Following the Social Media: Aspect Evolution of Online Discussion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Xuning; Yang, Christopher C.

Due to the advance of Internet and Web 2.0 technologies, it is easy to extract thousands of threads about a topic of interest from an online forum but it is nontrivial to capture the blueprint of different aspects (i.e., subtopic, or facet) associated with the topic. To better understand and analyze a forum discussion given topic, it is important to uncover the evolution relationships (temporal dependencies) between different topic aspects (i.e. how the discussion topic is evolving). Traditional Topic Detection and Tracking (TDT) techniques usually organize topics as a flat structure but it does not present the evolution relationships between topic aspects. In addition, the properties of short and sparse messages make the content-based TDT techniques difficult to perform well in identifying evolution relationships. The contributions in this paper are two-folded. We formally define a topic aspect evolution graph modeling framework and propose to utilize social network information, content similarity and temporal proximity to model evolution relationships between topic aspects. The experimental results showed that, by incorporating social network information, our technique significantly outperformed content-based technique in the task of extracting evolution relationships between topic aspects.

Anticipatory guidance topics: are more better?

PubMed

Barkin, Shari L; Scheindlin, Benjamin; Brown, Caroline; Ip, Edward; Finch, Stacia; Wasserman, Richard C

2005-01-01

Anticipatory guidance is a cornerstone of primary care pediatrics. Despite the fact that retention of information is essential for later action, data are lacking on what parents recall immediately after the visit and 1 month later and how the total number of topics discussed affects this outcome. Parents and practitioners completed postvisit surveys of anticipatory guidance topics discussed during health-maintenance visits for children ages 2-11. Postvisit and 1 month later, parental recall was compared with provider report of topics discussed. We examined the relationship between parental recall and the total number of topics discussed. Families with children ages 2-11 years from across the United States participated in this study (N = 861). Providers reported discussing the topics of nutrition, car restraints, dental care, and reading aloud most often (72%- 93%). Concordance between parent and provider was high for all topics (72%-90%). Immediately postvisit, parents reported 6.33 (SD 2.9) as the mean number of topics discussed while providers reported 6.9 (SD 2.7) as the mean number of topics discussed. However, parental recall decreased significantly with more topics (> or =9) discussed. The same trend existed 1 month later. Providers and parents have good agreement about topics discussed or not discussed during a well-child visit; however, parental recall dwindles with increasing numbers of topics discussed. Rethinking well-child care to limit the total number of topics discussed is warranted.

Associations of Topics of Discussion on Twitter With Survey Measures of Attitudes, Knowledge, and Behaviors Related to Zika: Probabilistic Study in the United States.

PubMed

Farhadloo, Mohsen; Winneg, Kenneth; Chan, Man-Pui Sally; Hall Jamieson, Kathleen; Albarracin, Dolores

2018-02-09

Recent outbreaks of Zika virus around the world led to increased discussions about this issue on social media platforms such as Twitter. These discussions may provide useful information about attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors of the population regarding issues that are important for public policy. We sought to identify the associations of the topics of discussions on Twitter and survey measures of Zika-related attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors, not solely based upon the volume of such discussions but by analyzing the content of conversations using probabilistic techniques. Using probabilistic topic modeling with US county and week as the unit of analysis, we analyzed the content of Twitter online communications to identify topics related to the reported attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors captured in a national representative survey (N=33,193) of the US adult population over 33 weeks. Our analyses revealed topics related to "congress funding for Zika," "microcephaly," "Zika-related travel discussions," "insect repellent," "blood transfusion technology," and "Zika in Miami" were associated with our survey measures of attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors observed over the period of the study. Our results demonstrated that it is possible to uncover topics of discussions from Twitter communications that are associated with the Zika-related attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors of populations over time. Social media data can be used as a complementary source of information alongside traditional data sources to gauge the patterns of attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors in a population. ©Mohsen Farhadloo, Kenneth Winneg, Man-Pui Sally Chan, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dolores Albarracin. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (http://publichealth.jmir.org), 09.02.2018.

Additional effects of topical tranexamic acid in on-pump cardiac surgery.

PubMed

Taksaudom, Noppon; Siwachat, Sophon; Tantraworasin, Apichat

2017-01-01

Objective Postoperative bleeding after cardiac surgery is commonly associated with hyperfibrinolysis. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of topical tranexamic acid in addition to intravenous tranexamic acid in reducing bleeding in cardiac surgery cases. Methods From July 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015, 82 patients who underwent elective on-pump cardiac surgery were randomized into a tranexamic acid group and a placebo group. In the tranexamic acid group, 1 g of tranexamic acid dissolved in 100 mL of normal saline solution was poured into the pericardium during sternal closure; the placebo group had 100 mL of saline only. Two patients were excluded from the study due to obvious surgical bleeding. The primary endpoint was total blood loss 24 h after surgery. Repeated measures with mixed models was used to analyze bleeding over time. Results There was no significant difference in demographic and intraoperative data except for a significantly lower platelet count preoperatively in the tranexamic acid group ( p = 0.030). There was no significant difference in postoperative drainage volumes at 8, 16, and 24 h, postoperative bleeding over time (coefficient = 0.713, p = 0.709), or blood product transfusion between the groups. There were no serious complications. Conclusions Topical tranexamic acid is safe but it adds no additional efficacy to the intravenous application in reducing postoperative blood loss. Intravenous tranexamic acid administration alone is sufficient antifibrinolytic treatment to enhance the hemostatic effects during on-pump cardiac surgery.

Additional EIPC Study Analysis: Interim Report on High Priority Topics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hadley, Stanton W

Between 2010 and 2012 the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) conducted a major long-term resource and transmission study of the Eastern Interconnection (EI). With guidance from a Stakeholder Steering Committee (SSC) that included representatives from the Eastern Interconnection States Planning Council (EISPC) among others, the project was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 involved a long-term capacity expansion analysis that involved creation of eight major futures plus 72 sensitivities. Three scenarios were selected for more extensive transmission- focused evaluation in Phase 2. Five power flow analyses, nine production cost model runs (including six sensitivities), and three capital cost estimations weremore » developed during this second phase. The results from Phase 1 and 2 provided a wealth of data that could be examined further to address energy-related questions. A list of 13 topics was developed for further analysis; this paper discusses the first five.« less

Health Care providers and Teen Driving Safety: Topics Discussed and Educational Resources Used in Practice.

PubMed

Dellinger, Ann M; West, Bethany A

2015-11-01

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among teens. Health care providers have an opportunity to address what works to keep teens safe on the road during the patient visit. An online survey was conducted of 1088 health care providers who saw patients at or near driving age. The survey assessed which road safety topics were discussed and which types of educational products were used most often. Family and general practice physicians represented 44.3% of the sample, followed by pediatricians (22.5%), nurse practitioners (17.6%), and internists (15.5%). Nearly all respondents (92.9%) reported addressing one or more driving safety factors (seat belt use, nighttime driving, fatigue, teen passengers, alcohol/drug use, speeding/reckless driving, and cell phone use/texting) with adolescent patients and/or their parents. Seat belt use was reported more often (83.7%) than other topics. The use of parent-teen driving agreements, a known effective intervention, was reported by less than 10% of respondents. Since health care providers expressed interest in receiving written resource materials, distribution of parent-teen driving agreements to health care providers might encourage greater uptake and use of this effective intervention.

Health Care providers and Teen Driving Safety: Topics Discussed and Educational Resources Used in Practice

PubMed Central

Dellinger, Ann M.; West, Bethany A.

2015-01-01

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among teens. Health care providers have an opportunity to address what works to keep teens safe on the road during the patient visit. An online survey was conducted of 1088 health care providers who saw patients at or near driving age. The survey assessed which road safety topics were discussed and which types of educational products were used most often. Family and general practice physicians represented 44.3% of the sample, followed by pediatricians (22.5%), nurse practitioners (17.6%), and internists (15.5%). Nearly all respondents (92.9%) reported addressing one or more driving safety factors (seat belt use, nighttime driving, fatigue, teen passengers, alcohol/drug use, speeding/reckless driving, and cell phone use/texting) with adolescent patients and/or their parents. Seat belt use was reported more often (83.7%) than other topics. The use of parent–teen driving agreements, a known effective intervention, was reported by less than 10% of respondents. Since health care providers expressed interest in receiving written resource materials, distribution of parent–teen driving agreements to health care providers might encourage greater uptake and use of this effective intervention. PMID:26740816

Ubiquitous Discussion Forum: Introducing Mobile Phones and Voice Discussion into a Web Discussion Forum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wei, Fu-Hsiang; Chen, Gwo-Dong; Wang, Chin-Yeh; Li, Liang-Yi

2007-01-01

Web-based discussion forums enable users to share knowledge in straightforward and popular platforms. However, discussion forums have several problems, such as the lack of immediate delivery and response, the heavily text-based medium, inability to hear expressions of voice and the heuristically created discussion topics which can impede the…

Informal group discussion

Treesearch

Hans Nienstaedt; Dean W. Einspahr; J. Douglas Brodie

1973-01-01

Editor's note: The morning's presentations were discussed during the afternoon by three groups, each group discussing one of the morning's three topics. Summaries of the discussions, prepared by the discussion leaders, follow.

Topics in the Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1963-2015.

PubMed

Oh, JungSu; Stewart, Alan E; Phelps, Rosemary E

2017-11-01

Historical trends in a scientific field should be apparent in the changing content of journal articles over time. Using a topic modeling approach, a statistical method for quantifying the thematic content of text, 70 topics were extracted from the abstracts of 3,603 articles published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology from 1963 to 2015. After examining interpretability of 70 topics derived from the model, 64 meaningful topics and their trends were named. In addition, the authors also classified some of the related topics into 4 categories-counseling process and outcome, multiculturalism, research methodology, and vocational psychology. Counseling process and outcome related topics have decreased recently, while topics relating to multiculturalism and diversity have shown increasing trends. The authors also discussed trends that were observed and tried to account for the changing frequencies of some important research topics within these categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

User-Centered Design of a Tablet Waiting Room Tool for Complex Patients to Prioritize Discussion Topics for Primary Care Visits.

PubMed

Lyles, Courtney R; Altschuler, Andrea; Chawla, Neetu; Kowalski, Christine; McQuillan, Deanna; Bayliss, Elizabeth; Heisler, Michele; Grant, Richard W

2016-09-14

Complex patients with multiple chronic conditions often face significant challenges communicating and coordinating with their primary care physicians. These challenges are exacerbated by the limited time allotted to primary care visits. Our aim was to employ a user-centered design process to create a tablet tool for use by patients for visit discussion prioritization. We employed user-centered design methods to create a tablet-based waiting room tool that enables complex patients to identify and set discussion topic priorities for their primary care visit. In an iterative design process, we completed one-on-one interviews with 40 patients and their 17 primary care providers, followed by three design sessions with a 12-patient group. We audiorecorded and transcribed all discussions and categorized major themes. In addition, we met with 15 key health communication, education, and technology leaders within our health system to further review the design and plan for broader implementation of the tool. In this paper, we present the significant changes made to the tablet tool at each phase of this design work. Patient feedback emphasized the need to make the tablet tool accessible for patients who lacked technical proficiency and to reduce the quantity and complexity of text presentation. Both patients and their providers identified specific content choices based on their personal experiences (eg, the ability to raise private or sensitive concerns) and recommended targeting new patients. Stakeholder groups provided essential input on the need to augment text with video and to create different versions of the videos to match sex and race/ethnicity of the actors with patients. User-centered design in collaboration with patients, providers, and key health stakeholders led to marked evolution in the initial content, layout, and target audience for a tablet waiting room tool intended to assist complex patients with setting visit discussion priorities.

Topics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathematics Teaching, 1972

1972-01-01

Topics discussed in this column include patterns of inverse multipliers in modular arithmetic; diagrams for product sets, set intersection, and set union; function notation; patterns in the number of partitions of positive integers; and tessellations. (DT)

Ethics and Environment: Topics for Enquiry and Discussion by Older Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schools Council, London (England).

The objective of this set of investigations is to start with the problems that beset us in our use of the environment and, through these, to move towards a better understanding of the principles which regulate life on this planet. The packs, or units, are concerned with a number of topics of environmental importance, each of which deals with some…

Topical Vehicle Formulations in the Treatment of Acne.

PubMed

Hoffman, Lauren K; Bhatia, Neal; Zeichner, Joshua; Kircik, Leon H

2018-06-01

Topical treatment is the mainstay of acne therapy. The most commonly prescribed topical medications for acne include benzoyl peroxide, clindamycin, and retinoids. Despite their effectiveness in treating mild to moderate acne vulgaris, these topical medications are found to be irritating, and are historically associated with poor tolerability and diminished patient adherence. Thus, choosing the right formulation that will be effective and well tolerated is essential. Novel formulations that optimize drug concentration and utilize improved delivery vehicles have helped to enhance the tolerability and efficacy, and allow for less frequent application or co-application of drugs that were previously considered incompatible. This article will review the goals of topical therapy for the treatment of acne, in addition to common therapies and their challenges. Advanced formulations and combination formulations of benzoyl peroxide, clindamycin, and tretinoin will also be discussed. J Drugs Dermatol. 2018;17(6 Suppl):s6-10.

The Effect of Student-Centered Approaches on Students' Interest and Achievement in Science: Relevant Topic-Based, Open and Guided Inquiry-Based, and Discussion-Based Approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Jingoo; Keinonen, Tuula

2017-04-01

Since students have lost their interest in school science, several student-centered approaches, such as using topics that are relevant for students, inquiry-based learning, and discussion-based learning have been implemented to attract pupils into science. However, the effect of these approaches was usually measured in small-scale research, and thus, the large-scale evidence supporting student-centered approaches in general use is insufficient. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the effect of student-centered approaches on students' interest and achievement by analyzing a large-scale data set derived from Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006, to add evidence for advocating these approaches in school science, and to generalize the effects on a large population. We used Finnish PISA 2006 data, which is the most recent data that measures science literacy and that contains relevant variables for the constructs of this study. As a consequence of the factor analyses, four teaching methods were grouped as student-centered approaches (relevant topic-based, open and guided inquiry-based, and discussion-based approaches in school science) from the Finnish PISA 2006 sample. The structural equation modeling result indicated that using topics relevant for students positively affected students' interest and achievement in science. Guided inquiry-based learning was also indicated as a strong positive predictor for students' achievement, and its effect was also positively associated with students' interest. On the other hand, open inquiry-based learning was indicated as a strong negative predictor for students' achievement, as was using discussion in school science. Implications and limitations of the study were discussed.

Exploring the Topics Discussed During a Conversation Card Game About Death and Dying: A Content Analysis.

PubMed

Van Scoy, Lauren Jodi; Reading, Jean M; Scott, Allison M; Chuang, Cynthia; Levi, Benjamin H; Green, Michael J

2016-11-01

Substantive discussions between loved ones are necessary for effective advance care planning. Although multiple tools are currently in use for promoting conversations, the content and clinical relevance of the conversations they stimulate is unknown. To describe the content and clinical relevance of conversations that occur during a nonfacilitated end-of-life conversation game. Using convenience sampling, we scheduled adult volunteers to participate in an end-of-life conversation game (2-6 individuals per game; n = 68). Participants discussed 20 questions about death, dying, or end-of-life issues. Games lasted up to two hours and were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a conventional qualitative content analysis approach to identify emerging themes. Participants (n = 68) were primarily Caucasian (94%), females (68%), with mean age of 51.3 years (SD 0.7). Seventeen games were analyzed. Four primary themes emerged during game conversations: 1) the importance of people, relationships, and the roles played during end-of-life decision making, 2) values, beliefs, and preferences related to end-of-life care and the dying period, 3) considerations about preparing for the aftermath of one's death, and 4) the relevance of stories or experiences for informing one's own end-of-life preferences. Topics discussed during a nonfacilitated end-of-life conversation game are substantive and address important issues for advance care planning. Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Summary of the discussion meeting on alpha particle theory problems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sigmar, D.J.

1988-04-01

The agenda of the meeting (consisting of {approximately}20 theoreticians and 2 experimentalists working on single {alpha}-particle effects and diagnostics) was to discuss the spectrum of relevant {alpha}-theory problems as it is presently understood, its impact on ignited plasma performance, and possible paths to stabilization. The purpose was to expose existing efforts to peer review and to focus on the most important topics. Twenty-one talks were given which are summarized. Overall, there emerged a consensus about the existence of robust (MHD-like) collective oscillations affecting both the {alpha}-species and the bulk plasma. In addition, improved calculations of classical {alpha}-phenomena due to driftmore » orbits and collisions and {alpha}-RF interactions were discussed. An overview of topics covered is given in the attached conference program.« less

Symbiosis: Rich, Exciting, Neglected Topic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowland, Jane Thomas

1974-01-01

Argues that the topic of symbiosis has been greatly neglected and underemphasized in general-biology textbooks. Discusses many types and examples of symbiosis, and provides an extensive bibliography of the literature related to this topic. (JR)

Additive enhancement of wound healing in diabetic mice by low level light and topical CoQ10.

PubMed

Mao, Zhigang; Wu, Jeffrey H; Dong, Tingting; Wu, Mei X

2016-02-02

Diabetes, a highly prevalent disease that affects 9.3% of Americans, often leads to severe complications and slow wound healing. Preclinical studies have suggested that low level light therapy (LLLT) can accelerate wound healing in diabetic subjects, but significant improvements must be made to overcome the absence of persuasive evidence for its clinical use. We demonstrate here that LLLT can be combined with topical Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to heal wounds in diabetic mice significantly faster than LLLT alone, CoQ10 alone, or controls. LLLT followed by topical CoQ10 enhanced wound healing by 68~103% in diabetic mice in the first week and more than 24% in the second week compared with untreated controls. All wounds were fully healed in two weeks following the dual treatment, in contrast to only 50% wounds or a fewer being fully healed for single or sham treatment. The accelerated healing was corroborated by at least 50% higher hydroxyproline levels, and tripling cell proliferation rates in LLLT and CoQ10 treated wounds over controls. The beneficial effects on wound healing were probably attributed to additive enhancement of ATP production by LLLT and CoQ10 treatment. The combination of LLLT and topical CoQ10 is safe and convenient, and merits further clinical study.

Additive enhancement of wound healing in diabetic mice by low level light and topical CoQ10

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mao, Zhigang; Wu, Jeffrey H.; Dong, Tingting; Wu, Mei X.

2016-02-01

Diabetes, a highly prevalent disease that affects 9.3% of Americans, often leads to severe complications and slow wound healing. Preclinical studies have suggested that low level light therapy (LLLT) can accelerate wound healing in diabetic subjects, but significant improvements must be made to overcome the absence of persuasive evidence for its clinical use. We demonstrate here that LLLT can be combined with topical Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to heal wounds in diabetic mice significantly faster than LLLT alone, CoQ10 alone, or controls. LLLT followed by topical CoQ10 enhanced wound healing by 68~103% in diabetic mice in the first week and more than 24% in the second week compared with untreated controls. All wounds were fully healed in two weeks following the dual treatment, in contrast to only 50% wounds or a fewer being fully healed for single or sham treatment. The accelerated healing was corroborated by at least 50% higher hydroxyproline levels, and tripling cell proliferation rates in LLLT and CoQ10 treated wounds over controls. The beneficial effects on wound healing were probably attributed to additive enhancement of ATP production by LLLT and CoQ10 treatment. The combination of LLLT and topical CoQ10 is safe and convenient, and merits further clinical study.

PA Discussion Topics

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-04

Solid Oxide fuel cell and Lithium Ion battery (~150 watts) • Enables extended mission durations • 12 hours of full power; 30 hours of silent watch...Hybrid fuel cell system is designed to replace the existing lead-acid batteries with an upgraded Solid Oxide fuel cell and Lithium Ion battery (~250

'Hot Topics' in Astrophysics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maran, Stephen P.

2000-01-01

Three current topics in astrophysics are described here on the occasion of the joint meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Astronomical Society (Jan. 7-11, 2001, San Diego, Calif.). Many equally exciting topics--ranging from the dozens of newly discovered planets of sunlike stars to evidence suggesting that the expansion of the universe is accelerating--could have been chosen. The topics discussed are: (1) the habitability of Mars, (2) black holes, galaxy bulges, and the X-ray background, and (3) the greatest explosions since the Big Bang.

Curriculum for Discussion Time.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steinhoff, Mary E.

This curriculum guide consists of materials for use in implementing two 10-meeting series of group discussions designed to enhance the process of the socialialization of students enrolled in an associate degree nursing program. Addressed in the discussion sessions are the following topics: developing an awareness of self-concept and gaining…

Additive enhancement of wound healing in diabetic mice by low level light and topical CoQ10

PubMed Central

Mao, Zhigang; Wu, Jeffrey H.; Dong, Tingting; Wu, Mei X.

2016-01-01

Diabetes, a highly prevalent disease that affects 9.3% of Americans, often leads to severe complications and slow wound healing. Preclinical studies have suggested that low level light therapy (LLLT) can accelerate wound healing in diabetic subjects, but significant improvements must be made to overcome the absence of persuasive evidence for its clinical use. We demonstrate here that LLLT can be combined with topical Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to heal wounds in diabetic mice significantly faster than LLLT alone, CoQ10 alone, or controls. LLLT followed by topical CoQ10 enhanced wound healing by 68~103% in diabetic mice in the first week and more than 24% in the second week compared with untreated controls. All wounds were fully healed in two weeks following the dual treatment, in contrast to only 50% wounds or a fewer being fully healed for single or sham treatment. The accelerated healing was corroborated by at least 50% higher hydroxyproline levels, and tripling cell proliferation rates in LLLT and CoQ10 treated wounds over controls. The beneficial effects on wound healing were probably attributed to additive enhancement of ATP production by LLLT and CoQ10 treatment. The combination of LLLT and topical CoQ10 is safe and convenient, and merits further clinical study. PMID:26830658

The New APS Topical Group on the Physics of Climate: History, Objectives and Panel Discussion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brasseur, James; Behringer, Robert

2013-03-01

The GPC Chair will introduce the new APS Topical Group on the Physics of Climate (GPC), describe its history and objectives, and introduce the current GPC leadership before opening the floor to a panel discussion. The GPC resulted from two petitions that emerged from the controversy that followed the APS Statement on Climate Change (see APS website). The two proposals were merged and an organization committee formed by the APS leadership. After a long organizational period in 2011, the GPC bylaws were finalized with the following key objective: The objective of the GPC shall be to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge concerning the physics, measurement, and modeling of climate processes, within the domain of natural science and outside the domains of societal impact and policy, legislation and broader societal issues. The objective includes the integration of scientific knowledge and analysis methods across disciplines to address the dynamical complexities and uncertainties of climate physics. The GPC Invited and Focus Sessions at this March meeting are the inaugural GPC events. The Program Committee Chair will moderate a panel between the attending GPC leadership and audience to solicit suggestions for potential future GPC events that advance the GPC objectives.

Parents' Plans to Discuss Sexuality with Their Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Shaieb, Muna; Wurtele, Sandy K.

2009-01-01

Two hundred and fourteen (214) parents of young children (M age = 6.75 years) were surveyed about their plans for sexuality discussions with their children. Parents were asked to indicate when they would first discuss sex education with their children for 15 specific topics, how effective they perceived themselves to be at discussing each topic,…

JGME-ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education Online Journal Club: An Analysis of a Virtual Discussion About Resident Teachers.

PubMed

Sherbino, Jonathan; Joshi, Nikita; Lin, Michelle

2015-09-01

In health professionals' education, senior learners play a key role in the teaching of junior colleagues. We describe an online discussion about residents as teachers to highlight the topic and the online journal club medium. In January 2015, the Journal of Graduate Medical Education (JGME) and the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine blog facilitated an open-access, online, weeklong journal club on the JGME article "What Makes a Great Resident Teacher? A Multicenter Survey of Medical Students Attending an Internal Medicine Conference." Social media platforms used to promote asynchronous discussions included a blog, a video discussion via Google Hangouts on Air, and Twitter. We performed a thematic analysis of the discussion. Web analytics were captured as a measure of impact. The blog post garnered 1324 page views from 372 cities in 42 countries. Twitter was used to endorse discussion points, while blog comments provided opinions or responded to an issue. The discussion focused on why resident feedback was devalued by medical students. Proposed explanations included feedback not being labeled as such, the process of giving delivery, the source of feedback, discrepancies with self-assessment, and threats to medical student self-image. The blog post resulted in a crowd-sourced repository of resident teacher resources. An online journal club provides a novel discussion forum across multiple social media platforms to engage authors, content experts, and the education community. Crowd-sourced analysis of the resident teacher role suggests that resident feedback to medical students is important, and barriers to student acceptance of feedback can be overcome.

JGME-ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education Online Journal Club: An Analysis of a Virtual Discussion About Resident Teachers

PubMed Central

Sherbino, Jonathan; Joshi, Nikita; Lin, Michelle

2015-01-01

Background  In health professionals' education, senior learners play a key role in the teaching of junior colleagues. Objective  We describe an online discussion about residents as teachers to highlight the topic and the online journal club medium. Methods  In January 2015, the Journal of Graduate Medical Education (JGME) and the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine blog facilitated an open-access, online, weeklong journal club on the JGME article “What Makes a Great Resident Teacher? A Multicenter Survey of Medical Students Attending an Internal Medicine Conference.” Social media platforms used to promote asynchronous discussions included a blog, a video discussion via Google Hangouts on Air, and Twitter. We performed a thematic analysis of the discussion. Web analytics were captured as a measure of impact. Results  The blog post garnered 1324 page views from 372 cities in 42 countries. Twitter was used to endorse discussion points, while blog comments provided opinions or responded to an issue. The discussion focused on why resident feedback was devalued by medical students. Proposed explanations included feedback not being labeled as such, the process of giving delivery, the source of feedback, discrepancies with self-assessment, and threats to medical student self-image. The blog post resulted in a crowd-sourced repository of resident teacher resources. Conclusions  An online journal club provides a novel discussion forum across multiple social media platforms to engage authors, content experts, and the education community. Crowd-sourced analysis of the resident teacher role suggests that resident feedback to medical students is important, and barriers to student acceptance of feedback can be overcome. PMID:26457152

[Violence Prevention: A Topical Newsletter.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bourland, Eric

1995-01-01

This newsletter theme issue addresses the issue of violence prevention in American schools and is based on presentations and discussions at the Workgroup To Improve the Quality of Technical Assistance around the Topic of Violence Prevention held in Washington, D.C. on June 12-14, 1995. The newsletter reports on the following presentation topics:…

Book discussion course: timely topics for medical students.

PubMed

Timm, Donna F; Woodson, Deidra; Jones, Dee

2014-01-01

Several library faculty members at the Louisiana State University Health Shreveport Health Sciences Library offered a book discussion course as an elective for first-year medical students. This article provides details on how the librarians developed, taught, and evaluated this elective. The librarians took a team-teaching approach, required the students to read two books, and outlined the criteria for participation. At the end of the course, the students completed an evaluation, commenting on positive and negative aspects of the course. The elective proved to be successful, and the librarians look forward to offering the course again in the spring of 2014.

Optical coherence tomography and low-frequency mechanics: A moderated discussion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Freeman, Dennis M.; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Ruggero, Mario A.

2015-12-31

The following is an edited transcript of a recorded discussion session on the topics of “Optical Coherence Tomography” and “Low-Frequency Mechanics”. The discussion, moderated by the authors, took place at the 12{sup th} International Workshop on the Mechanics of Hearing held at Cape Sounio, Greece, in June 2014. All participants knew that the session was being recorded. In view of both the spontaneous nature of the discussion and the editing, however, this transcript may not represent the considered or final views of the participants, and may not represent a consensus of experts in the field. The reader is advised tomore » consult additional independent publications.« less

Defensible space in the news: public discussion of a neglected topic

Treesearch

Jayne Fingerman Johnson; David N. Bengston; David P. Fan

2006-01-01

Managers have an opportunity during times of peak media coverage of wildfire to expand the discussion about defensible space from the current focus on vegetation clearing to include the full range of activities a homeowner can undertake to mitigate damage. Currently, news media discussion of wildfire is overwhelmingly dominated by firefighting, and discussion of...

Topical treatment of psoriasis.

PubMed

Laws, Philip M; Young, Helen S

2010-08-01

The majority of patients with psoriasis can be safely and effectively treated with topical therapy alone, either under the supervision of a family physician or dermatologist. For those requiring systemic agents, topical therapies can provide additional benefit. Optimal use of topical therapy requires an awareness of the range and efficacy of all products. The review covers the efficacy and role of topical therapies including emollients, corticosteroids, vitamin D analogs, calcineurin inhibitors, dithranol, coal tar, retinoids, keratolyics and combination therapy. The report was prepared following a PubMed and Embase literature search up to April 2010. The paper provides a broad review of the relevant topical therapeutic options available in routine clinical practice for the management of psoriasis and a recommendation for selection of treatment. Topical therapies used appropriately provide a safe and effective option for the management of psoriasis. An awareness of the available products and their efficacy is key to treatment selection and patient satisfaction.

Life History of a Topic in an Online Discussion: A Complex Systems Theory Perspective on How One Message Attracts Class Members to Create Meaning Collaboratively

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vogler, Jane S.; Schallert, Diane L.; Jordan, Michelle E.; Song, Kwangok; Sanders, Anke J. Z.; Te Chiang, Yueh-hui Yan; Lee, Ji-Eun; Park, Jeongbin Hannah; Yu, Li-Tang

2017-01-01

Complex adaptive systems theory served as a framework for this qualitative study exploring the process of how meaning emerges from the collective interactions of individuals in a synchronous online discussion through their shared words about a topic. In an effort to bridge levels of analysis from the individual to the small group to the community,…

Summary of SMIRT20 Preconference Topical Workshop – Identifying Structural Issues in Advanced Reactors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

William Richins; Stephen Novascone; Cheryl O'Brien

Summary of SMIRT20 Preconference Topical Workshop – Identifying Structural Issues in Advanced Reactors William Richins1, Stephen Novascone1, and Cheryl O’Brien1 1Idaho National Laboratory, US Dept. of Energy, Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA, e-mail: William.Richins@inl.gov The Idaho National Laboratory (INL, USA) and IASMiRT sponsored an international forum Nov 5-6, 2008 in Porvoo, Finland for nuclear industry, academic, and regulatory representatives to identify structural issues in current and future advanced reactor design, especially for extreme conditions and external threats. The purpose of this Topical Workshop was to articulate research, engineering, and regulatory Code development needs. The topics addressed by the Workshop were selectedmore » to address critical industry needs specific to advanced reactor structures that have long lead times and can be the subject of future SMiRT technical sessions. The topics were; 1) structural/materials needs for extreme conditions and external threats in contemporary (Gen. III) and future (Gen. IV and NGNP) advanced reactors and 2) calibrating simulation software and methods that address topic 1 The workshop discussions and research needs identified are presented. The Workshop successfully produced interactive discussion on the two topics resulting in a list of research and technology needs. It is recommended that IASMiRT communicate the results of the discussion to industry and researchers to encourage new ideas and projects. In addition, opportunities exist to retrieve research reports and information that currently exists, and encourage more international cooperation and collaboration. It is recommended that IASMiRT continue with an off-year workshop series on select topics.« less

Hot Topics: Solar Interconnection Policy | State, Local, and Tribal

Science.gov Websites

Governments | NREL Blog » Hot Topics: Solar Interconnection Policy Hot Topics: Solar Renewable Energy Laboratory, discussing the PV interconnection process as part of our Hot Topics series

A Discussion of School Law and Other Related Topics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Richard J., Jr.

A discussion of school law, defined as how the educational system is impacted upon by the law, is addressed as it relates two major issues to the Catholic or parochial schools. In an overview of the legal system, the types of courts, the nature of legal precedents, and the levels within the judiciary are reviewed. The first major issue centers…

Using Technology to Support Discussions on Sensitive Topics in the Study of Business Ethics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fong, Michelle

2015-01-01

There is a dearth of research into teaching strategies and learning approaches for units involving sensitive topics that can provoke an emotional response in students. In a business ethics unit, attempts to strike a balance between conceptual knowledge and theory and skills training can be challenging because the unit can involve personal,…

Traditional Persian topical medications for gastrointestinal diseases

PubMed Central

Tafti, Laleh Dehghani; Shariatpanahi, Seyyed Mahyar; Damghani, Mahmoud Mahdavi; Javadi, Behjat

2017-01-01

Drug delivery across the skin is used for several millennia to ease gastrointestinal (GI) ailments in Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM). TPM topical remedies are generally being applied on the stomach, lower abdomen, lower back and liver to alleviate GI illnesses such as dyspepsia, gastritis, GI ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal worms and infections. The aim of the present study is to survey the topical GI remedies and plant species used as ingredients for these remedies in TPM. In addition, pharmacological activities of the mentioned plants have been discussed. For this, we searched major TPM textbooks to find plants used to cure GI problems in topical use. Additionally, scientific databases were searched to obtain pharmacological data supporting the use of TPM plants in GI diseases. Rosa × damascena, Pistacia lentiscus, Malus domestica, Olea europaea and Artemisia absinthium are among the most frequently mentioned ingredients of TPM remedies. β-asarone, amygdalin, boswellic acids, guggulsterone, crocin, crocetin, isomasticadienolic acid, and cyclotides are the most important phytochemicals present in TPM plants with GI-protective activities. Pharmacological studies demonstrated GI activities for TPM plants supporting their extensive traditional use. These plants play pivotal role in alleviating GI disorders through exhibiting numerous activities including antispasmodic, anti-ulcer, anti-secretory, anti-colitis, anti-diarrheal, antibacterial and anthelmintic properties. Several mechanisms underlie these activities including the alleviation of oxidative stress, exhibiting cytoprotective activity, down-regulation of the inflammatory cytokines, suppression of the cellular signaling pathways of inflammatory responses, improving re-epithelialization and angiogenesis, down-regulation of anti-angiogenic factors, blocking activity of acetylcholine, etc. PMID:28392893

What shapes the stimulus to the inner hair cell?: A moderated discussion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fridberger, Anders; Guinan, John J.

2015-12-01

The following is an edited transcript of a recorded discussion session on the topic of "What Shapes the Stimulus to the Inner Hair Cell?". The discussion, moderated by the authors, took place at the 12th International Workshop on the Mechanics of Hearing held at Cape Sounio, Greece, in June 2014. All participants knew that the session was being recorded. In view of both the spontaneous nature of the discussion and the editing, however, this transcript may not represent the considered or final views of the participants, and may not represent a consensus of experts in the field. The reader is advised to consult additional independent publications.

Methods for studying sensitive family topics.

PubMed

Gelles, Richard J

1978-07-01

Researchers on sensitive topics in family relations face a number of obstacles, due to the private nature of the family and to ethical constraints on the study of humans. Difficulties in locating subjects, engaging their cooperation, and obtaining valid and reliable data are discussed, and methods are proposed for pursuing research on these important but frequently taboo topics.

Framing Classroom Discussion of Same-Sex Marriage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hand, Michael

2013-01-01

Assuming that the issue of same-sex marriage should be discussed in schools, how should the discussion be framed? Michael Hand first distinguishes this question from the related but distinct question of whether discussion on this topic should be steered. He then examines three possible frames for discussion of same-sex marriage: the perfectionist…

Topical treatment of melasma.

PubMed

Bandyopadhyay, Debabrata

2009-01-01

Melasma is a common hypermelanotic disorder affecting the face that is associated with considerable psychological impacts. The management of melasma is challenging and requires a long-term treatment plan. In addition to avoidance of aggravating factors like oral pills and ultraviolet exposure, topical therapy has remained the mainstay of treatment. Multiple options for topical treatment are available, of which hydroquinone (HQ) is the most commonly prescribed agent. Besides HQ, other topical agents for which varying degrees of evidence for clinical efficacy exist include azelaic acid, kojic acid, retinoids, topical steroids, glycolic acid, mequinol, and arbutin. Topical medications modify various stages of melanogenesis, the most common mode of action being inhibition of the enzyme, tyrosinase. Combination therapy is the preferred mode of treatment for the synergism and reduction of untoward effects. The most popular combination consists of HQ, a topical steroid, and retinoic acid. Prolonged HQ usage may lead to untoward effects like depigmentation and exogenous ochronosis. The search for safer alternatives has given rise to the development of many newer agents, several of them from natural sources. Well-designed controlled clinical trials are needed to clarify their role in the routine management of melasma.

TOPICAL TREATMENT OF MELASMA

PubMed Central

Bandyopadhyay, Debabrata

2009-01-01

Melasma is a common hypermelanotic disorder affecting the face that is associated with considerable psychological impacts. The management of melasma is challenging and requires a long-term treatment plan. In addition to avoidance of aggravating factors like oral pills and ultraviolet exposure, topical therapy has remained the mainstay of treatment. Multiple options for topical treatment are available, of which hydroquinone (HQ) is the most commonly prescribed agent. Besides HQ, other topical agents for which varying degrees of evidence for clinical efficacy exist include azelaic acid, kojic acid, retinoids, topical steroids, glycolic acid, mequinol, and arbutin. Topical medications modify various stages of melanogenesis, the most common mode of action being inhibition of the enzyme, tyrosinase. Combination therapy is the preferred mode of treatment for the synergism and reduction of untoward effects. The most popular combination consists of HQ, a topical steroid, and retinoic acid. Prolonged HQ usage may lead to untoward effects like depigmentation and exogenous ochronosis. The search for safer alternatives has given rise to the development of many newer agents, several of them from natural sources. Well-designed controlled clinical trials are needed to clarify their role in the routine management of melasma. PMID:20101327

Topics in landing gear dynamics research at NASA Langley

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccomb, H. G., Jr.; Tanner, J. A.

1986-01-01

Four topics in landing gear dynamics are discussed. Three of these topics are subjects of recent research: tilt steering phenomenon, water spray ingestion on flooded runways, and actively controlled landing gear. The fourth topic is a description of a major facility recently enhanced in capability.

Provider and patient expectations for dietary supplement discussions.

PubMed

Tarn, Derjung M; Guzmán, Jennifer R; Good, Jeffrey S; Wenger, Neil S; Coulter, Ian D; Paterniti, Debora A

2014-09-01

Dietary supplement use in the United States is common. Patients can procure supplements without a prescription, and often do not disclose supplement use to their healthcare providers. Providers and patients may be uncertain about what would be appropriate or helpful in discussions of supplements during routine office visits. To explore provider and patient expectations for discussions of dietary supplements. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of healthcare providers from three specialties and their patients who reported taking supplements. Thirty-five outpatient providers (14 primary care, six integrative medicine, and 15 complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) providers) and 107 of their patients. Qualitative analysis of transcripts using grounded theory and iterative review. Both providers and patients raised twelve common topics about dietary supplements that they felt were important to discuss during office visits, such as: supplements taken; supplement risks (interactions, safety/harm, side effects/adverse events); treatment benefits; efficacy; alternative treatments; and patient expectations/preferences for treatment. Some topics were mentioned more frequently by providers than patients, such as how to take, reason for taking, and evidence for use. Providers raised several topics that were mentioned infrequently by patients. Supplement costs and regulations were not brought up by any patients, even though consideration of these topics could influence patient decisions to take supplements. Complementary healthcare providers brought up topics not mentioned by primary care providers, such as the importance of supplement brands and supplement mega-dosing. Patients and providers have concordant views about the need to discuss patient supplement use and ensure patient safety. Patients may undervalue, be unaware of, or discount information about cost or regulations that could affect their decision-making about supplement use

The Topical Evolution: Free Ions, Orthomolecular Agents, Phytochemicals, and Insect-Produced Substances

PubMed Central

Conner-Kerr, Teresa

2014-01-01

Significance: A variety of topical antiseptic substances have been used historically to treat open wounds with suspected tissue infection or that are slow to heal. However, the effectiveness of these substances in treating infected or recalcitrant wounds remains controversial. Recent Advances: Newly formulated topical antiseptics delivered through differing dressing technologies, such as ionic substances, hold the potential to limit the development of and treat antibiotic-resistant microbes in open wounds. Other topically delivered substances, such as insect-derived substances, orthomolecular agents, and phytochemicals, also present opportunities to optimize wound healing by decreasing tissue bioburden and facilitating the wound healing process. Critical Issues: Limited systemic perfusion of open wounds in individuals with certain diagnoses, such as peripheral arterial disease or necrotizing infection and the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant wound pathogens, suggests a continued role for topically applied antiseptic agents. Likewise, the failure of wounds to heal when treated with standard of care therapy opens the door to innovative treatment approaches that include the natural substances described in this article. Future Directions: Evidence for the use of select topical antiseptic agents from each of the aforementioned categories will be discussed in this article. Additional well-controlled clinical studies are needed to provide definitive recommendations for many of these topical agents. PMID:25126473

How Do Personality, Synchronous Media, and Discussion Topic Affect Participation?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blau, Ina; Barak, Azy

2012-01-01

The development of digital technologies increases the use of distance synchronous (real-time) interactions among people. The study explores whether the "readiness to participate", the degree of "actual participation", and the "quality of contribution" to synchronous online group discussions is affected by participant…

An Internet-based discussion forum as a useful resource for the discussion of clinical cases and an educational tool.

PubMed

Foong, Deborah P S; McGrouther, Duncan A

2010-07-01

An Internet-based group of plastic surgeons was formed in India in February 2001. It has 1290 members and seeks to facilitate online discussion. These discussions were reviewed to assess their value in education and aiding patient management. All messages and discussions between August 2007 and July 2008 were examined retrospectively. Data were collected regarding topics, replies, and use of clinical images. A total of 2217 messages were exchanged within 330 separate discussions (mean = 6.7 messages per discussion, range = 0-45). A total of 164 discussions contained photographs (50%). Mean number of photographs per discussion was five (range = 0-34). Discussions included requests for advice on complex cases (40%), interesting cases and their management/outcome (25%) and courses/conferences (30%). Topics discussed include training/courses (26.7%), cleft (15.4%), aesthetics (13.1%), trauma (12.5%), head and neck (8.4%), cutaneous (6.4%), perineal/genital reconstruction (6.1%), and scar management (4.7%). Forums like this facilitate discussion between individuals in remote locations. They provide easy access to the expertise of a large cohort of highly experienced surgeons. Most discussions were clinical, involving challenging situations. The discussions are open and nonjudgmental, hence encouraging contribution and healthy debate. We encourage its use as an educational tool and a platform for discussion.

Major research topics in combustion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hussaini, M.Y.; Kumar, A.; Voigt, R.G.

1992-01-01

The Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering (ICASE) and NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) hosted a workshop on October 2--4, 1989 to discuss some combustion problems of technological interest to LaRC and to foster interaction with the academic community in these research areas. The topics chosen for this purpose were flame structure, flame holding/extinction, chemical kinetics, turbulence-kinetics interaction, transition to detonation, and reacting free shear layers. This document contains the papers and edited versions of general discussions on these topics. The lead paper set the stage for the meeting by discussing the status and issues of supersonic combustionmore » relevant to the scramjet engine. Experts were then called upon to review the current knowledge in the aforementioned areas, to focus on how this knowledge can be extended and applied to high-speed combustion, and to suggest future directions of research in these areas.« less

Topics for Mathematics Clubs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalton, LeRoy C., Ed.; Snyder, Henry D., Ed.

The ten chapters in this booklet cover topics not ordinarily discussed in the classroom: Fibonacci sequences, projective geometry, groups, infinity and transfinite numbers, Pascal's Triangle, topology, experiments with natural numbers, non-Euclidean geometries, Boolean algebras, and the imaginary and the infinite in geometry. Each chapter is…

Complex temporal topic evolution modelling using the Kullback-Leibler divergence and the Bhattacharyya distance.

PubMed

Andrei, Victor; Arandjelović, Ognjen

2016-12-01

The rapidly expanding corpus of medical research literature presents major challenges in the understanding of previous work, the extraction of maximum information from collected data, and the identification of promising research directions. We present a case for the use of advanced machine learning techniques as an aide in this task and introduce a novel methodology that is shown to be capable of extracting meaningful information from large longitudinal corpora and of tracking complex temporal changes within it. Our framework is based on (i) the discretization of time into epochs, (ii) epoch-wise topic discovery using a hierarchical Dirichlet process-based model, and (iii) a temporal similarity graph which allows for the modelling of complex topic changes. More specifically, this is the first work that discusses and distinguishes between two groups of particularly challenging topic evolution phenomena: topic splitting and speciation and topic convergence and merging, in addition to the more widely recognized emergence and disappearance and gradual evolution. The proposed framework is evaluated on a public medical literature corpus.

Identifying Topics in Microblogs Using Wikipedia.

PubMed

Yıldırım, Ahmet; Üsküdarlı, Suzan; Özgür, Arzucan

2016-01-01

Twitter is an extremely high volume platform for user generated contributions regarding any topic. The wealth of content created at real-time in massive quantities calls for automated approaches to identify the topics of the contributions. Such topics can be utilized in numerous ways, such as public opinion mining, marketing, entertainment, and disaster management. Towards this end, approaches to relate single or partial posts to knowledge base items have been proposed. However, in microblogging systems like Twitter, topics emerge from the culmination of a large number of contributions. Therefore, identifying topics based on collections of posts, where individual posts contribute to some aspect of the greater topic is necessary. Models, such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), propose algorithms for relating collections of posts to sets of keywords that represent underlying topics. In these approaches, figuring out what the specific topic(s) the keyword sets represent remains as a separate task. Another issue in topic detection is the scope, which is often limited to specific domain, such as health. This work proposes an approach for identifying domain-independent specific topics related to sets of posts. In this approach, individual posts are processed and then aggregated to identify key tokens, which are then mapped to specific topics. Wikipedia article titles are selected to represent topics, since they are up to date, user-generated, sophisticated articles that span topics of human interest. This paper describes the proposed approach, a prototype implementation, and a case study based on data gathered during the heavily contributed periods corresponding to the four US election debates in 2012. The manually evaluated results (0.96 precision) and other observations from the study are discussed in detail.

Identifying Topics in Microblogs Using Wikipedia

PubMed Central

Yıldırım, Ahmet; Üsküdarlı, Suzan; Özgür, Arzucan

2016-01-01

Twitter is an extremely high volume platform for user generated contributions regarding any topic. The wealth of content created at real-time in massive quantities calls for automated approaches to identify the topics of the contributions. Such topics can be utilized in numerous ways, such as public opinion mining, marketing, entertainment, and disaster management. Towards this end, approaches to relate single or partial posts to knowledge base items have been proposed. However, in microblogging systems like Twitter, topics emerge from the culmination of a large number of contributions. Therefore, identifying topics based on collections of posts, where individual posts contribute to some aspect of the greater topic is necessary. Models, such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), propose algorithms for relating collections of posts to sets of keywords that represent underlying topics. In these approaches, figuring out what the specific topic(s) the keyword sets represent remains as a separate task. Another issue in topic detection is the scope, which is often limited to specific domain, such as health. This work proposes an approach for identifying domain-independent specific topics related to sets of posts. In this approach, individual posts are processed and then aggregated to identify key tokens, which are then mapped to specific topics. Wikipedia article titles are selected to represent topics, since they are up to date, user-generated, sophisticated articles that span topics of human interest. This paper describes the proposed approach, a prototype implementation, and a case study based on data gathered during the heavily contributed periods corresponding to the four US election debates in 2012. The manually evaluated results (0.96 precision) and other observations from the study are discussed in detail. PMID:26991442

78 FR 14957 - Wireline Competition Bureau Releases Further Discussion Topics and Seeks Additional Comment in...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-08

... FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Part 54 [WC Docket No. 10-90; DA 13-276] Wireline... Model Virtual Workshop AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Proposed rule. SUMMARY: In... comments. [ssquf] Federal Communications Commission's Web Site: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs2/ . Follow...

Intravenous Foscarnet With Topical Cidofovir for Chronic Refractory Genital Herpes in a Patient With AIDS.

PubMed

Usoro, Agnes; Batts, Alfreda; Sarria, Juan C

2015-01-01

Few case reports have documented the use of topical cidofovir for refractory genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) ulcers in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients. This drug formulation lacks a standardized concentration or even a procedural outline as to how it should be compounded. We aim to discuss the utilization of topical cidofovir in addition to presenting a procedural means of compounding it for treatment of refractory genital HSV ulcers. Our patient completed 21 days of intravenous foscarnet and 13 days of topical cidofovir with clinical improvement in the penile and scrotal ulcers. Genital herpes is a concern in patients with HIV because it generally manifests as a persistent infection. Physicians should be aware that when patients fail to respond to the conventional treatment regimens for genital HSV in a timely manner, other options are available, such as topical cidofovir as an adjuvant to systemic antivirals.

Intelligent topical sentiment analysis for the classification of e-learners and their topics of interest.

PubMed

Ravichandran, M; Kulanthaivel, G; Chellatamilan, T

2015-01-01

Every day, huge numbers of instant tweets (messages) are published on Twitter as it is one of the massive social media for e-learners interactions. The options regarding various interesting topics to be studied are discussed among the learners and teachers through the capture of ideal sources in Twitter. The common sentiment behavior towards these topics is received through the massive number of instant messages about them. In this paper, rather than using the opinion polarity of each message relevant to the topic, authors focus on sentence level opinion classification upon using the unsupervised algorithm named bigram item response theory (BIRT). It differs from the traditional classification and document level classification algorithm. The investigation illustrated in this paper is of threefold which are listed as follows: (1) lexicon based sentiment polarity of tweet messages; (2) the bigram cooccurrence relationship using naïve Bayesian; (3) the bigram item response theory (BIRT) on various topics. It has been proposed that a model using item response theory is constructed for topical classification inference. The performance has been improved remarkably using this bigram item response theory when compared with other supervised algorithms. The experiment has been conducted on a real life dataset containing different set of tweets and topics.

Topical anti-infective sinonasal irrigations: update and literature review.

PubMed

Lee, Jivianne T; Chiu, Alexander G

2014-01-01

Sinonasal anti-infective irrigations have emerged as a promising therapeutic modality in the comprehensive management of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), particularly in the context of recalcitrant disease. The purpose of this article was to delineate the current spectrum of topical anti-infective therapies available and evaluate their role in the treatment of CRS. A systematic literature review was performed on all studies investigating the use of topical antimicrobial solutions in the medical therapy of CRS. Anti-infective irrigations were stratified into topical antibacterial, antifungal, and additive preparations according to their composition and respective microbicidal properties. The use of topical antibiotic irrigations has been supported by low-level studies in the treatment of refractory CRS, with optimal results achieved in patients who have undergone prior functional endoscopic sinus surgery and received culture-directed therapy. Multiple evidence-based reviews have not established any clinical benefit with the administration of topical antifungals, and their use is not currently recommended in the management of routine CRS. Topical additives including surfactants may be beneficial as adjunctive treatment for recalcitrant CRS, but additional research is needed to investigate their efficacy in comparison with other agents and establish safety profiles. Topical anti-infective solutions are not recommended as first-line therapy for routine CRS but may be considered as a potential option for patients with refractory CRS who have failed traditional medical and surgical intervention. Additional research is necessary to determine which patient populations would derive the most benefit from each respective irrigation regimen and identify potential toxicities associated with prolonged use.

Miscellaneous Topics in Computer-Aided Drug Design: Synthetic Accessibility and GPU Computing, and Other Topics.

PubMed

Fukunishi, Yoshifumi; Mashimo, Tadaaki; Misoo, Kiyotaka; Wakabayashi, Yoshinori; Miyaki, Toshiaki; Ohta, Seiji; Nakamura, Mayu; Ikeda, Kazuyoshi

2016-01-01

Computer-aided drug design is still a state-of-the-art process in medicinal chemistry, and the main topics in this field have been extensively studied and well reviewed. These topics include compound databases, ligand-binding pocket prediction, protein-compound docking, virtual screening, target/off-target prediction, physical property prediction, molecular simulation and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) prediction. Message and Conclusion: However, there are also a number of secondary or miscellaneous topics that have been less well covered. For example, methods for synthesizing and predicting the synthetic accessibility (SA) of designed compounds are important in practical drug development, and hardware/software resources for performing the computations in computer-aided drug design are crucial. Cloud computing and general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) computing have been used in virtual screening and molecular dynamics simulations. Not surprisingly, there is a growing demand for computer systems which combine these resources. In the present review, we summarize and discuss these various topics of drug design.

Miscellaneous Topics in Computer-Aided Drug Design: Synthetic Accessibility and GPU Computing, and Other Topics

PubMed Central

Fukunishi, Yoshifumi; Mashimo, Tadaaki; Misoo, Kiyotaka; Wakabayashi, Yoshinori; Miyaki, Toshiaki; Ohta, Seiji; Nakamura, Mayu; Ikeda, Kazuyoshi

2016-01-01

Abstract: Background Computer-aided drug design is still a state-of-the-art process in medicinal chemistry, and the main topics in this field have been extensively studied and well reviewed. These topics include compound databases, ligand-binding pocket prediction, protein-compound docking, virtual screening, target/off-target prediction, physical property prediction, molecular simulation and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) prediction. Message and Conclusion: However, there are also a number of secondary or miscellaneous topics that have been less well covered. For example, methods for synthesizing and predicting the synthetic accessibility (SA) of designed compounds are important in practical drug development, and hardware/software resources for performing the computations in computer-aided drug design are crucial. Cloud computing and general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) computing have been used in virtual screening and molecular dynamics simulations. Not surprisingly, there is a growing demand for computer systems which combine these resources. In the present review, we summarize and discuss these various topics of drug design. PMID:27075578

Topical antibiotics: therapeutic value or ecologic mischief?

PubMed

Del Rosso, James Q; Kim, Grace K

2009-01-01

Based on antibiotic prescribing data from 2003, dermatologists account annually for 8-9 million prescriptions for oral antibiotics, and 3-4 million prescriptions for topical antibiotics. Overall, much of the emphasis on concerns related to emergence of clinically significant antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains focuses on use of systemic antibiotics, however, topical antibiotic use may also have potential implications. The following article discusses the perspectives of the authors related to the potential therapeutic benefits and ecologic implications ("ecologic mischief") of topical antibiotic therapy for specific indications encountered in ambulatory dermatology practice.

Problematic topic transitions in dysarthric conversation.

PubMed

Bloch, Steven; Saldert, Charlotta; Ferm, Ulrika

2015-01-01

This study examined the nature of topic transition problems associated with acquired progressive dysarthric speech in the everyday conversation of people with motor neurone disease. Using conversation analytic methods, a video collection of five naturally occurring problematic topic transitions was identified, transcribed and analysed. These were extracted from a main collection of over 200 other-initiated repair sequences and a sub-set of 15 problematic topic transition sequences. The sequences were analysed with reference to how the participants both identified and resolved the problems. Analysis revealed that topic transition by people with dysarthria can prove problematic. Conversation partners may find transitions problematic not only because of speech intelligibility but also because of a sequential disjuncture between the dysarthric speech turn and whatever topic has come prior. In addition the treatment of problematic topic transition as a complaint reveals the potential vulnerability of people with dysarthria to judgements of competence. These findings have implications for how dysarthria is conceptualized and how specific actions in conversation, such as topic transition, might be suitable targets for clinical intervention.

Hot Topics on the Web: Strategies for Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diaz, Karen R.; O'Hanlon, Nancy

2001-01-01

Presents strategies for researching topics on the Web that are controversial or current in nature. Discusses topic selection and overviews, including the use of online encyclopedias; search engines; finding laws and pending legislation; advocacy groups; proprietary databases; Web site evaluation; and the continuing usefulness of print materials.…

GeneTopics - interpretation of gene sets via literature-driven topic models

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Annotation of a set of genes is often accomplished through comparison to a library of labelled gene sets such as biological processes or canonical pathways. However, this approach might fail if the employed libraries are not up to date with the latest research, don't capture relevant biological themes or are curated at a different level of granularity than is required to appropriately analyze the input gene set. At the same time, the vast biomedical literature offers an unstructured repository of the latest research findings that can be tapped to provide thematic sub-groupings for any input gene set. Methods Our proposed method relies on a gene-specific text corpus and extracts commonalities between documents in an unsupervised manner using a topic model approach. We automatically determine the number of topics summarizing the corpus and calculate a gene relevancy score for each topic allowing us to eliminate non-specific topics. As a result we obtain a set of literature topics in which each topic is associated with a subset of the input genes providing directly interpretable keywords and corresponding documents for literature research. Results We validate our method based on labelled gene sets from the KEGG metabolic pathway collection and the genetic association database (GAD) and show that the approach is able to detect topics consistent with the labelled annotation. Furthermore, we discuss the results on three different types of experimentally derived gene sets, (1) differentially expressed genes from a cardiac hypertrophy experiment in mice, (2) altered transcript abundance in human pancreatic beta cells, and (3) genes implicated by GWA studies to be associated with metabolite levels in a healthy population. In all three cases, we are able to replicate findings from the original papers in a quick and semi-automated manner. Conclusions Our approach provides a novel way of automatically generating meaningful annotations for gene sets that are directly

Physicians' Religious Topic Avoidance during Clinical Interactions.

PubMed

Villagran, Melinda M; MacArthur, Brenda L; Lee, Lauren E; Ledford, Christy J W; Canzona, Mollie R

2017-05-08

Religious and spiritual (R/S) conversations at the end-of-life function to help patients and their families find comfort in difficult circumstances. Physicians who feel uncertain about how to discuss topics related to religious beliefs may seek to avoid R/S conversations with their patients. This study utilized a two-group objective structured clinical examination with a standardized patient to explore differences in physicians' use of R/S topic avoidance tactics during a clinical interaction. Results indicated that physicians used more topic avoidance tactics in response to patients' R/S inquiries than patients' R/S disclosures; however, the use of topic avoidance tactics did not eliminate the need to engage in patient-initiated R/S interactions.

Physicians’ Religious Topic Avoidance during Clinical Interactions

PubMed Central

Villagran, Melinda M.; MacArthur, Brenda L.; Lee, Lauren E.; Ledford, Christy J. W.; Canzona, Mollie R.

2017-01-01

Religious and spiritual (R/S) conversations at the end-of-life function to help patients and their families find comfort in difficult circumstances. Physicians who feel uncertain about how to discuss topics related to religious beliefs may seek to avoid R/S conversations with their patients. This study utilized a two-group objective structured clinical examination with a standardized patient to explore differences in physicians’ use of R/S topic avoidance tactics during a clinical interaction. Results indicated that physicians used more topic avoidance tactics in response to patients’ R/S inquiries than patients’ R/S disclosures; however, the use of topic avoidance tactics did not eliminate the need to engage in patient-initiated R/S interactions. PMID:28481290

Selected topics in pediatric gastroenterology.

PubMed

Magne, Michael L

2006-05-01

This article discusses some of the more common gastrointestinal problems encountered in pediatric patients. Topics include infectious and endoparasitic disorders, congenital esophageal and hepatic disorders, and acute or chronic intestinal diseases. Diagnostic criteria as well as treatment guidelines are presented.

Computer supported collaborative learning in a clerkship: an exploratory study on the relation of discussion activity and revision of critical appraisal papers.

PubMed

Koops, Willem J M; van der Vleuten, Cees P M; de Leng, Bas A; Snoeckx, Luc H E H

2012-08-20

Medical students in clerkship are continuously confronted with real and relevant patient problems. To support clinical problem solving skills, students perform a Critical Appraisal of a Topic (CAT) task, often resulting in a paper. Because such a paper may contain errors, students could profit from discussion with peers, leading to paper revision. Active peer discussion by a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environment show positive medical students perceptions on subjective knowledge improvement. High students' activity during discussions in a CSCL environment demonstrated higher task-focussed discussion reflecting higher levels of knowledge construction. However, it remains unclear whether high discussion activity influences students' decisions revise their CAT paper. The aim of this research is to examine whether students who revise their critical appraisal papers after discussion in a CSCL environment show more task-focussed activity and discuss more intensively on critical appraisal topics than students who do not revise their papers. Forty-seven medical students, stratified in subgroups, participated in a structured asynchronous online discussion of individual written CAT papers on self-selected clinical problems. The discussion was structured by three critical appraisal topics. After the discussion, the students could revise their paper. For analysis purposes, all students' postings were blinded and analysed by the investigator, unaware of students characteristics and whether or not the paper was revised. Postings were counted and analysed by an independent rater, Postings were assigned into outside activity, non-task-focussed activity or task-focussed activity. Additionally, postings were assigned to one of the three critical appraisal topics. Analysis results were compared by revised and unrevised papers. Twenty-four papers (51.6%) were revised after the online discussion. The discussions of the revised papers showed significantly higher

Topics for Mathematics Clubs. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalton, LeRoy C., Ed.; Snyder, Henry D., Ed.

One of the main purposes of a mathematics club is to provide the opportunity for students to study exciting topics in mathematics not ordinarily discussed in the classroom. Each of the 10 chapters in this booklet is a collection of related subtopics. Each idea is presented and discussed; bibliographies then suggest in-depth reading. The chapters…

Topical Therapies in Psoriasis

PubMed Central

Torsekar, R.; Gautam, Manjyot M.

2017-01-01

Topical therapy as monotherapy is useful in psoriasis patients with mild disease. Topical agents are also used as adjuvant for moderate-to-severe disease who are being concurrently treated with either ultraviolet light or systemic medications. Emollients are useful adjuncts to the treatment of psoriasis. Use of older topical agents such as anthralin and coal tar has declined over the years. However, they are cheaper and can still be used for the treatment of difficult psoriasis refractory to conventional treatment. Salicylic acid can be used in combination with other topical therapies such as topical corticosteroids (TCS) and calcineurin inhibitors for the treatment of thick limited plaques to increase the absorption of the latter into the psoriatic plaques. Low- to mid-potent TCS are used in facial/flexural psoriasis and high potent over palmoplantar/thick psoriasis lesions. The addition of noncorticosteroid treatment can also facilitate the avoidance of long-term daily TCS. Tacrolimus and pimecrolimus can be used for the treatment of facial and intertriginous psoriasis. Tazarotene is indicated for stable plaque psoriasis usually in combination with other therapies such as TCS. Vitamin D analogs alone in combination with TCS are useful in stable plaques over limbs and palmoplantar psoriasis. Topical therapies for scalp psoriasis include TCS, Vitamin D analogs, salicylic acid, coal tar, and anthralin in various formulations such as solutions, foams, and shampoos. TCS, vitamin D analogs, and tazarotene can be used in the treatment of nail psoriasis. PMID:28761838

Using an online service for breastfeeding support: what mothers want to discuss.

PubMed

Cowie, Genevieve A; Hill, Sophie; Robinson, Priscilla

2011-08-01

There is little research on how the establishment and maintenance of breastfeeding and other early parenting skills is assisted by the use of electronic peer support groups. In what ways do parents use a popular peer-moderated online resource and what topics do they choose to discuss? The objective of this study was to identify and quantify the main uses of an electronic discussion board hosted by a prominent Australian lay breastfeeding advocacy organisation. Three consecutive days of conversations on the discussion board were followed. Using content analysis, the messages were coded and analysed statistically for the ways the board was used and which topics were and were not present. The discussion board almost universally gave emotional support to the participants and most users expressed their emotions in their messages. The giving of factual advice or opinions was a much less frequent use of the discussion board as was the clear seeking of emotional support and general facts or advice. The range of topics discussed was dominated by general parenting followed by various breastfeeding topics as well as much discussion related to general social support. The lay-moderated discussion board can be a worthwhile resource for parents in need of reassurance, information or general social support. It may also be useful to expand the amount of breastfeeding and parenting information available on the organisation's main website.

A heuristic approach to determine an appropriate number of topics in topic modeling

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Background Topic modelling is an active research field in machine learning. While mainly used to build models from unstructured textual data, it offers an effective means of data mining where samples represent documents, and different biological endpoints or omics data represent words. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) is the most commonly used topic modelling method across a wide number of technical fields. However, model development can be arduous and tedious, and requires burdensome and systematic sensitivity studies in order to find the best set of model parameters. Often, time-consuming subjective evaluations are needed to compare models. Currently, research has yielded no easy way to choose the proper number of topics in a model beyond a major iterative approach. Methods and results Based on analysis of variation of statistical perplexity during topic modelling, a heuristic approach is proposed in this study to estimate the most appropriate number of topics. Specifically, the rate of perplexity change (RPC) as a function of numbers of topics is proposed as a suitable selector. We test the stability and effectiveness of the proposed method for three markedly different types of grounded-truth datasets: Salmonella next generation sequencing, pharmacological side effects, and textual abstracts on computational biology and bioinformatics (TCBB) from PubMed. Conclusion The proposed RPC-based method is demonstrated to choose the best number of topics in three numerical experiments of widely different data types, and for databases of very different sizes. The work required was markedly less arduous than if full systematic sensitivity studies had been carried out with number of topics as a parameter. We understand that additional investigation is needed to substantiate the method's theoretical basis, and to establish its generalizability in terms of dataset characteristics. PMID:26424364

SETI: A good introductory physics topic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hobson, Art

1997-04-01

If America is to achieve the science literacy that is essential to industrialized democracy, all students must study such topics as scientific methodology, pseudoscience, ozone depletion, and global warming. My large-enrollment liberal-arts physics course covers the great principles of physics along with several such philosophical and societal topics. It is easy to include the interdisciplinary context of physics in courses for non-scientists, because these courses are flexible, conceptual, and taught to students whose interests span a broad range. Students find these topics relevant and fascinating, leading to large enrollments by non-scientists even in courses labeled ''physics.'' I will discuss my approach to teaching the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI), a topic with lots of good physics and with connections to scientific methodology and pseudoscience. A textbook for this kind of course has been published, Physics: Concepts and Connections (Prentice-Hall, 1995).

Exploring supervised and unsupervised methods to detect topics in biomedical text

PubMed Central

Lee, Minsuk; Wang, Weiqing; Yu, Hong

2006-01-01

Background Topic detection is a task that automatically identifies topics (e.g., "biochemistry" and "protein structure") in scientific articles based on information content. Topic detection will benefit many other natural language processing tasks including information retrieval, text summarization and question answering; and is a necessary step towards the building of an information system that provides an efficient way for biologists to seek information from an ocean of literature. Results We have explored the methods of Topic Spotting, a task of text categorization that applies the supervised machine-learning technique naïve Bayes to assign automatically a document into one or more predefined topics; and Topic Clustering, which apply unsupervised hierarchical clustering algorithms to aggregate documents into clusters such that each cluster represents a topic. We have applied our methods to detect topics of more than fifteen thousand of articles that represent over sixteen thousand entries in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database. We have explored bag of words as the features. Additionally, we have explored semantic features; namely, the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) that are assigned to the MEDLINE records, and the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) semantic types that correspond to the MeSH terms, in addition to bag of words, to facilitate the tasks of topic detection. Our results indicate that incorporating the MeSH terms and the UMLS semantic types as additional features enhances the performance of topic detection and the naïve Bayes has the highest accuracy, 66.4%, for predicting the topic of an OMIM article as one of the total twenty-five topics. Conclusion Our results indicate that the supervised topic spotting methods outperformed the unsupervised topic clustering; on the other hand, the unsupervised topic clustering methods have the advantages of being robust and applicable in real world settings. PMID:16539745

Exploring the Potential of WAP Technology in Online Discussion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Chwee Beng

2004-01-01

The intent of this study is to explore how WAP (wireless application protocol) technology mediates online discussions. The focus of this research is on the implications of WAP technology for online discussions, and the types of discussion topics that are most suitable for WAP-based discussions and the finding of the combination of WAP- and…

Topical treatment of psoriasis: questionnaire results on topical therapy accessibility and influence of body surface area on usage.

PubMed

Iversen, L; Lange, M M; Bissonette, R; Carvalho, A V E; van de Kerkhof, P C; Kirby, B; Kleyn, C E; Lynde, C W; van der Walt, J M; Wu, J J

2017-07-01

Topical treatment of mild to moderate psoriasis is first-line treatment and exhibits varying degrees of success across patient groups. Key factors influencing treatment success are physician topical treatment choice (high efficacy, low adverse events) and strict patient adherence. Currently, no formalized, international consensus guidelines exist to direct optimal topical treatment, although many countries have national guidelines. To describe and analyse cross-regional variations in the use and access of psoriasis topical therapies. The study was conducted as an observational cross-sectional study. A survey was distributed to dermatologists from the International Psoriasis Council (IPC) to assess topical therapy accessibility in 26 countries and to understand how body surface area (BSA) categories guide clinical decisions on topical use. Variation in the availability of tars, topical retinoids, dithranol and balneotherapy was reported. The vast majority of respondents (100% and 88.4%) used topical therapy as first-line monotherapy in situations with BSA < 3% and BSA between 3% and 10%, respectively. However, with disease severity increasing to BSA > 10%, the number of respondents who prescribe topical therapy decreased considerably. In addition, combination therapy of a topical drug and a systemic drug was frequently reported when BSA measured >10%. This physician survey provides new evidence on topical access and the influence of disease severity on topical usage in an effort to improve treatment strategies on a global level. © 2017 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

Additive manufacturing in production: challenges and opportunities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahuja, Bhrigu; Karg, Michael; Schmidt, Michael

2015-03-01

Additive manufacturing, characterized by its inherent layer by layer fabrication methodology has been coined by many as the latest revolution in the manufacturing industry. Due to its diversification of Materials, processes, system technology and applications, Additive Manufacturing has been synonymized with terminology such as Rapid prototyping, 3D printing, free-form fabrication, Additive Layer Manufacturing, etc. A huge media and public interest in the technology has led to an innovative attempt of exploring the technology for applications beyond the scope of the traditional engineering industry. Nevertheless, it is believed that a critical factor for the long-term success of Additive Manufacturing would be its ability to fulfill the requirements defined by the traditional manufacturing industry. A parallel development in market trends and product requirements has also lead to a wider scope of opportunities for Additive Manufacturing. The presented paper discusses some of the key challenges which are critical to ensure that Additive Manufacturing is truly accepted as a mainstream production technology in the industry. These challenges would highlight on various aspects of production such as product requirements, process management, data management, intellectual property, work flow management, quality assurance, resource planning, etc. In Addition, changing market trends such as product life cycle, mass customization, sustainability, environmental impact and localized production will form the foundation for the follow up discussion on the current limitations and the corresponding research opportunities. A discussion on ongoing research to address these challenges would include topics like process monitoring, design complexity, process standardization, multi-material and hybrid fabrication, new material development, etc.

Nonlinearity in the Cochlea—Moderated Discussions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mountain, David C.; Guinan, John J.

2011-11-01

Discussions moderated by the authors on the topic "Nonlinearity in the Cochlea" were held on 18 and 21 July 2011 at the 11th International Mechanics of Hearing Workshop in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The paper provides an edited transcript of the two sessions.

How to Improve the Mastery of Students’ Concept on Photosynthesis Topic?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ulfa, K.; Anggraeni, S.; Supriatno, B.

2017-09-01

The PPDP learning strategy in this research is the acronym of Practicum method, Presentation-discussion method, Demonstration method, and Presentation-discussion method. This study aims to describe the effect of applying PPDP learning strategies to mastery of high school students’ concepts on photosynthesis topic. The research method is a weak experiment, with the research design “The One-Group Pretest-Postetst Design”. The implementation of the study involved 35 students in one of the high schools in the city of Palembang. The research instrument used is in the form of test equipment, assessment rubric and questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS 24 Program. The statistical result showed that PPDP learning strategy had an effect on improving conceptual and Effective on the achievement of the value on the minimum criteria set by the school. This is due to the transformation of knowledge from hands-on to minds-on through the discovery of facts about the concept of photosynthesis. This fact leads to the construction of further understanding through cognitive sharing when the activities of the discussions formed similarity and consolidation of the concept of photosynthesis intact. In addition, demonstration activities also cause students’ logic of thinking to develop through observation of factors that may affect the rate of photosynthesis. This PPDP learning strategy can be utilized by teachers in explaining photosynthetic topic.

Topical Drug Delivery for Chronic Rhinosinusitis

PubMed Central

Liang, Jonathan; Lane, Andrew P.

2013-01-01

Chronic rhinosinusitis is a multifactorial disorder that may be heterogeneous in presentation and clinical course. While the introduction of endoscopic sinus surgery revolutionized surgical management and has led to significantly improved patient outcomes, medical therapy remains the foundation of long-term care of chronic rhinosinusitis, particularly in surgically recalcitrant cases. A variety of devices and pharmaceutical agents have been developed to apply topical medical therapy to the sinuses, taking advantage of the access provided by endoscopic surgery. The goal of topical therapy is to address the inflammation, infection, and mucociliary dysfunction that underlies the disease. Major factors that impact success include the patient’s sinus anatomy and the dynamics of the delivery device. Despite a growing number of topical treatment options, the evidence-based literature to support their use is limited. In this article, we comprehensively review current delivery methods and the available topical agents. We also discuss biotechnological advances that promise enhanced delivery in the future, and evolving pharmacotherapeutical compounds that may be added to rhinologist’s armamentarium. A complete understand of topical drug delivery is increasingly essential to the management of chronic rhinosinusitis when traditional forms of medical therapy and surgery have failed. PMID:23525506

Topical methotrexate pretreatment enhances the therapeutic effect of topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy on hamster buccal pouch precancers.

PubMed

Yang, Deng-Fu; Lee, Jeng-Woei; Chen, Hsin-Ming; Hsu, Yih-Chih

2014-09-01

Topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) is effective for treatment of human oral precancerous lesions. This animal study aimed to assess whether topical methotrexate (MTX) pretreatment could enhance the therapeutic effect of topical ALA-PDT on hamster buccal pouch precancerous lesions. Twenty hamster buccal pouch precancerous lesions were treated with either topical ALA-PDT with topical MTX pretreatment (topical MTX-ALA-PDT group, n = 10) or topical ALA-PDT alone (topical ALA-PDT group, n = 10). The intracellular protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) level in another 12 precancerous lesions (n = 6 for either the topical MTX-ALA or topical ALA group) was monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy. The intracellular PpIX reached its peak level in precancerous lesions 6.5 hours and 2.5 hours after topical ALA application for the topical MTX-ALA group (5.63-fold higher in the lesion than in the normal mucosa) and topical ALA group (2.42-fold higher in the lesion than in the normal mucosa), respectively. The complete response rate of precancerous lesions was 80% for the topical MTX-ALA-PDT group and 70% for the topical ALA-PDT group. In addition, the topical MTX-ALA-PDT group required a significantly lower mean treatment number (2.1 ± 0.6) to achieve complete response than the topical ALA-PDT group (4.4 ± 1.3, p < 0.001)). Moreover, the topical MTX-ALA-PDT group had a lower recurrence rate (12.5%) than the topical ALA-PDT group (28.6%). We conclude that topical MTX-pretreatment can increase intracellular PpIX production in hamster buccal pouch precancerous lesions and significantly improves the outcomes of the precancerous lesions treated with topical ALA-PDT. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Topics in Biomedical Optics: Introduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hebden, Jeremy C.; Boas, David A.; George, John S.; Durkin, Anthony J.

2003-06-01

The field of biomedical optics is experiencing tremendous growth. Biomedical technologies contribute in the creation of devices used in healthcare of various specialties (ophthalmology, cardiology, anesthesiology, and immunology, etc.). Recent research in biomedical optics is discussed. Overviews of meetings held at the 2002 Optical Society of America Biomedical Topical Meetings are presented.

Panel discussions: Industrial support sector requirements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Washom, B.

1982-01-01

Industrial support was the subject of a panel discussion on solar energy technology. Members of various energy-related businesses and agencies were present. Topics cofered include: (1) solar collectors; (2) solar energy policy; (3) government/industry relations; and (4) economic factors which influence the use of solar energy.

How to Create Successful Discussions in Science Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grover, Neena

2007-01-01

Professors often expect students to have the skills that are necessary to participate in discussions. Students, on the other hand, have been trained to glean information from the lecture format; their prior experiences in discussions are likely to be limited to personal opinions on topics such as stem-cell research or evolution. Sudden changes in…

Enabling Easier Information Access in Online Discussion Forums

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bhatia, Sumit

2013-01-01

Online discussion forums have become popular in recent times. They provide a platform for people from different parts of the world sharing a common interest to come together and topics of mutual interest and seek solutions to their problems. There are hundreds of thousands of internet forums containing tens of millions of discussion threads and…

Talking Points: Discussion Activities in the Primary Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dawes, Lyn

2011-01-01

"Talking Points: Discussion Activities in the Primary Classroom" encourages and supports classroom discussion on a range of topics, enabling children to develop the important life-skill of effective group communication. Children who can explain their own ideas and take account of the points of view and reasons of others are in the process of…

HierarchicalTopics: visually exploring large text collections using topic hierarchies.

PubMed

Dou, Wenwen; Yu, Li; Wang, Xiaoyu; Ma, Zhiqiang; Ribarsky, William

2013-12-01

Analyzing large textual collections has become increasingly challenging given the size of the data available and the rate that more data is being generated. Topic-based text summarization methods coupled with interactive visualizations have presented promising approaches to address the challenge of analyzing large text corpora. As the text corpora and vocabulary grow larger, more topics need to be generated in order to capture the meaningful latent themes and nuances in the corpora. However, it is difficult for most of current topic-based visualizations to represent large number of topics without being cluttered or illegible. To facilitate the representation and navigation of a large number of topics, we propose a visual analytics system--HierarchicalTopic (HT). HT integrates a computational algorithm, Topic Rose Tree, with an interactive visual interface. The Topic Rose Tree constructs a topic hierarchy based on a list of topics. The interactive visual interface is designed to present the topic content as well as temporal evolution of topics in a hierarchical fashion. User interactions are provided for users to make changes to the topic hierarchy based on their mental model of the topic space. To qualitatively evaluate HT, we present a case study that showcases how HierarchicalTopics aid expert users in making sense of a large number of topics and discovering interesting patterns of topic groups. We have also conducted a user study to quantitatively evaluate the effect of hierarchical topic structure. The study results reveal that the HT leads to faster identification of large number of relevant topics. We have also solicited user feedback during the experiments and incorporated some suggestions into the current version of HierarchicalTopics.

#Healthy Selfies: Exploration of Health Topics on Instagram.

PubMed

Muralidhara, Sachin; Paul, Michael J

2018-06-29

Social media provides a complementary source of information for public health surveillance. The dominate data source for this type of monitoring is the microblogging platform Twitter, which is convenient due to the free availability of public data. Less is known about the utility of other social media platforms, despite their popularity. This work aims to characterize the health topics that are prominently discussed in the image-sharing platform Instagram, as a step toward understanding how this data might be used for public health research. The study uses a topic modeling approach to discover topics in a dataset of 96,426 Instagram posts containing hashtags related to health. We use a polylingual topic model, initially developed for datasets in different natural languages, to model different modalities of data: hashtags, caption words, and image tags automatically extracted using a computer vision tool. We identified 47 health-related topics in the data (kappa=.77), covering ten broad categories: acute illness, alternative medicine, chronic illness and pain, diet, exercise, health care & medicine, mental health, musculoskeletal health and dermatology, sleep, and substance use. The most prevalent topics were related to diet (8,293/96,426; 8.6% of posts) and exercise (7,328/96,426; 7.6% of posts). A large and diverse set of health topics are discussed in Instagram. The extracted image tags were generally too coarse and noisy to be used for identifying posts but were in some cases accurate for identifying images relevant to studying diet and substance use. Instagram shows potential as a source of public health information, though limitations in data collection and metadata availability may limit its use in comparison to platforms like Twitter. ©Sachin Muralidhara, Michael J. Paul. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (http://publichealth.jmir.org), 29.06.2018.

Mechanics of Hearing Potpourri—A Moderated Discussion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guinan, John J.

2011-11-01

A summary discussion moderated by the author on the general topic "Mechanics of Hearing" was held on 21 July 2011 at the 11th International Mechanics of Hearing Workshop in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The paper provides an edited transcript of the session.

Current Topics in Epilepsy Surgery.

PubMed

Usui, Naotaka

2016-05-15

This article reviews the current topics in the field of epilepsy surgery. Each type of epilepsy is associated with a different set of questions and goals. In mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) with hippocampal sclerosis (HS), postoperative seizure outcome is satisfactory. A recent meta-analysis revealed superior seizure outcome after anterior temporal lobectomy compared with selective amygdalohippocampectomy; in terms of cognitive outcome; however, amygdalohippocampectomy may be beneficial. In temporal lobe epilepsy with normal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), postoperative seizure outcome is not as favorable as it is in MTLE with HS; further improvement of seizure outcome in these cases is necessary. Focal cortical dysplasia is the most common substrate in intractable neocortical epilepsy, especially in children, as well as in MRI-invisible neocortical epilepsy. Postoperative seizure-free outcome is approximately 60-70%; further diagnostic and therapeutic improvement is required. Regarding diagnostic methodology, an important topic currently under discussion is wideband electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis. Although high-frequency oscillations and ictal direct current shifts are considered important markers of epileptogenic zones, the clinical significance of these findings should be clarified further. Regarding alternatives to surgery, neuromodulation therapy can be an option for patients who are not amenable to resective surgery. In addition to vagus nerve stimulation, intracranial stimulation such as responsive neurostimulation or anterior thalamic stimulation is reported to have a modest seizure suppression effect. Postoperative management such as rehabilitation and antiepileptic drug (AED) management is important. It has been reported that postoperative rehabilitation improves postoperative employment status. Pre- and post-operative comprehensive care is mandatory for postoperative improvement of quality of life.

Frequency of Faith and Spirituality Discussion in Health Care.

PubMed

Bergamo, David; White, Dawn

2016-04-01

Faith and spirituality are important in the lives of many individuals, and therefore, many patients. This study was performed to determine whether faith and spirituality are active part of the healthcare field and patients' receipt of these sometimes delicate topics. The nuances of the concepts of faith, spirituality, and religion and their implications in the healthcare setting are discussed. Benefits and detriments of faith and spirituality are reviewed in terms of how they relate to the health of the patient and to the healthcare field. With the focus of healthcare shifting to holistic care, this conversation may be more necessary than ever in practice, yet it seems many providers are not discussing these matters with patients. The study analyzes whether healthcare providers are discussing these topics with patients and how the discussion is received or would be received by patients. Findings demonstrate the infrequency of the discussion regardless of the fact that the majority of patients consider themselves faithful or spiritual. This study was approved by the Clarkson University Institutional Review Board on June 18, 2104.

Alice, Greenfoot, and Scratch--A Discussion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Utting, Ian; Cooper, Stephen; Kolling, Michael; Maloney, John; Resnick, Mitchel

2010-01-01

This article distills a discussion about the goals, mechanisms, and effects of three environments which aim to support the acquisition and development of computing concepts (problem solving and programming) in pre-University and non-technical students: Alice, Greenfoot, and Scratch. The conversation started in a special session on the topic at the…

The Topology of a Discussion: The #Occupy Case.

PubMed

Gargiulo, Floriana; Bindi, Jacopo; Apolloni, Andrea

2015-01-01

We analyse a large sample of the Twitter activity that developed around the social movement 'Occupy Wall Street', to study the complex interactions between the human communication activity and the semantic content of a debate. We use a network approach based on the analysis of the bipartite graph @Users-#Hashtags and of its projections: the 'semantic network', whose nodes are hashtags, and the 'users interest network', whose nodes are users. In the first instance, we find out that discussion topics (#hashtags) present a high structural heterogeneity, with a relevant role played by the semantic hubs that are responsible to guarantee the continuity of the debate. In the users' case, the self-organisation process of users' activity, leads to the emergence of two classes of communicators: the 'professionals' and the 'amateurs'. Both the networks present a strong community structure, based on the differentiation of the semantic topics, and a high level of structural robustness when certain sets of topics are censored and/or accounts are removed. By analysing the characteristics of the dynamical networks we can distinguish three phases of the discussion about the movement. Each phase corresponds to a specific moment of the movement: from declaration of intent, organisation and development and the final phase of political reactions. Each phase is characterised by the presence of prototypical #hashtags in the discussion.

A Primer on the Effective Use of Threaded Discussion Forums.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirk, James J.; Orr, Robert L.

Threaded discussion forums are asynchronous, World Wide Web-based discussions occurring under a number of different topics called threads. By allowing students to post, read, and respond to messages independently of time or place, threaded discussion forums give students an opportunity for deeper reflection and more thoughtful replies than chat…

Lipid based nanocarriers system for topical delivery of photosensitizers.

PubMed

Md, Shadab; Haque, Shadabul; Madheswaran, Thiagarajan; Zeeshan, Farrukh; Meka, Venkata Srikanth; Radhakrishnan, Ammu K; Kesharwani, Prashant

2017-08-01

Topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a non-invasive technique used in the treatment of malignant and non-malignant skin diseases. It offers great promise because of its simplicity, enhanced patient compliance, localisation of the photosensitizer, as well as the use of light and oxygen to achieve photocytotoxicity. Despite progress in photosensitizer-mediated topical PDT, its clinical application is limited by poor penetration of photosensitizers through the skin. Therefore, much effort has been made to develop nanocarriers that can tackle the challenges of conventional photosensitizer-mediated PDT for topical delivery. This review discusses recent data on the use of different types of lipid-based nanocarriers in delivering photosensitizer for topical PDT. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increased cutaneous oxygen availability by topical application of hydrogen peroxide cream enhances the photodynamic reaction to topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-methyl ester.

PubMed

Manifold, R N; Anderson, C D

2011-05-01

Topical 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and methyl aminolevulinate (MAL) photodynamic therapy (PDT) of skin lesions is an accepted treatment for skin tumours but success rates need improvement. The effectiveness of PDT is influenced by availability of oxygen. The aim of this study was to demonstrate, in normal skin, whether a decrease in skin oxygen tension reduces the photodynamic reaction (PDR); and whether the addition of topical hydrogen peroxide can reverse the effect. Topical MAL and red light were administered to the inner forearms of 40 healthy volunteers. Skin oxygen availability was lowered during the illumination phase of the PDT, by applying blanching pressure with a plastic slide. Topical hydrogen peroxide was applied under the pressure slide, immediately prior to illumination, to reverse the effect. Erythema was assessed by naked eye and laser Doppler perfusion imaging (LDPI), at baseline and at 1, 5, 24 and 48 h following illumination. Decreasing oxygen availability by pressure altered the PDR with a larger number of subjects (17.5%) not demonstrating any visible erythema at any time point after plastic slide pressure compared to a PDR Control site (7.5%). The addition of topical hydrogen peroxide during pressure application, restored the number of subjects showing no visible erythema compared to that of PDR Control. LDPI data showed that there was a decrease in mean perfusion after plastic slide pressure when comparing the change from baseline to 24 h (P < 0.05) with the PDR Control. The addition of hydrogen peroxide not only restored but also increased the mean perfusion compared to that of PDR Control when comparing the change from baseline to 5 h and the change from baseline to 24 h (P < 0.001). Increasing oxygen availability increased the PDR in normal skin. The possibility that addition of topical hydrogen peroxide to PDT protocols for non-melanoma skin cancer may increase reactivity and, thus, be relevant for outcomes warrants further study.

Advanced Topics in Wet-Weather Discharge Control

EPA Science Inventory

This report discusses four related but generally independent wet-weather flow (WWF) topic areas, namely: i) opportunities for advanced practices in WWF control technology, particularly as it applies to sewered systems; ii) tradeoffs between storage facilities (tanks) and enlarged...

Additional intraarticular tranexamic acid further reduced postoperative blood loss compared to intravenous and topical bathed tranexamic acid in total hip arthroplasty: a retrospective sequential series study.

PubMed

Nakura, Nariaki; Hirakawa, Kazuo; Takayanagi, Satoshi; Saito, Akira; Tsuji, Koji; Tamaki, Yasunobu; Ochiai, Shunsuke; Mihara, Masahiko

2017-04-01

Topical tranexamic acid (TXA) administration has been described to be effective in decreasing blood loss in total hip arthroplasty (THA). The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate whether topical intraarticular TXA administration in addition to intravenous (IV) and topical bathed TXA further reduces blood loss in THA patients. Four-hundred patients were enrolled in this sequential series study with two different phases during four different time periods. Patients were divided based on TXA usage and route of administration: those with and without IV TXA (IVTA-I and no-IVTA groups, respectively) and those with and without intraarticular TXA (TITA and IVTA-II groups, respectively). Both IVTA-II and TITA groups had IV TXA, and all four groups used topical bathed TXA. These four groups had 100 cases each. The primary outcomes were evaluated with total blood loss and postoperative hemoglobin level. The total blood loss was 1106 and 875 mL in the no-IVTA and IVTA-I groups, respectively (p < 0.05). Postoperative Hb was 10.9 and 11.51 g/dL in the no-IVTA and IVTA-I groups, respectively (p < 0.05). Total blood loss was 813 and 646 mL in the IVTA-II and TITA groups, respectively (p < 0.05). Intraarticular with IV and bathed TXA administration was more effective than IV and bathed TXA in reducing blood loss. This study suggests that the combined administration of topical intraarticular, bathed, and IV TXA was effective in reducing blood loss in THA patients. © 2016 AABB.

“Hybrid Topics” -- Facilitating the Interpretation of Topics Through the Addition of MeSH Descriptors to Bags of Words

PubMed Central

Yu, Zhiguo; Nguyen, Thang; Dhombres, Ferdinand; Johnson, Todd; Bodenreider, Olivier

2018-01-01

Extracting and understanding information, themes and relationships from large collections of documents is an important task for biomedical researchers. Latent Dirichlet Allocation is an unsupervised topic modeling technique using the bag-of-words assumption that has been applied extensively to unveil hidden thematic information within large sets of documents. In this paper, we added MeSH descriptors to the bag-of-words assumption to generate ‘hybrid topics’, which are mixed vectors of words and descriptors. We evaluated this approach on the quality and interpretability of topics in both a general corpus and a specialized corpus. Our results demonstrated that the coherence of ‘hybrid topics’ is higher than that of regular bag-of-words topics in the specialized corpus. We also found that the proportion of topics that are not associated with MeSH descriptors is higher in the specialized corpus than in the general corpus. PMID:29295179

Mining nonterrestrial resources: Information needs and research topics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daemen, Jaak J. K.

1992-01-01

An outline of topics we need to understand better in order to apply mining technology to a nonterrestrial environment is presented. The proposed list is not intended to be complete. It aims to identify representative topics that suggest productive research. Such research will reduce the uncertainties associated with extrapolating from conventional earthbound practice to nonterrestrial applications. One objective is to propose projects that should put future discussions of nonterrestrial mining on a firmer, less speculative basis.

Informal Discussions in Substance Abuse Treatment Sessions with Spanish-speaking Clients

PubMed Central

Bamatter, Wendy; Carroll, Kathleen M.; Añez, Luis M.; Paris, Manuel; Ball, Samuel A.; Nich, Charla; Frankforter, Tami L.; Suarez-Morales, Lourdes; Szapocznik, Jose; Martino, Steve

2010-01-01

This study investigated the extent to which bilingual counselors initiated informal discussions about topics that were unrelated to the treatment of their monolingual Spanish-speaking Hispanic clients in a National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trial Network protocol examining the effectiveness of motivational enhancement therapy (MET). Session audiotapes were independently rated to assess counselor treatment fidelity and the incidence of informal discussions. Eighty-three percent of the 23 counselors participating in the trial initiated informal discussions at least once in one or more of their sessions. Counselors delivering MET in the trial initiated informal discussion significantly less often than the counselors delivering standard treatment. Counselors delivering standard treatment were likely to talk informally the most when they were ethnically non-Latin. Additionally, informal discussion was found to have significant inverse correlations with client motivation to reduce substance use and client retention in treatment. These results suggest that informal discussion may have adverse consequences on Hispanic clients’ motivation for change and substance abuse treatment outcomes and that maintaining a more formal relationship in early treatment sessions may work best with Hispanic clients. Careful counselor training and supervision in MET may suppress the tendency of counselors to talk informally in sessions. PMID:20817381

Focus group discussion in built environment qualitative research practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Omar, D.

2018-02-01

Focus groups discussion is a useful way in built environment for qualitative research practice. Drawing upon recent reviews of focus group discussion and examples of how focus group discussions have been used by researchers and educators, this paper provides what actually happens in focus group discussion as practiced. There is difference between group of people and topic of interest. This article examines the focus group discussions as practiced in built environment. Thus, there is broad form of focus group discussions as practiced in built environment and the applications are varied.

Infant Family Day Care Training: Discussion and Workshop Sheets.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lauritzen, Phyllis; McClain, Doris G.

Training materials for family day care providers are offered in this document in the form of pages providing topics for discussion and suggested workshop activities. Discussion materials consist of prototype forms for gathering data and keeping records, as well as guidelines for caregiving functions such as feeding, first aid, arranging the home…

Popularization of Chemistry through Ecological Topics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perina, I.

1982-01-01

After providing information on elementary schooling in Yugoslavia, discusses ecological topics and activities used to raise the awareness of elementary school students about the level of pollution in the environment and the dangers of an increasingly polluted environment. Students' keen interest in chemistry and the chemical experiments was noted.…

A Comprehensive Review of Topical Odor-Controlling Treatment Options for Chronic Wounds

PubMed Central

Akhmetova, Alma; Allan, Iain U.; Illsley, Matthew J.; Nurgozhin, Talgat; Mikhalovsky, Sergey

2016-01-01

The process of wound healing is often accompanied by bacterial infection or critical colonization, resulting in protracted inflammation, delayed reepithelization, and production of pungent odors. The malodor produced by these wounds may lower health-related quality of life and produce psychological discomfort and social isolation. Current management focuses on reducing bacterial activity within the wound site and absorbing malodorous gases. For example, charcoal-based materials have been incorporated into dressing for direct adsorption of the responsible gases. In addition, multiple topical agents, including silver, iodine, honey, sugar, and essential oils, have been suggested for incorporation into dressings in an attempt to control the underlying bacterial infection. This review describes options for controlling malodor in chronic wounds, the benefits and drawbacks of each topical agent, and their mode of action. We also discuss the use of subjective odor evaluation techniques to assess the efficacy of odor-controlling therapies. The perspectives of employing novel biomaterials and technologies for wound odor management are also presented. PMID:27684356

A Comprehensive Review of Topical Odor-Controlling Treatment Options for Chronic Wounds.

PubMed

Akhmetova, Alma; Saliev, Timur; Allan, Iain U; Illsley, Matthew J; Nurgozhin, Talgat; Mikhalovsky, Sergey

The process of wound healing is often accompanied by bacterial infection or critical colonization, resulting in protracted inflammation, delayed reepithelization, and production of pungent odors. The malodor produced by these wounds may lower health-related quality of life and produce psychological discomfort and social isolation. Current management focuses on reducing bacterial activity within the wound site and absorbing malodorous gases. For example, charcoal-based materials have been incorporated into dressing for direct adsorption of the responsible gases. In addition, multiple topical agents, including silver, iodine, honey, sugar, and essential oils, have been suggested for incorporation into dressings in an attempt to control the underlying bacterial infection. This review describes options for controlling malodor in chronic wounds, the benefits and drawbacks of each topical agent, and their mode of action. We also discuss the use of subjective odor evaluation techniques to assess the efficacy of odor-controlling therapies. The perspectives of employing novel biomaterials and technologies for wound odor management are also presented.

Probability workshop to be better in probability topic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asmat, Aszila; Ujang, Suriyati; Wahid, Sharifah Norhuda Syed

2015-02-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether statistics anxiety and attitudes towards probability topic among students in higher education level have an effect on their performance. 62 fourth semester science students were given statistics anxiety questionnaires about their perception towards probability topic. Result indicated that students' performance in probability topic is not related to anxiety level, which means that the higher level in statistics anxiety will not cause lower score in probability topic performance. The study also revealed that motivated students gained from probability workshop ensure that their performance in probability topic shows a positive improvement compared before the workshop. In addition there exists a significance difference in students' performance between genders with better achievement among female students compared to male students. Thus, more initiatives in learning programs with different teaching approaches is needed to provide useful information in improving student learning outcome in higher learning institution.

Interpretable Topic Features for Post-ICU Mortality Prediction.

PubMed

Luo, Yen-Fu; Rumshisky, Anna

2016-01-01

Electronic health records provide valuable resources for understanding the correlation between various diseases and mortality. The analysis of post-discharge mortality is critical for healthcare professionals to follow up potential causes of death after a patient is discharged from the hospital and give prompt treatment. Moreover, it may reduce the cost derived from readmissions and improve the quality of healthcare. Our work focused on post-discharge ICU mortality prediction. In addition to features derived from physiological measurements, we incorporated ICD-9-CM hierarchy into Bayesian topic model learning and extracted topic features from medical notes. We achieved highest AUCs of 0.835 and 0.829 for 30-day and 6-month post-discharge mortality prediction using baseline and topic proportions derived from Labeled-LDA. Moreover, our work emphasized the interpretability of topic features derived from topic model which may facilitates the understanding and investigation of the complexity between mortality and diseases.

What Patients Can Tell Us: Topic Analysis for Social Media on Breast Cancer

PubMed Central

Bringay, Sandra; Lavergne, Christian; Mollevi, Caroline; Opitz, Thomas

2017-01-01

Background Social media dedicated to health are increasingly used by patients and health professionals. They are rich textual resources with content generated through free exchange between patients. We are proposing a method to tackle the problem of retrieving clinically relevant information from such social media in order to analyze the quality of life of patients with breast cancer. Objective Our aim was to detect the different topics discussed by patients on social media and to relate them to functional and symptomatic dimensions assessed in the internationally standardized self-administered questionnaires used in cancer clinical trials (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer [EORTC] Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 [QLQ-C30] and breast cancer module [QLQ-BR23]). Methods First, we applied a classic text mining technique, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), to detect the different topics discussed on social media dealing with breast cancer. We applied the LDA model to 2 datasets composed of messages extracted from public Facebook groups and from a public health forum (cancerdusein.org, a French breast cancer forum) with relevant preprocessing. Second, we applied a customized Jaccard coefficient to automatically compute similarity distance between the topics detected with LDA and the questions in the self-administered questionnaires used to study quality of life. Results Among the 23 topics present in the self-administered questionnaires, 22 matched with the topics discussed by patients on social media. Interestingly, these topics corresponded to 95% (22/23) of the forum and 86% (20/23) of the Facebook group topics. These figures underline that topics related to quality of life are an important concern for patients. However, 5 social media topics had no corresponding topic in the questionnaires, which do not cover all of the patients’ concerns. Of these 5 topics, 2 could potentially be used in the questionnaires, and these 2 topics

Outcomes of an Intercultural E-Mail Based University Discussion Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Furcsa, Laura

2009-01-01

This article investigates the development of intercultural awareness in an electronic mail (e-mail) discussion project between Hungarian learners of English and American speakers. Students discussed topics relating to cultures, languages, and pedagogical issues. The e-mails were analyzed in terms of language skill improvement, apprehensiveness…

Decision Making and the IACUC: Part 1—Protocol Information Discussed at Full-Committee Reviews

PubMed Central

Silverman, Jerald; Lidz, Charles W; Clayfield, Jonathan C; Murray, Alexandra; Simon, Lorna J; Rondeau, Richard G

2015-01-01

IACUC protocols can be reviewed by either the full committee or designated members. Both review methods use the principles of the 3 Rs (reduce, refine, replace) as the overarching paradigm, with federal regulations and policies providing more detailed guidance. The primary goal of this study was to determine the frequency of topics discussed by IACUC during full-committee reviews and whether the topics included those required for consideration by IACUC (for example, pain and distress, number of animals used, availability of alternatives, skill and experience of researchers). We recorded and transcribed 87 protocol discussions undergoing full-committee review at 10 academic institutions. Each transcript was coded to capture the key concepts of the discussion and analyzed for the frequency of the codes mentioned. Pain and distress was the code mentioned most often, followed by the specific procedures performed, the study design, and the completeness of the protocol form. Infrequently mentioned topics were alternatives to animal use or painful or distressful procedures, the importance of the research, and preliminary data. Not all of the topics required to be considered by the IACUC were openly discussed for all protocols, and many of the discussions were limited in their depth. PMID:26224439

Systemic and topical drugs for aging skin.

PubMed

Kockaert, Michael; Neumann, Martino

2003-08-01

The rejuvenation of aging skin is a common desire for our patients, and several options are available. Although there are some systemic methods, the most commonly used treatments for rejuvenation of the skin are applied topically. The most frequently used topical drugs include retinoids, alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs), vitamin C, beta hydroxy acids, anti-oxidants, and tocopherol. Combination therapy is frequently used; particularly common is the combination of retinoids and AHAs. Systemic therapies available include oral retinoids and vitamin C. Other available therapies such as chemical peels, face-lifts, collagen, and botulinum toxin injections are not discussed in this article.

Helicopter aeroelastic stability and response - Current topics and future trends

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Friedmann, Peretz P.

1990-01-01

This paper presents several current topics in rotary wing aeroelasticity and concludes by attempting to anticipate future trends and developments. These topics are: (1) the role of geometric nonlinearities; (2) structural modeling, and aeroelastic analysis of composite rotor blades; (3) aeroelastic stability and response in forward flight; (4) modeling of coupled rotor/fuselage aeromechanical problems and their active control; and (5) the coupled rotor-fuselage vibration problem and its alleviation by higher harmonic control. Selected results illustrating the fundamental aspects of these topics are presented. Future developments are briefly discussed.

Does prior domain-specific content knowledge influence students' recall of arguments surrounding interdisciplinary topics?

PubMed

Schmidt, Hiemke K; Rothgangel, Martin; Grube, Dietmar

2017-12-01

Awareness of various arguments can help interactants present opinions, stress points, and build counterarguments during discussions. At school, some topics are taught in a way that students learn to accumulate knowledge and gather arguments, and later employ them during debates. Prior knowledge may facilitate recalling information on well structured, fact-based topics, but does it facilitate recalling arguments during discussions on complex, interdisciplinary topics? We assessed the prior knowledge in domains related to a bioethical topic of 277 students from Germany (approximately 15 years old), their interest in the topic, and their general knowledge. The students read a text with arguments for and against prenatal diagnostics and tried to recall the arguments one week later and again six weeks later. Prior knowledge in various domains related to the topic individually and separately helped students recall the arguments. These relationships were independent of students' interest in the topic and their general knowledge. Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increasing Educational Efficiency Through Technology (Commission Discussion and Background Materials).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Indiana State Commission for Higher Education, Indianapolis.

A program schedule and background information for Indiana Commission for Higher Education-sponsored discussion of the use of educational technology to increase educational effeciency are presented. The four major topics of discussion to illustrate the uses and advantages/disadvantages of audio, video, and computing technologies are as follows:…

Technical discussions on Emissions and Atmospheric Modeling (TEAM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frost, G. J.; Henderson, B.; Lefer, B. L.

2017-12-01

A new informal activity, Technical discussions on Emissions and Atmospheric Modeling (TEAM), aims to improve the scientific understanding of emissions and atmospheric processes by leveraging resources through coordination, communication and collaboration between scientists in the Nation's environmental agencies. TEAM seeks to close information gaps that may be limiting emission inventory development and atmospheric modeling and to help identify related research areas that could benefit from additional coordinated efforts. TEAM is designed around webinars and in-person meetings on particular topics that are intended to facilitate active and sustained informal communications between technical staff at different agencies. The first series of TEAM webinars focuses on emissions of nitrogen oxides, a criteria pollutant impacting human and ecosystem health and a key precursor of ozone and particulate matter. Technical staff at Federal agencies with specific interests in emissions and atmospheric modeling are welcome to participate in TEAM.

Topics in Bioethics: A Development of Student Perspectives†

PubMed Central

Johnson, Keith A.

2014-01-01

Exposing students to current biotechnological and medical issues is eye-opening for many students in a way that is not always achieved through lecture-based learning. Lecture or investigative teaching styles provide a tremendous knowledge base for the students, but sometimes these teaching styles do not allow the student to fully develop, especially personal attitudes to issues in bioethics. Through online videos, Hollywood movies, guided readings and classroom discussions, students in this course are informed of some bioethical topics, encouraged to learn about other topics, and use this gained knowledge to develop personal positions regarding the value and/or risk of the issues. This course has been well-received by previous students as a favorite in terms of both topics covered and style. PMID:25574290

Public understanding of geoscientific topics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Münch, Ute; Lauterjung, Jörn

2014-05-01

Geoscientific topics and their consequences for the society are becoming more and more important for our daily life. Natural hazards such as flood and storm or the consequences of the climate change are urgent tasks and great challenges we have to tackle. Cascading natural hazards or environmental risks, can't be evaluated as single events by one scientific discipline, they rather need the expertise of different experts. The same applies for slowly progressive processes such as the climate change and its different aftereffects. More than ever politicians, decision makers, but also the public are asking for comprehensive background information and data to discuss activity options and to develop sustainable solutions. The improvement of public knowledge about science, their assets and drawbacks, chances and risks is getting crucial. To paint a comprehensive picture of different factors, correlations and dependencies the pooling of expertise is required. Thus eight research centres of the research field "Earth and Environment" of the Helmholtz-Association, Germany's largest scientific research organisation are currently building up a knowledge platform. Scientists of different disciplines will provide background information and explain their latest findings in an understandable way. Infographics, maps and animations will be applied to simplify and interpret complicated facts and findings. In addition to the web presence target group-specific products and activities will be organized. To meet the expectations of the different stakeholders an intensive dialog is aspired: round table discussions, exhibitions in museums and public places, tweeds are envisaged. In the beginning the partners will concentrate on the topics "consequences of the climate change", "pollutant dispersion" and "natural hazards/meteorological extreme events". The project is called Earth System Knowledge Platform (ESKP) coordinated by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and the Helmholtz

Participant Analysis of a Multi-Class, Multi-State, On-Line, Discussion List.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knupfer, Nancy Nelson; And Others

As interest in distance education increases, many university instructors are experimenting with listserv discussion within their courses. Six educational technology professors at four universities initiated a listserv discussion group within their various classes for 52 graduate students. Discussion topics were four general themes within…

Panel discussion: The future of IR astronomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caroff, Lawrence J.

1995-01-01

A panel discussion was held on the future of IR astronomy. The chairman gave a brief introduction to current planned programs for NASA and other space agencies, followed by short contributions from the six panel members on a variety of special topics. After that, a short question and answer session was held.

Making Presentations. ERIC Topical Bibliography and Commentary.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Carl B., Ed.

This topical bibliography and commentary consists of research summaries which address the challenges of creating an effective public presentation. The research articles discussed in the bibliography/commentary are geared toward teaching students to better present information with an emphasis on the primary importance of content above empty…

Discussing end-of-life issues with terminally ill cancer patients and their carers: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Clayton, Josephine M; Butow, Phyllis N; Arnold, Robert M; Tattersall, Martin H N

2005-08-01

Discussing end-of-life issues is of key importance to terminally ill cancer patients and their families, and a challenging topic for both health professionals and patients/carers. There is a lack of research evidence in the literature to guide clinical practice. The objective of this study was to explore the optimal content and phrasing of information when discussing the dying process and end-of-life issues with terminally ill cancer patients and their carers. We conducted focus groups and individual interviews with 19 palliative care patients and 24 carers from three palliative care services in Sydney, and 22 palliative care health professionals from around Australia. The focus groups and individual interviews were audiotaped and fully transcribed. Further focus groups and/or individual interviews were conducted until no additional topics were raised. Participants' narratives were analysed using qualitative methodology. Distinct content areas emerged for discussing end-of-life issues: treatment decisions at the end-of-life; potential future symptoms; preferences for place of death; the process of dying; what needs to be done immediately after death; and existential issues. When discussing the process of dying participants recommended: exploring the persons' fears about dying and dispelling myths; describing the final days and the likely unconscious period; and the reduced need for food and fluids. Many participants identified the dilemma regarding whether to discuss potential complications around the time of death. This paper provides strategies, words and phrases which may inform discussions about the process of dying and end-of-life issues. Further research is needed to determine the generalizability of these findings.

Microemulsion and Microemulsion-Based Gels for Topical Antifungal Therapy with Phytochemicals.

PubMed

Boonme, Prapaporn; Kaewbanjong, Jarika; Amnuaikit, Thanaporn; Andreani, Tatiana; Silva, Amélia M; Souto, Eliana B

2016-01-01

Skin fungal infections are regular injuries suffered by people living in tropical areas. Most common pathogens are Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton which can cause skin lesions in many parts of body. Topical antifungal phytochemicals are commonly used to avoid systemic adverse events and are more convenient for patient application than those administered by other routes. However, the effectiveness of topical treatments in eradicating fungal infection is more limited since the stratum corneum acts as the skin barrier, resulting in long treatment duration and low patient's compliance. The goal of this work is to identify optimized drug delivery systems to improve topic clinical efficacy. Microemulsions i.e. liquid dispersions of oil and water stabilized with an interfacial film of surfactant are well known drug delivery systems. A thickening agent may be included to form microemulsion-based gels to increase skin adhesion. Microemulsions and microemulsion-based gels can be loaded with several hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs because they are composed of both water and oil phases. Microemulsions and microemulsion-based gels can also be used for the delivery of many drugs including antifungal drugs through stratum corneum due to their capacity to act as skin penetration enhancement. In addition to a comprehensive review of microemulsion and microemulsion-based gels as suitable carriers for skin delivery of various antifungal drugs, this review also aims to discuss the delivery of antifungal phytochemicals.

Ocular delivery systems for topical application of anti-infective agents.

PubMed

Duxfield, Linda; Sultana, Rubab; Wang, Ruokai; Englebretsen, Vanessa; Deo, Samantha; Rupenthal, Ilva D; Al-Kassas, Raida

2016-01-01

For the treatment of anterior eye segment infections using anti-infective agents, topical ocular application is the most convenient route of administration. However, topical delivery of anti-infective agents is associated with a number of problems and challenges owing to the unique structure of the eye and the physicochemical properties of these compounds. Topical ocular drug delivery systems can be classified into two forms: conventional and non-conventional. The efficacy of conventional ocular formulations is limited by poor corneal retention and permeation resulting in low ocular bioavailability. Recently, attention has been focused on improving topical ocular delivery of anti-infective agents using advanced drug delivery systems. This review will focus on the challenges of efficient topical ocular delivery of anti-infective agents and will discuss the various types of delivery systems used to improve the treatment anterior segment infections.

Additives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smalheer, C. V.

1973-01-01

The chemistry of lubricant additives is discussed to show what the additives are chemically and what functions they perform in the lubrication of various kinds of equipment. Current theories regarding the mode of action of lubricant additives are presented. The additive groups discussed include the following: (1) detergents and dispersants, (2) corrosion inhibitors, (3) antioxidants, (4) viscosity index improvers, (5) pour point depressants, and (6) antifouling agents.

Channelopathies: Summary of the hot topic keynotes session

EPA Science Inventory

The "Hot Topic Keynotes: Channelopathies" session of the 26th International Neurotoxicology Conference brought together toxicologists studying interactions of environmental toxicants with ion channels, to review the state of the science of channelopathies and to discuss the poten...

What Patients Can Tell Us: Topic Analysis for Social Media on Breast Cancer.

PubMed

Tapi Nzali, Mike Donald; Bringay, Sandra; Lavergne, Christian; Mollevi, Caroline; Opitz, Thomas

2017-07-31

Social media dedicated to health are increasingly used by patients and health professionals. They are rich textual resources with content generated through free exchange between patients. We are proposing a method to tackle the problem of retrieving clinically relevant information from such social media in order to analyze the quality of life of patients with breast cancer. Our aim was to detect the different topics discussed by patients on social media and to relate them to functional and symptomatic dimensions assessed in the internationally standardized self-administered questionnaires used in cancer clinical trials (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer [EORTC] Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 [QLQ-C30] and breast cancer module [QLQ-BR23]). First, we applied a classic text mining technique, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), to detect the different topics discussed on social media dealing with breast cancer. We applied the LDA model to 2 datasets composed of messages extracted from public Facebook groups and from a public health forum (cancerdusein.org, a French breast cancer forum) with relevant preprocessing. Second, we applied a customized Jaccard coefficient to automatically compute similarity distance between the topics detected with LDA and the questions in the self-administered questionnaires used to study quality of life. Among the 23 topics present in the self-administered questionnaires, 22 matched with the topics discussed by patients on social media. Interestingly, these topics corresponded to 95% (22/23) of the forum and 86% (20/23) of the Facebook group topics. These figures underline that topics related to quality of life are an important concern for patients. However, 5 social media topics had no corresponding topic in the questionnaires, which do not cover all of the patients' concerns. Of these 5 topics, 2 could potentially be used in the questionnaires, and these 2 topics corresponded to a total of 3.10% (523

Topical NSAIDs effect on corneal sensitivity.

PubMed

Singer, Daniel D; Kennedy, John; Wittpenn, John R

2015-05-01

Topical nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are administered topically for a variety of ophthalmologic conditions. Brand diclofenac and brand ketorolac were previously shown to have topical anesthetic effects in addition to analgesic effects. Using the same method, we measured similar anesthetic effects of the 4 currently available topical NSAIDs--generic diclofenac, generic ketorolac, brand bromfenac, and brand nepafenac. Baseline corneal sensitivity was measured on 10 healthy adult volunteers with a Cochet-Bonnet esthesiometer. One drop of the agent being studied was applied to the right eye every 5 minutes for a total of 4 drops. Corneal sensitivity was measured immediately after the last topical application and every 15 minutes for 60 minutes. After a 1-week washout period, a different agent was studied until all 4 NSAIDs were evaluated. Corneal sensitivity profiles over time were similar for all NSAIDs. Corneal sensitivity decreased significantly from baseline immediately after topical application remaining flat from 0 to 30 minutes and then rising from 45 to 60 minutes back toward baseline in all treatment groups (P < 0.001). The maximal absolute drop in corneal sensitivity as measured by pressure thresholds was greatest for diclofenac [28.6 mm (95% confidence intervals {CI}, 19.8-37.4)], followed by ketorolac [21.1 mm (95% CI, 15.1-27.1)], bromfenac [16.9 mm (10.7-23.1)], and nepafenac [16.4 mm (95% CI, 12.7-20.1)]. Only diclofenac and nepafenac were statistically different in maximal decrease in sensitivity. All 4 currently available NSAIDs demonstrated anesthetic effects similar to brand diclofenac and brand ketorolac.

40 years of topical tretinoin use in review.

PubMed

Baldwin, Hilary E; Nighland, Marge; Kendall, Clare; Mays, David A; Grossman, Rachel; Newburger, Joan

2013-06-01

Topical tretinoin has been approved for use in dermatology for 40 years and is currently approved for the treatment of acne vulgaris and photodamage. During this time, topical tretinoin has accumulated significant efficacy and safety data in the treatment of acne and photodamaged skin and demonstrated clinical potential for treating a range of other dermatologic conditions. The diverse effects may be due to complex underlying mechanisms of action associated with tretinoin, including keratolytic activity, collagenesis, and other mechanisms associated with the activation of nuclear retinoic acid receptors (RARα, RARβ, and RARγ). In this article, we review the history of topical tretinoin use to date and outline emerging research suggesting that topical tretinoin may have potential clinical use for treating a multitude of other dermatological conditions when used either as monotherapy or in combination with other agents. We also describe newer formulations of topical tretinoin that have been designed to reduce irritation potential. In light of the substantial history of safety and efficacy of topical tretinoin in acne and photodamage, we speculate that it holds promise in treating many additional dermatological conditions, which may be explored in future research.

Solid-State Lighting 2017 Suggested Research Topics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None, None

2017-09-29

A 2017 update to the Solid-State Lighting R&D Plan that is divided into two documents. The first document describes a list of suggested SSL priority research topics and the second document provides context and background, including information drawn from technical, market, and economic studies. Widely referenced by industry and government both here and abroad, these documents reflect SSL stakeholder inputs on key R&D topics that will improve efficacy, reduce cost, remove barriers to adoption, and add value for LED and OLED lighting solutions over the next three to five years, and discuss those applications that drive and prioritize the specificmore » R&D.« less

Solid-State Lighting 2017 Suggested Research Topics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None, None

A 2017 update to the Solid-State Lighting R&D Plan that is divided into two documents. The first document describes a list of suggested SSL priority research topics and the second document provides context and background, including information drawn from technical, market, and economic studies. Widely referenced by industry and government both here and abroad, these documents reflect SSL stakeholder inputs on key R&D topics that will improve efficacy, reduce cost, remove barriers to adoption, and add value for LED and OLED lighting solutions over the next three to five years, and discuss those applications that drive and prioritize the specificmore » R&D.« less

Analysis of airborne radiometric data. Volume 3. Topical reports

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reed, J.H.; Shreve, D.C.; Sperling, M.

1978-05-01

This volume consists of four topical reports: a general discussion of the philosophy of unfolding spectra with continuum and discrete components, a mathematical treatment of the effects of various physical parameters on the uncollided gamma-ray spectrum at aircraft elevations, a discussion of the application of the unfolding code MAZNAI to airborne data, and a discussion of the effects of the nonlinear relationship between energy deposited and pulse height in NaI(T1) detectors.

National GAP Conference 2007-Discussion Groups Report

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ratz, Joan M.; Lamb, Berton Lee

2010-01-01

We led two discussion groups during the 2007 National GAP Conference. These discussion groups provided information to help develop a survey of National Gap Analysis Program (GAP) data users. One group discussed technical issues, and the second group discussed the use of GAP data for decisionmaking. Themes emerging from the technical issues group included concerns about data quality, need for information on how to use data, and passive data distribution. The decisionmaking discussion included a wide range of topics including the need to understand presentation of information, the need to connect with and understand users of data, the revision of GAP's mission, and the adaptability of products and data. The decisionmaking group also raised concerns regarding technical issues. One conclusion is that a deep commitment to ongoing information transfer and support is a key component of success for the GAP program.

Burning mouth syndrome: a discussion of a complex pathology.

PubMed

Zur, Eyal

2012-01-01

Burning mouth syndrome is a complex pathology for which there is very little information about the etiology and pathogenesis. This lack of knowledge leaves patients with suboptimal treatments. This article discusses the existing scientific evidence about this disease. Since topical oral use of clonazepam have been shown to be effective and safe to treat some patients suffering with burning mouth syndrome, formulations including clonazepam are included with this article. Compounding topical preparations of clonazepam offers opportunities for compounding pharmacists to be more involved in improving the quality of life of burning mouth syndrome patients.

Current challenges in bioequivalence, quality, and novel assessment technologies for topical products.

PubMed

Yacobi, Avraham; Shah, Vinod P; Bashaw, Edward D; Benfeldt, Eva; Davit, Barbara; Ganes, Derek; Ghosh, Tapash; Kanfer, Isadore; Kasting, Gerald B; Katz, Lindsey; Lionberger, Robert; Lu, Guang Wei; Maibach, Howard I; Pershing, Lynn K; Rackley, Russell J; Raw, Andre; Shukla, Chinmay G; Thakker, Kailas; Wagner, Nathalie; Zovko, Elizabeta; Lane, Majella E

2014-04-01

This paper summarises the proceedings of a recent workshop which brought together pharmaceutical scientists and dermatologists from academia, industry and regulatory agencies to discuss current regulatory issues and industry practices for establishing therapeutic bioequivalence (BE) of dermatologic topical products. The methods currently available for assessment of BE were reviewed as well as alternatives and the advantages and disadvantages of each method were considered. Guidance on quality and performance of topical products was reviewed and a framework to categorise existing and alternative methods for evaluation of BE was discussed. The outcome of the workshop emphasized both a need for greater attention to quality, possibly, via a Quality-By-Design (QBD) approach and a need to develop a "whole toolkit" approach towards the problem of determination of rate and extent in the assessment of topical bioavailability. The discussion on the BE and clinical equivalence of topical products revealed considerable concerns about the variability present in the current methodologies utilized by the industry and regulatory agencies. It was proposed that academicians, researchers, the pharmaceutical industry and regulators work together to evaluate and validate alternative methods that are based on both the underlying science and are adapted to the drug product itself instead of single "universal" method.

78 FR 32224 - Availability of Version 3.1.2 of the Connect America Fund Phase II Cost Model; Additional...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-29

... Version 3.1.2 of the Connect America Fund Phase II Cost Model; Additional Discussion Topics in Connect America Cost Model Virtual Workshop AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Proposed rule... America Cost Model (CAM v3.1.2), which allows Commission staff and interested parties to calculate costs...

Supporting Collaborative Learning and E-Discussions Using Artificial Intelligence Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLaren, Bruce M.; Scheuer, Oliver; Miksatko, Jan

2010-01-01

An emerging trend in classrooms is the use of networked visual argumentation tools that allow students to discuss, debate, and argue with one another in a synchronous fashion about topics presented by a teacher. These tools are aimed at teaching students how to discuss and argue, important skills not often taught in traditional classrooms. But how…

Topical Antimicrobials for Burn Wound Infections

PubMed Central

Dai, Tianhong; Huang, Ying-Ying; Sharma, Sulbha K.; Hashmi, Javad T.; Kurup, Divya B.; Hamblin, Michael R.

2010-01-01

Throughout most of history, serious burns occupying a large percentage of body surface area were an almost certain death sentence because of subsequent infection. A number of factors such as disruption of the skin barrier, ready availability of bacterial nutrients in the burn milieu, destruction of the vascular supply to the burned skin, and systemic disturbances lead to immunosuppression combined together to make burns particularly susceptible to infection. In the 20th century the introduction of antibiotic and antifungal drugs, the use of topical antimicrobials that could be applied to burns, and widespread adoption of early excision and grafting all helped to dramatically increase survival. However the relentless increase in microbial resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobials has led to a renewed search for alternative approaches to prevent and combat burn infections. This review will cover patented strategies that have been issued or filed with regard to new topical agents, preparations, and methods of combating burn infections. Animal models that are used in preclinical studies are discussed. Various silver preparations (nanocrystalline and slow release) are the mainstay of many approaches but antimicrobial peptides, topical photodynamic therapy, chitosan preparations, new iodine delivery formulations, phage therapy and natural products such as honey and essential oils have all been tested. This active area of research will continue to provide new topical antimicrobials for burns that will battle against growing multi-drug resistance. PMID:20429870

Antimicrobial topical agents used in the vagina.

PubMed

Frey Tirri, Brigitte

2011-01-01

Vaginally applied antimicrobial agents are widely used in the vagina in women with lower genital tract infections. An 'antimicrobial' is a general term that refers to a group of drugs that are effective against bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa. Topical treatments can be prescribed for a wide variety of vaginal infections. Many bacterial infections, such as bacterial vaginosis, desquamative inflammatory vaginitis or, as some European authors call it, aerobic vaginitis as well as infection with Staphylococcus aureus or group A streptococci, may be treated in this way. Candida vulvovaginitis is a fungal infection that is very amenable to topical treatment. The most common viral infections which can be treated with topical medications are condylomata acuminata and herpes simplex. The most often encountered protozoal vaginitis, which is caused by Trichomonas vaginalis, may be susceptible to topical medications, although this infection is treated systemically. This chapter covers the wide variety of commonly used topical antimicrobial agents for these diseases and focuses on the individual therapeutic agents and their clinical efficacy. In addition, potential difficulties that can occur in practice, as well as the usage of these medications in the special setting of pregnancy, are described in this chapter. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Analyzing the Learning Process of an Online Role-Playing Discussion Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hou, Huei-Tse

2012-01-01

Instructional activities based on online discussion strategies have gained prevalence in recent years. Within this context, a crucial research topic is to design innovative and appropriate online discussion strategies that assist learners in attaining a deeper level of interaction and higher cognitive skills. By analyzing the process of online…

Proposals Relating to Increasing Housing Opportunities for Homeless Persons. Discussion Paper 91-1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Laura; Matthias, Mary

This paper provides a basis for discussion of housing proposals relating to increasing housing opportunities for homeless persons in Wisconsin. Six major topics relating to housing for homeless and potentially homeless persons are presented. Issues are listed under each topic. For each issue, background information is provided and alternatives for…

Link-topic model for biomedical abbreviation disambiguation.

PubMed

Kim, Seonho; Yoon, Juntae

2015-02-01

unigrams and semantically associated bigrams simultaneously. The addition of semantic links improves the disambiguation accuracy without removing irrelevant contextual words and reduces the parameter space of massive skipping or consecutive bigrams. The link topic model achieves 98.42% disambiguation accuracy on 73,505 MEDLINE abstracts with respect to 21 three letter abbreviations and their 139 distinct long forms. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ionic liquids as lubricant additives: A review

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhou, Yan; Qu, Jun

In pursuit of energy efficiency and durability throughout human history, advances in lubricants have always played important roles. Ionic liquids (ILs) are room-temperature molten salts that possess unique physicochemical properties and have shown great potential in many applications with lubrication as one of the latest. While earlier work (2001–2011) primarily explored the feasibility of using ILs as neat or base lubricants, using ILs as lubricant additives has become the new focal research topic since the breakthrough in ILs’ miscibility in nonpolar hydrocarbon oils in early 2012. This work reviews the recent advances in developing ILs as additives for lubrication withmore » an attempt to correlate among the cationic and anionic structures, oil-solubility, and other relevant physicochemical properties, and lubricating behavior. Effects of the concentration of ILs in lubricants and the compatibility between ILs and other additives in the lubricant formulation on the tribological performance are described followed by a discussion of wear protection mechanism based on tribofilm characterization. As a result, future research directions are suggested at the end.« less

Ionic liquids as lubricant additives: A review

DOE PAGES

Zhou, Yan; Qu, Jun

2016-12-28

In pursuit of energy efficiency and durability throughout human history, advances in lubricants have always played important roles. Ionic liquids (ILs) are room-temperature molten salts that possess unique physicochemical properties and have shown great potential in many applications with lubrication as one of the latest. While earlier work (2001–2011) primarily explored the feasibility of using ILs as neat or base lubricants, using ILs as lubricant additives has become the new focal research topic since the breakthrough in ILs’ miscibility in nonpolar hydrocarbon oils in early 2012. This work reviews the recent advances in developing ILs as additives for lubrication withmore » an attempt to correlate among the cationic and anionic structures, oil-solubility, and other relevant physicochemical properties, and lubricating behavior. Effects of the concentration of ILs in lubricants and the compatibility between ILs and other additives in the lubricant formulation on the tribological performance are described followed by a discussion of wear protection mechanism based on tribofilm characterization. As a result, future research directions are suggested at the end.« less

Tender Topics: Exploring Sensitive Issues with Pre-K through First Grade Children through Read-Alouds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mankiw, Sue; Strasser, Janis

2013-01-01

The topics including bullying, family diversity, homelessness, disabilities, and incarceration are often referred to as "tender topics." They can be difficult for teachers to explain to or discuss with children. In their work with children, families, and teachers, the authors have seen that it is not necessarily the topic that makes conversations…

Something to talk about: Topics of conversation between romantic partners during military deployments.

PubMed

Carter, Sarah P; Osborne, Laura J; Renshaw, Keith D; Allen, Elizabeth S; Loew, Benjamin A; Markman, Howard J; Stanley, Scott M

2018-02-01

Long-distance communication has been frequently identified as essential to military couples trying to maintain their relationship during a deployment. Little quantitative research, however, has assessed the types of topics discussed during such communication and how those topics relate to overall relationship satisfaction. The current study draws on a sample of 56 Army couples who provided data through online surveys while the service member was actively deployed. These couples provided information on current marital satisfaction, topics discussed during deployment (problem talk, friendship talk, love talk), and how they communicated via synchronous media (e.g., phone calls, video calls) and letters during deployment. Nonparametric Friedman tests followed by paired t tests revealed that synchronous communication was primarily utilized for friendship talk, whereas letters included friendship talk and love talk in similar amounts. Both synchronous communication and letters included less problem talk than other topics. In mixed-level modeling, only topics of communication for synchronous media (not for letters) were related to relationship satisfaction. Love talk via synchronous media was related to higher relationship satisfaction, whereas problem talk via synchronous media was related to less relationship satisfaction. The current study offers the first quantitative assessment of topics within deployment communication media and associations with relationship satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Formulation design for topical drug and nanoparticle treatment of skin disease.

PubMed

Raphael, Anthony P; Garrastazu, Gabriela; Sonvico, Fabio; Prow, Tarl W

2015-02-01

The skin has evolved to resist the penetration of foreign substances and particles. Topical therapeutic and cosmeceutical delivery is a growing field founded on selectively overcoming this barrier. Both the biology of the skin and the nature of the formulation/active ingredient must be aligned for efficient transcutaneous delivery. This review discusses the biological changes in the skin barrier that occur with common dermatological conditions. This context is the foundation for the discussion of formulation strategies to improve penetration profiles of common active ingredients in dermatology. Finally, we compare and contrast those approaches to recent advances described in the research literature with an eye toward the future of topical formulation design.

Trio of Topics: Questions of Mass, Electricity, and Time.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quantum, 1992

1992-01-01

Discusses three topics related to physics: (1) the center of mass of a long stick thrown horizontally; (2) how electric current flows in metals; and (3) the theory of relativity in relationship with fictionalized time machines. (MDH)

Armenian media coverage of science topics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mkhitaryan, Marie

2016-12-01

The article discusses features and issues of Armenian media coverage on scientific topics and provides recommendations on how to promote scientific topics in media. The media is more interested in social or public reaction rather than in scientific information itself. Medical science has a large share of the global media coverage. It is followed by articles about environment, space, technology, physics and other areas. Armenian media mainly tends to focus on a scientific topic if at first sight it contains something revolutionary. Media primarily reviews whether that scientific study can affect the Armenian economy and only then decides to refer to it. Unfortunately, nowadays the perception of science is a little distorted in media. We can often see headlines of news where is mentioned that the scientist has made "an invention". Nowadays it is hard to see the border between a scientist and an inventor. In fact, the technological term "invention" attracts the media by making illusionary sensation and ensuring large audience. The report also addresses the "Gitamard" ("A science-man") special project started in 2016 in Mediamax that tells about scientists and their motivations.

Allocation of Playing Time within Team Sports--A Problem for Discussion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lorentzen, Torbjørn

2017-01-01

The background of the article is the recurrent discussion about allocation of playing time in team sports involving children and young athletes. The objective is to analyse "why" playing time is a topic for discussion among parents, coaches and athletes. The following question is addressed: Under which condition is it "fair" to…

Using Asynchronous Online Discussion to Learn Introductory Programming: An Exploratory Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kay, Robin

2006-01-01

Previous research on online discussions has focused on university students learning higher level subjects. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether online discussions could be used effectively by secondary school students attempting to learn introductory level topics. Forty-­five male students, ranging in age from 13 to 15 years…

The role of topical moxifloxacin, a new antibacterial in Europe, in the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis.

PubMed

Benitez-Del-Castillo, Jose; Verboven, Yves; Stroman, David; Kodjikian, Laurent

2011-01-01

This article discusses current practice in the treatment of conjunctivitis and how the use of topical moxifloxacin can increase therapeutic effectiveness, reduce treatment failures and, consequently, be cost effective and reduce the societal burden of the disorder. Current practice and effectiveness data were derived from the literature. Data on healthcare utilization as a result of treatment failure were collected by survey and the cost of treatment was defined using national costings. A decision-analytic model to assess cost effectiveness was developed and the impact on the healthcare budget was calculated to define the health economic impact. Bacterial conjunctivitis represents a significant health problem and accounts for an estimated 1-1.5% of primary-care consultations. The disorder is highly contagious and causes a substantial healthcare and societal burden. Bacterial conjunctivitis is generally self-limiting, resolving within 1-2 weeks. However, the use of antibacterials significantly improves clinical and microbiological remission, shortens symptom duration, and enables more effective use of healthcare resources, compared with placebo. From a health economic perspective this benefits the healthcare system and society, since fewer healthcare resources are needed and the adult affected, or the parent/caregiver of the child affected, can return to full work capacity sooner, reducing loss of productivity. Treatment strategies vary significantly between countries. Most patients are first seen in primary care, where 'wait-and-see', lubrification and antiseptic or antibacterial treatment is provided. In Europe, when antibacterials are prescribed most general practitioners (GPs) prescribe a broad-spectrum topical antibacterial. The most commonly used drugs are chloramphenicol and fusidic acid, with fluoroquinolones rarely reported as first-line treatment by GPs. At the specialist (ophthalmologist) level, or for second-line treatment at the GP level, topical

Quercetin topical application, from conventional dosage forms to nanodosage forms.

PubMed

Hatahet, T; Morille, M; Hommoss, A; Devoisselle, J M; Müller, R H; Bégu, S

2016-11-01

Skin is a multifunctional organ with activities in protection, metabolism and regulation. Skin is in a continuous exposure to oxidizing agents and inflammogens from the sun and from the contact with the environment. These agents may overload the skin auto-defense capacity. To strengthen skin defense mechanisms against oxidation and inflammation, supplementation of exogenous antioxidants is a promising strategy. Quercetin is a flavonoid with very pronounced effective antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities, and thus a candidate of first choice for such skin supplementation. Quercetin showed interesting actions in cellular and animal based models, ranging from protecting cells from UV irradiation to support skin regeneration in wound healing. However, due to its poor solubility, quercetin has limited skin penetration ability, and various formulation approaches were taken to increase its dermal penetration. In this article, the quercetin antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities in wound healing and supporting skin against aging are discussed in detail. In addition, quercetin topical formulations from conventional emulsions to novel nanoformulations in terms of skin penetration enhancement are also presented. This article gives a comprehensive review of quercetin for topical application from biological effects to pharmaceutical formulation design for the last 25 years of research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Umberto Eco on Libraries: A Discussion of "De Biblioteca."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winter, Michael F.

1994-01-01

Discusses a scholar's reactions to libraries made by Umberto Eco in "De Biblioteca." Topics addressed include functions of libraries, including collecting; accessibility of materials; the scholar's creative use of libraries, and discovering materials not looked for or known about; North American research libraries; photocopying; and…

Regulatory cross-cutting topics for fuel cycle facilities.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Denman, Matthew R.; Brown, Jason; Goldmann, Andrew Scott

This report overviews crosscutting regulatory topics for nuclear fuel cycle facilities for use in the Fuel Cycle Research & Development Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation and Screening study. In particular, the regulatory infrastructure and analysis capability is assessed for the following topical areas: Fire Regulations (i.e., how applicable are current Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and/or International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) fire regulations to advance fuel cycle facilities) Consequence Assessment (i.e., how applicable are current radionuclide transportation tools to support risk-informed regulations and Level 2 and/or 3 PRA) While not addressed in detail, the following regulatory topic is also discussed: Integrated Security,more » Safeguard and Safety Requirement (i.e., how applicable are current Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations to future fuel cycle facilities which will likely be required to balance the sometimes conflicting Material Accountability, Security, and Safety requirements.)« less

An Introduction to Topic Modeling as an Unsupervised Machine Learning Way to Organize Text Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snyder, Robin M.

2015-01-01

The field of topic modeling has become increasingly important over the past few years. Topic modeling is an unsupervised machine learning way to organize text (or image or DNA, etc.) information such that related pieces of text can be identified. This paper/session will present/discuss the current state of topic modeling, why it is important, and…

A Simple Experimental Setup for Teaching Additive Colors with Arduino

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carvalho, Paulo Simeão; Hahn, Marcelo

2016-04-01

The result of additive colors is always fascinating to young students. When we teach this topic to 14- to 16-year-old students, they do not usually notice we use maximum light quantities of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) to obtain yellow, magenta, and cyan colors in order to build the well-known additive color diagram of Fig. 1. But how about using different light intensities for R, G, and B? What colors do we get? This problem of color mixing has been intensively discussed for decades by several authors, as pointed out by Ruiz's "Color Addition and Subtraction Apps" work and the references included therein. An early LED demonstrator for additive color mixing dates back to 1985, and apps to illustrate color mixing are available online. In this work, we describe an experimental setup making use of a microcontroller device: the Arduino Uno. This setup is designed as a game in order to improve students' understanding of color mixing.

DCEG scientists discuss researching cancer causes and training future researchers

Cancer.gov

Watch scientists in the NCI Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics discuss research into the causes of cancer at the population level. Topics include genome-wide association studies, HPV genomics, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, and training future scientists.

War and Peace: Deconstructing the Topic of Genocide and Other Crimes against Humanity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hovde, Karen

2011-01-01

This article examines the topic of genocide and other world conflicts as they are addressed by reference works. Topics of human aggression are treated by multidisciplinary research, and an awareness of the multiple angles of approach aids the process of directing students to sources. The article discusses definitions and standard organizational…

Using NASA Space Imaging Technology to Teach Earth and Sun Topics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verner, E.; Bruhweiler, F. C.; Long, T.

2011-12-01

We teach an experimental college-level course, directed toward elementary education majors, emphasizing "hands-on" activities that can be easily applied to the elementary classroom. This course, Physics 240: "The Sun-Earth Connection" includes various ways to study selected topics in physics, earth science, and basic astronomy. Our lesson plans and EPO materials make extensive use of NASA imagery and cover topics about magnetism, the solar photospheric, chromospheric, coronal spectra, as well as earth science and climate. In addition we are developing and will cover topics on ecosystem structure, biomass and water on Earth. We strive to free the non-science undergraduate from the "fear of science" and replace it with the excitement of science such that these future teachers will carry this excitement to their future students. Hands-on experiments, computer simulations, analysis of real NASA data, and vigorous seminar discussions are blended in an inquiry-driven curriculum to instill confident understanding of basic physical science and modern, effective methods for teaching it. The course also demonstrates ways how scientific thinking and hands-on activities could be implemented in the classroom. We have designed this course to provide the non-science student a confident basic understanding of physical science and modern, effective methods for teaching it. Most of topics were selected using National Science Standards and National Mathematics Standards that are addressed in grades K-8. The course focuses on helping education majors: 1) Build knowledge of scientific concepts and processes; 2) Understand the measurable attributes of objects and the units and methods of measurements; 3) Conduct data analysis (collecting, organizing, presenting scientific data, and to predict the result); 4) Use hands-on approaches to teach science; 5) Be familiar with Internet science teaching resources. Here we share our experiences and challenges we face while teaching this course.

The Repeated Name Penalty, the Overt Pronoun Penalty, and Topic in Japanese.

PubMed

Shoji, Shinichi; Dubinsky, Stanley; Almor, Amit

2017-02-01

When reading sentences with an anaphoric reference to a subject antecedent, repeated-name anaphors result in slower reading times relative to pronouns (the Repeated Name Penalty: RNP), and overt pronouns are read slower than null pronouns (the Overt Pronoun Penalty: OPP). Because in most languages previously tested, the grammatical subject is typically also the discourse topic it remains unclear whether these effects reflect anaphors' subject-hood or their topic-hood. To address this question we conducted a self-paced reading experiment in Japanese, a language which morphologically marks both subjects and topics overtly. Our results show that both repeated-name topic-subject anaphors and repeated-name non-topic-subject anaphors exhibit the RNP and that both overt-pronoun topic-subject and overt-pronoun non-topic-subject anaphors show the OPP. However, a detailed examination of performance revealed an interaction between the anaphor topic marking, reference form, and the antecedent's grammatical status, indicating that the effect of the antecedent's grammatical status is strongest for null pronoun and repeated name subject anaphors and that the overt form most similar to null pronouns is the repeated name topic anaphor. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of anaphor processing.

Topical Benzocaine and Methemoglobinemia.

PubMed

Hieger, Michelle A; Afeld, Jamiee L; Cumpston, Kirk L; Wills, Brandon K

Methemoglobinemia can cause life-threatening hypoxia associated with cyanosis and dyspnea not responsive to oxygen. We present a case of recurrent methemoglobinemia because of occult use of topical benzocaine to the vulva. A 47-year-old female with medical history of vulvar cancer and HIV undergoing chemoradiation was sent by the oncology clinic to the emergency department for worsening dyspnea, fatigue, hypoxia to 78% on room air, and gradual onset of cyanosis over the past week. A methemoglobin (MetHb) level was 49%. She received methylene blue, and repeat MetHb levels initially decreased but later increased to 56% despite continued treatment. Additional interviews with the patient revealed she was applying vagicaine (20% benzocaine), an over the counter preparation to the vulvar area for analgesia, and she continued application while hospitalized. She received a total of 6 mg/kg methylene blue and underwent vaginal lavage with 60 mL of sterile saline and cleansed with soapy water. Cyanosis, hypoxia, and dyspnea resolved, and the MetHb level decreased to 5.4% on the day of discharge. Benzocaine is a frequent cause of iatrogenic methemoglobinemia. In this case, additional medication inquiries were helpful in making the diagnosis. Many patients do not consider over-the-counter medications to be potentially harmful. Methemoglobinemia from occult topical benzocaine administration to the vulva is an uncommon exposure route. Occult medication use can be a source of methemoglobinemia.

Knowledge-Based Topic Model for Unsupervised Object Discovery and Localization.

PubMed

Niu, Zhenxing; Hua, Gang; Wang, Le; Gao, Xinbo

Unsupervised object discovery and localization is to discover some dominant object classes and localize all of object instances from a given image collection without any supervision. Previous work has attempted to tackle this problem with vanilla topic models, such as latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). However, in those methods no prior knowledge for the given image collection is exploited to facilitate object discovery. On the other hand, the topic models used in those methods suffer from the topic coherence issue-some inferred topics do not have clear meaning, which limits the final performance of object discovery. In this paper, prior knowledge in terms of the so-called must-links are exploited from Web images on the Internet. Furthermore, a novel knowledge-based topic model, called LDA with mixture of Dirichlet trees, is proposed to incorporate the must-links into topic modeling for object discovery. In particular, to better deal with the polysemy phenomenon of visual words, the must-link is re-defined as that one must-link only constrains one or some topic(s) instead of all topics, which leads to significantly improved topic coherence. Moreover, the must-links are built and grouped with respect to specific object classes, thus the must-links in our approach are semantic-specific , which allows to more efficiently exploit discriminative prior knowledge from Web images. Extensive experiments validated the efficiency of our proposed approach on several data sets. It is shown that our method significantly improves topic coherence and outperforms the unsupervised methods for object discovery and localization. In addition, compared with discriminative methods, the naturally existing object classes in the given image collection can be subtly discovered, which makes our approach well suited for realistic applications of unsupervised object discovery.Unsupervised object discovery and localization is to discover some dominant object classes and localize all of object

Analysis and application of opinion model with multiple topic interactions.

PubMed

Xiong, Fei; Liu, Yun; Wang, Liang; Wang, Ximeng

2017-08-01

To reveal heterogeneous behaviors of opinion evolution in different scenarios, we propose an opinion model with topic interactions. Individual opinions and topic features are represented by a multidimensional vector. We measure an agent's action towards a specific topic by the product of opinion and topic feature. When pairs of agents interact for a topic, their actions are introduced to opinion updates with bounded confidence. Simulation results show that a transition from a disordered state to a consensus state occurs at a critical point of the tolerance threshold, which depends on the opinion dimension. The critical point increases as the dimension of opinions increases. Multiple topics promote opinion interactions and lead to the formation of macroscopic opinion clusters. In addition, more topics accelerate the evolutionary process and weaken the effect of network topology. We use two sets of large-scale real data to evaluate the model, and the results prove its effectiveness in characterizing a real evolutionary process. Our model achieves high performance in individual action prediction and even outperforms state-of-the-art methods. Meanwhile, our model has much smaller computational complexity. This paper provides a demonstration for possible practical applications of theoretical opinion dynamics.

Mead and Dewey: Thematic Connections on Educational Topics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dennis, Lawrence J.; Stickel, George W.

1981-01-01

Common themes emerge from the writings of John Dewey and George Herbert Mead on four educational topics discussed here: (1) play; (2) science teaching; (3) history teaching; and (4) industrial education. Both men deplored the fragmentation of education and believed moral insight could be furthered through social understanding, science, and…

"Two Cultures" Topics for General Studies Science Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larson, James H.

1982-01-01

Theses proposed in C. P. Snow's book "The Two Cultures," including uncommunicative scientific and literary groups, gap between rich and poor, overpopulation, and nuclear war remain viable topics. Discusses the scientific and literary cultural gap and what can be done in general studies science courses to ameliorate the condition.…

Freshman Health Topics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hovde, Karen

2011-01-01

This article examines a cluster of health topics that are frequently selected by students in lower division classes. Topics address issues relating to addictive substances, including alcohol and tobacco, eating disorders, obesity, and dieting. Analysis of the topics examines their interrelationships and organization in the reference literature.…

Oral Versus Topical Diclofenac Sodium in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Tieppo Francio, Vinicius; Davani, Saeid; Towery, Chris; Brown, Tony L

2017-06-01

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common causes of joint pain in the United States and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), such as Diclofenac sodium, which is currently available in two main routes of administration; oral and topical distribution have been established as one of the standard treatments for OA. Generally, oral NSAIDs are well tolerated; however our narrative review suggests that the topical solution had a better tolerability property than oral Diclofenac sodium, especially due to side effects of gastrointestinal bleeding with the utilization of the oral format. In addition, the topical route may be considered a reasonable selection by clinicians for management of musculoskeletal pain in those patients with a history of potential risk and adverse side effects. Most studies reviewed comparing oral versus topical solution of Diclofenac sodium revealed comparable efficacy, with minimal side effects utilizing the topical route. The key point of this narrative review is to help clinicians that currently must decide between very inexpensive diclofenac oral presentations and expensive topical presentations especially in the elderly population and the pros and cons of such decision-making process.

Discussions on Aristotle's "Ethics": Implications for Teachers and Administrators.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pemberton, Janette E.

A number of passages from Aristotle's "Ethics" are discussed in this paper, and their implications for teachers and administrators are examined. Among the many topics considered in relation to teaching and administration are: the importance of performing duties for their own sakes, tbe indispensability of knowledge, the need for…

Online discussion: Enhancing students' critical thinking skills

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rathakrishnan, Mohan; Ahmad, Rahayu; Suan, Choo Ling

2017-10-01

Online discussion has become one of the important strategies for the teacher to teach the students to think critically when conveying their ideas and become more proactive and creative. In this paper, padlet online discussion communication was conducted to examine its effectiveness in enhancing critical thinking. In this study, there are two types of critical thinking: macro and micro critical thinking. A total of 70 Universiti Utara Malaysia Management Foundation Programme students involved in this experimental research design. The students in treatment class are divided to few groups. Every group uses padlet online discussion to discuss the topic given. All the group members discuss and write their ideas in padlet. Ideas that are posted in padlet will be displayed in front of the class so that the entire group in the treatment class could see the given ideas. Paul's (1993) model was used to analyze student's macro and micro critical thinking in padlet online discussion and communication. The finding shows that students who used padlet online discussion backchannel communication have greater macro and micro critical thinking level than students who do not use online discussion.

UHMS position statement: topical oxygen for chronic wounds.

PubMed

Feldmeier, J J; Hopf, H W; Warriner, R A; Fife, C E; Gesell, L B; Bennett, M

2005-01-01

A small body of literature has been published reporting the application of topical oxygen for chronic non-healing wounds . Frequently, and erroneously, this form of oxygen administration has been referred to as "topical hyperbaric oxygen therapy" or even more erroneously "hyperbaric oxygen therapy." The advocates of topical oxygen claim several advantages over systemic hyperbaric oxygen including decreased cost, increased safety, decreased complications and putative physiologic effects including decreased free radical formation and more efficient delivery of oxygen to the wound surface. With topical oxygen an airtight chamber or polyethylene bag is sealed around a limb or the trunk by either a constriction/tourniquet device or by tape and high flow (usually 10 liters per minute) oxygen is introduced into the bag and over the wound. Pressures just over 1.0 atmospheres absolute (atm abs) (typically 1.004 to 1.013 atm abs) are recommended because higher pressures could decrease arterial/capillary inflow. The premise for topical oxygen, the diffusion of oxygen into the wound adequate to enhance healing, is attractive (though not proven) and its delivery is certainly less complex and expensive than hyperbaric oxygen. When discussing the physiology of topical oxygen, its proponents frequently reference studies of systemic hyperbaric oxygen suggesting that mechanisms are equally applicable to both topical and systemic high pressure oxygen delivery. In fact, however, the two are very different. To date, mechanisms of action whereby topical oxygen might be effective have not been defined or substantiated. Conversely, cellular toxicities due to extended courses of topical oxygen have been reported, although, again these data are not conclusive, and no mechanism for toxicity has been examined scientifically. Generally, collagen production and fibroblast proliferation are considered evidence of improved healing, and these are both enhanced by hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Humankind's Three Major Language Topics Today and the State of China's Linguistic Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuming, Li

2008-01-01

In the domain of language planning, humankind has since ancient times discussed three main topics: language problems, linguistic resources, and language rights. On the basis of the state of linguistic life in the world and China today, this article expounds on these three major topics and raises issues about China conducting a general survey of…

Atopic dermatitis: a review of topical nonsteroid therapy

PubMed Central

Papier, Ariana

2018-01-01

Background Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that affects up to 20% of children and 3% of adults globally. Although topical corticosteroids are considered to be the first-line agents, they can be associated with cutaneous and systemic adverse effects. Since the early 2000s, two new classes of nonsteroid topical therapies, topical calcineurin inhibitors and phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitors, have been introduced and provide a safe treatment alternative. Method We performed a search and review of clinical trials that examined the safety and efficacy of topical calcineurin inhibitors and PDE4 inhibitors. The search was conducted using the PubMed database as well as preselected keywords and filters. This review focuses on the safety and efficacy of each therapy. Results Sixty-nine clinical trials identified in this study have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of topical calcineurin and a single novel PDE4 inhibitor in the treatment of atopic dermatitis. Topical calcineurin inhibitors have been shown to be effective in both achieving lesion clearance as well as reducing relapse when used long-term and proactively. Similarly, in clinical trials the PDE4 inhibitor showed success in lesion clearance and symptom management. All three therapies (pimecrolimus, tacrolimus, crisaborole) are associated with low systemic absorption. No clinical trials to date have shown an increased risk of systemic adverse events or malignancy such as lymphoma. The most commonly reported treatment-related adverse event across all three therapies was application-site discomfort, pain or pruritus. It is important to note that long-term studies are not yet available for the novel PDE4 inhibitor. Discussion Topical calcineurin inhibitors provide a safe and effective alternative to topical corticosteroid use in the treatment of atopic dermatitis. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) black box warning for topical calcineurin inhibitors remains, studies

Learning within Incoherent Structures: The Space of Online Discussion Forums.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Matthew J. W.

2002-01-01

Presents results from a study of undergraduate students' learning outcomes and patterns of interaction within an online discussion forum. Topics include social dynamics of computer-mediated communication versus face-to-face communication; cognitive engagement; critical and reflective thinking; and student interaction. (Author/LRW)

Topics of Reading Passages in ELT Coursebooks: What Do Our Students Really Read?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arikan, Arda

2008-01-01

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the nature of the topics of the reading passages in ELT coursebooks. To find out the content of the topics, a total number of 15 ELT coursebooks are studied by using both quantitative and qualitative measures. The discrepancies found are discussed and recommendations are made to underline the …

Strategies of persuasion in offers to participate in cancer clinical trials I: Topic placement and topic framing.

PubMed

Barton, Ellen; Eggly, Susan; Winckles, Andrew; Albrecht, Terrance L

2014-01-01

Clinical trials are the gold standard in medical research evaluating new treatments in cancer care; however, in the United States, too few patients enroll in trials, especially patients from minority groups. Offering patients the option of a clinical trial is an ethically-charged communicative event for oncologists. One particularly vexed ethical issue is the use of persuasion in trial offers. Based on a corpus of 22 oncology encounters with Caucasian-American (n = 11) and African-American (n = 11) patients, this discourse analysis describes oncologists' use of two persuasive strategies related to the linguistic structure of trial offers: topic placement and topic framing. Findings are presented in total and by patient race, and discussed in terms of whether these strategies may constitute ethical or unethical persuasion, particularly with respect to the ethical issue of undue influence and the social issue of underrepresentation of minorities in cancer clinical trials.

Contemporary Topics in Science: A Kit for Survival.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aronstein, Laurence W.; Beam, Kathryn J.

This paper discusses a college-level course on contemporary topics in science offered to non-science majors at the State University College of New York. The authors examine the objectives, methods, and various student groupings utilized in the course, investigate why it has been successful, and make recommendations for courses of this nature. The…

Dapsone for topical use in extemporaneous preparations.

PubMed

Wohlrab, Johannes; Michael, Julia

2018-01-01

The sulfone dapsone has an established role in systemic therapy. Its pharmacological and toxicological properties are well known. Topically, dapsone is used in a gel formulation for the treatment of acne vulgaris. In addition, there have been individual case reports on the efficacy of topical dapsone preparations in the treatment of various neutrophilic dermatoses. To date, no finished medicinal product for topical use has been available in Germany. Against this background, we set out to develop extemporaneous preparations containing dapsone (5 %) that meet the quality requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia as well as the manufacturing requirements of the German Ordinance on the Operation of Pharmacies (ApBetrO). These formulations included the incorporation of dapsone in a hydrophobic cream base ("hydrophobe Basiscreme DAC") as well as in methylprednisolone aceponate 0.1 % ointment (alternatively, in the latter's cream base without active ingredient). Tests aimed at investigating the physical, chemical, and microbiological stability of these formulations showed them to meet the aforementioned quality requirements. The extemporaneous formulations presented herein broaden the therapeutic options for topical treatment, in particular for patients with chronic inflammatory dermatoses associated with a neutrophilic pathogenesis. © 2017 Deutsche Dermatologische Gesellschaft (DDG). Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A consensus approach to improving patient adherence and persistence with topical treatment for actinic keratosis

PubMed Central

Stockfleth, Eggert; Peris, Ketty; Guillen, Carlos; Cerio, Rino; Basset-Seguin, Nicole; Foley, Peter; Sanches, José; Culshaw, Alex; Erntoft, Sandra; Lebwohl, Mark

2015-01-01

Background Topical therapy is important in the treatment of actinic keratosis, but guidance for improving adherence/persistence during topical therapy is still lacking. Objectives To utilize expert consensus to generate a list of recommendations to improve real-world efficacy when prescribing topical therapy for actinic keratosis. Methods An expert panel of eight dermatologists was convened to generate recommendations based on facilitated discussion and consensus generation using a modified Delphi session. The recommendations were ratified with the expert panel. Results Facilitated discussion generated 31 issues within five themes, which were prioritized using expert voting. Consensus was achieved on the importance of short and simple treatment regimens for maximizing patient compliance, physician awareness of the progression of actinic keratosis to squamous cell carcinoma, provision of appropriate patient information, and the use of effective communication strategies to educate physicians about actinic keratosis. Based on these key findings, eight recommendations were generated. Conclusions The recommendations will assist physicians when prescribing topical actinic keratosis therapy. Further research should focus on the types of patient outcomes that are influenced by the characteristics of topical field therapy. PMID:25865875

Developing Multiplicative Thinking from Additive Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tobias, Jennifer M.; Andreasen, Janet B.

2013-01-01

As students progress through elementary school, they encounter mathematics concepts that shift from additive to multiplicative situations (NCTM 2000). When they encounter fraction problems that require multiplicative thinking, they tend to incorrectly extend additive properties from whole numbers (Post et al. 1985). As a result, topics such as …

User Participation and Participatory Design: Topics in Computing Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kautz, Karlheinz

1996-01-01

Discusses user participation and participatory design in the context of formal education for computing professionals. Topics include the current curriculum debate; mathematical- and engineering-based education; traditional system-development training; and an example of a course program that includes computers and society, and prototyping. (53…

How to perform a critically appraised topic: part 2, appraise, evaluate, generate, and recommend.

PubMed

Kelly, Aine Marie; Cronin, Paul

2011-11-01

This article continues the discussion of a critically appraised topic started in Part 1. A critically appraised topic is a practical tool for learning and applying critical appraisal skills. This article outlines steps 4-7 involved in performing a critically appraised topic for studies of diagnostic tests: Appraise, Appraise the literature; Evaluate, evaluate the strength of the evidence from the literature; Generate, generate graphs of conditional probability; and Recommend, draw conclusions and make recommendations. For steps 4-7 of performing a critically appraised topic, the main study results are summarized and translated into clinically useful measures of accuracy, efficacy, or risk.

Space Station Crew Member Discusses Life in Space with Educators

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-02-01

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 54 Flight Engineer Joe Acaba discussed life and research on the orbital outpost with several hundred educators gathered at Space Center, Houston during an in-flight question and answer session Feb. 1. The Space Educators Conference was designed to bring teachers together from around the nation to discuss topics of mutual interest. Acaba is in the final month of a five and a half month mission on the complex.

Discussing Adolescent Sexual Health in African American Churches

PubMed Central

Williams, Terrinieka T.; Dodd, Darcy; Campbell, Bettina; Pichon, Latrice C.; Griffith, Derek M.

2012-01-01

This study describes the ways in which two African American churches discuss adolescent sexual health topics. Six focus groups were conducted in two churches in Flint, Michigan that reported no formal sexual health programming for their congregants. Three themes emerged to highlight the different perspectives about the role of churches in adolescent sexual decision-making and sexual health education 1) churches as sources of sexual information; 2) churches as complex communities; and 3) recommendations for sexual education in churches. Participant responses suggest that churches can and should serve a resource for sexual health information. Implications for practice and research are discussed. PMID:22814618

Using peer discussion facilitated by clicker questions in an informal education setting: enhancing farmer learning of science.

PubMed

Smith, Michelle K; Annis, Seanna L; Kaplan, Jennifer J; Drummond, Frank

2012-01-01

Blueberry growers in Maine attend annual Cooperative Extension presentations given by university faculty members. These presentations cover topics, such as, how to prevent plant disease and monitor for insect pests. In 2012, in order to make the sessions more interactive and promote learning, clicker questions and peer discussion were incorporated into the presentations. Similar to what has been shown at the undergraduate level, after peer discussion, more blueberry growers gave correct answers to multiple-choice questions than when answering independently. Furthermore, because blueberry growers are characterized by diverse levels of education, experience in the field etc., we were able to determine whether demographic factors were associated with changes in performance after peer discussion. Taken together, our results suggest that clicker questions and peer discussion work equally well with adults from a variety of demographic backgrounds without disadvantaging a subset of the population and provide an important learning opportunity to the least formally educated members. Our results also indicate that clicker questions with peer discussion were viewed as a positive addition to university-related informal science education sessions.

Using Peer Discussion Facilitated by Clicker Questions in an Informal Education Setting: Enhancing Farmer Learning of Science

PubMed Central

Smith, Michelle K.; Annis, Seanna L.; Kaplan, Jennifer J.; Drummond, Frank

2012-01-01

Blueberry growers in Maine attend annual Cooperative Extension presentations given by university faculty members. These presentations cover topics, such as, how to prevent plant disease and monitor for insect pests. In 2012, in order to make the sessions more interactive and promote learning, clicker questions and peer discussion were incorporated into the presentations. Similar to what has been shown at the undergraduate level, after peer discussion, more blueberry growers gave correct answers to multiple-choice questions than when answering independently. Furthermore, because blueberry growers are characterized by diverse levels of education, experience in the field etc., we were able to determine whether demographic factors were associated with changes in performance after peer discussion. Taken together, our results suggest that clicker questions and peer discussion work equally well with adults from a variety of demographic backgrounds without disadvantaging a subset of the population and provide an important learning opportunity to the least formally educated members. Our results also indicate that clicker questions with peer discussion were viewed as a positive addition to university-related informal science education sessions. PMID:23077638

3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, and Solid Freeform Fabrication: The Technologies of the Past, Present and Future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beaman, Joseph

2015-03-01

Starting in the late 1980's, several new technologies were created that have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing. These technologies are, for the most part, additive processes that build up parts layer by layer. In addition, the processes that are being touted for hard-core manufacturing are primarily laser or e-beam based processes. This presentation gives a brief history of Additive Manufacturing and gives an assessment for these technologies. These technologies initially grew out of a commercial need for rapid prototyping. This market has a different requirement for process and quality control than traditional manufacturing. The relatively poor process control of the existing commercial Additive Manufacturing equipment is a vestige of this history. This presentation discusses this history and improvements in quality over time. The emphasis will be on Additive Manufacturing processes that are being considered for direct manufacturing, which is a different market than the 3D Printing ``Makerbot'' market. Topics discussed include past and present machine sensors, materials, and operational methods that were used in the past and those that are used today to create manufactured parts. Finally, a discussion of new methods and future directions of AM is presented.

TopicLens: Efficient Multi-Level Visual Topic Exploration of Large-Scale Document Collections.

PubMed

Kim, Minjeong; Kang, Kyeongpil; Park, Deokgun; Choo, Jaegul; Elmqvist, Niklas

2017-01-01

Topic modeling, which reveals underlying topics of a document corpus, has been actively adopted in visual analytics for large-scale document collections. However, due to its significant processing time and non-interactive nature, topic modeling has so far not been tightly integrated into a visual analytics workflow. Instead, most such systems are limited to utilizing a fixed, initial set of topics. Motivated by this gap in the literature, we propose a novel interaction technique called TopicLens that allows a user to dynamically explore data through a lens interface where topic modeling and the corresponding 2D embedding are efficiently computed on the fly. To support this interaction in real time while maintaining view consistency, we propose a novel efficient topic modeling method and a semi-supervised 2D embedding algorithm. Our work is based on improving state-of-the-art methods such as nonnegative matrix factorization and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding. Furthermore, we have built a web-based visual analytics system integrated with TopicLens. We use this system to measure the performance and the visualization quality of our proposed methods. We provide several scenarios showcasing the capability of TopicLens using real-world datasets.

Topical anaesthetics for pain control during repair of dermal laceration.

PubMed

Tayeb, Baraa O; Eidelman, Anthony; Eidelman, Cristy L; McNicol, Ewan D; Carr, Daniel B

2017-02-22

Topical local anaesthetics provide effective analgesia for patients undergoing numerous superficial procedures, including repair of dermal lacerations. The need for cocaine in topical anaesthetic formulations has been questioned because of concern about adverse effects, thus novel preparations of cocaine-free anaesthetics have been developed. This review was originally published in 2011 and has been updated in 2017. To assess whether benefits of non-invasive topical anaesthetic application occur at the expense of decreased analgesic efficacy. To compare the efficacy of various single-component or multi-component topical anaesthetic agents for repair of dermal lacerations. To determine the clinical necessity for topical application of the ester anaesthetic, cocaine. For this updated review, we searched the following databases: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2016, Issue 11), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL; 2010 to December 2016), Embase (2010 to December 2016) and MEDLINE (2010 to December 2016). We did not limit this search by language or format of publication. We contacted manufacturers, international scientific societies and researchers in the field. Weemailed selected journalsand reviewed meta-registers of ongoing trials. For the previous version of this review, we searched these databases to November 2010. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the efficacy and safety of topical anaesthetics for repair of dermal laceration in adult and paediatric participants. Two review authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. We contacted study authors for additional information when needed. We collected adverse event information from trial reports. We assessed methodological risk of bias for each included study and employed the GRADE approach to assess the overall quality of the evidence. The present updated review included 25 RCTs involving 3278 participants. The small

Wave Propagation and Amplification in the Cochlea—A Moderated Discussion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chadwick, Richard S.; Grosh, Karl

2011-11-01

A discussion moderated by the authors on the topics "Wave Propagation in the Cochlea" and "The Cochlear Amplifier" was held on 21 July 2011 at the 11th International Mechanics of Hearing Workshop in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The paper provides an edited transcript of the session.

Beneficial effects of topical tacrolimus on recalcitrant erosions of pemphigus vulgaris.

PubMed

Gach, J E; Ilchyshyn, A

2004-05-01

We report a case of pemphigus vulgaris in which a recalcitrant area of erosion on the cheek cleared only when topical tacrolimus was used in addition to a regime of systemic therapy consisting of cyclophosphamide and prednisolone. Clinical improvement occurred within 10 days of applying topical tacrolimus with healing of erosions and reduction in pain and burning sensations. Topical tacrolimus may inhibit local activation of T lymphocytes through altered expression of cytokines such as interleukin-1, -4 and -5, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interferon-gamma. Some of these cytokines may also contribute directly to increasing keratinocyte fragility in the aetiology of pemphigus vulgaris erosions. This case illustrates that topical tacrolimus may be a useful adjunct in the management of patients with pemphigus vulgaris.

Examining the Utility of Topic Models for Linguistic Analysis of Couple Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doeden, Michelle A.

2012-01-01

This study examined the basic utility of topic models, a computational linguistics model for text-based data, to the investigation of the process of couple therapy. Linguistic analysis offers an additional lens through which to examine clinical data, and the topic model is presented as a novel methodology within couple and family psychology that…

Utilizing Peer Moderating in Online Discussions: Addressing the Controversy between Teacher Moderation and Nonmoderation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seo, Kay Kyeongju

2007-01-01

This study focused on the effects of peer moderation on meaningful interactions in online discussions. A meaningful interaction was defined as a message relating to a discussion topic, responding to a previous message, and adding substance to the discussion. A randomized-subject, posttest-only control group design was used to test the first…

Polymeric nanoparticles-based topical delivery systems for the treatment of dermatological diseases

PubMed Central

Zhang, Zheng; Tsai, Pei-Chin; Ramezanli, Tannaz; Michniak-Kohn, Bozena B.

2013-01-01

Human skin not only functions as a permeation barrier (mainly due to the stratum corneum layer), but also provides a unique delivery pathway for therapeutic and other active agents. These compounds penetrate via intercellular, intracellular and transappendageal routes, resulting in topical delivery (into skin strata) and transdermal delivery (to subcutaneous tissues and into the systemic circulation). Passive and active permeation enhancement methods have been widely applied to increase the cutaneous penetration. The pathology, pathogenesis and topical treatment approaches of dermatological diseases, such as psoriasis, contact dermatitis, and skin cancer, are then discussed. Recent literature has demonstrated that nanoparticles-based topical delivery systems can be successful in treating these skin conditions. The studies are reviewed starting with the nanoparticles based on natural polymers specially chitosan, followed by those made of synthetic, degradable (aliphatic polyesters) and non-degradable (polyarylates) polymers; emphasis is given to nanospheres made of polymers derived from naturally occurring metabolites, the tyrosine-derived nanospheres (TyroSpheres™). In summary, the nanoparticles-based topical delivery systems combine the advantages of both the nano-sized drug carriers and the topical approach, and are promising for the treatment of skin diseases. For the perspectives, the penetration of ultra-small nanoparticles (size smaller than 40 nm) into skin strata, the targeted delivery of the encapsulated drugs to hair follicle stem cells, and the combination of nanoparticles and microneedle array technologies for special applications such as vaccine delivery are discussed. PMID:23386536

Poor commissioning discussed in depth.

PubMed

Towse, Bob; Whitby, Robin; Wignall, Stephen; Barrass, Chris; Newman, Alan; Shaw, Christopher; Johnston-Stuart, Chris; James, Chris

2014-05-01

Last October's Healthcare Estates 2013 conference saw one of the first day's 'Engineering' sessions debate the topic, 'Why do so many buildings disappoint their owners and occupants?' Much of the discussion centered on the problems caused by 'inadequate management of the commissioning process'. A roundtable debate jointly staged recently in London by IHEEM and the B&ES, the leading U.K. trade association for building services engineering contractors, took the debate forward. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie reports, the discussions confirmed that one of the key contributors to poor commissioning is a failure to involve specialist building services contractors sufficiently early. It was also agreed that finding a really effective 'client-side' project manager, with the panoply of skills and experience the role requires, can be 'a tough ask'. In this issue of HEJ we report on the debate's first 'half'; in June's edition, we will cover 'part two' of a lively, forthright, and positive debate.

A Learner-led, Discussion-based Elective on Emerging Infectious Disease

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Objective. To implement a learner-led, discussion-based course aimed at exposing second-year pharmacy learners to the study of emerging infectious diseases from a global health perspective and to assess the role and importance of pharmacists in the management of disease outbreaks. Design. Learners examined literature pertinent to an emerging infectious disease in a 3-credit, discussion-based course and participated in peer discussion led by a designated learner. Instructional materials included journal articles, audio-visual presentations, documentaries, book chapters, movies, newspaper/magazine articles, and other materials. Learning outcomes were measured based on the ability of learners to perform critical thinking and analysis, communicate with their peers, and participate in class discussions. Assessment. The course was offered to 2 consecutive cohorts consisting of 14 and 16 learners, respectively. Overall, every learner in the first cohort achieved a final grade of A for the course. In the second cohort, the overall grade distribution consisted of grades of A, B, and C for the course. Learner evaluations indicated that the active-learning, discussion-based environment significantly enhanced interest in the topic and overall performance in the course. Conclusion. The elective course on emerging infectious diseases provided in-depth exposure to disease topics normally not encountered in the pharmacy curriculum. Learners found the material and format valuable, and the course enhanced their appreciation of infectious diseases, research methodology, critical thinking and analysis, and their roles as pharmacists. PMID:26430268

A Learner-led, Discussion-based Elective on Emerging Infectious Disease.

PubMed

Mathias, Clinton

2015-08-25

Objective. To implement a learner-led, discussion-based course aimed at exposing second-year pharmacy learners to the study of emerging infectious diseases from a global health perspective and to assess the role and importance of pharmacists in the management of disease outbreaks. Design. Learners examined literature pertinent to an emerging infectious disease in a 3-credit, discussion-based course and participated in peer discussion led by a designated learner. Instructional materials included journal articles, audio-visual presentations, documentaries, book chapters, movies, newspaper/magazine articles, and other materials. Learning outcomes were measured based on the ability of learners to perform critical thinking and analysis, communicate with their peers, and participate in class discussions. Assessment. The course was offered to 2 consecutive cohorts consisting of 14 and 16 learners, respectively. Overall, every learner in the first cohort achieved a final grade of A for the course. In the second cohort, the overall grade distribution consisted of grades of A, B, and C for the course. Learner evaluations indicated that the active-learning, discussion-based environment significantly enhanced interest in the topic and overall performance in the course. Conclusion. The elective course on emerging infectious diseases provided in-depth exposure to disease topics normally not encountered in the pharmacy curriculum. Learners found the material and format valuable, and the course enhanced their appreciation of infectious diseases, research methodology, critical thinking and analysis, and their roles as pharmacists.

Poverty-Related Topics Found in Dissertations: A Bibliography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Neill, Mara, Comp.; And Others

Arranged alphabetically by main topic, this bibliography cites 322 doctoral dissertations, written between 1970 and 1974, pertaining to various aspects of poverty. Where possible, annotations have been written to present the kernel idea of the work. Im many instances, additional subject headings which reflect important secondary thrusts are also…

Nanocrystal: a novel approach to overcome skin barriers for improved topical drug delivery.

PubMed

Patel, Viral; Sharma, Om Prakash; Mehta, Tejal

2018-04-01

Skin is an important route of drug delivery for the treatment of various dermatological conditions. The advent of nanotechnology is paving the roadmaps for topical drug delivery by providing sustained release as well as maintaining a localized effect, outweighing the toxicity concern. Area covered: This review highlighted the morphology of skin, its barrier nature as well as drug penetration pathways after topical application of formulations. The existing methods to improve topical drug delivery, by infringing or permeating the skin barriers, are discussed. This context concretes the foundation to accentuate the need for the development of nanocrystal-based topical formulation. The mechanism of drug release, immediate as well as sustained release, after topical administration of drug nanocrystals is also elaborated. The special emphasis is given on the breakthrough achieved, in topical drug delivery using drug nanocrystals, so far in the plethora of literature, patents, and products, under clinical trial as well as in the market. Expert opinion: The current research on nanocrystals for topical drug delivery is highlighting the breakthroughs achieved so far. The output of these research envisages that topical nanocrystals based formulations can be a novel strategy for the drugs which are facing solubility, bioavailability and toxicity concerns.

Talk with Teens about Self and Stress: 50 Guided Discussions for School and Counseling Groups.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Jean Sunde; Espeland, Pamela, Ed.

Written to meet the affective need of adolescent students to share their feelings and concerns with supportive listeners, this document contains 50 guided discussions on various topics relating to three focus areas: the self, the self and others, and stress. Under the focus of the self topics include: personal strengths and limitations; behind the…

Topical cyclosporine for atopic keratoconjunctivitis.

PubMed

González-López, Julio J; López-Alcalde, Jesús; Morcillo Laiz, Rafael; Fernández Buenaga, Roberto; Rebolleda Fernández, Gema

2012-09-12

Ophthalmologica Europaea from 2005 to July 2011. We included randomised controlled trials only. Two review authors independently extracted data. Due to the small number of studies and the diversity of outcome measures, interventions and participants, we presented results narratively. We found three RCTs with a total of 58 participants that were eligible for inclusion. There was significant variability between the trials in interventions, methodology and outcome measures and therefore we did not perform meta-analysis.One study reported on the use of 2% CsA in maize oil and two on the use of a commercial emulsion of 0.05% CsA. Of these three studies, one showed a beneficial effect of topical CsA in controlling signs and symptoms of AKC, one in controlling signs of AKC and one did not show evidence of an improvement. Only two studies analysed the effect of topical CsA in reducing topical steroid use; one showed a significant reduction in topical steroid use with CsA, but the other did not show evidence of this improvement. No serious adverse events were reported in the trials. This systematic review highlights the relative scarcity of controlled clinical trials assessing the efficacy of topical CsA therapy in AKC and suggests that evidence on the efficacy and safety of topical CsA treatment in patients with CsA remains limited. However, the data suggest that topical CsA may provide clinical and symptomatic relief in AKC and may help to reduce topical steroid use in patients with steroid-dependent or steroid-resistant AKC. No serious adverse events were reported. Reported adverse events in patients treated with topical CsA include intense stinging and eyelid skin maceration. One patient in the placebo group developed a severe allergic response to maize antigens. However, the total number of patients in the trials was too small to assess the safety of this treatment.Additional well-designed and powered RCTs of topical CsA in AKC are needed. Ideal study designs should include adequate

IP Internal Movement and Topicalization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuo, Pei-Jung

2009-01-01

In this dissertation, I investigate the phenomenon of internal topicalization cross-linguistically, using Chinese as a starting point. Internal topicalization refers to constructions in which a topic phrase is placed between the subject and the verb (in contrast to external topicalization, which involves a topic in the CP domain). I argue that…

A consensus approach to improving patient adherence and persistence with topical treatment for actinic keratosis.

PubMed

Stockfleth, Eggert; Peris, Ketty; Guillen, Carlos; Cerio, Rino; Basset-Seguin, Nicole; Foley, Peter; Sanches, José; Culshaw, Alex; Erntoft, Sandra; Lebwohl, Mark

2015-01-01

Topical therapy is important in the treatment of actinic keratosis, but guidance for improving adherence/persistence during topical therapy is still lacking. To utilize expert consensus to generate a list of recommendations to improve real-world efficacy when prescribing topical therapy for actinic keratosis. An expert panel of eight dermatologists was convened to generate recommendations based on facilitated discussion and consensus generation using a modified Delphi session. The recommendations were ratified with the expert panel. Facilitated discussion generated 31 issues within five themes, which were prioritized using expert voting. Consensus was achieved on the importance of short and simple treatment regimens for maximizing patient compliance, physician awareness of the progression of actinic keratosis to squamous cell carcinoma, provision of appropriate patient information, and the use of effective communication strategies to educate physicians about actinic keratosis. Based on these key findings, eight recommendations were generated. The recommendations will assist physicians when prescribing topical actinic keratosis therapy. Further research should focus on the types of patient outcomes that are influenced by the characteristics of topical field therapy. © 2015 The Authors. International Journal of Dermatology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society of Dermatology.

Evaluation and management of acquired methemoglobinemia associated with topical benzocaine use.

PubMed

Taleb, Mohammed; Ashraf, Zubair; Valavoor, Shahul; Tinkel, Jodi

2013-10-01

Benzocaine is a widely used topical oropharyngeal anesthetic and has been reported to cause methemoglobinemia. We discuss benzocaine-induced methemoglobinemia and review the causes, presentation, and management of this serious complication. Treatment with methylene blue will result in reversal of methemoglobinemia and clinical recovery in most cases but needs to be used at appropriate doses in carefully selected individuals. Physicians who perform procedures involving the application of benzocaine for topical anesthesia need to rapidly identify and treat methemoglobinemia to avoid significant associated morbidity and mortality.

Phase IIB Randomized Study of Topical Difluoromethylornithine and Topical Diclofenac on Sun-Damaged Skin of the Forearm.

PubMed

Jeter, Joanne M; Curiel-Lewandrowski, Clara; Stratton, Steven P; Myrdal, Paul B; Warneke, James A; Einspahr, Janine G; Bartels, Hubert G; Yozwiak, Michael; Bermudez, Yira; Hu, Chengcheng; Bartels, Peter; Alberts, David S

2016-02-01

Prevention of nonmelanoma skin cancers remains a health priority due to high costs associated with this disease. Diclofenac and difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) have demonstrated chemopreventive efficacy for cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas. We designed a randomized study of the combination of DFMO and diclofenac in the treatment of sun-damaged skin. Individuals with visible cutaneous sun damage were eligible. Subjects were randomized to one of the three groups: topical DFMO applied twice daily, topical diclofenac applied daily, or DFMO plus diclofenac. The treatment was limited to an area on the left forearm, and the duration of use was 90 days. We hypothesized that combination therapy would have increased efficacy compared with single-agent therapy. The primary outcome was change in karyometric average nuclear abnormality (ANA) in the treated skin. Individuals assessing the biomarkers were blinded regarding the treatment for each subject. A total of 156 subjects were randomized; 144 had baseline and end-of-study biopsies, and 136 subjects completed the study. The ANA unexpectedly increased for all groups, with higher values correlating with clinical cutaneous inflammation. Nearly all of the adverse events were local cutaneous effects. One subject had cutaneous toxicity that required treatment discontinuation. Significantly more adverse events were seen in the groups taking diclofenac. Overall, the study indicated that the addition of topical DFMO to topical diclofenac did not enhance its activity. Both agents caused inflammation on a cellular and clinical level, which may have confounded the measurement of chemopreventive effects. More significant effects may be observed in subjects with greater baseline cutaneous damage. ©2015 American Association for Cancer Research.

Sentiment topic mining based on comment tags

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Daohai; Liu, Xue; Li, Juan; Fan, Mingyue

2018-03-01

With the development of e-commerce, various comments based on tags are generated, how to extract valuable information from these comment tags has become an important content of business management decisions. This study takes HUAWEI mobile phone tags as an example using the sentiment analysis and topic LDA mining method. The first step is data preprocessing and classification of comment tag topic mining. And then make the sentiment classification for comment tags. Finally, mine the comments again and analyze the emotional theme distribution under different sentiment classification. The results show that HUAWEI mobile phone has a good user experience in terms of fluency, cost performance, appearance, etc. Meanwhile, it should pay more attention to independent research and development, product design and development. In addition, battery and speed performance should be enhanced.

Do Veterinary Students See a Need for More In-Course Discussion? A Survey.

PubMed

Kasch, Cindy; Haimerl, Peggy; Heuwieser, Wolfgang; Arlt, Sebastian

2015-01-01

Rather than merely transferring information, veterinary education should stimulate and motivate students and encourage them to think. Currently in veterinary education, most curricula use the method of frontal teaching (e.g., in lectures). A student-centered critical approach to information is rarely used. Our research sought to determine if students consider in-course discussion useful and if sufficient possibilities for discussion are provided and supported by their lecturers. In December 2013, we conducted a survey of fourth-year students. Specifically, we wanted to know if students consider in-course discussion about course content useful for successful learning and if students wish to have more opportunities for discussion during class time. Finally, we wanted to identify barriers that limit the students' motivation and ability to engage in discussion of course content. In total, 105 students completed the survey. The majority of students agreed or strongly agreed that clinical topics should be discussed during class time. Frequently stated reasons were improved learning (85.7%) and the opportunity to look at topics from different perspectives (92.4%). In conclusion, we found a considerable dearth of and request for discussion within veterinary education. In light of these findings, we emphasize the need for new teaching strategies that promote independent thinking and critical questioning. We suggest the implementation of more discussion opportunities in well considered and moderated settings in veterinary teaching.

Dynamics of list-server discussion on genetically modified foods.

PubMed

Triunfol, Marcia L; Hines, Pamela J

2004-04-01

Computer-mediated discussion lists, or list-servers, are popular tools in settings ranging from professional to personal to educational. A discussion list on genetically modified food (GMF) was created in September 2000 as part of the Forum on Genetically Modified Food developed by Science Controversies: Online Partnerships in Education (SCOPE), an educational project that uses computer resources to aid research and learning around unresolved scientific questions. The discussion list "GMF-Science" was actively supported from January 2001 to May 2002. The GMF-Science list welcomed anyone interested in discussing the controversies surrounding GMF. Here, we analyze the dynamics of the discussions and how the GMF-Science list may contribute to learning. Activity on the GMF-Science discussion list reflected some but not all the controversies that were appearing in more traditional publication formats, broached other topics not well represented in the published literature, and tended to leave undiscussed the more technical research developments.

Mindfulness and discussing "thorny" issues in the classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexakos, Konstantinos; Pride, Leah D.; Amat, Arnau; Tsetsakos, Panagiota; Lee, Kristi J.; Paylor-Smith, Christian; Zapata, Corinna; Wright, Shequana; Smith, Theila

2016-09-01

Being in the moment, showing compassion, being non-judgmental, acknowledging deep emotional challenges without getting stuck: these are mindfulness characteristics important to us as teachers, yet not often included in teacher preparation. These concerns become magnified when we focus on difficult knowledge and thorny issues, like topics related to gender and race. Using a sociocultural framework, we address how mindfulness, heuristics, and other contemplative practices can be adopted to create safe, supporting, and healing spaces for such complex, often emotionally painful discussions. Participant narratives are used extensively to provide a voice to those marginalized or hurt. Drawing from these narratives and their experience in discussing thorny issues, we put forth possible solutions and interventions that can create spaces that encourage and support critical discourse through mindful practices. The development of a heuristic for discussing thorny issues whose characteristics can be adopted by interested teachers and educators to help frame and mediate this type of difficult discussion is an outcome of this research.

Topical preparations for pain relief: efficacy and patient adherence

PubMed Central

Jorge, Liliana L; Feres, Caroline C; Teles, Vitor EP

2011-01-01

There has been an increasing focus on development of new routes of drug administration to provide tailored treatments for patients, without decreasing efficacy of analgesia, in proportion to the progression of the knowledge of pain mechanisms. While acute pain acts as an alarm, chronic pain is a syndrome requiring meticulous selection of analgesic drugs of high bioavailability for long-term use. Such criteria are challenges that topical medications aim to overcome, allowing progressive delivery of active component, maintaining stable plasma levels, with a good safety profile. This review presents recent findings regarding topical formulations of the most widely used drugs for pain treatment, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents, anesthetics, and capsaicin, and the role of physical agents as delivery enhancers (phonophoresis and iontophoresis). Although the number of topical agents is limited for use in peripheral conditions, increasing evidence supports the efficacy of these preparations in blocking nociceptive and neuropathic pain. Patient adherence to medical treatment is also a challenge, especially in chronic painful conditions. It is known that reduction of treatment complexity and pill burden are good strategies to increase patient compliance, as discussed here. However, the role of topical presentations, when compared to traditional routes, has not yet been fully explored and thus remains unclear. PMID:21386951

Assessment of topical versus oral ivermectin as a treatment for head lice.

PubMed

Ahmad, Hesham M; Abdel-Azim, Eman S; Abdel-Aziz, Rasha T

2014-01-01

Many medications are available for treatment of pediculosis capitis including ivermectin. Our aim is to compare the efficacy and safety of topical versus oral ivermectin in treatment of pediculosis capitis. Sixty-two patients with proved head lice infestation were included and divided into group I (31 patients; received single topical application of 1% ivermectin) and group II (31 patients; received single dose of oral ivermectin). Treatment was repeated after 1 week for nonresponders. At 1 week after treatment, the eradication rates and improvement of pruritus were significantly higher among patients who received topical than oral ivermectin. When a second treatment, topical or oral, was given to nonresponders, the cure rates of infestation and pruritus was 100% and 97% among patients treated with topical and oral ivermectin, respectively with no significant difference between the two groups. This study suggests that both topical and oral ivermectin demonstrate high efficacy and tolerability in treatment of pediculosis capitis. However, a single treatment with topical ivermectin provides significantly higher cure of infestation and faster relief of pruritus than oral ivermectin. In addition, whether topical or oral ivermectin is used to treat head lice, a second dose is required in some cases to ensure complete eradication. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Treatment of angiofibromas in tuberous sclerosis complex: the effect of topical rapamycin and concomitant laser therapy.

PubMed

Park, Jin; Yun, Seok-Kweon; Cho, Yong-Sun; Song, Ki-Hun; Kim, Han-Uk

2014-01-01

Facial angiofibromas are the most troublesome cutaneous manifestations of the tuberous sclerosis complex and are difficult to treat. Lasers are most commonly used to treat these skin lesions, but results are disappointing with frequent recurrences. Recently, treatment of facial angiofibromas with topical rapamycin has been reported to yield promising results. We observed the need of laser ablation in addition to topical rapamycin to get best results for the treatment of angiofibromas in 4 cases. The result showed that topical rapamycin ointment was enough when the papules were yet small in size, i.e. less than a few millimeters, but additional laser ablation was needed for large papules approximately larger than 4 mm. Considering the natural course of facial angiofibromas, we believe that topical rapamycin can be best used in childhood patients. In adults, topical rapamycin was useful for treating the still present small papules and for preventing recurrences after laser treatment. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Research on spectroscopic imaging. Volume 1: Technical discussion. [birefringent filters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Title, A.; Rosenberg, W.

1979-01-01

The principals of operation and the capabilities of birefringent filters systems are examined. Topics covered include: Lyot, Solc, and partial polarizer filters; transmission profile management; tuning birefringent filters; field of view; bandpass control; engineering considerations; and recommendations. Improvements for field of view effects, and the development of birefringent filters for spaceflight are discussed in appendices.

Characterizing the Discussion of Antibiotics in the Twittersphere: What is the Bigger Picture?

PubMed

Kendra, Rachel Lynn; Karki, Suman; Eickholt, Jesse Lee; Gandy, Lisa

2015-06-19

User content posted through Twitter has been used for biosurveillance, to characterize public perception of health-related topics, and as a means of distributing information to the general public. Most of the existing work surrounding Twitter and health care has shown Twitter to be an effective medium for these problems but more could be done to provide finer and more efficient access to all pertinent data. Given the diversity of user-generated content, small samples or summary presentations of the data arguably omit a large part of the virtual discussion taking place in the Twittersphere. Still, managing, processing, and querying large amounts of Twitter data is not a trivial task. This work describes tools and techniques capable of handling larger sets of Twitter data and demonstrates their use with the issue of antibiotics. This work has two principle objectives: (1) to provide an open-source means to efficiently explore all collected tweets and query health-related topics on Twitter, specifically, questions such as what users are saying and how messages are spread, and (2) to characterize the larger discourse taking place on Twitter with respect to antibiotics. Open-source software suites Hadoop, Flume, and Hive were used to collect and query a large number of Twitter posts. To classify tweets by topic, a deep network classifier was trained using a limited number of manually classified tweets. The particular machine learning approach used also allowed the use of a large number of unclassified tweets to increase performance. Query-based analysis of the collected tweets revealed that a large number of users contributed to the online discussion and that a frequent topic mentioned was resistance. A number of prominent events related to antibiotics led to a number of spikes in activity but these were short in duration. The category-based classifier developed was able to correctly classify 70% of manually labeled tweets (using a 10-fold cross validation procedure and

Salicylic Acid Topical

MedlinePlus

... stinging in the area where you applied topical salicylic acid Some side effects can be serious. If you experience any of ... of the eyes, face, lips, or tongue Topical salicylic acid may cause other side effects. Call your doctor if you have any unusual ...

Drug crystallization - implications for topical and transdermal delivery.

PubMed

Hadgraft, Jonathan; Lane, Majella E

2016-06-01

Crystallization of actives in skin following topical application was suggested by studies in the 1950s and 1960s but is poorly understood. In contrast, the problem of crystallization of actives on skin and in transdermal formulations has been known for many years. With respect to crystallization in skin, this review describes early reports of a skin 'reservoir' and possible reasons underlying its genesis. Techniques to study crystallization on and in skin and in transdermal patches are outlined. The role of the vehicle in skin delivery is emphasised. Studies which have investigated permeation from crystalline particles are described. Approaches to limit crystallization of actives are discussed. Using supersaturation and antinuclean polymers, control of crystal size is possible; controlled release from crystals is also employed in transdermal patches. Drug crystallization has significant implications for topical and transdermal delivery. Approaches have been developed to counteract the issue for transdermal patches but crystallization in and on the skin for other formulations remains unresolved. Greater knowledge of residence time of excipients and their interaction with skin at the molecular level is critical in order to address the problem. This will lay the foundations for better design of topical/transdermal formulations.

Recent meta-analyses neglect previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses about the same topic: a systematic examination.

PubMed

Helfer, Bartosz; Prosser, Aaron; Samara, Myrto T; Geddes, John R; Cipriani, Andrea; Davis, John M; Mavridis, Dimitris; Salanti, Georgia; Leucht, Stefan

2015-04-14

As the number of systematic reviews is growing rapidly, we systematically investigate whether meta-analyses published in leading medical journals present an outline of available evidence by referring to previous meta-analyses and systematic reviews. We searched PubMed for recent meta-analyses of pharmacological treatments published in high impact factor journals. Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses were identified with electronic searches of keywords and by searching reference sections. We analyzed the number of meta-analyses and systematic reviews that were cited, described and discussed in each recent meta-analysis. Moreover, we investigated publication characteristics that potentially influence the referencing practices. We identified 52 recent meta-analyses and 242 previous meta-analyses on the same topics. Of these, 66% of identified previous meta-analyses were cited, 36% described, and only 20% discussed by recent meta-analyses. The probability of citing a previous meta-analysis was positively associated with its publication in a journal with a higher impact factor (odds ratio, 1.49; 95% confidence interval, 1.06 to 2.10) and more recent publication year (odds ratio, 1.19; 95% confidence interval 1.03 to 1.37). Additionally, the probability of a previous study being described by the recent meta-analysis was inversely associated with the concordance of results (odds ratio, 0.38; 95% confidence interval, 0.17 to 0.88), and the probability of being discussed was increased for previous studies that employed meta-analytic methods (odds ratio, 32.36; 95% confidence interval, 2.00 to 522.85). Meta-analyses on pharmacological treatments do not consistently refer to and discuss findings of previous meta-analyses on the same topic. Such neglect can lead to research waste and be confusing for readers. Journals should make the discussion of related meta-analyses mandatory.

Panel Discussion : Report of the APS Ad-Hoc Committee on LGBT Issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atherton, Tim; Barthelemy, Ramon; Garmon, Savannah; Reeves, Kyle; APS Ad-Hoc Committee on LGBT Issues Team

Following the presentation of the findings and recommendations of the APS Ad-Hoc Committee on LGBT Issues (C-LGBT) by Committee Chair Michael Falk, a panel discussion will be held featuring several members of the committee. The discussion will focus on how APS can best ensure the recommendations of the committee are carried out in a timely fashion and other ideas on future APS efforts toward LGBT inclusion in physics. Discussion topics will also include the research and other input that shaped the committee's findings and recommendations.

Dressings and topical agents for arterial leg ulcers.

PubMed

Forster, Rachel; Pagnamenta, Fania

2015-06-29

were resolved through discussion. One trial met the inclusion criteria, which was a small trial that compared 2% ketanserin ointment in polyethylene glycol (PEG) with vehicle alone (PEG) control, changed twice a day in 40 participants with arterial leg ulcers. The overall quality of the evidence was low with a single small included study which showed inadequate reporting of the results and had too short a follow-up time (eight weeks) to be able to capture sufficient healing events to allow comparisons to be made. In addition, the study was of low methodological quality. The majority of the 'risk of bias' domains received an 'unclear' risk rating as very little information was provided in the text on the methods of the study. The trial demonstrated increased wound healing in the ketanserin group, compared with the control group, but the trial was too small and had too short a follow-up period (eight weeks) to be able to determine whether there was any difference in healing rates. It should also be noted that ketanserin is not licensed in all countries for use in humans. There is insufficient evidence to determine whether the choice of topical agent or dressing affects the healing of arterial leg ulcers.

Microblog sentiment analysis using social and topic context.

PubMed

Zou, Xiaomei; Yang, Jing; Zhang, Jianpei

2018-01-01

Analyzing massive user-generated microblogs is very crucial in many fields, attracting many researchers to study. However, it is very challenging to process such noisy and short microblogs. Most prior works only use texts to identify sentiment polarity and assume that microblogs are independent and identically distributed, which ignore microblogs are networked data. Therefore, their performance is not usually satisfactory. Inspired by two sociological theories (sentimental consistency and emotional contagion), in this paper, we propose a new method combining social context and topic context to analyze microblog sentiment. In particular, different from previous work using direct user relations, we introduce structure similarity context into social contexts and propose a method to measure structure similarity. In addition, we also introduce topic context to model the semantic relations between microblogs. Social context and topic context are combined by the Laplacian matrix of the graph built by these contexts and Laplacian regularization are added into the microblog sentiment analysis model. Experimental results on two real Twitter datasets demonstrate that our proposed model can outperform baseline methods consistently and significantly.

Main topics in transcultural psychiatric research in the Netherlands during the past decade.

PubMed

Laban, Cornelis J; van Dijk, Rob

2013-12-01

The population of the Netherlands has become increasingly diverse in terms of ethnicity and religion, and anti-immigrant attitudes have become more apparent. At the same time, interest in issues linked to transcultural psychiatry has grown steadily. The purpose of this article is to describe the most important results in Dutch transcultural psychiatric research in the last decade and to discuss their relationship with relevant social and political developments in the Netherlands. All relevant PhD theses (N = 27) between 2000 and 2011 were selected. Screening of Dutch journals in the field of transcultural psychiatry and medical anthropology and a PubMed query yielded additional publications. Forensic and addiction psychiatry were excluded from this review. The results of the review indicate three main topics: (a) the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and their relation to migration issues as social defeat and ethnic density, showing considerable intra- and interethnic differences in predictors and prevalence rates, (b) the social position of refugees and asylum seekers, and its effect on mental health, showing especially high risk among asylum seekers, and (c) the patterns of health-seeking behaviour and use of mental health services, showing a differentiated picture among various migrant groups. Anthropological research brought additional knowledge on all the above topics. The overall conclusion is that transcultural psychiatric research in the Netherlands has made a giant leap since the turn of the century. The results are of international importance and invite redefinition of the relationship between migration and mental health, and reconsideration of its underlying mechanisms in multiethnic societies.

Women Shaping the Future. The Future of Work Discussion Kit.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pine, Janet; Jackson, Sue; MacNeill, Kate

Designed to inform and empower women to participate in debates and decisions about the future of work in Australia, this kit provides everything needed to run a discussion session on the future of work with women in the community. It consists of a guide for users, workshop guide, topic sheets, and background reading. The guide for users introduces…

Curcumin and its topical formulations for wound healing applications.

PubMed

Mohanty, Chandana; Sahoo, Sanjeeb K

2017-10-01

Oxidative damage and inflammation have been identified, through clinical and preclinical studies, as the main causes of nonhealing chronic wounds. Reduction of persistent chronic inflammation by application of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents such as curcumin has been well studied. However, low aqueous solubility, poor tissue absorption, rapid metabolism and short plasma half-life have made curcumin unsuitable for systemic administration for better wound healing. Recently, various topical formulations of curcumin such as films, fibers, emulsion, hydrogels and different nanoformulations have been developed for targeted delivery of curcumin at wounded sites. In this review, we summarize and discuss different topical formulations of curcumin with emphasis on their wound-healing properties in animal models. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring the Utility of a Video-Based Online EFL Discussion Forum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Heng-Tsung Danny; Hung, Shao-Ting Alan

2013-01-01

Online discussion forums represent "online collaborative learning spaces in which communities become engaged in the discourse on a topic about which they share common interests or goals" (Montero, Watts & Garcia-Carbonell, 2007, p. 568). This digital communication modality has been claimed to enhance second/foreign language (L2)…

Granulomatous Inflammation of the Penis and Scrotum Following Application of Topical Cream.

PubMed

Khan, Amir Ishaq; Mehta, Akanksha; Sekhar, Aarti; Ellis, Carla L

2017-05-01

Granulomas are collections of histiocytes that develop as an inflammatory response to bacterial and fungal infections, as well as foreign substances. We discuss here the case of a 49-year-old male who presented with a penile and scrotal mass with granulomatous inflammation, after application of a topical cream for enhancement of erectile function. While granuloma formation can often be seen with penile injections, this case presents the rare development of a foreign body granuloma after topical cream application on the penis and scrotum.

Report of a Meeting on Contemporary Topics in Zebrafish Husbandry and Care.

PubMed

Osborne, Nikki; Paull, Gregory; Grierson, Adam; Dunford, Karen; Busch-Nentwich, Elisabeth M; Sneddon, Lynne U; Wren, Natalie; Higgins, Joe; Hawkins, Penny

2016-12-01

A meeting on Contemporary Topics in Zebrafish Husbandry and Care was held in the United Kingdom in 2014, with the aim of providing a discussion forum for researchers, animal technologists, and veterinarians from academia and industry to share good practice and exchange ideas. Presentation topics included protocols for optimal larval rearing, implementing the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement) in large-scale colony management, and environmental enrichment. The audience also participated in a survey of current practice relating to practical husbandry, cryopreservation, and the provision of enrichment.

Foliar Nutrition, Biostimulants and Prime-Like Dynamics in Fruit Tree Physiology: New Insights on an Old Topic

PubMed Central

Tanou, Georgia; Ziogas, Vasileios; Molassiotis, Athanassios

2017-01-01

Despite the fact that the usage of foliar nutrients has long history, many aspects of fertilization through leaves are still unknown. Herein, we review the current knowledge regarding the canopy fertilization putting special emphasis on Fe nutrition and briefly provide insights into the nanofertilizer technology of the foliar feeding of fruit crops. In addition, this paper discusses the main aspects of the foliar application of biostimulants regarding crucial factors of fruit cropping systems, such as fruit yield/size, tolerance to environmental stresses, and nutrient availability. Also, we specifically discuss the role of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and nitric oxide (NO) as priming molecules and their possible cross-talk with biostimulants in fruit tree physiology. Finally, a view of the key issues for future fundamental and applied research in the topic is put forward. PMID:28203243

Table talk: How mothers and adolescents across socioeconomic status discuss food.

PubMed

Fielding-Singh, Priya; Wang, Jennifer

2017-08-01

This article reports findings from a qualitative study of food practices among families of differing socioeconomic circumstances. Using in-depth interviews from sixty-two families in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2015-2016, we find socioeconomic differences in how mothers and adolescents talk about food. Across SES, mothers and adolescents engage in discussions about healthy eating. However, these conversations are more commonplace and embedded within high-SES family life than among low-SES families. Beyond conversations about 1) healthy eating, the topics of 2) food quality and 3) price are discussed to varying degrees across SES. Within high-SES families, frequent discussions of healthy eating are paired with dialogue highlighting the importance of consuming higher quality food. Price is largely absent as a topic of conversation among high-SES families. On the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum, low-SES mothers and adolescents frequently engage in conversations about price when discussing food. Mentions of food quality are rare, but when they do occur, they underscore important trade-offs between food's healthiness, quality and price. Given prior research showing the impact of dialogue between parents and adolescents on adolescents' dietary behaviors, these findings help us understand how family discussions contribute to shaping adolescents' approaches to food. An important implication is that high-SES families' discussions of food quality may strengthen messages about healthy eating, while conversations about affordability within low-SES families may highlight financial barriers to healthy eating. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Topical amitriptyline and ketamine for the treatment of neuropathic pain.

PubMed

Mercadante, Sebastiano

2015-01-01

A neuropathy is a disturbance of function or pathological change in nerves. In some cases, peripheral neuropathic pain may occur due to a lesion or disease of the peripheral somatosensory nervous system. Efficacy of different agents for peripheral neuropathic pain conditions is less than optimal. The administration of topical analgesics might be an option, due to the potential of reduced adverse effects and increased patient compliance. There is major interest in compounding topical analgesics for peripheral neuropathic pain, but several challenges remain for this approach. Topical analgesics have the potential to be a valuable additional approach for the management of peripheral neuropathic pain. Topical amitriptyline-ketamine combination (AK) is a promising agent for peripheral neuropathic pain conditions. Some studies have shown its efficacy in neuropathic pain conditions. However, this data was not uniformely obtained and its role remains still controversial. Efficacy may depend on many factors, including the choice of the vehicle, the concentration, the pain site, and specific diseases. More studies are necessary to support the use of AK in clinical practice.

Improving Discussion in Astronomy Courses Taught Online

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Troischt, Parker

2017-06-01

Astronomy courses that are either hybrid in nature or offered in a completely online format are becoming more common at colleges and universities. In particular, faculty members at small colleges are being encouraged to develop courses that can be taught online in order to give students increased flexibility in scheduling classes and reach a separate population of learners. For instructors accustomed to teaching students in person using plenty of interaction, making the switch to teaching even one online course a year can be challenging. However, some topics are developing so rapidly (exoplanets) that it is difficult to imagine having students rely on a standard textbook at all, and the use of online resources become essential. Here, we describe methods used to promote discussion, evaluate its content and effectively incorporate the use of recently released articles in order to keep students engaged. We present efforts to produce a lively classroom atmosphere centered on recent advances and several debated topics. Lastly, we report on successes, challenges and plans for improving online courses in the future.

Update on the Systemic Risks of Superpotent Topical Steroids.

PubMed

Nakamura, Mio; Abrouk, Michael; Zhu, Henry; Farahnik, Benjamin; Koo, John; Bhutani, Tina

2017-07-01

INTRODUCTION: The potential for systemic effects due to percutaneous absorption of superpotent topical steroids has been a longstanding concern. The Food and Drug Administration currently recommends limiting the use of superpotent topical steroids to 50g per week for 2 or 4 consecutive weeks depending on the formulation, which is mostly based on the exact duration with which phase 3 clinical trials were allowed to be conducted per the FDA. This article reviews all published clinical incidence of adrenal adverse effects in the medical literature, specifically Cushing's syndrome (CS) and pathologic adrenal suppression (PAAS), to try to ascertain a more realistic limit for the safe use of superpotent topical steroids as it pertains to its potential systemic effects.

METHODS: Literature search was conducted using PubMed. Only cases of CS and PAAS secondary to the use of Class I superpotent topical steroids were included. Pediatric cases and full articles unavailable in English were excluded.

RESULTS: There were a total of 14 cases of CS and 5 cases of subsequent PAAS found in the current literature.

DISCUSSION: From our review of these cases, if the amount used per week is within FDA guidelines, it appears that patients needed to use superpotent topical steroids for far greater than 2 or 4 weeks to develop CS or PAAS. CS did not necessarily predict occurrence of PAAS, but in all cases CS appeared to be a prerequisite for developing PAAS. All cases of CS and all but one case of PAAS were reversible. If excessive amount of greater than 50g per week is avoided, it appears that superpotent topical steroids may be safe to use consecutively for months, perhaps even years, without causing systemic effects.

J Drugs Dermatol. 2017;16(7):643-648.

Current Topics In STEM Education Policy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glembo, Tyler

2015-04-01

The role of the federal government in education is a hotly debated topic in Congress, causing education to become deeply embedded in politics. Federal funding of education, although covering only about ten percent of total cost, has large impact in the classroom, from testing standards to low interest student loans. This talk will examine the current landscape in physics education including issues facing the community at a national/federal level and also legislation such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We will also examine how stakeholders can develop effective messages and participate in discussions with policy makers.

Gay-Straight Alliances as Settings to Discuss Health Topics: Individual and Group Factors Associated with Substance Use, Mental Health, and Sexual Health Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poteat, V. P.; Heck, N. C.; Yoshikawa, H.; Calzo, J. P.

2017-01-01

Sexual minority (e.g. lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning; LGBQ) and gender minority (e.g. transgender) youth experience myriad health risks. Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are school-based settings where they may have opportunities to discuss substance use, mental health, and sexual health issues in ways that are safe and tailored to their…

Incorporating Topic Assignment Constraint and Topic Correlation Limitation into Clinical Goal Discovering for Clinical Pathway Mining.

PubMed

Xu, Xiao; Jin, Tao; Wei, Zhijie; Wang, Jianmin

2017-01-01

Clinical pathways are widely used around the world for providing quality medical treatment and controlling healthcare cost. However, the expert-designed clinical pathways can hardly deal with the variances among hospitals and patients. It calls for more dynamic and adaptive process, which is derived from various clinical data. Topic-based clinical pathway mining is an effective approach to discover a concise process model. Through this approach, the latent topics found by latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) represent the clinical goals. And process mining methods are used to extract the temporal relations between these topics. However, the topic quality is usually not desirable due to the low performance of the LDA in clinical data. In this paper, we incorporate topic assignment constraint and topic correlation limitation into the LDA to enhance the ability of discovering high-quality topics. Two real-world datasets are used to evaluate the proposed method. The results show that the topics discovered by our method are with higher coherence, informativeness, and coverage than the original LDA. These quality topics are suitable to represent the clinical goals. Also, we illustrate that our method is effective in generating a comprehensive topic-based clinical pathway model.

Incorporating Topic Assignment Constraint and Topic Correlation Limitation into Clinical Goal Discovering for Clinical Pathway Mining

PubMed Central

Xu, Xiao; Wei, Zhijie

2017-01-01

Clinical pathways are widely used around the world for providing quality medical treatment and controlling healthcare cost. However, the expert-designed clinical pathways can hardly deal with the variances among hospitals and patients. It calls for more dynamic and adaptive process, which is derived from various clinical data. Topic-based clinical pathway mining is an effective approach to discover a concise process model. Through this approach, the latent topics found by latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) represent the clinical goals. And process mining methods are used to extract the temporal relations between these topics. However, the topic quality is usually not desirable due to the low performance of the LDA in clinical data. In this paper, we incorporate topic assignment constraint and topic correlation limitation into the LDA to enhance the ability of discovering high-quality topics. Two real-world datasets are used to evaluate the proposed method. The results show that the topics discovered by our method are with higher coherence, informativeness, and coverage than the original LDA. These quality topics are suitable to represent the clinical goals. Also, we illustrate that our method is effective in generating a comprehensive topic-based clinical pathway model. PMID:29065617

Using Social Media Data to Understand the Impact of Promotional Information on Laypeople's Discussions: A Case Study of Lynch Syndrome.

PubMed

Bian, Jiang; Zhao, Yunpeng; Salloum, Ramzi G; Guo, Yi; Wang, Mo; Prosperi, Mattia; Zhang, Hansi; Du, Xinsong; Ramirez-Diaz, Laura J; He, Zhe; Sun, Yuan

2017-12-13

Social media is being used by various stakeholders among pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, health care organizations, professionals, and news media as a way of engaging audiences to raise disease awareness and ultimately to improve public health. Nevertheless, it is unclear what effects this health information has on laypeople. This study aimed to provide a detailed examination of how promotional health information related to Lynch syndrome impacts laypeople's discussions on a social media platform (Twitter) in terms of topic awareness and attitudes. We used topic modeling and sentiment analysis techniques on Lynch syndrome-related tweets to answer the following research questions (RQs): (1) what are the most discussed topics in Lynch syndrome-related tweets?; (2) how promotional Lynch syndrome-related information on Twitter affects laypeople's discussions?; and (3) what impact do the Lynch syndrome awareness activities in the Colon Cancer Awareness Month and Lynch Syndrome Awareness Day have on laypeople's discussions and their attitudes? In particular, we used a set of keywords to collect Lynch syndrome-related tweets from October 26, 2016 to August 11, 2017 (289 days) through the Twitter public search application programming interface (API). We experimented with two different classification methods to categorize tweets into the following three classes: (1) irrelevant, (2) promotional health information, and (3) laypeople's discussions. We applied a topic modeling method to discover the themes in these Lynch syndrome-related tweets and conducted sentiment analysis on each layperson's tweet to gauge the writer's attitude (ie, positive, negative, and neutral) toward Lynch syndrome. The topic modeling and sentiment analysis results were elaborated to answer the three RQs. Of all tweets (N=16,667), 87.38% (14,564/16,667) were related to Lynch syndrome. Of the Lynch syndrome-related tweets, 81.43% (11,860/14,564) were classified as promotional and 18

Preface to Special Topic: Piezoresponse Force Microscopy

DOE PAGES

Balke, Nina; Bassiri-Gharb, Nazanin; Lichtensteiger, Céline

2015-08-19

Almost two decades beyond the inception of piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and the seminal papers by G€uthner and Dransfeld1 and Gruverman et al., the technique has become the prevailing approach for nanoscale functional characterization of polar materials and has been extended to the probing of other electromechanical effects through the advent of electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM). This focus issue celebrates some of the recent advances in the field and offers a wider outlook of polar materials and their overall characterization. In this paper, we cover topics that include discussions of the properties of traditional ferroelectrics, such as lead zirconate titanatemore » (PZT) and lithium niobate, relaxorferroelectrics, as well as more “exotic” ferroelectric oxides such as hafnia, ferroelectric biological matter, and multiferroic materials. Technique-oriented contributions include papers on the coupling of PFM with other characterization methods such as x-ray diffraction (XRD) and superconducting quantum interface device (SQUID), in addition to considerations on the open questions on the electromechanical response in biased scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques, including the effects of the laser spot placement on the readout cantilever displacement, the influence of the tip on the creation of the domain shapes, and the impact of ionic and electronic dynamics on the observed nanoscale hysteretic phenomena.« less

Penetration of topical, oral, and combined administered ofloxacin into the subretinal fluid

PubMed Central

Cekic, O.; Batman, C.; Yasar, U.; Totan, Y.; Basci, N.; Bozkurt, A.; Zilelioglu, O.; Kayaalp, S

1999-01-01

AIMS—To assess the subretinal fluid (SRF) levels of ofloxacin following topical, oral or combined administration.
METHODS—31 patients undergoing conventional retinal reattachment surgery were randomly assigned to three groups. Nine patients received topical ofloxacin, 11 patients received oral ofloxacin, and the other 11 patients received combined administration. Collected SRF samples were analysed for drug level by using high performance liquid chromatography.
RESULTS—SRF drug levels after oral and combined administration were significantly higher than that after topical administration (p=0.0002 and p=0.0002, respectively) while there was no significant difference between oral and combined administration (p=0.0844).
CONCLUSIONS—Ocular bioavailability of ofloxacin in SRF after oral and combined administration is equivalent. The addition of oral ofloxacin to topical therapy increased drug SRF penetration sixfold.

 PMID:10502583

Report of a Meeting on Contemporary Topics in Zebrafish Husbandry and Care

PubMed Central

Osborne, Nikki; Paull, Gregory; Grierson, Adam; Dunford, Karen; Busch-Nentwich, Elisabeth M.; Sneddon, Lynne U.; Wren, Natalie; Higgins, Joe

2016-01-01

Abstract A meeting on Contemporary Topics in Zebrafish Husbandry and Care was held in the United Kingdom in 2014, with the aim of providing a discussion forum for researchers, animal technologists, and veterinarians from academia and industry to share good practice and exchange ideas. Presentation topics included protocols for optimal larval rearing, implementing the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement) in large-scale colony management, and environmental enrichment. The audience also participated in a survey of current practice relating to practical husbandry, cryopreservation, and the provision of enrichment. PMID:27537782

Exploring the science of thinking independently together: Faraday Discussion Volume 204 - Complex Molecular Surfaces and Interfaces, Sheffield, UK, July 2017.

PubMed

Samperi, M; Hirsch, B E; Diaz Fernandez, Y A

2017-11-23

The 2017 Faraday Discussion on Complex Molecular Surfaces and Interfaces brought together theoreticians and experimentalists from both physical and chemical backgrounds to discuss the relevant applied and fundamental research topics within the broader field of chemical surface analysis and characterization. Main discussion topics from the meeting included the importance of "disordered" two-dimensional (2D) molecular structures and the utility of kinetically trapped states. An emerging need for new experimental tools to address dynamics and kinetic pathways involved in self-assembled systems, as well as the future prospects and current limitations of in silico studies were also discussed. The following article provides a brief overview of the work presented and the challenges discussed during the meeting.

Consumer involvement in topic and outcome selection in the development of clinical practice guidelines.

PubMed

Tong, Allison; Lopez-Vargas, Pamela; Howell, Martin; Phoon, Richard; Johnson, David; Campbell, Denise; Walker, Rowan G; Craig, Jonathan C

2012-12-01

Consumer involvement in guideline development is advocated, but minimal participation, such as a nominated consumer representative on a guideline working group, can inhibit their decision-making power and contribution. Little is known about how to involve consumers more effectively in guideline development. To describe a targeted approach for involving consumers actively in guideline development, by focusing on topic and outcome selection, and to discuss the impact on content and structure of the final guideline. Descriptive study. Patients and carers (n = 24) from a tertiary hospital in Sydney attended three structured peer-facilitated workshops to complete group-based exercises on topic and outcome selection for guidelines for early stage chronic kidney disease. These workshops were run in parallel with the guideline-writing group. For each exercise, participants formed small groups and facilitated their own discussion, recorded their responses and presented them to the wider group. The topics and outcomes identified were fed back to the guideline writers. The participants actively engaged in the workshop discussions and articulated topics and outcomes they perceived should be included in clinical guidelines. Four main changes to guideline-related outputs were observed. A new guideline subtopic was introduced, guidelines were consumer-endorsed, guideline recommendations and suggestions for clinical care were augmented with consumer-focused issues, and plain English guidelines were developed. Consumer workshops in parallel and feeding into guideline development can be a feasible and effective approach for active consumer contribution. This process can inform the development of both consumer-focused guidelines for clinicians and specific versions for consumers. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Use of Topical Tacrolimus and Topical Pimecrolimus in Four European Countries: A Multicentre Database Cohort Study.

PubMed

Kuiper, Josephina G; van Herk-Sukel, Myrthe P P; Castellsague, Jordi; Pottegård, Anton; Berglind, Ingegärd Anveden; Dedman, Daniel; Gutierrez, Lia; Calingaert, Brian; Hallas, Jesper; Sundström, Anders; Gallagher, Arlene M; Kaye, James A; Pardo, Carolina; Rothman, Kenneth J; Perez-Gutthann, Susana

2018-05-07

Despite the concerns about a potential increased risk of skin cancer and lymphoma with the use of topical tacrolimus and pimecrolimus, no population-based studies have given an overview of the use of these drugs in Europe. To assess the use of topical tacrolimus and pimecrolimus in children and adults in Europe. Multicentre database cohort study comprising data from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and the UK. We analysed users of topical tacrolimus and pimecrolimus starting from the date of first availability (between 2002 and 2003) or start establishment of the prescription database in Sweden (2006) through 2011. Use was assessed separately for children (≤ 18 years) and adults. 32,052 children and 104,902 adults were treated with topical tacrolimus, and 32,125 children and 58,280 adults were treated with topical pimecrolimus. The number of users increased rapidly after first availability, especially for topical tacrolimus. Topical tacrolimus was more frequently used in all countries except Denmark. For both drugs, there was a decrease in users after 2004 in the Netherlands and Denmark and after 2005 in the UK, especially among children. This decrease was largest in Denmark. The decrease in the number of users was temporary for topical tacrolimus, while use remained relatively low for topical pimecrolimus. The number of topical tacrolimus and pimecrolimus users increased rapidly after regulatory approval. A transient reduction in topical tacrolimus use and a persistent reduction in topical pimecrolimus use was seen after 2004 in the Netherlands and Denmark and after 2005 in the UK.

Beyond the Cell: Using Multiscalar Topics to Bring Interdisciplinarity into Undergraduate Cellular Biology Courses

PubMed Central

Weber, Carolyn F.

2016-01-01

Western science has grown increasingly reductionistic and, in parallel, the undergraduate life sciences curriculum has become disciplinarily fragmented. While reductionistic approaches have led to landmark discoveries, many of the most exciting scientific advances in the late 20th century have occurred at disciplinary interfaces; work at these interfaces is necessary to manage the world’s looming problems, particularly those that are rooted in cellular-level processes but have ecosystem- and even global-scale ramifications (e.g., nonsustainable agriculture, emerging infectious diseases). Managing such problems requires comprehending whole scenarios and their emergent properties as sums of their multiple facets and complex interrelationships, which usually integrate several disciplines across multiple scales (e.g., time, organization, space). This essay discusses bringing interdisciplinarity into undergraduate cellular biology courses through the use of multiscalar topics. Discussing how cellular-level processes impact large-scale phenomena makes them relevant to everyday life and unites diverse disciplines (e.g., sociology, cell biology, physics) as facets of a single system or problem, emphasizing their connections to core concepts in biology. I provide specific examples of multiscalar topics and discuss preliminary evidence that using such topics may increase students’ understanding of the cell’s position within an ecosystem and how cellular biology interfaces with other disciplines. PMID:27146162

Preliminary stop of the TOPical Imiquimod treatment of high-grade Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (TOPIC) trial.

PubMed

Koeneman, M M; Kruse, A J; Kooreman, L F S; Zur Hausen, A; Hopman, A H N; Sep, S J S; Van Gorp, T; Slangen, B F M; van Beekhuizen, H J; van de Sande, A J M; Gerestein, C G; Nijman, H W; Kruitwagen, R F P M

2017-02-07

The "TOPical Imiquimod treatment of high-grade Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia" (TOPIC) trial was stopped preliminary, due to lagging inclusions. This study aimed to evaluate the treatment efficacy and clinical applicability of imiquimod 5% cream in high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). The lagging inclusions were mainly due to a strong patient preference for either of the two treatment modalities. This prompted us to initiate a new study on the same subject, with a non-randomized, open-label design: the 'TOPical Imiquimod treatment of high-grade Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (TOPIC)-3' study. Original TOPIC-trial: Medical Ethics Committee approval number METC13231; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02329171, 22 December 2014. TOPIC-3 study: Medical Ethics Committee approval number METC162025; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02917746, 16 September 2016.

Tactile friction of topical formulations.

PubMed

Skedung, L; Buraczewska-Norin, I; Dawood, N; Rutland, M W; Ringstad, L

2016-02-01

The tactile perception is essential for all types of topical formulations (cosmetic, pharmaceutical, medical device) and the possibility to predict the sensorial response by using instrumental methods instead of sensory testing would save time and cost at an early stage product development. Here, we report on an instrumental evaluation method using tactile friction measurements to estimate perceptual attributes of topical formulations. Friction was measured between an index finger and an artificial skin substrate after application of formulations using a force sensor. Both model formulations of liquid crystalline phase structures with significantly different tactile properties, as well as commercial pharmaceutical moisturizing creams being more tactile-similar, were investigated. Friction coefficients were calculated as the ratio of the friction force to the applied load. The structures of the model formulations and phase transitions as a result of water evaporation were identified using optical microscopy. The friction device could distinguish friction coefficients between the phase structures, as well as the commercial creams after spreading and absorption into the substrate. In addition, phase transitions resulting in alterations in the feel of the formulations could be detected. A correlation was established between skin hydration and friction coefficient, where hydrated skin gave rise to higher friction. Also a link between skin smoothening and finger friction was established for the commercial moisturizing creams, although further investigations are needed to analyse this and correlations with other sensorial attributes in more detail. The present investigation shows that tactile friction measurements have potential as an alternative or complement in the evaluation of perception of topical formulations. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

[Crusted scabies induced by topical corticosteroids: A case report].

PubMed

Bilan, P; Colin-Gorski, A-M; Chapelon, E; Sigal, M-L; Mahé, E

2015-12-01

The frequency of scabies is increasing in France. Crusted (or Norwegian) scabies is a very contagious form of scabies because of the huge number of mites in the skin. It is observed in patients suffering from immunodepression, motor or sensory deficiency, or mental retardation. The clinical presentation, except for the classic manifestation of scabies, is characterized by crusted lesions. Treatment is not easy and requires hospitalization. Topical corticosteroids are frequently used for children's dermatological diseases. Their long-term and inappropriate application in an infested scabies child can induce crusted scabies. We report on a case of an 8-year-old boy who developed crusted scabies induced by topical corticosteroid application. We discuss the therapeutic aspects of this severe form of scabies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

The Effectiveness of Guided Inquiry Learning for Comparison Topics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asnidar; Khabibah, S.; Sulaiman, R.

2018-01-01

This research aims at producing a good quality learning device using guided inquiry for comparison topics and describing the effectiveness of guided inquiry learning for comparison topics. This research is a developmental research using 4-D model. The result is learning device consisting of lesson plan, student’s worksheet, and achievement test. The subjects of the study were class VII students, each of which has 46 students. Based on the result in the experimental class, the learning device using guided inquiry for comparison topics has good quality. The learning device has met the valid, practical, and effective aspects. The result, especially in the implementation class, showed that the learning process with guided inquiry has fulfilled the effectiveness indicators. The ability of the teacher to manage the learning process has fulfilled the criteria good. In addition, the students’ activity has fulfilled the criteria of, at least, good. Moreover, the students’ responses to the learning device and the learning activities were positive, and the students were able to complete the classical learning. Based on the result of this research, it is expected that the learning device resulted can be used as an alternative learning device for teachers in implementing mathematic learning for comparison topics.

Multiple superficial basal cell carcinomata--topical imiquimod versus curette and cryotherapy.

PubMed

Dixon, Anthony J

2005-01-01

Superficial basal cell carcinoma can be successfully managed by means other than surgical excision. Nonexcisional approaches include topical imiquimod, and curette and cryotherapy (C&C). This article discusses the management of an insulin dependent diabetic man aged 52 years presenting with 17 torso basal cell carcinomas (BCCs); mostly superficial BCCs (SBCCs). Half were treated with topical imiquimod. The remaining lesions were treated with curette and cryotherapy. All lesions resolved with proven histologic clearance. The patient considered C&C caused him less discomfort and disruption. He developed a late secondary infection in some sites treated with imiquimod. At 12 months there was no evidence of recurrence though new nodular BCCs and SBCCs had developed elsewhere on his upper torso. He has elected to have future SBCCs managed with C&C. While excisional surgery remains the benchmark management for nonmelanoma skin cancer, topical imiquimod and C&C are important options for treating SBCCs.

Regulatory Information By Topic

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA develops and enforces regulations that span many environmental topics, from acid rain reduction to wetlands restoration. Each topic listed below may include related laws and regulations, compliance enforcement information, policies guidance

Core continuing professional development (CPD) topics for the European dentist.

PubMed

Bailey, S; Bullock, A; Cowpe, J; Barnes, E; Thomas, H; Thomas, R; Kavadella, A; Kossioni, A; Karaharju-Suvanto, T; Suomalainen, K; Kersten, H; Povel, E; Giles, M; Walmsley, A D; Soboleva, U; Liepa, A; Akota, I

2013-05-01

In the context of free movement, EU-citizens need assurance that dental practitioners providing their care have a degree/license to practice that meets EU-standards and that they maintain their knowledge and skills through ongoing education. One aim of the 'DentCPD' project (HYPERLINK 'http://www.dentcpd.org' www.dentcpd.org) was to identify and agree essential CPD requirements for EU dentists. This paper reports the consensus process and outcomes. Agreement on core components of CPD was achieved through a three stage process: an online survey of dental educators' (n = 143) views on compulsory topics; a paper-based questionnaire to practitioners (n = 411); leading to a proposal discussed at the Association for Dental Education (ADEE) 2011 Lifelong Learning special interest group (SIG). From the online survey and practitioner questionnaire, high levels of agreement were achieved for medical emergencies (89%), infection control (79%) and the medically compromised patient (71%). The SIG (34 attendees from 16 countries) concluded that these three CPD topics plus radiation protection should be core-compulsory and three CPD topics should be core-recommended (health and safety, pain management, and safeguarding children & vulnerable adults). They also agreed that the teaching of all topics should be underpinned by evidence-based dentistry. Building four core topics into CPD requirements and making quality-approved education and training available will ensure that all dentists have up-to-date knowledge and skills in topic areas of direct relevance to patient safety. In turn, this will contribute to patients having access to comparably high standards of oral health care across Europe. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Antimicrobial activity of topical anaesthetic preparations.

PubMed Central

Badenoch, P R; Coster, D J

1982-01-01

Eight commercial topical anaesthetic preparations were tested for their ability to inhibit microbial growth in vitro by incubating serial dilutions with each of 4 micro-organisms. In addition corneas of mice were infected with Staphylococcus aureus, and the effect of the anaesthetics on isolation rates of bacteria was investigated. The preparations were shown to have a wide range of antimicrobial activity, correlating both with the active agents and the preservatives. We suggest that some preparations are unsuitable for use prior to collection of specimens from human corneal ulcers. PMID:6805500

Death Discussion in Science Read-Alouds: Cognitive, Sociolinguistic, and Moral Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oliveira, Alandeom W.; Reis, Giuliano; Chaize, Daniel O.; Snyder, Michele A.

2014-01-01

Little research has been conducted on how to address the complex topic of death when teaching science to children. The present paper addresses this issue by examining how three elementary teachers discuss the death of wild animals during science read-aloud sessions. Our findings reveal the variety of ways in which nonhuman death can be…

REVIEWS OF TOPICAL PROBLEMS: Population synthesis in astrophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popov, S. B.; Prokhorov, M. E.

2007-11-01

Population synthesis is a method for numerical simulation of the population of objects with a complex evolution. This method is widely used in astrophysics. We consider its main applications to studying astronomical objects. Examples of modeling evolution are given for populations of close binaries and isolated neutron stars. The application of the method to studying active galactic nuclei and the integral spectral characteristics of galaxies is briefly discussed. An extensive bibliography on all the topics covered is provided.

Analyzing the field of bioinformatics with the multi-faceted topic modeling technique.

PubMed

Heo, Go Eun; Kang, Keun Young; Song, Min; Lee, Jeong-Hoon

2017-05-31

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field at the intersection of molecular biology and computing technology. To characterize the field as convergent domain, researchers have used bibliometrics, augmented with text-mining techniques for content analysis. In previous studies, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was the most representative topic modeling technique for identifying topic structure of subject areas. However, as opposed to revealing the topic structure in relation to metadata such as authors, publication date, and journals, LDA only displays the simple topic structure. In this paper, we adopt the Tang et al.'s Author-Conference-Topic (ACT) model to study the field of bioinformatics from the perspective of keyphrases, authors, and journals. The ACT model is capable of incorporating the paper, author, and conference into the topic distribution simultaneously. To obtain more meaningful results, we use journals and keyphrases instead of conferences and bag-of-words.. For analysis, we use PubMed to collected forty-six bioinformatics journals from the MEDLINE database. We conducted time series topic analysis over four periods from 1996 to 2015 to further examine the interdisciplinary nature of bioinformatics. We analyze the ACT Model results in each period. Additionally, for further integrated analysis, we conduct a time series analysis among the top-ranked keyphrases, journals, and authors according to their frequency. We also examine the patterns in the top journals by simultaneously identifying the topical probability in each period, as well as the top authors and keyphrases. The results indicate that in recent years diversified topics have become more prevalent and convergent topics have become more clearly represented. The results of our analysis implies that overtime the field of bioinformatics becomes more interdisciplinary where there is a steady increase in peripheral fields such as conceptual, mathematical, and system biology. These results are

Differential Topic Models.

PubMed

Chen, Changyou; Buntine, Wray; Ding, Nan; Xie, Lexing; Du, Lan

2015-02-01

In applications we may want to compare different document collections: they could have shared content but also different and unique aspects in particular collections. This task has been called comparative text mining or cross-collection modeling. We present a differential topic model for this application that models both topic differences and similarities. For this we use hierarchical Bayesian nonparametric models. Moreover, we found it was important to properly model power-law phenomena in topic-word distributions and thus we used the full Pitman-Yor process rather than just a Dirichlet process. Furthermore, we propose the transformed Pitman-Yor process (TPYP) to incorporate prior knowledge such as vocabulary variations in different collections into the model. To deal with the non-conjugate issue between model prior and likelihood in the TPYP, we thus propose an efficient sampling algorithm using a data augmentation technique based on the multinomial theorem. Experimental results show the model discovers interesting aspects of different collections. We also show the proposed MCMC based algorithm achieves a dramatically reduced test perplexity compared to some existing topic models. Finally, we show our model outperforms the state-of-the-art for document classification/ideology prediction on a number of text collections.

Topic Model for Graph Mining.

PubMed

Xuan, Junyu; Lu, Jie; Zhang, Guangquan; Luo, Xiangfeng

2015-12-01

Graph mining has been a popular research area because of its numerous application scenarios. Many unstructured and structured data can be represented as graphs, such as, documents, chemical molecular structures, and images. However, an issue in relation to current research on graphs is that they cannot adequately discover the topics hidden in graph-structured data which can be beneficial for both the unsupervised learning and supervised learning of the graphs. Although topic models have proved to be very successful in discovering latent topics, the standard topic models cannot be directly applied to graph-structured data due to the "bag-of-word" assumption. In this paper, an innovative graph topic model (GTM) is proposed to address this issue, which uses Bernoulli distributions to model the edges between nodes in a graph. It can, therefore, make the edges in a graph contribute to latent topic discovery and further improve the accuracy of the supervised and unsupervised learning of graphs. The experimental results on two different types of graph datasets show that the proposed GTM outperforms the latent Dirichlet allocation on classification by using the unveiled topics of these two models to represent graphs.

Using Social Media Data to Understand the Impact of Promotional Information on Laypeople’s Discussions: A Case Study of Lynch Syndrome

PubMed Central

Salloum, Ramzi G; Guo, Yi; Wang, Mo; Prosperi, Mattia; Zhang, Hansi; Du, Xinsong; Ramirez-Diaz, Laura J; He, Zhe

2017-01-01

Background Social media is being used by various stakeholders among pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, health care organizations, professionals, and news media as a way of engaging audiences to raise disease awareness and ultimately to improve public health. Nevertheless, it is unclear what effects this health information has on laypeople. Objective This study aimed to provide a detailed examination of how promotional health information related to Lynch syndrome impacts laypeople’s discussions on a social media platform (Twitter) in terms of topic awareness and attitudes. Methods We used topic modeling and sentiment analysis techniques on Lynch syndrome–related tweets to answer the following research questions (RQs): (1) what are the most discussed topics in Lynch syndrome–related tweets?; (2) how promotional Lynch syndrome–related information on Twitter affects laypeople’s discussions?; and (3) what impact do the Lynch syndrome awareness activities in the Colon Cancer Awareness Month and Lynch Syndrome Awareness Day have on laypeople’s discussions and their attitudes? In particular, we used a set of keywords to collect Lynch syndrome–related tweets from October 26, 2016 to August 11, 2017 (289 days) through the Twitter public search application programming interface (API). We experimented with two different classification methods to categorize tweets into the following three classes: (1) irrelevant, (2) promotional health information, and (3) laypeople’s discussions. We applied a topic modeling method to discover the themes in these Lynch syndrome–related tweets and conducted sentiment analysis on each layperson’s tweet to gauge the writer’s attitude (ie, positive, negative, and neutral) toward Lynch syndrome. The topic modeling and sentiment analysis results were elaborated to answer the three RQs. Results Of all tweets (N=16,667), 87.38% (14,564/16,667) were related to Lynch syndrome. Of the Lynch syndrome–related tweets, 81

Additive Effect of Oral Steroid with Topical Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug for Preventing Cystoid Macular Edema after Cataract Surgery in Patients with Epiretinal Membrane

PubMed Central

Kim, Seonghwan; Wee, Won Ryang

2017-01-01

Purpose To investigate the additive effect of oral steroid with topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) on cystoid macular edema (CME) in patients with epiretinal membrane (ERM) after cataract surgery. Methods Medical records of subjects who underwent uneventful cataract surgery (n = 1,349) were retrospectively reviewed; among these patients, those with pre-existing ERM (n = 81) were included. Patients were divided into two groups: one group had postoperative administration of oral steroid for 1 week (n = 45) and the other group did not have oral steroid administration (n = 36). Changes in macular thickness and incidence of CME were compared in both groups. Topical NSAIDs were administered in both groups for 1 month postoperatively. Definite CME and probable CME were defined by changes in retinal contour with or without cystoid changes. Change in central macular thickness of more than three standard deviations (≥90.17 µm) was defined as possible CME. Macular thickness was measured at 1 month after the operation by optical coherence tomography. Results The incidence of definite, probable, and possible CME were 2.22%, 4.44%, and 8.89% with the use of steroid and 2.78%, 5.56%, and 8.33% without steroid, respectively (p = 0.694, p = 0.603, and p = 0.625), and regardless of treatment group, the incidences in these patients were higher compared to incidences in whole subjects (1.26%, 2.30%, and 4.32%; p = 0.048, p = 0.032, and p = 0.038, respectively). The differences in macular thickness were not statistically different between the two groups. Average changes of central foveal thickness in 3 mm and 6 mm zone were 29.29 µm, 35.93 µm, and 38.02 µm with the use of steroid and 32.25 µm, 44.08 µm, and 45.39 µm without steroid (p = 0.747, p = 0.148, and p = 0.077, respectively). Conclusions This study suggests that administration of oral steroid may not have a synergistic effect in reduction of CME and retinal thickness in patients with pre-existing ERM

The Hampstead Clinic at work. Discussions in the Diagnostic Profile Research Group.

PubMed

Koch, Ehud

2012-01-01

Minutes of the Hampstead Clinic's Diagnostic Profile Research Group during a fifteen-month period (1964-1965) are reviewed and discussed. A wide range of topics were considered and discussed, with a special focus on the affective life, object relations, and ego function of atypical children in comparison to the early ego functions and differentiation of normal and neurotic children. These lively clinical and theoretical discussions and their implications for therapeutic work with a wide range of children, demonstrate the multifaceted leadership and contributions of Anna Freud as teacher, clinician, and thinker, and of the Hampstead Clinic as a major center for psychoanalytic studies.

Comparing the Document Representations of Two IR-Systems: CLARIT and TOPIC.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paijmans, Hans

1993-01-01

Compares two information retrieval systems, CLARIT and TOPIC, in terms of assigned versus derived and precoordinate versus postcoordinate indexing. Models of information retrieval systems are discussed, and a test of the systems using a demonstration database of full-text articles from the "Wall Street Journal" is described. (Contains 21…

Topical metronidazole can reduce pain after surgery and pain on defecation in postoperative hemorrhoidectomy.

PubMed

Ala, Shahram; Saeedi, Majid; Eshghi, Fariborz; Mirzabeygi, Parastou

2008-02-01

Topical metronidazole (10 percent) has been previously demonstrated to decrease postoperative pain after hemorrhoidectomy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of topical metronidazole (10 percent) in reducing postoperative and after-defecation pain of hemorrhoidectomy. A double-blind, randomized trial was conducted to compare posthemorrhoidectomy pain with use of topical metronidazole (10 percent) vs. placebo carrier, applied to surgical site. Forty-seven patients were randomly allocated to receive metronidazole (n=25) or placebo (n=22). Pain was assessed using a visual analog scale preoperatively and on postoperative hours 6 and 12 and at days 1, 2, 7, and 14. The use of narcotic, additional analgesics, and complications were recorded. (Pain scores were calculated and compared with baseline values and control group (t test, SPSS ver.10). Patients in the topical metronidazole group had significantly less postoperative pain than those in the placebo group up to day 14 (P additional analgesics postoperatively on days 2 and 7 (P topical 10 percent metronidazole significantly reduce posthemorrhoidectomy discomfort, and postoperative defecation pain is reduced compared with that of the placebo control group.

Management of Psoriasis with a XemaTop Topical Compounded Formula: A Case Report.

PubMed

Jones, Nat; Carvalho, Maria; Branvold-Herr, Andrea

2017-01-01

Skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema negatively impact the patient's quality of life; the primary goal of topical treatments is to minimize the disease-specific symptoms. This case report discusses the management of two refractory psoriasis skin lesions in an adult male using a topical compounded formula. The psoriasis symptoms were assessed quantitatively using two validated research instruments, the Psoriasis Symptom Inventory, and an adapted Numeric Rating Scale. A qualitative assessment was also performed by evaluating the digital photographs taken by the patient during the course of treatment. The compounded formula containing zinc pyrithione, clobetasol propionate, and cyanocobalamin in the Professional Compounding Centers of America's proprietary base PCCA XemaTop, applied topically for three weeks, significantly reduced the patient's self-reported psoriasis symptoms and improved his overall condition by 81.2%. This successful case report is important evidence for healthcare professionals when considering new, innovative topical compounded formulas for managing skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. Copyright© by International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding, Inc.

Primary Level Assessment for IASA Title I: A Call for Discussion. Series on Standards and Assessments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horm-Wingerd, Diane M.; Winter, Phoebe C.; Plofchan, Paula

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to review appropriate assessment techniques in prekindergarten through grade 3 settings and to serve as a catalyst for further discussion and work on the topic of developmentally appropriate accountability assessment. The discussion is based on the thesis that developmentally appropriate assessment and…

Highlights from Faraday Discussion FDSERS17: Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering - SERS, Glasgow, UK, 30th August-1st September 2017.

PubMed

Di Martino, G; Fleming, H; Kamp, M; Lussier, F

2017-11-28

The 2017 Faraday Discussion on Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) attracted more than a hundred delegates from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and experience levels, bringing together leading scientists involved in the long living field of SERS. The meeting gave an overview of the liveliness of the topic, characterised by open questions and fascinating science still to discover. In the following, we discuss the topics covered during this meeting and briefly highlight the content of each presentation.

Geographical topic learning for social images with a deep neural network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Jiangfan; Xu, Xin

2017-03-01

The use of geographical tagging in social-media images is becoming a part of image metadata and a great interest for geographical information science. It is well recognized that geographical topic learning is crucial for geographical annotation. Existing methods usually exploit geographical characteristics using image preprocessing, pixel-based classification, and feature recognition. How to effectively exploit the high-level semantic feature and underlying correlation among different types of contents is a crucial task for geographical topic learning. Deep learning (DL) has recently demonstrated robust capabilities for image tagging and has been introduced into geoscience. It extracts high-level features computed from a whole image component, where the cluttered background may dominate spatial features in the deep representation. Therefore, a method of spatial-attentional DL for geographical topic learning is provided and we can regard it as a special case of DL combined with various deep networks and tuning tricks. Results demonstrated that the method is discriminative for different types of geographical topic learning. In addition, it outperforms other sequential processing models in a tagging task for a geographical image dataset.

Mental Mechanisms for Topics Identification

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Topics identification (TI) is the process that consists in determining the main themes present in natural language documents. The current TI modeling paradigm aims at acquiring semantic information from statistic properties of large text datasets. We investigate the mental mechanisms responsible for the identification of topics in a single document given existing knowledge. Our main hypothesis is that topics are the result of accumulated neural activation of loosely organized information stored in long-term memory (LTM). We experimentally tested our hypothesis with a computational model that simulates LTM activation. The model assumes activation decay as an unavoidable phenomenon originating from the bioelectric nature of neural systems. Since decay should negatively affect the quality of topics, the model predicts the presence of short-term memory (STM) to keep the focus of attention on a few words, with the expected outcome of restoring quality to a baseline level. Our experiments measured topics quality of over 300 documents with various decay rates and STM capacity. Our results showed that accumulated activation of loosely organized information was an effective mental computational commodity to identify topics. It was furthermore confirmed that rapid decay is detrimental to topics quality but that limited capacity STM restores quality to a baseline level, even exceeding it slightly. PMID:24744775

Special topics in infrared interferometry. [Michelson interferometer development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanel, R. A.

1985-01-01

Topics in IR interferometry related to the development of a Michelson interferometer are treated. The selection and reading of the signal from the detector to the analog to digital converter is explained. The requirements for the Michelson interferometer advance speed are deduced. The effects of intensity modulation on the interferogram are discussed. Wavelength and intensity calibration of the interferometer are explained. Noise sources (Nyquist or Johnson noise, phonon noise), definitions of measuring methods of noise, and noise measurements are presented.

Pediatric Residents' Responses that Discourage Discussion of Psychosocial Problems in Primary Care

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wissow, Lawrence S.; Larson, Susan; Anderson, Jada; Hadjiisky, Elizabeth

2005-01-01

Objective: Studies spanning nearly 4 decades demonstrate that doctors ignore or dismiss many patient bids for discussion of psychosocial topics. We sought to understand characteristics of doctors, patients, and visits in which this occurs. Methods: Reanalysis of 167 audiotapes from 2 studies of parent-doctor communication in a pediatric residents'…

Topical Botanical Agents for the Treatment of Psoriasis: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Farahnik, Benjamin; Sharma, Divya; Alban, Joseph; Sivamani, Raja K

2017-08-01

Patients with psoriasis often enquire about the use of numerous botanical therapeutics. It is important for dermatologists to be aware of the current evidence regarding these agents. We conducted a systematic literature search using the PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases for controlled and uncontrolled clinical trials that assessed the use of topical botanical therapeutics for psoriasis. The search included the following keywords: 'psoriasis' and 'plant' or 'herbal' or 'botanical'. We also reviewed citations within articles to identify additional relevant sources. We then further refined the results by route of administration and the topical botanical agents are reviewed herein. A total of 27 controlled and uncontrolled clinical trials addressing the use of topical botanical agents for psoriasis were assessed in this review. We found that the most highly studied and most efficacious topical botanical therapeutics were Mahonia aquifolium, indigo naturalis, aloe vera, and, to a lesser degree, capsaicin. The most commonly reported adverse effects were local skin irritation, erythema, pruritus, burning, and pain. However, the overall evidence for these therapeutics remains limited in quantity and quality. The literature addresses a large number of studies in regard to botanicals for the treatment of psoriasis. While most agents appear to be safe, further research is necessary before topical botanical agents can be consistently recommended to patients.

A Thematic Analysis of Online Discussion Boards for Brachial Plexus Injury.

PubMed

Morris, Marie T; Daluiski, Aaron; Dy, Christopher J

2016-08-01

Patients with brachial plexus injury (BPI) and their family members contribute to Internet discussion groups dedicated to BPI. We hypothesized that a thematic analysis of posts from BPI Internet discussion groups would reveal common themes related to the BPI patient experience, providing topics for patient education and counseling. Internet discussion boards were identified using the search term "brachial plexus injury support group" in Google, Bing, and Yahoo! search engines. Two discussion boards had substantially more posts than other Web sites and were chosen for analyses. Posts from January 1, 2015, through January 1, 2016, were examined. Using an iterative and established process, 2 investigators (M.T.M. and C.J.D) independently analyzed each post using thematic analysis in 3 steps (open coding, axial coding, and selective coding) to determine common themes. In this process, each post was reviewed 3 times. A total of 328 posts from the 2 leading discussion boards were analyzed. Investigators reached a consensus on themes for all posts. One central theme focused on emotional aspects of BPI. Four other central themes regarding information support were identified: BPI disease, BPI treatment, recovery after BPI treatment, and process of seeking care for BPI. Examination of posts on Internet support groups for BPI revealed recurring concerns, questions, and opinions of patients and their family members. The most common themes related to disease information, treatment, recovery, and the emotional element of BPI. These findings provide a helpful starting point in refining topics for patient education and support that are targeted on patients' interests and concerns. Copyright © 2016 American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Additional EIPC Study Analysis. Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hadley, Stanton W; Gotham, Douglas J.; Luciani, Ralph L.

Between 2010 and 2012 the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) conducted a major long-term resource and transmission study of the Eastern Interconnection (EI). With guidance from a Stakeholder Steering Committee (SSC) that included representatives from the Eastern Interconnection States Planning Council (EISPC) among others, the project was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 involved a long-term capacity expansion analysis that involved creation of eight major futures plus 72 sensitivities. Three scenarios were selected for more extensive transmission- focused evaluation in Phase 2. Five power flow analyses, nine production cost model runs (including six sensitivities), and three capital cost estimations weremore » developed during this second phase. The results from Phase 1 and 2 provided a wealth of data that could be examined further to address energy-related questions. A list of 14 topics was developed for further analysis. This paper brings together the earlier interim reports of the first 13 topics plus one additional topic into a single final report.« less

College Students' Health Information Activities on Facebook: Investigating the Impacts of Health Topic Sensitivity, Information Sources, and Demographics.

PubMed

Syn, Sue Yeon; Kim, Sung Un

2016-07-01

College students tend to lack access to health information. Because social networking sites (SNSs) are popularly adopted by college students, SNSs are considered to be good media channels for college students to obtain health-related information. This study examines the factors that influence college students' health information-seeking and -sharing activities on Facebook. An online survey was distributed to college students between the ages of 18 and 29 to determine intentions pertaining to health information activities according to the factors identified for the study. The factors included both contextual factors (such as health topic sensitivity and health information sources) as well as user factors (such as demographics). Our findings showed that college students are willing to read and post health-related information on Facebook when the health topic is not sensitive. In addition, there are clear differences in preferences between professional sources and personal sources as health information sources. It was found that most user factors, except gender, have no influence on health information activities. The impacts of SNS contexts, awareness of information sources, types of interlocutors, and privacy concerns are further discussed.

A Critical Discussion of "The Ethical Presuppositions behind the Library Bill of Rights."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doyle, Tony

2002-01-01

Discussion of the Library Bill of Rights focuses on paternalism and the dangers of Internet filtering, in response to a previous article that advocated revision of the Bill of Rights. Topics include ethical presuppositions; censorship; philosophical foundations; access; social contract theory; and utilitarianism. (LRW)

Elucidating pharmacodynamic interaction of silver nanoparticle - topical deliverable antibiotics.

PubMed

Thirumurugan, G; Seshagiri Rao, J V L N; Dhanaraju, M D

2016-07-18

In order to exploit the potential benefits of antimicrobial combination therapy, we need a better understanding of the circumstances under which pharmacodynamic interactions expected. In this study, Pharmacodynamic interactions between silver nanoparticle (SNP) and topical antibiotics such as Cefazolin (CEF), Mupirocin (MUP), Gentamycin (GEN), Neomycin (NEO), Tetracycline (TET), Vancomycin (VAN) were investigated using the MIC test, Combination assay followed by Fractional Inhibitory concentration Index and Agar well diffusion method. SNP + MUP, SNP + NEO, SNP + VAN combinations showed Synergism (SN) and SNP + CEF, SNP + GEN, SNP + TET showed Partial synergism (PS) against Staphylococcus aureus. Four combinations (SNP + CEF, SNP + MUP, SNP + GEN, SNP + VAN) showed SN, SNP + TET showed PS and Indifferent effect (ID) were observed for SNP + NEO against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. SN was observed for SNP + CEF, SNP + GEN, SNP + NEO, SNP + TET and SNP + MUP showed ID, SNP + VAN showed PS against Escherichia coli. In addition, we elucidated the possible mechanism involved in the pharmacodynamic interaction between SNP-topical antibiotics by increased ROS level, membrane damage following protein release, K(+) leakage and biofilm inhibition. Thus, our findings support that conjugation of the SNP with topical antibiotics have great potential in the topical formulation when treating complex resistant bacterial infections and where there is a need of more concentration to kill pathogenic bacteria.

Elucidating pharmacodynamic interaction of silver nanoparticle - topical deliverable antibiotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thirumurugan, G.; Seshagiri Rao, J. V. L. N.; Dhanaraju, M. D.

2016-07-01

In order to exploit the potential benefits of antimicrobial combination therapy, we need a better understanding of the circumstances under which pharmacodynamic interactions expected. In this study, Pharmacodynamic interactions between silver nanoparticle (SNP) and topical antibiotics such as Cefazolin (CEF), Mupirocin (MUP), Gentamycin (GEN), Neomycin (NEO), Tetracycline (TET), Vancomycin (VAN) were investigated using the MIC test, Combination assay followed by Fractional Inhibitory concentration Index and Agar well diffusion method. SNP + MUP, SNP + NEO, SNP + VAN combinations showed Synergism (SN) and SNP + CEF, SNP + GEN, SNP + TET showed Partial synergism (PS) against Staphylococcus aureus. Four combinations (SNP + CEF, SNP + MUP, SNP + GEN, SNP + VAN) showed SN, SNP + TET showed PS and Indifferent effect (ID) were observed for SNP + NEO against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. SN was observed for SNP + CEF, SNP + GEN, SNP + NEO, SNP + TET and SNP + MUP showed ID, SNP + VAN showed PS against Escherichia coli. In addition, we elucidated the possible mechanism involved in the pharmacodynamic interaction between SNP-topical antibiotics by increased ROS level, membrane damage following protein release, K+ leakage and biofilm inhibition. Thus, our findings support that conjugation of the SNP with topical antibiotics have great potential in the topical formulation when treating complex resistant bacterial infections and where there is a need of more concentration to kill pathogenic bacteria.

Correlated Topic Vector for Scene Classification.

PubMed

Wei, Pengxu; Qin, Fei; Wan, Fang; Zhu, Yi; Jiao, Jianbin; Ye, Qixiang

2017-07-01

Scene images usually involve semantic correlations, particularly when considering large-scale image data sets. This paper proposes a novel generative image representation, correlated topic vector, to model such semantic correlations. Oriented from the correlated topic model, correlated topic vector intends to naturally utilize the correlations among topics, which are seldom considered in the conventional feature encoding, e.g., Fisher vector, but do exist in scene images. It is expected that the involvement of correlations can increase the discriminative capability of the learned generative model and consequently improve the recognition accuracy. Incorporated with the Fisher kernel method, correlated topic vector inherits the advantages of Fisher vector. The contributions to the topics of visual words have been further employed by incorporating the Fisher kernel framework to indicate the differences among scenes. Combined with the deep convolutional neural network (CNN) features and Gibbs sampling solution, correlated topic vector shows great potential when processing large-scale and complex scene image data sets. Experiments on two scene image data sets demonstrate that correlated topic vector improves significantly the deep CNN features, and outperforms existing Fisher kernel-based features.

Topical Treatment of Degenerative Knee Osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Meng, Zengdong; Huang, Rongzhong

2018-01-01

This article reviews topical management strategies for degenerative osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. A search of Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane library using MeSH terms including "topical," "treatment," "knee" and "osteoarthritis" was carried out. Original research and review articles on the effectiveness and safety, recommendations from international published guidelines and acceptability studies of topical preparations were included. Current topical treatments included for the management of knee OA include topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, capsaicin, salicylates and physical treatments such as hot or cold therapy. Current treatment guidelines recommend topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as an alternative and even first-line therapy for OA management, especially among elderly patients. Guidelines on other topical treatments vary, from recommendations against their use, to in favor as alternative or simultaneous therapy, especially for patients with contraindications to other analgesics. Although often well-tolerated and preferred by many patients, clinical care still lags in the adoption of topical treatments. Aspects of efficacy, safety and patient quality of life data require further research. Copyright © 2018 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Unscientific beliefs about scientific topics in nutrition.

PubMed

Brown, Andrew W; Ioannidis, John P A; Cope, Mark B; Bier, Dennis M; Allison, David B

2014-09-01

Humans interact with food daily. Such repeated exposure creates a widespread, superficial familiarity with nutrition. Personal familiarity with nutrition from individual and cultural perspectives may give rise to beliefs about food not grounded in scientific evidence. In this summary of the session entitled “Unscientific Beliefs about Scientific Topics in Nutrition,” we discuss accumulated work illustrating and quantifying potentially misleading practices in the conduct and, more so, reporting of nutrition science along with proposed approaches to amelioration. We begin by defining “unscientific beliefs” and from where such beliefs may come, followed by discussing how large bodies of nutritional epidemiologic observations not only create highly improbable patterns of association but implausible magnitudes of implied effect. Poor reporting practices, biases, and methodologic issues that have distorted scientific understandings of nutrition are presented, followed by potential influences of conflicts of interest that extend beyond financial considerations. We conclude with recommendations for improving the conduct, reporting, and communication of nutrition-related research to ground discussions in evidence rather than solely on beliefs.

Talking about history: discussions in a middle school inclusive classroom.

PubMed

Okolo, Cynthia M; Ferretti, Ralph P; MacArthur, Charles A

2007-01-01

In this study, we examined the nature of whole-class discussion and teachers' instruction during discussion about historical topics in one inclusive, middle-grade classroom. We videotaped and analyzed 4 lessons to determine the nature of discussion sequences, rates of participation, and instructional challenges encountered by the teacher and students. We triangulated our analysis of observational data with teacher interviews. The results showed high rates of student participation, with no differences between students with and without disabilities. The teacher initiated and controlled the discussion, and nearly all student responses were from teacher to student rather than from student to student. The teacher encountered three challenges in developing students' understanding, and we identify specific practices she used to address these challenges. Based on students' response to measures administered by project staff and on their scores on statewide tests, this teacher's practices seemed to be highly effective.

Unique topics and issues in rheumatology and clinical immunology.

PubMed

Selmi, Carlo

2014-08-01

Clinicians are facing unexpected issues in everyday practice, and these may become counterintuitive or challenging. Illustrative examples are provided by the hypersensitivity to universally used immunosuppressants such as corticosteroids or antibiotics such as beta-lactam. Secondly, additional issues are represented by the discovery of new pathogenetic mechanisms involved in rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis or other chronic inflammatory diseases, genomic susceptibility to enigmatic diseases such as giant cell arteritis, or the shared role of specific mediators such as semaphorins. Third, the therapeutic armamentarium has dramatically changed over the past decade following the introduction of biotechnological drugs, and new mechanisms are being proposed to reduce adverse events or increase the drug effectiveness, particularly on cardiovascular comorbidities. Finally, rare diseases continue to represent difficult cases, as for Cogan's syndrome, with limited literature available for clinical recommendations. For these reason, the present issue of Clinical Reviews in Allergy and Immunology is timely and dedicated to these and other unique topics in clinical immunology and allergy. The aim of this issue is thus to help clinicians involved in internal medicine as well as allergists and clinical immunologists while discussing new pathways that will prove important in the near future.

Talking Science: The research evidence on the use of small group discussions in science teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, Judith; Hogarth, Sylvia; Lubben, Fred; Campbell, Bob; Robinson, Alison

2010-01-01

This paper reports the findings of two systematic reviews of the use and effects of small group discussions in high school science teaching. Ninety-four studies were included in an overview (systematic map) of work in the area, and 24 studies formed the basis of the in-depth reviews. The reviews indicate that there is considerable diversity in the topics used to promote small group discussions. They also demonstrate that students often struggle to formulate and express coherent arguments, and demonstrate a low level of engagement with tasks. The reviews suggest that groups function more purposefully, and understanding improves most, when specifically constituted such that differing views are represented, when some form of training is provided for students on effective group work, and when help in structuring discussions is provided in the form of "cues". Single-sex groups function more purposefully than mixed-sex groups, though improvements in understanding are independent of gender composition of groups. Finally, the reviews demonstrate very clearly that, for small group discussions to be effective, teachers and students need to be given explicit teaching in the skills associated with the development of arguments and the characteristics associated with effective group discussions. In addition to the substantive findings, the paper also reports on key features of the methods employed to gather and analyse data. Of particular note are the two contrasting approaches to data analysis, one adopting a grounded theory approach and the other drawing on established methods of discourse analysis.

Discussion of alternatives, risks and benefits in pediatric acute care.

PubMed

Cox, Elizabeth D; Raaum, Sonja E

2008-07-01

Across adult healthcare, discussions of alternatives, risks and benefits vary in inclusiveness or are even absent. We examine these discussions and their associated factors in pediatric visits. Coders noted speaker and recipient for alternatives, risks and benefits from 98 videotaped visits. Outcomes included discussion of alternatives, risks or benefits (yes/no) and involvement of parent or child in discussions (active or passive). Bivariate techniques were used to relate visit factors to outcomes. Most visits included discussion of alternatives (58% of visits), risks (54%) and benefits (69%). Longer visits were more likely to include risk discussions. For alternatives, active parent/child involvement was more likely with college graduate parents; for risks active involvement was more likely with female and more experienced physicians. Parents and children raised risks more frequently than benefits, often focusing on disadvantages such as taste or frequency/duration of therapy. Most pediatric visits include alternatives, risks and benefits but parent/child involvement in raising these topics is limited. When parents or children initiate these discussions, they often mention risks salient to adherence. Future work could explore whether longer visits or interventions targeted for specific participants could foster such discussions.

TOPICAL REVIEW: Single-molecule experiments in biological physics: methods and applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ritort, F.

2006-08-01

I review single-molecule experiments (SMEs) in biological physics. Recent technological developments have provided the tools to design and build scientific instruments of high enough sensitivity and precision to manipulate and visualize individual molecules and measure microscopic forces. Using SMEs it is possible to manipulate molecules one at a time and measure distributions describing molecular properties, characterize the kinetics of biomolecular reactions and detect molecular intermediates. SMEs provide additional information about thermodynamics and kinetics of biomolecular processes. This complements information obtained in traditional bulk assays. In SMEs it is also possible to measure small energies and detect large Brownian deviations in biomolecular reactions, thereby offering new methods and systems to scrutinize the basic foundations of statistical mechanics. This review is written at a very introductory level, emphasizing the importance of SMEs to scientists interested in knowing the common playground of ideas and the interdisciplinary topics accessible by these techniques. The review discusses SMEs from an experimental perspective, first exposing the most common experimental methodologies and later presenting various molecular systems where such techniques have been applied. I briefly discuss experimental techniques such as atomic-force microscopy (AFM), laser optical tweezers (LOTs), magnetic tweezers (MTs), biomembrane force probes (BFPs) and single-molecule fluorescence (SMF). I then present several applications of SME to the study of nucleic acids (DNA, RNA and DNA condensation) and proteins (protein-protein interactions, protein folding and molecular motors). Finally, I discuss applications of SMEs to the study of the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of small systems and the experimental verification of fluctuation theorems. I conclude with a discussion of open questions and future perspectives.

Association between parent-adolescent communication about sex-related topics and HIV testing, United States. 2006-2013.

PubMed

Balaji, Alexandra B; Oraka, Emeka; Fasula, Amy M; Jayne, Paula E; Carry, Monique G; Raiford, Jerris L

2017-03-01

Adolescents need information about sex-related topics in order to reduce risk behavior and engage in healthy sexual decision-making. Parents have the potential to be an important source of this information. Using the 2006-2010 and 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth, we examined associations between parent-adolescent communication before age 18 about sex-related topics and HIV testing among respondents aged 18-24 that ever had sexual intercourse (women = 3893; men = 3359). Analyses showed that for both men and women, discussing how to prevent HIV/AIDS and how to use a condom with a parent before age 18 were positively associated with HIV testing. Among women only, discussions about methods of birth control, where to get birth control, and STDs were positively associated with HIV testing. Developing strategies and interventions to facilitate parent-adolescent communication about sex-related topics, particularly HIV prevention and condom use, may be important to increase HIV testing among young women and men.

Topical botulinum toxin.

PubMed

Collins, Ashley; Nasir, Adnan

2010-03-01

Nanotechnology is a rapidly growing discipline that capitalizes on the unique properties of matter engineered on the nanoscale. Vehicles incorporating nanotechnology have led to great strides in drug delivery, allowing for increased active ingredient stability, bioavailability, and site-specific targeting. Botulinum toxin has historically been used for the correction of neurological and neuromuscular disorders, such as torticollis, blepharospasm, and strabismus. Recent dermatological indications have been for the management of axillary hyperhydrosis and facial rhytides. Traditional methods of botulinum toxin delivery have been needle-based. These have been associated with increased pain and cost. Newer methods of botulinum toxin formulation have yielded topical preparations that are bioactive in small pilot clinical studies. While there are some risks associated with topical delivery, the refinement and standardization of delivery systems and techniques for the topical administration of botulinum toxin using nanotechnology is anticipated in the near future.

A study on the application of topic models to motif finding algorithms.

PubMed

Basha Gutierrez, Josep; Nakai, Kenta

2016-12-22

Topic models are statistical algorithms which try to discover the structure of a set of documents according to the abstract topics contained in them. Here we try to apply this approach to the discovery of the structure of the transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) contained in a set of biological sequences, which is a fundamental problem in molecular biology research for the understanding of transcriptional regulation. Here we present two methods that make use of topic models for motif finding. First, we developed an algorithm in which first a set of biological sequences are treated as text documents, and the k-mers contained in them as words, to then build a correlated topic model (CTM) and iteratively reduce its perplexity. We also used the perplexity measurement of CTMs to improve our previous algorithm based on a genetic algorithm and several statistical coefficients. The algorithms were tested with 56 data sets from four different species and compared to 14 other methods by the use of several coefficients both at nucleotide and site level. The results of our first approach showed a performance comparable to the other methods studied, especially at site level and in sensitivity scores, in which it scored better than any of the 14 existing tools. In the case of our previous algorithm, the new approach with the addition of the perplexity measurement clearly outperformed all of the other methods in sensitivity, both at nucleotide and site level, and in overall performance at site level. The statistics obtained show that the performance of a motif finding method based on the use of a CTM is satisfying enough to conclude that the application of topic models is a valid method for developing motif finding algorithms. Moreover, the addition of topic models to a previously developed method dramatically increased its performance, suggesting that this combined algorithm can be a useful tool to successfully predict motifs in different kinds of sets of DNA sequences.

Tweet if you want to be sustainable: a thematic analysis of a Twitter chat to discuss sustainability in nurse education.

PubMed

Richardson, Janet; Grose, Jane; Nelmes, Pam; Parra, Gema; Linares, Manuel

2016-05-01

To explore the concept of sustainability in nursing using social media as a vehicle for discussion on the topic. There is a need for an increased awareness among nurses of the issues that are crucial for the healthcare sector to prepare for climate change and contribute to sustainable development. However, topics about sustainability and climate change are not a requirement of nursing curricula in Europe; social media provides an opportunity to raise issues and promote discussion. A thematic analysis of a Twitter discussion. A Twitter discussion session hosted by @WeNurses took place on 24 March 2015 over 1 hour. Data were gathered via this online discussion hosted on Twitter, a social media platform. Following the discussion a thematic analysis of the posted Tweets was conducted. One hundred and nineteen people posted nine hundred and ninety six Tweets, a reach of 3,306,368. Tweets broadly followed the questions posted by the team. Several threads related to the sustainable use of healthcare resources and the need to reduce waste was evident. A Word Cloud of the Tweets highlighted prominent words in the discussion: sustainability, nursing/nurses, curriculum, important, waste, practice, resources, student, plastic, health, gloves. Social media is an effective way of engaging nurses and students in a discussion on challenging issues. Sustainability appears to be important for nurses, with a particular emphasis on resource use and the importance of sustainability topics in nurse education. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Comparison of the stability of topical isotretinoin and topical tretinoin and their efficacy in acne.

PubMed

Elbaum, D J

1988-09-01

After 4 hours of exposure to incandescent light, 80% of 0.05% topical isotretinoin and 60% of 0.05% topical tretinoin preparations remained in their original form. In contrast, after 2 hours of exposure to fluorescent light only 25% of topical tretinoin and possibly 60% of topical isotretinoin remained in their original forms. Longer exposure to fluorescent light did not result in further breakdown, and the final breakdown of both preparations was similar. A 12-week, double-blind clinical trial comparing isotretinoin (0.05%) with tretinoin (0.05%) applied topically to patients with moderate acne was carried out. Both preparations caused significant reductions in papules and pustules. However, neither treatment was significantly superior to the other in the reduction of acne lesions. This may be because both preparations are rapidly broken down to similar products when exposed to fluorescent light.

On the Topical Structure of Medical Charts

PubMed Central

Archbold, Armar A.; Evans, David A.

1989-01-01

In a study of 55 H&P sections of hospital charts, we tested the hypothesis that topic-sub-topic sequencing is sufficiently regular to provide ‘missing’ information in the construction of explicit propositions from elliptical text. ‘Propositions’ were taken to be frames with the slots topic, sub-topic, method, site, attribute, value, and qualifier. Topic was identifiable in 96% of all cases; attribute-value pairs were uniquely recoverable from topics in 69% of all cases; site was co-determined by topic, method, and attribute. Our results suggest that uncertainties in the automated processing of H&P statements can be overcome by appealing to knowledge about the topical structure of medical charts.

[Non adherence and topical steroids].

PubMed

Aubert, H; Barbarot, S

2012-01-01

Compliance raises very specific questions in dermatology related to the frequent use of local treatments: creams or ointments, including topical corticosteroids. The adherence in dermatology is a complex issue. It is difficult to quantify objectively because of the patient subjectivity, the constant adaptation to changes in the course of the disease, and due to the lack of adapted device. Moreover poor compliance may be related to topical corticosteroid phobia, defined as a fear vis-à-vis the topical corticosteroids, rational or not. The topical corticosteroid phobia is very common in the management of chronic inflammatory skin diseases especially in atopic dermatitis. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Solid-State Lighting 2017 Suggested Research Topics Supplement: Technology and Market Context

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None, None

A 2017 update to the Solid-State Lighting R&D Plan that is divided into two documents. The first document describes a list of suggested SSL priority research topics and the second document provides context and background, including information drawn from technical, market, and economic studies. Widely referenced by industry and government both here and abroad, these documents reflect SSL stakeholder inputs on key R&D topics that will improve efficacy, reduce cost, remove barriers to adoption, and add value for LED and OLED lighting solutions over the next three to five years, and discuss those applications that drive and prioritize the specificmore » R&D.« less

Review of Batteryless Wireless Sensors Using Additively Manufactured Microwave Resonators.

PubMed

Memon, Muhammad Usman; Lim, Sungjoon

2017-09-09

The significant improvements observed in the field of bulk-production of printed microchip technologies in the past decade have allowed the fabrication of microchip printing on numerous materials including organic and flexible substrates. Printed sensors and electronics are of significant interest owing to the fast and low-cost fabrication techniques used in their fabrication. The increasing amount of research and deployment of specially printed electronic sensors in a number of applications demonstrates the immense attention paid by researchers to this topic in the pursuit of achieving wider-scale electronics on different dielectric materials. Although there are many traditional methods for fabricating radio frequency (RF) components, they are time-consuming, expensive, complicated, and require more power for operation than additive fabrication methods. This paper serves as a summary/review of improvements made to the additive printing technologies. The article focuses on three recently developed printing methods for the fabrication of wireless sensors operating at microwave frequencies. The fabrication methods discussed include inkjet printing, three-dimensional (3D) printing, and screen printing.

Review of Batteryless Wireless Sensors Using Additively Manufactured Microwave Resonators

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

The significant improvements observed in the field of bulk-production of printed microchip technologies in the past decade have allowed the fabrication of microchip printing on numerous materials including organic and flexible substrates. Printed sensors and electronics are of significant interest owing to the fast and low-cost fabrication techniques used in their fabrication. The increasing amount of research and deployment of specially printed electronic sensors in a number of applications demonstrates the immense attention paid by researchers to this topic in the pursuit of achieving wider-scale electronics on different dielectric materials. Although there are many traditional methods for fabricating radio frequency (RF) components, they are time-consuming, expensive, complicated, and require more power for operation than additive fabrication methods. This paper serves as a summary/review of improvements made to the additive printing technologies. The article focuses on three recently developed printing methods for the fabrication of wireless sensors operating at microwave frequencies. The fabrication methods discussed include inkjet printing, three-dimensional (3D) printing, and screen printing. PMID:28891947

What Is Education For? A Discussion of Nussbaum's "Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Jing

2016-01-01

This article provides a discussion of the book, "Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities" by Martha C. Nussbaum from the perspective of a visiting scholar to the United States from China. It begins by addressing two critical topics discussed by Nussbaum: consequences of focusing only on economic growth and the importance of…

Creating a safe space: A qualitative inquiry into the way doctors discuss spirituality.

PubMed

Best, Megan; Butow, Phyllis; Olver, Ian

2016-10-01

Spiritual history taking by physicians is recommended as part of palliative care. Nevertheless, very few studies have explored the way that experienced physicians undertake this task. Using grounded theory, semistructured interviews were conducted with 23 physicians who had experience in caring for advanced cancer patients. They were asked to describe the way they discuss spirituality with their patients. We have described a delicate, skilled, tailored process whereby physicians create a space in which patients feel safe enough to discuss intimate topics. Six themes were identified: (1) developing the self: physicians describe the need to understand and be secure in one's own spirituality and be comfortable with one's own mortality before being able to discuss spirituality; (2) developing one's attitude: awareness of the importance of spirituality in the life of a patient, and the need to respect each patient's beliefs is a prerequisite; (3) experienced physicians wait for the patient to give them an indication that they are ready to discuss spiritual issues and follow their lead; (4) what makes it easier: spiritual discussion is easier when doctor and patient share spiritual and cultural backgrounds, and the patient needs to be physically comfortable and willing to talk; (5) what makes it harder: experienced physicians know that they will find it difficult to discuss spirituality when they are rushed and when they identify too closely with a patient's struggles; and (6) an important and effective intervention: exploration of patient spirituality improves care and enhances coping. A delicate, skilled, tailored process has been described whereby doctors endeavor to create a space in which patients feel sufficiently safe to discuss intimate topics.

Topical amitriptyline and ketamine for post-herpetic neuralgia and other forms of neuropathic pain.

PubMed

Sawynok, Jana; Zinger, Celia

2016-01-01

Neuropathic pain (NP) has several therapeutic options but efficacy is limited and adverse effects occur, such that additional treatment options are needed. A topical formulation containing amitriptyline 4% and ketamine 2% (AmiKet) may provide such an option. This report summarizes both published and unpublished results of clinical trials with AmiKet. In post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), AmiKet produces a significant analgesia which is comparable to that produced by oral gabapentin. In diabetic painful neuropathy, AmiKet showed a strong trend towards pain reduction. In mixed neuropathic pain, case series reports suggest a favourable response rate, but are limited by trial characteristics. AmiKet is absorbed minimally following topical administration. Over 700 patients have now received topical AmiKet in clinical regimens, and it is well-tolerated with the adverse effects mainly being application site reactions. Both agents are polymodal, and several mechanisms may contribute to the peripheral efficacy of AmiKet. Topical AmiKet has the potential to be a first-line treatment option for PHN, and to be useful in other NP conditions. Furthermore, AmiKet has the potential to be an adjunct to systemic therapies, with the targeting of a peripheral compartment in addition to central sites of action representing a rational drug combination.

Topical Administration of Somatostatin Prevents Retinal Neurodegeneration in Experimental Diabetes

PubMed Central

Hernández, Cristina; García-Ramírez, Marta; Corraliza, Lidia; Fernández-Carneado, Jimena; Farrera-Sinfreu, Josep; Ponsati, Berta; González-Rodríguez, Águeda; Valverde, Ángela M.; Simó, Rafael

2013-01-01

Retinal neurodegeneration is an early event in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Somatostatin (SST) is an endogenous neuroprotective peptide that is downregulated in the diabetic eye. The aim of the study was to test the usefulness of topical administration of SST in preventing retinal neurodegeneration. For this purpose, rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus (STZ-DM) were treated with either SST eye drops or vehicle for 15 days. Nondiabetic rats treated with vehicle served as a control group. Functional abnormalities were assessed by electroretinography (ERG), and neurodegeneration was assessed by measuring glial activation and the apoptotic rate. In addition, proapoptotic (FasL, Bid, and activation of caspase-8 and caspase-3) and survival signaling pathways (BclxL) were examined. Intraretinal concentrations of glutamate and its main transporter glutamate/aspartate transporter (GLAST) were also determined. Treatment with SST eye drops prevented ERG abnormalities, glial activation, apoptosis, and the misbalance between proapoptotic and survival signaling detected in STZ-DM rats. In addition, SST eye drops inhibited glutamate accumulation in the retina and GLAST downregulation induced by diabetes mellitus. We conclude that topical administration of SST has a potent effect in preventing retinal neurodegeneration induced by diabetes mellitus. In addition, our findings open up a new preventive pharmacological strategy targeted to early stages of DR. PMID:23474487

Topical administration of somatostatin prevents retinal neurodegeneration in experimental diabetes.

PubMed

Hernández, Cristina; García-Ramírez, Marta; Corraliza, Lidia; Fernández-Carneado, Jimena; Farrera-Sinfreu, Josep; Ponsati, Berta; González-Rodríguez, Agueda; Valverde, Angela M; Simó, Rafael

2013-07-01

Retinal neurodegeneration is an early event in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Somatostatin (SST) is an endogenous neuroprotective peptide that is downregulated in the diabetic eye. The aim of the study was to test the usefulness of topical administration of SST in preventing retinal neurodegeneration. For this purpose, rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus (STZ-DM) were treated with either SST eye drops or vehicle for 15 days. Nondiabetic rats treated with vehicle served as a control group. Functional abnormalities were assessed by electroretinography (ERG), and neurodegeneration was assessed by measuring glial activation and the apoptotic rate. In addition, proapoptotic (FasL, Bid, and activation of caspase-8 and caspase-3) and survival signaling pathways (BclxL) were examined. Intraretinal concentrations of glutamate and its main transporter glutamate/aspartate transporter (GLAST) were also determined. Treatment with SST eye drops prevented ERG abnormalities, glial activation, apoptosis, and the misbalance between proapoptotic and survival signaling detected in STZ-DM rats. In addition, SST eye drops inhibited glutamate accumulation in the retina and GLAST downregulation induced by diabetes mellitus. We conclude that topical administration of SST has a potent effect in preventing retinal neurodegeneration induced by diabetes mellitus. In addition, our findings open up a new preventive pharmacological strategy targeted to early stages of DR.

Activities in a social networking-based discussion group by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography doctors.

PubMed

Kang, Xiaoyu; Zhao, Lina; Liu, Na; Wang, Xiangping; Zhang, Rongchun; Liu, Zhiguo; Liang, Shuhui; Yao, Shaowei; Tao, Qin; Jia, Hui; Pan, Yanglin; Guo, Xuegang

2017-10-01

Online social networking is increasingly being used among medical practitioners. However, few studies have evaluated its use in therapeutic endoscopy. Here, we aimed to analyze the shared topics and activities of a group of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) doctors in a social networking-based endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography discussion group (EDG). Six ERCP trainers working in Xijing Hospital and 48 graduated endoscopists who had finished ERCP training in the same hospital were invited to join in EDG. All group members were informed not to divulge any private information of patients when using EDG. The activities of group members on EDG were retrospectively extracted. The individual data of the graduated endoscopists were collected by a questionnaire. From June 2014 to May 2015, 6924 messages were posted on EDG, half of which were ERCP related. In total, 214 ERCP-related topics were shared, which could be categorized into three types: sharing experience/cases (52.3%), asking questions (38.3%), and sharing literatures/advances (9.3%). Among the 48 graduated endoscopists, 21 had a low case volume of less than 50 per year and 27 had a high volume case volume of 50 or more. High-volume graduated endoscopists posted more ERCP-related messages (P=0.008) and shared more discussion topics (P=0.003) compared with low-volume graduated endoscopists. A survey showed that EDG was useful for graduated endoscopists in ERCP performance and management of post-ERCP complications, etc. A wide range of ERCP-related topics were shared on the social networking-based EDG. The ERCP-related behaviors on EDG were more active in graduated endoscopists with an ERCP case volume of more than 50 per year.

Recent advances in topical anesthesia

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Topical anesthetics act on the peripheral nerves and reduce the sensation of pain at the site of application. In dentistry, they are used to control local pain caused by needling, placement of orthodontic bands, the vomiting reflex, oral mucositis, and rubber-dam clamp placement. Traditional topical anesthetics contain lidocaine or benzocaine as active ingredients and are used in the form of solutions, creams, gels, and sprays. Eutectic mixtures of local anesthesia cream, a mixture of various topical anesthetics, has been reported to be more potent than other anesthetics. Recently, new products with modified ingredients and application methods have been introduced into the market. These products may be used for mild pain during periodontal treatment, such as scaling. Dentists should be aware that topical anesthetics, although rare, might induce allergic reactions or side effects as a result of an overdose. Topical anesthetics are useful aids during dental treatment, as they reduce dental phobia, especially in children, by mitigating discomfort and pain. PMID:28879311

Identifying Topics for E-Cigarette User-Generated Contents: A Case Study From Multiple Social Media Platforms

PubMed Central

Zhan, Yongcheng; Liu, Ruoran; Li, Qiudan; Leischow, Scott James

2017-01-01

Background Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) is an emerging product with a rapid-growth market in recent years. Social media has become an important platform for information seeking and sharing. We aim to mine hidden topics from e-cigarette datasets collected from different social media platforms. Objective This paper aims to gain a systematic understanding of the characteristics of various types of social media, which will provide deep insights into how consumers and policy makers effectively use social media to track e-cigarette-related content and adjust their decisions and policies. Methods We collected data from Reddit (27,638 e-cigarette flavor-related posts from January 1, 2011, to June 30, 2015), JuiceDB (14,433 e-juice reviews from June 26, 2013 to November 12, 2015), and Twitter (13,356 “e-cig ban”-related tweets from January, 1, 2010 to June 30, 2015). Latent Dirichlet Allocation, a generative model for topic modeling, was used to analyze the topics from these data. Results We found four types of topics across the platforms: (1) promotions, (2) flavor discussions, (3) experience sharing, and (4) regulation debates. Promotions included sales from vendors to users, as well as trades among users. A total of 10.72% (2,962/27,638) of the posts from Reddit were related to trading. Promotion links were found between social media platforms. Most of the links (87.30%) in JuiceDB were related to Reddit posts. JuiceDB and Reddit identified consistent flavor categories. E-cigarette vaping methods and features such as steeping, throat hit, and vapor production were broadly discussed both on Reddit and on JuiceDB. Reddit provided space for policy discussions and majority of the posts (60.7%) holding a negative attitude toward regulations, whereas Twitter was used to launch campaigns using certain hashtags. Our findings are based on data across different platforms. The topic distribution between Reddit and JuiceDB was significantly different (P<.001), which

Using live theatre combined with role playing and discussion to examine what at-risk adolescents think about substance abuse, its consequences, and prevention.

PubMed

Harding, C G; Safer, L A; Kavanagh, J; Bania, R; Carty, H; Lisnov, L; Wysockey, K

1996-01-01

Live theater is used as a means of stimulating thought and discussion among adolescents on topics related to the effects of substance abuse in their lives. A thirty-minute professional and contemporary live musical play, Captain Clean, was performed at three Chicago high schools (grades 9-12). In general, students in these schools had been judged to be at risk for drug problems by school administrators and by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Students' responses to issues highlighted in the play were examined through ethnographic procedures used during role playing and discussion immediately following the performance. In addition, written comments were collected from the students two weeks after viewing. The amount of interaction and level of student response indicate that live theater is an effective means for stimulating both thought and discussion pertaining to the effects of drugs in the lives of adolescents. In addition, analysis of the students' responses reveals: (1) an unmet need for individual counseling; (2) a pervasive ignorance of the legal consequences of drug use; (3) the importance of family as a source of information and support; and (4) an expressed concern for their own futures as well as those of their peers.

Discriminative Relational Topic Models.

PubMed

Chen, Ning; Zhu, Jun; Xia, Fei; Zhang, Bo

2015-05-01

Relational topic models (RTMs) provide a probabilistic generative process to describe both the link structure and document contents for document networks, and they have shown promise on predicting network structures and discovering latent topic representations. However, existing RTMs have limitations in both the restricted model expressiveness and incapability of dealing with imbalanced network data. To expand the scope and improve the inference accuracy of RTMs, this paper presents three extensions: 1) unlike the common link likelihood with a diagonal weight matrix that allows the-same-topic interactions only, we generalize it to use a full weight matrix that captures all pairwise topic interactions and is applicable to asymmetric networks; 2) instead of doing standard Bayesian inference, we perform regularized Bayesian inference (RegBayes) with a regularization parameter to deal with the imbalanced link structure issue in real networks and improve the discriminative ability of learned latent representations; and 3) instead of doing variational approximation with strict mean-field assumptions, we present collapsed Gibbs sampling algorithms for the generalized relational topic models by exploring data augmentation without making restricting assumptions. Under the generic RegBayes framework, we carefully investigate two popular discriminative loss functions, namely, the logistic log-loss and the max-margin hinge loss. Experimental results on several real network datasets demonstrate the significance of these extensions on improving prediction performance.

Identifying the Priority Topics for the Assessment of Competence in Care of the Elderly

PubMed Central

Frank, Chris C.; Allen, Tim; Lozanovska, Tatjana; Arcand, Marcel; Feldman, Sidney; Lam, Robert E.; Mehta, Pravinsagar G.; Mangal, Nadia Y.

2018-01-01

Background With Canada’s senior population increasing, there is greater demand for family physicians with enhanced skills in Care of the Elderly (COE). The College of Family Physicians Canada (CFPC) has introduced Certificates of Added Competence (CACs), one being in COE. Our objective is to summarize the process used to determine the Priority Topics for the assessment of competence in COE. Methods A modified Delphi technique was used, with online surveys and face-to-face meetings. The Working Group (WG) of six physicians acted as the nominal group, and a larger group of randomly selected practitioners from across Canada acted as the Validation Group (VG). The WG, and then the VG, completed electronic write-in surveys that asked them to identify the Priority Topics. Responses were compiled, coded, and tabulated to identify the topics and to calculate the frequencies of their selection. The WG used face-to-face meetings and iterative discussion to decide on the final topic names. Results The correlation between the initial Priority Topic list identified by the VG and that identified by the WG is 0.6793. The final list has 18 Priority Topics. Conclusion Defining the required competencies is a first step to establishing national standards in COE. PMID:29581816

Oral and Topical Antibiotics for Clinically Infected Eczema in Children: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial in Ambulatory Care.

PubMed

Francis, Nick A; Ridd, Matthew J; Thomas-Jones, Emma; Butler, Christopher C; Hood, Kerenza; Shepherd, Victoria; Marwick, Charis A; Huang, Chao; Longo, Mirella; Wootton, Mandy; Sullivan, Frank

2017-03-01

Eczema may flare because of bacterial infection, but evidence supporting antibiotic treatment is of low quality. We aimed to determine the effect of oral and topical antibiotics in addition to topical emollient and corticosteroids in children with clinically infected eczema. We employed a 3-arm, blinded, randomized controlled trial in UK ambulatory care. Children with clinical, non-severely infected eczema were randomized to receive oral and topical placebos (control), oral antibiotic (flucloxacillin) and topical placebo, or topical antibiotic (fusidic acid) and oral placebo, for 1 week. We compared Patient Oriented Eczema Measure (POEM) scores at 2 weeks using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). We randomized 113 children (40 to control, 36 to oral antibiotic, and 37 to topical antibiotic). Mean (SD) baseline Patient Oriented Eczema Measure scores were 13.4 (5.1) for the control group, 14.6 (5.3) for the oral antibiotic group, and 16.9 (5.5) for the topical antibiotic group. At baseline, 104 children (93%) had 1 or more of the following findings: weeping, crusting, pustules, or painful skin. Mean (SD) POEM scores at 2 weeks were 6.2 (6.0) for control, 8.3 (7.3) for the oral antibiotic group, and 9.3 (6.2) for the topical antibiotic group. Controlling for baseline POEM score, neither oral nor topical antibiotics produced a significant difference in mean (95% CI) POEM scores (1.5 [-1.4 to 4.4] and 1.5 [-1.6 to 4.5] respectively). There were no significant differences in adverse effects and no serious adverse events. We found rapid resolution in response to topical steroid and emollient treatment and ruled out a clinically meaningful benefit from the addition of either oral or topical antibiotics. Children seen in ambulatory care with mild clinically infected eczema do not need treatment with antibiotics. © 2017 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

Predicting inpatient clinical order patterns with probabilistic topic models vs conventional order sets

PubMed Central

Goldstein, Mary K; Asch, Steven M; Mackey, Lester; Altman, Russ B

2017-01-01

Objective: Build probabilistic topic model representations of hospital admissions processes and compare the ability of such models to predict clinical order patterns as compared to preconstructed order sets. Materials and Methods: The authors evaluated the first 24 hours of structured electronic health record data for > 10 K inpatients. Drawing an analogy between structured items (e.g., clinical orders) to words in a text document, the authors performed latent Dirichlet allocation probabilistic topic modeling. These topic models use initial clinical information to predict clinical orders for a separate validation set of > 4 K patients. The authors evaluated these topic model-based predictions vs existing human-authored order sets by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, precision, and recall for subsequent clinical orders. Results: Existing order sets predict clinical orders used within 24 hours with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.81, precision 16%, and recall 35%. This can be improved to 0.90, 24%, and 47% (P < 10−20) by using probabilistic topic models to summarize clinical data into up to 32 topics. Many of these latent topics yield natural clinical interpretations (e.g., “critical care,” “pneumonia,” “neurologic evaluation”). Discussion: Existing order sets tend to provide nonspecific, process-oriented aid, with usability limitations impairing more precise, patient-focused support. Algorithmic summarization has the potential to breach this usability barrier by automatically inferring patient context, but with potential tradeoffs in interpretability. Conclusion: Probabilistic topic modeling provides an automated approach to detect thematic trends in patient care and generate decision support content. A potential use case finds related clinical orders for decision support. PMID:27655861

No-anesthesia clear corneal phacoemulsification versus topical and topical plus intracameral anesthesia. Randomized clinical trial.

PubMed

Pandey, S K; Werner, L; Apple, D J; Agarwal, A; Agarwal, A; Agarwal, S

2001-10-01

To compare the intraoperative pain scores during clear corneal phacoemulsification under no anesthesia, topical anesthesia, and topical plus intracameral anesthesia. Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital and Eye Research Center, Chennai, India. Seventy-five patients were randomized to have phacoemulsification under no anesthesia, topical anesthesia, or topical plus intracameral anesthesia. Uncooperative or illiterate patients and those with hard cataract, a shallow anterior chamber, or small pupils were excluded. A protocol was established for supplemental anesthesia in case of breakthrough pain during the surgery. Each patient was asked to grade the overall severity of intraoperative pain immediately after surgery on a 10-point visual analog scale. Also evaluated were the general discomfort during surgery, discomfort from the microscope lights, surgeon stress during surgery, and total surgical time. Comparison among the 3 groups was performed using an analysis of variance. No supplemental anesthesia was required in any group. No significant difference was noted in the mean scores of the subjective sensation of pain with or without topical anesthesia (P =.610). The mean scores of patient discomfort from the microscope lights and surgical time were also statistically insignificant. Patient discomfort and surgeon stress during surgery were significantly greater in the no-anesthesia group than in the topical and topical plus intracameral groups (P =.0235 and P = 0.0206, respectively). No-anesthesia clear corneal phacoemulsification was performed by a highly experienced, skilled surgeon without causing an unacceptable level of pain. However, this technique is not suitable for every cataract surgeon or patient.

Automatic topic identification of health-related messages in online health community using text classification.

PubMed

Lu, Yingjie

2013-01-01

To facilitate patient involvement in online health community and obtain informative support and emotional support they need, a topic identification approach was proposed in this paper for identifying automatically topics of the health-related messages in online health community, thus assisting patients in reaching the most relevant messages for their queries efficiently. Feature-based classification framework was presented for automatic topic identification in our study. We first collected the messages related to some predefined topics in a online health community. Then we combined three different types of features, n-gram-based features, domain-specific features and sentiment features to build four feature sets for health-related text representation. Finally, three different text classification techniques, C4.5, Naïve Bayes and SVM were adopted to evaluate our topic classification model. By comparing different feature sets and different classification techniques, we found that n-gram-based features, domain-specific features and sentiment features were all considered to be effective in distinguishing different types of health-related topics. In addition, feature reduction technique based on information gain was also effective to improve the topic classification performance. In terms of classification techniques, SVM outperformed C4.5 and Naïve Bayes significantly. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach could identify the topics of online health-related messages efficiently.

Shaping stereotypical behaviour through the discussion of social stereotypes.

PubMed

Smith, Laura G E; Postmes, Tom

2011-03-01

In two studies, we demonstrate that small group discussions change the extent to which an activated stereotype affects performance in a relevant domain. In Study 1, female participants were asked why men are (or are not) better than them at maths. They generated their answers individually or through group discussion, and their subsequent maths performance was highest when they collectively challenged the stereotype and lowest when they collectively affirmed the stereotype. When participants affirmed the stereotype through discussion, they used more theories which supported the validity of the stereotype, compared to the individual thought condition; and consensus mediated the effect of group discussion on performance (relative to individual rumination). In Study 2, male and female participants affirmed or challenged the stereotype in same-gender discussion groups. After affirming the stereotype, women's performance decreased relative to their baseline scores and men's performance was 'lifted'. In contrast, when they challenged the stereotype, there was no difference between the performance of men and women on the maths test. This pattern of effects was mediated by confidence in mathematical ability. The findings support the idea that topical small group discussions can, in the short term, differentially alter the impact that stereotypes have on performance. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

Teacher- or Learner-Centred? Science Teacher Beliefs Related to Topic Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A South African Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mavhunga, Elizabeth; Rollnick, Marissa

2016-12-01

In science education, learner-centred classroom practices are widely accepted as desirable and are associated with responsive and reformed kinds of teacher beliefs. They are further associated with high-quality Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Topic-Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TSPCK), a version of PCK defined at topic level, is known to enable the transformation of topic content into a form accessible to learners. However, little is known about teacher science beliefs in relation to TSPCK and therefore the nature of likely associated classroom practices. In this study, we investigated the relationship between TSPCK and underlying science teacher beliefs following an intervention targeting the improvement of TSPCK in the topic chemical equilibrium. Sixteen final year pre-service chemistry teachers were exposed to an intervention that explicitly focussed on knowledge for transforming the content of chemical equilibrium using the five knowledge components of TSPCK. A specially designed TSPCK instrument in chemical equilibrium and the Teacher Belief Instrument (TBI) were used to capture written responses in pre- and post-tests. Additional qualitative data was collected from audio-recorded discussions and written responses from an open-ended question asked before and after the intervention. Two key findings emerged from the study. Firstly, the development of TSPCK was linked to shifts in underlying science teacher beliefs in the direction of learner-centred teaching for the majority of pre-service teachers. Secondly, this shift was not evident for all, as for some there was development of TSPCK without a shift from teacher-centred beliefs about science teaching.

JGME-ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education: Analysis of a Multimodal Online Discussion About Team-Based Learning.

PubMed

Riddell, Jeff; Patocka, Catherine; Lin, Michelle; Sherbino, Jonathan

2017-02-01

Team-based learning (TBL) is an instructional method that is being increasingly incorporated in health professions education, although use in graduate medical education (GME) has been more limited. To curate and describe themes that emerged from a virtual journal club discussion about TBL in GME, held across multiple digital platforms, while also evaluating the use of social media in online academic discussions. The Journal of Graduate Medical Education ( JGME ) and the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine blog facilitated a weeklong, open-access, virtual journal club on the 2015 JGME article "Use of Team-Based Learning Pedagogy for Internal Medicine Ambulatory Resident Teaching." Using 4 stimulus questions (hosted on a blog as a starting framework), we facilitated discussions via the blog, Twitter, and Google Hangouts on Air platforms. We evaluated 2-week web analytics and performed a thematic analysis of the discussion. The virtual journal club reached a large international audience as exemplified by the blog page garnering 685 page views from 241 cities in 42 countries. Our thematic analysis identified 4 domains relevant to TBL in GME: (1) the benefits and barriers to TBL; (2) the design of teams; (3) the role of assessment and peer evaluation; and (4) crowdsourced TBL resources. The virtual journal club provided a novel forum across multiple social media platforms, engaging authors, content experts, and the health professions education community in a discussion about the importance, impediments to implementation, available resources, and logistics of adopting TBL in GME.

Polylactides in additive biomanufacturing.

PubMed

Poh, Patrina S P; Chhaya, Mohit P; Wunner, Felix M; De-Juan-Pardo, Elena M; Schilling, Arndt F; Schantz, Jan-Thorsten; van Griensven, Martijn; Hutmacher, Dietmar W

2016-12-15

New advanced manufacturing technologies under the alias of additive biomanufacturing allow the design and fabrication of a range of products from pre-operative models, cutting guides and medical devices to scaffolds. The process of printing in 3 dimensions of cells, extracellular matrix (ECM) and biomaterials (bioinks, powders, etc.) to generate in vitro and/or in vivo tissue analogue structures has been termed bioprinting. To further advance in additive biomanufacturing, there are many aspects that we can learn from the wider additive manufacturing (AM) industry, which have progressed tremendously since its introduction into the manufacturing sector. First, this review gives an overview of additive manufacturing and both industry and academia efforts in addressing specific challenges in the AM technologies to drive toward AM-enabled industrial revolution. After which, considerations of poly(lactides) as a biomaterial in additive biomanufacturing are discussed. Challenges in wider additive biomanufacturing field are discussed in terms of (a) biomaterials; (b) computer-aided design, engineering and manufacturing; (c) AM and additive biomanufacturing printers hardware; and (d) system integration. Finally, the outlook for additive biomanufacturing was discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Food additives

PubMed Central

Spencer, Michael

1974-01-01

Food additives are discussed from the food technology point of view. The reasons for their use are summarized: (1) to protect food from chemical and microbiological attack; (2) to even out seasonal supplies; (3) to improve their eating quality; (4) to improve their nutritional value. The various types of food additives are considered, e.g. colours, flavours, emulsifiers, bread and flour additives, preservatives, and nutritional additives. The paper concludes with consideration of those circumstances in which the use of additives is (a) justified and (b) unjustified. PMID:4467857

Additional EIPC Study Analysis: Interim Report on Medium Priority Topics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hadley, Stanton W.; Gotham, Douglas J.

Between 2010 and 2012 the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) conducted a major long-term resource and transmission study of the Eastern Interconnection (EI). With guidance from a stakeholder steering committee (SSC) that included representatives from the Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council (EISPC) among others, the project was conducted in two phases. The first was a 2015–2040 analysis that looked at a broad array of possible future scenarios, while the second focused on a more detailed examination of the grid in 2030. The studies provided a wealth of information on possible future generation, demand, and transmission alternatives. However, at the conclusionmore » there were still unresolved questions and issues. The US Department of Energy, which had sponsored the study, asked Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers and others who worked on the project to conduct an additional study of the data to provide further insights for stakeholders and the industry. This report documents the second part of that follow-on study [an earlier report (Hadley 2013) covered the first part, and a subsequent report will address the last part].« less

Topic models: A novel method for modeling couple and family text data

PubMed Central

Atkins, David C.; Rubin, Tim N.; Steyvers, Mark; Doeden, Michelle A.; Baucom, Brian R.; Christensen, Andrew

2012-01-01

Couple and family researchers often collect open-ended linguistic data – either through free response questionnaire items or transcripts of interviews or therapy sessions. Because participant's responses are not forced into a set number of categories, text-based data can be very rich and revealing of psychological processes. At the same time it is highly unstructured and challenging to analyze. Within family psychology analyzing text data typically means applying a coding system, which can quantify text data but also has several limitations, including the time needed for coding, difficulties with inter-rater reliability, and defining a priori what should be coded. The current article presents an alternative method for analyzing text data called topic models (Steyvers & Griffiths, 2006), which has not yet been applied within couple and family psychology. Topic models have similarities with factor analysis and cluster analysis in that topic models identify underlying clusters of words with semantic similarities (i.e., the “topics”). In the present article, a non-technical introduction to topic models is provided, highlighting how these models can be used for text exploration and indexing (e.g., quickly locating text passages that share semantic meaning) and how output from topic models can be used to predict behavioral codes or other types of outcomes. Throughout the article a collection of transcripts from a large couple therapy trial (Christensen et al., 2004) is used as example data to highlight potential applications. Practical resources for learning more about topic models and how to apply them are discussed. PMID:22888778

Topic models: a novel method for modeling couple and family text data.

PubMed

Atkins, David C; Rubin, Timothy N; Steyvers, Mark; Doeden, Michelle A; Baucom, Brian R; Christensen, Andrew

2012-10-01

Couple and family researchers often collect open-ended linguistic data-either through free-response questionnaire items, or transcripts of interviews or therapy sessions. Because participants' responses are not forced into a set number of categories, text-based data can be very rich and revealing of psychological processes. At the same time, it is highly unstructured and challenging to analyze. Within family psychology, analyzing text data typically means applying a coding system, which can quantify text data but also has several limitations, including the time needed for coding, difficulties with interrater reliability, and defining a priori what should be coded. The current article presents an alternative method for analyzing text data called topic models (Steyvers & Griffiths, 2006), which has not yet been applied within couple and family psychology. Topic models have similarities to factor analysis and cluster analysis in that they identify underlying clusters of words with semantic similarities (i.e., the "topics"). In the present article, a nontechnical introduction to topic models is provided, highlighting how these models can be used for text exploration and indexing (e.g., quickly locating text passages that share semantic meaning) and how output from topic models can be used to predict behavioral codes or other types of outcomes. Throughout the article, a collection of transcripts from a large couple-therapy trial (Christensen et al., 2004) is used as example data to highlight potential applications. Practical resources for learning more about topic models and how to apply them are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Science teacher orientations and PCK across science topics in grade 9 earth science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campbell, Todd; Melville, Wayne; Goodwin, Dawne

2017-07-01

While the literature is replete with studies examining teacher knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), few studies have investigated how science teacher orientations (STOs) shape classroom instruction. Therefore, this research explores the interplay between a STOs and the topic specificity of PCK across two science topics within a grade 9 earth science course. Through interviews and observations of one teacher's classroom across two sequentially taught, this research contests the notion that teachers hold a single way of conceptualising science teaching and learning. In this, we consider if multiple ontologies can provide potential explanatory power for characterising instructional enactments. In earlier work with the teacher in this study, using generic interview prompts and general discussions about science teaching and learning, we accepted the existence of a unitary STO and its promise of consistent reformed instruction in the classroom. However, upon close examination of instruction focused on different science topics, evidence was found to demonstrate the explanatory power of multiple ontologies for shaping characteristically different epistemological constructions across science topics. This research points to the need for care in generalising about teacher practice, as it reveals that a teacher's practice, and orientation, can vary, dependent on the context and science topics taught.

A hairy fall: syncope resulting from topical application of minoxidil

PubMed Central

Dubrey, S W; VanGriethuysen, J; Edwards, C M B

2015-01-01

We describe the case of a young man who developed syncope after using a high strength formulation of topical minoxidil as a hair growth restorer. Other potential cardiovascular and endocrine causes were excluded, and his symptoms resolved on discontinuation of the product. While syncope is a recognised side effect of using this powerful systemic antihypertensive agent, few cases are documented in the literature, which we illustrate in our discussion. PMID:26347235

Topics in programmable automation. [for materials handling, inspection, and assembly

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosen, C. A.

1975-01-01

Topics explored in the development of integrated programmable automation systems include: numerically controlled and computer controlled machining; machine intelligence and the emulation of human-like capabilities; large scale semiconductor integration technology applications; and sensor technology for asynchronous local computation without burdening the executive minicomputer which controls the whole system. The role and development of training aids, and the potential application of these aids to augmented teleoperator systems are discussed.

Evolving guidelines in the use of topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Balmaceda, Casilda M

2014-01-21

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are a standard treatment for osteoarthritis (OA), but the use of oral NSAIDs has been linked to an elevated risk for cardiovascular and gastrointestinal adverse events and renal toxicity. Topical NSAIDs are thought to afford efficacy that is comparable to oral formulations while reducing widespread systemic drug exposure, which may provide a benefit in terms of safety and tolerability. As a result, European treatment guidelines have, for many years, recommended the use of topical NSAIDs as a safe and effective treatment option for OA. Following the recent approval of several topical NSAID formulations by the US Food and Drug Administration, US treatment guidelines are increasingly recommending the use of topical NSAIDs as an alternative therapy and, in some cases, as a first-line option for OA. This commentary summarizes OA treatment guidelines that are currently available and discusses their potential evolution with regard to the increased inclusion of topical NSAIDs.

Evolving guidelines in the use of topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of osteoarthritis

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are a standard treatment for osteoarthritis (OA), but the use of oral NSAIDs has been linked to an elevated risk for cardiovascular and gastrointestinal adverse events and renal toxicity. Topical NSAIDs are thought to afford efficacy that is comparable to oral formulations while reducing widespread systemic drug exposure, which may provide a benefit in terms of safety and tolerability. As a result, European treatment guidelines have, for many years, recommended the use of topical NSAIDs as a safe and effective treatment option for OA. Following the recent approval of several topical NSAID formulations by the US Food and Drug Administration, US treatment guidelines are increasingly recommending the use of topical NSAIDs as an alternative therapy and, in some cases, as a first-line option for OA. This commentary summarizes OA treatment guidelines that are currently available and discusses their potential evolution with regard to the increased inclusion of topical NSAIDs. PMID:24444047

Overlapping meta-analyses on the same topic: survey of published studies.

PubMed

Siontis, Konstantinos C; Hernandez-Boussard, Tina; Ioannidis, John P A

2013-07-19

To assess how common it is to have multiple overlapping meta-analyses of randomized trials published on the same topic. Survey of published meta-analyses. PubMed. Meta-analyses published in 2010 were identified, and 5% of them were randomly selected. We further selected those that included randomized trials and examined effectiveness of any medical intervention. For eligible meta-analyses, we searched for other meta-analyses on the same topic (covering the same comparisons, indications/settings, and outcomes or overlapping subsets of them) published until February 2013. Of 73 eligible meta-analyses published in 2010, 49 (67%) had at least one other overlapping meta-analysis (median two meta-analyses per topic, interquartile range 1-4, maximum 13). In 17 topics at least one author was involved in at least two of the overlapping meta-analyses. No characteristics of the index meta-analyses were associated with the potential for overlapping meta-analyses. Among pairs of overlapping meta-analyses in 20 randomly selected topics, 13 of the more recent meta-analyses did not include any additional outcomes. In three of the four topics with eight or more published meta-analyses, many meta-analyses examined only a subset of the eligible interventions or indications/settings covered by the index meta-analysis. Conversely, for statins in the prevention of atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery, 11 meta-analyses were published with similar eligibility criteria for interventions and setting: there was still variability on which studies were included, but the results were always similar or even identical across meta-analyses. While some independent replication of meta-analyses by different teams is possibly useful, the overall picture suggests that there is a waste of efforts with many topics covered by multiple overlapping meta-analyses.

Enhanced Activity of Topical Hydrocortisone by Competitive Binding of Corticosteroid-Binding Globulin.

PubMed

Bodor, Erik T; Wu, Whei-Mei; Chandran, V Ravi; Bodor, Nicholas

2016-09-01

Atopic dermatitis of sensitive areas such as the face, particularly in children, is a difficult disease to treat as the standard therapeutic, topical steroids, is contraindicated for this application in children. Hydrocortisone (HC) can be used in these instances because it has been shown to be safe, but is often ineffective as it is a relatively weak steroid, especially at over-the-counter concentrations. To enhance the local topical activity of HC, the terminal inactive metabolite of prednisolone, Δ(1)-cortienic acid (Δ(1)-CA), is added to HC, as Δ(1)-CA preferentially binds transcortin, liberating more HC to elicit its therapeutic effect. Skin blanching studies, which are used to evaluate the potency of topical steroids, were employed to assess the ability of Δ(1)-CA to enhance the activity of HC. The results demonstrate that Δ(1)-CA, when applied in combination with HC, does indeed potentiate the vasoconstriction effect of topically applied HC, while having no effect alone. Thus, addition of the inert prednisolone metabolite Δ(1)-CA can increase the therapeutic effect of over-the-counter concentrations of HC when applied topically. Copyright © 2016 American Pharmacists Association®. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Topical treatments for blepharokeratoconjunctivitis in children.

PubMed

O'Gallagher, Michael; Bunce, Catey; Hingorani, Melanie; Larkin, Frank; Tuft, Stephen; Dahlmann-Noor, Annegret

2017-02-07

Blepharokeratoconjunctivitis (BKC) is a type of inflammation of the surface of the eye and eyelids that involves changes of the eyelids, dysfunction of the meibomian glands, and inflammation of the conjunctiva and cornea. Chronic inflammation of the cornea can lead to scarring, vascularisation and opacity. BKC in children can cause significant symptoms including irritation, watering, photophobia and loss of vision from corneal opacity, refractive error or amblyopia.Treatment of BKC is directed towards modification of meibomian gland disease and the bacterial flora of lid margin and conjunctiva, and control of ocular surface inflammation. Although both topical and systemic treatments are used to treat people with BKC, this Cochrane review focuses on topical treatments. To assess and compare data on the efficacy and safety of topical treatments (including antibiotics, steroids, immunosuppressants and lubricants), alone or in combination, for BKC in children from birth to 16 years. We searched CENTRAL (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Trials Register) (2016, Issue 6), Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE Daily, Ovid OLDMEDLINE ( January 1946 to 11 July 2016), Embase (January 1980 to 11 July 2016), the ISRCTN registry (www.isrctn.com/editAdvancedSearch), ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/search/en). We did not use any date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. We last searched the electronic databases on 11 July 2016. We searched the reference lists of identified reports and the Science Citation Index to identify any additional reports of studies that met the inclusion criteria. We searched for randomised controlled trials that involved topical treatments in children up to 16 years of age with a clinical diagnosis of BKC. We planned to include studies that

Ciclopirox Topical

MedlinePlus

... Use the applicator brush attached to the bottle cap to apply ciclopirox topical solution evenly to all ... can reach these areas. Wipe off the bottle cap and neck and replace the cap tightly on ...

Fluorouracil Topical

MedlinePlus

... caused by years of too much exposure to sunlight). Fluorouracil cream and topical solution are also used ... plan to avoid unnecessary or prolonged exposure to sunlight and UV light (such as tanning booths) and ...

JGME-ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education: Analysis of a Multimodal Online Discussion About Team-Based Learning

PubMed Central

Riddell, Jeff; Patocka, Catherine; Lin, Michelle; Sherbino, Jonathan

2017-01-01

Background  Team-based learning (TBL) is an instructional method that is being increasingly incorporated in health professions education, although use in graduate medical education (GME) has been more limited. Objective  To curate and describe themes that emerged from a virtual journal club discussion about TBL in GME, held across multiple digital platforms, while also evaluating the use of social media in online academic discussions. Methods  The Journal of Graduate Medical Education (JGME) and the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine blog facilitated a weeklong, open-access, virtual journal club on the 2015 JGME article “Use of Team-Based Learning Pedagogy for Internal Medicine Ambulatory Resident Teaching.” Using 4 stimulus questions (hosted on a blog as a starting framework), we facilitated discussions via the blog, Twitter, and Google Hangouts on Air platforms. We evaluated 2-week web analytics and performed a thematic analysis of the discussion. Results  The virtual journal club reached a large international audience as exemplified by the blog page garnering 685 page views from 241 cities in 42 countries. Our thematic analysis identified 4 domains relevant to TBL in GME: (1) the benefits and barriers to TBL; (2) the design of teams; (3) the role of assessment and peer evaluation; and (4) crowdsourced TBL resources. Conclusions  The virtual journal club provided a novel forum across multiple social media platforms, engaging authors, content experts, and the health professions education community in a discussion about the importance, impediments to implementation, available resources, and logistics of adopting TBL in GME. PMID:28261403

Topical vs. systemic treatments for acute otitis media.

PubMed

Thornton, Kathy; Parrish, Francie; Swords, Christine

2011-01-01

Acute otitis media (AOM) is a common condition in children that is often treated with systemic antibiotic therapy; however, research suggests that non-complicated AOM will resolve spontaneously using only eardrops. To determine best practice for the use of systematic antibiotics compared to topical treatment of AOM, a systematic review of evidence was conducted. Cochrane, Medline, CINAHL, and other databases were searched. Inclusion criteria were studies published from 1995-2010 that included children with AOM and were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Five systematic reviews and five RCTs were included in the review. Current evidence recommends using topical and other alternative approaches for treating non-complicated AOM in children 2 years of age or older; however, many practitioners are not currently following these recommendations for various reasons. Additional research to address these reasons may help determine how to improve practitioner adherence to best practice evidence and guidelines to help reduce the unnecessary use of systemic antibiotics.

Topic Congruence and Topic Interest: How Do They Affect Second Language Reading Comprehension?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Sang-Ki

2009-01-01

Because human memory is largely reconstructive, people tend to reorganize and reevaluate an event in a way that is coherent to the truth values held in their belief system. This study investigated the role of topic congruence (defined as whether the reading content corresponds with readers' prior beliefs towards a contentious topic) in second…

Simplifying Skin Disease Diagnosis with Topical Nanotechnology.

PubMed

Yeo, David C; Xu, Chenjie

2018-05-01

A new study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering 1 documents a novel diagnostic technology that exploits topically applied nanotechnology to detect skin tissue biomarkers for diagnosis. This concept is demonstrated by noninvasively imaging connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) mRNA in abnormal scar cells, whole tissue, and animal models. In this commentary, we highlight the main findings and discuss their implications. Successful implementation in the clinic could give rise to self-applied, biopsy-free diagnostic technology and significantly reduce healthcare burden. Crucially, noninvasive visualization of disease biomarkers, mobile device signal acquisition, and Internet-enabled transmission could significantly transform the diagnosis of skin disease and other superficial tissues.

TOPICS IN THEORY OF GENERALIZED PARTON DISTRIBUTIONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Radyushkin, Anatoly V.

Several topics in the theory of generalized parton distributions (GPDs) are reviewed. First, we give a brief overview of the basics of the theory of generalized parton distributions and their relationship with simpler phenomenological functions, viz. form factors, parton densities and distribution amplitudes. Then, we discuss recent developments in building models for GPDs that are based on the formalism of double distributions (DDs). A special attention is given to a careful analysis of the singularity structure of DDs. The DD formalism is applied to construction of a model GPDs with a singular Regge behavior. Within the developed DD-based approach, wemore » discuss the structure of GPD sum rules. It is shown that separation of DDs into the so-called ``plus'' part and the $D$-term part may be treated as a renormalization procedure for the GPD sum rules. This approach is compared with an alternative prescription based on analytic regularization.« less

A Topical Overview of Cumulative Risk Assessment Concepts ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Cumulative risk assessments (CRAs) address combined risks from exposures to multiple chemical and nonchemical stressors and may focus on vulnerable communities or populations. Significant contributions have been made to the development of concepts, methods, and applications for CRA over the past decade. Work in both human health and ecological cumulative risk has advanced in two different contexts. First, in assessing the effects of chemical mixtures that share common modes of action, or that cause common adverse outcomes. In this context two primary models are used for predicting mixture effects, dose addition or response addition. The second context is evaluating the combined effects of chemical and nonchemical (e.g., radiation, biological, nutritional, economic, psychological, habitat alteration, land-use change, global climate change, and natural disasters) stressors. CRA can be adapted to address risk in many contexts, and this adaptability is reflected in the range in disciplinary perspectives in the published literature. This article presents the results of a literature search by presenting a range of selected work with the intention to give a broad overview of relevant topics and provide a starting point for researchers interested in CRA applications. This is a select literature review of topics in CRA. As a published article it will allow the citation of an analysis conducted on a rich and diverse set of CRA publications relevant to assessment methods

Topical oxygen as an adjunct to wound healing: a clinical case series.

PubMed

Kalliainen, Loree K.; Gordillo, Gayle M.; Schlanger, Richard; Sen, Chandan K.

2003-01-01

BACKGROUND: Disrupted vasculature and high energy-demand to support processing and regeneration of wounded tissue are typical characteristics of a wound site. Oxygen delivery is a critical element for the healing of wounds. Clinical experience with adjunctive hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of chronic wounds have shown that wound hyperoxia increases wound granulation tissue formation and accelerates wound contraction and secondary closure. Nevertheless, the physiologic basis for this modality remains largely unknown. Also, systemic hyperbaric oxygen therapy is associated with risks related to oxygen toxicity. Topical oxygen therapy represents a less explored modality in wound care. The advantages of topical oxygen therapy include low cost, lack of systemic oxygen toxicity, and the ability to receive treatment at home, making the benefits of oxygen therapy available to a much larger population of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Over 9 months, seven surgeons treated 58 wounds in 32 patients with topical oxygen with follow-up ranging from 1 to 8 months. The data presented herein is a retrospective analysis of the results we have achieved using topical oxygen on complex wounds. RESULTS: Thirty-eight wounds in 15 patients healed while on topical oxygen. An additional five wounds in five patients had preoperative oxygen therapy; all wounds initially healed postoperatively. In two patients, wounds recurred post-healing. In ten wounds, topical oxygen had no effect; and two of those patients went on to require limb amputation. There were no complications attributable to topical oxygen. Three patients died during therapy and one died in the first postoperative month from underlying medical problems. Two patients were lost to follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: In this case series, topical oxygen had no detrimental effects on wounds and showed beneficial indications in promoting wound healing.

The topical treatment of psoriasis.

PubMed

van de Kerkhof, P C M; Vissers, W H P M

2003-01-01

According to the patients, improvement of efficacy, long-term safety and improvement of compliance are needed. The topical treatment has been innovated during the last decade. Most important are the introduction of two new classes of treatments: topical vitamin D(3) analogues and the retinoid tazarotene. To what extent, however, have we achieved developments which are in line with the needs as expressed by the patients? Improved efficacy has been realized by successful combinations of topical treatments. In particular, the combinations of dithranol, vitamin D(3) and tazarotene with a topical corticosteroid proved to be very effective with a reduced profile of side-effects. The efficacy of vitamin D(3) analogues and tazarotene is such that the efficacy of a potent corticosteroid (betamethasone-17-valerate) is approached; calcipotriol even showed an efficacy which is at least as good as this corticosteroid. The long-term safety of new compounds has been evaluated for at least 12 months in large studies. Remarkably for corticosteroids such information is available for only 12 weeks. However, intermittent applications of a topical corticosteroid in combination with another topical treatment provide an effective and safe long-term control of psoriasis. Compliance is a conditio sine qua non for an effective topical treatment. Important progress has been made to increase compliance. Short-contact dithranol has been popularized as an ambulatory treatment which is a highly effective approach as a care instruction programme. Formulations which are better from a cosmetical point of view have been developed for various topical treatments. Reduction of the frequency of applications proved to be possible for most treatments. Once daily applications for corticosteroids, vitamin D(3) analogues and retinoids have been developed, and intermittent applications, a few times per week, are possible for corticosteroids, which proved to be very effective with a reduced profile of side

The Use of a Virtual Online Debating Platform to Facilitate Student Discussion of Potentially Polarising Topics.

PubMed

McGreevy, Paul D; Tzioumis, Vicky; Degeling, Chris; Johnson, Jane; Brown, Robert; Sands, Mike; Starling, Melissa J; Phillips, Clive J C

2017-09-02

The merits of students exchanging views through the so-called human continuum exercise (HCE) are well established. The current article describes the creation of the virtual human continuum (VHC), an online platform that facilitates the same teaching exercise. It also reports feedback on the VHC from veterinary science students ( n = 38). First-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students at the University of Sydney, Australia, trialed the platform and provided feedback. Most students agreed or strongly agreed that the VHC offered: a non-threatening environment for discussing emotive and challenging issues; and an opportunity to see how other people form ideas. It also made them think about how to express their ideas and make arguments; and left them feeling more comfortable about expressing their views using it than they would discussing ideas face-to-face (98%, 84%, 79% and 76%, respectively). All respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the VHC encouraged them to consider other opinions. These data suggest that the transition of the HCE to an online platform facilitates dialogue on difficult ethical issues in a supportive environment.

Efficacy of Topical Alpha Ointment (Containing Natural Henna) Compared to Topical Hydrocortisone (1%) in the Healing of Radiation-Induced Dermatitis in Patients with Breast Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

PubMed Central

Ansari, Mansour; Dehsara, Farzin; Mosalaei, Ahmad; Omidvari, Shapour; Ahmadloo, Niloofar; Mohammadianpanah, Mohammad

2013-01-01

Background: This two-arm, randomized clinical study aimed to compare efficacy between topical Alpha ointment and topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) in the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis in breast cancer patients. Methods: The inclusion criteria comprised newly pathologically proven, locally advanced breast cancer (treated with modified radical mastectomy followed by sequential adjuvant treatments, including chest wall radiotherapy [45-50.4 Gy]) and grade 2 and/or 3 chest wall dermatitis. The exclusion criteria were comprised of any underlying disease or medications interfering with the wound healing process, previous history of chest wall radiotherapy, and concurrent use of chemotherapy. Sixty eligible patients were randomly assigned to use either topical Alpha ointment (study arm, n=30) or topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) (control arm, n=30) immediately after receiving a total dose of 45-50 Gy chest wall radiotherapy. Results: The mean radiation dose was 49.1 Gy in the control arm and 48.8 Gy in the study arm. The mean dermatitis area was 13.54 cm2 in the control arm and 17.02 cm2 in the study arm. Topical Alpha ointment was more effective on the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis than was topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) (P=0.001). This effect was significant in the second week (P=0.007). In addition, Alpha ointment decreased the patients’ complaints such as pain (P<0.001), pruritus (P=0.009), and discharge (P=0.010) effectively and meaningfully. Conclusion: Topical Alpha ointment was more effective on the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis than was topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) in our patients with breast cancer. Trial Registration Numbers: IRCT201206099979N1, ACTRN12612000837820 PMID:24293782

Efficacy of topical alpha ointment (containing natural henna) compared to topical hydrocortisone (1%) in the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis in patients with breast cancer: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

PubMed

Ansari, Mansour; Farzin, Dehsara; Mosalaei, Ahmad; Omidvari, Shapour; Ahmadloo, Niloofar; Mohammadianpanah, Mohammad

2013-12-01

This two-arm, randomized clinical study aimed to compare efficacy between topical Alpha ointment and topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) in the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis in breast cancer patients. The inclusion criteria comprised newly pathologically proven, locally advanced breast cancer (treated with modified radical mastectomy followed by sequential adjuvant treatments, including chest wall radiotherapy [45-50.4 Gy]) and grade 2 and/or 3 chest wall dermatitis. The exclusion criteria were comprised of any underlying disease or medications interfering with the wound healing process, previous history of chest wall radiotherapy, and concurrent use of chemotherapy. Sixty eligible patients were randomly assigned to use either topical Alpha ointment (study arm, n=30) or topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) (control arm, n=30) immediately after receiving a total dose of 45-50 Gy chest wall radiotherapy. The mean radiation dose was 49.1 Gy in the control arm and 48.8 Gy in the study arm. The mean dermatitis area was 13.54 cm(2) in the control arm and 17.02 cm(2) in the study arm. Topical Alpha ointment was more effective on the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis than was topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) (P=0.001). This effect was significant in the second week (P=0.007). In addition, Alpha ointment decreased the patients' complaints such as pain (P<0.001), pruritus (P=0.009), and discharge (P=0.010) effectively and meaningfully. Topical Alpha ointment was more effective on the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis than was topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) in our patients with breast cancer. IRCT201206099979N1, ACTRN12612000837820.

Topical vitamin C: a useful agent for treating photoaging and other dermatologic conditions.

PubMed

Farris, Patricia K

2005-07-01

Cosmeceuticals containing antioxidants are among the most popular antiaging remedies. Topically applied antioxidants exert their benefits by offering protection from damaging free radicals produced when skin is exposed to ultraviolet light or allowed to age naturally. Vitamin C is a naturally occurring potent water-soluble antioxidant. Accordingly, it has been incorporated into a variety of cosmeceuticals designed to protect and rejuvenate photoaged skin. This article reviews the scientific data and clinical studies supporting the use of topically applied vitamin C for treating photoaged skin. Other innovative uses for vitamin C cosmeceuticals are also discussed. A significant body of scientific research supports the use of cosmeceuticals containing vitamin C. Cutaneous benefits include promoting collagen synthesis, photoprotection from ultraviolet A and B, lightening hyperpigmentation, and improvement of a variety of inflammatory dermatoses. Because of the diverse biologic effects of this compound, topical vitamin C has become a useful part of the dermatologist's armamentarium.

The Interplay between Topic Shift and Focus in the Dynamic Construction of Discourse Representations.

PubMed

Yang, Xiaohong; Zhang, Xiuping; Wang, Cheng; Chang, Ruohan; Li, Weijun

2017-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that focusing an element can enhance the activation of the focused element and bring about a number of processing benefits. However, whether and how this local prominence of information interacts with global discourse organization remains unclear. In the present study, we addressed this issue in two experiments. Readers were presented with four-sentence discourses. The first sentence of each discourse contained a critical word that was either focused or unfocused in relation to a wh-question preceding the discourse. The second sentence either maintained or shifted the topic of the first sentence. Participants were told to read for comprehension and for a probe recognition task in which the memory of the critical words was tested. In Experiment 1, when the probe words were tested immediately after the point of topic shift, we found shorter response times for the focused critical words than the unfocused ones regardless of topic manipulation. However, in Experiment 2, when the probe words were tested two sentences away from the point of topic shift, we found the facilitation effect of focus only in the topic-maintained discourses, but not in the topic-shifted discourses. This suggests that the facilitation effect of focus was not immediately suppressed at the point of topic shifting, but when additional information was added to the new topic. Our findings provide evidence for the dynamic interplay between global topic structure and local salience of information and have important implications on how activation of information fluctuates in mental representation.

The Interplay between Topic Shift and Focus in the Dynamic Construction of Discourse Representations

PubMed Central

Yang, Xiaohong; Zhang, Xiuping; Wang, Cheng; Chang, Ruohan; Li, Weijun

2017-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that focusing an element can enhance the activation of the focused element and bring about a number of processing benefits. However, whether and how this local prominence of information interacts with global discourse organization remains unclear. In the present study, we addressed this issue in two experiments. Readers were presented with four-sentence discourses. The first sentence of each discourse contained a critical word that was either focused or unfocused in relation to a wh-question preceding the discourse. The second sentence either maintained or shifted the topic of the first sentence. Participants were told to read for comprehension and for a probe recognition task in which the memory of the critical words was tested. In Experiment 1, when the probe words were tested immediately after the point of topic shift, we found shorter response times for the focused critical words than the unfocused ones regardless of topic manipulation. However, in Experiment 2, when the probe words were tested two sentences away from the point of topic shift, we found the facilitation effect of focus only in the topic-maintained discourses, but not in the topic-shifted discourses. This suggests that the facilitation effect of focus was not immediately suppressed at the point of topic shifting, but when additional information was added to the new topic. Our findings provide evidence for the dynamic interplay between global topic structure and local salience of information and have important implications on how activation of information fluctuates in mental representation. PMID:29276496

Topical Acne Treatments and Pregnancy

MedlinePlus

... are benzoyl peroxide, azelaic acid, glycolic acid, and salicylic acid. Prescription acne medications include tretinoin, adapalene, dapsone, and ... ACOG) recommends topical benzoyl peroxide, azelaic acid, topical salicylic acid and glycolic acid for treatment of acne in ...

PREFACE: The first meeting of the APS Topical Group on Hadronic Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnes, Ted; Godfrey, Steve; Petrov, Alexey A.; Swanson, Eric

2005-01-01

The first meeting of the APS Topical Group on Hadronic Physics (`GHP') took place on 24-26 October 2004, at Fermilab. Two factors contributed to the decision to hold this meeting. First, the Topical Group on Hadronic Physics had recently been established, and there was general agreement that a conference devoted to the physics of hadrons was an important group activity. Second, many exciting new experimental results on hadron spectroscopy had been announced recently, and there was intense interest in these new developments. The meeting was very well attended, with over 120 scientists participating; this was triple our original estimate of the likely audience for this meeting. The plenary sessions covered a broad range of topics, as we considered it important to promote communication between the communities pursuing research in different areas of hadron physics. The topics discussed included new results from RHIC on the QGP, the status of experiments on the flavour-exotic pentaquark and other new baryons, the new open-charm Ds and hidden-charm X states, conventional light quark resonances, glueballs and hybrids, and new facilities. Finally, a `town meeting' was held to discuss funding prospects for hadronic physics and related issues, which included a panel discussion with representatives from DOE, NSF and JLab. These plenary sessions were supplemented by 14 parallel sessions, giving a total of approximately 80 presentations. To make the conference more accessible to younger researchers, as well as to simiplify administration, there was no conference fee for this meeting. This was possible as a result of the generous financial support of our hosts at Fermilab, for which we are very appreciative. We are also grateful to Larry Cardman for arranging Jlab assistance in producing and distributing the conference poster, to Gerald Ragghianti for designing the poster and proceedings cover, and to Lali Chatterjee and the Institute of Physics for arranging publication of the

A hairy fall: syncope resulting from topical application of minoxidil.

PubMed

Dubrey, S W; VanGriethuysen, J; Edwards, C M B

2015-09-07

We describe the case of a young man who developed syncope after using a high strength formulation of topical minoxidil as a hair growth restorer. Other potential cardiovascular and endocrine causes were excluded, and his symptoms resolved on discontinuation of the product. While syncope is a recognised side effect of using this powerful systemic antihypertensive agent, few cases are documented in the literature, which we illustrate in our discussion. 2015 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

Toward Developing Laboratory-Based Parent-Adolescent Conflict Discussion Tasks that Consistently Elicit Adolescent Conflict-Related Stress Responses: Support from Physiology and Observed Behavior.

PubMed

Thomas, Sarah A; Wilson, Tristan; Jain, Anjali; Deros, Danielle E; Um, Miji; Hurwitz, Joanna; Jacobs, Irene; Myerberg, Lindsay; Ehrlich, Katherine B; Dunn, Emily J; Aldao, Amelia; Stadnik, Ryan; De Los Reyes, Andres

2017-12-01

Parent-adolescent conflict poses risk for youth maladjustment. One potential mechanism of this risk is that stress in the form of increased arousal during conflict interactions results in adolescents' impaired decision-making. However, eliciting consistent adolescent stress responses within laboratory-based tasks of parent-adolescent conflict (i.e., conflict discussion tasks) is hindered by task design. This limitation may stem from how conflict topics are assessed and selected for discussion. Within a sample of 47 adolescents (ages 14-17) and parents, we investigated whether a modified version of a conflict discussion task could elicit physiological (i.e., arousal) and behavioral (i.e., hostility) displays of adolescents' conflict-related stress responses. We assessed parent-adolescent conflict via structured interview to identify topics for dyads to discuss during the task. We randomly assigned dyads to complete a 5-minute task to discuss either a putatively benign topic (i.e., control condition) or a conflict topic while undergoing direct assessments of continuous arousal. Trained raters coded dyad members' hostile behavior during the task. Adolescents in the conflict condition exhibited significantly greater levels of arousal than adolescents in the control condition. We observed an interaction between discussion condition and baseline conflict. Specifically, higher baseline conflict predicted greater hostile behavior for adolescents in the conflict condition, yet we observed the inverse relation for adolescents in the control condition. Our modified laboratory discussion task successfully elicited both physiological and behavioral displays of adolescent conflict-related stress. These findings have important implications for leveraging experimental paradigms to understand causal links between parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent psychopathology, and their underlying mechanisms.

Discussions in the home about sex: different recollections by parents and children.

PubMed

King, B M; Lorusso, J

1997-01-01

University students and their parents were asked whether they had ever had a meaningful discussion about sex. More than half of the students answered No, yet in 60% of these cases, one or both parents said that there had been meaningful discussions. Students and their parents most frequently disagreed about the topics of sexually transmitted diseases, sexual intercourse, reproduction, birth control, homosexuality, and sexual abuse. Mothers were more likely than fathers to have had discussions that daughters considered to be meaningful, and as likely as fathers in the case of sons. Parents who indicated that they had had meaningful discussions about sex with their parents while growing up were much more likely than other parents to have had discussions that their own children recognized as meaningful. Nevertheless, the results demonstrate that many parents greatly underestimate the extent of factual information that their children wish to learn about sexuality.

Survey of selected topics relevant to bioprocess engineering. Technical note (Final)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hubbard, J.B.; Clark, E.J.; Levelt Sengers, J.M.H.

1990-05-01

The following is a collection of reports on topics considered important and generic in biotechnology and bioprocess engineering: (1) Isoelectric points of proteins; (2) Solubility and mass transfer of oxygen in bioreactors; (3) Solubility and mass transfer of carbon dioxide in bioreactors. The reports arose from a survey of the past and current biotechnology literature with special effort given to a critique of data measurement quality. The format is as follows. The technological importance of a topic is briefly discussed, followed by a critical review of relevant physical properties, data presentation, and measurement techniques. A conclusions and recommendations section summarizesmore » the findings and contains specific recommendations for future research projects. The last section consists of an annotated bibliography and references pertaining to the survey.« less

DisVis: Visualizing Discussion Threads in Online Health Communities.

PubMed

Nakikj, Drashko; Mamykina, Lena

2016-01-01

An increasing number of individuals turn to online health communities (OHC) for information, advice and support about their health condition or disease. As a result of users' active participation, these forums store overwhelming volumes of information, which can make access to this information challenging and frustrating. To help overcome this problem we designed a discussion visualization tool DisVis. DisVis includes features for overviewing, browsing and finding particular information in a discussion. In a between subjects study, we tested the impact of DisVis on individuals' ability to provide an overview of a discussion, find topics of interest and summarize opinions. The study showed that after using the tool, the accuracy of participants' answers increased by 68% (p-value = 0.023) while at the same time exhibiting trends for reducing the time to answer by 38% with no statistical significance (p-value = 0.082). Qualitative interviews showed general enthusiasm regarding tools for improving browsing and searching for information within discussion forums, suggested different usage scenarios, highlighted opportunities for improving the design of DisVis, and outlined new directions for visualizing user-generated content within OHCs.

Treatment of pruritus with topically applied opiate receptor antagonist.

PubMed

Bigliardi, Paul L; Stammer, Holger; Jost, Gerhard; Rufli, Theo; Büchner, Stanislaw; Bigliardi-Qi, Mei

2007-06-01

MOR staining was not possible. In addition, there was an insufficient number of patients with nephrogenic pruritus and pruritic psoriasis to draw definitive conclusions. The placebo-controlled study showed a significant advantage of topically applied naltrexone over the placebo formulation. This finding is supported by the biopsy results from the open studies, showing a regulation of MOR expression in epidermis after treatment with topical naltrexone, especially in atopic dermatitis. These results clearly show potential for topically applied opioid receptor antagonist in the treatment of pruritus. The placebo formulation also had some antipruritic effects. This underlines the importance of rehydration therapy for dry skin in the treatment of pruritus.

Identifying Topics for E-Cigarette User-Generated Contents: A Case Study From Multiple Social Media Platforms.

PubMed

Zhan, Yongcheng; Liu, Ruoran; Li, Qiudan; Leischow, Scott James; Zeng, Daniel Dajun

2017-01-20

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) is an emerging product with a rapid-growth market in recent years. Social media has become an important platform for information seeking and sharing. We aim to mine hidden topics from e-cigarette datasets collected from different social media platforms. This paper aims to gain a systematic understanding of the characteristics of various types of social media, which will provide deep insights into how consumers and policy makers effectively use social media to track e-cigarette-related content and adjust their decisions and policies. We collected data from Reddit (27,638 e-cigarette flavor-related posts from January 1, 2011, to June 30, 2015), JuiceDB (14,433 e-juice reviews from June 26, 2013 to November 12, 2015), and Twitter (13,356 "e-cig ban"-related tweets from January, 1, 2010 to June 30, 2015). Latent Dirichlet Allocation, a generative model for topic modeling, was used to analyze the topics from these data. We found four types of topics across the platforms: (1) promotions, (2) flavor discussions, (3) experience sharing, and (4) regulation debates. Promotions included sales from vendors to users, as well as trades among users. A total of 10.72% (2,962/27,638) of the posts from Reddit were related to trading. Promotion links were found between social media platforms. Most of the links (87.30%) in JuiceDB were related to Reddit posts. JuiceDB and Reddit identified consistent flavor categories. E-cigarette vaping methods and features such as steeping, throat hit, and vapor production were broadly discussed both on Reddit and on JuiceDB. Reddit provided space for policy discussions and majority of the posts (60.7%) holding a negative attitude toward regulations, whereas Twitter was used to launch campaigns using certain hashtags. Our findings are based on data across different platforms. The topic distribution between Reddit and JuiceDB was significantly different (P<.001), which indicated that the user discussions focused on

Home healthcare nurse retention and patient outcome model: discussion and model development.

PubMed

Ellenbecker, Carol Hall; Cushman, Margaret

2012-08-01

This paper discusses additions to an empirically tested model of home healthcare nurse retention. An argument is made that the variables of shared decision-making and organizational commitment be added to the model based on the authors' previous research and additional evidence from the literature. Previous research testing the home healthcare nurse retention model established empirical relationships between nurse, agency, and area characteristics to nurse job satisfaction, intent to stay, and retention. Unexplained model variance prompted a new literature search to augment understanding of nurse retention and patient and agency outcomes. Data come from the authors' previous research, and a literature search from 1990 to 2011 on the topics organizational commitment, shared decision-making, nurse retention, patient outcomes and agency performance. The literature provides a rationale for the additional variables of shared decision-making and affective and continuous organizational commitment, linking these variables to nurse job satisfaction, nurse intent to stay, nurse retention and patient outcomes and agency performance. Implications for nursing.  The new variables in the model suggest that all agencies, even those not struggling to retain nurses, should develop interventions to enhance nurse job satisfaction to assure quality patient outcomes. The new nurse retention and patient outcome model increases our understanding of nurse retention. An understanding of the relationship among these variables will guide future research and the development of interventions to create and maintain nursing work environments that contribute to nurse affective agency commitment, nurse retention and quality of patient outcomes. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Potentiation of ALA-PDT antitumor activity in mice using topical DMXAA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marrero, Allison; Sunar, Ulas; Sands, Theresa; Oseroff, Allan; Bellnier, David

2009-06-01

Photodynamic treatment of subcutaneously implanted Colon 26 tumors in BALB/c mice using the aminolevulinic acid (ALA)-induced photosensitizer protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) was shown to be enhanced by the addition of the vascular disrupting agent 5,6-Dimethylxanthenone-4-acetic-acid (DMXAA; Novartis ASA404). DMXAA increases vascular permeability and decreases blood flow in both murine and human tumors. Sufficiently high parenteral DMXAA doses can lead to tumor collapse and necrosis. We have previously reported marked enhancement of antitumor activity when PDT, using either Photofrin or HPPH, is combined with low-dose intraperitoneal DMXAA. We now describe the first attempt to combine topically-applied DMXAA with PDT. For this, DMXAA was applied two hours before PpIX-activating light delivery. PDT with ALA-PDT alone (ALA 20%; 80 J/cm2 delivered at 75 mW/cm2) caused a 39% decrease in tumor volume compared to unirradiated controls. Addition of topical DMXAA to ALA-PDT resulted in a 74% reduction in tumor volume. Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS), a non-invasive blood flow imaging method, is being used to understand the mechanism of this effect and to aid in the proper design of the therapy. For instance, our most recent DCS data suggests that the 2-hour interval between the DMXAA and light applications may not be optimum. This preliminary study suggests a potential role for topical DMXAA in combination with PDT for dermatologic tumors.

Group Random Call Can Positively Affect Student In-Class Clicker Discussions

PubMed Central

Knight, Jennifer K.; Wise, Sarah B.; Sieke, Scott

2016-01-01

Understanding how instructional techniques and classroom norms influence in-class student interactions has the potential to positively impact student learning. Many previous studies have shown that students benefit from discussing their ideas with one another in class. In this study of introductory biology students, we explored how using an in-class accountability system might affect the nature of clicker-question discussions. Clicker-question discussions in which student groups were asked to report their ideas voluntarily (volunteer call) were compared with discussions in which student groups were randomly selected to report their ideas (random call). We hypothesized that the higher-accountability condition (random call) would impress upon students the importance of their discussions and thus positively influence how they interacted. Our results suggest that a higher proportion of discussions in the random call condition contained exchanges of reasoning, some forms of questioning, and both on- and off-topic comments compared with discussion in the volunteer call condition. Although group random call does not impact student performance on clicker questions, the positive impact of this instructional approach on exchanges of reasoning and other features suggests it may encourage some types of student interactions that support learning. PMID:27856544

Multi-Topic Tracking Model for dynamic social network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yuhua; Liu, Changzheng; Zhao, Ming; Li, Ruixuan; Xiao, Hailing; Wang, Kai; Zhang, Jun

2016-07-01

The topic tracking problem has attracted much attention in the last decades. However, existing approaches rarely consider network structures and textual topics together. In this paper, we propose a novel statistical model based on dynamic bayesian network, namely Multi-Topic Tracking Model for Dynamic Social Network (MTTD). It takes influence phenomenon, selection phenomenon, document generative process and the evolution of textual topics into account. Specifically, in our MTTD model, Gibbs Random Field is defined to model the influence of historical status of users in the network and the interdependency between them in order to consider the influence phenomenon. To address the selection phenomenon, a stochastic block model is used to model the link generation process based on the users' interests to topics. Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) is used to describe the document generative process according to the users' interests. Finally, the dependence on the historical topic status is also considered to ensure the continuity of the topic itself in topic evolution model. Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm is utilized to estimate parameters in the proposed MTTD model. Empirical experiments on real datasets show that the MTTD model performs better than Popular Event Tracking (PET) and Dynamic Topic Model (DTM) in generalization performance, topic interpretability performance, topic content evolution and topic popularity evolution performance.

Google Search Queries About Neurosurgical Topics: Are They a Suitable Guide for Neurosurgeons?

PubMed

Lawson McLean, Anna C; Lawson McLean, Aaron; Kalff, Rolf; Walter, Jan

2016-06-01

Google is the most popular search engine, with about 100 billion searches per month. Google Trends is an integrated tool that allows users to obtain Google's search popularity statistics from the last decade. Our aim was to evaluate whether Google Trends is a useful tool to assess the public's interest in specific neurosurgical topics. We evaluated Google Trends statistics for the neurosurgical search topic areas "hydrocephalus," "spinal stenosis," "concussion," "vestibular schwannoma," and "cerebral arteriovenous malformation." We compared these with bibliometric data from PubMed and epidemiologic data from the German Federal Monitoring Agency. In addition, we assessed Google users' search behavior for the search terms "glioblastoma" and "meningioma." Over the last 10 years, there has been an increasing interest in the topic "concussion" from Internet users in general and scientists. "Spinal stenosis," "concussion," and "vestibular schwannoma" are topics that are of special interest in high-income countries (eg, Germany), whereas "hydrocephalus" is a popular topic in low- and middle-income countries. The Google-defined top searches within these topic areas revealed more detail about people's interests (eg, "normal pressure hydrocephalus" or "football concussion" ranked among the most popular search queries within the corresponding topics). There was a similar volume of queries for "glioblastoma" and "meningioma." Google Trends is a useful source to elicit information about general trends in peoples' health interests and the role of different diseases across the world. The Internet presence of neurosurgical units and surgeons can be guided by online users' interests to achieve high-quality, professional-endorsed patient education. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cystic fibrosis research topics featured at the 14th ECFS Basic Science Conference: Chairman's summary.

PubMed

Mall, Marcus A; Hwang, Tzyh-Chang; Braakman, Ineke

2018-03-01

In recent years, tremendous progress has been made in the development of novel drugs targeting the basic defect in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). This breakthrough is based on a solid foundation of knowledge on CFTR's function in health and how mutations in CFTR cause CF multi-organ disease. This knowledge has been collected and continuously expanded by an active and persistent CF research community and has paved the way for precision medicine for CF. Since 2004, the European Cystic Fibrosis Society (ECFS) has held an annual Basic Science Conference that has evolved as an international forum for interdisciplinary discussion of hot topics and unsolved questions related to CF research. This Special Issue reviews CF research topics featured at the 14th ECFS Basic Science Conference and provides an up-to-date overview of recent progress in our understanding of CFTR structure and function, disease mechanisms implicated in airway mucus plugging, inflammation and abnormal host-pathogen interactions, and advancements with enhanced cell and animal model systems and breakthrough therapies directed at mutant CFTR or alternative targets. In addition, this Special Issue also identifies a number of fundamental questions and hurdles that still have to be overcome to realize the full potential of precision medicine and develop transformative therapies for all patients with CF. Copyright © 2017 European Cystic Fibrosis Society. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deep Unfolding for Topic Models.

PubMed

Chien, Jen-Tzung; Lee, Chao-Hsi

2018-02-01

Deep unfolding provides an approach to integrate the probabilistic generative models and the deterministic neural networks. Such an approach is benefited by deep representation, easy interpretation, flexible learning and stochastic modeling. This study develops the unsupervised and supervised learning of deep unfolded topic models for document representation and classification. Conventionally, the unsupervised and supervised topic models are inferred via the variational inference algorithm where the model parameters are estimated by maximizing the lower bound of logarithm of marginal likelihood using input documents without and with class labels, respectively. The representation capability or classification accuracy is constrained by the variational lower bound and the tied model parameters across inference procedure. This paper aims to relax these constraints by directly maximizing the end performance criterion and continuously untying the parameters in learning process via deep unfolding inference (DUI). The inference procedure is treated as the layer-wise learning in a deep neural network. The end performance is iteratively improved by using the estimated topic parameters according to the exponentiated updates. Deep learning of topic models is therefore implemented through a back-propagation procedure. Experimental results show the merits of DUI with increasing number of layers compared with variational inference in unsupervised as well as supervised topic models.

Sinonasal tumor in 3 dogs after successful topical treatment for frontal sinus aspergillosis

PubMed Central

Greci, Valentina; Stefanello, Damiano; Di Giancamillo, Mauro; Mortellaro, Carlo M.

2009-01-01

Three dogs diagnosed with aspergillosis developed sinonasal tumors several months after successful treatment with topical clotrimazole solution. Chronic rhinosinusitis was also detected in all cases prior to diagnosis of sinonasal tumors. The inflammatory response to Aspergillus, clotrimazole treatment, and chronic inflammation after treatment are discussed as possible neoplastic promoting factors. PMID:20119545

Alkemio: association of chemicals with biomedical topics by text and data mining

PubMed Central

Gijón-Correas, José A.; Andrade-Navarro, Miguel A.; Fontaine, Jean F.

2014-01-01

The PubMed® database of biomedical citations allows the retrieval of scientific articles studying the function of chemicals in biology and medicine. Mining millions of available citations to search reported associations between chemicals and topics of interest would require substantial human time. We have implemented the Alkemio text mining web tool and SOAP web service to help in this task. The tool uses biomedical articles discussing chemicals (including drugs), predicts their relatedness to the query topic with a naïve Bayesian classifier and ranks all chemicals by P-values computed from random simulations. Benchmarks on seven human pathways showed good retrieval performance (areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves ranged from 73.6 to 94.5%). Comparison with existing tools to retrieve chemicals associated to eight diseases showed the higher precision and recall of Alkemio when considering the top 10 candidate chemicals. Alkemio is a high performing web tool ranking chemicals for any biomedical topics and it is free to non-commercial users. Availability: http://cbdm.mdc-berlin.de/∼medlineranker/cms/alkemio. PMID:24838570

Additive Manufacturing of Composites and Complex Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spowart, Jonathan E.; Gupta, Nikhil; Lehmhus, Dirk

2018-03-01

Advanced composite materials form an important class of high-performance industrial materials used in weight-sensitive applications such as aerospace structures, automotive structures and sports equipment. In many of these applications, parts are made in small production runs, are highly customized and involve long process development times. Developments in additive manufacturing (AM) methods have helped in overcoming many of these limitations. The special topic of Additive Manufacturing of Composites and Complex Materials captures the state of the art in this area by collecting nine papers that present much novel advancement in this field. The studies under this topic show advancement in the area of AM of carbon fiber and graphene-reinforced composites with high thermal and electrical conductivities, development of new hollow glass particle-filled syntactic foam filaments for printing lightweight structures and integration of sensors or actuators during AM of metallic parts. Some of the studies are focused on process optimization or modification to increase the manufacturing speed or tuning manufacturing techniques to enable AM of new materials.

Effects of topical arnica gel on post-laser treatment bruises.

PubMed

Alonso, Delilah; Lazarus, Melissa C; Baumann, Leslie

2002-08-01

Claims have been made suggesting that topical arnica prevents and speeds the resolution of bruises, yet there are no well-designed placebo-controlled studies to date evaluating topical arnica's effect on bruising. To compare the efficacy of topical arnica in the prevention and resolution of laser-induced bruising. Nineteen patients with facial telangiectases were enrolled in this randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study and were divided into pretreatment and posttreatment groups. The pretreatment group applied arnica with vehicle to one side of the face and vehicle alone to the other side of the face twice a day for 2 weeks prior to laser treatment. The posttreatment group followed the same procedure for 2 weeks after laser treatment. On day 0, all patients were treated for facial telangiectases using a 585 nm pulsed dye laser. Bruising was assessed using a visual analog scale on days 0, 3, 7, 10, 14, and 17 by the patient and the physician. In addition, photographs taken at each of the follow-up visits were later assessed by a second physician using the visual analog scale. There was no statistically significant difference between the mean scores of arnica and vehicle (P = 0.496) and the mean scores of arnica and vehicle (P = 0.359) in the pretreatment and posttreatment groups, respectively. No significant difference was found between topical arnica and vehicle in the prevention or resolution of bruising.

Oesophageal lichen planus: the efficacy of topical steroid-based therapies.

PubMed

Podboy, A; Sunjaya, D; Smyrk, T C; Murray, J A; Binder, M; Katzka, D A; Alexander, J A; Halland, M

2017-01-01

Oesophageal lichen planus is an idiopathic inflammatory disorder characterized by significant oesophageal stricturing. Oesophageal lichen planus is a rare, difficult to diagnose, and likely an under recognized disease. As a result, there is no standardized approach to therapy and treatment strategies vary. To examine the utility of topical steroid therapy (fluticasone or budesonide) in the management of oesophageal lichen planus. A retrospective chart review was conducted of patients diagnosed with oesophageal lichen planus who underwent baseline and follow up endoscopy pre and post topical steroid therapy between 1995 and 2016 at Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN. Average time between upper GI endoscopy was 3.2 months (0.7-11.7). Swallowed steroid preparations included fluticasone 880 μg twice daily or budesonide 3 mg twice daily. Patients were reviewed for symptomatic response to therapy using the Dakkak-Bennett dysphagia score (0-4, no dysphagia to total aphagia). Pre- and post-endoscopic findings were assessed. Additional baseline demographic, endoscopic, and histologic data were also obtained. We identified 40 patients who met the inclusion criteria. A significant reduction in median dysphagia score from 1 (0-4) to 0 (0-3) after steroid therapy (P < 0.001) was noted. 62% of patients reported resolution of their dysphagia after receiving topical corticosteroids. 72.5% had an endoscopic response to steroid therapy. Topical swallowed budesonide or fluticasone appear to effective treatment for oesophageal lichen planus. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Impact of Topic Characteristics and Threat on Willingness to Engage with Wikipedia Articles: Insights from Laboratory Experiments

PubMed Central

Yenikent, Seren; Holtz, Peter; Kimmerle, Joachim

2017-01-01

A growing body of research aims to identify the factors that motivate people to make contributions in Wikipedia. We conducted two laboratory experiments to investigate the connections between topic characteristics, perception of threat, and willingness to engage with Wikipedia articles. In Study 1 (N = 83), we examined how topic familiarity, topic controversiality, and mortality salience influenced participants’ willingness to engage with Wikipedia articles. We presented the introduction parts of 20 Wikipedia articles and asked participants to rate each article with respect to familiarity and controversiality. In addition, we experimentally manipulated participants’ level of mortality salience in terms of the amount of threat they experienced when reading the article. Participants also indicated their willingness to engage with a particular article. The results revealed that familiar and controversial topics increased the willingness to engage with Wikipedia articles. Although mortality salience increased accessibility of death-related thoughts, it did not result in any changes in people’s willingness to work with the articles. The aim of Study 2 (N = 90) was to replicate the effects of topic characteristics by following a similar procedure. We additionally manipulated uncertainty salience by assigning participants to three experimental conditions: uncertainty salience, certainty salience, and non-salience. As expected, familiar and controversial topics were of high interest in terms of willingness to contribute. However, the manipulation of uncertainty salience did not yield any significant results despite the emergence of negative emotional states. In sum, we demonstrated that topic characteristics were factors that substantially influenced people’s willingness to engage with Wikipedia articles whereas perceived threat was not. PMID:29163323

The Impact of Topic Characteristics and Threat on Willingness to Engage with Wikipedia Articles: Insights from Laboratory Experiments.

PubMed

Yenikent, Seren; Holtz, Peter; Kimmerle, Joachim

2017-01-01

A growing body of research aims to identify the factors that motivate people to make contributions in Wikipedia. We conducted two laboratory experiments to investigate the connections between topic characteristics, perception of threat, and willingness to engage with Wikipedia articles. In Study 1 ( N = 83), we examined how topic familiarity, topic controversiality, and mortality salience influenced participants' willingness to engage with Wikipedia articles. We presented the introduction parts of 20 Wikipedia articles and asked participants to rate each article with respect to familiarity and controversiality. In addition, we experimentally manipulated participants' level of mortality salience in terms of the amount of threat they experienced when reading the article. Participants also indicated their willingness to engage with a particular article. The results revealed that familiar and controversial topics increased the willingness to engage with Wikipedia articles. Although mortality salience increased accessibility of death-related thoughts, it did not result in any changes in people's willingness to work with the articles. The aim of Study 2 ( N = 90) was to replicate the effects of topic characteristics by following a similar procedure. We additionally manipulated uncertainty salience by assigning participants to three experimental conditions: uncertainty salience, certainty salience, and non-salience. As expected, familiar and controversial topics were of high interest in terms of willingness to contribute. However, the manipulation of uncertainty salience did not yield any significant results despite the emergence of negative emotional states. In sum, we demonstrated that topic characteristics were factors that substantially influenced people's willingness to engage with Wikipedia articles whereas perceived threat was not.

Topical nutraceutical Optixcare EH ameliorates experimental ocular oxidative stress in rats.

PubMed

Kador, Peter F; Guo, Changmei; Kawada, Hiroyoshi; Randazzo, James; Blessing, Karen

2014-09-01

Based on the hypothesis that oral nutraceuticals do not adequately reach all ocular tissues in the anterior segment, we evaluated the ability of a 3% concentration of the ingredients in a topical nutraceutical antioxidant formulation called Optixcare Eye Health (Optixcare EH) to ameliorate oxidative stress in rat models of age-related ocular diseases. Diabetes was induced by tail-vein injection of streptozotocin, and the development of cataracts was monitored by slit lamp. Young rats were exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, and the reduction in lens glutathione (GSH) levels and increase in 4-hydroxynonenol (4-HNE) were measured. Oxidative stress in the neural retina was generated by exposure of dark-adapted rats to 1,000 lx of light, and oxidative stress markers were measured. Dry eye was induced in rats by twice daily (b.i.d.) subcutaneous scopolamine injections. Topical Optixcare EH was administered b.i.d. and compared in select experiments to the multifunctional antioxidant JHX-4, the topical aldose reductase inhibitor (ARI) Kinostat™, oral Ocu-GLO™, and the topical ocular comfort agents Optixcare Eye Lube, Optixcare Eye Lube + Hyaluron, and Idrop Vet Plus hyaluronic acid. In diabetic rats, topical ARI treatment prevented cataract formation while the nutraceuticals delayed their development with Optixcare EH>Ocu-GLO. In UV-exposed rats, the reduction of GSH and increase in 4-HNE in the lens were normalized in order JHX-4>Optixcare EH>Ocu-GLO. In the retina, oxidative stress markers were reduced better by oral JHX-4 compared with topical Optixcare EH. In the scopolamine-induced dry-eye rats, tear flow was maintained by Optixcare EH treatment, while none of the comfort agents examined altered tear flow. Topical administration of a 3% concentration of the ingredients in Optixcare EH reduces experimentally induced reactive oxygen species in rats exposed to several sources of ocular oxidative stress. In addition, Optixcare EH maintains tear volume in scopolamine

Rapid Solidification and Phase Transformations in Additive Manufactured Materials

DOE PAGES

Asle Zaeem, Mohsen; Clarke, Amy Jean

2016-01-14

Within the past few years, additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged as a promising manufacturing technique to enable the production of complex engineering structures with high efficiency and accuracy. Among the important factors establishing AM as a sustainable manufacturing process is the ability to control the microstructures and properties of AM products. In most AM processes, such as laser sintering (LS), laser melting (LM), and laser metal deposition (LMD), rapid solidification and high-temperature phase transformations play primary roles in determining nano- and microstructures, and consequently the mechanical and other properties of AM products. This topic of JOM is dedicated to summarizingmore » the current research efforts in the area of rapid solidification and phase transformations in additively manufactured materials. Finally, a brief summary follows below of 10 journal articles in this topic.« less

Survey of international regulatory bioequivalence recommendations for approval of generic topical dermatological drug products.

PubMed

Braddy, April C; Davit, Barbara M; Stier, Ethan M; Conner, Dale P

2015-01-01

The objective of this article is to discuss the similarities and differences in accepted bioequivalence (BE) approaches for generic topical dermatological drug products between international regulatory authorities and organizations. These drug products are locally applied and not intended for systemic absorption. Therefore, the BE approaches which serve as surrogates to establish safety and efficacy for topical dosage forms tend to differ from the traditional solid oral dosage forms. We focused on 15 different international jurisdictions and organizations that currently participate in the International Generic Drug Regulators Pilot Project. These are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, the European Medicines Association (EMA), Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore (a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, the USA and the World Health Organization (WHO). Upon evaluation, we observed that currently only Canada, the EMA, Japan, and the USA have specific guidance documents for topical drug products. Across all jurisdictions and organizations, the three approaches consistently required are (1) BE studies with clinical endpoints for most topical drug products; (2) in vivo pharmacodynamic studies, in particular the vasoconstrictor assay for topical corticosteroids; and (3) waivers from BE study requirements for topical solutions. Japan, South Africa, the USA, and the WHO are also making strides to accept other BE approaches such as in vivo pharmacokinetic studies for BE assessment, in vivo dermatopharmacokinetic studies and/or BE studies with in vitro endpoints.

Not strange but not true: self-reported interest in a topic increases false memory.

PubMed

O'Connell, Anthony; Greene, Ciara M

2017-09-01

People are more likely to recall both true and false information that is consistent with their pre-existing stereotypes, schemata and desires. In addition, experts in a particular field are more likely to experience false memory in relation to their area of expertise. Here, we investigate whether level of interest, as distinct from level of knowledge, and in the absence of self-professed expertise, is associated with increased false memory. 489 participants were asked to rank 7 topics from most to least interesting. They were then asked if they remembered the events described in four news items related to the topic they selected as the most interesting and four items related to the topic selected as least interesting. In each case, three of the events depicted had really happened and one was fictional. A high level of interest in a topic increased true memories for the topic and doubled the frequency of false memories, even after controlling for level of knowledge. We interpret the results in the context of the source-monitoring framework and suggest that false memories arise as a result of interference from existing information stored in domain-related schemata.

JGME-ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education: An Analysis of a Virtual Discussion on Resident Well-Being.

PubMed

Chung, Arlene; Battaglioli, Nicole; Lin, Michelle; Sherbino, Jonathan

2018-02-01

Physician well-being is garnering increasing attention. In 2016, the Journal of Graduate Medical Education ( JGME ) published a review by Kristin Raj, MD, entitled "Well-Being in Residency: A Systematic Review." There is benefit in contextualizing the literature on resident well-being through an academic journal club. We summarized an asynchronous, online journal club discussion about this systematic review and highlighted themes that were identified in the review. In January 2017, JGME and the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) blog facilitated an open-access, online, weeklong journal club on the featured JGME article. Online discussions and interactions were facilitated via blog posts and comments, a video discussion on Google Hangouts on Air, and Twitter. We performed a thematic analysis of the discussion and captured web analytics. Over the first 14 days, the blog post was viewed 1070 unique times across 52 different countries. A total of 130 unique participants on Twitter posted 480 tweets using the hashtag #JGMEscholar. Thematic analysis revealed 5 major domains: the multidimensional nature of well-being, measurement of well-being, description of wellness programs and interventions, creation of a culture of wellness, and critique of the methodology of the review. Our online journal club highlighted several gaps in the current understanding of resident well-being, including the need for consensus on the operational definition, the need for effective instruments to evaluate wellness programs and identify residents in distress, and a national research collaboration to assess wellness programs and their impact on resident well-being.

Nutrition Information In Community Newspapers: Goal Framing, Story Origins, and Topics.

PubMed

Andsager, Julie L; Chen, Li; Miles, Stephanie; Smith, Christina C; Nothwehr, Faryle

2015-01-01

Obesity rates are high in the rural United States. Because small communities often have few health care practitioners, nutrition news in community newspapers may be a useful source of information. This content analysis of a random sample of 164 nutrition stories from 10 community newspapers in the rural West North Central Midwest was guided by concepts from goal-framing theory. Locally generated stories comprised nearly half of the sample, suggesting that nutrition is a salient topic in many rural communities. Hedonic frames related to food enjoyment were twice as frequent as health improvement frames. Results suggest food promotion was the most common topic of nutrition stories, with guidelines for a healthy diet appearing about half as often. Stories about a healthy diet and food promotion were most often written locally. Findings are discussed with recommendations for improvement of community news coverage of nutrition.

Parental Discussion of Child Sexual Abuse: Is It Associated with the Parenting Practices of Involvement, Monitoring, and General Communication?

PubMed

Rudolph, Julia; Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J; Shanley, Dianne C; Walsh, Kerrryann; Hawkins, Russell

2018-01-01

We investigated whether parents who reported more positive parenting practices (i.e., monitoring, involvement, and communication) reported more discussion of child sexual abuse (CSA) with their children. Parents from Australia and the UK (N = 248), with children aged 6 to 11 years, completed an online survey. About half of parents reported directly discussing CSA, whereas 35% reported telling their children that CSA perpetrators may be family members. Rates of discussion were higher for other CSA-related topics such as body integrity and abduction. Correlational analyses showed that parents who reported speaking to their children about CSA also reported more positive parenting practices, more discussion of other sensitive topics, and assessed CSA risk for children (in general) to be higher. Discussion of CSA risk was not associated with parents' CSA knowledge, confidence or appraisal of own-child risk. Parents higher in positive parenting believed their children to be at less CSA risk. Parents who appraised higher own-child risk reported less positive parenting practices and were less confident about their parenting and their ability to protect their children from CSA. The findings are the first to report on the associations of parenting practices with parents' CSA discussion with their children.

Learning topic models by belief propagation.

PubMed

Zeng, Jia; Cheung, William K; Liu, Jiming

2013-05-01

Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is an important hierarchical Bayesian model for probabilistic topic modeling, which attracts worldwide interest and touches on many important applications in text mining, computer vision and computational biology. This paper represents the collapsed LDA as a factor graph, which enables the classic loopy belief propagation (BP) algorithm for approximate inference and parameter estimation. Although two commonly used approximate inference methods, such as variational Bayes (VB) and collapsed Gibbs sampling (GS), have gained great success in learning LDA, the proposed BP is competitive in both speed and accuracy, as validated by encouraging experimental results on four large-scale document datasets. Furthermore, the BP algorithm has the potential to become a generic scheme for learning variants of LDA-based topic models in the collapsed space. To this end, we show how to learn two typical variants of LDA-based topic models, such as author-topic models (ATM) and relational topic models (RTM), using BP based on the factor graph representations.

Topical drug delivery systems: a patent review.

PubMed

Singh Malik, Deepinder; Mital, Neeraj; Kaur, Gurpreet

2016-01-01

Topical administration is the favored route for local delivery of therapeutic agents due to its convenience and affordability. The specific challenge of designing a therapeutic system is to achieve an optimal concentration of a certain drug at its site of action for an appropriate duration. This review summarizes innovations from the past 3 years (2012-2015) in the field of topical drug delivery for the treatment of local infections of the vagina, nose, eye and skin. The review also throws some light on the anatomy and physiology of these organs and their various defensive barriers which affect the delivery of drugs administered topically. Topical administration has been gaining attention over the last few years. However, conventional topical drug delivery systems suffer from drawbacks such as poor retention and low bioavailability. The successful formulation of topical delivery products requires the careful manipulation of defensive barriers and selection of a soluble drug carrier. Extensive research is required to develop newer topical drug delivery systems aiming either to improve the efficacy or to reduce side effects compared to current patented systems.

The effect of case-based discussion of topics with experts on learners' opinions: implications for spinal education and training.

PubMed

Berjano, Pedro; Villafañe, Jorge Hugo; Vanacker, Gerard; Cecchinato, Riccardo; Ismael, Maryem; Gunzburg, Robert; Marruzzo, Daniele; Lamartina, Claudio

2018-02-01

This investigation aimed to examine the extent to which case-based discussion with experts could influence the audience's opinions on the treatment of patients during a continuing medical education event for spine surgeons. We conducted a prospective controlled crossover study of 90 surgeons. During a continuing medical education activity using case-based discussion, quiz questions were used which asked participants (attendants and faculty group) their opinions on the best choices about diagnosis and treatment in a number of cases. No answer was considered correct, but we evaluated the number of participants choosing each specific answer among a number of valid options. Quiz questions were collected with an automated response system at the entry and at the end of each case discussion. Change in participant's opinions was estimated from the change in the preferred answers between the entry and exit quizzes. Chi-square analysis was performed to determine significance. Sixty-two attendants out of eighty three (75%) and six faculties out of twelve (50%) responded to the survey. After the case discussion, 68.2% (p < 0.04, Chi-square test) of the attendants changed their opinion on the appropriate treatment. The faculty answers, however, showed no significant change in opinions regarding the identification of the appropriate treatment. On the basis of our results, case-based discussion driven by experts, as a form of teaching, has a measurable effect in terms of changes in the learners' opinions.

The effect of case-based discussion of topics with experts on learners' opinions: implications for spinal education and training.

PubMed

Berjano, Pedro; Villafañe, Jorge Hugo; Vanacker, Gerard; Cecchinato, Riccardo; Ismael, Maryem; Gunzburg, Robert; Marruzzo, Daniele; Lamartina, Claudio

2017-10-01

This investigation aimed to examine the extent to which case-based discussion with experts could influence the audience's opinions on the treatment of patients during a continuing medical education event for spine surgeons. We conducted a prospective controlled crossover study of 90 surgeons. During a continuing medical education activity using case-based discussion, quiz questions were used which asked participants (attendants and faculty group) their opinions on the best choices about diagnosis and treatment in a number of cases. No answer was considered correct, but we evaluated the number of participants choosing each specific answer among a number of valid options. Quiz questions were collected with an automated response system at the entry and at the end of each case discussion. Change in participant's opinions was estimated from the change in the preferred answers between the entry and exit quizzes. Chi-square analysis was performed to determine significance. Sixty-two attendants out of eighty three (75%) and six faculties out of twelve (50%) responded to the survey. After the case discussion, 68.2% (p < 0.04, Chi-square test) of the attendants changed their opinion on the appropriate treatment. The faculty answers, however, showed no significant change in opinions regarding the identification of the appropriate treatment. On the basis of our results, case-based discussion driven by experts, as a form of teaching, has a measurable effect in terms of changes in the learners' opinions.

Mapping epidemiology's past to inform its future: metaknowledge analysis of epidemiologic topics in leading journals, 1974-2013.

PubMed

Trinquart, Ludovic; Galea, Sandro

2015-07-15

An empiric perspective on what epidemiology has studied over time might inform discussions about future directions for the discipline. We aimed to identify the main areas of epidemiologic inquiry and determine how they evolved over time in 5 high-impact epidemiologic journals. We analyzed the titles and abstracts of 20,895 articles that were published between 1974 and 2013. In 5 time periods that reflected approximately equal numbers of articles, we identified the main topics by clustering terms based on co-occurrence. Infectious disease and cardiovascular disease epidemiology were the prevailing topics over the 5 periods. Cancer epidemiology was a major topic from 1974 to 2001 but disappeared thereafter. Nutritional epidemiology gained relative importance from 1974 to 2013. Environmental epidemiology appeared during 1996-2001 and continued to be important, whereas 2 clusters related to methodology and meta-analysis in genetics appeared during 2008-2013. Several areas of epidemiology, including injury or psychiatric epidemiology, did not make an appearance as major topics at any time. In an ancillary analysis of 6 high-impact general medicine journals, we found patterns of epidemiologic articles that were overall consistent with the findings in epidemiologic journals. This metaknowledge investigation allowed identification of the dominant topics in and conversely those that were absent from 5 major epidemiologic journals. We discuss implications for the field. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

[Time and use of discussion forums in type 1 diabetes: contribution to patient education].

PubMed

Harry, Isabelle; Gagnayre, Rémi

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the concept of temporality in discussions on forums used by individuals concerned by type 1 diabetes: adults and parents of children. The contents of messages were first converted into skills, and their temporality was then analysed, particularly in terms of the duration of active threads. Two types of temporality are involved in the use of forums: prescribed time governed by the therapeutic requirements related to a chronic disease and the decisions to be taken, and open-ended social time available on the Internet and the resulting reflexive processes. Our results show that topics relating to self-care and adaptation skills are often discussed and new threads on the topic are frequently introduced. Considerable diversity in the activity level associated with the various threads was observed, as most threads were only active for short periods. Following this study, our research perspectives concern: (i) the ways in which patients and their families reconcile the temporality dictated by a chronic disease (prescribed time) with the open-ended social time available on the Internet; and (ii) the ways in which this temporality is characteristic of patient learning processes via discussion forums. Future research will focus on the concept of rythmo-apprenance (rhythmic learning) in therapeutic patient education.

Topical use of sodium cromoglicate (cromolyn sodium) to treat atopic dermatitis and other skin allergies.

PubMed

Zur, Eyal

2012-01-01

Sodium cromoglicate (cromolyn sodium) is a very well-known medicine that has been used for many years for various allergic conditions. The topical use of this medicine is less known, and there are no commercial medicines of cream, gel, or lotion in most of the world. This article summarizes the clinical data accumulated from seventeen trials that checked the topical efficacy and safety of sodium cromoglicate and analyzes the clinical implementations of this medicine in the topical treatment of atopic dermatitis and other skin allergies. In addition, this article analyzes the various formulations that have been used in the clinical trials in an attempt to find the optimal formulation. The topical use of sodium cromoglicate seemed to have a promising potential, and implementing the data of this article can allow the compounding pharmacist a very interesting professional activity in very common and widespread allergic pathologies.

A Lack of Systemic Absorption Following the Repeated Application of Topical Quetiapine in Healthy Adults.

PubMed

Kayhart, Bryce; Lapid, Maria I; Nelson, Sarah; Cunningham, Julie L; Thompson, Virginia H; Leung, Jonathan G

2018-01-01

In the absence of suitable oral or intravenous access for medication administration and when the intramuscular medications are undesirable, alternative routes for drug delivery may be considered. Antipsychotics administered via an inhaled, intranasal, rectal, or topical route have been described in the literature. Topically administered antipsychotics have been previously reported to produce negligible systemic absorption despite being used in clinical practice for nausea and behavioral symptoms associated with dementia. Additionally, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine recommends against the use of topical medications that lack supporting literature. Three studies have assessed the systemic absorption of different antipsychotics after administration of only a single, topically applied dose. To evaluate whether the repeated administration of a topically applied antipsychotic may result in detectable serum levels in an accumulating fashion, a pharmacokinetic study was conducted. Five healthy, adult participants consented to receive extemporaneously prepared topical quetiapine in Lipoderm every 4 hours for a total of 5 doses. Blood samples were drawn at baseline and hours 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 24, and serum quetiapine concentrations were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography. Quetiapine was undetectable in every sample from 3 participants. Two participants had minimally detectable serum quetiapine levels no sooner than hour 12 of the study period. Extemporaneously prepared quetiapine in Lipoderm resulted in nonexistent or minimal serum level following repeated topical administration. The use of topically applied quetiapine should still be questioned.

Topical antimicrobial agents for treating foot ulcers in people with diabetes.

PubMed

Dumville, Jo C; Lipsky, Benjamin A; Hoey, Christopher; Cruciani, Mario; Fiscon, Marta; Xia, Jun

2017-06-14

People with diabetes are at high risk for developing foot ulcers, which often become infected. These wounds, especially when infected, cause substantial morbidity. Wound treatments should aim to alleviate symptoms, promote healing, and avoid adverse outcomes, especially lower extremity amputation. Topical antimicrobial therapy has been used on diabetic foot ulcers, either as a treatment for clinically infected wounds, or to prevent infection in clinically uninfected wounds. To evaluate the effects of treatment with topical antimicrobial agents on: the resolution of signs and symptoms of infection; the healing of infected diabetic foot ulcers; and preventing infection and improving healing in clinically uninfected diabetic foot ulcers. We searched the Cochrane Wounds Specialised Register, CENTRAL, Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE (In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations), Ovid Embase, and EBSCO CINAHL Plus in August 2016. We also searched clinical trials registries for ongoing and unpublished studies, and checked reference lists to identify additional studies. We used no restrictions with respect to language, date of publication, or study setting. We included randomised controlled trials conducted in any setting (inpatient or outpatient) that evaluated topical treatment with any type of solid or liquid (e.g., cream, gel, ointment) antimicrobial agent, including antiseptics, antibiotics, and antimicrobial dressings, in people with diabetes mellitus who were diagnosed with an ulcer or open wound of the foot, whether clinically infected or uninfected. Two review authors independently performed study selection, 'Risk of bias' assessment, and data extraction. Initial disagreements were resolved by discussion, or by including a third review author when necessary. We found 22 trials that met our inclusion criteria with a total of over 2310 participants (one study did not report number of participants). The included studies mostly had small numbers of participants (from 4 to 317

Resources for Topics in Architecture.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Noate, Judith, Comp.

This guide for conducting library research on topics in architecture or on the work of a particular architect presents suggestions for utilizing four categories of resources: books, dictionaries and encyclopedias, indexes, and a periodicals and series list (PASL). Two topics are researched as examples: the contemporary architect Richard Meier, and…

Linguistic Extensions of Topic Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyd-Graber, Jordan

2010-01-01

Topic models like latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) provide a framework for analyzing large datasets where observations are collected into groups. Although topic modeling has been fruitfully applied to problems social science, biology, and computer vision, it has been most widely used to model datasets where documents are modeled as exchangeable…

Problems in Teaching the Topic of Redox Reactions: Actions and Conceptions of Chemistry Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Jong, Onno; And Others

1995-01-01

Presents a case study of problems that can occur when teaching the topic of redox reactions to grade-11 students. Concludes that the teachers' scientific expertise is an important source of difficulties when teaching redox reactions. Discusses implications for improvement of current chemistry classroom practice and content-related teacher…

Topical anesthesia in phacoemulsification.

PubMed

Waheeb, Saad

2010-09-01

To evaluate the efficacy of topical anesthesia; topical Benoxinate 0.4% (Oxybuprocaine) and Xylocaine (Lidocaine) gel, in selected cataract patients as an alternative to peribulbar or retrobulbar block anesthesia during cataract surgery. Prospective non-comparative evaluation of patients' and surgeon's satisfaction at the end of the procedure. Three hundred patients (300 eyes) were included in the study. The procedure was explained to patients with details regarding what will happen and what to expect during surgery. All patients received topical anesthesia with Benoxinate 0.4% eye drops and Xylocaine gel 2%. All surgeries were done by the same surgeon using the same machine (updated LEGACY phacoemulsifier, Alcon) and approach (clear corneal incision) and followed by a foldable intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. None of the patients had severe pain during the procedure; only 2% (six of 300) required use of intravenous sedation (Propofol), both the surgeon's and the patients' satisfaction were high. Eye movements and blepharospasm were not significant problems, and no serious complications occurred. Rate of vitreous loss due to posterior capsule tear/rupture was within literature reported range and not different from our previous experience. Topical anesthesia is a satisfactory and safe alternative to retrobulbar and peribulbar anesthesia for clear corneal phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation in selected cataract patients in the hands of experienced cataract surgeon.

Topical anesthesia in phacoemulsification

PubMed Central

Waheeb, Saad

2010-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of topical anesthesia; topical Benoxinate 0.4% (Oxybuprocaine) and Xylocaine (Lidocaine) gel, in selected cataract patients as an alternative to peribulbar or retrobulbar block anesthesia during cataract surgery. Materials and Methods: Prospective non-comparative evaluation of patients’ and surgeon’s satisfaction at the end of the procedure. Three hundred patients (300 eyes) were included in the study. The procedure was explained to patients with details regarding what will happen and what to expect during surgery. All patients received topical anesthesia with Benoxinate 0.4% eye drops and Xylocaine gel 2%. All surgeries were done by the same surgeon using the same machine (updated LEGACY phacoemulsifier, Alcon) and approach (clear corneal incision) and followed by a foldable intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. Results: None of the patients had severe pain during the procedure; only 2% (six of 300) required use of intravenous sedation (Propofol), both the surgeon’s and the patients’ satisfaction were high. Eye movements and blepharospasm were not significant problems, and no serious complications occurred. Rate of vitreous loss due to posterior capsule tear/rupture was within literature reported range and not different from our previous experience. Conclusion: Topical anesthesia is a satisfactory and safe alternative to retrobulbar and peribulbar anesthesia for clear corneal phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation in selected cataract patients in the hands of experienced cataract surgeon. PMID:21120050

The Structure of Scientific Arguments by Secondary Science Teachers: Comparison of experimental and historical science topics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gray, Ron; Kang, Nam-Hwa

2014-01-01

Just as scientific knowledge is constructed using distinct modes of inquiry (e.g. experimental or historical), arguments constructed during science instruction may vary depending on the mode of inquiry underlying the topic. The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how secondary science teachers construct scientific arguments during instruction differently for topics that rely on experimental or historical modes of inquiry. Four experienced high-school science teachers were observed daily during instructional units for both experimental and historical science topics. The main data sources include classroom observations and teacher interviews. The arguments were analyzed using Toulmin's argumentation pattern revealing specific patterns of arguments in teaching topics relying on these 2 modes of scientific inquiry. The teachers presented arguments to their students that were rather simple in structure but relatively authentic to the 2 different modes. The teachers used far more evidence in teaching topics based on historical inquiry than topics based on experimental inquiry. However, the differences were implicit in their teaching. Furthermore, their arguments did not portray the dynamic nature of science. Very few rebuttals or qualifiers were provided as the teachers were presenting their claims as if the data led straightforward to the claim. Implications for classroom practice and research are discussed.

21 CFR 868.5170 - Laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator. 868... topical anesthesia applicator. (a) Identification. A laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator is a device used to apply topical anesthetics to a patient's laryngotracheal area. (b) Classification. Class...

21 CFR 868.5170 - Laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator. 868... topical anesthesia applicator. (a) Identification. A laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator is a device used to apply topical anesthetics to a patient's laryngotracheal area. (b) Classification. Class...

21 CFR 868.5170 - Laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator. 868... topical anesthesia applicator. (a) Identification. A laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator is a device used to apply topical anesthetics to a patient's laryngotracheal area. (b) Classification. Class...

Topical resiquimod protects against visceral infection with Leishmania infantum chagasi in mice.

PubMed

Craft, Noah; Birnbaum, Ron; Quanquin, Natalie; Erfe, Marie Crisel B; Quant, Cara; Haskell, Jacquelyn; Bruhn, Kevin W

2014-09-01

New prevention and treatment strategies are needed for visceral leishmaniasis, particularly ones that can be deployed simply and inexpensively in areas where leishmaniasis is endemic. Synthetic molecules that activate Toll-like receptor 7 and 8 (TLR7/8) pathways have previously been demonstrated to enhance protection against cutaneous leishmaniasis. We initially sought to determine whether the TLR7/8-activating molecule resiquimod might serve as an effective vaccine adjuvant targeting visceral leishmaniasis caused by infection with Leishmania infantum chagasi. Resiquimod was topically applied to the skin of mice either prior to or after systemic infection with L. infantum chagasi, and parasite burdens were assessed. Surprisingly, topical resiquimod application alone, in the absence of vaccination, conferred robust resistance to mice against future intravenous challenge with virulent L. infantum chagasi. This protection against L. infantum chagasi infection persisted as long as 8 weeks after the final topical resiquimod treatment. In addition, in mice with existing infections, therapeutic treatment with topical resiquimod led to significantly lower visceral parasite loads. Resiquimod increased trafficking of leukocytes, including B cells, CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells, dendritic cells, macrophages, and granulocytes, in livers and spleens, which are the key target organs of visceralizing infection. We conclude that topical resiquimod leads to systemic immune modulation and confers durable protection against visceralizing L. infantum chagasi infection, in both prophylactic and therapeutic settings. These studies support continued studies of TLR-modulating agents to determine mechanisms of protection and also provide a rationale for translational development of a critically needed, novel class of topical, preventative, and therapeutic agents for these lethal infections. Copyright © 2014, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Topical Resiquimod Protects against Visceral Infection with Leishmania infantum chagasi in Mice

PubMed Central

Craft, Noah; Birnbaum, Ron; Quanquin, Natalie; Erfe, Marie Crisel B.; Quant, Cara; Haskell, Jacquelyn

2014-01-01

New prevention and treatment strategies are needed for visceral leishmaniasis, particularly ones that can be deployed simply and inexpensively in areas where leishmaniasis is endemic. Synthetic molecules that activate Toll-like receptor 7 and 8 (TLR7/8) pathways have previously been demonstrated to enhance protection against cutaneous leishmaniasis. We initially sought to determine whether the TLR7/8-activating molecule resiquimod might serve as an effective vaccine adjuvant targeting visceral leishmaniasis caused by infection with Leishmania infantum chagasi. Resiquimod was topically applied to the skin of mice either prior to or after systemic infection with L. infantum chagasi, and parasite burdens were assessed. Surprisingly, topical resiquimod application alone, in the absence of vaccination, conferred robust resistance to mice against future intravenous challenge with virulent L. infantum chagasi. This protection against L. infantum chagasi infection persisted as long as 8 weeks after the final topical resiquimod treatment. In addition, in mice with existing infections, therapeutic treatment with topical resiquimod led to significantly lower visceral parasite loads. Resiquimod increased trafficking of leukocytes, including B cells, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, dendritic cells, macrophages, and granulocytes, in livers and spleens, which are the key target organs of visceralizing infection. We conclude that topical resiquimod leads to systemic immune modulation and confers durable protection against visceralizing L. infantum chagasi infection, in both prophylactic and therapeutic settings. These studies support continued studies of TLR-modulating agents to determine mechanisms of protection and also provide a rationale for translational development of a critically needed, novel class of topical, preventative, and therapeutic agents for these lethal infections. PMID:25030052

SU-A-BRA-05: Panel Discussion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Montemayor, V.

Vic Montemayor - No one has been more passionate about improving the quality and effectiveness of the teaching of Medical Physics than Bill Hendee. It was in August of 2008 that the first AAPM Workshop on Becoming a Better Teacher of Medical Physics was held, organized and run by Bill Hendee. This was followed up in July of 2010 with a summer school on the same topic, again organized by Bill. There has been continued interest in alternate approaches to teaching medical physics since those initial gatherings. The momentum established by these workshops is made clear each year in themore » annual Innovation in Medical Physics Education session, which highlights work being done in all forms of medical physics education, from one-on-one residencies or classroom presentations to large-scale program revisions and on-line resources for international audiences. This symposium, presented on behalf of the Education Council, highlights the work of three finalists from past Innovation in Education sessions. Each will be presenting their approaches to and innovations in teaching medical physics. It is hoped that audience members interested in trying something new in their teaching of medical physics will find some of these ideas and approaches readily applicable to their own classrooms. Rebecca Howell - The presentation will discuss ways to maximize classroom learning, i.e., increasing the amount of material covered while also enhancing students’ understanding of the broader implications of the course topics. Specifically, the presentation will focus on two teaching methodologies, project based learning and flip learning. These teaching methods will be illustrated using an example of graduate medical physics course where both are used in conjunction with traditional lectures. Additionally, the presentation will focus on our experience implementing these methods including challenges that were overcome. Jay Burmeister - My presentation will discuss the incorporation of active

Use of a Latent Topic Model for Characteristic Extraction from Health Checkup Questionnaire Data.

PubMed

Hatakeyama, Y; Miyano, I; Kataoka, H; Nakajima, N; Watabe, T; Yasuda, N; Okuhara, Y

2015-01-01

When patients complete questionnaires during health checkups, many of their responses are subjective, making topic extraction difficult. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a model capable of extracting appropriate topics from subjective data in questionnaires conducted during health checkups. We employed a latent topic model to group the lifestyle habits of the study participants and represented their responses to items on health checkup questionnaires as a probability model. For the probability model, we used latent Dirichlet allocation to extract 30 topics from the questionnaires. According to the model parameters, a total of 4381 study participants were then divided into groups based on these topics. Results from laboratory tests, including blood glucose level, triglycerides, and estimated glomerular filtration rate, were compared between each group, and these results were then compared with those obtained by hierarchical clustering. If a significant (p < 0.05) difference was observed in any of the laboratory measurements between groups, it was considered to indicate a questionnaire response pattern corresponding to the value of the test result. A comparison between the latent topic model and hierarchical clustering grouping revealed that, in the latent topic model method, a small group of participants who reported having subjective signs of urinary disorder were allocated to a single group. The latent topic model is useful for extracting characteristics from a small number of groups from questionnaires with a large number of items. These results show that, in addition to chief complaints and history of past illness, questionnaire data obtained during medical checkups can serve as useful judgment criteria for assessing the conditions of patients.

Task-Driven Comparison of Topic Models.

PubMed

Alexander, Eric; Gleicher, Michael

2016-01-01

Topic modeling, a method of statistically extracting thematic content from a large collection of texts, is used for a wide variety of tasks within text analysis. Though there are a growing number of tools and techniques for exploring single models, comparisons between models are generally reduced to a small set of numerical metrics. These metrics may or may not reflect a model's performance on the analyst's intended task, and can therefore be insufficient to diagnose what causes differences between models. In this paper, we explore task-centric topic model comparison, considering how we can both provide detail for a more nuanced understanding of differences and address the wealth of tasks for which topic models are used. We derive comparison tasks from single-model uses of topic models, which predominantly fall into the categories of understanding topics, understanding similarity, and understanding change. Finally, we provide several visualization techniques that facilitate these tasks, including buddy plots, which combine color and position encodings to allow analysts to readily view changes in document similarity.

Application of Additively Manufactured Components in Rocket Engine Turbopumps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calvert, Marty, Jr.; Hanks, Andrew; Schmauch, Preston; Delessio, Steve

2015-01-01

The use of additive manufacturing technology has the potential to revolutionize the development of turbopump components in liquid rocket engines. When designing turbomachinery with the additive process there are several benefits and risks that are leveraged relative to a traditional development cycle. This topic explores the details and development of a 90,000 RPM Liquid Hydrogen Turbopump from which 90% of the parts were derived from the additive process. This turbopump was designed, developed and will be tested later this year at Marshall Space Flight Center.

Topical management of striae distensae (stretch marks): prevention and therapy of striae rubrae and albae.

PubMed

Ud-Din, S; McGeorge, D; Bayat, A

2016-02-01

Striae distensae (SD) are common dermal lesions, with significant physical and psychological impact. Many therapeutic modalities are available but none can completely eradicate SD. The most common therapy is the application of topicals used both therapeutically and prophylactically. Even though there are many commercially available topical products, not all have sufficient level of evidence to support their continued use in SD. The aim here was to assess the evidence for the use of topicals in SD and to propose a structured approach in managing SD. A systematic search of published literature and manufacturer website information for topicals in SD was carried out. The results showed that there are few studies (n = 11) which investigate the efficacy of topicals in management of SD. Trofolastin and Alphastria creams demonstrated level-2 evidence of positive results for their prophylactic use in SD. Additionally, tretinoin used therapeutically showed varying results whilst cocoa butter and olive oil did not demonstrate any effect. Overall, there is a distinct lack of evidence for each topical formulation. The majority of topicals failed to mention their effect on early vs. later stages of SD (striae rubrae compared to striae albae) and their role in both prevention and treatment. In conclusion, there is no topical formulation, which is shown to be most effective in eradicating or improving SD. A structured approach in identification and targeted management of symptoms and signs with the appropriate topical is required. Randomized controlled trials are necessary to assess the efficacy of topical products for treatment and prevention of different stages of SD. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

Topical anesthesia with or without propofol sedation versus retrobulbar/peribulbar anesthesia for cataract extraction: prospective randomized trial.

PubMed

Kallio, H; Uusitalo, R J; Maunuksela, E L

2001-09-01

To evaluate the feasibility of intravenous sedation in addition to topical anesthesia during cataract extraction. Helsinki University Eye Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. Three hundred seventeen eyes of 291 consecutive patients having cataract surgery were prospectively randomized to receive topical (oxybuprocaine 0.4%, n = 96), combined (topical anesthesia and propofol sedation, n = 107), or retrobulbar/peribulbar (prilocaine 1.5%, n = 114) anesthesia. The intraoperative conditions were judged by the surgeon. A numerical scale (0 to 10) was used to assess the degree of pain during surgery. Outcome measures were the number of complications and adverse events registered perioperatively and 1 week postoperatively as well as Snellen visual acuity. The success of posterior chamber intraocular lens (IOL) implantation through a self-sealing clear corneal incision was 97.9%, 96.3%, and 98.2% in the topical, combined, and retrobulbar/peribulbar groups, respectively. There was no difference among the groups in pain during surgery, frequency of complications, or outcome measures. One week postoperatively, visual acuity was 20/40 or better in 81.7%, 78.5%, and 77.5% of eyes in the topical, combined, and retrobulbar/peribulbar groups, respectively. The surgeon reported significantly fewer difficulties in the retrobulbar/peribulbar group (9.8%) than in the topical (26.0%) (P =.004) or combined (21.0%) (P =.036) groups. Additional sedative/analgesic medication given intraoperatively was required significantly more often in the topical (15.6%) than in the retrobulbar/peribulbar group (2.6%) (P =.002). Patients with bilateral surgery preferred combined anesthesia over retrobulbar/peribulbar anesthesia; however, there was no significant difference in patient acceptance among groups in patients having unilateral surgery. Intravenous propofol sedation added to topical anesthesia did not improve the operative conditions or surgical outcome. Retrobulbar/peribulbar anesthesia ensured the

Topical anesthesia for penetrating trabeculectomy.

PubMed

Sauder, Gangolf; Jonas, Jost B

2002-09-01

To evaluate the efficacy and clinical practicability of topical anesthesia in comparison with retrobulbar anesthesia for penetrating trabeculectomy. The prospective single-surgeon clinical interventional trial included 20 consecutive patients, who were randomly distributed into a topical anesthesia group ( n=10) and a retrobulbar anesthesia group ( n=10). In the topical anesthesia group, patients received preoperatively oxybuprocaine 0.4% eye drops and cocaine hydrochloride eye drops 10%. The patients of the retrobulbar group received 5 ml mepivacaine 2% injected into the retrobulbar space. To assess intraoperative pain, each patient was asked immediately after surgery to quantitate his/her pain using a 10-point pain rating scale. The topical anesthesia group and the retrobulbar anesthesia study group did not vary significantly in duration of surgery (21.5+/-3.37 min vs 20.2+/-4.46 min, P=0.31), preoperative intraocular pressure (32.2+/-14.62 mmHg vs 30.6+/-12.33 mmHg, P=0.22), postoperative intraocular pressure (8.0+/-4.47 mmHg vs 9.12+/-3.13 mmHg, P=0.64), subjective pain score by the patient (2.25+/-1.23 relative units vs 2.33+/-1.08 relative units ( P= 0.71), and practicability score by the surgeon (2.24+/-1.76 vs 2.56+/-1.58, P=0.82). In view of its clinical feasibility and its minimally invasive character, topical anesthesia may be an option for penetrating trabeculectomy.

The ACODEA Framework: Developing Segmentation and Classification Schemes for Fully Automatic Analysis of Online Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mu, Jin; Stegmann, Karsten; Mayfield, Elijah; Rose, Carolyn; Fischer, Frank

2012-01-01

Research related to online discussions frequently faces the problem of analyzing huge corpora. Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies may allow automating this analysis. However, the state-of-the-art in machine learning and text mining approaches yields models that do not transfer well between corpora related to different topics. Also,…

Introduction to the JASIST Special Topic Issue on Web Retrieval and Mining: A Machine Learning Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Hsinchun

2003-01-01

Discusses information retrieval techniques used on the World Wide Web. Topics include machine learning in information extraction; relevance feedback; information filtering and recommendation; text classification and text clustering; Web mining, based on data mining techniques; hyperlink structure; and Web size. (LRW)

Summary of the ACAT Round Table Discussion: Open-source, knowledge sharing and scientific collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carminati, Federico; Perret-Gallix, Denis; Riemann, Tord

2014-06-01

Round table discussions are in the tradition of ACAT. This year's plenary round table discussion was devoted to questions related to the use of scientific software in High Energy Physics and beyond. The 90 minutes of discussion were lively, and quite a lot of diverse opinions were spelled out. Although the discussion was, in part, controversial, the participants agreed unanimously on several basic issues in software sharing: • The importance of having various licensing models in academic research; • The basic value of proper recognition and attribution of intellectual property, including scientific software; • The user respect for the conditions of use, including licence statements, as formulated by the author. The need of a similar discussion on the issues of data sharing was emphasized and it was recommended to cover this subject at the conference round table discussion of next ACAT. In this contribution, we summarise selected topics that were covered in the introductory talks and in the following discussion.

Efinaconazole Topical Solution, 10%: Efficacy in Patients with Onychomycosis and Coexisting Tinea Pedis.

PubMed

Markinson, Bryan C; Caldwell, Bryan D

2015-04-13

We sought to evaluate the efficacy of efinaconazole topical solution, 10%, in patients with onychomycosis and coexisting tinea pedis. We analyzed 1,655 patients, aged 18 to 70 years, randomized (3:1) to receive efinaconazole topical solution, 10%, or vehicle from two identical multicenter, double-blind, vehicle-controlled 48-week studies evaluating safety and efficacy. The primary end point was complete cure rate (0% clinical involvement of the target toenail and negative potassium hydroxide examination and fungal culture findings) at week 52. Three groups were compared: patients with onychomycosis and coexisting interdigital tinea pedis on-study (treated or left untreated) and those with no coexisting tinea pedis. Treatment with efinaconazole topical solution, 10%, was significantly more effective than vehicle use irrespective of the coexistence of tinea pedis or its treatment. Overall, 352 patients with onychomycosis (21.3%) had coexisting interdigital tinea pedis at baseline, with 215 of these patients (61.1%) receiving investigator-approved topical antifungal agents for their tinea pedis in addition to their randomized onychomycosis treatment. At week 52, efinaconazole complete cure rates of 29.4% were reported in patients with onychomycosis when coexisting tinea pedis was treated compared with 16.1% when coexisting tinea pedis was not treated. Both cure rates were significant compared with vehicle (P = .003 and .045, respectively), and in the latter subgroup, no patients treated with vehicle achieved a complete cure. Treatment of coexisting tinea pedis in patients with onychomycosis enhances the efficacy of once-daily topical treatment with efinaconazole topical solution, 10%.

Efinaconazole Topical Solution, 10% Efficacy in Patients with Onychomycosis and Coexisting Tinea Pedis.

PubMed

Markinson, Bryan; Caldwell, Bryan

2015-09-01

We sought to evaluate the efficacy of efinaconazole topical solution, 10%, in patients with onychomycosis and coexisting tinea pedis. We analyzed 1,655 patients, aged 18 to 70 years, randomized (3:1) to receive efinaconazole topical solution, 10%, or vehicle from two identical multicenter, double-blind, vehicle-controlled 48-week studies evaluating safety and efficacy. The primary end point was complete cure rate (0% clinical involvement of the target toenail and negative potassium hydroxide examination and fungal culture findings) at week 52. Three groups were compared: patients with onychomycosis and coexisting interdigital tinea pedis on-study (treated or left untreated) and those with no coexisting tinea pedis. Treatment with efinaconazole topical solution, 10%, was significantly more effective than vehicle use irrespective of the coexistence of tinea pedis or its treatment. Overall, 352 patients with onychomycosis (21.3%) had coexisting interdigital tinea pedis, with 215 of these patients (61.1%) receiving investigator-approved topical antifungal agents for their tinea pedis in addition to their randomized onychomycosis treatment. At week 52, efinaconazole complete cure rates of 29.4% were reported in patients with onychomycosis when coexisting tinea pedis was treated compared with 16.1% when coexisting tinea pedis was not treated. Both cure rates were significant compared with vehicle (P = .003 and .045, respectively), and in the latter subgroup, no patients treated with vehicle achieved a complete cure. Treatment of coexisting tinea pedis in patients with onychomycosis enhances the efficacy of once-daily topical treatment with efinaconazole topical solution, 10%.

Spirituality in Children and Young People: A Suitable Topic for Educational and Child Psychologists?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruddock, Beverley; Cameron, R. J.

2010-01-01

In this article the concept of spirituality, especially with relation to school age children and young people, is discussed. Some of the possibilities and constraints present in this area are noted, especially the unease with which many researchers and practitioners view such a difficult to define topic and also its traditional association with…

Eosinophilic Esophagitis: MedlinePlus Health Topic

MedlinePlus

... Esophagitis (EoE) (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology) Also in Spanish Latest News Eosinophilic Esophagitis May ... Pediatric and Adolescent Patients (American College of Gastroenterology) Topic Image Related Health Topics Eosinophilic Disorders Esophagus Disorders ...

Good and Bad Topics for Moral Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davidman, Patricia; And Others

This paper reports the opinions about moral topics expressed by 140 elementary and secondary student teachers, 49 in Indiana and 91 in California. Teachers' judgments of the suitability of topics were collected via a questionnaire containing 20 topics in two versions. The presentation consists of: (1) a description of the opinionnaire teachers…

Notes and Discussion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Journal of Physics, 1978

1978-01-01

Includes eleven short notes, comments and responses to comments on a variety of topics such as uncertainty in a least-squares fit, display of diffraction patterns, the dark night sky paradox, error in the dynamics of deformable bodies and relative velocities and the runner. (GA)

Current Challenges and Future of Lipid nanoparticles formulations for topical drug application to oral mucosa, skin, and eye.

PubMed

Guilherme, Viviane A; Ribeiro, Ligia N M; Tofoli, Giovana Radomille; Franz-Montan, Michelle; de Paula, Eneida; de Jesus, Marcelo Bispo

2017-11-21

Topical drug administration offers an attractive route with minimal invasiveness. It also avoids limitations of intravenous administration such as the first pass metabolism and presystemic elimination within the gastrointestinal tract. Furthermore, topical drug administration is safe, have few side effects, is easy to apply, and offers a fast onset of action. However, the development of effective topical formulations still represents a challenge for the desired effect to be reached, locally or systemically. Solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers are particular candidates to overcome the problem of topical drug administration. The nanometric particle size of lipid nanoparticles favors the physical adhesion to the skin or mucosal, what can also be attained with the formation of hybrid (nanoparticles/polymer) systems. In this review, we discuss the major challenges for lipid nanoparticles formulations for topical application to oral mucosa, skin, and eye, highlighting the strategies to improve the performance of lipid nanoparticles for topical applications. Next, we critically analyzed the in vitro and in vivo approaches used to evaluate lipid nanoparticles performance and toxicity. We addressed some major drawbacks related to lipid nanoparticle topical formulations and concluded the key points that have to be overcome to help them to reach the market in topical formulations to oral mucosa, skin and eye. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Parker discusses vision. Interview by Donald E. L. Johnson.

PubMed

Parker, S S

1990-09-01

What special challenges face a major multi-hospital network as it enters the 1990s, offering care to diverse communities? What problems will its CEO have to deal with in an era of cutbacks and change? Scott S. Parker, president and chief executive officer of Intermountain Health Care, Inc., (IHC), a not-for-profit health care delivery system of 24 hospitals in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, plus an array of other medical facilities and services, discusses the challenges and accomplishments with Donald E. L. Johnson, publisher of Health Care Strategic Management. In the following interview, he talks about strategies and opportunities among many other topics.

Alkemio: association of chemicals with biomedical topics by text and data mining.

PubMed

Gijón-Correas, José A; Andrade-Navarro, Miguel A; Fontaine, Jean F

2014-07-01

The PubMed® database of biomedical citations allows the retrieval of scientific articles studying the function of chemicals in biology and medicine. Mining millions of available citations to search reported associations between chemicals and topics of interest would require substantial human time. We have implemented the Alkemio text mining web tool and SOAP web service to help in this task. The tool uses biomedical articles discussing chemicals (including drugs), predicts their relatedness to the query topic with a naïve Bayesian classifier and ranks all chemicals by P-values computed from random simulations. Benchmarks on seven human pathways showed good retrieval performance (areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves ranged from 73.6 to 94.5%). Comparison with existing tools to retrieve chemicals associated to eight diseases showed the higher precision and recall of Alkemio when considering the top 10 candidate chemicals. Alkemio is a high performing web tool ranking chemicals for any biomedical topics and it is free to non-commercial users. http://cbdm.mdc-berlin.de/∼medlineranker/cms/alkemio. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Application of dynamic topic models to toxicogenomics data.

PubMed

Lee, Mikyung; Liu, Zhichao; Huang, Ruili; Tong, Weida

2016-10-06

All biological processes are inherently dynamic. Biological systems evolve transiently or sustainably according to sequential time points after perturbation by environment insults, drugs and chemicals. Investigating the temporal behavior of molecular events has been an important subject to understand the underlying mechanisms governing the biological system in response to, such as, drug treatment. The intrinsic complexity of time series data requires appropriate computational algorithms for data interpretation. In this study, we propose, for the first time, the application of dynamic topic models (DTM) for analyzing time-series gene expression data. A large time-series toxicogenomics dataset was studied. It contains over 3144 microarrays of gene expression data corresponding to rat livers treated with 131 compounds (most are drugs) at two doses (control and high dose) in a repeated schedule containing four separate time points (4-, 8-, 15- and 29-day). We analyzed, with DTM, the topics (consisting of a set of genes) and their biological interpretations over these four time points. We identified hidden patterns embedded in this time-series gene expression profiles. From the topic distribution for compound-time condition, a number of drugs were successfully clustered by their shared mode-of-action such as PPARɑ agonists and COX inhibitors. The biological meaning underlying each topic was interpreted using diverse sources of information such as functional analysis of the pathways and therapeutic uses of the drugs. Additionally, we found that sample clusters produced by DTM are much more coherent in terms of functional categories when compared to traditional clustering algorithms. We demonstrated that DTM, a text mining technique, can be a powerful computational approach for clustering time-series gene expression profiles with the probabilistic representation of their dynamic features along sequential time frames. The method offers an alternative way for uncovering

Corneal neurotoxicity due to topical benzalkonium chloride.

PubMed

Sarkar, Joy; Chaudhary, Shweta; Namavari, Abed; Ozturk, Okan; Chang, Jin-Hong; Yco, Lisette; Sonawane, Snehal; Khanolkar, Vishakha; Hallak, Joelle; Jain, Sandeep

2012-04-06

The aim of this study was to determine and characterize the effect of topical application of benzalkonium chloride (BAK) on corneal nerves in vivo and in vitro. Thy1-YFP+ neurofluorescent mouse eyes were treated topically with vehicle or BAK (0.01% or 0.1%). Wide-field stereofluorescence microscopy was performed to sequentially image the treated corneas in vivo every week for 4 weeks, and changes in stromal nerve fiber density (NFD) and aqueous tear production were determined. Whole-mount immunofluorescence staining of corneas was performed with antibodies to axonopathy marker SMI-32. Western immunoblot analyses were performed on trigeminal ganglion and corneal lysates to determine abundance of proteins associated with neurotoxicity and regeneration. Compartmental culture of trigeminal ganglion neurons was performed in Campenot devices to determine whether BAK affects neurite outgrowth. BAK-treated corneas exhibited significantly reduced NFD and aqueous tear production, and increased inflammatory cell infiltration and fluorescein staining at 1 week (P < 0.05). These changes were most significant after 0.1% BAK treatment. The extent of inflammatory cell infiltration in the cornea showed a significant negative correlation with NFD. Sequential in vivo imaging of corneas showed two forms of BAK-induced neurotoxicity: reversible neurotoxicity characterized by axonopathy and recovery, and irreversible neurotoxicity characterized by nerve degeneration and regeneration. Increased abundance of beta III tubulin in corneal lysates confirmed regeneration. A dose-related significant reduction in neurites occurred after BAK addition to compartmental cultures of dissociated trigeminal ganglion cells. Although both BAK doses (0.0001% and 0.001%) reduced nerve fiber length, the reduction was significantly more with the higher dose (P < 0.001). Topical application of BAK to the eye causes corneal neurotoxicity, inflammation, and reduced aqueous tear production.

Corneal Neurotoxicity Due to Topical Benzalkonium Chloride

PubMed Central

Sarkar, Joy; Chaudhary, Shweta; Namavari, Abed; Ozturk, Okan; Chang, Jin-Hong; Yco, Lisette; Sonawane, Snehal; Khanolkar, Vishakha; Hallak, Joelle; Jain, Sandeep

2012-01-01

Purpose. The aim of this study was to determine and characterize the effect of topical application of benzalkonium chloride (BAK) on corneal nerves in vivo and in vitro. Methods. Thy1-YFP+ neurofluorescent mouse eyes were treated topically with vehicle or BAK (0.01% or 0.1%). Wide-field stereofluorescence microscopy was performed to sequentially image the treated corneas in vivo every week for 4 weeks, and changes in stromal nerve fiber density (NFD) and aqueous tear production were determined. Whole-mount immunofluorescence staining of corneas was performed with antibodies to axonopathy marker SMI-32. Western immunoblot analyses were performed on trigeminal ganglion and corneal lysates to determine abundance of proteins associated with neurotoxicity and regeneration. Compartmental culture of trigeminal ganglion neurons was performed in Campenot devices to determine whether BAK affects neurite outgrowth. Results. BAK-treated corneas exhibited significantly reduced NFD and aqueous tear production, and increased inflammatory cell infiltration and fluorescein staining at 1 week (P < 0.05). These changes were most significant after 0.1% BAK treatment. The extent of inflammatory cell infiltration in the cornea showed a significant negative correlation with NFD. Sequential in vivo imaging of corneas showed two forms of BAK-induced neurotoxicity: reversible neurotoxicity characterized by axonopathy and recovery, and irreversible neurotoxicity characterized by nerve degeneration and regeneration. Increased abundance of beta III tubulin in corneal lysates confirmed regeneration. A dose-related significant reduction in neurites occurred after BAK addition to compartmental cultures of dissociated trigeminal ganglion cells. Although both BAK doses (0.0001% and 0.001%) reduced nerve fiber length, the reduction was significantly more with the higher dose (P < 0.001). Conclusion. Topical application of BAK to the eye causes corneal neurotoxicity, inflammation, and reduced aqueous

K-Means Subject Matter Expert Refined Topic Model Methodology

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-01-01

Refined Topic Model Methodology Topic Model Estimation via K-Means U.S. Army TRADOC Analysis Center-Monterey 700 Dyer Road...January 2017 K-means Subject Matter Expert Refined Topic Model Methodology Topic Model Estimation via K-Means Theodore T. Allen, Ph.D. Zhenhuan...Matter Expert Refined Topic Model Methodology Topic Model Estimation via K-means 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER W9124N-15-P-0022 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c

The White House Conference on Library and Information Services. July 9-13, 1991. Discussion Papers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White House Conference on Library and Information Services.

This collection of discussion papers focuses on the role of library and information services in the three main topic areas for the conference: Enhancing Literacy, Increasing Productivity, and Strengthening Democracy. The collection is one of many publications and projects either in support of, or which will result from, the second White House…

Revealing topics and their evolution in biomedical literature using Bio-DTM: a case study of ginseng.

PubMed

Chen, Qian; Ai, Ni; Liao, Jie; Shao, Xin; Liu, Yufeng; Fan, Xiaohui

2017-01-01

Valuable scientific results on biomedicine are very rich, but they are widely scattered in the literature. Topic modeling enables researchers to discover themes from an unstructured collection of documents without any prior annotations or labels. In this paper, taking ginseng as an example, biological dynamic topic model (Bio-DTM) was proposed to conduct a retrospective study and interpret the temporal evolution of the research of ginseng. The system of Bio-DTM mainly includes four components, documents pre-processing, bio-dictionary construction, dynamic topic models, topics analysis and visualization. Scientific articles pertaining to ginseng were retrieved through text mining from PubMed. The bio-dictionary integrates MedTerms medical dictionary, the second edition of side effect resource, a dictionary of biology and HGNC database of human gene names (HGNC). A dynamic topic model, a text mining technique, was used to emphasize on capturing the development trends of topics in a sequentially collected documents. Besides the contents of topics taken on, the evolution of topics was visualized over time using ThemeRiver. From the topic 9, ginseng was used in dietary supplements and complementary and integrative health practices, and became very popular since the early twentieth century. Topic 6 reminded that the planting of ginseng is a major area of research and symbiosis and allelopathy of ginseng became a research hotspot in 2007. In addition, the Bio-DTM model gave an insight into the main pharmacologic effects of ginseng, such as anti-metabolic disorder effect, cardioprotective effect, anti-cancer effect, hepatoprotective effect, anti-thrombotic effect and neuroprotective effect. The Bio-DTM model not only discovers what ginseng's research involving in but also displays how these topics evolving over time. This approach can be applied to the biomedical field to conduct a retrospective study and guide future studies.

The Use of a Virtual Online Debating Platform to Facilitate Student Discussion of Potentially Polarising Topics

PubMed Central

McGreevy, Paul D.; Tzioumis, Vicky; Johnson, Jane; Brown, Robert; Sands, Mike; Starling, Melissa J.; Phillips, Clive J. C.

2017-01-01

Simple Summary The Human Continuum is a classroom exercise for secondary and tertiary students that offers a cooperative/cognitive learning strategy, requiring students to identify and commit to a position in response to a stimulus question. The purpose of the current submission is to contextualize and introduce online, a virtual human continuum for teaching purposes. It describes an innovative tool design while also reporting its use for a particular cohort: a small group of veterinary science students. Abstract The merits of students exchanging views through the so-called human continuum exercise (HCE) are well established. The current article describes the creation of the virtual human continuum (VHC), an online platform that facilitates the same teaching exercise. It also reports feedback on the VHC from veterinary science students (n = 38). First-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students at the University of Sydney, Australia, trialed the platform and provided feedback. Most students agreed or strongly agreed that the VHC offered: a non-threatening environment for discussing emotive and challenging issues; and an opportunity to see how other people form ideas. It also made them think about how to express their ideas and make arguments; and left them feeling more comfortable about expressing their views using it than they would discussing ideas face-to-face (98%, 84%, 79% and 76%, respectively). All respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the VHC encouraged them to consider other opinions. These data suggest that the transition of the HCE to an online platform facilitates dialogue on difficult ethical issues in a supportive environment. PMID:28869501

[Medical topics of the Goethe period as reflected in the Goethe Dictionary].

PubMed

Schlaps, Christiane

2010-01-01

This paper deals with some medical topics which were mentioned or discussed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and can thus be found in the dictionary which lists and explains all the words he used, the Goethe Dictionary. The author makes a case for the use of this primarily literary and linguistic work e. g. as source material for historians of medicine and shows some of its possible uses.

The Distinction of Hot Herbal Compress, Hot Compress, and Topical Diclofenac as Myofascial Pain Syndrome Treatment.

PubMed

Boonruab, Jurairat; Nimpitakpong, Netraya; Damjuti, Watchara

2018-01-01

This randomized controlled trial aimed to investigate the distinctness after treatment among hot herbal compress, hot compress, and topical diclofenac. The registrants were equally divided into groups and received the different treatments including hot herbal compress, hot compress, and topical diclofenac group, which served as the control group. After treatment courses, Visual Analog Scale and 36-Item Short Form Health survey were, respectively, used to establish the level of pain intensity and quality of life. In addition, cervical range of motion and pressure pain threshold were also examined to identify the motional effects. All treatments showed significantly decreased level of pain intensity and increased cervical range of motion, while the intervention groups exhibited extraordinary capability compared with the topical diclofenac group in pressure pain threshold and quality of life. In summary, hot herbal compress holds promise to be an efficacious treatment parallel to hot compress and topical diclofenac.

Discussion of the dizziness handicap inventory.

PubMed

Mutlu, Basak; Serbetcioglu, Bulent

2013-01-01

A review of the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI). NUMBER OF STUDIES: Seventy-four studies. Articles published between January 1990 and May 2012 were identified by searches in PubMed electronic database. Of the 227 articles meeting the inclusion criteria 74 were reviewed. These articles are discussed under nine topics; Reliability, validity and internal consistency of the original version of DHI, relationship between vestibular/balance tests and DHI, association between DHI and the other scales related to balance impairments, exploratory factor analysis of the DHI, screening version of DHI, translations of DHI into other languages, the role of DHI to assess the success of the treatment of balance disorder, DHI results in various vestibular disorders, general characteristics of DHI in patients with balance impairment. Self reported measures represent unique pieces of the information important for the management of dizzy patients. DHI is the most widely used self reported measurement of patients with dizziness. It has been translated into fourteen languages, so it is widely accepted.

Emerging topical onychomycosis therapies - quo vadis?

PubMed

Elkeeb, Rania; Hui, Xiaoying; Murthy, Narasimha; Maibach, Howard I

2014-12-01

Onychomycosis, a common chronic fungal infection affecting fingernails and toenails, globally may affect 10 - 30% of the population. This chronic disease is difficult to eradicate. The goal of developing a highly effective and safe topical treatment has not yet been reached as it depends on the type of onychomycosis and the variety of invaders. Topical drug delivery to the nail is highly desirable in treating nail disorders. However, efficacy of topical therapies is low due to their limited permeability across the nail plate. Advances have especially been made by the development of new therapeutic options including new drug entities, new formulations and reformulations. This overview updates emerging topical treatments for onychomycosis, research progress and future perspectives. Development of novel effective noninvasive topical therapy for treating onychomycosis and other nail diseases such as psoriasis is long overdue. Previously there was a lack of basic knowledge about nail and its barrier properties, but with the recent increased interest in this field both from industry and academia, we hope extensive research will continue in this field to bring about successful and safe treatments for such chronic diseases.

Topical betamethasone butyrate propionate exacerbates pressure ulcers after cutaneous ischemia-reperfusion injury.

PubMed

Uchiyama, Akihiko; Yamada, Kazuya; Perera, Buddhini; Ogino, Sachiko; Yokoyama, Yoko; Takeuchi, Yuko; Ishikawa, Osamu; Motegi, Sei-Ichiro

2016-09-01

Ischaemia-reperfusion (I/R) is involved in the development of various organ diseases. There has been increasing evidence that cutaneous I/R injury is associated with the pathogenesis of pressure ulcers (PUs), especially at the early stage presenting as non-blanchable erythema. However, there is no evidence-based treatment for early-stage PUs. Our objective was to assess the effects of topical steroid on the development of PUs after cutaneous I/R injury in mice. Cutaneous I/R was performed by trapping the dorsal skin between two magnetic plates for 12 h, followed by plate removal. Topical application of betamethasone butyrate propionate (BBP) in I/R areas significantly increased the size of PUs after I/R. The number of thromboses was increased, and CD31(+) vessels were decreased in the I/R area treated with topical BBP. The number of oxidative stress-associated DNA-damaged cells and apoptotic cells in the I/R area was increased by topical BBP treatment. In addition, the mRNA level of NADPH oxidase 4 (Nox4), the essential enzyme that produces reactive oxygen species, was significantly increased and that of NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a transcription factor that regulates the expression of antioxidant proteins, was inhibited in the I/R area treated by BBP. The number of CD68(+) macrophages and the level of transforming growth factor-beta in lesional skin were also decreased by BBP. These results suggest that a topical steroid might accelerate the formation of PUs induced by cutaneous I/R injury by aggravating oxidative stress-induced tissue damage. Topical steroids might not be recommended for the treatment of acute-phase decubitus ulcers. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Effects of topical brinzolamide on infantile nystagmus syndrome waveforms: eyedrops for nystagmus.

PubMed

Dell'osso, Louis F; Hertle, Richard W; Leigh, R John; Jacobs, Jonathan B; King, Susan; Yaniglos, Stacia

2011-09-01

Recent advances in infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) surgery have uncovered the therapeutic importance of proprioception. In this report, we test the hypothesis that the topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitor (CAI) brinzolamide (Azopt) has beneficial effects on measures of nystagmus foveation quality in a subject with INS. Eye movement data were taken, using a high-speed digital video recording system, before and after 3 days of the application of topical brinzolamide 3 times daily in each eye. Nystagmus waveforms were analyzed by applying the eXpanded Nystagmus Acuity Function (NAFX) at different gaze angles and determining the longest foveation domain (LFD) and compared to previously published data from the same subject after the use of a systemic CAI, contact lenses, and convergence and to other subjects before and after eye muscle surgery for INS. Topical brinzolamide improved foveation by both a 51.9% increase in the peak value of the NAFX function (from 0.395 to 0.600) and a 50% broadening of the NAFX vs Gaze Angle curve (the LFD increased from 20° to 30°). The improvements in NAFX after topical brinzolamide were equivalent to systemic acetazolamide or eye muscle surgery and were intermediate between those of soft contact lenses or convergence. Topical brinzolamide and contact lenses had equivalent LFD improvements and were less effective than convergence. In this subject with INS, topical brinzolamide resulted in improved-foveation INS waveforms over a broadened range of gaze angles. Its therapeutic effects were equivalent to systemic CAI. Although a prospective clinical trial is needed to prove efficacy or effectiveness in other subjects, an eyedrops-based therapy for INS may emerge as a viable addition to optical, surgical, behavioral, and systemic drug therapies.

What's on Your Mind? Conversation Topics Chosen by People With Degenerative Cognitive-Linguistic Disorders for Communication Boards

PubMed Central

Daniels, Darlene; Ettinger, Olivia; Mooney, Aimee; Noethe, Glory; Rowland, Charity

2015-01-01

Purpose Conversational topics chosen by a group of adults with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for personalized communication board development were examined. The patient-generated themes commonly selected are presented to guide treatment planning and communication board development. Method Communication boards were created for 109 adults as part of a larger research project. One autobiographical topic that each participant would enjoy discussing multiple times was represented on each communication board with 16 pictures and word labels. For this review, topics were collapsed into general themes through a consensus process and examined by gender and age. Results Sixty unique conversational topics were identified from 109 participants and collapsed into 9 general themes: Hobbies, Family, Travel, Work, Home/Places I've Lived, Sports/Fitness, Religion, Animals, and World War II. Age and gender produced variations in themes chosen, though no significance in rank orders was found across groups. Conclusions Topics selected by adults with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for communication boards resemble common conversational adult themes and do not center around basic needs or medical issues. Differences in gender and age for topic selection tend to be based on traditional roles. These general themes should be used when creating personalized communication boards for those who benefit from conversational aids. PMID:25835511

Sexual Communication in the Family: Handling a Delicate Topic in the Family Communication Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pawlowski, Donna R.

2006-01-01

Many times, families, and in particular parents, do not discuss important issues of sex with their children. Children learn about sex-related topics from their friends, other family members, or media sources. In such instances, while children at least may be learning about sex, the accuracy of the sources from which they are obtaining information…

Healthcare Professionals' and Patients' Views of Discussing Sexual Well-being Poststroke.

PubMed

Fox, Siobhan; Antony, Reema M; Foley, Mary J; O'Sullivan, Dawn; Timmons, Suzanne

2018-05-03

Stroke can cause physical and emotional problems affecting sexual well-being; healthcare professionals (HCPs) are often uncomfortable discussing this topic with patients. We explored the perspectives of HCPs and stroke survivors about barriers to discussing sexual well-being poststroke. A mixed methodology was employed. A postal survey of stroke survivors (n = 50), a focus group with HCPs on a stroke unit (n = 6), and a focus group with community-living stroke survivors (n = 6) were used in this study. Focus group data were analyzed thematically. No patient surveyed (60% response rate) had discussed sexual well-being with an HCP. Focus groups revealed barriers on multiple levels: structural, HCP, patient, and professional-patient interface. Healthcare professionals were poorly trained, adopted a passive role, and addressed sexual activity based on individual beliefs rather than having an agreed team approach. Relatively simple steps like inclusion in policy, training to empower HCPs, and the provision of written information for patients could help to improve practice.

Interrogating discourse: the application of Foucault's methodological discussion to specific inquiry.

PubMed

Fadyl, Joanna K; Nicholls, David A; McPherson, Kathryn M

2013-09-01

Discourse analysis following the work of Michel Foucault has become a valuable methodology in the critical analysis of a broad range of topics relating to health. However, it can be a daunting task, in that there seems to be both a huge number of possible approaches to carrying out this type of project, and an abundance of different, often conflicting, opinions about what counts as 'Foucauldian'. This article takes the position that methodological design should be informed by ongoing discussion and applied as appropriate to a particular area of inquiry. The discussion given offers an interpretation and application of Foucault's methodological principles, integrating a reading of Foucault with applications of his work by other authors, showing how this is then applied to interrogate the practice of vocational rehabilitation. It is intended as a contribution to methodological discussion in this area, offering an interpretation of various methodological elements described by Foucault, alongside specific application of these aspects.

Comparison of Systemic and Topical Hypericum Perforatum on Diabetic Surgical Wounds.

PubMed

Altıparmak, Mehmet; Eskitaşçıoğlu, Teoman

2018-02-01

Surgical wounds in diabetic patients still remain a problem till the present day. As a common plant found around the world, Hypericum perforatum L. (Hypericaceae) is traditionally prepared as an oily extract and used as a folk remedy for various diseases such as wounds, burns, cuts, etc. This study aims to evaluate the effect of St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) on problematic wounds while comparing oral and topical applications. Incisional and excisional wound models were made on the dorsal regions of 54 diabetic Spraque-Dawley rats. The rats were divided into the following six groups (n = 9): Group 1: control, Group 2: diabetic, Group 3: diabetic oral Hypericum perforatum, Group 4: diabetic topical Hypericum perforatum, Group 5: diabetic oral olive oil, and Group 6: diabetic topical olive oil. Groups 3 and 4 had significantly higher tensile strength, tissue hydroxyproline concentration, and collagen density compared with Group 2. Inflammatory cell density and collagen density on day 3 were significantly higher in Groups 3 and 6 compared with Group 2. On day 21, Groups 3 and 6 had significantly higher fibroblastic activity compared with Group 2. This study has proved that oral St. John's wort has more positive effects on problematic wounds compared with topical St. John's wort and olive oil, which is a vehicle. Hypericum perforatum results with faster inflammatory response and better healing. These results could be an addition to literature about the clinical usage of Hypericum perforatum on diabetic wounds.

Systemic and Topical Use of Tranexamic Acid in Spinal Surgery: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Winter, Sebastian F.; Santaguida, Carlo; Wong, Jean; Fehlings, Michael G.

2015-01-01

Study Design Combination of narrative and systematic literature reviews. Objectives Massive perioperative blood loss in complex spinal surgery often requires blood transfusions and can negatively affect patient outcome. Systemic use of the antifibrinolytic agent tranexamic acid (TXA) has become widely used in the management of surgical bleeding. We review the clinical evidence for the use of intravenous TXA as a hemostatic agent in spinal surgery and discuss the emerging role for its complementary use as a topical agent to reduce perioperative blood loss from the surgical site. Through a systematic review of published and ongoing investigations on topical TXA for spinal surgery, we wish to make spine practitioners aware of this option and to suggest opportunities for further investigation in the field. Methods A narrative review of systemic TXA in spinal surgery and topical TXA in surgery was conducted. Furthermore, a systematic search (using PRISMA guidelines) of PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases as well as World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, ClinicalTrials.gov (National Institutes of Health), and International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number registries was conducted to identify both published literature and ongoing clinical trials on topical TXA in spinal surgery. Results Of 1,631 preliminary search results, 2 published studies were included in the systematic review. Out of 285 ongoing clinical trials matching the search criteria, a total of 4 relevant studies were included and reviewed. Conclusion Intravenous TXA is established as an efficacious hemostatic agent in spinal surgery. Use of topical TXA in surgery suggests similar hemostatic efficacy and potentially improved safety as compared with intravenous TXA. For spinal surgery, the literature on topical TXA is sparse but promising, warranting further clinical investigation and consideration as a clinical option in cases with

A Simple Experimental Setup for Teaching Additive Colors with Arduino

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carvalho, Paulo Simeão; Hahn, Marcelo

2016-01-01

The result of additive colors is always fascinating to young students. When we teach this topic to 14- to 16-year-old students, they do not usually notice we use maximum light quantities of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) to obtain yellow, magenta, and cyan colors in order to build the well-known additive color diagram of Fig. 1. But how about…

Jet Topics: Disentangling Quarks and Gluons at Colliders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Metodiev, Eric M.; Thaler, Jesse

2018-06-01

We introduce jet topics: a framework to identify underlying classes of jets from collider data. Because of a close mathematical relationship between distributions of observables in jets and emergent themes in sets of documents, we can apply recent techniques in "topic modeling" to extract jet topics from the data with minimal or no input from simulation or theory. As a proof of concept with parton shower samples, we apply jet topics to determine separate quark and gluon jet distributions for constituent multiplicity. We also determine separate quark and gluon rapidity spectra from a mixed Z -plus-jet sample. While jet topics are defined directly from hadron-level multidifferential cross sections, one can also predict jet topics from first-principles theoretical calculations, with potential implications for how to define quark and gluon jets beyond leading-logarithmic accuracy. These investigations suggest that jet topics will be useful for extracting underlying jet distributions and fractions in a wide range of contexts at the Large Hadron Collider.

76 FR 22805 - Medical Devices; Reclassification of the Topical Oxygen Chamber for Extremities

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-25

... use and adequate healing of wounds using the TOCE. In addition, FDA has evaluated more than 20 years... humidified oxygen topically at a pressure slightly greater than atmospheric pressure to aid healing of... pressure to aid healing of chronic skin ulcers such as bedsores. Elsewhere in the Federal Register of April...

In Vivo Methods for the Assessment of Topical Drug Bioavailability

PubMed Central

Herkenne, Christophe; Alberti, Ingo; Naik, Aarti; Kalia, Yogeshvar N.; Mathy, François-Xavier; Préat, Véronique

2007-01-01

This paper reviews some current methods for the in vivo assessment of local cutaneous bioavailability in humans after topical drug application. After an introduction discussing the importance of local drug bioavailability assessment and the limitations of model-based predictions, the focus turns to the relevance of experimental studies. The available techniques are then reviewed in detail, with particular emphasis on the tape stripping and microdialysis methodologies. Other less developed techniques, including the skin biopsy, suction blister, follicle removal and confocal Raman spectroscopy techniques are also described. PMID:17985216

Notes and Discussion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Journal of Physics, 1977

1977-01-01

Presents eight short articles on the following topics: demonstration of possible excitations in liquids; Mohr's circle and the determination of moments of inertia; braking distance versus mass for automobiles; a constant gravity model of the earth's interior; diffraction pattern of a hair; hyperbolic mirrors; sulfation plates; and principles of…

Discussion on the methodology for determining food waste in household waste composition studies.