Gustav Holst and British Music Society of Victoria collections at the State Library of Victoria

The paper presents a content-based evaluation, tracing the historical background of two heritage music collections at the State Library of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia).  In the case of the Gustav Holst and the British Music Society of Victoria Collections, history and content intertwine for the reason that both collections were initiated at the same time and by the same visionary power. During the early 1930s Louise Hanson-Dyer, a patron of Gustav Holst, issued a complete catalogue of the composer’s works and donated to the State Library of Victoria the first batch of Holst scores. This was to be the initial installment of a complete collection of published British music, which, however, was stopped due to duty tax complications. At the same time, the British Music Society of Victoria, founded by Louise Hanson-Dyer in 1921, maintained the first open library of chamber music in Australia. The BMS of Victoria Collection came to the State Library of Victoria in the 1980s. The most valuable materials in the collection are manuscripts of Australian twentieth century works, concert programs and first publications of British music from the 1920s and 1930s, which also supplement the Gustav Holst Collection. The collections are valuable reference and research collections, which document musical taste and music-making in Melbourne from 1920s well into the 1970s. The collections are also sources for studies into Louise Hanson-Dyer’s gift in collection development and her efforts to raise the professional standards of music performance in Melbourne and Australia.

Best of friends

This book is a folk tale about how cats and mice came to dislike each other.

Quality of reporting of randomized clinical trials in abstracts of the 2005 annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.

Objective: To determine the quality of abstracts reporting randomized clinical trials (RCT) at the 2005 Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.

Methods: All 2005 abstracts including late-breaking abstracts were assessed. An abstract was deemed to be reporting an RCT if it indicated that participants were randomized in the title or body of the abstract. RCT were excluded if they included only pharmacokinetic data. The CONSORT checklist was applied and relevant data extracted. We defined manufacturer support as acknowledgment of industry support or industry employee as co-author.

Results: Of 2146 abstracts, 143 (6.7%) reported RCT. Of these, 78.3% were drug trials, and 63.6% indicated manufacturer support. Only 30.8% of abstracts used "randomized" in the title, 44.1% did not explicitly state whether blinding was undertaken, and only 7.0% clearly stated who was blinded. Thirty percent of studies did not give an explicit definition of eligibility criteria of participants. While 84.6% explicitly described the experimental intervention, only 37.1% explicitly described the comparator intervention. Only 21% explicitly stated that an intention to treat analysis was performed. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were reported in 48.3%. While most abstracts reported summary results for each treatment group, only 35.7% reported effect size with its precision.

Conclusion: The quality of reporting is suboptimal in many RCT abstracts. Abstracts reporting RCT would benefit from a structured approach that ensures more detailed reporting of eligibility criteria, active and comparator interventions, flow of participants, and adequate summary and precision of results.

Calcium and bone health : position statement for the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society, Osteoporosis Australia and the Endocrine Society of Australia

This position statement was prepared by the Working Group of the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society and Osteoporosis Australia. The final statement was endorsed by the Endocrine Society of Australia.

Currently, the balance of evidence remains in favour of fracture prevention from combined calcium and vitamin D supplementation in elderly men and women.

Adequate vitamin D status is essential for active calcium absorption in the gut and for bone development and remodelling.

In adults with a baseline calcium intake of 500–900 mg/day, increasing or supplementing this intake by a further 500–1000 mg/day has a beneficial effect on bone mineral density.

Calcium intake significantly above the recommended level is unlikely to achieve additional benefit for bone health.