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CYGD: the Comprehensive Yeast Genome Database.

The Comprehensive Yeast Genome Database (CYGD) compiles a comprehensive data resource for information on the cellular functions of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and related species, chosen as the best understood model organism for eukaryotes. The database serves as a common resource generated by a European consortium, going beyond the provision of sequence information and functional annotations on individual genes and proteins. In addition, it provides information on the physical and functional interactions among proteins as well as other genetic elements. These cellular networks include metabolic and regulatory pathways, signal transduction and transport processes as well as co-regulated gene clusters. As more yeast genomes are published, their annotation becomes greatly facilitated using S.cerevisiae as a reference. CYGD provides a way of exploring related genomes with the aid of the S.cerevisiae genome as a backbone and SIMAP, the Similarity Matrix of Proteins. The comprehensive resource is available under http://mips.gsf.de/genre/proj/yeast/.

Binding Sites↗

Future directions for comprehensive public health surveillance and health information systems in the United States.

The authors describe a comprehensive system for public health surveillance for the United States based on a network of data systems ranging from population surveys and physician-based records to electronically linked laboratory and administrative data. They also discuss traditional uses of surveillance data, legal and ethical issues associated with using data from any surveillance system (particularly the tension between individual privacy and the public right to a healthful environment), and factors impeding the development of a comprehensive system. Just as provisional data on notifiable diseases are critical in protecting communities from disease, data from other information systems should be applied to prevention practice with the same urgency. The major barriers to a successful comprehensive, nationwide, integrated public health surveillance and information system are a lack of appreciation for the value of high-quality provisional surveillance data and a weak societal commitment to public health.

Confidentiality↗

Effect of teacher questions on the reading comprehension of deaf children.

We examined the effect of comprehension questions that require analysis, synthesis, and evaluation on the reading comprehension of deaf children. The subjects were six deaf children ranging in age from 10 years, months to 12 years, 5 months. They were divided into four reading groups for the study. Quantitative analysis of the children's responses to comprehension questions indicated that the children could analyze, synthesize, and evaluate narrative text and their ability to do so did not need to be supported by answering questions related to story details. Qualitative analysis indicated that the children had some difficulty with seven reading tasks: locating pertinent information, applying relevant and accurate background knowledge, expressing themselves unambiguously, understanding the intent of the question, not relying too heavily or too little on background knowledge, considering consequential details, and providing sufficient answers.

Journal Article↗

Working memory capacity and comprehension processes in deaf readers.

This research studied deaf students' performance on memory span and component reading tasks that incorporated processes involved in higher level comprehension. The instruments developed in the study provide the basis for the measurement of functional working memory capacity, vocabulary knowledge, domain-relevant knowledge, and inference abilities. Multiple regression analysis was used to construct models that show the contributions of the independent assessments to reading comprehension ability. Overall results suggest that working memory operates as a general executive system, as indicated by significant correlations between subjects' performance on reading and nonreading tasks. Limitations in vocabulary knowledge continue to pose problems in reading for deaf individuals. General or procedural knowledge also plays a part in reading comprehension processes.

Journal Article↗

A comprehensive refugee health screening program.

Nationally and internationally, there is a struggle to provide adequate health screening and assessment programs for refugees. The Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in partnership with the Colorado Refugee Services Program has developed a comprehensive refugee health screening and assessment program. The program was designed to ensure access to screening and to provide better care for this vulnerable population. Key features of the program include a single point of access for all family members, full availability of appropriate interpreting services, comprehensive health assessments that include a thorough mental health screening, data collection and evaluation, and education of health care providers to deliver culturally responsive care. During the first 30 months of this program, comprehensive assessments were provided for more than 1600 refugees. Future directions include improving the efficiency of daily systems, seeking alternative sources of funding, improving follow-up and vaccination rates, expanding mental health services, and tracking health outcomes and refugees' utilization of health care services through longitudinal research.

Colorado↗

Food security issues--a potential comprehensive plan.

The need for a comprehensive plan to protect the food production system has emerged as a critical issue over the last several years. To address this need, a comprehensive food security plan has been developed at Auburn University. The proposed program, entitled the Consolidated American Network for Agriculture Resource Intelligence (CANARI) system is one of several systems being proposed to deal with potential agricultural bioterrorism or agroterrorism events. Unlike other systems, which hastily emerged in many agencies after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the system has been planned over the last 5 yr with the input of the agricultural industries, is comprehensive in its conception, and is designed to coordinate all components (existing and planned) necessary to prevent, detect, and respond to potential agroterrorism events. The plan uses the principle that the first line of defense must be within the states and agricultural companies for the detection of agroterrorism incidents to be rapid and the response effective, organized, and timely. CANARI is designed to integrate the previously disparate elements by fostering a cooperative network of local, state, and federal agencies as well as commodity entities and interested non-governmental organizations. Using a market-driven approach, the system encourages commodity membership and cooperation through positive incentives rather than regulatory duress. A centralized command structure is envisioned, which would be provided through the creation of a National Agroterrorism Defense Center. The responsibility of this Center would be to coordinate all of the activities presently available in components at the local, state, and federal levels and develop and manage new and emerging activities provided by the stakeholders. CANARI offers a new paradigm by which all of its constituent members act collectively and cooperatively to lessen the risk of an attack and better ensure the continued availability of a safe, abundant, and economical food supply.

Agriculture↗

The effect of a comprehensive, intensive inpatient treatment program on lung function and exercise capacity in patients with cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this investigation was to measure the effects of a 10- to 14-day comprehensive, intensive hospital treatment program on peak exercise capacity, endurance capacity, respiratory function, weight change, and maximum inspiratory and expiratory mouth pressures in patients with cystic fibrosis with a pulmonary exacerbation. SUBJECTS: Fourteen young adults with cystic fibrosis admitted to a hospital for an exacerbation of their pulmonary disease were studied. METHODS: Subjects performed pulmonary function tests, inspiratory and expiratory mouth pressure tests, and stationary bicycle exercise tests at admission and discharge. Comprehensive therapy provided during the hospital admission consisted of intravenous antibiotics, physical therapy, high-calorie diet, and daily medical review. RESULTS: The patients showed improvements in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (46%-55% of predicted values) and forced vital capacity (62%-68% of predicted values). Maximum inspiratory and expiratory mouth pressures also improved (118%-131% and 78%-92% of predicted values, respectively). There was a mean weight gain of 2 kg. Maximum work capacity on a bicycle ergometer improved from a mean of 45% to 52% of predicted values. The most impressive result was the marked increase in exercise endurance time from a mean of 9.5 minutes on admission to 16.6 minutes at discharge. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION: This study indicates that young adults with cystic fibrosis and an exacerbation of their pulmonary disease obtain measurable benefits from a comprehensive, intensive treatment program, particularly improvement in their capacity for endurance exercise.

Adolescent↗

Development of audiovisual comprehension skills in prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants.

OBJECTIVE: The present study investigated the development of audiovisual comprehension skills in prelingually deaf children who received cochlear implants. DESIGN: We analyzed results obtained with the Common Phrases (Robbins et al., 1995) test of sentence comprehension from 80 prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants who were enrolled in a longitudinal study, from pre-implantation to 5 years after implantation. RESULTS: The results revealed that prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants performed better under audiovisual (AV) presentation compared with auditory-alone (A-alone) or visual-alone (V-alone) conditions. AV sentence comprehension skills were found to be strongly correlated with several clinical outcome measures of speech perception, speech intelligibility, and language. Finally, pre-implantation V-alone performance on the Common Phrases test was strongly correlated with 3-year postimplantation performance on clinical outcome measures of speech perception, speech intelligibility, and language skills. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that lipreading skills and AV speech perception reflect a common source of variance associated with the development of phonological processing skills that is shared among a wide range of speech and language outcome measures.

Auditory Perception↗

CT characterization of "indeterminate" renal masses: targeted or comprehensive scanning?

PURPOSE: A comprehensive renal mass evaluation CT protocol is usually performed for simultaneous characterization and staging of incidentally discovered renal masses considered indeterminate on ultrasound (US). The purpose of the study was to determine if a comprehensive examination is appropriate in these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors performed a retrospective review of 100 patients (mean age, 61 years) with 102 sonographically indeterminate renal masses and who were referred to undergo CT for lesion characterization. Lesions were classified according to surgical histology or imaging follow-up evaluation. Statistical analysis was performed. RESULTS: Thirteen lesions (12.7%) in 11 (11%) patients (mean age, 59 years) were malignant. Eighty-seven lesions (85.3%) in 87 patients (87%; mean age, 62 years) were benign. Two lesions (1.96%) in two patients (2%) remained indeterminate. CONCLUSION: Although comprehensive renal mass evaluation protocol provides a more thorough patient evaluation, only a small fraction of indeterminate renal masses seen on US are malignant. The authors' results suggest a targeted renal CT imaging protocol for evaluation of indeterminate renal masses incidentally discovered on US.

Adult↗

Syntax comprehension deficits in Parkinson's disease.

The comprehension of 100 different spoken English sentences was studied in 39 patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) using the Rhode Island Test of Language Structure. Eight of the PD patients were mildly demented, and the remaining 31 showed no cognitive deficits. Seven of the eight mildly demented patients had high comprehension error rates for sentences that had moderately complex syntax. The error rates of 28 of the 31 other, nondemented patients were low, similar to those of normal control subjects. The difference between the error rates of the demented and nondemented patients was significant (p less than .02, two-tailed t-test). The data argue against some current "modular" theories that segregate linguistic from other cognitive behavior. The destruction by PD of the midbrain regions that stimulate the frontal cortex may be responsible for both cognitive and syntactic comprehension deficits.

Aged↗

Abdominoplasty and abdominal wall rehabilitation: a comprehensive approach.

Standard abdominoplasty techniques involve a low horizontal or W skin excision, muscle plication, and umbilical transposition. Newer techniques include suction-assisted lipectomy, the use of high lateral tension with fascial suspension, and external oblique muscle advancement. The author has modified these traditional procedures and added new techniques to improve the aesthetic and functional results of the abdominoplasty procedure. This modification provides a comprehensive approach to abdominal wall aesthetic improvement and rehabilitation. The comprehensive approach described includes four components: the "U-M dermolipectomy," "V umbilicoplasty," the rectus abdominis "myofascial release," and suction-assisted lipectomy. The patient is marked while standing for areas of suction lipectomy and undermining. The lower incision is designed as an open U with the lateral limbs placed inside the bikini line. The upper incision is a lazy M with the higher peaks located at the level of the flanks. Subcutaneous hydration is achieved to perform suction along the flanks, waistline, and iliac areas. Gentle suction of the flaps is also performed. The umbilicus is cored out in a heart shape. The flaps within the U-M marks are excised, and the undermining is performed to the xiphoid and costal margins. The rectus diastasis is marked, and the anterior rectus fascia is incised at the junction of the medial third with the central third of the width of the rectus sheath. Horizontal figure-eight plication sutures by using the lateral fascial edge enable easier infolding of the central tissue. The new recipient of the umbilicus is made by an incision in a V shape on the abdominal flap. The umbilicus is telescoped, and the triangular flap of the abdomen is sutured to the triangular defect of the umbilicus. Skin flap fixation to the umbilicus relieves tension in the lower portion of the flap. The upper skin flap, which is cut in an M manner, provides lateral tension and matches the length of the lower flap. A standard fascial suspension is used and closure is performed in layers. The techniques described here are intertwined procedures. Each facilitates the accomplishment of the other procedure, and they complement each other. They all attain the 12 objectives of the abdominoplasty described. These combined techniques have been used in 104 patients in a period of 11 years. Complications were minimal and easily manageable, except for one patient who required excision of a pseudobursa and retightening of the lower quadrants of the abdominal wall musculature to correct extreme lordosis. A comprehensive approach for the treatment of complex abdominal wall aesthetic and functional defects is presented. These require thoughtful integration of the four components mentioned. This approach has allowed predictable, reproducible, and aesthetically pleasing results.

Abdominal Muscles↗

Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation improves the control of dyslipidemia in secondary prevention.

BACKGROUND: Secondary prevention is an important goal of cardiac rehabilitation in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Dyslipidemia is one of the major risk factors that is important to control to reduce the incidence of future ischemic coronary events. The aim of the present study was to assess whether control of dyslipidemia, in secondary prevention, could be improved by a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation program. METHODS: Fifty-two newly diagnosed hyperlipidemic men, who had experienced a recent CHD event, were separated in two equal groups of 26 patients: group CR+, in which patients were included in a 2-month cardiac rehabilitation program including an extensive educational program on cardiovascular risk factors, lipids, and diet, and group CR-without any cardiac rehabilitation. Mean age, body mass index, initial levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and LDL/HDL ratio were not significantly different between the 2 groups. In both groups, each patient was referred to a dietitian and to the same lipidologist to start an appropriate hypolipidemic treatment. Treatment of coronary event, type of hyperlipidemia, and hypolipidemic treatment were not different between the two groups. RESULTS: Lipid measurements, performed 3 months after the beginning of the hypolipidemic treatment, showed that patients from the CR+ group, compared with those from the CR-group, had a significantly greater reduction of total cholesterol (23% versus 13%; P < 0.001), of LDL cholesterol (28% versus 12%; P < 0.001), of LDL/HDL ratio (34% versus 13%; P < 0.01) and of triglycerides (33% versus 21%; P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with CHD included in a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation program showed a significantly better response to the hypolipidemic treatment than patients without cardiac rehabilitation. These results could be attributable to the extensive educational program on secondary prevention performed during cardiac rehabilitation, leading to optimized knowledge on lipid-lowering diet and to improved diet and drug adherence. A secondary prevention educational program must be an important part of any comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation program in patients with CHD.

Adult↗

A comprehensive Laboratory Services Survey of State Public Health Laboratories.

In November 2004, the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) conducted a Comprehensive Laboratory Services Survey of State Public Health Laboratories (SPHLs) in order to establish the baseline data necessary for Healthy People 2010 Objective 23-13. This objective aims to measure the increase in the proportion of health agencies that provide or assure access to comprehensive laboratory services to support essential public health services. This assessment addressed only SPHLs and served as a baseline to periodically evaluate the level of improvement in the provision of laboratory services over the decade ending 2010. The 2004 survey used selected questions that were identified as key indicators of provision of comprehensive laboratory services. The survey was developed in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics, based on newly developed data sources. Forty-seven states and one territory responded to the survey. The survey was based on the 11 core functions of SPHLs as previously defined by APHL. The range of performance among individual laboratories for the 11 core functions (subobjectives) reflects the challenging issues that have confronted SPHLs in the first half of this decade. APHL is now working on a coordinated effort with other stakeholders to create seamless state and national systems for the provision of laboratory services in support of public health programs. These services are necessary to help face the threats raised by the specter of terrorism, emerging infections, and natural disasters.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.↗

Comprehensive cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 Tesla: feasibility and implications for clinical applications.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the applicability of high magnetic field strengths for comprehensive functional and structural cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Eighteen subjects underwent comprehensive cardiac MRI at 1.5 T and 3.0 T. The following imaging techniques were implemented: double and triple inversion prepared FSE for anatomic imaging, 4 different sets of echocardiographic-gated CINE strategies for functional and flow imaging, inversion prepared gradient echo for delayed enhancement imaging, T1-weighted segmented EPI for perfusion imaging and 2-dimensional (2-D) spiral, and volumetric SSFP for coronary artery imaging. RESULTS: : Use of 3 Tesla as opposed to 1.5 Tesla provided substantial baseline signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) improvements for anatomic (T1-weighted double IR: DeltaSNR = 29%, DeltaCNR = 20%, T2-weighted double IR: DeltaSNR = 39%, DeltaCNR = 33%, triple IR: DeltaSNR = 74%, DeltaCNR = 60%), functional (conventional CINE: DeltaSNR = 123%, DeltaCNR = 74%, accelerated CINE: DeltaSNR = 161%, DeltaCNR = 86%), myocardial tagging (DeltaSNRsystole = 54%, DeltaCNRsystole = 176%), phase contrast flow measurements (DeltaSNR = 79%), viability (DeltaSNR = 48%, DeltaCNR = 40%), perfusion (DeltaSNR = 109%, DeltaCNR = 87%), and breathhold coronary imaging (2-D spiral: DeltaSNRRCA = 54%, DeltaCNRRCA = 69%, 3-D SSFP: DeltaSNRRCA = 60%, DeltaCNRRCA = 126%), but also revealed image quality issues, which were successfully tackled by adiabatic radiofrequency pulses and parallel imaging. CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac MRI at 3.0 T is feasible for the comprehensive assessment of cardiac morphology and function, although SAR limitations and susceptibility effects remain a concern. The need for speed together with the SNR benefit at 3.0 T will motivate further advances in routine cardiac MRI while providing an image-quality advantage over imaging at 1.5 Tesla.

Adult↗

CoDIAC: A comprehensive approach for interaction analysis reveals novel insights into SH2 domain function and regulation.

Protein domains are conserved structural and functional units that serve as building blocks of proteins. Through evolutionary expansion, domain families are represented by multiple members in diverse configurations with other domains, evolving new specificities for their interacting partners. Here, we develop a structure-based interface analysis to comprehensively map domain interfaces from experimental and predicted structures, including interfaces with macromolecules and intraprotein interfaces. We hypothesized that comprehensive contact mapping of domains could yield new insights into domain selectivity, conservation of domain-domain interfaces across proteins, and identify conserved post-translational modifications (PTMs), relative to interaction interfaces, allowing for the inference of specific effects due to PTMs or mutations. We applied this approach to the human SH2 domain family, a modular unit central to phosphotyrosine-mediated signaling, identifying a novel approach to understanding binding selectivity and evidence of coordinated regulation of SH2 domain binding interfaces by tyrosine and serine/threonine phosphorylation and acetylation. These findings suggest multiple signaling systems can regulate protein activity and SH2 domain interactions in a coordinated manner. We provide the extensive features of the human SH2 domain family and this modular approach as an open source Python package for COmprehensive Domain Interface Analysis of Contacts (CoDIAC).

SH2 domains↗

Fingerprint matching based on global comprehensive similarity.

This paper introduces a novel algorithm based on global comprehensive similarity with three steps. To describe the Euclidean space-based relative features among minutiae, we first build a minutia-simplex that contains a pair of minutiae as well as their associated textures, with its transformation-variant and invariant relative features employed for the comprehensive similarity measurement and parameter estimation, respectively. By the second step, we use the ridge-based nearest neighborhood among minutiae to represent the ridge-based relative features among minutiae. With these ridge-based relative features, minutiae are grouped according to their affinity with a ridge. The Euclidean space-based and ridge-based relative features among minutiae reinforce each other in the representation of a fingerprint. Finally, we model the relationship between transformation and the comprehensive similarity between two fingerprints in terms of histogram for initial parameter estimation. Through these steps, our experiment shows that the method mentioned above is both effective and suitable for limited memory AFIS owing to its less than 1k byte template size.

Algorithms↗

Event-related brain potentials reflect discourse-referential ambiguity in spoken language comprehension.

In two experiments, we explored the use of event-related brain potentials to selectively track the processes that establish reference during spoken language comprehension. Subjects listened to stories in which a particular noun phrase like "the girl" either uniquely referred to a single referent mentioned in the earlier discourse, or ambiguously referred to two equally suitable referents. Referentially ambiguous nouns ("the girl" with two girls introduced in the discourse context) elicited a frontally dominant and sustained negative shift in brain potentials, emerging within 300-400 ms after acoustic noun onset. The early onset of this effect reveals that reference to a discourse entity can be established very rapidly. Its morphology and distribution suggest that at least some of the processing consequences of referential ambiguity may involve an increased demand on memory resources. Furthermore, because this referentially induced ERP effect is very different from that of well-known ERP effects associated with the semantic (N400) and syntactic (e.g., P600/SPS) aspects of language comprehension, it suggests that ERPs can be used to selectively keep track of three major processes involved in the comprehension of an unfolding piece of discourse.

Adult↗

Problems of comprehension of medical education vocabulary.

Medical teachers' understanding of the vocabulary of medical education has been studied by asking a group of medical teachers whether they understood twenty-two commonly used and important medical educational terms, and whether they could distinguish between the terms. All the words presented some problem of comprehension and the majority of respondents found difficulty with approximately one-third of the terms. This poor comprehension of the vocabulary of medical education is a problem in the communication process necessary to the practice of medical teaching and the encouragement of learning. Authors of medical education reports and articles should be aware of the difficulties in comprehension. The provision of a dictionary of medical education terms would be useful as a reference source and as a reservoir of definitions to be included in published reports and articles.

Communication↗