SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Search Engine”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 613 records · Page 34Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

Health risks over the Internet: advice offered by "medical herbalists" to a pregnant woman.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate Internet advice offered by "medical herbalists" to a pregnant woman regarding herbal treatment of morning sickness. STUDY DESIGN: Search engines were used to find relevant Web sites and all potential e-mail addresses were contacted. Herbalists were asked for advice regarding three specific medicinal herbs: ginger, raspberry and juniper. RESULTS: Eighty-three e-mail addresses were found and contacted. The response rate was 51%. Nineteen (45%) of all respondents recommended ginger, 9 (21%) of them without mentioning adverse effects. Seven (17%) respondents recommended taking raspberry; five (12%) without mentioning adverse effects. No respondent recommended taking juniper during pregnancy and 12 herbalists (29%) warned about using this herbal remedy during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Advice about herbal medicine is readily available over the Internet. The advice offered is misleading at best and dangerous at worst. Potential Internet users should be made aware of these problems and ways of minimizing the risk should be found.

Female↗

PubMed2001

A historical perspective of the popular use of electric and magnetic therapy.

OBJECTIVES: To review the history of the therapeutic use of static electric and magnetic fields and to understand its implications for current popular and medical acceptance of these and other alternative and complementary therapies. DATA SOURCES: Comprehensive MEDLINE (1960-2000) and CINAHL (1982-2000) computer literature searches by using key words such as electricity, magnetism, electromagnetic, therapy, medicine, EMF, history of medicine, and fields. Additional references were obtained from the bibliographies of the selected articles. In addition, discussions were held with curators of medical history museums and supplemental searches were made of Internet sources through various search engines. STUDY SELECTION: Primary references were used whenever possible. In a few instances, secondary references, particularly those requiring translations of early texts, were used. DATA SYNTHESIS: The use of electric and magnetic forces to treat disease has intrigued the general public and the scientific community since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. The popularity of these therapies has waxed and waned over the millennia, but at all times the popular imagination, often spurred by dynamic and colorful practitioners of pseudoscience, has been more excited than the medical or political establishment. In fact, a pattern seems to reappear. In each era, unsophisticated public acceptance is met first with medical disdain, then with investigation, and, finally, with a failure to find objective evidence of efficacy. This pattern continues today with the public acceptance of magnetic therapy (and alternative and complementary medicine in general) far outstripping acceptance by the medical community. CONCLUSION: The therapeutic implications of applying electrical and magnetic fields to heal disease have continually captured the popular imagination. Approaches thousands of years apart can be remarkably similar, but, in each era, proof has been lacking and the prevailing medical establishment has remained unconvinced. Interest persists today. Although these agents may have a future role in the healing of human disease, their history and a minimal scientific rationale makes it unlikely that the dichotomy between the hopes of the public and the medical skepticism will disappear.

Advertising↗

PubMed2002

The Law of Laplace and its relevance to contemporary medicine and rehabilitation.

OBJECTIVE: To show that the Law of Laplace is not only a historical curiosity but also remains relevant to our daily teaching and clinical activities. DATA SOURCES: Comprehensive MEDLINE (1960-2000) and CINAHL (1982-2000) computer literature searches performed by using key words such as Law of Laplace, Laplace, and Laplace relationship. Additional references were obtained from the bibliographies of the selected articles. Supplementary searches were also made by using various Internet search engines. STUDY SELECTION: Primary references were used whenever possible. DATA EXTRACTION: A single reviewer assessed all references and extracted information relevant to the Law of Laplace. DATA SYNTHESIS: Although the Law of Laplace is attributed to Pierre Simon de Laplace, Laplace may not deserve the credit for the discovery. Nevertheless, the relationship (T [tension] alpha P [pressure] R [radius]) is easily derived and improves our understanding of the physiologic basis of many of our medical and rehabilitation practices. For example, the Law provides an insight into the mechanism of action of compression garments and lumbosacral orthoses, an understanding of the role of uterine muscle during delivery, and a reason why cesarean sections are made in the lower uterus. In addition, the Law explains many aspects of such diverse phenomena as penile erection, compartment syndromes, and peripheral edema. Perhaps most important, the Law explains the basis of many common medical practices that we use to promote bladder emptying, to control edema, and to plan surgery. CONCLUSION: The Law of Laplace explains the mechanism of a wide range of physiologic phenomena. Unfortunately, even though it was developed about 200 years ago, the insights it provides us are often underused. More consideration of its implications can improve our clinical practice, our teaching, and our enjoyment of medicine.

Biophysics↗

PubMed2001

Radiology and the internet: a systematic review of patient information resources.

AIM: To determine whether the internet is a useful resource for patients seeking information on radiological procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic search of the world wide web was performed by means of four general search engines (AltaVista, Yahoo!, Infoseek and Excite). Twenty-eight suitable patient-directed websites on arteriography were identified for analysis. The value of this material was measured by establishing inclusion or exclusion of a number of factors relating to the procedure. Readability of the materials was evaluated using the Flesch reading ease score. RESULTS: Advice on preparation was included in 21 (75%) sites. Contraindications were found in 16 (57%) sites, risks in 6 (21%) and aftercare in 25 (89%). Result availability was discussed in 15 (54%) sites, with links to other radiology sites in 13 (46%). Visual aids were used in 6 (21%) sites and a contact address found in 27 (96%). Mean Flesch reading ease score was 57, with 46% of sites below the preferred minimum of 60. CONCLUSIONS: Few sites provide the range of information a patient needs before arriving for a procedure. In addition, the readability of the material on these sites is frequently set at a level incomprehensible to patients with lower levels of literacy.

Humans↗

PubMed2000

Varicose veins on the internet.

OBJECTIVES: to evaluate the quality of information on the Internet concerning varicose veins. DESIGN: review of retrieved pamphlets and their scoring for educational value. MATERIALS: a sample of 41 documents were retrieved from the Internet using four "search engines". METHODS: characteristics, including country of origin, authorship, length, and presence of references were recorded. Based on factors such as disease summary, treatment options and complications a weighted score was created by two independent observers. RESULTS: eleven documents were published by an academic institution or professional organisation. Twenty-seven documents originated from private practice groups, the source of three was unidentifiable. The median weighted score was 21.5 (interquartile range: 7.5-48.5). Scores originating from non-profit making organisations were significantly higher than those from private practice groups (44.5 vs 13, p=0.04). The length of the document showed a significant positive correlation with its educational quality as measured by the information score (r=0.82, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: there is a plethora of data concerning varicose veins on the Internet. Some documents offer comprehensive information but many are confusing or misleading. Longer pamphlets and information presented by non-profit making organisations are more reliable than short documents and information offered by private medical groups.

Female↗

PubMed2002

Development of a model for prediction of survival in pediatric trauma patients: comparison of artificial neural networks and logistic regression.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: There is a paucity of outcome prediction models for injured children. Using the National Pediatric Trauma Registry (NPTR), the authors developed an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict pediatric trauma death and compared it with logistic regression (LR). METHODS: Patients in the NPTR from 1996 through 1999 were included. Models were generated using LR and ANN. A data search engine was used to generate the ANN with the best fit for the data. Input variables included anatomic and physiologic characteristics. There was a single output variable: probability of death. Assessment of the models was for both discrimination (ROC area under the curve) and calibration (Lemeshow-Hosmer C-Statistic). RESULTS: There were 35,385 patients. The average age was 8.1 +/- 5.1 years, and there were 1,047 deaths (3.0%). Both modeling systems gave excellent discrimination (ROC A(z): LR = 0.964, ANN = 0.961). However, LR had only fair calibration, whereas the ANN model had excellent calibration (L/H C stat: LR = 36, ANN = 10.5). CONCLUSIONS: The authors were able to develop an ANN model for the prediction of pediatric trauma death, which yielded excellent discrimination and calibration exceeding that of logistic regression. This model can be used by trauma centers to benchmark their performance in treating the pediatric trauma population.

Calibration↗

PubMed2000

Forensic web watch 4.

Finding dedicated sites on the World Wide Web (WWW) touching upon issues related to the autopsy which could be of use to forensic practitioners is, as with other areas of forensic medicine and science, a time-consuming task. Unfortunately, one has to wade through lists related to 'Alien autopsy' sites and even 'Furby autopsy' sites that are generated by the most commonly used web search engines, which have been featured in earlier web reviews. Numerous sites containing large archives of autopsy photographs are available on the web. However, many of these sites represent the darker side of the WWW as they are often presented purely for titillation. Unfortunately, one can equate these sites to the modern-day version of the Victorian 'freak show'--Typically, these sites ask for your Visa card number to view their contents, and several have links to pornography sites; one even links to a Satanist site. Luckily a few of these sites do now require age confirmation codes. As many of these sites show autopsy photographs from real cases one has to ask how these were obtained and who is placing them on the WWW. This review does not list any of these sites for obvious reasons, but it does draw the reader's attention to sites touching upon issues related to autopsies which forensic practitioners may wish to visit or use.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Navigating the internet maze.

The 'internet-driven information age' is a term in common usage, implying that everyone can access all the information they need, when they need it. The purpose of this brief paper is to outline some web sources that highlight the possibilities and potential for accessing web-based knowledge. From this the clinician will be encouraged to follow leads along the labyrinth of links to a greater appreciation of how this resource can be used to shape their practice. Examples of web links are provided for: search engines; library-based sources, including medical databases and electronic journals; evidence-based practice databases, mail-groups; electronic conferences; research centres; and general health sources. Importantly, this review does not aspire to be all-inclusive, for the web changes, chameleon-like, to the seasons. The web is here to stay. It will provide the framework for much education and will guide clients to a greater appreciation of their disease or disability than ever before. It may ultimately be the tool through which health fund agents will promote best practice, including self-help to clients, and therefore direct discriminating individuals to select health practitioners who have been endorsed by professional and fund agencies as providing a contemporary service which conforms to evidence-based practice.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Orthopedics in the world wide web: university homepages of the G-7 states].

QUESTIONS: By which criteria can a homepage be evaluated? How is the quality of homepages provided by universities in the field of orthopaedics/traumatology? METHODS: Based on 37 ranking instruments, an optimized list of criteria has been developed. Homepages of orthopaedic and traumatology departments of medical schools in the G7 Nations have been found with help of university homepages and search engines and afterwards were analysed according to previously defined criteria. RESULTS: A list of criteria containing 18 subject areas with 49 questions was developed. 136 homepages were evaluated from October 1998 to April 1999. 15 outstanding homepages were found. The best homepages are from medical schools in the USA and Germany. The most frequent subjects were structure of the department (contained in 85% of the homepages) and education/training (68%). 42 homepages provided medical information, 67% of those homepages provided references (attribution), and 26% provided information about authority and authorship. 46% of all hompages were not updated sufficiently. Out of 125 homepages with an e-mail address 36% responded to an inquiry. Multimedia features such as video, sound or animation were used by 6% of the homepages. CONCLUSION: Apart from few exceptions, homepages of orthopaedic-traumatologic departments of medical schools are still insufficient with regard to quality and quantity, especially regarding medical information for patients and professionals. The developed last of criteria should be helpful in installing a basic standard for homepage quality. The time and effort involved in setting up and servicing a homepage should not be underestimated.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗

PubMed2004

[Quality of guidelines for the treatment of alcohol related disorders -- a systematic review and content analysis].

BACKGROUND: Alcohol related disorders (dependent, harmful or at risk drinking) display a high prevalence in the community. We systematically reviewed and assessed the quality of available guidelines in the context of developing an evidence-based pathway of care for the treatment of those disorders in primary care. METHODS: We searched the internet for guidelines published in English, German, Italian, French or Spanish. The search was performed using the following sources: Internet Search engines, guideline providing agencies via internet, MEDLINE, PsychInfo and Cochrane Library. In addition, national professional societies were contacted to provide existing guidelines. We used a standardized instrument to assess methodological quality in three dimensions using dichotomous items: methodology of guideline development (21 items), content of guideline (17 items) and application (6 items). Each guideline was evaluated independently by two reviewers (MB, SH). Disagreement was documented using a disagreement protocol and resolved by discussion. Results were expressed as percent of total (domain) score. RESULTS: We included 9 published guidelines and 2 drafts. The methodological quality was heterogeneous. The mean quality score was below 50 % of the maximum score. Major flaws were lack of clear grounding in evidence-based medicine, too much information provided, lack of consumer involvement or insufficient involvement of all care providers as well as lack of implementation strategies. The scores of the guidelines published by professional societies for primary care were higher than the others. DISCUSSION: As demonstrated by the identified guidelines, more interdisciplinary panels and evidence-based processes need to be incorporated in the development process of guidelines for the treatment of alcohol related disorders. Our findings suggest that it might be advisable and effective to adapt already available valid and evidence-based guidelines or to collaborate with international working groups for the development of guidelines. There is a strong need for the scientific evaluation of implementation processes.

Alcoholism↗

PubMed2001

Professional information about urinary incontinence on the World Wide Web: is it timely? Is it accurate?

OBJECTIVE: Access to timely and accurate information about urinary continence and incontinence is important to the assessment and treatment of adults with urinary incontinence. The aims of this study were to identify current Web sites containing information about urinary continence that are easily accessible to health care providers and to determine the timeliness and accuracy of the information included on these Web sites. METHODS: The World Wide Web was searched for sites devoted to health care provider information about urinary continence and incontinence. Two external content reviewers evaluated content in terms of timeliness and accuracy. A table outlining each sites credibility, content, and function was constructed. RESULTS: Two hundred sixty-five sites were located, but only 15 met the inclusion criteria. Readability levels ranged from 6.2 to 14.5 years. All sites provided links, and 53% had internal search engines. Most information located was accurate; however, some sites contained dated information. Forty percent of the sites were not dated, and thus determining the currency of the information was impossible. CONCLUSIONS: The World Wide Web is a valuable tool containing state-of-the-art knowledge about urinary continence that WOC nurses can use to educate themselves and others. However, using critical skills to evaluate the information posted on these and any other sites is essential.

Authorship↗

PubMed2004

Improved peptide identification in proteomics by two consecutive stages of mass spectrometric fragmentation.

MS-based proteomics usually involves the fragmentation of tryptic peptides (tandem MS or MS(2)) and their identification by searching protein sequence databases. In ion trap instruments fragments can be further fragmented and analyzed, a process termed MS/MS/MS or MS(3). Here, we report that efficient ion capture in a linear ion trap leads to MS(3) acquisition times and spectra quality similar to those for MS(2) experiments with conventional 3D ion traps. Fragmentation of N- or C-terminal ions resulted in informative and low-background spectra, even at subfemtomol levels of peptide. Typically C-terminal ions are chosen for further fragmentation, and the MS(3) spectrum greatly constrains the C-terminal amino acids of the peptide sequence. MS(3) spectra allow resolution of ambiguities in identification, a crucial problem in proteomics. Because of the sensitivity and rapid scan rates of the linear ion trap, several MS(3) spectra per peptide can be obtained even when sequencing very complex mixtures. We calculate the probability that an experimental MS(3) spectrum originates from fragmentation of a given N- or C-terminal ion of a peptide under consideration. This MS(3) identification score can be combined with the MS(2) scores of the precursor peptide from existing search engines. When MS(3) is performed on the linear ion trap-Fourier transform mass spectrometer combination, accurate peptide masses further increase confidence in peptide identification.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2002

Growing and navigating the small world Web by local content.

Can we model the scale-free distribution of Web hypertext degree under realistic assumptions about the behavior of page authors? Can a Web crawler efficiently locate an unknown relevant page? These questions are receiving much attention due to their potential impact for understanding the structure of the Web and for building better search engines. Here I investigate the connection between the linkage and content topology of Web pages. The relationship between a text-induced distance metric and a link-based neighborhood probability distribution displays a phase transition between a region where linkage is not determined by content and one where linkage decays according to a power law. This relationship is used to propose a Web growth model that is shown to accurately predict the distribution of Web page degree, based on textual content and assuming only local knowledge of degree for existing pages. A qualitatively similar phase transition is found between linkage and semantic distance, with an exponential decay tail. Both relationships suggest that efficient paths can be discovered by decentralized Web navigation algorithms based on textual and/or categorical cues.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

A two-dimensional electrophoresis proteomic reference map and systematic identification of 1367 proteins from a cell suspension culture of the model legume Medicago truncatula.

The proteome of a Medicago truncatula cell suspension culture was analyzed using two-dimensional electrophoresis and nanoscale HPLC coupled to a tandem Q-TOF mass spectrometer (QSTAR Pulsar i) to yield an extensive protein reference map. Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250 was used to visualize more than 1661 proteins, which were excised, subjected to in-gel trypsin digestion, and analyzed using nanoscale HPLC/MS/MS. The resulting spectral data were queried against a custom legume protein database using the MASCOT search engine. A total of 1367 of the 1661 proteins were identified with high rigor, yielding an identification success rate of 83% and 907 unique protein accession numbers. Functional annotation of the M. truncatula suspension cell proteins revealed a complete tricarboxylic acid cycle, a nearly complete glycolytic pathway, a significant portion of the ubiquitin pathway with the associated proteolytic and regulatory complexes, and many enzymes involved in secondary metabolism such as flavonoid/isoflavonoid, chalcone, and lignin biosynthesis. Proteins were also identified from most other functional classes including primary metabolism, energy production, disease/defense, protein destination/storage, protein synthesis, transcription, cell growth/division, and signal transduction. This work represents the most extensive proteomic description of M. truncatula suspension cells to date and provides a reference map for future comparative proteomic and functional genomic studies of the response of these cells to biotic and abiotic stress.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2005

A Heuristic method for assigning a false-discovery rate for protein identifications from Mascot database search results.

MS/MS and database searching has emerged as a valuable technology for rapidly analyzing protein expression, localization, and post-translational modifications. The probability-based search engine Mascot has found widespread use as a tool to correlate tandem mass spectra with peptides in a sequence database. Although the Mascot scoring algorithm provides a probability-based model for peptide identification, the independent peptide scores do not correlate with the significance of the proteins to which they match. Herein, we describe a heuristic method for organizing proteins identified at a specified false-discovery rate using Mascot-matched peptides. We call this method PROVALT, and it uses peptide matches from a random database to calculate false-discovery rates for protein identifications and reduces a complex list of peptide matches to a nonredundant list of homologous protein groups. This method was evaluated using Mascot-identified peptides from a Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigote whole-cell lysate, which was separated by multidimensional LC and analyzed by MS/MS. PROVALT was then compared with the two traditional methods of protein identification when using Mascot, the single peptide score and cumulative protein score methods, and was shown to be superior to both in regards to the number of proteins identified and the inclusion of lower scoring nonrandom peptide matches.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

On the proper use of mass accuracy in proteomics.

Mass measurement is the main outcome of mass spectrometry-based proteomics yet the potential of recent advances in accurate mass measurements remains largely unexploited. There is not even a clear definition of mass accuracy in the proteomics literature, and we identify at least three uses of this term: anecdotal mass accuracy, statistical mass accuracy, and the maximum mass deviation (MMD) allowed in a database search. We suggest using the second of these terms as the generic one. To make the best use of the mass precision offered by modern instruments we propose a series of simple steps involving recalibration of the data on "internal standards" contained in every proteomics data set. Each data set should be accompanied by a plot of mass errors from which the appropriate MMD can be chosen. More advanced uses of high mass accuracy include an MMD that depends on the signal abundance of each peptide. Adapting search engines to high mass accuracy in the MS/MS data is also a high priority. Proper use of high mass accuracy data can make MS-based proteomics one of the most "digital" and accurate post-genomics disciplines.

Mass Spectrometry↗

PubMed2004

Experimental Peptide Identification Repository (EPIR): an integrated peptide-centric platform for validation and mining of tandem mass spectrometry data.

LC MS/MS has become an established technology in proteomic studies, and with the maturation of the technology the bottleneck has shifted from data generation to data validation and mining. To address this bottleneck we developed Experimental Peptide Identification Repository (EPIR), which is an integrated software platform for storage, validation, and mining of LC MS/MS-derived peptide evidence. EPIR is a cumulative data repository where precursor ions are linked to peptide assignments and protein associations returned by a search engine (e.g. Mascot, Sequest, or PepSea). Any number of datasets can be parsed into EPIR and subsequently validated and mined using a set of software modules that overlay the database. These include a peptide validation module, a protein grouping module, a generic module for extracting quantitative data, a comparative module, and additional modules for extracting statistical information. In the present study, the utility of EPIR and associated software tools is demonstrated on LC MS/MS data derived from a set of model proteins and complex protein mixtures derived from MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Emphasis is placed on the key strengths of EPIR, including the ability to validate and mine multiple combined datasets, and presentation of protein-level evidence in concise, nonredundant protein groups that are based on shared peptide evidence.

Breast Neoplasms↗

PubMed2005

An update on master's degrees in medical education.

Planning and implementing educational programs in medicine optimally requires a background in educational theory and practice. An avenue of training open to such practitioners is a master's degree in medical education. A single 1998 report lists the programs known at that time and information about them remains scarce. The authors have re-examined all current programs offering master's degrees in medical or health sciences education in the English-speaking world, including the Netherlands. The authors contacted the programs identified in the 1998 report to establish how many were still in operation. The search was extended using Pubmed and other search engines. A further verification targeted a selected sample of 10 prominent US medical schools. Twenty-one currently operating programs were identified: six in the US, eight in the UK, three in Canada, three in Australia and one in Holland. Seven of nine original master's programs were still in existence. URLs, website and other logistical information about each program are tabled. A master's degree in medical or health sciences education is the most specific method for medical faculty to obtain a credentialed grounding in educational theory and practice. The authors provide up-to-date contact information for current programs and summarize other related essential logistical data.

Curriculum↗