeness of the British party system, and why it matters

In a recent article, Michael Laver has explained ‘Why Vote-Seeking Parties May Make Voters Miserable’. His model shows that, while ideological convergence may boost congruence between governments and the median voter, it can reduce congruence between the party system and the electorate as a whole. Specifically, convergence can increase the mean distance between voters and their nearest party. In this article we show that this captures the reality of today’s British party system. Policy scale placements in British Election Studies from 1987 to 2010 confirm that the pronounced convergence during the past decade has left the Conservatives and Labour closer together than would be optimal in terms of minimising the policy distance between the average voter and the nearest major party. We go on to demonstrate that this comes at a cost. Respondents who perceive themselves as further away from one of the major parties in the system tend to score lower on satisfaction with democracy. In short, vote-seeking parties have left the British party system less representative of the ideological diversity in the electorate, and thus made at least some British voters miserable

Hypertension, kidney disease, HIV and antiretroviral therapy among Tanzanian adults: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The epidemics of HIV and hypertension are converging in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to antiretroviral therapy (ART), more HIV-infected adults are living longer and gaining weight, putting them at greater risk for hypertension and kidney disease. The relationship between hypertension, kidney disease and long-term ART among African adults, though, remains poorly defined. Therefore, we determined the prevalences of hypertension and kidney disease in HIV-infected adults (ART-naive and on ART >2 years) compared to HIV-negative adults. We hypothesized that there would be a higher hypertension prevalence among HIV-infected adults on ART, even after adjusting for age and adiposity. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study conducted between October 2012 and April 2013, consecutive adults (>18 years old) attending an HIV clinic in Tanzania were enrolled in three groups: 1) HIV-negative controls, 2) HIV-infected, ART-naive, and 3) HIV-infected on ART for >2 years. The main study outcomes were hypertension and kidney disease (both defined by international guidelines). We compared hypertension prevalence between each HIV group versus the control group by Fisher's exact test. Logistic regression was used to determine if differences in hypertension prevalence were fully explained by confounding. RESULTS: Among HIV-negative adults, 25/153 (16.3%) had hypertension (similar to recent community survey data). HIV-infected adults on ART had a higher prevalence of hypertension (43/150 (28.7%), P = 0.01) and a higher odds of hypertension even after adjustment (odds ratio (OR) = 2.19 (1.18 to 4.05), P = 0.01 in the best model). HIV-infected, ART-naive adults had a lower prevalence of hypertension (8/151 (5.3%), P = 0.003) and a lower odds of hypertension after adjustment (OR= 0.35 (0.15 to 0.84), P = 0.02 in the best model). Awareness of hypertension was ≤ 25% among hypertensive adults in all three groups. Kidney disease was common in all three groups (25.6% to 41.3%) and strongly associated with hypertension (P 2 years had two-fold greater odds of hypertension than HIV-negative controls. HIV-infected adults with hypertension were rarely aware of their diagnosis but often have evidence of kidney disease. Intensive hypertension screening and education are needed in HIV-clinics in sub-Saharan Africa. Further studies should determine if chronic, dysregulated inflammation may accelerate hypertension in this population

Challenges and future directions for data management in the geosciences

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 100(5), (2019): 909-912, doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0319.1.The open availability and wide accessibility of digital scientific resources, such as articles and datasets, is becoming the norm for twenty-first-century science. Geoscience researchers are now being asked by funding agencies and scientific publishers to archive and cite data to support open access but often struggle to understand, interpret, and fulfill these requirements. To fulfill the promise of new open data initiatives, 1) scientific resources (e.g., data and software) must be collected and documented properly; 2) repository services, including preservation and storage capabilities, must be maintained, supported, and improved over time; and 3) governance institutions must be established. These issues were discussed in the Geoscience Digital Data Resource and Repository Service (GeoDaRRS) workshop,1 held in August 2018, at NCAR. The workshop brought together more than 60 geoscience researchers, technology experts, scientific publishers, funders, and data repository personnel to discuss data management challenges and opportunities within the geosciences. This included exploring whether new services are needed to complement existing data facilities, particularly in the areas of 1) data management planning support resources and 2) repository services for geoscience researchers who have data that do not fit in any existing repository. More details on the workshop agenda and recommendations are available in the final workshop report (Mayernik et al. 2018).The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided the funding support for this workshop. We also thank Cecilia Banner and Elizabeth Faircloth of NCAR for administrative and logistical support.2020-06-0

Short-term and long-term cardiovascular risk, metabolic syndrome and HIV in Tanzania.

OBJECTIVE: To compare short-term and long-term cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk scores and prevalence of metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected adults receiving and not receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) to HIV-negative controls. METHODS: A cross-sectional study including 151 HIV-infected, ART-naive, 150 HIV-infected on ART and 153 HIV-negative adults. Traditional cardiovascular risk factors were determined by standard investigations. The primary outcome was American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Atherosclerotic CVD (ASCVD) Risk Estimator lifetime CVD risk score. Secondary outcomes were ASCVD 10-year risk, Framingham risk scores, statin indication and metabolic syndrome. RESULTS: Compared with HIV-negative controls, more HIV-infected adults on ART were classified as high lifetime CVD risk (34.7% vs 17.0%, p<0.001) although 10-year risk scores were similar, a trend which was similar across multiple CVD risk models. In addition, HIV-infected adults on ART had a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome versus HIV-negative controls (21.3% vs 7.8%, p=0.008), with two common clusters of risk factors. More than one-quarter (28.7%) of HIV-infected Tanzanian adults on ART meet criteria for statin initiation. CONCLUSIONS: HIV-infected ART-treated individuals have high lifetime cardiovascular risk, and this risk seems to develop rapidly in the first 3-4 years of ART as does the development of clusters of metabolic syndrome criteria. These data identify a new subgroup of low short-term/high-lifetime risk HIV-infected individuals on ART who do not currently meet criteria for CVD risk factor modification but require further study

Do People Vote on the Basis of Minimax Regret?

Rational choice theory has yet to provide a satisfactory explanation of voter turnout. One such account, minimax regret, is analyzed using data from a survey involving students at two Canadian universities during the 1993 Canadian federal election campaign. While the minimax regret hypothesis is supported at the bivariate level, it fails to pass a multivariate test in which other components of the calculus of voting are included. Minimax regret appears to be little more than a rationalization on the part of those having a strong sense of duty to vote.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68661/2/10.1177_106591299504800408.pd