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J C Wagner

Publications and source records attributed to J C Wagner.

126 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
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Natural language generation of surgical procedures.

A number of compositional Medical Concept Representation systems are being developed. Although these provide for a detailed conceptual representation of the underlying information, they have to be translated back to natural language for used by end-users and applications. The GALEN programme has been developing one such representation and we report here on a tool developed to generate natural language phrases from the GALEN conceptual representations. This tool can be adapted to different source modelling schemes and to different destination languages or sublanguages of a domain. It is based on a multilingual approach to natural language generation, realised through a clean separation of the domain model from the linguistic model and their link by well defined structures. Specific knowledge structures and operations have been developed for bridging between the modelling 'style' of the conceptual representation and natural language. Using the example of the scheme developed for modelling surgical operative procedures within the GALEN-IN-USE project, we show how the generator is adapted to such a scheme. The basic characteristics of the surgical procedures scheme are presented together with the basic principles of the generation tool. Using worked examples, we discuss the transformation operations which change the initial source representation into a form which can more directly be translated to a given natural language. In particular, the linguistic knowledge which has to be introduced--such as definitions of concepts and relationships is described. We explain the overall generator strategy and how particular transformation operations are triggered by language-dependent and conceptual parameters. Results are shown for generated French phrases corresponding to surgical procedures from the urology domain.

Linguistics↗
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Mesotheliomas and asbestos type in asbestos textile workers: a study of lung contents.

The asbestos contents of the lungs of former employees of an asbestos textile factory were determined at necropsy using a transmission electron microscope. Those who had died of mesothelioma were compared with a matched sample of those who had died of other causes. The predominant fibre processed in the factory was chrysotile, but crocidolite had also been used. The lung content was consistent with the known exposure to chrysotile, but the crocidolite content was also high, being about 300 times that of the general population of the United Kingdom. The lungs of those with mesothelioma did not contain more of either chrysotile or crocidolite than the lungs of the controls, so no particular type of asbestos could be implicated in causing the mesotheliomas. The evidence of substantial exposure to crocidolite means that the mesotheliomas that occurred in this factory could not be attributed with any certainty to the exposure to chrysotile.

Aged↗
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Falsely elevated aminoglycoside serum levels in jaundiced patients.

Two cases in which hyperbilirubinemia produced falsely elevated aminoglycoside concentrations, using the Emit assay, are described. Patients' sera were analyzed by both the Emit and a microbiologic assay. The first patient had a 26-percent greater tobramycin concentration with the Emit assay, as compared with the microbiologic assay, when the total bilirubin was 20.1 mg%. For the same patient, there was essentially no difference between the two assays when the total bilirubin was 4 mg%. The Emit concentrations in the other patient were 34-percent elevated with a total bilirubin of 9.7 mg%. Pharmacokinetic analysis also was performed on serum levels reported by each method. Calculated kinetic parameters and dosage regimens varied greatly. Patients with total bilirubin concentrations greater than 4 mg% may need to have aminoglycoside serum levels assayed by a method other than the Emit assay.

Aged↗
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[Lipoma].

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Humans↗
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Emphysema in smoking and non-smoking coalworkers with pneumoconiosis.

The relationships between coalworkers' pneumoconiosis, cigarette smoking and emphysema in a group of 139 deceased coalminers, 19 of whom were non or ex-smokers of 10 years standing, were studied from available clinical and morphological evidence. There was 95 cases of simple pneumoconoiosis and 44 cases with early (Cat. A) progressive massive fibrosis (PMF). The objects were to compare the amounts and types of emphysema in the smokers and non-smokers and also their ventilatory findings. The emphysema content of all the 139 cases of smokers and non-smokers was measured by a standard method and the amounts compared. In addition, the emphysema content of the 19 non- and ex-smokers plus 32 appropriate control cases drawn from the smoking group were measured afresh by a new method devised by the pathologists for the estimation of the extent and type of both emphysema and coalworkers, pneumoconiosis, from large paper lung sections and histological preparations. Both methods compared well in estimating emphysema content and both indicated that the amounts of emphysema in the smoking and non-smoking groups were similar. These findings still applied when both the life-long non-smokers and the cases with simple pneumoconiosis only were looked at separately. It was found that centrilobular emphysema was much commonest type encountered in both smokers and non-smokers. The non-smokers were less disabled in terms of impairment of FEV1.0 than the smokers, although the difference was not statistically significant. The relationship between the centrilobular emphysema and coalworkers' pneumoconiosis is discussed.

Coal Mining↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Tumours in experimental animals following exposure to asbestos dust.

The author summarises his research into experimental asbestos-related tumours. He notes in particular the inequality in carcinogenic power of different types of asbestos and the variations in the types of malignant tumour seen (carcinomas or mesotheliomas), according to the variety of asbestos used.

Adenocarcinoma↗