The role of a creative "joint assignment" project in biomedical engineering bachelor degree education.

PubMed

Jiehui Jiang; Yuting Zhang; Mi Zhou; Xiaosong Zheng; Zhuangzhi Yan

2017-07-01

Biomedical Engineering (BME) bachelor education aims to train qualified engineers who devote themselves to addressing biological and medical problems by integrating the technological, medical and biological knowledge. Design thinking and teamwork with other disciplines are necessary for biomedical engineers. In the current biomedical engineering education system of Shanghai University (SHU), however, such design thinking and teamwork through a practical project is lacking. This paper describes a creative "joint assignment" project in Shanghai University, China, which has provided BME bachelor students a two-year practical experience to work with students from multidisciplinary departments including sociology, mechanics, computer sciences, business and art, etc. To test the feasibility of this project, a twenty-month pilot project has been carried out from May 2015 to December 2016. The results showed that this pilot project obviously enhanced competitive power of BME students in Shanghai University, both in the capabilities of design thinking and teamwork.

E-learning for laurea in biomedical laboratory technicians: presentation of a pilote study.

PubMed

Giansanti, D; Castrichella, L; Giovagnoli, M R

2007-01-01

The aim of the paper is to afford the design and construction of an e-learning model answering to these requirements for the LHCP in Technician of Biomedical Laboratory. The SCENARIO of work for the technician in biomedical laboratory (TBL) is radically changed and e-learning should answer to these new challenges. In particular today He or She should be able to mange in tele-pathology applications the tissue on the so called virtual glass. An architecture for the e-learning based on Web-Dav and a Light software for the virtual glass tele-pathology consultation has been designed with also a special care for the teachers' and students' platforms. At the moment we are investigating Telepathology platforms for the extranet consulting of virtual glasses.

The Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications.

PubMed

Smith, K A

1994-09-01

On August 3, 1968, the Joint Resolution of the Congress established the program and construction of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications. The facility dedicated in 1980 contains the latest in computer and communications technologies. The history, program requirements, construction management, and general planning are discussed including technical issues regarding cabling, systems functions, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC), fire suppression, research and development laboratories, among others.

Requirement analysis for an electronic laboratory notebook for sustainable data management in biomedical research.

PubMed

Menzel, Julia; Weil, Philipp; Bittihn, Philip; Hornung, Daniel; Mathieu, Nadine; Demiroglu, Sara Y

2013-01-01

Sustainable data management in biomedical research requires documentation of metadata for all experiments and results. Scientists usually document research data and metadata in laboratory paper notebooks. An electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) can keep metadata linked to research data resulting in a better understanding of the research results, meaning a scientific benefit [1]. Besides other challenges [2], the biggest hurdles for introducing an ELN seem to be usability, file formats, and data entry mechanisms [3] and that many ELNs are assigned to specific research fields such as biology, chemistry, or physics [4]. We aimed to identify requirements for the introduction of ELN software in a biomedical collaborative research center [5] consisting of different scientific fields and to find software fulfilling most of these requirements.

Improving validity of informed consent for biomedical research in Zambia using a laboratory exposure intervention.

PubMed

Zulu, Joseph Mumba; Lisulo, Mpala Mwanza; Besa, Ellen; Kaonga, Patrick; Chisenga, Caroline C; Chomba, Mumba; Simuyandi, Michelo; Banda, Rosemary; Kelly, Paul

2014-01-01

Complex biomedical research can lead to disquiet in communities with limited exposure to scientific discussions, leading to rumours or to high drop-out rates. We set out to test an intervention designed to address apprehensions commonly encountered in a community where literacy is uncommon, and where complex biomedical research has been conducted for over a decade. We aimed to determine if it could improve the validity of consent. Data were collected using focus group discussions, key informant interviews and observations. We designed an intervention that exposed participants to a detailed demonstration of laboratory processes. Each group was interviewed twice in a day, before and after exposure to the intervention in order to assess changes in their views. Factors that motivated people to participate in invasive biomedical research included a desire to stay healthy because of the screening during the recruitment process, regular advice from doctors, free medical services, and trust in the researchers. Inhibiting factors were limited knowledge about samples taken from their bodies during endoscopic procedures, the impact of endoscopy on the function of internal organs, and concerns about the use of biomedical samples. The belief that blood can be used for Satanic practices also created insecurities about drawing of blood samples. Further inhibiting factors included a fear of being labelled as HIV positive if known to consult heath workers repeatedly, and gender inequality. Concerns about the use and storage of blood and tissue samples were overcome by a laboratory exposure intervention. Selecting a group of members from target community and engaging them in a laboratory exposure intervention could be a useful tool for enhancing specific aspects of consent for biomedical research. Further work is needed to determine the extent to which improved understanding permeates beyond the immediate group participating in the intervention.

Improving Validity of Informed Consent for Biomedical Research in Zambia Using a Laboratory Exposure Intervention

PubMed Central

Zulu, Joseph Mumba; Lisulo, Mpala Mwanza; Besa, Ellen; Kaonga, Patrick; Chisenga, Caroline C.; Chomba, Mumba; Simuyandi, Michelo; Banda, Rosemary; Kelly, Paul

2014-01-01

Background Complex biomedical research can lead to disquiet in communities with limited exposure to scientific discussions, leading to rumours or to high drop-out rates. We set out to test an intervention designed to address apprehensions commonly encountered in a community where literacy is uncommon, and where complex biomedical research has been conducted for over a decade. We aimed to determine if it could improve the validity of consent. Methods Data were collected using focus group discussions, key informant interviews and observations. We designed an intervention that exposed participants to a detailed demonstration of laboratory processes. Each group was interviewed twice in a day, before and after exposure to the intervention in order to assess changes in their views. Results Factors that motivated people to participate in invasive biomedical research included a desire to stay healthy because of the screening during the recruitment process, regular advice from doctors, free medical services, and trust in the researchers. Inhibiting factors were limited knowledge about samples taken from their bodies during endoscopic procedures, the impact of endoscopy on the function of internal organs, and concerns about the use of biomedical samples. The belief that blood can be used for Satanic practices also created insecurities about drawing of blood samples. Further inhibiting factors included a fear of being labelled as HIV positive if known to consult heath workers repeatedly, and gender inequality. Concerns about the use and storage of blood and tissue samples were overcome by a laboratory exposure intervention. Conclusion Selecting a group of members from target community and engaging them in a laboratory exposure intervention could be a useful tool for enhancing specific aspects of consent for biomedical research. Further work is needed to determine the extent to which improved understanding permeates beyond the immediate group participating in the intervention

Biomedical and environmental sciences programs at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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

Richmond, C.R.; Johnson, C.A.

1988-02-01

This progress report summarizes the research and development activities conducted in the Biomedical and Environmental Sciences Programs of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The report is structured to provide descriptions of current activities and accomplishments in each of the major organizational units. Following the accounts of research programs, is a list of publications and awards to its members. 6 figs., 14 tabs.

Overview of the biomedical and environmental programs at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. [Lead abstract

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

Pfuderer, H.A.; Moody, J.B.

Separate abstracts were prepared for each of the 6 chapters presented by the six divisions involved in the Biomedical and Environmental Sciences Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The introduction is not covered by an abstract and deals with the environmental, health and safety considerations of energy technology decisions, the major initiatives now being taken by these 6 divisions, and recent major accomplishments in the biomedical and environmental science program. (KRM)

Biomedical Polar Research Workshop Minutes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

This workshop was conducted to provide a background of NASA and National Science Foundation goals, an overview of previous and current biomedical research, and a discussion about areas of potential future joint activities. The objectives of the joint research were: (1) to develop an understanding of the physiological, psychological, and behavioral alterations and adaptations to extreme environments of the polar regions; (2) to ensure the health, well-being, and performance of humans in these environments; and (3) to promote the application of biomedical research to improve the quality of life in all environments.

Rules of good practice in the care of laboratory animals used in biomedical research.

PubMed

Valanzano, Angelina

2004-01-01

In recent years, the use of laboratory animals has decreased as a result of the adoption of alternative methods such as in vitro experiments and simulation studies. Nonetheless, animal models continue to be necessary in many fields of biomedical research, giving rise to ethical issues regarding the treatment of these animals. In the present work, a general overview of the rules of good practise in caring for laboratory animals is provided, focussing on housing conditions and the proper means of handling animals, including the importance of the relationship or "bond" between the researcher and the animal.

From Mars to man - Biomedical research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beckenbach, E. S.

1984-01-01

In the course of the unmanned exploration of the solar system, which the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has managed for NASA, major advances in computerized image processing, materials research, and miniature electronics design have been accomplished. This presentation shows some of the imaging results from space exploration missions, as well as biomedical research tasks based in these technologies. Among other topics, the use of polymeric microspheres in cancer therapy is discussed. Also included are ceramic applications to prosthesis development, laser applications in the treatment of coronary artery disease, multispectral imaging as used in the diagnosis of thermal burn injury, and some examples of telemetry systems as they can be involved in biological systems.

Joint and fascial chronic graft-vs-host disease: correlations with clinical and laboratory parameters

PubMed Central

Vukić, Tamara; Smith, Sean Robinson; Ljubas Kelečić, Dina; Desnica, Lana; Prenc, Ema; Pulanić, Dražen; Vrhovac, Radovan; Nemet, Damir; Pavletic, Steven Z.

2016-01-01

Aim To determine if there are correlations between joint and fascial chronic graft-vs-host disease (cGVHD) with clinical findings, laboratory parameters, and measures of functional capacity. Methods 29 patients were diagnosed with cGVHD based on National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Criteria at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb from October 2013 to October 2015. Physical examination, including functional measures such as 2-minute walk test and hand grip strength, as well as laboratory tests were performed. The relationship between these evaluations and the severity of joint and fascial cGVHD was tested by logistical regression analysis. Results 12 of 29 patients (41.3%) had joint and fascial cGVHD diagnosed according to NIH Consensus Criteria. There was a significant positive correlation of joint and fascial cGVHD and skin cGVHD (P < 0.001), serum C3 complement level (P = 0.045), and leukocytes (P = 0.032). There was a significant negative correlation between 2-minute walk test (P = 0.016), percentage of cytotoxic T cells CD3+/CD8+ (P = 0.022), serum albumin (P = 0.047), and Karnofsky score (P < 0.001). Binary logistic regression model found that a significant predictor for joint and fascial cGVHD was cGVHD skin involvement (odds ratio, 7.79; 95 confidence interval 1.87-32.56; P = 0.005). Conclusion Joint and fascial cGVHD manifestations correlated with multiple laboratory measurements, clinical features, and cGVHD skin involvement, which was a significant predictor for joint and fascial cGVHD. PMID:27374828

The Role Biomedical Science Laboratories Can Play in Improving Science Knowledge and Promoting First-Year Nursing Academic Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arneson, Pam

2011-01-01

The need for additional nursing and health care professionals is expected to increase dramatically over the next 20 years. With this in mind, students must have strong biomedical science knowledge to be competent in their field. Some studies have shown that participation in bioscience laboratories can enhance science knowledge. If this is true, an…

Semiconductor laser joint study program with Rome Laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schaff, William J.; Okeefe, Sean S.; Eastman, Lester F.

1994-09-01

A program to jointly study vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) for high speed vertical optical interconnects (VOI) has been conducted under an ES&E between Rome Laboratory and Cornell University. Lasers were designed, grown, and fabricated at Cornell University. A VCSEL measurement laboratory has been designed, built, and utilized at Rome Laboratory. High quality VCSEL material was grown and characterized by fabricating conventional lateral cavity lasers that emitted at the design wavelength of 1.04 microns. The VCSEL's emit at 1.06 microns. Threshold currents of 16 mA at 4.8 volts were obtained for 30 microns diameter devices. Output powers of 5 mW were measured. This is 500 times higher power than from the light emitting diodes employed previously for vertical optical interconnects. A new form of compositional grading using a cosinusoidal function has been developed and is very successful for reducing diode series resistance for high speed interconnection applications. A flip-chip diamond package compatible with high speed operation of 16 VCSEL elements has been designed and characterized. A flip-chip device binding effort at Rome Laboratory was also designed and initiated. This report presents details of the one-year effort, including process recipes and results.

Education of biomedical engineering in Taiwan.

PubMed

Lin, Kang-Ping; Kao, Tsair; Wang, Jia-Jung; Chen, Mei-Jung; Su, Fong-Chin

2014-01-01

Biomedical Engineers (BME) play an important role in medical and healthcare society. Well educational programs are important to support the healthcare systems including hospitals, long term care organizations, manufacture industries of medical devices/instrumentations/systems, and sales/services companies of medical devices/instrumentations/system. In past 30 more years, biomedical engineering society has accumulated thousands people hold a biomedical engineering degree, and work as a biomedical engineer in Taiwan. Most of BME students can be trained in biomedical engineering departments with at least one of specialties in bioelectronics, bio-information, biomaterials or biomechanics. Students are required to have internship trainings in related institutions out of campus for 320 hours before graduating. Almost all the biomedical engineering departments are certified by IEET (Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan), and met the IEET requirement in which required mathematics and fundamental engineering courses. For BMEs after graduation, Taiwanese Society of Biomedical Engineering (TSBME) provides many continue-learning programs and certificates for all members who expect to hold the certification as a professional credit in his working place. In current status, many engineering departments in university are continuously asked to provide joint programs with BME department to train much better quality students. BME is one of growing fields in Taiwan.

Community outreach at biomedical research facilities.

PubMed

Goldman, M; Hedetniemi, J N; Herbert, E R; Sassaman, J S; Walker, B C

2000-12-01

For biomedical researchers to fulfill their responsibility for protecting the environment, they must do more than meet the scientific challenge of reducing the number and volume of hazardous materials used in their laboratories and the engineering challenge of reducing pollution and shifting to cleaner energy sources. They must also meet the public relations challenge of informing and involving their neighbors in these efforts. The experience of the Office of Community Liaison of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in meeting the latter challenge offers a model and several valuable lessons for other biomedical research facilities to follow. This paper is based on presentations by an expert panel during the Leadership Conference on Biomedical Research and the Environment held 1--2 November 1999 at NIH, Bethesda, Maryland. The risks perceived by community members are often quite different from those identified by officials at the biomedical research facility. The best antidote for misconceptions is more and better information. If community organizations are to be informed participants in the decision-making process, they need a simple but robust mechanism for identifying and evaluating the environmental hazards in their community. Local government can and should be an active and fully informed partner in planning and emergency preparedness. In some cases this can reduce the regulatory burden on the biomedical research facility. In other cases it might simplify and expedite the permitting process or help the facility disseminate reliable information to the community. When a particular risk, real or perceived, is of special concern to the community, community members should be involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of targeted risk assessment activities. Only by doing so will the community have confidence in the results of those activities. NIH has involved community members in joint efforts to deal with topics as varied as recycling and soil

Development and laboratory testing of a 138-kV PPP-insulated joint for commercial application

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

Walldorf, S.P.; Chu, H.; Elbadaly, H.

1990-04-01

This paper describes the design, development and laboratory testing of a high voltage PPP (paper polypropylene/paper laminate) insulated joint for commercial application on 138-kV PPP-insulated cable. The design approach taken is conservative and addresses the typical variations in field conditions and in skill and workmanship of the splicing. Joint construction details, including choice of connector, taping structure, and joint mechanical reinforcement, are discussed. The test criteria are described and results are presented.

Extracting biomedical events from pairs of text entities

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Background Huge amounts of electronic biomedical documents, such as molecular biology reports or genomic papers are generated daily. Nowadays, these documents are mainly available in the form of unstructured free texts, which require heavy processing for their registration into organized databases. This organization is instrumental for information retrieval, enabling to answer the advanced queries of researchers and practitioners in biology, medicine, and related fields. Hence, the massive data flow calls for efficient automatic methods of text-mining that extract high-level information, such as biomedical events, from biomedical text. The usual computational tools of Natural Language Processing cannot be readily applied to extract these biomedical events, due to the peculiarities of the domain. Indeed, biomedical documents contain highly domain-specific jargon and syntax. These documents also describe distinctive dependencies, making text-mining in molecular biology a specific discipline. Results We address biomedical event extraction as the classification of pairs of text entities into the classes corresponding to event types. The candidate pairs of text entities are recursively provided to a multiclass classifier relying on Support Vector Machines. This recursive process extracts events involving other events as arguments. Compared to joint models based on Markov Random Fields, our model simplifies inference and hence requires shorter training and prediction times along with lower memory capacity. Compared to usual pipeline approaches, our model passes over a complex intermediate problem, while making a more extensive usage of sophisticated joint features between text entities. Our method focuses on the core event extraction of the Genia task of BioNLP challenges yielding the best result reported so far on the 2013 edition. PMID:26201478

Software for biomedical engineering signal processing laboratory experiments.

PubMed

Tompkins, Willis J; Wilson, J

2009-01-01

In the early 1990's we developed a special computer program called UW DigiScope to provide a mechanism for anyone interested in biomedical digital signal processing to study the field without requiring any other instrument except a personal computer. There are many digital filtering and pattern recognition algorithms used in processing biomedical signals. In general, students have very limited opportunity to have hands-on access to the mechanisms of digital signal processing. In a typical course, the filters are designed non-interactively, which does not provide the student with significant understanding of the design constraints of such filters nor their actual performance characteristics. UW DigiScope 3.0 is the first major update since version 2.0 was released in 1994. This paper provides details on how the new version based on MATLAB! works with signals, including the filter design tool that is the programming interface between UW DigiScope and processing algorithms.

Biomedical Imaging

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-04-01

distribution unlimited. United States Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory Fort Rucker, Alabama 36362-0577 Qualified recuesters Qualified requesters may...FUNDING NUMBER5 I PROGRAM zfJECT TASK WORK UNIT ELEMENT NO. NO. ACCESSION NO. 62787A 30162787A87$ EA 138 Biomedical Imaging 12. PERSONAL AUTHOR(S...times larger. Usually they are expensive with commercially available units starting at around $100,000. Triangulation sensors are capable of range

Introducing meta-services for biomedical information extraction

PubMed Central

Leitner, Florian; Krallinger, Martin; Rodriguez-Penagos, Carlos; Hakenberg, Jörg; Plake, Conrad; Kuo, Cheng-Ju; Hsu, Chun-Nan; Tsai, Richard Tzong-Han; Hung, Hsi-Chuan; Lau, William W; Johnson, Calvin A; Sætre, Rune; Yoshida, Kazuhiro; Chen, Yan Hua; Kim, Sun; Shin, Soo-Yong; Zhang, Byoung-Tak; Baumgartner, William A; Hunter, Lawrence; Haddow, Barry; Matthews, Michael; Wang, Xinglong; Ruch, Patrick; Ehrler, Frédéric; Özgür, Arzucan; Erkan, Güneş; Radev, Dragomir R; Krauthammer, Michael; Luong, ThaiBinh; Hoffmann, Robert; Sander, Chris; Valencia, Alfonso

2008-01-01

We introduce the first meta-service for information extraction in molecular biology, the BioCreative MetaServer (BCMS; ). This prototype platform is a joint effort of 13 research groups and provides automatically generated annotations for PubMed/Medline abstracts. Annotation types cover gene names, gene IDs, species, and protein-protein interactions. The annotations are distributed by the meta-server in both human and machine readable formats (HTML/XML). This service is intended to be used by biomedical researchers and database annotators, and in biomedical language processing. The platform allows direct comparison, unified access, and result aggregation of the annotations. PMID:18834497

Biomedical technology prosperity game{trademark}

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

Berman, M.; Boyack, K.W.; Wesenberg, D.L.

1996-07-01

Prosperity Games{trademark} are an outgrowth and adaptation of move/countermove and seminar War Games. Prosperity Games{trademark} are simulations that explore complex issues in a variety of areas including economics, politics, sociology, environment, education and research. These issues can be examined from a variety of perspectives ranging from a global, macroeconomic and geopolitical viewpoint down to the details of customer/supplier/market interactions in specific industries. All Prosperity Games{trademark} are unique in that both the game format and the player contributions vary from game to game. This report documents the Biomedical Technology Prosperity Game{trademark} conducted under the sponsorship of Sandia National Laboratories, the Defensemore » Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Koop Foundation, Inc. Players were drawn from all stakeholders involved in biomedical technologies including patients, hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, legislators, suppliers/manufacturers, regulators, funding organizations, universities/laboratories, and the legal profession. The primary objectives of this game were to: (1) Identify advanced/critical technology issues that affect the cost and quality of health care. (2) Explore the development, patenting, manufacturing and licensing of needed technologies that would decrease costs while maintaining or improving quality. (3) Identify policy and regulatory changes that would reduce costs and improve quality and timeliness of health care delivery. (4) Identify and apply existing resources and facilities to develop and implement improved technologies and policies. (5) Begin to develop Biomedical Technology Roadmaps for industry and government cooperation. The deliberations and recommendations of these players provided valuable insights as to the views of this diverse group of decision makers concerning biomedical issues. Significant progress was made in the roadmapping of key areas in the biomedical technology

Raman spectroscopy of biomedical polyethylenes.

PubMed

Pezzotti, Giuseppe

2017-06-01

With the development of three-dimensional Raman algorithms for local mapping of oxidation and plastic strain, and the ability to resolve molecular orientation patterns with microscopic spatial resolution, there is an opportunity to re-examine many of the foundations on which our understanding of biomedical grade ultra-high molecular weight polyethylenes (UHMWPEs) are based. By implementing polarized Raman spectroscopy into an automatized tool with an improved precision in non-destructively resolving Euler angles, oxidation levels, and microscopic strain, we become capable to make accurate and traceable measurements of the in vitro and in vivo tribological responses of a variety of commercially available UHMWPE bearings for artificial hip and knee joints. In this paper, we first review the foundations and the main algorithms for Raman analyses of oxidation and strain of biomedical polyethylene. Then, we critically re-examine a large body of Raman data previously collected on different polyethylene joint components after in vitro testing or in vivo service, in order to shed new light on an area of particular importance to joint orthopedics: the microscopic nature of UHMWPE surface degradation in the human body. A complex scenario of physical chemistry appears from the Raman analyses, which highlights the importance of molecular-scale phenomena besides mere microstructural changes. The availability of the Raman microscopic probe for visualizing oxidation patterns unveiled striking findings related to the chemical contribution to wear degradation: chain-breaking and subsequent formation of carboxylic acid sites preferentially occur in correspondence of third-phase regions, and they are triggered by emission of dehydroxylated oxygen from ceramic oxide counterparts. These findings profoundly differ from more popular (and simplistic) notions of mechanistic tribology adopted in analyzing joint simulator data. Statement of Significance This review was dedicated to the

Biomedical graphite and CaF2 preparation and measurement at PRIME Lab

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackson, George S.; Einstein, Jane A.; Kubley, Tom; Martin, Berdine; Weaver, Connie M.; Caffee, Marc

2015-10-01

The biomedical program at PRIME Lab has prepared radiocarbon and 41Ca as tracers for a variety of applications. Over the last decade several hundred 14C samples and several thousand 41Ca samples have been measured per year. Biomedical samples pose challenges that are relatively rare in the AMS community. We will discuss how to prepare and compensate for samples that have isotope ratios above the dynamic range of AMS, high interference rates, and small samples sizes. In the case of 41Ca, the trade off in the chromatography between yield and sample cleanliness will be analyzed. Secondary standards that have isotope ratios commonly encountered in our applications are routinely prepared. We use material from the Joint Research Centre's Institute for Reference Materials and Measurement: IRMM-3701/4, 3701/5, and 3701/6 and a standard produced by PRIME Lab for 41Ca. We use International Atomic Energy Agency's IAEA C-3, IAEA C-7, IAEA C-8, and a ∼12.5× modern oxalic acid secondary standard supplied by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for 14C. We will discuss our precision, reproducibility, and the relative agreement between our measured and the reported values for these materials.

Environmental/Biomedical Terminology Index

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

Huffstetler, J.K.; Dailey, N.S.; Rickert, L.W.

1976-12-01

The Information Center Complex (ICC), a centrally administered group of information centers, provides information support to environmental and biomedical research groups and others within and outside Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In-house data base building and development of specialized document collections are important elements of the ongoing activities of these centers. ICC groups must be concerned with language which will adequately classify and insure retrievability of document records. Language control problems are compounded when the complexity of modern scientific problem solving demands an interdisciplinary approach. Although there are several word lists, indexes, and thesauri specific to various scientific disciplines usually groupedmore » as Environmental Sciences, no single generally recognized authority can be used as a guide to the terminology of all environmental science. If biomedical terminology for the description of research on environmental effects is also needed, the problem becomes even more complex. The building of a word list which can be used as a general guide to the environmental/biomedical sciences has been a continuing activity of the Information Center Complex. This activity resulted in the publication of the Environmental Biomedical Terminology Index (EBTI).« less

A review of engineered zirconia surfaces in biomedical applications

PubMed Central

Yin, Ling; Nakanishi, Yoshitaka; Alao, Abdur-Rasheed; Song, Xiao-Fei; Abduo, Jaafar; Zhang, Yu

2017-01-01

Zirconia is widely used for load-bearing functional structures in medicine and dentistry. The quality of engineered zirconia surfaces determines not only the fracture and fatigue behaviour but also the low temperature degradation (ageing sensitivity), bacterial colonization and bonding strength of zirconia devices. This paper reviews the current manufacturing techniques for fabrication of zirconia surfaces in biomedical applications, particularly, in tooth and joint replacements, and influences of the zirconia surface quality on their functional behaviours. It discusses emerging manufacturing techniques and challenges for fabrication of zirconia surfaces in biomedical applications. PMID:29130030

Analysis and Implementation of an Electronic Laboratory Notebook in a Biomedical Research Institute

PubMed Central

Dujardin, Gwendal; Cabrera-Andrade, Alejandro; Paz-y-Miño, César; Indacochea, Alberto; Inglés-Ferrándiz, Marta; Nadimpalli, Hima Priyanka; Collu, Nicola; Dublanche, Yann; De Mingo, Ismael; Camargo, David

2016-01-01

Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) will probably replace paper laboratory notebooks (PLNs) in academic research due to their advantages in data recording, sharing and security. Despite several reports describing technical characteristics of ELNs and their advantages over PLNs, no study has directly tested ELN performance among researchers. In addition, the usage of tablet-based devices or wearable technology as ELN complements has never been explored in the field. To implement an ELN in our biomedical research institute, here we first present a technical comparison of six ELNs using 42 parameters. Based on this, we chose two ELNs, which were tested by 28 scientists for a 3-month period and by 80 students via hands-on practical exercises. Second, we provide two survey-based studies aimed to compare these two ELNs (PerkinElmer Elements and Microsoft OneNote) and to analyze the use of tablet-based devices. We finally explore the advantages of using wearable technology as ELNs tools. Among the ELNs tested, we found that OneNote presents almost all parameters evaluated (39/42) and both surveyed groups preferred OneNote as an ELN solution. In addition, 80% of the surveyed scientists reported that tablet-based devices improved the use of ELNs in different respects. We also describe the advantages of using OneNote application for Apple Watch as an ELN wearable complement. This work defines essential features of ELNs that could be used to improve ELN implementation and software development. PMID:27479083

Analysis and Implementation of an Electronic Laboratory Notebook in a Biomedical Research Institute.

PubMed

Guerrero, Santiago; Dujardin, Gwendal; Cabrera-Andrade, Alejandro; Paz-Y-Miño, César; Indacochea, Alberto; Inglés-Ferrándiz, Marta; Nadimpalli, Hima Priyanka; Collu, Nicola; Dublanche, Yann; De Mingo, Ismael; Camargo, David

2016-01-01

Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) will probably replace paper laboratory notebooks (PLNs) in academic research due to their advantages in data recording, sharing and security. Despite several reports describing technical characteristics of ELNs and their advantages over PLNs, no study has directly tested ELN performance among researchers. In addition, the usage of tablet-based devices or wearable technology as ELN complements has never been explored in the field. To implement an ELN in our biomedical research institute, here we first present a technical comparison of six ELNs using 42 parameters. Based on this, we chose two ELNs, which were tested by 28 scientists for a 3-month period and by 80 students via hands-on practical exercises. Second, we provide two survey-based studies aimed to compare these two ELNs (PerkinElmer Elements and Microsoft OneNote) and to analyze the use of tablet-based devices. We finally explore the advantages of using wearable technology as ELNs tools. Among the ELNs tested, we found that OneNote presents almost all parameters evaluated (39/42) and both surveyed groups preferred OneNote as an ELN solution. In addition, 80% of the surveyed scientists reported that tablet-based devices improved the use of ELNs in different respects. We also describe the advantages of using OneNote application for Apple Watch as an ELN wearable complement. This work defines essential features of ELNs that could be used to improve ELN implementation and software development.

Facilities available for biomedical science research in the public universities in Lagos, Nigeria.

PubMed

John, T A

2010-03-01

Across the world, basic medical scientists and physician scientists work on common platforms in state-of-the-arts laboratories doing translational research that occasionally results in bedside application. Biotechnology industries capitalise on useful findings for colossal profit.1 In Nigeria and the rest of Africa, biomedical science has not thrived and the contribution of publications to global high impact journals is low.2 This work investigated facilities available for modern biomedical research in Lagos public universities to extract culprit factors. The two public universities in Lagos, Nigeria were investigated by a cross sectional questionnaire survey of the technical staff manning biomedical science departments. They were asked about availability of 47 modern biomedical science research laboratory components such as cold room and microscopes and six research administration components such as director of research and grants administration. For convenient basic laboratory components such as autoclaves and balances, 50% responses indicated "well maintained and always functional" whereas for less convenient complex, high maintenance, state-of-the-arts equipment 19% responses indicated "well maintained and always functional." Respondents indicated that components of modern biomedical science research administration were 44% of expectation. The survey reveal a deficit in state-of the-arts research equipment and also a deficit in high maintenance, expensive equipment indicating that biomedical science in the investigated environment lacks the momentum of global trends and also lacks buoyant funding. In addition, administration supporting biomedical science is below expectation and may also account for the low contributions of research articles to global high impact journals.

The Joint Committee for Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (JCTLM) - its history and operation.

PubMed

Jones, Graham R D; Jackson, Craig

2016-01-30

The Joint Committee for Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (JCTLM) was formed to bring together the sciences of metrology, laboratory medicine and laboratory quality management. The aim of this collaboration is to support worldwide comparability and equivalence of measurement results in clinical laboratories for the purpose of improving healthcare. The JCTLM has its origins in the activities of international metrology treaty organizations, professional societies and federations devoted to improving measurement quality in physical, chemical and medical sciences. The three founding organizations, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM), the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) are the leaders of this activity. The main service of the JCTLM is a web-based database with a list of reference materials, reference methods and reference measurement services meeting appropriate international standards. This database allows manufacturers to select references for assay traceability and provides support for suppliers of these services. As of mid 2015 the database lists 295 reference materials for 162 analytes, 170 reference measurement procedures for 79 analytes and 130 reference measurement services for 39 analytes. There remains a need for the development and implementation of metrological traceability in many areas of laboratory medicine and the JCTLM will continue to promote these activities into the future. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging.

PubMed

2017-01-01

The IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) is a scientific conference dedicated to mathematical, algorithmic, and computational aspects of biological and biomedical imaging, across all scales of observation. It fosters knowledge transfer among different imaging communities and contributes to an integrative approach to biomedical imaging. ISBI is a joint initiative from the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). The 2018 meeting will include tutorials, and a scientific program composed of plenary talks, invited special sessions, challenges, as well as oral and poster presentations of peer-reviewed papers. High-quality papers are requested containing original contributions to the topics of interest including image formation and reconstruction, computational and statistical image processing and analysis, dynamic imaging, visualization, image quality assessment, and physical, biological, and statistical modeling. Accepted 4-page regular papers will be published in the symposium proceedings published by IEEE and included in IEEE Xplore. To encourage attendance by a broader audience of imaging scientists and offer additional presentation opportunities, ISBI 2018 will continue to have a second track featuring posters selected from 1-page abstract submissions without subsequent archival publication.

About the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research | Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

The Frederick National Laboratory is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and currently operated by Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. The laboratory addresses some of the most urge

The role biomedical science laboratories can play in improving science knowledge and promoting first-year nursing academic success

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arneson, Pam

The Role Biomedical Science Laboratories Can Play In Improving Science Knowledge and Promoting First-Year Nursing Academic Success The need for additional nursing and health care professionals is expected to increase dramatically over the next 20 years. With this in mind, students must have strong biomedical science knowledge to be competent in their field. Some studies have shown that participation in bioscience laboratories can enhance science knowledge. If this is true, an analysis of the role bioscience labs have in first-year nursing academic success is apposite. In response, this study sought to determine whether concurrent enrollment in anatomy and microbiology lecture and lab courses improved final lecture course grades. The investigation was expanded to include a comparison of first-year nursing GPA and prerequisite bioscience concurrent lecture/lab enrollment. Additionally, research has indicated that learning is affected by student perception of the course, instructor, content, and environment. To gain an insight regarding students' perspectives of laboratory courses, almost 100 students completed a 20-statement perception survey to understand how lab participation affects learning. Data analyses involved comparing anatomy and microbiology final lecture course grades between students who concurrently enrolled in the lecture and lab courses and students who completed the lecture course alone. Independent t test analyses revealed that there was no significant difference between the groups for anatomy, t(285) = .11, p = .912, but for microbiology, the lab course provided a significant educational benefit, t(256) = 4.47, p = .000. However, when concurrent prerequisite bioscience lecture/lab enrollment was compared to non-concurrent enrollment for first-year nursing GPA using independent t test analyses, no significant difference was found for South Dakota State University, t(37) = -1.57, p = .125, or for the University of South Dakota, t(38) = -0.46, p

Designing a Hands-On Brain Computer Interface Laboratory Course

PubMed Central

Khalighinejad, Bahar; Long, Laura Kathleen; Mesgarani, Nima

2017-01-01

Devices and systems that interact with the brain have become a growing field of research and development in recent years. Engineering students are well positioned to contribute to both hardware development and signal analysis techniques in this field. However, this area has been left out of most engineering curricula. We developed an electroencephalography (EEG) based brain computer interface (BCI) laboratory course to educate students through hands-on experiments. The course is offered jointly by the Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science Departments of Columbia University in the City of New York and is open to senior undergraduate and graduate students. The course provides an effective introduction to the experimental design, neuroscience concepts, data analysis techniques, and technical skills required in the field of BCI. PMID:28268946

Designing a hands-on brain computer interface laboratory course.

PubMed

Khalighinejad, Bahar; Long, Laura Kathleen; Mesgarani, Nima

2016-08-01

Devices and systems that interact with the brain have become a growing field of research and development in recent years. Engineering students are well positioned to contribute to both hardware development and signal analysis techniques in this field. However, this area has been left out of most engineering curricula. We developed an electroencephalography (EEG) based brain computer interface (BCI) laboratory course to educate students through hands-on experiments. The course is offered jointly by the Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science Departments of Columbia University in the City of New York and is open to senior undergraduate and graduate students. The course provides an effective introduction to the experimental design, neuroscience concepts, data analysis techniques, and technical skills required in the field of BCI.

The Need for Veterinarians in Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Rosol, Thomas J.; Moore, Rustin M.; Saville, William J.A.; Oglesbee, Michael J.; Rush, Laura J.; Mathes, Lawrence E.; Lairmore, Michael D.

2010-01-01

The number of veterinarians in the United States is inadequate to meet societal needs in biomedical research and public health. Areas of greatest need include translational medical research, veterinary pathology, laboratory-animal medicine, emerging infectious diseases, public health, academic medicine, and production-animal medicine. Veterinarians have unique skill sets that enable them to serve as leaders or members of interdisciplinary research teams involved in basic science and biomedical research with applications to animal or human health. There are too few graduate veterinarians to serve broad national needs in private practice; academia; local, state, and federal government agencies; and private industry. There are no easy solutions to the problem of increasing the number of veterinarians in biomedical research. Progress will require creativity, modification of priorities, broad-based communication, support from faculty and professional organizations, effective mentoring, education in research and alternative careers as part of the veterinary professional curriculum, and recognition of the value of research experience among professional schools’ admissions committees. New resources should be identified to improve communication and education, professional and graduate student programs in biomedical research, and support to junior faculty. These actions are necessary for the profession to sustain its viability as an integral part of biomedical research. PMID:19435992

Biomedical Science, Unit III: The Circulatory System in Health and Science. The Heart and Blood Vessels; Blood and Its Properties; The Urinary Tract. Laboratory Manual. Revised Version, 1976.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biomedical Interdisciplinary Curriculum Project, Berkeley, CA.

This laboratory manual presents activities for a unit of science within the Biomedical Interdisciplinary Curriculum Project (BICP), a two-year interdisciplinary precollege curriculum aimed at preparing high school students for entry into college and vocational programs leading to a career in the health field. These twenty-five laboratory…

PASSIM--an open source software system for managing information in biomedical studies.

PubMed

Viksna, Juris; Celms, Edgars; Opmanis, Martins; Podnieks, Karlis; Rucevskis, Peteris; Zarins, Andris; Barrett, Amy; Neogi, Sudeshna Guha; Krestyaninova, Maria; McCarthy, Mark I; Brazma, Alvis; Sarkans, Ugis

2007-02-09

One of the crucial aspects of day-to-day laboratory information management is collection, storage and retrieval of information about research subjects and biomedical samples. An efficient link between sample data and experiment results is absolutely imperative for a successful outcome of a biomedical study. Currently available software solutions are largely limited to large-scale, expensive commercial Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS). Acquiring such LIMS indeed can bring laboratory information management to a higher level, but often implies sufficient investment of time, effort and funds, which are not always available. There is a clear need for lightweight open source systems for patient and sample information management. We present a web-based tool for submission, management and retrieval of sample and research subject data. The system secures confidentiality by separating anonymized sample information from individuals' records. It is simple and generic, and can be customised for various biomedical studies. Information can be both entered and accessed using the same web interface. User groups and their privileges can be defined. The system is open-source and is supplied with an on-line tutorial and necessary documentation. It has proven to be successful in a large international collaborative project. The presented system closes the gap between the need and the availability of lightweight software solutions for managing information in biomedical studies involving human research subjects.

Biomechanics of unilateral and bilateral sacroiliac joint stabilization: laboratory investigation.

PubMed

Lindsey, Derek P; Parrish, Robin; Gundanna, Mukund; Leasure, Jeremi; Yerby, Scott A; Kondrashov, Dimitriy

2018-03-01

OBJECTIVE Bilateral symptoms have been reported in 8%-35% of patients with sacroiliac (SI) joint dysfunction. Stabilization of a single SI joint may significantly alter the stresses on the contralateral SI joint. If the contralateral SI joint stresses are significantly increased, degeneration may occur; alternatively, if the stresses are significantly reduced, bilateral stabilization may be unnecessary for patients with bilateral symptoms. The biomechanical effects of 1) unilateral stabilization on the contralateral SI joint and 2) bilateral stabilization on both SI joints are currently unknown. The objectives of this study were to characterize bilateral SI joint range of motion (ROM) and evaluate and compare the biomechanical effects of unilateral and bilateral implant placement for SI joint fusion. METHODS A lumbopelvic model (L5-pelvis) was used to test the ROM of both SI joints in 8 cadavers. A single-leg stance setup was used to load the lumbar spine and measure the ROM of each SI joint in flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation. Both joints were tested 1) while intact, 2) after unilateral stabilization, and 3) after bilateral stabilization. Stabilization consisted of lateral transiliac placement of 3 triangular titanium plasma-sprayed (TPS) implants. RESULTS Intact testing showed that during single-leg stance the contralateral SI joint had less ROM in flexion-extension (27%), lateral bending (32%), and axial rotation (69%) than the loaded joint. Unilateral stabilization resulted in significant reduction of flexion-extension ROM (46%) on the treated side; no significant ROM changes were observed for the nontreated side. Bilateral stabilization resulted in significant reduction of flexion-extension ROM of the primary (45%) and secondary (75%) SI joints. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that during single-leg loading the ROMs for the stance (loaded) and swing (unloaded) SI joints are significantly different. Unilateral stabilization for SI

Culture - joint fluid

MedlinePlus

... this page: //medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003742.htm Culture - joint fluid To use the sharing features on this page, please enable JavaScript. Joint fluid culture is a laboratory test to detect infection-causing ...

Preoperative Pain Neuroscience Education Combined With Knee Joint Mobilization for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

PubMed

Lluch, Enrique; Dueñas, Lirios; Falla, Deborah; Baert, Isabel; Meeus, Mira; Sánchez-Frutos, José; Nijs, Jo

2018-01-01

This study aimed to first compare the effects of a preoperative treatment combining pain neuroscience education (PNE) with knee joint mobilization versus biomedical education with knee joint mobilization on central sensitization (CS) in patients with knee osteoarthritis, both before and after surgery. Second, we wanted to compare the effects of both interventions on knee pain, disability, and psychosocial variables. Forty-four patients with knee osteoarthritis were allocated to receive 4 sessions of either PNE combined with knee joint mobilization or biomedical education with knee joint mobilization before surgery. All participants completed self-administered questionnaires and quantitative sensory testing was performed at baseline, after treatment and at a 1 month follow-up (all before surgery), and at 3 months after surgery. Significant and clinically relevant differences before and after surgery were found after treatments for both knee pain and disability, and some measures of CS (ie, widespread hyperalgesia, CS inventory), with no significant between-group differences. Other indicators of CS (ie, conditioned pain modulation, temporal summation) did not change over time following either treatment, and in some occasions the observed changes were not in the expected direction. Patients receiving PNE with knee joint mobilization achieved greater improvements in psychosocial variables (pain catastrophizing, kinesiophobia) both before and after surgery. Preoperative PNE combined with knee joint mobilization did not produce any additional benefits over time for knee pain and disability, and CS measures compared with biomedical education with knee joint mobilization. Superior effects in the PNE with knee joint mobilization group were only observed for psychosocial variables related to pain catastrophizing and kinesiophobia.

Organization of Biomedical Data for Collaborative Scientific Research: A Research Information Management System

PubMed Central

Myneni, Sahiti; Patel, Vimla L.

2010-01-01

Biomedical researchers often work with massive, detailed and heterogeneous datasets. These datasets raise new challenges of information organization and management for scientific interpretation, as they demand much of the researchers’ time and attention. The current study investigated the nature of the problems that researchers face when dealing with such data. Four major problems identified with existing biomedical scientific information management methods were related to data organization, data sharing, collaboration, and publications. Therefore, there is a compelling need to develop an efficient and user-friendly information management system to handle the biomedical research data. This study evaluated the implementation of an information management system, which was introduced as part of the collaborative research to increase scientific productivity in a research laboratory. Laboratory members seemed to exhibit frustration during the implementation process. However, empirical findings revealed that they gained new knowledge and completed specified tasks while working together with the new system. Hence, researchers are urged to persist and persevere when dealing with any new technology, including an information management system in a research laboratory environment. PMID:20543892

Organization of Biomedical Data for Collaborative Scientific Research: A Research Information Management System.

PubMed

Myneni, Sahiti; Patel, Vimla L

2010-06-01

Biomedical researchers often work with massive, detailed and heterogeneous datasets. These datasets raise new challenges of information organization and management for scientific interpretation, as they demand much of the researchers' time and attention. The current study investigated the nature of the problems that researchers face when dealing with such data. Four major problems identified with existing biomedical scientific information management methods were related to data organization, data sharing, collaboration, and publications. Therefore, there is a compelling need to develop an efficient and user-friendly information management system to handle the biomedical research data. This study evaluated the implementation of an information management system, which was introduced as part of the collaborative research to increase scientific productivity in a research laboratory. Laboratory members seemed to exhibit frustration during the implementation process. However, empirical findings revealed that they gained new knowledge and completed specified tasks while working together with the new system. Hence, researchers are urged to persist and persevere when dealing with any new technology, including an information management system in a research laboratory environment.

Pigs as laboratory animals

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The pig is increasingly popular as a laboratory animal either as the target species in its own right or as a model for humans in biomedical science. As an intelligent, social animal it has a complex behavioral repertoire reminiscent of its ancestor, the wild boar. Within a laboratory setting, the pi...

Demand for interdisciplinary laboratories for physiology research by undergraduate students in biosciences and biomedical engineering.

PubMed

Clase, Kari L; Hein, Patrick W; Pelaez, Nancy J

2008-12-01

Physiology as a discipline is uniquely positioned to engage undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research in response to the 2006-2011 National Science Foundation Strategic Plan call for innovative transformational research, which emphasizes multidisciplinary projects. To prepare undergraduates for careers that cross disciplinary boundaries, students need to practice interdisciplinary communication in academic programs that connect students in diverse disciplines. This report surveys policy documents relevant to this emphasis on interdisciplinary training and suggests a changing role for physiology courses in bioscience and engineering programs. A role for a physiology course is increasingly recommended for engineering programs, but the study of physiology from an engineering perspective might differ from the study of physiology as a basic science. Indeed, physiology laboratory courses provide an arena where biomedical engineering and bioscience students can apply knowledge from both fields while cooperating in multidisciplinary teams under specified technical constraints. Because different problem-solving approaches are used by students of engineering and bioscience, instructional innovations are needed to break down stereotypes between the disciplines and create an educational environment where interdisciplinary teamwork is used to bridge differences.

The Dental Solid Waste Management in Different Categories of Dental Laboratories in Abha City, Saudi Arabia

PubMed Central

Haralur, Satheesh B.; Al-Qahtani, Ali S.; Al-Qarni, Marie M.; Al-Homrany, Rami M.; Aboalkhair, Ayyob E.; Madalakote, Sujatha S.

2015-01-01

Aim: To study the awareness, attitude, practice and facilities among the different categories of dental laboratories in Abha city. Materials and Methods: A total of 80 dental technicians were surveyed in the study. The dental laboratories included in the study were teaching institute (Group I), Government Hospital (Group II), Private Dental Clinic (Group III) and Independent laboratory (Group IV). The pre-tested anonymous questionnaire was used to understand knowledge, attitude, facilities, practice and orientation regarding biomedical waste management. Results: The knowledge of biomedical waste categories, colour coding and segregation was better among Group I (55-65%) and Group II (65-75%). The lowest standard of waste disposal was practiced at Group IV (15-20%) and Group III (25-35%). The availability of disposal facilities was poor at Group IV. The continuous education on biomedical waste management lacked in all the Groups. Conclusion: The significant improvement in disposal facilities was required at Group III and Group IV laboratories. All dental technicians were in need of regular training of biomedical waste management. Clinical Significance: The dental laboratories are an integral part of dental practice. The dental laboratories are actively involved in the generation, handling and disposal of biomedical waste. Hence, it is important to assess the biomedical waste management knowledge, attitude, facilities and practice among different categories of dental laboratories. PMID:26962373

Recent development of antifouling polymers: structure, evaluation, and biomedical applications in nano/micro-structures.

PubMed

Liu, Lingyun; Li, Wenchen; Liu, Qingsheng

2014-01-01

Antifouling polymers have been proven to be vital to many biomedical applications such as medical implants, drug delivery, and biosensing. This review covers the major development of antifouling polymers in the last 2 decades, including the material chemistry, structural factors important to antifouling properties, and how to challenge or evaluate the antifouling performances. We then discuss the applications of antifouling polymers in nano/micro-biomedical applications in the form of nanoparticles, thin coatings for medical devices (e.g., artificial joint, catheter, wound dressing), and nano/microscale fibers. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Increased co-first authorships in biomedical and clinical publications: a call for recognition.

PubMed

Conte, Marisa L; Maat, Stacy L; Omary, M Bishr

2013-10-01

There has been a dramatic increase in the number and percentage of publications in biomedical and clinical journals in which two or more coauthors claim first authorship, with a change in some journals from no joint first authorship in 1990 to co-first authorship of >30% of all research publications in 2012. As biomedical and clinical research become increasingly complex and team-driven, and given the importance attributed to first authorship by grant reviewers and promotion and tenure committees, the time is ripe for journals, bibliographic databases, and authors to highlight equal first author contributions of published original research.

A laboratory animal science pioneer.

PubMed

Kostomitsopoulos, Nikolaos

2014-11-01

Nikolaos Kostomitsopoulos, DVM, PhD, is Head of Laboratory Animal Facilities and Designated Veterinarian, Center of Clinical, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece. Dr. Kostomitsopoulos discusses his successes in implementing laboratory animal science legislation and fostering collaboration among scientists in Greece.

POLLUTION PREVENTION OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT - GEOCHEMISTRY LABORATORY AT SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES

EPA Science Inventory

These reports summarize pollution prevention opportunity assessments conducted jointly by EPA and DOE at the Geochemistry Laboratory and the Manufacturing and Fabrication Repair Laboratory at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories facility in Albuquerque, New Mex...

Pacific Northwest Laboratory annual report for 1987 to the DOE Office of Energy Research: Part 1, Biomedical Sciences

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

Park, J.F.

1988-02-01

This report summarizes progress on OHER biomedical and health-effects research conducted at Pacific Northwest Laboratory in FY 1987. The research develops the knowledge and scientific principles necessary to identify, understand, and anticipate the long-term health consequences of energy-related radiation and chemicals. Our continuing emphasis is to decrease the uncertainty of health-effects risk estimates from existing and/or developing energy-related technologies through an increased understanding of how radiation and chemicals cause health effects. The report is arranged to reflect PNL research relative to OHER programmatic structure. The first section, on human health effects, concerns statistical and epidemiological studies for assessing health risks.more » The next section, which contains reports of health-effects research in biological systems, includes research with radiation and chemicals. The last section is related to medical applications of nuclear technology.« less

Extracting laboratory test information from biomedical text

PubMed Central

Kang, Yanna Shen; Kayaalp, Mehmet

2013-01-01

Background: No previous study reported the efficacy of current natural language processing (NLP) methods for extracting laboratory test information from narrative documents. This study investigates the pathology informatics question of how accurately such information can be extracted from text with the current tools and techniques, especially machine learning and symbolic NLP methods. The study data came from a text corpus maintained by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, containing a rich set of information on laboratory tests and test devices. Methods: The authors developed a symbolic information extraction (SIE) system to extract device and test specific information about four types of laboratory test entities: Specimens, analytes, units of measures and detection limits. They compared the performance of SIE and three prominent machine learning based NLP systems, LingPipe, GATE and BANNER, each implementing a distinct supervised machine learning method, hidden Markov models, support vector machines and conditional random fields, respectively. Results: Machine learning systems recognized laboratory test entities with moderately high recall, but low precision rates. Their recall rates were relatively higher when the number of distinct entity values (e.g., the spectrum of specimens) was very limited or when lexical morphology of the entity was distinctive (as in units of measures), yet SIE outperformed them with statistically significant margins on extracting specimen, analyte and detection limit information in both precision and F-measure. Its high recall performance was statistically significant on analyte information extraction. Conclusions: Despite its shortcomings against machine learning methods, a well-tailored symbolic system may better discern relevancy among a pile of information of the same type and may outperform a machine learning system by tapping into lexically non-local contextual information such as the document structure. PMID:24083058

The rolling evolution of biomedical science as an essential tool in modern clinical practice.

PubMed

Blann, Andrew

2016-01-01

The British Journal of Biomedical Science is committed to publishing high-quality original research that represents a clear advance in the practice of biomedical science, and reviews that summarise recent advances in the field of biomedical science. The overall aim of the Journal is to provide a platform for the dissemination of new and innovative information on the diagnosis and management of disease that is valuable to the practicing laboratory scientist. The Editorial that follows describes the Journal and provides a perspective of its aims and objectives.

NASA Johnson Space Center Biomedical Research Resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paloski, W. H.

1999-01-01

Johnson Space Center (JSC) medical sciences laboratories constitute a national resource for support of medical operations and life sciences research enabling a human presence in space. They play a critical role in evaluating, defining, and mitigation the untoward effect of human adaption to space flight. Over the years they have developed the unique facilities and expertise required to perform: biomedical sample analysis and physiological performance tests supporting medical evaluations of space flight crew members and scientific investigations of the operationally relevant medical, physiological, cellular, and biochemical issues associated with human space flight. A general overview of these laboratories is presented in viewgraph form.

Multilateral Biomedical Data Sharing in the One-year Joint US-Russian Mission on the International Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Charles, John B.; Haven, C.; Johnson-Throop, K.; Van Baalen, M.; McFather, J.

2014-01-01

The One Year Mission (1YM) by two astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), starting in March 2015, offers a unique opportunity to expand multilateral collaboration by sharing data and resources among the partner agencies in preparation for planned space exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit. Agreements and protocols will be established for the collection, distribution, analysis and reporting of both research and clinical data. Data will be shared between the agencies sponsoring the investigators, and between the research and clinical medicine communities where common interests are identified. The assignment of only two astronauts, one Russian and the other American, to the 1YM necessitated creativity in bilateral efforts to maximize the biomedical return from the opportunity. Addition of Canadian, European and Japanese investigations make the effort even more integrative. There will be three types of investigations: joint, cross-participation and data-exchange. The joint investigations have US and Russian coprincipal investigators, and the data acquired will be their common responsibility. The other two types must develop data sharing agreements and processes specific to their needs. A multilateral panel of ISS partner space agencies will develop policies for international exchange of scientific information to meet their science objectives and priorities. They will promote archiving of space flight data and will inform each other and the scientific community at large about the results obtained from space life sciences studies. Integration tasks for the 1YM are based on current experience from the ISS and previous efforts on the Russian space station Mir. Closer coordination between international partners requires more common approaches to remove barriers to multilateral resource utilization on the ISS. Greater integration in implementation should increase utilization efficiency to benefit all participants in spaceflight human research. This

British Journal of Biomedical Science in 2015: what have we learned?

PubMed

Blann, Andrew; Nation, Brian

2016-01-01

In 2015, the British Journal of Biomedical Science published 47 reports on topics relating to the various disciplines within biomedical science. Of these, the majority were in infection science (15 in microbiology and two in virology) and blood science (seven in biochemistry, four in haematology, three in immunology and one in transplantation), with a smaller number in cellular sciences (four reports) and with one review across disciplines. The present report will summarise key aspects of these publications that are of greatest relevance to laboratory scientists.

Sleep Disorders and their Association with Laboratory Pain Sensitivity in Temporomandibular Joint Disorder

PubMed Central

Smith, Michael T.; Wickwire, Emerson M.; Grace, Edward G.; Edwards, Robert R.; Buenaver, Luis F.; Peterson, Stephen; Klick, Brendan; Haythornthwaite, Jennifer A.

2009-01-01

Study Objectives: We characterized sleep disorder rates in temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) and evaluated possible associations between sleep disorders and laboratory measures of pain sensitivity. Design: Research diagnostic examinations were conducted, followed by two consecutive overnight polysomnographic studies with morning and evening assessments of pain threshold. Setting: Orofacial pain clinic and inpatient sleep research facility Participants: Fifty-three patients meeting research diagnostic criteria for myofascial TMD. Interventions: N/A Measurements and Results: We determined sleep disorder diagnostic rates and conducted algometric measures of pressure pain threshold on the masseter and forearm. Heat pain threshold was measured on the forearm; 75% met self-report criteria for sleep bruxism, but only 17% met PSG criteria for active sleep bruxism. Two or more sleep disorders were diagnosed in 43% of patients. Insomnia disorder (36%) and sleep apnea (28.4%) demonstrated the highest frequencies. Primary insomnia (PI) (26%) comprised the largest subcategory of insomnia. Even after controlling for multiple potential confounds, PI was associated with reduced mechanical and thermal pain thresholds at all sites (P < 0.05). Conversely, the respiratory disturbance index was associated with increased mechanical pain thresholds on the forearm (P < 0.05). Conclusions: High rates of PI and sleep apnea highlight the need to refer TMD patients complaining of sleep disturbance for polysomnographic evaluation. The association of PI and hyperalgesia at a non-orofacial site suggests that PI may be linked with central sensitivity and could play an etiologic role in idiopathic pain disorders. The association between sleep disordered breathing and hypoalgesia requires further study and may provide novel insight into the complex interactions between sleep and pain-regulatory processes. Citation: Smith MT; Wickwire EM; Grace EG; Edwards RR; Buenaver LF; Peterson S; Klick B

Biomedical Computing Technology Information Center: introduction and report of early progress

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

Maskewitz, B.F.; Henne, R.L.; McClain, W.J.

1976-01-01

In July 1975, the Biomedical Computing Technology Information Center (BCTIC) was established by the Division of Biomedical and Environmental Research of the U. S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. BCTIC collects, organizes, evaluates, and disseminates information on computing technology pertinent to biomedicine, providing needed routes of communication between installations and serving as a clearinghouse for the exchange of biomedical computing software, data, and interface designs. This paper presents BCTIC's functions and early progress to the MUMPS Users' Group in order to stimulate further discussion and cooperation between the two organizations. (BCTIC services aremore » available to its sponsors and their contractors and to any individual/group willing to participate in mutual exchange.) 1 figure.« less

PhysiomeSpace: digital library service for biomedical data

PubMed Central

Testi, Debora; Quadrani, Paolo; Viceconti, Marco

2010-01-01

Every research laboratory has a wealth of biomedical data locked up, which, if shared with other experts, could dramatically improve biomedical and healthcare research. With the PhysiomeSpace service, it is now possible with a few clicks to share with selected users biomedical data in an easy, controlled and safe way. The digital library service is managed using a client–server approach. The client application is used to import, fuse and enrich the data information according to the PhysiomeSpace resource ontology and upload/download the data to the library. The server services are hosted on the Biomed Town community portal, where through a web interface, the user can complete the metadata curation and share and/or publish the data resources. A search service capitalizes on the domain ontology and on the enrichment of metadata for each resource, providing a powerful discovery environment. Once the users have found the data resources they are interested in, they can add them to their basket, following a metaphor popular in e-commerce web sites. When all the necessary resources have been selected, the user can download the basket contents into the client application. The digital library service is now in beta and open to the biomedical research community. PMID:20478910

PhysiomeSpace: digital library service for biomedical data.

PubMed

Testi, Debora; Quadrani, Paolo; Viceconti, Marco

2010-06-28

Every research laboratory has a wealth of biomedical data locked up, which, if shared with other experts, could dramatically improve biomedical and healthcare research. With the PhysiomeSpace service, it is now possible with a few clicks to share with selected users biomedical data in an easy, controlled and safe way. The digital library service is managed using a client-server approach. The client application is used to import, fuse and enrich the data information according to the PhysiomeSpace resource ontology and upload/download the data to the library. The server services are hosted on the Biomed Town community portal, where through a web interface, the user can complete the metadata curation and share and/or publish the data resources. A search service capitalizes on the domain ontology and on the enrichment of metadata for each resource, providing a powerful discovery environment. Once the users have found the data resources they are interested in, they can add them to their basket, following a metaphor popular in e-commerce web sites. When all the necessary resources have been selected, the user can download the basket contents into the client application. The digital library service is now in beta and open to the biomedical research community.

The first chimpanzee sanctuary in Japan: an attempt to care for the "surplus" of biomedical research.

PubMed

Morimura, Naruki; Idani, Gen'ichi; Matsuzawa, Tetsuro

2011-03-01

This article specifically examines several aspects of the human-captive chimpanzee bond and the effort to create the first chimpanzee sanctuary in Japan. We discuss our ethical responsibility for captive chimpanzees that have been used in biomedical research. On April 1, 2007, the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Uto (CSU) was established as the first sanctuary for retired laboratory chimpanzees in Japan. This initiative was the result of the continuous efforts by members of Support for African/Asian Great Apes (SAGA), and the Great Ape Information Network to provide a solution to the large chimpanzee colony held in biomedical facilities. However, the cessation of invasive biomedical studies using chimpanzees has created a new set of challenges because Japan lacks registration and laws banning invasive ape experiments and lacks a national policy for the life-long care of retired laboratory chimpanzees. Therefore, CSU has initiated a relocation program in which 79 retired laboratory chimpanzees will be sent to domestic zoos and receive life-long care. By the end of 2009, the number of chimpanzees living at CSU had decreased from 79 to 59 individuals. A nationwide network of care facilities and CSU to provide life-long care of retired laboratory chimpanzees is growing across Japan. This will result in humane treatment of these research animals. 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry and diagnostic testing for prosthetic joint infection in the clinical microbiology laboratory.

PubMed

Peel, Trisha N; Cole, Nicolynn C; Dylla, Brenda L; Patel, Robin

2015-03-01

Identification of pathogen(s) associated with prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is critical for patient management. Historically, many laboratories have not routinely identified organisms such as coagulase-negative staphylococci to the species level. The advent of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has enhanced clinical laboratory capacity for accurate species-level identification. The aim of this study was to describe the species-level identification of microorganisms isolated from periprosthetic tissue and fluid specimens using MALDI-TOF MS alongside other rapid identification tests in a clinical microbiology laboratory. Results of rapid identification of bacteria isolated from periprosthetic joint fluid and/or tissue specimens were correlated with clinical findings at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, between May 2012 and May 2013. There were 178 PJI and 82 aseptic failure (AF) cases analyzed, yielding 770 organisms (median, 3/subject; range, 1-19/subject). MALDI-TOF MS was employed for the identification of 455 organisms (59%) in 197 subjects (123 PJIs and 74 AFs), with 89% identified to the species level using this technique. Gram-positive bacteria accounted for 68% and 93% of isolates in PJI and AF, respectively. However, the profile of species associated with infection compared to specimen contamination differed. Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus caprae were always associated with infection, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus lugdunensis were equally likely to be a pathogen or a contaminant, whereas the other coagulase-negative staphylococci were more frequently contaminants. Most streptococcal and Corynebacterium isolates were pathogens. The likelihood that an organism was a pathogen or contaminant differed with the prosthetic joint location, particularly in the case of Propionibacterium acnes. MALDI-TOF MS is a valuable tool for the identification of bacteria isolated from patients

Legacy of Biomedical Research During the Space Shuttle Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayes, Judith C.

2011-01-01

The Space Shuttle Program provided many opportunities to study the role of spaceflight on human life for over 30 years and represented the longest and largest US human spaceflight program. Outcomes of the research were understanding the effect of spaceflight on human physiology and performance, countermeasures, operational protocols, and hardware. The Shuttle flights were relatively short, < 16 days and routinely had 4 to 6 crewmembers for a total of 135 flights. Biomedical research was conducted on the Space Shuttle using various vehicle resources. Specially constructed pressurized laboratories called Spacelab and SPACEHAB housed many laboratory instruments to accomplish experiments in the Shuttle s large payload bay. In addition to these laboratory flights, nearly every mission had dedicated human life science research experiments conducted in the Shuttle middeck. Most Shuttle astronauts participated in some life sciences research experiments either as test subjects or test operators. While middeck experiments resulted in a low sample per mission compared to many Earth-based studies, this participation allowed investigators to have repetition of tests over the years on successive Shuttle flights. In addition, as a prelude to the International Space Station (ISS), NASA used the Space Shuttle as a platform for assessing future ISS hardware systems and procedures. The purpose of this panel is to provide an understanding of science integration activities required to implement Shuttle research, review biomedical research, characterize countermeasures developed for Shuttle and ISS as well as discuss lessons learned that may support commercial crew endeavors. Panel topics include research integration, cardiovascular physiology, neurosciences, skeletal muscle, and exercise physiology. Learning Objective: The panel provides an overview from the Space Shuttle Program regarding research integration, scientific results, lessons learned from biomedical research and

Implementation and management of a biomedical observation dictionary in a large healthcare information system.

PubMed

Vandenbussche, Pierre-Yves; Cormont, Sylvie; André, Christophe; Daniel, Christel; Delahousse, Jean; Charlet, Jean; Lepage, Eric

2013-01-01

This study shows the evolution of a biomedical observation dictionary within the Assistance Publique Hôpitaux Paris (AP-HP), the largest European university hospital group. The different steps are detailed as follows: the dictionary creation, the mapping to logical observation identifier names and codes (LOINC), the integration into a multiterminological management platform and, finally, the implementation in the health information system. AP-HP decided to create a biomedical observation dictionary named AnaBio, to map it to LOINC and to maintain the mapping. A management platform based on methods used for knowledge engineering has been put in place. It aims at integrating AnaBio within the health information system and improving both the quality and stability of the dictionary. This new management platform is now active in AP-HP. The AnaBio dictionary is shared by 120 laboratories and currently includes 50 000 codes. The mapping implementation to LOINC reaches 40% of the AnaBio entries and uses 26% of LOINC records. The results of our work validate the choice made to develop a local dictionary aligned with LOINC. This work constitutes a first step towards a wider use of the platform. The next step will support the entire biomedical production chain, from the clinician prescription, through laboratory tests tracking in the laboratory information system to the communication of results and the use for decision support and biomedical research. In addition, the increase in the mapping implementation to LOINC ensures the interoperability allowing communication with other international health institutions.

Implementation and management of a biomedical observation dictionary in a large healthcare information system

PubMed Central

Vandenbussche, Pierre-Yves; Cormont, Sylvie; André, Christophe; Daniel, Christel; Delahousse, Jean; Charlet, Jean; Lepage, Eric

2013-01-01

Objective This study shows the evolution of a biomedical observation dictionary within the Assistance Publique Hôpitaux Paris (AP-HP), the largest European university hospital group. The different steps are detailed as follows: the dictionary creation, the mapping to logical observation identifier names and codes (LOINC), the integration into a multiterminological management platform and, finally, the implementation in the health information system. Methods AP-HP decided to create a biomedical observation dictionary named AnaBio, to map it to LOINC and to maintain the mapping. A management platform based on methods used for knowledge engineering has been put in place. It aims at integrating AnaBio within the health information system and improving both the quality and stability of the dictionary. Results This new management platform is now active in AP-HP. The AnaBio dictionary is shared by 120 laboratories and currently includes 50 000 codes. The mapping implementation to LOINC reaches 40% of the AnaBio entries and uses 26% of LOINC records. The results of our work validate the choice made to develop a local dictionary aligned with LOINC. Discussion and Conclusions This work constitutes a first step towards a wider use of the platform. The next step will support the entire biomedical production chain, from the clinician prescription, through laboratory tests tracking in the laboratory information system to the communication of results and the use for decision support and biomedical research. In addition, the increase in the mapping implementation to LOINC ensures the interoperability allowing communication with other international health institutions. PMID:23635601

Biomedical research leaders: report on needs, opportunities, difficulties, education and training, and evaluation.

PubMed Central

Wilson, S H; Merkle, S; Brown, D; Moskowitz, J; Hurley, D; Brown, D; Bailey, B J; McClain, M; Misenhimer, M; Buckalew, J; Burks, T

2000-01-01

The National Association of Physicians for the Environment (NAPE) has assumed a leadership role in protecting environmental health in recent years. The Committee of Biomedical Research Leaders was convened at the recent NAPE Leadership Conference: Biomedical Research and the Environment held on 1--2 November 1999, at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. This report summarizes the discussion of the committee and its recommendations. The charge to the committee was to raise and address issues that will promote and sustain environmental health, safety, and energy efficiency within the biomedical community. Leaders from every important research sector (industry laboratories, academic health centers and institutes, hospitals and care facilities, Federal laboratories, and community-based research facilities) were gathered in this committee to discuss issues relevant to promoting environmental health. The conference and this report focus on the themes of environmental stewardship, sustainable development and "best greening practices." Environmental stewardship, an emerging theme within and outside the biomedical community, symbolizes the effort to provide an integrated, synthesized, and concerted effort to protect the health of the environment in both the present and the future. The primary goal established by the committee is to promote environmentally responsible leadership in the biomedical research community. Key outcomes of the committee's discussion and deliberation were a) the need for a central organization to evaluate, promote, and oversee efforts in environmental stewardship; and b) immediate need to facilitate efficient information transfer relevant to protecting the global environment through a database/clearinghouse. Means to fulfill these needs are discussed in this report. PMID:11121363

Biomedical research leaders: report on needs, opportunities, difficulties, education and training, and evaluation.

PubMed

Wilson, S H; Merkle, S; Brown, D; Moskowitz, J; Hurley, D; Brown, D; Bailey, B J; McClain, M; Misenhimer, M; Buckalew, J; Burks, T

2000-12-01

The National Association of Physicians for the Environment (NAPE) has assumed a leadership role in protecting environmental health in recent years. The Committee of Biomedical Research Leaders was convened at the recent NAPE Leadership Conference: Biomedical Research and the Environment held on 1--2 November 1999, at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. This report summarizes the discussion of the committee and its recommendations. The charge to the committee was to raise and address issues that will promote and sustain environmental health, safety, and energy efficiency within the biomedical community. Leaders from every important research sector (industry laboratories, academic health centers and institutes, hospitals and care facilities, Federal laboratories, and community-based research facilities) were gathered in this committee to discuss issues relevant to promoting environmental health. The conference and this report focus on the themes of environmental stewardship, sustainable development and "best greening practices." Environmental stewardship, an emerging theme within and outside the biomedical community, symbolizes the effort to provide an integrated, synthesized, and concerted effort to protect the health of the environment in both the present and the future. The primary goal established by the committee is to promote environmentally responsible leadership in the biomedical research community. Key outcomes of the committee's discussion and deliberation were a) the need for a central organization to evaluate, promote, and oversee efforts in environmental stewardship; and b) immediate need to facilitate efficient information transfer relevant to protecting the global environment through a database/clearinghouse. Means to fulfill these needs are discussed in this report.

Accelerating Biomedical Discoveries through Rigor and Transparency.

PubMed

Hewitt, Judith A; Brown, Liliana L; Murphy, Stephanie J; Grieder, Franziska; Silberberg, Shai D

2017-07-01

Difficulties in reproducing published research findings have garnered a lot of press in recent years. As a funder of biomedical research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has taken measures to address underlying causes of low reproducibility. Extensive deliberations resulted in a policy, released in 2015, to enhance reproducibility through rigor and transparency. We briefly explain what led to the policy, describe its elements, provide examples and resources for the biomedical research community, and discuss the potential impact of the policy on translatability with a focus on research using animal models. Importantly, while increased attention to rigor and transparency may lead to an increase in the number of laboratory animals used in the near term, it will lead to more efficient and productive use of such resources in the long run. The translational value of animal studies will be improved through more rigorous assessment of experimental variables and data, leading to better assessments of the translational potential of animal models, for the benefit of the research community and society. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research 2017. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

POLLUTION PREVENTION OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT - MANUFACTURING AND FABRICATION REPAIR LABORATORY AT SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES

EPA Science Inventory

These reports summarize pollution prevention opportunity assessments conducted jointly by EPA and DOE at the Geochemistry Laboratory and the Manufacturing and Fabrication Repair Laboratory at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories facility in Albuquerque, New Mex...

RysannMD: A biomedical semantic annotator balancing speed and accuracy.

PubMed

Cuzzola, John; Jovanović, Jelena; Bagheri, Ebrahim

2017-07-01

Recently, both researchers and practitioners have explored the possibility of semantically annotating large and continuously evolving collections of biomedical texts such as research papers, medical reports, and physician notes in order to enable their efficient and effective management and use in clinical practice or research laboratories. Such annotations can be automatically generated by biomedical semantic annotators - tools that are specifically designed for detecting and disambiguating biomedical concepts mentioned in text. The biomedical community has already presented several solid automated semantic annotators. However, the existing tools are either strong in their disambiguation capacity, i.e., the ability to identify the correct biomedical concept for a given piece of text among several candidate concepts, or they excel in their processing time, i.e., work very efficiently, but none of the semantic annotation tools reported in the literature has both of these qualities. In this paper, we present RysannMD (Ryerson Semantic Annotator for Medical Domain), a biomedical semantic annotation tool that strikes a balance between processing time and performance while disambiguating biomedical terms. In other words, RysannMD provides reasonable disambiguation performance when choosing the right sense for a biomedical term in a given context, and does that in a reasonable time. To examine how RysannMD stands with respect to the state of the art biomedical semantic annotators, we have conducted a series of experiments using standard benchmarking corpora, including both gold and silver standards, and four modern biomedical semantic annotators, namely cTAKES, MetaMap, NOBLE Coder, and Neji. The annotators were compared with respect to the quality of the produced annotations measured against gold and silver standards using precision, recall, and F 1 measure and speed, i.e., processing time. In the experiments, RysannMD achieved the best median F 1 measure across the

Frederick National Laboratory and Georgetown University Launch Research and Education Collaboration | Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

FREDERICK, Md. -- A new collaboration established between Georgetown University and the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research aims to expand both institutions’ research and training missions in the biomedical sciences. Representatives f

Harnessing supramolecular peptide nanotechnology in biomedical applications.

PubMed

Chan, Kiat Hwa; Lee, Wei Hao; Zhuo, Shuangmu; Ni, Ming

2017-01-01

The harnessing of peptides in biomedical applications is a recent hot topic. This arises mainly from the general biocompatibility of peptides, as well as from the ease of tunability of peptide structure to engineer desired properties. The ease of progression from laboratory testing to clinical trials is evident from the plethora of examples available. In this review, we compare and contrast how three distinct self-assembled peptide nanostructures possess different functions. We have 1) nanofibrils in biomaterials that can interact with cells, 2) nanoparticles that can traverse the bloodstream to deliver its payload and also be bioimaged, and 3) nanotubes that can serve as cross-membrane conduits and as a template for nanowire formation. Through this review, we aim to illustrate how various peptides, in their various self-assembled nanostructures, possess great promise in a wide range of biomedical applications and what more can be expected.

Stereotyping at the undergraduate level revealed during interprofessional learning between future doctors and biomedical scientists.

PubMed

Lewitt, Moira S; Ehrenborg, Ewa; Scheja, Max; Brauner, Annelie

2010-01-01

Interprofessional education (IPE) involving undergraduate health professionals is expected to promote collaboration in their later careers. The role of IPE between doctors and biomedical scientists has not been explored at the undergraduate level. Our aim was to introduce IPE sessions for medical and biomedical students in order to identify the benefits and barriers to these groups learning together. Medical and biomedical students together discussed laboratory results, relevant literature, and ideas for developing new diagnostic tools. The programme was evaluated with questionnaires and interviews. While there was general support for the idea of IPE, medical and biomedical students responded differently. Biomedical students were more critical, wanted more explicit learning objectives and felt that their professional role was often misunderstood. The medical students were more enthusiastic but regarded the way the biomedical students communicated concerns about their perceived role as a barrier to effective interprofessional learning. We conclude that stereotyping, which can impede effective collaborations between doctors and biomedical scientists, is already present at the undergraduate level and may be a barrier to IPE. Effective learning opportunities should be supported at the curriculum level and be designed to specifically enable a broad appreciation of each other's future professional roles.

Uniform resolution of compact identifiers for biomedical data

PubMed Central

Wimalaratne, Sarala M.; Juty, Nick; Kunze, John; Janée, Greg; McMurry, Julie A.; Beard, Niall; Jimenez, Rafael; Grethe, Jeffrey S.; Hermjakob, Henning; Martone, Maryann E.; Clark, Tim

2018-01-01

Most biomedical data repositories issue locally-unique accessions numbers, but do not provide globally unique, machine-resolvable, persistent identifiers for their datasets, as required by publishers wishing to implement data citation in accordance with widely accepted principles. Local accessions may however be prefixed with a namespace identifier, providing global uniqueness. Such “compact identifiers” have been widely used in biomedical informatics to support global resource identification with local identifier assignment. We report here on our project to provide robust support for machine-resolvable, persistent compact identifiers in biomedical data citation, by harmonizing the Identifiers.org and N2T.net (Name-To-Thing) meta-resolvers and extending their capabilities. Identifiers.org services hosted at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory - European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), and N2T.net services hosted at the California Digital Library (CDL), can now resolve any given identifier from over 600 source databases to its original source on the Web, using a common registry of prefix-based redirection rules. We believe these services will be of significant help to publishers and others implementing persistent, machine-resolvable citation of research data. PMID:29737976

Joint venture versus outreach: a financial analysis of case studies.

PubMed

Forsman, R W

2001-01-01

Medical centers across the country are facing cost challenges, and national commercial laboratories are experiencing financial declines that necessitate their capturing market share in any way possible. Many laboratories are turning to joint ventures or partnerships for financial relief. However, it often is in the best interest of the patient and the medical center to integrate laboratory services across the continuum of care. This article analyzes two hypothetical joint ventures involving a laboratory management agreement and full laboratory outsourcing.

Improving "lab-on-a-chip" techniques using biomedical nanotechnology: a review.

PubMed

Gorjikhah, Fatemeh; Davaran, Soodabeh; Salehi, Roya; Bakhtiari, Mohsen; Hasanzadeh, Arash; Panahi, Yunes; Emamverdy, Masumeh; Akbarzadeh, Abolfazl

2016-11-01

Nanotechnology and its applications in biomedical sciences principally in molecular nanodiagnostics are known as nanomolecular diagnostics, which provides new options for clinical nanodiagnostic techniques. Molecular nanodiagnostics are a critical role in the development of personalized medicine, which features point-of care performance of diagnostic procedure. This can to check patients at point-of-care facilities or in remote or resource-poor locations, therefore reducing checking time from days to minutes. In this review, applications of nanotechnology suited to biomedicine are discussed in two main class: biomedical applications for use inside (such as drugs, diagnostic techniques, prostheses, and implants) and outside the body (such as "lab-on-a-chip" techniques). A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a tool that incorporates numerous laboratory tasks onto a small device, usually only millimeters or centimeters in size. Finally, are discussed the applications of biomedical nanotechnology in improving "lab-on-a-chip" techniques.

Logical Experimental Design and Execution in the Biomedical Sciences.

PubMed

Holder, Daniel J; Marino, Michael J

2017-03-17

Lack of reproducibility has been highlighted as a significant problem in biomedical research. The present unit is devoted to describing ways to help ensure that research findings can be replicated by others, with a focus on the design and execution of laboratory experiments. Essential components for this include clearly defining the question being asked, using available information or information from pilot studies to aid in the design the experiment, and choosing manipulations under a logical framework based on Mill's "methods of knowing" to build confidence in putative causal links. Final experimental design requires systematic attention to detail, including the choice of controls, sample selection, blinding to avoid bias, and the use of power analysis to determine the sample size. Execution of the experiment is done with care to ensure that the independent variables are controlled and the measurements of the dependent variables are accurate. While there are always differences among laboratories with respect to technical expertise, equipment, and suppliers, execution of the steps itemized in this unit will ensure well-designed and well-executed experiments to answer any question in biomedical research. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The mouse thermoregulatory system: Its impact on translating biomedical data to humans

EPA Science Inventory

The laboratory mouse has become the predominant test species in biomedical research. The number of papers that translate or extrapolate data from mouse to human has grown exponentially since the year 2000. There are many physiological and anatomical factors to consider in the pro...

A Microcosm of the Biomedical Research Experience for Upper-Level Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hurd, Daryl D.

2008-01-01

The skill set required of biomedical researchers continues to grow and evolve as biology matures as a natural science. Science necessitates creative yet critical thinking, persuasive communication skills, purposeful use of time, and adeptness at the laboratory bench. Teaching these skills can be effectively accomplished in an inquiry-based,…

Toxicity of inorganic nanomaterials in biomedical imaging.

PubMed

Li, Jinxia; Chang, Xueling; Chen, Xiaoxia; Gu, Zhanjun; Zhao, Feng; Chai, Zhifang; Zhao, Yuliang

2014-01-01

Inorganic nanoparticles have shown promising potentials as novel biomedical imaging agents with high sensitivity, high spatial and temporal resolution. To translate the laboratory innovations into clinical applications, their potential toxicities are highly concerned and have to be evaluated comprehensively both in vitro and in vivo before their clinical applications. In this review, we first summarized the in vivo and in vitro toxicities of the representative inorganic nanoparticles used in biomedical imagings. Then we further discuss the origin of nanotoxicity of inorganic nanomaterials, including ROS generation and oxidative stress, chemical instability, chemical composition, the surface modification, dissolution of nanoparticles to release excess free ions of metals, metal redox state, and left-over chemicals from synthesis, etc. We intend to provide the readers a better understanding of the toxicology aspects of inorganic nanomaterials and knowledge for achieving optimized designs of safer inorganic nanomaterials for clinical applications. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Technology | Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

The Frederick National Laboratory develops and applies advanced, next-generation technologies to solve basic and applied problems in the biomedical sciences, and serves as a national resource of shared high-tech facilities.

Beyond-laboratory-scale prediction for channeling flows through subsurface rock fractures with heterogeneous aperture distributions revealed by laboratory evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishibashi, Takuya; Watanabe, Noriaki; Hirano, Nobuo; Okamoto, Atsushi; Tsuchiya, Noriyoshi

2015-01-01

The present study evaluates aperture distributions and fluid flow characteristics for variously sized laboratory-scale granite fractures under confining stress. As a significant result of the laboratory investigation, the contact area in fracture plane was found to be virtually independent of scale. By combining this characteristic with the self-affine fractal nature of fracture surfaces, a novel method for predicting fracture aperture distributions beyond laboratory scale is developed. Validity of this method is revealed through reproduction of the results of laboratory investigation and the maximum aperture-fracture length relations, which are reported in the literature, for natural fractures. The present study finally predicts conceivable scale dependencies of fluid flows through joints (fractures without shear displacement) and faults (fractures with shear displacement). Both joint and fault aperture distributions are characterized by a scale-independent contact area, a scale-dependent geometric mean, and a scale-independent geometric standard deviation of aperture. The contact areas for joints and faults are approximately 60% and 40%. Changes in the geometric means of joint and fault apertures (µm), em, joint and em, fault, with fracture length (m), l, are approximated by em, joint = 1 × 102 l0.1 and em, fault = 1 × 103 l0.7, whereas the geometric standard deviations of both joint and fault apertures are approximately 3. Fluid flows through both joints and faults are characterized by formations of preferential flow paths (i.e., channeling flows) with scale-independent flow areas of approximately 10%, whereas the joint and fault permeabilities (m2), kjoint and kfault, are scale dependent and are approximated as kjoint = 1 × 10-12 l0.2 and kfault = 1 × 10-8 l1.1.

Minimization and management of wastes from biomedical research.

PubMed Central

Rau, E H; Alaimo, R J; Ashbrook, P C; Austin, S M; Borenstein, N; Evans, M R; French, H M; Gilpin, R W; Hughes, J; Hummel, S J; Jacobsohn, A P; Lee, C Y; Merkle, S; Radzinski, T; Sloane, R; Wagner, K D; Weaner, L E

2000-01-01

Several committees were established by the National Association of Physicians for the Environment to investigate and report on various topics at the National Leadership Conference on Biomedical Research and the Environment held at the 1--2 November 1999 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. This is the report of the Committee on Minimization and Management of Wastes from Biomedical Research. Biomedical research facilities contribute a small fraction of the total amount of wastes generated in the United States, and the rate of generation appears to be decreasing. Significant reductions in generation of hazardous, radioactive, and mixed wastes have recently been reported, even at facilities with rapidly expanding research programs. Changes in the focus of research, improvements in laboratory techniques, and greater emphasis on waste minimization (volume and toxicity reduction) explain the declining trend in generation. The potential for uncontrolled releases of wastes from biomedical research facilities and adverse impacts on the general environment from these wastes appears to be low. Wastes are subject to numerous regulatory requirements and are contained and managed in a manner protective of the environment. Most biohazardous agents, chemicals, and radionuclides that find significant use in research are not likely to be persistent, bioaccumulative, or toxic if they are released. Today, the primary motivations for the ongoing efforts by facilities to improve minimization and management of wastes are regulatory compliance and avoidance of the high disposal costs and liabilities associated with generation of regulated wastes. The committee concluded that there was no evidence suggesting that the anticipated increases in biomedical research will significantly increase generation of hazardous wastes or have adverse impacts on the general environment. This conclusion assumes the positive, countervailing trends of enhanced pollution prevention

Are There Feasible Alternatives to Laboratory Animals?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowan, A. N.

1976-01-01

Discusses several alternatives to the use of laboratory animals in investigating biomedical problems. Alternatives include tissue culture, use of plant and bacterial material, redesigning experiments, and construction of mathematical and computer models. (CS)

Laser Fabrication and Characterization of Adhesive-Free Joints for Encapsulation of Biomedical Implant Devices

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

excitation sources should be helpful in overcoming this problem. CONCLUSIONS Biocompatible joints between polyimide and titanium-coated borosilicate...Technology, 46025 Port St., Plymouth, MI 48170, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Laser-fabricated joints of sub-millimeter widths between biocompatible , dissimilar materials...method of a very promising system, polyimide /titanium-coated borosilicate glass, and present and discuss results from characterization of such laser

Status of marine biomedical research.

PubMed Central

Bessey, O

1976-01-01

A meeting on Marine Biomedical Research, sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health and the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History, was attended by approximately 125 scientists, directors and representatives from many of the country's marine biological laboratories, and government agencies whose interests and responsibilites are in the marine biology and health areas. The purpose of the meeting was to explore the undeveloped research opportunities in the area of marine biology for the advancement of our understanding of human health problems and to provide information on the current status of marine biology laboratories. The meeting was devoted to presentations and discussions in four general areas: (1)Marine Species as Models for Human Disease; (2)Environmental Carcinogenesis and Mutagenesis; (3)Human Health and the Marine Environment--infectious agents and naturally occurring and foreign toxins; and (4)Drugs from the seas. Representatives from twelve of the country's approximatley 40 marine laboratories discussed their organization, developmental history, scientific programs, facilities, and present status of their support. The presentations served as a background and stimulated very lively analytical and constructive discussions of the undeveloped research and education potential residing in the marine environment and biological laboratories for a better understanding of many human health problems; some scientific areas that should be developed to realize this potential; and the needs and problems of marine laboratories that require attention and support if they are to survive and realize their possibilities. PMID:944630

New roles & responsibilities of hospital biomedical engineering.

PubMed

Frisch, P H; Stone, B; Booth, P; Lui, W

2014-01-01

Over the last decade the changing healthcare environment has required hospitals and specifically Biomedical Engineering to critically evaluate, optimize and adapt their operations. The focus is now on new technologies, changes to the environment of care, support requirements and financial constraints. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), an NIH-designated comprehensive cancer center, has been transitioning to an increasing outpatient care environment. This transition is driving an increase in-patient acuity coupled with the need for added urgency of support and response time. New technologies, regulatory requirements and financial constraints have impacted operating budgets and in some cases, resulted in a reduction in staffing. Specific initiatives, such as the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals, requirements for an electronic medical record, meaningful use and ICD10 have caused institutions to reevaluate their operations and processes including requiring Biomedical Engineering to manage new technologies, integrations and changes in the electromagnetic environment, while optimizing operational workflow and resource utilization. This paper addresses the new and expanding responsibilities and approach of Biomedical Engineering organizations, specifically at MSKCC. It is suggested that our experience may be a template for other organizations facing similar problems. Increasing support is necessary for Medical Software - Medical Device Data Systems in the evolving wireless environment, including RTLS and RFID. It will be necessary to evaluate the potential impact on the growing electromagnetic environment, on connectivity resulting in the need for dynamic and interactive testing and the growing demand to establish new and needed operational synergies with Information Technology operations and other operational groups within the institution, such as nursing, facilities management, central supply, and the user departments.

Awareness of biomedical waste management among health care personnel in jaipur, India.

PubMed

Sharma, Alok; Sharma, Varsha; Sharma, Swati; Singh, Prabhat

2013-03-01

The study aimed to determine the following among the workforce of the Jaipur Dental College, India: their awareness regarding biomedical (BM) waste management policy and practices, their attitude towards biomedical waste management, and their awareness regarding needle-stick injury and its prevalence among different categories of health care providers. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire with closed-ended questions. It was distributed to 144 dentists, nurses, laboratory technicians and Class IV employees (cleaners and maintenance personnel) at Jaipur Dental College. The questionnaire was used to assess their knowledge of biomedical medical waste disposal. The resulting answers were graded and the percentage of correct and incorrect answers for each question from all the participants was obtained. Of the 144 questionnaires, 140 were returned and the answers graded. The results showed that there was a poor level of knowledge and awareness of biomedical waste generation hazards, legislation and management among health care personnel. It was surprising that 36% of the nurses had an extremely poor knowledge of biomedical waste generation and legislation and just 15% of the Class IV employees had an excellent awareness of biomedical waste management practice. It can be concluded from the present study that there are poor levels of knowledge and awareness about BM waste generation hazards, legislation and management among health care personnel in Jaipur Dental College. Regular monitoring and training are required at all levels.

Combining joint models for biomedical event extraction

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background We explore techniques for performing model combination between the UMass and Stanford biomedical event extraction systems. Both sub-components address event extraction as a structured prediction problem, and use dual decomposition (UMass) and parsing algorithms (Stanford) to find the best scoring event structure. Our primary focus is on stacking where the predictions from the Stanford system are used as features in the UMass system. For comparison, we look at simpler model combination techniques such as intersection and union which require only the outputs from each system and combine them directly. Results First, we find that stacking substantially improves performance while intersection and union provide no significant benefits. Second, we investigate the graph properties of event structures and their impact on the combination of our systems. Finally, we trace the origins of events proposed by the stacked model to determine the role each system plays in different components of the output. We learn that, while stacking can propose novel event structures not seen in either base model, these events have extremely low precision. Removing these novel events improves our already state-of-the-art F1 to 56.6% on the test set of Genia (Task 1). Overall, the combined system formed via stacking ("FAUST") performed well in the BioNLP 2011 shared task. The FAUST system obtained 1st place in three out of four tasks: 1st place in Genia Task 1 (56.0% F1) and Task 2 (53.9%), 2nd place in the Epigenetics and Post-translational Modifications track (35.0%), and 1st place in the Infectious Diseases track (55.6%). Conclusion We present a state-of-the-art event extraction system that relies on the strengths of structured prediction and model combination through stacking. Akin to results on other tasks, stacking outperforms intersection and union and leads to very strong results. The utility of model combination hinges on complementary views of the data, and we show that our

Master's level education in biomedical optics: four-year experience at the University of Latvia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spigulis, Janis

2000-06-01

Pilot program for Master's studies on Biomedical Optics has been developed and launched at University of Latvia in 1995. The Curriculum contains several basic subjects like Fundamentals of Biomedical Optics, Medical Lightguides, Anatomy and Physiology, Lasers and Non-coherent Light Sources, Optical Instrumentation for Healthcare, Optical Methods for Patient Treatment, Basic Physics, etc. Special English Terminology and Laboratory-Clinical Praxis are also involved, and the Master Theses is the final step for the degree award. Following one four-year teaching experience, some observations, conclusions and eventual future activities are discussed.

A pocket guide to electronic laboratory notebooks in the academic life sciences

PubMed Central

Dirnagl, Ulrich; Przesdzing, Ingo

2016-01-01

Every professional doing active research in the life sciences is required to keep a laboratory notebook. However, while science has changed dramatically over the last centuries, laboratory notebooks have remained essentially unchanged since pre-modern science. We argue that the implementation of electronic laboratory notebooks (eLN) in academic research is overdue, and we provide researchers and their institutions with the background and practical knowledge to select and initiate the implementation of an eLN in their laboratories. In addition, we present data from surveying biomedical researchers and technicians regarding which hypothetical features and functionalities they hope to see implemented in an eLN, and which ones they regard as less important. We also present data on acceptance and satisfaction of those who have recently switched from paper laboratory notebook to an eLN.  We thus provide answers to the following questions: What does an electronic laboratory notebook afford a biomedical researcher, what does it require, and how should one go about implementing it? PMID:26835004

Biomedical physics in continuing medical education: an analysis of learning needs.

PubMed

Rotomskis, Ricardas; Karenauskaite, Violeta; Balzekiene, Aiste

2009-01-01

To examine the learning and practice needs of medical professionals in the field of continuing education of biomedical physics in Lithuania. The study was based on a questionnaire survey of 309 medical professionals throughout Lithuania, 3 focus group discussions, and 18 interviews with medical and physics experts. The study showed that medical professionals lack knowledge of physics: only 15.1% of the respondents admitted that they had enough knowledge in biomedical physics to understand the functioning of the medical devices that they used, and 7.5% of respondents indicated that they had enough knowledge to understand and adopt medical devices of the new generation. Physics knowledge was valued more highly by medical professionals with scientific degrees. As regards continuing medical education, it was revealed that personal motivation (88.7%) and responsibility for patients (44.3%) were the most important motives for upgrading competencies, whereas workload (65.4%) and financial limits (45.3%) were the main obstacles. The most popular teaching methods were those based on practical work (78.9%), and the least popular was project work (27.8%). The study revealed that biomedical physics knowledge was needed in both specializations and practical work, and the most important factor for determining its need was professional aspirations. Medical professionals' understanding of medical devices, especially those of the new generation, is essentially functional in nature. Professional upgrading courses contain only fragmented biomedical physics content, and new courses should be developed jointly by experts in physics and medicine to meet the specialized needs of medical professionals.

Biomedical research, development, and engineering at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Annual report 1 October 1978-30 September 1979

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

Not Available

The Medical Institutions of The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory have developed a vigorous collaborative program of biomedical research, development, and systems engineering. An important objective of the program is to apply the expertise in engineering, the physical sciences, and systems analysis acquired by APL in defense and space research and development to problems of medical research and health care delivery. This program has grown to include collaboration with many of the clinical and basic science departments of the medical divisions. Active collaborative projects exist in ophthalmology, neurosensory research and instrumentation development, cardiovascular systems,more » patient monitoring, therapeutic and rehabilitation systems, clinical information systems, and clinical engineering. This application of state-of-the-art technology has contributed to advances in many areas of basic medical research and in clinical diagnosis and therapy through improvement of instrumentation, techniques, and basic understanding.« less

Topics in Biomedical Optics: Introduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

2003-06-01

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

Image BOSS: a biomedical object storage system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stacy, Mahlon C.; Augustine, Kurt E.; Robb, Richard A.

1997-05-01

Researchers using biomedical images have data management needs which are oriented perpendicular to clinical PACS. The image BOSS system is designed to permit researchers to organize and select images based on research topic, image metadata, and a thumbnail of the image. Image information is captured from existing images in a Unix based filesystem, stored in an object oriented database, and presented to the user in a familiar laboratory notebook metaphor. In addition, the ImageBOSS is designed to provide an extensible infrastructure for future content-based queries directly on the images.

The biomedical disciplines and the structure of biomedical and clinical knowledge.

PubMed

Nederbragt, H

2000-11-01

The relation between biomedical knowledge and clinical knowledge is discussed by comparing their respective structures. The knowledge of a disease as a biological phenomenon is constructed by the interaction of facts and theories from the main biomedical disciplines: epidemiology, diagnostics, clinical trial, therapy development and pathogenesis. Although these facts and theories are based on probabilities and extrapolations, the interaction provides a reliable and coherent structure, comparable to a Kuhnian paradigma. In the structure of clinical knowledge, i.e. knowledge of the patient with the disease, not only biomedical knowledge contributes to the structure but also economic and social relations, ethics and personal experience. However, the interaction between each of the participating "knowledges" in clinical knowledge is not based on mutual dependency and accumulation of different arguments from each, as in biomedical knowledge, but on competition and partial exclusion. Therefore, the structure of biomedical knowledge is different from that of clinical knowledge. This difference is used as the basis for a discussion in which the place of technology, evidence-based medicine and the gap between scientific and clinical knowledge are evaluated.

A transition-based joint model for disease named entity recognition and normalization.

PubMed

Lou, Yinxia; Zhang, Yue; Qian, Tao; Li, Fei; Xiong, Shufeng; Ji, Donghong

2017-08-01

Disease named entities play a central role in many areas of biomedical research, and automatic recognition and normalization of such entities have received increasing attention in biomedical research communities. Existing methods typically used pipeline models with two independent phases: (i) a disease named entity recognition (DER) system is used to find the boundaries of mentions in text and (ii) a disease named entity normalization (DEN) system is used to connect the mentions recognized to concepts in a controlled vocabulary. The main problems of such models are: (i) there is error propagation from DER to DEN and (ii) DEN is useful for DER, but pipeline models cannot utilize this. We propose a transition-based model to jointly perform disease named entity recognition and normalization, casting the output construction process into an incremental state transition process, learning sequences of transition actions globally, which correspond to joint structural outputs. Beam search and online structured learning are used, with learning being designed to guide search. Compared with the only existing method for joint DEN and DER, our method allows non-local features to be used, which significantly improves the accuracies. We evaluate our model on two corpora: the BioCreative V Chemical Disease Relation (CDR) corpus and the NCBI disease corpus. Experiments show that our joint framework achieves significantly higher performances compared to competitive pipeline baselines. Our method compares favourably to other state-of-the-art approaches. Data and code are available at https://github.com/louyinxia/jointRN. dhji@whu.edu.cn. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Preparing chimpanzees for laboratory research.

PubMed

Bloomsmith, Mollie A; Schapiro, Steven J; Strobert, Elizabeth A

2006-01-01

The chimpanzee is the only representative of the Great Apes that is extensively involved in biomedical research in primate laboratories. These apes are used as animal models in a variety of studies, including research on infectious disease, parasitic disease, pharmacokinetic studies, neuroscience, cognition, and behavior. Chimpanzees used in biomedical research in the United States reside largely in six specialized research and holding facilities, and most of the research with them is conducted at these sites. Given the relatively small population of chimpanzees and its importance to biomedical research, it is imperative that we carefully manage the care, production, and use of these animals in biomedical research studies. Selection criteria and preparation techniques are reviewed in this article in an effort to begin a discussion on best practices for choosing and handling chimpanzees participating in biomedical research. The use of routine health assessment information is described for subject selection, as are behavioral issues to be considered. Due to the relatively small number of chimpanzees available, issues related to experimental design and multiple uses of chimpanzees are discussed. Practices related to the transportation and acclimation of chimpanzees are described. Finally, behavioral conditioning procedures are discussed, including habituation, desensitization, and positive reinforcement training that have been applied to reduce animal distress and improve the quality of the science being conducted with chimpanzee subjects.

Pacific Northwest Laboratory annual report for 1983 to the DOE Office of Energy Research. Part 1. Biomedical sciences

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

Drucker, H.

1983-02-01

Biomedical and health effects research conducted at PNL in 1982 on the evaluation of risk to man from existing and/or developing energy-related technologies are described. Most of the studies described in this report relate to activities for three major energy technologies: nuclear fuel cycle; fossil fuel cycle (oil, gas, and coal process technologies, mining, and utilization; synfuel development), and fudion (biomagnetic effects). The report is organized under these technologies. In addition, research reports are included on the application of nuclear energy to biomedical problems. Individual projects are indexed separately.

Joint stability characteristics of the ankle complex after lateral ligamentous injury, part I: a laboratory comparison using arthrometric measurement.

PubMed

Kovaleski, John E; Heitman, Robert J; Gurchiek, Larry R; Hollis, J M; Liu, Wei; Pearsall, Albert W

2014-01-01

The mechanical property of stiffness may be important to investigating how lateral ankle ligament injury affects the behavior of the viscoelastic properties of the ankle complex. A better understanding of injury effects on tissue elastic characteristics in relation to joint laxity could be obtained from cadaveric study. To biomechanically determine the laxity and stiffness characteristics of the cadaver ankle complex before and after simulated injury to the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) and calcaneofibular ligament (CFL) during anterior drawer and inversion loading. Cross-sectional study. University research laboratory. Seven fresh-frozen cadaver ankle specimens. All ankles underwent loading before and after simulated lateral ankle injury using an ankle arthrometer. The dependent variables were anterior displacement, anterior end-range stiffness, inversion rotation, and inversion end-range stiffness. Isolated ATFL and combined ATFL and CFL sectioning resulted in increased anterior displacement but not end-range stiffness when compared with the intact ankle. With inversion loading, combined ATFL and CFL sectioning resulted in increased range of motion and decreased end-range stiffness when compared with the intact and ATFL-sectioned ankles. The absence of change in anterior end-range stiffness between the intact and ligament-deficient ankles indicated bony and other soft tissues functioned to maintain stiffness after pathologic joint displacement, whereas inversion loading of the CFL-deficient ankle after pathologic joint displacement indicated the ankle complex was less stiff when supported only by the secondary joint structures.

Biomedical Telectrodes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shepherd, C. K.

1989-01-01

Compact transmitters eliminate need for wires to monitors. Biomedical telectrode is small electronic package that attaches to patient in manner similar to small adhesive bandage. Patient wearing biomedical telectrodes moves freely, without risk of breaking or entangling wire connections. Especially beneficial to patients undergoing electrocardiographic monitoring in intensive-care units in hospitals. Eliminates nuisance of coping with wire connections while dressing and going to toilet.

Locations Accessible | Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research campus is located 50 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., and 50 miles west of Baltimore, Maryland, in Frederick, Maryland.Operations and Technical Support contractor Leidos Biomedical Resea

Unsupervised Transfer Learning via Multi-Scale Convolutional Sparse Coding for Biomedical Applications

PubMed Central

Chang, Hang; Han, Ju; Zhong, Cheng; Snijders, Antoine M.; Mao, Jian-Hua

2017-01-01

The capabilities of (I) learning transferable knowledge across domains; and (II) fine-tuning the pre-learned base knowledge towards tasks with considerably smaller data scale are extremely important. Many of the existing transfer learning techniques are supervised approaches, among which deep learning has the demonstrated power of learning domain transferrable knowledge with large scale network trained on massive amounts of labeled data. However, in many biomedical tasks, both the data and the corresponding label can be very limited, where the unsupervised transfer learning capability is urgently needed. In this paper, we proposed a novel multi-scale convolutional sparse coding (MSCSC) method, that (I) automatically learns filter banks at different scales in a joint fashion with enforced scale-specificity of learned patterns; and (II) provides an unsupervised solution for learning transferable base knowledge and fine-tuning it towards target tasks. Extensive experimental evaluation of MSCSC demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed MSCSC in both regular and transfer learning tasks in various biomedical domains. PMID:28129148

Cumulative biomedical risk and social cognition in the second year of life: prediction and moderation by responsive parenting.

PubMed

Wade, Mark; Madigan, Sheri; Akbari, Emis; Jenkins, Jennifer M

2015-01-01

At 18 months, children show marked variability in their social-cognitive skill development, and the preponderance of past research has focused on constitutional and contextual factors in explaining this variability. Extending this literature, the current study examined whether cumulative biomedical risk represents another source of variability in social cognition at 18 months. Further, we aimed to determine whether responsive parenting moderated the association between biomedical risk and social cognition. A prospective community birth cohort of 501 families was recruited at the time of the child's birth. Cumulative biomedical risk was measured as a count of 10 prenatal/birth complications. Families were followed up at 18 months, at which point social-cognitive data was collected on children's joint attention, empathy, cooperation, and self-recognition using previously validated tasks. Concurrently, responsive maternal behavior was assessed through observational coding of mother-child interactions. After controlling for covariates (e.g., age, gender, child language, socioeconomic variables), both cumulative biomedical risk and maternal responsivity significantly predicted social cognition at 18 months. Above and beyond these main effects, there was also a significant interaction between biomedical risk and maternal responsivity, such that higher biomedical risk was significantly associated with compromised social cognition at 18 months, but only in children who experienced low levels of responsive parenting. For those receiving comparatively high levels of responsive parenting, there was no apparent effect of biomedical risk on social cognition. This study shows that cumulative biomedical risk may be one source of inter-individual variability in social cognition at 18 months. However, positive postnatal experiences, particularly high levels of responsive parenting, may protect children against the deleterious effects of these risks on social cognition.

A possible biomedical facility at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

PubMed

Dosanjh, M; Jones, B; Myers, S

2013-05-01

A well-attended meeting, called "Brainstorming discussion for a possible biomedical facility at CERN", was held by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics on 25 June 2012. This was concerned with adapting an existing, but little used, 78-m circumference CERN synchrotron to deliver a wide range of ion species, preferably from protons to at least neon ions, with beam specifications that match existing clinical facilities. The potential extensive research portfolio discussed included beam ballistics in humanoid phantoms, advanced dosimetry, remote imaging techniques and technical developments in beam delivery, including gantry design. In addition, a modern laboratory for biomedical characterisation of these beams would allow important radiobiological studies, such as relative biological effectiveness, in a dedicated facility with standardisation of experimental conditions and biological end points. A control photon and electron beam would be required nearby for relative biological effectiveness comparisons. Research beam time availability would far exceed that at other facilities throughout the world. This would allow more rapid progress in several biomedical areas, such as in charged hadron therapy of cancer, radioisotope production and radioprotection. The ethos of CERN, in terms of open access, peer-reviewed projects and governance has been so successful for High Energy Physics that application of the same to biomedicine would attract high-quality research, with possible contributions from Europe and beyond, along with potential new funding streams.

A possible biomedical facility at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)

PubMed Central

Dosanjh, M; Myers, S

2013-01-01

A well-attended meeting, called “Brainstorming discussion for a possible biomedical facility at CERN”, was held by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics on 25 June 2012. This was concerned with adapting an existing, but little used, 78-m circumference CERN synchrotron to deliver a wide range of ion species, preferably from protons to at least neon ions, with beam specifications that match existing clinical facilities. The potential extensive research portfolio discussed included beam ballistics in humanoid phantoms, advanced dosimetry, remote imaging techniques and technical developments in beam delivery, including gantry design. In addition, a modern laboratory for biomedical characterisation of these beams would allow important radiobiological studies, such as relative biological effectiveness, in a dedicated facility with standardisation of experimental conditions and biological end points. A control photon and electron beam would be required nearby for relative biological effectiveness comparisons. Research beam time availability would far exceed that at other facilities throughout the world. This would allow more rapid progress in several biomedical areas, such as in charged hadron therapy of cancer, radioisotope production and radioprotection. The ethos of CERN, in terms of open access, peer-reviewed projects and governance has been so successful for High Energy Physics that application of the same to biomedicine would attract high-quality research, with possible contributions from Europe and beyond, along with potential new funding streams. PMID:23549990

Biomedical Use of Aerospace Personal Cooling Garments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Webbon, Bruce W.; Montgomery, Leslie D.; Callaway, Robert K.

1994-01-01

Personal thermoregulatory systems are required during extravehicular activity (EVA) to remove the metabolic heat generated by the suited astronaut. The Extravehicular and Protective Systems (STE) Branch of NASA Ames Research Center has developed advanced concepts or liquid cooling garments for both industrial and biomedical applications for the past 25 years. Examples of this work include: (1) liquid cooled helmets for helicopter pilots and race car drivers; (2) vests for fire and mine rescue personnel; (3) bras to increase the definition of tumors during thermography; (4) lower body garments for young women with erythomelaigia; and (5) whole body garments used by patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The benefits of the biomedical application of artificial thermoregulation received national attention through two recent events: (1) the liquid-cooled garment technology was inducted into the United States Space Foundation's Space Technology Hall of Fame (1993); and (2) NASA has signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding with the Multiple Sclerosis Association (1994) to share this technology for use with MS patient treatment. The STE Branch is currently pursuing a program to refine thermoregulatory design in light of recent technology developments that might be applicable for use by several medical patient populations. Projects have been initiated to apply thermoregulatory technology for the treatment and/or rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, migraine headaches, and to help prevent the loss of hair during chemotherapy.

Robotics in biomedical chromatography and electrophoresis.

PubMed

Fouda, H G

1989-08-11

The ideal laboratory robot can be viewed as "an indefatigable assistant capable of working continuously for 24 h a day with constant efficiency". The development of a system approaching that promise requires considerable skill and time commitment, a thorough understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the robot and its specialized modules and an intimate knowledge of the functions to be automated. The robot need not emulate every manual step. Effective substitutes for difficult steps must be devised. The future of laboratory robots depends not only on technological advances in other fields, but also on the skill and creativity of chromatographers and other scientists. The robot has been applied to automate numerous biomedical chromatography and electrophoresis methods. The quality of its data can approach, and in some cases exceed, that of manual methods. Maintaining high data quality during continuous operation requires frequent maintenance and validation. Well designed robotic systems can yield substantial increase in the laboratory productivity without a corresponding increase in manpower. They can free skilled personnel from mundane tasks and can enhance the safety of the laboratory environment. The integration of robotics, chromatography systems and laboratory information management systems permits full automation and affords opportunities for unattended method development and for future incorporation of artificial intelligence techniques and the evolution of expert systems. Finally, humanoid attributes aside, robotic utilization in the laboratory should not be an end in itself. The robot is a useful tool that should be utilized only when it is prudent and cost-effective to do so.

Biomedical ontologies: toward scientific debate.

PubMed

Maojo, V; Crespo, J; García-Remesal, M; de la Iglesia, D; Perez-Rey, D; Kulikowski, C

2011-01-01

Biomedical ontologies have been very successful in structuring knowledge for many different applications, receiving widespread praise for their utility and potential. Yet, the role of computational ontologies in scientific research, as opposed to knowledge management applications, has not been extensively discussed. We aim to stimulate further discussion on the advantages and challenges presented by biomedical ontologies from a scientific perspective. We review various aspects of biomedical ontologies going beyond their practical successes, and focus on some key scientific questions in two ways. First, we analyze and discuss current approaches to improve biomedical ontologies that are based largely on classical, Aristotelian ontological models of reality. Second, we raise various open questions about biomedical ontologies that require further research, analyzing in more detail those related to visual reasoning and spatial ontologies. We outline significant scientific issues that biomedical ontologies should consider, beyond current efforts of building practical consensus between them. For spatial ontologies, we suggest an approach for building "morphospatial" taxonomies, as an example that could stimulate research on fundamental open issues for biomedical ontologies. Analysis of a large number of problems with biomedical ontologies suggests that the field is very much open to alternative interpretations of current work, and in need of scientific debate and discussion that can lead to new ideas and research directions.

Implantable biomedical devices on bioresorbable substrates

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

Rogers, John A.; Kim, Dae-Hyeong; Omenetto, Fiorenzo

Provided herein are implantable biomedical devices and methods of administering implantable biomedical devices, making implantable biomedical devices, and using implantable biomedical devices to actuate a target tissue or sense a parameter associated with the target tissue in a biological environment.

Biomedical Interdisciplinary Curriculum Project: BIP (Biomedical Instrumentation Package) User's Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biomedical Interdisciplinary Curriculum Project, Berkeley, CA.

Described is the Biomedical Instrument Package (BIP) and its use. The BIP was developed for use in understanding colorimetry, sound, electricity, and bioelectric phenomena. It can also be used in a wide range of measurements such as current, voltage, resistance, temperature, and pH. Though it was developed primarily for use in biomedical science…

Calcium Orthophosphate-Containing Biocomposites and Hybrid Biomaterials for Biomedical Applications

PubMed Central

Dorozhkin, Sergey V.

2015-01-01

The state-of-the-art on calcium orthophosphate (CaPO4)-containing biocomposites and hybrid biomaterials suitable for biomedical applications is presented. Since these types of biomaterials offer many significant and exciting possibilities for hard tissue regeneration, this subject belongs to a rapidly expanding area of biomedical research. Through the successful combinations of the desired properties of matrix materials with those of fillers (in such systems, CaPO4 might play either role), innovative bone graft biomaterials can be designed. Various types of CaPO4-based biocomposites and hybrid biomaterials those are either already in use or being investigated for biomedical applications are extensively discussed. Many different formulations in terms of the material constituents, fabrication technologies, structural and bioactive properties, as well as both in vitro and in vivo characteristics have been already proposed. Among the others, the nano-structurally controlled biocomposites, those containing nanodimensional compounds, biomimetically fabricated formulations with collagen, chitin and/or gelatin, as well as various functionally graded structures seem to be the most promising candidates for clinical applications. The specific advantages of using CaPO4-based biocomposites and hybrid biomaterials in the selected applications are highlighted. As the way from a laboratory to a hospital is a long one and the prospective biomedical candidates have to meet many different necessities, the critical issues and scientific challenges that require further research and development are also examined. PMID:26262645

Animals in biomedical space research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, Robert W.

The use of experimental animals has been a major component of biomedical research progress. Using animals in space presents special problems, but also provides special opportunities. Rat and squirrel monkeys experiments have been planned in concert with human experiments to help answer fundamental questions concerning the effect of weightlessness on mammalian function. For the most part, these experiments focus on identified changes noted in humans during space flight. Utilizing space laboratory facilities, manipulative experiments can be completed while animals are still in orbit. Other experiments are designed to study changes in gravity receptor structure and function and the effect of weightlessness on early vertebrate development. Following these preliminary animals experiments on Spacelab Shuttle flights, longer term programs of animal investigation will be conducted on Space Station.

Mining biomedical images towards valuable information retrieval in biomedical and life sciences

PubMed Central

Ahmed, Zeeshan; Zeeshan, Saman; Dandekar, Thomas

2016-01-01

Biomedical images are helpful sources for the scientists and practitioners in drawing significant hypotheses, exemplifying approaches and describing experimental results in published biomedical literature. In last decades, there has been an enormous increase in the amount of heterogeneous biomedical image production and publication, which results in a need for bioimaging platforms for feature extraction and analysis of text and content in biomedical images to take advantage in implementing effective information retrieval systems. In this review, we summarize technologies related to data mining of figures. We describe and compare the potential of different approaches in terms of their developmental aspects, used methodologies, produced results, achieved accuracies and limitations. Our comparative conclusions include current challenges for bioimaging software with selective image mining, embedded text extraction and processing of complex natural language queries. PMID:27538578

Nanoparticles for Biomedical Imaging

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

Nune, Satish K.; Gunda, Padmaja; Thallapally, Praveen K.

2009-11-01

Background: Synthetic nanoparticles are emerging as versatile tools in biomedical applications, particularly in the area of biomedical imaging. Nanoparticles 1 to 100 nm in diameter possess dimensions comparable to biological functional units. Diverse surface chemistries, unique magnetic properties, tunable absorption and emission properties, and recent advances in the synthesis and engineering of various nanoparticles suggest their potential as probes for early detection of diseases such as cancer. Surface functionalization has further expanded the potential of nanoparticles as probes for molecular imaging. Objective: To summarize emerging research of nanoparticles for biomedical imaging with increased selectivity and reduced non-specific uptake with increasedmore » spatial resolution containing stabilizers conjugated with targeting ligands. Methods: This review summarizes recent technological advances in the synthesis of various nanoparticle probes, and surveys methods to improve the targeting of nanoparticles for their applications in biomedical imaging. Conclusion: Structural design of nanomaterials for biomedical imaging continues to expand and diversify. Synthetic methods have aimed to control the size and surface characteristics of nanoparticles to control distribution, half-life and elimination. Although molecular imaging applications using nanoparticles are advancing into clinical applications, challenges such as storage stability and long-term toxicology should continue to be addressed. Keywords: nanoparticle synthesis, surface modification, targeting, molecular imaging, and biomedical imaging.« less

Cardiovascular system simulation in biomedical engineering education.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rideout, V. C.

1972-01-01

Use of complex cardiovascular system models, in conjunction with a large hybrid computer, in biomedical engineering courses. A cardiovascular blood pressure-flow model, driving a compartment model for the study of dye transport, was set up on the computer for use as a laboratory exercise by students who did not have the computer experience or skill to be able to easily set up such a simulation involving some 27 differential equations running at 'real time' rate. The students were given detailed instructions regarding the model, and were then able to study effects such as those due to septal and valve defects upon the pressure, flow, and dye dilution curves. The success of this experiment in the use of involved models in engineering courses was such that it seems that this type of laboratory exercise might be considered for use in physiology courses as an adjunct to animal experiments.

Resource for the Development of Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)

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

Tuerteltaub, K. W.; Bench, G.; Buchholz, B. A.

The NIH Research Resource for Biomedical AMS was originally funded at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1999 to develop and apply the technology of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in broad- based biomedical research. The Resource’s niche is to fill needs for ultra high sensitivity quantitation when isotope-labeled agents are used. The Research Resource’s Technology Research and Development (TR&D) efforts will focus on the needs of the biomedical research community in the context of seven Driving Biomedical Projects (DBPs) that will drive the Center’s technical capabilities through three core TR&Ds. We will expand our present capabilities by developing a fully integratedmore » HPLC AMS to increase our capabilities for metabolic measurements, we will develop methods to understand cellular processes and we will develop and validate methods for the application of AMS in human studies, which is a growing area of demand by collaborators and service users. In addition, we will continue to support new and ongoing collaborative and service projects that require the capabilities of the Resource. The Center will continue to train researchers in the use of the AMS capabilities being developed, and the results of all efforts will be widely disseminated to advance progress in biomedical research. Towards these goals, our specific aims are to:1.) Increase the value and information content of AMS measurements by combining molecular speciation with quantitation of defined macromolecular isolates. Specifically, develop and validate methods for macromolecule labeling, characterization and quantitation.2.) Develop and validate methods and strategies to enable AMS to become more broadly used in human studies. Specifically, demonstrate robust methods for conducting pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics studies in humans and model systems.3.) Increase the accessibility of AMS to the Biomedical research community and the throughput of AMS through direct coupling to

Resource for the Development of Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)

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

Turteltaub, K. W.; Bench, G.; Buchholz, B. A.

2016-04-08

The NIH Research Resource for Biomedical AMS was originally funded at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1999 to develop and apply the technology of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in broad- based biomedical research. The Resource’s niche is to fill needs for ultra high sensitivity quantitation when isotope-labeled agents are used. The Research Resource’s Technology Research and Development (TR&D) efforts will focus on the needs of the biomedical research community in the context of seven Driving Biomedical Projects (DBPs) that will drive the Center’s technical capabilities through three core TR&Ds. We will expand our present capabilities by developing a fully integratedmore » HPLC AMS to increase our capabilities for metabolic measurements, we will develop methods to understand cellular processes and we will develop and validate methods for the application of AMS in human studies, which is a growing area of demand by collaborators and service users. In addition, we will continue to support new and ongoing collaborative and service projects that require the capabilities of the Resource. The Center will continue to train researchers in the use of the AMS capabilities being developed, and the results of all efforts will be widely disseminated to advance progress in biomedical research. Towards these goals, our specific aims are to:1.) Increase the value and information content of AMS measurements by combining molecular speciation with quantitation of defined macromolecular isolates. Specifically, develop and validate methods for macromolecule labeling, characterization and quantitation.2.) Develop and validate methods and strategies to enable AMS to become more broadly used in human studies. Specifically, demonstrate robust methods for conducting pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics studies in humans and model systems.3.) Increase the accessibility of AMS to the Biomedical research community and the throughput of AMS through direct coupling to

Life sciences biomedical research planning for Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Primeaux, Gary R.; Michaud, Roger; Miller, Ladonna; Searcy, Jim; Dickey, Bernistine

1987-01-01

The Biomedical Research Project (BmRP), a major component of the NASA Life Sciences Space Station Program, incorporates a laboratory for the study of the effects of microgravity on the human body, and the development of techniques capable of modifying or counteracting these effects. Attention is presently given to a representative scenario of BmRP investigations and associated engineering analyses, together with an account of the evolutionary process by which the scenarios and the Space Station design requirements they entail are identified. Attention is given to a tether-implemented 'variable gravity centrifuge'.

Virtual arthroscopy of the visible human female temporomandibular joint.

PubMed

Ishimaru, T; Lew, D; Haller, J; Vannier, M W

1999-07-01

This study was designed to obtain views of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) by means of computed arthroscopic simulation (virtual arthroscopy) using three-dimensional (3D) processing. Volume renderings of the TMJ from very thin cryosection slices of the Visible Human Female were taken off the Internet. Analyze(AVW) software (Biomedical Imaging Resource, Mayo Foundation, Rochester, MN) on a Silicon Graphics 02 workstation (Mountain View, CA) was then used to obtain 3D images and allow the navigation "fly-through" of the simulated joint. Good virtual arthroscopic views of the upper and lower joint spaces of both TMJs were obtained by fly-through simulation from the lateral and endaural sides. It was possible to observe the presence of a partial defect in the articular disc and an osteophyte on the condyle. Virtual arthroscopy provided visualization of regions not accessible to real arthroscopy. These results indicate that virtual arthroscopy will be a new technique to investigate the TMJ of the patient with TMJ disorders in the near future.

Mining biomedical images towards valuable information retrieval in biomedical and life sciences.

PubMed

Ahmed, Zeeshan; Zeeshan, Saman; Dandekar, Thomas

2016-01-01

Biomedical images are helpful sources for the scientists and practitioners in drawing significant hypotheses, exemplifying approaches and describing experimental results in published biomedical literature. In last decades, there has been an enormous increase in the amount of heterogeneous biomedical image production and publication, which results in a need for bioimaging platforms for feature extraction and analysis of text and content in biomedical images to take advantage in implementing effective information retrieval systems. In this review, we summarize technologies related to data mining of figures. We describe and compare the potential of different approaches in terms of their developmental aspects, used methodologies, produced results, achieved accuracies and limitations. Our comparative conclusions include current challenges for bioimaging software with selective image mining, embedded text extraction and processing of complex natural language queries. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Biomedical application of optical fibre sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Correia, R.; James, S.; Lee, S.-W.; Morgan, S. P.; Korposh, S.

2018-07-01

Optical fibre sensors (OFS), as a result of their unique properties such as small size, no interference with electromagnetic radiation, high sensitivity and the ability to design multiplexed or distributed sensing systems, have found applications ranging from structural health monitoring to biomedical and point of care instrumentation. While the former represents the main commercial application for OFS, there is body of literature concerning the deployment of this versatile sensing platform in healthcare. This paper reviews the different types of OFS and their most recent applications in healthcare. It aims to help clinicians to better understand OFS technology and also provides an overview of the challenges involved in the deployment of developed technology in healthcare. Examples of the application of OFS in healthcare are discussed with particular emphasis on recently (2015–2017) published works to avoid replicating recent review papers. The majority of the work on the development of biomedical OFS stops at the laboratory stage and, with a few exceptions, is not explored in healthcare settings. OFSs have yet to fulfil their great potential in healthcare and methods of increasing the adoption of medical devices based on optical fibres are discussed. It is important to consider these factors early in the device development process for successful translation of the developed sensors to healthcare practice.

Implantable biomedical devices on bioresorbable substrates

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

Rogers, John A; Kim, Dae-Hyeong; Omenetto, Fiorenzo

Provided herein are implantable biomedical devices, methods of administering implantable biomedical devices, methods of making implantable biomedical devices, and methods of using implantable biomedical devices to actuate a target tissue or sense a parameter associated with the target tissue in a biological environment. Each implantable biomedical device comprises a bioresorbable substrate, an electronic device having a plurality of inorganic semiconductor components supported by the bioresorbable substrate, and a barrier layer encapsulating at least a portion of the inorganic semiconductor components. Upon contact with a biological environment the bioresorbable substrate is at least partially resorbed, thereby establishing conformal contact between themore » implantable biomedical device and the target tissue in the biological environment.« less

Zoonoses of occupational health importance in contemporary laboratory animal research.

PubMed

Hankenson, F Claire; Johnston, Nancy A; Weigler, Benjamin J; Di Giacomo, Ronald F

2003-12-01

In contemporary laboratory animal facilities, workplace exposure to zoonotic pathogens, agents transmitted to humans from vertebrate animals or their tissues, is an occupational hazard. The primary (e.g., macaques, pigs, dogs, rabbits, mice, and rats) and secondary species (e.g., sheep, goats, cats, ferrets, and pigeons) of animals commonly used in biomedical research, as classified by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine, are established or potential hosts for a large number of zoonotic agents. Diseases included in this review are principally those wherein a risk to biomedical facility personnel has been documented by published reports of human cases in laboratory animal research settings, or under reasonably similar circumstances. Diseases are listed alphabetically, and each section includes information about clinical disease, transmission, occurrence, and prevention in animal reservoir species and humans. Our goal is to provide a resource for veterinarians, health-care professionals, technical staff, and administrators that will assist in the design and on-going evaluation of institutional occupational health and safety programs.

Chromium content in the human hip joint tissues.

PubMed

Brodziak-Dopierała, Barbara; Kwapuliński, Jerzy; Sobczyk, Krzysztof; Wiechuła, Danuta

2015-02-01

Chromium has many important functions in the human body. For the osseous tissue, its role has not been clearly defined. This study was aimed at determining chromium content in hip joint tissues. A total of 91 hip joint samples were taken in this study, including 66 from females and 25 from males. The sample tissues were separated according to their anatomical parts. The chromium content was determined by the AAS method. The statistical analysis was performed with U Mann-Whitney's non-parametric test, P≤0.05. The overall chromium content in tissues of the hip joint in the study subjects was as follows: 5.73 µg/g in the articular cartilage, 5.33 µg/g in the cortical bone, 17.86 µg/g in the cancellous bone, 5.95 µg/g in the fragment of the cancellous bone from the intertrochanteric region, and 1.28 µg/g in the joint capsule. The chromium contents were observed in 2 group patients, it was 7.04 µg/g in people with osteoarthritis and 12.59 µg/g in people with fractures. The observed chromium content was highest in the cancellous bone and the lowest in the joint capsule. Chromium content was significantly different between the people with hip joint osteoarthritis and the people with femoral neck fractures. Copyright © 2015 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by China CDC. All rights reserved.

Semantic Similarity in Biomedical Ontologies

PubMed Central

Pesquita, Catia; Faria, Daniel; Falcão, André O.; Lord, Phillip; Couto, Francisco M.

2009-01-01

In recent years, ontologies have become a mainstream topic in biomedical research. When biological entities are described using a common schema, such as an ontology, they can be compared by means of their annotations. This type of comparison is called semantic similarity, since it assesses the degree of relatedness between two entities by the similarity in meaning of their annotations. The application of semantic similarity to biomedical ontologies is recent; nevertheless, several studies have been published in the last few years describing and evaluating diverse approaches. Semantic similarity has become a valuable tool for validating the results drawn from biomedical studies such as gene clustering, gene expression data analysis, prediction and validation of molecular interactions, and disease gene prioritization. We review semantic similarity measures applied to biomedical ontologies and propose their classification according to the strategies they employ: node-based versus edge-based and pairwise versus groupwise. We also present comparative assessment studies and discuss the implications of their results. We survey the existing implementations of semantic similarity measures, and we describe examples of applications to biomedical research. This will clarify how biomedical researchers can benefit from semantic similarity measures and help them choose the approach most suitable for their studies. Biomedical ontologies are evolving toward increased coverage, formality, and integration, and their use for annotation is increasingly becoming a focus of both effort by biomedical experts and application of automated annotation procedures to create corpora of higher quality and completeness than are currently available. Given that semantic similarity measures are directly dependent on these evolutions, we can expect to see them gaining more relevance and even becoming as essential as sequence similarity is today in biomedical research. PMID:19649320

Text mining patents for biomedical knowledge.

PubMed

Rodriguez-Esteban, Raul; Bundschus, Markus

2016-06-01

Biomedical text mining of scientific knowledge bases, such as Medline, has received much attention in recent years. Given that text mining is able to automatically extract biomedical facts that revolve around entities such as genes, proteins, and drugs, from unstructured text sources, it is seen as a major enabler to foster biomedical research and drug discovery. In contrast to the biomedical literature, research into the mining of biomedical patents has not reached the same level of maturity. Here, we review existing work and highlight the associated technical challenges that emerge from automatically extracting facts from patents. We conclude by outlining potential future directions in this domain that could help drive biomedical research and drug discovery. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What We Do | Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

The Frederick National Laboratory is the only U.S. national lab wholly focused on research, technology, and collaboration in the biomedical sciences- working to discover, to innovate, and to improve human health. We accelerate progress against can

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology

PubMed Central

Noy, Natalya F; Shah, Nigam H; Whetzel, Patricia L; Chute, Christopher G; Story, Margaret-Anne; Smith, Barry

2011-01-01

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology is now in its seventh year. The goals of this National Center for Biomedical Computing are to: create and maintain a repository of biomedical ontologies and terminologies; build tools and web services to enable the use of ontologies and terminologies in clinical and translational research; educate their trainees and the scientific community broadly about biomedical ontology and ontology-based technology and best practices; and collaborate with a variety of groups who develop and use ontologies and terminologies in biomedicine. The centerpiece of the National Center for Biomedical Ontology is a web-based resource known as BioPortal. BioPortal makes available for research in computationally useful forms more than 270 of the world's biomedical ontologies and terminologies, and supports a wide range of web services that enable investigators to use the ontologies to annotate and retrieve data, to generate value sets and special-purpose lexicons, and to perform advanced analytics on a wide range of biomedical data. PMID:22081220

Biomedical Biopolymers, their Origin and Evolution in Biomedical Sciences: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Yadav, Harsh; Shah, Veena Gowri; Shah, Gaurav; Dhaka, Gaurav

2015-01-01

Biopolymers provide a plethora of applications in the pharmaceutical and medical applications. A material that can be used for biomedical applications like wound healing, drug delivery and tissue engineering should possess certain properties like biocompatibility, biodegradation to non-toxic products, low antigenicity, high bio-activity, processability to complicated shapes with appropriate porosity, ability to support cell growth and proliferation and appropriate mechanical properties, as well as maintaining mechanical strength. This paper reviews biodegradable biopolymers focusing on their potential in biomedical applications. Biopolymers most commonly used and most abundantly available have been described with focus on the properties relevant to biomedical importance. PMID:26501034

An Insufferable Business: Ethics, Nonhuman Animals and Biomedical Experiments

PubMed Central

Peggs, Kay

2015-01-01

Simple Summary This paper explores the ways in which biomedical research that uses nonhuman animal subjects generates financial profits and gains for humans who are associated with the industry. Research establishments, scientists, regulators and persons that inspect laboratories for compliance, those associated with granting licences, companies that sell nonhuman animal subjects and that supply equipment for the research, and corporations that market the resulting products are among those that benefit financially. These profits are rarely discussed—they seem to be camouflaged by the focus of the moral convention that assumes that human health-related needs prevail over those of the nonhuman animals who are so used. The paper concludes by calling for an end to the denigration of nonhuman animals as experimental subjects who can be used as commodities for profit-maximisation and as tools in experiments for human health benefits. Abstract Each year millions of nonhuman animals suffer in biomedical experiments for human health benefits. Clinical ethics demand that nonhuman animals are used in the development of pharmaceuticals and vaccines. Nonhuman animals are also used for fundamental biomedical research. Biomedical research that uses nonhuman animals is big business but the financial gains are generally occluded. This paper explores how such research generates profits and gains for those associated with the industry. Research establishments, scientists, laboratories, companies that sell nonhuman animal subjects, that supply equipment for the research, and corporations that market the resulting products are among those that benefit financially. Given the complex articulation of ethical codes, enormous corporate profits that are secured and personal returns that are made, the accepted moral legitimacy of such experiments is compromised. In order to address this, within the confines of the moral orthodoxy, more could to be done to ensure transparency and to

Innovations for In-Pile Measurements in the Framework of the CEA-SCK•CEN Joint Instrumentation Laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Villard, Jean-Francois; Schyns, Marc

2010-12-01

Optimizing the life cycle of nuclear systems under safety constraints requires high-performance experimental programs to reduce uncertainties on margins and limits. In addition to improvement in modeling and simulation, innovation in instrumentation is crucial for analytical and integral experiments conducted in research reactors. The quality of nuclear research programs relies obviously on an excellent knowledge of their experimental environment which constantly calls for better online determination of neutron and gamma flux. But the combination of continuously increasing scientific requirements and new experimental domains -brought for example by Generation IV programsnecessitates also major innovations for in-pile measurements of temperature, dimensions, pressure or chemical analysis in innovative mediums. At the same time, the recent arising of a European platform around the building of the Jules Horowitz Reactor offers new opportunities for research institutes and organizations to pool their resources in order to face these technical challenges. In this situation, CEA (French Nuclear Energy Commission) and SCK'CEN (Belgian Nuclear Research Centre) have combined their efforts and now share common developments through a Joint Instrumentation Laboratory. Significant progresses have thus been obtained recently in the field of in-pile measurements, on one hand by improvement of existing measurement methods, and on the other hand by introduction in research reactors of original measurement techniques. This paper highlights the state-of-the-art and the main requirements regarding in-pile measurements, particularly for the needs of current and future irradiation programs performed in material testing reactors. Some of the main on-going developments performed in the framework of the Joint Instrumentation Laboratory are also described, such as: - a unique fast neutron flux measurement system using fission chambers with 242Pu deposit and a specific online data processing

Group of R&D on biomedical engineering: Its development and results.

PubMed

Yabar, Leopoldo F; Torres, Miguel A; Garcia, Daniel O; Villavicencio, Emilio A; Navarro, Luis A; Nakamura, Orlando K; Huamani, Robinson

2010-01-01

Conducting research and development activities generates new knowledge that can then be applied properly. In this sense, the groups of research and development on biomedical engineering (GRDBE) can contribute a lot in various areas such as teaching (theory and laboratory), as well as the development of prototypes, but mainly with the results they can provide. These contributions should response to specific needs of some sector, for example: health, environment, biology, and others. The present paper provides a description of the development of a GRDBE into a private university. Also, it's presented the amount of papers developed by this group and accepted by international congress on biomedical engineering (BE) on the 2007-2009 period. This paper also shows comparative charts with papers produced by other GRDBE that exist in our country, which are matter of analysis and conclusions.

Biomedical informatics and translational medicine.

PubMed

Sarkar, Indra Neil

2010-02-26

Biomedical informatics involves a core set of methodologies that can provide a foundation for crossing the "translational barriers" associated with translational medicine. To this end, the fundamental aspects of biomedical informatics (e.g., bioinformatics, imaging informatics, clinical informatics, and public health informatics) may be essential in helping improve the ability to bring basic research findings to the bedside, evaluate the efficacy of interventions across communities, and enable the assessment of the eventual impact of translational medicine innovations on health policies. Here, a brief description is provided for a selection of key biomedical informatics topics (Decision Support, Natural Language Processing, Standards, Information Retrieval, and Electronic Health Records) and their relevance to translational medicine. Based on contributions and advancements in each of these topic areas, the article proposes that biomedical informatics practitioners ("biomedical informaticians") can be essential members of translational medicine teams.

Who We Are | Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

The Frederick National Laboratory is addressing some of the most urgent problems in the biomedical sciences – in cancer and AIDS, drug development and first-in-human clinical trials, applications of nanotechnology in medicine, and rapid response to

Branding the bio/biomedical engineering degree.

PubMed

Voigt, Herbert F

2011-01-01

The future challenges to medical and biological engineering, sometimes referred to as biomedical engineering or simply bioengineering, are many. Some of these are identifiable now and others will emerge from time to time as new technologies are introduced and harnessed. There is a fundamental issue regarding "Branding the bio/biomedical engineering degree" that requires a common understanding of what is meant by a B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering, Bioengineering, or Biological Engineering. In this paper we address some of the issues involved in branding the Bio/Biomedical Engineering degree, with the aim of clarifying the Bio/Biomedical Engineering brand.

Biomedical research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

Biomedical problems encountered by man in space which have been identified as a result of previous experience in simulated or actual spaceflight include cardiovascular deconditioning, motion sickness, bone loss, muscle atrophy, red cell alterations, fluid and electrolyte loss, radiation effects, radiation protection, behavior, and performance. The investigations and the findings in each of these areas were reviewed. A description of how biomedical research is organized within NASA, how it is funded, and how it is being reoriented to meet the needs of future manned space missions is also provided.

Multilevel joint competing risk models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karunarathna, G. H. S.; Sooriyarachchi, M. R.

2017-09-01

Joint modeling approaches are often encountered for different outcomes of competing risk time to event and count in many biomedical and epidemiology studies in the presence of cluster effect. Hospital length of stay (LOS) has been the widely used outcome measure in hospital utilization due to the benchmark measurement for measuring multiple terminations such as discharge, transferred, dead and patients who have not completed the event of interest at the follow up period (censored) during hospitalizations. Competing risk models provide a method of addressing such multiple destinations since classical time to event models yield biased results when there are multiple events. In this study, the concept of joint modeling has been applied to the dengue epidemiology in Sri Lanka, 2006-2008 to assess the relationship between different outcomes of LOS and platelet count of dengue patients with the district cluster effect. Two key approaches have been applied to build up the joint scenario. In the first approach, modeling each competing risk separately using the binary logistic model, treating all other events as censored under the multilevel discrete time to event model, while the platelet counts are assumed to follow a lognormal regression model. The second approach is based on the endogeneity effect in the multilevel competing risks and count model. Model parameters were estimated using maximum likelihood based on the Laplace approximation. Moreover, the study reveals that joint modeling approach yield more precise results compared to fitting two separate univariate models, in terms of AIC (Akaike Information Criterion).

Building Diversified Multiple Trees for classification in high dimensional noisy biomedical data.

PubMed

Li, Jiuyong; Liu, Lin; Liu, Jixue; Green, Ryan

2017-12-01

It is common that a trained classification model is applied to the operating data that is deviated from the training data because of noise. This paper will test an ensemble method, Diversified Multiple Tree (DMT), on its capability for classifying instances in a new laboratory using the classifier built on the instances of another laboratory. DMT is tested on three real world biomedical data sets from different laboratories in comparison with four benchmark ensemble methods, AdaBoost, Bagging, Random Forests, and Random Trees. Experiments have also been conducted on studying the limitation of DMT and its possible variations. Experimental results show that DMT is significantly more accurate than other benchmark ensemble classifiers on classifying new instances of a different laboratory from the laboratory where instances are used to build the classifier. This paper demonstrates that an ensemble classifier, DMT, is more robust in classifying noisy data than other widely used ensemble methods. DMT works on the data set that supports multiple simple trees.

REVIEW - Thermal Physiology of Laboratory Mice: Defining Thermoneutrality

EPA Science Inventory

In terms of total number of publications, the laboratory mouse (Mus musculus) has emerged as the most popular test subject in biomedical research. Mice are used as models to study obesity, diabetes, eNS diseases and variety of other pathologies. Mice are classified as homeotherms...

Laboratory Animal Housing--Parts I and II.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Runkle, Robert S.

1963-01-01

In recent years, the use of laboratory animals for bio-medical research has shown marked increase. Economic and efficient housing is a necessity. This two part report established guidelines for design and selection of materials for conventional animal housing. Contents include--(1) production and breeding facilities, (2) quarantine facilities, (3)…

Spacelab Life Sciences 3 biomedical research using the Rhesus Research Facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ballard, R. W.; Searby, N. D.; Stone, L. S.; Hogan, R. P.; Viso, M.; Venet, M.

1992-01-01

In 1985, a letter of agreement was signed between the French space agency, CNES, and NASA, formally initiating a joint venture called the RHESUS Project. The goal of this project is to provide a facility to fly rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) to support spaceflight experiments which are applicable but not practical to carry out on human subjects. Biomedical investigations in behavior/performance, immunology/microbiology, muscle physiology, cardiopulmonary physiology, bone/calcium physiology, regulatory physiology, and neurophysiology disciplines will be performed. The Rhesus Research Facility, hardware capable of supporting two adult rhesus monkeys in a microgravity environment, is being developed for a first flight on Spacelab Life Sciences in early 1996.

Pathophysiologic mechanisms of biomedical nanomaterials

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

Wang, Liming, E-mail: wangliming@ihep.ac.cn; Chen, Chunying, E-mail: chenchy@nanoctr.cn

Nanomaterials (NMs) have been widespread used in biomedical fields, daily consuming, and even food industry. It is crucial to understand the safety and biomedical efficacy of NMs. In this review, we summarized the recent progress about the physiological and pathological effects of NMs from several levels: protein-nano interface, NM-subcellular structures, and cell–cell interaction. We focused on the detailed information of nano-bio interaction, especially about protein adsorption, intracellular trafficking, biological barriers, and signaling pathways as well as the associated mechanism mediated by nanomaterials. We also introduced related analytical methods that are meaningful and helpful for biomedical effect studies in the future.more » We believe that knowledge about pathophysiologic effects of NMs is not only significant for rational design of medical NMs but also helps predict their safety and further improve their applications in the future. - Highlights: • Rapid protein adsorption onto nanomaterials that affects biomedical effects • Nanomaterials and their interaction with biological membrane, intracellular trafficking and specific cellular effects • Nanomaterials and their interaction with biological barriers • The signaling pathways mediated by nanomaterials and related biomedical effects • Novel techniques for studying translocation and biomedical effects of NMs.« less

The application of integrated knowledge-based systems for the Biomedical Risk Assessment Intelligent Network (BRAIN)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftin, Karin C.; Ly, Bebe; Webster, Laurie; Verlander, James; Taylor, Gerald R.; Riley, Gary; Culbert, Chris

1992-01-01

One of NASA's goals for long duration space flight is to maintain acceptable levels of crew health, safety, and performance. One way of meeting this goal is through BRAIN, an integrated network of both human and computer elements. BRAIN will function as an advisor to mission managers by assessing the risk of inflight biomedical problems and recommending appropriate countermeasures. Described here is a joint effort among various NASA elements to develop BRAIN and the Infectious Disease Risk Assessment (IDRA) prototype. The implementation of this effort addresses the technological aspects of knowledge acquisition, integration of IDRA components, the use of expert systems to automate the biomedical prediction process, development of a user friendly interface, and integration of IDRA and ExerCISys systems. Because C language, CLIPS and the X-Window System are portable and easily integrated, they were chosen ss the tools for the initial IDRA prototype.

Disambiguating ambiguous biomedical terms in biomedical narrative text: an unsupervised method.

PubMed

Liu, H; Lussier, Y A; Friedman, C

2001-08-01

With the growing use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques for information extraction and concept indexing in the biomedical domain, a method that quickly and efficiently assigns the correct sense of an ambiguous biomedical term in a given context is needed concurrently. The current status of word sense disambiguation (WSD) in the biomedical domain is that handcrafted rules are used based on contextual material. The disadvantages of this approach are (i) generating WSD rules manually is a time-consuming and tedious task, (ii) maintenance of rule sets becomes increasingly difficult over time, and (iii) handcrafted rules are often incomplete and perform poorly in new domains comprised of specialized vocabularies and different genres of text. This paper presents a two-phase unsupervised method to build a WSD classifier for an ambiguous biomedical term W. The first phase automatically creates a sense-tagged corpus for W, and the second phase derives a classifier for W using the derived sense-tagged corpus as a training set. A formative experiment was performed, which demonstrated that classifiers trained on the derived sense-tagged corpora achieved an overall accuracy of about 97%, with greater than 90% accuracy for each individual ambiguous term.

Biomedical technical transfer. Applications of NASA science and technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

Lower body negative pressure testing in cardiac patients has been completed as well as the design and construction of a new leg negative unit for evaluating heart patients. This technology is based on NASA research, using vacuum chambers to stress the cardiovascular system during space flight. Additional laboratory tests of an intracranial pressure transducer, have been conducted. Three new biomedical problems to which NASA technology is applicable are also identified. These are: a communication device for the speech impaired, the NASA development liquid-cooled garment, and miniature force transducers for heart research.

Implantable Biomedical Microsystems: A New Graduate Course in Biomedical Circuits and Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sodagar, Amir M.

2014-01-01

After more than two decades of research on the design and development of implantable biomedical microsystems, it is time now to organize research achievements in this area in a consolidated and pedagogical form. This paper introduces a new graduate course in advanced biomedical circuits and systems. Designed for graduate students with electrical…

Workshop summary. Biomedical and Space-Related Research with Heavy Ions at the BEVALAC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schimmerling, W.; Curtis, S. B.

1989-01-01

The authors provide an overview of papers presented at a workshop on Biomedical and Space-Related Research with Heavy Ions at the BEVALAC at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Goals of the meeting were to determine the critical experiments using heavy ions as probes in radiation physics, radiation chemistry, macromolecular and cellular biology, evolution science, basic neurophysiology, and medical therapies; how beam lines and facilities at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory can be improved for these experiments; and implications in priorities and funding for national policy. Workshop topics included physics and facilities, cellular and molecular biology, tissue radiobiology, and the future of heavy ion research.

Evaluation of research in biomedical ontologies

PubMed Central

Dumontier, Michel; Gkoutos, Georgios V.

2013-01-01

Ontologies are now pervasive in biomedicine, where they serve as a means to standardize terminology, to enable access to domain knowledge, to verify data consistency and to facilitate integrative analyses over heterogeneous biomedical data. For this purpose, research on biomedical ontologies applies theories and methods from diverse disciplines such as information management, knowledge representation, cognitive science, linguistics and philosophy. Depending on the desired applications in which ontologies are being applied, the evaluation of research in biomedical ontologies must follow different strategies. Here, we provide a classification of research problems in which ontologies are being applied, focusing on the use of ontologies in basic and translational research, and we demonstrate how research results in biomedical ontologies can be evaluated. The evaluation strategies depend on the desired application and measure the success of using an ontology for a particular biomedical problem. For many applications, the success can be quantified, thereby facilitating the objective evaluation and comparison of research in biomedical ontology. The objective, quantifiable comparison of research results based on scientific applications opens up the possibility for systematically improving the utility of ontologies in biomedical research. PMID:22962340

National Space Biomedical Research Institute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) sponsors and performs fundamental and applied space biomedical research with the mission of leading a world-class, national effort in integrated, critical path space biomedical research that supports NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) Strategic Plan. It focuses on the enabling of long-term human presence in, development of, and exploration of space. This will be accomplished by: designing, implementing, and validating effective countermeasures to address the biological and environmental impediments to long-term human space flight; defining the molecular, cellular, organ-level, integrated responses and mechanistic relationships that ultimately determine these impediments, where such activity fosters the development of novel countermeasures; establishing biomedical support technologies to maximize human performance in space, reduce biomedical hazards to an acceptable level, and deliver quality medical care; transferring and disseminating the biomedical advances in knowledge and technology acquired through living and working in space to the benefit of mankind in space and on Earth, including the treatment of patients suffering from gravity- and radiation-related conditions on Earth; and ensuring open involvement of the scientific community, industry, and the public at large in the Institute's activities and fostering a robust collaboration with NASA, particularly through Johnson Space Center.

Safety in laboratories: Indian scenario.

PubMed

Mustafa, Ajaz; Farooq, A Jan; Qadri, Gj; S A, Tabish

2008-07-01

Health and safety in clinical laboratories is becoming an increasingly important subject as a result of emergence of highly infectious diseases such as Hepatitis and HIV. A cross sectional study was carried out to study the safety measures being adopted in clinical laboratories of India. Heads of laboratories of teaching hospitals of India were subjected to a standardized, pretested questionnaire. Response rate was 44.8%. only 60% of laboratories had person in-charge of safety in laboratory. Seventy three percent of laboratories had safety education program regarding hazards. In 91% of laboratories staff is using protective clothing while working in laboratories. Hazardous material regulations are followed in 78% of laboratories. Regular health check ups are carried among laboratory staff in 43.4% of laboratories.Safety manual is available in 56.5% of laboratories. 73.9% of laboratories are equipped with fire extinguishers. Fume cupboards are provided in 34.7% of laboratories and they are regularly checked in 87.5% of these laboratories. In 78.26% of laboratories suitable measures are taken to minimize formation of aerosols.In 95.6% of laboratories waste is disposed off as per bio-medical waste management handling rules. Laboratory of one private medical college was accredited with NABL and safety parameters were better in that laboratory. Installing safety engineered devices apparently contributes to significant decrease in injuries in laboratories; laboratory safety has to be a part of overall quality assurance programme in hospitals. Accreditation has to be made necessary for all laboratories.

BIOMedical Search Engine Framework: Lightweight and customized implementation of domain-specific biomedical search engines.

PubMed

Jácome, Alberto G; Fdez-Riverola, Florentino; Lourenço, Anália

2016-07-01

Text mining and semantic analysis approaches can be applied to the construction of biomedical domain-specific search engines and provide an attractive alternative to create personalized and enhanced search experiences. Therefore, this work introduces the new open-source BIOMedical Search Engine Framework for the fast and lightweight development of domain-specific search engines. The rationale behind this framework is to incorporate core features typically available in search engine frameworks with flexible and extensible technologies to retrieve biomedical documents, annotate meaningful domain concepts, and develop highly customized Web search interfaces. The BIOMedical Search Engine Framework integrates taggers for major biomedical concepts, such as diseases, drugs, genes, proteins, compounds and organisms, and enables the use of domain-specific controlled vocabulary. Technologies from the Typesafe Reactive Platform, the AngularJS JavaScript framework and the Bootstrap HTML/CSS framework support the customization of the domain-oriented search application. Moreover, the RESTful API of the BIOMedical Search Engine Framework allows the integration of the search engine into existing systems or a complete web interface personalization. The construction of the Smart Drug Search is described as proof-of-concept of the BIOMedical Search Engine Framework. This public search engine catalogs scientific literature about antimicrobial resistance, microbial virulence and topics alike. The keyword-based queries of the users are transformed into concepts and search results are presented and ranked accordingly. The semantic graph view portraits all the concepts found in the results, and the researcher may look into the relevance of different concepts, the strength of direct relations, and non-trivial, indirect relations. The number of occurrences of the concept shows its importance to the query, and the frequency of concept co-occurrence is indicative of biological relations

Biomedical ground lead system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

The design and verification tests for the biomedical ground lead system of Apollo biomedical monitors are presented. Major efforts were made to provide a low impedance path to ground, reduce noise and artifact of ECG signals, and limit the current flowing in the ground electrode of the system.

The laboratory domestication of Caenorhabditis elegans.

PubMed

Sterken, Mark G; Snoek, L Basten; Kammenga, Jan E; Andersen, Erik C

2015-05-01

Model organisms are of great importance to our understanding of basic biology and to making advances in biomedical research. However, the influence of laboratory cultivation on these organisms is underappreciated, and especially how that environment can affect research outcomes. Recent experiments led to insights into how the widely used laboratory reference strain of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans compares with natural strains. Here we describe potential selective pressures that led to the fixation of laboratory-derived alleles for the genes npr-1, glb-5, and nath-10. These alleles influence a large number of traits, resulting in behaviors that affect experimental interpretations. Furthermore, strong phenotypic effects caused by these laboratory-derived alleles hinder the discovery of natural alleles. We highlight strategies to reduce the influence of laboratory-derived alleles and to harness the full power of C. elegans. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Elevated sacroilac joint uptake ratios in systemic lupus erythematosus

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

De Smet, A.A.; Mahmood, T.; Robinson, R.G.

1984-08-01

Sacroiliac joint radiographs and radionuclide sacroiliac joint uptake ratios were obtained on 14 patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus. Elevated joint ratios were found unilaterally in two patients and bilaterally in seven patients when their lupus was active. In patients whose disease became quiescent, the uptake ratios returned to normal. Two patients had persistently elevated ratios with continued clinical and laboratory evidence of active lupus. Mild sacroiliac joint sclerosis and erosions were detected on pelvic radiographs in these same two patients. Elevated quantitative sacroiliac joint uptake ratios may occur as a manifestation of active systemic lupus erythematosus.

Biochemical imaging of tissues by SIMS for biomedical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Tae Geol; Park, Ji-Won; Shon, Hyun Kyong; Moon, Dae Won; Choi, Won Woo; Li, Kapsok; Chung, Jin Ho

2008-12-01

With the development of optimal surface cleaning techniques by cluster ion beam sputtering, certain applications of SIMS for analyzing cells and tissues have been actively investigated. For this report, we collaborated with bio-medical scientists to study bio-SIMS analyses of skin and cancer tissues for biomedical diagnostics. We pay close attention to the setting up of a routine procedure for preparing tissue specimens and treating the surface before obtaining the bio-SIMS data. Bio-SIMS was used to study two biosystems, skin tissues for understanding the effects of photoaging and colon cancer tissues for insight into the development of new cancer diagnostics for cancer. Time-of-flight SIMS imaging measurements were taken after surface cleaning with cluster ion bombardment by Bi n or C 60 under varying conditions. The imaging capability of bio-SIMS with a spatial resolution of a few microns combined with principal component analysis reveal biologically meaningful information, but the lack of high molecular weight peaks even with cluster ion bombardment was a problem. This, among other problems, shows that discourse with biologists and medical doctors are critical to glean any meaningful information from SIMS mass spectrometric and imaging data. For SIMS to be accepted as a routine, daily analysis tool in biomedical laboratories, various practical sample handling methodology such as surface matrix treatment, including nano-metal particles and metal coating, in addition to cluster sputtering, should be studied.

Laboratory specimens and genetic privacy: evolution of legal theory.

PubMed

Lewis, Michelle Huckaby

2013-03-01

Although laboratory specimens are an important resource for biomedical research, controversy has arisen when research has been conducted without the knowledge or consent of the individuals who were the source of the specimens. This paper summarizes the most important litigation regarding the research use of laboratory specimens and traces the evolution of legal theory from property claims to claims related to genetic privacy interests. © 2013 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

Trends in Biomedical Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peppas, Nicholas A.; Mallinson, Richard G.

1982-01-01

An analysis of trends in biomedical education within chemical education is presented. Data used for the analysis included: type/level of course, subjects taught, and textbook preferences. Results among others of the 1980 survey indicate that 28 out of 79 schools responding offer at least one course in biomedical engineering. (JN)

Biomedical applications engineering tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laenger, C. J., Sr.

1976-01-01

The engineering tasks performed in response to needs articulated by clinicians are described. Initial contacts were made with these clinician-technology requestors by the Southwest Research Institute NASA Biomedical Applications Team. The basic purpose of the program was to effectively transfer aerospace technology into functional hardware to solve real biomedical problems.

Virtual Passive Controller for Robot Systems Using Joint Torque Sensors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aldridge, Hal A.; Juang, Jer-Nan

1997-01-01

This paper presents a control method based on virtual passive dynamic control that will stabilize a robot manipulator using joint torque sensors and a simple joint model. The method does not require joint position or velocity feedback for stabilization. The proposed control method is stable in the sense of Lyaponov. The control method was implemented on several joints of a laboratory robot. The controller showed good stability robustness to system parameter error and to the exclusion of nonlinear dynamic effects on the joints. The controller enhanced position tracking performance and, in the absence of position control, dissipated joint energy.

[Approval of ISO/IEC 17025 and quality control of laboratory testing].

PubMed

Yamamoto, Shigeki; Asakura, Hiroshi; Machii, Kenji; Igimi, Shizunobu

2010-01-01

First section of Division of Biomedical Food Research, National Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS) was approved by ISO/IEC 17025 as a laboratory having an appropriate laboratory testing technique. NIHS is the first national laboratory approved by ISO/IEC 17025. NIHS has also been accepted the appropriate technique and facility for the BSL3 level pathogens by ISO/IEC 17025. NIHS is necessary to take an external audit almost every year. This approval is renewed every 4 years.

The Application of Integrated Knowledge-based Systems for the Biomedical Risk Assessment Intelligent Network (BRAIN)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftin, Karin C.; Ly, Bebe; Webster, Laurie; Verlander, James; Taylor, Gerald R.; Riley, Gary; Culbert, Chris; Holden, Tina; Rudisill, Marianne

1993-01-01

One of NASA's goals for long duration space flight is to maintain acceptable levels of crew health, safety, and performance. One way of meeting this goal is through the Biomedical Risk Assessment Intelligent Network (BRAIN), an integrated network of both human and computer elements. The BRAIN will function as an advisor to flight surgeons by assessing the risk of in-flight biomedical problems and recommending appropriate countermeasures. This paper describes the joint effort among various NASA elements to develop BRAIN and an Infectious Disease Risk Assessment (IDRA) prototype. The implementation of this effort addresses the technological aspects of the following: (1) knowledge acquisition; (2) integration of IDRA components; (3) use of expert systems to automate the biomedical prediction process; (4) development of a user-friendly interface; and (5) integration of the IDRA prototype and Exercise Countermeasures Intelligent System (ExerCISys). Because the C Language, CLIPS (the C Language Integrated Production System), and the X-Window System were portable and easily integrated, they were chosen as the tools for the initial IDRA prototype. The feasibility was tested by developing an IDRA prototype that predicts the individual risk of influenza. The application of knowledge-based systems to risk assessment is of great market value to the medical technology industry.

Promoting Good Clinical Laboratory Practices and Laboratory Accreditation to Support Clinical Trials in Sub-Saharan Africa

PubMed Central

Shott, Joseph P.; Saye, Renion; Diakité, Moussa L.; Sanogo, Sintry; Dembele, Moussa B.; Keita, Sekouba; Nagel, Mary C.; Ellis, Ruth D.; Aebig, Joan A.; Diallo, Dapa A.; Doumbo, Ogobara K.

2012-01-01

Laboratory capacity in the developing world frequently lacks quality management systems (QMS) such as good clinical laboratory practices, proper safety precautions, and adequate facilities; impacting the ability to conduct biomedical research where it is needed most. As the regulatory climate changes globally, higher quality laboratory support is needed to protect study volunteers and to accurately assess biological parameters. The University of Bamako and its partners have undertaken a comprehensive QMS plan to improve quality and productivity using the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute standards and guidelines. The clinical laboratory passed the College of American Pathologists inspection in April 2010, and received full accreditation in June 2010. Our efforts to implement high-quality standards have been valuable for evaluating safety and immunogenicity of malaria vaccine candidates in Mali. Other disease-specific research groups in resource-limited settings may benefit by incorporating similar training initiatives, QMS methods, and continual improvement practices to ensure best practices. PMID:22492138

Frontiers in biomedical engineering and biotechnology.

PubMed

Liu, Feng; Goodarzi, Ali; Wang, Haifeng; Stasiak, Joanna; Sun, Jianbo; Zhou, Yu

2014-01-01

The 2nd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (iCBEB 2013), held in Wuhan on 11–13 October 2013, is an annual conference that aims at providing an opportunity for international and national researchers and practitioners to present the most recent advances and future challenges in the fields of Biomedical Information, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology. The papers published by this issue are selected from this conference, which witnesses the frontier in the field of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, which particularly has helped improving the level of clinical diagnosis in medical work.

[Master course in biomedical engineering].

PubMed

Jobbágy, Akos; Benyó, Zoltán; Monos, Emil

2009-11-22

The Bologna Declaration aims at harmonizing the European higher education structure. In accordance with the Declaration, biomedical engineering will be offered as a master (MSc) course also in Hungary, from year 2009. Since 1995 biomedical engineering course has been held in cooperation of three universities: Semmelweis University, Budapest Veterinary University, and Budapest University of Technology and Economics. One of the latter's faculties, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, has been responsible for the course. Students could start their biomedical engineering studies - usually in parallel with their first degree course - after they collected at least 180 ECTS credits. Consequently, the biomedical engineering course could have been considered as a master course even before the Bologna Declaration. Students had to collect 130 ECTS credits during the six-semester course. This is equivalent to four-semester full-time studies, because during the first three semesters the curriculum required to gain only one third of the usual ECTS credits. The paper gives a survey on the new biomedical engineering master course, briefly summing up also the subjects in the curriculum.

Bio-functionalization of biomedical metals.

PubMed

Xiao, M; Chen, Y M; Biao, M N; Zhang, X D; Yang, B C

2017-01-01

Bio-functionalization means to endow biomaterials with bio-functions so as to make the materials or devices more suitable for biomedical applications. Traditionally, because of the excellent mechanical properties, the biomedical metals have been widely used in clinic. However, the utilized functions are basically supporting or fixation especially for the implantable devices. Nowadays, some new functions, including bioactivity, anti-tumor, anti-microbial, and so on, are introduced to biomedical metals. To realize those bio-functions on the metallic biomedical materials, surface modification is the most commonly used method. Surface modification, including physical and chemical methods, is an effective way to alter the surface morphology and composition of biomaterials. It can endow the biomedical metals with new surface properties while still retain the good mechanical properties of the bulk material. Having analyzed the ways of realizing the bio-functionalization, this article briefly summarized the bio-functionalization concepts of six hot spots in this field. They are bioactivity, bony tissue inducing, anti-microbial, anti-tumor, anticoagulation, and drug loading functions. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Advanced Biomedical Computing Center (ABCC) | DSITP

Cancer.gov

The Advanced Biomedical Computing Center (ABCC), located in Frederick Maryland (MD), provides HPC resources for both NIH/NCI intramural scientists and the extramural biomedical research community. Its mission is to provide HPC support, to provide collaborative research, and to conduct in-house research in various areas of computational biology and biomedical research.

Rabbit models for biomedical research revisited via genome editing approaches

PubMed Central

HONDA, Arata; OGURA, Atsuo

2017-01-01

Although the laboratory rabbit has long contributed to many paradigmatic studies in biology and medicine, it is often considered to be a “classical animal model” because in the last 30 years, the laboratory mouse has been more often used, thanks to the availability of embryonic stem cells that have allowed the generation of gene knockout (KO) animals. However, recent genome-editing strategies have changed this unrivaled condition; so far, more than 10 mammalian species have been added to the list of KO animals. Among them, the rabbit has distinct advantages for application of genome-editing systems, such as easy application of superovulation, consistency with fertile natural mating, well-optimized embryo manipulation techniques, and the short gestation period. The rabbit has now returned to the stage of advanced biomedical research. PMID:28579598

Outsourcing of Academic Clinical Laboratories

PubMed Central

Mrak, Robert E.; Parslow, Tristram G.; Tomaszewski, John E.

2018-01-01

American hospitals are increasingly turning to service outsourcing to reduce costs, including laboratory services. Studies of this practice have largely focused on nonacademic medical centers. In contrast, academic medical centers have unique practice environments and unique mission considerations. We sought to elucidate and analyze clinical laboratory outsourcing experiences in US academic medical centers. Seventeen chairs of pathology with relevant experience were willing to participate in in-depth interviews about their experiences. Anticipated financial benefits from joint venture arrangements often eroded after the initial years of the agreement, due to increased test pricing, management fees, duplication of services in support of inpatients, and lack of incentive for utilization control on the part of the for-profit partner. Outsourcing can preclude development of lucrative outreach programs; such programs were successfully launched in several cases after joint ventures were either avoided or terminated. Common complaints included poor test turnaround time and problems with test quality (especially in molecular pathology, microbiology, and flow cytometry), leading to clinician dissatisfaction. Joint ventures adversely affected retention of academically oriented clinical pathology faculty, with adverse effects on research and education, which further exacerbated clinician dissatisfaction due to lack of available consultative expertise. Resident education in pathology and in other disciplines (especially infectious disease) suffered both from lack of on-site laboratory capabilities and from lack of teaching faculty. Most joint ventures were initiated with little or no input from pathology leadership, and input from pathology leadership was seen to have been critical in those cases where such arrangements were declined or terminated. PMID:29637086

Biomedical learning experiences for middle school girls sponsored by the Kansas State University Student Chapter of the IEEE EMBS.

PubMed

Gruber, Lucinda; Griffith, Connor; Young, Ethan; Sullivan, Adriann; Schuler, Jeff; Arnold-Christian, Susan; Warren, Steve

2009-01-01

Learning experiences for middle school girls are an effective means to steer young women toward secondary engineering curricula that they might not have otherwise considered. Sponsorship of such experiences by a collegiate student group is worthwhile, as it gives the group common purpose and places college students in a position to mentor these young women. This paper addresses learning experiences in different areas of bio-medical engineering offered to middle school girls in November 2008 via a day-long workshop entitled "Engineering The Body." The Kansas State University (KSU) Student Chapter of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) worked with the KSU Women in Engineering and Science Program (WESP) to design and sponsor these experiences, which addressed the areas of joint mechanics, electrocardiograms, membrane transport, computer mouse design, and audio filters for cochlear implants. Fifty five middle-school girls participated in this event, affirming the notion that biomedical engineering appeals to young women and that early education and recruitment efforts have the potential to expand the biomedical engineering talent pool.

Current Status of Biomedical Book Reviewing: Part IV. Major American and British Biomedical Book Publishers

PubMed Central

Chen, Ching-chih

1974-01-01

This is the fourth part of a comprehensive, quantitative study of biomedical book reviews. The data base of the total project was built from statistics of 3,347 reviews of 2,067 biomedical books taken from all 1970 issues of fifty-four reviewing journals. This part of the study identifies the major American and British biomedical book publishers in terms of their quantitative production of book titles reviewed, and determines the relationships among these publishers. It is found that Williams & Wilkins, Charles C Thomas, Academic Press, and Springer Verlag are the most productive biomedical book publishers in terms of books reviewed in 1970. These four publishers accounted for 32% of the 1,674 books available in the United States and reviewed in the reviewing media in 1970. Williams & Wilkins is especially significant by virtue of reprint activity. The present study also explores the price trend of biomedical books. It is found that the mean price for 1,077 books studied was $16.20 per volume, with a standard deviation of $9.42. PMID:4466508

What is biomedical informatics?

PubMed Central

Bernstam, Elmer V.; Smith, Jack W.; Johnson, Todd R.

2009-01-01

Biomedical informatics lacks a clear and theoretically grounded definition. Many proposed definitions focus on data, information, and knowledge, but do not provide an adequate definition of these terms. Leveraging insights from the philosophy of information, we define informatics as the science of information, where information is data plus meaning. Biomedical informatics is the science of information as applied to or studied in the context of biomedicine. Defining the object of study of informatics as data plus meaning clearly distinguishes the field from related fields, such as computer science, statistics and biomedicine, which have different objects of study. The emphasis on data plus meaning also suggests that biomedical informatics problems tend to be difficult when they deal with concepts that are hard to capture using formal, computational definitions. In other words, problems where meaning must be considered are more difficult than problems where manipulating data without regard for meaning is sufficient. Furthermore, the definition implies that informatics research, teaching, and service should focus on biomedical information as data plus meaning rather than only computer applications in biomedicine. PMID:19683067

The well-being of laboratory non-human primates.

PubMed

Baker, Kate C; Dettmer, Amanda M

2017-01-01

The well-being of non-human primates in captivity is of joint concern to scientists, veterinarians, colony managers, caretakers, and researchers working with non-human primates in biomedical research. With increased regulatory, accreditation, and research focus on optimizing the use of social housing for laboratory primates, as well as the advent of techniques to assess indices of chronic stress and related measures of well-being, there is no better time to present the most current advances in the field of non-human primate behavioral management. The collective body of research presented here was inspired in part by a 2014 symposium entitled, "Chronic Hormones and Demographic Variables: Center-Wide Studies on Non-Human Primate Well-Being" held at the American Society of Primatologists' 37th Annual Meeting in Decatur, GA. By aiming to target readership with scientific and/or management oversight of captive primate behavioral management programs, this special issue provides badly-needed guidance for implementing social housing programs in a research environment and leverages collaboration across multiple facilities to address key components of behavioral management, explore refinements in how well-being can be measured, and identify the interrelationships between varying indices. Am. J. Primatol. 79:e22520, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Biomedical Engineering in Modern Society

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Attinger, E. O.

1971-01-01

Considers definition of biomedical engineering (BME) and how biomedical engineers should be trained. State of the art descriptions of BME and BME education are followed by a brief look at the future of BME. (TS)

The Brazilian research and teaching center in biomedicine and aerospace biomedical engineering.

PubMed

Russomano, T; Falcao, P F; Dalmarco, G; Martinelli, L; Cardoso, R; Santos, M A; Sparenberg, A

2008-08-01

The recent engagement of Brazil in the construction and utilization of the International Space Station has motivated several Brazilian research institutions and universities to establish study centers related to Space Sciences. The Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) is no exception. The University initiated in 1993 the first degree course training students to operate commercial aircraft in South America (the School of Aeronautical Sciences. A further step was the decision to build the first Brazilian laboratory dedicated to the conduct of experiments in ground-based microgravity simulation. Established in 1998, the Microgravity Laboratory, which was located in the Instituto de Pesquisas Cientificas e Tecnologicas (IPCT), was supported by the Schools of Medicine, Aeronautical Sciences and Electrical Engineering/Biomedical Engineering. At the end of 2006, the Microgravity Laboratory became a Center and was transferred to the School of Engineering. The principal activities of the Microgravity Centre are the development of research projects related to human physiology before, during and after ground-based microgravity simulation and parabolic flights, to aviation medicine in the 21st century and to aerospace biomedical engineering. The history of Brazilian, and why not say worldwide, space science should unquestionably go through PUCRS. As time passes, the pioneering spirit of our University in the aerospace area has become undeniable. This is due to the group of professionals, students, technicians and staff in general that have once worked or are still working in the Center of Microgravity, a group of faculty and students that excel in their undeniable technical-scientific qualifications.

Telemedicine optoelectronic biomedical data processing system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prosolovska, Vita V.

2010-08-01

The telemedicine optoelectronic biomedical data processing system is created to share medical information for the control of health rights and timely and rapid response to crisis. The system includes the main blocks: bioprocessor, analog-digital converter biomedical images, optoelectronic module for image processing, optoelectronic module for parallel recording and storage of biomedical imaging and matrix screen display of biomedical images. Rated temporal characteristics of the blocks defined by a particular triggering optoelectronic couple in analog-digital converters and time imaging for matrix screen. The element base for hardware implementation of the developed matrix screen is integrated optoelectronic couples produced by selective epitaxy.

The University of Connecticut Biomedical Engineering Mentoring Program for high school students.

PubMed

Enderle, John D; Liebler, Christopher M; Haapala, Stephenic A; Hart, James L; Thonakkaraparayil, Naomi T; Romonosky, Laura L; Rodriguez, Francisco; Trumbower, Randy D

2004-01-01

For the past four years, the Biomedical Engineering Program at the University of Connecticut has offered a summer mentoring program for high school students interested in biomedical engineering. To offer this program, we have partnered with the UConn Mentor Connection Program, the School of Engineering 2000 Program and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Summer Laboratory Apprentice Program. We typically have approximately 20-25 high school students learning about biomedical engineering each summer. The mentoring aspect of the program exists at many different levels, with the graduate students mentoring the undergraduate students, and these students mentoring the high school students. The program starts with a three-hour lecture on biomedical engineering to properly orient the students. An in-depth paper on an area in biomedical engineering is a required component, as well as a PowerPoint presentation on their research. All of the students build a device to record an EKG on a computer using LabView, including signal processing to remove noise. The students learn some rudimentary concepts on electrocardiography and the physiology and anatomy of the heart. The students also learn basic electronics and breadboarding circuits, PSpice, the building of a printed circuit board, PIC microcontroller, the operation of Multimeters (including the oscilloscope), soldering, assembly of the EKG device and writing LabView code to run their device on a PC. The students keep their EKG device, LabView program and a fully illustrated booklet on EKG to bring home with them, and hopefully bring back to their high school to share their experiences with other students and teachers. The students also work on several other projects during this summer experience as well as visit Hartford Hospital to learn about Clinical Engineering.

Nuclear microscopy in biomedical analysis with special emphasis on clinical metal biology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lindh, Ulf; Frisk, Peter; Nyström, Joakim; Danersund, Antero; Hudecek, Romuald; Lindvall, Anders; Thunell, Stig

1997-07-01

Nuclear microscopy based upon developments in high energy ion beam techniques is by now an accepted technique in many fields of research. The advancements into the biomedical field have, however, been slower than expected. A major factor explaining this tendency is the availability of nuclear microscopy. This paper reviews briefly the biomedical work using nuclear microscopy that has been carried out since the 4 th International Conference on Nuclear Microprobe Technology and Applications held in Shanghai. Nuclear microscopy of isolated individual blood cells from patients adversely affected by metal exposure from dental amalgam has been performed both before and after removal of the metallic fillings. The elemental profile of blood cells was more or less normalised after treatment. Some of these results will be presented to illustrate a medical application. Results from bulk analysis by ICP-MS of erythrocytes and plasma before and after treatment will also be presented to illustrate the difference in information content between these two approaches as well as the need for complementary information in solving biomedical problems. As part of a larger study of acute porphyria, nuclear microscopy of blood cells was included among the 78 laboratory tests. The approach in this study was unbiased in the sense that no hypothesis was formulated as to which laboratory parameters would be the most explanatory for health or disease. Multivariate discriminant analysis was applied to the large amounts of data acquired. This approach led to the hypothesis that oxidative stress increased the synthesis of manganese-dependent superoxide dismutase in the mitochondria of polymorphonuclear leukocytes, explaining the increase of manganese in these cells. Antioxidant therapy was therefore applied to a couple of patients with porphyria, however, without clinical success.

Histopathological reporting of corneal pathology by a biomedical scientist: the Sheffield Experience.

PubMed

Meeney, A; Mudhar, H S

2013-02-01

The advanced specialist diploma in ophthalmic pathology was jointly ratified by the Royal College of Pathologists and the Institute of Biomedical Science in 2008. It results in extended roles for suitably qualified Biomedical Scientists (BMSs) in ophthalmic pathology specimen dissection and histological reporting of selected specimens, specifically non-neoplastic corneas. This study aimed to examine the reporting of corneal histology by a BMS training towards this diploma in comparison with a Consultant Ophthalmic Pathologist. This report covers a non-interventional, prospective examination of BMS's diagnostic skills. After 6 months training, 50 consecutive corneal cases were reported by the BMS and the same case reported by the consultant ophthalmic pathologist. The BMS's diagnosis was compared with the final consultant's diagnosis. This exercise was then repeated after 24 months of training. After 6 months, the BMS's diagnoses matched the consultant diagnoses in 44/50 (88%) cases. After 24 months, the BMS's diagnoses matched the consultant diagnoses in 48/50 (96%) of cases. The results indicate that BMS's reporting of corneal histology is a real and safe possibility. Furthermore, it indicated deficiencies in BMS's diagnostic skills to inform further training/knowledge acquisition.

The diversity of experimental organisms in biomedical research may be influenced by biomedical funding.

PubMed

Erick Peirson, B R; Kropp, Heather; Damerow, Julia; Laubichler, Manfred D

2017-05-01

Contrary to concerns of some critics, we present evidence that biomedical research is not dominated by a small handful of model organisms. An exhaustive analysis of research literature suggests that the diversity of experimental organisms in biomedical research has increased substantially since 1975. There has been a longstanding worry that organism-centric funding policies can lead to biases in experimental organism choice, and thus negatively impact the direction of research and the interpretation of results. Critics have argued that a focus on model organisms has unduly constrained the diversity of experimental organisms. The availability of large electronic databases of scientific literature, combined with interest in quantitative methods among philosophers of science, presents new opportunities for data-driven investigations into organism choice in biomedical research. The diversity of organisms used in NIH-funded research may be considerably lower than in the broader biomedical sciences, and may be subject to greater constraints on organism choice. © 2017 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

Rising Expectations: Access to Biomedical Information

PubMed Central

Lindberg, D. A. B.; Humphreys, B. L.

2008-01-01

Summary Objective To provide an overview of the expansion in public access to electronic biomedical information over the past two decades, with an emphasis on developments to which the U.S. National Library of Medicine contributed. Methods Review of the increasingly broad spectrum of web-accessible genomic data, biomedical literature, consumer health information, clinical trials data, and images. Results The amount of publicly available electronic biomedical information has increased dramatically over the past twenty years. Rising expectations regarding access to biomedical information were stimulated by the spread of the Internet, the World Wide Web, advanced searching and linking techniques. These informatics advances simplified and improved access to electronic information and reduced costs, which enabled inter-organizational collaborations to build and maintain large international information resources and also aided outreach and education efforts The demonstrated benefits of free access to electronic biomedical information encouraged the development of public policies that further increase the amount of information available. Conclusions Continuing rapid growth of publicly accessible electronic biomedical information presents tremendous opportunities and challenges, including the need to ensure uninterrupted access during disasters or emergencies and to manage digital resources so they remain available for future generations. PMID:18587496

Publishing priorities of biomedical research funders

PubMed Central

Collins, Ellen

2013-01-01

Objectives To understand the publishing priorities, especially in relation to open access, of 10 UK biomedical research funders. Design Semistructured interviews. Setting 10 UK biomedical research funders. Participants 12 employees with responsibility for research management at 10 UK biomedical research funders; a purposive sample to represent a range of backgrounds and organisation types. Conclusions Publicly funded and large biomedical research funders are committed to open access publishing and are pleased with recent developments which have stimulated growth in this area. Smaller charitable funders are supportive of the aims of open access, but are concerned about the practical implications for their budgets and their funded researchers. Across the board, biomedical research funders are turning their attention to other priorities for sharing research outputs, including data, protocols and negative results. Further work is required to understand how smaller funders, including charitable funders, can support open access. PMID:24154520

Hip and knee joint loading during vertical jumping and push jerking

PubMed Central

Cleather, Daniel J; Goodwin, Jon E; Bull, Anthony MJ

2014-01-01

Background The internal joint contact forces experienced at the lower limb have been frequently studied in activities of daily living and rehabilitation activities. In contrast, the forces experienced during more dynamic activities are not well understood, and those studies that do exist suggest very high degrees of joint loading. Methods In this study a biomechanical model of the right lower limb was used to calculate the internal joint forces experienced by the lower limb during vertical jumping, landing and push jerking (an explosive exercise derived from the sport of Olympic weightlifting), with a particular emphasis on the forces experienced by the knee. Findings The knee experienced mean peak loadings of 2.4-4.6 × body weight at the patellofemoral joint, 6.9-9.0 × body weight at the tibiofemoral joint, 0.3-1.4 × body weight anterior tibial shear and 1.0-3.1 × body weight posterior tibial shear. The hip experienced a mean peak loading of 5.5-8.4 × body weight and the ankle 8.9-10.0 × body weight. Interpretation The magnitudes of the total (resultant) joint contact forces at the patellofemoral joint, tibiofemoral joint and hip are greater than those reported in activities of daily living and less dynamic rehabilitation exercises. The information in this study is of importance for medical professionals, coaches and biomedical researchers in improving the understanding of acute and chronic injuries, understanding the performance of prosthetic implants and materials, evaluating the appropriateness of jumping and weightlifting for patient populations and informing the training programmes of healthy populations. PMID:23146164

Statistics in biomedical laboratory and clinical science: applications, issues and pitfalls.

PubMed

Ludbrook, John

2008-01-01

This review is directed at biomedical scientists who want to gain a better understanding of statistics: what tests to use, when, and why. In my view, even during the planning stage of a study it is very important to seek the advice of a qualified biostatistician. When designing and analyzing a study, it is important to construct and test global hypotheses, rather than to make multiple tests on the data. If the latter cannot be avoided, it is essential to control the risk of making false-positive inferences by applying multiple comparison procedures. For comparing two means or two proportions, it is best to use exact permutation tests rather then the better known, classical, ones. For comparing many means, analysis of variance, often of a complex type, is the most powerful approach. The correlation coefficient should never be used to compare the performances of two methods of measurement, or two measures, because it does not detect bias. Instead the Altman-Bland method of differences or least-products linear regression analysis should be preferred. Finally, the educational value to investigators of interaction with a biostatistician, before, during and after a study, cannot be overemphasized. (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel.

An Insufferable Business: Ethics, Nonhuman Animals and Biomedical Experiments.

PubMed

Peggs, Kay

2015-07-22

Each year millions of nonhuman animals suffer in biomedical experiments for human health benefits. Clinical ethics demand that nonhuman animals are used in the development of pharmaceuticals and vaccines. Nonhuman animals are also used for fundamental biomedical research. Biomedical research that uses nonhuman animals is big business but the financial gains are generally occluded. This paper explores how such research generates profits and gains for those associated with the industry. Research establishments, scientists, laboratories, companies that sell nonhuman animal subjects, that supply equipment for the research, and corporations that market the resulting products are among those that benefit financially. Given the complex articulation of ethical codes, enormous corporate profits that are secured and personal returns that are made, the accepted moral legitimacy of such experiments is compromised. In order to address this, within the confines of the moral orthodoxy, more could to be done to ensure transparency and to extricate the vested financial interests from the human health benefits. But such a determination would not address the fundamental issues that should be at the heart of human actions in respect of the nonhuman animals who are used in experiments. The paper concludes with such an address by calling for an end to the denigration of nonhuman animals as experimental subjects who can be used as commodities for profit-maximisation and as tools in experiments for human health benefits, and the implementation of a more inclusive ethic that is informed by universal concern about the suffering of and compassion for all oppressed beings.

[Ethics and biomedical research].

PubMed

Goussard, Christophe

2007-01-01

Ethics in biomedical research took off from the 1947 Nuremberg Code to its own right in the wake of the Declaration of Helsinki in 1964. Since then, (inter)national regulations and guidelines providing a framework for clinical studies and protection for study participants have been drafted and implemented, while ethics committees and drug evaluation agencies have sprung up throughout the world. These two developments were crucial in bringing about the protection of rights and safety of the participants and harmonization of the conduct of biomedical research. Ethics committees and drug evaluation agencies deliver ethical and scientific assessments on the quality and safety of the projects submitted to them and issue respectively approvals and authorizations to carry out clinical trials, while ensuring that they comply with regulatory requirements, ethical principles, and scientific guidelines. The advent of biomedical ethics, together with the responsible commitment of clinical investigators and of the pharmaceutical industry, has guaranteed respect for the patient, for whom and with whom research is conducted. Just as importantly, it has also ensured that patients reap the benefit of what is the primary objective of biomedical research: greater life expectancy, well-being, and quality of life.

Functionalized carbon nanotubes: biomedical applications

PubMed Central

Vardharajula, Sandhya; Ali, Sk Z; Tiwari, Pooja M; Eroğlu, Erdal; Vig, Komal; Dennis, Vida A; Singh, Shree R

2012-01-01

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are emerging as novel nanomaterials for various biomedical applications. CNTs can be used to deliver a variety of therapeutic agents, including biomolecules, to the target disease sites. In addition, their unparalleled optical and electrical properties make them excellent candidates for bioimaging and other biomedical applications. However, the high cytotoxicity of CNTs limits their use in humans and many biological systems. The biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity of CNTs are attributed to size, dose, duration, testing systems, and surface functionalization. The functionalization of CNTs improves their solubility and biocompatibility and alters their cellular interaction pathways, resulting in much-reduced cytotoxic effects. Functionalized CNTs are promising novel materials for a variety of biomedical applications. These potential applications are particularly enhanced by their ability to penetrate biological membranes with relatively low cytotoxicity. This review is directed towards the overview of CNTs and their functionalization for biomedical applications with minimal cytotoxicity. PMID:23091380

Functionalized carbon nanotubes: biomedical applications.

PubMed

Vardharajula, Sandhya; Ali, Sk Z; Tiwari, Pooja M; Eroğlu, Erdal; Vig, Komal; Dennis, Vida A; Singh, Shree R

2012-01-01

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are emerging as novel nanomaterials for various biomedical applications. CNTs can be used to deliver a variety of therapeutic agents, including biomolecules, to the target disease sites. In addition, their unparalleled optical and electrical properties make them excellent candidates for bioimaging and other biomedical applications. However, the high cytotoxicity of CNTs limits their use in humans and many biological systems. The biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity of CNTs are attributed to size, dose, duration, testing systems, and surface functionalization. The functionalization of CNTs improves their solubility and biocompatibility and alters their cellular interaction pathways, resulting in much-reduced cytotoxic effects. Functionalized CNTs are promising novel materials for a variety of biomedical applications. These potential applications are particularly enhanced by their ability to penetrate biological membranes with relatively low cytotoxicity. This review is directed towards the overview of CNTs and their functionalization for biomedical applications with minimal cytotoxicity.

Challenges facing academic research in commercializing event-detector implantable devices for an in-vivo biomedical subcutaneous device for biomedical analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juanola-Feliu, E.; Colomer-Farrarons, J.; Miribel-Català, P.; Samitier, J.; Valls-Pasola, J.

2011-05-01

It is widely recognized that the welfare of the most advanced economies is at risk, and that the only way to tackle this situation is by controlling the knowledge economies and dealing with. To achieve this ambitious goal, we need to improve the performance of each dimension in the "knowledge triangle": education, research and innovation. Indeed, recent findings point to the importance of strategies of adding-value and marketing during R+D processes so as to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the market and so ensure the successful commercialization of new technology-based products. Moreover, in a global economy in which conventional manufacturing is dominated by developing economies, the future of industry in the most advanced economies must rely on its ability to innovate in those high-tech activities that can offer a differential added-value, rather than on improving existing technologies and products. It seems quite clear, therefore, that the combination of health (medicine) and nanotechnology in a new biomedical device is very capable of meeting these requisites. This work propose a generic CMOS Front-End Self-Powered In-Vivo Implantable Biomedical Device, based on a threeelectrode amperometric biosensor approach, capable of detecting threshold values for targeted concentrations of pathogens, ions, oxygen concentration, etc. Given the speed with which diabetes can spread, as diabetes is the fastest growing disease in the world, the nano-enabled implantable device for in-vivo biomedical analysis needs to be introduced into the global diabetes care devices market. In the case of glucose monitoring, the detection of a threshold decrease in the glucose level it is mandatory to avoid critic situations like the hypoglycemia. Although the case study reported in this paper is complex because it involves multiple organizations and sources of data, it contributes to extend experience to the best practices and models on nanotechnology applications and

Professional Identification for Biomedical Engineers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Long, Francis M.

1973-01-01

Discusses four methods of professional identification in biomedical engineering including registration, certification, accreditation, and possible membership qualification of the societies. Indicates that the destiny of the biomedical engineer may be under the control of a new profession, neither the medical nor the engineering. (CC)

An exploration of the biomedical optics course construction of undergraduate biomedical engineering program in medical colleges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Shijun; Lyu, Jie; Zhang, Peiming

2017-08-01

In this paper, the teaching goals, teaching contents and teaching methods in biomedical optics course construction are discussed. From the dimension of teaching goals, students should master the principle of optical inspection on the human body, diagnosis and treatment of methodology and instruments, through the study of the theory and practice of this course, and can utilize biomedical optics methods to solve practical problems in the clinical medical engineering practice. From the dimension of teaching contents, based on the characteristics of biomedical engineering in medical colleges, the organic integration of engineering aspects, medical optical instruments, and biomedical aspects dispersed in human anatomy, human physiology, clinical medicine fundamental related to the biomedical optics is build. Noninvasive measurement of the human body composition and noninvasive optical imaging of the human body were taken as actual problems in biomedical optics fields. Typical medical applications such as eye optics and laser medicine were also integrated into the theory and practice teaching. From the dimension of teaching methods, referencing to organ-system based medical teaching mode, optical principle and instrument principle were taught by teachers from school of medical instruments, and the histological characteristics and clinical actual need in areas such as digestive diseases and urinary surgery were taught by teachers from school of basic medicine or clinical medicine of medical colleges. Furthermore, clinical application guidance would be provided by physician and surgeons in hospitals.

CNN-based ranking for biomedical entity normalization.

PubMed

Li, Haodi; Chen, Qingcai; Tang, Buzhou; Wang, Xiaolong; Xu, Hua; Wang, Baohua; Huang, Dong

2017-10-03

Most state-of-the-art biomedical entity normalization systems, such as rule-based systems, merely rely on morphological information of entity mentions, but rarely consider their semantic information. In this paper, we introduce a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture that regards biomedical entity normalization as a ranking problem and benefits from semantic information of biomedical entities. The CNN-based ranking method first generates candidates using handcrafted rules, and then ranks the candidates according to their semantic information modeled by CNN as well as their morphological information. Experiments on two benchmark datasets for biomedical entity normalization show that our proposed CNN-based ranking method outperforms traditional rule-based method with state-of-the-art performance. We propose a CNN architecture that regards biomedical entity normalization as a ranking problem. Comparison results show that semantic information is beneficial to biomedical entity normalization and can be well combined with morphological information in our CNN architecture for further improvement.

New Visiting Scholars Program at Frederick National Laboratory | Office of Cancer Clinical Proteomics Research

Cancer.gov

The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research is now accepting Expressions of Interest to its new Visiting Scholars Program (VSP). VSP is a unique opportunity for researchers to work on important cancer and AIDS projects with teams of scientists at the only federal national laboratory in the United States devoted exclusively to biomedical research.

Wireless powering and data telemetry for biomedical implants.

PubMed

Young, Darrin J

2009-01-01

Wireless powering and data telemetry techniques for two biomedical implant studies based on (1) wireless in vivo EMG sensor for intelligent prosthetic control and (2) adaptively RF powered implantable bio-sensing microsystem for real-time genetically engineered mice monitoring are presented. Inductive-coupling-based RF powering and passive data telemetry is effective for wireless in vivo EMG sensing, where the internal and external RF coils are positioned with a small separation distance and fixed orientation. Adaptively controlled RF powering and active data transmission are critical for mobile implant application such as real-time physiological monitoring of untethered laboratory animals. Animal implant studies have been successfully completed to demonstrate the wireless and batteryless in vivo sensing capabilities.

Current status of biomedical book reviewing. I. Key biomedical reviewing journals with quantitative significance.

PubMed

Chen, C C; Wright, A M

1974-04-01

This is the first part of a comprehensive, quantitative study of biomedical book reviewing. The data base of the total project was built from statistics taken from all 1970 issues of biomedical journals held in the Science Library of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Of 285 so-called "life sciences" journals held by that library, fifty-four English journals (excluding Science and Nature) were found to contain bona fide book reviews (as contrasted with mere author-title lists) and were therefore selected for close study. The statistical results reveal that there were 3,347 reviews of 2,067 biomedical books in these fifty-four selected journals in 1970. Part I of the study identifies key biomedical reviewing journals of quantitative significance. The top ten journals, British Medical Journal, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Archives of Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, Quarterly Review of Biology, Bioscience, Canadian Medical Association Journal,(*) and American Journal of the Medical Sciences, accounted for 63.03% of the total number of reviews in 1970.

[Biomedical engineering today : An overview from the viewpoint of the German Biomedical Engineering Society].

PubMed

Schlötelburg, C; Becks, T; Stieglitz, T

2010-08-01

Biomedical engineering is characterized by the interdisciplinary co-operation of technology, science, and ways of thinking, probably more than any other technological area. The close interaction of engineering and information sciences with medicine and biology results in innovative products and methods, but also requires high standards for the interdisciplinary transfer of ideas into products for patients' benefits. This article describes the situation of biomedical engineering in Germany. It displays characteristics of the medical device industry and ranks it with respect to the international market. The research landscape is described as well as up-to-date research topics and trends. The national funding situation of research in biomedical engineering is reviewed and existing innovation barriers are discussed.

Doing laboratory ethnography: reflections on method in scientific workplaces.

PubMed

Stephens, Neil; Lewis, Jamie

2017-04-01

Laboratory ethnography extended the social scientist's gaze into the day-to-day accomplishment of scientific practice. Here we reflect upon our own ethnographies of biomedical scientific workspaces to provoke methodological discussion on the doing of laboratory ethnography. What we provide is less a 'how to' guide and more a commentary on what to look for and what to look at. We draw upon our empirical research with stem cell laboratories and animal houses, teams producing robotic surgical tools, musicians sonifying data science, a psychiatric genetics laboratory, and scientists developing laboratory grown meat. We use these cases to example a set of potential ethnographic themes worthy of pursuit: science epistemics and the extended laboratory, the interaction order of scientific work, sensory realms and the rending of science as sensible, conferences as performative sites, and the spaces, places and temporalities of scientific work.

Special Issue: 3D Printing for Biomedical Engineering.

PubMed

Chua, Chee Kai; Yeong, Wai Yee; An, Jia

2017-02-28

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has a long history of applications in biomedical engineering. The development and expansion of traditional biomedical applications are being advanced and enriched by new printing technologies. New biomedical applications such as bioprinting are highly attractive and trendy. This Special Issue aims to provide readers with a glimpse of the recent profile of 3D printing in biomedical research.

Current trends for customized biomedical software tools.

PubMed

Khan, Haseeb Ahmad

2017-01-01

In the past, biomedical scientists were solely dependent on expensive commercial software packages for various applications. However, the advent of user-friendly programming languages and open source platforms has revolutionized the development of simple and efficient customized software tools for solving specific biomedical problems. Many of these tools are designed and developed by biomedical scientists independently or with the support of computer experts and often made freely available for the benefit of scientific community. The current trends for customized biomedical software tools are highlighted in this short review.

Commercial Biomedical Experiments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

Experiments to seek solutions for a range of biomedical issues are at the heart of several investigations that will be hosted by the Commercial Instrumentation Technology Associates (ITA), Inc. Biomedical Experiments (CIBX-2) payload. CIBX-2 is unique, encompassing more than 20 separate experiments including cancer research, commercial experiments, and student hands-on experiments from 10 schools as part of ITA's ongoing University Among the Stars program. Valerie Cassanto of ITA checks the Canadian Protein Crystallization Experiment (CAPE) carried by STS-86 to Mir in 1997. The experiments are sponsored by NASA's Space Product Development Program (SPD).

Energy - Sandia National Laboratories

Science.gov Websites

; Components Compatibility Hydrogen Behavior Quantitative Risk Assessment Technical Reference for Hydrogen Combustion jbei Facilities Algae Testbed Battery Abuse Testing Laboratory Center for Infrastructure Research and Innovation Combustion Research Facility Joint BioEnergy Institute Close Energy Research Programs

Life sciences payload definition and integration study. Volume 4: Appendix, costs, and data management requirements of the dedicated 30-day laboratory. [carry-on laboratory for Spacelab

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

The results of the updated 30-day life sciences dedicated laboratory scheduling and costing activities are documented, and the 'low cost' methodology used to establish individual equipment item costs is explained in terms of its allowances for equipment that is commerical off-the-shelf, modified commercial, and laboratory prototype; a method which significantly lowers program costs. The costs generated include estimates for non-recurring development, recurring production, and recurring operations costs. A cost for a biomedical emphasis laboratory and a Delta cost to provide a bioscience and technology laboratory were also generated. All cost reported are commensurate with the design and schedule definitions available.

Tackling the challenges of matching biomedical ontologies.

PubMed

Faria, Daniel; Pesquita, Catia; Mott, Isabela; Martins, Catarina; Couto, Francisco M; Cruz, Isabel F

2018-01-15

Biomedical ontologies pose several challenges to ontology matching due both to the complexity of the biomedical domain and to the characteristics of the ontologies themselves. The biomedical tracks in the Ontology Matching Evaluation Initiative (OAEI) have spurred the development of matching systems able to tackle these challenges, and benchmarked their general performance. In this study, we dissect the strategies employed by matching systems to tackle the challenges of matching biomedical ontologies and gauge the impact of the challenges themselves on matching performance, using the AgreementMakerLight (AML) system as the platform for this study. We demonstrate that the linear complexity of the hash-based searching strategy implemented by most state-of-the-art ontology matching systems is essential for matching large biomedical ontologies efficiently. We show that accounting for all lexical annotations (e.g., labels and synonyms) in biomedical ontologies leads to a substantial improvement in F-measure over using only the primary name, and that accounting for the reliability of different types of annotations generally also leads to a marked improvement. Finally, we show that cross-references are a reliable source of information and that, when using biomedical ontologies as background knowledge, it is generally more reliable to use them as mediators than to perform lexical expansion. We anticipate that translating traditional matching algorithms to the hash-based searching paradigm will be a critical direction for the future development of the field. Improving the evaluation carried out in the biomedical tracks of the OAEI will also be important, as without proper reference alignments there is only so much that can be ascertained about matching systems or strategies. Nevertheless, it is clear that, to tackle the various challenges posed by biomedical ontologies, ontology matching systems must be able to efficiently combine multiple strategies into a mature matching

EXACT2: the semantics of biomedical protocols

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The reliability and reproducibility of experimental procedures is a cornerstone of scientific practice. There is a pressing technological need for the better representation of biomedical protocols to enable other agents (human or machine) to better reproduce results. A framework that ensures that all information required for the replication of experimental protocols is essential to achieve reproducibility. Methods We have developed the ontology EXACT2 (EXperimental ACTions) that is designed to capture the full semantics of biomedical protocols required for their reproducibility. To construct EXACT2 we manually inspected hundreds of published and commercial biomedical protocols from several areas of biomedicine. After establishing a clear pattern for extracting the required information we utilized text-mining tools to translate the protocols into a machine amenable format. We have verified the utility of EXACT2 through the successful processing of previously 'unseen' (not used for the construction of EXACT2) protocols. Results The paper reports on a fundamentally new version EXACT2 that supports the semantically-defined representation of biomedical protocols. The ability of EXACT2 to capture the semantics of biomedical procedures was verified through a text mining use case. In this EXACT2 is used as a reference model for text mining tools to identify terms pertinent to experimental actions, and their properties, in biomedical protocols expressed in natural language. An EXACT2-based framework for the translation of biomedical protocols to a machine amenable format is proposed. Conclusions The EXACT2 ontology is sufficient to record, in a machine processable form, the essential information about biomedical protocols. EXACT2 defines explicit semantics of experimental actions, and can be used by various computer applications. It can serve as a reference model for for the translation of biomedical protocols in natural language into a semantically

How to locate & hire clinical/biomedical engineers, supervisors, managers & biomedical equipment technicians.

PubMed

Pacela, A F; Brush, L C

1993-01-01

This article has described the process and the resources available for locating and hiring clinical/biomedical engineers, supervisors, managers, and biomedical equipment technicians. First, the employer must determine the qualifications for the position, including job titles, descriptions, pay scales, and certification requirements. Next, the employer must find qualified applicants. The most common way to do this is to use "outside" contacts, such as help-wanted advertising, specialized job placement agencies, schools and colleges, military resources, regional biomedical societies, and nationwide societies. An "inside" search involves limited internal advertising of the position and using personal referrals for candidates. Finally, the employer must screen the applicants. The position description is the obvious first step in this process, but there are other pre-screening techniques, such as employment testing. Interviewing is the most common way to hire for job positions, but the interviewer needs to know about the position and ask the right questions. Post-interview screening is a final step to help determine the best job-person match.

Special Issue: 3D Printing for Biomedical Engineering

PubMed Central

Chua, Chee Kai; Yeong, Wai Yee; An, Jia

2017-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has a long history of applications in biomedical engineering. The development and expansion of traditional biomedical applications are being advanced and enriched by new printing technologies. New biomedical applications such as bioprinting are highly attractive and trendy. This Special Issue aims to provide readers with a glimpse of the recent profile of 3D printing in biomedical research. PMID:28772604

Titanium clip ball joint: a partial ossicular reconstruction prosthesis.

PubMed

Beutner, Dirk; Luers, Jan Christoffer; Bornitz, Matthias; Zahnert, Thomas; Huttenbrink, Karl-Bernd

2011-06-01

To describe a new titanium clip prosthesis for partial ossicular reconstruction with a micro ball joint in the headplate for compensation of tympanic membrane displacements. Laboratory experiments followed by 18 consecutive patients. A micro ball joint was implemented into a headplate of titanium middle ear prosthesis. First, the new prosthesis was tested in the laboratory in temporal bone experiments. Second, the new prosthesis was clinically installed in 18 patients. Results of laser Doppler vibrometry and force measurements in the laboratory experiments, analysis of a questionnaire, and preoperative and postoperative pure tone audiometry. The frictional resistance in the joint was measured to be 12 mN that should allow for adequate mobility under physiologic conditions. The effective sound transmission of the prosthesis was demonstrated by laser Doppler vibrometry. Intraoperatively, the installation of the prosthesis was always straightforward with headplate prosthesis shaft angles between 60 and 90 degrees. Postoperatively, pure tone audiometry revealed satisfying hearing results with a remaining average air-bone gap of 18.2 dB over the frequencies 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 Hz. No signs of prosthesis dislocation were discovered within the follow-up period of approximately 6 months. The experimental data show that the new modified prosthesis headplate fulfills the requirements necessary for sound transmission. The joint allows the plate to follow movements of the tympanic membrane. This characteristic in conjunction with the proven clip design ensure for optimal prosthesis placement and effectiveness.

Hip and knee joint loading during vertical jumping and push jerking.

PubMed

Cleather, Daniel J; Goodwin, Jon E; Bull, Anthony M J

2013-01-01

The internal joint contact forces experienced at the lower limb have been frequently studied in activities of daily living and rehabilitation activities. In contrast, the forces experienced during more dynamic activities are not well understood, and those studies that do exist suggest very high degrees of joint loading. In this study a biomechanical model of the right lower limb was used to calculate the internal joint forces experienced by the lower limb during vertical jumping, landing and push jerking (an explosive exercise derived from the sport of Olympic weightlifting), with a particular emphasis on the forces experienced by the knee. The knee experienced mean peak loadings of 2.4-4.6×body weight at the patellofemoral joint, 6.9-9.0×body weight at the tibiofemoral joint, 0.3-1.4×body weight anterior tibial shear and 1.0-3.1×body weight posterior tibial shear. The hip experienced a mean peak loading of 5.5-8.4×body weight and the ankle 8.9-10.0×body weight. The magnitudes of the total (resultant) joint contact forces at the patellofemoral joint, tibiofemoral joint and hip are greater than those reported in activities of daily living and less dynamic rehabilitation exercises. The information in this study is of importance for medical professionals, coaches and biomedical researchers in improving the understanding of acute and chronic injuries, understanding the performance of prosthetic implants and materials, evaluating the appropriateness of jumping and weightlifting for patient populations and informing the training programmes of healthy populations. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

RX for science literacy: The what, where, how, and why of health science research (A teacher`s manual about biomedical research)

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

Hoffman, K.S.

1994-12-31

When the North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research (NCABR) surveyed the state`s science teachers in March 1993, 92% of those responding requested information related to biomedical research. Most of the teachers requested lesson plans and activities designed to help them give students an accurate and balanced perspective on research. In response to that need, NCABR has recently completed production of a 300-page teacher`s manual that provides an overview of the biomedical research process and describes the role and care of animals in that process. Rx for Science Literacy incorporates background information, lesson plans, handouts and activities to assist teachers inmore » K-12 classrooms. Developed by a science teacher with assistance from science and education experts, the manual captures the complex biomedical research process in an easy-to-follow, easy-to-use format. In North Carolina, NCABR plans to begin these workshops in fall 1994. The workshops will include a tour of a biomedical research laboratory and on-site presentations by bench scientists. Teacher evaluation of the manual will be structured into the workshop program. The manual is available at cost to all interested individuals and organizations.« less

Boosting production yield of biomedical peptides

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Manatt, S. L.

1978-01-01

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique is employed to monitor synthesis of biomedical peptides. Application of NMR technique may improve production yields of insulin, ACTH, and growth hormones, as well as other synthesized biomedical peptides.

Outlook for Development of High-throughput Cryopreservation for Small-bodied Biomedical Model Fishes★

PubMed Central

Tiersch, Terrence R.; Yang, Huiping; Hu, E.

2011-01-01

With the development of genomic research technologies, comparative genome studies among vertebrate species are becoming commonplace for human biomedical research. Fish offer unlimited versatility for biomedical research. Extensive studies are done using these fish models, yielding tens of thousands of specific strains and lines, and the number is increasing every day. Thus, high-throughput sperm cryopreservation is urgently needed to preserve these genetic resources. Although high-throughput processing has been widely applied for sperm cryopreservation in livestock for decades, application in biomedical model fishes is still in the concept-development stage because of the limited sample volumes and the biological characteristics of fish sperm. High-throughput processing in livestock was developed based on advances made in the laboratory and was scaled up for increased processing speed, capability for mass production, and uniformity and quality assurance. Cryopreserved germplasm combined with high-throughput processing constitutes an independent industry encompassing animal breeding, preservation of genetic diversity, and medical research. Currently, there is no specifically engineered system available for high-throughput of cryopreserved germplasm for aquatic species. This review is to discuss the concepts and needs for high-throughput technology for model fishes, propose approaches for technical development, and overview future directions of this approach. PMID:21440666

Biomedical Knowledge and Clinical Expertise.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boshuizen, Henny P. A.; Schmidt, Henk G.

A study examined the application and availability of clinical and biomedical knowledge in the clinical reasoning of physicians as well as possible mechanisms responsible for changes in the organization of clinical and biomedical knowledge in the development from novice to expert. Subjects were 28 students (10 second year, 8 fourth year, and 10…

Elbow joint fatigue and bench-press training.

PubMed

Huang, Yen-Po; Chou, You-Li; Chen, Feng-Chun; Wang, Rong-Tyai; Huang, Ming-Jer; Chou, Paul Pei-Hsi

2014-01-01

Bench-press exercises are among the most common form of training exercise for the upper extremity because they yield a notable improvement in both muscle strength and muscle endurance. The literature contains various investigations into the effects of different bench-press positions on the degree of muscle activation. However, the effects of fatigue on the muscular performance and kinetics of the elbow joint are not understood fully. To investigate the effects of fatigue on the kinetics and myodynamic performance of the elbow joint in bench-press training. Controlled laboratory study. Motion research laboratory. A total of 18 physically healthy male students (age = 19.6 ± 0.8 years, height = 168.7 ± 5.5 cm, mass = 69.6 ± 8.6 kg) participated in the investigation. All participants were right-hand dominant, and none had a history of upper extremity injuries or disorders. Participants performed bench-press training until fatigued. Maximal possible number of repetitions, cycle time, myodynamic decline rate, elbow-joint force, and elbow-joint moment. We observed a difference in cycle time in the initial (2.1 ± 0.42 seconds) and fatigue (2.58 ± 0.46 seconds) stages of the bench-press exercise (P = .04). As the participants fatigued, we observed an increase in the medial-lateral force (P = .03) and internal-external moment (P ≤ .04) acting on the elbow joint. Moreover, a reduction in the elbow muscle strength was observed in the elbow extension-flexion (P ≤ .003) and forearm supination-pronation (P ≤ .001) conditions. The results suggest that performing bench-press exercises to the point of fatigue increases elbow-joint loading and may further increase the risk of injury. Therefore, when clinicians design bench-press exercise regimens for general athletic training, muscle strengthening, or physical rehabilitation, they should control carefully the maximal number of repetitions.

Design of Tribologically Enhanced Polymeric Materials for Biomedical Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osaheni, Allen O.

Anytime two surfaces are in normal contact, accompanied by tangential motion, there is potential for deterioration of one or both surfaces. Gradual wear, or the removal of surface material, is typically an undesirable event. Therefore, the need for lubrication arises to minimize the amount of shear stress that develops between opposing surfaces. This reduction in shear stress is characterized by the coefficient of friction (COF). Friction is one of the primary subjects of interest in tribology, the science of the friction and wear of articulating surfaces. A number of fascinating tribological systems can be found in nature. One example which has drawn a considerable interest is articular cartilage. This smooth white tissue lines the articulating surfaces of our joints and sustains a tremendous amount of stress while maintaining smooth joint motion and low COF. The low COF exhibited by articular cartilage is unmatched by any man-made material. The phenomenal tribological properties of this biphasic material are attributed to a combination of a unique boundary lubrication mechanism and its ability to support interstitial fluid pressurization. This dissertation details the synthesis and characterization of novel tribologically enhanced polymeric materials which show great potential for several biomedical applications. Design of these material relied on the use of biomimetic tribological mechanisms. The overarching characterization described in this investigation provides valuable insight into the physical and mechanical characteristics of these unique materials.

The SWAN biomedical discourse ontology.

PubMed

Ciccarese, Paolo; Wu, Elizabeth; Wong, Gwen; Ocana, Marco; Kinoshita, June; Ruttenberg, Alan; Clark, Tim

2008-10-01

Developing cures for highly complex diseases, such as neurodegenerative disorders, requires extensive interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange of biomedical information in context. Our ability to exchange such information across sub-specialties today is limited by the current scientific knowledge ecosystem's inability to properly contextualize and integrate data and discourse in machine-interpretable form. This inherently limits the productivity of research and the progress toward cures for devastating diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. SWAN (Semantic Web Applications in Neuromedicine) is an interdisciplinary project to develop a practical, common, semantically structured, framework for biomedical discourse initially applied, but not limited, to significant problems in Alzheimer Disease (AD) research. The SWAN ontology has been developed in the context of building a series of applications for biomedical researchers, as well as in extensive discussions and collaborations with the larger bio-ontologies community. In this paper, we present and discuss the SWAN ontology of biomedical discourse. We ground its development theoretically, present its design approach, explain its main classes and their application, and show its relationship to other ongoing activities in biomedicine and bio-ontologies.

Biomedical technology in Franconia.

PubMed

Efferth, T

2000-01-01

Medical instrumentation and biotechnology business is developing rapidly in Franconia. The universities of Bayreuth, Erlangen-Nürnberg, and Würzburg hold upper ranks in biomedical extramural funding research. They have a high competence in biomedical research, medical instrumentation, and biotechnology. The association "BioMedTec Franken e.V" has been founded at the beginning of 1999 both to foster the information exchange between universities, industry and politics and to facilitate the establishment of biomedical companies by means of science parks. In the IGZ (Innovation and Foundation Center Nürnberg-Fürth-Erlangen) 4,500 square meters of space are currently shared by 19 novel companies. Since 1985 60 companies in the IGZ had a total turnover of about 74 Mio Euro. The TGZ (Technologie- und Gründerzentrum) in Würzburg provides space for 11 companies. For the specific needs of biomedical technology companies further science parks will be set up in the near future. A science park for medical instrumentation will be founded in Erlangen (IZMP, Innovations- und Gründerzentrum für Medizintechnik und Pharma in der Region Nürnberg, Fürch, Erlangen). Furthermore, a Biomedical Technology Center and a Research Center for Bicompatible Materials are to be founded in Würzburg and Bayreuth, respectively. Several communication platforms (Bayern Innovativ, FORWISS, FTT, KIM, N-TEC-VISIT, TBU, WETTI etc.) allow the transfer of local academic research activities to industrial utilization and open new co-operation possibilities. International pharmaceutical companies (Novartis, Nürnberg; Pharmacia Upjohn, Erlangen) are located in Franconia. Central Franconia represents a national focus for medical instrumentation. The Erlangen settlement of the Medical Engineering Section of Siemens employs 4,500 people including approximately 1,000 employees in the Siemens research center.

Biomedical Publishing and the Internet

PubMed Central

Jacobson, Michael W.

2000-01-01

The Internet is challenging traditional publishing patterns. In the biomedical domain, medical journals are providing more and more content online, both free and for a fee. Beyond this, however, a number of commentators believe that traditional notions of copyright and intellectual property ownership are no longer suited to the information age and that ownership of copyright to research reports should be and will be wrested from publishers and returned to authors. In this paper, it is argued that, although the Internet will indeed profoundly affect the distribution of biomedical research results, the biomedical publishing industry is too intertwined with the research establishment and too powerful to fall prey to such a copyright revolution. PMID:10833159

National Space Biomedical Research Institute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

In June 1996, NASA released a Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) inviting proposals to establish a National Space Biomedical Research Institute (9-CAN-96-01). This CAN stated that: The Mission of the Institute will be to lead a National effort for accomplishing the integrated, critical path, biomedical research necessary to support the long term human presence, development, and exploration of space and to enhance life on Earth by applying the resultant advances in human knowledge and technology acquired through living and working in space. The Institute will be the focal point of NASA sponsored space biomedical research. This statement has not been amended by NASA and remains the mission of the NSBRI.

For 481 biomedical open access journals, articles are not searchable in the Directory of Open Access Journals nor in conventional biomedical databases

PubMed Central

Andresen, Kristoffer; Pommergaard, Hans-Christian; Rosenberg, Jacob

2015-01-01

Background. Open access (OA) journals allows access to research papers free of charge to the reader. Traditionally, biomedical researchers use databases like MEDLINE and EMBASE to discover new advances. However, biomedical OA journals might not fulfill such databases’ criteria, hindering dissemination. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database exclusively listing OA journals. The aim of this study was to investigate DOAJ’s coverage of biomedical OA journals compared with the conventional biomedical databases. Methods. Information on all journals listed in four conventional biomedical databases (MEDLINE, PubMed Central, EMBASE and SCOPUS) and DOAJ were gathered. Journals were included if they were (1) actively publishing, (2) full OA, (3) prospectively indexed in one or more database, and (4) of biomedical subject. Impact factor and journal language were also collected. DOAJ was compared with conventional databases regarding the proportion of journals covered, along with their impact factor and publishing language. The proportion of journals with articles indexed by DOAJ was determined. Results. In total, 3,236 biomedical OA journals were included in the study. Of the included journals, 86.7% were listed in DOAJ. Combined, the conventional biomedical databases listed 75.0% of the journals; 18.7% in MEDLINE; 36.5% in PubMed Central; 51.5% in SCOPUS and 50.6% in EMBASE. Of the journals in DOAJ, 88.7% published in English and 20.6% had received impact factor for 2012 compared with 93.5% and 26.0%, respectively, for journals in the conventional biomedical databases. A subset of 51.1% and 48.5% of the journals in DOAJ had articles indexed from 2012 and 2013, respectively. Of journals exclusively listed in DOAJ, one journal had received an impact factor for 2012, and 59.6% of the journals had no content from 2013 indexed in DOAJ. Conclusions. DOAJ is the most complete registry of biomedical OA journals compared with five conventional biomedical

For 481 biomedical open access journals, articles are not searchable in the Directory of Open Access Journals nor in conventional biomedical databases.

PubMed

Liljekvist, Mads Svane; Andresen, Kristoffer; Pommergaard, Hans-Christian; Rosenberg, Jacob

2015-01-01

Background. Open access (OA) journals allows access to research papers free of charge to the reader. Traditionally, biomedical researchers use databases like MEDLINE and EMBASE to discover new advances. However, biomedical OA journals might not fulfill such databases' criteria, hindering dissemination. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database exclusively listing OA journals. The aim of this study was to investigate DOAJ's coverage of biomedical OA journals compared with the conventional biomedical databases. Methods. Information on all journals listed in four conventional biomedical databases (MEDLINE, PubMed Central, EMBASE and SCOPUS) and DOAJ were gathered. Journals were included if they were (1) actively publishing, (2) full OA, (3) prospectively indexed in one or more database, and (4) of biomedical subject. Impact factor and journal language were also collected. DOAJ was compared with conventional databases regarding the proportion of journals covered, along with their impact factor and publishing language. The proportion of journals with articles indexed by DOAJ was determined. Results. In total, 3,236 biomedical OA journals were included in the study. Of the included journals, 86.7% were listed in DOAJ. Combined, the conventional biomedical databases listed 75.0% of the journals; 18.7% in MEDLINE; 36.5% in PubMed Central; 51.5% in SCOPUS and 50.6% in EMBASE. Of the journals in DOAJ, 88.7% published in English and 20.6% had received impact factor for 2012 compared with 93.5% and 26.0%, respectively, for journals in the conventional biomedical databases. A subset of 51.1% and 48.5% of the journals in DOAJ had articles indexed from 2012 and 2013, respectively. Of journals exclusively listed in DOAJ, one journal had received an impact factor for 2012, and 59.6% of the journals had no content from 2013 indexed in DOAJ. Conclusions. DOAJ is the most complete registry of biomedical OA journals compared with five conventional biomedical databases

Durability of building joint sealants

Treesearch

Christopher C. White; Kar Tean Tan; Donald L. Hunston; R. Sam Williams

2009-01-01

Predicting the service life of building joint sealants exposed to service environments in less than real time has been a need of the sealant community for many decades. Despite extensive research efforts to design laboratory accelerated tests to duplicate the failure modes occurring in field exposures, little success has been achieved using conventional durability...

Laboratory animal science: a resource to improve the quality of science.

PubMed

Forni, M

2007-08-01

The contribution of animal experimentation to biomedical research is of undoubted value, nevertheless the real usefulness of animal models is still being hotly debated. Laboratory Animal Science is a multidisciplinary approach to humane animal experimentation that allows the choice of the correct animal model and the collection of unbiased data. Refinement, Reduction and Replacement, the "3Rs rule", are now widely accepted and have a major influence on animal experimentation procedures. Refinement, namely any decrease in the incidence or severity of inhumane procedures applied to animals, has been today extended to the entire lives of the experimental animals. Reduction of the number of animals used to obtain statistically significant data may be achieved by improving experimental design and statistical analysis of data. Replacement refers to the development of validated alternative methods. A Laboratory Animal Science training program in biomedical degrees can promote the 3Rs and improve the welfare of laboratory animals as well as the quality of science with ethical, scientific and economic advantages complying with the European requirement that "persons who carry out, take part in, or supervise procedures on animals, or take care of animals used in procedures, shall have had appropriate education and training".

Joint Services Electronics Program.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-05-01

STATEMMEN A Approved for public release, COD Distribution Unlimited.99 Joint Services Electronics Program* _-ANNUAL PROGRESS RP O. 93) 7 / Covering Period...and the temperature dependence of that (dispersive transport) trap limited mobility has shown interesting new effects. Publications of the Research...Low-Cost Laboratory Computer Interface System," (Scheduled for publication May, 1980, Review ot Scinti’i3 Instruments). | i III. INFORMATION

Doing laboratory ethnography: reflections on method in scientific workplaces

PubMed Central

Stephens, Neil; Lewis, Jamie

2017-01-01

Laboratory ethnography extended the social scientist’s gaze into the day-to-day accomplishment of scientific practice. Here we reflect upon our own ethnographies of biomedical scientific workspaces to provoke methodological discussion on the doing of laboratory ethnography. What we provide is less a ‘how to’ guide and more a commentary on what to look for and what to look at. We draw upon our empirical research with stem cell laboratories and animal houses, teams producing robotic surgical tools, musicians sonifying data science, a psychiatric genetics laboratory, and scientists developing laboratory grown meat. We use these cases to example a set of potential ethnographic themes worthy of pursuit: science epistemics and the extended laboratory, the interaction order of scientific work, sensory realms and the rending of science as sensible, conferences as performative sites, and the spaces, places and temporalities of scientific work. PMID:28546784

Current Status of Biomedical Book Reviewing: Part I. Key Biomedical Reviewing Journals with Quantitative Significance

PubMed Central

Chen, Ching-Chih; Wright, Arthuree M.

1974-01-01

This is the first part of a comprehensive, quantitative study of biomedical book reviewing. The data base of the total project was built from statistics taken from all 1970 issues of biomedical journals held in the Science Library of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Of 285 so-called “life sciences” journals held by that library, fifty-four English journals (excluding Science and Nature) were found to contain bona fide book reviews (as contrasted with mere author-title lists) and were therefore selected for close study. The statistical results reveal that there were 3,347 reviews of 2,067 biomedical books in these fifty-four selected journals in 1970. Part I of the study identifies key biomedical reviewing journals of quantitative significance. The top ten journals, British Medical Journal, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Archives of Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, Quarterly Review of Biology, Bioscience, Canadian Medical Association Journal,* and American Journal of the Medical Sciences, accounted for 63.03% of the total number of reviews in 1970. PMID:4826479

Nanomaterials and nanofabrication for biomedical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Chao-Min; Chia-Wen Wu, Kevin

2013-08-01

Traditional boundaries between materials science and engineering and life sciences are rapidly disintegrating as interdisciplinary research teams develop new materials-science-based tools for exploring fundamental issues in both medicine and biology. With recent technological advances in multiple research fields such as materials science, cell and molecular biology and micro-/nano-technology, much attention is shifting toward evaluating the functional advantages of nanomaterials and nanofabrication, at the cellular and molecular levels, for specific, biomedically relevant applications. The pursuit of this direction enhances the understanding of the mechanisms of, and therapeutic potentials for, some of the most lethal diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, organ fibrosis and cancers. This interdisciplinary approach has generated great interest among researchers working in a wide variety of communities including industry, universities and research laboratories. The purpose of this focus issue in Science and Technology of Advanced Materials is to bridge nanotechnology and biology with medicine, focusing more on the applications of nanomaterials and nanofabrication in biomedically relevant issues. This focus issue, we believe, will provide a more comprehensive understanding of (i) the preparation of nanomaterials and the underlying mechanisms of nanofabrication, and (ii) the linkage of nanomaterials and nanofabrication with biomedical applications. The multidisciplinary focus issue that we have attempted to organize is of interest to various research fields including biomaterials and tissue engineering, bioengineering, nanotechnology and nanomaterials, i.e. chemistry, physics and engineering. Nanomaterials and nanofabrication topics addressed in this focus issue include sensing and diagnosis (e.g. immunosensing and diagnostic devices for diseases), cellular and molecular biology (e.g. probing cellular behaviors and stem cell differentiation) and drug delivery

Joint scale-change models for recurrent events and failure time.

PubMed

Xu, Gongjun; Chiou, Sy Han; Huang, Chiung-Yu; Wang, Mei-Cheng; Yan, Jun

2017-01-01

Recurrent event data arise frequently in various fields such as biomedical sciences, public health, engineering, and social sciences. In many instances, the observation of the recurrent event process can be stopped by the occurrence of a correlated failure event, such as treatment failure and death. In this article, we propose a joint scale-change model for the recurrent event process and the failure time, where a shared frailty variable is used to model the association between the two types of outcomes. In contrast to the popular Cox-type joint modeling approaches, the regression parameters in the proposed joint scale-change model have marginal interpretations. The proposed approach is robust in the sense that no parametric assumption is imposed on the distribution of the unobserved frailty and that we do not need the strong Poisson-type assumption for the recurrent event process. We establish consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed semiparametric estimators under suitable regularity conditions. To estimate the corresponding variances of the estimators, we develop a computationally efficient resampling-based procedure. Simulation studies and an analysis of hospitalization data from the Danish Psychiatric Central Register illustrate the performance of the proposed method.

Enhancing biomedical design with design thinking.

PubMed

Kemnitzer, Ronald; Dorsa, Ed

2009-01-01

The development of biomedical equipment is justifiably focused on making products that "work." However, this approach leaves many of the people affected by these designs (operators, patients, etc.) with little or no representation when it comes to the design of these products. Industrial design is a "user focused" profession which takes into account the needs of diverse groups when making design decisions. The authors propose that biomedical equipment design can be enhanced, made more user and patient "friendly" by adopting the industrial design approach to researching, analyzing, and ultimately designing biomedical products.

The development of biomedical engineering as experienced by one biomedical engineer

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

This personal essay described the development of the field of Biomedical Engineering from its early days, from the perspective of one who lived through that development. It describes the making of a major invention using data that had been rejected by other scientists, the re-discovery of an obscure fact of physiology and its use in developing a major medical instrument, the development of a new medical imaging modality, and the near-death rescue of a research project. The essay concludes with comments about the development and present status of impedance imaging, and recent changes in the evolution of biomedical engineering as a field. PMID:23234267

The development of biomedical engineering as experienced by one biomedical engineer.

PubMed

Newell, Jonathan C

2012-12-12

This personal essay described the development of the field of Biomedical Engineering from its early days, from the perspective of one who lived through that development. It describes the making of a major invention using data that had been rejected by other scientists, the re-discovery of an obscure fact of physiology and its use in developing a major medical instrument, the development of a new medical imaging modality, and the near-death rescue of a research project. The essay concludes with comments about the development and present status of impedance imaging, and recent changes in the evolution of biomedical engineering as a field.

Strength of Welded Joints in Tubular Members for Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whittemore, H L; Brueggeman, W C

1931-01-01

The object of this investigation is to make available to the aircraft industry authoritative information on the strength, weight, and cost of a number of types of welded joints. This information will, also, assist the aeronautics branch in its work of licensing planes by providing data from which the strength of a given joint may be estimated. As very little material on the strength of aircraft welds has been published, it is believed that such tests made by a disinterested governmental laboratory should be of considerable value to the aircraft industry. Forty joints were welded under procedure specifications and tested to determine their strengths. The weight and time required to fabricate were also measured for each joint.

[French biomedical competitiveness clusters: opportunities for public-private partnerships].

PubMed

Vasmant, Daniel

2009-12-01

A "competitive cluster" is a partnership between businesses, research units and training centers, working together to generate synergies for innovative projects in a particular geographic area. Since 2005, the first five calls for cluster projects have led to the funding of 645 R&D projects involving 13,000 researchers. Together, the R&D expenditure of these projects has so far totaled nearly Euro 3.6 billion. This included public funding of Euro 1300 million, Euro 840 million of which was provided by central government. In the biomedical field, 80 R&D projects have been funded to the tune of Euro 140 million (Euro 81 million from central government and Euro 59 million from local government). A total of 288 agreements have been signed, 12% with large companies, 36% with SMEs and 49.8% with public research laboratories. Alongside the more classical biomedical research funding sources, such as the National Research Agency and government-sponsored projects (on cancer, Alzheimer's disease, rare diseases, etc.), competitive clusters provide the impetus for profound changes in research culture. They draw on the principle of professional guidance and public-private partnerships to build a bridge between the "academic" and "industrial" research arenas. By facilitating knowledge generation and sharing, competitive clusters create a climate of action-driven mutual respect and trust.

Graduate program in biomedical communication.

PubMed

Ryan, S M

1969-10-01

The need for harnessing the achievements of communication technology to the burgeoning mass of biomedical information is critical. Recognizing this problem and aware of the short supply of professionals with the skills necessary for the job, a group of leaders from the fields of medicine and communications formed a consortium in 1967 and have developed a twelve month graduate program in biomedical communication. Designed to ground the advanced student in the development and administration of biomedical communication programs, the curriculum focuses on the principles and practice of communication and the development of communications media. Courses are given in the control and communication of information; the printed and spoken word; visual media of photographic arts, television, and motion pictures; computer science; and administration and systems analysis.

Graduate Program in Biomedical Communication *

PubMed Central

Ryan, Susan M.

1969-01-01

The need for harnessing the achievements of communication technology to the burgeoning mass of biomedical information is critical. Recognizing this problem and aware of the short supply of professionals with the skills necessary for the job, a group of leaders from the fields of medicine and communications formed a consortium in 1967 and have developed a twelve month graduate program in biomedical communication. Designed to ground the advanced student in the development and administration of biomedical communication programs, the curriculum focuses on the principles and practice of communication and the development of communications media. Courses are given in the control and communication of information; the printed and spoken word; visual media of photographic arts, television, and motion pictures; computer science; and administration and systems analysis. PMID:5823505

An evaluative conservative case for biomedical enhancement.

PubMed

Danaher, John

2016-09-01

It is widely believed that a conservative moral outlook is opposed to biomedical forms of human enhancement. In this paper, I argue that this widespread belief is incorrect. Using Cohen's evaluative conservatism as my starting point, I argue that there are strong conservative reasons to prioritise the development of biomedical enhancements. In particular, I suggest that biomedical enhancement may be essential if we are to maintain our current evaluative equilibrium (ie, the set of values that undergird and permeate our current political, economic and personal lives) against the threats to that equilibrium posed by external, non-biomedical forms of enhancement. I defend this view against modest conservatives who insist that biomedical enhancements pose a greater risk to our current evaluative equilibrium, and against those who see no principled distinction between the forms of human enhancement. 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/

Relational Databases and Biomedical Big Data.

PubMed

de Silva, N H Nisansa D

2017-01-01

In various biomedical applications that collect, handle, and manipulate data, the amounts of data tend to build up and venture into the range identified as bigdata. In such occurrences, a design decision has to be taken as to what type of database would be used to handle this data. More often than not, the default and classical solution to this in the biomedical domain according to past research is relational databases. While this used to be the norm for a long while, it is evident that there is a trend to move away from relational databases in favor of other types and paradigms of databases. However, it still has paramount importance to understand the interrelation that exists between biomedical big data and relational databases. This chapter will review the pros and cons of using relational databases to store biomedical big data that previous researches have discussed and used.

Optimizing biomedical science learning in a veterinary curriculum: a review.

PubMed

Warren, Amy L; Donnon, Tyrone

2013-01-01

As veterinary medical curricula evolve, the time dedicated to biomedical science teaching, as well as the role of biomedical science knowledge in veterinary education, has been scrutinized. Aside from being mandated by accrediting bodies, biomedical science knowledge plays an important role in developing clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic reasoning skills in the application of clinical skills, in supporting evidence-based veterinary practice and life-long learning, and in advancing biomedical knowledge and comparative medicine. With an increasing volume and fast pace of change in biomedical knowledge, as well as increased demands on curricular time, there has been pressure to make biomedical science education efficient and relevant for veterinary medicine. This has lead to a shift in biomedical education from fact-based, teacher-centered and discipline-based teaching to applicable, student-centered, integrated teaching. This movement is supported by adult learning theories and is thought to enhance students' transference of biomedical science into their clinical practice. The importance of biomedical science in veterinary education and the theories of biomedical science learning will be discussed in this article. In addition, we will explore current advances in biomedical teaching methodologies that are aimed to maximize knowledge retention and application for clinical veterinary training and practice.

Laboratory Tests for Diagnosis of Chronic Periprosthetic Joint Infection Can Help Predict Outcomes of Two-Stage Exchange.

PubMed

Dwyer, Maureen K; Damsgaard, Christopher; Wadibia, Jason; Wong, Gordon; Lazar, Damien; Smith, Eric; Talmo, Carl; Bedair, Hany

2018-06-20

Although 2-stage exchange arthroplasty is the most effective treatment among available strategies for managing chronic periprosthetic joint infection (PJI), rates of its success vary greatly. The purpose of our study was to examine whether objective measurements collected at the time of the diagnosis of PJI could be used to identify patients at risk of failure of 2-stage exchange. We identified 205 patients across 4 institutions who underwent 2-stage exchange arthroplasty for the treatment of PJI following total hip or total knee arthroplasty. Demographic, surgical, and laboratory data were obtained for each patient from their medical chart. Laboratory values included serum erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level, synovial fluid white blood-cell (WBC) count and neutrophil percentage, synovial fluid and/or tissue culture, and Gram stain. Patients who underwent revision surgery for recurrent infection were considered to have failed the 2-stage procedure. Demographic, surgical, and laboratory variables were compared between the 2 groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to determine threshold cutoffs for significant laboratory values. Risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Overall, 2-stage exchange was unsuccessful for 27.3% of the patients. Preoperative serum ESR (p = 0.035) and synovial fluid WBC count (p = 0.008) and neutrophil percentage (p = 0.041) were greater in patients with recurrent infection. ROC curve analysis revealed a threshold of >60,000 cells/μL for synovial fluid WBC count, >92% for synovial fluid WBC neutrophil percentage, and >99 mm/hr for serum ESR. Failure of 2-stage exchange was 2.5 times more likely for patients with an elevated preoperative synovial fluid WBC count, 2.0 times more likely for those with an elevated preoperative synovial fluid WBC neutrophil percentage, and 1.8 times more likely for those with an elevated preoperative serum ESR. Our results

Industry careers for the biomedical engineer.

PubMed

Munzner, Robert F

2004-01-01

This year's conference theme is "linkages for innovation in biomedicine." Biomedical engineers, especially those transitioning their career from academic study into medical device industry, will play a critical role in converting the fruits of scientific research into the reality of modern medical devices. This special session is organized to help biomedical engineers to achieve their career goals more effectively. Participants will have opportunities to hear from and interact with leading industrial experts on many issues. These may include but not limited to 1) career paths for biomedical engineers (industrial, academic, or federal; technical vs. managerial track; small start-up or large established companies); 2) unique design challenges and regulatory requirements in medical device development; 3) aspects of a successful biomedical engineering job candidate (such as resume, interview, follow-up). Suggestions for other topics are welcome and should be directed to xkong@ieee.org The distinguished panelists include: Xuan Kong, Ph.D., VP of Research, NEUROMetrix Inc, Waltham, MA Robert F. Munzner, Ph.D., Medical Device Consultant, Doctor Device, Herndon, VA Glen McLaughlin, Ph.D., VP of Engineering and CTO, Zonare Medical System Inc., Mountain View, CA Grace Bartoo, Ph.D., RAC, General Manager, Decus Biomedical LLC San Carlos, CA.

Simbody: multibody dynamics for biomedical research.

PubMed

Sherman, Michael A; Seth, Ajay; Delp, Scott L

Multibody software designed for mechanical engineering has been successfully employed in biomedical research for many years. For real time operation some biomedical researchers have also adapted game physics engines. However, these tools were built for other purposes and do not fully address the needs of biomedical researchers using them to analyze the dynamics of biological structures and make clinically meaningful recommendations. We are addressing this problem through the development of an open source, extensible, high performance toolkit including a multibody mechanics library aimed at the needs of biomedical researchers. The resulting code, Simbody, supports research in a variety of fields including neuromuscular, prosthetic, and biomolecular simulation, and related research such as biologically-inspired design and control of humanoid robots and avatars. Simbody is the dynamics engine behind OpenSim, a widely used biomechanics simulation application. This article reviews issues that arise uniquely in biomedical research, and reports on the architecture, theory, and computational methods Simbody uses to address them. By addressing these needs explicitly Simbody provides a better match to the needs of researchers than can be obtained by adaptation of mechanical engineering or gaming codes. Simbody is a community resource, free for any purpose. We encourage wide adoption and invite contributions to the code base at https://simtk.org/home/simbody.

Integrating Internet Assignments into a Biochemistry/Molecular Biology Laboratory Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaspar, Roger L.

2002-01-01

A main challenge in educating undergraduate students is to introduce them to the Internet and to teach them how to effectively use it in research. To this end, an Internet assignment was developed that introduces students to websites related to biomedical research at the beginning of a biochemistry/molecular biology laboratory course. The basic…

Ethics in biomedical engineering.

PubMed

Morsy, Ahmed; Flexman, Jennifer

2008-01-01

This session focuses on a number of aspects of the subject of Ethics in Biomedical Engineering. The session starts by providing a case study of a company that manufactures artificial heart valves where the valves were failing at an unexpected rate. The case study focuses on Biomedical Engineers working at the company and how their education and training did not prepare them to deal properly with such situation. The second part of the session highlights the need to learn about various ethics rules and policies regulating research involving human or animal subjects.

A biomedical engineer's library.

PubMed

Webster, J G

1982-01-01

A survey resulted in a list of the 101 textbooks used by 62 biomedical engineering educational programs. A second list shows the textbooks used by each school. A third list shows the 27 textbooks used at two or more schools and the number of times each is used. This selected compilation should be useful to (a) biomedical engineering curriculum committees considering program revision, (b) teachers considering course revision, (c) university and industrial librarians updating their collections, (d) individuals building a personal library, and (e) students desiring information about the emphasis of various educational programs.

Biomedical and development paradigms in AIDS prevention.

PubMed Central

Wolffers, I.

2000-01-01

In the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic different approaches can be distinguished, reflecting professional backgrounds, world views and political interests. One important distinction is between the biomedical and the development paradigms. The biomedical paradigm is characterized by individualization and the concept of "risk". This again is related to the concept of the market where health is a product of services and progress a series of new discoveries that can be marketed. The development paradigm is characterized by participation of the different stakeholders and by community work. The concept "vulnerability" is important in the development paradigm and emphasis is placed on efforts to decrease this vulnerability in a variety of sustainable ways. Biomedical technology is definitely one of the tools in these efforts. In the beginning of the pandemic the biomedical approach was important for the discovery of the virus and understanding its epidemiology. Later, stakeholders became involved. In the light of absence of treatment or vaccines, the development paradigm became more important and the two approaches were more in balance. However, since the reports about effective treatment of AIDS and hope of development of vaccines, the biomedical paradigm has become a leading principle in many HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. There is a need for a better balance between the two paradigms. Especially in developing countries, where it is not realistic to think that sustainable biomedical interventions can be organized on a short-term basis, it would be counterproductive to base our efforts to deal with HIV/AIDS exclusively on the biomedical approach. PMID:10743300

Constraint reasoning in deep biomedical models.

PubMed

Cruz, Jorge; Barahona, Pedro

2005-05-01

Deep biomedical models are often expressed by means of differential equations. Despite their expressive power, they are difficult to reason about and make decisions, given their non-linearity and the important effects that the uncertainty on data may cause. The objective of this work is to propose a constraint reasoning framework to support safe decisions based on deep biomedical models. The methods used in our approach include the generic constraint propagation techniques for reducing the bounds of uncertainty of the numerical variables complemented with new constraint reasoning techniques that we developed to handle differential equations. The results of our approach are illustrated in biomedical models for the diagnosis of diabetes, tuning of drug design and epidemiology where it was a valuable decision-supporting tool notwithstanding the uncertainty on data. The main conclusion that follows from the results is that, in biomedical decision support, constraint reasoning may be a worthwhile alternative to traditional simulation methods, especially when safe decisions are required.

Black Phosphorus and its Biomedical Applications

PubMed Central

Choi, Jane Ru; Yong, Kar Wey; Choi, Jean Yu; Nilghaz, Azadeh; Lin, Yang; Xu, Jie; Lu, Xiaonan

2018-01-01

Black phosphorus (BP), also known as phosphorene, has attracted recent scientific attention since its first successful exfoliation in 2014 owing to its unique structure and properties. In particular, its exceptional attributes, such as the excellent optical and mechanical properties, electrical conductivity and electron-transfer capacity, contribute to its increasing demand as an alternative to graphene-based materials in biomedical applications. Although the outlook of this material seems promising, its practical applications are still highly challenging. In this review article, we discuss the unique properties of BP, which make it a potential platform for biomedical applications compared to other 2D materials, including graphene, molybdenum disulphide (MoS2), tungsten diselenide (WSe2) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). We then introduce various synthesis methods of BP and review its latest progress in biomedical applications, such as biosensing, drug delivery, photoacoustic imaging and cancer therapies (i.e., photothermal and photodynamic therapies). Lastly, the existing challenges and future perspective of BP in biomedical applications are briefly discussed. PMID:29463996

KaBOB: ontology-based semantic integration of biomedical databases.

PubMed

Livingston, Kevin M; Bada, Michael; Baumgartner, William A; Hunter, Lawrence E

2015-04-23

The ability to query many independent biological databases using a common ontology-based semantic model would facilitate deeper integration and more effective utilization of these diverse and rapidly growing resources. Despite ongoing work moving toward shared data formats and linked identifiers, significant problems persist in semantic data integration in order to establish shared identity and shared meaning across heterogeneous biomedical data sources. We present five processes for semantic data integration that, when applied collectively, solve seven key problems. These processes include making explicit the differences between biomedical concepts and database records, aggregating sets of identifiers denoting the same biomedical concepts across data sources, and using declaratively represented forward-chaining rules to take information that is variably represented in source databases and integrating it into a consistent biomedical representation. We demonstrate these processes and solutions by presenting KaBOB (the Knowledge Base Of Biomedicine), a knowledge base of semantically integrated data from 18 prominent biomedical databases using common representations grounded in Open Biomedical Ontologies. An instance of KaBOB with data about humans and seven major model organisms can be built using on the order of 500 million RDF triples. All source code for building KaBOB is available under an open-source license. KaBOB is an integrated knowledge base of biomedical data representationally based in prominent, actively maintained Open Biomedical Ontologies, thus enabling queries of the underlying data in terms of biomedical concepts (e.g., genes and gene products, interactions and processes) rather than features of source-specific data schemas or file formats. KaBOB resolves many of the issues that routinely plague biomedical researchers intending to work with data from multiple data sources and provides a platform for ongoing data integration and development and for

Advances in nano-scaled biosensors for biomedical applications.

PubMed

Wang, Jianling; Chen, Guihua; Jiang, Hui; Li, Zhiyong; Wang, Xuemei

2013-08-21

Recently, a growing amount of attention has been focused on the utility of biosensors for biomedical applications. Combined with nanomaterials and nanostructures, nano-scaled biosensors are installed for biomedical applications, such as pathogenic bacteria monitoring, virus recognition, disease biomarker detection, among others. These nano-biosensors offer a number of advantages and in many respects are ideally suited to biomedical applications, which could be made as extremely flexible devices, allowing biomedical analysis with speediness, excellent selectivity and high sensitivity. This minireview discusses the literature published in the latest years on the advances in biomedical applications of nano-scaled biosensors for disease bio-marking and detection, especially in bio-imaging and the diagnosis of pathological cells and viruses, monitoring pathogenic bacteria, thus providing insight into the future prospects of biosensors in relevant clinical applications.

[Main characteristics of current biomedical research, in Chile].

PubMed

Valdés S, Gloria; Armas M, Rodolfo; Reyes B, Humberto

2012-04-01

Biomedical research is a fundamental tool for the development of a country, requiring human and financial resources. To define some current characteristics of biomedical research, in Chile. Data on entities funding bio-medical research, participant institutions, and the number of active investigators for the period 2007-2009 were obtained from institutional sources; publications indexed in PubMed for 2008-2009 were analysed. Most financial resources invested in biomedical research projects (approximately US$ 19 million per year) came from the "Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica" (CONICYT), a state institution with 3 independent Funds administering competitive grant applications open annually to institutional or independent investigators in Chile. Other sources and universities raised the total amount to US$ 26 million. Since 2007 to 2009, 408 investigators participated in projects funded by CONICYT. The main participant institutions were Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, both adding up to 84% of all funded projects. Independently, in 2009,160 research projects -mainly multi centric clinical trials- received approximately US$ 24 million from foreign pharmaceutical companies. Publications listed in PubMed were classified as "clinical research" (n = 879, including public health) or "basic biomedical research" (n = 312). Biomedical research in Chile is mainly supported by state funds and university resources, but clinical trials also obtained an almost equivalent amount from foreign resources. Investigators are predominantly located in two universities. A small number of MD-PhD programs are aimed to train and incorporate new scientists. Only a few new Medical Schools participate in biomedical research. A National Registry of biomedical research projects, including the clinical trials, is required among other initiatives to stimulate research in biomedical sciences in Chile.

Biomedical engineering for health research and development.

PubMed

Zhang, X-Y

2015-01-01

Biomedical engineering is a new area of research in medicine and biology, providing new concepts and designs for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of various diseases. There are several types of biomedical engineering, such as tissue, genetic, neural and stem cells, as well as chemical and clinical engineering for health care. Many electronic and magnetic methods and equipments are used for the biomedical engineering such as Computed Tomography (CT) scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans, Electroencephalography (EEG), Ultrasound and regenerative medicine and stem cell cultures, preparations of artificial cells and organs, such as pancreas, urinary bladders, liver cells, and fibroblasts cells of foreskin and others. The principle of tissue engineering is described with various types of cells used for tissue engineering purposes. The use of several medical devices and bionics are mentioned with scaffold, cells and tissue cultures and various materials are used for biomedical engineering. The use of biomedical engineering methods is very important for the human health, and research and development of diseases. The bioreactors and preparations of artificial cells or tissues and organs are described here.

Digital fabrication of multi-material biomedical objects.

PubMed

Cheung, H H; Choi, S H

2009-12-01

This paper describes a multi-material virtual prototyping (MMVP) system for modelling and digital fabrication of discrete and functionally graded multi-material objects for biomedical applications. The MMVP system consists of a DMMVP module, an FGMVP module and a virtual reality (VR) simulation module. The DMMVP module is used to model discrete multi-material (DMM) objects, while the FGMVP module is for functionally graded multi-material (FGM) objects. The VR simulation module integrates these two modules to perform digital fabrication of multi-material objects, which can be subsequently visualized and analysed in a virtual environment to optimize MMLM processes for fabrication of product prototypes. Using the MMVP system, two biomedical objects, including a DMM human spine and an FGM intervertebral disc spacer are modelled and digitally fabricated for visualization and analysis in a VR environment. These studies show that the MMVP system is a practical tool for modelling, visualization, and subsequent fabrication of biomedical objects of discrete and functionally graded multi-materials for biomedical applications. The system may be adapted to control MMLM machines with appropriate hardware for physical fabrication of biomedical objects.

Finger jointing green southern yellow pine with a soy-based adhesive

Treesearch

Philip H. Steele; Roland E. Kreibicha; Petrus J. Steynberg; Richard W. Hemingway

1998-01-01

The authors present results of laboratory tests for a soy-based adhesive to bond southern yellow pine using the finger-jointing method. There was some reason to suspect that finger jointing of southern yellow pine (SYP) with the honeymoon system using soy-based adhesive might prove more difficult than for western species. The Wood Handbook classes western species in...

Sandia National Laboratories Institutional Plan FY1994--1999

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

Not Available

1993-10-01

This report presents a five year plan for the laboratory. This plan takes advantage of the technical strengths of the lab and its staff to address issues of concern to the nation on a scope much broader than Sandia`s original mission, while maintaining the general integrity of the laboratory. The plan proposes initiatives in a number of technologies which overlap the needs of its customers and the strengths of its staff. They include: advanced manufacturing technology; electronics; information and computational technology; transportation energy technology and infrastructure; environmental technology; energy research and technology development; biomedical systems engineering; and post-cold war defensemore » imperatives.« less

Temporomandibular joint involvement caused by Borrelia Burgdorferi.

PubMed

Lesnicar, Gorazd; Zerdoner, Danijel

2007-12-01

Lyme borreliosis is an endemic disease in Slovenia with an incidence of around 150 patients per 100,000 inhabitants. Although the large joints are most typically affected in Lyme borreliosis, there are also periods of disease activity with arthritis or arthralgias involving smaller joints, including the temporo-mandibular joint. During the years between 2000 and 2003, two patients with Lyme borreliosis affecting the temporo-mandibular joints were treated. The patients presented with fatigue and pain in diverse muscle groups accompanied by arthralgia, which was most pronounced in the temporomandibular joint area. None of the patients were febrile or had joint effusions. Both patients were examined by means of biochemical and serological examinations for Borrelia burgdorferi using ELISA assay and Western blot test (both for IgM and IgG), plain radiographs, MR and CT scans, and scinti-scan of the temporo-mandibular joints They both had positive serum markers for an acute B. burgdorferi infection and were treated with intravenous ceftriaxone. None of the patients had clinical or laboratory signs of chronic Lyme disease activity two and four years following therapy, respectively. Roentgenographic and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of the temporo-mandibular joints had not shown any persistent sign of acute inflammation. There are only few reports of patients with manifest temporo-mandibular joint involvement of Lyme borreliosis in the literature. This report emphasizes the importance of differential diagnosis of acute temporo-mandibular joint arthralgia, of early diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis, and of the necessity for prompt antibiotic treatment.

Shape-Memory Polymers for Biomedical Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yakacki, Christopher M.; Gall, Ken

Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) are a class of mechanically functional "smart" materials that have generated substantial interest for biomedical applications. SMPs offer the ability to promote minimally invasive surgery, provide structural support, exert stabilizing forces, elute therapeutic agents, and biodegrade. This review focuses on several areas of biomedicine including vascular, orthopedic, and neuronal applications with respect to the progress and potential for SMPs to improve the standard of treatment in these areas. Fundamental studies on proposed biomedical SMP systems are discussed with regards to biodegradability, tailorability, sterilization, and biocompatibility. Lastly, a proposed research and development pathway for SMP-based biomedical devices is proposed based on trends in the recent literature.

NASA Biomedical Informatics Capabilities and Needs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson-Throop, Kathy A.

2009-01-01

To improve on-orbit clinical capabilities by developing and providing operational support for intelligent, robust, reliable, and secure, enterprise-wide and comprehensive health care and biomedical informatics systems with increasing levels of autonomy, for use on Earth, low Earth orbit & exploration class missions. Biomedical Informatics is an emerging discipline that has been defined as the study, invention, and implementation of structures and algorithms to improve communication, understanding and management of medical information. The end objective of biomedical informatics is the coalescing of data, knowledge, and the tools necessary to apply that data and knowledge in the decision-making process, at the time and place that a decision needs to be made.

Engineering β-sheet peptide assemblies for biomedical applications.

PubMed

Yu, Zhiqiang; Cai, Zheng; Chen, Qiling; Liu, Menghua; Ye, Ling; Ren, Jiaoyan; Liao, Wenzhen; Liu, Shuwen

2016-03-01

Hydrogels have been widely studied in various biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering, cell culture, immunotherapy and vaccines, and drug delivery. Peptide-based nanofibers represent a promising new strategy for current drug delivery approaches and cell carriers for tissue engineering. This review focuses on the recent advances in the use of self-assembling engineered β-sheet peptide assemblies for biomedical applications. The applications of peptide nanofibers in biomedical fields, such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, immunotherapy, and vaccines, are highlighted. The current challenges and future perspectives for self-assembling peptide nanofibers in biomedical applications are discussed.

Biomedical engineering education--status and perspectives.

PubMed

Magjarevic, Ratko; Zequera Diaz, Martha L

2014-01-01

Biomedical Engineering programs are present at a large number of universities all over the world with an increasing trend. New generations of biomedical engineers have to face the challenges of health care systems round the world which need a large number of professionals not only to support the present technology in the health care system but to develop new devices and services. Health care stakeholders would like to have innovative solutions directed towards solving problems of the world growing incidence of chronic disease and ageing population. These new solutions have to meet the requirements for continuous monitoring, support or care outside clinical settlements. Presence of these needs can be tracked through data from the Labor Organization in the U.S. showing that biomedical engineering jobs have the largest growth at the engineering labor market with expected 72% growth rate in the period from 2008-2018. In European Union the number of patents (i.e. innovation) is the highest in the category of biomedical technology. Biomedical engineering curricula have to adopt to the new needs and for expectations of the future. In this paper we want to give an overview of engineering professions in related to engineering in medicine and biology and the current status of BME education in some regions, as a base for further discussions.

Earth Resources Laboratory research and technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

The accomplishments of the Earth Resources Laboratory's research and technology program are reported. Sensors and data systems, the AGRISTARS project, applied research and data analysis, joint research projects, test and evaluation studies, and space station support activities are addressed.

Supplying commercial biomedical companies from a human tissue bank in an NHS hospital--a view from personal experience.

PubMed

Gray, N; Womack, C; Jack, S J

1999-04-01

NHS histopathology laboratories are well placed to develop banks of surgically removed surplus human tissues to meet the increasing demands of commercial biomedical companies. The ultimate aim could be national network of non-profit making NHS tissue banks conforming to national minimum ethical, legal, and quality standards which could be monitored by local research ethics committees. The Nuffield report on bioethics provides ethical and legal guidance but we believe that the patient should be fully informed and the consent given explicit. Setting up a tissue bank requires enthusiasm, hard work, and determination as well as coordination between professionals in the NHS trust and in the commercial sector. The rewards are exiting new collaborations with commercial biomedical companies which could help secure our future.

[The biomedical periodicals of Hungarian editions--historical overview].

PubMed

Berhidi, Anna; Geges, József; Vasas, Lívia

2006-03-12

The majority of Hungarian scientific results are published in international periodicals in foreign languages. Yet the publications in Hungarian scientific periodicals also should not be ignored. This study analyses biomedical periodicals of Hungarian edition from different points of view. Based on different databases a list of titles consisting of 119 items resulted, which contains both the core and the peripheral journals of the biomedical field. These periodicals were analysed empirically, one by one: checking out the titles. 13 of the titles are ceased, among the rest 106 Hungarian scientific journals 10 are published in English language. From the remaining majority of Hungarian language and publishing only a few show up in international databases. Although quarter of the Hungarian biomedical journals meet the requirements, which means they could be represented in international databases, these periodicals are not indexed. 42 biomedical periodicals are available online. Although quarter of these journals come with restricted access. 2/3 of the Hungarian biomedical journals have detailed instructions to authors. These instructions inform the publishing doctors and researchers of the requirements of a biomedical periodical. The increasing number of Hungarian biomedical journals published is welcome news. But it would be important for quality publications which are cited a lot to appear in the Hungarian journals. The more publications are cited, the more journals and authors gain in prestige on home and international level.

John Glenn Biomedical Engineering Consortium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nall, Marsha

2004-01-01

The John Glenn Biomedical Engineering Consortium is an inter-institutional research and technology development, beginning with ten projects in FY02 that are aimed at applying GRC expertise in fluid physics and sensor development with local biomedical expertise to mitigate the risks of space flight on the health, safety, and performance of astronauts. It is anticipated that several new technologies will be developed that are applicable to both medical needs in space and on earth.

Geomechanical Response of Jointed Caprock During CO2 Geological Sequestration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newell, P.; Martinez, M. J.; Bishop, J. E.

2014-12-01

Geological sequestration of CO2 refers to the injection of supercritical CO2 into deep reservoirs trapped beneath a low-permeability caprock formation. Maintaining caprock integrity during the injection process is the most important factor for a successful injection. In this work we evaluate the potential for jointed caprock during injection scenarios using coupled three-dimensional multiphase flow and geomechanics modeling. Evaluation of jointed/fractured caprock systems is of particular concern to CO2 sequestration because creation or reactivation of joints (mechanical damage) can lead to enhanced pathways for leakage. In this work, we use an equivalent continuum approach to account for the joints within the caprock. Joint's aperture and non-linear stiffness of the caprock will be updated dynamically based on the effective normal stress. Effective permeability field will be updated based on the joints' aperture creating an anisotropic permeability field throughout the caprock. This feature would add another coupling between the solid and fluid in addition to basic Terzaghi's effective stress concept. In this study, we evaluate the impact of the joint's orientation and geometry of caprock and reservoir layers on geomechanical response of the CO2 geological systems. This work is supported as part of the Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-SC0001114. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Elbow Joint Fatigue and Bench-Press Training

PubMed Central

Huang, Yen-Po; Chou, You-Li; Chen, Feng-Chun; Wang, Rong-Tyai; Huang, Ming-Jer; Chou, Paul Pei-Hsi

2014-01-01

Context: Bench-press exercises are among the most common form of training exercise for the upper extremity because they yield a notable improvement in both muscle strength and muscle endurance. The literature contains various investigations into the effects of different bench-press positions on the degree of muscle activation. However, the effects of fatigue on the muscular performance and kinetics of the elbow joint are not understood fully. Objective: To investigate the effects of fatigue on the kinetics and myodynamic performance of the elbow joint in bench-press training. Design: Controlled laboratory study. Setting: Motion research laboratory. Patients or Other Participants: A total of 18 physically healthy male students (age = 19.6 ± 0.8 years, height = 168.7 ± 5.5 cm, mass = 69.6 ± 8.6 kg) participated in the investigation. All participants were right-hand dominant, and none had a history of upper extremity injuries or disorders. Intervention(s): Participants performed bench-press training until fatigued. Main Outcome Measure(s): Maximal possible number of repetitions, cycle time, myodynamic decline rate, elbow-joint force, and elbow-joint moment. Results: We observed a difference in cycle time in the initial (2.1 ± 0.42 seconds) and fatigue (2.58 ± 0.46 seconds) stages of the bench-press exercise (P = .04). As the participants fatigued, we observed an increase in the medial-lateral force (P = .03) and internal-external moment (P ≤ .04) acting on the elbow joint. Moreover, a reduction in the elbow muscle strength was observed in the elbow extension-flexion (P ≤ .003) and forearm supination-pronation (P ≤ .001) conditions. Conclusions: The results suggest that performing bench-press exercises to the point of fatigue increases elbow-joint loading and may further increase the risk of injury. Therefore, when clinicians design bench-press exercise regimens for general athletic training, muscle strengthening, or physical rehabilitation, they should

Biomedical enhancements as justice.

PubMed

Nam, Jeesoo

2015-02-01

Biomedical enhancements, the applications of medical technology to make better those who are neither ill nor deficient, have made great strides in the past few decades. Using Amartya Sen's capability approach as my framework, I argue in this article that far from being simply permissible, we have a prima facie moral obligation to use these new developments for the end goal of promoting social justice. In terms of both range and magnitude, the use of biomedical enhancements will mark a radical advance in how we compensate the most disadvantaged members of society. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Evaluation of pipe-type cable joint restraint systems

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

Silver, D.A.; Seman, G.W.

1990-03-01

the purpose of this project was to evaluate two systems for restraining the movement of 345kV high-pressure oil-filled (HPOF) cable joints during load cycling. Problems with joints and adjacent cables due to thermomechanical bending (TMB) experienced by the Consolidated Edison Company of New York and Public Service Electric Gas Company of New Jersey are reviewed. Some approaches to reducing or preventing TMB induced damage to HPOF pipe type cable joints are discussed. The design and operation of a special test apparatus for simulating TMB effects under laboratory conditions is described. One of the two joint restraint systems evaluated under thismore » project was developed by PSE G and employed wedging devices, which could be retrofitted into existing installations, that limited the longitudinal movement of the joints during load cycling. The other system developed by Pirelli Cable Corporation applied the restraining force to the cylindrical portion of the hand applied joint insulation by means of support spiders and steel rods attached to the reducer faces. The test results show that the PSE G restraint system can effectively limit joint longitudinal movement while causing a minimal amount of mechanical disturbance to the joint stress cones. The test results obtained with the PCC system are inconclusive and indicate that further refinement and testing are required to demonstrate the effectiveness of this promising joint restraint system.« less

History of the biomedical studies PhD program: a joint graduate program of the Baylor Health Care system and Baylor University

PubMed Central

Morel, Christine R.; Horton, Joshua M.; Peng, Han; Xu, Kangling; Batra, Sushil K.; Miles, Jonathan P.

2008-01-01

On a sweltering summer morning, throngs of people filed into Jones Theatre at Baylor University in Waco for the graduate student orientation. One could look around and notice the diversity of not only the student population, but also the disciplines being represented. Many students had stepped off planes only hours prior, but even those who had been traveling for days could not contain their excitement. As for me, I was nowhere near any of this. I was still 40 miles north of Waco in Waxahachie, having been pulled over for speeding. After 4 days of traveling with my life in my Volkswagon Jetta, all the way from San Francisco, on one of the most important days of my life, I was late. When I finally arrived at the Hooper Schafer Fine Arts Auditorium, out of breath from running all the way from the parking structure, all of the graduate students were quietly listening to the first introductory speech. I snuck into the back and sat down. My mind was racing, as I knew very little about Waco and Baylor University except for the growing accomplishments of the biomedical studies program. What little I did know about Baylor seemed so different from my very liberal upbringing in California. What would this experience be like for me? But, as I listened to the talks, met with other students, and finally met the entire biomedical studies entering class of 2007, I knew that I had made the right decision in coming to Baylor. This would be an experience unlike any other, and I was wholeheartedly open to embracing it. —Christine Morel, PhD candidate, Institute of Biomedical Studies PMID:18982085

History of the biomedical studies PhD program: a joint graduate program of the Baylor Health Care system and Baylor University.

PubMed

Morel, Christine R; Horton, Joshua M; Peng, Han; Xu, Kangling; Batra, Sushil K; Miles, Jonathan P; Kane, Robert R

2008-10-01

On a sweltering summer morning, throngs of people filed into Jones Theatre at Baylor University in Waco for the graduate student orientation. One could look around and notice the diversity of not only the student population, but also the disciplines being represented. Many students had stepped off planes only hours prior, but even those who had been traveling for days could not contain their excitement. As for me, I was nowhere near any of this. I was still 40 miles north of Waco in Waxahachie, having been pulled over for speeding. After 4 days of traveling with my life in my Volkswagon Jetta, all the way from San Francisco, on one of the most important days of my life, I was late. When I finally arrived at the Hooper Schafer Fine Arts Auditorium, out of breath from running all the way from the parking structure, all of the graduate students were quietly listening to the first introductory speech. I snuck into the back and sat down. My mind was racing, as I knew very little about Waco and Baylor University except for the growing accomplishments of the biomedical studies program. What little I did know about Baylor seemed so different from my very liberal upbringing in California. What would this experience be like for me? But, as I listened to the talks, met with other students, and finally met the entire biomedical studies entering class of 2007, I knew that I had made the right decision in coming to Baylor. This would be an experience unlike any other, and I was wholeheartedly open to embracing it. -Christine Morel, PhD candidate, Institute of Biomedical Studies.

Military research needs in biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Reifman, Jaques; Gilbert, Gary R; Fagan, Lawrence; Satava, Richard

2002-01-01

The 2001 U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) Biomedical Informatics Roadmap Meeting was devoted to developing a strategic plan in four focus areas: Hospital and Clinical Informatics, E-Health, Combat Health Informatics, and Bioinformatics and Biomedical Computation. The driving force of this Roadmap Meeting was the recent accelerated pace of change in biomedical informatics in which emerging technologies have the potential to affect significantly the Army research portfolio and investment strategy in these focus areas. The meeting was structured so that the first two days were devoted to presentations from experts in the field, including representatives from the three services, other government agencies, academia, and the private sector, and the morning of the last day was devoted to capturing specific biomedical informatics research needs in the four focus areas. This white paper summarizes the key findings and recommendations and should be a powerful tool for the crafting of future requests for proposals to help align USAMRMC new strategic research investments with new developments and emerging technologies.

An information technology emphasis in biomedical informatics education.

PubMed

Kane, Michael D; Brewer, Jeffrey L

2007-02-01

Unprecedented growth in the interdisciplinary domain of biomedical informatics reflects the recent advancements in genomic sequence availability, high-content biotechnology screening systems, as well as the expectations of computational biology to command a leading role in drug discovery and disease characterization. These forces have moved much of life sciences research almost completely into the computational domain. Importantly, educational training in biomedical informatics has been limited to students enrolled in the life sciences curricula, yet much of the skills needed to succeed in biomedical informatics involve or augment training in information technology curricula. This manuscript describes the methods and rationale for training students enrolled in information technology curricula in the field of biomedical informatics, which augments the existing information technology curriculum and provides training on specific subjects in Biomedical Informatics not emphasized in bioinformatics courses offered in life science programs, and does not require prerequisite courses in the life sciences.

Manpower development for the biomedical industry space.

PubMed

Goh, James C H

2013-01-01

The Biomedical Sciences (BMS) Cluster is one of four key pillars of the Singapore economy. The Singapore Government has injected research funding for basic and translational research to attract companies to carry out their commercial R&D activities. To further intensify the R&D efforts, the National Research Foundation (NRF) was set up to coordinate the research activities of different agencies within the larger national framework and to fund strategic R&D initiatives. In recent years, funding agencies began to focus on support of translational and clinical research, particularly those with potential for commercialization. Translational research is beginning to have traction, in particular research funding for the development of innovation medical devices. Therefore, the Biomedical Sciences sector is projected to grow which means that there is a need to invest in human capital development to achieve sustainable growth. In support of this, education and training programs to strengthen the manpower capabilities for the Biomedical Sciences industry have been developed. In recent years, undergraduate and graduate degree courses in biomedical engineering/bioengineering have been developing at a rapid rate. The goal is to train students with skills to understand complex issues of biomedicine and to develop and implement of advanced technological applications to these problems. There are a variety of career opportunities open to graduates in biomedical engineering, however regardless of the type of career choices, students must not only focus on achieving good grades. They have to develop their marketability to employers through internships, overseas exchange programs, and involvement in leadership-type activities. Furthermore, curriculum has to be developed with biomedical innovation in mind and ensure relevance to the industry. The objective of this paper is to present the NUS Bioengineering undergraduate program in relation to manpower development for the biomedical

Biomedical patents and ethics: a Canadian solution.

PubMed

Gold, E R

2000-05-01

World Trade Organization member states are preparing for the upcoming renegotiation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. One of the important elements of that renegotiation is the ethical considerations regarding the patenting of higher life forms and their component parts (e.g. DNA and cell-lines). The interface between the genetic revolution, patentability, and ethical considerations is the subject of this article. The author identifies, explores, and critiques four possible positions Canada may adopt in respect of patentability of biomedical material. First, Canada could do nothing. This approach would mean keeping biomedical materials outside the patent system and outside the stream of commerce. Canada would simply wait for an international consensus to develop before adopting a position of its own. Second, Canada could go it alone. It could implement a policy that balances the incentive effects of patents with the need to incorporate ethical and social values into the decision-making process regarding the use of biomedical materials. In respect of this option, the author proposes a model whereby non-profit bodies would hold the exclusive rights to research, use, and exploit biomedical materials. Third, Canada could follow the United States, Europe, and Japan by providing for almost unrestricted patenting of biomedical materials. This would be the most industry-friendly alternative. The fourth and final option is to use the medicare system to promote discussion of ethical considerations involved in the use of biomedical materials. The power of provincial health agencies may be used as a lever to ensure the discussion of ethical considerations concerning the use of biomedical materials. The author concludes that the fourth and final option is the best alternative for Canada while waiting for an international consensus to emerge.

Writing intelligible English prose for biomedical journals.

PubMed

Ludbrook, John

2007-01-01

1. I present a combination of semi-objective and subjective evidence that the quality of English prose in biomedical scientific writing is deteriorating. 2. I consider seven possible strategies for reversing this apparent trend. These refer to a greater emphasis on good writing by students in schools and by university students, consulting books on science writing, one-on-one mentoring, using 'scientific' measures to reveal lexical poverty, making use of freelance science editors and encouraging the editors of biomedical journals to pay more attention to the problem. 3. I conclude that a fruitful, long-term, strategy would be to encourage more biomedical scientists to embark on a career in science editing. This strategy requires a complementary initiative on the part of biomedical research institutions and universities to employ qualified science editors. 4. An immediately realisable strategy is to encourage postgraduate students in the biomedical sciences to undertake the service courses provided by many universities on writing English prose in general and scientific prose in particular. This strategy would require that heads of departments and supervisors urge their postgraduate students to attend such courses. 5. Two major publishers of biomedical journals, Blackwell Publications and Elsevier Science, now provide lists of commercial editing services on their web sites. I strongly recommend that authors intending to submit manuscripts to their journals (including Blackwell's Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology) make use of these services. This recommendation applies especially to those for whom English is a second language.

Multivariate Analysis of High Through-Put Adhesively Bonded Single Lap Joints: Experimental and Workflow Protocols

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-01

unlimited. v List of Tables Table 1 Single-lap-joint experimental parameters ..............................................7 Table 2 Survey ...Joints: Experimental and Workflow Protocols by Robert E Jensen, Daniel C DeSchepper, and David P Flanagan Approved for...TR-7696 ● JUNE 2016 US Army Research Laboratory Multivariate Analysis of High Through-Put Adhesively Bonded Single Lap Joints: Experimental

Otto Schmitt's contributions to basic and applied biomedical engineering and to the profession.

PubMed

Patterson, Robert

2009-01-01

Otto Schmitt was one of the early giants in biomedical engineering. Best known in engineering circles for the Schmitt Trigger, he also made many other significant scientific contributions. Besides his scientific work Otto was involved in early organizational activities, which included the first large professional BME meeting in Minneapolis in 1958. A description of his many contributions will be presented along with a short video of Schmitt giving a tour of his laboratory, including the original Schmitt Trigger and the model he used to develop his vector ECG system.

The Obligation to Participate in Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Schaefer, G. Owen; Emanuel, Ezekiel J.; Wertheimer, Alan

2009-01-01

The prevailing view is that participation in biomedical research is above and beyond the call of duty. While some commentators have offered reasons against this, we propose a novel public goods argument for an obligation to participate in biomedical research. Biomedical knowledge is a public good, available to any individual even if that individual does not contribute to it. Participation in research is a critical way to support that important public good. Consequently, we all have a duty to participate. The current social norm is that people participate only if they have a good reason to do so. The public goods argument implies that people should participate unless they have a good reason not to. Such a shift would be of great aid to the progress of biomedical research, eventually making our society significantly healthier and longer-lived. PMID:19567441

Barriers to Implementation of Optimal Laboratory Biosafety Practices in Pakistan

PubMed Central

Shafaq, Humaira; Hasan, Rumina; Qureshi, Shahida M.; Dojki, Maqboola; Hughes, Molly A.; Zaidi, Anita K. M.; Khan, Erum

2016-01-01

The primary goal of biosafety education is to ensure safe practices among workers in biomedical laboratories. Despite several educational workshops by the Pakistan Biological Safety Association (PBSA), compliance with safe practices among laboratory workers remains low. To determine barriers to implementation of recommended biosafety practices among biomedical laboratory workers in Pakistan, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey of participants attending 2 workshops focusing on biosafety practices in Karachi and Lahore in February 2015. Questionnaires were developed by modifying the BARRIERS scale in which respondents are required to rate barriers on a 1-4 scale. Nineteen of the original 29 barriers were included and subcategorized into 4 groups: awareness, material quality, presentation, and workplace barriers. Workshops were attended by 64 participants. Among barriers that were rated as moderate to great barriers by at least 50% of respondents were: lack of time to read biosafety guidelines (workplace subscale), lack of staff authorization to change/improve practice (workplace subscale), no career or self-improvement advantages to the staff for implementing optimal practices (workplace subscale), and unclear practice implications (presentation subscale). A lack of recognition for employees' rights and benefits in the workplace was found to be a predominant reason for a lack of compliance. Based on perceived barriers, substantial improvement in work environment, worker facilitation, and enabling are needed for achieving improved or optimal biosafety practices in Pakistan. PMID:27400192

New frontiers in biomedical science and engineering during 2014-2015.

PubMed

Liu, Feng; Lee, Dong-Hoon; Lagoa, Ricardo; Kumar, Sandeep

2015-01-01

The International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (ICBEB) is an international meeting held once a year. This, the fourth International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (ICBEB2015), will be held in Shanghai, China, during August 18th-21st, 2015. This annual conference intends to provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners at home and abroad to present the most recent frontiers and future challenges in the fields of biomedical science, biomedical engineering, biomaterials, bioinformatics and computational biology, biomedical imaging and signal processing, biomechanical engineering and biotechnology, etc. The papers published in this issue are selected from this Conference, which witness the advances in biomedical engineering and biotechnology during 2014-2015.

A Microcosm of the Biomedical Research Experience for Upper-level Undergraduates

PubMed Central

2008-01-01

The skill set required of biomedical researchers continues to grow and evolve as biology matures as a natural science. Science necessitates creative yet critical thinking, persuasive communication skills, purposeful use of time, and adeptness at the laboratory bench. Teaching these skills can be effectively accomplished in an inquiry-based, active-learning environment at a primarily undergraduate institution. Cell Biology Techniques, an upper-level cell biology laboratory course at St. John Fisher College, features two independent projects that take advantage of the biology of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a premier yet simple model organism. First, students perform a miniature epigenetic screen for novel phenotypes using RNA interference. The results of this screen combined with literature research direct students toward a singe gene that they attempt to subclone in the second project. The biology of the chosen gene/protein also becomes an individualized focal point with respect to the content of the laboratory. Progress toward course goals is evaluated using written, oral, and group-produced assignments, including a concept map. Pre- and postassessment indicates a significant increase in the understanding of broad concepts in cell biological research. PMID:18519612

Collaboration of the Joint Research Centre and the European Customs laboratories for Identification of New Psychoactive Substances.

PubMed

Guillou, Claude; Reniero, Fabiano; Vicente, Joana Lobo Pereira; Holland, Margaret; Kolar, Kamil; Chassaigne, Hubert; Tirendi, Salvatore; Schepers, Herve

2018-05-23

The emergence of designer drugs as substances of abuse has seen a dramatic increase over the last few years. Customs officials are responsible for the control of products entering the European Union (EU) market. This control applies to chemicals in general, pharmaceutical products and medicines. Numerous products imported from non-EU countries, often -declared as 'bath salts' or 'fertilizers', may in fact contain new psychoactive substance (NPS). These are not necessarily controlled under international law, but are subject to monitoring in agreement with EU legislation. This situation imposes many challenges for the maintenance of updated spectral libraries used for their detection by control laboratories. The chemical identification of new substances, with the use of powerful instrumentation, and the time needed for detailed analysis and interpretation of the results, demands a considerable scientific commitment. The Joint Research Centre endeavors to provide this through its scientific support to the EU Customs laboratories to facilitate the rapid identification and characterisation of seized samples. Apart from the known NPS, several new chemical substances have also been identified. Those belonging to known NPS families have already been notified to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). The aim of this paper is to discuss the implementation of the workflow mechanism, regarding the harmonisation of procedures to facilitate the monitoring, communication and management of analytical data. The rapid dissemination of this information between control authorities would facilitate the protection of EU citizens against the health risks posed by harmful substances. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Creating a pipeline of talent for informatics: STEM initiative for high school students in computer science, biology, and biomedical informatics

PubMed Central

Dutta-Moscato, Joyeeta; Gopalakrishnan, Vanathi; Lotze, Michael T.; Becich, Michael J.

2014-01-01

This editorial provides insights into how informatics can attract highly trained students by involving them in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) training at the high school level and continuing to provide mentorship and research opportunities through the formative years of their education. Our central premise is that the trajectory necessary to be expert in the emergent fields in front of them requires acceleration at an early time point. Both pathology (and biomedical) informatics are new disciplines which would benefit from involvement by students at an early stage of their education. In 2009, Michael T Lotze MD, Kirsten Livesey (then a medical student, now a medical resident at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)), Richard Hersheberger, PhD (Currently, Dean at Roswell Park), and Megan Seippel, MS (the administrator) launched the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) Summer Academy to bring high school students for an 8 week summer academy focused on Cancer Biology. Initially, pathology and biomedical informatics were involved only in the classroom component of the UPCI Summer Academy. In 2011, due to popular interest, an informatics track called Computer Science, Biology and Biomedical Informatics (CoSBBI) was launched. CoSBBI currently acts as a feeder program for the undergraduate degree program in bioinformatics at the University of Pittsburgh, which is a joint degree offered by the Departments of Biology and Computer Science. We believe training in bioinformatics is the best foundation for students interested in future careers in pathology informatics or biomedical informatics. We describe our approach to the recruitment, training and research mentoring of high school students to create a pipeline of exceptionally well-trained applicants for both the disciplines of pathology informatics and biomedical informatics. We emphasize here how mentoring of high school students in pathology informatics and biomedical informatics

Creating a pipeline of talent for informatics: STEM initiative for high school students in computer science, biology, and biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Dutta-Moscato, Joyeeta; Gopalakrishnan, Vanathi; Lotze, Michael T; Becich, Michael J

2014-01-01

This editorial provides insights into how informatics can attract highly trained students by involving them in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) training at the high school level and continuing to provide mentorship and research opportunities through the formative years of their education. Our central premise is that the trajectory necessary to be expert in the emergent fields in front of them requires acceleration at an early time point. Both pathology (and biomedical) informatics are new disciplines which would benefit from involvement by students at an early stage of their education. In 2009, Michael T Lotze MD, Kirsten Livesey (then a medical student, now a medical resident at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)), Richard Hersheberger, PhD (Currently, Dean at Roswell Park), and Megan Seippel, MS (the administrator) launched the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) Summer Academy to bring high school students for an 8 week summer academy focused on Cancer Biology. Initially, pathology and biomedical informatics were involved only in the classroom component of the UPCI Summer Academy. In 2011, due to popular interest, an informatics track called Computer Science, Biology and Biomedical Informatics (CoSBBI) was launched. CoSBBI currently acts as a feeder program for the undergraduate degree program in bioinformatics at the University of Pittsburgh, which is a joint degree offered by the Departments of Biology and Computer Science. We believe training in bioinformatics is the best foundation for students interested in future careers in pathology informatics or biomedical informatics. We describe our approach to the recruitment, training and research mentoring of high school students to create a pipeline of exceptionally well-trained applicants for both the disciplines of pathology informatics and biomedical informatics. We emphasize here how mentoring of high school students in pathology informatics and biomedical informatics

Exploring Protein Structure and Dynamics through a Project-Oriented Biochemistry Laboratory Module

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipchock, James M.; Ginther, Patrick S.; Douglas, Bonnie B.; Bird, Kelly E.; Loria, J. Patrick

2017-01-01

Here, we present a 10-week project-oriented laboratory module designed to provide a course-based undergraduate research experience in biochemistry that emphasizes the importance of biomolecular structure and dynamics in enzyme function. This module explores the impact of mutagenesis on an important active site loop for a biomedically-relevant…

The Software Ontology (SWO): a resource for reproducibility in biomedical data analysis, curation and digital preservation.

PubMed

Malone, James; Brown, Andy; Lister, Allyson L; Ison, Jon; Hull, Duncan; Parkinson, Helen; Stevens, Robert

2014-01-01

Biomedical ontologists to date have concentrated on ontological descriptions of biomedical entities such as gene products and their attributes, phenotypes and so on. Recently, effort has diversified to descriptions of the laboratory investigations by which these entities were produced. However, much biological insight is gained from the analysis of the data produced from these investigations, and there is a lack of adequate descriptions of the wide range of software that are central to bioinformatics. We need to describe how data are analyzed for discovery, audit trails, provenance and reproducibility. The Software Ontology (SWO) is a description of software used to store, manage and analyze data. Input to the SWO has come from beyond the life sciences, but its main focus is the life sciences. We used agile techniques to gather input for the SWO and keep engagement with our users. The result is an ontology that meets the needs of a broad range of users by describing software, its information processing tasks, data inputs and outputs, data formats versions and so on. Recently, the SWO has incorporated EDAM, a vocabulary for describing data and related concepts in bioinformatics. The SWO is currently being used to describe software used in multiple biomedical applications. The SWO is another element of the biomedical ontology landscape that is necessary for the description of biomedical entities and how they were discovered. An ontology of software used to analyze data produced by investigations in the life sciences can be made in such a way that it covers the important features requested and prioritized by its users. The SWO thus fits into the landscape of biomedical ontologies and is produced using techniques designed to keep it in line with user's needs. The Software Ontology is available under an Apache 2.0 license at http://theswo.sourceforge.net/; the Software Ontology blog can be read at http://softwareontology.wordpress.com.

The Software Ontology (SWO): a resource for reproducibility in biomedical data analysis, curation and digital preservation

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Motivation Biomedical ontologists to date have concentrated on ontological descriptions of biomedical entities such as gene products and their attributes, phenotypes and so on. Recently, effort has diversified to descriptions of the laboratory investigations by which these entities were produced. However, much biological insight is gained from the analysis of the data produced from these investigations, and there is a lack of adequate descriptions of the wide range of software that are central to bioinformatics. We need to describe how data are analyzed for discovery, audit trails, provenance and reproducibility. Results The Software Ontology (SWO) is a description of software used to store, manage and analyze data. Input to the SWO has come from beyond the life sciences, but its main focus is the life sciences. We used agile techniques to gather input for the SWO and keep engagement with our users. The result is an ontology that meets the needs of a broad range of users by describing software, its information processing tasks, data inputs and outputs, data formats versions and so on. Recently, the SWO has incorporated EDAM, a vocabulary for describing data and related concepts in bioinformatics. The SWO is currently being used to describe software used in multiple biomedical applications. Conclusion The SWO is another element of the biomedical ontology landscape that is necessary for the description of biomedical entities and how they were discovered. An ontology of software used to analyze data produced by investigations in the life sciences can be made in such a way that it covers the important features requested and prioritized by its users. The SWO thus fits into the landscape of biomedical ontologies and is produced using techniques designed to keep it in line with user’s needs. Availability The Software Ontology is available under an Apache 2.0 license at http://theswo.sourceforge.net/; the Software Ontology blog can be read at http

The effects of utility evaluations, biomedical knowledge and modernization on intention to exclusively use biomedical health facilities among rural households in Mozambique.

PubMed

Mukolo, Abraham; Cooil, Bruce; Victor, Bart

2015-08-01

In resource-limited settings, the choice between utilizing biomedical health services and/or traditional healers is critical to the success of the public health mission. In the literature, this choice has been predicted to be influenced by three major factors: knowledge about biomedical etiologies; cultural modernization; and rational choice. The current study investigated all three of these predicted determinants, applying data from a general household survey conducted in 2010 in Zambézia Province of Mozambique involving 1045 randomly sampled rural households. Overall, more respondents (N = 802) intended to continue to supplement their biomedical healthcare with traditional healer services in comparison with those intending to utilize biomedical care exclusively (N = 243). The findings strongly supported the predicted association between rational utility (measured as satisfaction with the quality of service and results from past care) with the future intention to continue to supplement or utilize biomedical care exclusively. Odds of moving away from supplementation increase by a factor of 2.5 if the respondent reported seeing their condition improve under government/private biomedical care. Odds of staying with supplementation increase by a factor 3.1 if the respondent was satisfied with traditional care and a factor of 16 if the condition had improved under traditional care. Modernization variables (education, income, religion, and Portuguese language skills) were relevant and provided a significant component of the best scientific model. Amount of biomedical knowledge was not a significant predictor of choice. There was a small effect on choice from knowing the limitations of biomedical care. The findings have implications for public healthcare promotion activities in areas where biomedical care is introduced as an alternative to traditional healing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

77 FR 23810 - Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and...

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2012-04-20

....... Sheraton Suites--Old Town Alexandria. Neurobiology-C June 14-15, 2012.... L'Enfant Plaza Hotel. Oncology-A... addresses of the hotel and VA Central Office are: L'Enfant Plaza Hotel, 480 L'Enfant Plaza SW., Washington... Board is to provide advice on the scientific quality, budget, safety and mission relevance of...

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... 7, 2011..... 8 a.m.-5 p.m..... L'Enfant Plaza Hotel. Neurobiology-C June 8, 2011..... 6 p.m.-10 p.m.... Crowne Plaza DC/Silver Spring. June 9-10, 2011.. 8 a.m.-5 p.m..... Crowne Plaza Hotel Silver Spring. Mental Health and Behav Sci-A. June 9, 2011..... 8 a.m.-5 p.m..... L'Enfant Plaza Hotel. The addresses of...

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..., 2012. L'Enfant Plaza Hotel. Oncology-A June 14-15, 2012. Sheraton Suites--Old Town Alexandria... Suites--Old Town Alexandria. The addresses of the hotel and VA Central Office are: L'Enfant Plaza Hotel... purpose of the Board is to provide advice on the scientific quality, budget, safety and mission relevance...

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2013-04-16

... City. Cardiovascular Studies June 3, 2013 Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City. Cellular and Molecular Medicine..., 2013........ VA Central Office.* Clinical Application of Genetics..... June 18, 2013 Ritz-Carlton...

A knowledge-driven approach to biomedical document conceptualization.

PubMed

Zheng, Hai-Tao; Borchert, Charles; Jiang, Yong

2010-06-01

Biomedical document conceptualization is the process of clustering biomedical documents based on ontology-represented domain knowledge. The result of this process is the representation of the biomedical documents by a set of key concepts and their relationships. Most of clustering methods cluster documents based on invariant domain knowledge. The objective of this work is to develop an effective method to cluster biomedical documents based on various user-specified ontologies, so that users can exploit the concept structures of documents more effectively. We develop a flexible framework to allow users to specify the knowledge bases, in the form of ontologies. Based on the user-specified ontologies, we develop a key concept induction algorithm, which uses latent semantic analysis to identify key concepts and cluster documents. A corpus-related ontology generation algorithm is developed to generate the concept structures of documents. Based on two biomedical datasets, we evaluate the proposed method and five other clustering algorithms. The clustering results of the proposed method outperform the five other algorithms, in terms of key concept identification. With respect to the first biomedical dataset, our method has the F-measure values 0.7294 and 0.5294 based on the MeSH ontology and gene ontology (GO), respectively. With respect to the second biomedical dataset, our method has the F-measure values 0.6751 and 0.6746 based on the MeSH ontology and GO, respectively. Both results outperforms the five other algorithms in terms of F-measure. Based on the MeSH ontology and GO, the generated corpus-related ontologies show informative conceptual structures. The proposed method enables users to specify the domain knowledge to exploit the conceptual structures of biomedical document collections. In addition, the proposed method is able to extract the key concepts and cluster the documents with a relatively high precision. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A hybrid model based on neural networks for biomedical relation extraction.

PubMed

Zhang, Yijia; Lin, Hongfei; Yang, Zhihao; Wang, Jian; Zhang, Shaowu; Sun, Yuanyuan; Yang, Liang

2018-05-01

Biomedical relation extraction can automatically extract high-quality biomedical relations from biomedical texts, which is a vital step for the mining of biomedical knowledge hidden in the literature. Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are two major neural network models for biomedical relation extraction. Neural network-based methods for biomedical relation extraction typically focus on the sentence sequence and employ RNNs or CNNs to learn the latent features from sentence sequences separately. However, RNNs and CNNs have their own advantages for biomedical relation extraction. Combining RNNs and CNNs may improve biomedical relation extraction. In this paper, we present a hybrid model for the extraction of biomedical relations that combines RNNs and CNNs. First, the shortest dependency path (SDP) is generated based on the dependency graph of the candidate sentence. To make full use of the SDP, we divide the SDP into a dependency word sequence and a relation sequence. Then, RNNs and CNNs are employed to automatically learn the features from the sentence sequence and the dependency sequences, respectively. Finally, the output features of the RNNs and CNNs are combined to detect and extract biomedical relations. We evaluate our hybrid model using five public (protein-protein interaction) PPI corpora and a (drug-drug interaction) DDI corpus. The experimental results suggest that the advantages of RNNs and CNNs in biomedical relation extraction are complementary. Combining RNNs and CNNs can effectively boost biomedical relation extraction performance. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Supporting undergraduate biomedical entrepreneurship.

PubMed

Patterson, P E

2004-01-01

As biomedical innovations become more sophisticated and expensive to bring to market, an approach is needed to ensure the survival of the best ideas. The tactic used by Iowa State University to provide entrepreneurship opportunities for undergraduate students in biomedical areas is a model that has proven to be both distinctive and effective. Iowa State supports and fosters undergraduate student entrepreneurship efforts through the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship. This unique partnership encourages ISU faculty, researchers, and students to become involved in the world of entrepreneurship, while allowing Iowa's business communities to gain access to a wide array of available resources, skills, and information from Iowa State University.

Commercial Biomedical Experiments Payload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

Experiments to seek solutions for a range of biomedical issues are at the heart of several investigations that will be hosted by the Commercial Instrumentation Technology Associates (ITA), Inc. The biomedical experiments CIBX-2 payload is unique, encompassing more than 20 separate experiments including cancer research, commercial experiments, and student hands-on experiments from 10 schools as part of ITA's ongoing University Among the stars program. Here, Astronaut Story Musgrave activates the CMIX-5 (Commercial MDA ITA experiment) payload in the Space Shuttle mid deck during the STS-80 mission in 1996 which is similar to CIBX-2. The experiments are sponsored by NASA's Space Product Development Program (SPD).

Strength and Performance Enhancement of Bonded Joints by Spatial Tailoring of Adhesive Compliance via 3D Printing.

PubMed

Kumar, S; Wardle, Brian L; Arif, Muhamad F

2017-01-11

Adhesive bonding continues to emerge as a preferred route for joining materials with broad applications including advanced structures, microelectronics, biomedical systems, and consumer goods. Here, we study the mechanics of deformation and failure of tensile-loaded single-lap joints with a compliance-tailored adhesive. Tailoring of the adhesive compliance redistributes stresses and strains to reduce both shear and peel concentrations at the ends of the adhesive that determine failure of the joint. Utilizing 3D printing, the modulus of the adhesive is spatially varied along the bondlength. Experimental strength testing, including optical strain mapping, reveals that the strain redistribution results in a greater than 100% increase in strength and toughness concomitant with a 50% increase in strain-to-break while maintaining joint stiffness. The tailoring demonstrated here is immediately realizable in a broad array of 3D printing applications, and the level of performance enhancement suggests that compliance tailoring of the adhesive is a generalizable route for achieving superior performance of joints in other applications, such as advanced structural composites.

Natural Pathogens of Laboratory Mice, Rats, and Rabbits and Their Effects on Research

PubMed Central

Baker, David G.

1998-01-01

Laboratory mice, rats, and rabbits may harbor a variety of viral, bacterial, parasitic, and fungal agents. Frequently, these organisms cause no overt signs of disease. However, many of the natural pathogens of these laboratory animals may alter host physiology, rendering the host unsuitable for many experimental uses. While the number and prevalence of these pathogens have declined considerably, many still turn up in laboratory animals and represent unwanted variables in research. Investigators using mice, rats, and rabbits in biomedical experimentation should be aware of the profound effects that many of these agents can have on research. PMID:9564563

BUILDing BLaST: promoting rural students' biomedical research careers using a culturally responsive, one health approach.

PubMed

Taylor, Barbara E; Reynolds, Arleigh J; Etz, Kathy E; MacCalla, Nicole M G; Cotter, Paul A; DeRuyter, Tiffany L; Hueffer, Karsten

2017-01-01

Most postsecondary institutions in the state of Alaska (USA) have a broad mission to serve diverse students, many of whom come from schools in rural villages that are accessible only by plane, boat, or snowmobile. The major research university, the University of Alaska in Fairbanks (UAF), serves a population whereby 40% are from groups recognized as underrepresented in the biomedical workforce. The purpose of this article is to describe the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD)-supported program in the state of Alaska that seeks to engage students from rural areas with a culturally relevant approach that is centered on the One Health paradigm, integrating human, animal, and environmental health. The Biomedical Learning and Student Training (BLaST) program distinguished by broad themes that address recruitment, retention, and success of students in biomedical programs, especially for students from rural backgrounds. Targeted rural outreach emphasizes that biomedical research includes research on the integration of human, animal, and environmental health. This One Health perspective gives personal relevance and connection to biomedical research. This outreach is expected to benefit student recruitment, as well as foster family and community support for pursuit of college degrees. BLaST promotes integration of research into undergraduate curricula through curriculum development, and by creating a new class of instructors, laboratory research and teaching technicians, who provide research mentorship, course instruction, and comprehensive advising. Finally, BLaST facilitates early and sustained undergraduate research experiences in collaborations with graduate students and faculty. BLaST's approach is highly adapted to the Alaskan educational and physical environment, but components and concepts could be adapted to other rural areas as a means to engage students from rural backgrounds, who often have a closer relationship with the natural environment than

Can Andean medicine coexist with biomedical healthcare? A comparison of two rural communities in Peru and Bolivia.

PubMed

Mathez-Stiefel, Sarah-Lan; Vandebroek, Ina; Rist, Stephan

2012-07-24

communities be designed as a process of joint development of complementary knowledge and practices from indigenous and biomedical health traditions.

National Space Biomedical Research Institute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

NSBRI partners with NASA to develop countermeasures against the deleterious effects of long duration space flight. NSBRI's science and technology projects are directed toward this goal, which is accomplished by: 1. Designing, testing and validating effective countermeasures to address the biological and environmental impediments to long-term human space flight. 2. Defining the molecular, cellular, organ-level, integrated responses and mechanistic relationships that ultimately determine these impediments, where such activity fosters the development of novel countermeasures. 3. Establishing biomedical support technologies to maximize human performance in space, reduce biomedical hazards to an acceptable level and deliver quality medical care. 4. Transferring and disseminating the biomedical advances in knowledge and technology acquired through living and working in space to the general benefit of humankind; including the treatment of patients suffering from gravity- and radiation-related conditions on Earth. and 5. ensuring open involvement of the scientific community,industry and the public in the Institute's activities and fostering a robust collaboration with NASA, particularly through JSC.

Getting to zero the biomedical way in Africa: outcomes of deliberation at the 2013 Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum in Abuja, Nigeria

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Over the last few decades, biomedical HIV prevention research had engaged multiple African stakeholders. There have however been few platforms to enable regional stakeholders to engage with one another. In partnership with the World AIDS Campaign International, the Institute of Public Health of Obafemi Awolowo University, and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS in Nigeria, the New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society hosted a forum on biomedical HIV prevention research in Africa. Stakeholders’ present explored evidences related to biomedical HIV prevention research and development in Africa, and made recommendations to inform policy, guidelines and future research agenda. Discussion The BHPF hosted 342 participants. Topics discussed included the use of antiretrovirals for HIV prevention, considerations for biomedical HIV prevention among key populations; HIV vaccine development; HIV cure; community and civil society engagement; and ethical considerations in implementation of biomedical HIV prevention research. Participants identified challenges for implementation of proven efficacious interventions and discovery of other new prevention options for Africa. Concerns raised included limited funding by African governments, lack of cohesive advocacy and policy agenda for biomedical HIV prevention research and development by Africa, varied ethical practices, and limited support to communities’ capacity to actively engaged with clinical trial conducts. Participants recommended that the African Government implement the Abuja +12 declaration; the civil society build stronger partnerships with diverse stakeholders, and develop a coherent advocacy agenda that also enhances community research literacy; and researchers and sponsors of trials on the African continent establish a process for determining appropriate standards for trial conduct on the continent. Conclusion By highlighting key considerations for biomedical HIV prevention research and

Getting to zero the biomedical way in Africa: outcomes of deliberation at the 2013 Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum in Abuja, Nigeria.

PubMed

Folayan, Morenike Oluwatoyin; Gottemoeller, Megan; Mburu, Rosemary; Brown, Brandon

2014-01-01

Over the last few decades, biomedical HIV prevention research had engaged multiple African stakeholders. There have however been few platforms to enable regional stakeholders to engage with one another. In partnership with the World AIDS Campaign International, the Institute of Public Health of Obafemi Awolowo University, and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS in Nigeria, the New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society hosted a forum on biomedical HIV prevention research in Africa. Stakeholders' present explored evidences related to biomedical HIV prevention research and development in Africa, and made recommendations to inform policy, guidelines and future research agenda. The BHPF hosted 342 participants. Topics discussed included the use of antiretrovirals for HIV prevention, considerations for biomedical HIV prevention among key populations; HIV vaccine development; HIV cure; community and civil society engagement; and ethical considerations in implementation of biomedical HIV prevention research. Participants identified challenges for implementation of proven efficacious interventions and discovery of other new prevention options for Africa. Concerns raised included limited funding by African governments, lack of cohesive advocacy and policy agenda for biomedical HIV prevention research and development by Africa, varied ethical practices, and limited support to communities' capacity to actively engaged with clinical trial conducts. Participants recommended that the African Government implement the Abuja +12 declaration; the civil society build stronger partnerships with diverse stakeholders, and develop a coherent advocacy agenda that also enhances community research literacy; and researchers and sponsors of trials on the African continent establish a process for determining appropriate standards for trial conduct on the continent. By highlighting key considerations for biomedical HIV prevention research and development in Africa, the forum has

National Space Biomedical Research Institute Annual Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

This report summarizes the activities of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) during FY 2000. The NSBRI is responsible for the development of countermeasures against the deleterious effects of long-duration space flight and performs fundamental and applied space biomedical research directed towards this specific goal. Its mission is to lead a world-class, national effort in integrated, critical path space biomedical research that supports NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) Strategic Plan by focusing on the enabling of long-term human presence in, development of, and exploration of space. This is accomplished by: designing, testing and validating effective countermeasures to address the biological and environmental impediments to long-term human space flight; defining the molecular, cellular, organ-level, integrated responses and mechanistic relationships that ultimately determine these impediments, where such activity fosters the development of novel countermeasures; establishing biomedical support technologies to maximize human performance in space, reduce biomedical hazards to an acceptable level, and deliver quality medical care; transferring and disseminating the biomedical advances in knowledge and technology acquired through living and working in space to the general benefit of mankind, including the treatment of patients suffering from gravity- and radiation-related conditions on Earth; and ensuring open involvement of the scientific community, industry and the public at large in the Institute's activities and fostering a robust collaboration with NASA, particularly through NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Attachment:Appendices (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O, and P.).

Dynamic Postural-Stability Deficits After Cryotherapy to the Ankle Joint.

PubMed

Fullam, Karl; Caulfield, Brian; Coughlan, Garrett F; McGroarty, Mark; Delahunt, Eamonn

2015-09-01

Decreased postural stability is a primary risk factor for lower limb musculoskeletal injuries. During athletic competitions, cryotherapy may be applied during short breaks in play or during half-time; however, its effects on postural stability remain unclear. To investigate the acute effects of a 15-minute ankle-joint cryotherapy application on dynamic postural stability. Controlled laboratory study. University biomechanics laboratory. A total of 29 elite-level collegiate male field-sport athletes (age = 20.8 ± 1.12 years, height = 1.80 ± 0.06 m, mass = 81.89 ± 8.59 kg) participated. Participants were tested on the anterior (ANT), posterolateral (PL), and posteromedial (PM) reach directions of the Star Excursion Balance Test before and after a 15-minute ankle-joint cryotherapy application. Normalized reach distances; sagittal-plane kinematics of the hip, knee, and ankle joints; and associated mean velocity of the center-of-pressure path during performance of the ANT, PL, and PM reach directions of the Star Excursion Balance Test. We observed a decrease in reach-distance scores for the ANT, PL, and PM reach directions from precryotherapy to postcryotherapy (P < .05). No differences were observed in hip-, knee-, or ankle-joint sagittal-plane kinematics (P > .05). We noted a decrease in mean velocity of the center-of-pressure path from precryotherapy to postcryotherapy (P < .05) in all reach directions. Dynamic postural stability was adversely affected immediately after cryotherapy to the ankle joint.

Segregation of biomedical waste in an South Indian tertiary care hospital.

PubMed

Sengodan, Vetrivel Chezian

2014-07-01

Hospital wastes pose significant public health hazard if not properly managed. Hence, it is necessary to develop and adopt optimal waste management systems in the hospitals. Biomedical waste generated in Coimbatore Medical College Hospital was color coded (blue, yellow, and red) and the data was analyzed retrospectively on a daily basis for 3 years (January 2010-December 2012). Effective segregation protocols significantly reduced biomedical waste generated from 2011 to 2012. While biomedical waste of red category was significantly higher (>50%), the category yellow was the least. Per unit (per bed per day) total biomedical waste generated was 68.5, 68.8, and 61.3 grams in 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively. Segregation of biomedical waste at the source of generation is the first and essential step in biomedical waste management. Continuous training, fixing the responsibility on the nursing persons, and constant supervision are the key criteria's in implementing biomedical waste segregation process, which can significantly reduce per unit biomedical waste generated. We highly recommend all hospitals to adopt our protocol and effectively implement them to reduce generation of biomedical waste.

A woman like you: Women scientists and engineers at Brookhaven National Laboratory

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

Benkovitz, Carmen; Bernholc, Nicole; Cohen, Anita

1991-01-01

This publication by the women in Science and Engineering introduces career possibilities in science and engineering. It introduces what work and home life are like for women who have already entered these fields. Women at Brookhaven National Laboratory work in a variety of challenging research roles -- from biologist and environmental scientist to safety engineer, from patent lawyer to technician. Brookhaven National Laboratory is a multi-program laboratory which carries out basic and applied research in the physical, biomedical and environmental sciences and in selected energy technologies. The Laboratory is managed by Associated University, Inc., under contract with the US Departmentmore » of Energy. Brookhaven and the other national laboratories, because of their enormous research resources, can play a critical role in a education and training of the workforce.« less

Emerging Biomedical Applications of Nano-Chitins and Nano-Chitosans Obtained via Advanced Eco-Friendly Technologies from Marine Resources

PubMed Central

Muzzarelli, Riccardo A. A.; El Mehtedi, Mohamad; Mattioli-Belmonte, Monica

2014-01-01

The present review article is intended to direct attention to the technological advances made in the 2010–2014 quinquennium for the isolation and manufacture of nanofibrillar chitin and chitosan. Otherwise called nanocrystals or whiskers, n-chitin and n-chitosan are obtained either by mechanical chitin disassembly and fibrillation optionally assisted by sonication, or by e-spinning of solutions of polysaccharides often accompanied by poly(ethylene oxide) or poly(caprolactone). The biomedical areas where n-chitin may find applications include hemostasis and wound healing, regeneration of tissues such as joints and bones, cell culture, antimicrobial agents, and dermal protection. The biomedical applications of n-chitosan include epithelial tissue regeneration, bone and dental tissue regeneration, as well as protection against bacteria, fungi and viruses. It has been found that the nano size enhances the performances of chitins and chitosans in all cases considered, with no exceptions. Biotechnological approaches will boost the applications of the said safe, eco-friendly and benign nanomaterials not only in these fields, but also for biosensors and in targeted drug delivery areas. PMID:25415349

Teaching biomedical design through a university-industry partnership.

PubMed

Khuon, Lunal; Zum, Karl R; Zurn, Jane B; Herrera, Gerald M

2016-08-01

This paper describes a course that, as a result of a university-industry partnership, emphasizes bringing industry experts into the classroom to teach biomedical design. Full-time faculty and industry engineers and entrepreneurs teach the senior technical elective course, Biomedical System Design. This hands-on senior course in biomedical system design places varied but connected emphasis on understanding the biological signal source, electronics design, safety, patient use, medical device qualifications, and good manufacturing practices.

Biomedical informatics training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

PubMed

Severtson, D J; Pape, L; Page, C D; Shavlik, J W; Phillips, G N; Flatley Brennan, P

2007-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe biomedical informatics training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). We reviewed biomedical informatics training, research, and faculty/trainee participation at UW-Madison. There are three primary approaches to training 1) The Computation & Informatics in Biology & Medicine Training Program, 2) formal biomedical informatics offered by various campus departments, and 3) individualized programs. Training at UW-Madison embodies the features of effective biomedical informatics training recommended by the American College of Medical Informatics that were delineated as: 1) curricula that integrate experiences among computational sciences and application domains, 2) individualized and interdisciplinary cross-training among a diverse cadre of trainees to develop key competencies that he or she does not initially possess, 3) participation in research and development activities, and 4) exposure to a range of basic informational and computational sciences. The three biomedical informatics training approaches immerse students in multidisciplinary training and education that is supported by faculty trainers who participate in collaborative research across departments. Training is provided across a range of disciplines and available at different training stages. Biomedical informatics training at UW-Madison illustrates how a large research University, with multiple departments across biological, computational and health fields, can provide effective and productive biomedical informatics training via multiple bioinformatics training approaches.

Role of Kinetic Modeling in Biomedical Imaging

PubMed Central

Huang, Sung-Cheng

2009-01-01

Biomedical imaging can reveal clear 3-dimensional body morphology non-invasively with high spatial resolution. Its efficacy, in both clinical and pre-clinical settings, is enhanced with its capability to provide in vivo functional/biological information in tissue. The role of kinetic modeling in providing biological/functional information in biomedical imaging is described. General characteristics and limitations in extracting biological information are addressed and practical approaches to solve the problems are discussed and illustrated with examples. Some future challenges and opportunities for kinetic modeling to expand the capability of biomedical imaging are also presented. PMID:20640185

Review of spectral imaging technology in biomedical engineering: achievements and challenges.

PubMed

Li, Qingli; He, Xiaofu; Wang, Yiting; Liu, Hongying; Xu, Dongrong; Guo, Fangmin

2013-10-01

Spectral imaging is a technology that integrates conventional imaging and spectroscopy to get both spatial and spectral information from an object. Although this technology was originally developed for remote sensing, it has been extended to the biomedical engineering field as a powerful analytical tool for biological and biomedical research. This review introduces the basics of spectral imaging, imaging methods, current equipment, and recent advances in biomedical applications. The performance and analytical capabilities of spectral imaging systems for biological and biomedical imaging are discussed. In particular, the current achievements and limitations of this technology in biomedical engineering are presented. The benefits and development trends of biomedical spectral imaging are highlighted to provide the reader with an insight into the current technological advances and its potential for biomedical research.

[Biomedical research in Revista de Biologia Tropical].

PubMed

Gutiérrez, José María

2002-01-01

The contributions published in Revista de Biología Tropical in the area of Biomedical Sciences are reviewed in terms of number of contributions and scope of research subjects. Biomedical Sciences, particularly Parasitology and Microbiology, constituted the predominant subject in the Revista during the first decade, reflecting the intense research environment at the School of Microbiology of the University of Costa Rica and at Hospital San Juan de Dios. The relative weight of Biomedicine in the following decades diminished, due to the outstanding increment in publications in Biological Sciences; however, the absolute number of contributions in Biomedical Sciences remained constant throughout the last decades, with around 80 contributions per decade. In spite of the predominance of Parasitology as the main biomedical subject, the last decades have witnessed the emergence of new areas of interest in the Revista, such as Pharmacology of natural products, Toxinology, especially related to snake venoms, and Human Genetics. This retrospective analysis evidences that Biomedical Sciences, particularly those related to Tropical Medicine, were a fundamental component during the first years of Revista de Biología Tropical, and have maintained a significant presence in the scientific output of this journal, the most relevant scientific publication in biological sciences in Central America.

The importance of Zebrafish in biomedical research.

PubMed

Tavares, Bárbara; Santos Lopes, Susana

2013-01-01

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is an ideal model organism for the study of vertebrate development. This is due to the large clutches that each couple produces, with up to 200 embryos every 7 days, and to the fact that the embryos and larvae are small, transparent and undergo rapid external development. Using scientific literature research tools available online and the keywords Zebrafish, biomedical research, human disease, and drug screening, we reviewed original studies and reviews indexed in PubMed. In this review we summarized work conducted with this model for the advancement of our knowledge related to several human diseases. We also focused on the biomedical research being performed in Portugal with the zebrafish model. Powerful live imaging and genetic tools are currently available for zebrafish making it a valuable model in biomedical research. The combination of these properties with the optimization of automated systems for drug screening has transformed the zebrafish into "a top model" in biomedical research, drug discovery and toxicity testing. Furthermore, with the optimization of xenografts technology it will be possible to use zebrafish to aide in the choice of the best therapy for each patient. Zebrafish is an excellent model organism in biomedical research, drug development and in clinical therapy.

A comprehensive training approach for biomedical engineers in biochemistry and in vitro diagnostics technology.

PubMed

Spyropoulos, Basile; Tzavaras, Aris

2007-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to review 20 years (1987-2007) of experience in training young Biomedical Engineers in Biochemistry and in vitro Diagnostics (IVD) Technology. This encountering has resulted in the gradual formation of a comprehensive training package that includes lectures and laboratory practicals, supported by both, traditional and on-line digital means, such as lecture-notes, slides, videos, demos and equipment simulations. Further, this course is maintained up to date by several research and development activities that offer partially feed back to the course and enrich its contents with custom developed devices, methods and application software. In this paper are presented, first, the structure and the components of this course, and second, the most important custom developed novelties, which have been integrated in the IVD Technology laboratory-practicals.

Camera systems in human motion analysis for biomedical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chin, Lim Chee; Basah, Shafriza Nisha; Yaacob, Sazali; Juan, Yeap Ewe; Kadir, Aida Khairunnisaa Ab.

2015-05-01

Human Motion Analysis (HMA) system has been one of the major interests among researchers in the field of computer vision, artificial intelligence and biomedical engineering and sciences. This is due to its wide and promising biomedical applications, namely, bio-instrumentation for human computer interfacing and surveillance system for monitoring human behaviour as well as analysis of biomedical signal and image processing for diagnosis and rehabilitation applications. This paper provides an extensive review of the camera system of HMA, its taxonomy, including camera types, camera calibration and camera configuration. The review focused on evaluating the camera system consideration of the HMA system specifically for biomedical applications. This review is important as it provides guidelines and recommendation for researchers and practitioners in selecting a camera system of the HMA system for biomedical applications.

Laboratory Design for Microbiological Safety

PubMed Central

Phillips, G. Briggs; Runkle, Robert S.

1967-01-01

Of the large amount of funds spent each year in this country on construction and remodeling of biomedical research facilities, a significant portion is directed to laboratories handling infectious microorganisms. This paper is intended for the scientific administrators, architects, and engineers concerned with the design of new microbiological facilities. It develops and explains the concept of primary and secondary barriers for the containment of microorganisms. The basic objectives of a microbiological research laboratory, (i) protection of the experimenter and staff, (ii) protection of the surrounding community, and (iii) maintenance of experimental validity, are defined. In the design of a new infectious-disease research laboratory, early identification should be made of the five functional zones of the facility and their relation to each other. The following five zones and design criteria applicable to each are discussed: clean and transition, research area, animal holding and research area, laboratory support, engineering support. The magnitude of equipment and design criteria which are necessary to integrate these five zones into an efficient and safe facility are delineated. Images Fig. 1 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig. 8 Fig. 9 Fig. 10 Fig. 11 Fig. 12 Fig. 13 Fig. 14 Fig. 15 Fig. 16 Fig. 17 Fig. 18 Fig. 19 PMID:4961771

Finnish cytotechnologists' views on the competencies of newly graduated biomedical scientists in clinical cytology.

PubMed

Liikanen, E

2018-02-01

This study asked 40 cytotechnologists for their views on the competencies of newly graduated biomedical scientists in clinical cytology during the national conference of the Finnish Association of Cytotechnologists in November 2015. The questionnaire mainly consisted of statements that were scored on a five-point Likert-scale, where 1 was not important and 5 was very important. It covered five sections of clinical cytology: sampling and techniques, gynaecological screening, non-gynaecological screening, safety and quality management, and miscellaneous. Of the 40 delegates approached to complete the questionnaire, 37 (92.5%) agreed. Respondents felt that important sampling and technique competencies were specimen fixation, with a mean score of 4.9 out of 5.0, types of specimens (4.7), Papanicolaou smear collection (4.7), Papanicolaou smear request information (4.7) and evaluation of specimen sufficiency (4.6). Less important competencies were examining FNAs (2.0) and nasopharyngeal specimens (2.2). The respondents had many expectations about how education in cytology could be developed, for example more theoretical lessons, more practice in microscope use, and consistent criteria for training and cooperation between cytology laboratories and universities of applied sciences. The cytotechnologists who took part in our survey expected newly graduated biomedical scientists to have basic competencies in cytology. These were sampling and techniques, laboratory safety and quality management, specimen adequacy and identifying normal cells taken during gynaecological screening. They were also keen to develop education in cytology. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Biomedical science journals in the Arab world.

PubMed

Tadmouri, Ghazi O

2004-10-01

Medieval Arab scientists established the basis of medical practice and gave important attention to the publication of scientific results. At present, modern scientific publishing in the Arab world is in its developmental stage. Arab biomedical journals are less than 300, most of which are published in Egypt, Lebanon, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Yet, many of these journals do not have on-line access or are indexed in major bibliographic databases. The majority of indexed journals, however, do not have a stable presence in the popular PubMed database and their indexes are discontinued since 2001. The exposure of Arab biomedical journals in international indices undoubtedly plays an important role in improving the scientific quality of these journals. The successful examples discussed in this review encourage us to call for the formation of a consortium of Arab biomedical journal publishers to assist in redressing the balance of the region from biomedical data consumption to data production.

DOE planning workshop advanced biomedical technology initiative

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

Not Available

1994-06-01

The Department of Energy has mad major contributions in the biomedical sciences with programs in medical applications and instrumentation development, molecular biology, human genome, and computational sciences. In an effort to help determine DOE`s role in applying these capabilities to the nation`s health care needs, a planning workshop was held on January 11--12, 1994. The workshop was co-sponsored by the Department`s Office of Energy Research and Defense Programs organizations. Participants represented industry, medical research institutions, national laboratories, and several government agencies. They attempted to define the needs of the health care industry. identify DOE laboratory capabilities that address these needs,more » and determine how DOE, in cooperation with other team members, could begin an initiative with the goals of reducing health care costs while improving the quality of health care delivery through the proper application of technology and computational systems. This document is a report of that workshop. Seven major technology development thrust areas were considered. Each involves development of various aspects of imaging, optical, sensor and data processing and storage technologies. The thrust areas as prioritized for DOE are: (1) Minimally Invasive Procedures; (2) Technologies for Individual Self Care; (3) Outcomes Research; (4) Telemedicine; (5) Decision Support Systems; (6) Assistive Technology; (7) Prevention and Education.« less

One Mission-Centered, Market-Smart Globalization Response: A Case Study of the Georgia Tech-Emory University Biomedical Engineering Curricular Joint Venture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burriss, Annie Hunt

2010-01-01

One innovative, higher-education response to globalization and changing fiscal realities is the curricular joint venture (CJV), a formal collaboration between academic institutions that leverages missions through new joint degrees and research not previously offered by collaborating institutions (Eckel, 2003). In 1997, a pioneering biomedical…

Accelerator mass spectrometry in the biomedical sciences: applications in low-exposure biomedical and environmental dosimetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Felton, J. S.; Turteltaub, K. W.; Vogel, J. S.; Balhorn, R.; Gledhill, B. L.; Southon, J. R.; Caffee, M. W.; Finkel, R. C.; Nelson, D. E.; Proctor, I. D.; Davis, J. C.

1990-12-01

We are utilizing accelerator mass spectrometry as a sensitive detector for tracking the disposition of radioisotopically labeled molecules in the biomedical sciences. These applications have shown the effectiveness of AMS as a tool to quantify biologically important molecules at extremely low levels. For example, AMS is being used to determine the amount of carcinogen covalently bound to animal DNA (DNA adduct) at levels relevent to human exposure. Detection sensitivities are 1 carcinogen molecule bound in 1011 to 1012 DNA bases, depending on the specific activity of the radiolabeled carcinogen. Studies have been undertaken in our laboratory utilizing heterocyclic amine food-borne carcinogens and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), a potent environmental carcinogen, to study the metabolism of carcinogens at low doses. In addition, AMS is being used to detect the presence of rare proteins (mutant forms of protamine) in human sperm. Approximately l per 106 sperm analyzed contain the rare form of the protamine. Protamine isolated from this small number of cells is being analyzed by AMS, following 14C labeling. Thus, AMS can be used to verify the identity of an extremely small amount of biological material. Furthermore, an additional improvement of 2 orders of magnitude in the sensitivity of biomédical tracer studies is suggested by preliminary work with bacterial hosts depleted in radiocarbon. Other problems in the life sciences where detection sensitivity or sample sizes are limitations should also benefit from AMS. Studies are underway to measure the molecular targeting of cancer chemotherapeutics in human tissue and to pursue applications for receptor biology. We are also applying other candidate isotopes, such as 3H (double labeling with 14C) and 41Ca (bone absorption) to problems in biology. The detection of 36Cl and 26Al have applications for determination of human neutron exposure and understanding neurological toxicity, respectively. The results

Biomedical Big Data Training Collaborative (BBDTC): An effort to bridge the talent gap in biomedical science and research.

PubMed

Purawat, Shweta; Cowart, Charles; Amaro, Rommie E; Altintas, Ilkay

2016-06-01

The BBDTC (https://biobigdata.ucsd.edu) is a community-oriented platform to encourage high-quality knowledge dissemination with the aim of growing a well-informed biomedical big data community through collaborative efforts on training and education. The BBDTC collaborative is an e-learning platform that supports the biomedical community to access, develop and deploy open training materials. The BBDTC supports Big Data skill training for biomedical scientists at all levels, and from varied backgrounds. The natural hierarchy of courses allows them to be broken into and handled as modules . Modules can be reused in the context of multiple courses and reshuffled, producing a new and different, dynamic course called a playlist . Users may create playlists to suit their learning requirements and share it with individual users or the wider public. BBDTC leverages the maturity and design of the HUBzero content-management platform for delivering educational content. To facilitate the migration of existing content, the BBDTC supports importing and exporting course material from the edX platform. Migration tools will be extended in the future to support other platforms. Hands-on training software packages, i.e., toolboxes , are supported through Amazon EC2 and Virtualbox virtualization technologies, and they are available as: ( i ) downloadable lightweight Virtualbox Images providing a standardized software tool environment with software packages and test data on their personal machines, and ( ii ) remotely accessible Amazon EC2 Virtual Machines for accessing biomedical big data tools and scalable big data experiments. At the moment, the BBDTC site contains three open Biomedical big data training courses with lecture contents, videos and hands-on training utilizing VM toolboxes, covering diverse topics. The courses have enhanced the hands-on learning environment by providing structured content that users can use at their own pace. A four course biomedical big data series is

Solid state tritium detector for biomedical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, J. S.; Farrell, R.; Daley, K.; Oakes, C. E.

1994-08-01

Radioactive labeling of proteins is a very important technique used in biomedical research to identify, isolate, and investigate the expression and properties of proteins in biological systems. In such procedures, the preferred radiolabel is often tritium. Presently, binding assays involving tritium are carried out using inconvenient and expensive techniques which rely on the use of scintillation fluid counting systems. This traditional method involves both time-consuming laboratory protocols and the generation of substantial quantities of radioactive and chemical waste. We have developed a novel technology to measure the tritium content of biological specimens that does not rely on scintillation fluids. The tritiated samples can be positioned directly under a large area, monolithic array of specially prepared avalanche photodiodes (APDs) which record the tritium activity distribution at each point within the field of view of the array. The 1 mm(sup 2) sensing elements exhibit an intrinsic tritium beta detection efficiency of 27% with high gain uniformity and very low cross talk.

Assessing the practice of biomedical ontology evaluation: Gaps and opportunities.

PubMed

Amith, Muhammad; He, Zhe; Bian, Jiang; Lossio-Ventura, Juan Antonio; Tao, Cui

2018-04-01

With the proliferation of heterogeneous health care data in the last three decades, biomedical ontologies and controlled biomedical terminologies play a more and more important role in knowledge representation and management, data integration, natural language processing, as well as decision support for health information systems and biomedical research. Biomedical ontologies and controlled terminologies are intended to assure interoperability. Nevertheless, the quality of biomedical ontologies has hindered their applicability and subsequent adoption in real-world applications. Ontology evaluation is an integral part of ontology development and maintenance. In the biomedicine domain, ontology evaluation is often conducted by third parties as a quality assurance (or auditing) effort that focuses on identifying modeling errors and inconsistencies. In this work, we first organized four categorical schemes of ontology evaluation methods in the existing literature to create an integrated taxonomy. Further, to understand the ontology evaluation practice in the biomedicine domain, we reviewed a sample of 200 ontologies from the National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) BioPortal-the largest repository for biomedical ontologies-and observed that only 15 of these ontologies have documented evaluation in their corresponding inception papers. We then surveyed the recent quality assurance approaches for biomedical ontologies and their use. We also mapped these quality assurance approaches to the ontology evaluation criteria. It is our anticipation that ontology evaluation and quality assurance approaches will be more widely adopted in the development life cycle of biomedical ontologies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Segregation of biomedical waste in an South Indian tertiary care hospital

PubMed Central

Sengodan, Vetrivel Chezian

2014-01-01

Introduction: Hospital wastes pose significant public health hazard if not properly managed. Hence, it is necessary to develop and adopt optimal waste management systems in the hospitals. Material and method: Biomedical waste generated in Coimbatore Medical College Hospital was color coded (blue, yellow, and red) and the data was analyzed retrospectively on a daily basis for 3 years (January 2010-December 2012). Results: Effective segregation protocols significantly reduced biomedical waste generated from 2011 to 2012. While biomedical waste of red category was significantly higher (>50%), the category yellow was the least. Per unit (per bed per day) total biomedical waste generated was 68.5, 68.8, and 61.3 grams in 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively. Discussion: Segregation of biomedical waste at the source of generation is the first and essential step in biomedical waste management. Continuous training, fixing the responsibility on the nursing persons, and constant supervision are the key criteria's in implementing biomedical waste segregation process, which can significantly reduce per unit biomedical waste generated. Conclusion: We highly recommend all hospitals to adopt our protocol and effectively implement them to reduce generation of biomedical waste. PMID:25097419

Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (excerpts).

PubMed

2014-01-01

The Vancouver Convention is renowned among editors who publish dental and related research. It is the standard for what content goes in the Methods section, how tables and figures are to be laid out, and how references are to be cited, among many other particulars. Almost no biomedical research journals follow the Vancouver Convention in every detail; virtually all come very close. In addition to the mechanics of manuscript submission and formatting for publication, the Vancouver Convention is looked to as the standard for the ethics of publication. Common practice is defined for who counts as an author to what constitutes an acceptable republication. Very clear language is included regarding conformity with the Belmont Report or Helsinki Declaration and other requriments for ethical treatment of subjects. Conflicts of interest, confusion of advertising with research, relations with the popular press, and sponsorship of supplements are addressed. The Vancouver Convention makes a special point of emphasizing the responsibility of journal editors as having the final check in the chain of research ethics that begins with scientists pursuing a line of inquiry and ends when the results are reported. The Journal of the American College of Dentists endorses and honors the Vancouver Convention. In 2000, the Board of Regents of the American College of Dentists and the officers of the American Association of Dental Editors approved a joint Code of Ethics for Dental Editors. The code is based on the Vancouver Convention, but also addresses journal content beyond reports of research findings. The joint ACD-AADE code can be accessed at http://acd.org/ codefordentaleditors.htm.

Blockchain distributed ledger technologies for biomedical and health care applications.

PubMed

Kuo, Tsung-Ting; Kim, Hyeon-Eui; Ohno-Machado, Lucila

2017-11-01

To introduce blockchain technologies, including their benefits, pitfalls, and the latest applications, to the biomedical and health care domains. Biomedical and health care informatics researchers who would like to learn about blockchain technologies and their applications in the biomedical/health care domains. The covered topics include: (1) introduction to the famous Bitcoin crypto-currency and the underlying blockchain technology; (2) features of blockchain; (3) review of alternative blockchain technologies; (4) emerging nonfinancial distributed ledger technologies and applications; (5) benefits of blockchain for biomedical/health care applications when compared to traditional distributed databases; (6) overview of the latest biomedical/health care applications of blockchain technologies; and (7) discussion of the potential challenges and proposed solutions of adopting blockchain technologies in biomedical/health care domains. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Advances in biomedical engineering and biotechnology during 2013-2014.

PubMed

Liu, Feng; Wang, Ying; Burkhart, Timothy A; González Penedo, Manuel Francisco; Ma, Shaodong

2014-01-01

The 3rd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (iCBEB 2014), held in Beijing from the 25th to the 28th of September 2014, is an annual conference that intends to provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners around the world to present the most recent advances and future challenges in the fields of biomedical engineering, biomaterials, bioinformatics and computational biology, biomedical imaging and signal processing, biomechanical engineering and biotechnology, amongst others. The papers published in this issue are selected from this conference, which witnesses the advances in biomedical engineering and biotechnology during 2013-2014.

Symposium on Career Opportunities in Biomedical and Public Health Sciences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, Walter W.

1997-01-01

The goal of the Symposium on Career Opportunities in Biomedical and Public Health Sciences is to encourage minority collegiate and junior and senior high school students to pursue careers in biomedical and public health sciences. The objectives of the Symposium are to: (1) Provide information to participants concerning biomedical and public health science careers in government, academe and industry; (2) Provide information to minority students about training activities necessary to pursue a biomedical or public health science career and the fiscal support that one can obtain for such training; and (3) Provide opportunities for participating minority biomedical and public health role models to interact with participants.

Alginate: properties and biomedical applications

PubMed Central

Lee, Kuen Yong; Mooney, David J.

2011-01-01

Alginate is a biomaterial that has found numerous applications in biomedical science and engineering due to its favorable properties, including biocompatibility and ease of gelation. Alginate hydrogels have been particularly attractive in wound healing, drug delivery, and tissue engineering applications to date, as these gels retain structural similarity to the extracellular matrices in tissues and can be manipulated to play several critical roles. This review will provide a comprehensive overview of general properties of alginate and its hydrogels, their biomedical applications, and suggest new perspectives for future studies with these polymers. PMID:22125349

Accessing Biomedical Literature in the Current Information Landscape

PubMed Central

Khare, Ritu; Leaman, Robert; Lu, Zhiyong

2015-01-01

i. Summary Biomedical and life sciences literature is unique because of its exponentially increasing volume and interdisciplinary nature. Biomedical literature access is essential for several types of users including biomedical researchers, clinicians, database curators, and bibliometricians. In the past few decades, several online search tools and literature archives, generic as well as biomedicine-specific, have been developed. We present this chapter in the light of three consecutive steps of literature access: searching for citations, retrieving full-text, and viewing the article. The first section presents the current state of practice of biomedical literature access, including an analysis of the search tools most frequently used by the users, including PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase, and a study on biomedical literature archives such as PubMed Central. The next section describes current research and the state-of-the-art systems motivated by the challenges a user faces during query formulation and interpretation of search results. The research solutions are classified into five key areas related to text and data mining, text similarity search, semantic search, query support, relevance ranking, and clustering results. Finally, the last section describes some predicted future trends for improving biomedical literature access, such as searching and reading articles on portable devices, and adoption of the open access policy. PMID:24788259

Advanced methods for teaching electronic-nose technologies to diagnosticians and clinical laboratory technicians

Treesearch

Alphus D. Wilson

2012-01-01

Electronic-detection technologies and instruments increasingly are being utilized in the biomedical field to perform a wide variety of clinical operations and laboratory analyses to facilitate the delivery of health care to patients. The introduction of improved electronic instruments for diagnosing diseases and for administering treatments has required new training of...

History and Accomplishments of USDA-ARS Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The USDA-Agricultural Research Service Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory (ADOL) in East Lansing, Michigan, formerly known as Regional Poultry Research Laboratory, was dedicated on August 8, 1939. Its establishment was the result of joint efforts by the Agricultural Experiment Stations of the Nor...

Leading change: curriculum reform in graduate education in the biomedical sciences.

PubMed

Dasgupta, Shoumita; Symes, Karen; Hyman, Linda

2015-01-01

The Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at the Boston University School of Medicine houses numerous dynamic graduate programs. Doctoral students began their studies with laboratory rotations and classroom training in a variety of fundamental disciplines. Importantly, with 15 unique pathways of admission to these doctoral programs, there were also 15 unique curricula. Departments and programs offered courses independently, and students participated in curricula that were overlapping combinations of these courses. This system created curricula that were not coordinated and that had redundant course content as well as content gaps. A partnership of key stakeholders began a curriculum reform process to completely restructure doctoral education at the Boston University School of Medicine. The key pedagogical goals, objectives, and elements designed into the new curriculum through this reform process created a curriculum designed to foster the interdisciplinary thinking that students are ultimately asked to utilize in their research endeavors. We implemented comprehensive student and peer evaluation of the new Foundations in Biomedical Sciences integrated curriculum to assess the new curriculum. Furthermore, we detail how this process served as a gateway toward creating a more fully integrated graduate experience, under the umbrella of the Program in Biomedical Sciences. © 2015 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Bio-Inspired Extreme Wetting Surfaces for Biomedical Applications

PubMed Central

Shin, Sera; Seo, Jungmok; Han, Heetak; Kang, Subin; Kim, Hyunchul; Lee, Taeyoon

2016-01-01

Biological creatures with unique surface wettability have long served as a source of inspiration for scientists and engineers. More specifically, materials exhibiting extreme wetting properties, such as superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces, have attracted considerable attention because of their potential use in various applications, such as self-cleaning fabrics, anti-fog windows, anti-corrosive coatings, drag-reduction systems, and efficient water transportation. In particular, the engineering of surface wettability by manipulating chemical properties and structure opens emerging biomedical applications ranging from high-throughput cell culture platforms to biomedical devices. This review describes design and fabrication methods for artificial extreme wetting surfaces. Next, we introduce some of the newer and emerging biomedical applications using extreme wetting surfaces. Current challenges and future prospects of the surfaces for potential biomedical applications are also addressed. PMID:28787916

[How do hospital clinical laboratories and laboratory testing companies cooperate and build reciprocal relations?].

PubMed

Kawano, Seiji

2014-12-01

As the 2nd Joint Symposium of the Japanese Society of Laboratory Medicine and the Japanese Association of Laboratory Pathologists, the symposium on clinical test out-sourcing and branch laboratories was held at the 60th General Meeting of the Japanese Society of Laboratory Medicine on November 2nd, 2013 in Kobe. For the symposium, we conducted a questionnaire survey on the usage of clinical test out-sourcing and the introduction of branch laboratories to clinical laboratories of Japanese university hospitals, both private and public, between July 25th and August 20th, 2013. Seventy-two hospitals responded to the questionnaire survey, consisting of 41 public medical school hospitals and 31 private ones. According to the survey, the selection of each clinical test for out-sourcing was mainly determined by the capacities of hospital clinical laboratories and their equipment, as well as the profitability of each test. The main concerns of clinical laboratory members of university hospitals involved the continuity of measurement principles, traceability, and standardization of reference values for each test. They strongly requested the interchangeability and computerization of test data between laboratory testing companies. A branch laboratory was introduced to six hospitals, all of which were private medical college hospitals, out of 72 university hospitals, and eight of the other hospitals were open to its introduction. The merits and demerits of introducing a branch laboratory were also discussed. (Review).

Cognitive and learning sciences in biomedical and health instructional design: A review with lessons for biomedical informatics education.

PubMed

Patel, Vimla L; Yoskowitz, Nicole A; Arocha, Jose F; Shortliffe, Edward H

2009-02-01

Theoretical and methodological advances in the cognitive and learning sciences can greatly inform curriculum and instruction in biomedicine and also educational programs in biomedical informatics. It does so by addressing issues such as the processes related to comprehension of medical information, clinical problem-solving and decision-making, and the role of technology. This paper reviews these theories and methods from the cognitive and learning sciences and their role in addressing current and future needs in designing curricula, largely using illustrative examples drawn from medical education. The lessons of this past work are also applicable, however, to biomedical and health professional curricula in general, and to biomedical informatics training, in particular. We summarize empirical studies conducted over two decades on the role of memory, knowledge organization and reasoning as well as studies of problem-solving and decision-making in medical areas that inform curricular design. The results of this research contribute to the design of more informed curricula based on empirical findings about how people learn and think, and more specifically, how expertise is developed. Similarly, the study of practice can also help to shape theories of human performance, technology-based learning, and scientific and professional collaboration that extend beyond the domain of medicine. Just as biomedical science has revolutionized health care practice, research in the cognitive and learning sciences provides a scientific foundation for education in biomedicine, the health professions, and biomedical informatics.

Biomedical Engineering | Classification | College of Engineering & Applied

Science.gov Websites

Engineering, Biomedical Engineering(414) 229-6614wjchang@uwm.eduEng & Math Sciences 1113 profile photo Malkoc, Ph.D.Visiting Assistant ProfessorBiomedical Engineering414-229-6919malkoc@uwm.eduEng & Math Engineering / Electrical Engineering(414) 229-3327misra@uwm.eduEng & Math Sciences E-314 profile photo

Superhydrophobic Materials for Biomedical Applications

PubMed Central

Colson, Yolonda L.; Grinstaff, Mark W.

2016-01-01

Superhydrophobic surfaces are actively studied across a wide range of applications and industries, and are now finding increased use in the biomedical arena as substrates to control protein adsorption, cellular interaction, and bacterial growth, as well as platforms for drug delivery devices and for diagnostic tools. The commonality in the design of these materials is to create a stable or metastable air state at the material surface, which lends itself to a number of unique properties. These activities are catalyzing the development of new materials, applications, and fabrication techniques, as well as collaborations across material science, chemistry, engineering, and medicine given the interdisciplinary nature of this work. The review begins with a discussion of superhydrophobicity, and then explores biomedical applications that are utilizing superhydrophobicity in depth including material selection characteristics, in vitro performance, and in vivo performance. General trends are offered for each application in addition to discussion of conflicting data in the literature, and the review concludes with the authors’ future perspectives on the utility of superhydrophobic surfaces for biomedical applications. PMID:27449946

Open- and closed-formula laboratory animal diets and their importance to research.

PubMed

Barnard, Dennis E; Lewis, Sherry M; Teter, Beverly B; Thigpen, Julius E

2009-11-01

Almost 40 y ago the scientific community was taking actions to control environmental factors that contribute to variation in the responses of laboratory animals to scientific manipulation. Laboratory animal diet was recognized as an important variable. During the 1970s, the American Institute of Nutrition, National Academy of Science, Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, and Laboratory Animals Centre Diets Advisory Committee supported the use of 'standard reference diets' in biomedical research as a means to improve the ability to replicate research. As a result the AIN76 purified diet was formulated. During this same time, the laboratory animal nutritionist at the NIH was formulating open-formula, natural-ingredient diets to meet the need for standardized laboratory animal diets. Since the development of open-formula diets, fixed-formula and constant-nutrient-concentration closed-formula laboratory animal natural ingredient diets have been introduced to help reduce the potential variation diet can cause in research.

Open- and Closed-Formula Laboratory Animal Diets and Their Importance to Research

PubMed Central

Barnard, Dennis E; Lewis, Sherry M; Teter, Beverly B; Thigpen, Julius E

2009-01-01

Almost 40 y ago the scientific community was taking actions to control environmental factors that contribute to variation in the responses of laboratory animals to scientific manipulation. Laboratory animal diet was recognized as an important variable. During the 1970s, the American Institute of Nutrition, National Academy of Science, Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, and Laboratory Animals Centre Diets Advisory Committee supported the use of ‘standard reference diets’ in biomedical research as a means to improve the ability to replicate research. As a result the AIN76 purified diet was formulated. During this same time, the laboratory animal nutritionist at the NIH was formulating open-formula, natural-ingredient diets to meet the need for standardized laboratory animal diets. Since the development of open-formula diets, fixed-formula and constant-nutrient–concentration closed-formula laboratory animal natural ingredient diets have been introduced to help reduce the potential variation diet can cause in research. PMID:19930817

Biomedical waste management in Ayurveda hospitals - current practices & future prospectives.

PubMed

Rajan, Renju; Robin, Delvin T; M, Vandanarani

2018-03-16

Biomedical waste management is an integral part of traditional and contemporary system of health care. The paper focuses on the identification and classification of biomedical wastes in Ayurvedic hospitals, current practices of its management in Ayurveda hospitals and its future prospective. Databases like PubMed (1975-2017 Feb), Scopus (1960-2017), AYUSH Portal, DOAJ, DHARA and Google scholar were searched. We used the medical subject headings 'biomedical waste' and 'health care waste' for identification and classification. The terms 'biomedical waste management', 'health care waste management' alone and combined with 'Ayurveda' or 'Ayurvedic' for current practices and recent advances in the treatment of these wastes were used. We made a humble attempt to categorize the biomedical wastes from Ayurvedic hospitals as the available data about its grouping is very scarce. Proper biomedical waste management is the mainstay of hospital cleanliness, hospital hygiene and maintenance activities. Current disposal techniques adopted for Ayurveda biomedical wastes are - sewage/drains, incineration and land fill. But these methods are having some merits as well as demerits. Our review has identified a number of interesting areas for future research such as the logical application of bioremediation techniques in biomedical waste management and the usage of effective micro-organisms and solar energy in waste disposal. Copyright © 2017 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PATTERNS IN BIOMEDICAL DATA-HOW DO WE FIND THEM?

PubMed

Basile, Anna O; Verma, Anurag; Byrska-Bishop, Marta; Pendergrass, Sarah A; Darabos, Christian; Lester Kirchner, H

2017-01-01

Given the exponential growth of biomedical data, researchers are faced with numerous challenges in extracting and interpreting information from these large, high-dimensional, incomplete, and often noisy data. To facilitate addressing this growing concern, the "Patterns in Biomedical Data-How do we find them?" session of the 2017 Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) is devoted to exploring pattern recognition using data-driven approaches for biomedical and precision medicine applications. The papers selected for this session focus on novel machine learning techniques as well as applications of established methods to heterogeneous data. We also feature manuscripts aimed at addressing the current challenges associated with the analysis of biomedical data.

Dynamic Postural-Stability Deficits After Cryotherapy to the Ankle Joint

PubMed Central

Fullam, Karl; Caulfield, Brian; Coughlan, Garrett F.; McGroarty, Mark; Delahunt, Eamonn

2015-01-01

Context  Decreased postural stability is a primary risk factor for lower limb musculoskeletal injuries. During athletic competitions, cryotherapy may be applied during short breaks in play or during half-time; however, its effects on postural stability remain unclear. Objective  To investigate the acute effects of a 15-minute ankle-joint cryotherapy application on dynamic postural stability. Design  Controlled laboratory study. Setting  University biomechanics laboratory. Patients or Other Participants  A total of 29 elite-level collegiate male field-sport athletes (age = 20.8 ± 1.12 years, height = 1.80 ± 0.06 m, mass = 81.89 ± 8.59 kg) participated. Intervention(s)  Participants were tested on the anterior (ANT), posterolateral (PL), and posteromedial (PM) reach directions of the Star Excursion Balance Test before and after a 15-minute ankle-joint cryotherapy application. Main Outcome Measure(s)  Normalized reach distances; sagittal-plane kinematics of the hip, knee, and ankle joints; and associated mean velocity of the center-of-pressure path during performance of the ANT, PL, and PM reach directions of the Star Excursion Balance Test. Results  We observed a decrease in reach-distance scores for the ANT, PL, and PM reach directions from precryotherapy to postcryotherapy (P < .05). No differences were observed in hip-, knee-, or ankle-joint sagittal-plane kinematics (P > .05). We noted a decrease in mean velocity of the center-of-pressure path from precryotherapy to postcryotherapy (P < .05) in all reach directions. Conclusions  Dynamic postural stability was adversely affected immediately after cryotherapy to the ankle joint. PMID:26285088

On-Chip Biomedical Imaging

PubMed Central

Göröcs, Zoltán; Ozcan, Aydogan

2012-01-01

Lab-on-a-chip systems have been rapidly emerging to pave the way toward ultra-compact, efficient, mass producible and cost-effective biomedical research and diagnostic tools. Although such microfluidic and micro electromechanical systems achieved high levels of integration, and are capable of performing various important tasks on the same chip, such as cell culturing, sorting and staining, they still rely on conventional microscopes for their imaging needs. Recently several alternative on-chip optical imaging techniques have been introduced, which have the potential to substitute conventional microscopes for various lab-on-a-chip applications. Here we present a critical review of these recently emerging on-chip biomedical imaging modalities, including contact shadow imaging, lensfree holographic microscopy, fluorescent on-chip microscopy and lensfree optical tomography. PMID:23558399

Modeling Anisotropic Elastic Wave Propagation in Jointed Rock Masses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurley, R.; Vorobiev, O.; Ezzedine, S. M.; Antoun, T.

2016-12-01

We present a numerical approach for determining the anisotropic stiffness of materials with nonlinearly-compliant joints capable of sliding. The proposed method extends existing ones for upscaling the behavior of a medium with open cracks and inclusions to cases relevant to natural fractured and jointed rocks, where nonlinearly-compliant joints can undergo plastic slip. The method deviates from existing techniques by incorporating the friction and closure states of the joints, and recovers an anisotropic elastic form in the small-strain limit when joints are not sliding. We present the mathematical formulation of our method and use Representative Volume Element (RVE) simulations to evaluate its accuracy for joint sets with varying complexity. We then apply the formulation to determine anisotropic elastic constants of jointed granite found at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site (NNSS) where the Source Physics Experiments (SPE), a campaign of underground chemical explosions, are performed. Finally, we discuss the implementation of our numerical approach in a massively parallel Lagrangian code Geodyn-L and its use for studying wave propagation from underground explosions. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Biomedical sensor design using analog compressed sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balouchestani, Mohammadreza; Krishnan, Sridhar

2015-05-01

The main drawback of current healthcare systems is the location-specific nature of the system due to the use of fixed/wired biomedical sensors. Since biomedical sensors are usually driven by a battery, power consumption is the most important factor determining the life of a biomedical sensor. They are also restricted by size, cost, and transmission capacity. Therefore, it is important to reduce the load of sampling by merging the sampling and compression steps to reduce the storage usage, transmission times, and power consumption in order to expand the current healthcare systems to Wireless Healthcare Systems (WHSs). In this work, we present an implementation of a low-power biomedical sensor using analog Compressed Sensing (CS) framework for sparse biomedical signals that addresses both the energy and telemetry bandwidth constraints of wearable and wireless Body-Area Networks (BANs). This architecture enables continuous data acquisition and compression of biomedical signals that are suitable for a variety of diagnostic and treatment purposes. At the transmitter side, an analog-CS framework is applied at the sensing step before Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) in order to generate the compressed version of the input analog bio-signal. At the receiver side, a reconstruction algorithm based on Restricted Isometry Property (RIP) condition is applied in order to reconstruct the original bio-signals form the compressed bio-signals with high probability and enough accuracy. We examine the proposed algorithm with healthy and neuropathy surface Electromyography (sEMG) signals. The proposed algorithm achieves a good level for Average Recognition Rate (ARR) at 93% and reconstruction accuracy at 98.9%. In addition, The proposed architecture reduces total computation time from 32 to 11.5 seconds at sampling-rate=29 % of Nyquist rate, Percentage Residual Difference (PRD)=26 %, Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE)=3 %.

Biomedical Research Warfare.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fortson, Leigh

1999-01-01

An African-American researcher is spearheading a black biomedical research movement to urge more African Americans to investigate the health issues affecting their communities. His research focuses on the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) virus, but he is encouraging general expansion of the black researcher population. (MSE)

Crossing the Chasm: Information Technology to Biomedical Informatics

PubMed Central

Fahy, Brenda G.; Balke, C. William; Umberger, Gloria H.; Talbert, Jeffery; Canales, Denise Niles; Steltenkamp, Carol L.; Conigliaro, Joseph

2011-01-01

Accelerating the translation of new scientific discoveries to improve human health and disease management is the overall goal of a series of initiatives integrated in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “Roadmap for Medical Research.” The Clinical and Translational Research Award (CTSA) program is, arguably, the most visible component of the NIH Roadmap providing resources to institutions to transform their clinical and translational research enterprises along the goals of the Roadmap. The CTSA program emphasizes biomedical informatics as a critical component for the accomplishment of the NIH’s translational objectives. To be optimally effective, emerging biomedical informatics programs must link with the information technology (IT) platforms of the enterprise clinical operations within academic health centers. This report details one academic health center’s transdisciplinary initiative to create an integrated academic discipline of biomedical informatics through the development of its infrastructure for clinical and translational science infrastructure and response to the CTSA mechanism. This approach required a detailed informatics strategy to accomplish these goals. This transdisciplinary initiative was the impetus for creation of a specialized biomedical informatics core, the Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBI). Development of the CBI codified the need to incorporate medical informatics including quality and safety informatics and enterprise clinical information systems within the CBI. This paper describes the steps taken to develop the biomedical informatics infrastructure, its integration with clinical systems at one academic health center, successes achieved, and barriers encountered during these efforts. PMID:21383632

Crossing the chasm: information technology to biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Fahy, Brenda G; Balke, C William; Umberger, Gloria H; Talbert, Jeffery; Canales, Denise Niles; Steltenkamp, Carol L; Conigliaro, Joseph

2011-06-01

Accelerating the translation of new scientific discoveries to improve human health and disease management is the overall goal of a series of initiatives integrated in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) "Roadmap for Medical Research." The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program is, arguably, the most visible component of the NIH Roadmap providing resources to institutions to transform their clinical and translational research enterprises along the goals of the Roadmap. The CTSA program emphasizes biomedical informatics as a critical component for the accomplishment of the NIH's translational objectives. To be optimally effective, emerging biomedical informatics programs must link with the information technology platforms of the enterprise clinical operations within academic health centers.This report details one academic health center's transdisciplinary initiative to create an integrated academic discipline of biomedical informatics through the development of its infrastructure for clinical and translational science infrastructure and response to the CTSA mechanism. This approach required a detailed informatics strategy to accomplish these goals. This transdisciplinary initiative was the impetus for creation of a specialized biomedical informatics core, the Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBI). Development of the CBI codified the need to incorporate medical informatics including quality and safety informatics and enterprise clinical information systems within the CBI. This article describes the steps taken to develop the biomedical informatics infrastructure, its integration with clinical systems at one academic health center, successes achieved, and barriers encountered during these efforts.

Experimental Robot Position Sensor Fault Tolerance Using Accelerometers and Joint Torque Sensors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aldridge, Hal A.; Juang, Jer-Nan

1997-01-01

Robot systems in critical applications, such as those in space and nuclear environments, must be able to operate during component failure to complete important tasks. One failure mode that has received little attention is the failure of joint position sensors. Current fault tolerant designs require the addition of directly redundant position sensors which can affect joint design. The proposed method uses joint torque sensors found in most existing advanced robot designs along with easily locatable, lightweight accelerometers to provide a joint position sensor fault recovery mode. This mode uses the torque sensors along with a virtual passive control law for stability and accelerometers for joint position information. Two methods for conversion from Cartesian acceleration to joint position based on robot kinematics, not integration, are presented. The fault tolerant control method was tested on several joints of a laboratory robot. The controllers performed well with noisy, biased data and a model with uncertain parameters.

Stimuli-responsive magnetic particles for biomedical applications.

PubMed

Medeiros, S F; Santos, A M; Fessi, H; Elaissari, A

2011-01-17

In recent years, magnetic nanoparticles have been studied due to their potential applications as magnetic carriers in biomedical area. These materials have been increasingly exploited as efficient delivery vectors, leading to opportunities of use as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents, mediators of hyperthermia cancer treatment and in targeted therapies. Much attention has been also focused on "smart" polymers, which are able to respond to environmental changes, such as changes in the temperature and pH. In this context, this article reviews the state-of-the art in stimuli-responsive magnetic systems for biomedical applications. The paper describes different types of stimuli-sensitive systems, mainly temperature- and pH sensitive polymers, the combination of this characteristic with magnetic properties and, finally, it gives an account of their preparation methods. The article also discusses the main in vivo biomedical applications of such materials. A survey of the recent literature on various stimuli-responsive magnetic gels in biomedical applications is also included. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Biomedical waste management in five hospitals in Dakar, Senegal].

PubMed

Ndiaye, M; El Metghari, L; Soumah, M M; Sow, M L

2012-10-01

Biomedical waste is currently a real health and environmental concern. In this regard, a study was conducted in 5 hospitals in Dakar to review their management of biomedical waste and to formulate recommendations. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from 1 April to 31 July 2010 in five major hospitals of Dakar. A questionnaire administered to hospital managers, heads of departments, residents and heads of hospital hygiene departments as well as interviews conducted with healthcare personnel and operators of waste incinerators made it possible to assess mechanisms and knowledge on biomedical waste management. Content analysis of interviews, observations and a data sheet allowed processing the data thus gathered. Of the 150 questionnaires distributed, 98 responses were obtained representing a response rate of 65.3%. An interview was conducted with 75 employees directly involved in the management of biomedical waste and observations were made on biomedical waste management in 86 hospital services. Sharps as well as blood and liquid waste were found in all services except in pharmacies, pharmaceutical waste in 66 services, infectious waste in 49 services and anatomical waste in 11 services. Sorting of biomedical waste was ill-adapted in 53.5% (N = 46) of services and the use of the colour-coding system effective in 31.4% (N = 27) of services. Containers for the safe disposal of sharps were available in 82.5% (N = 71) of services and were effectively utilized in 51.1% (N = 44) of these services. In most services, an illadapted packaging was observed with the use of plastic bottles and bins for waste collection and overfilled containers. With the exception of Hôpital Principal, the main storage area was in open air, unsecured, with biomedical waste littered on the floor and often mixed with waste similar to household refuse. The transfer of biomedical waste to the main storage area was done using trolleys or carts in 67.4% (N = 58) of services and

Supervised Learning Based Hypothesis Generation from Biomedical Literature.

PubMed

Sang, Shengtian; Yang, Zhihao; Li, Zongyao; Lin, Hongfei

2015-01-01

Nowadays, the amount of biomedical literatures is growing at an explosive speed, and there is much useful knowledge undiscovered in this literature. Researchers can form biomedical hypotheses through mining these works. In this paper, we propose a supervised learning based approach to generate hypotheses from biomedical literature. This approach splits the traditional processing of hypothesis generation with classic ABC model into AB model and BC model which are constructed with supervised learning method. Compared with the concept cooccurrence and grammar engineering-based approaches like SemRep, machine learning based models usually can achieve better performance in information extraction (IE) from texts. Then through combining the two models, the approach reconstructs the ABC model and generates biomedical hypotheses from literature. The experimental results on the three classic Swanson hypotheses show that our approach outperforms SemRep system.

The Aotus nancymaae erythrocyte proteome and its importance for biomedical research.

PubMed

Moreno-Pérez, D A; García-Valiente, R; Ibarrola, N; Muro, A; Patarroyo, M A

2017-01-30

The Aotus nancymaae species has been of great importance in researching the biology and pathogenesis of malaria, particularly for studying Plasmodium molecules for including them in effective vaccines against such microorganism. In spite of the forgoing, there has been no report to date describing the biology of parasite target cells in primates or their biomedical importance. This study was thus designed to analyse A. nancymaae erythrocyte protein composition using MS data collected during a previous study aimed at characterising the Plasmodium vivax proteome and published in the pertinent literature. Most peptides identified were similar to those belonging to 1189 Homo sapiens molecules; >95% of them had orthologues in New World primates. GO terms revealed a correlation between categories having the greatest amount of proteins and vital cell function. Integral membrane molecules were also identified which could be possible receptors facilitating interaction with Plasmodium species. The A. nancymaae erythrocyte proteome is described here for the first time, as a starting point for more in-depth/extensive studies. The data reported represents a source of invaluable information for laboratories interested in carrying out basic and applied biomedical investigation studies which involve using this primate. An understanding of the proteomics characteristics of A. nancymaae erythrocytes represents a fascinating area for research regarding the study of the pathogenesis of malaria since these are the main target for Plasmodium invasion. However, and even though Aotus is one of the non-human primate models considered most appropriate for biomedical research, knowledge of its proteome, particularly its erythrocytes, remains unknown. According to the above and bearing in mind the lack of information about the A. nancymaae species genome and transcriptome, this study involved a search for primate proteins for comparing their MS/MS spectra with the available information for

First experience with a new biomedical engineering program in Slovenia established following the TEMPUS IV CRH-BME joint project guidelines.

PubMed

Jarm, Tomaz; Miklavcic, Damijan

2014-01-01

A new study program of biomedical engineering was recently established at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is based on the long-lasting tradition of education in the field of BME at the host institution and is built on the BME areas in which the research groups of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering have been traditionally successful. The program was prepared in accordance with the recommendations of the TEMPUS IV CRH-BME Project consortium.

Autism: biomedical complementary treatment approaches.

PubMed

Hendren, Robert L

2013-07-01

This article provides a conceptual overview for the use of biomedical complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments for autism spectrum disorders. Pharmaceutical agents with published studies are briefly mentioned; but the focus of the article is on possible biomedical CAM treatments, the rationale for their use, and the current database of mostly preliminary studies regarding their safety and efficacy. Of the more than 50 treatments currently listed here and in use by eager families, 9 are reviewed in more detail because of their promise from preliminary research studies or because of public interest. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Symposium on Biomedical Applications of Basic Research Held in Woods Hole, Massachusetts on 15 August 1988.

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-02-10

to the AIDS virus , in a presentation titled "Marine Invertebrate Immunity: The AIDS Cqnnectlon." Funding for "Biomedical Applications of Basic...ibl itY Codes iAv ~li anti/or Dist. Spoc al The February evening in 1975 after MV Islander hit the Gould are Alan G. Lunn, left, marine contractor...discovery 25 years ago in the mtnt, Dr. Kornberg pointed out. is that the AIDS virus is covea, they are abundant only where laboratory of Frederik B

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The apparatus shown was designed to hold microcapsules for research on mission STS-107. It is one over several included in the Commercial ITA Biomedical Experiments payload. The box was recently recovered during the search for Columbia debris. The drug delivery system and spaceflight hardware was developed jointly by JSC, the Institute for Research Inc. and Instrumentation Technology Associates Inc. to conduct microencapsulation experiments under microgravity conditions.

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-05-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The apparatus shown was designed to hold microcapsules for research on mission STS-107. It is one over several included in the Commercial ITA Biomedical Experiments payload. The box was recently recovered during the search for Columbia debris. The drug delivery system and spaceflight hardware was developed jointly by JSC, the Institute for Research Inc. and Instrumentation Technology Associates Inc. to conduct microencapsulation experiments under microgravity conditions.

Biomedical microfluidic devices by using low-cost fabrication techniques: A review.

PubMed

Faustino, Vera; Catarino, Susana O; Lima, Rui; Minas, Graça

2016-07-26

One of the most popular methods to fabricate biomedical microfluidic devices is by using a soft-lithography technique. However, the fabrication of the moulds to produce microfluidic devices, such as SU-8 moulds, usually requires a cleanroom environment that can be quite costly. Therefore, many efforts have been made to develop low-cost alternatives for the fabrication of microstructures, avoiding the use of cleanroom facilities. Recently, low-cost techniques without cleanroom facilities that feature aspect ratios more than 20, for fabricating those SU-8 moulds have been gaining popularity among biomedical research community. In those techniques, Ultraviolet (UV) exposure equipment, commonly used in the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) industry, replaces the more expensive and less available Mask Aligner that has been used in the last 15 years for SU-8 patterning. Alternatively, non-lithographic low-cost techniques, due to their ability for large-scale production, have increased the interest of the industrial and research community to develop simple, rapid and low-cost microfluidic structures. These alternative techniques include Print and Peel methods (PAP), laserjet, solid ink, cutting plotters or micromilling, that use equipment available in almost all laboratories and offices. An example is the xurography technique that uses a cutting plotter machine and adhesive vinyl films to generate the master moulds to fabricate microfluidic channels. In this review, we present a selection of the most recent lithographic and non-lithographic low-cost techniques to fabricate microfluidic structures, focused on the features and limitations of each technique. Only microfabrication methods that do not require the use of cleanrooms are considered. Additionally, potential applications of these microfluidic devices in biomedical engineering are presented with some illustrative examples. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A modular framework for biomedical concept recognition

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Concept recognition is an essential task in biomedical information extraction, presenting several complex and unsolved challenges. The development of such solutions is typically performed in an ad-hoc manner or using general information extraction frameworks, which are not optimized for the biomedical domain and normally require the integration of complex external libraries and/or the development of custom tools. Results This article presents Neji, an open source framework optimized for biomedical concept recognition built around four key characteristics: modularity, scalability, speed, and usability. It integrates modules for biomedical natural language processing, such as sentence splitting, tokenization, lemmatization, part-of-speech tagging, chunking and dependency parsing. Concept recognition is provided through dictionary matching and machine learning with normalization methods. Neji also integrates an innovative concept tree implementation, supporting overlapped concept names and respective disambiguation techniques. The most popular input and output formats, namely Pubmed XML, IeXML, CoNLL and A1, are also supported. On top of the built-in functionalities, developers and researchers can implement new processing modules or pipelines, or use the provided command-line interface tool to build their own solutions, applying the most appropriate techniques to identify heterogeneous biomedical concepts. Neji was evaluated against three gold standard corpora with heterogeneous biomedical concepts (CRAFT, AnEM and NCBI disease corpus), achieving high performance results on named entity recognition (F1-measure for overlap matching: species 95%, cell 92%, cellular components 83%, gene and proteins 76%, chemicals 65%, biological processes and molecular functions 63%, disorders 85%, and anatomical entities 82%) and on entity normalization (F1-measure for overlap name matching and correct identifier included in the returned list of identifiers: species 88

Figure Text Extraction in Biomedical Literature

PubMed Central

Kim, Daehyun; Yu, Hong

2011-01-01

Background Figures are ubiquitous in biomedical full-text articles, and they represent important biomedical knowledge. However, the sheer volume of biomedical publications has made it necessary to develop computational approaches for accessing figures. Therefore, we are developing the Biomedical Figure Search engine (http://figuresearch.askHERMES.org) to allow bioscientists to access figures efficiently. Since text frequently appears in figures, automatically extracting such text may assist the task of mining information from figures. Little research, however, has been conducted exploring text extraction from biomedical figures. Methodology We first evaluated an off-the-shelf Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool on its ability to extract text from figures appearing in biomedical full-text articles. We then developed a Figure Text Extraction Tool (FigTExT) to improve the performance of the OCR tool for figure text extraction through the use of three innovative components: image preprocessing, character recognition, and text correction. We first developed image preprocessing to enhance image quality and to improve text localization. Then we adapted the off-the-shelf OCR tool on the improved text localization for character recognition. Finally, we developed and evaluated a novel text correction framework by taking advantage of figure-specific lexicons. Results/Conclusions The evaluation on 382 figures (9,643 figure texts in total) randomly selected from PubMed Central full-text articles shows that FigTExT performed with 84% precision, 98% recall, and 90% F1-score for text localization and with 62.5% precision, 51.0% recall and 56.2% F1-score for figure text extraction. When limiting figure texts to those judged by domain experts to be important content, FigTExT performed with 87.3% precision, 68.8% recall, and 77% F1-score. FigTExT significantly improved the performance of the off-the-shelf OCR tool we used, which on its own performed with 36.6% precision, 19

Figure text extraction in biomedical literature.

PubMed

Kim, Daehyun; Yu, Hong

2011-01-13

Figures are ubiquitous in biomedical full-text articles, and they represent important biomedical knowledge. However, the sheer volume of biomedical publications has made it necessary to develop computational approaches for accessing figures. Therefore, we are developing the Biomedical Figure Search engine (http://figuresearch.askHERMES.org) to allow bioscientists to access figures efficiently. Since text frequently appears in figures, automatically extracting such text may assist the task of mining information from figures. Little research, however, has been conducted exploring text extraction from biomedical figures. We first evaluated an off-the-shelf Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool on its ability to extract text from figures appearing in biomedical full-text articles. We then developed a Figure Text Extraction Tool (FigTExT) to improve the performance of the OCR tool for figure text extraction through the use of three innovative components: image preprocessing, character recognition, and text correction. We first developed image preprocessing to enhance image quality and to improve text localization. Then we adapted the off-the-shelf OCR tool on the improved text localization for character recognition. Finally, we developed and evaluated a novel text correction framework by taking advantage of figure-specific lexicons. The evaluation on 382 figures (9,643 figure texts in total) randomly selected from PubMed Central full-text articles shows that FigTExT performed with 84% precision, 98% recall, and 90% F1-score for text localization and with 62.5% precision, 51.0% recall and 56.2% F1-score for figure text extraction. When limiting figure texts to those judged by domain experts to be important content, FigTExT performed with 87.3% precision, 68.8% recall, and 77% F1-score. FigTExT significantly improved the performance of the off-the-shelf OCR tool we used, which on its own performed with 36.6% precision, 19.3% recall, and 25.3% F1-score for text

Facilitating biomedical researchers' interrogation of electronic health record data: Ideas from outside of biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Hruby, Gregory W; Matsoukas, Konstantina; Cimino, James J; Weng, Chunhua

2016-04-01

Electronic health records (EHR) are a vital data resource for research uses, including cohort identification, phenotyping, pharmacovigilance, and public health surveillance. To realize the promise of EHR data for accelerating clinical research, it is imperative to enable efficient and autonomous EHR data interrogation by end users such as biomedical researchers. This paper surveys state-of-art approaches and key methodological considerations to this purpose. We adapted a previously published conceptual framework for interactive information retrieval, which defines three entities: user, channel, and source, by elaborating on channels for query formulation in the context of facilitating end users to interrogate EHR data. We show the current progress in biomedical informatics mainly lies in support for query execution and information modeling, primarily due to emphases on infrastructure development for data integration and data access via self-service query tools, but has neglected user support needed during iteratively query formulation processes, which can be costly and error-prone. In contrast, the information science literature has offered elaborate theories and methods for user modeling and query formulation support. The two bodies of literature are complementary, implying opportunities for cross-disciplinary idea exchange. On this basis, we outline the directions for future informatics research to improve our understanding of user needs and requirements for facilitating autonomous interrogation of EHR data by biomedical researchers. We suggest that cross-disciplinary translational research between biomedical informatics and information science can benefit our research in facilitating efficient data access in life sciences. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Semantic biomedical resource discovery: a Natural Language Processing framework.

PubMed

Sfakianaki, Pepi; Koumakis, Lefteris; Sfakianakis, Stelios; Iatraki, Galatia; Zacharioudakis, Giorgos; Graf, Norbert; Marias, Kostas; Tsiknakis, Manolis

2015-09-30

A plethora of publicly available biomedical resources do currently exist and are constantly increasing at a fast rate. In parallel, specialized repositories are been developed, indexing numerous clinical and biomedical tools. The main drawback of such repositories is the difficulty in locating appropriate resources for a clinical or biomedical decision task, especially for non-Information Technology expert users. In parallel, although NLP research in the clinical domain has been active since the 1960s, progress in the development of NLP applications has been slow and lags behind progress in the general NLP domain. The aim of the present study is to investigate the use of semantics for biomedical resources annotation with domain specific ontologies and exploit Natural Language Processing methods in empowering the non-Information Technology expert users to efficiently search for biomedical resources using natural language. A Natural Language Processing engine which can "translate" free text into targeted queries, automatically transforming a clinical research question into a request description that contains only terms of ontologies, has been implemented. The implementation is based on information extraction techniques for text in natural language, guided by integrated ontologies. Furthermore, knowledge from robust text mining methods has been incorporated to map descriptions into suitable domain ontologies in order to ensure that the biomedical resources descriptions are domain oriented and enhance the accuracy of services discovery. The framework is freely available as a web application at ( http://calchas.ics.forth.gr/ ). For our experiments, a range of clinical questions were established based on descriptions of clinical trials from the ClinicalTrials.gov registry as well as recommendations from clinicians. Domain experts manually identified the available tools in a tools repository which are suitable for addressing the clinical questions at hand, either

[ISO 15189 medical laboratory accreditation].

PubMed

Aoyagi, Tsutomu

2004-10-01

This International Standard, based upon ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 9001, provides requirements for competence and quality that are particular to medical laboratories. While this International Standard is intended for use throughout the currently recognized disciplines of medical laboratory services, those working in other services and disciplines will also find it useful and appropriate. In addition, bodies engaged in the recognition of the competence of medical laboratories will be able to use this International Standard as the basis for their activities. The Japan Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment (AB) and the Japanese Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (CCLS) are jointly developing the program of accreditation of medical laboratories. ISO 15189 requirements consist of two parts, one is management requirements and the other is technical requirements. The former includes the requirements of all parts of ISO 9001, moreover it includes the requirement of conformity assessment body, for example, impartiality and independence from any other party. The latter includes the requirements of laboratory competence (e.g. personnel, facility, instrument, and examination methods), moreover it requires that laboratories shall participate proficiency testing(s) and laboratories' examination results shall have traceability of measurements and implement uncertainty of measurement. Implementation of ISO 15189 will result in a significant improvement in medical laboratories management system and their technical competence. The accreditation of medical laboratory will improve medical laboratory service and be useful for patients.

Photonic crystal fibres in biomedical investigations

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

Skibina, Yu S; Tuchin, Valerii V; Beloglazov, V I

2011-04-30

The state of the art in the field of design and study of photonic crystal fibres for biomedical applications is considered and some original results recently obtained by the authors are presented. Optical properties of the fibres that offer prospects of their wide application as biological sensors, 'labs-on-a-chip', and facilities of electromagnetic radiation control in a wide range of wavelengths aimed at designing novel biomedical instrumentation are considered (optical technologies in biophysics and medicine)

Teaching biomedical applications to secondary students.

PubMed

Openshaw, S; Fleisher, A; Ljunggren, C

1999-01-01

Certain aspects of biomedical engineering applications lend themselves well to experimentation that can be done by high school students. This paper describes two experiments done during a six-week summer internship program in which two high school students used electrodes, circuit boards, and computers to mimic a sophisticated heart monitor and also to control a robotic car. Our experience suggests that simple illustrations of complex instrumentation can be effective in introducing adolescents to the biomedical engineering field.

Impact of Laboratory Test Use Strategies in a Turkish Hospital

PubMed Central

Yılmaz, Fatma Meriç; Kahveci, Rabia; Aksoy, Altan; Özer Kucuk, Emine; Akın, Tezcan; Mathew, Joseph Lazar; Meads, Catherine; Zengin, Nurullah

2016-01-01

Objectives Eliminating unnecessary laboratory tests is a good way to reduce costs while maintain patient safety. The aim of this study was to define and process strategies to rationalize laboratory use in Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital (ANH) and calculate potential savings in costs. Methods A collaborative plan was defined by hospital managers; joint meetings with ANHTA and laboratory professors were set; the joint committee invited relevant staff for input, and a laboratory efficiency committee was created. Literature was reviewed systematically to identify strategies used to improve laboratory efficiency. Strategies that would be applicable in local settings were identified for implementation, processed, and the impact on clinical use and costs assessed for 12 months. Results Laboratory use in ANH differed enormously among clinics. Major use was identified in internal medicine. The mean number of tests per patient was 15.8. Unnecessary testing for chloride, folic acid, free prostate specific antigen, hepatitis and HIV testing were observed. Test panel use was pinpointed as the main cause of overuse of the laboratory and the Hospital Information System test ordering page was reorganized. A significant decrease (between 12.6–85.0%) was observed for the tests that were taken to an alternative page on the computer screen. The one year study saving was equivalent to 371,183 US dollars. Conclusion Hospital-based committees including laboratory professionals and clinicians can define hospital based problems and led to a standardized approach to test use that can help clinicians reduce laboratory costs through appropriate use of laboratory tests. PMID:27077653

[The Chilean Association of Biomedical Journal Editors].

PubMed

Reyes, H

2001-01-01

On September 29th, 2000, The Chilean Association of Biomedical Journal Editors was founded, sponsored by the "Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT)" (the Governmental Agency promoting and funding scientific research and technological development in Chile) and the "Sociedad Médica de Santiago" (Chilean Society of Internal Medicine). The Association adopted the goals of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and therefore it will foster "cooperation and communication among Editors of Chilean biomedical journals; to improve editorial standards, to promote professionalism in medical editing through education, self-criticism and self-regulation; and to encourage research on the principles and practice of medical editing". Twenty nine journals covering a closely similar number of different biomedical sciences, medical specialties, veterinary, dentistry and nursing, became Founding Members of the Association. A Governing Board was elected: President: Humberto Reyes, M.D. (Editor, Revista Médica de Chile); Vice-President: Mariano del Sol, M.D. (Editor, Revista Chilena de Anatomía); Secretary: Anna María Prat (CONICYT); Councilors: Manuel Krauskopff, Ph.D. (Editor, Biological Research) and Maritza Rahal, M.D. (Editor, Revista de Otorrinolaringología y Cirugía de Cabeza y Cuello). The Association will organize a Symposium on Biomedical Journal Editing and will spread information stimulating Chilean biomedical journals to become indexed in international databases and in SciELO-Chile, the main Chilean scientific website (www.scielo.cl).

Integrating systems biology models and biomedical ontologies

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Systems biology is an approach to biology that emphasizes the structure and dynamic behavior of biological systems and the interactions that occur within them. To succeed, systems biology crucially depends on the accessibility and integration of data across domains and levels of granularity. Biomedical ontologies were developed to facilitate such an integration of data and are often used to annotate biosimulation models in systems biology. Results We provide a framework to integrate representations of in silico systems biology with those of in vivo biology as described by biomedical ontologies and demonstrate this framework using the Systems Biology Markup Language. We developed the SBML Harvester software that automatically converts annotated SBML models into OWL and we apply our software to those biosimulation models that are contained in the BioModels Database. We utilize the resulting knowledge base for complex biological queries that can bridge levels of granularity, verify models based on the biological phenomenon they represent and provide a means to establish a basic qualitative layer on which to express the semantics of biosimulation models. Conclusions We establish an information flow between biomedical ontologies and biosimulation models and we demonstrate that the integration of annotated biosimulation models and biomedical ontologies enables the verification of models as well as expressive queries. Establishing a bi-directional information flow between systems biology and biomedical ontologies has the potential to enable large-scale analyses of biological systems that span levels of granularity from molecules to organisms. PMID:21835028

Economies of scale and scope in publicly funded biomedical and health research: evidence from the literature.

PubMed

Hernandez-Villafuerte, Karla; Sussex, Jon; Robin, Enora; Guthrie, Sue; Wooding, Steve

2017-02-02

Publicly funded biomedical and health research is expected to achieve the best return possible for taxpayers and for society generally. It is therefore important to know whether such research is more productive if concentrated into a small number of 'research groups' or dispersed across many. We undertook a systematic rapid evidence assessment focused on the research question: do economies of scale and scope exist in biomedical and health research? In other words, is that research more productive per unit of cost if more of it, or a wider variety of it, is done in one location? We reviewed English language literature without date restriction to the end of 2014. To help us to classify and understand that literature, we first undertook a review of econometric literature discussing models for analysing economies of scale and/or scope in research generally (not limited to biomedical and health research). We found a large and disparate literature. We reviewed 60 empirical studies of (dis-)economies of scale and/or scope in biomedical and health research, or in categories of research including or overlapping with biomedical and health research. This literature is varied in methods and findings. At the level of universities or research institutes, studies more often point to positive economies of scale than to diseconomies of scale or constant returns to scale in biomedical and health research. However, all three findings exist in the literature, along with inverse U-shaped relationships. At the level of individual research units, laboratories or projects, the numbers of studies are smaller and evidence is mixed. Concerning economies of scope, the literature more often suggests positive economies of scope than diseconomies, but the picture is again mixed. The effect of varying the scope of activities by a research group was less often reported than the effect of scale and the results were more mixed. The absence of predominant findings for or against the existence of

Biomedical digital assistant for ubiquitous healthcare.

PubMed

Lee, Tae-Soo; Hong, Joo-Hyun; Cho, Myeong-Chan

2007-01-01

The concept of ubiquitous healthcare service, which emerged as one of measures to solve healthcare problems in aged society, means that patients can receive services such as prevention, diagnosis, therapy and prognosis management at any time and in any place with the help of advanced information and communication technology. This service requires not only biomedical digital assistant that can monitor continuously the patients' health condition regardless of time and place, but also wired and wireless communication devices and telemedicine servers that provide doctors with data on patients' present health condition. In order to implement a biomedical digital assistant that is portable and wearable to patients, the present study developed a device that minimizes size, weight and power consumption, measures ECG and PPG signals, and even monitors moving patients' state. The biomedical sensor with the function of wireless communication was designed to be highly portable and wearable, to be operable 24 hours with small-size batteries, and to monitor the subject's heart rate, step count and respiratory rate in his daily life. The biomedical signal receiving device was implemented in two forms, PDA and cellular phone. The movement monitoring device embedded in the battery pack of a cellular phone does not have any problem in operating 24 hours, but the real-time biomedical signal receiving device implemented with PDA operated up to 6 hours due to the limited battery capacity of PDA. This problem is expected to be solved by reducing wireless communication load through improving the processing and storage functions of the sensor. The developed device can transmit a message on the patient's emergency to the remote server through the cellular phone network, and is expected to play crucial roles in the health management of chronic-aged patients in their daily life.

Advances in Electronic-Nose Technologies Developed for Biomedical Applications

PubMed Central

Wilson, Alphus D.; Baietto, Manuela

2011-01-01

The research and development of new electronic-nose applications in the biomedical field has accelerated at a phenomenal rate over the past 25 years. Many innovative e-nose technologies have provided solutions and applications to a wide variety of complex biomedical and healthcare problems. The purposes of this review are to present a comprehensive analysis of past and recent biomedical research findings and developments of electronic-nose sensor technologies, and to identify current and future potential e-nose applications that will continue to advance the effectiveness and efficiency of biomedical treatments and healthcare services for many years. An abundance of electronic-nose applications has been developed for a variety of healthcare sectors including diagnostics, immunology, pathology, patient recovery, pharmacology, physical therapy, physiology, preventative medicine, remote healthcare, and wound and graft healing. Specific biomedical e-nose applications range from uses in biochemical testing, blood-compatibility evaluations, disease diagnoses, and drug delivery to monitoring of metabolic levels, organ dysfunctions, and patient conditions through telemedicine. This paper summarizes the major electronic-nose technologies developed for healthcare and biomedical applications since the late 1980s when electronic aroma detection technologies were first recognized to be potentially useful in providing effective solutions to problems in the healthcare industry. PMID:22346620

Biomedical sensor technologies on the platform of mobile phones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Lin; Liu, Jing

2011-06-01

Biomedical sensors have been widely used in various areas of biomedical practices, which play an important role in disease detection, diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, health management, and so on. However, most of them and their related platforms are generally not easily accessible or just too expensive or complicated to be kept at home. As an alternative, new technologies enabled from the mobile phones are gradually changing such situations. As can be freely available to almost everyone, mobile phone offers a unique way to improve the conventional medical care through combining with various biomedical sensors. Moreover, the established systems will be both convenient and low cost. In this paper, we present an overview on the state-of-art biomedical sensors, giving a brief introduction of the fundamental principles and showing several new examples or concepts in the area. The focus was particularly put on interpreting the technical strategies to innovate the biomedical sensor technologies based on the platform of mobile phones. Some challenging issues, including feasibility, usability, security, and effectiveness, were discussed. With the help of electrical and mechanical technologies, it is expected that a full combination between the biomedical sensors and mobile phones will bring a bright future for the coming pervasive medical care.

Challenges of Maintaining Good Clinical Laboratory Practices in Low-Resource Settings:  A Health Program Evaluation Framework Case Study From East Africa.

PubMed

Zhang, Helen L; Omondi, Michael W; Musyoka, Augustine M; Afwamba, Isaac A; Swai, Remigi P; Karia, Francis P; Muiruri, Charles; Reddy, Elizabeth A; Crump, John A; Rubach, Matthew P

2016-08-01

Using a clinical research laboratory as a case study, we sought to characterize barriers to maintaining Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) services in a developing world setting. Using a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention framework for program evaluation in public health, we performed an evaluation of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre-Duke University Health Collaboration clinical research laboratory sections of the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute in Moshi, Tanzania. Laboratory records from November 2012 through October 2014 were reviewed for this analysis. During the 2-year period of study, seven instrument malfunctions suspended testing required for open clinical trials. A median (range) of 9 (1-55) days elapsed between instrument malfunction and biomedical engineer service. Sixteen (76.1%) of 21 suppliers of reagents, controls, and consumables were based outside Tanzania. Test throughput among laboratory sections used a median (range) of 0.6% (0.2%-2.7%) of instrument capacity. Five (55.6%) of nine laboratory technologists left their posts over 2 years. These findings demonstrate that GCLP laboratory service provision in this setting is hampered by delays in biomedical engineer support, delays and extra costs in commodity procurement, low testing throughput, and high personnel turnover. © American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2016. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Custom electronic subsystems for the laboratory telerobotic manipulator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Glassell, R. L.; Butler, P. L.; Rowe, J. C.; Zimmermann, S. D.

1990-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Station Program presents new opportunities for the application of telerobotic and robotic systems. The Laboratory Telerobotic Manipulator (LTM) is a highly advanced 7 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) telerobotic/robotic manipulator. It was developed and built for the Automation Technology Branch at NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC) for work in research and to demonstrate ground-based telerobotic manipulator system hardware and software systems for future NASA applications in the hazardous environment of space. The LTM manipulator uses an embedded wiring design with all electronics, motor power, and control and communication cables passing through the pitch-yaw differential joints. This design requires the number of cables passing through the pitch/yaw joint to be kept to a minimum. To eliminate the cables needed to carry each pitch-yaw joint's sensor data to the VME control computers, a custom-embedded electronics package for each manipulator joint was developed. The electronics package collects and sends the joint's sensor data to the VME control computers over a fiber optic cable. The electronics package consist of five individual subsystems: the VME Link Processor, the Joint Processor and the Joint Processor power supply in the joint module, the fiber optics communications system, and the electronics and motor power cabling.

Flaw Tolerance in Lap Shear Brazed Joints. Part 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flom, Yury; Wang, Li-Qin

2003-01-01

Furnace brazing is a joining process used in the aerospace and other industries to produce strong permanent and hermetic structural joints. As in any joining process, brazed joints have various imperfections and defects. At the present time, our understanding of the influence of the internal defects on the strength of the brazed joints is not adequate. The goal of this 3-part investigation is to better understand the properties and failure mechanisms of the brazed joints containing defects. This study focuses on the behavior of the brazed lap shear joints because of their importance in manufacturing aerospace structures. In Part 1, an average shear strength capability and failure modes of the single lap joints are explored. Stainless steel specimens brazed with pure silver are tested in accordance with the AWS C3.2 standard. Comparison of the failure loads and the ultimate shear strength with the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the same specimens as a function of the overlap widths shows excellent correlation between the experimental and calculated values for the defect-free lap joints. A damage zone criterion is shown to work quite well in understanding the failure of the braze joints. In Part 2, the findings of the Part 1 will be verified on the larger test specimens. Also, various flaws will be introduced in the test specimens to simulate lack of braze coverage in the lap joints. Mechanical testing and FEA will be performed on these joints to verify that behavior of the flawed ductile lap joints is similar to joints with a reduced braze area. Finally, in Part 3, the results obtained in Parts 1 and 2 will be applied to the actual brazed structure to evaluate the load-carrying capability of a structural lap joint containing discontinuities. In addition, a simplified engineering procedure will be offered for the laboratory testing of the lap shear specimens.

Design of Biomedical Robots for Phenotype Prediction Problems

PubMed Central

deAndrés-Galiana, Enrique J.; Sonis, Stephen T.

2016-01-01

Abstract Genomics has been used with varying degrees of success in the context of drug discovery and in defining mechanisms of action for diseases like cancer and neurodegenerative and rare diseases in the quest for orphan drugs. To improve its utility, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness optimization of analytical methods, especially those that translate to clinically relevant outcomes, is critical. Here we define a novel tool for genomic analysis termed a biomedical robot in order to improve phenotype prediction, identifying disease pathogenesis and significantly defining therapeutic targets. Biomedical robot analytics differ from historical methods in that they are based on melding feature selection methods and ensemble learning techniques. The biomedical robot mathematically exploits the structure of the uncertainty space of any classification problem conceived as an ill-posed optimization problem. Given a classifier, there exist different equivalent small-scale genetic signatures that provide similar predictive accuracies. We perform the sensitivity analysis to noise of the biomedical robot concept using synthetic microarrays perturbed by different kinds of noises in expression and class assignment. Finally, we show the application of this concept to the analysis of different diseases, inferring the pathways and the correlation networks. The final aim of a biomedical robot is to improve knowledge discovery and provide decision systems to optimize diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. This analysis shows that the biomedical robots are robust against different kinds of noises and particularly to a wrong class assignment of the samples. Assessing the uncertainty that is inherent to any phenotype prediction problem is the right way to address this kind of problem. PMID:27347715

Design of Biomedical Robots for Phenotype Prediction Problems.

PubMed

deAndrés-Galiana, Enrique J; Fernández-Martínez, Juan Luis; Sonis, Stephen T

2016-08-01

Genomics has been used with varying degrees of success in the context of drug discovery and in defining mechanisms of action for diseases like cancer and neurodegenerative and rare diseases in the quest for orphan drugs. To improve its utility, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness optimization of analytical methods, especially those that translate to clinically relevant outcomes, is critical. Here we define a novel tool for genomic analysis termed a biomedical robot in order to improve phenotype prediction, identifying disease pathogenesis and significantly defining therapeutic targets. Biomedical robot analytics differ from historical methods in that they are based on melding feature selection methods and ensemble learning techniques. The biomedical robot mathematically exploits the structure of the uncertainty space of any classification problem conceived as an ill-posed optimization problem. Given a classifier, there exist different equivalent small-scale genetic signatures that provide similar predictive accuracies. We perform the sensitivity analysis to noise of the biomedical robot concept using synthetic microarrays perturbed by different kinds of noises in expression and class assignment. Finally, we show the application of this concept to the analysis of different diseases, inferring the pathways and the correlation networks. The final aim of a biomedical robot is to improve knowledge discovery and provide decision systems to optimize diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. This analysis shows that the biomedical robots are robust against different kinds of noises and particularly to a wrong class assignment of the samples. Assessing the uncertainty that is inherent to any phenotype prediction problem is the right way to address this kind of problem.

Automated segmentation of synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography biomedical images using Graph Cuts and neural networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alvarenga de Moura Meneses, Anderson; Giusti, Alessandro; de Almeida, André Pereira; Parreira Nogueira, Liebert; Braz, Delson; Cely Barroso, Regina; deAlmeida, Carlos Eduardo

2011-12-01

Synchrotron Radiation (SR) X-ray micro-Computed Tomography (μCT) enables magnified images to be used as a non-invasive and non-destructive technique with a high space resolution for the qualitative and quantitative analyses of biomedical samples. The research on applications of segmentation algorithms to SR-μCT is an open problem, due to the interesting and well-known characteristics of SR images for visualization, such as the high resolution and the phase contrast effect. In this article, we describe and assess the application of the Energy Minimization via Graph Cuts (EMvGC) algorithm for the segmentation of SR-μCT biomedical images acquired at the Synchrotron Radiation for MEdical Physics (SYRMEP) beam line at the Elettra Laboratory (Trieste, Italy). We also propose a method using EMvGC with Artificial Neural Networks (EMANNs) for correcting misclassifications due to intensity variation of phase contrast, which are important effects and sometimes indispensable in certain biomedical applications, although they impair the segmentation provided by conventional techniques. Results demonstrate considerable success in the segmentation of SR-μCT biomedical images, with average Dice Similarity Coefficient 99.88% for bony tissue in Wistar Rats rib samples (EMvGC), as well as 98.95% and 98.02% for scans of Rhodnius prolixus insect samples (Chagas's disease vector) with EMANNs, in relation to manual segmentation. The techniques EMvGC and EMANNs cope with the task of performing segmentation in images with the intensity variation due to phase contrast effects, presenting a superior performance in comparison to conventional segmentation techniques based on thresholding and linear/nonlinear image filtering, which is also discussed in the present article.

Biomedical applications of nanodiamond (Review)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turcheniuk, K.; Mochalin, Vadym N.

2017-06-01

The interest in nanodiamond applications in biology and medicine is on the rise over recent years. This is due to the unique combination of properties that nanodiamond provides. Small size (∼5 nm), low cost, scalable production, negligible toxicity, chemical inertness of diamond core and rich chemistry of nanodiamond surface, as well as bright and robust fluorescence resistant to photobleaching are the distinct parameters that render nanodiamond superior to any other nanomaterial when it comes to biomedical applications. The most exciting recent results have been related to the use of nanodiamonds for drug delivery and diagnostics—two components of a quickly growing area of biomedical research dubbed theranostics. However, nanodiamond offers much more in addition: it can be used to produce biodegradable bone surgery devices, tissue engineering scaffolds, kill drug resistant microbes, help us to fight viruses, and deliver genetic material into cell nucleus. All these exciting opportunities require an in-depth understanding of nanodiamond. This review covers the recent progress as well as general trends in biomedical applications of nanodiamond, and underlines the importance of purification, characterization, and rational modification of this nanomaterial when designing nanodiamond based theranostic platforms.

BiOSS: A system for biomedical ontology selection.

PubMed

Martínez-Romero, Marcos; Vázquez-Naya, José M; Pereira, Javier; Pazos, Alejandro

2014-04-01

In biomedical informatics, ontologies are considered a key technology for annotating, retrieving and sharing the huge volume of publicly available data. Due to the increasing amount, complexity and variety of existing biomedical ontologies, choosing the ones to be used in a semantic annotation problem or to design a specific application is a difficult task. As a consequence, the design of approaches and tools addressed to facilitate the selection of biomedical ontologies is becoming a priority. In this paper we present BiOSS, a novel system for the selection of biomedical ontologies. BiOSS evaluates the adequacy of an ontology to a given domain according to three different criteria: (1) the extent to which the ontology covers the domain; (2) the semantic richness of the ontology in the domain; (3) the popularity of the ontology in the biomedical community. BiOSS has been applied to 5 representative problems of ontology selection. It also has been compared to existing methods and tools. Results are promising and show the usefulness of BiOSS to solve real-world ontology selection problems. BiOSS is openly available both as a web tool and a web service. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experiences of mentors training underrepresented undergraduates in the research laboratory.

PubMed

Prunuske, Amy J; Wilson, Janelle; Walls, Melissa; Clarke, Benjamin

2013-01-01

Successfully recruiting students from underrepresented groups to pursue biomedical science research careers continues to be a challenge. Early exposure to scientific research is often cited as a powerful means to attract research scholars with the research mentor being critical in facilitating the development of an individual's science identity and career; however, most mentors in the biological sciences have had little formal training in working with research mentees. To better understand mentors' experiences working with undergraduates in the laboratory, we conducted semistructured interviews with 15 research mentors at a public university in the Midwest. The interviewed mentors were part of a program designed to increase the number of American Indians pursuing biomedical/biobehavioral research careers and represented a broad array of perspectives, including equal representation of male and female mentors, mentors from underrepresented groups, mentors at different levels of their careers, and mentors from undergraduate and professional school departments. The mentors identified benefits and challenges in being an effective mentor. We also explored what the term underrepresented means to the mentors and discovered that most of the mentors had an incomplete understanding about how differences in culture could contribute to underrepresented students' experience in the laboratory. Our interviews identify issues relevant to designing programs and courses focused on undergraduate student research.

Experiences of Mentors Training Underrepresented Undergraduates in the Research Laboratory

PubMed Central

Prunuske, Amy J.; Wilson, Janelle; Walls, Melissa; Clarke, Benjamin

2013-01-01

Successfully recruiting students from underrepresented groups to pursue biomedical science research careers continues to be a challenge. Early exposure to scientific research is often cited as a powerful means to attract research scholars with the research mentor being critical in facilitating the development of an individual's science identity and career; however, most mentors in the biological sciences have had little formal training in working with research mentees. To better understand mentors’ experiences working with undergraduates in the laboratory, we conducted semistructured interviews with 15 research mentors at a public university in the Midwest. The interviewed mentors were part of a program designed to increase the number of American Indians pursuing biomedical/biobehavioral research careers and represented a broad array of perspectives, including equal representation of male and female mentors, mentors from underrepresented groups, mentors at different levels of their careers, and mentors from undergraduate and professional school departments. The mentors identified benefits and challenges in being an effective mentor. We also explored what the term underrepresented means to the mentors and discovered that most of the mentors had an incomplete understanding about how differences in culture could contribute to underrepresented students’ experience in the laboratory. Our interviews identify issues relevant to designing programs and courses focused on undergraduate student research. PMID:24006389

Cryotherapy does not impair shoulder joint position sense.

PubMed

Dover, Geoffrey; Powers, Michael E

2004-08-01

To determine the effects of a cryotherapy treatment on shoulder proprioception. Crossover design with repeated measures. University athletic training and sports medicine research laboratory. Thirty healthy subjects (15 women, 15 men). A 30-minute cryotherapy treatment. Joint position sense was measured in the dominant shoulder by using an inclinometer before and after receiving 30 minutes of either no ice or a 1-kg ice bag application. Skin temperature was measured below the tip of the acromion process and recorded every 5 minutes for the entire 30 minutes and immediately after testing. Three different types of error scores were calculated for data analyses and used to determine proprioception. Separate analyses of absolute, constant, and variable error failed to identify changes in shoulder joint proprioception as a function of the cryotherapy application. Application of an ice bag to the shoulder does not impair joint position sense. The control of proprioception at the shoulder may be more complex than at other joints in the body. Clinical implications may involve modifying rehabilitation considerations when managing shoulder injuries.

Behavior of an epoxy-polysulfide adhesive in wood joints exposed to moisture content changes

Treesearch

Gordon P. Krueger

1965-01-01

The mechanical behavior of a flexible epoxy-resin adhesive system was observed in joints of plywood to lumber. The joints were subjected to internal swelling stresses caused by an increase in moisture content. Previous experimental work at the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory has shown that this adhesive system acts as a strain-absorbing cushion and thus has a...

A method for exploring implicit concept relatedness in biomedical knowledge network.

PubMed

Bai, Tian; Gong, Leiguang; Wang, Ye; Wang, Yan; Kulikowski, Casimir A; Huang, Lan

2016-07-19

Biomedical information and knowledge, structural and non-structural, stored in different repositories can be semantically connected to form a hybrid knowledge network. How to compute relatedness between concepts and discover valuable but implicit information or knowledge from it effectively and efficiently is of paramount importance for precision medicine, and a major challenge facing the biomedical research community. In this study, a hybrid biomedical knowledge network is constructed by linking concepts across multiple biomedical ontologies as well as non-structural biomedical knowledge sources. To discover implicit relatedness between concepts in ontologies for which potentially valuable relationships (implicit knowledge) may exist, we developed a Multi-Ontology Relatedness Model (MORM) within the knowledge network, for which a relatedness network (RN) is defined and computed across multiple ontologies using a formal inference mechanism of set-theoretic operations. Semantic constraints are designed and implemented to prune the search space of the relatedness network. Experiments to test examples of several biomedical applications have been carried out, and the evaluation of the results showed an encouraging potential of the proposed approach to biomedical knowledge discovery.

Biomedical data integration in computational drug design and bioinformatics.

PubMed

Seoane, Jose A; Aguiar-Pulido, Vanessa; Munteanu, Cristian R; Rivero, Daniel; Rabunal, Juan R; Dorado, Julian; Pazos, Alejandro

2013-03-01

In recent years, in the post genomic era, more and more data is being generated by biological high throughput technologies, such as proteomics and transcriptomics. This omics data can be very useful, but the real challenge is to analyze all this data, as a whole, after integrating it. Biomedical data integration enables making queries to different, heterogeneous and distributed biomedical data sources. Data integration solutions can be very useful not only in the context of drug design, but also in biomedical information retrieval, clinical diagnosis, system biology, etc. In this review, we analyze the most common approaches to biomedical data integration, such as federated databases, data warehousing, multi-agent systems and semantic technology, as well as the solutions developed using these approaches in the past few years.

Theoretical and practical considerations for teaching diagnostic electronic-nose technologies to clinical laboratory technicians

Treesearch

Alphus D. Wilson

2012-01-01

The rapid development of new electronic technologies and instruments, utilized to perform many current clinical operations in the biomedical field, is changing the way medical health care is delivered to patients. The majority of test results from laboratory analyses, performed with these analytical instruments often prior to clinical examinations, are frequently used...

Building the biomedical data science workforce.

PubMed

Dunn, Michelle C; Bourne, Philip E

2017-07-01

This article describes efforts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2013 to 2016 to train a national workforce in biomedical data science. We provide an analysis of the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) training program strengths and weaknesses with an eye toward future directions aimed at any funder and potential funding recipient worldwide. The focus is on extramurally funded programs that have a national or international impact rather than the training of NIH staff, which was addressed by the NIH's internal Data Science Workforce Development Center. From its inception, the major goal of BD2K was to narrow the gap between needed and existing biomedical data science skills. As biomedical research increasingly relies on computational, mathematical, and statistical thinking, supporting the training and education of the workforce of tomorrow requires new emphases on analytical skills. From 2013 to 2016, BD2K jump-started training in this area for all levels, from graduate students to senior researchers.

Building the biomedical data science workforce

PubMed Central

Dunn, Michelle C.; Bourne, Philip E.

2017-01-01

This article describes efforts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2013 to 2016 to train a national workforce in biomedical data science. We provide an analysis of the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) training program strengths and weaknesses with an eye toward future directions aimed at any funder and potential funding recipient worldwide. The focus is on extramurally funded programs that have a national or international impact rather than the training of NIH staff, which was addressed by the NIH’s internal Data Science Workforce Development Center. From its inception, the major goal of BD2K was to narrow the gap between needed and existing biomedical data science skills. As biomedical research increasingly relies on computational, mathematical, and statistical thinking, supporting the training and education of the workforce of tomorrow requires new emphases on analytical skills. From 2013 to 2016, BD2K jump-started training in this area for all levels, from graduate students to senior researchers. PMID:28715407

Biomedical technology transfer applications of NASA science and technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

The identification and solution of research and clinical problems in cardiovascular medicine which were investigated by means of biomedical data transfer are reported. The following are sample areas that were focused upon by the Stanford University Biomedical Technology Transfer Team: electrodes for hemiplegia research; vectorcardiogram computer analysis; respiration and phonation electrodes; radiotelemetry of intracranial pressure; and audiotransformation of the electrocardiographic signal. It is concluded that this biomedical technology transfer is significantly aiding present research in cardiovascular medicine.

Computer simulation of solder joint failure

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

Burchett, S.N.; Frear, D.R.; Rashid, M.M.

The thermomechanical fatigue failure of solder joints is increasingly becoming an important reliability issue for electronic packages. The purpose of this Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project was to develop computational tools for simulating the behavior of solder joints under strain and temperature cycling, taking into account the microstructural heterogeneities that exist in as-solidified near eutectic Sn-Pb joints, as well as subsequent microstructural evolution. The authors present two computational constitutive models, a two-phase model and a single-phase model, that were developed to predict the behavior of near eutectic Sn-Pb solder joints under fatigue conditions. Unique metallurgical tests provide themore » fundamental input for the constitutive relations. The two-phase model mathematically predicts the heterogeneous coarsening behavior of near eutectic Sn-Pb solder. The finite element simulations with this model agree qualitatively with experimental thermomechanical fatigue tests. The simulations show that the presence of an initial heterogeneity in the solder microstructure could significantly degrade the fatigue lifetime. The single-phase model was developed to predict solder joint behavior using materials data for constitutive relation constants that could be determined through straightforward metallurgical experiments. Special thermomechanical fatigue tests were developed to give fundamental materials input to the models, and an in situ SEM thermomechanical fatigue test system was developed to characterize microstructural evolution and the mechanical behavior of solder joints during the test. A shear/torsion test sample was developed to impose strain in two different orientations. Materials constants were derived from these tests. The simulation results from the two-phase model showed good fit to the experimental test results.« less

The effectiveness of inking needle core prostate biopsies for preventing patient specimen identification errors: a technique to address Joint Commission patient safety goals in specialty laboratories.

PubMed

Raff, Lester J; Engel, George; Beck, Kenneth R; O'Brien, Andrea S; Bauer, Meagan E

2009-02-01

The elimination or reduction of medical errors has been a main focus of health care enterprises in the United States since the year 2000. Elimination of errors in patient and specimen identification is a key component of this focus and is the number one goal in the Joint Commission's 2008 National Patient Safety Goals Laboratory Services Program. To evaluate the effectiveness of using permanent inks to maintain specimen identity in sequentially submitted prostate needle biopsies. For a 12-month period, a grossing technician stained each prostate core with permanent ink developed for inking of pathology specimens. A different color was used for each patient, with all the prostate cores from all vials for a particular patient inked with the same color. Five colors were used sequentially: green, blue, yellow, orange, and black. The ink was diluted with distilled water to a consistency that allowed application of a thin, uniform coating of ink along the edges of the prostate core. The time required to ink patient specimens comprising different numbers of vials and prostate biopsies was timed. The number and type of inked specimen discrepancies were evaluated. The identified discrepancy rate for prostate biopsy patients was 0.13%. The discrepancy rate in terms of total number of prostate blocks was 0.014%. Diluted inks adhered to biopsy contours throughout tissue processing. The tissue showed no untoward reactions to the inks. Inking did not affect staining (histochemical or immunohistochemical) or pathologic evaluation. On average, inking prostate needle biopsies increases grossing time by 20%. Inking of all prostate core biopsies with colored inks, in sequential order, is an aid in maintaining specimen identity. It is a simple and effective method of addressing Joint Commission patient safety goals by maintaining specimen identity during processing of similar types of gross specimens. This technique may be applicable in other specialty laboratories and high

Estimation of ground reaction forces and joint moments on the basis on plantar pressure insoles and wearable sensors for joint angle measurement.

PubMed

Ostaszewski, Michal; Pauk, Jolanta

2018-05-16

Gait analysis is a useful tool medical staff use to support clinical decision making. There is still an urgent need to develop low-cost and unobtrusive mobile health monitoring systems. The goal of this study was twofold. Firstly, a wearable sensor system composed of plantar pressure insoles and wearable sensors for joint angle measurement was developed. Secondly, the accuracy of the system in the measurement of ground reaction forces and joint moments was examined. The measurements included joint angles and plantar pressure distribution. To validate the wearable sensor system and examine the effectiveness of the proposed method for gait analysis, an experimental study on ten volunteer subjects was conducted. The accuracy of measurement of ground reaction forces and joint moments was validated against the results obtained from a reference motion capture system. Ground reaction forces and joint moments measured by the wearable sensor system showed a root mean square error of 1% for min. GRF and 27.3% for knee extension moment. The correlation coefficient was over 0.9, in comparison with the stationary motion capture system. The study suggests that the wearable sensor system could be recommended both for research and clinical applications outside a typical gait laboratory.

Unsupervised discovery of information structure in biomedical documents.

PubMed

Kiela, Douwe; Guo, Yufan; Stenius, Ulla; Korhonen, Anna

2015-04-01

Information structure (IS) analysis is a text mining technique, which classifies text in biomedical articles into categories that capture different types of information, such as objectives, methods, results and conclusions of research. It is a highly useful technique that can support a range of Biomedical Text Mining tasks and can help readers of biomedical literature find information of interest faster, accelerating the highly time-consuming process of literature review. Several approaches to IS analysis have been presented in the past, with promising results in real-world biomedical tasks. However, all existing approaches, even weakly supervised ones, require several hundreds of hand-annotated training sentences specific to the domain in question. Because biomedicine is subject to considerable domain variation, such annotations are expensive to obtain. This makes the application of IS analysis across biomedical domains difficult. In this article, we investigate an unsupervised approach to IS analysis and evaluate the performance of several unsupervised methods on a large corpus of biomedical abstracts collected from PubMed. Our best unsupervised algorithm (multilevel-weighted graph clustering algorithm) performs very well on the task, obtaining over 0.70 F scores for most IS categories when applied to well-known IS schemes. This level of performance is close to that of lightly supervised IS methods and has proven sufficient to aid a range of practical tasks. Thus, using an unsupervised approach, IS could be applied to support a wide range of tasks across sub-domains of biomedicine. We also demonstrate that unsupervised learning brings novel insights into IS of biomedical literature and discovers information categories that are not present in any of the existing IS schemes. The annotated corpus and software are available at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/∼dk427/bio14info.html. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For

Exploration Laboratory Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krihak, M.; Ronzano, K.; Shaw, T.

2016-01-01

The Exploration Laboratory Analysis (ELA) project supports the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) risk to minimize or reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes and decrements in performance due to in-flight medical capabilities on human exploration missions. To mitigate this risk, the availability of inflight laboratory analysis instrumentation has been identified as an essential capability for manned exploration missions. Since a single, compact space-ready laboratory analysis capability to perform all exploration clinical measurements is not commercially available, the ELA project objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of emerging operational and analytical capability as a biomedical diagnostics precursor to long duration manned exploration missions. The initial step towards ground and flight demonstrations in fiscal year (FY) 2015 was the down selection of platform technologies for demonstrations in the space environment. The technologies selected included two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) performers: DNA Medicine Institutes rHEALTH X and Intelligent Optical Systems later flow assays combined with Holomics smartphone analyzer. The selection of these technologies were based on their compact size, breadth of analytical capability and favorable ability to process fluids in a space environment, among several factors. These two technologies will be advanced to meet ground and flight demonstration success criteria and requirements that will be finalized in FY16. Also, the down selected performers will continue the technology development phase towards meeting prototype deliverables in either late 2016 or 2017.

Exploration Laboratory Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krihak, M.; Ronzano, K.; Shaw, T.

2016-01-01

The Exploration Laboratory Analysis (ELA) project supports the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) risk to minimize or reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes and decrements in performance due to in-flight medical capabilities on human exploration missions. To mitigate this risk, the availability of inflight laboratory analysis instrumentation has been identified as an essential capability for manned exploration missions. Since a single, compact space-ready laboratory analysis capability to perform all exploration clinical measurements is not commercially available, the ELA project objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of emerging operational and analytical capability as a biomedical diagnostics precursor to long duration manned exploration missions. The initial step towards ground and flight demonstrations in fiscal year (FY) 2015 was the downselection of platform technologies for demonstrations in the space environment. The technologies selected included two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) performers: DNA Medicine Institute's rHEALTH X and Intelligent Optical System's lateral flow assays combined with Holomic's smartphone analyzer. The selection of these technologies were based on their compact size, breadth of analytical capability and favorable ability to process fluids in a space environment, among several factors. These two technologies will be advanced to meet ground and flight demonstration success criteria and requirements. The technology demonstrations and metrics for success will be finalized in FY16. Also, the downselected performers will continue the technology development phase towards meeting prototype deliverables in either late 2016 or 2017.

Electrophysiology for biomedical engineering students: a practical and theoretical course in animal electrocorticography.

PubMed

Albarracín, Ana L; Farfán, Fernando D; Coletti, Marcos A; Teruya, Pablo Y; Felice, Carmelo J

2016-09-01

The major challenge in laboratory teaching is the application of abstract concepts in simple and direct practical lessons. However, students rarely have the opportunity to participate in a laboratory that combines practical learning with a realistic research experience. In the Biomedical Engineering career, we offer short and optional courses to complement studies for students as they initiate their Graduation Project. The objective of these theoretical and practical courses is to introduce students to the topics of their projects. The present work describes an experience in electrophysiology to teach undergraduate students how to extract cortical information using electrocorticographic techniques. Students actively participate in some parts of the experience and then process and analyze the data obtained with different signal processing tools. In postlaboratory evaluations, students described the course as an exceptional opportunity for students interested in following a postgraduate science program and fully appreciated their contents. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

A token centric part-of-speech tagger for biomedical text.

PubMed

Barrett, Neil; Weber-Jahnke, Jens

2014-05-01

Difficulties with part-of-speech (POS) tagging of biomedical text is accessing and annotating appropriate training corpora. These difficulties may result in POS taggers trained on corpora that differ from the tagger's target biomedical text (cross-domain tagging). In such cases where training and target corpora differ tagging accuracy decreases. This paper presents a POS tagger for cross-domain tagging called TcT. TcT estimates a tag's likelihood for a given token by combining token collocation probabilities and the token's tag probabilities calculated using a Naive Bayes classifier. We compared TcT to three POS taggers used in the biomedical domain (mxpost, Brill and TnT). We trained each tagger on a non-biomedical corpus and evaluated it on biomedical corpora. TcT was more accurate in cross-domain tagging than mxpost, Brill and TnT (respective averages 83.9, 81.0, 79.5 and 78.8). Our analysis of tagger performance suggests that lexical differences between corpora have more effect on tagging accuracy than originally considered by previous research work. Biomedical POS tagging algorithms may be modified to improve their cross-domain tagging accuracy without requiring extra training or large training data sets. Future work should reexamine POS tagging methods for biomedical text. This differs from the work to date that has focused on retraining existing POS taggers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Trends in modeling Biomedical Complex Systems

PubMed Central

Milanesi, Luciano; Romano, Paolo; Castellani, Gastone; Remondini, Daniel; Liò, Petro

2009-01-01

In this paper we provide an introduction to the techniques for multi-scale complex biological systems, from the single bio-molecule to the cell, combining theoretical modeling, experiments, informatics tools and technologies suitable for biological and biomedical research, which are becoming increasingly multidisciplinary, multidimensional and information-driven. The most important concepts on mathematical modeling methodologies and statistical inference, bioinformatics and standards tools to investigate complex biomedical systems are discussed and the prominent literature useful to both the practitioner and the theoretician are presented. PMID:19828068

The AIBS In Yugoslavia: Programs in Biomedical Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Mary-Frances

1978-01-01

Programs in biomedical engineering have been developing worldwide since World War II. This article describes a multidisciplinary program which operates in Yugoslavia through a cooperative effort between that county and the AIBS. A major problem has been the slowness with which hospitals accept the concept of biomedical engineering. (MA)

Important skills for biomedical services: The perspectives of Malaysian employers and employees.

PubMed

Buntat, Yahya; Saud, Muhammad Sukri; Mokhtar, Mahani; Kamin, Yusri; Feh, Lim Set

2016-10-17

Increase in the occurrence of existing diseases, continual emergence of new or exotic diseases and re-emergence of old diseases have placed increasing demands on biomedical services in Malaysia. Biomedical technicians play an important role in operating biomedical instruments. However, there are no clear specifications about characteristics and traits for these semi-professional employees. Employers in a few studies claimed that biomedical graduates are not ready to enter and face challenges in the job market. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify technical and generic skills for a biomedical technician from the perspectives of the biomedical technicians and their employers. A quantitative survey design was employed whereby data were obtained through the administration of an instrument developed by the researchers. The sample consisted of 20 hospital managers and 186 biomedical technicians who are currently working in Malaysian government hospitals. The findings show that there are no difference in the perceptions of hospital managers and biomedical technicians regarding technical and non-technical skills. These findings resulted in a checklist which can be used for institutions to produce future biomedical technician graduates in order to meet job demands. However, future research is needed to validate the findings and explore the variables in depth.

Can Andean medicine coexist with biomedical healthcare? A comparison of two rural communities in Peru and Bolivia

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

implementation of health care in indigenous communities be designed as a process of joint development of complementary knowledge and practices from indigenous and biomedical health traditions. PMID:22827917

Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program Activities for FY 2007.

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

Newman,L.

2007-12-31

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a multidisciplinary laboratory that carries out basic and applied research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, and in selected energy technologies. It is managed by Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC, (BSA) under contract with the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE). BNL's Fiscal year 2007 budget was $515 million. There are about 2,600 employees, and another 4,500 guest scientists and students who come each year to use the Laboratory's facilities and work with the staff. The BNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program reports its status to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) annuallymore » in March, as required by DOE Order 413.2B, 'Laboratory Directed Research and Development', April 19, 2006, and the Roles, Responsibilities, and Guidelines for Laboratory Directed Research and Development at the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration Laboratories dated June 13, 2006. In accordance this is our Annual Report in which we describe the Purpose, Approach, Technical Progress and Results, and Specific Accomplishments of all LDRD projects that received funding during Fiscal Year 2007. The goals and objectives of BNL's LDRD Program can be inferred from the Program's stated purposes. These are to (1) encourage and support the development of new ideas and technology, (2) promote the early exploration and exploitation of creative and innovative concepts, and (3) develop new 'fundable' R&D projects and programs. The emphasis is clearly articulated by BNL to be on supporting exploratory research 'which could lead to new programs, projects, and directions' for the Laboratory. We explicitly indicate that research conducted under the LDRD Program should be highly innovative, and an element of high risk as to success is acceptable. In the solicitation for new proposals for Fiscal Year 2007 we especially requested innovative new projects in support of RHIC and the Light Source and

Designs and performance of three new microprocessor-controlled knee joints.

PubMed

Thiele, Julius; Schöllig, Christina; Bellmann, Malte; Kraft, Marc

2018-02-09

A crossover design study with a small group of subjects was used to evaluate the performance of three microprocessor-controlled exoprosthetic knee joints (MPKs): C-Leg 4, Plié 3 and Rheo Knee 3. Given that the mechanical designs and control algorithms of the joints determine the user outcome, the influence of these inherent differences on the functional characteristics was investigated in this study. The knee joints were evaluated during level-ground walking at different velocities in a motion analysis laboratory. Additionally, technical analyses using patents, technical documentations and X-ray computed tomography (CT) for each knee joint were performed. The technical analyses showed that only C-Leg 4 and Rheo Knee 3 allow microprocessor-controlled adaptation of the joint resistances for different gait velocities. Furthermore, Plié 3 is not able to provide stance extension damping. The biomechanical results showed that only if a knee joint adapts flexion and extension resistances by the microprocessor all known advantages of MPKs can become apparent. But not all users may benefit from the examined functions: e.g. a good accommodation to fast walking speeds or comfortable stance phase flexion. Hence, a detailed comparison of user demands and performance of the designated knee joint is mandatory to ensure a maximum in user outcome.

Micro/Nanostructured Films and Adhesives for Biomedical Applications.

PubMed

Lee, Jungkyu K; Kang, Sung Min; Yang, Sung Ho; Cho, Woo Kyung

2015-12-01

The advanced technologies available for micro/nanofabrication have opened new avenues for interdisciplinary approaches to solve the unmet medical needs of regenerative medicine and biomedical devices. This review highlights the recent developments in micro/nanostructured adhesives and films for biomedical applications, including waterproof seals for wounds or surgery sites, drug delivery, sensing human body signals, and optical imaging of human tissues. We describe in detail the fabrication processes required to prepare the adhesives and films, such as tape-based adhesives, nanofilms, and flexible and stretchable film-based electronic devices. We also discuss their biomedical functions, performance in vitro and in vivo, and the future research needed to improve the current systems.

Concept recognition for extracting protein interaction relations from biomedical text

PubMed Central

Baumgartner, William A; Lu, Zhiyong; Johnson, Helen L; Caporaso, J Gregory; Paquette, Jesse; Lindemann, Anna; White, Elizabeth K; Medvedeva, Olga; Cohen, K Bretonnel; Hunter, Lawrence

2008-01-01

Background: Reliable information extraction applications have been a long sought goal of the biomedical text mining community, a goal that if reached would provide valuable tools to benchside biologists in their increasingly difficult task of assimilating the knowledge contained in the biomedical literature. We present an integrated approach to concept recognition in biomedical text. Concept recognition provides key information that has been largely missing from previous biomedical information extraction efforts, namely direct links to well defined knowledge resources that explicitly cement the concept's semantics. The BioCreative II tasks discussed in this special issue have provided a unique opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of concept recognition in the field of biomedical language processing. Results: Through the modular construction of a protein interaction relation extraction system, we present several use cases of concept recognition in biomedical text, and relate these use cases to potential uses by the benchside biologist. Conclusion: Current information extraction technologies are approaching performance standards at which concept recognition can begin to deliver high quality data to the benchside biologist. Our system is available as part of the BioCreative Meta-Server project and on the internet . PMID:18834500

From Lexical Regularities to Axiomatic Patterns for the Quality Assurance of Biomedical Terminologies and Ontologies.

PubMed

van Damme, Philip; Quesada-Martínez, Manuel; Cornet, Ronald; Fernández-Breis, Jesualdo Tomás

2018-06-13

Ontologies and terminologies have been identified as key resources for the achievement of semantic interoperability in biomedical domains. The development of ontologies is performed as a joint work by domain experts and knowledge engineers. The maintenance and auditing of these resources is also the responsibility of such experts, and this is usually a time-consuming, mostly manual task. Manual auditing is impractical and ineffective for most biomedical ontologies, especially for larger ones. An example is SNOMED CT, a key resource in many countries for codifying medical information. SNOMED CT contains more than 300000 concepts. Consequently its auditing requires the support of automatic methods. Many biomedical ontologies contain natural language content for humans and logical axioms for machines. The 'lexically suggest, logically define' principle means that there should be a relation between what is expressed in natural language and as logical axioms, and that such a relation should be useful for auditing and quality assurance. Besides, the meaning of this principle is that the natural language content for humans could be used to generate the logical axioms for the machines. In this work, we propose a method that combines lexical analysis and clustering techniques to (1) identify regularities in the natural language content of ontologies; (2) cluster, by similarity, labels exhibiting a regularity; (3) extract relevant information from those clusters; and (4) propose logical axioms for each cluster with the support of axiom templates. These logical axioms can then be evaluated with the existing axioms in the ontology to check their correctness and completeness, which are two fundamental objectives in auditing and quality assurance. In this paper, we describe the application of the method to two SNOMED CT modules, a 'congenital' module, obtained using concepts exhibiting the attribute Occurrence - Congenital, and a 'chronic' module, using concepts exhibiting the

Determination of the Corrosive Conditions Present within Aircraft Lap-Splice Joints

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewis, Karen S.; Kelly, Robert G.; Piascik, Robert S.

1999-01-01

The complexity of airframe structure lends itself to damage resulting from crevice corrosion. Fuselage lap-splice joints are a particularly important structural detail in this regard because of the difficulty associated with detection and measurement of corrosion in these occluded regions. The objective of this work is to develop a laboratory corrosion test protocol to identify the chemistry to which lap joints are exposed and to develop a model of the corrosion within the joints. A protocol for collecting and identifying the chemistry of airframe crevice corrosion has been developed. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is used to identify the ionic species contained in corrosion product samples removed from fuselage lap splice joints. CE analysis has been performed on over sixty corrosion product samples removed from both civilian and military aircraft. Over twenty different ions have been detected. Measurements of pH of wetted corroded surfaces indicated an alkaline occluded solution. After determining the species present and their relative concentrations, the resultant solution was reproduced in bulk and electrochemical tests were performed to determine the corrosion rate. Electrochemical analyses of the behavior of AA2024-T3 in these solutions gave corrosion rates of up to 250 microns per year (10 mpy). Additional tests have determined the relative importance of each of the detected ions in model solutions used for future predictive tests. The statistically significant ions have been used to create a second generation solution. Laboratory studies have also included exposure tests involving artificial lap joints exposed to various simulated bulk and crevice environments. The extent and morphology of the attack in artificial lap joints has been compared to studies of corroded samples from actual aircraft. Other effects, such as temperature and potential, as well as the impact of the environment on fatigue crack growth have also been studied.

Astronaut candidate strength measurement using the Cybex 2 and the LIDO Multi-Joint 2 dynamometers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carroll, Amy E.; Wilmington, Robert P.

1992-01-01

The Anthropometry and Biomechanics Laboratory in the man-Systems division at NASA's Johnson Space Center has as one of its responsibilities the anthropometry and strength measurement data collection of astronaut candidates. The anthropometry data is used to ensure that the astronaut candidates are within the height restrictions for space vehicle and space suit design requirements, for example. The strength data is used to help detect abnormalities or isolate injuries to muscle groups that could jeopardize the astronauts safety. The Cybex II Dynamometer has been used for strength measurements from 1985 through 1991. The Cybex II was one of the first instruments of its kind to measure strength and similarity of muscle groups by isolating the specific joint of interest. In November 1991, a LIDO Multi-Joint II Dynamometer was purchased to upgrade the strength measurement data collection capability of the Anthropometry and Biomechanics Laboratory. The LIDO Multi-Joint II Dynamometer design offers several advantages over the Cybex II Dynamometer including a more sophisticated method of joint isolation and a more accurate and efficient computer based data collection system.

European virtual campus for biomedical engineering EVICAB.

PubMed

Malmivuo, Jaakko A; Nousiainen, Juha O; Lindroos, Kari V

2007-01-01

European Commission has funded building a curriculum on Biomedical Engineering to the Internet for European universities under the project EVICAB. EVICAB forms a curriculum which will be free access and available free of charge. Therefore, in addition to the European universities, it will be available worldwide. EVICAB will make high quality education available for everyone, not only for the university students, and facilitate the development of the discipline of Biomedical Engineering.

Laser surface texturing of polymers for biomedical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riveiro, Antonio; Maçon, Anthony L. B.; del Val, Jesus; Comesaña, Rafael; Pou, Juan

2018-02-01

Polymers are materials widely used in biomedical science because of their biocompatibility, and good mechanical properties (which, in some cases, are similar to those of human tissues); however, these materials are, in general, chemically and biologically inert. Surface characteristics, such as topography (at the macro-, micro, and nanoscale), surface chemistry, surface energy, charge or wettability are interrelated properties, and they cooperatively influence the biological performance of materials when used for biomedical applications. They regulate the biological response at the implant/tissue interface (e.g., influencing the cell adhesion, cell orientation, cell motility, etc.). Several surface processing techniques have been explored to modulate these properties for biomedical applications. Despite their potentials, these methods have limitations that prevent their applicability. In this regard, laser-based methods, in particular laser surface texturing (LST), can be an interesting alternative. Different works have showed the potentiality of this technique to control the surface properties of biomedical polymers and enhance their biological performance; however, more research is needed to obtain the desired biological response. This work provides a general overview of the basics and applications of LST for the surface modification of polymers currently used in the clinical practice (e.g. PEEK, UHMWPE, PP, etc.). The modification of roughness, wettability, and their impact on the biological response is addressed to offer new insights on the surface modification of biomedical polymers.

Commercial Instrumentation Technology Associates, Biomedical Experiments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

Experiments to seek solutions for a range of biomedical issues are at the heart of several investigations that will be hosted by the Commercial Instrumentation Technology Associates (ITA), Inc. Biomedical Experiments (CIBX-2) payload. CIBX-2 is unique, encompassing more than 20 separate experiments including cancer research, commercial experiments, and student hands-on experiments from 10 schools as part of ITA's ongoing University Among the Stars program. A number of Liquids Mixing Apparatus (LMA) syringes like this one will be used in the experiments. The experiments are sponsored by NASA's Space Product Development Program (SPD).

Biomedical applications of aerospace technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Castles, T. R.

1971-01-01

Aerospace technology transfer to biomedical research problems is discussed, including transfer innovations and potential applications. Statistical analysis of the transfer activities and impact is also presented.

A proposal to establish master's in biomedical sciences degree programs in medical school environments.

PubMed

Ingoglia, Nicholas A

2009-04-01

Most graduate schools associated with medical schools offer programs leading to the PhD degree but pay little attention to master's programs. This is unfortunate because many university graduates who are interested specifically in biomedical rather than pure science fields need further education before making decisions on whether to enter clinical, research, education, or business careers. Training for these students is done best in a medical school, rather than a graduate university, environment and by faculty who are engaged in research in the biomedical sciences. Students benefit from these programs by exploring career options they might not have previously considered while learning about disease-related subjects at the graduate level. Graduate faculty can also benefit by being compensated for their teaching with a portion of the tuition revenue, funds that can help run their laboratories and support other academic expenses. Faculty also may attract talented students to their labs and to their PhD programs by exposing them to a passion for research. The graduate school also benefits by collecting masters tuition revenue that can be used toward supporting PhD stipends. Six-year outcome data from the program at Newark show that, on completion of the program, most students enter educational, clinical, or research careers and that the graduate school has established a new and significant stream of revenue. Thus, the establishment of a master's program in biomedical sciences that helps students match their academic abilities with their career goals significantly benefits students as well as the graduate school and its faculty.

Principles of Biomedical Ethics

PubMed Central

Athar, Shahid

2012-01-01

In this presentation, I will discuss the principles of biomedical and Islamic medical ethics and an interfaith perspective on end-of-life issues. I will also discuss three cases to exemplify some of the conflicts in ethical decision-making. PMID:23610498

Navigating the Path to a Biomedical Science Career

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zimmerman, Andrea McNeely

2017-01-01

The number of biomedical PhD scientists being trained and graduated far exceeds the number of academic faculty positions and academic research jobs. If this trend is compelling biomedical PhD scientists to increasingly seek career paths outside of academia, then more should be known about their intentions, desires, training experiences, and career…

Biomedical technology transfer: Applications of NASA science and technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

The major efforts of the Stanford Biomedical Applications Team Program at the Stanford University School of Medicine for the period from October 1, 1975 to September 31, 1976 are covered. A completed EMG biotelemetry system which monitors the physiological signals of man and animals in space related research is discussed. The results of a pilot study involving lower body negative pressure testing in cardiac patients has been completed as well as the design and construction of a new leg negative pressure unit for evaluating heart patients. This technology utilizes vacuum chambers to stress the cardiovascular system during space flight. Laboratory tests of an intracranial pressure transducer, have been conducted. Extremely stable long term data using capacative pressure sensors has lead to the order of commercially manufactured monitoring systems base. Projects involving commercialization are: flexible medical electrodes, an echocardioscope, a miniature biotelemetry system, and an on-line ventricular contour detector.

A woman like you: Women scientists and engineers at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Careers in action

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

Not Available

1991-12-31

This publication by the women in Science and Engineering introduces career possibilities in science and engineering. It introduces what work and home life are like for women who have already entered these fields. Women at Brookhaven National Laboratory work in a variety of challenging research roles -- from biologist and environmental scientist to safety engineer, from patent lawyer to technician. Brookhaven National Laboratory is a multi-program laboratory which carries out basic and applied research in the physical, biomedical and environmental sciences and in selected energy technologies. The Laboratory is managed by Associated University, Inc., under contract with the US Departmentmore » of Energy. Brookhaven and the other national laboratories, because of their enormous research resources, can play a critical role in a education and training of the workforce.« less

1996 Laboratory directed research and development annual report

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

Meyers, C.E.; Harvey, C.L.; Lopez-Andreas, L.M.

This report summarizes progress from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program during fiscal year 1996. In addition to a programmatic and financial overview, the report includes progress reports from 259 individual R&D projects in seventeen categories. The general areas of research include: engineered processes and materials; computational and information sciences; microelectronics and photonics; engineering sciences; pulsed power; advanced manufacturing technologies; biomedical engineering; energy and environmental science and technology; advanced information technologies; counterproliferation; advanced transportation; national security technology; electronics technologies; idea exploration and exploitation; production; and science at the interfaces - engineering with atoms.

Managing the future: the Special Virus Leukemia Program and the acceleration of biomedical research.

PubMed

Scheffler, Robin Wolfe

2014-12-01

After the end of the Second World War, cancer virus research experienced a remarkable revival, culminating in the creation in 1964 of the United States National Cancer Institute's Special Virus Leukemia Program (SVLP), an ambitious program of directed biomedical research to accelerate the development of a leukemia vaccine. Studies of cancer viruses soon became the second most highly funded area of research at the Institute, and by far the most generously funded area of biological research. Remarkably, this vast infrastructure for cancer vaccine production came into being before a human leukemia virus was shown to exist. The origins of the SVLP were rooted in as much as shifts in American society as laboratory science. The revival of cancer virus studies was a function of the success advocates and administrators achieved in associating cancer viruses with campaigns against childhood diseases such as polio and leukemia. To address the urgency borne of this new association, the SVLP's architects sought to lessen the power of peer review in favor of centralized Cold War management methods, fashioning viruses as "administrative objects" in order to accelerate the tempo of biomedical research and discovery.

Data management integration for biomedical core facilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Guo-Qiang; Szymanski, Jacek; Wilson, David

2007-03-01

We present the design, development, and pilot-deployment experiences of MIMI, a web-based, Multi-modality Multi-Resource Information Integration environment for biomedical core facilities. This is an easily customizable, web-based software tool that integrates scientific and administrative support for a biomedical core facility involving a common set of entities: researchers; projects; equipments and devices; support staff; services; samples and materials; experimental workflow; large and complex data. With this software, one can: register users; manage projects; schedule resources; bill services; perform site-wide search; archive, back-up, and share data. With its customizable, expandable, and scalable characteristics, MIMI not only provides a cost-effective solution to the overarching data management problem of biomedical core facilities unavailable in the market place, but also lays a foundation for data federation to facilitate and support discovery-driven research.

Finding and accessing diagrams in biomedical publications.

PubMed

Kuhn, Tobias; Luong, ThaiBinh; Krauthammer, Michael

2012-01-01

Complex relationships in biomedical publications are often communicated by diagrams such as bar and line charts, which are a very effective way of summarizing and communicating multi-faceted data sets. Given the ever-increasing amount of published data, we argue that the precise retrieval of such diagrams is of great value for answering specific and otherwise hard-to-meet information needs. To this end, we demonstrate the use of advanced image processing and classification for identifying bar and line charts by the shape and relative location of the different image elements that make up the charts. With recall and precisions of close to 90% for the detection of relevant figures, we discuss the use of this technology in an existing biomedical image search engine, and outline how it enables new forms of literature queries over biomedical relationships that are represented in these charts.

Biomedical Research Division significant accomplishments for FY 1983

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martello, N. V.

1984-01-01

Various research and technology activities of Ames Research Center's Biomedical Research Division are described. Contributions to the Space Administration's goals in the life sciences include research in operational medicine, cardiovascular deconditioning, motion sickness, bone alterations, muscle atrophy, fluid and electrolyte changes, radiation effects and protection, human behavior and performance, general biomedical research, and gravitational biology.

Job Profiles of Biomedical Informatics Graduates. Results of a Graduate Survey.

PubMed

Ammenwerth, E; Hackl, W O

2015-01-01

Biomedical informatics programs exist in many countries. Some analyses of the skills needed and of recommendations for curricular content for such programs have been published. However, not much is known of the job profiles and job careers of their graduates. To analyse the job profiles and job careers of 175 graduates of the biomedical informatics bachelor and master program of the Tyrolean university UMIT. Survey of all biomedical informatics students who graduated from UMIT between 2001 and 2013. Information is available for 170 graduates. Eight percent of graduates are male. Of all bachelor graduates, 86% started a master program. Of all master graduates, 36% started a PhD. The job profiles are quite diverse: at the time of the survey, 35% of all master graduates worked in the health IT industry, 24% at research institutions, 9% in hospitals, 9% as medical doctors, 17% as informaticians outside the health care sector, and 6% in other areas. Overall, 68% of the graduates are working as biomedical informaticians. The results of the survey indicate a good job situation for the graduates. The job opportunities for biomedical informaticians who graduated with a bachelor or master degree from UMIT seem to be quite good. The majority of graduates are working as biomedical informaticians. A larger number of comparable surveys of graduates from other biomedical informatics programs would help to enhance our knowledge about careers in biomedical informatics.

A novel biomedical image indexing and retrieval system via deep preference learning.

PubMed

Pang, Shuchao; Orgun, Mehmet A; Yu, Zhezhou

2018-05-01

The traditional biomedical image retrieval methods as well as content-based image retrieval (CBIR) methods originally designed for non-biomedical images either only consider using pixel and low-level features to describe an image or use deep features to describe images but still leave a lot of room for improving both accuracy and efficiency. In this work, we propose a new approach, which exploits deep learning technology to extract the high-level and compact features from biomedical images. The deep feature extraction process leverages multiple hidden layers to capture substantial feature structures of high-resolution images and represent them at different levels of abstraction, leading to an improved performance for indexing and retrieval of biomedical images. We exploit the current popular and multi-layered deep neural networks, namely, stacked denoising autoencoders (SDAE) and convolutional neural networks (CNN) to represent the discriminative features of biomedical images by transferring the feature representations and parameters of pre-trained deep neural networks from another domain. Moreover, in order to index all the images for finding the similarly referenced images, we also introduce preference learning technology to train and learn a kind of a preference model for the query image, which can output the similarity ranking list of images from a biomedical image database. To the best of our knowledge, this paper introduces preference learning technology for the first time into biomedical image retrieval. We evaluate the performance of two powerful algorithms based on our proposed system and compare them with those of popular biomedical image indexing approaches and existing regular image retrieval methods with detailed experiments over several well-known public biomedical image databases. Based on different criteria for the evaluation of retrieval performance, experimental results demonstrate that our proposed algorithms outperform the state

Powder X-ray diffraction laboratory, Reston, Virginia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Piatak, Nadine M.; Dulong, Frank T.; Jackson, John C.; Folger, Helen W.

2014-01-01

The powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) laboratory is managed jointly by the Eastern Mineral and Environmental Resources and Eastern Energy Resources Science Centers. Laboratory scientists collaborate on a wide variety of research problems involving other U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) science centers and government agencies, universities, and industry. Capabilities include identification and quantification of crystalline and amorphous phases, and crystallographic and atomic structure analysis for a wide variety of sample media. Customized laboratory procedures and analyses commonly are used to characterize non-routine samples including, but not limited to, organic and inorganic components in petroleum source rocks, ore and mine waste, clay minerals, and glassy phases. Procedures can be adapted to meet a variety of research objectives.

Biomedical surface analysis: Evolution and future directions (Review)

PubMed Central

Castner, David G.

2017-01-01

This review describes some of the major advances made in biomedical surface analysis over the past 30–40 years. Starting from a single technique analysis of homogeneous surfaces, it has been developed into a complementary, multitechnique approach for obtaining detailed, comprehensive information about a wide range of surfaces and interfaces of interest to the biomedical community. Significant advances have been made in each surface analysis technique, as well as how the techniques are combined to provide detailed information about biological surfaces and interfaces. The driving force for these advances has been that the surface of a biomaterial is the interface between the biological environment and the biomaterial, and so, the state-of-the-art in instrumentation, experimental protocols, and data analysis methods need to be developed so that the detailed surface structure and composition of biomedical devices can be determined and related to their biological performance. Examples of these advances, as well as areas for future developments, are described for immobilized proteins, complex biomedical surfaces, nanoparticles, and 2D/3D imaging of biological materials. PMID:28438024

Commercialising genetically engineered animal biomedical products.

PubMed

Sullivan, Eddie J; Pommer, Jerry; Robl, James M

2008-01-01

Research over the past two decades has increased the quality and quantity of tools available to produce genetically engineered animals. The number of potentially viable biomedical products from genetically engineered animals is increasing. However, moving from cutting-edge research to development and commercialisation of a biomedical product that is useful and wanted by the public has significant challenges. Even early stage development of genetically engineered animal applications requires consideration of many steps, including quality assurance and quality control, risk management, gap analysis, founder animal establishment, cell banking, sourcing of animals and animal-derived material, animal facilities, product collection facilities and processing facilities. These steps are complicated and expensive. Biomedical applications of genetically engineered animals have had some recent successes and many applications are well into development. As researchers consider applications for their findings, having a realistic understanding of the steps involved in the development and commercialisation of a product, produced in genetically engineered animals, is useful in determining the risk of genetic modification to the animal nu. the potential public benefit of the application.

Environmental practices for biomedical research facilities.

PubMed Central

Medlin, E L; Grupenhoff, J T

2000-01-01

As a result of the Leadership Conference on Biomedical Research and the Environment, the Facilities Committee focused its work on the development of best environmental practices at biomedical research facilities at the university and independent research facility level as well as consideration of potential involvement of for-profit companies and government agencies. The designation "facilities" includes all related buildings and grounds, "green auditing" of buildings and programs, purchasing of furnishings and sources, energy efficiency, and engineering services (lighting, heating, air conditioning), among other activities. The committee made a number of recommendations, including development of a national council for environmental stewardship in biomedical research, development of a system of green auditing of such research facilities, and creation of programs for sustainable building and use. In addition, the committee recommended extension of education and training programs for environmental stewardship, in cooperation with facilities managers, for all research administrators and researchers. These programs would focus especially on graduate fellows and other students, as well as on science labs at levels K--12. PMID:11121360

Biomedical semantics in the Semantic Web

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

The Semantic Web offers an ideal platform for representing and linking biomedical information, which is a prerequisite for the development and application of analytical tools to address problems in data-intensive areas such as systems biology and translational medicine. As for any new paradigm, the adoption of the Semantic Web offers opportunities and poses questions and challenges to the life sciences scientific community: which technologies in the Semantic Web stack will be more beneficial for the life sciences? Is biomedical information too complex to benefit from simple interlinked representations? What are the implications of adopting a new paradigm for knowledge representation? What are the incentives for the adoption of the Semantic Web, and who are the facilitators? Is there going to be a Semantic Web revolution in the life sciences? We report here a few reflections on these questions, following discussions at the SWAT4LS (Semantic Web Applications and Tools for Life Sciences) workshop series, of which this Journal of Biomedical Semantics special issue presents selected papers from the 2009 edition, held in Amsterdam on November 20th. PMID:21388570

Biomedical semantics in the Semantic Web.

PubMed

Splendiani, Andrea; Burger, Albert; Paschke, Adrian; Romano, Paolo; Marshall, M Scott

2011-03-07

The Semantic Web offers an ideal platform for representing and linking biomedical information, which is a prerequisite for the development and application of analytical tools to address problems in data-intensive areas such as systems biology and translational medicine. As for any new paradigm, the adoption of the Semantic Web offers opportunities and poses questions and challenges to the life sciences scientific community: which technologies in the Semantic Web stack will be more beneficial for the life sciences? Is biomedical information too complex to benefit from simple interlinked representations? What are the implications of adopting a new paradigm for knowledge representation? What are the incentives for the adoption of the Semantic Web, and who are the facilitators? Is there going to be a Semantic Web revolution in the life sciences?We report here a few reflections on these questions, following discussions at the SWAT4LS (Semantic Web Applications and Tools for Life Sciences) workshop series, of which this Journal of Biomedical Semantics special issue presents selected papers from the 2009 edition, held in Amsterdam on November 20th.

Biomedical publishing and the internet: evolution or revolution?

PubMed

Jacobson, M W

2000-01-01

The Internet is challenging traditional publishing patterns. In the biomedical domain, medical journals are providing more and more content online, both free and for a fee. Beyond this, however, a number of commentators believe that traditional notions of copyright and intellectual property ownership are no longer suited to the information age and that ownership of copyright to research reports should be and will be wrested from publishers and returned to authors. In this paper, it is argued that, although the Internet will indeed profoundly affect the distribution of biomedical research results, the biomedical publishing industry is too intertwined with the research establishment and too powerful to fall prey to such a copyright revolution.

New Directions for Biomedical Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plonsey, Robert

1973-01-01

Discusses the definition of "biomedical engineering" and the development of educational programs in the field. Includes detailed descriptions of the roles of bioengineers, medical engineers, and chemical engineers. (CC)

Joint Kinetics and Kinematics During Common Lower Limb Rehabilitation Exercises.

PubMed

Comfort, Paul; Jones, Paul Anthony; Smith, Laura Constance; Herrington, Lee

2015-10-01

Unilateral body-weight exercises are commonly used to strengthen the lower limbs during rehabilitation after injury, but data comparing the loading of the limbs during these tasks are limited. To compare joint kinetics and kinematics during 3 commonly used rehabilitation exercises. Descriptive laboratory study. Laboratory. A total of 9 men (age = 22.1 ± 1.3 years, height = 1.76 ± 0.08 m, mass = 80.1 ± 12.2 kg) participated. Participants performed the single-legged squat, forward lunge, and reverse lunge with kinetic data captured via 2 force plates and 3-dimensional kinematic data collected using a motion-capture system. Peak ground reaction forces, maximum joint angles, and peak sagittal-joint moments. We observed greater eccentric and concentric peak vertical ground reaction forces during the single-legged squat than during both lunge variations (P ≤ .001). Both lunge variations demonstrated greater knee and hip angles than did the single-legged squat (P < .001), but we observed no differences between lunges (P > .05). Greater dorsiflexion occurred during the single-legged squat than during both lunge variations (P < .05), but we noted no differences between lunge variations (P = .70). Hip-joint moments were greater during the forward lunge than during the reverse lunge (P = .003) and the single-legged squat (P = .011). Knee-joint moments were greater in the single-legged squat than in the reverse lunge (P < .001) but not greater in the single-legged squat than in the forward lunge (P = .41). Ankle-joint moments were greater during the single-legged squat than during the forward lunge (P = .002) and reverse lunge (P < .001). Appropriate loading progressions for the hip should begin with the single-legged squat and progress to the reverse lunge and then the forward lunge. In contrast, loading progressions for the knee and ankle should begin with the reverse lunge and progress to the forward lunge and then the single-legged squat.

Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals, Number 10: Nutrient Requirements of Laboratory Animals. Third Revised Edition, 1978.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, Washington, DC. Board on Agricultural and Renewable Resources.

This report deals with the nutrient requirements of seven species of animals used extensively for biomedical research in the United States. Following an introductory chapter of general information on nutrition, chapters are presented on the nutrient requirements of the laboratory rat, mouse, gerbil, guinea pig, hamster, vole, and fishes. Each…

Student Perceptions of the Cell Biology Laboratory Learning Environment in Four Undergraduate Science Courses in Spain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Juan, Joaquin; Pérez-Cañaveras, Rosa M.; Segovia, Yolanda; Girela, Jose Luis; Martínez-Ruiz, Noemi; Romero-Rameta, Alejandro; Gómez-Torres, Maria José; Vizcaya-Moreno, M. Flores

2016-01-01

Cell biology is an academic discipline that organises and coordinates the learning of the structure, function and molecular composition of cells in some undergraduate biomedical programs. Besides course content and teaching methodologies, the laboratory environment is considered a key element in the teaching of and learning of cell biology. The…

Curriculum Development of a Research Laboratory Methodology Course for Complementary and Integrative Medicine Students

PubMed Central

Vasilevsky, Nicole; Schafer, Morgan; Tibbitts, Deanne; Wright, Kirsten; Zwickey, Heather

2015-01-01

Training in fundamental laboratory methodologies is valuable to medical students because it enables them to understand the published literature, critically evaluate clinical studies, and make informed decisions regarding patient care. It also prepares them for research opportunities that may complement their medical practice. The National College of Natural Medicine's (NCNM) Master of Science in Integrative Medicine Research (MSiMR) program has developed an Introduction to Laboratory Methods course. The objective of the course it to train clinical students how to perform basic laboratory skills, analyze and manage data, and judiciously assess biomedical studies. Here we describe the course development and implementation as it applies to complementary and integrative medicine students. PMID:26500806

Current investigations into magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical applications.

PubMed

Li, Xiaoming; Wei, Jianrong; Aifantis, Katerina E; Fan, Yubo; Feng, Qingling; Cui, Fu-Zhai; Watari, Fumio

2016-05-01

It is generally recognized that nanoparticles possess unique physicochemical properties that are largely different from those of conventional materials, specifically the electromagnetic properties of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). These properties have attracted many researchers to launch investigations into their potential biomedical applications, which have been reviewed in this article. First, common types of MNPs were briefly introduced. Then, the biomedical applications of MNPs were reviewed in seven parts: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cancer therapy, the delivery of drugs and genes, bone and dental repair, tissue engineering, biosensors, and in other aspects, which indicated that MNPs possess great potentials for many kinds of biomedical applications due to their unique properties. Although lots of achievements have been obtained, there is still a lot of work to do. New synthesis techniques and methods are still needed to develop the MNPs with satisfactory biocompatibility. More effective methods need to be exploited to prepare MNPs-based composites with fine microstructures and high biomedical performances. Other promising research points include the development of more appropriate techniques of experiments both in vitro and in vivo to detect and analyze the biocompatibility and cytotoxicity of MNPs and understand the possible influencing mechanism of the two properties. More comprehensive investigations into the diagnostic and therapeutic applications of composites containing MNPs with "core-shell" structure and deeper understanding and further study into the properties of MNPs to reveal their new biomedical applications, are also described in the conclusion and perspectives part. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Discovering and visualizing indirect associations between biomedical concepts

PubMed Central

Tsuruoka, Yoshimasa; Miwa, Makoto; Hamamoto, Kaisei; Tsujii, Jun'ichi; Ananiadou, Sophia

2011-01-01

Motivation: Discovering useful associations between biomedical concepts has been one of the main goals in biomedical text-mining, and understanding their biomedical contexts is crucial in the discovery process. Hence, we need a text-mining system that helps users explore various types of (possibly hidden) associations in an easy and comprehensible manner. Results: This article describes FACTA+, a real-time text-mining system for finding and visualizing indirect associations between biomedical concepts from MEDLINE abstracts. The system can be used as a text search engine like PubMed with additional features to help users discover and visualize indirect associations between important biomedical concepts such as genes, diseases and chemical compounds. FACTA+ inherits all functionality from its predecessor, FACTA, and extends it by incorporating three new features: (i) detecting biomolecular events in text using a machine learning model, (ii) discovering hidden associations using co-occurrence statistics between concepts, and (iii) visualizing associations to improve the interpretability of the output. To the best of our knowledge, FACTA+ is the first real-time web application that offers the functionality of finding concepts involving biomolecular events and visualizing indirect associations of concepts with both their categories and importance. Availability: FACTA+ is available as a web application at http://refine1-nactem.mc.man.ac.uk/facta/, and its visualizer is available at http://refine1-nactem.mc.man.ac.uk/facta-visualizer/. Contact: tsuruoka@jaist.ac.jp PMID:21685059

Careers in biomedical engineering.

PubMed

Madrid, R E; Rotger, V I; Herrera, M C

2010-01-01

Although biomedical engineering was started in Argentina about 35 years ago, it has had a sustained growth for the last 25 years in human resources, with the emergence of new undergraduate and postgraduate careers, as well as in research, knowledge, technological development, and health care.

A new pivoting and iterative text detection algorithm for biomedical images.

PubMed

Xu, Songhua; Krauthammer, Michael

2010-12-01

There is interest to expand the reach of literature mining to include the analysis of biomedical images, which often contain a paper's key findings. Examples include recent studies that use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract image text, which is used to boost biomedical image retrieval and classification. Such studies rely on the robust identification of text elements in biomedical images, which is a non-trivial task. In this work, we introduce a new text detection algorithm for biomedical images based on iterative projection histograms. We study the effectiveness of our algorithm by evaluating the performance on a set of manually labeled random biomedical images, and compare the performance against other state-of-the-art text detection algorithms. We demonstrate that our projection histogram-based text detection approach is well suited for text detection in biomedical images, and that the iterative application of the algorithm boosts performance to an F score of .60. We provide a C++ implementation of our algorithm freely available for academic use. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A New Pivoting and Iterative Text Detection Algorithm for Biomedical Images

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

Xu, Songhua; Krauthammer, Prof. Michael

2010-01-01

There is interest to expand the reach of literature mining to include the analysis of biomedical images, which often contain a paper's key findings. Examples include recent studies that use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract image text, which is used to boost biomedical image retrieval and classification. Such studies rely on the robust identification of text elements in biomedical images, which is a non-trivial task. In this work, we introduce a new text detection algorithm for biomedical images based on iterative projection histograms. We study the effectiveness of our algorithm by evaluating the performance on a set of manuallymore » labeled random biomedical images, and compare the performance against other state-of-the-art text detection algorithms. We demonstrate that our projection histogram-based text detection approach is well suited for text detection in biomedical images, and that the iterative application of the algorithm boosts performance to an F score of .60. We provide a C++ implementation of our algorithm freely available for academic use.« less

Biomechanical evaluation of native acromioclavicular joint ligaments and two reconstruction techniques in the presence of the sternoclavicular joint: A cadaver study.

PubMed

Masionis, Povilas; Šatkauskas, Igoris; Mikelevičius, Vytautas; Ryliškis, Sigitas; Bučinskas, Vytautas; Griškevičius, Julius; Martin Oliva, Xavier; Monzó Planella, Mariano; Porvaneckas, Narūnas; Uvarovas, Valentinas

2017-01-01

Where is over 100 reconstruction techniques described for acromioclavicular (AC) joint reconstruction. Although, it is not clear whether the presence of the sternoclavicular (SC) joint influences the biomechanical properties of native AC ligaments and reconstruction techniques. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the biomechanical properties of native AC joint ligaments and two reconstruction techniques in cadavers with the SC joint still present. We tested eight fresh-frozen cadaver hemithoraces for superior translation (70 N load) and translation increment after 1000 cycles (loading from 20 to 70 N) in a controlled laboratory study. There were three testing groups created: native ligaments, the single coracoclavicular loop (SCL) technique, and the two coracoclavicular loops (TCL) technique. Superior translation was measured after static loading. Translation increment was calculated as the difference between superior translation after cyclic and static loading. Native AC ligaments showed significantly lower translation than the SCL ( p = 0.023) and TCL ( p = 0.046) groups. The SCL had a significantly lower translation increment than native AC ligaments ( p = 0.028). There was no significant difference between reconstruction techniques in terms of translation ( p = 0.865) and translation increment ( p = 0.113). Native AC joint ligaments had better static properties than both reconstruction techniques and worse dynamic biomechanical properties than the SCL technique. The SCL technique appeared to be more secure than the TCL technique. The presence of the SC joint did not have an observable influence on test results.

A Suggested Model for Building Robust Biomedical Implants Registries.

PubMed

Aloufi, Bader; Alshagathrah, Fahad; Househ, Mowafa

2017-01-01

Registries are an essential source of information for clinical and non-clinical decision-makers; because they provide evidence for post-market clinical follow-up and early detection of safety signals for biomedical implants. Yet, many of todays biomedical implants registries are facing a variety of challenges relating to a poorly designed dataset, the reliability of inputted data and low clinician and patient participation. The purpose of this paper is to present a best practice model for the implementation and use of biomedical implants registries to monitor the safety and effectiveness of implantable medical devices. Based on a literature review and an analysis of multiple national relevant registries, we identified six factors that address contemporary challenges and are believed to be the keys for building a successful biomedical implants registry, which include: sustainable development, international comparability, data reliability, purposeful design, ease of patient participation, and collaborative development at the national level.

Biomedical research applications of electromagnetically separated enriched stable isotopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lambrecht, R. M.

The current and projected annual requirements through 1985 for stable isotopes enriched by electromagnetic separation methods were reviewed for applications in various types of biomedical research: (1) medical radiosiotope production, labeled compounds, and potential radio-pharmaceuticals; (2) nutrition, food science, and pharmacology: (3) metallobiochemistry and environmental toxicology; (4) nuclear magnetic resonance, electron paramagnetic resonance, and moessbauer spectroscopy in biochemical, biophysical, and biomedical research; and (5) miscellaneous advances in radioactive and nonradioactive tracer technology. Radioisotopes available from commercial sources or routinely used in clinical nuclear medicine were excluded. Current requirements for enriched stable isotopes in biomedical research are not being satisfied. Severe shortages exist for Mg 26, Ca 43, Zn 70, Se 76, Se 77, Se 78, Pd 102, Cd 111, Cd 113, and Os 190. Many interesting and potentially important investigations in biomedical research require small quantities of specific elements at high isotopic enrichments.

Should biomedical research be like Airbnb?

PubMed

Bonazzi, Vivien R; Bourne, Philip E

2017-04-01

The thesis presented here is that biomedical research is based on the trusted exchange of services. That exchange would be conducted more efficiently if the trusted software platforms to exchange those services, if they exist, were more integrated. While simpler and narrower in scope than the services governing biomedical research, comparison to existing internet-based platforms, like Airbnb, can be informative. We illustrate how the analogy to internet-based platforms works and does not work and introduce The Commons, under active development at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and elsewhere, as an example of the move towards platforms for research.

Should biomedical research be like Airbnb?

PubMed Central

Bonazzi, Vivien R.

2017-01-01