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PubMed2003

Automated crystallographic system for high-throughput protein structure determination.

High-throughput structural genomic efforts require software that is highly automated, distributive and requires minimal user intervention to determine protein structures. Preliminary experiments were set up to test whether automated scripts could utilize a minimum set of input parameters and produce a set of initial protein coordinates. From this starting point, a highly distributive system was developed that could determine macromolecular structures at a high throughput rate, warehouse and harvest the associated data. The system uses a web interface to obtain input data and display results. It utilizes a relational database to store the initial data needed to start the structure-determination process as well as generated data. A distributive program interface administers the crystallographic programs which determine protein structures. Using a test set of 19 protein targets, 79% were determined automatically.

Automation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Scalable WIM: effective exploration in large-scale astrophysical environments.

Navigating through large-scale virtual environments such as simulations of the astrophysical Universe is difficult. The huge spatial range of astronomical models and the dominance of empty space make it hard for users to travel across cosmological scales effectively, and the problem of wayfinding further impedes the user's ability to acquire reliable spatial knowledge of astronomical contexts. We introduce a new technique called the scalable world-in-miniature (WIM) map as a unifying interface to facilitate travel and wayfinding in a virtual environment spanning gigantic spatial scales: Power-law spatial scaling enables rapid and accurate transitions among widely separated regions; logarithmically mapped miniature spaces offer a global overview mode when the full context is too large; 3D landmarks represented in the WIM are enhanced by scale, positional, and directional cues to augment spatial context awareness; a series of navigation models are incorporated into the scalable WIM to improve the performance of travel tasks posed by the unique characteristics of virtual cosmic exploration. The scalable WIM user interface supports an improved physical navigation experience and assists pragmatic cognitive understanding of a visualization context that incorporates the features of large-scale astronomy.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2006

Nursing and midwifery research in Scotland: from partnership to collaboration.

Nurses and midwives form the workforce that provides the greatest proportion of direct care to service users. They have the ability to make a significant impact not only on the quality and outcomes of patient care, but also on service users' and carers' perceptions of the care experience. It is therefore vital that nursing and midwifery practice has a robust knowledge and evidence base. The Scottish Executive Health Department, in partnership with other key stakeholders, launched in 2004 an 8 million pounds funding package for research and development capacity and capability initiatives for nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions. This article seeks to describe the process of engagement and partnership building that enabled this scheme to be developed. It will attempt to illustrate how the convergence of political, policy and professional agendas has provided the opportunity for nurses and midwives to set a direction of travel for research and development that will enable them to become key players within multidisciplinary research at United Kingdom and international levels.

Cooperative Behavior↗

PubMed2006

Validation of a colonoscopy simulation model for skills assessment.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose is to provide initial validation of a novel simulation model's fidelity and ability to assess competence in colonoscopy skills. METHODS: In a prospective, cross-sectional design, each of 39 endoscopists (13 staff, 13 second year fellows, and 13 novices) performed a colonoscopy on a novel bovine simulation model. Staff endoscopists also completed a survey examining different aspects of the model's realism as compared to human colonoscopy. The groups' simulation performances were compared. Additionally, individual performances were correlated to patient-based performance data. RESULTS: Median model realism evaluation scores were favorable for nearly all parameters evaluated with mucosa appearance, endoscopic view, and paradoxical motion parameters receiving the highest scores. During simulation procedures, each group outperformed the less experienced groups in all parameters evaluated. Specifically, median cecal intubation times were: staff 226 s (IQR [interquartile range] 179-273), fellows 340 s (282-568), and novices 1,027 s (970-1,122) (P < 0.05). Median total procedure times on the model were: staff 468 s (416-501), fellows 527 s (459-824), and novices 1,350 s (1,318-1,428) (P < 0.05). Finally, individual cecal intubation times on the simulation model had a very high correlation to their respective patient-based times (r = 0.764). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this model possesses a favorable degree of realism and is able to easily differentiate users based on their level of colonoscopy experience. More impressive, however, is the strong correlation between individual's simulated intubation times and actual patient-based colonoscopy data. In light of these findings, we speculate that this model has potential to be an effective tool for assessment of colonoscopic competence.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Effects of nicotine in a bimodal attention task.

Fifteen male users of oral snuff participated in an experiment where we used an auditory-visual vigilance task to study nicotine effects on P300 and response parameters. Quantitative EEG was also studied. Fifteen male nonusers served as controls. We found some decrease of response times and a tendency towards improved signal detection. P300 parameters were not affected in this study. Quantitative EEG analysis indicated an expected increase of arousal, as the activity within the alpha band shifted towards higher frequencies.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

An introduction to the practice, prevalence and chemical toxicology of volatile substance abuse.

1. Volatile substance abuse is largely a teenage practice; it is estimated that in the UK 3.5-10% of young people have at least experimented and that 0.5-1% are current users. 2. The products abused are many and varied but only about 20 chemical compounds, notably toluene, chlorinated solvents such as 1,1,1-trichloroethane, fuel gases such as butane and aerosol propellants, are commonly encountered. 3. The acute hazard varies with the compound, product and mode of abuse. Mortality in the UK is now about 100 per year, from all social classes, 90% of whom are male. 4. Chronic toxicity is difficult to assess, partly because of the diversity of products abused. However it is clear that some long-term abusers suffer permanent damage to the central nervous system, heart, liver and kidney. 5. Toxicological analysis may be relied upon for confirmation of diagnosis, providing attention is paid to the kinetics of excretion and stability in the sample. 6. Responses include codes of practice for the sale of products and educational strategies; legislation has also been enacted. There is little evidence that any of these measures have made a significant impact on the problem.

Adhesives↗

PubMed2004

An evaluation of dependency assessment: experiences of staff, patients and carers in a UK hospice.

AIM: To evaluate the experiences of health-care professionals, service users and carers of service users from a UK hospice in relation to dependency assessment. DESIGN: Qualitative evaluation. SAMPLE: Purposive, convenience sample of hospice staff, patients receiving hospice services and carers of patients receiving hospice services. METHODS: Focus group interviews with hospice staff and carers of hospice service users. Individual interviews with patients. RESULTS: Staff felt the tool used produced inaccurate results, in part because of omissions in content. They did not perceive the data produced affected working practice, e.g. staffing levels. Patients described unobtrusive assessment and stated their needs were met. Carers reported feelings of isolation. They also described differing information and support needs from the patients. CONCLUSION: Further research is required to improve the validity of dependency data collection. Further investigation of carer assessment is also justified.

Aged↗

PubMed1989

Linguistic encoding in short-term memory as a function of stimulus type.

In this study, we investigated bases for encoding linguistic stimuli in short-term memory. Past research has provided evidence for both phonological (sound-based) and cherological (sign-based) encoding, the former typically found with hearing subjects and the latter with deaf users of sign language. In the present experiment, encoding capabilities were delineated from encoding preferences, using 58 subjects comprising six groups differing in hearing ability and linguistic experience. Phonologically related, cherologically related, and control lists were presented orally, manually, or through both modalities simultaneously. Recall performance indicated that individuals encode flexibly, the code actually used being biased by incoming stimulus characteristics. Subjects with both sign and speech experience recalled simultaneous presentations better than ones presented orally or manually alone, which reveals the occurrence of enhanced encoding as a function of linguistic experience. Total linguistic experience appeared to determine recall accuracy following different types of encoding, rather than determining the encoding basis used.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Automated external defibrillators: technical considerations and clinical promise.

Early defibrillation is the most important determinant of survival for victims of cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation. The automated external defibrillator (AED) was developed as the result of the American Heart Association's Public Access Defibrillation initiative. The goal of this initiative is to place AEDs in strategic locations so that laypersons with minimal training could promptly defibrillate victims of cardiac arrest. Because of changes in design and the use of alternative waveforms for defibrillation, the modern AED is compact and portable, simple to use, and highly efficacious; in addition, it requires little maintenance. Automated external defibrillators have been used successfully by traditional and nontraditional responders as well as laypersons. In special environments, such as casinos and commercial aircraft, AEDs have performed particularly well. State and federal legislation has eased concerns about AED use by extending legal protection to AED users under Good Samaritan laws. Since the experience continues to be positive, AEDs are being used in increasingly diverse community locations, and public awareness is growing. The American Heart Association's initiative is progressing rapidly.

Aircraft↗

PubMed1999

Design of a clinical notification system.

We describe the requirements and design of an enterprise-wide notification system. From published descriptions of notification schemes, our own experience, and use cases provided by diverse users in our institution, we developed a set of functional requirements. The resulting design supports multiple communication channels, third party mappings (algorithms) from message to recipient and/or channel of delivery, and escalation algorithms. A requirement for multiple message formats is addressed by a document specification. We implemented this system in Java as a CORBA object. This paper describes the design and current implementation of our notification system.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2002

Present state and future perspectives of computer aided surgery in the field of ENT and skull base.

BACKGROUND: CAS technology has emerged in the last 10 years and is more and more used for surgery of the anterior and lateral skull base. Endoscopic and microscopic CAS systems are available. The endoscopic key hole or minimal invasive procedure is used increasingly not only for treatment of inflammatory disease, but also for tumour surgery. The integration of CAS systems into these procedures raises the level of their safety and efficiency. In addition, they allow the distance to the bone border on the CT slices to be previewed and measured. OBJECTIVE: Review of the present state of CAS systems, our own experience as a research centre and as users of the systems, demonstration of new navigational devices, microscope integration and a new registration procedure developed for the "Bernese" frameless optical navigation system (SurgiGATE ORL@1000, medivision, [Synthes, Stratec-medical], CH-4436 Oberdorf). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The optical CAS system with microscope integration (VM 900@1000, Möller-Wedel, Germany), new devices and new matching procedure; accuracy tests on a cadaver skull and on the patient's head. RESULTS: The practical accuracy on the cadaver skull with the pointer system has a mean average error of 0.79 mm, and the clinical accuracy is between 0.5 mm and 2 mm. CONCLUSION: CAS-microscope integration, new CAS technical devices and new noninvasive CAS-registration procedures support the surgeon in more minimally invasive surgical procedures of the paranasal sinuses and the skull base. Future perspectives will be discussed.

Humans↗

PubMed1992

ROENTGEN: case-based reasoning and radiation therapy planning.

ROENTGEN is a design assistant for radiation therapy planning which uses case-based reasoning, an artificial intelligence technique. It learns both from specific problem-solving experiences and from direct instruction from the user. The first sort of learning is the normal case-based method of storing problem solutions so that they can be reused. The second sort is necessary because ROENTGEN does not, initially, have an internal model of the physics of its problem domain. This dependence on explicit user instruction brings to the forefront representational questions regarding indexing, failure definition, failure explanation and repair. This paper presents the techniques used by ROENTGEN in its knowledge acquisition and design activities.

Artificial Intelligence↗

PubMed2006

Broad issues to consider for library involvement in bioinformatics.

BACKGROUND: The information landscape in biological and medical research has grown far beyond literature to include a wide variety of databases generated by research fields such as molecular biology and genomics. The traditional role of libraries to collect, organize, and provide access to information can expand naturally to encompass these new data domains. METHODS: This paper discusses the current and potential role of libraries in bioinformatics using empirical evidence and experience from eleven years of work in user services at the National Center for Biotechnology Information. FINDINGS: Medical and science libraries over the last decade have begun to establish educational and support programs to address the challenges users face in the effective and efficient use of a plethora of molecular biology databases and retrieval and analysis tools. As more libraries begin to establish a role in this area, the issues they face include assessment of user needs and skills, identification of existing services, development of plans for new services, recruitment and training of specialized staff, and establishment of collaborations with bioinformatics centers at their institutions. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing library involvement in bioinformatics can help address information needs of a broad range of students, researchers, and clinicians and ultimately help realize the power of bioinformatics resources in making new biological discoveries.

Computational Biology↗

PubMed2006

Continuing nursing education via the internet: An evaluation.

The aim of this study was to describe registered nurses' experiences and evaluate their satisfaction with web-based continuing nursing education. A convenient sample of 64 nurses participated in this study. They were given access right to logon a WebCT courseware entitled Nursing Care of Mechanically Ventilated Patients developed by the author. After two weeks of self-directed e-learning, their perception of the learning experience was evaluation by means of a User Feedback Questionnaire (UFQ). The results of this study showed that web-based learning has considerable potential to be the preferred delivery mode for continuing nursing education.

Education, Nursing↗

PubMed1991

Computer-aided quantification of RNA levels detected by in situ hybridization of tissue sections.

A semi-automatic program, designed for non-computer scientists, was developed for quantification of RNA levels detected by in situ hybridization in heterogeneous tissues. A video camera was used to acquire microscopic images of autoradiographed tissue sections which are then digitized on a video monitor for semi-automated quantification of silver grains. We describe a data entry and analysis procedure for systematic quantification of RNA levels in which about 300 cells per tissue sample can be analysed within 10 min. When compared with visual counting, computer-aided quantification was found to be more objective and reliable, with the highest variation coefficient between individuals being 7.5% using computer-aided quantification, compared to 24% with manual counting of the same section areas. A comparative study of c-myc oncogene expression in 11 mammary adenocarcinomas from 3 independent experiments showed the good reproducibility of results using the computer-aided method, with an 18% maximum variation between experiments. The program, with its simple user-interface, reliability and rapidity, is convenient for measuring specific genetic expression levels in clinical studies requiring large numbers of specimens.

Autoradiography↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The clinical performance of NORPLANT implants over time: a comparison of two cohorts.

This paper reports on a study that compared the clinical performance of NORPLANT implants in two separate but similar cohorts: 200 NORPLANT users from 1975 through 1978, when the method was first introduced in the clinic, and 212 users in the same population from March 1982 through December 1983. Two different cohorts of Copper T IUD users were included as controls. Continuation rates, at one and two years of use, were significantly higher in the second group of NORPLANT users (88.1 vs. 60.5 and 76.5 vs. 40.8, respectively). Statistically significant differences between the NORPLANT cohorts were observed in discontinuation due to bleeding, amenorrhea, other medical causes, total medical causes, and personal reasons. No differences in clinical performance of the IUD were observed between the two control groups. The higher continuation rate in the second group of implant users is attributed to greater confidence and experience among the clinic staff between 1982 and 1983, and greater knowledge of and familiarity with the method among those in the target population. The study also shows that the first clinical trials of a new contraceptive method may not provide an accurate picture of that method's ultimate performance.

Adult↗

PubMed1988

Nuclear medicine in pediatric urology and nephrology.

Renal scintigraphy is a diagnostic procedure of choice or a complementary imaging modality in the work up of infants and children with urologic or nephrologic problems. New radiopharmaceuticals and techniques and expert interpretation provide unique renal parenchymal and collecting system functional and anatomical information, which helps in the diagnosis and follow up of congenital or acquired kidney disorders and the quantitation of renal function. Education of the user and the referring physician, further clinical experience, and comparative studies should help increase utilization of renal scintigraphy in the neonatal and pediatric age for the benefit of the patient and the better understanding of urologic and nephrologic disorders.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1987

[Clinical judgment and decision, pedagogy and practice].

The interactive systems of logical interference represent but one of the computer applications to medicine. While the potential of computers in medical practice is beyond question, their actual use is not widespread. After the stage of practical demonstration of the working features of the hardware, one needs to define accurately the purpose to which the computer is intended in order to perform efficiently in its everyday use. To a certain extent, this unavoidable specialisation contrasts with the ubiquitous presence of computers and the availability of software the use of which does not, in principle, require particular training. A teaching experience directed to a number of different user groups in various fields has prompted us to examine the bases of the difficulties we met with. While some of them are related to cultural (or even religious) grounds, other, being of more technical nature, are more readily amendable to a methodological inquiry. Briefly, this analysis has led us to suggest a revision of various computer applications, including the interactive systems of logical interference, in the field of clinical research. A minimal theoretical training is essential in order to prevent delusions caused by an improvident autodidactic approach. The formal analysis of decision making appears as an excellent teaching guideline since it allows to refresh the elementary statistical concepts and then to approach economical aspects of health management (especially the cost/benefit and cost/effectiveness studies), as well as the sciences of administration as applied to health problems. Oncology represents a particularly suitable field of application on several accounts. It covers various and complex clinical domains, constant conceptual developments and finally, owing to the need for a systematic organisation of the data collection, it offers persuasive applications whose lasting features should warrant the necessary initial effort of investment.

Decision Making, Computer-Assisted↗