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At least 937 records · Page 52Linked to original sources

PubMed1997

Increased parenteral nutrition calcium and phosphorus for very-low-birth-weight infants using computer software assisted ordering.

BACKGROUND: Providing adequate calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) in an appropriate ratio to preterm very-low-birth-weight (VLBW: BW < 1500 g) infants receiving parenteral nutrition (PN) is difficult because Ca:P solubility in PN is relatively low. Computer software assisted ordering (CSAO) was developed to integrate PN Ca:P solubility with clinical data to improve parenteral Ca and P administration. Our hypothesis was that CSAO would improve the system of designing PN by increasing the amount of Ca and P ordered without Ca:P precipitation. METHODS: Control PN orders were designed using proprietary preprinted PN forms which incorporated predefined PN Ca and P concentrations to prevent precipitation, independent of patient Ca or P administration. CSAO assessed total daily fluids and correlated parenteral volume with Ca:P solubility during order entry to recommend daily Ca and P doses. PN orders which provided > or = 80% of total nutrition volume as PN were analyzed. RESULTS: PN was designed with more Ca (60.3 +/- 16.7 mg/k/day, mean +/- 1 SD) and P (32.8 +/- 13.9 mg/k/day) using CSAO compared to control group Ca (50.0 +/- 17.1 mg/k/day) and P (25.1 +/- 9.1 mg/k/day), both Ca and P, p < 0.001, CSAO provided > or = 80% of the minimum recommended daily Ca in 82% of PN orders compared to 51% of the control orders, p < 0.001. No PN mixture demonstrated Ca:P precipitation. CONCLUSION: The system of designing PN was improved using computer software assisted ordering indicated by increased PN Ca and P content without Ca:P precipitation.

Calcium↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Applying total quality management techniques to improve software development.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a new management philosophy and a set of guiding principles that represent the basis of a continuously improving organization. This paper sheds light on the application of TQM concepts for software development. A fieldwork study was conducted on a Lebanese software development firm and its customers to determine the major problems affecting the organization's operation and to assess the level of adoption of TQM concepts. Detailed questionnaires were prepared and handed out to the firm's managers, programmers, and customers. The results of the study indicate many deficiencies in applying TQM concepts, especially in the areas of planning, defining customer requirements, teamwork, relationship with suppliers, and adopting standards and performance measures. One of the major consequences of these deficiencies is considerably increased programming errors and delays in delivery. Recommendations on achieving quality are discussed.

Consumer Behavior↗

PubMed2002

The components of the "critical quartet" log Kow values assessed by four commercial software packages.

Partition coefficient (log Kow) values of 103 compounds in four different solvent-water systems (alkane-water, octanol-water, chloroform-water and propylene glycol dipelargonate (PGDP)-water--the "critical quartet") were published by Leahy et al. (1992). J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. 2, pp. 723-731. They used the Abraham LSER (linear solvation energy relationship) descriptors to model the log Kow values in the four systems. The calculation of Abraham LSER descriptors has now been computerized in the ABSOLV program, and we have used ABSOLV, and three other commercial software packages (HYBOT-PLUS, Molecular Modeling Pro and QsarIS) that calculate descriptors of similar classes, to model partitioning in the four solvent-water systems. Stepwise regression selected broadly similar types of descriptor from each software package to model logKow values in each solvent-water system. Overall, HYBOT-PLUS gave the best results. The rĵle of the various classes of descriptor (size, polarity, polarizability, hydrogen bonding) in modeling partitioning in the four different solvent-water systems is discussed.

Forecasting↗

PubMed2006

A software framework for the development of Web-based medical education using learning object classes.

A software framework for the development of Web-based medical education is proposed. The objective is to optimize the development process by introducing Learning Objects (LO) and Learning Object Classes (LO Classes) so that the content preparation can be separated from the educational issues, ergonomic design, and technical realization. Based on the concept of case-based, problem-oriented education, different learning scenarios were analysed and then modelled as different LOs. These LOs can be further abstracted in several reusable LO Classes that represent certain patterns of content structure, pedagogical concept, and user interface. With the help of LO input templates, the educational material can be prepared by the authors in the authoring process easily and appropriately. An LO content management system was developed to store and maintain different LOs and to generate the Web-presentation of LOs adaptively and dynamically in the tutoring process. This software framework has been applied to the exemplary development of an interactive course in orthopaedics. The LOs and LO Classes also help to maintain consistency of the course representation to users. As a result, more efficiency in the development phase and good usability and quality of the end products can be achieved.

Education, Medical↗

PubMed2004

Analyzing irregular working hours: lessons learned in the development of RAS 1.0--The Representation and Analysis Software.

Actual working hours of employees vary widely, especially in the transportation industry. We developed a tool, the RAS (Representation and Analysis Software), to ease the assessment of such irregular hours and the transfer of existing knowledge of proper schedule design to the problem of irregular hours. This article discusses several critical design questions that were addressed during software development in order for it to assess irregular work patterns, including the (1) importance, in spite of a lack of established definitions, of basic concepts like, e.g., night shift, (2) difficulty of modeling and adapting existing knowledge on proper design, and (3) large number of analytical methods and additional data beyond company schedule that are necessary to meet the needs of various research groups. This article describes how the RAS addresses these three issues by illustrating its application to the work schedule of a train driver involved in the Hinton train disaster.

Employment↗

PubMed1990

A comparison of infection control software for use by hospital epidemiologists in meeting the new JCAHO standards.

To choose a microcomputer software package for our hospital epidemiology division, the two leading commercial software packages for infection control, AICE (ICPA, Inc., Austin, Texas) and NOS0-3 (Epi Systematics, Inc., Ft. Meyers, Florida), were compared for the types of epidemiologic analysis likely to be required to satisfy new Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) 1990 Infection Control Standards. The test dataset was a surgical database of 3,235 operations with 292 (9%) wound infections. Though NOSO-3 was more flexible in terms of the amount of data items one could record, it required seven times longer to learn, nine times more disk space to store and two times as long to enter cases than AICE. Six simple infection control reports (i.e., line listings, crosstabulations, stratified rates and graphs) required only seven computing steps and approximately 11 minutes to process with AICE, but 22 steps and over two hours with NOSO-3. All analytic results from AICE agreed with the results obtained with the Statistical Analysis System (SAS, SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, North Carolina), but analyses such as service-specific rates performed with NOSO-3 differed because of a design flaw in the NOSO-3 data structure.

Cross Infection↗

PubMed1998

A software program to calculate Goodman and Kruskal's gamma: a method to monitor surgical-site infection rates.

Several studies have described a need for a valid statistical methodology to facilitate interhospital and intrahospital infection rates for their operative procedures. Physician awareness of postoperative surgical-site infection rates has been demonstrated as an effective means to reduce infection rates in both high- and low-risk surgical patients. This article presents a new software program that allows for simple data entry and provides results including the gamma statistic, sample size, variance, standard error, and Z value and P value of the gamma result. This software also provides a data interpretation table, allowing infectious disease department physicians or staff to determine if a significant relation exists between operative procedure infection rates and patient risk factors.

Hospitals↗

PubMed2004

Using the European Community Radon Software to estimate the individual health benefits of a domestic radon remediation programme.

Radon can be present in domestic properties at high enough levels to pose a health risk. Such levels can usually be reduced by simple means. Studies on a group of radon-remediated homes in Northamptonshire, a radon affected area, have estimated the health benefits and cost effectiveness from remediation and have shown that remediation can be justified. These assessments have been based on collective population-average risk coefficients. The advent of the European Community Radon Software (ECRS) permits the consideration of individual risk. In particular, it can take into account individual smoking habits, which significantly affect risk, as current scientific opinion is that risks from radon and smoking are multiplicative. This note indicates how the software can be used, and the usefulness of this approach.

Air Pollution, Radioactive↗

PubMed1993

First experiences with a multichannel software gradiometer recording normal and tangential components of MEG.

We describe a 28-channel magnetometer that operates as a 22-channel 'software gradiometer'. Gradiometer function is achieved by subtraction of weighted signals representing the noise field along three orthogonal axes as detected by six compensation channels. The instrument measures both normal and tangential field components; the user can select a total of 22 normal and/or tangential measuring sites from two arrays of 16 sites each. First experiences indicate that the combination of a shielded room with a software suppression of the residual field entering the room is amply sufficient to allow biomagnetic measurements in a hospital environment.

Brain Mapping↗

PubMed2003

A software tool for specifying voxel models for dosimetry estimation.

Many dose estimation problems can be conveniently formulated in terms of finding the energy emitted and absorbed by a set of homogeneous volume elements (voxels) arranged in a rectilinear grid. The solution of these problems requires an accurate model of the source and target geometry to be established, whereupon conventional Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport can be employed to determine energy deposition. A software application ("MrVoxel") has been developed to assist in the specification of the source and target models. This application includes tools for image segmentation and image registration (2D and 3D, intra- and inter-modality, interactive, and automatic). It employs a plug-in architecture to facilitate customization and future expansion: plug-ins can be written to perform image import and export as well as to implement specialized image processing routines. Using plug-ins, the package can, for example, import DICOM 3.10 files and export input files for a voxel-based Monte Carlo package. Standard dosimetric tools such as the geometric mean method, transmission based attenuation correction, and MIRD-style voxel dose kernel convolution are also implemented as plug-ins. MrVoxel was implemented on a Macintosh computer using a commercial software framework to produce a conventional document-centric application. Hence it includes useful features such as the ability to undo an operation or to save a processed image set at any point. This latter feature enables the production of a processing trail, to allow post-hoc auditing of the analysis process. This paper describes the MrVoxel application and its role in the analysis of a particular dosimetry problem.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2003

Who is downloading the free AIDA v4.3a interactive educational diabetes computer software? A 1-year survey of 3864 downloads.

AIDA is a free diabetes computer program that permits the interactive simulation of plasma insulin and blood glucose profiles for educational, demonstration, self-learning, and research purposes. To date over 70000 copies of the software have been downloaded from the AIDA Website, www.2aida.org. This column documents a survey of downloaders of the latest release of the program (AIDA v4.3a). The Internet-based survey methodology was confirmed to be robust and reliable. Over a 1-year period (from March 2001 to February 2002) in total 3864 responses were received. During the corresponding period some 8578 actual downloads of the software were independently logged via the same route at the AIDA Website, giving a response rate for this survey of 45%. Responses were received from participants in 66 countries - over half of these (n = 2,137; 55.3%) were from the United States and the United Kingdom. There were 2318 responses (60.0%) received from patients with diabetes and 443 (11.5%) from relatives of patients, with fewer responses from doctors, students, diabetes educators, nurses, pharmacists, and other end users. This study highlights considerable interest amongst patients and their relatives to learn more about balancing insulin and diet in diabetes, as well as possibly to get more involved in self-management of insulin dosages. More computer applications that can cater for this interest in diabetes patient self-care need to be developed and made available. The Internet provides an ideal medium for the distribution of such educational tools.

Blood Glucose↗

PubMed2006

Marginal modeling of nonnested multilevel data using standard software.

Epidemiologic data are often clustered within multiple levels that may not be nested within each other. Generalized estimating equations are commonly used to adjust for correlation among observations within clusters when fitting regression models; however, standard software does not currently accommodate nonnested clusters. This paper introduces a simple generalized estimating equation strategy that uses available commercial or public software for the regression analysis of nonnested multilevel data. The authors describe how to obtain empirical standard error estimates for constructing valid confidence intervals and conducting statistical hypothesis tests. The method is evaluated using simulations and illustrated with an analysis of data from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium that estimates the influence of woman, radiologist, and facility characteristics on the positive predictive value of screening mammography. Performance with a small number of clusters is discussed. Both the simulations and the example demonstrate the importance of accounting for the correlation within all levels of clustering for proper inference.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Computer software for pharmacy oncology services.

A computer program designed to manage the informational, clinical, and data requirements for a pharmacy oncology service is described. Specialized pharmacy oncology software was developed at Rhode Island Hospital and implemented in a multihospital, integrated health system. The software performs various safety functions, supplies on-screen access to pertinent drug and patient information, manages data, and assists in the product formulation process. The programmed safeguards can be modified to meet changing requirements. The system has been in use for more than seven years and has helped detect prescribing errors and prevent preparation and administration errors. A pharmacy oncology computer program streamlines pharmacists' work and helps prevent errors in antineoplastic drug therapy.

Clinical Pharmacy Information Systems↗

PubMed2004

Evaluation of personal digital assistant software for drug interactions.

PURPOSE: The accuracy, comprehensiveness, and ease of use of drug interaction software used with personal digital assistants (PDAs) were studied. METHODS: Each program was assessed for accuracy using 40 clinically important and 40 clinically unimportant drug interaction pairs. Accuracy was scored through the summation of software sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values. The comprehensiveness of each program was determined by the number of components in the drug interaction monograph. Time needed to identify the management of five important drug interactions defined each program's ease of use. The aggregate scores for accuracy, comprehensiveness, and ease of use were calculated. RESULTS: Scoring 777 and 756 out of a possible 800 points, iFacts and Lexi-lnteract, respectively, provided the most competent, complete, use-friendly compendia for assessment of drug interactions. Mosby's Drug Consult and Mobile Micromedex ranked third and fourth, scoring 688 and 655 points, respectively, while ePocrates Rx v. 6.0 rated seventh, with a score of 559. All drug interaction resources suffer from limitations in the quality or relevance of evidence for the interaction, an absence of identifiable patient and medication risk factors, and a lack of standardization in assigning significance to the interaction. Consequently, clinicians must interpret the importance of the interaction based on all available evidence. Discussion of such evidence was available for only iFacts and Lexi-Interact. CONCLUSION: Both iFacts and Lexi-Interact excelled as PDA pharmacopoeia for assessing drug interactions. However, clinicians should understand the limitations of all current drug interaction resources and exercise vigilance in prevention and recognition of interactions relevant to their patients.

Computers, Handheld↗

PubMed2000

Proteomic databases and software on the web.

In the wake of sequencing projects, protein function analysis is evolving fast, from the careful design of assays that address specific questions to 'large-scale' proteomics technologies that yield proteome-wide maps of protein expression or interaction. As these new technologies depend heavily on information storage, representation and analysis, existing databases and software tools are being adapted, while new resources are emerging. This paper describes the proteomics databases and software available through the World-Wide Web, focusing on their present use and applicability. As the resource situation is highly transitory, trends and probable evolutions are discussed whenever applicable.

Computational Biology↗

PubMed1994

Automat: a novel software system for the systematic search for protein (or DNA) similarities with a notable application to autoimmune diseases and AIDS.

Automat is a novel program which finds exhaustively all the oligopeptide segments shared by a given protein of any size with the proteins of a whole databank. It allows the user to collect statistics on the composition of the sequence studied in reference to the databank used. We present here the rationale and the algorithm underlying this powerful software. Besides its immediate interest for identifying efficiently similarities between proteins (or DNAs), biological applications of this software have already been described in the case of HIV-1 viral proteins, and Automat should prove useful also for studying more generally autoimmune diseases.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

PubMed1995

NUPARM and NUCGEN: software for analysis and generation of sequence dependent nucleic acid structures.

Software packages NUPARM and NUCGEN, are described, which can be used to understand sequence directed structural variations in nucleic acids, by analysis and generation of non-uniform structures. A set of local inter basepair parameters (viz. tilt, roll, twist, shift, slide and rise) have been defined, which use geometry and coordinates of two successive basepairs only and can be used to generate polymeric structures with varying geometries for each of the 16 possible dinucleotide steps. Intra basepair parameters, propeller, buckle, opening and the C6...C8 distance can also be varied, if required, while the sugar phosphate backbone atoms are fixed in some standard conformation in each of the nucleotides. NUPARM can be used to analyse both DNA and RNA structures, with single as well as double stranded helices. The NUCGEN software generates double helical models with the backbone fixed in B-form DNA, but with appropriate modifications in the input data, it can also generate A-form DNA and RNA duplex structures.

Base Composition↗

PubMed2000

JESAM: CORBA software components to create and publish EST alignments and clusters.

MOTIVATION: Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) are cheap, easy and quick to obtain relative to full genomic sequencing and currently sample more eukaryotic genes than any other data source. They are particularly useful for developing Sequence Tag Sites (STSs for mapping), polymorphism discovery, disease gene hunting, mass spectrometer proteomics, and most ironically for finding genes and predicting gene structure after the great effort of genomic sequencing. However, ESTs have many problems and the public EST databases contain all the errors and high redundancy intrinsic to the submitted data so it is often found that derived database views, which reduce both errors and redundancy, are more effective starting points for research than the original raw submissions. Existing derived views such as EST cluster databases and consensus databases have never published supporting evidence or intermediary results leading to difficulties trusting, correcting, and customizing the final published database. These difficulties have lead many groups to wastefully repeat the complex intermediary work of others in order to offer slightly different final views. A better approach might be to discover the most expensive common calculations used by all the approaches and then publish all intermediary results. Given a globally accessible database with a suitable component interface, like the JESAM software described in this paper, the creation of customized EST-derived databases could be achieved with minimum effort. RESULTS: Databases of EST and full-length mRNA sequences for four model organisms have been self-compared by searching for overlaps consistent with contiguity. The sequence comparisons are performed in parallel using a PVM process farm and previous results are stored to allow incremental updates with minimal effort. The overlap databases have been published with CORBA interfaces to enable flexible global access as demonstrated by example Java applet browsers. Simple cDNA supercluster databases built as alignment database clients are themselves published via CORBA interfaces browsable with prototypical applets. A comparison with UniGene Mouse and Rat databases revealed undesirable features in both and the advantages of contrasting perspectives on complex data. AVAILABILITY: The software is packaged as two Jar files available from: URL: http://corba.ebi.ac.uk/EST/jesam/jesam. html. One jar contains all the Java source code, and the other contains all the C, C++ and IDL code. Links to working examples of the alignment and cluster viewers (if remote firewall permits) can be found at http://corba.ebi.ac.uk/EST. All the Washington University mouse EST traces are available for browsing at the same URL.

Animals↗