Sample records for identifiable information pii

  1. 2 CFR 200.82 - Protected Personally Identifiable Information (Protected PII).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 2 Grants and Agreements 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Protected Personally Identifiable Information (Protected PII). 200.82 Section 200.82 Grants and Agreements Office of Management and Budget... § 200.82 Protected Personally Identifiable Information (Protected PII). Protected PII means an...

  2. 2 CFR 200.79 - Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ..., email address, home telephone number, and general educational credentials. The definition of PII is not anchored to any single category of information or technology. Rather, it requires a case-by-case assessment...

  3. EPA Plan for Reducing Personally Identifiable Information, January 2013

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The EPA Privacy Policy, issued in 2007, establishes the framework and accountability for reducing Agency personally identifiable information (PII). Learn about the Agency's plan to reduce the collection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

  4. Rice Exo70 interacts with a fungal effector, AVR-Pii, and is required for AVR-Pii-triggered immunity.

    PubMed

    Fujisaki, Koki; Abe, Yoshiko; Ito, Akiko; Saitoh, Hiromasa; Yoshida, Kentaro; Kanzaki, Hiroyuki; Kanzaki, Eiko; Utsushi, Hiroe; Yamashita, Tetsuro; Kamoun, Sophien; Terauchi, Ryohei

    2015-09-01

    Vesicle trafficking including the exocytosis pathway is intimately associated with host immunity against pathogens. However, we still have insufficient knowledge about how it contributes to immunity, and how pathogen factors affect it. In this study, we explore host factors that interact with the Magnaporthe oryzae effector AVR-Pii. Gel filtration chromatography and co-immunoprecipitation assays identified a 150 kDa complex of proteins in the soluble fraction comprising AVR-Pii and OsExo70-F2 and OsExo70-F3, two rice Exo70 proteins presumably involved in exocytosis. Simultaneous knockdown of OsExo70-F2 and F3 totally abrogated Pii immune receptor-dependent resistance, but had no effect on Pia- and Pik-dependent resistance. Knockdown levels of OsExo70-F3 but not OsExo70-F2 correlated with reduction of Pii function, suggesting that OsExo70-F3 is specifically involved in Pii-dependent resistance. Under our current experimental conditions, over-expression of AVR-Pii or knockdown of OsExo70-F2 and -F3 genes in rice did not affect the virulence of compatible isolates of M. oryzae. AVR-Pii interaction with OsExo70-F3 appears to play a crucial role in immunity triggered by Pii, suggesting a role for OsExo70 as a decoy or helper in Pii/AVR-Pii interactions. © 2015 The Authors The Plant Journal © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  5. Checking Questionable Entry of Personally Identifiable Information Encrypted by One-Way Hash Transformation

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Xianlai; Fann, Yang C; McAuliffe, Matthew; Vismer, David

    2017-01-01

    Background As one of the several effective solutions for personal privacy protection, a global unique identifier (GUID) is linked with hash codes that are generated from combinations of personally identifiable information (PII) by a one-way hash algorithm. On the GUID server, no PII is permitted to be stored, and only GUID and hash codes are allowed. The quality of PII entry is critical to the GUID system. Objective The goal of our study was to explore a method of checking questionable entry of PII in this context without using or sending any portion of PII while registering a subject. Methods According to the principle of GUID system, all possible combination patterns of PII fields were analyzed and used to generate hash codes, which were stored on the GUID server. Based on the matching rules of the GUID system, an error-checking algorithm was developed using set theory to check PII entry errors. We selected 200,000 simulated individuals with randomly-planted errors to evaluate the proposed algorithm. These errors were placed in the required PII fields or optional PII fields. The performance of the proposed algorithm was also tested in the registering system of study subjects. Results There are 127,700 error-planted subjects, of which 114,464 (89.64%) can still be identified as the previous one and remaining 13,236 (10.36%, 13,236/127,700) are discriminated as new subjects. As expected, 100% of nonidentified subjects had errors within the required PII fields. The possibility that a subject is identified is related to the count and the type of incorrect PII field. For all identified subjects, their errors can be found by the proposed algorithm. The scope of questionable PII fields is also associated with the count and the type of the incorrect PII field. The best situation is to precisely find the exact incorrect PII fields, and the worst situation is to shrink the questionable scope only to a set of 13 PII fields. In the application, the proposed algorithm can

  6. Checking Questionable Entry of Personally Identifiable Information Encrypted by One-Way Hash Transformation.

    PubMed

    Chen, Xianlai; Fann, Yang C; McAuliffe, Matthew; Vismer, David; Yang, Rong

    2017-02-17

    As one of the several effective solutions for personal privacy protection, a global unique identifier (GUID) is linked with hash codes that are generated from combinations of personally identifiable information (PII) by a one-way hash algorithm. On the GUID server, no PII is permitted to be stored, and only GUID and hash codes are allowed. The quality of PII entry is critical to the GUID system. The goal of our study was to explore a method of checking questionable entry of PII in this context without using or sending any portion of PII while registering a subject. According to the principle of GUID system, all possible combination patterns of PII fields were analyzed and used to generate hash codes, which were stored on the GUID server. Based on the matching rules of the GUID system, an error-checking algorithm was developed using set theory to check PII entry errors. We selected 200,000 simulated individuals with randomly-planted errors to evaluate the proposed algorithm. These errors were placed in the required PII fields or optional PII fields. The performance of the proposed algorithm was also tested in the registering system of study subjects. There are 127,700 error-planted subjects, of which 114,464 (89.64%) can still be identified as the previous one and remaining 13,236 (10.36%, 13,236/127,700) are discriminated as new subjects. As expected, 100% of nonidentified subjects had errors within the required PII fields. The possibility that a subject is identified is related to the count and the type of incorrect PII field. For all identified subjects, their errors can be found by the proposed algorithm. The scope of questionable PII fields is also associated with the count and the type of the incorrect PII field. The best situation is to precisely find the exact incorrect PII fields, and the worst situation is to shrink the questionable scope only to a set of 13 PII fields. In the application, the proposed algorithm can give a hint of questionable PII entry

  7. Plant nitrogen regulatory P-PII polypeptides

    DOEpatents

    Coruzzi, Gloria M.; Lam, Hon-Ming; Hsieh, Ming-Hsiun

    2004-11-23

    The present invention generally relates to plant nitrogen regulatory PII gene (hereinafter P-PII gene), a gene involved in regulating plant nitrogen metabolism. The invention provides P-PII nucleotide sequences, expression constructs comprising said nucleotide sequences, and host cells and plants having said constructs and, optionally expressing the P-PII gene from said constructs. The invention also provides substantially pure P-PII proteins. The P-PII nucleotide sequences and constructs of the invention may be used to engineer organisms to overexpress wild-type or mutant P-PII regulatory protein. Engineered plants that overexpress or underexpress P-PII regulatory protein may have increased nitrogen assimilation capacity. Engineered organisms may be used to produce P-PII proteins which, in turn, can be used for a variety of purposes including in vitro screening of herbicides. P-PII nucleotide sequences have additional uses as probes for isolating additional genomic clones having the promoters of P-PII gene. P-PII promoters are light- and/or sucrose-inducible and may be advantageously used in genetic engineering of plants.

  8. Sequencing and Characterization of Novel PII Signaling Protein Gene in Microalga Haematococcus pluvialis.

    PubMed

    Ma, Ruijuan; Li, Yan; Lu, Yinghua

    2017-10-11

    The PII signaling protein is a key protein for controlling nitrogen assimilatory reactions in most organisms, but little information is reported on PII proteins of green microalga Haematococcus pluvialis . Since H. pluvialis cells can produce a large amount of astaxanthin upon nitrogen starvation, its PII protein may represent an important factor on elevated production of Haematococcus astaxanthin. This study identified and isolated the coding gene (Hp GLB1 ) from this microalga. The full-length of Hp GLB1 was 1222 bp, including 621 bp coding sequence (CDS), 103 bp 5' untranslated region (5' UTR), and 498 bp 3' untranslated region (3' UTR). The CDS could encode a protein with 206 amino acids (HpPII). Its calculated molecular weight (Mw) was 22.4 kDa and the theoretical isoelectric point was 9.53. When H. pluvialis cells were exposed to nitrogen starvation, the Hp GLB1 expression was increased 2.46 times in 48 h, concomitant with the raise of astaxanthin content. This study also used phylogenetic analysis to prove that HpPII was homogeneous to the PII proteins of other green microalgae. The results formed a fundamental basis for the future study on HpPII, for its potential physiological function in Haematococcus astaxanthin biosysthesis.

  9. Plant nitrogen regulatory P-PII genes

    DOEpatents

    Coruzzi, Gloria M.; Lam, Hon-Ming; Hsieh, Ming-Hsiun

    2001-01-01

    The present invention generally relates to plant nitrogen regulatory PII gene (hereinafter P-PII gene), a gene involved in regulating plant nitrogen metabolism. The invention provides P-PII nucleotide sequences, expression constructs comprising said nucleotide sequences, and host cells and plants having said constructs and, optionally expressing the P-PII gene from said constructs. The invention also provides substantially pure P-PII proteins. The P-PII nucleotide sequences and constructs of the

  10. Vulnerability- and Diversity-Aware Anonymization of Personally Identifiable Information for Improving User Privacy and Utility of Publishing Data

    PubMed Central

    Majeed, Abdul; Ullah, Farman; Lee, Sungchang

    2017-01-01

    Personally identifiable information (PII) affects individual privacy because PII combinations may yield unique identifications in published data. User PII such as age, race, gender, and zip code contain private information that may assist an adversary in determining the user to whom such information relates. Each item of user PII reveals identity differently, and some types of PII are highly identity vulnerable. More vulnerable types of PII enable unique identification more easily, and their presence in published data increases privacy risks. Existing privacy models treat all types of PII equally from an identity revelation point of view, and they mainly focus on hiding user PII in a crowd of other users. Ignoring the identity vulnerability of each type of PII during anonymization is not an effective method of protecting user privacy in a fine-grained manner. This paper proposes a new anonymization scheme that considers the identity vulnerability of PII to effectively protect user privacy. Data generalization is performed adaptively based on the identity vulnerability of PII as well as diversity to anonymize data. This adaptive generalization effectively enables anonymous data, which protects user identity and private information disclosures while maximizing the utility of data for performing analyses and building classification models. Additionally, the proposed scheme has low computational overheads. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the scheme and verify the aforementioned claims. PMID:28481298

  11. Vulnerability- and Diversity-Aware Anonymization of Personally Identifiable Information for Improving User Privacy and Utility of Publishing Data.

    PubMed

    Majeed, Abdul; Ullah, Farman; Lee, Sungchang

    2017-05-08

    Personally identifiable information (PII) affects individual privacy because PII combinations may yield unique identifications in published data. User PII such as age, race, gender, and zip code contain private information that may assist an adversary in determining the user to whom such information relates. Each item of user PII reveals identity differently, and some types of PII are highly identity vulnerable. More vulnerable types of PII enable unique identification more easily, and their presence in published data increases privacy risks. Existing privacy models treat all types of PII equally from an identity revelation point of view, and they mainly focus on hiding user PII in a crowd of other users. Ignoring the identity vulnerability of each type of PII during anonymization is not an effective method of protecting user privacy in a fine-grained manner. This paper proposes a new anonymization scheme that considers the identity vulnerability of PII to effectively protect user privacy. Data generalization is performed adaptively based on the identity vulnerability of PII as well as diversity to anonymize data. This adaptive generalization effectively enables anonymous data, which protects user identity and private information disclosures while maximizing the utility of data for performing analyses and building classification models. Additionally, the proposed scheme has low computational overheads. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the scheme and verify the aforementioned claims.

  12. The PII Solution to Mental Healthcare Delivery: Prevention, Intervention, and Integration.

    PubMed

    King, Mira A

    In this essay, the author proposes a new, integrated model for mental healthcare delivery called the PII solution, which builds on the successes of federal government programs and state initiatives. The PII solution includes prevention, intervention, and integration. As a community-centered approach, PII leverages existing programs in concert with new approaches to meet the diverse needs of patients with the spectrum of mental health disorders, from low risk to high risk. The PII solution can be applied to any subgroup in society to create a comprehensive plan to combat mental illness. In this essay, the author uses the PII solution to (a) build upon public-private partnership initiatives that have reduced emergency department utilization and costs for behavioral health patients, (b) improve law enforcement's proficiency in identifying and deescalating situations involving potentially violent individuals with a serious mental illness, and (c) advocate for increased social responsibility of providers to ensure that mentally ill patients are receiving the right care in the right setting.

  13. Uridylylation of the PII protein from Herbaspirillum seropedicae.

    PubMed

    Benelli, E M; Buck, M; de Souza, E M; Yates, M G; Pedrosa, F O

    2001-04-01

    The PII protein is apparently involved in the control of NifA activity in Herbaspirillum seropedicae. To evaluate the probable role of PII in signal transduction, uridylylation assays were conducted with purified H. seropedicae PII and Escherichia coli GlnD, or a cell-free extract of H. seropedicae as sources of uridylylating activity. The results showed that alpha-ketoglutarate and ATP stimulate uridylylation whereas glutamine inhibits uridylylation. Deuridylylation of PII-UMP was dependent on glutamine and inhibited by ATP and alpha-ketoglutarate. PII uridylylation and (or) deuridylylation in response to these effectors suggests that PII is a nitrogen level signal transducer in H. seropedicae.

  14. 48 CFR 204.7004 - Supplementary PII numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... agreements using a six position alpha-numeric added to the basic PII number. (2) Position 1. Identify the...) Positions 2 through 3. These are the first two digits in a serial number. They may be either alpha or... orders issued by the office issuing the contract or agreement. Use a four position alpha-numeric call or...

  15. 48 CFR 204.7004 - Supplementary PII numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... agreements using a six position alpha-numeric added to the basic PII number. (2) Position 1. Identify the...) Positions 2 through 3. These are the first two digits in a serial number. They may be either alpha or... orders issued by the office issuing the contract or agreement. Use a four position alpha-numeric call or...

  16. 48 CFR 204.7004 - Supplementary PII numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... agreements using a six position alpha-numeric added to the basic PII number. (2) Position 1. Identify the...) Positions 2 through 3. These are the first two digits in a serial number. They may be either alpha or... orders issued by the office issuing the contract or agreement. Use a four position alpha-numeric call or...

  17. From cyanobacteria to plants: conservation of PII functions during plastid evolution.

    PubMed

    Chellamuthu, Vasuki Ranjani; Alva, Vikram; Forchhammer, Karl

    2013-02-01

    This article reviews the current state-of-the-art concerning the functions of the signal processing protein PII in cyanobacteria and plants, with a special focus on evolutionary aspects. We start out with a general introduction to PII proteins, their distribution, and their evolution. We also discuss PII-like proteins and domains, in particular, the similarity between ATP-phosphoribosyltransferase (ATP-PRT) and its PII-like domain and the complex between N-acetyl-L-glutamate kinase (NAGK) and its PII activator protein from oxygenic phototrophs. The structural basis of the function of PII as an ATP/ADP/2-oxoglutarate signal processor is described for Synechococcus elongatus PII. In both cyanobacteria and plants, a major target of PII regulation is NAGK, which catalyzes the committed step of arginine biosynthesis. The common principles of NAGK regulation by PII are outlined. Based on the observation that PII proteins from cyanobacteria and plants can functionally replace each other, the hypothesis that PII-dependent NAGK control was under selective pressure during the evolution of plastids of Chloroplastida and Rhodophyta is tested by bioinformatics approaches. It is noteworthy that two lineages of heterokont algae, diatoms and brown algae, also possess NAGK, albeit lacking PII; their NAGK however appears to have descended from an alphaproteobacterium and not from a cyanobacterium as in plants. We end this article by coming to the conclusion that during the evolution of plastids, PII lost its function in coordinating gene expression through the PipX-NtcA network but preserved its role in nitrogen (arginine) storage metabolism, and subsequently took over the fine-tuned regulation of carbon (fatty acid) storage metabolism, which is important in certain developmental stages of plants.

  18. 48 CFR 204.7003 - Basic PII number.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Basic PII number. 204.7003... OF DEFENSE GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS Uniform Procurement Instrument Identification Numbers 204.7003 Basic PII number. (a) Elements of a number. The number consists of 13 alpha-numeric characters...

  19. 48 CFR 204.7003 - Basic PII number.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Basic PII number. 204.7003... OF DEFENSE GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS Uniform Procurement Instrument Identification Numbers 204.7003 Basic PII number. (a) Elements of a number. The number consists of 13 alpha-numeric characters...

  20. 2-Oxoglutarate levels control adenosine nucleotide binding by Herbaspirillum seropedicae PII proteins.

    PubMed

    Oliveira, Marco A S; Gerhardt, Edileusa C M; Huergo, Luciano F; Souza, Emanuel M; Pedrosa, Fábio O; Chubatsu, Leda S

    2015-12-01

    Nitrogen metabolism in Proteobacteria is controlled by the Ntr system, in which PII proteins play a pivotal role, controlling the activity of target proteins in response to the metabolic state of the cell. Characterization of the binding of molecular effectors to these proteins can provide information about their regulation. Here, the binding of ATP, ADP and 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG) to the Herbaspirillum seropedicae PII proteins, GlnB and GlnK, was characterized using isothermal titration calorimetry. Results show that these proteins can bind three molecules of ATP, ADP and 2-OG with homotropic negative cooperativity, and 2-OG binding stabilizes the binding of ATP. Results also show that the affinity of uridylylated forms of GlnB and GlnK for nucleotides is significantly lower than that of the nonuridylylated proteins. Furthermore, fluctuations in the intracellular concentration of 2-OG in response to nitrogen availability are shown. Results suggest that under nitrogen-limiting conditions, PII proteins tend to bind ATP and 2-OG. By contrast, after an ammonium shock, a decrease in the 2-OG concentration is observed causing a decrease in the affinity of PII proteins for ATP. This phenomenon may facilitate the exchange of ATP for ADP on the ligand-binding pocket of PII proteins, thus it is likely that under low ammonium, low 2-OG levels would favor the ADP-bound state. © 2015 FEBS.

  1. Adenylylation of mycobacterial Glnk (PII) protein is induced by nitrogen limitation

    PubMed Central

    Williams, Kerstin J.; Bennett, Mark H.; Barton, Geraint R.; Jenkins, Victoria A.; Robertson, Brian D.

    2013-01-01

    Summary PII proteins are pivotal regulators of nitrogen metabolism in most prokaryotes, controlling the activities of many targets, including nitrogen assimilation enzymes, two component regulatory systems and ammonium transport proteins. Escherichia coli contains two PII-like proteins, PII (product of glnB) and GlnK, both of which are uridylylated under nitrogen limitation at a conserved Tyrosine-51 residue by GlnD (a uridylyl transferase). PII-uridylylation in E. coli controls glutamine synthetase (GS) adenylylation by GlnE and mediates the NtrB/C transcriptomic response. Mycobacteria contain only one PII protein (GlnK) which in environmental Actinomycetales is adenylylated by GlnD under nitrogen limitation. However in mycobacteria, neither the type of GlnK (PII) covalent modification nor its precise role under nitrogen limitation is known. In this study, we used LC-Tandem MS to analyse the modification state of mycobacterial GlnK (PII), and demonstrate that during nitrogen limitation GlnK from both non-pathogenic Mycobacterium smegmatis and pathogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis is adenylylated at the Tyrosine-51 residue; we also show that GlnD is the adenylyl transferase enzyme responsible. Further analysis shows that in contrast to E. coli, GlnK (PII) adenylylation in M. tuberculosis does not regulate GS adenylylation, nor does it mediate the transcriptomic response to nitrogen limitation. PMID:23352854

  2. Herbaspirillum seropedicae signal transduction protein PII is structurally similar to the enteric GlnK.

    PubMed

    Machado Benelli, Elaine; Buck, Martin; Polikarpov, Igor; Maltempi de Souza, Emanuel; Cruz, Leonardo M; Pedrosa, Fábio O

    2002-07-01

    PII-like proteins are signal transduction proteins found in bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. They mediate a variety of cellular responses. A second PII-like protein, called GlnK, has been found in several organisms. In the diazotroph Herbaspirillum seropedicae, PII protein is involved in sensing nitrogen levels and controlling nitrogen fixation genes. In this work, the crystal structure of the unliganded H. seropedicae PII was solved by X-ray diffraction. H. seropedicae PII has a Gly residue, Gly108 preceding Pro109 and the main-chain forms a beta turn. The glycine at position 108 allows a bend in the C-terminal main-chain, thereby modifying the surface of the cleft between monomers and potentially changing function. The structure suggests that the C-terminal region of PII proteins may be involved in specificity of function, and nonenteric diazotrophs are found to have the C-terminal consensus XGXDAX(107-112). We are also proposing binding sites for ATP and 2-oxoglutarate based on the structural alignment of PII with PII-ATP/GlnK-ATP, 5-carboxymethyl-2-hydroxymuconate isomerase and 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase bound to the inhibitor 2-oxo-3-pentynoate.

  3. Quantifying animal movement for caching foragers: the path identification index (PII) and cougars, Puma concolor.

    PubMed

    Ironside, Kirsten E; Mattson, David J; Theimer, Tad; Jansen, Brian; Holton, Brandon; Arundel, Terence; Peters, Michael; Sexton, Joseph O; Edwards, Thomas C

    2017-01-01

    Many studies of animal movement have focused on directed versus area-restricted movement, which rely on correlations between step-length and turn-angles and on stationarity through time to define behavioral states. Although these approaches might apply well to grazing in patchy landscapes, species that either feed for short periods on large, concentrated food sources or cache food exhibit movements that are difficult to model using the traditional metrics of turn-angle and step-length alone. We used GPS telemetry collected from a prey-caching predator, the cougar ( Puma concolor, Linnaeus ), to test whether combining metrics of site recursion, spatiotemporal clustering, speed, and turning into an index of movement using partial sums, improves the ability to identify caching behavior. The index was used to identify changes in movement characteristics over time and segment paths into behavioral classes. The identification of behaviors from the Path Identification Index (PII) was evaluated using field investigations of cougar activities at GPS locations. We tested for statistical stationarity across behaviors for use of topographic view-sheds. Changes in the frequency and duration of PII were useful for identifying seasonal activities such as migration, gestation, and denning. The comparison of field investigations of cougar activities to behavioral PII classes resulted in an overall classification accuracy of 81%. Changes in behaviors were reflected in cougars' use of topographic view-sheds, resulting in statistical nonstationarity over time, and revealed important aspects of hunting behavior. Incorporating metrics of site recursion and spatiotemporal clustering revealed the temporal structure in movements of a caching forager. The movement index PII, shows promise for identifying behaviors in species that frequently return to specific locations such as food caches, watering holes, or dens, and highlights the potential role memory and cognitive abilities play in

  4. Crystal structures of the apo and ATP bound Mycobacterium tuberculosis nitrogen regulatory PII protein

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

    Shetty, Nishant D.; Reddy, Manchi C.M.; Palaninathan, Satheesh K.

    2010-10-11

    PII constitutes a family of signal transduction proteins that act as nitrogen sensors in microorganisms and plants. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) has a single homologue of PII whose precise role has as yet not been explored. We have solved the crystal structures of the Mtb PII protein in its apo and ATP bound forms to 1.4 and 2.4 {angstrom} resolutions, respectively. The protein forms a trimeric assembly in the crystal lattice and folds similarly to the other PII family proteins. The Mtb PII:ATP binary complex structure reveals three ATP molecules per trimer, each bound between the base of the T-loop ofmore » one subunit and the C-loop of the neighboring subunit. In contrast to the apo structure, at least one subunit of the binary complex structure contains a completely ordered T-loop indicating that ATP binding plays a role in orienting this loop region towards target proteins like the ammonium transporter, AmtB. Arg38 of the T-loop makes direct contact with the {gamma}-phosphate of the ATP molecule replacing the Mg{sup 2+} position seen in the Methanococcus jannaschii GlnK1 structure. The C-loop of a neighboring subunit encloses the other side of the ATP molecule, placing the GlnK specific C-terminal 3{sub 10} helix in the vicinity. Homology modeling studies with the E. coli GlnK:AmtB complex reveal that Mtb PII could form a complex similar to the complex in E. coli. The structural conservation and operon organization suggests that the Mtb PII gene encodes for a GlnK protein and might play a key role in the nitrogen regulatory pathway.« less

  5. Exploring Information Security Awareness Training to Reduce Unauthorized Disclosure of Information in Public Schools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fleming, Antoine

    2017-01-01

    Advances in technological uses within public schools provide increased methods to collect and store non-public personal information (NPI) or personally identifiable information (PII) from both students and employees. Consequently, the sensitive information collected is susceptible to unauthorized disclosure, as various public school employees are…

  6. Proteomic analysis of Herbaspirillum seropedicae reveals ammonium-induced AmtB-dependent membrane sequestration of PII proteins.

    PubMed

    Huergo, Luciano F; Noindorf, Lilian; Gimenes, Camila; Lemgruber, Renato S P; Cordellini, Daniela F; Falarz, Lucas J; Cruz, Leonardo M; Monteiro, Rose A; Pedrosa, Fábio O; Chubatsu, Leda S; Souza, Emanuel M; Steffens, Maria B R

    2010-07-01

    This study was aimed at describing the spectrum and dynamics of proteins associated with the membrane in the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Herbaspirillum seropedicae according to the availability of fixed nitrogen. Using two-dimensional electrophoresis we identified 79 protein spots representing 45 different proteins in the membrane fraction of H. seropedicae. Quantitative analysis of gel images of membrane extracts indicated two spots with increased levels when cells were grown under nitrogen limitation in comparison with nitrogen sufficiency; these spots were identified as the GlnK protein and as a conserved noncytoplasmic protein of unknown function which was encoded in an operon together with GlnK and AmtB. Comparison of gel images of membrane extracts from cells grown under nitrogen limitation or under the same regime but collected after an ammonium shock revealed two proteins, GlnB and GlnK, with increased levels after the shock. The P(II) proteins were not present in the membrane fraction of an amtB mutant. The results reported here suggest that changes in the cellular localization of P(II) might play a role in the control of nitrogen metabolism in H. seropedicae.

  7. PiiL: visualization of DNA methylation and gene expression data in gene pathways.

    PubMed

    Moghadam, Behrooz Torabi; Zamani, Neda; Komorowski, Jan; Grabherr, Manfred

    2017-08-02

    DNA methylation is a major mechanism involved in the epigenetic state of a cell. It has been observed that the methylation status of certain CpG sites close to or within a gene can directly affect its expression, either by silencing or, in some cases, up-regulating transcription. However, a vertebrate genome contains millions of CpG sites, all of which are potential targets for methylation, and the specific effects of most sites have not been characterized to date. To study the complex interplay between methylation status, cellular programs, and the resulting phenotypes, we present PiiL, an interactive gene expression pathway browser, facilitating analyses through an integrated view of methylation and expression on multiple levels. PiiL allows for specific hypothesis testing by quickly assessing pathways or gene networks, where the data is projected onto pathways that can be downloaded directly from the online KEGG database. PiiL provides a comprehensive set of analysis features that allow for quick and specific pattern searches. Individual CpG sites and their impact on host gene expression, as well as the impact on other genes present in the regulatory network, can be examined. To exemplify the power of this approach, we analyzed two types of brain tumors, Glioblastoma multiform and lower grade gliomas. At a glance, we could confirm earlier findings that the predominant methylation and expression patterns separate perfectly by mutations in the IDH genes, rather than by histology. We could also infer the IDH mutation status for samples for which the genotype was not known. By applying different filtering methods, we show that a subset of CpG sites exhibits consistent methylation patterns, and that the status of sites affect the expression of key regulator genes, as well as other genes located downstream in the same pathways. PiiL is implemented in Java with focus on a user-friendly graphical interface. The source code is available under the GPL license from https://github.com/behroozt/PiiL.git .

  8. Cognitive, personality, and social factors associated with adolescents' online personal information disclosure.

    PubMed

    Liu, Cong; Ang, Rebecca P; Lwin, May O

    2013-08-01

    The current study aims to understand the factors that influence adolescents' disclosure of personally identifiable information (PII) on social networking sites (SNSs). A survey was conducted among 780 adolescent participants (between 13 and 18) who were Facebook users. Structural equation modeling was used for analyzing the data and obtaining an overarching model that include cognitive, personality, and social factors that influence adolescents' PII disclosure. Results showed privacy concern as the cognitive factor reduces adolescents' PII disclosure and it serves as a potential mediator for personality and social factors. Amongst personality factors, narcissism was found to directly increase PII disclosure, and social anxiety indirectly decreases PII disclosure by increasing privacy concern. Amongst social factors, active parental mediation decreases PII disclosure directly and indirectly by increasing privacy concern. Restrictive parental mediation decreases PII disclosure only indirectly by increasing privacy concern. Implications of the findings to parents, educators, and policy makers were discussed. Copyright © 2013 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Structure and thermodynamics of effector molecule binding to the nitrogen signal transduction PII protein GlnZ from Azospirillum brasilense.

    PubMed

    Truan, Daphné; Bjelić, Saša; Li, Xiao-Dan; Winkler, Fritz K

    2014-07-29

    The trimeric PII signal transduction proteins regulate the function of a variety of target proteins predominantly involved in nitrogen metabolism. ATP, ADP and 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG) are key effector molecules influencing PII binding to targets. Studies of PII proteins have established that the 20-residue T-loop plays a central role in effector sensing and target binding. However, the specific effects of effector binding on T-loop conformation have remained poorly documented. We present eight crystal structures of the Azospirillum brasilense PII protein GlnZ, six of which are cocrystallized and liganded with ADP or ATP. We find that interaction with the diphosphate moiety of bound ADP constrains the N-terminal part of the T-loop in a characteristic way that is maintained in ADP-promoted complexes with target proteins. In contrast, the interactions with the triphosphate moiety in ATP complexes are much more variable and no single predominant interaction mode is apparent except for the ternary MgATP/2-OG complex. These conclusions can be extended to most investigated PII proteins of the GlnB/GlnK subfamily. Unlike reported for other PII proteins, microcalorimetry reveals no cooperativity between the three binding sites of GlnZ trimers for any of the three effectors under carefully controlled experimental conditions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Office of Administrative Services Information System

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Office of Administrative Services Information System collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data is collected, used, access to the data, and the purpose of data collection.

  11. Role of PII proteins in nitrogen fixation control of Herbaspirillum seropedicae strain SmR1.

    PubMed

    Noindorf, Lilian; Bonatto, Ana C; Monteiro, Rose A; Souza, Emanuel M; Rigo, Liu U; Pedrosa, Fabio O; Steffens, Maria B R; Chubatsu, Leda S

    2011-01-11

    The PII protein family comprises homotrimeric proteins which act as transducers of the cellular nitrogen and carbon status in prokaryotes and plants. In Herbaspirillum seropedicae, two PII-like proteins (GlnB and GlnK), encoded by the genes glnB and glnK, were identified. The glnB gene is monocistronic and its expression is constitutive, while glnK is located in the nlmAglnKamtB operon and is expressed under nitrogen-limiting conditions. In order to determine the involvement of the H. seropedicae glnB and glnK gene products in nitrogen fixation, a series of mutant strains were constructed and characterized. The glnK- mutants were deficient in nitrogen fixation and they were complemented by plasmids expressing the GlnK protein or an N-truncated form of NifA. The nitrogenase post-translational control by ammonium was studied and the results showed that the glnK mutant is partially defective in nitrogenase inactivation upon addition of ammonium while the glnB mutant has a wild-type phenotype. Our results indicate that GlnK is mainly responsible for NifA activity regulation and ammonium-dependent post-translational regulation of nitrogenase in H. seropedicae.

  12. Report: Cybersecurity Act of 2015 Report - EPA’s Policies and Procedures to Protect Systems With Personally Identifiable Information

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Report #16-P-0259, August 10, 2016. The EPA has 30 systems that contain sensitive PII. Safeguarding information and preventing system breaches are essential for ensuring the EPA retains the trust of the American public.

  13. Molecular basis for the recognition of cyclic-di-AMP by PstA, a PII-like signal transduction protein.

    PubMed

    Choi, Philip H; Sureka, Kamakshi; Woodward, Joshua J; Tong, Liang

    2015-06-01

    Cyclic-di-AMP (c-di-AMP) is a broadly conserved bacterial second messenger that is of importance in bacterial physiology. The molecular receptors mediating the cellular responses to the c-di-AMP signal are just beginning to be discovered. PstA is a previously uncharacterized PII -like protein which has been identified as a c-di-AMP receptor. PstA is widely distributed and conserved among Gram-positive bacteria in the phylum Firmicutes. Here, we report the biochemical, structural, and functional characterization of PstA from Listeria monocytogenes. We have determined the crystal structures of PstA in the c-di-AMP-bound and apo forms at 1.6 and 2.9 Å resolution, respectively, which provide the molecular basis for its specific recognition of c-di-AMP. PstA forms a homotrimer structure that has overall similarity to the PII protein family which binds ATP. However, PstA is markedly different from PII proteins in the loop regions, and these structural differences mediate the specific recognition of their respective nucleotide ligand. The residues composing the c-di-AMP binding pocket are conserved, suggesting that c-di-AMP recognition by PstA is of functional importance. Disruption of pstA in L. monocytogenes affected c-di-AMP-mediated alterations in bacterial growth and lysis. Overall, we have defined the PstA family as a conserved and specific c-di-AMP receptor in bacteria. © 2015 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. Report: Cybersecurity Act of 2015 Report - CSB’s Policies and Procedures to Protect Systems With Personally Identifiable Information

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Report #16-P-0254, August 1, 2016. CSB has one system that contains sensitive PII. Safeguarding such information in the possession of the government and preventing its breach is essential to ensuring CSB retains the trust of the American public.

  15. Role of PII proteins in nitrogen fixation control of Herbaspirillum seropedicae strain SmR1

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background The PII protein family comprises homotrimeric proteins which act as transducers of the cellular nitrogen and carbon status in prokaryotes and plants. In Herbaspirillum seropedicae, two PII-like proteins (GlnB and GlnK), encoded by the genes glnB and glnK, were identified. The glnB gene is monocistronic and its expression is constitutive, while glnK is located in the nlmAglnKamtB operon and is expressed under nitrogen-limiting conditions. Results In order to determine the involvement of the H. seropedicae glnB and glnK gene products in nitrogen fixation, a series of mutant strains were constructed and characterized. The glnK- mutants were deficient in nitrogen fixation and they were complemented by plasmids expressing the GlnK protein or an N-truncated form of NifA. The nitrogenase post-translational control by ammonium was studied and the results showed that the glnK mutant is partially defective in nitrogenase inactivation upon addition of ammonium while the glnB mutant has a wild-type phenotype. Conclusions Our results indicate that GlnK is mainly responsible for NifA activity regulation and ammonium-dependent post-translational regulation of nitrogenase in H. seropedicae. PMID:21223584

  16. The proinsulin/insulin (PI/I) ratio is reduced by postprandial targeting therapy in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a small-scale clinical study

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background An elevated PI/I ratio is attributable to increased secretory demand on β-cells. However, the effect of postprandial targeting therapy on proinsulin level is unknown. We evaluated the metabolic effect of glinide and sulfonylurea (SU) using the meal tolerance test (MTT). Methods MTT was applied to previously untreated Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) subjects. Twenty-two participants were given a test meal (450 kcal). Plasma glucose and insulin were measured at 0 (fasting), 30, 60, 120, and 180 min. Serum proinsulin and C-peptide immunoreactivity (CPR) were measured at 0 and 120 min. Postprandial profile was assessed at baseline and following 3 months treatment with either mitiglinide or glimepiride. Results Plasma glucose level at 30, 60, 120, and 180 min was significantly improved by mitiglinide. Whereas, glimepiride showed a significant improve plasma glucose at 0, 180 min. Peak IRI shifted from 120 to 30 min by mitiglinide treatment. The pattern of insulin secretion was not changed by glimepiride treatment. Whereas mitiglinide did not affect the PI/I ratio, glimepiride tended to increase the PI/I ratio. Moreover, although mitiglinide did not affect PI/I ratio as a whole, marked reduction was noted in some patients treated by mitiglinide. PI/I ratio was reduced significantly in the responder group. The responder subgroup exhibited less insulin resistance and higher insulinogenic index at baseline than non-responders. Moreover, the triglyceride level of responders was significantly lower than that of non-responders. Conclusions Mitiglinide improved postprandial insulin secretion pattern and thereby suppressed postprandial glucose spike. In T2DM patients with low insulin resistance and low triglyceride, mitiglinide recovered impaired β-cell function from the viewpoint of the PI/I ratio. Trial registration UMIN-CTR: UMIN000010467 PMID:24215809

  17. A PII-Like Protein Regulated by Bicarbonate: Structural and Biochemical Studies of the Carboxysome-Associated CPII Protein.

    PubMed

    Wheatley, Nicole M; Eden, Kevin D; Ngo, Joanna; Rosinski, Justin S; Sawaya, Michael R; Cascio, Duilio; Collazo, Michael; Hoveida, Hamidreza; Hubbell, Wayne L; Yeates, Todd O

    2016-10-09

    Autotrophic bacteria rely on various mechanisms to increase intracellular concentrations of inorganic forms of carbon (i.e., bicarbonate and CO 2 ) in order to improve the efficiency with which they can be converted to organic forms. Transmembrane bicarbonate transporters and carboxysomes play key roles in accumulating bicarbonate and CO 2 , but other regulatory elements of carbon concentration mechanisms in bacteria are less understood. In this study, after analyzing the genomic regions around α-type carboxysome operons, we characterize a protein that is conserved across these operons but has not been previously studied. On the basis of a series of apo- and ligand-bound crystal structures and supporting biochemical data, we show that this protein, which we refer to as the carboxysome-associated PII protein (CPII), represents a new and distinct subfamily within the broad superfamily of previously studied PII regulatory proteins, which are generally involved in regulating nitrogen metabolism in bacteria. CPII undergoes dramatic conformational changes in response to ADP binding, and the affinity for nucleotide binding is strongly enhanced by the presence of bicarbonate. CPII therefore appears to be a unique type of PII protein that senses bicarbonate availability, consistent with its apparent genomic association with the carboxysome and its constituents. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Procedure to Respond and Handle Personally Identifiable Information Incidents at EPA

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This procedure seeks to assist Environmental Protection Agency Officials in conducting their duties in the event of a PII incident by providing practical guidance on responding to incidents effectively and efficiently via the use of a incident taxonomy.

  19. 32 CFR Appendix A to Part 310 - Safeguarding Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... all computer products containing classified data in accordance with the requirements of DoD 5200.1-R... computer environments outside the data processing installation (such as, remote job entry stations... process classified material have adequate procedures and security for the purposes of this Regulation...

  20. 32 CFR Appendix A to Part 310 - Safeguarding Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... all computer products containing classified data in accordance with the requirements of DoD 5200.1-R... computer environments outside the data processing installation (such as, remote job entry stations... process classified material have adequate procedures and security for the purposes of this Regulation...

  1. 32 CFR Appendix A to Part 310 - Safeguarding Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... all computer products containing classified data in accordance with the requirements of DoD 5200.1-R... computer environments outside the data processing installation (such as, remote job entry stations... process classified material have adequate procedures and security for the purposes of this Regulation...

  2. 32 CFR Appendix A to Part 310 - Safeguarding Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... all computer products containing classified data in accordance with the requirements of DoD 5200.1-R... computer environments outside the data processing installation (such as, remote job entry stations... process classified material have adequate procedures and security for the purposes of this Regulation...

  3. 32 CFR Appendix A to Part 310 - Safeguarding Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... all computer products containing classified data in accordance with the requirements of DoD 5200.1-R... computer environments outside the data processing installation (such as, remote job entry stations... process classified material have adequate procedures and security for the purposes of this Regulation...

  4. A Responsible De-Identification Of The Real Data Corpus: Building A Framework For PII Management

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-09-01

    MANAGEMENT by Johanna An September 2016 Thesis Co-Advisors: Michael R. McCarrin Dorothy E. Denning Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited. THIS...and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202–4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project...2016 to 9-10-2016 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE ARESPONSIBLEDE-IDENTIFICATIONOFTHEREALDATACORPUS:BUILDING A FRAMEWORK FOR PII MANAGEMENT 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6

  5. Vibrational energy transfer in OH X 2Pi(i), v = 2 and 1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Raiche, George A.; Jeffries, Jay B.; Rensberger, Karen J.; Crosley, David R.

    1990-01-01

    Using an IR-pump/UV-probe method in a flow discharge cell, vibrational energy transfer in OH X 2Pi(i) has been studied. OH is prepared in v = 2 by overtone excitation, and the time evolution of population in v = 2 and 1 monitored by laser-induced fluorescence. Rate constants for vibrational relaxation by the colliders H2O, NH3, CO2, and CH4 were measured. Ratios of rate constants for removal from the two states, k2/k1, range from two to five.

  6. Yeast hexokinase: substrate-induced association--dissociation reactions in the binding of glucose to hexokinase P-II.

    PubMed

    Hoggett, J G; Kellett, G L

    1976-06-15

    A method is described for the purification of native hexokinases P-I and P-II from yeast using preparative isoelectric focussing to separate the isozymes. The binding of glucose to hexokinase P-II, and the effect of this on the monomer--dimer association--dissociation reaction have been investigated quantitatively by a combination of titrations of intrinsic protein fluorescence and equilibrium ultracentrifugation. Association constants for the monomer-dimer reaction decreased with increasing pH, ionic strength and concentration of glucose. Saturating concentrations of glucose did not bring about complete dissociation of the enzyme showing that both sites were occupired in the dimer. At pH 8.0 and high ionic strength, where the enzyme existed as monomer, the dissociation constant of the enzyme-glucose complex was 3 X 10(-4) mol 1(-1) and was independent of the concentration of enzyme. Binding to the dimeric form at low pH and ionic strength (I=0.02 mol 1(-1), pH less than 7.5) was also independent of enzyme concentration (in the range 10-1000 mug ml-1) but was much weaker. The process could be described by a single dissociation constant, showing that the two available sites on the dimer were equivalent and non-cooperative; values of the intrinsic dissociation constant varied from 2.5 X 10(-3) mol 1(-1) at pH 7.0 to 6 X 10(-3) at pH 6.5. Under intermediate conditions (pH 7.0, ionic strength=0.15 mol 1(-1)), where monomer and dimer coexisted, the binding of glucose showed weak positive cooperatively (Hill coefficient 1.2); in addition, the binding was dependent upon the concentration of enzyme in the direction of stronger binding at lower concentrations. The results show that the phenomenon of half-sites reactivity observed in the binding of glucose to crystalline hexokinase P-II does not occur in solution; the simplest explanation of our finding the two sites to be equivalent is that the dimer results from the homologous association of two identical subunits.

  7. Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? Costs and Benefits of Multiple Human Annotators for Clinical Text De-identification.

    PubMed

    Carrell, David S; Cronkite, David J; Malin, Bradley A; Aberdeen, John S; Hirschman, Lynette

    2016-08-05

    Clinical text contains valuable information but must be de-identified before it can be used for secondary purposes. Accurate annotation of personally identifiable information (PII) is essential to the development of automated de-identification systems and to manual redaction of PII. Yet the accuracy of annotations may vary considerably across individual annotators and annotation is costly. As such, the marginal benefit of incorporating additional annotators has not been well characterized. This study models the costs and benefits of incorporating increasing numbers of independent human annotators to identify the instances of PII in a corpus. We used a corpus with gold standard annotations to evaluate the performance of teams of annotators of increasing size. Four annotators independently identified PII in a 100-document corpus consisting of randomly selected clinical notes from Family Practice clinics in a large integrated health care system. These annotations were pooled and validated to generate a gold standard corpus for evaluation. Recall rates for all PII types ranged from 0.90 to 0.98 for individual annotators to 0.998 to 1.0 for teams of three, when meas-ured against the gold standard. Median cost per PII instance discovered during corpus annotation ranged from $ 0.71 for an individual annotator to $ 377 for annotations discovered only by a fourth annotator. Incorporating a second annotator into a PII annotation process reduces unredacted PII and improves the quality of annotations to 0.99 recall, yielding clear benefit at reasonable cost; the cost advantages of annotation teams larger than two diminish rapidly.

  8. Connected vehicle pilot deployment program phase 2 : data privacy plan – New York City.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2016-12-27

    This document represents a data privacy plan for ensuring the data privacy and security of those participating in the New York City connected vehicle pilot. Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Sensitive PII (SPII) will be collected from var...

  9. Magnaporthe oryzae Effector AVR-Pii Helps to Establish Compatibility by Inhibition of the Rice NADP-Malic Enzyme Resulting in Disruption of Oxidative Burst and Host Innate Immunity

    PubMed Central

    Singh, Raksha; Dangol, Sarmina; Chen, Yafei; Choi, Jihyun; Cho, Yoon-Seong; Lee, Jea-Eun; Choi, Mi-Ok; Jwa, Nam-Soo

    2016-01-01

    Plant disease resistance occurs as a hypersensitive response (HR) at the site of attempted pathogen invasion. This specific event is initiated in response to recognition of pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) and subsequent PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). Both PTI and ETI mechanisms are tightly connected with reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and disease resistance that involves distinct biphasic ROS production as one of its pivotal plant immune responses. This unique oxidative burst is strongly dependent on the resistant cultivars because a monophasic ROS burst is a hallmark of the susceptible cultivars. However, the cause of the differential ROS burst remains unknown. In the study here, we revealed the plausible underlying mechanism of the differential ROS burst through functional understanding of the Magnaporthe oryzae (M. oryzae) AVR effector, AVR-Pii. We performed yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) screening using AVR-Pii as bait and isolated rice NADP-malic enzyme2 (Os-NADP-ME2) as the rice target protein. To our surprise, deletion of the rice Os-NADP-ME2 gene in a resistant rice cultivar disrupted innate immunity against the rice blast fungus. Malic enzyme activity and inhibition studies demonstrated that AVR-Pii proteins specifically inhibit in vitro NADP-ME activity. Overall, we demonstrate that rice blast fungus, M. oryzae attenuates the host ROS burst via AVR-Pii-mediated inhibition of Os-NADP-ME2, which is indispensable in ROS metabolism for the innate immunity of rice. This characterization of the regulation of the host oxidative burst will help to elucidate how the products of AVR genes function associated with virulence of the pathogen. PMID:27126515

  10. Purdue ionomics information management system. An integrated functional genomics platform.

    PubMed

    Baxter, Ivan; Ouzzani, Mourad; Orcun, Seza; Kennedy, Brad; Jandhyala, Shrinivas S; Salt, David E

    2007-02-01

    The advent of high-throughput phenotyping technologies has created a deluge of information that is difficult to deal with without the appropriate data management tools. These data management tools should integrate defined workflow controls for genomic-scale data acquisition and validation, data storage and retrieval, and data analysis, indexed around the genomic information of the organism of interest. To maximize the impact of these large datasets, it is critical that they are rapidly disseminated to the broader research community, allowing open access for data mining and discovery. We describe here a system that incorporates such functionalities developed around the Purdue University high-throughput ionomics phenotyping platform. The Purdue Ionomics Information Management System (PiiMS) provides integrated workflow control, data storage, and analysis to facilitate high-throughput data acquisition, along with integrated tools for data search, retrieval, and visualization for hypothesis development. PiiMS is deployed as a World Wide Web-enabled system, allowing for integration of distributed workflow processes and open access to raw data for analysis by numerous laboratories. PiiMS currently contains data on shoot concentrations of P, Ca, K, Mg, Cu, Fe, Zn, Mn, Co, Ni, B, Se, Mo, Na, As, and Cd in over 60,000 shoot tissue samples of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), including ethyl methanesulfonate, fast-neutron and defined T-DNA mutants, and natural accession and populations of recombinant inbred lines from over 800 separate experiments, representing over 1,000,000 fully quantitative elemental concentrations. PiiMS is accessible at www.purdue.edu/dp/ionomics.

  11. Yeast hexokinase. A fluorescence temperature-jump study of the kinetics of the binding of glucose to the monomer forms of hexokinases P-I and P-II.

    PubMed

    Hoggett, J G; Kellett, G L

    1976-09-15

    The binding of glucose to the monomeric forms of hexokinases P-I and P-II in Tris and phosphate buffers at pH 8.0 in the presence of 1 mol l-1 KCl has been studied using the fluorescence temperature-jump technique. For both isozymes only one relaxation time was observed; values of tau-1 increased linearly with increasing concentration of free reacting partners. The apparent second-order rate constant for association was about 2 X 10(6) 1 mol-1 s-1 for both isozymes; the differences in the stabilities of the complexes with P-I and P-II are entirely attributable to the fact that glucose dissociates more slowly from its complex with P-I than P-II (approximately 300 s-1 and 1100 s-1 respectively). Although the kinetic data are compatible with a single-step mechanism for glucose binding the association rate constant was much lower than that expected for a diffusion-limited rate of encounter. Other mechanisms for describing an induced-fit are discussed. It is shown that the data are incompatible with a slow 'prior-isomerization' pathway of substrate binding, but are consistent with a 'substrate-guided' pathway involving isomerization of the enzyme-substrate complex.

  12. 29 CFR 4010.7 - Identifying information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 29 Labor 9 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Identifying information. 4010.7 Section 4010.7 Labor... DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS ANNUAL FINANCIAL AND ACTUARIAL INFORMATION REPORTING § 4010.7 Identifying information..., http://www.pbgc.gov, the following identifying information with respect to each member of the filer's...

  13. 29 CFR 4010.7 - Identifying information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 29 Labor 9 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Identifying information. 4010.7 Section 4010.7 Labor... DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS ANNUAL FINANCIAL AND ACTUARIAL INFORMATION REPORTING § 4010.7 Identifying information..., http://www.pbgc.gov, the following identifying information with respect to each member of the filer's...

  14. 29 CFR 4010.7 - Identifying information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 29 Labor 9 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Identifying information. 4010.7 Section 4010.7 Labor... DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS ANNUAL FINANCIAL AND ACTUARIAL INFORMATION REPORTING § 4010.7 Identifying information..., http://www.pbgc.gov, the following identifying information with respect to each member of the filer's...

  15. Audit Report on "Protection of the Department of Energy's Unclassified Sensitive Electronic Information"

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

    None

    The Department of Energy and its contractors store and process massive quantities of sensitive information to accomplish national security, energy, science, and environmental missions. Sensitive unclassified data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), official use only, and unclassified controlled nuclear information require special handling and protection to prevent misuse of the information for inappropriate purposes. Industry experts have reported that more than 203 million personal privacy records have been lost or stolen over the past three years, including information maintained by corporations, educational institutions, and Federal agencies. The loss of personal and other sensitive information can result in substantial financialmore » harm, embarrassment, and inconvenience to individuals and organizations. Therefore, strong protective measures, including data encryption, help protect against the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information. Prior reports involving the loss of sensitive information have highlighted weaknesses in the Department's ability to protect sensitive data. Our report on Security Over Personally Identifiable Information (DOE/IG-0771, July 2007) disclosed that the Department had not fully implemented all measures recommended by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and required by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to protect PII, including failures to identify and encrypt PII maintained on information systems. Similarly, the Government Accountability Office recently reported that the Department had not yet installed encryption technology to protect sensitive data on the vast majority of laptop computers and handheld devices. Because of the potential for harm, we initiated this audit to determine whether the Department and its contractors adequately safeguarded sensitive electronic information. The Department had taken a number of steps to improve protection of PII. Our review, however

  16. Purdue Ionomics Information Management System. An Integrated Functional Genomics Platform1[C][W][OA

    PubMed Central

    Baxter, Ivan; Ouzzani, Mourad; Orcun, Seza; Kennedy, Brad; Jandhyala, Shrinivas S.; Salt, David E.

    2007-01-01

    The advent of high-throughput phenotyping technologies has created a deluge of information that is difficult to deal with without the appropriate data management tools. These data management tools should integrate defined workflow controls for genomic-scale data acquisition and validation, data storage and retrieval, and data analysis, indexed around the genomic information of the organism of interest. To maximize the impact of these large datasets, it is critical that they are rapidly disseminated to the broader research community, allowing open access for data mining and discovery. We describe here a system that incorporates such functionalities developed around the Purdue University high-throughput ionomics phenotyping platform. The Purdue Ionomics Information Management System (PiiMS) provides integrated workflow control, data storage, and analysis to facilitate high-throughput data acquisition, along with integrated tools for data search, retrieval, and visualization for hypothesis development. PiiMS is deployed as a World Wide Web-enabled system, allowing for integration of distributed workflow processes and open access to raw data for analysis by numerous laboratories. PiiMS currently contains data on shoot concentrations of P, Ca, K, Mg, Cu, Fe, Zn, Mn, Co, Ni, B, Se, Mo, Na, As, and Cd in over 60,000 shoot tissue samples of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), including ethyl methanesulfonate, fast-neutron and defined T-DNA mutants, and natural accession and populations of recombinant inbred lines from over 800 separate experiments, representing over 1,000,000 fully quantitative elemental concentrations. PiiMS is accessible at www.purdue.edu/dp/ionomics. PMID:17189337

  17. Systematic Redaction for Neuroimage Data

    PubMed Central

    Matlock, Matt; Schimke, Nakeisha; Kong, Liang; Macke, Stephen; Hale, John

    2013-01-01

    In neuroscience, collaboration and data sharing are undermined by concerns over the management of protected health information (PHI) and personal identifying information (PII) in neuroimage datasets. The HIPAA Privacy Rule mandates measures for the preservation of subject privacy in neuroimaging studies. Unfortunately for the researcher, the management of information privacy is a burdensome task. Wide scale data sharing of neuroimages is challenging for three primary reasons: (i) A dearth of tools to systematically expunge PHI/PII from neuroimage data sets, (ii) a facility for tracking patient identities in redacted datasets has not been produced, and (iii) a sanitization workflow remains conspicuously absent. This article describes the XNAT Redaction Toolkit—an integrated redaction workflow which extends a popular neuroimage data management toolkit to remove PHI/PII from neuroimages. Quickshear defacing is also presented as a complementary technique for deidentifying the image data itself. Together, these tools improve subject privacy through systematic removal of PII/PHI. PMID:24179597

  18. 77 FR 67651 - Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-11-13

    ... Information Collection Activity; Comment Request Title: Permanency Innovations Initiative Evaluation: Phase 2... Permanency Innovations Initiative (PII). This 5-year initiative, funded by the Children's Bureau (CB) within...); California Department of Social Services' California Partnership for Permanency (CAPP); Illinois Department...

  19. Identifying Information Focuses in Listening Comprehension

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhang, Hong-yan

    2011-01-01

    The study explains the process of learners' listening comprehension within Halliday's information theory in functional grammar, including the skills of identifying focuses while listening in college English teaching. Identifying information focuses in listening is proved to improve the students' communicative listening ability by the means of a…

  20. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Wellness Program Medical Records

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Wellness Program Medical Records System collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data is collected, used, accessed, the purpose of data collection, and record retention policies.

  1. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Integrated Grants Management System

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Integrated Management System collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data is collected, how it will be used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and record retention policies.

  2. Privacy Training Program

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Recognizing that training and awareness are critical to protecting agency Personally Identifiable Information (PII), the EPA is developing online training for privacy contacts in its programs and regions.

  3. Plan for Reducing Unnecessary use of Social Security Numbers

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Recognizing that training and awareness are critical to protecting agency Personally Identifiable Information (PII), the EPA is developing online training for privacy contacts in its programs and regions.

  4. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Childcare Tuition Assistance Program

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This system collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data is collected, how it will be used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and record retention policies for this data.

  5. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Financial Audit Version of the Office of Inspector General AutoAudit

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This system collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data is collected, how it will be used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and record retention policies for this data.

  6. Information sensitivity functions to assess parameter information gain and identifiability of dynamical systems.

    PubMed

    Pant, Sanjay

    2018-05-01

    A new class of functions, called the 'information sensitivity functions' (ISFs), which quantify the information gain about the parameters through the measurements/observables of a dynamical system are presented. These functions can be easily computed through classical sensitivity functions alone and are based on Bayesian and information-theoretic approaches. While marginal information gain is quantified by decrease in differential entropy, correlations between arbitrary sets of parameters are assessed through mutual information. For individual parameters, these information gains are also presented as marginal posterior variances, and, to assess the effect of correlations, as conditional variances when other parameters are given. The easy to interpret ISFs can be used to (a) identify time intervals or regions in dynamical system behaviour where information about the parameters is concentrated; (b) assess the effect of measurement noise on the information gain for the parameters; (c) assess whether sufficient information in an experimental protocol (input, measurements and their frequency) is available to identify the parameters; (d) assess correlation in the posterior distribution of the parameters to identify the sets of parameters that are likely to be indistinguishable; and (e) assess identifiability problems for particular sets of parameters. © 2018 The Authors.

  7. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Integrated Contracts Management System

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Integrated Contracts Management System collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data will be collected in the system, how it will be used, access to the data, and the purpose of data collection.

  8. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Contract Payment System

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Contract Payment System collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data is collected in the system, how it will be used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and record retention.

  9. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Hotline Allegation System for the Office of Inspector General

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This system collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data will be collected in the system, how it will be used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and record retention policies.

  10. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Las Vegas Finance Center Local Area Network

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This system collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data will be collected in the system, how it will be used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and record retention policies.

  11. EPA's Public Access Website Children’s Privacy and Copyright Issues

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This document establishes the policy for protecting the privacy of children on EPA’s Public Access Web site. It concerns the collection, both online and off, of information from ages 13 and under, and the display of Personally Identifying Information (PII)

  12. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Case Management System for Suspension and Debarment

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This system collects contact information and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this data will be collected in the system, how it will be used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and the record retention policies.

  13. Purification and characterization of the bifunctional uridylyltransferase and the signal transducing proteins GlnB and GlnK from Herbaspirillum seropedicae.

    PubMed

    Bonatto, Ana C; Couto, Gustavo H; Souza, Emanuel M; Araújo, Luiza M; Pedrosa, Fabio O; Noindorf, Lilian; Benelli, Elaine M

    2007-10-01

    GlnD is a bifunctional uridylyltransferase/uridylyl-removing enzyme that has a central role in the general nitrogen regulatory system NTR. In enterobacteria, GlnD uridylylates the PII proteins GlnB and GlnK under low levels of fixed nitrogen or ammonium. Under high ammonium levels, GlnD removes UMP from these proteins (deuridylylation). The PII proteins are signal transduction elements that integrate the signals of nitrogen, carbon and energy, and transduce this information to proteins involved in nitrogen metabolism. In Herbaspirillum seropedicae, an endophytic diazotroph isolated from grasses, several genes coding for proteins involved in nitrogen metabolism have been identified and cloned, including glnB, glnK and glnD. In this work, the GlnB, GlnK and GlnD proteins of H. seropedicae were overexpressed in their native forms, purified and used to reconstitute the uridylylation system in vitro. The results show that H. seropedicae GlnD uridylylates GlnB and GlnK trimers producing the forms PII (UMP)(1), PII (UMP)(2) and PII (UMP)(3), in a reaction that requires 2-oxoglutarate and ATP, and is inhibited by glutamine. The quantification of these PII forms indicates that GlnB was more efficiently uridylylated than GlnK in the system used.

  14. 5 CFR 2604.202 - Index identifying information for the public.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Index identifying information for the... DISCLOSURE REPORTS FOIA Public Reading Room Facility and Web Site; Index Identifying Information for the Public § 2604.202 Index identifying information for the public. (a) The Office of Government Ethics will...

  15. 78 FR 73535 - Privacy Act System of Records

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-12-06

    ... (WCB) will use the information contained in FCC/WCB- 1 to cover the personally identifiable information... direction. USAC will maintain the databases containing consumer PII that are necessary to eliminate waste... practices.'' The contractor will operate this call center, which individuals may use who are seeking to...

  16. 76 FR 71108 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records Notice

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-11-16

    ... Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) prepared for the information technology (IT) system that DOT uses for its... identifiable information (PII) in a System of Records. A ``System of Records'' is a group of any records under the control of a Federal agency from which information about individuals is retrieved by name or other...

  17. 76 FR 20003 - Privacy Act of 1974: Notice of New System of Records, Integrated Disbursement & Information...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-04-11

    ... property interests, identity theft or fraud, or harm to the security or integrity of this system, then the... System (IDIS). System Location: Online at http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/systems/idis/idis.cfm... Information (PII) is not being released. If the Department suspects or has confirmed that the security or...

  18. 75 FR 10554 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records Notice

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-03-08

    ... States Government collects, maintains, and uses personally identifiable information (PII) in a system of records. A ``system of records'' is a group of any records under the control of a Federal agency from... Act (e.g., to determine if the system contains information about them). IV. Privacy Impact Assessment...

  19. Assessing the Impact of Security Behavior on the Awareness of Open-Source Intelligence: A Quantitative Study of IT Knowledge Workers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Daniels, Daniel B., III

    2014-01-01

    There is a lack of literature linking end-user behavior to the availability of open-source intelligence (OSINT). Most OSINT literature has been focused on the use and assessment of open-source intelligence, not the proliferation of personally or organizationally identifiable information (PII/OII). Additionally, information security studies have…

  20. Wilderness on the internet: identifying wilderness information domains

    Treesearch

    Chuck Burgess

    2000-01-01

    Data collected from an online needs assessment revealed that Web site visitors with an interest in wilderness seek several different types of information. In order to gain further insight into the process of Web use for wilderness information, a follow-up analysis was conducted. This analysis was exploratory in nature, with the goal of identifying information domains...

  1. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Inspector General Enterprise Management System

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This system collects personally identifiable information (PII), including social security numbers, date of birth, etc. Learn how this data is collected, how it will be used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and record retention policies.

  2. Privacy Impact Assessment for EZHire

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The EZHire System collects contact and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Learn how this is collected for the system, how it will be used, access to the data, the purpose of data collection, and record retention policies for this data.

  3. 77 FR 71172 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-11-29

    ... beneficiaries on their TRICARE benefits. Personal health information (PHI) and personally identifiable.../PHI to obtain and verify TRICARE eligibility, treatment, payment, and other healthcare operations... during the case resolution process, individuals may object to the collection of PHI and PII via verbal or...

  4. 32 CFR Appendix A to Part 275 - Obtaining Basic Identifying Account Information

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Obtaining Basic Identifying Account Information... Information A. A DoD law enforcement office may issue a formal written request for basic identifying account... only the above specified basic identifying information concerning a customer's account. C. A format for...

  5. Evolutionary conservation of the polyproline II conformation surrounding intrinsically disordered phosphorylation sites.

    PubMed

    Elam, W Austin; Schrank, Travis P; Campagnolo, Andrew J; Hilser, Vincent J

    2013-04-01

    Intrinsically disordered (ID) proteins function in the absence of a unique stable structure and appear to challenge the classic structure-function paradigm. The extent to which ID proteins take advantage of subtle conformational biases to perform functions, and whether signals for such mechanism can be identified in proteome-wide studies is not well understood. Of particular interest is the polyproline II (PII) conformation, suggested to be highly populated in unfolded proteins. We experimentally determine a complete calorimetric propensity scale for the PII conformation. Projection of the scale into representative eukaryotic proteomes reveals significant PII bias in regions coding for ID proteins. Importantly, enrichment of PII in ID proteins, or protein segments, is also captured by other PII scales, indicating that this enrichment is robustly encoded and universally detectable regardless of the method of PII propensity determination. Gene ontology (GO) terms obtained using our PII scale and other scales demonstrate a consensus for molecular functions performed by high PII proteins across the proteome. Perhaps the most striking result of the GO analysis is conserved enrichment (P < 10(-8) ) of phosphorylation sites in high PII regions found by all PII scales. Subsequent conformational analysis reveals a phosphorylation-dependent modulation of PII, suggestive of a conserved "tunability" within these regions. In summary, the application of an experimentally determined polyproline II (PII) propensity scale to proteome-wide sequence analysis and gene ontology reveals an enrichment of PII bias near disordered phosphorylation sites that is conserved throughout eukaryotes. Copyright © 2013 The Protein Society.

  6. Identification and Access Management: An Action Research Approach to Develop a Training Strategy for Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    San Nicolas-Rocca, Tonia

    2010-01-01

    Identification and access management has been among the top security issues facing institutions of higher education. Most institutions of higher education require end users to provide usernames and passwords to gain access to personally identifiable information (PII). This leaves universities vulnerable to unauthorized access and unauthorized…

  7. 75 FR 3919 - Privacy Act of 1974; as Amended; Notice To Amend an Existing System of Records

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-01-25

    ... Manager (ORSO). Data from the current TSIS (Unix-based) version are integrated into a data warehouse with... (where provided). The TSIS data warehouse database is only available to the system developer, and... available from the warehouse data do not contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Of the few...

  8. Mechanism of Disruption of the Amt-GlnK Complex by PII-Mediated Sensing of 2-Oxoglutarate

    PubMed Central

    Maier, Sarah; Schleberger, Paula; Lü, Wei; Wacker, Tobias; Pflüger, Tobias; Litz, Claudia; Andrade, Susana L. A.

    2011-01-01

    GlnK proteins regulate the active uptake of ammonium by Amt transport proteins by inserting their regulatory T-loops into the transport channels of the Amt trimer and physically blocking substrate passage. They sense the cellular nitrogen status through 2-oxoglutarate, and the energy level of the cell by binding both ATP and ADP with different affinities. The hyperthermophilic euryarchaeon Archaeoglobus fulgidus possesses three Amt proteins, each encoded in an operon with a GlnK ortholog. One of these proteins, GlnK2 was recently found to be incapable of binding 2-OG, and in order to understand the implications of this finding we conducted a detailed structural and functional analysis of a second GlnK protein from A. fulgidus, GlnK3. Contrary to Af-GlnK2 this protein was able to bind both ATP/2-OG and ADP to yield inactive and functional states, respectively. Due to the thermostable nature of the protein we could observe the exact positioning of the notoriously flexible T-loops and explain the binding behavior of GlnK proteins to their interaction partner, the Amt proteins. A thermodynamic analysis of these binding events using microcalorimetry evaluated by microstate modeling revealed significant differences in binding cooperativity compared to other characterized PII proteins, underlining the diversity and adaptability of this class of regulatory signaling proteins. PMID:22039461

  9. "LearningPad" Conundrum: The Perils of Using Third-Party Software and Student Privacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Brien, Jason; Roller, Sarah; Lampley, Sandra

    2017-01-01

    This case focuses on the potential problems associated with sharing personally identifiable information (PII) when students are required to use third-party software. Specifically, third-grade students were required to complete "LearningPad" activities as a component of their homework grade in math, spelling, and language arts. As…

  10. 10 CFR 1017.12 - Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... Nuclear Information. 1017.12 Section 1017.12 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (GENERAL PROVISIONS) IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF UNCLASSIFIED CONTROLLED NUCLEAR INFORMATION Initially Determining What Information Is Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information § 1017.12 Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified...

  11. 10 CFR 1017.12 - Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... Nuclear Information. 1017.12 Section 1017.12 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (GENERAL PROVISIONS) IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF UNCLASSIFIED CONTROLLED NUCLEAR INFORMATION Initially Determining What Information Is Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information § 1017.12 Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified...

  12. 10 CFR 1017.12 - Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... Nuclear Information. 1017.12 Section 1017.12 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (GENERAL PROVISIONS) IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF UNCLASSIFIED CONTROLLED NUCLEAR INFORMATION Initially Determining What Information Is Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information § 1017.12 Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified...

  13. 10 CFR 1017.12 - Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... Nuclear Information. 1017.12 Section 1017.12 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (GENERAL PROVISIONS) IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF UNCLASSIFIED CONTROLLED NUCLEAR INFORMATION Initially Determining What Information Is Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information § 1017.12 Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified...

  14. 10 CFR 1017.12 - Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... Nuclear Information. 1017.12 Section 1017.12 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (GENERAL PROVISIONS) IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF UNCLASSIFIED CONTROLLED NUCLEAR INFORMATION Initially Determining What Information Is Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information § 1017.12 Prohibitions on identifying Unclassified...

  15. Automatically identifying health outcome information in MEDLINE records.

    PubMed

    Demner-Fushman, Dina; Few, Barbara; Hauser, Susan E; Thoma, George

    2006-01-01

    Understanding the effect of a given intervention on the patient's health outcome is one of the key elements in providing optimal patient care. This study presents a methodology for automatic identification of outcomes-related information in medical text and evaluates its potential in satisfying clinical information needs related to health care outcomes. An annotation scheme based on an evidence-based medicine model for critical appraisal of evidence was developed and used to annotate 633 MEDLINE citations. Textual, structural, and meta-information features essential to outcome identification were learned from the created collection and used to develop an automatic system. Accuracy of automatic outcome identification was assessed in an intrinsic evaluation and in an extrinsic evaluation, in which ranking of MEDLINE search results obtained using PubMed Clinical Queries relied on identified outcome statements. The accuracy and positive predictive value of outcome identification were calculated. Effectiveness of the outcome-based ranking was measured using mean average precision and precision at rank 10. Automatic outcome identification achieved 88% to 93% accuracy. The positive predictive value of individual sentences identified as outcomes ranged from 30% to 37%. Outcome-based ranking improved retrieval accuracy, tripling mean average precision and achieving 389% improvement in precision at rank 10. Preliminary results in outcome-based document ranking show potential validity of the evidence-based medicine-model approach in timely delivery of information critical to clinical decision support at the point of service.

  16. Data Security Policy | High-Performance Computing | NREL

    Science.gov Websites

    to use its high-performance computing (HPC) systems. NREL HPC systems are operated as research systems and may only contain data related to scientific research. These systems are categorized as low per sensitive or non-sensitive. One example of sensitive data would be personally identifiable information (PII

  17. 10 CFR 9.19 - Segregation of exempt information and deletion of identifying details.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Segregation of exempt information and deletion of identifying details. 9.19 Section 9.19 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION PUBLIC RECORDS Freedom of Information Act Regulations § 9.19 Segregation of exempt information and deletion of identifying details. (a...

  18. 10 CFR 9.19 - Segregation of exempt information and deletion of identifying details.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 10 Energy 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Segregation of exempt information and deletion of identifying details. 9.19 Section 9.19 Energy NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION PUBLIC RECORDS Freedom of Information Act Regulations § 9.19 Segregation of exempt information and deletion of identifying details. (a...

  19. 45 CFR 155.260 - Privacy and security of personally identifiable information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... AFFORDABLE CARE ACT General Functions of an Exchange § 155.260 Privacy and security of personally... information to the extent such information is necessary to carry out the functions described in § 155.200 of...: (1) Gain access to personally identifiable information submitted to an Exchange; or (2) Collect, use...

  20. 34 CFR 300.123 - Confidentiality of personally identifiable information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES State Eligibility Additional Eligibility Requirements... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Confidentiality of personally identifiable information. 300.123 Section 300.123 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued...

  1. 34 CFR 300.123 - Confidentiality of personally identifiable information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES State Eligibility Additional Eligibility Requirements... 34 Education 2 2011-07-01 2010-07-01 true Confidentiality of personally identifiable information. 300.123 Section 300.123 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued...

  2. Identifying influential nodes in complex networks: A node information dimension approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bian, Tian; Deng, Yong

    2018-04-01

    In the field of complex networks, how to identify influential nodes is a significant issue in analyzing the structure of a network. In the existing method proposed to identify influential nodes based on the local dimension, the global structure information in complex networks is not taken into consideration. In this paper, a node information dimension is proposed by synthesizing the local dimensions at different topological distance scales. A case study of the Netscience network is used to illustrate the efficiency and practicability of the proposed method.

  3. Toward a patient-centered ambulatory after-visit summary: Identifying primary care patients' information needs.

    PubMed

    Clarke, Martina A; Moore, Joi L; Steege, Linsey M; Koopman, Richelle J; Belden, Jeffery L; Canfield, Shannon M; Kim, Min S

    2018-09-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the information needs of primary care patients as they review clinic visit notes to inform information that should be contained in an after-visit summary (AVS). We collected data from 15 patients with an acute illness and 14 patients with a chronic disease using semi-structured interviews. The acute patients reviewed seven major sections, and chronic patients reviewed eight major sections of a simulated, but realistic visit note to identify relevant information needs for their AVS. Patients in the acute illness group identified the Plan, Assessment and History of Present Illness the most as important note sections, while patients in the chronic care group identified Significant Lab Data, Plan, and Assessment the most as important note sections. This study was able to identify primary care patients' information needs after clinic visit. Primary care patients have information needs pertaining to diagnosis and treatment, which may be the reason why both patient groups identified Plan and Assessment as important note sections. Future research should also develop and assess an AVS based on the information gathered in this study and evaluate its usefulness among primary care patients. The results of this study can be used to inform the development of an after-visit summary that assists patients to fully understand their treatment plan, which may improve treatment adherence.

  4. Identifying Home Care Clinicians’ Information Needs for Managing Fall Risks

    PubMed Central

    Alhuwail, Dari

    2016-01-01

    Summary Objectives To help manage the risk of falls in home care, this study aimed to (i) identify home care clinicians’ information needs and how they manage missing or inaccurate data, (ii) identify problems that impact effectiveness and efficiency associated with retaining, exchanging, or processing information about fall risks in existing workflows and currently adopted health information technology (IT) solutions, and (iii) offer informatics-based recommendations to improve fall risk management interventions. Methods A case study was carried out in a single not-for-profit suburban Medicare-certified home health agency with three branches. Qualitative data were collected over a six month period through observations, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. The Framework method was used for analysis. Maximum variation sampling was adopted to recruit a diverse sample of clinicians. Results Overall, the information needs for fall risk management were categorized into physiological, care delivery, educational, social, environmental, and administrative domains. Examples include a brief fall-related patient history, weight-bearing status, medications that affect balance, availability of caregivers at home, and the influence of patients’ cultures on fall management interventions. The unavailability and inaccuracy of critical information related to fall risks can delay necessary therapeutic services aimed at reducing patients’ risk for falling and thereby jeopardizing their safety. Currently adopted IT solutions did not adequately accommodate data related to fall risk management. Conclusion The results highlight the essential information for fall risk management in home care. Home care workflows and health IT solutions must effectively and efficiently retain, exchange, and process information necessary for fall risk management. Interoperability and integration of the various health IT solutions to make data sharing accessible to all clinicians is critical

  5. An information-theoretic approach to assess practical identifiability of parametric dynamical systems.

    PubMed

    Pant, Sanjay; Lombardi, Damiano

    2015-10-01

    A new approach for assessing parameter identifiability of dynamical systems in a Bayesian setting is presented. The concept of Shannon entropy is employed to measure the inherent uncertainty in the parameters. The expected reduction in this uncertainty is seen as the amount of information one expects to gain about the parameters due to the availability of noisy measurements of the dynamical system. Such expected information gain is interpreted in terms of the variance of a hypothetical measurement device that can measure the parameters directly, and is related to practical identifiability of the parameters. If the individual parameters are unidentifiable, correlation between parameter combinations is assessed through conditional mutual information to determine which sets of parameters can be identified together. The information theoretic quantities of entropy and information are evaluated numerically through a combination of Monte Carlo and k-nearest neighbour methods in a non-parametric fashion. Unlike many methods to evaluate identifiability proposed in the literature, the proposed approach takes the measurement-noise into account and is not restricted to any particular noise-structure. Whilst computationally intensive for large dynamical systems, it is easily parallelisable and is non-intrusive as it does not necessitate re-writing of the numerical solvers of the dynamical system. The application of such an approach is presented for a variety of dynamical systems--ranging from systems governed by ordinary differential equations to partial differential equations--and, where possible, validated against results previously published in the literature. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. A practical guideline for identifying research intent with projects that collect private, identifiable health information.

    PubMed

    Amdur, Robert J; Speers, Marjorie A

    2003-06-01

    Radiation oncologists frequently engage in activities that involve the collection and analysis of data from medical records. Access to health information is an ethical issue because, if not done according to appropriate guidelines, it constitutes an invasion of privacy or breach in confidentiality. To protect patients for the social harm that may result from medical record review, our society has established laws and regulations that apply to projects that require medical record review. A major branch point in the guidelines for such projects is whether private information will be collected for research or nonresearch purposes. However, a problem with discussing privacy protection in terms of a research versus nonresearch model is that it is difficult to make this distinction for many kinds of projects. The purpose of this paper is to establish a practical guideline that can be used to decide if a project that involves analysis of private, identifiable medical information should be considered research from the regulatory standpoint.

  7. Identifying Complementary and Alternative Medicine Usage Information from Internet Resources. A Systematic Review.

    PubMed

    Sharma, Vivekanand; Holmes, John H; Sarkar, Indra N

    2016-08-05

    Identify and highlight research issues and methods used in studying Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) information needs, access, and exchange over the Internet. A literature search was conducted using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines from PubMed to identify articles that have studied Internet use in the CAM context. Additional searches were conducted at Nature.com and Google Scholar. The Internet provides a major medium for attaining CAM information and can also serve as an avenue for conducting CAM related surveys. Based on the literature analyzed in this review, there seems to be significant interest in developing methodologies for identifying CAM treatments, including the analysis of search query data and social media platform discussions. Several studies have also underscored the challenges in developing approaches for identifying the reliability of CAM-related information on the Internet, which may not be supported with reliable sources. The overall findings of this review suggest that there are opportunities for developing approaches for making available accurate information and developing ways to restrict the spread and sale of potentially harmful CAM products and information. Advances in Internet research are yet to be used in context of understanding CAM prevalence and perspectives. Such approaches may provide valuable insights into the current trends and needs in context of CAM use and spread.

  8. IDENTIFYING COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE USAGE INFORMATION FROM INTERNET RESOURCES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

    PubMed Central

    Sharma, V.; Holmes, J.H.; Sarkar, I.N.

    2016-01-01

    SUMMARY Objective Identify and highlight research issues and methods used in studying Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) information needs, access, and exchange over the Internet. Methods A literature search was conducted using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines from PubMed to identify articles that have studied Internet use in the CAM context. Additional searches were conducted at Nature.com and Google Scholar. Results The Internet provides a major medium for attaining CAM information and can also serve as an avenue for conducting CAM related surveys. Based on the literature analyzed in this review, there seems to be significant interest in developing methodologies for identifying CAM treatments, including the analysis of search query data and social media platform discussions. Several studies have also underscored the challenges in developing approaches for identifying the reliability of CAM-related information on the Internet, which may not be supported with reliable sources. The overall findings of this review suggest that there are opportunities for developing approaches for making available accurate information and developing ways to restrict the spread and sale of potentially harmful CAM products and information. Conclusions Advances in Internet research are yet to be used in context of understanding CAM prevalence and perspectives. Such approaches may provide valuable insights into the current trends and needs in context of CAM use and spread. PMID:27352304

  9. Comparing the Performance of Resident to Distance Learning Student Navy Officers at Naval Postgraduate School

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-03-01

    Officer of Institutional Research and Planning xv PCS Permanent Change of Station PII Personally Identifiable Information PO Provost Oversight QPR...Strong Vocational Interest Blank SWO Surface Warfare Officer TA Tuition Assistance TQPR Total Quality Point Rating USNA United States Naval Academy...individual’s personal motivation and professional potential. Earning a master’s degree can be considered an unofficial “check in the box” to many

  10. Informed Consent in Implantable BCI Research: Identifying Risks and Exploring Meaning.

    PubMed

    Klein, Eran

    2016-10-01

    Implantable brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is an expanding area of engineering research now moving into clinical application. Ensuring meaningful informed consent in implantable BCI research is an ethical imperative. The emerging and rapidly evolving nature of implantable BCI research makes identification of risks, a critical component of informed consent, a challenge. In this paper, 6 core risk domains relevant to implantable BCI research are identified-short and long term safety, cognitive and communicative impairment, inappropriate expectations, involuntariness, affective impairment, and privacy and security. Work in deep brain stimulation provides a useful starting point for understanding this core set of risks in implantable BCI. Three further risk domains-risks pertaining to identity, agency, and stigma-are identified. These risks are not typically part of formalized consent processes. It is important as informed consent practices are further developed for implantable BCI research that attention be paid not just to disclosing core research risks but exploring the meaning of BCI research with potential participants.

  11. 78 FR 17222 - Notice of Proposed Information Collection, License for the Use of Personally Identifiable...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-03-20

    ... Identifiable Information Protected Under the E-Government Act of 2002, Title V and the Privacy Act of 1974...) and Title V, subtitle A of the E-Government Act of 2002 (CIPSEA) (U.S.C. 3501 note). HUD wishes to... Information Collection, License for the Use of Personally Identifiable Information Protected Under the E...

  12. Identifying the Critical Time Period for Information Extraction when Recognizing Sequences of Play

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    North, Jamie S.; Williams, A. Mark

    2008-01-01

    The authors attempted to determine the critical time period for information extraction when recognizing play sequences in soccer. Although efforts have been made to identify the perceptual information underpinning such decisions, no researchers have attempted to determine "when" this information may be extracted from the display. The authors…

  13. Obtaining subjects' consent to publish identifying personal information: current practices and identifying potential issues.

    PubMed

    Yoshida, Akiko; Dowa, Yuri; Murakami, Hiromi; Kosugi, Shinji

    2013-11-25

    In studies publishing identifying personal information, obtaining consent is regarded as necessary, as it is impossible to ensure complete anonymity. However, current journal practices around specific points to consider when obtaining consent, the contents of consent forms and how consent forms are managed have not yet been fully examined. This study was conducted to identify potential issues surrounding consent to publish identifying personal information. Content analysis was carried out on instructions for authors and consent forms developed by academic journals in four fields (as classified by Journal Citation Reports): medicine general and internal, genetics and heredity, pediatrics, and psychiatry. An online questionnaire survey of editors working for journals that require the submission of consent forms was also conducted. Instructions for authors were reviewed for 491 academic journals (132 for medicine general and internal, 147 for genetics and heredity, 100 for pediatrics, and 112 for psychiatry). Approximately 40% (203: 74 for medicine general and internal, 31 for genetics and heredity, 58 for pediatrics, and 40 for psychiatry) stated that subject consent was necessary. The submission of consent forms was required by 30% (154) of the journals studied, and 10% (50) provided their own consent forms for authors to use. Two journals mentioned that the possible effects of publication on subjects should be considered. Many journal consent forms mentioned the difficulties in ensuring complete anonymity of subjects, but few addressed the study objective, the subjects' right to refuse consent and the withdrawal of consent. The main reason for requiring the submission of consent forms was to confirm that consent had been obtained. Approximately 40% of journals required subject consent to be obtained. However, differences were observed depending on the fields. Specific considerations were not always documented. There is a need to address issues around the study

  14. Obtaining subjects’ consent to publish identifying personal information: current practices and identifying potential issues

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background In studies publishing identifying personal information, obtaining consent is regarded as necessary, as it is impossible to ensure complete anonymity. However, current journal practices around specific points to consider when obtaining consent, the contents of consent forms and how consent forms are managed have not yet been fully examined. This study was conducted to identify potential issues surrounding consent to publish identifying personal information. Methods Content analysis was carried out on instructions for authors and consent forms developed by academic journals in four fields (as classified by Journal Citation Reports): medicine general and internal, genetics and heredity, pediatrics, and psychiatry. An online questionnaire survey of editors working for journals that require the submission of consent forms was also conducted. Results Instructions for authors were reviewed for 491 academic journals (132 for medicine general and internal, 147 for genetics and heredity, 100 for pediatrics, and 112 for psychiatry). Approximately 40% (203: 74 for medicine general and internal, 31 for genetics and heredity, 58 for pediatrics, and 40 for psychiatry) stated that subject consent was necessary. The submission of consent forms was required by 30% (154) of the journals studied, and 10% (50) provided their own consent forms for authors to use. Two journals mentioned that the possible effects of publication on subjects should be considered. Many journal consent forms mentioned the difficulties in ensuring complete anonymity of subjects, but few addressed the study objective, the subjects’ right to refuse consent and the withdrawal of consent. The main reason for requiring the submission of consent forms was to confirm that consent had been obtained. Conclusion Approximately 40% of journals required subject consent to be obtained. However, differences were observed depending on the fields. Specific considerations were not always documented. There is a need

  15. Using ancestry-informative markers to identify fine structure across 15 populations of European origin.

    PubMed

    Huckins, Laura M; Boraska, Vesna; Franklin, Christopher S; Floyd, James A B; Southam, Lorraine; Sullivan, Patrick F; Bulik, Cynthia M; Collier, David A; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Zeggini, Eleftheria; Tachmazidou, Ioanna

    2014-10-01

    The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 3 anorexia nervosa genome-wide association scan includes 2907 cases from 15 different populations of European origin genotyped on the Illumina 670K chip. We compared methods for identifying population stratification, and suggest list of markers that may help to counter this problem. It is usual to identify population structure in such studies using only common variants with minor allele frequency (MAF) >5%; we find that this may result in highly informative SNPs being discarded, and suggest that instead all SNPs with MAF >1% may be used. We established informative axes of variation identified via principal component analysis and highlight important features of the genetic structure of diverse European-descent populations, some studied for the first time at this scale. Finally, we investigated the substructure within each of these 15 populations and identified SNPs that help capture hidden stratification. This work can provide information regarding the designing and interpretation of association results in the International Consortia.

  16. Health e-mavens: identifying active online health information users.

    PubMed

    Sun, Ye; Liu, Miao; Krakow, Melinda

    2016-10-01

    Given the rapid increase of Internet use for effective health communication, it is important for health practitioners to be able to identify and mobilize active users of online health information across various web-based health intervention programmes. We propose the concept 'health e-mavens' to characterize individuals actively engaged in online health information seeking and sharing activities. This study aimed to address three goals: (i) to test the factor structure of health e-mavenism, (ii) to assess the reliability and validity of this construct and (iii) to determine what predictors are associated with health e-mavenism. This study was a secondary analysis of nationally representative data from the 2010 Health Tracking Survey. We assessed the factor structure of health e-mavenism using confirmatory factor analysis and examined socio-demographic variables, health-related factors and use of technology as potential predictors of health e-mavenism through ordered regression analysis. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a second-order two-factor structure best captured the health e-maven construct. Health e-mavenism comprised two second-order factors, each encompassing two first-order dimensions: information acquisition (consisting of information tracking and consulting) and information transmission (consisting of information posting and sharing). Both first-order and second-order factors exhibited good reliabilities. Several factors were found to be significant predictors of health e-mavenism. This study offers a starting point for further inquiries about health e-mavens. It is a fruitful construct for health promotion research in the age of new media technologies. We conclude with specific recommendations to further develop the health e-maven concept through continued empirical research. © 2015 The Authors. Health Expectations. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  17. Three copies of a single protein II-encoding sequence in the genome of Neisseria gonorrhoeae JS3: evidence for gene conversion and gene duplication.

    PubMed

    van der Ley, P

    1988-11-01

    Gonococci express a family of related outer membrane proteins designated protein II (P.II). These surface proteins are subject to both phase variation and antigenic variation. The P.II gene repertoire of Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain JS3 was found to consist of at least ten genes, eight of which were cloned. Sequence analysis and DNA hybridization studies revealed that one particular P.II-encoding sequence is present in three distinct, but almost identical, copies in the JS3 genome. These genes encode the P.II protein that was previously identified as P.IIc. Comparison of their sequences shows that the multiple copies of this P.IIc-encoding gene might have been generated by both gene conversion and gene duplication.

  18. Identifying climate risk perceptions, information needs, and barriers to information exchange among public land managers.

    PubMed

    Peters, Casey B; Schwartz, Mark W; Lubell, Mark N

    2018-03-01

    Meeting ecosystem management challenges posed by climate change requires building effective communication channels among researchers, planners and practitioners to focus research on management issues requiring new knowledge. We surveyed resource managers within two regions of the western United States regions to better understand perceived risks and vulnerabilities associated with climate change and barriers to obtaining and using relevant climate science information in making ecosystem management decisions. We sought to understand what types of climate science information resource managers find most valuable, and the formats in which they prefer to receive climate science information. We found broad concern among natural resource managers in federal agencies that climate change will make it more difficult for them to achieve their management goals. Primary barriers to incorporating climate science into planning are distributed among challenges identifying, receiving, and interpreting appropriate science and a lack of direction provided by agency leadership needed to meaningfully use this emerging science in resource planning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. 76 FR 51125 - Additional Identifying Information Associated With Persons Whose Property and Interests in...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-08-17

    ... Transnational Criminal Organizations.'' FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Assistant Director, Sanctions... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Foreign Assets Control Additional Identifying Information... 13581of July 24, 2011, ``Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations.'' AGENCY: Office of...

  20. Identifying differences in biased affective information processing in major depression.

    PubMed

    Gollan, Jackie K; Pane, Heather T; McCloskey, Michael S; Coccaro, Emil F

    2008-05-30

    This study investigates the extent to which participants with major depression differ from healthy comparison participants in the irregularities in affective information processing, characterized by deficits in facial expression recognition, intensity categorization, and reaction time to identifying emotionally salient and neutral information. Data on diagnoses, symptom severity, and affective information processing using a facial recognition task were collected from 66 participants, male and female between ages 18 and 54 years, grouped by major depressive disorder (N=37) or healthy non-psychiatric (N=29) status. Findings from MANCOVAs revealed that major depression was associated with a significantly longer reaction time to sad facial expressions compared with healthy status. Also, depressed participants demonstrated a negative bias towards interpreting neutral facial expressions as sad significantly more often than healthy participants. In turn, healthy participants interpreted neutral faces as happy significantly more often than depressed participants. No group differences were observed for facial expression recognition and intensity categorization. The observed effects suggest that depression has significant effects on the perception of the intensity of negative affective stimuli, delayed speed of processing sad affective information, and biases towards interpreting neutral faces as sad.

  1. Assessing the Value of Information for Identifying Optimal Floodplain Management Portfolios

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Read, L.; Bates, M.; Hui, R.; Lund, J. R.

    2014-12-01

    Floodplain management is a complex portfolio problem that can be analyzed from an integrated perspective incorporating traditionally structural and nonstructural options. One method to identify effective strategies for preparing, responding to, and recovering from floods is to optimize for a portfolio of temporary (emergency) and permanent floodplain management options. A risk-based optimization approach to this problem assigns probabilities to specific flood events and calculates the associated expected damages. This approach is currently limited by: (1) the assumption of perfect flood forecast information, i.e. implementing temporary management activities according to the actual flood event may differ from optimizing based on forecasted information and (2) the inability to assess system resilience across a range of possible future events (risk-centric approach). Resilience is defined here as the ability of a system to absorb and recover from a severe disturbance or extreme event. In our analysis, resilience is a system property that requires integration of physical, social, and information domains. This work employs a 3-stage linear program to identify the optimal mix of floodplain management options using conditional probabilities to represent perfect and imperfect flood stages (forecast vs. actual events). We assess the value of information in terms of minimizing damage costs for two theoretical cases - urban and rural systems. We use portfolio analysis to explore how the set of optimal management options differs depending on whether the goal is for the system to be risk-adverse to a specified event or resilient over a range of events.

  2. Have a little faith: measuring the impact of illness on positive and negative aspects of faith.

    PubMed

    Salsman, John M; Garcia, Sofia F; Lai, Jin-Shei; Cella, David

    2012-12-01

    The importance of faith and its associations with health are well documented. As part of the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System, items tapping positive and negative impact of illness (PII and NII) were developed across four content domains: Coping/Stress Response, Self-Concept, Social Connection/Isolation, and Meaning and Spirituality. Faith items were included within the concept of meaning and spirituality. This measurement model was tested on a heterogeneous group of 509 cancer survivors. To evaluate dimensionality, we applied two bi-factor models, specifying a general factor (PII or NII) and four local factors: Coping/Stress Response, Self-Concept, Social Connection/Isolation, and Meaning and Spirituality. Bi-factor analysis supported sufficient unidimensionality within PII and NII item sets. The unidimensionality of both PII and NII item sets was enhanced by extraction of the faith items from the rest of the questions. Of the 10 faith items, nine demonstrated higher local than general factor loadings (range for local factor loadings = 0.402 to 0.876), suggesting utility as a separate but related 'faith' factor. The same was true for only two of the remaining 63 items across the PII and NII item sets. Although conceptually and to a degree empirically related to Meaning and Spirituality, Faith appears to be a distinct subdomain of PII and NII, better handled by distinct assessment. A 10-item measure of the impact of illness upon faith (II-Faith) was therefore assembled. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  3. 76 FR 22900 - Request for Information (RFI) To Identify and Obtain Relevant Information From Public or Private...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-04-25

    ... the biological sciences and public health domains. This RFI is for information and planning purposes... provide support for any ideas identified in response to it. Please note that the U.S. Government will not... with a mechanism for leveraging and maximizing resources, for collaborating on research and problem...

  4. Information literacy in science writing: how students find, identify, and use scientific literature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Klucevsek, Kristin M.; Brungard, Allison B.

    2016-11-01

    For undergraduate students to achieve science literacy, they must first develop information literacy skils. These skills align with Information Literacy Standards and include determining appropriate databases, distinguishing among resource types, and citing resources ethically. To effectively improve information literacy and science literacy, we must identify how students interact with authentic scientific texts. In this case study, we addressed this aim by embedding a science librarian into a science writing course, where students wrote a literature review on a research topic of their choice. Library instruction was further integrated through the use of an online guide and outside assistance. To evaluate the evolution of information literacy in our students and provide evidence of student practices, we used task-scaffolded writing assessments, a reflection, and surveys. We found that students improved their ability and confidence in finding research articles using discipline-specific databases as well as their ability to distinguish primary from secondary research articles. We also identified ways students improperly used and cited resources in their writing assignments. While our results reveal a better understanding of how students find and approach scientific research articles, additional research is needed to develop effective strategies to improve long-term information literacy in the sciences.

  5. Using language models to identify relevant new information in inpatient clinical notes.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Rui; Pakhomov, Serguei V; Lee, Janet T; Melton, Genevieve B

    2014-01-01

    Redundant information in clinical notes within electronic health record (EHR) systems is ubiquitous and may negatively impact the use of these notes by clinicians, and, potentially, the efficiency of patient care delivery. Automated methods to identify redundant versus relevant new information may provide a valuable tool for clinicians to better synthesize patient information and navigate to clinically important details. In this study, we investigated the use of language models for identification of new information in inpatient notes, and evaluated our methods using expert-derived reference standards. The best method achieved precision of 0.743, recall of 0.832 and F1-measure of 0.784. The average proportion of redundant information was similar between inpatient and outpatient progress notes (76.6% (SD=17.3%) and 76.7% (SD=14.0%), respectively). Advanced practice providers tended to have higher rates of redundancy in their notes compared to physicians. Future investigation includes the addition of semantic components and visualization of new information.

  6. Using Language Models to Identify Relevant New Information in Inpatient Clinical Notes

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Rui; Pakhomov, Serguei V.; Lee, Janet T.; Melton, Genevieve B.

    2014-01-01

    Redundant information in clinical notes within electronic health record (EHR) systems is ubiquitous and may negatively impact the use of these notes by clinicians, and, potentially, the efficiency of patient care delivery. Automated methods to identify redundant versus relevant new information may provide a valuable tool for clinicians to better synthesize patient information and navigate to clinically important details. In this study, we investigated the use of language models for identification of new information in inpatient notes, and evaluated our methods using expert-derived reference standards. The best method achieved precision of 0.743, recall of 0.832 and F1-measure of 0.784. The average proportion of redundant information was similar between inpatient and outpatient progress notes (76.6% (SD=17.3%) and 76.7% (SD=14.0%), respectively). Advanced practice providers tended to have higher rates of redundancy in their notes compared to physicians. Future investigation includes the addition of semantic components and visualization of new information. PMID:25954438

  7. Identifying Seizure Onset Zone From the Causal Connectivity Inferred Using Directed Information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malladi, Rakesh; Kalamangalam, Giridhar; Tandon, Nitin; Aazhang, Behnaam

    2016-10-01

    In this paper, we developed a model-based and a data-driven estimator for directed information (DI) to infer the causal connectivity graph between electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals recorded from brain and to identify the seizure onset zone (SOZ) in epileptic patients. Directed information, an information theoretic quantity, is a general metric to infer causal connectivity between time-series and is not restricted to a particular class of models unlike the popular metrics based on Granger causality or transfer entropy. The proposed estimators are shown to be almost surely convergent. Causal connectivity between ECoG electrodes in five epileptic patients is inferred using the proposed DI estimators, after validating their performance on simulated data. We then proposed a model-based and a data-driven SOZ identification algorithm to identify SOZ from the causal connectivity inferred using model-based and data-driven DI estimators respectively. The data-driven SOZ identification outperforms the model-based SOZ identification algorithm when benchmarked against visual analysis by neurologist, the current clinical gold standard. The causal connectivity analysis presented here is the first step towards developing novel non-surgical treatments for epilepsy.

  8. Study protocol: identifying and delivering point-of-care information to improve care coordination.

    PubMed

    Hysong, Sylvia J; Che, Xinxuan; Weaver, Sallie J; Petersen, Laura A

    2015-10-19

    The need for deliberately coordinated care is noted by many national-level organizations. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently transitioned primary care clinics nationwide into Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACTs) to provide more accessible, coordinated, comprehensive, and patient-centered care. To better serve this purpose, PACTs must be able to successfully sequence and route interdependent tasks to appropriate team members while also maintaining collective situational awareness (coordination). Although conceptual frameworks of care coordination exist, few explicitly articulate core behavioral markers of coordination or the related information needs of team members attempting to synchronize complex care processes across time for a shared patient population. Given this gap, we partnered with a group of frontline primary care personnel at ambulatory care sites to identify the specific information needs of PACT members that will enable them to coordinate their efforts to provide effective, coordinated care. The study has three objectives: (1) development of measurable, prioritized point-of-care criteria for effective PACT coordination; (2) identifying the specific information needed at the point of care to optimize coordination; and (3) assessing the effect of adopting the aforementioned coordination standards on PACT clinicians' coordination behaviors. The study consists of three phases. In phase 1, we will employ the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System (ProMES), a structured approach to performance measure creation from industrial/organizational psychology, to develop coordination measures with a design team of 6-10 primary care personnel; in phase 2, we will conduct focus groups with the phase 1 design team to identify point-of-care information needs. Phase 3 is a two-arm field experiment (n PACT = 28/arm); intervention arm PACTs will receive monthly feedback reports using the measures developed in phase 1 and attend brief monthly

  9. Experiential knowledge of expert coaches can help identify informational constraints on performance of dynamic interceptive actions.

    PubMed

    Greenwood, Daniel; Davids, Keith; Renshaw, Ian

    2014-01-01

    Coordination of dynamic interceptive movements is predicated on cyclical relations between an individual's actions and information sources from the performance environment. To identify dynamic informational constraints, which are interwoven with individual and task constraints, coaches' experiential knowledge provides a complementary source to support empirical understanding of performance in sport. In this study, 15 expert coaches from 3 sports (track and field, gymnastics and cricket) participated in a semi-structured interview process to identify potential informational constraints which they perceived to regulate action during run-up performance. Expert coaches' experiential knowledge revealed multiple information sources which may constrain performance adaptations in such locomotor pointing tasks. In addition to the locomotor pointing target, coaches' knowledge highlighted two other key informational constraints: vertical reference points located near the locomotor pointing target and a check mark located prior to the locomotor pointing target. This study highlights opportunities for broadening the understanding of perception and action coupling processes, and the identified information sources warrant further empirical investigation as potential constraints on athletic performance. Integration of experiential knowledge of expert coaches with theoretically driven empirical knowledge represents a promising avenue to drive future applied science research and pedagogical practice.

  10. Ten-Month-Old Infants Use Prior Information to Identify an Actor's Goal

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sommerville, Jessica A.; Crane, Catharyn C.

    2009-01-01

    For adults, prior information about an individual's likely goals, preferences or dispositions plays a powerful role in interpreting ambiguous behavior and predicting and interpreting behavior in novel contexts. Across two studies, we investigated whether 10-month-old infants' ability to identify the goal of an ambiguous action sequence was…

  11. Anal Canal Cancer: Management of Inguinal Nodes and Benefit of Prophylactic Inguinal Irradiation (CORS-03 Study)

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

    Ortholan, Cecile, E-mail: c.ortholan@wanadoo.fr; Princess Grace Hospital; Resbeut, Michel

    2012-04-01

    Purpose: To evaluate the benefit of prophylactic inguinal irradiation (PII) in anal canal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC). Methods and Materials: This retrospective study analyzed the outcome of 208 patients presenting with ASCC treated between 2000 and 2004 in four cancer centers of the south of France. Results: The population study included 35 T1, 86 T2, 59 T3, 20 T4, and 8 T stage unknown patients. Twenty-seven patients presented with macroscopic inguinal node involvement. Of the 181 patients with uninvolved nodes at presentation, 75 received a PII to a total dose of 45-50 Gy (PII group) and 106 did not receivemore » PII (no PII group). Compared with the no PII group, patients in the PII group were younger (60% vs. 41% of patients age <68 years, p = 0.01) and had larger tumor (T3-4 = 46% vs. 27% p = 0.01). The other characteristics were well balanced between the two groups. Median follow-up was 61 months. Fourteen patients in the no PII group vs. 1 patient in the PII group developed inguinal recurrence. The 5-year cumulative rate of inguinal recurrence (CRIR) was 2% and 16% in PII and no PII group respectively (p = 0.006). In the no PII group, the 5-year CRIR was 12% and 30% for T1-T2 and T3-T4 respectively (p = 0.02). Overall survival, disease-specific survival, and disease-free survival were similar between the two groups. In the PII group, no Grade >2 toxicity of the lower extremity was observed. Conclusion: PII with a dose of 45 Gy is safe and highly efficient to prevent inguinal recurrence and should be recommended for all T3-4 tumors. For early-stage tumors, PII should also be discussed, because the 5-year inguinal recurrence risk remains substantial when omitting PII (about 10%).« less

  12. 77 FR 2060 - Amendment of the System of Records for Records of Pesticide Applicators Certified Under EPA...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-01-13

    ...Pursuant to the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs, Field and External Affairs Division, is giving notice that it proposes to amend an existing system of records that contains personally identifiable information (PII) which is collected in the process of certifying individuals to apply restricted use pesticides (RUPs) as private or commercial applicators. This amendment gives notice that the Agency plans to make the name of the applicator and information pertaining to the certification granted by EPA publicly available on an EPA Web site.

  13. Quantifying family dissemination and identifying barriers to communication of risk information in Australian BRCA families.

    PubMed

    Healey, Emma; Taylor, Natalie; Greening, Sian; Wakefield, Claire E; Warwick, Linda; Williams, Rachel; Tucker, Kathy

    2017-12-01

    PurposeRecommendations for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers to disseminate information to at-risk relatives pose significant challenges. This study aimed to quantify family dissemination, to explain the differences between fully informed families (all relatives informed verbally or in writing) and partially informed families (at least one relative uninformed), and to identify dissemination barriers.MethodsBRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers identified from four Australian hospitals (n=671) were invited to participate in the study. Distress was measured at consent using the Kessler psychological distress scale (K10). A structured telephone interview was used to assess the informed status of relatives, geographical location of relatives, and dissemination barriers. Family dissemination was quantified, and fully versus partially informed family differences were examined. Dissemination barriers were thematically coded and counted.ResultsA total of 165 families participated. Information had been disseminated to 81.1% of relatives. At least one relative had not been informed in 52.7% of families, 4.3% were first-degree relatives, 27.0% were second-degree relatives, and 62.0% were cousins. Partially informed families were significantly larger than fully informed families, had fewer relatives living in close proximity, and exhibited higher levels of distress. The most commonly recorded barrier to dissemination was loss of contact.ConclusionLarger, geographically diverse families have greater difficulty disseminating BRCA mutation risk information to all relatives. Understanding these challenges can inform future initiatives for communication, follow-up and support.

  14. The security of patient identifiable information in doctors' homes.

    PubMed

    McLean, Iain; Anderson, C Mary

    2004-08-01

    Ethically and legally doctors bear a responsibility to ensure the security of patient identifiable information in their possession. Many doctors, especially those in forensic medicine, hold paper or computerised medical records at home. This survey was conducted to assess the level of security for these records and awareness of the issues. Fifty-six forensic physicians (30 male, 26 female) answered a questionnaire. Eighty-nine percent used a computer to write patient notes and reports, but only 26 of these were on the Data Protection Register, and only 24 password-protected their files. Few doctors took steps to protect data on old computers they had stopped using. Of those responding, 88% held paper records at home but only of these had lockable filing cabinets. Burglar alarms were fitted in 77% of homes, yet 36% of homes had been burgled. No participants had written instructions for disposal of records and reports after their death. Older participants were more likely to have been burgled, yet less likely to have antiviral software than their younger counterparts. Participants expressed the need for information, education and training in data security.

  15. Identifying and Prioritizing Information Needs and Research Priorities of Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Practitioners.

    PubMed

    Siegfried, Alexa L; Carbone, Eric G; Meit, Michael B; Kennedy, Mallory J; Yusuf, Hussain; Kahn, Emily B

    2017-10-01

    This study describes findings from an assessment conducted to identify perceived knowledge gaps, information needs, and research priorities among state, territorial, and local public health preparedness directors and coordinators related to public health emergency preparedness and response (PHPR). The goal of the study was to gather information that would be useful for ensuring that future funding for research and evaluation targets areas most critical for advancing public health practice. We implemented a mixed-methods approach to identify and prioritize PHPR research questions. A web survey was sent to all state, city, and territorial health agencies funded through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement program and a sample of local health departments (LHDs). Three focus groups of state and local practitioners and subject matter experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were subsequently conducted, followed by 3 meetings of an expert panel of PHPR practitioners and CDC experts to prioritize and refine the research questions. We identified a final list of 44 research questions that were deemed by study participants as priority topics where future research can inform PHPR programs and practice. We identified differences in perceived research priorities between PHEP awardees and LHD survey respondents; the number of research questions rated as important was greater among LHDs than among PHEP awardees (75%, n=33, compared to 24%, n=15). The research questions identified provide insight into public health practitioners' perceived knowledge gaps and the types of information that would be most useful for informing and advancing PHPR practice. The study also points to a higher level of information need among LHDs than among PHEP awardees. These findings are important for CDC and the PHPR research community to ensure that future research studies are responsive to practitioners' needs and provide the information

  16. Uridylylation of Herbaspirillum seropedicae GlnB and GlnK proteins is differentially affected by ATP, ADP and 2-oxoglutarate in vitro.

    PubMed

    Bonatto, Ana C; Souza, Emanuel M; Oliveira, Marco A S; Monteiro, Rose A; Chubatsu, Leda S; Huergo, Luciano F; Pedrosa, Fábio O

    2012-08-01

    PII are signal-transducing proteins that integrate metabolic signals and transmit this information to a large number of proteins. In proteobacteria, PII are modified by GlnD (uridylyltransferase/uridylyl-removing enzyme) in response to the nitrogen status. The uridylylation/deuridylylation cycle of PII is also regulated by carbon and energy signals such as ATP, ADP and 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG). These molecules bind to PII proteins and alter their tridimensional structure/conformation and activity. In this work, we determined the effects of ATP, ADP and 2-OG levels on the in vitro uridylylation of Herbaspirillum seropedicae PII proteins, GlnB and GlnK. Both proteins were uridylylated by GlnD in the presence of ATP or ADP, although the uridylylation levels were higher in the presence of ATP and under high 2-OG levels. Under excess of 2-OG, the GlnB uridylylation level was higher in the presence of ATP than with ADP, while GlnK uridylylation was similar with ATP or ADP. Moreover, in the presence of ADP/ATP molar ratios varying from 10/1 to 1/10, GlnB uridylylation level decreased as ADP concentration increased, whereas GlnK uridylylation remained constant. The results suggest that uridylylation of both GlnB and GlnK responds to 2-OG levels, but only GlnB responds effectively to variation on ADP/ATP ratio.

  17. A machine learning based approach to identify protected health information in Chinese clinical text.

    PubMed

    Du, Liting; Xia, Chenxi; Deng, Zhaohua; Lu, Gary; Xia, Shuxu; Ma, Jingdong

    2018-08-01

    With the increasing application of electronic health records (EHRs) in the world, protecting private information in clinical text has drawn extensive attention from healthcare providers to researchers. De-identification, the process of identifying and removing protected health information (PHI) from clinical text, has been central to the discourse on medical privacy since 2006. While de-identification is becoming the global norm for handling medical records, there is a paucity of studies on its application on Chinese clinical text. Without efficient and effective privacy protection algorithms in place, the use of indispensable clinical information would be confined. We aimed to (i) describe the current process for PHI in China, (ii) propose a machine learning based approach to identify PHI in Chinese clinical text, and (iii) validate the effectiveness of the machine learning algorithm for de-identification in Chinese clinical text. Based on 14,719 discharge summaries from regional health centers in Ya'an City, Sichuan province, China, we built a conditional random fields (CRF) model to identify PHI in clinical text, and then used the regular expressions to optimize the recognition results of the PHI categories with fewer samples. We constructed a Chinese clinical text corpus with PHI tags through substantial manual annotation, wherein the descriptive statistics of PHI manifested its wide range and diverse categories. The evaluation showed with a high F-measure of 0.9878 that our CRF-based model had a good performance for identifying PHI in Chinese clinical text. The rapid adoption of EHR in the health sector has created an urgent need for tools that can parse patient specific information from Chinese clinical text. Our application of CRF algorithms for de-identification has shown the potential to meet this need by offering a highly accurate and flexible solution to analyzing Chinese clinical text. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Using Active Learning to Identify Health Information Technology Related Patient Safety Events.

    PubMed

    Fong, Allan; Howe, Jessica L; Adams, Katharine T; Ratwani, Raj M

    2017-01-18

    The widespread adoption of health information technology (HIT) has led to new patient safety hazards that are often difficult to identify. Patient safety event reports, which are self-reported descriptions of safety hazards, provide one view of potential HIT-related safety events. However, identifying HIT-related reports can be challenging as they are often categorized under other more predominate clinical categories. This challenge of identifying HIT-related reports is exacerbated by the increasing number and complexity of reports which pose challenges to human annotators that must manually review reports. In this paper, we apply active learning techniques to support classification of patient safety event reports as HIT-related. We evaluated different strategies and demonstrated a 30% increase in average precision of a confirmatory sampling strategy over a baseline no active learning approach after 10 learning iterations.

  19. 38 CFR 74.25 - What types of personally identifiable information will VA collect?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS (CONTINUED) VETERANS SMALL BUSINESS REGULATIONS Records Management § 74.25 What types of personally identifiable information will VA collect? In order to establish owner... 38 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What types of personally...

  20. 42 CFR 484.11 - Condition of participation: Release of patient identifiable OASIS information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Condition of participation: Release of patient... Administration § 484.11 Condition of participation: Release of patient identifiable OASIS information. The HHA and agent acting on behalf of the HHA in accordance with a written contract must ensure the...

  1. 34 CFR 303.401 - Definitions of consent, native language, and personally identifiable information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 34 Education 2 2011-07-01 2010-07-01 true Definitions of consent, native language, and personally... Definitions of consent, native language, and personally identifiable information. As used in this subpart— (a... which consent is sought, in the parent's native language or other mode of communication; (2) The parent...

  2. Hospital to Post-Acute Care Facility Transfers: Identifying Targets for Information Exchange Quality Improvement.

    PubMed

    Jones, Christine D; Cumbler, Ethan; Honigman, Benjamin; Burke, Robert E; Boxer, Rebecca S; Levy, Cari; Coleman, Eric A; Wald, Heidi L

    2017-01-01

    Information exchange is critical to high-quality care transitions from hospitals to post-acute care (PAC) facilities. We conducted a survey to evaluate the completeness and timeliness of information transfer and communication between a tertiary-care academic hospital and its related PAC facilities. This was a cross-sectional Web-based 36-question survey of 110 PAC clinicians and staff representing 31 PAC facilities conducted between October and December 2013. We received responses from 71 of 110 individuals representing 29 of 31 facilities (65% and 94% response rates). We collapsed 4-point Likert responses into dichotomous variables to reflect completeness (sufficient vs insufficient) and timeliness (timely vs not timely) for information transfer and communication. Among respondents, 32% reported insufficient information about discharge medical conditions and management plan, and 83% reported at least occasionally encountering problems directly related to inadequate information from the hospital. Hospital clinician contact information was the most common insufficient domain. With respect to timeliness, 86% of respondents desired receipt of a discharge summary on or before the day of discharge, but only 58% reported receiving the summary within this time frame. Through free-text responses, several participants expressed the need for paper prescriptions for controlled pain medications to be sent with patients at the time of transfer. Staff and clinicians at PAC facilities perceive substantial deficits in content and timeliness of information exchange between the hospital and facilities. Such deficits are particularly relevant in the context of the increasing prevalence of bundled payments for care across settings as well as forthcoming readmissions penalties for PAC facilities. Targets identified for quality improvement include structuring discharge summary information to include information identified as deficient by respondents, completion of discharge summaries

  3. Forensic Taxonomy of Android Social Apps.

    PubMed

    Azfar, Abdullah; Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond; Liu, Lin

    2017-03-01

    An Android social app taxonomy incorporating artifacts that are of forensic interest will enable users and forensic investigators to identify the personally identifiable information (PII) stored by the apps. In this study, 30 popular Android social apps were examined. Artifacts of forensic interest (e.g., contacts lists, chronology of messages, and timestamp of an added contact) were recovered. In addition, images were located, and Facebook token strings used to tie account identities and gain access to information entered into Facebook by a user were identified. Based on the findings, a two-dimensional taxonomy of the forensic artifacts of the social apps is proposed. A comparative summary of existing forensic taxonomies of different categories of Android apps, designed to facilitate timely collection and analysis of evidentiary materials from Android devices, is presented. © 2016 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  4. Identifying functionally informative evolutionary sequence profiles.

    PubMed

    Gil, Nelson; Fiser, Andras

    2018-04-15

    Multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) can provide essential input to many bioinformatics applications, including protein structure prediction and functional annotation. However, the optimal selection of sequences to obtain biologically informative MSAs for such purposes is poorly explored, and has traditionally been performed manually. We present Selection of Alignment by Maximal Mutual Information (SAMMI), an automated, sequence-based approach to objectively select an optimal MSA from a large set of alternatives sampled from a general sequence database search. The hypothesis of this approach is that the mutual information among MSA columns will be maximal for those MSAs that contain the most diverse set possible of the most structurally and functionally homogeneous protein sequences. SAMMI was tested to select MSAs for functional site residue prediction by analysis of conservation patterns on a set of 435 proteins obtained from protein-ligand (peptides, nucleic acids and small substrates) and protein-protein interaction databases. Availability and implementation: A freely accessible program, including source code, implementing SAMMI is available at https://github.com/nelsongil92/SAMMI.git. andras.fiser@einstein.yu.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

  5. 21 CFR 1.345 - What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ...) For persons who manufacture, process, or pack food, the lot or code number or other identifier of the... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and transporter immediate subsequent recipients of food? 1...

  6. 21 CFR 1.345 - What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ...) For persons who manufacture, process, or pack food, the lot or code number or other identifier of the... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and transporter immediate subsequent recipients of food? 1...

  7. 21 CFR 1.345 - What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ...) For persons who manufacture, process, or pack food, the lot or code number or other identifier of the... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and transporter immediate subsequent recipients of food? 1...

  8. 21 CFR 1.345 - What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ...) For persons who manufacture, process, or pack food, the lot or code number or other identifier of the... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and transporter immediate subsequent recipients of food? 1...

  9. 33 CFR 187.101 - What information must be collected to identify a vessel owner?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... this section. (4) One of the following unique identifiers for each owner: (i) Social Security Number... the individual who signed the application for numbering: (i) Social Security Number (SSN) or..., DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) BOATING SAFETY VESSEL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM Information to be...

  10. Social Networking Privacy Control: Exploring University Variables Related to Young Adults' Sharing of Personally Identifiable Information

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zimmerman, Melisa S.

    2014-01-01

    The growth of the Internet, and specifically social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook, create opportunities for individuals to share private and identifiable information with a closed or open community. Internet crime has been on the rise and research has shown that criminals are using individuals' personal information pulled from social…

  11. Identifying and predicting subgroups of information needs among cancer patients: an initial study using latent class analysis.

    PubMed

    Neumann, Melanie; Wirtz, Markus; Ernstmann, Nicole; Ommen, Oliver; Längler, Alfred; Edelhäuser, Friedrich; Scheffer, Christian; Tauschel, Diethard; Pfaff, Holger

    2011-08-01

    Understanding how the information needs of cancer patients (CaPts) vary is important because met information needs affect health outcomes and CaPts' satisfaction. The goals of the study were to identify subgroups of CaPts based on self-reported cancer- and treatment-related information needs and to determine whether subgroups could be predicted on the basis of selected sociodemographic, clinical and clinician-patient relationship variables. Three hundred twenty-three CaPts participated in a survey using the "Cancer Patients Information Needs" scale, which is a new tool for measuring cancer-related information needs. The number of information need subgroups and need profiles within each subgroup was identified using latent class analysis (LCA). Multinomial logistic regression was applied to predict class membership. LCA identified a model of five subgroups exhibiting differences in type and extent of CaPts' unmet information needs: a subgroup with "no unmet needs" (31.4% of the sample), two subgroups with "high level of psychosocial unmet information needs" (27.0% and 12.0%), a subgroup with "high level of purely medical unmet information needs" (16.0%) and a subgroup with "high level of medical and psychosocial unmet information needs" (13.6%). An assessment of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics revealed that younger CaPts and CaPts' requiring psychological support seem to belong to subgroups with a higher level of unmet information needs. However, the most significant predictor for the subgroups with unmet information needs is a good clinician-patient relationship, i.e. subjective perception of high level of trust in and caring attention from nurses together with high degree of physician empathy seems to be predictive for inclusion in the subgroup with no unmet information needs. The results of our study can be used by oncology nurses and physicians to increase their awareness of the complexity and heterogeneity of information needs among CaPts and of

  12. Patient-identified information and communication needs in the context of major trauma.

    PubMed

    Braaf, Sandra; Ameratunga, Shanthi; Nunn, Andrew; Christie, Nicola; Teague, Warwick; Judson, Rodney; Gabbe, Belinda J

    2018-03-07

    Navigating complex health care systems during the multiple phases of recovery following major trauma entails many challenges for injured patients. Patients' experiences communicating with health professionals are of particular importance in this context. The aim of this study was to explore seriously injured patients' perceptions of communication with and information provided by health professionals in their first 3-years following injury. A qualitative study designed was used, nested within a population-based longitudinal cohort study. Semi-structured telephone interviews were undertaken with 65 major trauma patients, aged 17 years and older at the time of injury, identified through purposive sampling from the Victorian State Trauma Registry. A detailed thematic analysis was undertaken using a framework approach. Many seriously injured patients faced barriers to communication with health professionals in the hospital, rehabilitation and in the community settings. Key themes related to limited contact with health professionals, insufficient information provision, and challenges with information coordination. Communication difficulties were particularly apparent when many health professionals were involved in patient care, or when patients transitioned from hospital to rehabilitation or to the community. Difficulties in patient-health professional engagement compromised communication and exchange of information particularly at transitions of care, e.g., discharge from hospital. Conversely, positive attributes displayed by health professionals such as active discussion, clear language, listening and an empathetic manner, all facilitated effective communication. Most patients preferred communication consistent with patient-centred approaches, and the use of multiple modes to communicate information. The communication and information needs of seriously injured patients were inconsistently met over the course of their recovery continuum. To assist patients along their

  13. Methylation array data can simultaneously identify individuals and convey protected health information: an unrecognized ethical concern.

    PubMed

    Philibert, Robert A; Terry, Nicolas; Erwin, Cheryl; Philibert, Winter J; Beach, Steven Rh; Brody, Gene H

    2014-01-01

    Genome-wide methylation arrays are increasingly used tools in studies of complex medical disorders. Because of their expense and potential utility to the scientific community, current federal policy dictates that data from these arrays, like those from genome-wide genotyping arrays, be deposited in publicly available databases. Unlike the genotyping information, access to the expression data is not restricted. An underlying supposition in the current nonrestricted access to methylation data is the belief that protected health and personal identifying information cannot be simultaneously extracted from these arrays. In this communication, we analyze methylation data from the Illumina HumanMethylation450 array and show that genotype at 1,069 highly informative loci, and both alcohol and smoking consumption information, can be derived from the array data. We conclude that both potentially personally identifying information and substance-use histories can be simultaneously derived from methylation array data. Because access to genetic information about a database subject or one of their relatives is critical to the de-identification process, this risk of de-identification is limited at the current time. We propose that access to genome-wide methylation data be restricted to institutionally approved investigators who accede to data use agreements prohibiting re-identification.

  14. 21 CFR 1.337 - What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... manufacture, process, or pack food, the lot or code number or other identifier of the food (to the extent this... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and transporter immediate previous sources of food? 1.337...

  15. 21 CFR 1.337 - What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... manufacture, process, or pack food, the lot or code number or other identifier of the food (to the extent this... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and transporter immediate previous sources of food? 1.337...

  16. 21 CFR 1.337 - What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... manufacture, process, or pack food, the lot or code number or other identifier of the food (to the extent this... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and transporter immediate previous sources of food? 1.337...

  17. 21 CFR 1.337 - What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... manufacture, process, or pack food, the lot or code number or other identifier of the food (to the extent this... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false What information must nontransporters establish and maintain to identify the nontransporter and transporter immediate previous sources of food? 1.337...

  18. Using geographic information systems to identify prospective marketing areas for a special library.

    PubMed

    McConnaughy, Rozalynd P; Wilson, Steven P

    2006-05-04

    The Center for Disability Resources (CDR) Library is the largest collection of its kind in the Southeastern United States, consisting of over 5,200 books, videos/DVDs, brochures, and audiotapes covering a variety of disability-related topics, from autism to transition resources. The purpose of the library is to support the information needs of families, faculty, students, staff, and other professionals in South Carolina working with individuals with disabilities. The CDR Library is funded on a yearly basis; therefore, maintaining high usage is crucial. A variety of promotional efforts have been used to attract new patrons to the library. Anyone in South Carolina can check out materials from the library, and most of the patrons use the library remotely by requesting materials, which are then mailed to them. The goal of this project was to identify areas of low geographic usage as a means of identifying locations for future library marketing efforts. Nearly four years worth of library statistics were compiled in a spreadsheet that provided information per county on the number of checkouts, the number of renewals, and the population. Five maps were created using ArcView GIS software to create visual representations of patron checkout and renewal behavior per county. Out of the 46 counties in South Carolina, eight counties never checked out materials from the library. As expected urban areas and counties near the library's physical location have high usage totals. The visual representation of the data made identification of low usage regions easier than using a standalone database with no visual-spatial component. The low usage counties will be the focus of future Center for Disability Resources Library marketing efforts. Due to the impressive visual-spatial representations created with Geographic Information Systems, which more efficiently communicate information than stand-alone database information can, librarians may benefit from the software's use as a

  19. Identifying critical success factors (CSFs) of implementing building information modeling (BIM) in Malaysian construction industry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yaakob, Mazri; Ali, Wan Nur Athirah Wan; Radzuan, Kamaruddin

    2016-08-01

    Building Information Modeling (BIM) is defined as existing from the earliest concept to demolition and it involves creating and using an intelligent 3D model to inform and communicate project decisions. This research aims to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of BIM implementation in Malaysian construction industry. A literature review was done to explore previous BIM studies on definitions and history of BIM, construction issues, application of BIM in construction projects as well as benefits of BIM. A series of interviews with multidisciplinary Malaysian construction experts will be conducted purposely for data collection process guided by the research design and methodology approach of this study. The analysis of qualitative data from the process will be combined with criteria identified in the literature review in order to identify the CSFs. Finally, the CSFs of BIM implementation will be validated by further Malaysian industrialists during a workshop. The validated CSFs can be used as a term of reference for both Malaysian practitioners and academics towards measuring BIM effectiveness level in their organizations.

  20. Proteomics informed by transcriptomics identifies novel secreted proteins in Dermacentor andersoni saliva

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

    Mudenda, Lwiindi; Aguilar Pierle, Sebastian; Turse, Joshua E.

    2014-08-07

    Dermacentor andersoni, known as the Rocky Mountain wood tick, is found in the western United States and transmits pathogens that cause diseases of veterinary and public health importance including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Colorado tick fever and bovine anaplasmosis. Tick saliva is known to modulate both innate and acquired immune responses, enabling ticks to feed for several days without detection. During feeding ticks subvert host defences such as hemostasis and inflammation, which would otherwise result in coagulation, wound repair and rejection of the tick. Molecular characterization of the proteins and pharmacological molecules secreted in tick saliva offers an opportunitymore » to develop tick vaccines as an alternative to the use of acaricides, as well as new anti-inflammatory drugs. We performed proteomics informed by transcriptomics to identify D. andersoni saliva proteins that are secreted during feeding. The transcript data generated a database of 21,797 consensus sequences, which we used to identify 677 proteins secreted in the saliva of D. andersoni ticks fed for 2 and 5 days, following proteomic investigations of whole saliva using mass spectrometry. Salivary gland transcript levels of unfed ticks were compared with 2 and 5 day fed ticks to identify genes upregulated early during tick feeding. We cross-referenced the proteomic data with the transcriptomic data to identify 157 proteins of interest for immunomodulation and blood feeding. Proteins of unknown function as well as known immunomodulators were identified.« less

  1. Identifying Challenges to the Integration of Computer-Based Surveillance Information Systems in a Large City Health Department: A Case Study.

    PubMed

    Jennings, Jacky M; Stover, Jeffrey A; Bair-Merritt, Megan H; Fichtenberg, Caroline; Munoz, Mary Grace; Maziad, Rafiq; Ketemepi, Sherry Johnson; Zenilman, Jonathan

    2009-01-01

    Integrated infectious disease surveillance information systems have the potential to provide important new surveillance capacities and business efficiencies for local health departments. We conducted a case study at a large city health department of the primary computer-based infectious disease surveillance information systems during a 10-year period to identify the major challenges for information integration across the systems. The assessment included key informant interviews and evaluations of the computer-based surveillance information systems used for acute communicable diseases, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis. Assessments were conducted in 1998 with a follow-up in 2008. Assessments specifically identified and described the primary computer-based surveillance information system, any duplicative information systems, and selected variables collected. Persistent challenges to information integration across the information systems included the existence of duplicative data systems, differences in the variables used to collect similar information, and differences in basic architecture. The assessments identified a number of challenges for information integration across the infectious disease surveillance information systems at this city health department. The results suggest that local disease control programs use computer-based surveillance information systems that were not designed for data integration. To the extent that integration provides important new surveillance capacities and business efficiencies, we recommend that patient-centric information systems be designed that provide all the epidemiologic, clinical, and research needs in one system. In addition, the systems should include a standard system of elements and fields across similar surveillance systems.

  2. Advancing the literature on designing audit and feedback interventions: identifying theory-informed hypotheses.

    PubMed

    Colquhoun, Heather L; Carroll, Kelly; Eva, Kevin W; Grimshaw, Jeremy M; Ivers, Noah; Michie, Susan; Sales, Anne; Brehaut, Jamie C

    2017-09-29

    Audit and feedback (A&F) is a common strategy for helping health providers to implement evidence into practice. Despite being extensively studied, health care A&F interventions remain variably effective, with overall effect sizes that have not improved since 2003. Contributing to this stagnation is the fact that most health care A&F interventions have largely been designed without being informed by theoretical understanding from the behavioral and social sciences. To determine if the trend can be improved, the objective of this study was to develop a list of testable, theory-informed hypotheses about how to design more effective A&F interventions. Using purposive sampling, semi-structured 60-90-min telephone interviews were conducted with experts in theories related to A&F from a range of fields (e.g., cognitive, health and organizational psychology, medical decision-making, economics). Guided by detailed descriptions of A&F interventions from the health care literature, interviewees described how they would approach the problem of designing improved A&F interventions. Specific, theory-informed hypotheses about the conditions for effective design and delivery of A&F interventions were elicited from the interviews. The resulting hypotheses were assigned by three coders working independently into themes, and categories of themes, in an iterative process. We conducted 28 interviews and identified 313 theory-informed hypotheses, which were placed into 30 themes. The 30 themes included hypotheses related to the following five categories: A&F recipient (seven themes), content of the A&F (ten themes), process of delivery of the A&F (six themes), behavior that was the focus of the A&F (three themes), and other (four themes). We have identified a set of testable, theory-informed hypotheses from a broad range of behavioral and social science that suggest conditions for more effective A&F interventions. This work demonstrates the breadth of perspectives about A&F from non

  3. Identifying Employer Needs from Accounting Information Systems Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dillon, Thomas W.; Kruck, S. E.

    2008-01-01

    As the need for new hires with accounting and information technology knowledge increases, a new major in accounting information systems (AIS) has emerged. This new AIS degree is a hybrid of accounting concepts and common business subjects combined with key information technology issues. Employers were presented with 56 core content areas found in…

  4. "Living in the moment" among cancer survivors who report life-transforming change.

    PubMed

    Skeath, Perry; Berger, Ann

    2017-07-01

    Some cancer survivors say that while coping with their illness they have had what they identify as a highly beneficial, personal, life-transforming change (LTC; a self-subscribed condition among participants in this study, not a researcher-defined construct). Previously we found that the content of LTC was highly individual; but certain features of the LTC process were quite uniform. For example, LTC was driven by a very rational desire to remain genuinely functional as a person in the midst of highly stressful circumstances. Our purpose is to further understand LTC by analysis of participants' critique of questionnaire items on positive subjective outcomes. We obtained a set of 67 positive psychosocial questionnaire items from the Psychosocial Impact of Illness (PII) item bank development team of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information Systems (PROMIS) initiative. The PII items are sourced from a variety of instruments, representing more than one theory of personal growth. This enabled a grounded theory approach, allowing a theory of LTC to emerge from the data. Each of nine cancer survivors participated in a single, two-part session: an hour-long semi-structured qualitative interview regarding their LTC (previously reported), then individually critiquing the 67 items in terms of relevance and importance to their self-reported LTC experience (their critique is analyzed in this article). The PII items were grouped into 20 researcher-defined conceptual themes and average scores for each theme were computed and compared. The theme "living in the moment" (LITM; sometimes referred to as "Being in the moment" in other literature) scored significantly higher than other themes. Qualitative interview transcripts revealed that participants spontaneously used LITM as a coping tactic that reduced worries to manageable levels. These participants noticed subsequently that LITM also produced unexpected substantial benefits in

  5. A new computational strategy for identifying essential proteins based on network topological properties and biological information.

    PubMed

    Qin, Chao; Sun, Yongqi; Dong, Yadong

    2017-01-01

    Essential proteins are the proteins that are indispensable to the survival and development of an organism. Deleting a single essential protein will cause lethality or infertility. Identifying and analysing essential proteins are key to understanding the molecular mechanisms of living cells. There are two types of methods for predicting essential proteins: experimental methods, which require considerable time and resources, and computational methods, which overcome the shortcomings of experimental methods. However, the prediction accuracy of computational methods for essential proteins requires further improvement. In this paper, we propose a new computational strategy named CoTB for identifying essential proteins based on a combination of topological properties, subcellular localization information and orthologous protein information. First, we introduce several topological properties of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Second, we propose new methods for measuring orthologous information and subcellular localization and a new computational strategy that uses a random forest prediction model to obtain a probability score for the proteins being essential. Finally, we conduct experiments on four different Saccharomyces cerevisiae datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that our strategy for identifying essential proteins outperforms traditional computational methods and the most recently developed method, SON. In particular, our strategy improves the prediction accuracy to 89, 78, 79, and 85 percent on the YDIP, YMIPS, YMBD and YHQ datasets at the top 100 level, respectively.

  6. Getting what they need when they need it. Identifying barriers to information needs of family caregivers to manage dementia-related behavioral symptoms.

    PubMed

    Werner, Nicole E; Stanislawski, Barbara; Marx, Katherine A; Watkins, Daphne C; Kobayashi, Marissa; Kales, Helen; Gitlin, Laura N

    2017-02-22

    Consumer health informatics (CHI) such as web-based applications may provide the platform for enabling the over 15 million family caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's Disease or related dementias the information they need when they need it to support behavioral symptom management. However, for CHI to be successful, it is necessary that it be designed to meet the specific information needs of family caregivers in the context in which caregiving occurs. A sociotechnical systems approach to CHI design can help to understand the contextual complexities of family caregiving and account for those complexities in the design of CHI for family caregivers. This study used a sociotechnical systems approach to identify barriers to meeting caregivers' information needs related to the management of dementia-related behavioral symptoms, and to derive design implications that overcome barriers for caregiver-focused web-based platforms. We have subsequently used these design implications to inform the development of a web-based platform, WeCareAdvisor,TM which provides caregivers with information and an algorithm by which to identify and manage behavioral symptoms for which they seek management strategies. We conducted 4 focus groups with family caregivers (N=26) in a Midwestern state. Qualitative content analysis of the data was guided by a sociotechnical systems framework. We identified nine categories of barriers that family caregivers confront in obtaining needed information about behavioral symptom management from which we extrapolated design implications for a web-based platform. Based on interactions within the sociotechnical system, three critical information needs were identified: 1) timely access to information, 2) access to information that is tailored or specific to caregiver's needs and contexts, and 3) usable information that can directly inform how caregivers' manage behaviors. The sociotechnical system framework is a useful approach for identifying information

  7. Identifying strategies to improve access to credible and relevant information for public health professionals: a qualitative study

    PubMed Central

    LaPelle, Nancy R; Luckmann, Roger; Simpson, E Hatheway; Martin, Elaine R

    2006-01-01

    Background Movement towards evidence-based practices in many fields suggests that public health (PH) challenges may be better addressed if credible information about health risks and effective PH practices is readily available. However, research has shown that many PH information needs are unmet. In addition to reviewing relevant literature, this study performed a comprehensive review of existing information resources and collected data from two representative PH groups, focusing on identifying current practices, expressed information needs, and ideal systems for information access. Methods Nineteen individual interviews were conducted among employees of two domains in a state health department – communicable disease control and community health promotion. Subsequent focus groups gathered additional data on preferences for methods of information access and delivery as well as information format and content. Qualitative methods were used to identify themes in the interview and focus group transcripts. Results Informants expressed similar needs for improved information access including single portal access with a good search engine; automatic notification regarding newly available information; access to best practice information in many areas of interest that extend beyond biomedical subject matter; improved access to grey literature as well as to more systematic reviews, summaries, and full-text articles; better methods for indexing, filtering, and searching for information; and effective ways to archive information accessed. Informants expressed a preference for improving systems with which they were already familiar such as PubMed and listservs rather than introducing new systems of information organization and delivery. A hypothetical ideal model for information organization and delivery was developed based on informants' stated information needs and preferred means of delivery. Features of the model were endorsed by the subjects who reviewed it. Conclusion

  8. Using information theory to identify redundancy in common laboratory tests in the intensive care unit.

    PubMed

    Lee, Joon; Maslove, David M

    2015-07-31

    Clinical workflow is infused with large quantities of data, particularly in areas with enhanced monitoring such as the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Information theory can quantify the expected amounts of total and redundant information contained in a given clinical data type, and as such has the potential to inform clinicians on how to manage the vast volumes of data they are required to analyze in their daily practice. The objective of this proof-of-concept study was to quantify the amounts of redundant information associated with common ICU lab tests. We analyzed the information content of 11 laboratory test results from 29,149 adult ICU admissions in the MIMIC II database. Information theory was applied to quantify the expected amount of redundant information both between lab values from the same ICU day, and between consecutive ICU days. Most lab values showed a decreasing trend over time in the expected amount of novel information they contained. Platelet, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatinine measurements exhibited the most amount of redundant information on days 2 and 3 compared to the previous day. The creatinine-BUN and sodium-chloride pairs had the most redundancy. Information theory can help identify and discourage unnecessary testing and bloodwork, and can in general be a useful data analytic technique for many medical specialties that deal with information overload.

  9. 14 CFR 294.22 - Notification to the Department of change in operations or identifying information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Notification to the Department of change in operations or identifying information. 294.22 Section 294.22 Aeronautics and Space OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS) ECONOMIC REGULATIONS CANADIAN CHARTER AIR TAXI OPERATORS...

  10. 14 CFR 294.22 - Notification to the Department of change in operations or identifying information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Notification to the Department of change in operations or identifying information. 294.22 Section 294.22 Aeronautics and Space OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS) ECONOMIC REGULATIONS CANADIAN CHARTER AIR TAXI OPERATORS...

  11. Baccalaureate Nursing Students' Abilities in Critically Identifying and Evaluating the Quality of Online Health Information.

    PubMed

    Theron, Maggie; Redmond, Anne; Borycki, Elizabeth M

    2017-01-01

    Both the Internet and social media have become important tools that patients and health professionals, including health professional students, use to obtain information and support their decision-making surrounding health care. Students in the health sciences require increased competence to select, appraise, and use online sources to adequately educate and support patients and advocate for patient needs and best practices. The purpose of this study was to ascertain if second year nursing students have the ability to critically identify and evaluate the quality of online health information through comparisons between student and expert assessments of selected online health information postings using an adapted Trust in Online Health Information scale. Interviews with experts provided understanding of how experts applied the selected criteria and what experts recommend for implementing nursing informatics literacy in curriculums. The difference between student and expert assessments of the quality of the online information is on average close to 40%. Themes from the interviews highlighted several possible factors that may influence informatics competency levels in students, specifically regarding the critical appraisal of the quality of online health information.

  12. Using statistical text classification to identify health information technology incidents

    PubMed Central

    Chai, Kevin E K; Anthony, Stephen; Coiera, Enrico; Magrabi, Farah

    2013-01-01

    Objective To examine the feasibility of using statistical text classification to automatically identify health information technology (HIT) incidents in the USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database. Design We used a subset of 570 272 incidents including 1534 HIT incidents reported to MAUDE between 1 January 2008 and 1 July 2010. Text classifiers using regularized logistic regression were evaluated with both ‘balanced’ (50% HIT) and ‘stratified’ (0.297% HIT) datasets for training, validation, and testing. Dataset preparation, feature extraction, feature selection, cross-validation, classification, performance evaluation, and error analysis were performed iteratively to further improve the classifiers. Feature-selection techniques such as removing short words and stop words, stemming, lemmatization, and principal component analysis were examined. Measurements κ statistic, F1 score, precision and recall. Results Classification performance was similar on both the stratified (0.954 F1 score) and balanced (0.995 F1 score) datasets. Stemming was the most effective technique, reducing the feature set size to 79% while maintaining comparable performance. Training with balanced datasets improved recall (0.989) but reduced precision (0.165). Conclusions Statistical text classification appears to be a feasible method for identifying HIT reports within large databases of incidents. Automated identification should enable more HIT problems to be detected, analyzed, and addressed in a timely manner. Semi-supervised learning may be necessary when applying machine learning to big data analysis of patient safety incidents and requires further investigation. PMID:23666777

  13. Identifying the Ethical Challenges Encountered by Information Technology Professionals Working within the Nevada Casino Industry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Essig, Michael R.

    2014-01-01

    A thematic analysis qualitative study was used to identify the unethical challenges encountered by Information Technology (IT) professionals working within the Nevada casino industry. Fourteen current and former IT leaders working or who worked in the Nevada casino industry were interviewed. Using thematic analysis, nine themes regarding ethical…

  14. Domestic Violence and Pregnancy: A CBPR Coalition Approach to Identifying Needs and Informing Policy.

    PubMed

    Bright, Candace Forbes; Bagley, Braden; Pulliam, Ivie; Newton, Amy Swetha

    2018-01-01

    Community engagement-the collaborative process of addressing issues that impact the well-being of a community-is a strategic effort to address community issues. The Gulf States Health Policy Center (GS-HPC) formed the Hattiesburg Area Health Coalition (HAHC) in November 2014 for the purpose of addressing policies impacting the health of Forrest and Lamar counties in Mississippi. To chronicle the community-based participatory research (CBPR) process used by HAHC's identification of infant and maternal health as a policy area, domestic violence in pregnancy as a priority area within infant and maternal health, and a community action plan (CAP) regarding this priority area. HAHC reviewed data and identified infant and maternal health as a priority area. They then conducted a policy scan of local prenatal health care to determine the policy area of domestic violence in pregnancy. HAHC developed a CAP identifying three goals with regard to domestic violence and pregnancy that together informed policy. Changes included the development of materials specific to resources available in the area. The materials and recommended changes will first be implemented by Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative (SeMRHI) through a screening question for all pregnant patients, and the adoption of policies for providing information and referrals. The lack of community-level data was a challenge to HAHC in identifying focus and priority areas, but this was overcome by shared leadership and community engagement. After completion of the CAP, 100% of expecting mothers receiving prenatal care in the area will be screened for domestic violence.

  15. Developing a workflow to identify inconsistencies in volunteered geographic information: a phenological case study

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Mehdipoor, Hamed; Zurita-Milla, Raul; Rosemartin, Alyssa; Gerst, Katharine L.; Weltzin, Jake F.

    2015-01-01

    Recent improvements in online information communication and mobile location-aware technologies have led to the production of large volumes of volunteered geographic information. Widespread, large-scale efforts by volunteers to collect data can inform and drive scientific advances in diverse fields, including ecology and climatology. Traditional workflows to check the quality of such volunteered information can be costly and time consuming as they heavily rely on human interventions. However, identifying factors that can influence data quality, such as inconsistency, is crucial when these data are used in modeling and decision-making frameworks. Recently developed workflows use simple statistical approaches that assume that the majority of the information is consistent. However, this assumption is not generalizable, and ignores underlying geographic and environmental contextual variability that may explain apparent inconsistencies. Here we describe an automated workflow to check inconsistency based on the availability of contextual environmental information for sampling locations. The workflow consists of three steps: (1) dimensionality reduction to facilitate further analysis and interpretation of results, (2) model-based clustering to group observations according to their contextual conditions, and (3) identification of inconsistent observations within each cluster. The workflow was applied to volunteered observations of flowering in common and cloned lilac plants (Syringa vulgaris and Syringa x chinensis) in the United States for the period 1980 to 2013. About 97% of the observations for both common and cloned lilacs were flagged as consistent, indicating that volunteers provided reliable information for this case study. Relative to the original dataset, the exclusion of inconsistent observations changed the apparent rate of change in lilac bloom dates by two days per decade, indicating the importance of inconsistency checking as a key step in data quality

  16. Identifying Candidate Chemical-Disease Linkages ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Presentation at meeting on Environmental and Epigenetic Determinants of IBD in New York, NY on identifying candidate chemical-disease linkages by using AOPs to identify molecular initiating events and using relevant high throughput assays to screen for candidate chemicals. This hazard information is combined with exposure models to inform risk assessment. Presentation at meeting on Environmental and Epigenetic Determinants of IBD in New York, NY on identifying candidate chemical-disease linkages by using AOPs to identify molecular initiating events and using relevant high throughput assays to screen for candidate chemicals. This hazard information is combined with exposure models to inform risk assessment.

  17. Mechanism of photodynamic inactivation of hepatocarcinoma cells with sulfonated aluminum phthalocyanine

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Hong-Yu; Dong, Rong-Chun; Chen, Ji-Yao; Cai, Huai-Xin

    1993-03-01

    The mechanism of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with sulfonated aluminum phthalocyanine (AlSPC) studied with the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line in culture is reported herein. Photofrin II (PII) was chosen as the control photosensitizer of AlSPC. Deuterium oxide (D2O), an enhancer of singlet oxygen (1O2); 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF), a quencher of 1O2: glycerol, a quencher of OH radical (OH(DOT)); superoxide dismutase (SOD), a quencher of O2- radical (O2-(DOT)); diethyldithiocarbamate (DDC), an inhibitor of SOD and glutathione peroxidase; were introduced into both the processes of photodynamic inactivation of human liver cancer cells in culture with AlSPC (AlSPC-PDT) and with PII (PII-PDT). The results suggest that: 1O2 is dominantly involved in both PII-PDT and AlSPC-PDT; O2-(DOT) is involved in AlSPC-PDT in a lower degree than 1O2, while almost not involved in PII-PDT; OH(DOT) is involved in PII-PDT in a lower degree than 1O2, while almost not involved in AlSPC-PDT.

  18. Evaluation of a bioluminescent mouse model expressing aromatase PII-promoter-controlled luciferase as a tool for the study of endocrine disrupting chemicals

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

    Rivest, Patricia, E-mail: patricia.rivest@iaf.inrs.ca; Devine, Patrick J., E-mail: patrick.devine@iaf.inrs.ca; Sanderson, J. Thomas, E-mail: thomas.sanderson@iaf.inrs.c

    Dysfunction of the enzyme aromatase (CYP19) is associated with endocrine pathologies such as osteoporosis, impaired fertility and development of hormone-dependent cancers. Certain endocrine disrupting chemicals affect aromatase expression and activity in vitro, but little is known about their ability to do so in vivo. We evaluated a bioluminescent mouse model (LPTA (registered)) CD-1-Tg(Cyp19-luc)-Xen) expressing luciferase under control of the gonadal aromatase pII promoter as an in vivo screening tool for chemicals that may affect aromatase expression. We studied the effects of forskolin, pregnant mare serum gonadotropin and atrazine in this model (atrazine was previously shown to induced pII-promoter-driven aromatase expressionmore » in H295R human adrenocortical carcinoma cells). About 2-4 out of every group of 10 male or female Cyp19-luc mice injected i.p. with 10 mg/kg forskolin had increased gonadal bioluminescence after 3-5 days compared to controls; the others appeared non-responsive. Similarly, about 4 per group of 9 individual females injected with pregnant mare serum gonadotropin had increased ovarian bioluminescence after 24 h. There was a statistically significant correlation between ovarian bioluminescence and plasma estradiol concentrations (n = 14; p = 0.022). Males exposed to a single dose of 100 mg/kg or males and females exposed to 5 daily injections of 30 mg/kg atrazine showed no change in gonadal bioluminescence over a 7 day period, but a significant interaction was found between atrazine (100 mg/kg) and time in female mice (p < 0.05; two-way ANOVA). Ex vivo luciferase activity in dissected organs was increased by forskolin in testis, epididymis and ovaries. Atrazine (30 mg/kg/day) increased (30%) luciferase activity significantly in epididymis only. In conclusion, certain individual Cyp19-luc mice are highly responsive to aromatase inducers, suggesting this model, with further optimization, may have potential as an in vivo screening tool

  19. Preparing for the data revolution: identifying minimum health information competencies among the health workforce.

    PubMed

    Whittaker, Maxine; Hodge, Nicola; Mares, Renata E; Rodney, Anna

    2015-04-01

    Health information is required for a variety of purposes at all levels of a health system, and a workforce skilled in collecting, analysing, presenting, and disseminating such information is essential to fulfil these demands. While it is established that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are facing shortages in human resources for health (HRH), there has been little systematic attention focussed on non-clinical competencies. In response, we developed a framework that defines the minimum health information competencies required by health workers at various levels of a health system. Using the Delphi method, we consulted with leading global health information system (HIS) experts. An initial list of competencies and draft framework were developed based on results of a systematic literature review. During the second half of 2012, we sampled 38 experts with broad-based HIS knowledge and extensive development experience. Two rounds of consultation were carried out with the same group to establish validity of the framework and gain feedback on the draft competencies. Responses from consultations were analysed using Qualtrics® software and content analysis. In round one, 17 experts agreed to participate in the consultation and 11 (65%) completed the survey. In the second round, 11 experts agreed to participate and eight (73%) completed the survey. Overall, respondents agreed that there is a need for all health workers to have basic HIS competencies and that the concept of a minimum HIS competency framework is valid. Consensus was reached around the inclusion of 68 competencies across four levels of a health system. This consultation is one of the first to identify the HIS competencies required among general health workers, as opposed to specialist HIS roles. It is also one of the first attempts to develop a framework on minimum HIS competencies needed in LMICs, highlighting the skills needed at each level of the system, and identifying potential gaps in current

  20. Identifying and Synchronizing Health Information Technology (HIT) Events from FDA Medical Device Reports.

    PubMed

    Kang, Hong; Wang, Frank; Zhou, Sicheng; Miao, Qi; Gong, Yang

    2017-01-01

    Health information technology (HIT) events, a subtype of patient safety events, pose a major threat and barrier toward a safer healthcare system. It is crucial to gain a better understanding of the nature of the errors and adverse events caused by current HIT systems. The scarcity of HIT event-exclusive databases and event reporting systems indicates the challenge of identifying the HIT events from existing resources. FDA Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database is a potential resource for HIT events. However, the low proportion and the rapid evolvement of HIT-related events present challenges for distinguishing them from other equipment failures and hazards. We proposed a strategy to identify and synchronize HIT events from MAUDE by using a filter based on structured features and classifiers based on unstructured features. The strategy will help us develop and grow an HIT event-exclusive database, keeping pace with updates to MAUDE toward shared learning.

  1. Using NLP to identify cancer cases in imaging reports drawn from radiology information systems.

    PubMed

    Patrick, Jon; Asgari, Pooyan; Li, Min; Nguyen, Dung

    2013-01-01

    A Natural Language processing (NLP) classifier has been developed for the Victorian and NSW Cancer Registries with the purpose of automatically identifying cancer reports from imaging services, transmitting them to the Registries and then extracting pertinent cancer information. Large scale trials conducted on over 40,000 reports show the sensitivity for identifying reportable cancer reports is above 98% with a specificity above 96%. Detection of tumour stream, report purpose, and a variety of extracted content is generally above 90% specificity. The differences between report layout and authoring strategies across imaging services appear to require different classifiers to retain this high level of accuracy. Linkage of the imaging data with existing registry records (hospital and pathology reports) to derive stage and recurrence of cancer has commenced and shown very promising results.

  2. Using the Public Involvement Impact Assessment Framework to assess the impact of public involvement in a mental health research context: A reflective case study.

    PubMed

    Collins, Michelle; Long, Rita; Page, Anthony; Popay, Jennie; Lobban, Fiona

    2018-04-25

    We assess the utility of the Public Involvement Impact Assessment Framework (PiiAF) as a resource to support research teams in assessing the impact of Public Involvement across diverse research and public involvement (PI) contexts. PiiAF was developed in response to a well-documented growth in Public Involvement in health research in the United Kingdom that demands a more sophisticated evidence base to demonstrate its impact. We used a reflective case study approach drawing on contemporaneous meeting notes, PiiAF website resources and retrospective reflections to describe how PiiAF helped us to develop an impact assessment plan of the PI in a university-based mental health research centre. We consider key aspects of our experiences of using PiiAF as a tool to help us design an impact assessment of PI, interpret these experiences with reference to relevant theory and research and share insights that may be useful to other teams considering using PiiAF. These insights include understanding the commitment of time and effort required to develop effective PI impact assessment plans; the flexibility of PiiAF and its ability to be used in a range of research and PI contexts; and the advantages of involving all stakeholders (including the public) in the development of an PI assessment plan. © 2018 The Authors. Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Transcriptome Analysis of the Role of GlnD/GlnBK in Nitrogen Stress Adaptation by Sinorhizobium meliloti Rm1021

    PubMed Central

    Yurgel, Svetlana N.; Rice, Jennifer; Kahn, Michael L.

    2013-01-01

    Transcriptional changes in the nitrogen stress response (NSR) of wild type S. meliloti Rm1021, and isogenic strains missing both PII proteins, GlnB and GlnK, or carrying a ΔglnD-sm2 mutation were analyzed using whole-genome microarrays. This approach allowed us to identify a number of new genes involved in the NSR and showed that the response of these bacteria to nitrogen stress overlaps with other stress responses, including induction of the fixK2 transcriptional activator and genes that are part of the phosphate stress response. Our data also show that GlnD and GlnBK proteins may regulate many genes that are not part of the NSR. Analysis of transcriptome profiles of the Rm1021 ΔglnD-sm2 strain allowed us to identify several genes that appear to be regulated by GlnD without the participation of the PII proteins. PMID:23516427

  4. [Perceived satisfaction and usefulness of suicide prevention information for patients and relatives].

    PubMed

    Triñanes, Y; Senra-Rivera, C; Seoane-Pesqueira, G; González-García, A; Álvarez-Ariza, M; de-Las-Heras-Liñero, E; Atienza, G

    2014-01-01

    To assess the satisfaction of persons with suicidal behaviour and their relatives using patient information material included in the Clinical Practice Guidelines on Prevention and Treatment of Suicidal Behaviour. The sample was made up of 57 patients with suicidal ideation or behaviour, and 52 relatives. The participants were recruited through a suicide prevention programme (Programa de intervención intensiva en conducta suicida [PII] - Suicidal Behaviour Intensive Intervention Programme) and a family association (Federación de Asociaciones de Familiares y Personas con enfermedad mental de Galicia [FEAFES] - Galician Federation of Associations of Relatives and Persons with mental diseases). An ad-hoc questionnaire was designed to ascertain the degree of perceived satisfaction and usefulness of using the information included in the guidelines. The descriptive data of the sample is presented, along with an exploratory factorial analysis of the questionnaire that yielded two dimensions, i.e., format and usefulness. Patients scored significantly lower than the relatives in two dimensions; nevertheless, no significant differences were found between the two groups in the level of general satisfaction. The socio-demographic variables did not influence the results. Similarly, no differences were observed between patients with and without history of suicidal behaviour. Participants stressed that Primary Care was the setting best suited for dissemination of this type of information. In general, both patients and relatives displayed a high level of satisfaction with the patient information material assessed. Furnishing information of this type to patients with suicidal ideation and/or behaviour could act as a preventive-educational tool. Copyright © 2013 SECA. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  5. Identifying training and informational components to develop a psoriasis self- management application

    PubMed Central

    Safdari, Reza; Firoz, Alireza; Masoorian, Hoorie

    2017-01-01

    Background: Psoriasis is a complex disease with lifelong emotional and social consequences for affected patients. It also reduces the patients’ quality of life and requires a long-term management. Therefore, in addition to appropriate treatment of the disease, selfmanagement strategies to improve patient health and quality of life are essential. On the other hand, smartphone-based applications alter the way people interact with health care and public health systems. This study aimed at identifying training and informational components to develop a psoriasis self- management application. Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on 100 patients with psoriasis and 26 dermatologists who were selected randomly, using Morgan table. The data were collected using a researcher- made questionnaire, which included demographic and clinical information, lifestyle training and management, and application capabilities in psoriasis self-management. A group of experts and a test-retest method were used to confirm the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, respectively. Results: The mean scores for demographic and clinical information, lifestyle training and management, and application capabilities in self-management were 80.55%, 85.7%, and 88.8% from the patients’ perspective, and 83.7%, 71%, and 75% from the specialists’ viewpoint, respectively. Conclusion: Determining self-management components by patients as persons who are suffering from the disease and physicians as specialists in the field will be helpful in efficient psoriasis self-management. It is more likely that self-reliant patients, who are aware of the benefits and risks of their disease management application, will follow their treatment plan and pursue the management of their disease more seriously PMID:29445696

  6. The Use of Key Informant Method for Identifying Children with Blindness and Severe Visual Impairment in Developing Countries.

    PubMed

    du Toit, Rènée; Courtright, Paul; Lewallen, Susan

    2017-06-01

    An estimated 19 million children are visually impaired; of these, 1.4 million are irreversibly blind. A key challenge is to identify them early in life to benefit maximally from visual rehabilitation, and/or treatment. This aggregative review and structured literature analysis summarizes evidence of what it is about the key informant (KI) approach that works to identify children with blindness or severe visual impairment (B/SVI) in the community (for whom, to what extent, in what circumstances, in what respect, how and why). Peer-reviewed (PubMed, hand search) and grey literature (Google, World Health Organization website, academic theses, direct requests) were included, and methods and criteria used for identification, productivity (number of children referred per KI), accuracy of referrals (positive predictive value, PPV), age of children with B/SVI, KI definition, sex, information about cost and comparisons aggregated. We included 31 documents describing 22 unique KI programs. Mostly KIs identified children with B/SVI in 1-3 weeks, i.e. "campaign mode." In 60%, KIs were community volunteers, others formal health sector workers (FHSW). Around 0.02-1.56 children per KI (median = 0.25) were successfully recruited. PPV ranged from 12 to 66%. In two studies comparing FHSWs and community KIs, the latter were 8 and 10 times more productive. KIs working in campaign mode may provide an effective approach to identifying children with B/SVI in communities. Including identification of ocular problems and/or other impairments has been recommended. Research on factors that influence effectiveness and on whether KIs continue to contribute could inform programs.

  7. Plasma ion implantation technology at Hughes Research Laboratories

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

    Matossian, J.N.

    1994-03-01

    The plasma ion implantation (PII) project at Hughes Research Laboratories (HRL) has as its main objective the evaluation and application of PII technology to improve the tribological properties of metal and nonmetal materials used in aerospace, defense, and commercial applications. The HRL PII facility consists of a 4-ft-diam[times]8-ft-long vacuum chamber capable of implanting objects weighing up to 7000 lbs, and a high-power (100-kW), high-voltage (100-kV) pulse modulator to provide voltage pulses for implantation. Advanced plasma sources have been developed to produce atomic, as well as molecular, nitrogen and oxygen ions, and PII processes have been developed to treat metal andmore » nonmetal materials. The HRL PII facility has been operational since 1989 and has been used for prototype demonstrations of PII technology to achieve (1) a 2--3[times] improved wear life of Co/WC drill bits used for printed-wiring-board fabrication, (2) an 8[times] reduced wear rate for TiN-coated cutting tools, and (3) a 2[times] increased surface hardness for a 7000-lb polymer object, 3 ft by 5 ft by 1 ft.« less

  8. Power analysis as a tool to identify statistically informative indicators for monitoring coral reef disturbances.

    PubMed

    Van Wynsberge, Simon; Gilbert, Antoine; Guillemot, Nicolas; Heintz, Tom; Tremblay-Boyer, Laura

    2017-07-01

    Extensive biological field surveys are costly and time consuming. To optimize sampling and ensure regular monitoring on the long term, identifying informative indicators of anthropogenic disturbances is a priority. In this study, we used 1800 candidate indicators by combining metrics measured from coral, fish, and macro-invertebrate assemblages surveyed from 2006 to 2012 in the vicinity of an ongoing mining project in the Voh-Koné-Pouembout lagoon, New Caledonia. We performed a power analysis to identify a subset of indicators which would best discriminate temporal changes due to a simulated chronic anthropogenic impact. Only 4% of tested indicators were likely to detect a 10% annual decrease of values with sufficient power (>0.80). Corals generally exerted higher statistical power than macro-invertebrates and fishes because of lower natural variability and higher occurrence. For the same reasons, higher taxonomic ranks provided higher power than lower taxonomic ranks. Nevertheless, a number of families of common sedentary or sessile macro-invertebrates and fishes also performed well in detecting changes: Echinometridae, Isognomidae, Muricidae, Tridacninae, Arcidae, and Turbinidae for macro-invertebrates and Pomacentridae, Labridae, and Chaetodontidae for fishes. Interestingly, these families did not provide high power in all geomorphological strata, suggesting that the ability of indicators in detecting anthropogenic impacts was closely linked to reef geomorphology. This study provides a first operational step toward identifying statistically relevant indicators of anthropogenic disturbances in New Caledonia's coral reefs, which can be useful in similar tropical reef ecosystems where little information is available regarding the responses of ecological indicators to anthropogenic disturbances.

  9. Identifying and communicating the contributions of library and information services in hospitals and academic health sciences centers.

    PubMed

    Abels, Eileen G; Cogdill, Keith W; Zach, Lisl

    2004-01-01

    This article introduces a systematic approach to identifying and communicating the value of library and information services (LIS) from the perspective of their contributions to achieving organizational goals. The contributions of library and information services (CLIS) approach for identifying and communicating the value of LIS draws on findings from a multimethod study of hospitals and academic health sciences centers. The CLIS approach is based on the concept that an individual unit's value to an organization can be demonstrated by identifying and measuring its contributions to organizational goals. The CLIS approach involves seven steps: (1) selecting appropriate organizational goals that are meaningful in a specific setting; (2) linking LIS contributions to organizational goals; (3) obtaining data from users on the correspondence between LIS contributions and LIS services; (4) selecting measures for LIS services; (5) collecting and analyzing data for the selected measures; (6) planning and sustaining communication with administrators about LIS contributions; and (7) evaluating findings and revising selected goals, contributions, and services as necessary. The taxonomy of LIS contributions and the CLIS approach emerged from research conducted in hospitals and academic health sciences centers and reflect the mission and goals common in these organizations. However, both the taxonomy and the CLIS approach may be adapted for communicating the value of LIS in other settings.

  10. An Evaluation of a Natural Language Processing Tool for Identifying and Encoding Allergy Information in Emergency Department Clinical Notes

    PubMed Central

    Goss, Foster R.; Plasek, Joseph M.; Lau, Jason J.; Seger, Diane L.; Chang, Frank Y.; Zhou, Li

    2014-01-01

    Emergency department (ED) visits due to allergic reactions are common. Allergy information is often recorded in free-text provider notes; however, this domain has not yet been widely studied by the natural language processing (NLP) community. We developed an allergy module built on the MTERMS NLP system to identify and encode food, drug, and environmental allergies and allergic reactions. The module included updates to our lexicon using standard terminologies, and novel disambiguation algorithms. We developed an annotation schema and annotated 400 ED notes that served as a gold standard for comparison to MTERMS output. MTERMS achieved an F-measure of 87.6% for the detection of allergen names and no known allergies, 90% for identifying true reactions in each allergy statement where true allergens were also identified, and 69% for linking reactions to their allergen. These preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility using NLP to extract and encode allergy information from clinical notes. PMID:25954363

  11. Identifying Information Behavior in Information Search and Retrieval through Learning Activities Using an E-learning Platform Case: Interamerican School of Library and Information Science at the University of Antioquia (Medellin-Colombia)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tirado, Alejandro Uribe; Munoz, Wilson Castano

    2011-01-01

    This text presents the future of librarian education as exemplified by the Interamerican School of Library and Information Science at the University of Antioquia (Medellin-Colombia), using an online learning platform-LMS (Moodle) and through different personalized and collaborative learning activities and tools that help students identify their…

  12. Anterior cruciate ligament injury: Identifying information sources and risk factor awareness among the general population.

    PubMed

    Nagano, Yasuharu; Yako-Suketomo, Hiroko; Natsui, Hiroaki

    2018-01-01

    Raising awareness on a disorder is important for its prevention and for promoting public health. However, for sports injuries like the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury no studies have investigated the awareness on risk factors for injury and possible preventative measures in the general population. The sources of information among the population are also unclear. The purpose of the present study was to identify these aspects of public awareness about the ACL injury. A questionnaire was randomly distributed among the general population registered with a web based questionnaire supplier, to recruit 900 participants who were aware about the ACL injury. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: Question 1 asked them about their sources of information regarding the ACL injury; Question 2 asked them about the risk factors for ACL injury. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the information sources that provide a good understanding of the risk factors. The leading source of information for ACL injury was television (57.0%). However, the results of logistic regression analysis revealed that television was not an effective medium to create awareness about the risk factors, among the general population. Instead "Lecture by a coach", "Classroom session on Health", and "Newspaper" were significantly more effective in creating a good awareness of the risk factors (p < 0.001).

  13. Quasi-experimental study designs series-paper 8: identifying quasi-experimental studies to inform systematic reviews.

    PubMed

    Glanville, Julie; Eyers, John; Jones, Andrew M; Shemilt, Ian; Wang, Grace; Johansen, Marit; Fiander, Michelle; Rothstein, Hannah

    2017-09-01

    This article reviews the available evidence and guidance on methods to identify reports of quasi-experimental (QE) studies to inform systematic reviews of health care, public health, international development, education, crime and justice, and social welfare. Research, guidance, and examples of search strategies were identified by searching a range of databases, key guidance documents, selected reviews, conference proceedings, and personal communication. Current practice and research evidence were summarized. Four thousand nine hundred twenty-four records were retrieved by database searches, and additional documents were obtained by other searches. QE studies are challenging to identify efficiently because they have no standardized nomenclature and may be indexed in various ways. Reliable search filters are not available. There is a lack of specific resources devoted to collecting QE studies and little evidence on where best to search. Searches to identify QE studies should search a range of resources and, until indexing improves, use strategies that focus on the topic rather than the study design. Better definitions, better indexing in databases, prospective registers, and reporting guidance are required to improve the retrieval of QE studies and promote systematic reviews of what works based on the evidence from such studies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Information needs of residents during inpatient and outpatient rotations: identifying effective personal digital assistant applications.

    PubMed

    Barrett, James R; Strayer, Scott M; Schubart, Jane R

    2003-01-01

    resident can easily and securely be maintained on PDAs. Design of Current Studies Our current study builds on the above perceived needs: we will follow residents during portions of a clinical day. Preliminary observations in three clinical areas (Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), General Medicine Outpatient, and Family Medicine Outpatient) confirm the conclusions of our previous study. PDAs are used for: (1) medical references (e.g., five minute clinical consult, Infotriever) (2) pharmaceutical information (such as ePocrates), and (3) professional organization (calendar, address book). Our intention in this new study is to identify the overall flow of information and how PDAs might improve the information flow in clinical settings. We choose to observe residents in both inpatient and outpatient clinics. We anticipate that PDAs will have different uses in these two settings; preliminary observations in one outpatient clinic (Family Medicine) suggests that PDAs are used during the doctor - patient interaction, specifically to suggest the importance of smoking cessation. Preliminary observations in an inpatient clinical setting (the MICU) suggest that PDAs are primarily used outside of patient rooms, e.g. to make medical calculations and to obtain diagnostic procedures. We plan to observe residents during various parts of their days in order to develop a detailed understanding of what information sources (e.g., consultations, computer reports, paper charts) are available at different times and which sources are frequently used. This information will help us develop a pocket-sized, paper-based checksheet that the residents carry with them. The checksheet will help us identify which information sources are used, at various times and frequencies. Interviews with the residents using these checksheets should provide additional details of how utility of the resource, disadvantages of the resource, etc. Specific Goals The goals of our current study include: (1) direct observations

  15. Identifying Measures Used for Assessing Quality of YouTube Videos with Patient Health Information: A Review of Current Literature.

    PubMed

    Gabarron, Elia; Fernandez-Luque, Luis; Armayones, Manuel; Lau, Annie Ys

    2013-02-28

    Recent publications on YouTube have advocated its potential for patient education. However, a reliable description of what could be considered quality information for patient education on YouTube is missing. To identify topics associated with the concept of quality information for patient education on YouTube in the scientific literature. A literature review was performed in MEDLINE, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus, and PsychINFO. Abstract selection was first conducted by two independent reviewers; discrepancies were discussed in a second abstract review with two additional independent reviewers. Full text of selected papers were analyzed looking for concepts, definitions, and topics used by its authors that focused on the quality of information on YouTube for patient education. In total, 456 abstracts were extracted and 13 papers meeting eligibility criteria were analyzed. Concepts identified related to quality of information for patient education are categorized as expert-driven, popularity-driven, or heuristic-driven measures. These include (in descending order): (1) quality of content in 10/13 (77%), (2) view count in 9/13 (69%), (3) health professional opinion in 8/13 (62%), (4) adequate length or duration in 6/13 (46%), (5) public ratings in 5/13 (39%), (6) adequate title, tags, and description in 5/13 (39%), (7) good description or a comprehensive narrative in 4/13 (31%), (8) evidence-based practices included in video in 4/13 (31%), (9) suitability as a teaching tool in 4/13 (31%), (10) technical quality in 4/13 (31%), (11) credentials provided in video in 4/13 (31%), (12) enough amount of content to identify its objective in 3/13 (23%), and (13) viewership share in 2/13 (15%). Our review confirms that the current topics linked to quality of information for patient education on YouTube are unclear and not standardized. Although expert-driven, popularity-driven, or heuristic-driven measures are used as proxies to estimate the quality of video information

  16. Identifying Measures Used for Assessing Quality of YouTube Videos with Patient Health Information: A Review of Current Literature

    PubMed Central

    Fernandez-Luque, Luis; Armayones, Manuel; Lau, Annie YS

    2013-01-01

    Background Recent publications on YouTube have advocated its potential for patient education. However, a reliable description of what could be considered quality information for patient education on YouTube is missing. Objective To identify topics associated with the concept of quality information for patient education on YouTube in the scientific literature. Methods A literature review was performed in MEDLINE, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus, and PsychINFO. Abstract selection was first conducted by two independent reviewers; discrepancies were discussed in a second abstract review with two additional independent reviewers. Full text of selected papers were analyzed looking for concepts, definitions, and topics used by its authors that focused on the quality of information on YouTube for patient education. Results In total, 456 abstracts were extracted and 13 papers meeting eligibility criteria were analyzed. Concepts identified related to quality of information for patient education are categorized as expert-driven, popularity-driven, or heuristic-driven measures. These include (in descending order): (1) quality of content in 10/13 (77%), (2) view count in 9/13 (69%), (3) health professional opinion in 8/13 (62%), (4) adequate length or duration in 6/13 (46%), (5) public ratings in 5/13 (39%), (6) adequate title, tags, and description in 5/13 (39%), (7) good description or a comprehensive narrative in 4/13 (31%), (8) evidence-based practices included in video in 4/13 (31%), (9) suitability as a teaching tool in 4/13 (31%), (10) technical quality in 4/13 (31%), (11) credentials provided in video in 4/13 (31%), (12) enough amount of content to identify its objective in 3/13 (23%), and (13) viewership share in 2/13 (15%). Conclusions Our review confirms that the current topics linked to quality of information for patient education on YouTube are unclear and not standardized. Although expert-driven, popularity-driven, or heuristic-driven measures are used as proxies to

  17. Nuclear waste transportation: case studies of identifying stakeholder risk information needs.

    PubMed Central

    Drew, Christina H; Grace, Deirdre A; Silbernagel, Susan M; Hemmings, Erin S; Smith, Alan; Griffith, William C; Takaro, Timothy K; Faustman, Elaine M

    2003-01-01

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for the cleanup of our nation's nuclear legacy, involving complex decisions about how and where to dispose of nuclear waste and how to transport it to its ultimate disposal site. It is widely recognized that a broad range of stakeholders and tribes should be involved in this kind of decision. All too frequently, however, stakeholders and tribes are only invited to participate by commenting on processes and activities that are near completion; they are not included in the problem formulation stages. Moreover, it is often assumed that high levels of complexity and uncertainty prevent meaningful participation by these groups. Considering the types of information that stakeholders and tribes need to be able to participate in the full life cycle of decision making is critical for improving participation and transparency of decision making. Toward this objective, the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) participated in three public processes relating to nuclear waste transportation and disposal in 1997-1998. First, CRESP organized focus groups to identify concerns about nuclear waste transportation. Second, CRESP conducted exit surveys at regional public workshops held by DOE to get input from stakeholders on intersite waste transfer issues. Third, CRESP developed visual tools to synthesize technical information and allow stakeholders and tribes with varying levels of knowledge about nuclear waste to participate in meaningful discussion. In this article we share the results of the CRESP findings, discuss common themes arising from these interactions, and comment on special considerations needed to facilitate stakeholder and tribal participation in similar decision-making processes. PMID:12611653

  18. Identifying University Professors' Information Needs in the Challenging Environment of Information and Communication Technologies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jankowska, Maria Anna

    2004-01-01

    A Web-based survey was conducted to determine usage of information and communication technologies by faculty for research and teaching. Respondents expressed their preferences regarding library electronic materials and services. Survey results highlighted solutions to help faculty in this era of information overload and rapid development of…

  19. Information transfer and information modification to identify the structure of cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory networks.

    PubMed

    Faes, Luca; Nollo, Giandomenico; Krohova, Jana; Czippelova, Barbora; Turianikova, Zuzana; Javorka, Michal

    2017-07-01

    To fully elucidate the complex physiological mechanisms underlying the short-term autonomic regulation of heart period (H), systolic and diastolic arterial pressure (S, D) and respiratory (R) variability, the joint dynamics of these variables need to be explored using multivariate time series analysis. This study proposes the utilization of information-theoretic measures to measure causal interactions between nodes of the cardiovascular/cardiorespiratory network and to assess the nature (synergistic or redundant) of these directed interactions. Indexes of information transfer and information modification are extracted from the H, S, D and R series measured from healthy subjects in a resting state and during postural stress. Computations are performed in the framework of multivariate linear regression, using bootstrap techniques to assess on a single-subject basis the statistical significance of each measure and of its transitions across conditions. We find patterns of information transfer and modification which are related to specific cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory mechanisms in resting conditions and to their modification induced by the orthostatic stress.

  20. Insider Threats in the Software Development Lifecycle

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-11-05

    employee, contractor, or other business partner who • has or had authorized access to an organization’s network , system or data and • intentionally...organization’s network , system, or data and who, through • their action/inaction without malicious intent • cause harm or substantially increase...and female Male Target Network , systems, or data PII or Customer Information IP (trade secrets) or Customer Information Access Used

  1. Follow-up Care Education and Information: Identifying Cancer Survivors in Need of More Guidance.

    PubMed

    O'Malley, Denalee M; Hudson, Shawna V; Ohman-Strickland, Pamela A; Bator, Alicja; Lee, Heather S; Gundersen, Daniel A; Miller, Suzanne M

    2016-03-01

    Cancer survivors engage in cancer screenings and protective health behaviors at suboptimal rates despite their increased risk for future illness. Survivorship care plans and other educational strategies to prepare cancer survivors to adopt engaged roles in managing long-term follow-up care and health risks are needed. In a sample of cancer survivors, we identified patient characteristics and psychosocial predictors associated with increased follow-up care informational needs. Cross-sectional surveys were administered to early-stage breast and prostate survivors (N = 278; 68 % breast) at least 2 years post treatment from four community hospital programs in New Jersey between May 2012 and July 2013. Patient demographics, medical history, psychosocial characteristics (i.e., worries about the future, fear of disease recurrence, and patient activation), and perceptions of oncology and primary care were assessed. African-American survivors (AOR = 2.69, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.27-5.68) and survivors with higher comorbidity (AOR =1.16, CI 1.01-1.33) were more likely to want additional information to guide follow-up care. Adjusting for race and comorbidities, survivors who wanted more information to guide their follow-up care reported greater worries about the future (p < 0.05) and fears about disease recurrence (p < 0.05) compared to those who did not want additional information. Results emphasize the need to develop cancer survivorship educational strategies that are both responsive to the needs of specific populations (e.g., African-American survivors and patients with multiple comorbidities) and the psychosocial profiles that motivate requests for more extensive follow-up guidance.

  2. Follow-up Care Education and Information: Identifying Cancer Survivors in Need of More Guidance

    PubMed Central

    O’Malley, Denalee M.; Hudson, Shawna V.; Ohman-Strickland, Pamela A; Bator, Alicja; Lee, Heather S.; Gundersen, Daniel A.; Miller, Suzanne M.

    2015-01-01

    Background Cancer survivors engage in cancer screenings and protective health behaviors at suboptimal rates despite their increased risk for future illness. Survivorship care plans and other educational strategies to prepare cancer survivors to adopt engaged roles in managing long-term follow-up care and health risks are needed. In a sample of cancer survivors, we identified patient characteristics and psychosocial predictors associated with increased follow-up care informational needs. Methods Cross-sectional surveys were administered to early stage breast and prostate survivors (N=278; 68% breast) at least two years post-treatment from four community hospital programs in New Jersey between May 2012-July 2013. Patient demographics, medical history, psychosocial characteristics (i.e., worries about the future, fear of disease recurrence, and patient activation) and perceptions of oncology and primary care were assessed. Results African American survivors (AOR =2.69, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.27–5.68) and survivors with higher comorbidity (AOR=1.16, CI 1.01–1.33) were more likely to want additional information to guide follow-up care. Adjusting for race and comorbidities, survivors who wanted more information to guide their follow-up care reported greater worries about the future (p<0.05) and fears about disease recurrence (p<0.05) compared to those who did not want additional information. Conclusions Results emphasize the need to develop cancer survivorship educational strategies that are both responsive to the needs of specific populations (e.g., African American survivors and patients with multiple comorbidities) and the psychosocial profiles that motivate requests for more extensive follow-up guidance. PMID:25524391

  3. Measuring Health Information Dissemination and Identifying Target Interest Communities on Twitter: Methods Development and Case Study of the @SafetyMD Network.

    PubMed

    Kandadai, Venk; Yang, Haodong; Jiang, Ling; Yang, Christopher C; Fleisher, Linda; Winston, Flaura Koplin

    2016-05-05

    Little is known about the ability of individual stakeholder groups to achieve health information dissemination goals through Twitter. This study aimed to develop and apply methods for the systematic evaluation and optimization of health information dissemination by stakeholders through Twitter. Tweet content from 1790 followers of @SafetyMD (July-November 2012) was examined. User emphasis, a new indicator of Twitter information dissemination, was defined and applied to retweets across two levels of retweeters originating from @SafetyMD. User interest clusters were identified based on principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) of a random sample of 170 followers. User emphasis of keywords remained across levels but decreased by 9.5 percentage points. PCA and HCA identified 12 statistically unique clusters of followers within the @SafetyMD Twitter network. This study is one of the first to develop methods for use by stakeholders to evaluate and optimize their use of Twitter to disseminate health information. Our new methods provide preliminary evidence that individual stakeholders can evaluate the effectiveness of health information dissemination and create content-specific clusters for more specific targeted messaging.

  4. Application of Digital Object Identifiers to data sets at the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vollmer, B.; Ostrenga, D.; Johnson, J. E.; Savtchenko, A. K.; Shen, S.; Teng, W. L.; Wei, J. C.

    2013-12-01

    Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are applied to selected data sets at the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). The DOI system provides an Internet resolution service for unique and persistent identifiers of digital objects. Products assigned DOIs include data from the NASA MEaSUREs Program, the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and EOS Aura High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS). DOIs are acquired and registered through EZID, California Digital Library and DataCite. GES DISC hosts a data set landing page associated with each DOI containing information on and access to the data including a recommended data citation when using the product in research or applications. This work includes participation with the earth science community (e.g., Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Federation) and the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project to identify, establish and implement best practices for assigning DOIs and managing supporting information, including metadata, for earth science data sets. Future work includes (1) coordination with NASA mission Science Teams and other data providers on the assignment of DOIs for other GES DISC data holdings, particularly for future missions such as Orbiting Carbon Observatory -2 and -3 (OCO-2, OCO-3) and projects (MEaSUREs 2012), (2) construction of landing pages that are both human and machine readable, and (3) pursuing the linking of data and publications with tools such as the Thomson Reuters Data Citation Index.

  5. Usability Evaluation at the Point-of-Care: A Method to Identify User Information Needs in CPOE Applications

    PubMed Central

    Washburn, Jeff; Fiol, Guilherme Del; Rocha, Roberto A.

    2006-01-01

    Point of care usability evaluation may help identify information needs that occur during the process of providing care. We describe the process of using usability-specific recording software to record Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) ordering sessions on admitted adult and pediatric patients at two urban tertiary hospitals in the Intermountain Healthcare system of hospitals. PMID:17238756

  6. Structural basis of glycan specificity of P[19] VP8*: Implications for rotavirus zoonosis and evolution.

    PubMed

    Liu, Yang; Xu, Shenyuan; Woodruff, Andrew L; Xia, Ming; Tan, Ming; Kennedy, Michael A; Jiang, Xi

    2017-11-01

    Recognition of specific cell surface glycans, mediated by the VP8* domain of the spike protein VP4, is the essential first step in rotavirus (RV) infection. Due to lack of direct structural information of virus-ligand interactions, the molecular basis of ligand-controlled host ranges of the major human RVs (P[8] and P[4]) in P[II] genogroup remains unknown. Here, through characterization of a minor P[II] RV (P[19]) that can infect both animals (pigs) and humans, we made an important advance to fill this knowledge gap by solving the crystal structures of the P[19] VP8* in complex with its ligands. Our data showed that P[19] RVs use a novel binding site that differs from the known ones of other genotypes/genogroups. This binding site is capable of interacting with two types of glycans, the mucin core and type 1 histo-blood group antigens (HBGAs) with a common GlcNAc as the central binding saccharide. The binding site is apparently shared by other P[II] RVs and possibly two genotypes (P[10] and P[12]) in P[I] as shown by their highly conserved GlcNAc-interacting residues. These data provide strong evidence of evolutionary connections among these human and animal RVs, pointing to a common ancestor in P[I] with a possible animal host origin. While the binding properties to GlcNAc-containing saccharides are maintained, changes in binding to additional residues, such as those in the polymorphic type 1 HBGAs may occur in the course of RV evolution, explaining the complex P[II] genogroup that mainly causes diseases in humans but also in some animals.

  7. Identifying Hazards

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The federal government has established a system of labeling hazardous materials to help identify the type of material and threat posed. Summaries of information on over 300 chemicals are maintained in the Envirofacts Master Chemical Integrator.

  8. Search strategies to identify information on adverse effects: a systematic review

    PubMed Central

    Golder, Su; Loke, Yoon

    2009-01-01

    Objectives: The review evaluated studies of electronic database search strategies designed to retrieve adverse effects data for systematic reviews. Methods: Studies of adverse effects were located in ten databases as well as by checking references, hand-searching, searching citations, and contacting experts. Two reviewers screened the retrieved records for potentially relevant papers. Results: Five thousand three hundred thirteen citations were retrieved, yielding 19 studies designed to develop or evaluate adverse effect filters, of which 3 met the inclusion criteria. All 3 studies identified highly sensitive search strategies capable of retrieving over 95% of relevant records. However, 1 study did not evaluate precision, while the level of precision in the other 2 studies ranged from 0.8% to 2.8%. Methodological issues in these papers included the relatively small number of records, absence of a validation set of records for testing, and limited evaluation of precision. Conclusions: The results indicate the difficulty of achieving highly sensitive searches for information on adverse effects with a reasonable level of precision. Researchers who intend to locate studies on adverse effects should allow for the amount of resources and time required to conduct a highly sensitive search. PMID:19404498

  9. Populations of the Minor α-Conformation in AcGXGNH2 and the α-Helical Nucleation Propensities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Yanjun; He, Liu; Zhang, Wenwen; Hu, Jingjing; Shi, Zhengshuang

    2016-06-01

    Intrinsic backbone conformational preferences of different amino acids are important for understanding the local structure of unfolded protein chains. Recent evidence suggests α-structure is relatively minor among three major backbone conformations for unfolded proteins. The α-helices are the dominant structures in many proteins. For these proteins, how could the α-structures occur from the least in unfolded to the most in folded states? Populations of the minor α-conformation in model peptides provide vital information. Reliable determination of populations of the α-conformers in these peptides that exist in multiple equilibriums of different conformations remains a challenge. Combined analyses on data from AcGXPNH2 and AcGXGNH2 peptides allow us to derive the populations of PII, β and α in AcGXGNH2. Our results show that on average residue X in AcGXGNH2 adopt PII, β, and α 44.7%, 44.5% and 10.8% of time, respectively. The contents of α-conformations for different amino acids define an α-helix nucleation propensity scale. With derived PII, β and α-contents, we can construct a free energy-conformation diagram on each AcGXGNH2 in aqueous solution for the three major backbone conformations. Our results would have broad implications on early-stage events of protein folding.

  10. Preselection statistics and Random Forest classification identify population informative single nucleotide polymorphisms in cosmopolitan and autochthonous cattle breeds.

    PubMed

    Bertolini, F; Galimberti, G; Schiavo, G; Mastrangelo, S; Di Gerlando, R; Strillacci, M G; Bagnato, A; Portolano, B; Fontanesi, L

    2018-01-01

    Commercial single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays have been recently developed for several species and can be used to identify informative markers to differentiate breeds or populations for several downstream applications. To identify the most discriminating genetic markers among thousands of genotyped SNPs, a few statistical approaches have been proposed. In this work, we compared several methods of SNPs preselection (Delta, F st and principal component analyses (PCA)) in addition to Random Forest classifications to analyse SNP data from six dairy cattle breeds, including cosmopolitan (Holstein, Brown and Simmental) and autochthonous Italian breeds raised in two different regions and subjected to limited or no breeding programmes (Cinisara, Modicana, raised only in Sicily and Reggiana, raised only in Emilia Romagna). From these classifications, two panels of 96 and 48 SNPs that contain the most discriminant SNPs were created for each preselection method. These panels were evaluated in terms of the ability to discriminate as a whole and breed-by-breed, as well as linkage disequilibrium within each panel. The obtained results showed that for the 48-SNP panel, the error rate increased mainly for autochthonous breeds, probably as a consequence of their admixed origin lower selection pressure and by ascertaining bias in the construction of the SNP chip. The 96-SNP panels were generally more able to discriminate all breeds. The panel derived by PCA-chrom (obtained by a preselection chromosome by chromosome) could identify informative SNPs that were particularly useful for the assignment of minor breeds that reached the lowest value of Out Of Bag error even in the Cinisara, whose value was quite high in all other panels. Moreover, this panel contained also the lowest number of SNPs in linkage disequilibrium. Several selected SNPs are located nearby genes affecting breed-specific phenotypic traits (coat colour and stature) or associated with production traits. In

  11. Making the most of injury surveillance data: Using narrative text to identify exposure information in case-control studies

    PubMed Central

    Graves, Janessa M.; Whitehill, Jennifer M.; Hagel, Brent E.; Rivara, Frederick P.

    2015-01-01

    Introduction Free-text fields in injury surveillance databases can provide detailed information beyond routinely coded data. Additional data, such as exposures and covariates can be identified from narrative text and used to conduct case-control studies. Methods To illustrate this, we developed a text-search algorithm to identify helmet status (worn, not worn, use unknown) in the U.S. National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) narratives for bicycling and other sports injuries from 2005 to 2011. We calculated adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for head injury associated with helmet use, with non-head injuries representing controls. For bicycling, we validated ORs against published estimates. ORs were calculated for other sports and we examined factors associated with helmet reporting. Results Of 105,614 bicycling injury narratives reviewed, 14.1% contained sufficient helmet information for use in the case-control study. The adjusted ORs for head injuries associated with helmet-wearing were smaller than, but directionally consistent, with previously published estimates (e.g., 1999 Cochrane Review). ORs illustrated a protective effect of helmets for other sports as well (less than 1). Conclusions This exploratory analysis illustrates the potential utility of relatively simple text-search algorithms to identify additional variables in surveillance data. Limitations of this study include possible selection bias and the inability to identify individuals with multiple injuries. A similar approach can be applied to study other injuries, conditions, risks, or protective factors. This approach may serve as an efficient method to extend the utility of injury surveillance data to conduct epidemiological research. PMID:25498331

  12. Seeking informed consent to Phase I cancer clinical trials: identifying oncologists' communication strategies.

    PubMed

    Brown, Richard; Bylund, Carma L; Siminoff, Laura A; Slovin, Susan F

    2011-04-01

    Phase I clinical trials are the gateway to effective new cancer treatments. Many physicians have difficulty when discussing Phase I clinical trials. Research demonstrates evidence of suboptimal communication. Little is known about communication strategies used by oncologists when recruiting patients for Phase I trials. We analyzed audio recorded Phase I consultations to identify oncologists' communication strategies. Subjects were consecutive cancer patients from six medical oncologists attending one of three outpatient clinics at a major Cancer Center in the United States. Sixteen patients signed informed consent for audio recording of their consultations in which a Phase I study was discussed. These were transcribed in full and analyzed to identify communication strategies. Six communication themes emerged from the analysis: (1) orienting, (2) educating patients, (3) describing uncertainty and prognosis, (4) persuading, (5) decision making, and (6) making a treatment recommendation. As expected, although there was some common ground between communication in Phase I and the Phase II and III settings, there were distinct differences. Oncologists used persuasive communication, made explicit recommendations, or implicitly expressed a treatment preference and were choice limiting. This highlights the complexity of discussing Phase I trials and the need to develop strategies to aid oncologists and patients in these difficult conversations. Patient centered communication that values patient preferences while preserving the oncologist's agenda can be a helpful approach to these discussions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  13. Identifying adverse drug event information in clinical notes with distributional semantic representations of context.

    PubMed

    Henriksson, Aron; Kvist, Maria; Dalianis, Hercules; Duneld, Martin

    2015-10-01

    For the purpose of post-marketing drug safety surveillance, which has traditionally relied on the voluntary reporting of individual cases of adverse drug events (ADEs), other sources of information are now being explored, including electronic health records (EHRs), which give us access to enormous amounts of longitudinal observations of the treatment of patients and their drug use. Adverse drug events, which can be encoded in EHRs with certain diagnosis codes, are, however, heavily underreported. It is therefore important to develop capabilities to process, by means of computational methods, the more unstructured EHR data in the form of clinical notes, where clinicians may describe and reason around suspected ADEs. In this study, we report on the creation of an annotated corpus of Swedish health records for the purpose of learning to identify information pertaining to ADEs present in clinical notes. To this end, three key tasks are tackled: recognizing relevant named entities (disorders, symptoms, drugs), labeling attributes of the recognized entities (negation, speculation, temporality), and relationships between them (indication, adverse drug event). For each of the three tasks, leveraging models of distributional semantics - i.e., unsupervised methods that exploit co-occurrence information to model, typically in vector space, the meaning of words - and, in particular, combinations of such models, is shown to improve the predictive performance. The ability to make use of such unsupervised methods is critical when faced with large amounts of sparse and high-dimensional data, especially in domains where annotated resources are scarce. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Bursting the Information Bubble: Identifying Opportunities for Pediatric Patient-Centered Technology.

    PubMed

    Miller, Andrew D; Pollack, Ari H; Pratt, Wanda

    2016-01-01

    Although hospital care is carefully documented and that information is electronically available to clinicians, few information systems exist for patients and their families to use while they are in the hospital. Information often appears trapped within the hospital room. In this paper, we present findings from three participatory design sessions that we conducted with former patients, their parents, and clinicians from a large children's hospital. Participants discussed challenges they faced getting information while in the hospital, and then designed possible technological solutions. Participants designed technologies aimed at extending parents' access to and involvement in patients' care. Their designs showed opportunities for health informatics within and beyond the children's hospital room: to allow parents and children to disseminate information from within, access information from the hospital room remotely, establish pervasive and collaborative communication with the clinical care team, and learn about their child's care throughout the hospital stay.

  15. Bursting the Information Bubble: Identifying Opportunities for Pediatric Patient-Centered Technology

    PubMed Central

    Miller, Andrew D; Pollack, Ari H; Pratt, Wanda

    2016-01-01

    Although hospital care is carefully documented and that information is electronically available to clinicians, few information systems exist for patients and their families to use while they are in the hospital. Information often appears trapped within the hospital room. In this paper, we present findings from three participatory design sessions that we conducted with former patients, their parents, and clinicians from a large children’s hospital. Participants discussed challenges they faced getting information while in the hospital, and then designed possible technological solutions. Participants designed technologies aimed at extending parents’ access to and involvement in patients’ care. Their designs showed opportunities for health informatics within and beyond the children’s hospital room: to allow parents and children to disseminate information from within, access information from the hospital room remotely, establish pervasive and collaborative communication with the clinical care team, and learn about their child’s care throughout the hospital stay. PMID:28269886

  16. Low Temperature X-Ray Diffraction Study on CaFe2As2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huyan, Shuyuan; Deng, Liangzi; Wu, Zheng; Zhao, Kui; Lv, Bing; Xue, Yiyu; Chu, Ching-Wu; B. Lv Collaboration; HPLT (Paul C. W. Chu) Team

    For undoped CaFe2As2 single crystals, we observed that utilizing thermal treatments could stabilize two pure tetragonal phases PI and PII. Both phases are non-superconducting, while the superconductivity with a Tc up to 25 K can be induced through proper thermal treatment. Room temperature X-ray studies suggest that the origin of superconductivity arises from the interface of the mesoscopically stacked layers of PI and PII. To further investigate, a systematic low temperature X-ray study was conducted over a series of thermal treated CaFe2As2 single crystals. From which, we observed the phase aggregation of PI and PII upon cooling, more importantly, an ordered stacking structure exists at low temperature, which closely related to superconducting volume fraction and the ratio of PI and PII. These results further support the proposal of interface-enhanced superconductivity in undoped CaFe2As2. UT Dallas

  17. Evalution of a DE-Identification Process for Ocular Imaging

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    LaPelusa, Michael B.; Mason, Sara S.; Taiym, Wafa F.; Sargsyan, Ashot; Lee, Lesley R.; Wear, Mary L.; Van Baalen, Mary

    2015-01-01

    Medical privacy of NASA astronauts requires an organized and comprehensive approach when data are being made available outside NASA systems. A combination of factors, including the uniquely small patient population, the extensive medical testing done on these individuals, and the relative cultural popularity of the astronauts puts them at a far greater risk to potential exposure of personal information than the general public. Therefore, care must be taken to ensure that the astronauts' identities are concealed. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) medical data is a recent source of interest to researchers concerned with the development of Visual Impairment due to Intracranial Pressure (VIIP) in the astronaut population. Each vision MRI scan of an astronaut includes 176 separate sagittal images that are saved as an "image series" for clinical use. In addition to the medical information these image sets provide, they also inherently contain a substantial amount of non-medical personally identifiable information (PII) such as-name, date of birth, and date of exam. We have shown that an image set of this type can be rendered, using free software, to give an accurate representation of the patient's face. This currently restricts NASA from dispensing MRI data to researchers in a deidentified format. Automated software programs, such as the Brain Extraction Tool, are available to researchers who wish to de-identify MRI sagittal brain images by "erasing" identifying characteristics such as the nose and jaw on the image sets. However, this software is not useful to NASA for vision research because it removes the portion of the images around the eye orbits, which is the main area of interest to researchers studying the VIIP syndrome. The Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health program has resolved this issue by developing a protocol to de-identify MRI sagittal brain images using Showcase Premier, a DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) software package. The

  18. Isolation of Alkaline and Neutral Proteases from Aspergillus flavus var. columnaris, a Soy Sauce Koji Mold

    PubMed Central

    Impoolsup, Attawut; Bhumiratana, Amaret; Flegel, Timothy W.

    1981-01-01

    Two different extracellular proteases, protease I (P-I), an alkaline protease, and protease II (P-II) a neutral protease, from Aspergillus flavus var. columnaris were partially purified by using (NH4)2SO4 precipitation, diethylaminoethyl-Sephadex A-50 chromatography, carboxymethylcellulose CM-52 chromatography, and Sephadex G-100 gel filtration. The degree of purity was followed using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The activity of P-I was completely inhibited by 0.1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, and that of P-II was completely inhibited by 1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetate. By using these inhibitors with extracts of wheat bran koji, the proportions of total activity that could be assigned to P-I and P-II were 80 and 20%, respectively. This compared favorably with activities estimated by using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis slices (82 and 18%, respectively). Extracts from factory-run soybean koji gave comparable results. Both enzymes demonstrated maximum activity at 50 to 55°C and only small changes in activity between pH 6 and 11. For P-I, activity was somewhat higher from pH 8.0 to 11.0, whereas for P-II it was somewhat higher from pH 6 to 9. In the presence of 18% NaCl, the activities of both P-I and P-II dropped by approximately 90 and 85%, respectively. P-I was inferred to possess aminopeptidase activity since it could hydrolyze l-leucyl-p-nitroanilide hydrochloride. P-II was devoid of such activity. The ramifications of the results for factory-produced soy sauce koji are discussed. Images PMID:16345858

  19. Managing Identifiers for Elements of Provenance of the Third National Climate Assessment in the Global Change Information System (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tilmes, C.; Aulenbach, S.; Duggan, B.; Goldstein, J.

    2013-12-01

    A Federal Advisory Committee (The "National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee" or NCADAC) has overseen the development of a draft climate report that after extensive review will be considered by the Federal Government in the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA). This comprehensive report (1) Integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the Program and discusses the scientific uncertainties associated with such findings; (2) Analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and (3) Analyzes current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years. The U.S. Global Change Program (USGCRP), composed of the 13 federal agencies most concerned with global change, is building a Global Change Information System (GCIS) that will ultimately organize access to all of the research, data, and information about global change from across the system. A prototype of the system has been constructed that captures and presents all of the elements of provenance of the NCA through a coherent data model and friendly front end web site. This work will focus on the globally unique and persistent identifiers used to reference and organize those items. These include externally referenced items, such as DOIs used by scientific journal publishers for research articles or by agencies as dataset identifiers, as well as our own internal approach to identifiers, our overall data model and experiences managing persistent identifiers within the GCIS.

  20. A systematic approach to identify therapeutic effects of natural products based on human metabolite information.

    PubMed

    Noh, Kyungrin; Yoo, Sunyong; Lee, Doheon

    2018-06-13

    Natural products have been widely investigated in the drug development field. Their traditional use cases as medicinal agents and their resemblance of our endogenous compounds show the possibility of new drug development. Many researchers have focused on identifying therapeutic effects of natural products, yet the resemblance of natural products and human metabolites has been rarely touched. We propose a novel method which predicts therapeutic effects of natural products based on their similarity with human metabolites. In this study, we compare the structure, target and phenotype similarities between natural products and human metabolites to capture molecular and phenotypic properties of both compounds. With the generated similarity features, we train support vector machine model to identify similar natural product and human metabolite pairs. The known functions of human metabolites are then mapped to the paired natural products to predict their therapeutic effects. With our selected three feature sets, structure, target and phenotype similarities, our trained model successfully paired similar natural products and human metabolites. When applied to the natural product derived drugs, we could successfully identify their indications with high specificity and sensitivity. We further validated the found therapeutic effects of natural products with the literature evidence. These results suggest that our model can match natural products to similar human metabolites and provide possible therapeutic effects of natural products. By utilizing the similar human metabolite information, we expect to find new indications of natural products which could not be covered by previous in silico methods.

  1. Identifying demand for health resources using waiting times information.

    PubMed

    Blundell, R; Windmeijer, F

    2000-09-01

    In this paper the differences in average waiting times are utilized to identify the determinants of demand for health services. The equilibrium waiting time framework is used, but the full equilibrium assumption is relaxed by selecting areas with low waiting times and by estimating a (semi-)parametric selection model. Determinants of supply are used as instruments for the endogeneity of waiting times. A model for the demand for acute services at the ward level in the UK is estimated. The model estimates, and their implications for health service allocations in the UK, are contrasted against more standard allocation models. The present results show that it is critically important to account for rationing by waiting times when identifying needs from care utilization data. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  2. 28 CFR 22.21 - Use of identifiable data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... STATISTICAL INFORMATION § 22.21 Use of identifiable data. Research or statistical information identifiable to a private person may be used only for research or statistical purposes. ... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Use of identifiable data. 22.21 Section...

  3. 28 CFR 22.22 - Revelation of identifiable data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... STATISTICAL INFORMATION § 22.22 Revelation of identifiable data. (a) Except as noted in paragraph (b) of this section, research and statistical information relating to a private person may be revealed in identifiable... Act. (3) Persons or organizations for research or statistical purposes. Information may only be...

  4. Collecting Practice-level Data in a Changing Physician Office-based Ambulatory Care Environment: A Pilot Study Examining the Physician induction interview Component of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

    PubMed

    Halley, Meghan C; Rendle, Katharine A; Gugerty, Brian; Lau, Denys T; Luft, Harold S; Gillespie, Katherine A

    2017-11-01

    Objective This report examines ways to improve National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) data on practice and physician characteristics in multispecialty group practices. Methods From February to April 2013, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) conducted a pilot study to observe the collection of the NAMCS physician interview information component in a large multispecialty group practice. Nine physicians were randomly sampled using standard NAMCS recruitment procedures; eight were eligible and agreed to participate. Using standard protocols, three field representatives conducted NAMCS physician induction interviews (PIIs) while trained ethnographers observed and audio recorded the interviews. Transcripts and field notes were analyzed to identify recurrent issues in the data collection process. Results The majority of the NAMCS items appeared to have been easily answered by the physician respondents. Among the items that appeared to be difficult to answer, three themes emerged: (a) physician respondents demonstrated an inconsistent understanding of "location" in responding to questions; (b) lack of familiarity with administrative matters made certain questions difficult for physicians to answer; and (c) certain primary care‑oriented questions were not relevant to specialty care providers. Conclusions Some PII survey questions were challenging for physicians in a multispecialty practice setting. Improving the design and administration of NAMCS data collection is part of NCHS' continuous quality improvement process. All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated.

  5. Identifying preferred format and source of exercise information in persons with multiple sclerosis that can be delivered by health-care providers.

    PubMed

    Learmonth, Yvonne C; Adamson, Brynn C; Balto, Julia M; Chiu, Chung-Yi; Molina-Guzman, Isabel M; Finlayson, Marcia; Riskin, Barry J; Motl, Robert W

    2017-10-01

    There is increasing recognition of the benefits of exercise in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), yet the MS population does not engage in sufficient amounts of exercise to accrue health benefits. There has been little qualitative inquiry to establish the preferred format and source for receiving exercise information from health-care providers among persons with MS. We sought to identify the desired and preferred format and source of exercise information for persons with MS that can be delivered through health-care providers. Participants were adults with MS who had mild or moderate disability and participated in a range of exercise levels. All participants lived in the Midwest of the United States. Fifty semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. Two themes emerged, (i) approach for receiving exercise promotion and (ii) ideal person for promoting exercise. Persons with MS want to receive exercise information through in-person consultations with health-care providers, print media and electronic media. Persons with MS want to receive exercise promotion from health-care providers with expertise in MS (ie neurologists) and with expertise in exercise (eg physical therapists). These data support the importance of understanding how to provide exercise information to persons with MS and identifying that health-care providers including neurologists and physical therapists should be involved in exercise promotion. © 2017 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Potential energy landscapes identify the information-theoretic nature of the epigenome

    PubMed Central

    Jenkinson, Garrett; Pujadas, Elisabet; Goutsias, John; Feinberg, Andrew P.

    2017-01-01

    Epigenetics studies genomic modifications carrying information independent of DNA sequence heritable through cell division. In 1940, Waddington coined the term “epigenetic landscape” as a metaphor for pluripotency and differentiation, but methylation landscapes have not yet been rigorously computed. By using principles of statistical physics and information theory, we derive epigenetic energy landscapes from whole-genome bisulfite sequencing data that allow us to quantify methylation stochasticity genome-wide using Shannon’s entropy and associate entropy with chromatin structure. Moreover, we consider the Jensen-Shannon distance between sample-specific energy landscapes as a measure of epigenetic dissimilarity and demonstrate its effectiveness for discerning epigenetic differences. By viewing methylation maintenance as a communications system, we introduce methylation channels and show that higher-order chromatin organization can be predicted from their informational properties. Our results provide a fundamental understanding of the information-theoretic nature of the epigenome that leads to a powerful approach for studying its role in disease and aging. PMID:28346445

  7. 75 FR 56661 - Agency Information Collection (Request for Identifying Information Re: Veteran's Loan Records...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-09-16

    ... Benefits Administration (VBA), Department of Veterans Affairs, will submit the collection of information... one year form the date of such notification, benefits will not be paid or furnished by reason of an... Benefits Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: In compliance with the...

  8. Identifying clusters of falls-related hospital admissions to inform population targets for prioritising falls prevention programmes

    PubMed Central

    Finch, Caroline F; Stephan, Karen; Shee, Anna Wong; Hill, Keith; Haines, Terry P; Clemson, Lindy; Day, Lesley

    2015-01-01

    Background There has been limited research investigating the relationship between injurious falls and hospital resource use. The aims of this study were to identify clusters of community-dwelling older people in the general population who are at increased risk of being admitted to hospital following a fall and how those clusters differed in their use of hospital resources. Methods Analysis of routinely collected hospital admissions data relating to 45 374 fall-related admissions in Victorian community-dwelling older adults aged ≥65 years that occurred during 2008/2009 to 2010/2011. Fall-related admission episodes were identified based on being admitted from a private residence to hospital with a principal diagnosis of injury (International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10-AM codes S00 to T75) and having a first external cause of a fall (ICD-10-AM codes W00 to W19). A cluster analysis was performed to identify homogeneous groups using demographic details of patients and information on the presence of comorbidities. Hospital length of stay (LOS) was compared across clusters using competing risks regression. Results Clusters based on area of residence, demographic factors (age, gender, marital status, country of birth) and the presence of comorbidities were identified. Clusters representing hospitalised fallers with comorbidities were associated with longer LOS compared with other cluster groups. Clusters delineated by demographic factors were also associated with increased LOS. Conclusions All patients with comorbidity, and older women without comorbidities, stay in hospital longer following a fall and hence consume a disproportionate share of hospital resources. These findings have important implications for the targeting of falls prevention interventions for community-dwelling older people. PMID:25618735

  9. Identifying genetic relatives without compromising privacy

    PubMed Central

    He, Dan; Furlotte, Nicholas A.; Hormozdiari, Farhad; Joo, Jong Wha J.; Wadia, Akshay; Ostrovsky, Rafail; Sahai, Amit; Eskin, Eleazar

    2014-01-01

    The development of high-throughput genomic technologies has impacted many areas of genetic research. While many applications of these technologies focus on the discovery of genes involved in disease from population samples, applications of genomic technologies to an individual’s genome or personal genomics have recently gained much interest. One such application is the identification of relatives from genetic data. In this application, genetic information from a set of individuals is collected in a database, and each pair of individuals is compared in order to identify genetic relatives. An inherent issue that arises in the identification of relatives is privacy. In this article, we propose a method for identifying genetic relatives without compromising privacy by taking advantage of novel cryptographic techniques customized for secure and private comparison of genetic information. We demonstrate the utility of these techniques by allowing a pair of individuals to discover whether or not they are related without compromising their genetic information or revealing it to a third party. The idea is that individuals only share enough special-purpose cryptographically protected information with each other to identify whether or not they are relatives, but not enough to expose any information about their genomes. We show in HapMap and 1000 Genomes data that our method can recover first- and second-order genetic relationships and, through simulations, show that our method can identify relationships as distant as third cousins while preserving privacy. PMID:24614977

  10. Identifying genetic relatives without compromising privacy.

    PubMed

    He, Dan; Furlotte, Nicholas A; Hormozdiari, Farhad; Joo, Jong Wha J; Wadia, Akshay; Ostrovsky, Rafail; Sahai, Amit; Eskin, Eleazar

    2014-04-01

    The development of high-throughput genomic technologies has impacted many areas of genetic research. While many applications of these technologies focus on the discovery of genes involved in disease from population samples, applications of genomic technologies to an individual's genome or personal genomics have recently gained much interest. One such application is the identification of relatives from genetic data. In this application, genetic information from a set of individuals is collected in a database, and each pair of individuals is compared in order to identify genetic relatives. An inherent issue that arises in the identification of relatives is privacy. In this article, we propose a method for identifying genetic relatives without compromising privacy by taking advantage of novel cryptographic techniques customized for secure and private comparison of genetic information. We demonstrate the utility of these techniques by allowing a pair of individuals to discover whether or not they are related without compromising their genetic information or revealing it to a third party. The idea is that individuals only share enough special-purpose cryptographically protected information with each other to identify whether or not they are relatives, but not enough to expose any information about their genomes. We show in HapMap and 1000 Genomes data that our method can recover first- and second-order genetic relationships and, through simulations, show that our method can identify relationships as distant as third cousins while preserving privacy.

  11. Using Incoming Student Information to Identify Students At-Risk of Not Returning to Their Initial Institution in Year Two. ACT Working Paper 2016 (04)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Radunzel, Justine

    2016-01-01

    As pushes for increased accountability in higher education continue, postsecondary institutions are interested in identifying early on students who are at risk of leaving their institution. With this in mind, this study sought to identify incoming first-year student information (such as that available on the ACT student record) that postsecondary…

  12. 45 CFR 155.260 - Privacy and security of personally identifiable information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... AFFORDABLE CARE ACT General Functions of an Exchange § 155.260 Privacy and security of personally... information to the extent such information is necessary: (i) For the Exchange to carry out the functions described in § 155.200; (ii) For the Exchange to carry out other functions not described in paragraph (a)(1...

  13. Identifying Threshold Concepts for Information Literacy: A Delphi Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Townsend, Lori; Hofer, Amy R.; Hanick, Silvia Lin; Brunetti, Korey

    2016-01-01

    This study used the Delphi method to engage expert practitioners on the topic of threshold concepts--core ideas and processes in a discipline that students need to grasp in order to progress in their learning, but that are often unspoken or unrecognized by expert practitioners--for information literacy. A panel of experts considered two questions:…

  14. Identifying the impact of social determinants of health on disease rates using correlation analysis of area-based summary information.

    PubMed

    Song, Ruiguang; Hall, H Irene; Harrison, Kathleen McDavid; Sharpe, Tanya Telfair; Lin, Lillian S; Dean, Hazel D

    2011-01-01

    We developed a statistical tool that brings together standard, accessible, and well-understood analytic approaches and uses area-based information and other publicly available data to identify social determinants of health (SDH) that significantly affect the morbidity of a specific disease. We specified AIDS as the disease of interest and used data from the American Community Survey and the National HIV Surveillance System. Morbidity and socioeconomic variables in the two data systems were linked through geographic areas that can be identified in both systems. Correlation and partial correlation coefficients were used to measure the impact of socioeconomic factors on AIDS diagnosis rates in certain geographic areas. We developed an easily explained approach that can be used by a data analyst with access to publicly available datasets and standard statistical software to identify the impact of SDH. We found that the AIDS diagnosis rate was highly correlated with the distribution of race/ethnicity, population density, and marital status in an area. The impact of poverty, education level, and unemployment depended on other SDH variables. Area-based measures of socioeconomic variables can be used to identify risk factors associated with a disease of interest. When correlation analysis is used to identify risk factors, potential confounding from other variables must be taken into account.

  15. Quantifying animal movement for caching foragers: the path identification index (PII) and cougars, Puma concolor

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ironside, Kirsten E.; Mattson, David J.; Theimer, Tad; Jansen, Brian; Holton, Brandon; Arundel, Terry; Peters, Michael; Sexton, Joseph O.; Edwards, Thomas C.

    2017-01-01

    Relocation studies of animal movement have focused on directed versus area restricted movement, which rely on correlations between step-length and turn angles, along with a degree of stationarity through time to define behavioral states. Although these approaches may work well for grazing foraging strategies in a patchy landscape, species that do not spend a significant amount of time searching out and gathering small dispersed food items, but instead feed for short periods on large, concentrated sources or cache food result in movements that maybe difficult to analyze using turning and velocity alone. We use GPS telemetry collected from a prey-caching predator, the cougar (Puma concolor), to test whether adding additional movement metrics capturing site recursion, to the more traditional velocity and turning, improve the ability to identify behaviors. We evaluated our movement index’s ability to identify behaviors using field investigations. We further tested for statistical stationarity across behaviors for use of topographic view-sheds. We found little correlation between turn angle, velocity, tortuosity, and site fidelity and combined them into a movement index used to identify movement paths (temporally autocorrelated movements) related to fast directed movements (taxis), area restricted movements (search), and prey caching (foraging). Changes in the frequency and duration of these movements were helpful for identifying seasonal activities such as migration and denning in females. Comparison of field investigations of cougar activities to behavioral classes defined using the movement index and found an overall classification accuracy of 81%. Changes in behaviors resulted in changes in how cougars used topographic view-sheds, showing statistical non-stationarity over time. The movement index shows promise for identifying behaviors in species that frequently return to specific locations such as food caches, watering holes, or dens, and highlights the role

  16. 28 CFR 22.25 - Final disposition of identifiable materials.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... RESEARCH AND STATISTICAL INFORMATION § 22.25 Final disposition of identifiable materials. Upon completion of a research or statistical project the security of identifiable research or statistical information...

  17. 28 CFR 22.25 - Final disposition of identifiable materials.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... RESEARCH AND STATISTICAL INFORMATION § 22.25 Final disposition of identifiable materials. Upon completion of a research or statistical project the security of identifiable research or statistical information...

  18. Insights from an international stakeholder consultation to identify informational needs related to seafood safety

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

    Tediosi, Alice, E-mail: alice.tediosi@aeiforia.eu; Fait, Gabriella; Jacobs, Silke

    Food safety assessment and communication have a strong importance in reducing human health risks related to food consumption. The research carried out within the ECsafeSEAFOOD project aims to assess seafood safety issues, mainly related to non-regulated priority environmental contaminants, and to evaluate their impact on public health. In order to make the research results accessible and exploitable, and to respond to actual stakeholders' demands, a consultation with international stakeholders was performed by means of a survey. The focus was on policy and decision makers, food producers and processors, and agencies (i.e. EU and National or Regional agencies related to Foodmore » Safety or Public Health) and consumer organisations. The survey considered questions related to: seafood safety assessment and mitigation strategies, availability of data, such as the level of information on different contaminants, and communication among different stakeholder groups. Furthermore, stakeholders were asked to give their opinion on how they believe consumers perceive risks associated with environmental contaminants. The survey was distributed to 531 key stakeholders and 91 responses were received from stakeholders from 30 EU and non-EU countries. The main results show that communication between different groups of stakeholders needs to be improved and that there is a deficit of information and data in the field of seafood safety. This pertains mainly to the transfer of contaminants between the environment and seafood, and to the diversity of environmental contaminants such as plastic additives, algal toxins and hormones. On-line tools were perceived to be the most useful communication channel. - Highlights: • We consulted stakeholders to identify their needs about seafood safety. • An on-line survey was prepared and sent to gather stakeholders' opinions. • Communication among stakeholders needs to be improved. • There is a deficit of information and data in the

  19. Mumps Virus: Modification of the Identify-Isolate-Inform Tool for Frontline Healthcare Providers.

    PubMed

    Koenig, Kristi L; Shastry, Siri; Mzahim, Bandr; Almadhyan, Abdulmajeed; Burns, Michael J

    2016-09-01

    Mumps is a highly contagious viral infection that became rare in most industrialized countries following the introduction of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine in 1967. The disease, however, has been re-emerging with several outbreaks over the past decade. Many clinicians have never seen a case of mumps. To assist frontline healthcare providers with detecting potential cases and initiating critical actions, investigators modified the "Identify-Isolate-Inform" tool for mumps infection. The tool is applicable to regions with rare incidences or local outbreaks, especially seen in college students, as well as globally in areas where vaccination is less common. Mumps begins with a prodrome of low-grade fever, myalgias and malaise/anorexia, followed by development of nonsuppurative parotitis, which is the pathognomonic finding associated with acute mumps infection. Orchitis and meningitis are the two most common serious complications, with hearing loss and infertility occurring rarely. Providers should consider mumps in patients with exposure to a known case or international travel to endemic regions who present with consistent signs and symptoms. If mumps is suspected, healthcare providers must immediately implement standard and droplet precautions and notify the local health department and hospital infection control personnel.

  20. Identifying and Understanding Valid Sustainability Information: The Crossroads of Evidence-Based Practice, Science Literacy, and Information Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hare, Richard Gabriel; Jo, Jihoon; Moreton, Elizabeth; Stamm, Andrew; Winter, Danielle

    2011-01-01

    Obtaining reliable information is essential to forming a balanced understanding of the scope and complexity of environmental sustainability, and it is essential for effective participation, decision-making, and research in sustainability-related activities. While the ACRL Standards for Information Literacy (2000) are a good guiding principle for…

  1. A rapid assessment scorecard to identify informal settlements at higher maternal and child health risk in Mumbai.

    PubMed

    Osrin, David; Das, Sushmita; Bapat, Ujwala; Alcock, Glyn A; Joshi, Wasundhara; More, Neena Shah

    2011-10-01

    predictive value. The scorecard needs further testing in a range of urban contexts, but we intend to use it to identify informal settlements in particular need of family health interventions in a subsequent program.

  2. Metropolitan transportation management center : a case study : Long Island INFORM : identifying incidents and informing travelers

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1999-10-01

    The following case study provides a snapshot of Long Island's INFORM transportation management center. It follows the outline provided in the companion document, Metropolitan Transportation Management Center Concepts of Operation - A Cross Cutting St...

  3. The binding of glucose and nucleotides to hexokinase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

    PubMed

    Woolfitt, A R; Kellett, G L; Hoggett, J G

    1988-01-29

    The binding of glucose, ADP and AdoPP[NH]P, to the native PII dimer and PII monomer and the proteolytically-modified SII monomer of hexokinase (ATP:D-hexose 6-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.1) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was monitored at pH 6.7 by the concomitant quenching of protein fluorescence. The data were analysed in terms of Qmax, the maximal quenching of fluorescence at saturating concentrations of ligand, and [L]0.5, the concentration of ligand at half-maximal quenching. No changes in fluorescence were observed with free enzyme and nucleotide alone. In the presence of saturating levels of glucose, Qmax induced by nucleotide was between 2 and 7%, and [L]0.5 was between 0.12 and 0.56 mM, depending on the nucleotide and enzyme species. Qmax induced by glucose alone was between 22 and 25%, while [L]0.5 was approx. 0.4 mM for either of the monomeric hexokinase forms and 3.4 for PII dimer. In the presence of 6 mM ADP or 2 mM AdoPP[NH]P, Qmax for glucose was increased by up to 4% and [L]0.5 was diminished 3-fold for hexokinase PII monomer, 6-fold for SII monomer, and 15-fold for PII dimer. The results are interpreted in terms of nucleotide-induced conformational change of hexokinase in the presence of glucose and synergistic binding interactions between glucose and nucleotide.

  4. Identifying unmet informational needs in the inpatient setting to increase patient and caregiver engagement in the context of pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

    PubMed

    Kaziunas, Elizabeth; Hanauer, David A; Ackerman, Mark S; Choi, Sung Won

    2016-01-01

    Patient-centered care has been shown to improve patient outcomes, satisfaction, and engagement. However, there is a paucity of research on patient-centered care in the inpatient setting, including an understanding of unmet informational needs that may be limiting patient engagement. Pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) represents an ideal patient population for elucidating unmet informational needs, due to the procedure's complexity and its requirement for caregiver involvement. We conducted field observations and semi-structured interviews of pediatric HSCT caregivers and patients to identify informational challenges in the inpatient hospital setting. Data were analyzed using a thematic grounded theory approach. Three stages of the caregiving experience that could potentially be supported by a health information technology system, with the goal of enhancing patient/caregiver engagement, were identified: (1) navigating the health system and learning to communicate effectively with the healthcare team, (2) managing daily challenges of caregiving, and (3) transitioning from inpatient care to long-term outpatient management. We provide four practical recommendations to meet the informational needs of pediatric HSCT patients and caregivers: (1) provide patients/caregivers with real-time access to electronic health record data, (2) provide information about the clinical trials in which the patient is enrolled, (3) provide information about the patient's care team, and (4) properly prepare patients and caregivers for hospital discharge. Pediatric HSCT caregivers and patients have multiple informational needs that could be met with a health information technology system that integrates data from several sources, including electronic health records. Meeting these needs could reduce patients' and caregivers' anxiety surrounding the care process; reduce information asymmetry between caregivers/patients and providers; empower patients/caregivers to

  5. To twist or poke? A method for identifying usability issues with the rotary controller and touch screen for control of in-vehicle information systems.

    PubMed

    Harvey, Catherine; Stanton, Neville A; Pickering, Carl A; McDonald, Mike; Zheng, Pengjun

    2011-07-01

    In-vehicle information systems (IVIS) can be controlled by the user via direct or indirect input devices. In order to develop the next generation of usable IVIS, designers need to be able to evaluate and understand the usability issues associated with these two input types. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a set of empirical usability evaluation methods for identifying important usability issues and distinguishing between the IVIS input devices. A number of usability issues were identified and their causal factors have been explored. These were related to the input type, the structure of the menu/tasks and hardware issues. In particular, the translation between inputs and on-screen actions and a lack of visual feedback for menu navigation resulted in lower levels of usability for the indirect device. This information will be useful in informing the design of new IVIS, with improved usability. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: This paper examines the use of empirical methods for distinguishing between direct and indirect IVIS input devices and identifying usability issues. Results have shown that the characteristics of indirect input devices produce more serious usability issues, compared with direct devices and can have a negative effect on the driver-vehicle interaction.

  6. Metadata, Identifiers, and Physical Samples

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arctur, D. K.; Lenhardt, W. C.; Hills, D. J.; Jenkyns, R.; Stroker, K. J.; Todd, N. S.; Dassie, E. P.; Bowring, J. F.

    2016-12-01

    Physical samples are integral to much of the research conducted by geoscientists. The samples used in this research are often obtained at significant cost and represent an important investment for future research. However, making information about samples - whether considered data or metadata - available for researchers to enable discovery is difficult: a number of key elements related to samples are difficult to characterize in common ways, such as classification, location, sample type, sampling method, repository information, subsample distribution, and instrumentation, because these differ from one domain to the next. Unifying these elements or developing metadata crosswalks is needed. The iSamples (Internet of Samples) NSF-funded Research Coordination Network (RCN) is investigating ways to develop these types of interoperability and crosswalks. Within the iSamples RCN, one of its working groups, WG1, has focused on the metadata related to physical samples. This includes identifying existing metadata standards and systems, and how they might interoperate with the International Geo Sample Number (IGSN) schema (schema.igsn.org) in order to help inform leading practices for metadata. For example, we are examining lifecycle metadata beyond the IGSN `birth certificate.' As a first step, this working group is developing a list of relevant standards and comparing their various attributes. In addition, the working group is looking toward technical solutions to facilitate developing a linked set of registries to build the web of samples. Finally, the group is also developing a comparison of sample identifiers and locators. This paper will provide an overview and comparison of the standards identified thus far, as well as an update on the technical solutions examined for integration. We will discuss how various sample identifiers might work in complementary fashion with the IGSN to more completely describe samples, facilitate retrieval of contextual information, and

  7. Constructing the informatics and information technology foundations of a medical device evaluation system: a report from the FDA unique device identifier demonstration.

    PubMed

    Drozda, Joseph P; Roach, James; Forsyth, Thomas; Helmering, Paul; Dummitt, Benjamin; Tcheng, James E

    2018-02-01

    The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recognized the need to improve the tracking of medical device safety and performance, with implementation of Unique Device Identifiers (UDIs) in electronic health information as a key strategy. The FDA funded a demonstration by Mercy Health wherein prototype UDIs were incorporated into its electronic information systems. This report describes the demonstration's informatics architecture. Prototype UDIs for coronary stents were created and implemented across a series of information systems, resulting in UDI-associated data flow from manufacture through point of use to long-term follow-up, with barcode scanning linking clinical data with UDI-associated device attributes. A reference database containing device attributes and the UDI Research and Surveillance Database (UDIR) containing the linked clinical and device information were created, enabling longitudinal assessment of device performance. The demonstration included many stakeholders: multiple Mercy departments, manufacturers, health system partners, the FDA, professional societies, the National Cardiovascular Data Registry, and information system vendors. The resulting system of systems is described in detail, including entities, functions, linkage between the UDIR and proprietary systems using UDIs as the index key, data flow, roles and responsibilities of actors, and the UDIR data model. The demonstration provided proof of concept that UDIs can be incorporated into provider and enterprise electronic information systems and used as the index key to combine device and clinical data in a database useful for device evaluation. Keys to success and challenges to achieving this goal were identified. Fundamental informatics principles were central to accomplishing the system of systems model. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

  8. Persistent Identifiers Implementation in EOSDIS

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ramapriyan, H. K. " Rama"

    2016-01-01

    This presentation provides the motivation for and status of implementation of persistent identifiers in NASA's Earth Observation System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). The motivation is provided from the point of view of long-term preservation of datasets such that a number of questions raised by current and future users can be answered easily and precisely. A number of artifacts need to be preserved along with datasets to make this possible, especially when the authors of datasets are no longer available to address users questions. The artifacts and datasets need to be uniquely and persistently identified and linked with each other for full traceability, understandability and scientific reproducibility. Current work in the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project and the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) in assigning Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) is discussed as well as challenges that remain to be addressed in the future.

  9. MelanomaDB: A Web Tool for Integrative Analysis of Melanoma Genomic Information to Identify Disease-Associated Molecular Pathways

    PubMed Central

    Trevarton, Alexander J.; Mann, Michael B.; Knapp, Christoph; Araki, Hiromitsu; Wren, Jonathan D.; Stones-Havas, Steven; Black, Michael A.; Print, Cristin G.

    2013-01-01

    Despite on-going research, metastatic melanoma survival rates remain low and treatment options are limited. Researchers can now access a rapidly growing amount of molecular and clinical information about melanoma. This information is becoming difficult to assemble and interpret due to its dispersed nature, yet as it grows it becomes increasingly valuable for understanding melanoma. Integration of this information into a comprehensive resource to aid rational experimental design and patient stratification is needed. As an initial step in this direction, we have assembled a web-accessible melanoma database, MelanomaDB, which incorporates clinical and molecular data from publically available sources, which will be regularly updated as new information becomes available. This database allows complex links to be drawn between many different aspects of melanoma biology: genetic changes (e.g., mutations) in individual melanomas revealed by DNA sequencing, associations between gene expression and patient survival, data concerning drug targets, biomarkers, druggability, and clinical trials, as well as our own statistical analysis of relationships between molecular pathways and clinical parameters that have been produced using these data sets. The database is freely available at http://genesetdb.auckland.ac.nz/melanomadb/about.html. A subset of the information in the database can also be accessed through a freely available web application in the Illumina genomic cloud computing platform BaseSpace at http://www.biomatters.com/apps/melanoma-profiler-for-research. The MelanomaDB database illustrates dysregulation of specific signaling pathways across 310 exome-sequenced melanomas and in individual tumors and identifies the distribution of somatic variants in melanoma. We suggest that MelanomaDB can provide a context in which to interpret the tumor molecular profiles of individual melanoma patients relative to biological information and available drug therapies. PMID:23875173

  10. Distributed design approach in persistent identifiers systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Golodoniuc, Pavel; Car, Nicholas; Klump, Jens

    2017-04-01

    The need to identify both digital and physical objects is ubiquitous in our society. Past and present persistent identifier (PID) systems, of which there is a great variety in terms of technical and social implementations, have evolved with the advent of the Internet, which has allowed for globally unique and globally resolvable identifiers. PID systems have catered for identifier uniqueness, integrity, persistence, and trustworthiness, regardless of the identifier's application domain, the scope of which has expanded significantly in the past two decades. Since many PID systems have been largely conceived and developed by small communities, or even a single organisation, they have faced challenges in gaining widespread adoption and, most importantly, the ability to survive change of technology. This has left a legacy of identifiers that still exist and are being used but which have lost their resolution service. We believe that one of the causes of once successful PID systems fading is their reliance on a centralised technical infrastructure or a governing authority. Golodoniuc et al. (2016) proposed an approach to the development of PID systems that combines the use of (a) the Handle system, as a distributed system for the registration and first-degree resolution of persistent identifiers, and (b) the PID Service (Golodoniuc et al., 2015), to enable fine-grained resolution to different information object representations. The proposed approach solved the problem of guaranteed first-degree resolution of identifiers, but left fine-grained resolution and information delivery under the control of a single authoritative source, posing risk to the long-term availability of information resources. Herein, we develop these approaches further and explore the potential of large-scale decentralisation at all levels: (i) persistent identifiers and information resources registration; (ii) identifier resolution; and (iii) data delivery. To achieve large-scale decentralisation

  11. 28 CFR 22.22 - Revelation of identifiable data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... STATISTICAL INFORMATION § 22.22 Revelation of identifiable data. (a) Except as noted in paragraph (b) of this section, research and statistical information relating to a private person may be revealed in identifiable... sections 223(a)(12)(A), 223(a)(13), 223(a)(14), and 243 of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention...

  12. A system architecture for sharing de-identified, research-ready brain scans and health information across clinical imaging centers.

    PubMed

    Chervenak, Ann L; van Erp, Theo G M; Kesselman, Carl; D'Arcy, Mike; Sobell, Janet; Keator, David; Dahm, Lisa; Murry, Jim; Law, Meng; Hasso, Anton; Ames, Joseph; Macciardi, Fabio; Potkin, Steven G

    2012-01-01

    Progress in our understanding of brain disorders increasingly relies on the costly collection of large standardized brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data sets. Moreover, the clinical interpretation of brain scans benefits from compare and contrast analyses of scans from patients with similar, and sometimes rare, demographic, diagnostic, and treatment status. A solution to both needs is to acquire standardized, research-ready clinical brain scans and to build the information technology infrastructure to share such scans, along with other pertinent information, across hospitals. This paper describes the design, deployment, and operation of a federated imaging system that captures and shares standardized, de-identified clinical brain images in a federation across multiple institutions. In addition to describing innovative aspects of the system architecture and our initial testing of the deployed infrastructure, we also describe the Standardized Imaging Protocol (SIP) developed for the project and our interactions with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) regarding handling patient data in the federated environment.

  13. A System Architecture for Sharing De-Identified, Research-Ready Brain Scans and Health Information Across Clinical Imaging Centers

    PubMed Central

    Chervenak, Ann L.; van Erp, Theo G.M.; Kesselman, Carl; D’Arcy, Mike; Sobell, Janet; Keator, David; Dahm, Lisa; Murry, Jim; Law, Meng; Hasso, Anton; Ames, Joseph; Macciardi, Fabio; Potkin, Steven G.

    2015-01-01

    Progress in our understanding of brain disorders increasingly relies on the costly collection of large standardized brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data sets. Moreover, the clinical interpretation of brain scans benefits from compare and contrast analyses of scans from patients with similar, and sometimes rare, demographic, diagnostic, and treatment status. A solution to both needs is to acquire standardized, research-ready clinical brain scans and to build the information technology infrastructure to share such scans, along with other pertinent information, across hospitals. This paper describes the design, deployment, and operation of a federated imaging system that captures and shares standardized, de-identified clinical brain images in a federation across multiple institutions. In addition to describing innovative aspects of the system architecture and our initial testing of the deployed infrastructure, we also describe the Standardized Imaging Protocol (SIP) developed for the project and our interactions with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) regarding handling patient data in the federated environment. PMID:22941984

  14. How to Identify Your Pest

    Science.gov Websites

    Pest Pest-specific Information (by name) Pest Control Tips Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Fact Sheets National Pesticide Information Center 1.800.858.7378 npic@ace.orst.edu We're open from 8:00AM to 12 Plants Pest Control Identify Your Pest Learn About Your Pest Control Your Pest Integrated Pest Management

  15. Learning to identify Protected Health Information by integrating knowledge- and data-driven algorithms: A case study on psychiatric evaluation notes.

    PubMed

    Dehghan, Azad; Kovacevic, Aleksandar; Karystianis, George; Keane, John A; Nenadic, Goran

    2017-11-01

    De-identification of clinical narratives is one of the main obstacles to making healthcare free text available for research. In this paper we describe our experience in expanding and tailoring two existing tools as part of the 2016 CEGS N-GRID Shared Tasks Track 1, which evaluated de-identification methods on a set of psychiatric evaluation notes for up to 25 different types of Protected Health Information (PHI). The methods we used rely on machine learning on either a large or small feature space, with additional strategies, including two-pass tagging and multi-class models, which both proved to be beneficial. The results show that the integration of the proposed methods can identify Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) defined PHIs with overall F 1 -scores of ∼90% and above. Yet, some classes (Profession, Organization) proved again to be challenging given the variability of expressions used to reference given information. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  16. Identifying populations potentially exposed to agricultural pesticides using remote sensing and a Geographic Information System

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ward, M.H.; Nuckols, J.R.; Weigel, S. J.; Cantor, K.P.; Miller, Roger S.

    2000-01-01

    Pesticides used in agriculture may cause adverse health effects among the population living near agricultural areas. However, identifying the populations most likely to be exposed is difficult. We conducted a feasibility study to determine whether satellite imagery could be used to reconstruct historical crop patterns. We used historical Farm Service Agency records as a source of ground reference data to classify a late summer 1984 satellite image into crop species in a three-county area in south central Nebraska. Residences from a population-based epidemiologic study of non-Hodgkin lymphoma were located on the crop maps using a geographic information system (GIS). Corn, soybeans, sorghum, and alfalfa were the major crops grown in the study area. Eighty-five percent of residences could be located, and of these 22% had one of the four major crops within 500 m of the residence, an intermediate distance for the range of drift effects from pesticides applied in agriculture. We determined the proximity of residences to specific crop species and calculated crop-specific probabilities of pesticide use based on available data. This feasibility study demonstrated that remote sensing data and historical records on crop location can be used to create historical crop maps. The crop pesticides that were likely to have been applied can be estimated when information about crop-specific pesticide use is available. Using a GIS, zones of potential exposure to agricultural pesticides and proximity measures can be determined for residences in a study.

  17. 26 CFR 1.6109-1 - Identifying numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Identifying numbers. 1.6109-1 Section 1.6109-1...) INCOME TAXES Miscellaneous Provisions § 1.6109-1 Identifying numbers. (a) Information to be furnished after April 15, 1974. For provisions concerning the requesting and furnishing of identifying numbers...

  18. Information Literacy in Science Writing: How Students Find, Identify, and Use Scientific Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Klucevsek, Kristin M.; Brungard, Allison B.

    2016-01-01

    For undergraduate students to achieve science literacy, they must first develop information literacy skils. These skills align with Information Literacy Standards and include determining appropriate databases, distinguishing among resource types, and citing resources ethically. To effectively improve information literacy and science literacy, we…

  19. Associations of diet quality with dairy group membership, membership duration and non-membership for Kenyan farm women and children: a comparative study.

    PubMed

    Walton, Colleen; Taylor, Jennifer; VanLeeuwen, John; Yeudall, Fiona; Mbugua, Samwel

    2014-02-01

    To examine associations among diet quality and dairy group membership, membership duration and non-member status for women and school-aged children in rural Kenya. A cross-sectional survey, using chain referral sampling, was conducted and diet quality indices and prevalence of inadequate intake (PII) were estimated using the 'estimated average requirement' cut-off point method from single 24 h recalls, using a Kenyan nutrient database. PII was compared among members and non-members and among membership-duration groups. Women and children of dairy group members (n 88), across membership-duration groups (1-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10+ years), and non-members (n 23) living among members. Small farms in central Kenya. Members had higher energy, percentage of energy from animal-source foods and dietary diversity. Member women and children had lower PII for respectively seven and three of eleven micronutrients. Reduced PII for milk-source micronutrients was associated with membership duration for women. Many member women (38%) had inadequate vitamin A intake and 39% of member children had inadequate Zn intake. Members' PII was also high (>45%) for Fe, Ca and vitamin B12. A higher prevalence of being overweight among member women compared with non-member women suggested nutrition transition effects of higher farm productivity. Dairy group membership was positively associated with adequate quantity and quality of diets for women and children. Long-term membership was insufficient to address micronutrient deficiencies. Understanding and addressing barriers to better diet quality and strategies to mitigate negative nutrition transition effects are needed to optimize nutritional outcomes of dairy group membership.

  20. Rural Information Needs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fowler, Dave

    1989-01-01

    Examines the information needs of rural populations by identifying eight national issues and interpreting these as requests made to rural county agents. Four groups of rural information users are identified, and information needs specific to each group and that cross over all groups are discussed. (CLB)

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

    Saikatendu, Kumar Singh; Zhang, Xuejun; Kinch, Lisa

    The protein encoded by the SA1388 gene from Staphylococcus aureus was chosen for structure determination to elucidate its domain organization and confirm our earlier remote homology based prediction that it housed a nitrogen regulatory PII protein-like domain. SA1388 was predicted to contain a central PII-like domain and two flanking regions, which together belong to the NIF3-like protein family. Proteins like SA1388 remain a poorly studied group and their structural characterization could guide future investigations aimed at understanding their function. The structure of SA1388 has been solved to 2.0{angstrom} resolution by single wavelength anomalous dispersion phasing method using selenium anomalous signals.more » It reveals a canonical NIF3-like fold containing two domains with a PII-like domain inserted in the middle of the polypeptide. The N and C terminal halves of the NIF3-like domains are involved in dimerization, while the PII domain forms trimeric contacts with symmetry related monomers. Overall, the NIF3-like domains of SA1388 are organized as a hexameric toroid similar to its homologs, E. coli ybgI and the hypothetical protein SP1609 from Streptococcus pneumoniae. The openings on either side of the toroid are partially covered by trimeric 'lids' formed by the PII domains. The junction of the two NIF3 domains has two zinc ions bound at what appears to be a histidine rich active site. A well-defined electron density corresponding to an endogenously bound ligand of unknown identity is observed in close proximity to the metal site. SA1388 is the third member of the NIF3-like family of proteins to be structurally characterized, the other two also being hypothetical proteins of unknown function. The structure of SA1388 confirms our earlier prediction that the inserted domain that separates the two NIF3 domains adopts a PII-like fold and reveals an overall capped toroidal arrangement for the protein hexamer. The six PII-like domains form two trimeric 'lids

  2. 48 CFR 204.7004 - Supplementary PII numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... as follows: Normal modification Provisioned items order (reserved for exclusive use by the Air Force... supplementary number will be ARZ998, and on down as needed. (6) Each office authorized to issue modifications...) Modifications to calls or orders. Use a two position alpha-numeric suffix, known as a call or order modification...

  3. 48 CFR 204.7004 - Supplementary PII numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... as follows: Normal modification Provisioned items order (reserved for exclusive use by the Air Force... supplementary number will be ARZ998, and on down as needed. (6) Each office authorized to issue modifications...) Modifications to calls or orders. Use a two position alpha-numeric suffix, known as a call or order modification...

  4. 48 CFR 204.7003 - Basic PII number.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... procurement instrument is issued or awarded. (3) Position 9. Indicate the type of instrument by entering one...) Invitations for bids—B (iii) Contracts of all types except indefinite delivery contracts, sales contracts, and...—N (xv) Do not use—O (xvi) Purchase order—automated (assign V when numbering capacity of P is...

  5. Information Requirements for a Procurement Management Information System.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1975-08-01

    Management Information System is...described and some justification for this type of procurement management information system is presented. A literature search was made to determine...information systems. If information requirements are correctly identified and satisfied by a procurement management information system , contract administration and procurement management can be

  6. Identifying Fallacies of Reference in Argumentation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gough, Jim

    2009-01-01

    The experience of teaching informal logic (sometimes called practical logic) at the introductory level over the last fifteen years has allowed the author the opportunity to identify some interesting problems. These problems have been encountered by students attempting to understand some of the ideas presented in the informal logic course and by…

  7. The scotopic threshold response of the dark-adapted electroretinogram of the mouse.

    PubMed

    Saszik, Shannon M; Robson, John G; Frishman, Laura J

    2002-09-15

    The most sensitive response in the dark-adapted electroretinogram (ERG), the scotopic threshold response (STR) which originates from the proximal retina, has been identified in several mammals including humans, but previously not in the mouse. The current study established the presence and assessed the nature of the mouse STR. ERGs were recorded from adult wild-type C57/BL6 mice anaesthetized with ketamine (70 mg kg(-1)) and xylazine (7 mg kg(-1)). Recordings were between DTL fibres placed under contact lenses on the two eyes. Monocular test stimuli were brief flashes (lambda(max) 462 nm; -6.1 to +1.8 log scotopic Troland seconds(sc td s)) under fully dark-adapted conditions and in the presence of steady adapting backgrounds (-3.2 to -1.7 log sc td). For the weakest test stimuli, ERGs consisted of a slow negative potential maximal approximately 200 ms after the flash, with a small positive potential preceding it. The negative wave resembled the STR of other species. As intensity was increased, the negative potential saturated but the positive potential (maximal approximately 110 ms) continued to grow as the b-wave. For stimuli that saturated the b-wave, the a-wave emerged. For stimulus strengths up to those at which the a-wave emerged, ERG amplitudes measured at fixed times after the flash (110 and 200 ms) were fitted with a model assuming an initially linear rise of response amplitude with intensity, followed by saturation of five components of declining sensitivity: a negative STR (nSTR), a positive STR (pSTR), a positive scotopic response (pSR), PII (the bipolar cell component) and PIII (the photoreceptor component). The nSTR and pSTR were approximately 3 times more sensitive than the pSR, which was approximately 7 times more sensitive than PII. The sensitive positive components dominated the b-wave up to > 5 % of its saturated amplitude. Pharmacological agents that suppress proximal retinal activity (e.g. GABA) minimized the pSTR, nSTR and pSR, essentially

  8. Using geographic information systems (GIS) to identify communities in need of health insurance outreach: An OCHIN practice-based research network (PBRN) report.

    PubMed

    Angier, Heather; Likumahuwa, Sonja; Finnegan, Sean; Vakarcs, Trisha; Nelson, Christine; Bazemore, Andrew; Carrozza, Mark; DeVoe, Jennifer E

    2014-01-01

    Our practice-based research network (PBRN) is conducting an outreach intervention to increase health insurance coverage for patients seen in the network. To assist with outreach site selection, we sought an understandable way to use electronic health record (EHR) data to locate uninsured patients. Health insurance information was displayed within a web-based mapping platform to demonstrate the feasibility of using geographic information systems (GIS) to visualize EHR data. This study used EHR data from 52 clinics in the OCHIN PBRN. We included cross-sectional coverage data for patients aged 0 to 64 years with at least 1 visit to a study clinic during 2011 (n = 228,284). Our PBRN was successful in using GIS to identify intervention sites. Through use of the maps, we found geographic variation in insurance rates of patients seeking care in OCHIN PBRN clinics. Insurance rates also varied by age: The percentage of adults without insurance ranged from 13.2% to 86.8%; rates of children lacking insurance ranged from 1.1% to 71.7%. GIS also showed some areas of households with median incomes that had low insurance rates. EHR data can be imported into a web-based GIS mapping tool to visualize patient information. Using EHR data, we were able to observe smaller areas than could be seen using only publicly available data. Using this information, we identified appropriate OCHIN PBRN clinics for dissemination of an EHR-based insurance outreach intervention. GIS could also be used by clinics to visualize other patient-level characteristics to target clinic outreach efforts or interventions. © Copyright 2014 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

  9. Interaction between Nitrogen and Phosphate Stress Responses in Sinorhizobium meliloti

    DOE PAGES

    Hagberg, Kelly L.; Yurgel, Svetlana N.; Mulder, Monika; ...

    2016-11-30

    Bacteria have developed various stress response pathways to improve their assimilation and allocation of limited nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphate. While both the nitrogen stress response (NSR) and phosphate stress response (PSR) have been studied individually, there are few experiments reported that characterize effects of multiple stresses on one or more pathways in Sinorhizobium meliloti, a facultatively symbiotic, nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The PII proteins, GlnB and GlnK, regulate the NSR activity, but analysis of global transcription changes in a PII deficient mutant suggest that the S. meliloti PII proteins may also regulate the PSR. PII double deletion mutants grow verymore » slowly and pseudoreversion of the slow growth phenotype is common. In order to understand this phenomenon better, transposon mutants were isolated that had a faster growing phenotype. One mutation was in phoB, the response regulator for a two component regulatory system that is important in the PSR. phoB::Tn5 mutants had different phenotypes in the wild type compared to a PII deficient background. This led to the hypothesis that phosphate stress affects the NSR and conversely, that nitrogen stress affects the PSR. These results show that phosphate availability affects glutamine synthetase activity and expression, which are often used as indicators of NSR activity, but that nitrogen availability did not affect alkaline phosphatase activity and expression, which are indicators of PSR activity. Finally, we conclude that the NSR is co-regulated by nitrogen and phosphate, whereas the PSR does not appear to be co-regulated by nitrogen in addition to its known phosphate regulation.« less

  10. Interaction between Nitrogen and Phosphate Stress Responses in Sinorhizobium meliloti

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

    Hagberg, Kelly L.; Yurgel, Svetlana N.; Mulder, Monika

    Bacteria have developed various stress response pathways to improve their assimilation and allocation of limited nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphate. While both the nitrogen stress response (NSR) and phosphate stress response (PSR) have been studied individually, there are few experiments reported that characterize effects of multiple stresses on one or more pathways in Sinorhizobium meliloti, a facultatively symbiotic, nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The PII proteins, GlnB and GlnK, regulate the NSR activity, but analysis of global transcription changes in a PII deficient mutant suggest that the S. meliloti PII proteins may also regulate the PSR. PII double deletion mutants grow verymore » slowly and pseudoreversion of the slow growth phenotype is common. In order to understand this phenomenon better, transposon mutants were isolated that had a faster growing phenotype. One mutation was in phoB, the response regulator for a two component regulatory system that is important in the PSR. phoB::Tn5 mutants had different phenotypes in the wild type compared to a PII deficient background. This led to the hypothesis that phosphate stress affects the NSR and conversely, that nitrogen stress affects the PSR. These results show that phosphate availability affects glutamine synthetase activity and expression, which are often used as indicators of NSR activity, but that nitrogen availability did not affect alkaline phosphatase activity and expression, which are indicators of PSR activity. Finally, we conclude that the NSR is co-regulated by nitrogen and phosphate, whereas the PSR does not appear to be co-regulated by nitrogen in addition to its known phosphate regulation.« less

  11. Building a Rapid Learning Health Care System for Oncology: Why CancerLinQ Collects Identifiable Health Information to Achieve Its Vision.

    PubMed

    Shah, Alaap; Stewart, Andrew K; Kolacevski, Andrej; Michels, Dina; Miller, Robert

    2016-03-01

    The ever-increasing volume of scientific discoveries, clinical knowledge, novel diagnostic tools, and treatment options juxtaposed with rising costs in health care challenge physicians to identify, prioritize, and use new information rapidly to deliver efficient and high-quality care to a growing and aging patient population. CancerLinQ, a rapid learning health care system in oncology, is an initiative of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and its Institute for Quality that addresses these challenges by collecting information from the electronic health records of large numbers of patients with cancer. CancerLinQ is first and foremost a quality measurement and reporting system through which oncologists can harness the depth and power of their patients' clinical records and other data to assess, monitor, and improve the care they deliver. However, in light of privacy and security concerns with regard to collection, use, and disclosure of patient information, this article addresses the need to collect protected health information as defined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 to drive rapid learning through CancerLinQ. © 2016 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

  12. Use of the nominal group technique to identify stakeholder priorities and inform survey development: an example with informal caregivers of people with scleroderma.

    PubMed

    Rice, Danielle B; Cañedo-Ayala, Mara; Turner, Kimberly A; Gumuchian, Stephanie T; Malcarne, Vanessa L; Hagedoorn, Mariët; Thombs, Brett D

    2018-03-02

    The nominal group technique (NGT) allows stakeholders to directly generate items for needs assessment surveys. The objective was to demonstrate the use of NGT discussions to develop survey items on (1) challenges experienced by informal caregivers of people living with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and (2) preferences for support services. Three NGT groups were conducted. In each group, participants generated lists of challenges and preferred formats for support services. Participants shared items, and a master list was compiled, then reviewed by participants to remove or merge overlapping items. Once a final list of items was generated, participants independently rated challenges on a scale from 1 (not at all important) to 10 (extremely important) and support services on a scale from 1 (not at all likely to use) to 10 (very likely to use). Lists generated in the NGT discussions were subsequently reviewed and integrated into a single list by research team members. SSc patient conferences held in the USA and Canada. Informal caregivers who previously or currently were providing care for a family member or friend with SSc. A total of six men and seven women participated in the NGT discussions. Mean age was 59.8 years (SD=12.6). Participants provided care for a partner (n=8), parent (n=1), child (n=2) or friend (n=2). A list of 61 unique challenges was generated with challenges related to gaps in information, resources and support needs identified most frequently. A list of 18 unique support services was generated; most involved online or in-person delivery of emotional support and educational material about SSc. The NGT was an efficient method for obtaining survey items directly from SSc caregivers on important challenges and preferences for support services. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  13. Identifying developmental features in students' clinical reasoning to inform teaching.

    PubMed

    Pinnock, Ralph; Anakin, Megan; Lawrence, Julie; Chignell, Helen; Wilkinson, Tim

    2018-04-27

    There is increasing evidence that students at different levels of training may benefit from different methods of learning clinical reasoning. Two of the common methods of teaching are the "whole - case" format and the "serial cue" approach. There is little empirical evidence to guide teachers as to which method to use and when to introduce them. We observed 23 students from different stages of training to examine how they were taking a history and how they were thinking whilst doing this. Each student interviewed a simulated patient who presented with a straightforward and a complex presentation. We inferred how students were reasoning from how they took a history and how they described their thinking while doing this. Early in their training students can only take a generic history. Only later in training are they able to take a focused history, remember the information they have gathered, use it to seek further specific information, compare and contrast possibilities and analyze their data as they are collecting it. Early in their training students are unable to analyze data during history taking. When they have started developing illness scripts, they are able to benefit from the "serial cue" approach of teaching clinical reasoning.

  14. Using global unique identifiers to link autism collections.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Stephen B; Whitney, Glen; McAuliffe, Matthew; Wang, Hailong; McCreedy, Evan; Rozenblit, Leon; Evans, Clark C

    2010-01-01

    To propose a centralized method for generating global unique identifiers to link collections of research data and specimens. The work is a collaboration between the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative and the National Database for Autism Research. The system is implemented as a web service: an investigator inputs identifying information about a participant into a client application and sends encrypted information to a server application, which returns a generated global unique identifier. The authors evaluated the system using a volume test of one million simulated individuals and a field test on 2000 families (over 8000 individual participants) in an autism study. Inverse probability of hash codes; rate of false identity of two individuals; rate of false split of single individual; percentage of subjects for which identifying information could be collected; percentage of hash codes generated successfully. Large-volume simulation generated no false splits or false identity. Field testing in the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative Simplex Collection produced identifiers for 96% of children in the study and 77% of parents. On average, four out of five hash codes per subject were generated perfectly (only one perfect hash is required for subsequent matching). The system must achieve balance among the competing goals of distinguishing individuals, collecting accurate information for matching, and protecting confidentiality. Considerable effort is required to obtain approval from institutional review boards, obtain consent from participants, and to achieve compliance from sites during a multicenter study. Generic unique identifiers have the potential to link collections of research data, augment the amount and types of data available for individuals, support detection of overlap between collections, and facilitate replication of research findings.

  15. 28 CFR 22.22 - Revelation of identifiable data.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Revelation of identifiable data. 22.22 Section 22.22 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CONFIDENTIALITY OF IDENTIFIABLE RESEARCH AND STATISTICAL INFORMATION § 22.22 Revelation of identifiable data. (a) Except as noted in paragraph (b) of this...

  16. Evolving a NASA Digital Object Identifiers System with Community Engagement

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wanchoo, Lalit; James, Nathan

    2016-01-01

    To demonstrate how the ESDIS (Earth Science Data and Information System) DOI (Digital Object Identifier) system and its processes have evolved over these years based on the recommendations provided by the user community (whether the community members create and manage DOI information or use DOIs in the data citations). The user community is comprised of people with common interests and needs for data identifiers who are actively involved in the creation and usage process. Engagement describes the interactive context wherein the community provides information, evaluates the proposed processes, and provides guidance in the area of identifiers.

  17. HowTo - Easy use of global unique identifier

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Czerniak, A.; Fleischer, D.; Schirnick, C.

    2013-12-01

    The GEOMAR sample- and core repository covers several thousands of samples and cores and was collected over the last decades. In the actual project, we bring this collection up to the new generation and tag every sample and core with a unique identifier, in our case the International Geo Sample Number (ISGN). This work is done with our digital Ink and hand writing recognition implementation. The Smart Pen technology was save time and resources to record the information on every sample or core. In the procedure of recording, there are several steps systematical are done: 1. Getting all information about the core or sample, such as cruise number, responsible person and so on. 2. Tag with unique identifiers, in our case a QR-Code. 3. Wrote down the location of sample or core. After transmitting the information from Smart Pen, actually via USB but wireless is a choice too, into our server infrastructure the link to other information began. As it linked in our Virtual Research Environment (VRE) with the unique identifier (ISGN) sample or core can be located and the QR-Code was simply linked back from core or sample to ISGN with additional scientific information. On the QR-Code all important information are on it and it was simple to produce thousand of it.

  18. Identifying information that promotes belt-positioning booster use. Volume 2, Appendices

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2008-07-01

    Many parents with low educational attainment prematurely graduate their children to seat belt restraint rather than use belt-positioning booster seats. This study aimed to identify interventions that promoted booster seat use among this population. F...

  19. Outcomes of men with an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level as their sole preoperative intermediate- or high-risk feature.

    PubMed

    Faisal, Farzana A; Sundi, Debasish; Pierorazio, Phillip M; Ball, Mark W; Humphreys, Elizabeth B; Han, Misop; Epstein, Jonathan I; Partin, Alan W; Carter, H Ballentine; Bivalacqua, Trinity J; Schaeffer, Edward M; Ross, Ashley E

    2014-12-01

    To investigate the post-prostatectomy and long-term outcomes of men presenting with an elevated pretreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level (>10 ng/mL), but otherwise low-risk features (biopsy Gleason score ≤6 and clinical stage ≤T2a). PSA-incongruent intermediate-risk (PII) cases were defined as those patients with preoperative PSA >10 and ≤20 ng/mL but otherwise low-risk features, and PSA-incongruent high-risk (PIH) cases were defined as men with PSA >20 ng/mL but otherwise low-risk features. Our institutional radical prostatectomy database (1992-2012) was queried and the results were stratified into D'Amico low-, intermediate- and high risk, PSA-incongruent intermediate-risk and PSA-incongruent high-risk cases. Prostate cancer (PCa) features and outcomes were evaluated using appropriate comparative tests. Multivariable analyses were adjusted for age, race and year of surgery. Of the total cohort of 17 608 men, 1132 (6.4%) had PII-risk disease and 183 (1.0%) had PIH-risk disease. Compared with the low-risk group, the odds of upgrading at radical prostatectomy (RP) were 2.20 (95% CI 1.93-2.52; P < 0.001) for the PII group and 3.58 (95% CI 2.64-4.85; P < 0.001) for the PIH group, the odds of extraprostatic disease at RP were 2.35 (95% CI 2.05-2.68; P < 0.001) for the PII group and 6.68 (95% CI 4.89-9.15; P < 0.001) for the PIH group, and the odds of positive surgical margins were 1.97 (95% CI 1.67-2.33; P < 0.001) for the PII group and 3.54 (95% CI 2.50-4.95, P < 0.001) for the PIH group. Compared with low-risk disease, PII-risk disease was associated with a 2.85-, 2.99- and 3.32-fold greater risk of biochemical recurrence (BCR), metastasis and PCa-specific mortality, respectively, and PIH-risk disease was associated with a 5.32-, 6.14- and 7.07-fold greater risk of BCR, metastasis and PCa-specific mortality, respectively (P ≤ 0.001 for all comparisons). For the PII group, the higher risks of positive surgical margins, upgrading, upstaging and

  20. Application of Network Analysis to Identify and Map Relationships between Information Systems in the context of Arctic Sustainability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kontar, Y. Y.

    2017-12-01

    The Arctic Council is an intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States and indigenous communities on issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the North. The work of the Council is primarily carried out by six Working Groups: Arctic Contaminants Action Program, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response, Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment, and Sustainable Development Working Group. The Working Groups are composed of researchers and representatives from government agencies. Each Working Group issues numerous scientific assessments and reports on a broad field of subjects, from climate change to emergency response in the Arctic. A key goal of these publications is to contribute to policy-making in the Arctic. Complex networks of information systems and the connections between the diverse elements within the systems have been identified via network analysis. This allowed to distinguish data sources that were used in the composition of the primary publications of the Working Groups. Next step is to implement network analysis to identify and map the relationships between the Working Groups and policy makers in the Arctic.

  1. Identifying emotional and behavioral risk among gifted and nongifted children: A multi-gate, multi-informant approach.

    PubMed

    Eklund, Katie; Tanner, Nick; Stoll, Katie; Anway, Leslie

    2015-06-01

    The purpose of the current investigation was to compare 1,206 gifted and nongifted elementary students on the identification of emotional and behavioral risk (EBR) as rated by teachers and parents using a multigate, multi-informant approach to assessment. The Parent and Teacher Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2) and the Behavioral and Emotional Screening System were used to assess behavioral functioning as rated by teachers and parents. There were significant differences between the number of gifted and nongifted children demonstrating emotional and behavioral risk, with parents and teachers identifying a higher number of boys and nongifted children as at risk. Among children demonstrating EBR, gifted children demonstrated elevated internalizing behaviors as rated by parents. Gifted students demonstrated higher academic performance regardless of risk level, suggesting higher cognitive abilities may be one of several protective factors that serve to attenuate the development of other social, emotional, or behavioral concerns. Implications for practice and future research needs are discussed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  2. Technical Report on Research to Identify, Analyze, and Disseminate Information about Opportunities for Males and Females in Nontraditional Occupations. July 1978 through June 1979.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carvell, Fred; And Others

    This project was conducted to improve the quality and availability of information pertaining to opportunities in nontraditional occupations for use by teachers, counselors, and interested students. The major project objectives were (1) to review current employment patterns in California to identify nontraditional occupations; (2) to collect and…

  3. 32 CFR Appendix I to Part 275 - Format for Obtaining Basic Identifying Account Information

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... Account Information [Official Letterhead] [Date] Mr./Mrs. XXXXXXXXXX Chief Teller [as appropriate] First.... 3401 et. seq., you are requested to provide the following account information: [Name, address, account... to this request for account information. Under section 3417(c) of the Act, good faith reliance upon...

  4. Regulation of nitrate assimilation in cyanobacteria.

    PubMed

    Ohashi, Yoshitake; Shi, Wei; Takatani, Nobuyuki; Aichi, Makiko; Maeda, Shin-ichi; Watanabe, Satoru; Yoshikawa, Hirofumi; Omata, Tatsuo

    2011-02-01

    Nitrate assimilation by cyanobacteria is inhibited by the presence of ammonium in the growth medium. Both nitrate uptake and transcription of the nitrate assimilatory genes are regulated. The major intracellular signal for the regulation is, however, not ammonium or glutamine, but 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG), whose concentration changes according to the change in cellular C/N balance. When nitrogen is limiting growth, accumulation of 2-OG activates the transcription factor NtcA to induce transcription of the nitrate assimilation genes. Ammonium inhibits transcription by quickly depleting the 2-OG pool through its metabolism via the glutamine synthetase/glutamate synthase cycle. The P(II) protein inhibits the ABC-type nitrate transporter, and also nitrate reductase in some strains, by an unknown mechanism(s) when the cellular 2-OG level is low. Upon nitrogen limitation, 2-OG binds to P(II) to prevent the protein from inhibiting nitrate assimilation. A pathway-specific transcriptional regulator NtcB activates the nitrate assimilation genes in response to nitrite, either added to the medium or generated intracellularly by nitrate reduction. It plays an important role in selective activation of the nitrate assimilation pathway during growth under a limited supply of nitrate. P(II) was recently shown to regulate the activity of NtcA negatively by binding to PipX, a small coactivator protein of NtcA. On the basis of accumulating genome information from a variety of cyanobacteria and the molecular genetic data obtained from the representative strains, common features and group- or species-specific characteristics of the response of cyanobacteria to nitrogen is summarized and discussed in terms of ecophysiological significance.

  5. A spectral model for signal elements isolated from zebrafish photopic electroretinogram

    PubMed Central

    Nelson, Ralph; Singla, Nirmish

    2009-01-01

    The zebrafish photopic ERG sums isolatable elements. In each element red, blue, green and UV (r, g, b, u) cone signals combine in a way that reflects retinal organization. ERG responses to monochromatic stimuli of different wavelengths and irradiances were recorded on a white, rod suppressing background using superfused eyecups. Onset elements were isolated with glutamatergic blockers and response subtractions. CNQX blocked ionotropic (AMPA/kainate) glutamate receptors; L-AP4 or CPPG blocked metabotropic (mGluR6) glutamate receptors; TBOA blocked glutamate transporters; and L-Aspartate inactivated all glutamatergic mechanisms. Seven elements emerged: photopic PIII, the L-Aspartate-isolated cone response; b1, a CNQX-sensitive early b-wave element of inner retinal origin; PII, a photopic, CNQX-insensitive, composite b-wave element from ON bipolar cells; PIIm, an L-AP4/CPPG-sensitive, CNQX-insensitive metabotropic sub-element of PII; PIInm, an L-AP4/CPPG/CNQX-insensitive, non-metabotropic sub-element of PII; a1nm, a TBOA-sensitive, CNQX/L-AP4/CPPG-insensitive, non-metabotropic, post-photoreceptor a-wave element; and a2, a CNQX-sensitive a-wave element linked to OFF bipolar cells. The first five elements were fit with a spectral model that demonstrates independence of cone color pathways. From this Vmax and half-saturation values (k) for the contributing r- g- b- and u-cone signals were calculated. Two signal patterns emerged. For PIII or PIInm the Vmax order was Vr > Vg ≫ Vb ≈ Vu. For b1, PII, and PIIm the Vmax order was Vr ≈ Vb > Vg > Vu. In either pattern u-cone amplitude (Vu) was smallest, but u-cone sensitivity (ku362) was greatest, some 10-30 times greater than r-cone (kr570). The spectra of b1/PII/PIIm elements peaked near b-cone and u-cone absorbance maxima regardless of criteria, but the spectra of PIII/PIInm elements shifted from b- towards r-cone absorbance maxima as criterion levels increased. The greatest gains in Vmax relative to PIII occurred for

  6. Motivated Reasoning, Political Information, and Information Literacy Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lenker, Mark

    2016-01-01

    Research in psychology and political science has identified motivated reasoning as a set of biases that inhibit a person's ability to process political information objectively. This research has important implications for the information literacy movement's aims of fostering lifelong learning and informed citizenship. This essay argues that…

  7. Information Infrastructure: Organisational Capability for Online Information Provision.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Klobas, Jane E.

    This paper identifies aspects of information flow that are affected by online provision of internal information. Reference is made to four case studies of Western Australian government agencies' steps toward becoming Internet information providers, and to the lessons learned from their experiences. Three key interdependent elements of…

  8. Information Resource Management for Rural Communities in Zambia: Implications for National Information Policy Formulation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lundu, Maurice C.

    Arguing that the information needs of the rural community are largely ignored in the establishment of information systems and services, this paper: (1) identifies the unique characteristics of information users in rural areas; (2) identifies and analyzes the types of communication channels most likely to deliver the information related to…

  9. A Tailored Approach to Identifying and Addressing College Students' Online Health Information Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Banas, Jennifer

    2008-01-01

    Background: College students may fail to practice information literacy skills because they are unaware of their skill level or are not concerned with the risks. Purpose: In order to develop an effective message that motivates college students to learn online health information literacy skills, a better understanding of perceptions about such…

  10. Nanocuration workflows: Establishing best practices for identifying, inputting, and sharing data to inform decisions on nanomaterials

    PubMed Central

    Powers, Christina M; Mills, Karmann A; Morris, Stephanie A; Klaessig, Fred; Gaheen, Sharon; Lewinski, Nastassja

    2015-01-01

    Summary There is a critical opportunity in the field of nanoscience to compare and integrate information across diverse fields of study through informatics (i.e., nanoinformatics). This paper is one in a series of articles on the data curation process in nanoinformatics (nanocuration). Other articles in this series discuss key aspects of nanocuration (temporal metadata, data completeness, database integration), while the focus of this article is on the nanocuration workflow, or the process of identifying, inputting, and reviewing nanomaterial data in a data repository. In particular, the article discusses: 1) the rationale and importance of a defined workflow in nanocuration, 2) the influence of organizational goals or purpose on the workflow, 3) established workflow practices in other fields, 4) current workflow practices in nanocuration, 5) key challenges for workflows in emerging fields like nanomaterials, 6) examples to make these challenges more tangible, and 7) recommendations to address the identified challenges. Throughout the article, there is an emphasis on illustrating key concepts and current practices in the field. Data on current practices in the field are from a group of stakeholders active in nanocuration. In general, the development of workflows for nanocuration is nascent, with few individuals formally trained in data curation or utilizing available nanocuration resources (e.g., ISA-TAB-Nano). Additional emphasis on the potential benefits of cultivating nanomaterial data via nanocuration processes (e.g., capability to analyze data from across research groups) and providing nanocuration resources (e.g., training) will likely prove crucial for the wider application of nanocuration workflows in the scientific community. PMID:26425437

  11. 45 CFR 155.260 - Privacy and security of personally identifiable information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Privacy and security of personally identifiable... AFFORDABLE CARE ACT General Functions of an Exchange § 155.260 Privacy and security of personally... must establish and implement privacy and security standards that are consistent with the following...

  12. Information Technology and Community Restoration Studies/Task 1: Information Technology

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

    Upton, Jaki F.; Lesperance, Ann M.; Stein, Steven L.

    2009-11-19

    Executive Summary The Interagency Biological Restoration Demonstration—a program jointly funded by the Department of Defense's Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) Science and Technology Directorate—is developing policies, methods, plans, and applied technologies to restore large urban areas, critical infrastructures, and Department of Defense installations following the intentional release of a biological agent (anthrax) by terrorists. There is a perception that there should be a common system that can share information both vertically and horizontally amongst participating organizations as well as support analyses. A key question is: "How far away from this are we?" As partmore » of this program, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory conducted research to identify the current information technology tools that would be used by organizations in the greater Seattle urban area in such a scenario, to define criteria for use in evaluating information technology tools, and to identify current gaps. Researchers interviewed 28 individuals representing 25 agencies in civilian and military organizations to identify the tools they currently use to capture data needed to support operations and decision making. The organizations can be grouped into five broad categories: defense (Department of Defense), environmental/ecological (Environmental Protection Agency/Ecology), public health and medical services, emergency management, and critical infrastructure. The types of information that would be communicated in a biological terrorism incident include critical infrastructure and resource status, safety and protection information, laboratory test results, and general emergency information. The most commonly used tools are WebEOC (web-enabled crisis information management systems with real-time information sharing), mass notification software, resource tracking software, and NW WARN (web-based information to protect critical

  13. 26 CFR 1.6109-1 - Identifying numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Identifying numbers. 1.6109-1 Section 1.6109-1...) INCOME TAXES (CONTINUED) Miscellaneous Provisions § 1.6109-1 Identifying numbers. (a) Information to be... numbers with respect to returns, statements, and other documents which must be filed after April 15, 1974...

  14. 26 CFR 1.6109-1 - Identifying numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Identifying numbers. 1.6109-1 Section 1.6109-1...) INCOME TAXES (CONTINUED) Miscellaneous Provisions § 1.6109-1 Identifying numbers. (a) Information to be... numbers with respect to returns, statements, and other documents which must be filed after April 15, 1974...

  15. 26 CFR 1.6109-1 - Identifying numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Identifying numbers. 1.6109-1 Section 1.6109-1...) INCOME TAXES (CONTINUED) Miscellaneous Provisions § 1.6109-1 Identifying numbers. (a) Information to be... numbers with respect to returns, statements, and other documents which must be filed after April 15, 1974...

  16. 26 CFR 1.6109-1 - Identifying numbers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Identifying numbers. 1.6109-1 Section 1.6109-1...) INCOME TAXES (CONTINUED) Miscellaneous Provisions § 1.6109-1 Identifying numbers. (a) Information to be... numbers with respect to returns, statements, and other documents which must be filed after April 15, 1974...

  17. Identifying Health Consumers' eHealth Literacy to Decrease Disparities in Accessing eHealth Information.

    PubMed

    Park, Hyejin; Cormier, Eileen; Gordon, Glenna; Baeg, Jung Hoon

    2016-02-01

    The increasing amount of health information available on the Internet highlights the importance of eHealth literacy skills for health consumers. Low eHealth literacy results in disparities in health consumers' ability to access and use eHealth information. The purpose of this study was to assess the perceived eHealth literacy of a general health consumer population so that healthcare professionals can effectively address skills gaps in health consumers' ability to access and use high-quality online health information. Participants were recruited from three public library branches in a Northeast Florida community. The eHealth Literacy Scale was used. The majority of participants (n = 108) reported they knew how and where to find health information and how to use it to make health decisions; knowledge of what health resources were available and confidence in the ability to distinguish high- from low-quality information were considerably less. The findings suggest the need for eHealth education and support to health consumers from healthcare professionals, in particular, how to access and evaluate the quality of health information.

  18. Using simulation and virtual machines to identify information assurance requirements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Banks, Sheila B.; Stytz, Martin R.

    2010-04-01

    The US military is changing its philosophy, approach, and technologies used for warfare. In the process of achieving this vision for high-speed, highly mobile warfare, there are a number of issues that must be addressed and solved; issues that are not addressed by commercial systems because Department of Defense (DoD) Information Technology (IT) systems operate in an environment different from the commercial world. The differences arise from the differences in the scope and skill used in attacks upon DoD systems, the interdependencies between DoD software systems used for network centric warfare (NCW), and the need to rely upon commercial software components in virtually every DoD system. As a result, while NCW promises more effective and efficient means for employing DoD resources, it also increases the vulnerability and allure of DoD systems to cyber attack. A further challenge arises due to the rapid changes in software and information assurance (IA) requirements and technologies over the course of a project. Therefore, the four challenges that must be addressed are determining how to specify the information assurance requirements for a DoD system, minimizing changes to commercial software, incorporation of new system and IA requirements in a timely manner with minimal impact, and insuring that the interdependencies between systems do not result in cyber attack vulnerabilities. In this paper, we address all four issues. In addition to addressing the four challenges outlined above, the interdependencies and interconnections between systems indicate that the IA requirements for a system must consider two important facets of a system's IA defensive capabilities. The facets are the types of IA attacks that the system must repel and the ability of a system to insure that any IA attack that penetrates the system is contained within the system and does not spread. The IA requirements should be derived from threat assessments for the system as well as for the need to

  19. Sonification and Visualization of Predecisional Information Search: Identifying Toolboxes in Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Betsch, Tilmann; Wünsche, Kirsten; Großkopf, Armin; Schröder, Klara; Stenmans, Rachel

    2018-01-01

    Prior evidence has suggested that preschoolers and elementary schoolers search information largely with no systematic plan when making decisions in probabilistic environments. However, this finding might be due to the insensitivity of standard classification methods that assume a lack of variance in decision strategies for tasks of the same kind.…

  20. Interrogator system for identifying electrical circuits

    DOEpatents

    Jatko, W.B.; McNeilly, D.R.

    1988-04-12

    A system for interrogating electrical leads to correctly ascertain the identity of equipment attached to remote ends of the leads is disclosed. The system includes a source of a carrier signal generated in a controller/receiver to be sent over the leads and an identifier unit at the equipment. The identifier is activated by command of the carrier and uses a portion of the carrier to produce a supply voltage. Each identifier is uniquely programmed for a specific piece of equipment, and causes the impedance of the circuit to be modified whereby the carrier signal is modulated according to that program. The modulation can be amplitude, frequency or phase modulation. A demodulator in the controller/receiver analyzes the modulated carrier signal, and if a verified signal is recognized displays and/or records the information. This information can be utilized in a computer system to prepare a wiring diagram of the electrical equipment attached to specific leads. Specific circuit values are given for amplitude modulation, and the system is particularly described for use with thermocouples. 6 figs.

  1. Interrogator system for identifying electrical circuits

    DOEpatents

    Jatko, William B.; McNeilly, David R.

    1988-01-01

    A system for interrogating electrical leads to correctly ascertain the identity of equipment attached to remote ends of the leads. The system includes a source of a carrier signal generated in a controller/receiver to be sent over the leads and an identifier unit at the equipment. The identifier is activated by command of the carrier and uses a portion of the carrier to produce a supply voltage. Each identifier is uniquely programmed for a specific piece of equipment, and causes the impedance of the circuit to be modified whereby the carrier signal is modulated according to that program. The modulation can be amplitude, frequency or phase modulation. A demodulator in the controller/receiver analyzes the modulated carrier signal, and if a verified signal is recognized displays and/or records the information. This information can be utilized in a computer system to prepare a wiring diagram of the electrical equipment attached to specific leads. Specific circuit values are given for amplitude modulation, and the system is particularly described for use with thermocouples.

  2. "Geriatricizing" Hospitalists: Identifying Educational Opportunities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Friedman, Susan M.; Gillespie, Suzanne M.; Medina-Walpole, Annette M.; Caprio, Thomas V.; Karuza, Jurgis; McCann, Robert M.

    2013-01-01

    The objective of this study was to identify differences between geriatricians and hospitalists in caring for hospitalized older adults, so as to inform faculty development programs that have the goal of improving older patient care. Eleven hospitalists and 13 geriatricians were surveyed regarding knowledge, confidence, and practice patterns in…

  3. Identifying organizational capacities and incentives for clinical data-sharing: the case of a regional perinatal information system.

    PubMed

    Korst, Lisa M; Signer, Jordana M K; Aydin, Carolyn E; Fink, Arlene

    2008-01-01

    The development of regional data-sharing among healthcare organizations is viewed as an important step in the development of health information technology (HIT), but little is known about this complex task. This is a case study of a regional perinatal data system that involved four hospitals, together responsible for over 10,000 births annually. Using standard qualitative methods, we chronicled project milestones, and identified 31 "critical incidents" that delayed or prevented their achievement. We then used these critical incidents to articulate six organizational capacity domains associated with the achievement of project milestones, and a seventh domain consisting of organizational incentives. Finally, we analyzed the relationship of milestone achievement to the presence of these capacities and incentives. This data center case suggests four requirements for sharing data across organizations: 1) a readiness assessment; 2) a perceived mandate; 3) a formal governance structure; and 4) a third party IT component.

  4. Clustering Similarity Digest Bloom Filters in Self-Organizing Maps

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-12-01

    www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S1742287610000368 [4] M. Rogers, J . Goldman, R. Mislan, T. Wedge, and S. Debrota, “Computer forensics field triage...1990. [9] T. Kohonen, S. Kaski, K. Lagus, J . Salojarvi, J . Honkela, V. Paatero, and A. Saarela, “Self organization of a massive document collection...the IEEE-INNS-ENNS Interna- tional Joint Conference on, vol. 6, 2000, pp. 15 –19 vol.6. [12] G. Salton , A. Wong, and C. Yang, “A vector space model for

  5. Representing nursing assessments in clinical information systems using the logical observation identifiers, names, and codes database.

    PubMed

    Matney, Susan; Bakken, Suzanne; Huff, Stanley M

    2003-01-01

    In recent years, the Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, and Codes (LOINC) Database has been expanded to include assessment items of relevance to nursing and in 2002 met the criteria for "recognition" by the American Nurses Association. Assessment measures in LOINC include those related to vital signs, obstetric measurements, clinical assessment scales, assessments from standardized nursing terminologies, and research instruments. In order for LOINC to be of greater use in implementing information systems that support nursing practice, additional content is needed. Moreover, those implementing systems for nursing practice must be aware of the manner in which LOINC codes for assessments can be appropriately linked with other aspects of the nursing process such as diagnoses and interventions. Such linkages are necessary to document nursing contributions to healthcare outcomes within the context of a multidisciplinary care environment and to facilitate building of nursing knowledge from clinical practice. The purposes of this paper are to provide an overview of the LOINC database, to describe examples of assessments of relevance to nursing contained in LOINC, and to illustrate linkages of LOINC assessments with other nursing concepts.

  6. Public participation GIS: a method for identifying ecosystems services

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Brown, Greg; Montag, Jessica; Lyon, Katie

    2012-01-01

    This study evaluated the use of an Internet-based public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) to identify ecosystem services in Grand County, Colorado. Specific research objectives were to examine the distribution of ecosystem services, identify the characteristics of participants in the study, explore potential relationships between ecosystem services and land use and land cover (LULC) classifications, and assess the methodological strengths and weakness of the PPGIS approach for identifying ecosystem services. Key findings include: (1) Cultural ecosystem service opportunities were easiest to identify while supporting and regulatory services most challenging, (2) participants were highly educated, knowledgeable about nature and science, and have a strong connection to the outdoors, (3) some LULC classifications were logically and spatially associated with ecosystem services, and (4) despite limitations, the PPGIS method demonstrates potential for identifying ecosystem services to augment expert judgment and to inform public or environmental policy decisions regarding land use trade-offs.

  7. Mechanisms driving variability in the ocean forcing of Pine Island Glacier

    PubMed Central

    Webber, Benjamin G. M.; Heywood, Karen J.; Stevens, David P.; Dutrieux, Pierre; Abrahamsen, E. Povl; Jenkins, Adrian; Jacobs, Stanley S.; Ha, Ho Kyung; Lee, Sang Hoon; Kim, Tae Wan

    2017-01-01

    Pine Island Glacier (PIG) terminates in a rapidly melting ice shelf, and ocean circulation and temperature are implicated in the retreat and growing contribution to sea level rise of PIG and nearby glaciers. However, the variability of the ocean forcing of PIG has been poorly constrained due to a lack of multi-year observations. Here we show, using a unique record close to the Pine Island Ice Shelf (PIIS), that there is considerable oceanic variability at seasonal and interannual timescales, including a pronounced cold period from October 2011 to May 2013. This variability can be largely explained by two processes: cumulative ocean surface heat fluxes and sea ice formation close to PIIS; and interannual reversals in ocean currents and associated heat transport within Pine Island Bay, driven by a combination of local and remote forcing. Local atmospheric forcing therefore plays an important role in driving oceanic variability close to PIIS. PMID:28211473

  8. Identifying the Most Important 21st Century Workforce Competencies: An Analysis of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). Research Report. ETS RR-13-21

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Burrus, Jeremy; Jackson, Teresa; Xi, Nuo; Steinberg, Jonathan

    2013-01-01

    To identify the most important competencies for college graduates to succeed in the 21st century workforce, we conducted an analysis of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database. O*NET is a large job analysis operated and maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor. We specifically analyzed ratings of the importance of abilities (52…

  9. National variety trials identify clones with high potential

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Quality potato varieties are the backbone of a strong potato industry. Variety trials have been used to identify promising new varieties for well over a century. Trials are repeated and information collected over many years in order to confidently identify lines that may be well suited for productio...

  10. Can physicians recognize their own patients in de-identified notes?

    PubMed

    Meystre, Stéphane; Shen, Shuying; Hofmann, Deborah; Gundlapalli, Adi

    2014-01-01

    The adoption of Electronic Health Records is growing at a fast pace, and this growth results in very large quantities of patient clinical information becoming available in electronic format, with tremendous potentials, but also equally growing concern for patient confidentiality breaches. De-identification of patient information has been proposed as a solution to both facilitate secondary uses of clinical information, and protect patient information confidentiality. Automated approaches based on Natural Language Processing have been implemented and evaluated, allowing for much faster text de-identification than manual approaches. A U.S. Veterans Affairs clinical text de-identification project focused on investigating the current state of the art of automatic clinical text de-identification, on developing a best-of-breed de-identification application for clinical documents, and on evaluating its impact on subsequent text uses and the risk for re-identification. To evaluate this risk, we de-identified discharge summaries from 86 patients using our 'best-of-breed' text de-identification application with resynthesis of the identifiers detected. We then asked physicians working in the ward the patients were hospitalized in if they could recognize these patients when reading the de-identified documents. Each document was examined by at least one resident and one attending physician, and with 4.65% of the documents, physicians thought they recognized the patient because of specific clinical information, but after verification, none was correctly re-identified.

  11. All Information Is Not Equal: Using the Literature Databases PubMed and The Cochrane Library for Identifying the Evidence on Granulocyte Transfusion Therapy.

    PubMed

    Metzendorf, Maria-Inti; Schulz, Manuela; Braun, Volker

    2014-10-01

    To be able to take well-informed decisions or carry out sound research, clinicians and researchers alike require specific information seeking skills matching their respective information needs. Biomedical information is traditionally available via different literature databases. This article gives an introduction to two diverging sources, PubMed (23 million references) and The Cochrane Library (800,000 references), both of which offer sophisticated instruments for searching an increasing amount of medical publications of varied quality and ambition. Whereas PubMed as an unfiltered source of primary literature comprises all different kinds of publication types occurring in academic journals, The Cochrane Library is a pre-filtered source which offers access to either synthesized publication types or critically appraised and carefully selected references. A search approach has to be carried out deliberately and requires a good knowledge on the scope and features of the databases as well as on the ability to build a search strategy in a structured way. We present a specific and a sensitive search approach, making use of both databases within two application case scenarios in order to identify the evidence on granulocyte transfusions for infections in adult patients with neutropenia.

  12. All Information Is Not Equal: Using the Literature Databases PubMed and The Cochrane Library for Identifying the Evidence on Granulocyte Transfusion Therapy

    PubMed Central

    Metzendorf, Maria-Inti; Schulz, Manuela; Braun, Volker

    2014-01-01

    Summary To be able to take well-informed decisions or carry out sound research, clinicians and researchers alike require specific information seeking skills matching their respective information needs. Biomedical information is traditionally available via different literature databases. This article gives an introduction to two diverging sources, PubMed (23 million references) and The Cochrane Library (800,000 references), both of which offer sophisticated instruments for searching an increasing amount of medical publications of varied quality and ambition. Whereas PubMed as an unfiltered source of primary literature comprises all different kinds of publication types occurring in academic journals, The Cochrane Library is a pre-filtered source which offers access to either synthesized publication types or critically appraised and carefully selected references. A search approach has to be carried out deliberately and requires a good knowledge on the scope and features of the databases as well as on the ability to build a search strategy in a structured way. We present a specific and a sensitive search approach, making use of both databases within two application case scenarios in order to identify the evidence on granulocyte transfusions for infections in adult patients with neutropenia. PMID:25538539

  13. Using Persuasion Models to Identify Givers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ferguson, Mary Ann; And Others

    1986-01-01

    Assesses the feasibility of and suggests using W. J. McGuire's information processing theory and cognitive response analysis theory in research studies to identify "givers"--those who are likely to contribute money and resources to charities or volunteer to aid philanthropic organizations. (SRT)

  14. Identifying UMLS concepts from ECG Impressions using KnowledgeMap

    PubMed Central

    Denny, Joshua C.; Spickard, Anderson; Miller, Randolph A; Schildcrout, Jonathan; Darbar, Dawood; Rosenbloom, S. Trent; Peterson, Josh F.

    2005-01-01

    Electrocardiogram (ECG) impressions represent a wealth of medical information for potential decision support and drug-effect discovery. Much of this information is inaccessible to automated methods in the free-text portion of the ECG report. We studied the application of the KnowledgeMap concept identifier (KMCI) to map Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) concepts from ECG impressions. ECGs were processed by KMCI and the results scored for accuracy by multiple raters. Reviewers also recorded unidentified concepts through the scoring interface. Overall, KMCI correctly identified 1059 out of 1171 concepts for a recall of 0.90. Precision, indicating the proportion of ECG concepts correctly identified, was 0.94. KMCI was particularly effective at identifying ECG rhythms (330/333), perfusion changes (65/66), and noncardiac medical concepts (11/11). In conclusion, KMCI is an effective method for mapping ECG impressions to UMLS concepts. PMID:16779029

  15. Predicting and analyzing DNA-binding domains using a systematic approach to identifying a set of informative physicochemical and biochemical properties

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background Existing methods of predicting DNA-binding proteins used valuable features of physicochemical properties to design support vector machine (SVM) based classifiers. Generally, selection of physicochemical properties and determination of their corresponding feature vectors rely mainly on known properties of binding mechanism and experience of designers. However, there exists a troublesome problem for designers that some different physicochemical properties have similar vectors of representing 20 amino acids and some closely related physicochemical properties have dissimilar vectors. Results This study proposes a systematic approach (named Auto-IDPCPs) to automatically identify a set of physicochemical and biochemical properties in the AAindex database to design SVM-based classifiers for predicting and analyzing DNA-binding domains/proteins. Auto-IDPCPs consists of 1) clustering 531 amino acid indices in AAindex into 20 clusters using a fuzzy c-means algorithm, 2) utilizing an efficient genetic algorithm based optimization method IBCGA to select an informative feature set of size m to represent sequences, and 3) analyzing the selected features to identify related physicochemical properties which may affect the binding mechanism of DNA-binding domains/proteins. The proposed Auto-IDPCPs identified m=22 features of properties belonging to five clusters for predicting DNA-binding domains with a five-fold cross-validation accuracy of 87.12%, which is promising compared with the accuracy of 86.62% of the existing method PSSM-400. For predicting DNA-binding sequences, the accuracy of 75.50% was obtained using m=28 features, where PSSM-400 has an accuracy of 74.22%. Auto-IDPCPs and PSSM-400 have accuracies of 80.73% and 82.81%, respectively, applied to an independent test data set of DNA-binding domains. Some typical physicochemical properties discovered are hydrophobicity, secondary structure, charge, solvent accessibility, polarity, flexibility, normalized Van Der

  16. Overview of Privacy in Social Networking Sites (SNS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Powale, Pallavi I.; Bhutkar, Ganesh D.

    2013-07-01

    Social Networking Sites (SNS) have become an integral part of communication and life style of people in today's world. Because of the wide range of services offered by SNSs mostly for free of cost, these sites are attracting the attention of all possible Internet users. Most importantly, users from all age groups have become members of SNSs. Since many of the users are not aware of the data thefts associated with information sharing, they freely share their personal information with SNSs. Therefore, SNSs may be used for investigating users' character and social habits by familiar or even unknown persons and agencies. Such commercial and social scenario, has led to number of privacy and security threats. Though, all major issues in SNSs need to be addressed, by SNS providers, privacy of SNS users is the most crucial. And therefore, in this paper, we have focused our discussion on "privacy in SNSs". We have discussed different ways of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) leakages from SNSs, information revelation to third-party domains without user consent and privacy related threats associated with such information sharing. We expect that this comprehensive overview on privacy in SNSs will definitely help in raising user awareness about sharing data and managing their privacy with SNSs. It will also help SNS providers to rethink about their privacy policies.

  17. Mutual information identifies spurious Hurst phenomena in resting state EEG and fMRI data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    von Wegner, Frederic; Laufs, Helmut; Tagliazucchi, Enzo

    2018-02-01

    Long-range memory in time series is often quantified by the Hurst exponent H , a measure of the signal's variance across several time scales. We analyze neurophysiological time series from electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) resting state experiments with two standard Hurst exponent estimators and with the time-lagged mutual information function applied to discretized versions of the signals. A confidence interval for the mutual information function is obtained from surrogate Markov processes with equilibrium distribution and transition matrix identical to the underlying signal. For EEG signals, we construct an additional mutual information confidence interval from a short-range correlated, tenth-order autoregressive model. We reproduce the previously described Hurst phenomenon (H >0.5 ) in the analytical amplitude of alpha frequency band oscillations, in EEG microstate sequences, and in fMRI signals, but we show that the Hurst phenomenon occurs without long-range memory in the information-theoretical sense. We find that the mutual information function of neurophysiological data behaves differently from fractional Gaussian noise (fGn), for which the Hurst phenomenon is a sufficient condition to prove long-range memory. Two other well-characterized, short-range correlated stochastic processes (Ornstein-Uhlenbeck, Cox-Ingersoll-Ross) also yield H >0.5 , whereas their mutual information functions lie within the Markovian confidence intervals, similar to neural signals. In these processes, which do not have long-range memory by construction, a spurious Hurst phenomenon occurs due to slow relaxation times and heteroscedasticity (time-varying conditional variance). In summary, we find that mutual information correctly distinguishes long-range from short-range dependence in the theoretical and experimental cases discussed. Our results also suggest that the stationary fGn process is not sufficient to describe neural data, which

  18. Key principles to guide development of consumer medicine information--content analysis of information design texts.

    PubMed

    Raynor, David K; Dickinson, David

    2009-04-01

    Effective written consumer medicines information is essential to support safe and effective medicine taking, but the wording and layout of currently provided materials do not meet patients' needs. To identify principles from the wider discipline of information design for use by health professionals when developing or assessing written drug information for patients. Six experts in information design nominated texts on best practice in information design applicable to consumer medicines information. A content analysis identified key principles that were tabulated to bring out key themes. Six texts that met the inclusion criteria, were identified, and content analysis indentified 4 themes: words, type, lines, and layout. Within these main themes, there were 24 subthemes. Selected principles relating to these subthemes were: use short familiar words, short sentences, and short headings that stand out from the text; use a conversational tone of voice, addressing the reader as "you"; use a large type size while retaining sufficient white space; use bullet points to organize lists; use unjustified text (ragged right) and bold, lower-case text for emphasis. Pictures or graphics do not necessarily improve a document. Applying the good information design principles identified to written consumer medicines information could support health professionals when developing and assessing drug information for patients.

  19. Identifying Predictors of Achievement in the Newly Defined Information Literacy: A Neural Network Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sexton, Randall; Hignite, Michael; Margavio, Thomas M.; Margavio, Geanie W.

    2009-01-01

    Information Literacy is a concept that evolved as a result of efforts to move technology-based instructional and research efforts beyond the concepts previously associated with "computer literacy." While computer literacy was largely a topic devoted to knowledge of hardware and software, information literacy is concerned with students' abilities…

  20. Evaluation of Quality and Readability of Health Information Websites Identified through India's Major Search Engines.

    PubMed

    Raj, S; Sharma, V L; Singh, A J; Goel, S

    2016-01-01

    Background. The available health information on websites should be reliable and accurate in order to make informed decisions by community. This study was done to assess the quality and readability of health information websites on World Wide Web in India. Methods. This cross-sectional study was carried out in June 2014. The key words "Health" and "Information" were used on search engines "Google" and "Yahoo." Out of 50 websites (25 from each search engines), after exclusion, 32 websites were evaluated. LIDA tool was used to assess the quality whereas the readability was assessed using Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), and SMOG. Results. Forty percent of websites (n = 13) were sponsored by government. Health On the Net Code of Conduct (HONcode) certification was present on 50% (n = 16) of websites. The mean LIDA score (74.31) was average. Only 3 websites scored high on LIDA score. Only five had readability scores at recommended sixth-grade level. Conclusion. Most health information websites had average quality especially in terms of usability and reliability and were written at high readability levels. Efforts are needed to develop the health information websites which can help general population in informed decision making.

  1. Protecting Astronaut Medical Privacy: Review of Presentations and Publications for Attributability

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wear, M. L.; Charvat, J. M.; Lee, L. R.; Babiak-Vazquez, A.; Mason, S. S.; Van Baalen, M.

    2018-01-01

    Retrospective research and medical data collected on astronauts can be a valuable resource for researchers. This data can be requested from two separate NASA Archives. The Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH) holds astronaut medical data, and the Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) holds research data. One condition of use of astronaut research and medical data is the requirement that all abstracts, publications and presentations using this data must be reviewed for attributability. All final versions of abstracts, presentations, posters, and manuscripts must be reviewed by LSDA/LSAH prior to submission to a conference, journal, or other entities outside the Principal Investigator (PI) laboratory [including the NASA Export Control Document Availability Authorization (DAA) system]. If material undergoes multiple revisions (e.g., journal editor comments), the new versions must also be reviewed by LSDA/LSAH prior to re-submission to the journal. The purpose of this review is to ensure that no personally identifiable information (PII) is included in materials that are presented in a public venue or posted to the public domain. The procedures for submitting materials for review will be outlined. The process that LSAH/LSDA follows for assessing attributability will be presented. Characteristics and parameter combinations that often prompt attributability concerns will be identified. A published case report for a National Football League (NFL) player will be used to demonstrate how, in a population of public interest, a combination of information can result in inadvertent release of private or sensitive information.

  2. Using the GRIN-Global System to Identify Useful Plant Genetic Resources & Information

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The GRIN-Global (GG) System has been developed to provide the world's crop genebanks and plant genetic resource (PGR) users with a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use PGR information management system. Developed jointly by the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bioversity International and the Global C...

  3. Scoliosis-specific information on the internet: has the "information highway" led to better information provision?

    PubMed

    Nason, Gregory J; Baker, Joseph F; Byrne, Damien P; Noel, Jacques; Moore, David; Kiely, Patrick J

    2012-10-01

    A quality-control Internet-based study using recognized quality scoring systems. To evaluate the quality of information available on the Internet. The quality of information available is of poor quality and unreliable, and this study was to determine if it has improved in line with the exponential increase in Internet-based information since the last time it was reviewed in 2005. To identify potential Web sites, the 5 most commonly accessed search engines were identified and a search for "scoliosis" was performed on each. The top 100 Web sites were reviewed. Each Web site was categorized according to its authorship and assessed using recognized scoring systems (Journal of American Medical Association [JAMA] and DISCERN criteria, scoliosis-specific content quality). The presence of the Health on the Net code, a reported quality-assurance marker, was noted. Forty-one unique Web sites were identified and analyzed. Five were academic, 11 were produced by physicians, 5 were commercial, 3 were nonphysician sites, 6 were attached to discussion groups or social media sites, 3 were media related, and 8 were not otherwise classifiable. There were significant differences noted between the authorship categories on the DISCERN score, JAMA benchmark criteria, and scoliosis-specific content quality score, (P = 0.001, <0.0001, and 0.009, respectively) with academic- and physician-related Web sites containing better-quality information. Internet sites with a Health on the Net code demonstrated higher-quality scoliosis-specific information than those without the code (P = 0.1368). The overall quality of information regarding scoliosis remains poor despite an exponential increase in the number of sites available. Patients need to be educated about appropriate Internet use-academic- and physician-provided sites have been shown to contain better-quality information. We have a potential role as clinicians to not only direct patients to appropriate sites but also to help in developing

  4. Psychosemiotics and Libraries: Identifying Signways in Library Informational Guides, Games, and Tutorials

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Laster, Barbara; Blummer, Barbara; Kenton, Jeffrey M.

    2010-01-01

    Tutorials and digital learning objects provide librarians a quick, concise mechanism for delivering information and training on a wide range of library topics. The semiotic theory promoted by Charles Sanders Peirce (Wiener, 1958) and Howard Smith (2005) contains implications for enhancing the effectiveness of library tutorials through the…

  5. Extracting Information from Electronic Medical Records to Identify the Obesity Status of a Patient Based on Comorbidities and Bodyweight Measures.

    PubMed

    Figueroa, Rosa L; Flores, Christopher A

    2016-08-01

    Obesity is a chronic disease with an increasing impact on the world's population. In this work, we present a method of identifying obesity automatically using text mining techniques and information related to body weight measures and obesity comorbidities. We used a dataset of 3015 de-identified medical records that contain labels for two classification problems. The first classification problem distinguishes between obesity, overweight, normal weight, and underweight. The second classification problem differentiates between obesity types: super obesity, morbid obesity, severe obesity and moderate obesity. We used a Bag of Words approach to represent the records together with unigram and bigram representations of the features. We implemented two approaches: a hierarchical method and a nonhierarchical one. We used Support Vector Machine and Naïve Bayes together with ten-fold cross validation to evaluate and compare performances. Our results indicate that the hierarchical approach does not work as well as the nonhierarchical one. In general, our results show that Support Vector Machine obtains better performances than Naïve Bayes for both classification problems. We also observed that bigram representation improves performance compared with unigram representation.

  6. Structural identifiability analysis of a cardiovascular system model.

    PubMed

    Pironet, Antoine; Dauby, Pierre C; Chase, J Geoffrey; Docherty, Paul D; Revie, James A; Desaive, Thomas

    2016-05-01

    The six-chamber cardiovascular system model of Burkhoff and Tyberg has been used in several theoretical and experimental studies. However, this cardiovascular system model (and others derived from it) are not identifiable from any output set. In this work, two such cases of structural non-identifiability are first presented. These cases occur when the model output set only contains a single type of information (pressure or volume). A specific output set is thus chosen, mixing pressure and volume information and containing only a limited number of clinically available measurements. Then, by manipulating the model equations involving these outputs, it is demonstrated that the six-chamber cardiovascular system model is structurally globally identifiable. A further simplification is made, assuming known cardiac valve resistances. Because of the poor practical identifiability of these four parameters, this assumption is usual. Under this hypothesis, the six-chamber cardiovascular system model is structurally identifiable from an even smaller dataset. As a consequence, parameter values computed from limited but well-chosen datasets are theoretically unique. This means that the parameter identification procedure can safely be performed on the model from such a well-chosen dataset. Thus, the model may be considered suitable for use in diagnosis. Copyright © 2016 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Evaluation of Quality and Readability of Health Information Websites Identified through India's Major Search Engines

    PubMed Central

    Raj, S.; Sharma, V. L.; Singh, A. J.; Goel, S.

    2016-01-01

    Background. The available health information on websites should be reliable and accurate in order to make informed decisions by community. This study was done to assess the quality and readability of health information websites on World Wide Web in India. Methods. This cross-sectional study was carried out in June 2014. The key words “Health” and “Information” were used on search engines “Google” and “Yahoo.” Out of 50 websites (25 from each search engines), after exclusion, 32 websites were evaluated. LIDA tool was used to assess the quality whereas the readability was assessed using Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), and SMOG. Results. Forty percent of websites (n = 13) were sponsored by government. Health On the Net Code of Conduct (HONcode) certification was present on 50% (n = 16) of websites. The mean LIDA score (74.31) was average. Only 3 websites scored high on LIDA score. Only five had readability scores at recommended sixth-grade level. Conclusion. Most health information websites had average quality especially in terms of usability and reliability and were written at high readability levels. Efforts are needed to develop the health information websites which can help general population in informed decision making. PMID:27119025

  8. 77 FR 58911 - Additional Identifying Information for One (1) Individual Designated Pursuant to Executive Order...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-09-24

    ... Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (``SDN List'') on September 13, 2012. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION... and Facsimile Availability The SDN List and additional information concerning OFAC are available from...

  9. Identifying components in consent information needed to support informed decision making about trial participation: An interview study with women managing cancer.

    PubMed

    Abhyankar, Purva; Velikova, Galina; Summers, Barbara; Bekker, Hilary L

    2016-07-01

    Research governance requires patients give informed consent to participate in clinical trials. However, there are concerns that consent information may not support patient participation decisions. This study investigates the utility of consent information in supporting women's trial participation decisions when receiving treatment for cancer. An interview study with women receiving cancer treatments at a medical oncology outpatient clinic in Yorkshire (UK). All women over 18 years, not admitted to a hospital ward and who had currently or previously been invited to take part in a trial were invited to take part in the study over a three month period. Interviews were audio-tape recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Of those eligible (n = 41), 21 women with breast (n = 11), ovarian (n = 8) and endometrial (n = 2) cancer participated (mean age = 57 years). Eighteen had made at least one trial decision and three were considering taking part in a trial. Findings are synthesised under two analytical themes: 1) Influence of the cancer and cancer treatment context on decision making for trial participation; and 2) Experiences of the consenting process and their influence on decision making. Designing trial information to represent explicitly the trial participation decision as being between standard care and study-related care options is more likely to effectively support patients in making informed decisions between standard care treatments and taking part in a trial. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. The glycemic and peak incremental indices of honey, sucrose and glucose in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus: effects on C-peptide level-a pilot study.

    PubMed

    Abdulrhman, Mamdouh; El-Hefnawy, Mohamed; Hussein, Rasha; El-Goud, Ahmad Abou

    2011-06-01

    Our study was a case-control cross-sectional study that was conducted on 20 children and adolescents suffering from type 1 diabetes mellitus and ten healthy non-diabetic children and adolescents serving as controls. The mean age of patients was 10.95 years. Oral sugar tolerance tests using glucose, sucrose and honey and measurement of fasting and postprandial serum C-peptide levels were done for all subjects in three separate sittings. The glycemic index (GI) and the peak incremental index (PII) were then calculated for each subject. Honey, compared to sucrose, had lower GI and PII in both patients (P < 0.001) and control (P < 0.05) groups. In the patients group, the increase in the level of C-peptide after using honey was not significant when compared with using either glucose or sucrose. However, in the control group, honey produced a significant higher C-peptide level, when compared with either glucose or sucrose. In conclusion, honey, because of its lower GI and PII when compared with sucrose, may be used as a sugar substitute in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

  11. Caveat emptor: Erroneous safety information about opioids in online drug-information compendia.

    PubMed

    Talwar, Sonia R; Randhawa, Amarita S; Dankiewicz, Erica H; Crudele, Nancy T; Haddox, J David

    2016-01-01

    Healthcare professionals and consumers refer to online drug-information compendia (eg, Epocrates and WebMD) to learn about prescription medications, including opioid analgesics. With the significant risks associated with opioids, including abuse, misuse, and addiction, any of which can result in life-threatening overdose, it is important for those seeking information from online compendia to have access to current, accurate, and complete drug information to help support clinical treatment decisions. Although compendia are informative, readily available, and user friendly, studies have shown that they may contain errors. To review and identify misinformation in drug summaries of online drug-information compendia for selected opioid analgesic products and submit content corrections to the respective editors. Between 2011 and 2013, drug summaries for Purdue's prescription opioid analgesic products from seven leading online drug-information compendia were systematically reviewed, and the requests for corrections were retrospectively categorized and classified. At least 2 months following requests, the same compendia were then reexamined to assess the degree of error resolution. A total of 859 errors were identified, with the greatest percentage in Safety and Patient Education categories. Across the seven compendia, the complete or partial resolution of errors was 34 percent; therefore, nearly two thirds of the identified errors remain. The results of this analysis, consistent with past studies, demonstrate that online drug-information compendia may contain inaccurate information. Healthcare professionals and consumers must be informed of potential misinformation so they may consider using multiple resources to obtain accurate and current drug information, thereby helping to ensure safer use of prescription medications, such as opioids.

  12. Identifying essential proteins based on sub-network partition and prioritization by integrating subcellular localization information.

    PubMed

    Li, Min; Li, Wenkai; Wu, Fang-Xiang; Pan, Yi; Wang, Jianxin

    2018-06-14

    Essential proteins are important participants in various life activities and play a vital role in the survival and reproduction of living organisms. Identification of essential proteins from protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks has great significance to facilitate the study of human complex diseases, the design of drugs and the development of bioinformatics and computational science. Studies have shown that highly connected proteins in a PPI network tend to be essential. A series of computational methods have been proposed to identify essential proteins by analyzing topological structures of PPI networks. However, the high noise in the PPI data can degrade the accuracy of essential protein prediction. Moreover, proteins must be located in the appropriate subcellular localization to perform their functions, and only when the proteins are located in the same subcellular localization, it is possible that they can interact with each other. In this paper, we propose a new network-based essential protein discovery method based on sub-network partition and prioritization by integrating subcellular localization information, named SPP. The proposed method SPP was tested on two different yeast PPI networks obtained from DIP database and BioGRID database. The experimental results show that SPP can effectively reduce the effect of false positives in PPI networks and predict essential proteins more accurately compared with other existing computational methods DC, BC, CC, SC, EC, IC, NC. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Simplifying the complexity surrounding ICU work processes--identifying the scope for information management in ICU settings.

    PubMed

    Munir, Samina K; Kay, Stephen

    2005-08-01

    A multi-site study, conducted in two English and two Danish intensive care units, investigates the complexity of work processes in intensive care, and the implications of this complexity for information management with regards to clinical information systems. Data were collected via observations, shadowing of clinical staff, interviews and questionnaires. The construction of role activity diagrams enabled the capture of critical care work processes. Upon analysing these diagrams, it was found that intensive care work processes consist of 'simplified-complexity', these processes are changed with the introduction of information systems for the everyday use and management of all clinical information. The prevailing notion of complexity surrounding critical care clinical work processes was refuted and found to be misleading; in reality, it is not the work processes that cause the complexity, the complexity is rooted in the way in which clinical information is used and managed. This study emphasises that the potential for clinical information systems that consider integrating all clinical information requirements is not only immense but also very plausible.

  14. Collections and user tools for utilization of persistent identifiers in cyberinfrastructures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Weigel, T.

    2014-12-01

    The main use of persistent identifiers (PIDs) for data objects has so far been for formal publication and citation purposes with a focus on long-term availability and trust. This core use case has now evolved and broadened to include basic data management tasks as identifiers are increasingly seen as a possible anchor element in the deluge of data for purposes of large-scale automation of tasks. The European Data Infrastructure (EUDAT) for instance uses PIDs in their back-end services and distinctly so for entities where the identifier may be more persistent than a resource with limited lifetime. Despite breaking with the traditional metaphor, this offers new opportunities for data management and end-user tools, but also requires a clear demonstrated benefit of value-added services because en masse identifier assignment does not come at zero costs. There are several obstacles to overcome when establishing identifiers at large scale. The administration of large numbers of identifiers can be cumbersome if they are treated in an isolated manner. Here, identifier collections can enable automated mass operations on groups of associated objects. Several use cases rely on base information that is rapidly available from the identifier systems without the need to retrieve objects, yet they will not work efficiently if the information is not consistently typed. Tools that span cyberinfrastructures and address scientific end-users unaware of the varying back-ends must overcome such obstacles. The Working Group on PID Information Types of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) has developed an interface specification and prototype to access and manipulate typed base information. Concrete prototypes for identifier collections exist as well. We will present some first data and provenance tracking tools that make extensive use of these recent developments and address different user needs that span from administrative tasks to individual end-user services with particular focus on data

  15. Identifying information that promotes belt-positioning booster use. Volume 1, Summary and findings

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2008-07-01

    Many parents with low educational attainment prematurely graduate their children to seat belt restraint rather than use belt-positioning booster seats. This study aimed to identify interventions that promoted booster seat use among this population. F...

  16. Inverted File Compression through Document Identifier Reassignment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shieh, Wann-Yun; Chen, Tien-Fu; Shann, Jean Jyh-Jiun; Chung, Chung-Ping

    2003-01-01

    Discusses the use of inverted files in information retrieval systems and proposes a document identifier reassignment method to reduce the average gap values in an inverted file. Highlights include the d-gap technique; document similarity; heuristic algorithms; file compression; and performance evaluation from a simulation environment. (LRW)

  17. Preventability of Voluntarily Reported or Trigger Tool-Identified Medication Errors in a Pediatric Institution by Information Technology: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

    PubMed

    Stultz, Jeremy S; Nahata, Milap C

    2015-07-01

    Information technology (IT) has the potential to prevent medication errors. While many studies have analyzed specific IT technologies and preventable adverse drug events, no studies have identified risk factors for errors still occurring that are not preventable by IT. The objective of this study was to categorize reported or trigger tool-identified errors and adverse events (AEs) at a pediatric tertiary care institution. Also, we sought to identify medication errors preventable by IT, determine why IT-preventable errors occurred, and to identify risk factors for errors that were not preventable by IT. This was a retrospective analysis of voluntarily reported or trigger tool-identified errors and AEs occurring from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012. Medication errors reaching the patients were categorized based on the origin, severity, and location of the error, the month in which they occurred, and the age of the patient involved. Error characteristics were included in a multivariable logistic regression model to determine independent risk factors for errors occurring that were not preventable by IT. A medication error was defined as a medication-related failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim. An IT-preventable error was defined as having an IT system in place to aid in prevention of the error at the phase and location of its origin. There were 936 medication errors (identified by voluntarily reporting or a trigger tool system) included and analyzed. Drug administration errors were identified most frequently (53.4% ), but prescribing errors most frequently caused harm (47.2 % of harmful errors). There were 470 (50.2 %) errors that were IT preventable at their origin, including 155 due to IT system bypasses, 103 due to insensitivity of IT alerting systems, and 47 with IT alert overrides. Dispensing, administration, and documentation errors had higher odds than prescribing errors for being not preventable by IT

  18. Identifying influencers from sampled social networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tsugawa, Sho; Kimura, Kazuma

    2018-10-01

    Identifying influencers who can spread information to many other individuals from a social network is a fundamental research task in the network science research field. Several measures for identifying influencers have been proposed, and the effectiveness of these influence measures has been evaluated for the case where the complete social network structure is known. However, it is difficult in practice to obtain the complete structure of a social network because of missing data, false data, or node/link sampling from the social network. In this paper, we investigate the effects of node sampling from a social network on the effectiveness of influence measures at identifying influencers. Our experimental results show that the negative effect of biased sampling, such as sample edge count, on the identification of influencers is generally small. For social media networks, we can identify influencers whose influence is comparable with that of those identified from the complete social networks by sampling only 10%-30% of the networks. Moreover, our results also suggest the possible benefit of network sampling in the identification of influencers. Our results show that, for some networks, nodes with higher influence can be discovered from sampled social networks than from complete social networks.

  19. Determining Primary Care Physician Information Needs to Inform Ambulatory Visit Note Display

    PubMed Central

    Clarke, M.A.; Steege, L.M.; Moore, J.L.; Koopman, R.J.; Belden, J.L.; Kim, M.S.

    2014-01-01

    Summary Background With the increase in the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) across the US, primary care physicians are experiencing information overload. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the information needs of primary care physicians (PCPs) as they review clinic visit notes to inform EHR display. Method Data collection was conducted with 15 primary care physicians during semi-structured interviews, including a third party observer to control bias. Physicians reviewed major sections of an artificial but typical acute and chronic care visit note to identify the note sections that were relevant to their information needs. Statistical methods used were McNemar-Mosteller’s and Cochran Q. Results Physicians identified History of Present Illness (HPI), Assessment, and Plan (A&P) as the most important sections of a visit note. In contrast, they largely judged the Review of Systems (ROS) to be superfluous. There was also a statistical difference in physicians’ highlighting among all seven major note sections in acute (p = 0.00) and chronic (p = 0.00) care visit notes. Conclusion A&P and HPI sections were most frequently identified as important which suggests that physicians may have to identify a few key sections out of a long, unnecessarily verbose visit note. ROS is viewed by doctors as mostly “not needed,” but can have relevant information. The ROS can contain information needed for patient care when other sections of the Visit note, such as the HPI, lack the relevant information. Future studies should include producing a display that provides only relevant information to increase physician efficiency at the point of care. Also, research on moving A&P to the top of visit notes instead of having A&P at the bottom of the page is needed, since those are usually the first sections physicians refer to and reviewing from top to bottom may cause cognitive load. PMID:24734131

  20. 28 CFR 22.24 - Information transfer agreement.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... STATISTICAL INFORMATION § 22.24 Information transfer agreement. Prior to the transfer of any identifiable... identifiable to a private person will be used only for research and statistical purposes. (b) Information...-know basis for research or statistical purposes, provided that such transfer is approved by the person...

  1. Open-Identity Sperm Donation: How Does Offering Donor-Identifying Information Relate to Donor-Conceived Offspring's Wishes and Needs?

    PubMed

    Ravelingien, An; Provoost, Veerle; Pennings, Guido

    2015-09-01

    Over the past years, a growing number of countries have legislated open-identity donation, in which donor-conceived offspring are given access to the donor's identity once the child has reached maturity. It is held that donor anonymity creates identity problems for such children similar to the "genealogical bewilderment" described within the adoption context. The study of the social and psychological effects of open-identity donation is still very much in its infancy, but what has been left unquestioned is whether (and to what extent) offering access to the donor's name and address is an adequate response to such effects. This study has two goals: First, we aim to provide a systematic review of the reasons why donor-conceived (DC) offspring want to know the identity of their sperm donor. Second, we examine to what extent the provision of donor-identifying information can satisfy the reasons mentioned. The most important motivations appear to be: (1) to avoid medical risks and consanguineous relationships; (2) to satisfy curiosity; (3) to learn more about the self or to complete one's identity; (4) to learn more about what kind of person the donor is (biographical information, why he donated, etc.); (5) to form a relationship with the donor and/or his family; and (6) to learn about one's ancestry/genealogy. Our analysis shows that for nearly all of these reasons access to the donor's identity is not necessary. In those cases where it is, moreover, donor identification is not sufficient. What is really needed is (extended) contact with the donor, rather than the mere provision of his name.

  2. Towards a Methodology for Identifying Program Constraints During Requirements Analysis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Romo, Lilly; Gates, Ann Q.; Della-Piana, Connie Kubo

    1997-01-01

    Requirements analysis is the activity that involves determining the needs of the customer, identifying the services that the software system should provide and understanding the constraints on the solution. The result of this activity is a natural language document, typically referred to as the requirements definition document. Some of the problems that exist in defining requirements in large scale software projects includes synthesizing knowledge from various domain experts and communicating this information across multiple levels of personnel. One approach that addresses part of this problem is called context monitoring and involves identifying the properties of and relationships between objects that the system will manipulate. This paper examines several software development methodologies, discusses the support that each provide for eliciting such information from experts and specifying the information, and suggests refinements to these methodologies.

  3. Identifying attributes of food literacy: a scoping review.

    PubMed

    Azevedo Perry, Elsie; Thomas, Heather; Samra, H Ruby; Edmonstone, Shannon; Davidson, Lyndsay; Faulkner, Amy; Petermann, Lisa; Manafò, Elizabeth; Kirkpatrick, Sharon I

    2017-09-01

    An absence of food literacy measurement tools makes it challenging for nutrition practitioners to assess the impact of food literacy on healthy diets and to evaluate the outcomes of food literacy interventions. The objective of the present scoping review was to identify the attributes of food literacy. A scoping review of peer-reviewed and grey literature was conducted and attributes of food literacy identified. Subjects included in the search were high-risk groups. Eligible articles were limited to research from Canada, USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The search identified nineteen peer-reviewed and thirty grey literature sources. Fifteen identified food literacy attributes were organized into five categories. Food and Nutrition Knowledge informs decisions about intake and distinguishing between 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' foods. Food Skills focuses on techniques of food purchasing, preparation, handling and storage. Self-Efficacy and Confidence represent one's capacity to perform successfully in specific situations. Ecologic refers to beyond self and the interaction of macro- and microsystems with food decisions and behaviours. Food Decisions reflects the application of knowledge, information and skills to make food choices. These interdependent attributes are depicted in a proposed conceptual model. The lack of evaluated tools inhibits the ability to assess and monitor food literacy; tailor, target and evaluate programmes; identify gaps in programming; engage in advocacy; and allocate resources. The present scoping review provides the foundation for the development of a food literacy measurement tool to address these gaps.

  4. 77 FR 4053 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Post-Award Contract Information

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-01-26

    ... technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic... Acquisition Regulation (FAR) (48 CFR chapter 1). Source selection documentation, Government estimate of... information that is collected are identified in pertinent sections of FAR 4.803, Contents of contract files...

  5. Interchange. Program Improvement Products Identified through Networking.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

    This catalog lists exemplary field-based program improvement products identified by the Dissemination and Utilization Products and Services Program (D&U) at the National Center for Research in Vocational Education. It is designed to increase awareness of these products among vocational educators and to provide information about them that…

  6. Informational analysis involving application of complex information system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ciupak, Clébia; Vanti, Adolfo Alberto; Balloni, Antonio José; Espin, Rafael

    The aim of the present research is performing an informal analysis for internal audit involving the application of complex information system based on fuzzy logic. The same has been applied in internal audit involving the integration of the accounting field into the information systems field. The technological advancements can provide improvements to the work performed by the internal audit. Thus we aim to find, in the complex information systems, priorities for the work of internal audit of a high importance Private Institution of Higher Education. The applied method is quali-quantitative, as from the definition of strategic linguistic variables it was possible to transform them into quantitative with the matrix intersection. By means of a case study, where data were collected via interview with the Administrative Pro-Rector, who takes part at the elaboration of the strategic planning of the institution, it was possible to infer analysis concerning points which must be prioritized at the internal audit work. We emphasize that the priorities were identified when processed in a system (of academic use). From the study we can conclude that, starting from these information systems, audit can identify priorities on its work program. Along with plans and strategic objectives of the enterprise, the internal auditor can define operational procedures to work in favor of the attainment of the objectives of the organization.

  7. Adaptable Information Models in the Global Change Information System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duggan, B.; Buddenberg, A.; Aulenbach, S.; Wolfe, R.; Goldstein, J.

    2014-12-01

    The US Global Change Research Program has sponsored the creation of the Global Change Information System () to provide a web based source of accessible, usable, and timely information about climate and global change for use by scientists, decision makers, and the public. The GCIS played multiple roles during the assembly and release of the Third National Climate Assessment. It provided human and programmable interfaces, relational and semantic representations of information, and discrete identifiers for various types of resources, which could then be manipulated by a distributed team with a wide range of specialties. The GCIS also served as a scalable backend for the web based version of the report. In this talk, we discuss the infrastructure decisions made during the design and deployment of the GCIS, as well as ongoing work to adapt to new types of information. Both a constrained relational database and an open ended triple store are used to ensure data integrity while maintaining fluidity. Using natural primary keys allows identifiers to propagate through both models. Changing identifiers are accomodated through fine grained auditing and explicit mappings to external lexicons. A practical RESTful API is used whose endpoints are also URIs in an ontology. Both the relational schema and the ontology are maleable, and stability is ensured through test driven development and continuous integration testing using modern open source techniques. Content is also validated through continuous testing techniques. A high degres of scalability is achieved through caching.

  8. SPARQL-enabled identifier conversion with Identifiers.org

    PubMed Central

    Wimalaratne, Sarala M.; Bolleman, Jerven; Juty, Nick; Katayama, Toshiaki; Dumontier, Michel; Redaschi, Nicole; Le Novère, Nicolas; Hermjakob, Henning; Laibe, Camille

    2015-01-01

    Motivation: On the semantic web, in life sciences in particular, data is often distributed via multiple resources. Each of these sources is likely to use their own International Resource Identifier for conceptually the same resource or database record. The lack of correspondence between identifiers introduces a barrier when executing federated SPARQL queries across life science data. Results: We introduce a novel SPARQL-based service to enable on-the-fly integration of life science data. This service uses the identifier patterns defined in the Identifiers.org Registry to generate a plurality of identifier variants, which can then be used to match source identifiers with target identifiers. We demonstrate the utility of this identifier integration approach by answering queries across major producers of life science Linked Data. Availability and implementation: The SPARQL-based identifier conversion service is available without restriction at http://identifiers.org/services/sparql. Contact: sarala@ebi.ac.uk PMID:25638809

  9. SPARQL-enabled identifier conversion with Identifiers.org.

    PubMed

    Wimalaratne, Sarala M; Bolleman, Jerven; Juty, Nick; Katayama, Toshiaki; Dumontier, Michel; Redaschi, Nicole; Le Novère, Nicolas; Hermjakob, Henning; Laibe, Camille

    2015-06-01

    On the semantic web, in life sciences in particular, data is often distributed via multiple resources. Each of these sources is likely to use their own International Resource Identifier for conceptually the same resource or database record. The lack of correspondence between identifiers introduces a barrier when executing federated SPARQL queries across life science data. We introduce a novel SPARQL-based service to enable on-the-fly integration of life science data. This service uses the identifier patterns defined in the Identifiers.org Registry to generate a plurality of identifier variants, which can then be used to match source identifiers with target identifiers. We demonstrate the utility of this identifier integration approach by answering queries across major producers of life science Linked Data. The SPARQL-based identifier conversion service is available without restriction at http://identifiers.org/services/sparql. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

  10. Identifying elements of the health care environment that contribute to wayfinding.

    PubMed

    Pati, Debajyoti; Harvey, Thomas E; Willis, Douglas A; Pati, Sipra

    2015-01-01

    Identify aspects of the physical environment that inform wayfinding for visitors. Compare and contrast the identified elements in frequency of use. Gain an understanding of the role the different elements and attributes play in the wayfinding process. Wayfinding by patients and visitors is a documented problem in healthcare facilities. The few studies that have been conducted have identified some of the environmental elements that influence wayfinding. Moreover, literatures comparing different design strategies are absent. Currently there is limited knowledge to inform prioritization of strategies to optimize wayfinding within capital budget. A multi-method, non-experimental, qualitative, exploratory study design was adopted. The study was conducted in a large, acute care facility in Texas. Ten healthy adults in five age groups, representing both sexes, participated in the study as simulated visitors. Data collection included (a) verbal protocols during navigation; (b) questionnaire; and (c) verbal directions from hospital employees. Data were collected during Fall 2013. Physical design elements contributing to wayfinding include signs, architectural features, maps, interior elements (artwork, display boards, information counters, etc.), functional clusters, interior elements pairing, structural elements, and furniture. The information is used in different ways - some for primary navigational information, some for supporting navigational information, and some as familiarity markers. The physical environment has a critical role in aiding navigation in healthcare facilities. Architectural feature is the top contributor in the domain of architecture. Artwork (painting, sculpture, etc.) is the top contributor in the domain of interior design. © The Author(s) 2015.

  11. Information retrieval for ecological syntheses.

    PubMed

    Bayliss, Helen R; Beyer, Fiona R

    2015-06-01

    Research syntheses are increasingly being conducted within the fields of ecology and environmental management. Information retrieval is crucial in any synthesis in identifying data for inclusion whilst potentially reducing biases in the dataset gathered, yet the nature of ecological information provides several challenges when compared with medicine that should be considered when planning and undertaking searches. We present ten recommendations for anyone considering undertaking information retrieval for ecological research syntheses that highlight the main differences with medicine and, if adopted, may help reduce biases in the dataset retrieved, increase search efficiency and improve reporting standards. They are as follows: (1) plan for information retrieval at an early stage, (2) identify and use sources of help, (3) clearly define the question to be addressed, (4) ensure that provisions for managing, recording and reporting the search are in place, (5) select an appropriate search type, (6) identify sources to be used, (7) identify limitations of the sources, (8) ensure that the search vocabulary is appropriate, (9) identify limits and filters that can help direct the search, and (10) test the strategy to ensure that it is realistic and manageable. These recommendations may be of value for other disciplines where search infrastructures are not yet sufficiently well developed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  12. Using Geographical Information Systems to Identify Populations in Need of Improved Accessibility to Antivenom Treatment for Snakebite Envenoming in Costa Rica

    PubMed Central

    Hansson, Erik; Sasa, Mahmood; Mattisson, Kristoffer; Robles, Arodys; Gutiérrez, José María

    2013-01-01

    Introduction Snakebite accidents are an important health problem in rural areas of tropical countries worldwide, including Costa Rica, where most bites are caused by the pit-viper Bothrops asper. The treatment of these potentially fatal accidents is based on the timely administration of specific antivenom. In many regions of the world, insufficient health care systems and lack of antivenom in remote and poor areas where snakebites are common, means that efficient treatment is unavailable for many snakebite victims, leading to unnecessary mortality and morbidity. In this study, geographical information systems (GIS) were used to identify populations in Costa Rica with a need of improved access to antivenom treatment: those living in areas with a high risk of snakebites and long time to reach antivenom treatment. Method/Principal Findings Populations living in areas with high risk of snakebites were identified using two approaches: one based on the district-level reported incidence, and another based on mapping environmental factors favoring B. asper presence. Time to reach treatment using ambulance was estimated using cost surface analysis, thereby enabling adjustment of transportation speed by road availability and quality, topography and land use. By mapping populations in high risk of snakebites and the estimated time to treatment, populations with need of improved treatment access were identified. Conclusion/Significance This study demonstrates the usefulness of GIS for improving treatment of snakebites. By mapping reported incidence, risk factors, location of existing treatment resources, and the time estimated to reach these for at-risk populations, rational allocation of treatment resources is facilitated. PMID:23383352

  13. Using geographical information systems to identify populations in need of improved accessibility to antivenom treatment for snakebite envenoming in Costa Rica.

    PubMed

    Hansson, Erik; Sasa, Mahmood; Mattisson, Kristoffer; Robles, Arodys; Gutiérrez, José María

    2013-01-01

    Snakebite accidents are an important health problem in rural areas of tropical countries worldwide, including Costa Rica, where most bites are caused by the pit-viper Bothrops asper. The treatment of these potentially fatal accidents is based on the timely administration of specific antivenom. In many regions of the world, insufficient health care systems and lack of antivenom in remote and poor areas where snakebites are common, means that efficient treatment is unavailable for many snakebite victims, leading to unnecessary mortality and morbidity. In this study, geographical information systems (GIS) were used to identify populations in Costa Rica with a need of improved access to antivenom treatment: those living in areas with a high risk of snakebites and long time to reach antivenom treatment. Populations living in areas with high risk of snakebites were identified using two approaches: one based on the district-level reported incidence, and another based on mapping environmental factors favoring B. asper presence. Time to reach treatment using ambulance was estimated using cost surface analysis, thereby enabling adjustment of transportation speed by road availability and quality, topography and land use. By mapping populations in high risk of snakebites and the estimated time to treatment, populations with need of improved treatment access were identified. This study demonstrates the usefulness of GIS for improving treatment of snakebites. By mapping reported incidence, risk factors, location of existing treatment resources, and the time estimated to reach these for at-risk populations, rational allocation of treatment resources is facilitated.

  14. Longitudinal Analysis of New Information Types in Clinical Notes

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Rui; Pakhomov, Serguei; Melton, Genevieve B.

    2014-01-01

    It is increasingly recognized that redundant information in clinical notes within electronic health record (EHR) systems is ubiquitous, significant, and may negatively impact the secondary use of these notes for research and patient care. We investigated several automated methods to identify redundant versus relevant new information in clinical reports. These methods may provide a valuable approach to extract clinically pertinent information and further improve the accuracy of clinical information extraction systems. In this study, we used UMLS semantic types to extract several types of new information, including problems, medications, and laboratory information. Automatically identified new information highly correlated with manual reference standard annotations. Methods to identify different types of new information can potentially help to build up more robust information extraction systems for clinical researchers as well as aid clinicians and researchers in navigating clinical notes more effectively and quickly identify information pertaining to changes in health states. PMID:25717418

  15. 76 FR 67153 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Information Collection; Past Performance Information

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-10-31

    ... technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. DATES: Submit comments on or...'' screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and ``Information Collection 9000-0142, Past... identify Federal, state and local government, and private contracts performed by offerors that were similar...

  16. Mercury emissions and stable isotopic compositions at Vulcano Island (Italy)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zambardi, T.; Sonke, J. E.; Toutain, J. P.; Sortino, F.; Shinohara, H.

    2009-01-01

    Sampling and analyses methods for determining the stable isotopic compositions of Hg in an active volcanic system were tested and optimized at the volcanic complex of Vulcano (Aeolian Islands, Italy). Condensed gaseous fumarole Hg (fum)T, plume gaseous elemental Hg (g)0 and plume particulate Hg (p)II were obtained at fumaroles F0, F5, F11, and FA. The average total Hg emissions, based on Hg T/SO 2 in condensed fumarolic gases and plumes, range from 2.5 to 10.1 kg y - 1 , in agreement with published values [Ferrara, R., Mazzolai, B., Lanzillotta, E., Nucaro, E., Pirrone, N., 2000. Volcanoes as emission sources of atmospheric mercury in the Mediterranean Basin. Sci. Total Environ. 259(1-3), 115-121; Aiuppa, A., Bagnato, E., Witt, M.L.I., Mather, T.A., Parello, F., Pyle, D.M., Martin, R.S., 2007. Real-time simultaneous detection of volcanic Hg and SO 2 at La Fossa Crater, Vulcano (Aeolian Islands, Sicily). Geophys. Res. Lett. 34(L21307).]. Plume Hg (p)II increases with distance from the fumarole vent, at the expense of Hg (g)0 and indicates significant in-plume oxidation and condensation of fumarole Hg (fum)T. Relative to the NIST SRM 3133 Hg standard, the stable isotopic compositions of Hg are δ 202Hg (fum)T = - 0.74‰ ± 0.18 (2SD, n = 4) for condensed gaseous fumarole Hg (fum)T, δ 202Hg (g)0 = - 1.74‰ ± 0.36 (2SD, n = 1) for plume gaseous elemental Hg (g)0 at the F0 fumarole, and δ 202Hg (p)II = - 0.11‰ ± 0.18 (2SD, n = 4) for plume particulate Hg (p)II. The enrichment of Hg (p)II in the heavy isotopes and Hg (g)0 in the light isotopes relative to the total condensed fumarolic Hg (fum)T gas complements the speciation data and demonstrates a gas-particle fractionation occurring after the gas expulsion in ambient T° atmosphere. A first order Rayleigh equilibrium condensation isotope fractionation model yields a fractionation factor α cond-gas of 1.00135 ± 0.00058.

  17. Beyond basic citation—What to identify, when, and why

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Parsons, M. A.

    2015-12-01

    Persistent identifiers (and locators) have emerged as a critical component in designing and implementing information systems and networks. This is especially evident in the use of the Digital Object Identifier in association with formal bibliographic citation of literature and increasingly of data sets. Indeed, the principles and methods of data citation have been a hot topic in the informatics community over the last decade or so. To date the focus has typically been on closely linking data sets to associated literature and generally emulating bibliographic-style citation. To design a sustainable, trusted data infrastructure, however, requires us to unambiguously reference many things in many ways, be they data, software, instruments, methods, or people. Design of this infrastructure also requires us to consider the entire data lifecycle and when important elements come into play and need to be identified. This paper will advocate an "ecological" model of data sharing that takes a more holistic perspective than many traditional data publication approaches. It will explore a variety of use cases around what elements of an information ecosystem need to be unambiguously identified and located, at what point in the data production process, and to what explicit purpose.

  18. Cancer Information Seeking and Scanning: Sources and Patterns

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barnes, Laura L. B.; Khojasteh, Jam J.; Wheeler, Denna

    2017-01-01

    Objective: This study aimed to identify predominant search patterns in a recent search for health information and a potential search for strongly needed cancer information, to identify the commonly scanned sources of information that may represent stable elements of the information fields characteristic of these patterns, and to evaluate whether…

  19. Subcellular fractionation on Percoll gradient of mossy fiber synaptosomes: morphological and biochemical characterization in control and degranulated rat hippocampus.

    PubMed

    Taupin, P; Zini, S; Cesselin, F; Ben-Ari, Y; Roisin, M P

    1994-04-01

    A method for preparation of hippocampal mossy fiber synaptosomes directly from the postnuclear pellet is presented. This method represents an adaptation of that previously described for the isolation of synaptosomes by centrifugation through Percoll gradients directly from the supernatant fraction. We have characterized by electron microscopy two fractions, PII and PIII, enriched in mossy fiber synaptosomes; fraction PIII had 75% mossy fiber synaptosomes with well-preserved morphology (large size 3 microns, complex morphology, high synaptic vesicle density, multisynapses), whereas fraction PII contained 12%. These fractions were enriched in lactate dehydrogenase activity indicating that the integrity of synaptosomes was preserved. Compared with the other synaptosomal fractions, these fractions showed greater levels of dynorphin A (1-8) immunoreactivity and endogenous zinc, which are particularly concentrated in hippocampal mossy fiber terminals. Furthermore, we prepared synaptosomes from adult hippocampus after neonatal irradiation, which destroys the majority of granule cells and associated mossy fibers. The levels of dynorphin and zinc decreased by 88 and 70% in fraction PII and by 95 and 90%, respectively, in PIII. These results suggest that the rapid Percoll procedure is convenient for the purification of mossy fiber synaptosomes.

  20. Responses triggered in chloroplast of Chlorella variabilis NC64A by long-term association with Paramecium bursaria.

    PubMed

    Minaeva, Ekaterina; Ermilova, Elena

    2017-07-01

    The unicellular green alga Chlorella variabilis NC64A is an endosymbiont of the ciliate Paramecium bursaria. The host's control, including the transfer of biochemical substrates from P. bursaria to C. variabilis, is involved in symbiotic relationships. C. variabilis NC64A that had been re-infected to P. bursaria for more than 1 year and isolated from the host showed higher chlorophyll levels compared to those in free-living cells. Unlike the host, the expression of C. variabilis NC64A heat shock 70 kDa protein was independent of establishment of endosymbiosis. In symbiotic cells, the levels of PII signal transduction protein (CvPII) that coordinate the central C/N anabolic metabolism were slightly higher than those in free-living cells. Furthermore, the environmental cues (light and host food bacteria availability) affected the abundance of CvPII, suggesting that synthesis of the protein was influenced by the host. Moreover, arginine concentrations in the symbiotic algae of P. bursaria were also controlled by the host's nutritional conditions. Together, our results imply that signal substrates and/or products of metabolism in host cells might act as messengers mediating the regulation of key events in symbiont cells.

  1. Identifying maternity services in public hospitals in rural and remote Australia.

    PubMed

    Longman, Jo; Pilcher, Jennifer M; Donoghue, Deborah A; Rolfe, Margaret; Kildea, Sue V; Kruske, Sue; Oats, Jeremy J N; Morgan, Geoffrey G; Barclay, Lesley M

    2014-06-01

    This paper articulates the importance of accurately identifying maternity services. It describes the process and challenges of identifying the number, level and networks of rural and remote maternity services in public hospitals serving communities of between 1000 and 25000 people across Australia, and presents the findings of this process. Health departments and the national government's websites, along with lists of public hospitals, were used to identify all rural and remote Australian public hospitals offering maternity services in small towns. State perinatal reports were reviewed to establish numbers of births by hospital. The level of maternity services and networks of hospitals within which services functioned were determined via discussion with senior jurisdictional representatives. In all, 198 rural and remote public hospitals offering maternity services were identified. There were challenges in sourcing information on maternity services to generate an accurate national picture. The nature of information about maternity services held centrally by jurisdictions varied, and different frameworks were used to describe minimum requirements for service levels. Service networks appeared to be based on a combination of individual links, geography and transport infrastructure. The lack of readily available centralised and comparable information on rural and remote maternity services has implications for policy review and development, equity, safety and quality, network development and planning. Accountability for services and capacity to identify problems is also compromised.

  2. Identifying potential impact of lead contamination using a geographic information system

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

    Bocco, G.; Sanchez, R.

    1997-01-01

    The main objective of this research was to identify the potential hazards associated with lead contamination from fixed sources in the city of Tijuana. An exploratory model is presented that describes the potential polluting sources as well as the exposed universe. The results of the analysis provide a clear picture of the geographic distribution of hazards areas for potential lead pollution in Tijuana. The findings are indicative of the dramatic consequences of rapid industrialization and urbanization in a city where there have not been significant planning efforts to mitigate the negative effects of this growth. The approach followed helps tomore » narrow the universe of potential pollution sources, which can help to direct attention, research priorities, and resources to the most critical areas. 16 refs.« less

  3. Scoliosis related information on the internet in China: can patients benefit from this information?

    PubMed

    Bao, Hongda; Zhu, Feng; Wang, Fei; Liu, Zhen; Bao, Mike H; He, Shouyu; Zhu, Zezhang; Qiu, Yong

    2015-01-01

    There has been an increasing popularity of searching health related information online in recent years. Despite that considerable amount of scoliosis patients have shown interest in obtaining scoliosis information through Internet, previous studies have demonstrated poor quality of online information. However, this conclusion may vary depending on region and culture. Since China has a restricted Internet access outside of its borders, the aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of scoliosis information available online using recognized scoring systems and to analyze the Internet as a source of health information in China. A survey-based questionnaire was distributed to 280 respondents at outpatient clinics. Information on demographics and Internet use was collected. Binary logistic analysis was performed to identify possible predictors for the use of Internet. In addition, the top 60 scoliosis related websites assessed through 4 search engines were reviewed by a surgeon and the quality of online information was evaluated using DISCERN score and JAMA benchmark. Use of the Internet as a source for scoliosis related information was confirmed in 87.8% of the respondents. College education, Internet access at home and urban residence were identified as potential predictors for Internet use. However, the quality of online scoliosis related information was poor with an average DISCERN score of 27.9±11.7 and may be misleading for scoliosis patients. The study outlines the profile of scoliosis patients who use the Internet as a source of health information. It was shown that 87.8% of the scoliosis patients in outpatient clinics have searched for scoliosis related information on Internet. Urban patients, higher education and Internet access at home were identified as potential predictors for Internet search. However, the overall quality of online scoliosis related information was poor and confusing. Physician based websites seemed to contain more reliable information.

  4. Developing Data Citations from Digital Object Identifier Metadata

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    James, Nathan; Wanchoo, Lalit

    2015-01-01

    NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project has been processing information for the registration of Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) for the last five years of which an automated system has been in operation for the last two years. The ESDIS DOI registration system has registered over 2000 DOIs with over 1000 DOIs held in reserve until all required information has been collected. By working towards the goal of assigning DOIs to the 8000+ data collections under its management, ESDIS has taken the first step towards facilitating the use of data citations with those products. Jeanne Behnke, ESDIS Deputy Project Manager has reviewed and approved the poster.

  5. Identifying and applying psychological theory to setting and achieving rehabilitation goals.

    PubMed

    Scobbie, Lesley; Wyke, Sally; Dixon, Diane

    2009-04-01

    Goal setting is considered to be a fundamental part of rehabilitation; however, theories of behaviour change relevant to goal-setting practice have not been comprehensively reviewed. (i) To identify and discuss specific theories of behaviour change relevant to goal-setting practice in the rehabilitation setting. (ii) To identify 'candidate' theories that that offer most potential to inform clinical practice. The rehabilitation and self-management literature was systematically searched to identify review papers or empirical studies that proposed a specific theory of behaviour change relevant to setting and/or achieving goals in a clinical context. Data from included papers were extracted under the headings of: key constructs, clinical application and empirical support. Twenty-four papers were included in the review which proposed a total of five theories: (i) social cognitive theory, (ii) goal setting theory, (iii) health action process approach, (iv) proactive coping theory, and (v) the self-regulatory model of illness behaviour. The first three of these theories demonstrated most potential to inform clinical practice, on the basis of their capacity to inform interventions that resulted in improved patient outcomes. Social cognitive theory, goal setting theory and the health action process approach are theories of behaviour change that can inform clinicians in the process of setting and achieving goals in the rehabilitation setting. Overlapping constructs within these theories have been identified, and can be applied in clinical practice through the development and evaluation of a goal-setting practice framework.

  6. 34 CFR 303.401 - Definitions of consent, native language, and personally identifiable information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... which consent is sought, in the parent's native language or other mode of communication; (2) The parent... proficiency, means the language or mode of communication normally used by the parent of a child eligible under... child's parent, or other family member; (2) The address of the child; (3) A personal identifier, such as...

  7. Identifying inequities in maternal and child health through risk stratification to inform health systems strengthening in Northern Togo

    PubMed Central

    McCarthy, Katharine J.; Braganza, Sandra; Fiori, Kevin; Gbeleou, Christophe; Kpakpo, Vivien; Lopez, Andrew; Schechter, Jennifer; Singham Goodwin, Alicia; Jones, Heidi E.

    2017-01-01

    Objective In Togo, substantial progress in maternal and child health is needed to reach global development goals. To better inform clinic and community-based health services, this study identifies factors associated with maternal and child health care utilization in the Kara region of Northern Togo. Methods We conducted a population-representative household survey of four health clinic catchment areas of 1,075 women of reproductive age in 2015. Multivariable logistic regression was used to model individual and structural factors associated with utilization of four maternal and child health services. Key outcomes were: facility-based delivery, maternal postnatal health check by a health professional within the first six weeks of birth, childhood vaccination, and receipt of malaria medication for febrile children under age five within 72 hours of symptom onset. Results 83 percent of women who gave birth in the last 2 years delivered at a health facility. In adjusted models, the strongest predictor of facility delivery in the rural catchment areas was proximity to a health center, with women living under three kilometers having 3.7 (95% CI 1.7, 7.9) times the odds of a facility birth. Only 11 percent of women received a health check by a health provider at any time in the postnatal period. Postnatal health checks were less likely for women in the poorest households and for women who resided in rural areas. Children of polygamous mothers had half the odds of receiving malaria medication for fever within 72 hours of symptom onset, while children with increased household wealth status had increased odds of childhood vaccination and receiving treatment for malaria. Conclusion Our analysis highlights the importance of risk stratification analysis to inform the delivery and scope of maternal and child health programs needed to reach those with the least access to care. PMID:28301539

  8. Information Systems Plan.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tulsa Public Schools, OK.

    A task force sought to determine the information needs of the Tulsa Public Schools (Oklahoma) by studying goals of the school district, identifying all processes necessary for operation of the school system, and conducting interviews with 48 key members. A detailed information systems matrix was constructed to show the interrelationships between…

  9. A bioinformatic pipeline for identifying informative SNP panels for parentage assignment from RADseq data.

    PubMed

    Andrews, Kimberly R; Adams, Jennifer R; Cassirer, E Frances; Plowright, Raina K; Gardner, Colby; Dwire, Maggie; Hohenlohe, Paul A; Waits, Lisette P

    2018-06-05

    The development of high-throughput sequencing technologies is dramatically increasing the use of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the field of genetics, but most parentage studies of wild populations still rely on microsatellites. We developed a bioinformatic pipeline for identifying SNP panels that are informative for parentage analysis from restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) data. This pipeline includes options for analysis with or without a reference genome, and provides methods to maximize genotyping accuracy and select sets of unlinked loci that have high statistical power. We test this pipeline on small populations of Mexican gray wolf and bighorn sheep, for which parentage analyses are expected to be challenging due to low genetic diversity and the presence of many closely related individuals. We compare the results of parentage analysis across SNP panels generated with or without the use of a reference genome, and between SNPs and microsatellites. For Mexican gray wolf, we conducted parentage analyses for 30 pups from a single cohort where samples were available from 64% of possible mothers and 53% of possible fathers, and the accuracy of parentage assignments could be estimated because true identities of parents were known a priori based on field data. For bighorn sheep, we conducted maternity analyses for 39 lambs from five cohorts where 77% of possible mothers were sampled, but true identities of parents were unknown. Analyses with and without a reference genome produced SNP panels with >95% parentage assignment accuracy for Mexican gray wolf, outperforming microsatellites at 78% accuracy. Maternity assignments were completely consistent across all SNP panels for the bighorn sheep, and were 74.4% consistent with assignments from microsatellites. Accuracy and consistency of parentage analysis were not reduced when using as few as 284 SNPs for Mexican gray wolf and 142 SNPs for bighorn sheep, indicating our pipeline can be

  10. A proposed approach to systematically identify and monitor the corporate political activity of the food industry with respect to public health using publicly available information.

    PubMed

    Mialon, M; Swinburn, B; Sacks, G

    2015-07-01

    Unhealthy diets represent one of the major risk factors for non-communicable diseases. There is currently a risk that the political influence of the food industry results in public health policies that do not adequately balance public and commercial interests. This paper aims to develop a framework for categorizing the corporate political activity of the food industry with respect to public health and proposes an approach to systematically identify and monitor it. The proposed framework includes six strategies used by the food industry to influence public health policies and outcomes: information and messaging; financial incentive; constituency building; legal; policy substitution; opposition fragmentation and destabilization. The corporate political activity of the food industry could be identified and monitored through publicly available data sourced from the industry itself, governments, the media and other sources. Steps for country-level monitoring include identification of key food industry actors and related sources of information, followed by systematic data collection and analysis of relevant documents, using the proposed framework as a basis for classification of results. The proposed monitoring approach should be pilot tested in different countries as part of efforts to increase the transparency and accountability of the food industry. This approach has the potential to help redress any imbalance of interests and thereby contribute to the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. © 2015 World Obesity.

  11. The valuation of nursing begins with identifying value drivers.

    PubMed

    Rutherford, Marcella M

    2010-03-01

    Adequate investment in a profession links to its ability to define and document its value. This requires identifying those elements or value drivers that demonstrate its worth. To completely identify nursing's value drivers requires meshing the economic, technical, and caring aspects of its profession. Nursing's valuation includes assessing nursing's tangible and intangible assets and documenting these assets. This information communicates nursing's worth and ensures adequate economic investment in its services.

  12. Career Information Handbook.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Texas State Technical Inst., Waco.

    The handbook is a companion volume to "High School Career Interest and Information Survey" but its use extends to high school counselors, teachers, administrators and their students as an independent reference tool for occupational information. The manual is divided into sections corresponding to the fifteen career clusters identified by the U.S.…

  13. Using Landsat MSS data with soils information to identify wetland habitats

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ernst, C. L.; Hoffer, R. M.

    1981-01-01

    A previous study showed that certain fresh water wetland vegetation types can be spectrally separated when a maximum likelihood classification procedure is applied to Landsat spectral data. However, wetland and upland types which have similar vegetative life forms (e.g., upland hardwoods and hardwood swamps) are often confused because of spectral similarity. Therefore, the current investigation attempts to differentiate similar wetland and upland types by combining Landsat multispectral scanner (MSS) data with soils information. The Pigeon River area in northern Indiana used in the earlier study was also employed in this investigation. A layered classification algorithm which combined soils and spectral data was used to generate a wetland classification. The results of the spectral/soils wetland classification are compared to the previous classification that had been based on spectral data alone. The results indicate wetland habitat mapping can be improved by combining soils and other ancillary data with Landsat spectral data.

  14. The information protection level assessment system implementation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trapeznikov, E. V.

    2018-04-01

    Currently, the threat of various attacks increases significantly as automated systems become more widespread. On the basis of the conducted analysis the information protection level assessment system establishing objective was identified. The paper presents the information protection level assessment software implementation in the information system by applying the programming language C #. In conclusions the software features are identified and experimental results are represented.

  15. What value may geographic information systems add to the art of identifying crash countermeasures?

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1999-04-01

    Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be employed to relate, organize, and analyze roadway and crash data, thereby facilitating crash countermeasure identification and evaluation. GIS cannot, however, replace the critical role of the local analyst...

  16. DoD Information Security Program and Protection of Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI)

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-04-21

    collateral, special access program, SCI, and controlled unclassified information ( CUI ) within an overarching DoD Information Security Program...classified, safeguarded, and declassified in accordance with References (c), (d), and DoD Manual 5200.01 (Reference (i)). CUI will be identified...Information will not be classified, continue to be maintained as classified, or fail to be declassified, or be designated CUI under any circumstances in

  17. Information and the Origin of Qualia

    PubMed Central

    Orpwood, Roger

    2017-01-01

    This article argues that qualia are a likely outcome of the processing of information in local cortical networks. It uses an information-based approach and makes a distinction between information structures (the physical embodiment of information in the brain, primarily patterns of action potentials), and information messages (the meaning of those structures to the brain, and the basis of qualia). It develops formal relationships between these two kinds of information, showing how information structures can represent messages, and how information messages can be identified from structures. The article applies this perspective to basic processing in cortical networks or ensembles, showing how networks can transform between the two kinds of information. The article argues that an input pattern of firing is identified by a network as an information message, and that the output pattern of firing generated is a representation of that message. If a network is encouraged to develop an attractor state through attention or other re-entrant processes, then the message identified each time physical information is cycled through the network becomes “representation of the previous message”. Using an example of olfactory perception, it is shown how this piggy-backing of messages on top of previous messages could lead to olfactory qualia. The message identified on each pass of information could evolve from inner identity, to inner form, to inner likeness or image. The outcome is an olfactory quale. It is shown that the same outcome could result from information cycled through a hierarchy of networks in a resonant state. The argument for qualia generation is applied to other sensory modalities, showing how, through a process of brain-wide constraint satisfaction, a particular state of consciousness could develop at any given moment. Evidence for some of the key predictions of the theory is presented, using ECoG data and studies of gamma oscillations and attractors, together

  18. Identifying and treating codeine dependence: a systematic review.

    PubMed

    Nielsen, Suzanne; MacDonald, Tim; Johnson, Jacinta L

    2018-06-04

    Codeine dependence is a significant public health problem, motivating the recent rescheduling of codeine in Australia (1 February 2018). To provide information for informing clinical responses, we undertook a systematic review of what is known about identifying and treating codeine dependence. Articles published in English that described people who were codeine-dependent or a clinical approach to treating people who were codeine-dependent, without restriction on year of publication, were reviewed. Articles not including empirical data were excluded. One researcher screened each abstract; two researchers independently reviewed full text articles. Study quality was assessed, and data were extracted with standardised tools. MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched for relevant publications on 22 November 2016. The reference lists of eligible studies were searched to identify further relevant publications. 2150 articles were initially identified, of which 41 were eligible for inclusion in our analysis. Studies consistently reported specific characteristics associated with codeine dependence, including mental health comorbidity and escalation of codeine use attributed to psychiatric problems. Case reports and series described codeine dependence masked by complications associated with overusing simple analgesics and delayed detection. Ten studies described the treatment of codeine dependence. Three reports identified a role for behavioural therapy; the efficacy of CYP inhibitors in a small open label trial was not confirmed in a randomised controlled trial; four case series/chart reviews described opioid agonist therapy and medicated inpatient withdrawal; two qualitative studies identified barriers related to perceptions of codeine-dependent people and treatment providers, and confirmed positive perceptions and treatment outcomes achieved with opioid agonist treatments. Strategies for identifying problematic codeine use are needed. Identifying codeine dependence in clinical

  19. Identifying patients for clinical trials using fuzzy ternary logic expressions on HL7 messages.

    PubMed

    Majeed, Raphael W; Röhrig, Rainer

    2011-01-01

    Identifying eligible patients is one of the most critical parts of any clinical trial. The process of recruiting patients for the third phase of any clinical trial is usually done manually, informing relevant physicians or putting notes on bulletin boards. While most necessary information is already available in electronic hospital information systems, required data still has to be looked up individually. Most university hospitals make use of a dedicated communication server to distribute information from independent information systems, e.g. laboratory information systems, electronic health records, surgery planning systems. Thus, a theoretical model is developed to formally describe inclusion and exclusion criteria for each clinical trial using a fuzzy ternary logic expression. These expressions will then be used to process HL7 messages from a communication server in order to identify eligible patients.

  20. Copyright Information

    Atmospheric Science Data Center

    2013-03-25

    ... for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, and Internet web pages.   ... endorsement of commercial goods or services. If a NASA image includes an identifiable person, using the image for commercial purposes ...

  1. Identifying Inefficient Single-Family Homes With Utility Bill Analysis: Preprint

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

    Casey, S.; Krarti, M.; Bianchi, M.

    2010-08-01

    Differentiating between energy-efficient and inefficient single-family homes on a community scale helps identify and prioritize candidates for energy-efficiency upgrades. Prescreening diagnostic procedures can further retrofit efforts by providing efficiency information before a site-visit is conducted. We applied the prescreening diagnostic to a simulated community of homes in Boulder, Colorado and analyzed energy consumption data to identify energy-inefficient homes.

  2. Metals and Ceramics Information Center.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1983-07-01

    Continue on revrse side if necessary and identify by block number) Technical Information Center Ceramics DoD Information Analysis Center Information...Metals and Ceramics Information Center (MCIC) is one of the technical Information Analysis Centers (IACs) chartered and sponsored by the Department of...engineering programs for the DoD. The Center is responsible for the collection, review, analysis , appraisal, and summary of the available scientific and

  3. A Methodology for Validating Safety Heuristics Using Clinical Simulations: Identifying and Preventing Possible Technology-Induced Errors Related to Using Health Information Systems

    PubMed Central

    Borycki, Elizabeth; Kushniruk, Andre; Carvalho, Christopher

    2013-01-01

    Internationally, health information systems (HIS) safety has emerged as a significant concern for governments. Recently, research has emerged that has documented the ability of HIS to be implicated in the harm and death of patients. Researchers have attempted to develop methods that can be used to prevent or reduce technology-induced errors. Some researchers are developing methods that can be employed prior to systems release. These methods include the development of safety heuristics and clinical simulations. In this paper, we outline our methodology for developing safety heuristics specific to identifying the features or functions of a HIS user interface design that may lead to technology-induced errors. We follow this with a description of a methodological approach to validate these heuristics using clinical simulations. PMID:23606902

  4. Differences of response of human bladder cancer cells to photodynamic therapy (PDT) with Hypericum perforantum L extract and Photofrin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nseyo, Unyime; Kim, Albert; Stavropoulos, Nikos E.; Skalkos, Dimitris; Nseyo, Unwana U.; Chung, Theodore D.

    2005-04-01

    Refractory carcinoma in situ and resistant multifocal transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the human urinary bladder respond modestly to PHOTOFRIN (PII) PDT. Hypericum perforatum L., (St. John"s wort /Epirus" Vasalmo, Greece), a medicinal plant used for many human ailments, is under investigation as a new photosensitizer. We have reported on the antiproliferative activity of the lipophilic extract of the Hypericum perforatum L. (HP) against cultured T-24, and NBT-11 bladder cancer cells. We investigated response of the polar methanolic fraction (PMF) of the HP extract versus PHOTOFRIN in photodynamic therapy (PDT) of human bladder cancer cells, RT-4 and T-24.The PMF was extracted from the dry herb with methanol, followed by liquid extraction with petroleum ether. RT-4/T-24, were plated (105 cells/well) and placed in the incubator (370 C, 5%CO) for 24 hours prior to addition of drugs. PII 2ug/ml, or PMF 60ug /ml was added and incubation continued. After 24 hours, the cells were treated with laser light (630nm) with 0,1,2,4 and 8 Joules. The cells were then washed and reincubated for another 24 hours. After this incubation cell survival was assessed by the MTT assay. PMF-PDT induced percent cell kill of 0%, 0%, 0%, 29% and 75%, in RT-4 cells (primary noninvasive urinary bladder TCC) versus 5%, 9%, 13%, 69% and 86%, in T-24 cells(metastatic TTC) at 0,1,2,4 and 8 Joules respectively. PII-PDT induced cell kill of 0 %, 0% ,0%,0% and 9 %, in RT-4 cells versus 0%,10%,0%,21% and 77%, in T-24 cells at 0,1,2,4 and 8 Joules respectively.RT-24 cells were relatively more resistant than T-24 cells to PMF and PII-PDT. Understanding mechanisms of such differential responses might prove useful

  5. Informal information for web-based engineering catalogues

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Allen, Richard D.; Culley, Stephen J.; Hicks, Ben J.

    2001-10-01

    Success is highly dependent on the ability of a company to efficiently produce optimal designs. In order to achieve this companies must minimize time to market and possess the ability to make fully informed decisions at the early phase of the design process. Such decisions may include the choice of component and suppliers, as well as cost and maintenance considerations. Computer modeling and electronic catalogues are becoming the preferred medium for the selection and design of mechanical components. In utilizing these techniques, the designer demands the capability to identify, evaluate and select mechanical components both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative decisions generally encompass performance data included in the formal catalogue representation. It is in the area of qualitative decisions that the use of what the authors call 'Informal Information' is of crucial importance. Thus, 'Informal Information' must often be incorporated into the selection process and selection systems. This would enable more informed decisions to be made quicker, without the need for information retrieval via discussion with colleagues in the design environment. This paper provides an overview of the use of electronic information in the design of mechanical systems, including a discussion of limitations of current technology. The importance of Informal Information is discussed and the requirements for association with web based electronic catalogues are developed. This system is based on a flexible XML schema and enables the storage, classification and recall of Informal Information packets. Furthermore, a strategy for the inclusion of Informal Information is proposed, and an example case is used to illustrate the benefits.

  6. IDGenerator: unique identifier generator for epidemiologic or clinical studies.

    PubMed

    Olden, Matthias; Holle, Rolf; Heid, Iris M; Stark, Klaus

    2016-09-15

    Creating study identifiers and assigning them to study participants is an important feature in epidemiologic studies, ensuring the consistency and privacy of the study data. The numbering system for identifiers needs to be random within certain number constraints, to carry extensions coding for organizational information, or to contain multiple layers of numbers per participant to diversify data access. Available software can generate globally-unique identifiers, but identifier-creating tools meeting the special needs of epidemiological studies are lacking. We have thus set out to develop a software program to generate IDs for epidemiological or clinical studies. Our software IDGenerator creates unique identifiers that not only carry a random identifier for a study participant, but also support the creation of structured IDs, where organizational information is coded into the ID directly. This may include study center (for multicenter-studies), study track (for studies with diversified study programs), or study visit (baseline, follow-up, regularly repeated visits). Our software can be used to add a check digit to the ID to minimize data entry errors. It facilitates the generation of IDs in batches and the creation of layered IDs (personal data ID, study data ID, temporary ID, external data ID) to ensure a high standard of data privacy. The software is supported by a user-friendly graphic interface that enables the generation of IDs in both standard text and barcode 128B format. Our software IDGenerator can create identifiers meeting the specific needs for epidemiologic or clinical studies to facilitate study organization and data privacy. IDGenerator is freeware under the GNU General Public License version 3; a Windows port and the source code can be downloaded at the Open Science Framework website: https://osf.io/urs2g/ .

  7. Complex Structure and Biochemical Characterization of the Staphylococcus aureus Cyclic Diadenylate Monophosphate (c-di-AMP)-binding Protein PstA, the Founding Member of a New Signal Transduction Protein Family*

    PubMed Central

    Campeotto, Ivan; Zhang, Yong; Mladenov, Miroslav G.; Freemont, Paul S.; Gründling, Angelika

    2015-01-01

    Signaling nucleotides are integral parts of signal transduction systems allowing bacteria to cope with and rapidly respond to changes in the environment. The Staphylococcus aureus PII-like signal transduction protein PstA was recently identified as a cyclic diadenylate monophosphate (c-di-AMP)-binding protein. Here, we present the crystal structures of the apo- and c-di-AMP-bound PstA protein, which is trimeric in solution as well as in the crystals. The structures combined with detailed bioinformatics analysis revealed that the protein belongs to a new family of proteins with a similar core fold but with distinct features to classical PII proteins, which usually function in nitrogen metabolism pathways in bacteria. The complex structure revealed three identical c-di-AMP-binding sites per trimer with each binding site at a monomer-monomer interface. Although distinctly different from other cyclic-di-nucleotide-binding sites, as the half-binding sites are not symmetrical, the complex structure also highlighted common features for c-di-AMP-binding sites. A comparison between the apo and complex structures revealed a series of conformational changes that result in the ordering of two anti-parallel β-strands that protrude from each monomer and allowed us to propose a mechanism on how the PstA protein functions as a signaling transduction protein. PMID:25505271

  8. 49 CFR 1007.4 - Procedures for identifying the individual making the request.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Procedures for identifying the individual making the request. 1007.4 Section 1007.4 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to Transportation... CONTAINING INFORMATION ABOUT INDIVIDUALS § 1007.4 Procedures for identifying the individual making the...

  9. Study Abroad Information in the New Media

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Teng, Shasha; Khong, Kok Wei; Chong, Alain Yee Loong

    2015-01-01

    Few studies have been conducted to identify what kinds of online information are provided by institutions and needed by international students in social media. This study aims to identify critical constructs of study abroad information (SAI) that can generate positive attitudes toward the university. Specifically, this study attempts to…

  10. 5 CFR 551.709 - Availability of information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, OPM, upon a request which identifies the individual from whose file... contained in an FLSA claim file. When a claimant has requested confidentiality, OPM will delete any information identifying the claimant before disclosing the information in an FLSA claim file to the parties...

  11. 5 CFR 551.709 - Availability of information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, OPM, upon a request which identifies the individual from whose file... contained in an FLSA claim file. When a claimant has requested confidentiality, OPM will delete any information identifying the claimant before disclosing the information in an FLSA claim file to the parties...

  12. On Information Metrics for Spatial Coding.

    PubMed

    Souza, Bryan C; Pavão, Rodrigo; Belchior, Hindiael; Tort, Adriano B L

    2018-04-01

    The hippocampal formation is involved in navigation, and its neuronal activity exhibits a variety of spatial correlates (e.g., place cells, grid cells). The quantification of the information encoded by spikes has been standard procedure to identify which cells have spatial correlates. For place cells, most of the established metrics derive from Shannon's mutual information (Shannon, 1948), and convey information rate in bits/s or bits/spike (Skaggs et al., 1993, 1996). Despite their widespread use, the performance of these metrics in relation to the original mutual information metric has never been investigated. In this work, using simulated and real data, we find that the current information metrics correlate less with the accuracy of spatial decoding than the original mutual information metric. We also find that the top informative cells may differ among metrics, and show a surrogate-based normalization that yields comparable spatial information estimates. Since different information metrics may identify different neuronal populations, we discuss current and alternative definitions of spatially informative cells, which affect the metric choice. Copyright © 2018 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Identifiability in N-mixture models: a large-scale screening test with bird data.

    PubMed

    Kéry, Marc

    2018-02-01

    Binomial N-mixture models have proven very useful in ecology, conservation, and monitoring: they allow estimation and modeling of abundance separately from detection probability using simple counts. Recently, doubts about parameter identifiability have been voiced. I conducted a large-scale screening test with 137 bird data sets from 2,037 sites. I found virtually no identifiability problems for Poisson and zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) binomial N-mixture models, but negative-binomial (NB) models had problems in 25% of all data sets. The corresponding multinomial N-mixture models had no problems. Parameter estimates under Poisson and ZIP binomial and multinomial N-mixture models were extremely similar. Identifiability problems became a little more frequent with smaller sample sizes (267 and 50 sites), but were unaffected by whether the models did or did not include covariates. Hence, binomial N-mixture model parameters with Poisson and ZIP mixtures typically appeared identifiable. In contrast, NB mixtures were often unidentifiable, which is worrying since these were often selected by Akaike's information criterion. Identifiability of binomial N-mixture models should always be checked. If problems are found, simpler models, integrated models that combine different observation models or the use of external information via informative priors or penalized likelihoods, may help. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

  14. 76 FR 66312 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for Review; Information Collection Request...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-10-26

    ... collection of Life Sciences Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) information with the Office of the Director of... review of life science programs. In addition, the directory makes it easier to identify scientific... life science programs. The directory makes it easier to identify scientific specialty areas for which...

  15. Cervical Cancer Screening and Perceived Information Needs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Whynes, David K.; Clarke, Katherine; Philips, Zoe; Avis, Mark

    2005-01-01

    Purpose: To identify women's sources of information about cervical cancer screening, information which women report receiving during Pap consultations, information they would like to receive, and the relationships between perceived information needs, personal characteristics and information sources. Design/methodology/approach: Logistic regression…

  16. Attitudes Concerning Collaborative E-Learning Tool Usage for Information Technology and Information Assurance Organizational Efficiency

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sipper, Joshua A.

    2012-01-01

    Information Assurance (IA) is a relatively new field in the Information Technology (IT) construct. Strategies for establishing standards, training, and evaluations for IA are still developing and growing across the IT field. As new threats and vulnerabilities are identified in IA, new information, policies, and procedures must be established and…

  17. A study of preservice elementary teachers enrolled in a discrepant-event-based physical science class

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lilly, James Edward

    This research evaluated the POWERFUL IDEAS IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE (PIiPS) curriculum model used to develop a physical science course taken by preservice elementary teachers. The focus was on the evaluation of discrepant events used to induce conceptual change in relation to students' ideas concerning heat, temperature, and specific heat. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used for the analysis. Data was collected during the 1998 Fall semester using two classes of physical science for elementary school teachers. The traditionally taught class served as the control group and the class using the PIiPS curriculum model was the experimental group. The PIiPS curriculum model was evaluated quantitatively for its influence on students' attitude toward science, anxiety towards teaching science, self efficacy toward teaching science, and content knowledge. An analysis of covariance was performed on the quantitative data to test for significant differences between the means of the posttests for the control and experimental groups while controlling for pretest. It was found that there were no significant differences between the means of the control and experimental groups with respect to changes in their attitude toward science, anxiety toward teaching science and self efficacy toward teaching science. A significant difference between the means of the content examination was found (F(1,28) = 14.202 and p = 0.001), however, the result is questionable. The heat and energy module was the target for qualitative scrutiny. Coding for discrepant events was adapted from Appleton's 1996 work on student's responses to discrepant event science lessons. The following qualitative questions were posed for the investigation: (1) what were the ideas of the preservice elementary students prior to entering the classroom regarding heat and energy, (2) how effective were the discrepant events as presented in the PIiPS heat and energy module, and (3) how much does the "risk taking

  18. Smart use of data, information and communication: the INFORM-ed Best Local Practice Project--Grafton Base Hospital.

    PubMed

    Lloyd, Sheree; Collie, Jean; McInnes, Alastair; King, Kevin; Lollback, Alison; Garland, Angie

    This paper describes current progress for an information management project in a medium-sized rural hospital after the first four months of the one-year project. In particular, the article examines some of the project outcomes to date as these relate to the National Hospitals and Health Reform recommendations for the smart use of data, information and communication. The paper identifies a number of important challenges and issues that have been addressed by the project and proposes that the project findings may be used to inform similar projects in other settings. These findings relate to clinician requirements for reports, investment in human resources, development, and time for information management activities. An understanding of data collected, information systems, and presentation of clinician data are also important. The benefits of information sharing in assisting quality improvement activities are particularly relevant but, more importantly, they can engage and involve clinicians in the use of information. The importance of local data, information, and knowledge is described. Finally, issues for the health information management profession, such as working collegially and sharing knowledge and expertise, are outlined.

  19. Passive solar energy information user study

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

    Belew, W.W.; Wood, B.L.; Marle, T.L.

    1980-11-01

    The results of a series of telephone interviews with groups of users of information on passive solar heating and cooling are described. These results, part of a larger study on many different solar technologies, identify types of information each group needed and the best ways to get information to each group. The overall study provides baseline data about information needs in the solar community. An earlier study identified the information user groups in the solar community and the priority (to accelerate solar energy commercialization) of getting information to each group. In the current study only high-priority groups were examined. Resultsmore » from seven passive groups respondents are analyzed in this report: Federally Funded Researchers, Manufacturer Representatives, Architects, Builders, Educators, Cooperative Extension Service County Agents, and Homeowners. The data will be used as input to the determination of information products and services the Solar Energy Research Institute, the Solar Energy Information Data Bank Network, and the entire information outreach community should be preparing and disseminating.« less

  20. Applications of health information exchange information to public health practice.

    PubMed

    Kierkegaard, Patrick; Kaushal, Rainu; Vest, Joshua R

    2014-01-01

    Increased information availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness through health information exchange (HIE) can support public health practice. The potential benefits to disease monitoring, disaster response, and other public health activities served as an important justification for the US' investments in HIE. After several years of HIE implementation and funding, we sought to determine if any of the anticipated benefits of exchange participation were accruing to state and local public health practitioners participating in five different exchanges. Using qualitative interviews and template analyses, we identified public health efforts and activities that were improved by participation in HIE. HIE supported public health activities consistent with expectations in the literature. However, no single department realized all the potential benefits of HIE identified. These findings suggest ways to improve HIE usage in public health.

  1. Applications of Health Information Exchange Information to Public Health Practice

    PubMed Central

    Kierkegaard, Patrick; Kaushal, Rainu; Vest, Joshua R

    2014-01-01

    Increased information availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness through health information exchange (HIE) can support public health practice. The potential benefits to disease monitoring, disaster response, and other public health activities served as an important justification for the US’ investments in HIE. After several years of HIE implementation and funding, we sought to determine if any of the anticipated benefits of exchange participation were accruing to state and local public health practitioners participating in five different exchanges. Using qualitative interviews and template analyses, we identified public health efforts and activities that were improved by participation in HIE. HIE supported public health activities consistent with expectations in the literature. However, no single department realized all the potential benefits of HIE identified. These findings suggest ways to improve HIE usage in public health. PMID:25954386

  2. The Ecology of Volunteerism among College Women: Identifying Campus Environments That Inform Volunteering Behaviors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Axlund McBride, RaeLyn; Lott, Joe L.

    2015-01-01

    This study explores the relationship between campus environments, female college student peer culture, and the tendency to volunteer while in college. The authors used Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development (1977, 2005) as a framework to (a) identify one multi-faceted campus environment that is linked to volunteerism among college…

  3. Implications of Counter-Attitudinal Information Exposure in Further Information- Seeking and Attitude Change

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Sangwon

    2017-01-01

    Introduction: Given that people rely heavily on their party affiliation to make their political decisions, an interesting dilemma occurs when people are exposed to counter-attitudinal information from the party they identify with. This paper examines how exposure to counter-attitudinal messages from the party an individual identifies with…

  4. A Simple Test Identifies Selection on Complex Traits.

    PubMed

    Beissinger, Tim; Kruppa, Jochen; Cavero, David; Ha, Ngoc-Thuy; Erbe, Malena; Simianer, Henner

    2018-05-01

    Important traits in agricultural, natural, and human populations are increasingly being shown to be under the control of many genes that individually contribute only a small proportion of genetic variation. However, the majority of modern tools in quantitative and population genetics, including genome-wide association studies and selection-mapping protocols, are designed to identify individual genes with large effects. We have developed an approach to identify traits that have been under selection and are controlled by large numbers of loci. In contrast to existing methods, our technique uses additive-effects estimates from all available markers, and relates these estimates to allele-frequency change over time. Using this information, we generate a composite statistic, denoted [Formula: see text] which can be used to test for significant evidence of selection on a trait. Our test requires pre- and postselection genotypic data but only a single time point with phenotypic information. Simulations demonstrate that [Formula: see text] is powerful for identifying selection, particularly in situations where the trait being tested is controlled by many genes, which is precisely the scenario where classical approaches for selection mapping are least powerful. We apply this test to breeding populations of maize and chickens, where we demonstrate the successful identification of selection on traits that are documented to have been under selection. Copyright © 2018 Beissinger et al.

  5. Fifth Annual EDUCAUSE Survey Identifies Current IT Issues

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Spicer, Donald Z.; DeBlois, Peter B.

    2004-01-01

    This year marks the fifth annual EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey to identify what campus information technology leaders see as their most critical IT challenges. Thirty-five percent (571) of the 1,638 EDUCAUSE primary member representatives who were asked to participate responded to an e-mail invitation to complete the Web-based survey in December…

  6. 28 CFR 22.28 - Use of data identifiable to a private person for judicial, legislative or administrative purposes.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CONFIDENTIALITY OF IDENTIFIABLE RESEARCH AND STATISTICAL INFORMATION § 22.28 Use of...) Research or statistical information identifiable to a private person shall be immune from legal process and...

  7. 28 CFR 22.28 - Use of data identifiable to a private person for judicial, legislative or administrative purposes.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CONFIDENTIALITY OF IDENTIFIABLE RESEARCH AND STATISTICAL INFORMATION § 22.28 Use of...) Research or statistical information identifiable to a private person shall be immune from legal process and...

  8. Ambiguity of non-systematic chemical identifiers within and between small-molecule databases.

    PubMed

    Akhondi, Saber A; Muresan, Sorel; Williams, Antony J; Kors, Jan A

    2015-01-01

    A wide range of chemical compound databases are currently available for pharmaceutical research. To retrieve compound information, including structures, researchers can query these chemical databases using non-systematic identifiers. These are source-dependent identifiers (e.g., brand names, generic names), which are usually assigned to the compound at the point of registration. The correctness of non-systematic identifiers (i.e., whether an identifier matches the associated structure) can only be assessed manually, which is cumbersome, but it is possible to automatically check their ambiguity (i.e., whether an identifier matches more than one structure). In this study we have quantified the ambiguity of non-systematic identifiers within and between eight widely used chemical databases. We also studied the effect of chemical structure standardization on reducing the ambiguity of non-systematic identifiers. The ambiguity of non-systematic identifiers within databases varied from 0.1 to 15.2 % (median 2.5 %). Standardization reduced the ambiguity only to a small extent for most databases. A wide range of ambiguity existed for non-systematic identifiers that are shared between databases (17.7-60.2 %, median of 40.3 %). Removing stereochemistry information provided the largest reduction in ambiguity across databases (median reduction 13.7 percentage points). Ambiguity of non-systematic identifiers within chemical databases is generally low, but ambiguity of non-systematic identifiers that are shared between databases, is high. Chemical structure standardization reduces the ambiguity to a limited extent. Our findings can help to improve database integration, curation, and maintenance.

  9. Trends in the Information Industry.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hogan, Thomas H.

    1987-01-01

    The current president of the American Society for Information Science shares his observations about the information industry, identifying positive and negative trends, and discusses the role ASIS can play in the continuing growth of the industry. (Author/CLB)

  10. Information Professionals for the Industrial Sector.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carrion-Rodriguez, Guadalupe; Quevedo-Procel, Jose

    In today's information society, the greatest challenge for information professionals is to accept and understand the information world and to identify their own professional roles. These roles may vary according to the needs and stages of development of different countries, for not all countries are equally aware of the importance of information,…

  11. FF Site Information

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This asset includes the EPA Federal Agency Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket (Docket), which is required by Section 120(c) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). The Docket contains information reported to EPA by federal facilities that manage hazardous waste or from which hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants have been or may be released. The Docket serves three major purposes:1. To identify all federal facilities that must be evaluated through the site assessment process to determine whether they pose a risk to human health and the environment sufficient to warrant inclusion on the National Priorities List (NPL); 2. To compile and maintain the information submitted to EPA on such facilities under the provisions listed in section 120(c) of CERCLA; and3. To provide a mechanism to make the information available to the public.The docket includes facilities which have provided information to EPA through documents such as reports under a Federal agency environmental restoration program, regardless of the absence of section 103 reporting. E-Docket is an internal business management tool that will improve the tracking and record keeping of information about facilities that have been identified as potential Docket sites. The functionality of the system is basic record tracking, and it will contain a list of draft proposed facilities which can be sorted based on Agency ownership, region, or status (Draft Propose

  12. Menopause Weight Gain: Stop the Middle Age Spread

    MedlinePlus

    ... Abdominal adiposity and lung function in women. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases. In press. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0939475315302076. Accessed March 4, 2016. Cerhan JR, ...

  13. Metals and Ceramics Information Center.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1981-07-01

    Systems RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS a Ordnance Technology a Space Systems and Applications a Biomass Resources 6 Business Planning • Economics ...r 19 KEY WORDS (Cwintince on reverse side 4 neressery and identify by block numnber) Technical Information Center Composites DoD Information Analysis ...The Metals and Ceramics Information Center (MCIC) is one of the technical Information Analysis Centers (IAC’s) chartered and sponsored by the

  14. Achieving Privacy in a Federated Identity Management System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Landau, Susan; Le van Gong, Hubert; Wilton, Robin

    Federated identity management allows a user to efficiently authenticate and use identity information from data distributed across multiple domains. The sharing of data across domains blurs security boundaries and potentially creates privacy risks. We examine privacy risks and fundamental privacy protections of federated identity- management systems. The protections include minimal disclosure and providing PII only on a “need-to-know” basis. We then look at the Liberty Alliance system and analyze previous privacy critiques of that system. We show how law and policy provide privacy protections in federated identity-management systems, and that privacy threats are best handled using a combination of technology and law/policy tools.

  15. Research Issues in Information Access.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Molholt, Pat

    1989-01-01

    Discusses traditional library approaches to access to information and the possible impact of information technologies, library automation, and artificial intelligence. Access issues raised by these technologies are identified and a research agenda to explore these issues is outlined. (31 references) (CLB)

  16. Identifying environmental factors harmful to reproduction.

    PubMed Central

    Palmer, A K

    1993-01-01

    Reproduction is essential for the continuation of the species and for life itself. In biological terms, living and reproducing are essentially one and the same. There is, therefore, no sharp division between identifying factors harmful to reproduction and identifying factors harmful to life or vice versa. Detection of harmful factors requires balanced use of a variety of methodologies from databases on structure-activity relationships through in vitro and in vivo test systems of varying complexity to surveys of wildlife and human populations. Human surveys provide the only assured means of discriminating between real and imagined harmful factors, but they are time consuming and provide information after the harm has been done. Test systems with whole animals provide the best prospects for identifying harmful factors quickly, but currently available methods used for testing agrochemicals and drugs need a thorough overhaul before they can provide a role model. Whether there is a need for new methodology is doubtful. More certain is the need to use existing methodology more wisely. We need a better understanding of the environment--whatever it is--and a more thoughtful approach to investigation of multifactorial situations. PMID:8243390

  17. [Integrated DNA barcoding database for identifying Chinese animal medicine].

    PubMed

    Shi, Lin-Chun; Yao, Hui; Xie, Li-Fang; Zhu, Ying-Jie; Song, Jing-Yuan; Zhang, Hui; Chen, Shi-Lin

    2014-06-01

    In order to construct an integrated DNA barcoding database for identifying Chinese animal medicine, the authors and their cooperators have completed a lot of researches for identifying Chinese animal medicines using DNA barcoding technology. Sequences from GenBank have been analyzed simultaneously. Three different methods, BLAST, barcoding gap and Tree building, have been used to confirm the reliabilities of barcode records in the database. The integrated DNA barcoding database for identifying Chinese animal medicine has been constructed using three different parts: specimen, sequence and literature information. This database contained about 800 animal medicines and the adulterants and closely related species. Unknown specimens can be identified by pasting their sequence record into the window on the ID page of species identification system for traditional Chinese medicine (www. tcmbarcode. cn). The integrated DNA barcoding database for identifying Chinese animal medicine is significantly important for animal species identification, rare and endangered species conservation and sustainable utilization of animal resources.

  18. Privacy-related context information for ubiquitous health.

    PubMed

    Seppälä, Antto; Nykänen, Pirkko; Ruotsalainen, Pekka

    2014-03-11

    Ubiquitous health has been defined as a dynamic network of interconnected systems. A system is composed of one or more information systems, their stakeholders, and the environment. These systems offer health services to individuals and thus implement ubiquitous computing. Privacy is the key challenge for ubiquitous health because of autonomous processing, rich contextual metadata, lack of predefined trust among participants, and the business objectives. Additionally, regulations and policies of stakeholders may be unknown to the individual. Context-sensitive privacy policies are needed to regulate information processing. Our goal was to analyze privacy-related context information and to define the corresponding components and their properties that support privacy management in ubiquitous health. These properties should describe the privacy issues of information processing. With components and their properties, individuals can define context-aware privacy policies and set their privacy preferences that can change in different information-processing situations. Scenarios and user stories are used to analyze typical activities in ubiquitous health to identify main actors, goals, tasks, and stakeholders. Context arises from an activity and, therefore, we can determine different situations, services, and systems to identify properties for privacy-related context information in information-processing situations. Privacy-related context information components are situation, environment, individual, information technology system, service, and stakeholder. Combining our analyses and previously identified characteristics of ubiquitous health, more detailed properties for the components are defined. Properties define explicitly what context information for different components is needed to create context-aware privacy policies that can control, limit, and constrain information processing. With properties, we can define, for example, how data can be processed or how components

  19. Sensitive But Unclassified Information and Other Controls: Policy and Options for Scientific and Technical Information

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-12-29

    access to scientific and technical information (S& T ) for legitimate uses while protecting it from potential terrorists poses difficult policy choices...September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, controls increasingly have been placed on some unclassified research and S& T information, including that used to...identify SBU information, especially S& T information; how to keep it from terrorists, while allowing access for those who need to use it; and how to

  20. Identification and Management of Information Problems by Emergency Department Staff

    PubMed Central

    Murphy, Alison R.; Reddy, Madhu C.

    2014-01-01

    Patient-care teams frequently encounter information problems during their daily activities. These information problems include wrong, outdated, conflicting, incomplete, or missing information. Information problems can negatively impact the patient-care workflow, lead to misunderstandings about patient information, and potentially lead to medical errors. Existing research focuses on understanding the cause of these information problems and the impact that they can have on the hospital’s workflow. However, there is limited research on how patient-care teams currently identify and manage information problems that they encounter during their work. Through qualitative observations and interviews in an emergency department (ED), we identified the types of information problems encountered by ED staff, and examined how they identified and managed the information problems. We also discuss the impact that these information problems can have on the patient-care teams, including the cascading effects of information problems on workflow and the ambiguous accountability for fixing information problems within collaborative teams. PMID:25954457

  1. Scalable persistent identifier systems for dynamic datasets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Golodoniuc, P.; Cox, S. J. D.; Klump, J. F.

    2016-12-01

    Reliable and persistent identification of objects, whether tangible or not, is essential in information management. Many Internet-based systems have been developed to identify digital data objects, e.g., PURL, LSID, Handle, ARK. These were largely designed for identification of static digital objects. The amount of data made available online has grown exponentially over the last two decades and fine-grained identification of dynamically generated data objects within large datasets using conventional systems (e.g., PURL) has become impractical. We have compared capabilities of various technological solutions to enable resolvability of data objects in dynamic datasets, and developed a dataset-centric approach to resolution of identifiers. This is particularly important in Semantic Linked Data environments where dynamic frequently changing data is delivered live via web services, so registration of individual data objects to obtain identifiers is impractical. We use identifier patterns and pattern hierarchies for identification of data objects, which allows relationships between identifiers to be expressed, and also provides means for resolving a single identifier into multiple forms (i.e. views or representations of an object). The latter can be implemented through (a) HTTP content negotiation, or (b) use of URI querystring parameters. The pattern and hierarchy approach has been implemented in the Linked Data API supporting the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI) initiative and later in the implementation of geoscientific data delivery for the Capricorn Distal Footprints project using International Geo Sample Numbers (IGSN). This enables flexible resolution of multi-view persistent identifiers and provides a scalable solution for large heterogeneous datasets.

  2. 7 CFR 2903.16 - Organizational management information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Organizational management information. 2903.16... § 2903.16 Organizational management information. Specific management information relating to an applicant... a grant identified under this program, if such information has not been provided previously. Copies...

  3. Experiences of female partners of masculine identifying trans persons

    PubMed Central

    Theron, Liesl; Collier, Kate L.

    2013-01-01

    This study explores the intimate relationship experiences of cisgender (i.e., not transgender) female partners of masculine identifying transgender persons, with a particular focus on these partners’ self-understanding of their sexual orientation. Limited research about this topic has been conducted to date. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight South African women who are or have been cisgender female partners of masculine identifying trans persons. Although the interviews showed that the relationship experiences of female partners of masculine identifying trans persons are diverse, several common themes emerged in the narratives. The way that participants labelled their sexual orientation did not change from before to after their relationship with a transgender partner. The participants reported varied family and community responses to their relationships. Specific emotional and informational support needs for women with transgender partners were identified. PMID:23668602

  4. Experiences of female partners of masculine-identifying trans persons.

    PubMed

    Theron, Liesl; Collier, Kate L

    2013-01-01

    This paper explores the intimate relationship experiences of the cisgender (i.e., not transgender) female partners of masculine-identifying transgender persons, with a particular focus on these partners' self-understanding of their sexual orientation. Limited research about this topic has been conducted to date. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight South African women who are or have been cisgender female partners of masculine-identifying trans persons. Although the interviews showed that the relationship experiences of female partners of masculine-identifying trans persons are diverse, several common themes emerged in the narratives. The way that participants labelled their sexual orientation did not change from before to after their relationship with a transgender partner. The participants reported varied family and community responses to their relationships. Specific emotional and informational support needs for women with transgender partners were identified.

  5. Material Excavated by a Fresh Impact and Identified as Water Ice

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2009-09-24

    The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, an instrument on NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, obtained information confirming material excavated by a fresh impact and Identified as water ice.

  6. Identifying patient safety problems associated with information technology in general practice: an analysis of incident reports.

    PubMed

    Magrabi, Farah; Liaw, Siaw Teng; Arachi, Diana; Runciman, William; Coiera, Enrico; Kidd, Michael R

    2016-11-01

    To identify the categories of problems with information technology (IT), which affect patient safety in general practice. General practitioners (GPs) reported incidents online or by telephone between May 2012 and November 2013. Incidents were reviewed against an existing classification for problems associated with IT and the clinical process impacted. 87 GPs across Australia. Types of problems, consequences and clinical processes. GPs reported 90 incidents involving IT which had an observable impact on the delivery of care, including actual patient harm as well as near miss events. Practice systems and medications were the most affected clinical processes. Problems with IT disrupted clinical workflow, wasted time and caused frustration. Issues with user interfaces, routine updates to software packages and drug databases, and the migration of records from one package to another generated clinical errors that were unique to IT; some could affect many patients at once. Human factors issues gave rise to some errors that have always existed with paper records but are more likely to occur and cause harm with IT. Such errors were linked to slips in concentration, multitasking, distractions and interruptions. Problems with patient identification and hybrid records generated errors that were in principle no different to paper records. Problems associated with IT include perennial risks with paper records, but additional disruptions in workflow and hazards for patients unique to IT, occasionally affecting multiple patients. Surveillance for such hazards may have general utility, but particularly in the context of migrating historical records to new systems and software updates to existing systems. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  7. DETERMINATION OF NEWLY IDENTIFIED DISINFECTION BY-PRODUCTS IN DRINKING WATER

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWDSC) is investigating the occurrence of 39 newly identified disinfection by-products (DBPs)-which were not included in the Information Collection Rule (ICR)-in drinking waters. Halomethanes (HMs), haloacetonitriles (HANs),...

  8. Using hyperspectral imaging technology to identify diseased tomato leaves

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Cuiling; Wang, Xiu; Zhao, Xueguan; Meng, Zhijun; Zou, Wei

    2016-11-01

    In the process of tomato plants growth, due to the effect of plants genetic factors, poor environment factors, or disoperation of parasites, there will generate a series of unusual symptoms on tomato plants from physiology, organization structure and external form, as a result, they cannot grow normally, and further to influence the tomato yield and economic benefits. Hyperspectral image usually has high spectral resolution, not only contains spectral information, but also contains the image information, so this study adopted hyperspectral imaging technology to identify diseased tomato leaves, and developed a simple hyperspectral imaging system, including a halogen lamp light source unit, a hyperspectral image acquisition unit and a data processing unit. Spectrometer detection wavelength ranged from 400nm to 1000nm. After hyperspectral images of tomato leaves being captured, it was needed to calibrate hyperspectral images. This research used spectrum angle matching method and spectral red edge parameters discriminant method respectively to identify diseased tomato leaves. Using spectral red edge parameters discriminant method produced higher recognition accuracy, the accuracy was higher than 90%. Research results have shown that using hyperspectral imaging technology to identify diseased tomato leaves is feasible, and provides the discriminant basis for subsequent disease control of tomato plants.

  9. Development of a framework to identify research gaps from systematic reviews.

    PubMed

    Robinson, Karen A; Saldanha, Ian J; McKoy, Naomi A

    2011-12-01

    Our objective was to develop a framework to identify research gaps from systematic reviews. We reviewed the practices of (1) evidence-based practice centers (EPCs), and (2) other organizations that conduct evidence syntheses. We developed and pilot tested a framework for identifying research gaps. Four (33%) EPCs and three (8%) other organizations reported using an explicit framework to determine research gaps. Variations of the PICO (population, intervention, comparison, outcomes) framework were most common. We developed a framework incorporating both the characterization of the gap using PICOS elements (also including setting) and the identification of the reason(s) why the gap exists as (1) insufficient or imprecise information, (2) biased information, (3) inconsistency or unknown consistency, and (4) not the right information. We mapped each of these reasons to concepts from three common evidence-grading systems. Our framework determines from systematic reviews where the current evidence falls short and why or how the evidence falls short. This explicit identification of research gaps will allow systematic reviews to maximally inform the types of questions that need to be addressed and the types of studies needed to address the research gaps. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. 42 CFR 486.330 - Condition: Information management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Condition: Information management. 486.330 Section...: Information management. An OPO must establish and use an electronic information management system to maintain the required medical, social and identifying information for every donor and transplant beneficiary...

  11. 42 CFR 486.330 - Condition: Information management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Condition: Information management. 486.330 Section...: Information management. An OPO must establish and use an electronic information management system to maintain the required medical, social and identifying information for every donor and transplant beneficiary...

  12. 42 CFR 486.330 - Condition: Information management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Condition: Information management. 486.330 Section...: Information management. An OPO must establish and use an electronic information management system to maintain the required medical, social and identifying information for every donor and transplant beneficiary...

  13. Using health technology assessment to identify gaps in evidence and inform study design for comparative effectiveness research.

    PubMed

    Tunis, Sean R; Turkelson, Charles

    2012-12-01

    Health technology assessment (HTA) is primarily used as a tool to ensure that clinical and policy decisions are made with the benefit of a systematic analysis of all completed research. This article describes the progress and potential for HTA reports to improve the quality and relevance of future research and to better serve the information needs of patients, clinicians, payers, and other decision makers. We conducted a review of the current published literature and working papers describing past, ongoing, and future initiatives that rely on HTA reports to identify gaps in evidence and improve the design of future research. Although still in a developmental stage, significant progress is under way to improve methods for using HTA reports for the systematic identification of research gaps, prioritization of future research, and improvement of study designs. Several well-defined frameworks have been developed to assist those who produce HTA to become more effective in these additional domains of work. A recurring element of this work is the importance of meaningfully involving stakeholders in the process of defining future research needs and designing studies to address them. Patients, clinicians, and payers are important audiences for completed research and are now recognized as serving an important role in determining what future research is needed. There are substantial opportunities to improve the quality, relevance, and efficiency of clinical research. Recent efforts are beginning to demonstrate the potential to build on the work invested in developing HTA reports to provide a roadmap toward these objectives.

  14. Identifying QCD Transition Using Deep Learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Kai; Pang, Long-gang; Su, Nan; Petersen, Hannah; Stoecker, Horst; Wang, Xin-Nian

    2018-02-01

    In this proceeding we review our recent work using supervised learning with a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to identify the QCD equation of state (EoS) employed in hydrodynamic modeling of heavy-ion collisions given only final-state particle spectra ρ(pT, V). We showed that there is a traceable encoder of the dynamical information from phase structure (EoS) that survives the evolution and exists in the final snapshot, which enables the trained CNN to act as an effective "EoS-meter" in detecting the nature of the QCD transition.

  15. Identifying the Enemy: Social Categorization and National Security Policy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Unsworth, Kristene

    2010-01-01

    This dissertation seeks to understand the interplay between informal articulations of social categories and formal instantiations of those categories in official language. Specifically, it explores the process of social categorization as it is used to identify threats to national security. The research employed a qualitative, document-based,…

  16. Identifying Health Information Technology Needs of Oncologists to Facilitate the Adoption of Genomic Medicine: Recommendations From the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology Omics and Precision Oncology Workshop.

    PubMed

    Hughes, Kevin S; Ambinder, Edward P; Hess, Gregory P; Yu, Peter Paul; Bernstam, Elmer V; Routbort, Mark J; Clemenceau, Jean Rene; Hamm, John T; Febbo, Phillip G; Domchek, Susan M; Chen, James L; Warner, Jeremy L

    2017-09-20

    At the ASCO Data Standards and Interoperability Summit held in May 2016, it was unanimously decided that four areas of current oncology clinical practice have serious, unmet health information technology needs. The following areas of need were identified: 1) omics and precision oncology, 2) advancing interoperability, 3) patient engagement, and 4) value-based oncology. To begin to address these issues, ASCO convened two complementary workshops: the Omics and Precision Oncology Workshop in October 2016 and the Advancing Interoperability Workshop in December 2016. A common goal was to address the complexity, enormity, and rapidly changing nature of genomic information, which existing electronic health records are ill equipped to manage. The subject matter experts invited to the Omics and Precision Oncology Workgroup were tasked with the responsibility of determining a specific, limited need that could be addressed by a software application (app) in the short-term future, using currently available genomic knowledge bases. Hence, the scope of this workshop was to determine the basic functionality of one app that could serve as a test case for app development. The goal of the second workshop, described separately, was to identify the specifications for such an app. This approach was chosen both to facilitate the development of a useful app and to help ASCO and oncologists better understand the mechanics, difficulties, and gaps in genomic clinical decision support tool development. In this article, we discuss the key challenges and recommendations identified by the workshop participants. Our hope is to narrow the gap between the practicing oncologist and ongoing national efforts to provide precision oncology and value-based care to cancer patients.

  17. Persistent Identifiers in Earth science data management environments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Weigel, Tobias; Stockhause, Martina; Lautenschlager, Michael

    2014-05-01

    Globally resolvable Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) that carry additional context information (which can be any form of metadata) are increasingly used by data management infrastructures for fundamental tasks. The notion of a Persistent Identifier is originally an abstract concept that aims to provide identifiers that are quality-controlled and maintained beyond the life time of the original issuer, for example through the use of redirection mechanisms. Popular implementations of the PID concept are for example the Handle System and the DOI System based on it. These systems also move beyond the simple identification concept by providing facilities that can hold additional context information. Not only in the Earth sciences, data managers are increasingly attracted to PIDs because of the opportunities these facilities provide; however, long-term viable principles and mechanisms for efficient organization of PIDs and context information are not yet available or well established. In this respect, promising techniques are to type the information that is associated with PIDs and to construct actionable collections of PIDs. There are two main drivers for extended PID usage: Earth science data management middleware use cases and applications geared towards scientific end-users. Motivating scenarios from data management include hierarchical data and metadata management, consistent data tracking and improvements in the accountability of processes. If PIDs are consistently assigned to data objects, context information can be carried over to subsequent data life cycle stages much easier. This can also ease data migration from one major curation domain to another, e.g. from early dissemination within research communities to formal publication and long-term archival stages, and it can help to document processes across technical and organizational boundaries. For scientific end users, application scenarios include for example more personalized data citation and improvements in the

  18. 42 CFR 486.330 - Condition: Information management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Condition: Information management. 486.330 Section...: Information management. An OPO must establish and use an electronic information management system to maintain the required medical, social and identifying information for every donor and transplant recipient and...

  19. 42 CFR 486.330 - Condition: Information management.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Condition: Information management. 486.330 Section...: Information management. An OPO must establish and use an electronic information management system to maintain the required medical, social and identifying information for every donor and transplant recipient and...

  20. Environmental Education Information Providers Directory.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    1999

    This report directory provides environmental education training resources and related support to education professionals. Surveys were sent to over 60 organizations asking them to self-identify as Environmental Information Providers or Environmental Education Information Providers. This report includes the list of organizations that responded and…

  1. A de-identifier for medical discharge summaries.

    PubMed

    Uzuner, Ozlem; Sibanda, Tawanda C; Luo, Yuan; Szolovits, Peter

    2008-01-01

    Clinical records contain significant medical information that can be useful to researchers in various disciplines. However, these records also contain personal health information (PHI) whose presence limits the use of the records outside of hospitals. The goal of de-identification is to remove all PHI from clinical records. This is a challenging task because many records contain foreign and misspelled PHI; they also contain PHI that are ambiguous with non-PHI. These complications are compounded by the linguistic characteristics of clinical records. For example, medical discharge summaries, which are studied in this paper, are characterized by fragmented, incomplete utterances and domain-specific language; they cannot be fully processed by tools designed for lay language. In this paper, we show that we can de-identify medical discharge summaries using a de-identifier, Stat De-id, based on support vector machines and local context (F-measure=97% on PHI). Our representation of local context aids de-identification even when PHI include out-of-vocabulary words and even when PHI are ambiguous with non-PHI within the same corpus. Comparison of Stat De-id with a rule-based approach shows that local context contributes more to de-identification than dictionaries combined with hand-tailored heuristics (F-measure=85%). Comparison with two well-known named entity recognition (NER) systems, SNoW (F-measure=94%) and IdentiFinder (F-measure=36%), on five representative corpora show that when the language of documents is fragmented, a system with a relatively thorough representation of local context can be a more effective de-identifier than systems that combine (relatively simpler) local context with global context. Comparison with a Conditional Random Field De-identifier (CRFD), which utilizes global context in addition to the local context of Stat De-id, confirms this finding (F-measure=88%) and establishes that strengthening the representation of local context may be more

  2. Using a watershed-centric approach to identify potentially impacted beaches

    EPA Science Inventory

    Beaches can be affected by a variety of contaminants. Of particular concern are beaches impacted by human fecal contamination and urban runoff. This poster demonstrates a methodology to identify potentially impacted beaches using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Since h...

  3. [Information and information technology in health: contemporary health kaleidoscope].

    PubMed

    de Moraes, Ilara Hämmerli Sozzi; de Gómez, Maria Nélida González

    2007-01-01

    This essay is based on the assumption that current practices and knowledge of Information and Information Technology in Health are unable to deal with the complexity of the health/disease/care processes and contemporary problems that must be overcome, curbing the expansion of the response capacity of the Brazilian State. It aims to further explore the understanding of the roots and determining factors behind these constraints, analyzing alternatives for confronting them that depend less on location-specific initiatives in the field of information and more - among others - on the adoption of new benchmarks, starting with the meaning and concept of Health. It identifies the existence of an 'information and information technology interfield' that arises from an epistemology based on a transdisciplinary approach, as well as the consolidation of a political and historical process of institutional construction, an area endowed with power and relevance: a political-epistemological interfield. The analysis goes on through an exploratory study of the social, political and epistemological processes found in the historical construction health information networks established by Science and Technology in health, as well as by healthcare systems and services, in addition to social, political and economic information.

  4. Value of Information Evaluation using Field Data

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

    Trainor-Guitton, W.

    2015-06-15

    Value of information (VOI) provides the ability to identify and prioritize useful information gathering for a geothermal prospect, either hydrothermal or for enhanced geothermal systems. Useful information provides a value greater than the cost of the information; wasteful information costs more than the expected value of the information. In this project we applied and refined VOI methodologies on selected geothermal prospects.

  5. Identifying Human Trafficking Victims on a Psychiatry Inpatient Service: a Case Series.

    PubMed

    Nguyen, Phuong T; Lamkin, Joanna; Coverdale, John H; Scott, Samuel; Li, Karen; Gordon, Mollie R

    2018-06-01

    Human trafficking is a serious and prevalent human rights violation that closely intersects with mental health. Limited empirical attention has been paid to the presentations and identification of trafficking victims in psychiatric settings. The primary goal of this paper is to describe the varied presentations of trafficking victims on an urban inpatient psychiatric unit. A literature review was conducted to identify relevant empirical articles to inform our examination of cases. Adult inpatient cases meeting criteria for known or possible human trafficking were systematically identified and illustrative cases were described. Six cases were identified including one male and five females. Two had been labor trafficked and four were suspected or confirmed to have been sex trafficked. The cases demonstrated a tremendous diversity of demographic and psychiatric identifying factors. These cases indicate the importance of routinely screening for trafficking victims in inpatient psychiatry settings. Identification of cases is a requisite step in providing informed and evidence-based treatments and enabling the secondary prevention of re-exploitation. Additional research is warranted given the limited current empirical research on this topic area.

  6. Screening Procedures Used to Identify Children with Hearing Loss.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barringer, Donald G.; And Others

    1993-01-01

    Analysis of data on 1,404 young children with hearing losses indicated that 80% of the children were identified via informal hearing-screening procedures, such as parental suspicion and referral. Auditory brainstem response technology provided the lowest mean identification age. The study concludes that formal screening programs are not locating…

  7. 76 FR 49455 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-08-10

    ... System name: Sensitive Compartmented Info (SCI) Posn/Pers Accountability System (February 22, 1993, 58 FR 10562). Reason: DISA does not upload or input PII into the Sensitive Compartmented Info (SCI) Posn/Pers...

  8. EZID: Long term identifiers made easy (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Starr, J.

    2013-12-01

    Scholarly research is producing ever increasing amounts of digital research data, and this data should be managed throughout the research life cycle both as part of good scientific practice, but also to comply with funder mandates, such as the 2013 OSTP Public Access Memo (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf). By assigning unique and persistent identifiers to data objects, data managers can gain control and flexibility over what can be a daunting task. This is due to the fact that the objects can be moved to new locations without disruption to links, as long as the identifier target is maintained. EZID is a tool that makes assigning and maintaining unique, persistent identifiers easy. It was designed and built by California Digital Library (CDL) and has both a user interface and a RESTful API. EZID currently offers services for two globally unique, persistent identifier schemes: Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and Archival Resource Keys (ARKs). DOIs are identifiers originating from the publishing world and are in widespread use for journal articles. CDL is able to offer DOIs because of being a founding member of DataCite (http://www.datacite.org/), an international consortium established to provide easier access to scientific research data on the Internet. ARKs are identifiers originating from the library, archive and museum community. Like DOIs, they become persistent when the objects and identifier forwarding information is maintained. DOIs and ARKs have a key role in data management and, therefore, in data management plans. DOIs are the recommended identifier for use in data citation, and ARKs provide the maximum flexibility needed for data documentation and management throughout the early phases of a project. The two identifier schemes are able to be used together, and EZID is made to work with both. EZID clients, coming from education, research, government, and the private sector, are utilizing the

  9. Information Retrieval for Ecological Syntheses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bayliss, Helen R.; Beyer, Fiona R.

    2015-01-01

    Research syntheses are increasingly being conducted within the fields of ecology and environmental management. Information retrieval is crucial in any synthesis in identifying data for inclusion whilst potentially reducing biases in the dataset gathered, yet the nature of ecological information provides several challenges when compared with…

  10. Lipid Informed Quantitation and Identification

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

    Kevin Crowell, PNNL

    2014-07-21

    LIQUID (Lipid Informed Quantitation and Identification) is a software program that has been developed to enable users to conduct both informed and high-throughput global liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based lipidomics analysis. This newly designed desktop application can quickly identify and quantify lipids from LC-MS/MS datasets while providing a friendly graphical user interface for users to fully explore the data. Informed data analysis simply involves the user specifying an electrospray ionization mode, lipid common name (i.e. PE(16:0/18:2)), and associated charge carrier. A stemplot of the isotopic profile and a line plot of the extracted ion chromatogram are also provided to showmore » the MS-level evidence of the identified lipid. In addition to plots, other information such as intensity, mass measurement error, and elution time are also provided. Typically, a global analysis for 15,000 lipid targets« less

  11. A Unified Mathematical Definition of Classical Information Retrieval.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dominich, Sandor

    2000-01-01

    Presents a unified mathematical definition for the classical models of information retrieval and identifies a mathematical structure behind relevance feedback. Highlights include vector information retrieval; probabilistic information retrieval; and similarity information retrieval. (Contains 118 references.) (Author/LRW)

  12. Identifying criteria and establishing parameters for forest-based ecotourism in Northern Ontario, Canada

    Treesearch

    Stephen W. Boyd; Richard W. Butler; Wolfgang Haider

    1995-01-01

    This paper identifies the following criteria as indicators for ecotourism suitability within a Northern Ontario context: naturalness, wildlife, cultural heritage, landscape and community. A methodology is proposed which uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to identify ecotourism sites by linking criteria deemed important with actual landscape characteristics of...

  13. Persistent Identifiers: a Prerequisite to Establish the Framework for Scholarly Link Exchange—Scholix

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stocker, M.; Mokrane, M.; Burton, A.; Koers, H.

    2016-12-01

    The Scholix framework—Scholarly Link Exchange—is a set of aspirational principles and practical guidelines developed under the umbrella of a joint Working Group of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and the World Data System (WDS). It supports a global open information ecosystem unveiling the links between scholarly literature and underpinning research data. The core objectives of the framework are to (1) increase visibility and discoverability of data and articles, (2) place data in context to enable re-use, and (3) support credit attribution mechanisms. Thus, facilitating reproducibility and the transparent evaluation of science. Scholix provides an evolving lightweight set of Guidelines to increase interoperability rather than a normative standard. It consists initially of a conceptual and information models, information standards and encoding guidelines, and options for encoding and exchange protocols. An essential prerequisite to enable the proposed framework is the use of global, unique and persistent identifiers for research objects (such as data and literature). Scholix provides incentives and encourages best practice in the use of such identifiers and standardised referencing. The Data and Literature Interlinking Service (DLI: dliservice.research-infrastructures.eu) is the first exemplar of an aggregation and query service supported by the Scholix framework which will allow the emergence of third party services such as domain-specific aggregations, integrations with other global services, discovery tools, impact assessments, etc. Scholix is already implemented by existing hubs or global aggregators of data-literature link information such as DataCite, CrossRef, OpenAIRE, and EMBL-EBI building on the capacities of existing Persistent Identifier Systems (PIDs) such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) and Accession Numbers. These hubs in turn work with their natural communities of data centres or literature publishers to collect the information through

  14. Privacy-Related Context Information for Ubiquitous Health

    PubMed Central

    Nykänen, Pirkko; Ruotsalainen, Pekka

    2014-01-01

    Background Ubiquitous health has been defined as a dynamic network of interconnected systems. A system is composed of one or more information systems, their stakeholders, and the environment. These systems offer health services to individuals and thus implement ubiquitous computing. Privacy is the key challenge for ubiquitous health because of autonomous processing, rich contextual metadata, lack of predefined trust among participants, and the business objectives. Additionally, regulations and policies of stakeholders may be unknown to the individual. Context-sensitive privacy policies are needed to regulate information processing. Objective Our goal was to analyze privacy-related context information and to define the corresponding components and their properties that support privacy management in ubiquitous health. These properties should describe the privacy issues of information processing. With components and their properties, individuals can define context-aware privacy policies and set their privacy preferences that can change in different information-processing situations. Methods Scenarios and user stories are used to analyze typical activities in ubiquitous health to identify main actors, goals, tasks, and stakeholders. Context arises from an activity and, therefore, we can determine different situations, services, and systems to identify properties for privacy-related context information in information-processing situations. Results Privacy-related context information components are situation, environment, individual, information technology system, service, and stakeholder. Combining our analyses and previously identified characteristics of ubiquitous health, more detailed properties for the components are defined. Properties define explicitly what context information for different components is needed to create context-aware privacy policies that can control, limit, and constrain information processing. With properties, we can define, for example, how

  15. Conformational Changes of Trialanine in Water Induced by Vibrational Relaxation of the Amide I Mode.

    PubMed

    Bastida, Adolfo; Zúñiga, José; Requena, Alberto; Miguel, Beatriz; Candela, María Emilia; Soler, Miguel Angel

    2016-01-21

    Most of the protein-based diseases are caused by anomalies in the functionality and stability of these molecules. Experimental and theoretical studies of the conformational dynamics of proteins are becoming in this respect essential to understand the origin of these anomalies. However, a description of the conformational dynamics of proteins based on mechano-energetic principles still remains elusive because of the intrinsic high flexibility of the peptide chains, the participation of weak noncovalent interactions, and the role of the ubiquitous water solvent. In this work, the conformational dynamics of trialanine dissolved in water (D2O) is investigated through Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations combined with instantaneous normal modes (INMs) analysis both at equilibrium and after the vibrational excitation of the C-terminal amide I mode. The conformational equilibrium between α and pPII conformers is found to be altered by the intramolecular relaxation of the amide I mode as a consequence of the different relaxation pathways of each conformer which modify the amount of vibrational energy stored in the torsional motions of the tripeptide, so the α → pPII and pPII → α conversion rates are increased differently. The selectivity of the process comes from the shifts of the vibrational frequencies with the conformational changes that modify the resonance conditions driving the intramolecular energy flows.

  16. Synergistic binding of glucose and aluminium ATP to hexokinase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

    PubMed

    Woolfitt, A R; Kellett, G L; Hoggett, J G

    1988-08-10

    The binding of glucose, AlATP and AlADP to the monomeric and dimeric forms of the native yeast hexokinase PII isoenzyme and to the proteolytically modified SII monomeric form was monitored at pH 6.7 by the concomitant quenching of intrinsic protein fluorescence. No fluorescence changes were observed when free enzyme was mixed with AlATP at concentrations up to 7500 microM. In the presence of saturating concentrations of glucose, the maximal quenching of fluorescence induced by AlATP was between 1.5 and 3.5% depending on species, and the average value of [L]0.5, the concentration of ligand at half-saturation, over all monomeric species was 0.9 +/- 0.4 microM. The presence of saturating concentrations of AlATP diminished [L]0.5 for glucose binding by between 260- and 670-fold for hexokinase PII and SII monomers, respectively (dependent on the ionic strength), and by almost 4000-fold for PII dimer. The data demonstrate extremely strong synergistic interactions in the binding of glucose and AlATP to yeast hexokinase, arising as a consequence of conformational changes in the free enzyme induced by glucose and in enzyme-glucose complex induced by AlATP. The synergistic interactions of glucose and AlATP are related to their kinetic synergism and to the ability of AlATP to act as a powerful inhibitor of the hexokinase reaction.

  17. An identifiable model for informative censoring

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Link, W.A.; Wegman, E.J.; Gantz, D.T.; Miller, J.J.

    1988-01-01

    The usual model for censored survival analysis requires the assumption that censoring of observations arises only due to causes unrelated to the lifetime under consideration. It is easy to envision situations in which this assumption is unwarranted, and in which use of the Kaplan-Meier estimator and associated techniques will lead to unreliable analyses.

  18. Solar thermal electric power information user study

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

    Belew, W.W.; Wood, B.L.; Marle, T.L.

    1981-02-01

    The results of a series of telephone interviews with groups of users of information on solar thermal electric power are described. These results, part of a larger study on many different solar technologies, identify types of information each group needed and the best ways to get information to each group. The report is 1 of 10 discussing study results. The overall study provides baseline data about information needs in the solar community. An earlier study identified the information user groups in the solar community and the priority (to accelerate solar energy commercialization) of getting information to each group. In themore » current study only high-priority groups were examined. Results from five solar thermal electric power groups of respondents are analyzed: DOE-Funded Researchers, Non-DOE-Funded Researchers, Representatives of Utilities, Electric Power Engineers, and Educators. The data will be used as input to the determination of information products and services the Solar Energy Research Institute, the Solar Energy Information Data Bank Network, and the entire information outreach community should be preparing and disseminating.« less

  19. Competition, Jobs, and Information Policy: The Case for Private-Sector Information Services: U.S. Patents.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ebersole, Joseph L.

    1994-01-01

    Discusses the argument for private-sector involvement in the distribution of government information, using U.S. patents as an example. Highlights include industry competitiveness; jobs creation; public access; identifying users; costs; user fees; existing systems of information dissemination; and implications of the Internet and NREN (National…

  20. Identifying Communication Barriers to Learning in Large Group Accounting Instruction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Doran, Martha S.; Golen, Steven

    1998-01-01

    Classroom communication barriers were identified by 291 financial accounting and 372 managerial accounting students. Both groups thought the greatest problems in large group instruction were too much information given in lectures, large class size, and lack of interest in the subject matter. (SK)

  1. Paclitaxel-Coated Balloon in Infrapopliteal Arteries: 12-Month Results From the BIOLUX P-II Randomized Trial (BIOTRONIK'S-First in Man study of the Passeo-18 LUX drug releasing PTA Balloon Catheter vs. the uncoated Passeo-18 PTA balloon catheter in subjects requiring revascularization of infrapopliteal arteries).

    PubMed

    Zeller, Thomas; Beschorner, Ulrich; Pilger, Ernst; Bosiers, Marc; Deloose, Koen; Peeters, Patrick; Scheinert, Dierk; Schulte, Karl-Ludwig; Rastan, Aljoscha; Brodmann, Marianne

    2015-10-01

    The aim of BIOLUX P-II (BIOTRONIK'S-First in Man study of the Passeo-18 LUX drug releasing PTA Balloon Catheter vs. the uncoated Passeo-18 PTA balloon catheter in subjects requiring revascularization of infrapopliteal arteries) trial was to compare the safety and efficacy of a novel paclitaxel-coated drug-eluting balloon (DEB) versus an uncoated balloon (percutaneous transluminal angioplasty [PTA]) in de novo or native restenotic lesions of the infrapopliteal arteries in patients with claudication and critical limb ischemia. DEB have shown promising results in femoropopliteal lesions, but data for infrapopliteal lesions are scarce. In this prospective, multicenter, randomized first-in-man study, 72 patients were randomized 1:1 to either a Passeo-18 Lux DEB (Biotronik AG, Buelach, Switzerland) (n = 36) or Passeo-18 PTA (n = 36). Follow-up assessments were scheduled at 1, 6, and 12 months, with angiographic assessment at 6 months. Adverse events were adjudicated by an independent clinical events committee, and angiographic parameters were assessed by an independent core laboratory. The primary safety endpoint (a composite of all-cause mortality, target extremity major amputation, target lesion thrombosis, and target vessel revascularization at 30 days) was 0% in the DEB group versus 8.3% in the PTA group (p = 0.239). The primary performance endpoint (patency loss at 6 months) was 17.1% in the DEB group versus 26.1% in the PTA group (p = 0.298), and major amputations of the target extremity occurred in 3.3% versus 5.6% of the patients at 12 months, respectively. The Passeo-18 Lux DEB has been proven to be safe and effective in infrapopliteal lesions with comparable outcomes to PTA. Copyright © 2015 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. 75 FR 3232 - Access to Confidential Business Information by Versar Inc. and Its Identified Subcontractor

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-01-20

    ... manufacture, process or distribute industrial chemicals. Since other entities may also be interested, the..., 6, and 8 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Some of the information may be claimed or... evaluating the exposure of new chemical substances, including microorganisms and nanomaterials. They will...

  3. Patterns of trust in sources of health information.

    PubMed

    Lawson, Rob; Forbes, Sarah; Williams, John

    2011-01-21

    To understand the different patterns of trust that exist regarding different sources of information about health issues. Data from a large national health lifestyles survey of New Zealanders was examined using a factor analysis of trust toward 24 health information sources (HIS). Differences in trust are compared across a range of demographic variables. Factor analysis identified six different groupings of health information. Variations in trust in sources for health information are identified by age, employment status, level of education, income, sex and ethnic group. Systematic variations exist in the trust that people report with respect to different sources of health information. Understanding these variations may assist policymakers and other agencies which are responsible for planning the dissemination of health information.

  4. Modelling the interactions between Pseudomonas putida and Escherichia coli O157:H7 in fish-burgers: use of the lag-exponential model and of a combined interaction index.

    PubMed

    Speranza, B; Bevilacqua, A; Mastromatteo, M; Sinigaglia, M; Corbo, M R

    2010-08-01

    The objective of the current study was to examine the interactions between Pseudomonas putida and Escherichia coli O157:H7 in coculture studies on fish-burgers packed in air and under different modified atmospheres (30 : 40 : 30 O(2) : CO(2) : N(2), 5 : 95 O(2) : CO(2) and 50 : 50 O(2) : CO(2)), throughout the storage at 8 degrees C. The lag-exponential model was applied to describe the microbial growth. To give a quantitative measure of the occurring microbial interactions, two simple parameters were developed: the combined interaction index (CII) and the partial interaction index (PII). Under air, the interaction was significant (P < 0.05) only within the exponential growth phase (CII, 1.72), whereas under the modified atmospheres, the interactions were highly significant (P < 0.001) and occurred both in the exponential and in the stationary phase (CII ranged from 0.33 to 1.18). PII values for E. coli O157:H7 were lower than those calculated for Ps. putida. The interactions occurring into the system affected both E. coli O157:H7 and pseudomonads subpopulations. The packaging atmosphere resulted in a key element. The article provides some useful information on the interactions occurring between E. coli O157:H7 and Ps. putida on fish-burgers. The proposed index describes successfully the competitive growth of both micro-organisms, giving also a quantitative measure of a qualitative phenomenon.

  5. Deployment of the Burkholderia glumae type III secretion system as an efficient tool for translocating pathogen effectors to monocot cells.

    PubMed

    Sharma, Shailendra; Sharma, Shiveta; Hirabuchi, Akiko; Yoshida, Kentaro; Fujisaki, Koki; Ito, Akiko; Uemura, Aiko; Terauchi, Ryohei; Kamoun, Sophien; Sohn, Kee Hoon; Jones, Jonathan D G; Saitoh, Hiromasa

    2013-05-01

    Genome sequences of plant fungal pathogens have enabled the identification of effectors that cooperatively modulate the cellular environment for successful fungal growth and suppress host defense. Identification and characterization of novel effector proteins are crucial for understanding pathogen virulence and host-plant defense mechanisms. Previous reports indicate that the Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 type III secretion system (T3SS) can be used to study how non-bacterial effectors manipulate dicot plant cell function using the effector detector vector (pEDV) system. Here we report a pEDV-based effector delivery system in which the T3SS of Burkholderia glumae, an emerging rice pathogen, is used to translocate the AVR-Pik and AVR-Pii effectors of the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae to rice cytoplasm. The translocated AVR-Pik and AVR-Pii showed avirulence activity when tested in rice cultivars containing the cognate R genes. AVR-Pik reduced and delayed the hypersensitive response triggered by B. glumae in the non-host plant Nicotiana benthamiana, indicative of an immunosuppressive virulence activity. AVR proteins fused with fluorescent protein and nuclear localization signal were delivered by B. glumae T3SS and observed in the nuclei of infected cells in rice, wheat, barley and N. benthamiana. Our bacterial T3SS-enabled eukaryotic effector delivery and subcellular localization assays provide a useful method for identifying and studying effector functions in monocot plants. © 2013 The Authors The Plant Journal © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. TUNS/TCIS information model/process model

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilson, James

    1992-01-01

    An Information Model is comprised of graphical and textual notation suitable for describing and defining the problem domain - in our case, TUNS or TCIS. The model focuses on the real world under study. It identifies what is in the problem and organizes the data into a formal structure for documentation and communication purposes. The Information Model is composed of an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) and a Data Dictionary component. The combination of these components provide an easy to understand methodology for expressing the entities in the problem space, the relationships between entities and the characteristics (attributes) of the entities. This approach is the first step in information system development. The Information Model identifies the complete set of data elements processed by TUNS. This representation provides a conceptual view of TUNS from the perspective of entities, data, and relationships. The Information Model reflects the business practices and real-world entities that users must deal with.

  7. Information Technology Policies. SPEC Kit 218.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leung, Shirley; Bisom, Diane

    The objectives of this survey were: to gather information on the development of institutional information technology policies and guidelines for responsible computing and use of electronic information; to identify the scope of such policies and guidelines; and to determine the role of the library in the development and/or use of the policies and…

  8. Reduced-Intensity Delayed Intensification in Standard-Risk Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Defined by Undetectable Minimal Residual Disease: Results of an International Randomized Trial (AIEOP-BFM ALL 2000).

    PubMed

    Schrappe, Martin; Bleckmann, Kirsten; Zimmermann, Martin; Biondi, Andrea; Möricke, Anja; Locatelli, Franco; Cario, Gunnar; Rizzari, Carmelo; Attarbaschi, Andishe; Valsecchi, Maria Grazia; Bartram, Claus R; Barisone, Elena; Niggli, Felix; Niemeyer, Charlotte; Testi, Anna Maria; Mann, Georg; Ziino, Ottavio; Schäfer, Beat; Panzer-Grümayer, Renate; Beier, Rita; Parasole, Rosanna; Göhring, Gudrun; Ludwig, Wolf-Dieter; Casale, Fiorina; Schlegel, Paul-Gerhardt; Basso, Giuseppe; Conter, Valentino

    2018-01-20

    Purpose Delayed intensification (DI) is an integral part of treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but it is associated with relevant toxicity. Therefore, standard-risk patients of trial AIEOP-BFM ALL 2000 (Combination Chemotherapy Based on Risk of Relapse in Treating Young Patients With ALL) were investigated with the specific aim to reduce treatment intensity. Patients and Methods Between July 2000 and July 2006, 1,164 patients (1 to 17 years of age) with standard-risk ALL (defined as the absence of high-risk cytogenetics and undetectable minimal residual disease on days 33 and 78) were randomly assigned to either experimental reduced-intensity DI (protocol III; P-III) or standard DI (protocol II; P-II). Cumulative drug doses of P-III were reduced by 30% for dexamethasone and 50% for vincristine, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide, which shortened the treatment duration from 49 to 29 days. The study aimed at noninferiority of reduced-intensity P-III; analyses were performed according to treatment given. Results For P-III and P-II, respectively, the 8-year rate of disease-free survival (± SE) was 89.2 ± 1.3% and 92.3 ± 1.2% ( P = .04); cumulative incidence of relapse, 8.7 ± 1.2% and 6.4 ± 1.1% ( P = .09); and overall survival, 96.1 ± 0.8% and 98.0 ± 0.6% ( P = .06). Patients with ETV6-RUNX1-positive ALL and patients 1 to 6 years of age performed equally well in both arms. The incidence of death during remission was comparable, which indicates equivalent toxicity. The 8-year cumulative incidence rate of secondary malignancies was 1.3 ± 0.5% and 0.6 ± 0.4% for P-III and P-II, respectively ( P = .37). Conclusion Although the criteria used for the standard-risk definition in this trial identified patients with exceptionally good prognosis, reduction of chemotherapy was not successful mainly because of an increased rate of relapse. The data suggest that treatment reduction is feasible in specific subgroups, which underlines the biologic

  9. Equitability, mutual information, and the maximal information coefficient.

    PubMed

    Kinney, Justin B; Atwal, Gurinder S

    2014-03-04

    How should one quantify the strength of association between two random variables without bias for relationships of a specific form? Despite its conceptual simplicity, this notion of statistical "equitability" has yet to receive a definitive mathematical formalization. Here we argue that equitability is properly formalized by a self-consistency condition closely related to Data Processing Inequality. Mutual information, a fundamental quantity in information theory, is shown to satisfy this equitability criterion. These findings are at odds with the recent work of Reshef et al. [Reshef DN, et al. (2011) Science 334(6062):1518-1524], which proposed an alternative definition of equitability and introduced a new statistic, the "maximal information coefficient" (MIC), said to satisfy equitability in contradistinction to mutual information. These conclusions, however, were supported only with limited simulation evidence, not with mathematical arguments. Upon revisiting these claims, we prove that the mathematical definition of equitability proposed by Reshef et al. cannot be satisfied by any (nontrivial) dependence measure. We also identify artifacts in the reported simulation evidence. When these artifacts are removed, estimates of mutual information are found to be more equitable than estimates of MIC. Mutual information is also observed to have consistently higher statistical power than MIC. We conclude that estimating mutual information provides a natural (and often practical) way to equitably quantify statistical associations in large datasets.

  10. A Visual Analytics Framework for Identifying Topic Drivers in Media Events.

    PubMed

    Lu, Yafeng; Wang, Hong; Landis, Steven; Maciejewski, Ross

    2017-09-14

    Media data has been the subject of large scale analysis with applications of text mining being used to provide overviews of media themes and information flows. Such information extracted from media articles has also shown its contextual value of being integrated with other data, such as criminal records and stock market pricing. In this work, we explore linking textual media data with curated secondary textual data sources through user-guided semantic lexical matching for identifying relationships and data links. In this manner, critical information can be identified and used to annotate media timelines in order to provide a more detailed overview of events that may be driving media topics and frames. These linked events are further analyzed through an application of causality modeling to model temporal drivers between the data series. Such causal links are then annotated through automatic entity extraction which enables the analyst to explore persons, locations, and organizations that may be pertinent to the media topic of interest. To demonstrate the proposed framework, two media datasets and an armed conflict event dataset are explored.

  11. Cross-platform method for identifying candidate network biomarkers for prostate cancer.

    PubMed

    Jin, G; Zhou, X; Cui, K; Zhang, X-S; Chen, L; Wong, S T C

    2009-11-01

    Discovering biomarkers using mass spectrometry (MS) and microarray expression profiles is a promising strategy in molecular diagnosis. Here, the authors proposed a new pipeline for biomarker discovery that integrates disease information for proteins and genes, expression profiles in both genomic and proteomic levels, and protein-protein interactions (PPIs) to discover high confidence network biomarkers. Using this pipeline, a total of 474 molecules (genes and proteins) related to prostate cancer were identified and a prostate-cancer-related network (PCRN) was derived from the integrative information. Thus, a set of candidate network biomarkers were identified from multiple expression profiles composed by eight microarray datasets and one proteomics dataset. The network biomarkers with PPIs can accurately distinguish the prostate patients from the normal ones, which potentially provide more reliable hits of biomarker candidates than conventional biomarker discovery methods.

  12. Evaluation of identifier field agreement in linked neonatal records.

    PubMed

    Hall, E S; Marsolo, K; Greenberg, J M

    2017-08-01

    To better address barriers arising from missing and unreliable identifiers in neonatal medical records, we evaluated agreement and discordance among traditional and non-traditional linkage fields within a linked neonatal data set. The retrospective, descriptive analysis represents infants born from 2013 to 2015. We linked children's hospital neonatal physician billing records to newborn medical records originating from an academic delivery hospital and evaluated rates of agreement, discordance and missingness for a set of 12 identifier field pairs used in the linkage algorithm. We linked 7293 of 7404 physician billing records (98.5%), all of which were deemed valid upon manual review. Linked records contained a mean of 9.1 matching and 1.6 non-matching identifier pairs. Only 4.8% had complete agreement among all 12 identifier pairs. Our approach to selection of linkage variables and data formatting preparatory to linkage have generalizability, which may inform future neonatal and perinatal record linkage efforts.

  13. Identifying Potential Kidney Donors Using Social Networking Websites

    PubMed Central

    Chang, Alexander; Anderson, Emily E.; Turner, Hang T.; Shoham, David; Hou, Susan H.; Grams, Morgan

    2013-01-01

    Social networking sites like Facebook may be a powerful tool for increasing rates of live kidney donation. They allow for wide dissemination of information and discussion, and could lessen anxiety associated with a face-to-face request for donation. However, sparse data exist on the use of social media for this purpose. We searched Facebook, the most popular social networking site, for publicly available English-language pages seeking kidney donors for a specific individual, abstracting information on the potential recipient, characteristics of the page itself, and whether potential donors were tested. In the 91 pages meeting inclusion criteria, the mean age of potential recipients was 37 (range: 2–69); 88% were U.S. residents. Other posted information included the individual’s photograph (76%), blood type (64%), cause of kidney disease (43%), and location (71%). Thirty-two percent of pages reported having potential donors tested, and 10% reported receiving a live donor kidney transplant. Those reporting donor testing shared more potential recipient characteristics, provided more information about transplantation, and had higher page traffic. Facebook is already being used to identify potential kidney donors. Future studies should focus on how to safely, ethically, and effectively use social networking sites to inform potential donors and potentially expand live kidney donation. PMID:23600791

  14. Methods of Organizational Information Security

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Martins, José; Dos Santos, Henrique

    The principle objective of this article is to present a literature review for the methods used in the security of information at the level of organizations. Some of the principle problems are identified and a first group of relevant dimensions is presented for an efficient management of information security. The study is based on the literature review made, using some of the more relevant certified articles of this theme, in international reports and in the principle norms of management of information security. From the readings that were done, we identified some of the methods oriented for risk management, norms of certification and good practice of security of information. Some of the norms are oriented for the certification of the product or system and others oriented to the processes of the business. There are also studies with the proposal of Frameworks that suggest the integration of different approaches with the foundation of norms focused on technologies, in processes and taking into consideration the organizational and human environment of the organizations. In our perspective, the biggest contribute to the security of information is the development of a method of security of information for an organization in a conflicting environment. This should make available the security of information, against the possible dimensions of attack that the threats could exploit, through the vulnerability of the organizational actives. This method should support the new concepts of "Network centric warfare", "Information superiority" and "Information warfare" especially developed in this last decade, where information is seen simultaneously as a weapon and as a target.

  15. Identifying HIV/AIDS primary care development needs.

    PubMed

    Foong, Andrew L S; Ng, S F; Lee, Christopher K C

    2005-04-01

    This paper reports a study aimed at identifying the primary health care experiences of people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Malaysia. The rationale behind the study was to enable informed action for developing more responsive and effective primary care. Reports such as from the World Health Organisation forecast sharp escalations in the incidence of HIV/AIDS in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific region within the next few years. With sparse information on the course of infection on the local population and an understanding of health care needs of those afflicted, health services would be ill-prepared for projected increases. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 99 patients attending two major HIV/AIDS clinics in Malaysia. Several gaps in care provision were highlighted, such as with treatment/consultation facilities and availability and accessibility of information. What is also evident is that there are a number of good support services available but not well publicized to those in need of them. That includes health professionals who could be making appropriate referrals. The lack of communications and inter-professional working appears to be part of the problem. The findings provide baseline data and preliminary insights to government and other service providers towards advancing, optimizing and refining existing policies and infrastructure. Although the availability of a number of primary care facilities have been identified, the study indicates the need for more effective co-ordinated efforts with clear leadership to pull together scarce resources towards the aim of some degree of seamless primary care provision. It is suggested that nurses would be well placed for such a role in view of the nature of their education and training that helps prepare them for the multi-faceted role.

  16. Identifying novel drug indications through automated reasoning.

    PubMed

    Tari, Luis; Vo, Nguyen; Liang, Shanshan; Patel, Jagruti; Baral, Chitta; Cai, James

    2012-01-01

    With the large amount of pharmacological and biological knowledge available in literature, finding novel drug indications for existing drugs using in silico approaches has become increasingly feasible. Typical literature-based approaches generate new hypotheses in the form of protein-protein interactions networks by means of linking concepts based on their cooccurrences within abstracts. However, this kind of approaches tends to generate too many hypotheses, and identifying new drug indications from large networks can be a time-consuming process. In this work, we developed a method that acquires the necessary facts from literature and knowledge bases, and identifies new drug indications through automated reasoning. This is achieved by encoding the molecular effects caused by drug-target interactions and links to various diseases and drug mechanism as domain knowledge in AnsProlog, a declarative language that is useful for automated reasoning, including reasoning with incomplete information. Unlike other literature-based approaches, our approach is more fine-grained, especially in identifying indirect relationships for drug indications. To evaluate the capability of our approach in inferring novel drug indications, we applied our method to 943 drugs from DrugBank and asked if any of these drugs have potential anti-cancer activities based on information on their targets and molecular interaction types alone. A total of 507 drugs were found to have the potential to be used for cancer treatments. Among the potential anti-cancer drugs, 67 out of 81 drugs (a recall of 82.7%) are indeed known cancer drugs. In addition, 144 out of 289 drugs (a recall of 49.8%) are non-cancer drugs that are currently tested in clinical trials for cancer treatments. These results suggest that our method is able to infer drug indications (original or alternative) based on their molecular targets and interactions alone and has the potential to discover novel drug indications for existing drugs.

  17. Cultivation of Science Teachers' Information Literacy in China

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sun, Haibin; Liu, Tingting

    2009-01-01

    In the paper, we focus on the information literacy of science teachers in China. Information literacy encompasses knowledge of one's information concerns and needs, and the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information. Science teachers should have information literacy which is a basic…

  18. Identifying critical issues in recreation planning and management: improving the management-research partnership

    Treesearch

    John H. Schomaker; David W. Lime

    1988-01-01

    The "nominal group" process is a proven technique to systematically arrive at a consensus about critical information needs in recreation planning and management. Using this process, 41 managers who attended a 1983 conference on river management identified 114 specific information needs grouped under 11 general questions. Clearly, some concerns of...

  19. Army women's sexual health information needs.

    PubMed

    von Sadovszky, Victoria; Ryan-Wenger, Nancy

    2007-01-01

    To ascertain Army women's specific sexual health information needs prior to developing a theoretically based, self-administered intervention to promote safer sexual practices during deployment. An exploratory design was employed to address the research questions. Participants (N= 131) were Army women recruited from Army posts around the United States. The women ranged in age from 18 to 68 years (M= 30.8, SD= 10.5), were of varied ethnicity, and had an average time in service of 8.0 years (SD= 6.6). Desire for knowledge about sexual health and safer sexual practices were measured with forced-choice responses based upon DiIorio's Safer Sex Questionnaire (DiIorio, Parsons, Lehr, Adame, & Carlone, 1992) and open-ended questions to assess past information received, quality of that information, and information desired. Participants had moderate levels of sexual risk behaviors. Forced-choice responses yielded little desire for information regarding safer sexual practices. Women identified different sexual health and safer sexual information needs based upon whether they were at a normal duty station or during deployment. Participants did not identify many information needs; however, their sexual behaviors indicate the need for interventions.

  20. Current Issues for Higher Education Information Resources Management.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    CAUSE/EFFECT, 1996

    1996-01-01

    Issues identified as important to the future of information resources management and use in higher education include information policy in a networked environment, distributed computing, integrating information resources and college planning, benchmarking information technology, integrated digital libraries, technology integration in teaching,…

  1. Depressed Mothers as Informants on Child Behavior: Methodological Issues

    PubMed Central

    Ordway, Monica Roosa

    2011-01-01

    Mothers with depressive symptoms more frequently report behavioral problems among their children than non-depressed mothers leading to a debate regarding the accuracy of depressed mothers as informants of children’s behavior. The purpose of this integrative review was to identify methodological challenges in research related to the debate. Data were extracted from 43 papers (6 theoretical, 36 research reports, and 1 instrument scoring manual). The analysis focused on the methodologies considered when using depressed mothers as informants. Nine key themes were identified and I concluded that researchers should incorporate multiple informants, identify the characteristics of maternal depression, and incorporate advanced statistical methodology. The use of a conceptual framework to understand informant discrepancies within child behavior evaluations is suggested for future research. PMID:21964958

  2. Music Information Retrieval.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Downie, J. Stephen

    2003-01-01

    Identifies MIR (Music Information Retrieval) computer system problems, historic influences, current state-of-the-art, and future MIR solutions through an examination of the multidisciplinary approach to MIR. Highlights include pitch; temporal factors; harmonics; tone; editorial, textual, and bibliographic facets; multicultural factors; locating…

  3. Case and Administrative Support Tools

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Case and Administrative Support Tools (CAST) is the secure portion of the Office of General Counsel (OGC) Dashboard business process automation tool used to help reduce office administrative labor costs while increasing employee effectiveness. CAST supports business functions which rely on and store Privacy Act sensitive data (PII). Specific business processes included in CAST (and respective PII) are: -Civil Rights Cast Tracking (name, partial medical history, summary of case, and case correspondance). -Employment Law Case Tracking (name, summary of case). -Federal Tort Claims Act Incident Tracking (name, summary of incidents). -Ethics Program Support Tools and Tracking (name, partial financial history). -Summer Honors Application Tracking (name, home address, telephone number, employment history). -Workforce Flexibility Initiative Support Tools (name, alternative workplace phone number). -Resource and Personnel Management Support Tools (name, partial employment and financial history).

  4. DOD Acquisition Information Management

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1994-09-30

    instead of on a real- time management information flow. The process of identifying risks and implementing corrective actions is lengthened by using the current system; performance measurement and reporting are impeded.

  5. A Classical Delphi Study to Identify the Barriers of Pursuing Green Information and Communication Technologies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gotay, Jose Antonio

    2013-01-01

    This qualitative, classical Delphi study served to explore the apparent lack of corporate commitment to prioritized Green Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), which could delay the economic and social benefits for maximizing the use of natural energy resources in a weak economy. The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership…

  6. Telework and the Information Age.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stanworth, Celia

    1998-01-01

    Review of Information Age literature found not enough evidence that information industries will reenergize economies or provide high-quality jobs. Virtual organizations are hard to identify. Women do the bulk of low-skill, low-paying telework jobs, reinforcing sex roles and class divisions. Remote workers are often vulnerable and cut off from…

  7. Using Data Mining to Identify Actionable Information: Breaking New Ground in Data-Driven Decision Making

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Streifer, Philip A.; Schumann, Jeffrey A.

    2005-01-01

    The implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) presents important challenges for schools across the nation to identify problems that lead to poor performance. Yet schools must intervene with instructional programs that can make a difference and evaluate the effectiveness of such programs. New advances in artificial intelligence (AI) data-mining…

  8. The information needs and information seeking behaviour of family doctors.

    PubMed

    Bryant, Sue Lacey

    2004-06-01

    To explore the information needs and information seeking behaviour of family doctors, identifying any differences in attitudes and behaviours deriving from membership of a training practice and investigating the impact of a practice librarian. A case study of general practitioners (GPs) in Aylesbury Vale incorporated a quantitative study of use of the medical library, and two qualitative techniques, in-depth interviews and group discussions. A total of 58 GPs, almost three quarters of those in the Vale, participated; 19 via individual interviews and a further 39 via two group discussions. Family doctors are prompted to seek information by needs arising from a combination of professional responsibilities and personal characteristics. A need for problem-orientated information, related to the care of individual patients, was the predominant factor that prompted these GPs to seek information. Personal collections remain the preferred information resource; electronic sources rank second. The study demonstrated low use of the medical library. However, both vocational training and the employment of a practice librarian impacted on library use. The study illuminates the information needs and preferences of GPs and illustrates the contribution that librarians may make at practice level, indicating the importance of outreach work.

  9. A Personalized Health Information Retrieval System

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Yunli; Liu, Zhenkai

    2005-01-01

    Consumers face barriers when seeking health information on the Internet. A Personalized Health Information Retrieval System (PHIRS) is proposed to recommend health information for consumers. The system consists of four modules: (1) User modeling module captures user’s preference and health interests; (2) Automatic quality filtering module identifies high quality health information; (3) Automatic text difficulty rating module classifies health information into professional or patient educational materials; and (4) User profile matching module tailors health information for individuals. The initial results show that PHIRS could assist consumers with simple search strategies. PMID:16779435

  10. Identifying the Educationally Influential Physician: A Systematic Review of Approaches

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kronberger, Matthew P.; Bakken, Lori L.

    2011-01-01

    Introduction: Previous studies have indicated that educationally influential physicians' (EIPs) interactions with peers can lead to practice changes and improved patient outcomes. However, multiple approaches have been used to identify and investigate EIPs' informal or formal influence on practice, which creates study outcomes that are difficult…

  11. Identifying polar bear resource selection patterns to inform offshore development in a dynamic and changing Arctic

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wilson, Ryan R.; Horne, Jon S.; Rode, Karyn D.; Regehr, Eric V.; Durner, George M.

    2014-01-01

    Although sea ice loss is the primary threat to polar bears (Ursus maritimus), little can be done to mitigate its effects without global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Other factors, however, could exacerbate the impacts of sea ice loss on polar bears, such as exposure to increased industrial activity. The Arctic Ocean has enormous oil and gas potential, and its development is expected to increase in the coming decades. Estimates of polar bear resource selection will inform managers how bears use areas slated for oil development and to help guide conservation planning. We estimated temporally-varying resource selection patterns for non-denning adult female polar bears in the Chukchi Sea population (2008–2012) at two scales (i.e., home range and weekly steps) to identify factors predictive of polar bear use throughout the year, before any offshore development. From the best models at each scale, we estimated scale-integrated resource selection functions to predict polar bear space use across the population's range and determined when bears were most likely to use the region where offshore oil and gas development in the United States is slated to occur. Polar bears exhibited significant intra-annual variation in selection patterns at both scales but the strength and annual patterns of selection differed between scales for most variables. Bears were most likely to use the offshore oil and gas planning area during ice retreat and growth with the highest predicted use occurring in the southern portion of the planning area. The average proportion of predicted high-value habitat in the planning area was >15% of the total high-value habitat for the population during sea ice retreat and growth and reached a high of 50% during November 2010. Our results provide a baseline on which to judge future changes to non-denning adult female polar bear resource selection in the Chukchi Sea and help guide offshore development in the region. Lastly, our study provides a

  12. 102: PROMOTING INFORMATION LITERACY BY PROMOTING HEALTH LITERACY IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

    PubMed Central

    Dastani, Meisam; Sattari, Masoume

    2017-01-01

    Background and aims In the information society the production, distribution and use of information is freely and widely available for all issues of life. Correct and appropriate use of appropriate and reliable information is especially important in health care. The present study introduces the concepts and benefits of health literacy and information literacy and its role in improving health literacy. Methods This study is a review based on a review of the concepts of the information society, information literacy and information educated to present importance of promoting information literacy on health literacy in the information society. Results and Conclusion The information society by providing a platform of information technology and computer systems to attempts exchange and development information between people in the community. Currently, electronic and web-based health information in the form of mass is available for people. Information as a fundamental base of the information society is a phenomenon that our decisions are affect in relation to various issues such as safety and health issues. It is important point to avoid the mass of information invalid, incorrect and inappropriate available on the internet. This requires information literacy skills such as identifying, accessing and evaluating information. In general, it can be said that the promotion of health literacy in communities are required to learn different skills in the form of information literacy.

  13. Identifying Best Practices for and Utilities of the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcome Assessment Examination.

    PubMed

    Mok, Timothy Y; Romanelli, Frank

    2016-12-25

    Objective. A review was conducted to determine implementation strategies, utilities, score interpretation, and limitations of the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcome Assessment (PCOA) examination. Methods. Articles were identified through the PubMed and American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education , and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts databases using the following terms: "Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment," "pharmacy comprehensive examination," and "curricular assessment." Studies containing information regarding implementation, utility, and predictive values for US student pharmacists, curricula, and/or PGY1/PGY2 residents were included. Publications from the Academic Medicine Journal , the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (ACCP) were included for background information and comparison of predictive utilities of comprehensive examinations in medicine. Results. Ten PCOA and nine residency-related publications were identified. Based on published information, the PCOA may be best used as an additional tool to identify knowledge gaps for third-year student pharmacists. Conclusion. Administering the PCOA to students after they have completed their didactic coursework may yield scores that reflect student knowledge. Predictive utility regarding the North American Pharmacy Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) and potential applications is limited, and more research is required to determine ways to use the PCOA.

  14. Individuals with knee impairments identify items in need of clarification in the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) pain interference and physical function item banks - a qualitative study.

    PubMed

    Lynch, Andrew D; Dodds, Nathan E; Yu, Lan; Pilkonis, Paul A; Irrgang, James J

    2016-05-11

    The content and wording of the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function and Pain Interference item banks have not been qualitatively assessed by individuals with knee joint impairments. The purpose of this investigation was to identify items in the PROMIS Physical Function and Pain Interference Item Banks that are irrelevant, unclear, or otherwise difficult to respond to for individuals with impairment of the knee and to suggest modifications based on cognitive interviews. Twenty-nine individuals with knee joint impairments qualitatively assessed items in the Pain Interference and Physical Function Item Banks in a mixed-methods cognitive interview. Field notes were analyzed to identify themes and frequency counts were calculated to identify items not relevant to individuals with knee joint impairments. Issues with clarity were identified in 23 items in the Physical Function Item Bank, resulting in the creation of 43 new or modified items, typically changing words within the item to be clearer. Interpretation issues included whether or not the knee joint played a significant role in overall health and age/gender differences in items. One quarter of the original items (31 of 124) in the Physical Function Item Bank were identified as irrelevant to the knee joint. All 41 items in the Pain Interference Item Bank were identified as clear, although individuals without significant pain substituted other symptoms which interfered with their life. The Physical Function Item Bank would benefit from additional items that are relevant to individuals with knee joint impairments and, by extension, to other lower extremity impairments. Several issues in clarity were identified that are likely to be present in other patient cohorts as well.

  15. Information dissemination and use: critical components in occupational safety and health.

    PubMed

    Schulte, P A; Okun, A; Stephenson, C M; Colligan, M; Ahlers, H; Gjessing, C; Loos, G; Niemeier, R W; Sweeney, M H

    2003-11-01

    Information dissemination is a mandated, but understudied, requirement of occupational and environmental health laws and voluntary initiatives. Research is needed on the factors that enhance and limit the development, transfer, and use of occupational safety and health information (OSH). Contemporary changes in the workforce, workplaces, and the nature of work will require new emphasis on the dissemination of information to foster prevention. Legislative and regulatory requirements and voluntary initiatives for dissemination of OSH information were identified and assessed. Literature on information dissemination was reviewed to identify important issues and useful approaches. More than 20 sections of laws and regulations were identified that mandated dissemination of occupational and environmental safety and health information. A four-stage approach for tracking dissemination and considering the flow of information was delineated. Special areas of dissemination were identified: the information needs of the changing workforce, new and young workers; small businesses; and workers with difficulty in understanding or reading English. We offer a framework for dissemination of OSH information and underscore the need to focus on the extent to which decision-makers and others receive and use such information. More solid data are also needed on current investments in disseminating, diffusing and applying OSH information and on the utility of that information. Am. J. Ind. Med. 44:515-531, 2003. Published 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  16. Identifying core competencies for public health epidemiologists.

    PubMed

    Bondy, Susan J; Johnson, Ian; Cole, Donald C; Bercovitz, Kim

    2008-01-01

    Public health authorities have prioritized the identification of competencies, yet little empirical data exist to support decisions on competency selection among particular disciplines. We sought perspectives on important competencies among epidemiologists familiar with or practicing in public health settings (local to national). Using a sequential, qualitative-quantitative mixed method design, we conducted key informant interviews with 12 public health practitioners familiar with front-line epidemiologists' practice, followed by a web-based survey of members of a provincial association of public health epidemiologists (90 respondents of 155 eligible) and a consensus workshop. Competency statements were drawn from existing core competency lists and those identified by key informants, and ranked by extent of agreement in importance for entry-level practitioners. Competencies in quantitative methods and analysis, critical appraisal of scientific evidence and knowledge transfer of scientific data to other members of the public health team were all regarded as very important for public health epidemiologists. Epidemiologist competencies focused on the provision, interpretation and 'translation' of evidence to inform decision-making by other public health professionals. Considerable tension existed around some potential competency items, particularly in the areas of more advanced database and data-analytic skills. Empirical data can inform discussions of discipline-specific competencies as one input to decisions about competencies appropriate for epidemiologists in the public health workforce.

  17. Information Literacy and Early Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robinson, Laura Eisenberg

    2008-01-01

    Information literacy is becoming more prominent in K-12 education and continues to be a vital part of university-level studies. In today's complex society, it's not enough to be able to read, write, and do math. People continuously need to identify and recognize their information needs, locate necessary resources, use the essential information…

  18. Differing Strategies to Meet Information-Sharing Needs: Publicly Supported Community Health Information Exchanges Versus Health Systems' Enterprise Health Information Exchanges.

    PubMed

    Vest, Joshua R; Kash, Bita A

    2016-03-01

    Community health information exchanges have the characteristics of a public good, and they support population health initiatives at the state and national levels. However, current policy equally incentivizes health systems to create their own information exchanges covering more narrowly defined populations. Noninteroperable electronic health records and vendors' expensive custom interfaces are hindering health information exchanges. Moreover, vendors are imposing the costs of interoperability on health systems and community health information exchanges. Health systems are creating networks of targeted physicians and facilities by funding connections to their own enterprise health information exchanges. These private networks may change referral patterns and foster more integration with outpatient providers. The United States has invested billions of dollars to encourage the adoption of and implement the information technologies necessary for health information exchange (HIE), enabling providers to efficiently and effectively share patient information with other providers. Health care providers now have multiple options for obtaining and sharing patient information. Community HIEs facilitate information sharing for a broad group of providers within a region. Enterprise HIEs are operated by health systems and share information among affiliated hospitals and providers. We sought to identify why hospitals and health systems choose either to participate in community HIEs or to establish enterprise HIEs. We conducted semistructured interviews with 40 policymakers, community and enterprise HIE leaders, and health care executives from 19 different organizations. Our qualitative analysis used a general inductive and comparative approach to identify factors influencing participation in, and the success of, each approach to HIE. Enterprise HIEs support health systems' strategic goals through the control of an information technology network consisting of desired trading

  19. Identifying Heat Waves in Florida: Considerations of Missing Weather Data.

    PubMed

    Leary, Emily; Young, Linda J; DuClos, Chris; Jordan, Melissa M

    2015-01-01

    Using current climate models, regional-scale changes for Florida over the next 100 years are predicted to include warming over terrestrial areas and very likely increases in the number of high temperature extremes. No uniform definition of a heat wave exists. Most past research on heat waves has focused on evaluating the aftermath of known heat waves, with minimal consideration of missing exposure information. To identify and discuss methods of handling and imputing missing weather data and how those methods can affect identified periods of extreme heat in Florida. In addition to ignoring missing data, temporal, spatial, and spatio-temporal models are described and utilized to impute missing historical weather data from 1973 to 2012 from 43 Florida weather monitors. Calculated thresholds are used to define periods of extreme heat across Florida. Modeling of missing data and imputing missing values can affect the identified periods of extreme heat, through the missing data itself or through the computed thresholds. The differences observed are related to the amount of missingness during June, July, and August, the warmest months of the warm season (April through September). Missing data considerations are important when defining periods of extreme heat. Spatio-temporal methods are recommended for data imputation. A heat wave definition that incorporates information from all monitors is advised.

  20. Information sought, information shared: exploring performance and image enhancing drug user-facilitated harm reduction information in online forums.

    PubMed

    Tighe, Boden; Dunn, Matthew; McKay, Fiona H; Piatkowski, Timothy

    2017-07-21

    There is good evidence to suggest that performance and image enhancing drug (PIED) use is increasing in Australia and that there is an increase in those using PIEDs who have never used another illicit substance. Peers have always been an important source of information in this group, though the rise of the Internet, and the increased use of Internet forums amongst substance consumers to share harm reduction information, means that PIED users may have access to a large array of views and opinions. The aim of this study was to explore the type of information that PIED users seek and share on these forums. An online search was conducted to identify online forums that discussed PIED use. Three discussion forums were included in this study: aussiegymjunkies.com, bodybuildingforums.com.au, and brotherhoodofpain.com. The primary source of data for this study was the 'threads' from the online forums. Threads were thematically analysed for overall content, leading to the identification of themes. One hundred thirty-four threads and 1716 individual posts from 450 unique avatars were included in this analysis. Two themes were identified: (1) personal experiences and advice and (2) referral to services and referral to the scientific literature. Internet forums are an accessible way for members of the PIED community to seek and share information to reduce the harms associated with PIED use. Forum members show concern for both their own and others' use and, where they lack information, will recommend seeking information from medical professionals. Anecdotal evidence is given high credence though the findings from the scientific literature are used to support opinions. The engagement of health professionals within forums could prove a useful strategy for engaging with this population to provide harm reduction interventions, particularly as forum members are clearly seeking further reliable information, and peers may act as a conduit between users and the health and medical