And once again, high blood pressure is making headlines in the news: the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC) have just released new guidelines about hypertension. Since this development is likely to cause confusion and concern for many, I’m writing this post to help you understand the debate and what this might mean for you and your family. By the way, if you’ve read any of my other blood pressure articles on this site, let me reassure you: I am not changing my clinical practice or what I recommend to others, based on the new AHA/ACC guidelines. The core principles of better blood pressure management for older adults remain the same: * Take care in how you and your doctors measure blood pressure (more on that here), * Start by aiming to get blood pressure less than 150/90 mm Hg, as recommended by these expert guidelines issued in 2017 and in 2014, * And then learn more about what are the likely benefits versus risks of aiming for more intensive BP control. Perhaps the most important thing to understand is this: treatment of high blood pressure in older adults offers “diminishing returns” as we treat BP to get lower and lower. Scientific evidence indicates that the greatest health benefit, when it comes to reducing the risk of strokes and heart attacks, is in getting systolic blood pressure from high (i.e. 160-180) down to moderate (140-150). From there, the famous SPRINT study, published in 2015, did show a further reduction in cardiovascular risk, when participants were treated to a lower systolic BP, such as a target of 120. However, this was in a carefully selected group of participants, it required taking three blood pressure medications on average, and the reduction in risk was small. As I note in my article explaining SPRINT Senior, in participants aged 75 or older, pushing to that lower goal was associated with an estimated 1-in-27 chance of avoiding a cardiovascular event. (The benefit was even smaller in adults aged 50-75.) According to the above context, choose the correct option to answer the following question. Question: How does the AHA/ACC probably feel about hypertension? Options:  A. They don't agree with the guidelines  B. They think it's very confusing  C. They want to find a cure and help educate others  D. not enough information
C


(Question)
He picked me up at my house, and after getting back on the main road he turned up the volume on the radio. "Why do you even listen to that stuff?" I asked. It was schlock-rock, simple and unadorned wailing backed by incessantly grating guitars. "I don't really know." "You don't actually like it, do you?" I knew he didn't; I knew what he preferred. His apartment walls were lined with recordings of classical, even archaic music, European folk instrumentals. Maybe rock, once in a while, but he had had something amplified and pitch-altered on every time we'd been together lately. "I think we listen to pop music to punish ourselves," he said. "An aural bed of nails to compensate for our sins." "Those sins being...?" "I don't know... sometimes, don't you ever get so sick of everything you just want to cram your ears full of garbage to spite it all?" This was not normal second-date dialogue, but Phillip and I had known each other for a long time. "It's like you'd rather inflict pain," he said, "like you want to inflict pain on yourself, just for pure spite against... the stuff around us." "You'd choke on garbage to get back at a culture who would do it for you anyway?" "Yeah, kind of. Does that make sense?" "In a very cliched, pop-psychology sort of way, yes." I turned down the volume, then shut the radio off entirely. "Don't you ever want to hurt like that?" he asked. "It's why you read some thriller instead of a classic, it's why you watch TV instead of reading a book, it's why you watch a sitcom instead of PBS, it's why you watch Family Guy instead of the Simpsons." (I might have snorted at this point.) "Because you have to do the bad thing." According to the above context, choose the correct option to answer the following question. Question: Philip believes that: Options:  A. People like rock music.  B. People like TV.  C. not enough information  D. People like to engage in things that are bad for them.
(Answer)
D


For years, Aimee Lind, a librarian at the Getty Research Institute, has been struggling with ways to make architecture archives more accessible to users. To help solve this problem, she co-founded the California Architecture Archives Network (or CalArchNet) with her Cal Poly SLO colleague Jessica Holada. Together they have organized a series of one-day mini-conferences designed to foster dialogue and collaboration among librarians, archivists, and curators at California institutions that house architecture archives. The goal of these semiannual meetings is to create a space for convergence among professionals who intersect with architectural archives in different ways. Architecture archives, often containing large drawings and scale models, present unique problems due to their size and fragility. CalArchNet participants are interested in improving the overall user experience for visitors to the archives by looking for solutions to obstacles to access. This space for an informal exchange of ideas provides an opportunity to be transparent about the challenges repositories face when managing and processing architecture holdings, as well as encourages investigation and experimentation into ways new technologies may help to solve accessibility issues, such as improved interaction with digitized collections via the IIIF protocol or 3D-scanned facsimile models and virtual walk-throughs. October 27 marked the third meeting of CalArchNet, held at the Palm Springs Art Museum, Architecture and Design Center, with representatives from 13 institutions in attendance. Topics discussed included historic site preservation research methodology, leveraging statewide resources to enhance discovery of collections, security considerations, GIS mapping technologies, and the use of linked open data to make connections between collections. The day concluded with a curator-led tour of the exhibition Albert Frey and Lina Bo Bardi: A Search for Living Architecture. If you’re an archivist, librarian, or curator working with architecture... According to the above context, choose the correct option to answer the following question. Question: When did Aimee Lind found the California Architecture Archive network? Options:  A. Before October  B. Before she became a librarian  C. Before she organized one day mini-conferences  D. not enough information

C