BOOKENDS May 2019, Volume 2, Issue 4

How to prepare for your exams while you are fasting

This year, most students will be taking their exams during Ramadan. To get through your exams while you are fasting, you need to change some of your daily routines and to get rid of some bad habits. Here are some tips from Dr. Huda and Dr. Matt, Health Sciences - Birmingham City University.

1. Plan your meals - It’s important to plan what you’re going to be eating at Suhur and Iftar. What you eat has an impact on your energy levels and it’s important to consume the right amount of carbs, protein, fruits, vegetables and of course drink plenty of water. Planning what you will eat each day will have an impact on how alert you feel during the daytime.

2. Be productive - Make your lunch breaks productive. You know you have a lunch break but you can’t eat or drink anything. Avoid working through your lunch and do things like go out for a walk and get some fresh air, take prayer breaks, or take a nap if possible. Make a daily to-do list and write down what you’re finding challenging, and plan what to do to overcome this.

3. Take a break -There’s nothing wrong with planning a few breaks in your day. Taking regular breaks increases productivity at Ramadan or any other time of the year. Adding a few breaks into your working day will help you reduce stress, refresh your attention, and reduce the risk of on-the-job accidents, and keep you focused and on schedule. In turn, this will increase productivity as well as keeping you fresh throughout the day.

4. Vitamins can help - You can also try multivitamins, which are great for giving your body all the necessary nutrients. You can take multivitamins during Iftar or Suhur, but just make sure it contains 1,000 IU of vitamin D and at least 500mg of omega-3s. Remember not to take any medication without consulting your doctor.

5. Every meal counts - Do not skip the Suhur meal. Some people do this to keep up with sleep but you will need the energy from this meal to help you throughout the day

6. Take it slow - Eat your food slowly during the times that you can eat and drink. This makes the energy of the food release a bit slower in your system so you’re energized for longer.

These tips were put together by Dr Huda Al-Kateb, Dr Matt Cole 

Fake news, junk news or pseudo-news has been around ever since man has learned to communicate. Nowadays, it is so easy to access all sorts of news or information from internet websites and social media platforms, thus fake news publishers who intend to misinform, mislead, confuse people and spread propaganda are achieving their purpose. This type of information poses a lot of danger, not just to gullible ordinary people, but to students, researchers and other members of the academia who access the internet for work, projects and other activities that depend on the internet for information.

Factcheck.org has set out some guidelines to help people spot fake news to avoid the dangers associated with misinformation. 

1. Consider the source. - Some websites are propaganda websites, satire websites, or some other form of web page that offer fake news or pseudo-information.

2. Read beyond the headline. - The headline doesn't always tell the whole story. They can be worded in a way as to arouse a feeling or opinion that is quite different from the information contained in the body of the news.

3. Check the author. - Some fake news writers write behind fake seemingly distinguished profiles to lend their fake news an appearance of authenticity. Be cautious of news that do not have a by line (writer's name) at all.

4. What’s the support? - Fake stories sometimes back up their assertions with surveys, statistics or attributions to official sounding sources. However, when you double check, such support non-existent or partially correct only.

5. Check the date. - Sometimes past events are used to bolster an assertion but in reality such events may have happened a long time before and has no connection whatsoever to the current issues being discussed. 

6. Is this some kind of joke? - News from satire websites has been passed down by unsuspecting or careless people who do not read the caution offered by these fantasy news sites. Check if your source website is legitimate or satirical.

7. Check your biases - People sometimes tend to believe things that confirm their biases even if the information comes from dubious sources. Try to be impartial when it comes to your sources. 

8. Consult the experts. - You can consult websites that fact check or debunk such as Snopes.com, Factcheck.org, etc.

These different points are discussed in detail at https://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/.

Of course when it comes to information, you can also consult the experts at KU Libraries for assistance in getting the right information from the right places. Ask a librarian today!

Of the roughly 6.97 billion people on Earth today, approximately 2 billion of them are under 20 years old. Millennials have a lot of reputations these days, but powerful, smart, and affective are not usually the adjectives used to describe them. Jared Kleinert and Stacey Ferreira want to change that and empower these young people to follow their dreams, set goals, and achieve success.

Both young successful entrepreneurs themselves, they believe in breaking down age barriers to make a difference. Jared, best-known as the Founder and CEO of Synergist, and Stacey, best-known as the Co-Founder of MySocialCloud.com met in 2012 at the Under 20 Thiel Fellowship Summit. After speaking with their equally impressive peers, they realized that these 2 billion young voices have inspiring stories to share with the world and they wanted to bring them to life through 2 Billion Under 20.

Jared and Stacey also decided to start an online community, www.2BillionUnder20.com where young people could help each other grow and develop their dreams into reality. They've curated an anthology of amazing stories from their peers. Contributors like Paige McKenzie who started her own YouTube channel at the age of 16 that now has more than 55 million views and Jack Andraka who created an early detection Pancreatic cancer test at age 14 have joined forces to show the world that age is just a number.

- Review from Amazon.com

Call Number: HF 5386 .A13 2015
ISBN Number: 9781250067616

Sky Guide is a beautiful app filled with easy-to-understand reference material on astronomy and the night sky. Students can browse its contents, or aim it at the sky (or the wall, or the floor) and study what they see. Its extensive functionality includes searching for stars, planets, deep space objects, comets, satellites, and more, or students can just hold it up to the sky and tap on what they see to learn details about the object. Layers -- such as labels, constellation markers, and mythology illustrations -- can be turned on and off. A red Night mode is available to help preserve night vision. Notifications can be set for satellite flybys, sun/moon/planet rise and set times, and more.Sky Guide is a well-packaged and well-designed app for learning through exploration, or for more directed lessons.

Students can study the night sky, plan to watch satellite flybys, or dig deeper into stars, constellations, nebulae, and comets by browsing for them or just tapping on what catches their eye. Students will learn to identify planets, plus stars and other deep space objects in the night sky. Students can place any of the various filters over what they're seeing to see what light space objects emit outside the visible spectrum. The app also gives each star a sound, based on its temperature and luminosity. Students will learn the difference between brightness and luminosity and learn why a very luminous star might not appear bright in the sky (the concept of apparent magnitude).

Students can read scholarly articles on astronomy topics right inside the app, or check out the calendar that shows upcoming observation opportunities. Students can easily access any objects they've been studying with the "favorites" list, or browse objects by brightness, time of visibility, or any number of other criteria. Sky Guide is a fantastic reference for all astronomy experience levels and is useful in any location, since you can easily change the sky brightness in the app to match your current sky view. It's the ultimate resource for the night sky and for planning your night sky study.

Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA) is a free research database for library and information science studies. This database provides indexing and abstracting for hundreds of key journals, books and research reports. It includes more than 120 indexed selective and priority journals, coverage dating back to 1960, and a robust Thesaurus. It includes the following subjects: Bibliometrics, Cataloging, Classification, Information management, Printed and electronic information, Search engines, scholarly communication, the information industry and online information retrieval.

To access this database visit the library website click on e-resources, then click on the letter E and start exploring and searching LISTA.