Themes in Health Sciences Librarianship Literature, 2016-2020: A Keyword and Subject Analysis

Previous investigations into trends in Library and Information Science (LIS) literature have revealed changes in the topics librarians publish on over time, with older studies highlighting classification and indexing, and information retrieval and more recent studies highlighting keywords such as internet, information technology, digital libraries, and again, information retrieval. No similar investigation has been conducted on current publication trends by health sciences librarians. This study analyzes the top themes on which health sciences librarians published from 2016 to 2020 by examining the frequency of keywords. Keywords and subject headings were analyzed from The Journal of the Medical Library Association, Medical References Services Quarterly, The Journal of Hospital Librarianship, and The Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries. A total of 8,806 keywords were downloaded for analysis and organized into 292 categories during taxonomy creation. The ten most frequent themes were: libraries, information, education, humans, demography, librarian, geographical locations, research, electronic resources, and technology. The study also found that data, psychiatry and psychology, informatics, and publishing were other key themes, indicating that health sciences librarians are publishing on a wide range of topics. Some keywords that appeared only once, such as telecommuting and flexible staffing, suggest emerging areas of research for librarians

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Development and testing of the Stressor Scale for Pediatric Oncology Nurses

Pediatric oncology nursing has been identified as a stressful specialty, but the exact sources of the stress have not been comprehensively specified nor put into measurable form. Effective interventions can best be developed when the stressors are known and measured. The purpose of this study was to develop and test an instrument that could accurately and sensitively measure the job-related stressors for pediatric oncology nurses. A 61-item, visual analogue instrument, the Stressor Scale for Pediatric Oncology Nurses (SSPON), was inductively developed from interviews with 30 pediatric oncology nurses. Subsequently, the SSPON was tested in three geographically separated samples of pediatric oncology nurses (n = 78). After an item analysis, 11 items were deleted from the scale. Reliability of the SSPON was estimated using both stability and internal consistency methods. The test-retest correlation coefficient was 0.88, and the total scale α coefficient was 0.94. Content validity was estimated using a two-stage process of developmental and judgment quantification with a panel of three specialty nurses. Construct validity was estimated through testing of theoretically derived hypotheses and a cluster analysis. Findings indicated the SSPON is content valid. Six meaningful clusters that represented sources of job-related stress were identified and defined. The revised SSPON appears to have adequate psychometric properties for a new instrument

Identifying the changing age distribution of opioid-related mortality with high-frequency data.

BACKGROUND: Opioid-related mortality continues to rise across North America, and mortality rates have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to provide an updated picture of trends of opioid-related mortality for Ontario, Canada between January 2003 and December 2020, in relation to age and sex. METHODS: Using mortality data from the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario, we applied Bayesian Poisson regression to model age/sex mortality per 100,000 person-years, including random walks to flexibly capture age and time effects. Models were also used to explore how trends might continue into 2022, considering both pre- and post-COVID-19 courses. RESULTS: From 2003 to 2020, there were 11,633 opioid-related deaths in Ontario. A shift in the age distribution of mortality was observed, with the greatest mortality rates now among younger individuals. In 2003, mortality rates reached maximums at 5.5 deaths per 100,000 person-years for males around age 44 and 2.2 deaths per 100,000 person-years for females around age 51. As of 2020, rates have reached maximums at 67.2 deaths per 100,000 person-years for males around age 35 and 16.8 deaths per 100,000 person-years for females around age 37. Our models estimate that opioid-related mortality among the younger population will continue to grow, and that current conditions could lead to male mortality rates that are more than quadruple those of pre-pandemic estimations. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis may inform a refocusing of public health strategy for reducing rising rates of opioid-related mortality, including effectively reaching both older and younger males, as well as young females, with health and social supports such as treatment and harm reduction measures

Systematic Reviews and Tech Mining: A Methodological Comparison with Case Study

When the Medical Library Association identified questions critical for the future of the profession, it assigned groups to use systematic reviews to find the answers to these questions. Group 6, whose question was on emerging technologies, recognized early on that the systematic review process would not work well for this question, which looks forward to predict future trends, whereas the systematic review process looks back in time. We searched for new methodologies that were more appropriate to our question, developing a process that combined systematic review, text mining, and visualization techniques. We then discovered tech mining, which is very similar to the process we had created. In this paper, we describe our research design and compare tech mining and systematic review methodologies. There are similarities and differences in each process: Both use a defined research question, deliberate database selection, careful and iterative search strategy development, broad data collection, and thoughtful data analysis. However, the focus of the research differs significantly, with systematic reviews looking to the past and tech mining mainly to the future. Our comparison demonstrates that each process can be enhanced from a purposeful consideration of the procedures of the other. Tech mining would benefit from the inclusion of a librarian on their research team and a greater attention to standards and collaboration in the research project. Systematic reviews would gain from the use of tech mining tools to enrich their data analysis and corporate management communication techniques to promote the adoption of their findings

Inhibition of Arenaviruses by Combinations of Orally Available Approved Drugs

Correction: Volume65, Issue6 Article Numbere00653- 21 DOI10.1128/AAC.00653-21Neglected diseases caused by arenaviruses such as Lassa virus (LASV) and filoviruses like Ebola virus (EBOV) primarily afflict resource-limited countries, where antiviral drug development is often minimal. Previous studies have shown that many approved drugs developed for other clinical indications inhibit EBOV and LASV and that combinations of these drugs provide synergistic suppression of EBOV, often by blocking discrete steps in virus entry. We hypothesize that repurposing of combinations of orally administered approved drugs provides effective suppression of arenaviruses. In this report, we demonstrate that arbidol, an approved influenza antiviral previously shown to inhibit EBOV, LASV, and many other viruses, inhibits murine leukemia virus (MLV) reporter viruses pseudotyped with the fusion glycoproteins (GPs) of other arenaviruses (Junin virus (JUNV], lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), and Pichinde virus (PICA). Arbidol and other approved drugs, including aripiprazole, amodiaquine, sertraline, and niclosamide, also inhibit infection of cells by infectious PICV, and arbidol, sertraline, and niclosamide inhibit infectious LASV. Combining arbidol with aripiprazole or sertraline results in the synergistic suppression of LASV and JUNV GP-bearing pseudoviruses. This proof-of-concept study shows that arenavirus infection in vitro can be synergistically inhibited by combinations of approved drugs. This approach may lead to a proactive strategy with which to prepare for and control known and new arenavirus outbreaks.Peer reviewe