New Databases: AccessMedicine and AccessSurgery

Posted on by

The library now subscribes to two comprehensive resources, AccessMedicine and AccessSurgery. 

AccessMedicine provides more than 100 medical reference textbooks, ranging from surgery and pharmacology to basic and clinical sciences. It includes frequently updated content with thousands of images and illustrations, interactive self-assessments, case files, diagnostic tools, and more. Textbooks include Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine (21st edition), Adams and Victor’s Principles of Neurology (12th edition), and Goodman & Gilman’s The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (14th edition).

AccessSurgery is a comprehensive online surgery resource aimed to enhance medical knowledge and deliver quick answers to surgical inquiries. AccessSurgery provides access to leading surgical textbooks (including Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery and Zollinger’s Atlas of Surgical Operations), instructional surgical videos and animations that show step-by-step how to perform basic and advanced surgical procedures, an Interactive Board Review designed to help residents and clerks prepare for exams, an integrated drug database to look up dosing, indications, and adverse reactions, and a Clerkship Corner that brings together all clerkship specific resources, including text references, case files, and videos on essential concepts and procedures clerks may observe or assist in during their rotation.

The “Smart Quote” Struggle

Posted on by

To Quote or Not To Quote…that is the Struggle

To the average person’s eye quotation marks all look the same, however there are actually two distinct styles of quotation marks: straight and curly (also known as “smart”). The difference is simple, but easily missed.

So what’s the Difference?

Straight quotation marks are single or double vertical lines that frame a word or phrase.

'Straight' or "Straight"

Whereas curly quotation marks are single or double curved lines that change direction depending on if they are framing the beginning or end of the word or phrase. 

‘Curly’ or “Curly”

Visually both of these types of quotation marks function the same way, they signify the beginning and end of a quotation, passage, or phrase. But many publishers prefer curly (also referred to as smart) quotations as they are more pronounced to differentiate the start and end of a passage of text. 

Today, most word processors (i.e. Microsoft Word), automatically change straight quotations to smart quotations as you type. While this automatic feature is meant to make text more legible and in line with publishing standards, when it comes to conducting searches in databases it came make things complicated.

This is especially the case if you are copying and pasting a search strategy from Microsoft Word (or other word processing software), directly into a database. If quotations are automatically changed to curly quotes, it can cause issues with search strategies.

How Literature Databases View Curly (Smart) Quotations

Scholarly databases respond to these curly quotations in one of three ways.

  • The search results are identical whether straight or curly quotations were used
  • The search results varied depending on whether straight or curly quotations were used
  • The search strategy is rejected (error message) due to unsupported characters

This issue can greatly impact searching biomedical literature since curly (smart) quotes are unsupported on the Ovid platform.

Ovid hosts the following biomedical databases:

  • MEDLINE
  • PsycINFO
  • AMED
  • JBI
  • Embase (for some institutions, not MSK)

IMPORTANT: If curly quotes are put into an Ovid database an error message will be returned.

For more information about literature database platforms and how the respond to quotations:

Phrasing in Reproducible Search Methodology: The Consequences of Straight and Curly Quotation Marks
Barrick, K., & Riegelman, A. 2021. College & Research Libraries, 82(7): 978 

 

How to Disable Smart Quotes in Microsoft Word

For: Word 365, Word 2021, Word 2019, and Word 2016

  1. On the File tab, click Options.
  2. Click Proofing, and then click AutoCorrect Options.
  3. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, do the following:
    1. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, and under Replace as you type, select or clear the “Straight quotes” with “smart quotes” check box.
    2. Click the AutoFormat tab, and under Replace, select or clear the “Straight quotes” with “smart quotes” check box.
  4. Click OK.
 

Sound Waves to Fight Cancer, Nanoparticle Carrying Drugs and More

Posted on by
  • Researchers from the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center identified a new way to trigger programmed cell death related to CD95 receptors. These protein receptors, also called Fas, are located on cell membranes and are instrumental in causing cell self-destruction. The research on new ways to trigger programmed cell death of tumor cells can lead to improved cancer treatments. The study was published in Cell Death & Differentiation.
  • In a preclinical study, researchers developed a new treatment for medulloblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer affecting mostly children. Researchers administered drug-carrying nanoparticles directly into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), thus overcoming existing challenges in delivering drugs in the CSF. The study was published in Science Translational Medicine.
  • U.S. researchers discovered the mechanism of how breast cancer cells may metastasize. The researchers showed that a motor protein, dynein, facilitated the movement of cancer cells in soft tissue models. This research paves the way for discovering new clinical targets against metastasis and has great potential for cancer treatment. The study was published in Advanced Science.
  • An international group of researchers is offering a “noninvasive alternative to surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved using targeted ultrasound waves, a technology called histotripsy, to fight cancer. The most recent study related to this research was published in Frontiers in Immunology.