Hybrid natural orifice transluminal endoscopic cholecystectomy: prospective human series.

PubMed

Cuadrado-Garcia, Angel; Noguera, Jose F; Olea-Martinez, Jose M; Morales, Rafael; Dolz, Carlos; Lozano, Luis; Vicens, Jose-Carlos; Pujol, Juan José

2011-01-01

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) makes it possible to perform intraperitoneal surgical procedures with a minimal number of access points in the abdominal wall. Currently, it is not possible to perform these interventions without the help of abdominal wall entryways, so these procedures are hybrids fusing minilaparoscopy and transluminal endoscopic surgery. This report presents a prospective clinical series of 25 patients who underwent transvaginal hybrid cholecystectomy for cholelithiasis. The study comprised a clinical series of 25 consecutive nonrandomized women who underwent a fusion transvaginal NOTES and minilaparoscopy procedure with two trocars for cholelithiasis: one 5-mm umbilical trocar and one 3-mm trocar in the upper left quadrant. The study had no control group. The scheduled surgical intervention was performed for all 25 women. No intraoperative complications occurred. One patient had mild hematuria that resolved in less than 12 h, but no other complications occurred during an average follow-up period of 140 days. Of the 25 women, 20 were discharged in 24 h, and 5 were discharged less than 12 h after the procedure. Hybrid transvaginal cholecystectomy, combining NOTES and minilaparoscopy, is a good surgical model for minimally invasive surgery. It can be performed in surgical settings where laparoscopy is practiced regularly using the instruments normally used for endoscopy and laparoscopic surgery. Due to the reproducibility of the intervention and the ease of vaginal closure, hybrid transvaginal cholecystectomy will permit further development of NOTES in the future.

Usefulness and safety of biliary percutaneous transluminal forceps biopsy (PTFB): our experience.

PubMed

Ierardi, Anna Maria; Mangini, Monica; Fontana, Federico; Floridi, Chiara; De Marchi, Giuseppe; Petrillo, Mario; Capasso, Raffaella; Chini, Claudio; Cocozza, Eugenio; Cuffari, Salvatore; Segato, Sergio; Rotondo, Antonio; Carrafiello, Gianpaolo

2014-03-01

To evaluate the usefulness and safety of percutaneous transluminal forceps biopsy in patients suspected of having a malignant biliary obstruction. Forty consecutive patients (21 men and 19 women; mean age, 71.9 years) underwent forceps biopsy through percutaneous transhepatic biliary access performed to drain bile. Lesions involved the common bile duct (n 8), common hepatic duct (n 18), hilum (n 6), ampullary segment of the common bile duct (n 8) and were biopsied with 7-F biopsy forceps. Final diagnosis was confirmed with pathologic findings at surgery, or clinical and radiologic follow-up. Twenty-one of 40 biopsies resulted in correct diagnosis of malignancy. Thirteen biopsy diagnosis were proved to be true-negative. There were six false-negative and no false-positive diagnoses. Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in aspecific biliary obstructions were 85%, 100% and 88,7% respectively. Sensitivity of biopsy in malignancies was higher than in benign obstructions (100% vs 68,4%, CI = 95%). Sensitivity was lower in the hilum tract and in the common bile duct than in other sites (CI = 95%). No major complications related to biopsy procedures occurred. Percutaneous transluminal forceps biopsy is a safe procedure, easy to perform through a transhepatic biliary drainage tract, providing high accuracy in the diagnosis of malignant biliary obstructions.

Effect of sleep-inducing music on sleep in persons with percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography in the cardiac care unit.

PubMed

Ryu, Min-Jung; Park, Jeong Sook; Park, Heeok

2012-03-01

The study compared the effect of earplug-delivered sleep-inducing music on sleep in persons with percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography in the cardiac care unit. Diverse types of music have been claimed to improve sleeping elsewhere, but relatively little is known in South Korea. Most studies investigating the effect of sleep-inducing music on sleep have involved persons with insomnia, even though many persons with cardiovascular disease in the intensive care unit suffer from sleeping problems. There is a need to investigate the effect of sleep-inducing music on sleep disorders in persons with percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography in the cardiac care unit. An experimental research design was used. Data collection was conducted in the cardiac care unit of K University Hospital in D city, from 3 September-4 October 2010. Fifty-eight subjects participated and were randomly assigned to the experimental group (earplug-delivered sleep-inducing music for 52 min beginning at 10:00 pm, while wearing an eyeshield, n = 29) and the control group (no music, but earplugs and eyeshield worn, n = 29). The quantity and quality of sleep were measured using questionnaires at 7 am the next morning for each group. Participants in the experimental group reported that the sleeping quantity and quality were significantly higher than control group (t = 3·181, p = 0·002, t = 5·269, p < 0·001, respectively). Sleep-inducing music significantly improved sleep in patients with percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography at a cardiac care unit. Offering earplugs and playing sleep-inducing music may be a meaningful and easily enacted nursing intervention to improve sleep for intensive care unit patients. Nurses working at cardiac care unit can use music to improve sleeping in clients with percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Transluminal Angioplasty of Peroneal Artery Branches in Diabetics: Initial Technical Experience

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

Graziani, Lanfroi, E-mail: langrazi@tin.it; Silvestro, Antonio; Monge, Luca

2008-01-15

The present study aimed to report the technical feasibility of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of obstructed or insufficient collateral branches (anterior and posterior perforating branches) from distal peroneal to foot arteries in diabetic patients with chronic critical limb ischemia (CLI) and chronic noncrossable occlusion of the anterior and posterior tibial arteries. Twenty-four diabetic CLI patients (age, 67 {+-} 8 years; 87% males) undergoing collateral PTA were included. Baseline clinical angiographic and follow-up data were retrospectively reviewed. Collateral PTA was associated with a concomitant PTA of other sites in 21 (83%) cases. In 15 cases the treated collateral linked the peronealmore » with the plantaris communis; in 9 cases, the peroneal with the dorsalis pedis. Angiographic results of collateral PTA were good in 13 cases (<30% residual stenosis), whereas the result was considered moderate (30%-49% residual stenosis) in the remaining cases. Neither perforation nor acute occlusion of the treated collaterals or other relevant complications were observed. Mean follow-up was 32 {+-} 17 months. Major amputation was necessary for two (8.3%) patients. Cumulative limb salvage rates at 2 and 4 years were 96% and 87%, respectively. In conclusion, this initial experience shows that PTA of the collateral branches from distal peroneal to foot arteries is a feasible technique. Future studies are required to define the clinical role of this novel approach.« less

The Mediator Complex Subunits MED14, MED15, and MED16 Are Involved in Defense Signaling Crosstalk in Arabidopsis.

PubMed

Wang, Chenggang; Du, Xuezhu; Mou, Zhonglin

2016-01-01

Mediator is a highly conserved protein complex that functions as a transcriptional coactivator in RNA polymerase II (RNAPII)-mediated transcription. The Arabidopsis Mediator complex has recently been implicated in plant immune responses. Here, we compared salicylic acid (SA)-, methyl jasmonate (MeJA)-, and the ethylene (ET) precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC)-induced defense and/or wound-responsive gene expression in 14 Arabidopsis Mediator subunit mutants. Our results show that MED14, MED15, and MED16 are required for SA-activated expression of the defense marker gene PATHOEGNESIS-RELATED GENE1 , MED25 is required for MeJA-induced expression of the wound-responsive marker gene VEGATATIVE STORAGE PROTEIN1 ( VSP1 ), MED8, MED14, MED15, MED16, MED18, MED20a, MED25, MED31, and MED33A/B (MED33a and MED33B) are required for MeJA-induced expression of the defense maker gene PLANT DEFENSIN1.2 ( PDF1.2 ), and MED8, MED14, MED15, MED16, MED25, and MED33A/B are also required for ACC-triggered expression of PDF1.2 . Furthermore, we investigated the involvement of MED14, MED15, and MED16 in plant defense signaling crosstalk and found that MED14, MED15, and MED16 are required for SA- and ET-mediated suppression of MeJA-induced VSP1 expression. This result suggests that MED14, MED15, and MED16 not only relay defense signaling from the SA and JA/ET defense pathways to the RNAPII transcription machinery, but also fine-tune defense signaling crosstalk. Finally, we show that MED33A/B contributes to the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea- induced expression of the defense genes PDF1.2, HEVEIN-LIKE , and BASIC CHITINASE and is required for full-scale basal resistance to B. cinerea , demonstrating a positive role for MED33 in plant immunity against necrotrophic fungal pathogens.

A perspective of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty.

PubMed

Stanson, A W

1983-01-01

PTA is a relatively new procedure which is still evolving. More technical improvements are needed. Stiffer balloon plastics and devices to measure arterial wall compliance during balloon inflation are predicted to lead to better long-term success rates. Increasing case numbers provide greater expertise and subsequent refinements in performance and case selection. These factors will lead to improved statistics. Other features of overall patient care must be considered also. The procedure is easy for patients to tolerate, and they can return to activities and work in three or four days. The overall cost is much cheaper than surgery, even at a conservative success rate of 65 percent. There is minimal risk and morbidity, and virtually no mortality. PTA can be repeated if the lesion recurs. Severe complications are rare and almost always surgically treatable. If PTA fails to achieve success, a traditional surgical procedure can be performed. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty is an important therapeutic alternative to traditional medical and surgical treatment for occlusive arterial disease. It can save legs, veins, time, and money. We need to refine and accurately record the use of this procedure. Total cooperation among clinicians, surgeons, and radiologists is essential for proper utilization of PTA.

[Effect of nattokinase on restenosis after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of the abdominal artery in rabbits].

PubMed

Gong, Min; Lin, Huan-bing; Wang, Qian; Xu, Jiang-ping

2008-08-01

To investigate the effect of nattokinase on intimal hyperplasia in rabbit abdominal artery after balloon injury and explore a novel strategy for the preventing restenosis after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. Fifty-six New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into 7 groups, namely the solvent control group, model group, natto extract lavage group, refined nattokinse lavage group, intravenous refined nattokinse injection group, clopidogrel group and clopidogrel-aspirin group. Balloon injury was induced by inserting the catheter through the femoral artery into the thoracic aorta of the rabbits. The platelet counts were notad and platelet aggregation was observed, and the abdominal artery was taken for pathological analysis. The expressions of MMP-2 and -9 in the abdominal artery were detected immunohistochemically. There was no significant difference in the platelet counts, platelet aggregation rate or MMP-2 and -9 expression between the model group and the nattokinse-treated groups (P>0.05). The stenosis index in each nattokinse-treated group was significantly greater and the neointimal proliferation index smaller than that of the model group (P<0.01 or 0.05). Nattokinse can inhibit restenosis of rabbit abdominal artery after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, which is independent of its actions on the platelet or MMP-2 and -9 expressions.

A call for randomized controlled cost-effectiveness analysis of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

PubMed

Holly, N

1988-01-01

A rapidly evolving technology, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, is increasingly favored over bypass surgery for treating some types of coronary stenosis because of its less traumatic invasion, better recovery response, and lower initial cost. However, substantially higher failure rates in initial procedures offset PTCA's savings to an unknown extent and cloud analysis of its overall impact. Lack of randomized clinical data precludes valid cost-effectiveness comparison of the technologies at this time. Criteria for establishing valid data and evaluations of currently available data are described in this paper.

[The usefullness of percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty in the management of budd-Chiari syndrome].

PubMed

Kim, Se Hwan; Yu, Kyung Sool; Baek, Seung Min; Lee, Seung Yup; Kim, Hyun Su; Tak, Won Young; Kweon, Young Oh; Kim, Sung Kook; Choi, Yong Hwan; Chung, Joon Mo

2002-06-01

Membranous obstruction is the most common cause of Budd-Chiari syndrome in Orientals. Recently, percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty (PTBA) has been successfully applied as a treatment of membranous obstruction. We evaluated etiologies and clinical manifestations in our cases and the usefulness of PTBA. Twelve cases of Budd-Chiari syndrome were analyzed. 50.3 years was the average age of the cases (ranging from 37 to 67 years). Major symptoms or signs were superficial collateral vessels on the chest or the abdomen in 6 cases, ascites in 3, abdominal pain in 4, hepatomegaly in 4, splenomegaly in 3, melena or hematemesis in 2, and leg edema in 2. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed esophageal varices in 6 cases and two of these 6 cases had gastric varices. Of 8 cases with liver cirrhosis, 4 were classified as Child-Pugh class A and 4 as B. Four patients with cirrhosis had concurrent hepatocellular carcinoma including 1 patient who was HBs Ag positive. Etiologies were membranous obstruction in 11 cases and protein C deficiency in 1 case. The main site of obstruction was IVC in 8 and hepatic vein in 4. PTBA was successfully performed in 8 cases of membranous obstruction. During the mean follow-up period of 27.6 months (12-40 months), there were no reobstructions except in 2 cases. The most common cause of Budd-Chiari syndrome in our cases was membranous obstruction of IVC. Percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty is a very useful treatment method.

PubMedReco: A Real-Time Recommender System for PubMed Citations.

PubMed

Samuel, Hamman W; Zaïane, Osmar R

2017-01-01

We present a recommender system, PubMedReco, for real-time suggestions of medical articles from PubMed, a database of over 23 million medical citations. PubMedReco can recommend medical article citations while users are conversing in a synchronous communication environment such as a chat room. Normally, users would have to leave their chat interface to open a new web browser window, and formulate an appropriate search query to retrieve relevant results. PubMedReco automatically generates the search query and shows relevant citations within the same integrated user interface. PubMedReco analyzes relevant keywords associated with the conversation and uses them to search for relevant citations using the PubMed E-utilities programming interface. Our contributions include improvements to the user experience for searching PubMed from within health forums and chat rooms, and a machine learning model for identifying relevant keywords. We demonstrate the feasibility of PubMedReco using BMJ's Doc2Doc forum discussions.

Renal Branch Artery Occlusion in a 13-Year-Old Hypertensive Girl: Initial Treatment and Treatment of Recurrent Stenosis by Balloon Angioplasty

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

Konez, Orhan; Burrows, Patricia E.; Harmon, William E.

2001-09-15

A 13-year-old girl who recently developed hypertension was diagnosed to have an occluded right renal branch artery and was treated successfully with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). To our knowledge, PTA has not been reported as a treatment for totally occluded renal branch arteries, and there is no data available regarding the success rate and possible complications.

PubMedAlertMe - Standalone Windows-based PubMed SDI Software Application

PubMed Central

Ma’ayan, Avi

2008-01-01

PubMedAlertMe is a Windows-based software system for automatically receiving e-mail alert messages about recent publications listed on PubMed. The e-mail messages contain links to newly available abstracts listed on PubMed describing publications that were selectively returned from a specified list of queries. Links are also provided to directly export citations to EndNote, and links are provided to directly forward articles to colleagues. The program is standalone. Thus, it does not require a remote mail server or user registration. PubMedAlertMe is free software, and can be downloaded from: http://amp.pharm.mssm.edu/PubMedAlertMe/PubMedAlertMe_setup.zip PMID:18402930

Comparison of PubMed and Google Scholar literature searches.

PubMed

Anders, Michael E; Evans, Dennis P

2010-05-01

Literature searches are essential to evidence-based respiratory care. To conduct literature searches, respiratory therapists rely on search engines to retrieve information, but there is a dearth of literature on the comparative efficiencies of search engines for researching clinical questions in respiratory care. To compare PubMed and Google Scholar search results for clinical topics in respiratory care to that of a benchmark. We performed literature searches with PubMed and Google Scholar, on 3 clinical topics. In PubMed we used the Clinical Queries search filter. In Google Scholar we used the search filters in the Advanced Scholar Search option. We used the reference list of a related Cochrane Collaboration evidence-based systematic review as the benchmark for each of the search results. We calculated recall (sensitivity) and precision (positive predictive value) with 2 x 2 contingency tables. We compared the results with the chi-square test of independence and Fisher's exact test. PubMed and Google Scholar had similar recall for both overall search results (71% vs 69%) and full-text results (43% vs 51%). PubMed had better precision than Google Scholar for both overall search results (13% vs 0.07%, P < .001) and full-text results (8% vs 0.05%, P < .001). Our results suggest that PubMed searches with the Clinical Queries filter are more precise than with the Advanced Scholar Search in Google Scholar for respiratory care topics. PubMed appears to be more practical to conduct efficient, valid searches for informing evidence-based patient-care protocols, for guiding the care of individual patients, and for educational purposes.

Evolution and simplified terminology of natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS), and mini-laparoscopy (ML).

PubMed

Georgiou, A N; Rassweiler, J; Herrmann, T R; Stolzenburg, J U; Liatsikos, E N; Do, Eta Mu; Kallidonis, P; de la Teille, A; van Velthoven, R; Burchardt, M

2012-10-01

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) and laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) are the next steps in the evolution of laparoscopic surgery, promising reduced morbidity and improved cosmetic result. The inconsistent terminology initially used led to confusion. Understanding the technical evolution, the current status and a unified and simplified terminology are key issues for further acceptance of both approaches. To present LESS and NOTES in its historical context and to clarify the associated terminology. Extensive literature search took place using the PubMed. Several hundred publications in general surgery and urology regarding LESS are present including the expert opinion of members the European Society of Uro-technology (ESUT). The increasing interest on NOTES and LESS is reflected by a raising number of publications during the last 4 years. The initial confusion with the terminology of single-incision surgery represented a significant issue for further evolution of the technique. Thus, consortiums of experts searched a universally acceptable name for single-incision surgery. They determined that 'laparoendoscopic single-site surgery' (LESS) was both scientifically accurate and colloquially appropriate, the term being also ratified by the NOTES working group (Endourological Society) and the ESUT. For additional use of instruments, the terms hybrid NOTES and hybrid LESS should be used. Any single use of miniaturized instruments for laparoscopy should be called mini-laparoscopy. The evolution of LESS and most likely NOTES to a new standard of minimally invasive surgery could represent an evolutionary step even greater than the one performed by the establishment of laparoscopy over open surgery.

Genetics Home Reference: trisomy 13

MedlinePlus

... and review of literature. Am J Med Genet A. 2006 Jan 1;140(1):92-3. Review. Citation on PubMed Parker MJ, Budd JL, Draper ES, Young ID. Trisomy 13 and trisomy 18 in a defined population: epidemiological, genetic and prenatal observations. Prenat ...

The MedDRA paradox.

PubMed

Merrill, Gary H

2008-11-06

MedDRA (the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities Terminology) is a controlled vocabulary widely used as a medical coding scheme. However, MedDRA's characterization of its structural hierarchy exhibits some confusing and paradoxical features. The goal of this paper is to examine these features, determine whether there is a coherent view of the MedDRA hierarchy that emerges, and explore what lessons are to be learned from this for using MedDRA and similar terminologies in a broad medical informatics context that includes relations among multiple disparate terminologies, thesauri, and ontologies.

PubMed-Indexed Dental Publications from Iran: A Scientometric Study

PubMed Central

Asgary, Saeed; Sabbagh, Sedigheh; Shirazi, Alireza Sarraf; Ahmadyar, Maryam; Shahravan, Arash; Akhoundi, Mohammad Sadegh Ahmad

2016-01-01

Objectives: Scientometric methods and the resulting citations have been applied to investigate the scientific performance of a nation. The present study was designed to collect the statistical information of dental articles by Iranian authors published in PubMed. Materials and Methods: We searched the PubMed database for dental articles of Iranian authors until June 31, 2015. All abstracts were manually reviewed in order to exclude false retrievals. The number of articles per dental subspecialties, distribution of research designs, Scopus/Google Scholar citation of each article, number of authors and affiliation of the first/corresponding author were extracted and transferred to Microsoft Excel. The data were further analyzed to illustrate the related scientometric indicators. Results: A total of 3,835 articles were retrieved according to the selection criteria. The number of PubMed-indexed publications between 2008 and 2015 showed a seven-fold increase. The majority of articles were written by four authors (24.56%). Systematic reviews and clinical trials constituted 9.20% of all publications. The number and percentage of articles with ≥4 citations from Google Scholar (n=2024; 52.78%) were higher than those from Scopus (n=1015; 26.47%). According to affiliated departments of the first authors, the top three dental subspecialties with the highest number of publications belonged to endodontics (19.82%), orthodontics (11.13%) and oral and maxillofacial surgery (10.33%). Moreover, the majority of articles originated from Shahid Beheshti- (14.47%), Tehran- (13.72%) and Mashhad- (12.28%) University of Medical Sciences. Conclusions: Analysis of PubMed-indexed dental publications originating from Iran revealed a growing trend in the recent years. PMID:28392812

Analysis of PubMed User Sessions Using a Full-Day PubMed Query Log: A Comparison of Experienced and Nonexperienced PubMed Users

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Background PubMed is the largest biomedical bibliographic information source on the Internet. PubMed has been considered one of the most important and reliable sources of up-to-date health care evidence. Previous studies examined the effects of domain expertise/knowledge on search performance using PubMed. However, very little is known about PubMed users’ knowledge of information retrieval (IR) functions and their usage in query formulation. Objective The purpose of this study was to shed light on how experienced/nonexperienced PubMed users perform their search queries by analyzing a full-day query log. Our hypotheses were that (1) experienced PubMed users who use system functions quickly retrieve relevant documents and (2) nonexperienced PubMed users who do not use them have longer search sessions than experienced users. Methods To test these hypotheses, we analyzed PubMed query log data containing nearly 3 million queries. User sessions were divided into two categories: experienced and nonexperienced. We compared experienced and nonexperienced users per number of sessions, and experienced and nonexperienced user sessions per session length, with a focus on how fast they completed their sessions. Results To test our hypotheses, we measured how successful information retrieval was (at retrieving relevant documents), represented as the decrease rates of experienced and nonexperienced users from a session length of 1 to 2, 3, 4, and 5. The decrease rate (from a session length of 1 to 2) of the experienced users was significantly larger than that of the nonexperienced groups. Conclusions Experienced PubMed users retrieve relevant documents more quickly than nonexperienced PubMed users in terms of session length. PMID:26139516

Gonioscopy-assisted Transluminal Trabeculotomy (GATT): Thermal Suture Modification With a Dye-stained Rounded Tip.

PubMed

Grover, Davinder S; Fellman, Ronald L

2016-06-01

To describe a novel technique for thermally marking the tip of a suture, in preparation for a gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy. One patient was used as an example for this technique. Technique report. The authors introduce a modification of a novel surgical procedure (GATT) in which a suture is marked and thermally blunted allowing a proper visualization while performing an ab interno, minimally invasive, circumferential 360-degree suture trabeculotomy. The authors have previously reported on the GATT surgery with the use of an illuminated microcatheter, which allowed for visualization of the tip of the catheter as it circumnavigated Schlemm canal. This modification allows for similar visualization of the tip of the suture, however, is much more cost-effective while still maintaining similar safety.

Oncogenic exon 2 mutations in Mediator subunit MED12 disrupt allosteric activation of cyclin C-CDK8/19.

PubMed

Park, Min Ju; Shen, Hailian; Spaeth, Jason M; Tolvanen, Jaana H; Failor, Courtney; Knudtson, Jennifer F; McLaughlin, Jessica; Halder, Sunil K; Yang, Qiwei; Bulun, Serdar E; Al-Hendy, Ayman; Schenken, Robert S; Aaltonen, Lauri A; Boyer, Thomas G

2018-03-30

Somatic mutations in exon 2 of the RNA polymerase II transcriptional Mediator subunit MED12 occur at high frequency in uterine fibroids (UFs) and breast fibroepithelial tumors as well as recurrently, albeit less frequently, in malignant uterine leimyosarcomas, chronic lymphocytic leukemias, and colorectal cancers. Previously, we reported that UF-linked mutations in MED12 disrupt its ability to activate cyclin C (CycC)-dependent kinase 8 (CDK8) in Mediator, implicating impaired Mediator-associated CDK8 activity in the molecular pathogenesis of these clinically significant lesions. Notably, the CDK8 paralog CDK19 is also expressed in myometrium, and both CDK8 and CDK19 assemble into Mediator in a mutually exclusive manner, suggesting that CDK19 activity may also be germane to the pathogenesis of MED12 mutation-induced UFs. However, whether and how UF-linked mutations in MED12 affect CDK19 activation is unknown. Herein, we show that MED12 allosterically activates CDK19 and that UF-linked exon 2 mutations in MED12 disrupt its CDK19 stimulatory activity. Furthermore, we find that within the Mediator kinase module, MED13 directly binds to the MED12 C terminus, thereby suppressing an apparent UF mutation-induced conformational change in MED12 that otherwise disrupts its association with CycC-CDK8/19. Thus, in the presence of MED13, mutant MED12 can bind, but cannot activate, CycC-CDK8/19. These findings indicate that MED12 binding is necessary but not sufficient for CycC-CDK8/19 activation and reveal an additional step in the MED12-dependent activation process, one critically dependent on MED12 residues altered by UF-linked exon 2 mutations. These findings confirm that UF-linked mutations in MED12 disrupt composite Mediator-associated kinase activity and identify CDK8/19 as prospective therapeutic targets in UFs. © 2018 Park et al.

Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty for Complete Membranous Obstruction of Suprahepatic Inferior Vena Cava: Long-Term Results

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

Kucukay, Fahrettin, E-mail: fkucukay@hotmail.com; Akdogan, Meral, E-mail: akdmeral@yahoo.com; Bostanci, Erdal Birol, E-mail: ebbostanci@yahoo.com

PurposeTo determine the long-term results of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) for a complete membranous obstruction of the suprahepatic inferior vena cava.MethodsPatients (n = 65) who were referred to the interventional unit for PTA for a complete membranous obstruction of the suprahepatic inferior vena cava between January 2006 and October 2014 were included in the study. Thirty-two patients (18 males, 14 females, mean age 35 ± 10.7, range 20–42 years) were treated. The patients presented with symptoms of ascites (88 %), pleural effusion (53 %), varicose veins (94 %), hepatomegaly (97 %), abdominal pain (84 %), and splenomegaly (40 %). Transjugular liver access set and re-entry catheter were used to puncture andmore » traverse the obstruction from the jugular side. PTA balloon dilations were performed. The mean follow-up period was 65.6 ± 24.5 months. The objective was to evaluate technical success, complications, primary patency, and clinical improvement in the symptoms of the patients.ResultsThe technical success rate was 94 %. In two patients, obstruction could not be traversed. These patients underwent cavoatrial graft bypass surgery. There were no procedure-related complications. Clinical improvements were achieved in all patients within 3 months. The primary patency rate at 4 years was 90 %. There was no primary assisted patency. There was no need for metallic stent deployment in the cohort. The secondary patency rate at 4 years was 100 %.ConclusionsPercutaneous transluminal angioplasty for a complete membranous obstruction of the suprahepatic inferior vena cava is safe and effective, and the long-term results are excellent.« less

Formerly utilized MED/AEC sites remedial action program. Radiological survey of The George Herbert Jones Chemical Laboratory, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June 13-17, 1977

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

Wynveen, R.A.; Smith, W.H.; Mayes, C.B.

A comprehensive radiological survey was conducted at George Herbert Jones Chemical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Radiochemistry for the MED/AEC project was performed in this building in the 1940s. The building is now used as laboratories, offices, and classrooms. The survey was undertaken to determine the location and quantities of any radioactive materials remaining from the MED/AEC operations. Forty-three spots of contamination possibly resulting from MED/AEC occupancy in 17 rooms exceeded the allowable limits as given in the ANSI Standard N13.12. Under current use conditions, the potential for radiation exposure to occupants of this building from thesemore » sources of contamination is remote. Concentrations of radon daughters in the air of the building, as measured with grab-sampling techniques, were below the limit of 0.01 WL above background as given in the Surgeon General's Guidelines. No long-lived radionuclides were detected in any air sample. Concentrations of radionuclides in soil samples from near the laboratory generally indicated background levels. In order to reduce the potential for radiation exposure, remedial measures such as stabilization of the contamination in place would be applicable as a short-term measure. In order to reduce the risk in the event that building modifications take place in the future, health physics procedures and coverage are recommended. The long-term solution would involve decontamination by removal of the radioactive residues from the 17 rooms or areas where contamination possibly resulting from MED/AEC activities was detected.« less

PubMed-EX: a web browser extension to enhance PubMed search with text mining features.

PubMed

Tsai, Richard Tzong-Han; Dai, Hong-Jie; Lai, Po-Ting; Huang, Chi-Hsin

2009-11-15

PubMed-EX is a browser extension that marks up PubMed search results with additional text-mining information. PubMed-EX's page mark-up, which includes section categorization and gene/disease and relation mark-up, can help researchers to quickly focus on key terms and provide additional information on them. All text processing is performed server-side, freeing up user resources. PubMed-EX is freely available at http://bws.iis.sinica.edu.tw/PubMed-EX and http://iisr.cse.yzu.edu.tw:8000/PubMed-EX/.

Prospective randomized clinical trial comparing laparoscopic cholecystectomy and hybrid natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) (NCT00835250).

PubMed

Noguera, José F; Cuadrado, Angel; Dolz, Carlos; Olea, José M; García, Juan C

2012-12-01

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is a technique still in experimental development whose safety and effectiveness call for assessment through clinical trials. In this paper we present a three-arm, noninferiority, prospective randomized clinical trial of 1 year duration comparing the vaginal and transumbilical approaches for transluminal endoscopic surgery with the conventional laparoscopic approach for elective cholecystectomy. Sixty female patients between the ages of 18 and 65 years who were eligible for elective cholecystectomy were randomized in a ratio of 1:1:1 to receive hybrid transvaginal NOTES (TV group), hybrid transumbilical NOTES (TU group) or conventional laparoscopy (CL group). The main study variable was parietal complications (wound infection, bleeding, and eventration). The analysis was by intention to treat, and losses were not replaced. Cholecystectomy was successfully performed on 94% of the patients. One patient in the TU group was reconverted to CL owing to difficulty in maneuvering the endoscope. After a minimum follow-up period of 1 year, no differences were noted in the rate of parietal complications. Postoperative pain, length of hospital stay, and time off from work were similar in the three groups. No patient developed dyspareunia. Surgical time was longer among cases in which a flexible endoscope was used (CL, 47.04 min; TV, 64.85 min; TU, 59.80 min). NOTES approaches using the flexible endoscope are not inferior in safety or effectiveness to conventional laparoscopy. The transumbilical approach with flexible endoscope is as effective and safe as the transvaginal approach and is a promising, single-incision approach.

MED GATA factors promote robust development of the C. elegans endoderm

PubMed Central

Maduro, Morris F.; Broitman-Maduro, Gina; Choi, Hailey; Carranza, Francisco; Wu, Allison Chia-Yi; Rifkin, Scott A.

2015-01-01

The MED-1,2 GATA factors contribute to specification of E, the progenitor of the C. elegans endoderm, through the genes end-1 and end-3, and in parallel with the maternal factors SKN-1, POP-1 and PAL-1. END-1,3 activate elt-2 and elt-7 to initiate a program of intestinal development, which is maintained by positive autoregulation. Here, we advance the understanding of MED-1,2 in E specification. We find that expression of end-1 and end-3 is greatly reduced in med-1,2(−) embryos. We generated strains in which MED sites have been mutated in end-1 and end-3. Without MED input, gut specification relies primarily on POP-1 and PAL-1. 25% of embryos fail to make intestine, while those that do display abnormal numbers of gut cells due to a delayed and stochastic acquisition of intestine fate. Surviving adults exhibit phenotypes consistent with a primary defect in the intestine. Our results establish that MED-1,2 provide robustness to endoderm specification through end-1 and end-3, and reveal that gut differentiation may be more directly linked to specification than previously appreciated. The results argue against an “all-or-none” description of cell specification, and suggest that activation of tissue-specific master regulators, even when expression of these is maintained by positive autoregulation, does not guarantee proper function of differentiated cells. PMID:25959238

Post-marketing surveillance in the published medical and grey literature for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty catheters: a systematic review.

PubMed

Polisena, Julie; Forster, Alan J; Cimon, Karen; Rabb, Danielle

2013-10-10

Post-marketing surveillance (PMS) may identify rare serious incidents or adverse events due to the long-term use of a medical device, which was not captured in the pre-market process. Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) is a non-surgical procedure that uses a balloon-tipped catheter to enlarge a narrowed artery. In 2011, 1,942 adverse event reports related to the use of PTCA catheters were submitted to the FDA by the manufacturers, an increase from the 883 reported in 2008. The primary research objective is to conduct a systematic review of the published and grey literature published between 2007 and 2012 for the frequency of incidents, adverse events and malfunctions associated with the use of PTCA catheters in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Grey literature has not been commercially published. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and PubMed for medical literature on PMS for PTCA catheters in patients with CAD published between January 2007 and July 2012. We also searched the grey literature. This review included 11 studies. The in-hospital adverse events reported were individual cases of myocardial infarction and hematoma. In studies of patients with coronary perforation, more patients with balloon angioplasty were identified compared with patients who required stenting. Our systematic review illustrates that the volume and quality of PMS studies associated with the use of PTCA catheters in patients with CAD are low in the published and grey literature, and may not be useful sources of information for decisions on safety. In most studies, the objectives were not to monitor the long-term safety of the use of PTCA catheters in clinical practice. Future studies can explore the strengths and limitations of PMS databases administered by regulatory authorities.

Public accessibility of biomedical articles from PubMed Central reduces journal readership--retrospective cohort analysis.

PubMed

Davis, Philip M

2013-07-01

Does PubMed Central--a government-run digital archive of biomedical articles--compete with scientific society journals? A longitudinal, retrospective cohort analysis of 13,223 articles (5999 treatment, 7224 control) published in 14 society-run biomedical research journals in nutrition, experimental biology, physiology, and radiology between February 2008 and January 2011 reveals a 21.4% reduction in full-text hypertext markup language (HTML) article downloads and a 13.8% reduction in portable document format (PDF) article downloads from the journals' websites when U.S. National Institutes of Health-sponsored articles (treatment) become freely available from the PubMed Central repository. In addition, the effect of PubMed Central on reducing PDF article downloads is increasing over time, growing at a rate of 1.6% per year. There was no longitudinal effect for full-text HTML downloads. While PubMed Central may be providing complementary access to readers traditionally underserved by scientific journals, the loss of article readership from the journal website may weaken the ability of the journal to build communities of interest around research papers, impede the communication of news and events to scientific society members and journal readers, and reduce the perceived value of the journal to institutional subscribers.

Cyclin-dependent kinase 8 module expression profiling reveals requirement of mediator subunits 12 and 13 for transcription of Serpent-dependent innate immunity genes in Drosophila.

PubMed

Kuuluvainen, Emilia; Hakala, Heini; Havula, Essi; Sahal Estimé, Michelle; Rämet, Mika; Hietakangas, Ville; Mäkelä, Tomi P

2014-06-06

The Cdk8 (cyclin-dependent kinase 8) module of Mediator integrates regulatory cues from transcription factors to RNA polymerase II. It consists of four subunits where Med12 and Med13 link Cdk8 and cyclin C (CycC) to core Mediator. Here we have investigated the contributions of the Cdk8 module subunits to transcriptional regulation using RNA interference in Drosophila cells. Genome-wide expression profiling demonstrated separation of Cdk8-CycC and Med12-Med13 profiles. However, transcriptional regulation by Cdk8-CycC was dependent on Med12-Med13. This observation also revealed that Cdk8-CycC and Med12-Med13 often have opposite transcriptional effects. Interestingly, Med12 and Med13 profiles overlapped significantly with that of the GATA factor Serpent. Accordingly, mutational analyses indicated that GATA sites are required for Med12-Med13 regulation of Serpent-dependent genes. Med12 and Med13 were also found to be required for Serpent-activated innate immunity genes in defense to bacterial infection. The results reveal a novel role for the Cdk8 module in Serpent-dependent transcription and innate immunity. © 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Iatrogenic Subtotal Stenosis of the Right Subclavian Artery Treated With Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty

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

Smeenk, Robert M., E-mail: r.m.smeenk@asz.nl; Kock, Mark C. J. M.; Elgersma, Otto E. H.

2011-02-15

This report describes a rare vascular complication of surgical placement of a marking clip and a possible approach to problem solving. A 55-year-old patient presented with loss of sensation in the fingers and loss of peripheral pulsations in the right arm 4 days after right upper lobectomy for a pT2N1 moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of the lung. Duplex examination and computed tomography were performed the same day and showed a subtotal stenosis of the right subclavian artery, which was caused by the surgical placement of a metal clip to mark the surgical boundary. Selective angiography was subsequently performed. Percutaneous transluminal angioplastymore » (PTA) successfully dilated the stenosis and pushed the clip off. Flow in the right subclavian artery (RSA) was completely restored as were neurology and peripheral pulses. In conclusion, arterial stenosis by a surgical (marking) clip may be feasibly treated with PTA.« less

[Natural orifice trans-luminal endoscopic surgery (notes)--a new era in general surgery].

PubMed

Elazary, Ram; Horgan, Santiago; Talamini, Mark A; Rivkind, Avraham I; Mintz, Yoav

2008-10-01

Four years ago, a new surgical technique was presented, the natural orifice trans-luminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES). This technique provides an incisionless operation. The surgical devices are inserted into the peritoneal cavity through the gastrointestinal or the urogenital tracts. Today, a cholecystectomy can be performed using an advanced endoscope inserted through the stomach or the vagina. The advantages of NOTES are: reduced post operative pain, no hernias, no surgical wounds infections and better cosmetic results. The disadvantages are: difficulties in achieving safe enterotomy closure or a leak proof anastomosis, it necessitates performing more operations compared to open or laparoscopic operations in order to obtain the skills for performing these operations, and difficulties of acquiring satisfactory endoscopic vision due to lack of advanced technology. Several NOTES operations have already been performed in humans. However, many other surgical procedures were tested in laboratory animals. Development and improvement of surgical devices may promote this surgical modality in the future.

Technical development of PubMed Interact: an improved interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches

PubMed Central

Muin, Michael; Fontelo, Paul

2006-01-01

Background The project aims to create an alternative search interface for MEDLINE/PubMed that may provide assistance to the novice user and added convenience to the advanced user. An earlier version of the project was the 'Slider Interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches' (SLIM) which provided JavaScript slider bars to control search parameters. In this new version, recent developments in Web-based technologies were implemented. These changes may prove to be even more valuable in enhancing user interactivity through client-side manipulation and management of results. Results PubMed Interact is a Web-based MEDLINE/PubMed search application built with HTML, JavaScript and PHP. It is implemented on a Windows Server 2003 with Apache 2.0.52, PHP 4.4.1 and MySQL 4.1.18. PHP scripts provide the backend engine that connects with E-Utilities and parses XML files. JavaScript manages client-side functionalities and converts Web pages into interactive platforms using dynamic HTML (DHTML), Document Object Model (DOM) tree manipulation and Ajax methods. With PubMed Interact, users can limit searches with JavaScript slider bars, preview result counts, delete citations from the list, display and add related articles and create relevance lists. Many interactive features occur at client-side, which allow instant feedback without reloading or refreshing the page resulting in a more efficient user experience. Conclusion PubMed Interact is a highly interactive Web-based search application for MEDLINE/PubMed that explores recent trends in Web technologies like DOM tree manipulation and Ajax. It may become a valuable technical development for online medical search applications. PMID:17083729

Technical development of PubMed interact: an improved interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches.

PubMed

Muin, Michael; Fontelo, Paul

2006-11-03

The project aims to create an alternative search interface for MEDLINE/PubMed that may provide assistance to the novice user and added convenience to the advanced user. An earlier version of the project was the 'Slider Interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches' (SLIM) which provided JavaScript slider bars to control search parameters. In this new version, recent developments in Web-based technologies were implemented. These changes may prove to be even more valuable in enhancing user interactivity through client-side manipulation and management of results. PubMed Interact is a Web-based MEDLINE/PubMed search application built with HTML, JavaScript and PHP. It is implemented on a Windows Server 2003 with Apache 2.0.52, PHP 4.4.1 and MySQL 4.1.18. PHP scripts provide the backend engine that connects with E-Utilities and parses XML files. JavaScript manages client-side functionalities and converts Web pages into interactive platforms using dynamic HTML (DHTML), Document Object Model (DOM) tree manipulation and Ajax methods. With PubMed Interact, users can limit searches with JavaScript slider bars, preview result counts, delete citations from the list, display and add related articles and create relevance lists. Many interactive features occur at client-side, which allow instant feedback without reloading or refreshing the page resulting in a more efficient user experience. PubMed Interact is a highly interactive Web-based search application for MEDLINE/PubMed that explores recent trends in Web technologies like DOM tree manipulation and Ajax. It may become a valuable technical development for online medical search applications.

The MedCLIVAR Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lionello, Piero; Medclivar Sc, The

2014-05-01

MedCLIVAR serves as a scientific network to promote interaction among different scientific disciplines and to develop a multidisciplinary vision of the evolution of the Mediterranean climate through studies that integrate atmospheric, marine, and terrestrial climate components at time scales ranging from paleoreconstructions to future climate scenarios. The network deals with scientific issues including past climate variability; connections between the Mediterranean and global climate; the Mediterranean Sea circulation and sea level; feedbacks on the global climate system; and regional responses to greenhouse gas, air pollution, and aerosols. The MedCLIVAR initiative was proposed at the 2003 European Geosciences Union assembly in Nice, France. In 2005, it was endorsed by the International Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) office. Subsequently, the MedCLIVAR Research Network Project was formally approved by the European Science Foundation and launched in May 2006 for a five year duration. Now MedCLIVAR is continuing with self supporting initiatives, such as the third MedCLIVAR conference, which will be held in June 2014 in Ankara (Turkey) , the publication of a special issue of Regional Environmental Change devoted to the climate of the Mediterranean region, and a newsletter, which is published every six months. More information available in Lionello, P., Gacic, M., Gomis, D., Garcia-Herrera, R., Giorgi, F., Planton, S., Trigo, R., (...), Xoplaki, E. (2012) Program focuses on climate of the Mediterranean region, Eos Trans. AGU 93:105-106

An unusual complication of combined gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy and phacoemulsification: vision loss due to intracapsular hematoma.

PubMed

Yalinbas, Duygu; Aktas, Zeynep; Hepsen, İbrahim; Dilekmen, Nilay

2017-09-23

To report two cases with an acute vision loss due to intracapsular hemorrhage (hematoma) after an uncomplicated gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) combined with phacoemulsification surgery. Case report. Seventy-six-year-old male and 75-year-old female patients with cataract and pseudoexfoliative glaucoma (XFG) uncontrolled with maximum medical therapy both underwent GATT combined with phacoemulsification. Shortly after the surgery, intracapsular hematoma behind the intraocular lens (IOL) were noted in both patients. Hematoma cleared in both of them via IOL extraction-anterior vitrectomy and YAG-laser capsulotomy, respectively. Hematoma cleared in both patients without any surgical complications. Vision loss due to unclearing intracapsular hematoma might be an early complication of combined GATT and phacoemulsification surgery.

Outcomes of Gonioscopy-assisted Transluminal Trabeculotomy (GATT) in Eyes With Prior Incisional Glaucoma Surgery.

PubMed

Grover, Davinder S; Godfrey, David G; Smith, Oluwatosin; Shi, Wei; Feuer, William J; Fellman, Ronald L

2017-01-01

To report on outcomes of gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) in eyes with prior incisional glaucoma surgery. A retrospective review was performed for all patients who underwent a GATT procedure with a history of prior incisional glaucoma surgery. Thirty-five eyes of 35 patients were treated. The mean age was 67.7 years. Nineteen eyes had a prior trabeculectomy, 13 eyes had a prior glaucoma drainage device, 4 eyes had a prior trabectome, and 5 eyes had prior endocyclophotocoagulation. Mean follow-up time was 22.7 months. For all eyes, the mean preoperative intraocular pressure (IOP) (SD) was 25.7 (6.5) mm Hg on 3.2 (1.0) glaucoma medications and at 24 months, the mean IOP (SD) was 15.4 (4.9) mm Hg on 2.0 (1.4) glaucoma medications (P<0.001). The prior trabeculectomy group had a preoperative IOP (SD) of 24.6 (6.4) mm Hg on 3.2 (1.0) medications and at month 24, the mean IOP (SD) was 16.7 (5.6) mm Hg on 2.1 (1.4) glaucoma medications. In the prior glaucoma drainage device group, the mean preoperative IOP (SD) was 27.0 (7.1) mm Hg on 3.4 (1.1) glaucoma medications and at 24 months, the mean IOP (SD) was 12.9 (2.6) mm Hg on 2.1 (1.2) glaucoma medications. At 24 months, the cumulative proportion of failure was 0.4 and the cumulative proportion of reoperation was 0.29. GATT appears to be safe and successful in treating 60% to 70% of open-angle patients with prior incisional glaucoma surgery. When considering all eyes, there was a significant decrease in IOP and required glaucoma medications at 24 months. This surgery should be considered in certain patients with open angles who have failed a primary traditional glaucoma surgery.

Redox regulation of the MED28 and MED32 mediator subunits is important for development and senescence.

PubMed

Shaikhali, Jehad; Davoine, Céline; Björklund, Stefan; Wingsle, Gunnar

2016-05-01

Mediator is a conserved multi-protein complex that acts as a bridge between promoter-bound transcriptional regulators and RNA polymerase II. While redox signaling is important in adjusting plant metabolism and development, the involvement of Mediator in redox homeostasis and regulation only recently started to emerge. Our previous results show that the MED10a, MED28, and MED32 Mediator subunits form various types of covalent oligomers linked by intermolecular disulfide bonds in vitro. To link that with biological significance we have characterized Arabidopsis med32 and med28 mutants and found that they are affected in root development and senescence, phenotypes possibly associated to redox changes.

The role of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in heart transplant recipients.

PubMed

Schnetzler, B; Drobinski, G; Dorent, R; Camproux, A C; Ghossoub, J; Thomas, D; Gandjbakhch, I

2000-06-01

Review the acute and late results of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in heart transplant recipients and examine the factors predictive of restenosis. Coronary graft disease (CGD) is the main factor responsible for late graft loss. Medical treatment, surgical revascularization, or retransplantation gives only suboptimal results in this regard. Therefore, PTCA has been attempted in this situation. More than 332 heart transplantations in our institution have been performed since 1992, the date of the first PTCA in our patients. We are currently in charge of 450 patients. All the characteristics, procedure-related information, and clinical outcome of patients needing PTCA were assessed by review of each patient's clinical records. All coronary angiograms were reviewed by an independent cardiologist. Since 1992, 53 coronary sites have been dilated in the course of 39 procedures in 29 patients. Indication for PTCA was asymptomatic angiographic coronary graft disease in 35 sites (64.8%), angina in 9 (16.6%), silent ischemia in 2 (3.7%), acute myocardial infarction in 1 (1.8%), and CHF in 7 (12.9%). Primary success (< 50% residual stenosis) was obtained in 50 (94.3%) of 53 lesions. No periprocedural death occurred. Procedural complications were 1 transient acute renal failure and 1 persistent bleeding at the puncture site. Six months restenosis rate (defined as percent stenosis > 50%) was 32.5% (14/43). Mean follow-up was 1.27 year +/- 1.2 (SD). Five deaths (17. 2%) occurred in follow-up and were all in relation to coronary graft disease. Mean time separating PTCA from death was 0.9 year +/- 1.3 (SD). We also sought to look at factors predictive of restenosis. By multivariate analysis, a positive recipient's serology for cytomegalovirus (CMV) before the graft was the only factor found protective against restenosis (odds ratio 22.4; confidence interval 1.1 to 443.4). PTCA in heart transplant recipients allows a high level of primary success with a low

Towards PubMed 2.0.

PubMed

Fiorini, Nicolas; Lipman, David J; Lu, Zhiyong

2017-10-30

Staff from the National Center for Biotechnology Information in the US describe recent improvements to the PubMed search engine and outline plans for the future, including a new experimental site called PubMed Labs.

Endostatin (EntreMed).

PubMed

Grosios, K

2000-07-01

EntreMed has licensed the worldwide rights to the angiogenesis inhibitor Endostatin, a 20 kDa C-terminal fragment of collagen XVIII, from the Children's Hospital of Boston, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. It is being developed as a potential cancer treatment and may also be useful in certain types of blindness and arthritis [227427]. EntreMed filed an IND for Endostatin in June 1999 [334125] and as of September 1999, phase I trials were underway [341462]. As of April 2000, the company had initiated plans for testing low doses of Endostatin in cancer patients using continuous infusion and sc administration in a further phase I study to be conducted in Europe [361594]. A phase I trial of Endostatin which will evaluate the safety and efficacy of Endostatin at a range of doses in no more than 100 cancer patients has been initiated. The trial will take place at the University of Texas MD Anderson Medical Center and the University of Wisconsin Cancer Center in Madison. The National Cancer Center will be sponsoring the trial, which is expected to be completed in late 2000. As of March 2000, there had been no serious adverse events attributable to Endostatin administration. The first report from this trial is expected in autumn 2000 [341462], [366312]. The mechanism of action for Endostatin remains unclear, although reports from the 91st AACR Meeting in April 2000 showed that recombinant human endostatin bound to a number of tropomyosin cDNAs in a library screen [362039]. In preclinical studies, repeated administration of Endostatin consistently shrank primary tumors and did not produce any drug resistance. In mice, a variety of tumors which had progressed to 1 to 2% of total body weight, regressed to microscopic, dormant lesions following Endostatin treatment [231418], [231470], [270673]. Types of cancers which respond to Endostatin include lung, skin, vascular and fibrosarcomas. Toxicology studies in cynomolgus monkeys showed that bolus injections of

NOViSE: a virtual natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery simulator.

PubMed

Korzeniowski, Przemyslaw; Barrow, Alastair; Sodergren, Mikael H; Hald, Niels; Bello, Fernando

2016-12-01

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is a novel technique in minimally invasive surgery whereby a flexible endoscope is inserted via a natural orifice to gain access to the abdominal cavity, leaving no external scars. This innovative use of flexible endoscopy creates many new challenges and is associated with a steep learning curve for clinicians. We developed NOViSE-the first force-feedback-enabled virtual reality simulator for NOTES training supporting a flexible endoscope. The haptic device is custom-built, and the behaviour of the virtual flexible endoscope is based on an established theoretical framework-the Cosserat theory of elastic rods. We present the application of NOViSE to the simulation of a hybrid trans-gastric cholecystectomy procedure. Preliminary results of face, content and construct validation have previously shown that NOViSE delivers the required level of realism for training of endoscopic manipulation skills specific to NOTES. VR simulation of NOTES procedures can contribute to surgical training and improve the educational experience without putting patients at risk, raising ethical issues or requiring expensive animal or cadaver facilities. In the context of an experimental technique, NOViSE could potentially facilitate NOTES development and contribute to its wider use by keeping practitioners up to date with this novel surgical technique. NOViSE is a first prototype, and the initial results indicate that it provides promising foundations for further development.

TwiMed: Twitter and PubMed Comparable Corpus of Drugs, Diseases, Symptoms, and Their Relations

PubMed Central

Miyao, Yusuke; Collier, Nigel

2017-01-01

Background Work on pharmacovigilance systems using texts from PubMed and Twitter typically target at different elements and use different annotation guidelines resulting in a scenario where there is no comparable set of documents from both Twitter and PubMed annotated in the same manner. Objective This study aimed to provide a comparable corpus of texts from PubMed and Twitter that can be used to study drug reports from these two sources of information, allowing researchers in the area of pharmacovigilance using natural language processing (NLP) to perform experiments to better understand the similarities and differences between drug reports in Twitter and PubMed. Methods We produced a corpus comprising 1000 tweets and 1000 PubMed sentences selected using the same strategy and annotated at entity level by the same experts (pharmacists) using the same set of guidelines. Results The resulting corpus, annotated by two pharmacists, comprises semantically correct annotations for a set of drugs, diseases, and symptoms. This corpus contains the annotations for 3144 entities, 2749 relations, and 5003 attributes. Conclusions We present a corpus that is unique in its characteristics as this is the first corpus for pharmacovigilance curated from Twitter messages and PubMed sentences using the same data selection and annotation strategies. We believe this corpus will be of particular interest for researchers willing to compare results from pharmacovigilance systems (eg, classifiers and named entity recognition systems) when using data from Twitter and from PubMed. We hope that given the comprehensive set of drug names and the annotated entities and relations, this corpus becomes a standard resource to compare results from different pharmacovigilance studies in the area of NLP. PMID:28468748

Towards PubMed 2.0

PubMed Central

Fiorini, Nicolas; Lipman, David J; Lu, Zhiyong

2017-01-01

Staff from the National Center for Biotechnology Information in the US describe recent improvements to the PubMed search engine and outline plans for the future, including a new experimental site called PubMed Labs. PMID:29083299

The MedCLIVAR Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lionello, Piero; Medclivar sg, The

2013-04-01

The MedCLIVAR initiative was first proposed at the 2003 European Geosciences Union assembly in Nice, France. In 2005, it was endorsed by the International Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) office. Subsequently, the MedCLIVAR Research Network Project was formally approved by the European Science Foundation and launched in May 2006 with the support of funding agencies from 12 countries. Since then, MedCLIVAR has served as a scientific network to promote interaction among different scientific disciplines and to develop a multidisciplinary vision of the evolution of the Mediterranean climate through studies that integrate atmospheric, marine, and terrestrial climate components at time scales ranging from paleoreconstructions to future climate scenarios. Presently, the network continues dealing with scientific issues including past climate variability; connections between the Mediterranean and global climate; the Mediterranean Sea circulation and sea level; feedbacks on the global climate system; and regional responses to greenhouse gas, air pollution, and aerosols. Its present activities include the publication of a newsletter, the organization of the next MedCLIVAR conference in 2014 and the publication of a special issue of Regional Environmental Change devoted to the climate of the Mediterranean region.

The MED-SUV Multidisciplinary Interoperability Infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mazzetti, Paolo; D'Auria, Luca; Reitano, Danilo; Papeschi, Fabrizio; Roncella, Roberto; Puglisi, Giuseppe; Nativi, Stefano

2016-04-01

In accordance with the international Supersite initiative concept, the MED-SUV (MEDiterranean SUpersite Volcanoes) European project (http://med-suv.eu/) aims to enable long-term monitoring experiment in two relevant geologically active regions of Europe prone to natural hazards: Mt. Vesuvio/Campi Flegrei and Mt. Etna. This objective requires the integration of existing components, such as monitoring systems and data bases and novel sensors for the measurements of volcanic parameters. Moreover, MED-SUV is also a direct contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) as one the volcano Supersites recognized by the Group on Earth Observation (GEO). To achieve its goal, MED-SUV set up an advanced e-infrastructure allowing the discovery of and access to heterogeneous data for multidisciplinary applications, and the integration with external systems like GEOSS. The MED-SUV overall infrastructure is conceived as a three layer architecture with the lower layer (Data level) including the identified relevant data sources, the mid-tier (Supersite level) including components for mediation and harmonization , and the upper tier (Global level) composed of the systems that MED-SUV must serve, such as GEOSS and possibly other global/community systems. The Data level is mostly composed of existing data sources, such as space agencies satellite data archives, the UNAVCO system, the INGV-Rome data service. They share data according to different specifications for metadata, data and service interfaces, and cannot be changed. Thus, the only relevant MED-SUV activity at this level was the creation of a MED-SUV local repository based on Web Accessible Folder (WAF) technology, deployed in the INGV site in Catania, and hosting in-situ data and products collected and generated during the project. The Supersite level is at the core of the MED-SUV architecture, since it must mediate between the disparate data sources in the layer below, and provide a harmonized view to

Percutaneous transluminal mitral commissurotomy for rheumatic mitral stenosis in a 5-year-old child.

PubMed

Ullah, Maad; Sultan, Mehboob; Akbar, Hajira; Sadiq, Nadeem

2012-06-01

We report a 5-year-old boy weighing 11 kg, with severe mitral valve stenosis of rheumatic aetiology, who underwent successful percutaneous transluminal mitral commissurotomy (PTMC) with valvuloplasty balloon. Postprocedural mean pressure gradient across the mitral valve decreased to 6 mmHg from an initially recorded value of 22 mmHg. In addition to symptomatic improvement, the mitral valvular area increased from 0.4 to 0.8 cm(2) without significant change in mitral regurgitation. At 1- and 3-month follow up, transthoracic echocardiography revealed further improvement with an increase in mitral valve area to 1.0 cm(2), a decrease in pulmonary arterial pressure, and a mean mitral valve pressure gradient of 8 mmHg with trivial mitral regurgitation. To best of our knowledge, this is the first successful PTMC procedure performed in the youngest and smallest ever reported child with rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS). We conclude that PTMC with valvuloplasty balloon could be a logical alternative to surgery in young patients with rheumatic MS.

The appropriateness of use of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in Spain.

PubMed

Aguilar, M D; Fitch, K; Lázaro, P; Bernstein, S J

2001-05-01

The rapid increase in the number of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) procedures performed in Spain in recent years raises questions about how appropriately this procedure is being used. To examine this issue, we studied the appropriateness of use of PTCA in Spanish patients and factors associated with inappropriate use. We applied criteria for the appropriate use of PTCA developed by an expert panel of Spanish cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons to a random sample of 1913 patients undergoing PTCA in Spain in 1997. The patients were selected through a two-step sampling process, stratifying by hospital type (public/private) and volume of procedures (low/medium/high). We examined the association between inappropriate use of PTCA and different clinical and sociodemographic factors. Overall, 46% of the PTCA procedures were appropriate, 31% were uncertain and 22% were inappropriate. Two factors contributing to inappropriate use were patients' receipt of less than optimal medical therapy and their failure to undergo stress testing. Institutional type and volume of procedures were not significantly related with inappropriate use. One of every five PTCA procedures in Spain is done for inappropriate reasons. Assuring that patients receive optimal medical therapy and undergo stress testing when indicated could contribute to more appropriate use of PTCA.

TwiMed: Twitter and PubMed Comparable Corpus of Drugs, Diseases, Symptoms, and Their Relations.

PubMed

Alvaro, Nestor; Miyao, Yusuke; Collier, Nigel

2017-05-03

Work on pharmacovigilance systems using texts from PubMed and Twitter typically target at different elements and use different annotation guidelines resulting in a scenario where there is no comparable set of documents from both Twitter and PubMed annotated in the same manner. This study aimed to provide a comparable corpus of texts from PubMed and Twitter that can be used to study drug reports from these two sources of information, allowing researchers in the area of pharmacovigilance using natural language processing (NLP) to perform experiments to better understand the similarities and differences between drug reports in Twitter and PubMed. We produced a corpus comprising 1000 tweets and 1000 PubMed sentences selected using the same strategy and annotated at entity level by the same experts (pharmacists) using the same set of guidelines. The resulting corpus, annotated by two pharmacists, comprises semantically correct annotations for a set of drugs, diseases, and symptoms. This corpus contains the annotations for 3144 entities, 2749 relations, and 5003 attributes. We present a corpus that is unique in its characteristics as this is the first corpus for pharmacovigilance curated from Twitter messages and PubMed sentences using the same data selection and annotation strategies. We believe this corpus will be of particular interest for researchers willing to compare results from pharmacovigilance systems (eg, classifiers and named entity recognition systems) when using data from Twitter and from PubMed. We hope that given the comprehensive set of drug names and the annotated entities and relations, this corpus becomes a standard resource to compare results from different pharmacovigilance studies in the area of NLP. ©Nestor Alvaro, Yusuke Miyao, Nigel Collier. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (http://publichealth.jmir.org), 03.05.2017.

PubMed Informer: Monitoring MEDLINE/PubMed through E-mail Alerts, SMS, PDA downloads and RSS feeds

PubMed Central

Muin, Michael; Fontelo, Paul; Ackerman, Michael

2005-01-01

Summary PubMed Informer is a Web-based monitoring tool for topics of interest from MEDLINE/PubMed primarily designed for healthcare professionals. Five tracking methods are available: Web access, e-mail, Short Message Service (SMS), PDA downloads and RSS feeds. PubMed Informer delivers focused search updates and specific information to users with varying information-seeking practices. PMID:16779344

Pub-Med-dot-com, here we come!

PubMed

Pulst, Stefan M

2016-08-01

As of April 8, 2016, articles in Neurology® Genetics can be searched using PubMed. Launched in 1996, PubMed is a search engine that accesses citations and abstracts of more than 26 million articles. Its primary sources include the MEDLINE database, which was started in the 1960s, and biomedical and life sciences journal articles that date back to 1946. In addition, PubMed accesses other sources, for example, citations to those life sciences journals that submit full-text articles to PubMed Central (PMC). PubMed Central was launched in 2000 as a free archive of biomedical and life science journals.

Submucosal tunneling using endoscopic submucosal dissection for peritoneal access and closure in natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery: a porcine survival study.

PubMed

Yoshizumi, F; Yasuda, K; Kawaguchi, K; Suzuki, K; Shiraishi, N; Kitano, S

2009-08-01

Safe peritoneal access and gastric closure are the most important concerns in the clinical application of natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES). We aimed to clarify the feasibility of a submucosal tunnel technique using endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for transgastric peritoneal access and subsequent closure for NOTES. Seven female pigs, each weighing about 40 kg were included in the study. The following procedures were performed: (i) after injection of normal saline into the submucosa, the mucosa was cut with a flex knife; (ii) the submucosal layer was dissected using an insulation-tipped electrosurgical knife to make a narrow longitudinal 50-mm submucosal tunnel; (iii) a small incision was made at the end of the tunnel and enlarged with a dilation balloon. After transgastric peritoneoscopy, the mucosal incision site was closed with clips. The following outcome measures were used: (a) evaluation of the technical feasibility of making a submucosal tunnel; (b) clinical monitoring for 7 days; (c) follow-up endoscopy and necropsy; and (d) peritoneal fluid culture. Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic peritoneoscopy with a submucosal tunnel was successfully carried out in all pigs. The pigs recovered well, without signs of peritonitis. Follow-up endoscopy showed healing of mucosal incision sites without open defects. Necropsy revealed no findings of peritonitis, confirming completeness of gastric closure; there was a thin scar in one pig and adhesion of the omentum in six pigs. Peritoneal fluid culture demonstrated no bacterial growth. The submucosal tunnel technique is feasible and effective for transgastric peritoneal access and closure.

The Arabidopsis mediator complex subunits MED16, MED14, and MED2 regulate mediator and RNA polymerase II recruitment to CBF-responsive cold-regulated genes.

PubMed

Hemsley, Piers A; Hurst, Charlotte H; Kaliyadasa, Ewon; Lamb, Rebecca; Knight, Marc R; De Cothi, Elizabeth A; Steele, John F; Knight, Heather

2014-01-01

The Mediator16 (MED16; formerly termed SENSITIVE TO FREEZING6 [SFR6]) subunit of the plant Mediator transcriptional coactivator complex regulates cold-responsive gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana, acting downstream of the C-repeat binding factor (CBF) transcription factors to recruit the core Mediator complex to cold-regulated genes. Here, we use loss-of-function mutants to show that RNA polymerase II recruitment to CBF-responsive cold-regulated genes requires MED16, MED2, and MED14 subunits. Transcription of genes known to be regulated via CBFs binding to the C-repeat motif/drought-responsive element promoter motif requires all three Mediator subunits, as does cold acclimation-induced freezing tolerance. In addition, these three subunits are required for low temperature-induced expression of some other, but not all, cold-responsive genes, including genes that are not known targets of CBFs. Genes inducible by darkness also required MED16 but required a different combination of Mediator subunits for their expression than the genes induced by cold. Together, our data illustrate that plants control transcription of specific genes through the action of subsets of Mediator subunits; the specific combination defined by the nature of the stimulus but also by the identity of the gene induced.

Duplex-guided percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in iliac arterial occlusive disease.

PubMed

Krasznai, A G; Sigterman, T A; Welten, R J; Heijboer, R; Sikkink, C J J M; van de Akker, L H J M; Bouwman, L H

2013-11-01

Chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) is a growing global problem. PTA can be performed without nephrotoxic contrast, utilizing Doppler-ultrasound (Duplex) guidance. Duplex-guided infra-inguinal interventions and access-related interventions have been reported. Duplex-guided iliac interventions have not been performed to any extent because of the anatomic location. In our study we evaluated the safety and efficacy of Duplex-guided percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (DuPTA) in iliac arteries. From June 2012 until February 2013, 31 patients (35 iliac lesions), underwent DuPTA. Indications ranged from Rutherford 3 to 5. Preoperative evaluation included Ankle Brachial Index (ABI), Duplex and MRA. Procedural success was defined as crossing the lesion with a guidewire and dilating or stenting the lesion. Clinical success was defined as 50% reduction in peak systolic velocity (PSV) or clinical improvement. PSV was evaluated after PTA, then at 2 weeks. Clinical results were assessed 2 weeks after the procedure. Procedural success was achieved in 94% of patients (33/35), all of whom also had clinical success. Post-procedural PSV reduction showed an average improvement of 63% (431 cm/s to 153 cm/s). Mean preoperative ABI was 0.72 and improved to 0.88 postoperatively. PTA using Duplex-guidance in significant iliac stenosis is a safe method with major advantages in patients at high risk for developing contrast-induced nephropathy. Copyright © 2013 European Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

JTF CapMed Warrior Transition Division

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-25

The Quadruple Aim: Working Together, Achieving Success 2011 Military Health System Conference JTF CapMed Warrior Transition Division 25 January 2011...Colonel Julia Adams 1 Military Health System Conference Joint Task Force National Capital Region Medical (JTF CapMed ) Report Documentation Page Form...DATES COVERED 00-00-2011 to 00-00-2011 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE JTF CapMed Warrior Transition Division 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c

Using data sources beyond PubMed has a modest impact on the results of systematic reviews of therapeutic interventions.

PubMed

Halladay, Christopher W; Trikalinos, Thomas A; Schmid, Ian T; Schmid, Christopher H; Dahabreh, Issa J

2015-09-01

Searching multiple sources when conducting systematic reviews is considered good practice. We aimed to investigate the impact of using sources beyond PubMed in systematic reviews of therapeutic interventions. We randomly selected 50 Cochrane reviews that searched the PubMed (or MEDLINE) and EMBASE databases and included a meta-analysis of ≥10 studies. We checked whether each eligible record in each review (n = 2,700) was retrievable in PubMed and EMBASE. For the first-listed meta-analysis of ≥10 studies in each review, we examined whether excluding studies not found in PubMed affected results. A median of one record per review was indexed in EMBASE but not in PubMed; a median of four records per review was not indexed in PubMed or EMBASE. Meta-analyses included a median of 13.5 studies; a median of zero studies per meta-analysis was indexed in EMBASE but not in PubMed; a median of one study per meta-analysis was not indexed in PubMed or EMBASE. Meta-analysis using only PubMed-indexed vs. all available studies led to a different conclusion in a single case (on the basis of conventional criteria for statistical significance). In meta-regression analyses, effects in PubMed- vs. non-PubMed-indexed studies were statistically significantly different in a single data set. For systematic reviews of the effects of therapeutic interventions, gains from searching sources beyond PubMed, and from searching EMBASE in particular are modest. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PubMedMiner: Mining and Visualizing MeSH-based Associations in PubMed.

PubMed

Zhang, Yucan; Sarkar, Indra Neil; Chen, Elizabeth S

2014-01-01

The exponential growth of biomedical literature provides the opportunity to develop approaches for facilitating the identification of possible relationships between biomedical concepts. Indexing by Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) represent high-quality summaries of much of this literature that can be used to support hypothesis generation and knowledge discovery tasks using techniques such as association rule mining. Based on a survey of literature mining tools, a tool implemented using Ruby and R - PubMedMiner - was developed in this study for mining and visualizing MeSH-based associations for a set of MEDLINE articles. To demonstrate PubMedMiner's functionality, a case study was conducted that focused on identifying and comparing comorbidities for asthma in children and adults. Relative to the tools surveyed, the initial results suggest that PubMedMiner provides complementary functionality for summarizing and comparing topics as well as identifying potentially new knowledge.

Overview of the MEDLI Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gazarik, Michael J.; Hwang, Helen; Little, Alan; Cheatwood, Neil; Wright, Michael; Herath, Jeff

2007-01-01

The Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI) Project's objectives are to measure aerothermal environments, sub-surface heatshield material response, vehicle orientation, and atmospheric density for the atmospheric entry and descent phases of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) entry vehicle. The flight science objectives of MEDLI directly address the largest uncertainties in the ability to design and validate a robust Mars entry system, including aerothermal, aerodynamic and atmosphere models, and thermal protection system (TPS) design. The instrumentation suite will be installed in the heatshield of the MSL entry vehicle. The acquired data will support future Mars entry and aerocapture missions by providing measured atmospheric data to validate Mars atmosphere models and clarify the design margins for future Mars missions. MEDLI thermocouple and recession sensor data will significantly improve the understanding of aeroheating and TPS performance uncertainties for future missions. MEDLI pressure data will permit more accurate trajectory reconstruction, as well as separation of aerodynamic and atmospheric uncertainties in the hypersonic and supersonic regimes. This paper provides an overview of the project including the instrumentation design, system architecture, and expected measurement response.

LactMed: Drugs and Lactation Database

MedlinePlus

... App LactMed Record Format Database Creation & Peer Review Process Help Fact Sheet Sample Record TOXNET FAQ Glossary Selected References About Dietary Supplements Breastfeeding Links Get LactMed Widget Contact Us Email: tehip@ ...

Additional Value of Transluminal Attenuation Gradient in CT Angiography to Predict Hemodynamic Significance of Coronary Artery Stenosis

PubMed Central

Stuijfzand, Wynand J.; Danad, Ibrahim; Raijmakers, Pieter G.; Marcu, C. Bogdan; Heymans, Martijn W.; van Kuijk, Cornelis C.; van Rossum, Albert C.; Nieman, Koen; Min, James K.; Leipsic, Jonathon; van Royen, Niels; Knaapen, Paul

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVES The current study evaluates the incremental value of transluminal attenuation gradient (TAG), TAG with corrected contrast opacification (CCO), and TAG with exclusion of calcified coronary segments (ExC) over coronary computed tomography angiogram (CTA) alone using fractional flow reserve (FFR) as the gold standard. BACKGROUND TAG is defined as the contrast opacification gradient along the length of a coronary artery on a coronary CTA. Preliminary data suggest that TAG provides additional functional information. Interpretation of TAG is hampered by multiple heartbeat acquisition algorithms and coronary calcifications. Two correction models have been proposed based on either dephasing of contrast delivery by relating coronary density to corresponding descending aortic opacification (TAG-CCO) or excluding calcified coronary segments (TAG-ExC). METHODS Eighty-five patients with intermediate probability of coronary artery disease were prospectively included. All patients underwent step-and-shoot 256-slice coronary CTA. TAG, TAG-CCO, and TAG-ExC analyses were performed followed by invasive coronary angiography in conjunction with FFR measurements of all major coronary branches. RESULTS Thirty-four patients (40%) were diagnosed with hemodynamically-significant coronary artery disease (i.e., FFR ≤0.80). On a per-vessel basis (n = 253), 59 lesions (23%) were graded as hemodynamically significant, and the diagnostic accuracy of coronary CTA (diameter stenosis ≥50%) was 95%, 75%, 98%, and 54% for sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value, respectively. TAG and TAG-ExC did not discriminate between vessels with or without hemodynamically significant lesions (−13.5 ± 17.1 HU [Hounsfield units] × 10 mm−1 vs. −11.6 ± 13.3 HU × 10 mm−1, p = 0.36; and 13.1 ± 15.9 HU × 10 mm−1 vs. −11.4 ± 11.7 HU × 10 mm−1, p = 0.77, respectively). TAG-CCO was lower in vessels with a hemodynamically-significant lesion (−0

Predicting clicks of PubMed articles.

PubMed

Mao, Yuqing; Lu, Zhiyong

2013-01-01

Predicting the popularity or access usage of an article has the potential to improve the quality of PubMed searches. We can model the click trend of each article as its access changes over time by mining the PubMed query logs, which contain the previous access history for all articles. In this article, we examine the access patterns produced by PubMed users in two years (July 2009 to July 2011). We explore the time series of accesses for each article in the query logs, model the trends with regression approaches, and subsequently use the models for prediction. We show that the click trends of PubMed articles are best fitted with a log-normal regression model. This model allows the number of accesses an article receives and the time since it first becomes available in PubMed to be related via quadratic and logistic functions, with the model parameters to be estimated via maximum likelihood. Our experiments predicting the number of accesses for an article based on its past usage demonstrate that the mean absolute error and mean absolute percentage error of our model are 4.0% and 8.1% lower than the power-law regression model, respectively. The log-normal distribution is also shown to perform significantly better than a previous prediction method based on a human memory theory in cognitive science. This work warrants further investigation on the utility of such a log-normal regression approach towards improving information access in PubMed.

Overview of the MEDLI Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gazarik, Michael J.; Little, Alan; Cheatwood, F. Neil; Wright, Michael J.; Herath, Jeff A.; Martinez, Edward R.; Munk, Michelle; Novak, Frank J.; Wright, Henry S.

2008-01-01

The Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI) Project s objectives are to measure aerothermal environments, sub-surface heatshield material response, vehicle orientation, and atmospheric density for the atmospheric entry and descent phases of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) entry vehicle. The flight science objectives of MEDLI directly address the largest uncertainties in the ability to design and validate a robust Mars entry system, including aerothermal, aerodynamic and atmosphere models, and thermal protection system (TPS) design. The instrumentation suite will be installed in the heatshield of the MSL entry vehicle. The acquired data will support future Mars entry and aerocapture missions by providing measured atmospheric data to validate Mars atmosphere models and clarify the design margins for future Mars missions. MEDLI thermocouple and recession sensor data will significantly improve the understanding of aeroheating and TPS performance uncertainties for future missions. MEDLI pressure data will permit more accurate trajectory reconstruction, as well as separation of aerodynamic and atmospheric uncertainties in the hypersonic and supersonic regimes. This paper provides an overview of the project including the instrumentation design, system architecture, and expected measurement response.

MED-SUV final strategic issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spampinato, Letizia; Puglisi, Giuseppe; Sangianantoni, Agata

2016-04-01

Aside the scientific, technical and financial aspects managed by the "Project Management" Work Package (WP1), the great challenge and more time consuming task of this WP has surely been the definition and application of some strategic guidelines crucial to trace the project right path to its final success and for the project outcome sustainability after month 36. In particular, given that one of the main objectives of MED-SUV is that to be compliant with the GEO initiative, particularly concerning the data sharing, great efforts have been made by WP1 at first to define the MED-SUV Data Policy Guidelines, and currently to make it suitable for the EU Supersites. At present, WP1 is also dealing with the exploitation of the achieved foreground among the project's participant and to define a Memorandum of Understanding to sustain the monitoring systems and e-infrastructure developed in the project framework. Whilst the Data Policy guidelines document was implemented in the first year of MED-SUV, WP1 is now focused on the last deliverable 'Strategic and Legal deliverables', which includes the remaining issues. To the aim, WP1 has strategically separated the Exploitation of Foreground document preparation from the Memorandum of Understanding definition. The Exploitation of Foreground process has regarded the identification of Foreground, the exploitable results, the purpose of such Foreground, the collection of information from either the scientific community of MED-SUV or industrial participants; to this aim WP1 circulated an ad hoc questionnaire to put together information on (the) every kind of MED-SUV outcome, on their owners, on the kind of ownership (single/joint), on the outcome exploitation, and on proposals for its sustainability. While the first information will allow us to prepare the final Exploitation Agreement among the project's participant, the information on the exploitation of the outcome and likely sustainability proposals will contribute to the

Predicting clicks of PubMed articles

PubMed Central

Mao, Yuqing; Lu, Zhiyong

2013-01-01

Predicting the popularity or access usage of an article has the potential to improve the quality of PubMed searches. We can model the click trend of each article as its access changes over time by mining the PubMed query logs, which contain the previous access history for all articles. In this article, we examine the access patterns produced by PubMed users in two years (July 2009 to July 2011). We explore the time series of accesses for each article in the query logs, model the trends with regression approaches, and subsequently use the models for prediction. We show that the click trends of PubMed articles are best fitted with a log-normal regression model. This model allows the number of accesses an article receives and the time since it first becomes available in PubMed to be related via quadratic and logistic functions, with the model parameters to be estimated via maximum likelihood. Our experiments predicting the number of accesses for an article based on its past usage demonstrate that the mean absolute error and mean absolute percentage error of our model are 4.0% and 8.1% lower than the power-law regression model, respectively. The log-normal distribution is also shown to perform significantly better than a previous prediction method based on a human memory theory in cognitive science. This work warrants further investigation on the utility of such a log-normal regression approach towards improving information access in PubMed. PMID:24551386

Net Improvement of Correct Answers to Therapy Questions After PubMed Searches: Pre/Post Comparison

PubMed Central

Keepanasseril, Arun

2013-01-01

Background Clinicians search PubMed for answers to clinical questions although it is time consuming and not always successful. Objective To determine if PubMed used with its Clinical Queries feature to filter results based on study quality would improve search success (more correct answers to clinical questions related to therapy). Methods We invited 528 primary care physicians to participate, 143 (27.1%) consented, and 111 (21.0% of the total and 77.6% of those who consented) completed the study. Participants answered 14 yes/no therapy questions and were given 4 of these (2 originally answered correctly and 2 originally answered incorrectly) to search using either the PubMed main screen or PubMed Clinical Queries narrow therapy filter via a purpose-built system with identical search screens. Participants also picked 3 of the first 20 retrieved citations that best addressed each question. They were then asked to re-answer the original 14 questions. Results We found no statistically significant differences in the rates of correct or incorrect answers using the PubMed main screen or PubMed Clinical Queries. The rate of correct answers increased from 50.0% to 61.4% (95% CI 55.0%-67.8%) for the PubMed main screen searches and from 50.0% to 59.1% (95% CI 52.6%-65.6%) for Clinical Queries searches. These net absolute increases of 11.4% and 9.1%, respectively, included previously correct answers changing to incorrect at a rate of 9.5% (95% CI 5.6%-13.4%) for PubMed main screen searches and 9.1% (95% CI 5.3%-12.9%) for Clinical Queries searches, combined with increases in the rate of being correct of 20.5% (95% CI 15.2%-25.8%) for PubMed main screen searches and 17.7% (95% CI 12.7%-22.7%) for Clinical Queries searches. Conclusions PubMed can assist clinicians answering clinical questions with an approximately 10% absolute rate of improvement in correct answers. This small increase includes more correct answers partially offset by a decrease in previously correct answers

Human melioidosis reported by ProMED.

PubMed

Nasner-Posso, Katherinn Melissa; Cruz-Calderón, Stefania; Montúfar-Andrade, Franco E; Dance, David A B; Rodriguez-Morales, Alfonso J

2015-06-01

There are limited sources describing the global burden of emerging diseases. A review of human melioidosis reported by ProMED was performed and the reliability of the data retrieved assessed in comparison to published reports. The effectiveness of ProMED was evaluated as a source of epidemiological data by focusing on melioidosis. Using the keyword 'melioidosis' in the ProMED search engine, all of the information from the reports and collected data was reviewed using a structured form, including the year, country, gender, occupation, number of infected individuals, and number of fatal cases. One hundred and twenty-four entries reported between January 1995 and October 2014 were identified. A total of 4630 cases were reported, with death reported in 505 cases, suggesting a misleadingly low overall case fatality rate (CFR) of 11%. Of 20 cases for which the gender was reported, 12 (60%) were male. Most of the cases were reported from Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia, with sporadic reports from other countries. Internet-based reporting systems such as ProMED are useful to gather information and synthesize knowledge on emerging infections. Although certain areas need to be improved, ProMED provided good information about melioidosis. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

MED-SUV Data Life Cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sangianantoni, Agata; Puglisi, Giuseppe; Spampinato, Letizia; Tulino, Sabrina

2015-04-01

The MED-SUV project aims to implement a digital e-infrastructure for data access in order to promote the monitoring and study of key volcanic regions prone to volcanic hazards, and thus improve hazard assessment, according to the rationale of Supersite GEO initiative to Vesuvius- Campi Flegrei and Mt Etna, currently identified as Permanent Supersites. The present study focuses on the life cycle of MED-SUV data generated in the first period of the project and highlights the managing approach, as well as the crucial steps to be implemented for ensuring that data will be properly and ethically managed and can be used and accessed from both MED-SUV and the external community. The process is conceived outlining how research data being handled as the project progresses, describing what data are collected, processed or generated and how these data are going to be shared and made available through Open Access. Data cycle begins with their generation and ends with the deposit in the digital infrastructure, its key series of stages through which MED-SUV data passes are Collection, Data citation, Categorization of data, Approval procedure, Registration of datasets, Application of licensing models, and PID assignment. This involves a combination of procedures and practices taking into account the scientific core mission and the priorities of the project as well as the potential legal issues related to the management and protection of the Intellectual Property. We believe that the implementation of this process constitutes a significant encouragement in MED-SUV data sharing and as a consequence a better understanding on the volcanic processes, hazard assessment and a better integration with other Supersites projects.

The Arabidopsis Mediator Complex Subunits MED16, MED14, and MED2 Regulate Mediator and RNA Polymerase II Recruitment to CBF-Responsive Cold-Regulated Genes[C][W][OPEN

PubMed Central

Hemsley, Piers A.; Hurst, Charlotte H.; Kaliyadasa, Ewon; Lamb, Rebecca; Knight, Marc R.; De Cothi, Elizabeth A.; Steele, John F.; Knight, Heather

2014-01-01

The Mediator16 (MED16; formerly termed SENSITIVE TO FREEZING6 [SFR6]) subunit of the plant Mediator transcriptional coactivator complex regulates cold-responsive gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana, acting downstream of the C-repeat binding factor (CBF) transcription factors to recruit the core Mediator complex to cold-regulated genes. Here, we use loss-of-function mutants to show that RNA polymerase II recruitment to CBF-responsive cold-regulated genes requires MED16, MED2, and MED14 subunits. Transcription of genes known to be regulated via CBFs binding to the C-repeat motif/drought-responsive element promoter motif requires all three Mediator subunits, as does cold acclimation–induced freezing tolerance. In addition, these three subunits are required for low temperature–induced expression of some other, but not all, cold-responsive genes, including genes that are not known targets of CBFs. Genes inducible by darkness also required MED16 but required a different combination of Mediator subunits for their expression than the genes induced by cold. Together, our data illustrate that plants control transcription of specific genes through the action of subsets of Mediator subunits; the specific combination defined by the nature of the stimulus but also by the identity of the gene induced. PMID:24415770

Reperfusion of occluded branch retinal arteries by transluminal Nd:YAG laser embolysis combined with intravenous thrombolysis of urokinase

PubMed Central

Chai, Fang; Du, Shanshuang; Zhao, Xiquan

2017-01-01

Purpose: To report successful treatment with transluminal Nd:YAG laser embolysis (TYE) combined with urokinase thrombolysis for reperfusion of occluded branch retinal arteries with visible emboli. Methods: A total of 34 eyes from 34 patients with acute, severe vision loss secondary to a branch retinal artery occlusion with visible emboli and retinal whitening were examined. Each patient was administered TYE therapy, which focused on the embolus, using an ocular contact lens; a 0.3–0.9 mJ laser pulse was delivered directly and gradually according to the reaction. Fundus photographs and fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) were obtained before and immediately after the laser treatment. All patients received urokinase thrombolysis therapy drops intravenously for 5 days at 10–20 u/d. The follow-up period ranged from 6 to 14 months after therapy. The morphological characteristics of FFA associated with obstruction recovery of arterial fluorescence filling and visual function were analyzed. Results: After TYE therapy, FFA examinations showed that the retinal artery and its branches exhibited completely restored blood flow without obstruction in 13 eyes, accounting for 38.2% of the cases. The blood flow was mostly recovered in 11 eyes (32.4% of patients). FFA examinations following the combined intravenous urokinase thrombolysis therapy showed that the retinal artery and its branches exhibited completely restored blood flow after obstruction in 16 eyes (47.1% of patients). The blood flow was mostly recovered in 15 eyes (44.1% of patients). Conclusion: TYE combined with urokinase thrombolysis is effective for reperfusion of occluded branch retinal arteries and improving visual recovery in patients with visible emboli. PMID:29162667

The MedAustron project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griesmayer, E.; Schreiner, T.; Pavlovič, M.

2007-05-01

The Austrian government has approved its financial contribution to the MedAustron project in October 2004. MedAustron, the Austrian ion therapy and cancer research centre, should be set into operation in 2010. MedAustron combines medical cancer treatment and cancer research and non-clinical research. For medical treatment and cancer research active scanning of a proton and a carbon-ion beam is provided. The beam energy must correspond to the desirable penetration range of the beam in the patient body, which translates into the energy interval of 60-220 MeV protons and 120-400 MeV per nucleon carbon ions. The intensity of extracted beam is 1010 protons per spill and four times 108 carbon ions per spill. Spill duration can be varied from 1 s to 10 s. For a spill lasting 1 s the beam intensity is equivalent to an electrical beam current of 1.6 nA for protons and 0.38 nA for carbon ions. Although the machine parameters must be optimised for therapy needs, additional beam features can be offered by a modern medical accelerator for non-clinical research. Various ions with energies up to 400 MeV per nucleon can be used for irradiation purposes. For synchrotrons such as proposed in the Design Study the magnetic rigidity would allow to accelerate protons up to 1.18 GeV when using an appropriate RF-system. Two beam lines are proposed for non-clinical research, such as biomedicine, medical physics, physics or industrial technological research. The experimental facility of MedAustron will be offered to research institutes and to industry on an international level.

OvidSP Medline-to-PubMed search filter translation: a methodology for extending search filter range to include PubMed's unique content.

PubMed

Damarell, Raechel A; Tieman, Jennifer J; Sladek, Ruth M

2013-07-02

PubMed translations of OvidSP Medline search filters offer searchers improved ease of access. They may also facilitate access to PubMed's unique content, including citations for the most recently published biomedical evidence. Retrieving this content requires a search strategy comprising natural language terms ('textwords'), rather than Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). We describe a reproducible methodology that uses a validated PubMed search filter translation to create a textword-only strategy to extend retrieval to PubMed's unique heart failure literature. We translated an OvidSP Medline heart failure search filter for PubMed and established version equivalence in terms of indexed literature retrieval. The PubMed version was then run within PubMed to identify citations retrieved by the filter's MeSH terms (Heart failure, Left ventricular dysfunction, and Cardiomyopathy). It was then rerun with the same MeSH terms restricted to searching on title and abstract fields (i.e. as 'textwords'). Citations retrieved by the MeSH search but not the textword search were isolated. Frequency analysis of their titles/abstracts identified natural language alternatives for those MeSH terms that performed less effectively as textwords. These terms were tested in combination to determine the best performing search string for reclaiming this 'lost set'. This string, restricted to searching on PubMed's unique content, was then combined with the validated PubMed translation to extend the filter's performance in this database. The PubMed heart failure filter retrieved 6829 citations. Of these, 834 (12%) failed to be retrieved when MeSH terms were converted to textwords. Frequency analysis of the 834 citations identified five high frequency natural language alternatives that could improve retrieval of this set (cardiac failure, cardiac resynchronization, left ventricular systolic dysfunction, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, and LV dysfunction). Together these terms reclaimed

Lethal and Sublethal Effects of Clothianidin on the Development and Reproduction of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) MED and MEAM1

PubMed Central

Fang, Yong; Wang, Jinda; Luo, Chen; Wang, Ran

2018-01-01

Abstract The Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) cryptic species complex includes important crop pests, and among them, the cryptic species Mediterranean (MED) and Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) cause substantial crop losses in China. The second-generation neonicotinoid clothianidin acts as an agonist of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in the insect nervous system and has both stomach and contact activity. In this study, the toxicity of clothianidin and five other insecticides to MED and MEAM1 was examined. The sublethal effects of clothianidin on the development and reproduction of MED and MEAM1 were also investigated. Among the six insecticides tested, clothianidin showed toxicities to both MED and MEAM1 adults with LC50 values of 5.23 and 5.18 mg/liter, respectively. The sublethal effects of clothianidin were assessed by treating MED and MEAM1 adults with the LC25 of 1.58 and 1.13 mg/liter, respectively. The LC25 treatments accelerated the development of the F1 generation but reduced survival and fecundity of both species. Our results indicate that clothianidin could be useful for the management of B. tabaci MED and MEAM1. PMID:29718499

MED COMMITTEE STRUCTURE

EPA Science Inventory

It is beneficial to share good Diversity-related practices with other NHEERL Divisions. Sharing of this information will help MED showcase the many activities that are in place for Diversity that we are using to help us become a level 4 organization.

PubMed Medical publications from Libya

PubMed Central

Bakoush, O; Al-Tubuly, AA; Ashammakhi, N; Elkhammas, EA

2007-01-01

Medical research and publications are the back-bone for advancing the medical field. We identified the Pubmed medical publications that are affiliated with Libya to shed some light on the contribution of this country's medical community to the PubMed database. All publications affiliated with Libya in the PubMed were counted over a five year period ending December 2006. We also used the same method to obtain data on the PubMed medical publications from Tunisia, Morocco and Yemen. Tunisia had the largest number of PubMed publications among the studied countries: 20.4 publications per million population per year and 7.2 publications per year per one billion US$ GDP. Libya had much fewer publications: 2.4 publications per million population per year and 0.4 publications per one billion US$ GDP. The citation frequency for Libyan published research was very low compared to Tunisian and Moroccan related research. Conclusion: This preliminary analysis shows that medical research output in Libya is about twenty times less than in other countries with similar backgrounds, and that it needs to be enhanced. PMID:21503210

PubMed searches: overview and strategies for clinicians.

PubMed

Lindsey, Wesley T; Olin, Bernie R

2013-04-01

PubMed is a biomedical and life sciences database maintained by a division of the National Library of Medicine known as the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). It is a large resource with more than 5600 journals indexed and greater than 22 million total citations. Searches conducted in PubMed provide references that are more specific for the intended topic compared with other popular search engines. Effective PubMed searches allow the clinician to remain current on the latest clinical trials, systematic reviews, and practice guidelines. PubMed continues to evolve by allowing users to create a customized experience through the My NCBI portal, new arrangements and options in search filters, and supporting scholarly projects through exportation of citations to reference managing software. Prepackaged search options available in the Clinical Queries feature also allow users to efficiently search for clinical literature. PubMed also provides information regarding the source journals themselves through the Journals in NCBI Databases link. This article provides an overview of the PubMed database's structure and features as well as strategies for conducting an effective search.

A study on PubMed search tag usage pattern: association rule mining of a full-day PubMed query log.

PubMed

Mosa, Abu Saleh Mohammad; Yoo, Illhoi

2013-01-09

The practice of evidence-based medicine requires efficient biomedical literature search such as PubMed/MEDLINE. Retrieval performance relies highly on the efficient use of search field tags. The purpose of this study was to analyze PubMed log data in order to understand the usage pattern of search tags by the end user in PubMed/MEDLINE search. A PubMed query log file was obtained from the National Library of Medicine containing anonymous user identification, timestamp, and query text. Inconsistent records were removed from the dataset and the search tags were extracted from the query texts. A total of 2,917,159 queries were selected for this study issued by a total of 613,061 users. The analysis of frequent co-occurrences and usage patterns of the search tags was conducted using an association mining algorithm. The percentage of search tag usage was low (11.38% of the total queries) and only 2.95% of queries contained two or more tags. Three out of four users used no search tag and about two-third of them issued less than four queries. Among the queries containing at least one tagged search term, the average number of search tags was almost half of the number of total search terms. Navigational search tags are more frequently used than informational search tags. While no strong association was observed between informational and navigational tags, six (out of 19) informational tags and six (out of 29) navigational tags showed strong associations in PubMed searches. The low percentage of search tag usage implies that PubMed/MEDLINE users do not utilize the features of PubMed/MEDLINE widely or they are not aware of such features or solely depend on the high recall focused query translation by the PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping. The users need further education and interactive search application for effective use of the search tags in order to fulfill their biomedical information needs from PubMed/MEDLINE.

Mars 2020 Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI2)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bose, Deepak; Wright, Henry; White, Todd; Schoenenberger, Mark; Santos, Jose; Karlgaard, Chris; Kuhl, Chris; Oishi, TOmo; Trombetta, Dominic

2016-01-01

This paper will introduce Mars Entry Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI2) on NASA's Mars2020 mission. Mars2020 is a flagship NASA mission with science and technology objectives to help answer questions about possibility of life on Mars as well as to demonstrate technologies for future human expedition. Mars2020 is scheduled for launch in 2020. MEDLI2 is a suite of instruments embedded in the heatshield and backshell thermal protection systems of Mars2020 entry vehicle. The objectives of MEDLI2 are to gather critical aerodynamics, aerothermodynamics and TPS performance data during EDL phase of the mission. MEDLI2 builds up the success of MEDLI flight instrumentation on Mars Science Laboratory mission in 2012. MEDLI instrumentation suite measured surface pressure and TPS temperature on the heatshield during MSL entry into Mars. MEDLI data has since been used for unprecedented reconstruction of aerodynamic drag, vehicle attitude, in-situ atmospheric density, aerothermal heating, transition to turbulence, in-depth TPS performance and TPS ablation. [1,2] In addition to validating predictive models, MEDLI data has highlighted extra margin available in the MSL forebody TPS, which can potentially be used to reduce vehicle parasitic mass. MEDLI2 expands the scope of instrumentation by focusing on quantities of interest not addressed in MEDLI suite. The type the sensors are expanded and their layout on the TPS modified to meet these new objectives. The paper will provide key motivation and governing requirements that drive the choice and the implementation of the new sensor suite. The implementation considerations of sensor selection, qualification, and demonstration of minimal risk to the host mission will be described. The additional challenges associated with mechanical accommodation, electrical impact, data storage and retrieval for MEDLI2 system, which extends sensors to backshell will also be described.

Efficacy and Safety of MED2005, a Topical Glyceryl Trinitrate Formulation, in the Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction: A Randomized Crossover Study.

PubMed

Ralph, David J; Eardley, Ian; Taubel, Jorg; Terrill, Paul; Holland, Tim

2018-02-01

over placebo. The most commonly reported adverse events during MED2005 treatment were headache (patients, n = 18 [7.9%]; partners, n = 3 [1.3%]) and nasopharyngitis (patients, n = 13 [5.7%]; partners, n = 2 [0.9%]). These findings suggest that topical glyceryl trinitrate could be a useful treatment option in ED. Strengths of this study include the use of a validated outcome measure. Limitations include the use of only 1 dosage. Further studies are warranted to investigate the efficacy of topical glyceryl trinitrate to include higher doses, thereby improving clinical significance, especially in cases of moderate and severe ED. Ralph DJ, Eardley I, Taubel J, et al. Efficacy and Safety of MED2005, a Topical Glyceryl Trinitrate Formulation, in the Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction: A Randomized Crossover Study. J Sex Med 2018;15:167-175. Copyright © 2017 Futura Medical. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

MedEdPORTAL: Educational Scholarship for Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Robby J.; Candler, Christopher S.

2008-01-01

MedEdPORTAL is an online publication service provided at no charge by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The intent is to promote collaboration and educational scholarship by helping educators publish and share educational resources. With MedEdPORTAL, users can quickly locate high-quality, peer-reviewed teaching materials in both…

Gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy, ab interno trabeculotomy: technique report and preliminary results.

PubMed

Grover, Davinder S; Godfrey, David G; Smith, Oluwatosin; Feuer, William J; Montes de Oca, Ildamaris; Fellman, Ronald L

2014-04-01

To introduce a minimally invasive, ab interno approach to a circumferential 360-degree trabeculotomy and to report the preliminary results. Retrospective, noncomparative cases series. Eighty-five eyes of 85 consecutive patients who sought treatment at Glaucoma Associates of Texas with uncontrolled open-angle glaucoma and underwent gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) for whom there was at least 6 months of follow-up data. Retrospective chart review of patients who underwent GATT by 4 of the authors (D.S.G., D.G.G., O.S., R.L.F.) between October 2011 and October 2012. The surgery was performed in adults with various open-angle glaucomas. Intraocular pressure (IOP), glaucoma medications, visual acuity, and intraoperative as well as postoperative complications. Eighty-five patients with an age range of 24 to 88 years underwent GATT with at least 6 months of follow-up. In 57 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma, the IOP decreased by 7.7 mmHg (standard deviation [SD], 6.2 mm Hg; 30.0% [SD, 22.7%]) with an average decrease in glaucoma medications of 0.9 (SD, 1.3) at 6 months. In this group, the IOP decreased by 11.1 mmHg (SD, 6.1 mmHg; 39.8% [SD, 16.0%]) with 1.1 fewer glaucoma medications at 12 months. In the secondary glaucoma group of 28 patients, IOP decreased by 17.2 mmHg (SD, 10.8 mmHg; 52.7% [SD, 15.8%]) with an average of 2.2 fewer glaucoma medications at 6 months. In this group, the IOP decreased by 19.9 mmHg (SD, 10.2 mmHg; 56.8% [SD, 17.4%]) with an average of 1.9 fewer medications (SD, 2.1) at 12 months. Treatment was considered to have failed in 9% (8/85) of patients because of the need for further glaucoma surgery. The cumulative proportion of failure at 1 year ranged from 0.1 to 0.32, depending on the group. Lens status or concurrent cataract surgery did not have a statistically significant effect on IOP in eyes that underwent GATT at either 6 or 12 months (P > 0.35). The most common complication was transient hyphema, seen in

Asian-Chinese patient perceptions of natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery cholecystectomy.

PubMed

Teoh, Anthony Yuen Bun; Ng, Enders Kwok Wai; Chock, Alana; Swanstrom, Lee; Varadarajulu, Shyam; Chiu, Philip Wai Yan

2014-05-01

Patient and physician perceptions of natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) have been reported for the Western population. However, whether Asian-Chinese patients share the same perspectives as compared to the Western population is unknown. This was a cross-sectional survey carried out in the surgical outpatient's clinic at the Prince of Wales Hospital between June and September 2011. Patients were provided with an information leaflet and asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of and preferences for NOTES cholecystectomy. Female patients attending the clinic were given an additional questionnaire regarding attitudes towards transvaginal surgery. Two hundred patients were recruited to complete the questionnaire(s) and the male to female ratio was 1:1. One hundred and fourteen patients (57%) preferred to undergo NOTES cholecystectomy for cosmetic reasons (P=0.009). Oral and anal routes were both acceptable for NOTES accesses in males and females. Forty-one percent of the female patients would consider transvaginal NOTES. Of these patients, significantly more patients indicated that the reason for choosing transvaginal NOTES was to minimize the risk of hernia (P=0.016) and to reduce pain associated with the procedure (P=0.017). The risk of complications (84.5%) and the cost of the procedure (58%) were considered the most important aspects when choosing a surgical approach by Asian-Chinese patients. Asian-Chinese preferred NOTES mainly for cosmetic reasons. However, the transvaginal route was less acceptable to females. Significant differences in patient perception on NOTES were observed between Asian-Chinese and Western patients. © 2013 The Authors. Digestive Endoscopy © 2013 Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society.

Cardiac Med1 deletion promotes early lethality, cardiac remodeling, and transcriptional reprogramming

PubMed Central

Spitler, Kathryn M.; Ponce, Jessica M.; Oudit, Gavin Y.; Hall, Duane D.

2017-01-01

The mediator complex, a multisubunit nuclear complex, plays an integral role in regulating gene expression by acting as a bridge between transcription factors and RNA polymerase II. Genetic deletion of mediator subunit 1 (Med1) results in embryonic lethality, due in large part to impaired cardiac development. We first established that Med1 is dynamically expressed in cardiac development and disease, with marked upregulation of Med1 in both human and murine failing hearts. To determine if Med1 deficiency protects against cardiac stress, we generated two cardiac-specific Med1 knockout mouse models in which Med1 is conditionally deleted (Med1cKO mice) or inducibly deleted in adult mice (Med1cKO-MCM mice). In both models, cardiac deletion of Med1 resulted in early lethality accompanied by pronounced changes in cardiac function, including left ventricular dilation, decreased ejection fraction, and pathological structural remodeling. We next defined how Med1 deficiency alters the cardiac transcriptional profile using RNA-sequencing analysis. Med1cKO mice demonstrated significant dysregulation of genes related to cardiac metabolism, in particular genes that are coordinated by the transcription factors Pgc1α, Pparα, and Errα. Consistent with the roles of these transcription factors in regulation of mitochondrial genes, we observed significant alterations in mitochondrial size, mitochondrial gene expression, complex activity, and electron transport chain expression under Med1 deficiency. Taken together, these data identify Med1 as an important regulator of vital cardiac gene expression and maintenance of normal heart function. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Disruption of transcriptional gene expression is a hallmark of dilated cardiomyopathy; however, its etiology is not well understood. Cardiac-specific deletion of the transcriptional coactivator mediator subunit 1 (Med1) results in dilated cardiomyopathy, decreased cardiac function, and lethality. Med1 deletion disrupted cardiac

In vivo microrobots for natural orifice transluminal surgery. Current status and future perspectives.

PubMed

Forgione, A

2009-06-01

The possibility to operate inside the peritoneal cavity through small holes performed in hollow organs that is presented by Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) represents a major paradigm shift in general surgery. While this new approach seems very appealing from patients' perspectives because it eliminates completely abdominal wall aggression and promises to reduce postoperative pain, it is very challenging for surgeons because of the major constraints imposed by both the mode of access and the limited technology currently available. For this reason NOTES applications at the present time are performed by only a few surgeons and mainly to perform non-complex procedures. While new devices are under development, many of them are trying mainly to simply improve current endoscopic platforms and seem not to offer breakthrough solutions. The numerous challenges introduced by natural orifice approaches require a radical shift in the conception of new technologies in order to make this emerging operative access safe and reproducible. The convergence of several enabling technologies in the field of miniaturization, communication and micro-mechatronics brings the possibility to realize on a large scale the revolutionary concept of miniature in vivo co-operative robots. These robots provide vision and task assistance without the constraints of the entry incision and have been shown in experimental settings to possess many qualities that could be ideal to partner with Natural Orifice Surgery. This article explores the current status of microrobotics as well as presents potential future scenarios of their applications in NOTES.

Assessment Of Coronary Artery Aneurysms Using Transluminal Attenuation Gradient And Computational Modeling In Kawasaki Disease Patients

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grande Gutierrez, Noelia; Kahn, Andrew; Shirinsky, Olga; Gagarina, Nina; Lyskina, Galina; Fukazawa, Ryuji; Owaga, Shunichi; Burns, Jane; Marsden, Alison

2015-11-01

Kawasaki Disease (KD) can result in coronary artery aneurysms (CAA) in up to 25% of patients, putting them at risk of thrombus formation, myocardial infarction and sudden death. Clinical guidelines recommend CAA diameter >8 mm as the arbitrary criterion for initiating systemic anticoagulation. KD patient specific modeling and flow simulations suggest that hemodynamic data can predict regions at increased risk of thrombosis. Transluminal Attenuation Gradient (TAG) is determined from the change in radiological attenuation per vessel length and has been proposed as a non-invasive method for characterizing coronary stenosis from CT Angiography. We hypothesized that CAA abnormal flow could be quantified using TAG. We computed hemodynamics for patient specific coronary models using a stabilized finite element method, coupled numerically to a lumped parameter network to model the heart and vascular boundary conditions. TAG was quantified in the major coronary arteries. We compared TAG for aneurysmal and normal arteries and we analyzed TAG correlation with hemodynamic and geometrical parameters. Our results suggest that TAG may provide hemodynamic data not available from anatomy alone. TAG represents a possible extension to standard CTA that could help to better evaluate the risk of thrombus formation in KD.

Endovascular abdominal aortic stenosis treatment with the OptiMed self-expandable nitinol stent.

PubMed

Ghazi, Payam; Haji-Zeinali, Ali-Mohammad; Shafiee, Nahid; Qureshi, Shakeel A

2009-10-01

To evaluate the safety and feasibility of self-expandable stents (OptiMed) for treatment of abdominal aortic stenosis in the situations in which the aortic stenosis locates near the origin of celiac, superior mesenteric, renal and inferior mesenteric arteries. Five consecutive patients scheduled for endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic stenosis by self-expandable nitinol stent (Sinus-Aorta/OptiMed) implantation. The diameter of the stent was chosen as 10-30% more than that of the normal portion of the aorta above the stenosis. Long stents of 60 mm or longer were chosen. After stent deployment, balloon postdilation was performed with a balloon in patients with residual gradient > 5 mm Hg. All patients were successfully treated with the OptiMed stents. The balloon predilation was performed in one patient due to severe stenosis. The mean diameter and length of the stents deployed were 20.4 +/- 2.9 (range, 16-24 mm) and 64 +/- 8.9 (range, 60-80 mm), respectively. The balloon postdilation was performed in all cases. The mean diameter of the balloons was 13.6 +/- 1.5 (range, 12-15 mm). The mean diameter of stenosis increased from 4.8 +/- 1.9 to 14.4 +/- 1.8 mm after stent placement. The mean peak systolic gradient decreased from 46.8 +/- 31.5 mm Hg to 0.8 +/- 1.8 mm Hg. During follow-up (22.8 +/- 14.3 months), none of the patients had restenosis within the stent, occlusion of any branches of the aorta, or other related complications. In our small series, we observed that abdominal aortic stenosis can be successfully and effectively treated with OptiMed stents in the situations in which the stenotic segment is located next to the origins of the main visceral branches of abdominal aorta.

Natural orifice transgastric endoscopic wedge hepatic resection in an experimental model using an intuitively controlled master and slave transluminal endoscopic robot (MASTER).

PubMed

Phee, S J; Ho, K Y; Lomanto, D; Low, S C; Huynh, V A; Kencana, A P; Yang, K; Sun, Z L; Chung, S C Sydney

2010-09-01

The lack of triangulation of standard endoscopic devices limits the degree of freedom for surgical maneuvers during natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES). This study explored the feasibility of adapting an intuitively controlled master and slave transluminal endoscopic robot (MASTER) the authors developed to facilitate wedge hepatic resection in NOTES. The MASTER consists of a master controller, a telesurgical workstation, and a slave manipulator that holds two end-effectors: a grasper, and a monopolar electrocautery hook. The master controller is attached to the wrist and fingers of the operator and connected to the manipulator by electrical and wire cables. Movements of the operator are detected and converted into control signals driving the slave manipulator via a tendon-sheath power transmission mechanism allowing nine degrees of freedom. Using this system, wedge hepatic resection was performed through the transgastric route on two female pigs under general anesthesia. Entry into the peritoneal cavity was via a 10-mm incision made on the anterior wall of the stomach by the electrocautery hook. Wedge hepatic resection was performed using the robotic grasper and hook. Hemostasis was achieved with the electrocautery hook. After the procedure, the resected liver tissue was retrieved through the mouth using the grasper. Using the MASTER, transgastric wedge hepatic resection was successfully performed on two pigs with no laparoscopic assistance. The entire procedure took 9.4 min (range, 8.5-10.2 min), with 7.1 min (range, 6-8.2 min) spent on excision of the liver tissue. The robotics-controlled device was able to grasp, retract, and excise the liver specimen successfully in the desired plane. This study demonstrated for the first time that the MASTER could effectively mitigate the technical constraints normally encountered in NOTES procedures. With it, the triangulation of surgical tools and the manipulation of tissue became easy, and wedge hepatic

OvidSP Medline-to-PubMed search filter translation: a methodology for extending search filter range to include PubMed's unique content

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background PubMed translations of OvidSP Medline search filters offer searchers improved ease of access. They may also facilitate access to PubMed’s unique content, including citations for the most recently published biomedical evidence. Retrieving this content requires a search strategy comprising natural language terms (‘textwords’), rather than Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). We describe a reproducible methodology that uses a validated PubMed search filter translation to create a textword-only strategy to extend retrieval to PubMed’s unique heart failure literature. Methods We translated an OvidSP Medline heart failure search filter for PubMed and established version equivalence in terms of indexed literature retrieval. The PubMed version was then run within PubMed to identify citations retrieved by the filter’s MeSH terms (Heart failure, Left ventricular dysfunction, and Cardiomyopathy). It was then rerun with the same MeSH terms restricted to searching on title and abstract fields (i.e. as ‘textwords’). Citations retrieved by the MeSH search but not the textword search were isolated. Frequency analysis of their titles/abstracts identified natural language alternatives for those MeSH terms that performed less effectively as textwords. These terms were tested in combination to determine the best performing search string for reclaiming this ‘lost set’. This string, restricted to searching on PubMed’s unique content, was then combined with the validated PubMed translation to extend the filter’s performance in this database. Results The PubMed heart failure filter retrieved 6829 citations. Of these, 834 (12%) failed to be retrieved when MeSH terms were converted to textwords. Frequency analysis of the 834 citations identified five high frequency natural language alternatives that could improve retrieval of this set (cardiac failure, cardiac resynchronization, left ventricular systolic dysfunction, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, and

DynaMed Plus®: An Evidence-Based Clinical Reference Resource.

PubMed

Charbonneau, Deborah H; James, LaTeesa N

2018-01-01

DynaMed Plus ® from EBSCO Health is an evidence-based tool that health professionals can use to inform clinical care. DynaMed Plus content undergoes a review process, and the evidence is synthesized in detailed topic overviews. A unique three-level rating scale is used to assess the quality of available evidence. Topic overviews summarize current evidence and provide recommendations to support health providers at the point-of-care. Additionally, DynaMed Plus content can be accessed via a desktop computer or mobile platforms. Given this, DynaMed Plus can be a time-saving resource for health providers. Overall, DynaMed Plus provides evidence summaries using an easy-to-read bullet format, and the resource incorporates images, clinical calculators, patient handouts, and practice guidelines in one place.

PubMed Interact: an Interactive Search Application for MEDLINE/PubMed

PubMed Central

Muin, Michael; Fontelo, Paul; Ackerman, Michael

2006-01-01

Online search and retrieval systems are important resources for medical literature research. Progressive Web 2.0 technologies provide opportunities to improve search strategies and user experience. Using PHP, Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), PubMed Interact allows greater functionality so users can refine search parameters with ease and interact with the search results to retrieve and display relevant information and related articles. PMID:17238658

Searching PubMed for a broad subject area: how effective are palliative care clinicians in finding the evidence in their field?

PubMed

Damarell, Raechel A; Tieman, Jennifer J

2016-03-01

Health professionals must be able to search competently for evidence to support practice. We sought to understand how palliative care clinicians construct searches for palliative care literature in PubMed, to quantify search efficacy in retrieving a set of relevant articles and to compare performance against a Palliative CareSearch Filter (PCSF). Included studies from palliative care systematic reviews formed a test set. Palliative care clinicians (n = 37) completed a search task using PubMed. Individual clinician searches were reconstructed in PubMed and combined with the test set to calculate retrieval sensitivity. PCSF performance in the test set was also determined. Many clinicians struggled to create useful searches. Twelve used a single search term, 17 narrowed the search inappropriately and 8 confused Boolean operators. The mean number of test set citations (n = 663) retrieved was 166 (SD = 188), or 25% although 76% of clinicians believed they would find more than 50% of the articles. Only 8 participants (22%) achieved this. Correlations between retrieval and PubMed confidence (r = 0.13) or frequency of use (r = -0.18) were weak. Many palliative care clinicians search PubMed ineffectively. Targeted skills training and PCSF promotion may improve evidence retrieval. © 2015 Health Libraries Group.

LactMed: New NLM Database on Drugs and Lactation

MedlinePlus

... Issues Research News From NIH LactMed: New NLM Database on Drugs and Lactation Past Issues / Summer 2006 ... Javascript on. Photo: Comstock LactMed, a free online database with information on drugs and lactation, is one ...

MedlinePlus FAQ: MedlinePlus and MEDLINE/PubMed

MedlinePlus

... What is the difference between MedlinePlus and MEDLINE/PubMed? To use the sharing features on this page, ... latest health professional articles on your topic. MEDLINE/PubMed: Is a database of professional biomedical literature Is ...

GOClonto: an ontological clustering approach for conceptualizing PubMed abstracts.

PubMed

Zheng, Hai-Tao; Borchert, Charles; Kim, Hong-Gee

2010-02-01

Concurrent with progress in biomedical sciences, an overwhelming of textual knowledge is accumulating in the biomedical literature. PubMed is the most comprehensive database collecting and managing biomedical literature. To help researchers easily understand collections of PubMed abstracts, numerous clustering methods have been proposed to group similar abstracts based on their shared features. However, most of these methods do not explore the semantic relationships among groupings of documents, which could help better illuminate the groupings of PubMed abstracts. To address this issue, we proposed an ontological clustering method called GOClonto for conceptualizing PubMed abstracts. GOClonto uses latent semantic analysis (LSA) and gene ontology (GO) to identify key gene-related concepts and their relationships as well as allocate PubMed abstracts based on these key gene-related concepts. Based on two PubMed abstract collections, the experimental results show that GOClonto is able to identify key gene-related concepts and outperforms the STC (suffix tree clustering) algorithm, the Lingo algorithm, the Fuzzy Ants algorithm, and the clustering based TRS (tolerance rough set) algorithm. Moreover, the two ontologies generated by GOClonto show significant informative conceptual structures.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided transluminal drainage for peripancreatic fluid collections: where are we now?

PubMed

Kawakami, Hiroshi; Itoi, Takao; Sakamoto, Naoya

2014-07-01

Endoscopic drainage for pancreatic and peripancreatic fluid collections (PFCs) has been increasingly used as a minimally invasive alternative to surgical or percutaneous drainage. Recently, endoscopic ultrasound-guided transluminal drainage (EUS-TD) has become the standard of care and a safe procedure for nonsurgical PFC treatment. EUS-TD ensures a safe puncture, avoiding intervening blood vessels. Single or multiple plastic stents (combined with a nasocystic catheter) were used for the treatment of PFCs for EUS-TD. More recently, the use of covered self-expandable metallic stents (CSEMSs) has provided a safer and more efficient approach route for internal drainage. We focused our review on the best approach and stent to use in endoscopic drainage for PFCs. We reviewed studies of EUS-TD for PFCs based on the original Atlanta Classification, including case reports, case series, and previous review articles. Data on clinical outcomes and adverse events were collected retrospectively. A total of 93 patients underwent EUS-TD of pancreatic pseudocysts using CSEMSs. The treatment success and adverse event rates were 94.6% and 21.1%, respectively. The majority of complications were of mild severity and resolved with conservative therapy. A total of 56 patients underwent EUS-TD using CSEMSs for pancreatic abscesses or infected walled-off necroses. The treatment success and adverse event rates were 87.8% and 9.5%, respectively. EUS-TD can be performed safely and efficiently for PFC treatment. Larger diameter CSEMSs without additional fistula tract dilation for the passage of a standard scope are needed to access and drain for PFCs with solid debris.

A bibliometric analysis of Australian general practice publications from 1980 to 2007 using PubMed.

PubMed

Mendis, Kumara; Kidd, Michael R; Schattner, Peter; Canalese, Joseph

2010-01-01

We analysed Australian general practice (GP) publications in PubMed from 1980 to 2007 to determine journals, authors, publication types, national health priority areas (NHPA) and compared the results with those from three specialties (public health, cardiology and medical informatics) and two countries (the UK and New Zealand). Australian GP publications were downloaded in MEDLINE format using PubMed queries and were written to a Microsoft Access database using a software application. Search Query Language and online PubMed queries were used for further analysis. There were 4777 publications from 1980 to 2007. Australian Family Physician (38.1%) and the Medical Journal of Australia (17.6%) contributed 55.7% of publications. Reviews (12.7%), letters (6.6%), clinical trials (6.5%) and systematic reviews (5%) were the main PubMed publication types. Thirty five percent of publications addressed National Health Priority Areas with material on mental health (13.7%), neoplasms (6.5%) and cardiovascular conditions (5.9%). The comparable numbers of publications for the three specialties were: public health - 80 911, cardiology - 15 130 and medical informatics - 3338; total country GP comparisons were: UK - 14 658 and New Zealand - 1111. Australian GP publications have shown an impressive growth from 1980 to 2007 with a 15-fold increase. This increase may be due in part to the actions of the Australian government over the past decade to financially support research in primary care, as well as the maturing of academic general practice. This analysis can assist governments, researchers, policy makers and others to target resources so that further developments can be encouraged, supported and monitored.

Understanding PubMed user search behavior through log analysis.

PubMed

Islamaj Dogan, Rezarta; Murray, G Craig; Névéol, Aurélie; Lu, Zhiyong

2009-01-01

This article reports on a detailed investigation of PubMed users' needs and behavior as a step toward improving biomedical information retrieval. PubMed is providing free service to researchers with access to more than 19 million citations for biomedical articles from MEDLINE and life science journals. It is accessed by millions of users each day. Efficient search tools are crucial for biomedical researchers to keep abreast of the biomedical literature relating to their own research. This study provides insight into PubMed users' needs and their behavior. This investigation was conducted through the analysis of one month of log data, consisting of more than 23 million user sessions and more than 58 million user queries. Multiple aspects of users' interactions with PubMed are characterized in detail with evidence from these logs. Despite having many features in common with general Web searches, biomedical information searches have unique characteristics that are made evident in this study. PubMed users are more persistent in seeking information and they reformulate queries often. The three most frequent types of search are search by author name, search by gene/protein, and search by disease. Use of abbreviation in queries is very frequent. Factors such as result set size influence users' decisions. Analysis of characteristics such as these plays a critical role in identifying users' information needs and their search habits. In turn, such an analysis also provides useful insight for improving biomedical information retrieval.Database URL:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed.

Death, dying and informatics: misrepresenting religion on MedLine.

PubMed

Rodríguez Del Pozo, Pablo; Fins, Joseph J

2005-07-01

The globalization of medical science carries for doctors worldwide a correlative duty to deepen their understanding of patients' cultural contexts and religious backgrounds, in order to satisfy each as a unique individual. To become better informed, practitioners may turn to MedLine, but it is unclear whether the information found there is an accurate representation of culture and religion. To test MedLine's representation of this field, we chose the topic of death and dying in the three major monotheistic religions. We searched MedLine using PubMed in order to retrieve and thematically analyze full-length scholarly journal papers or case reports dealing with religious traditions and end-of-life care. Our search consisted of a string of words that included the most common denominations of the three religions, the standard heading terms used by the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRCBL), and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used by the National Library of Medicine. Eligible articles were limited to English-language papers with an abstract. We found that while a bibliographic search in MedLine on this topic produced instant results and some valuable literature, the aggregate reflected a selection bias. American writers were over-represented given the global prevalence of these religious traditions. Denominationally affiliated authors predominated in representing the Christian traditions. The Islamic tradition was under-represented. MedLine's capability to identify the most current, reliable and accurate information about purely scientific topics should not be assumed to be the same case when considering the interface of religion, culture and end-of-life care.

75 FR 39201 - MedBow-Routt Resource Advisory Committee

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-08

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service MedBow-Routt Resource Advisory Committee AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The MedBow-Routt Resource Advisory Committee will meet... and Community Self-Determination Act (Pub. L. 110-343) and in compliance with the Federal Advisory...

75 FR 52304 - MedBow-Routt Resource Advisory Committee

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-25

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service MedBow-Routt Resource Advisory Committee AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The MedBow-Routt Resource Advisory Committee will meet... Community Self-Determination Act (Pub. L. 110- 343) and in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee...

76 FR 12016 - MedBow-Routt Resource Advisory Committee

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-04

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service MedBow-Routt Resource Advisory Committee AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The MedBow-Routt Resource Advisory Committee will meet... Community Self-Determination Act (Pub. L. 110- 343) and in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee...

Percutaneous Aspiration Thrombectomy for the Treatment of Arterial Thromboembolic Occlusions Following Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty

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

Schleder, Stephan, E-mail: stephan.schleder@ukr.de; Diekmann, Matthias; Manke, Christoph

2015-02-15

PurposeThis study was designed to evaluate the technical success and the early clinical outcome of patients undergoing percutaneous aspiration thrombectomy (PAT) for the treatment of arterial thromboembolism following percutaneous infrainguinal transluminal angioplasty (PTA).MethodsIn this single-center study, during a period of 7 years retrospectively, 47 patients (22 male, 47 %) with a mean age of 73 (range 53–96) years were identified in whom PAT was performed for the treatment of thromboembolic complications of infrainguinal PTA. Primary technical success was defined as residual stenosis of <50 % in diameter after sole PAT, whereas secondary technical success was defined as residual stenosis of <50 % in diametermore » after PAT and additional PTA and/or stenting. Clinical outcome parameters (e.g., need for further intervention, minor/major amputation) were evaluated for the 30-day postinterventional period.ResultsPrimary technical success was achieved in 64 % of patients (30/47); secondary technical success was obtained in 96 % of patients (45/47). Clinical outcome data were available in 38 patients. In 87 % of patients (33/38), there was no need for further intervention within the 30-day postinterventional period. In three patients, minor amputations were conducted due to preexisting ulcerations (Rutherford Category 5 respectively).ConclusionsPAT enables endovascular treatment of iatrogenic thromboembolic complications after PTA with good technical and early clinical results and minimal morbidity.« less

Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty of Hepatic Artery Stenosis in Patients After Orthotopic Liver Transplantation: Mid-term Results

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

Jarmila, Lastovickova, E-mail: jala@ikem.cz; Jan, Peregrin

2011-12-15

Purpose: This study was designed to present our experience with percutaneous treatment of hepatic artery stenosis in orthotopic liver transplant patients and to evaluate the efficacy, technical outcomes, and mid-term clinical results of the procedure. Methods: Twenty-two percutaneous transluminal angioplasties (PTAs) were performed in 19 liver transplant recipients at our institution between 1998 and 2010. Stents were placed into the hepatic/celiac artery in 16 PTAs, but balloon dilatation alone was performed in 6 because of the anatomical condition of the vessel. PTA/stenting was indicated in 17 patients because of elevated liver enzymes; 2 patients were asymptomatic. The objective of treatingmore » stenosis was prevention of long-term complications, including thrombosis. Results: Technical success was achieved in all patients. There was only one complication: dissection of the treated artery without any subsequent adverse effects. In all patients, elevated liver enzyme levels improved after treatment. No restenosis was observed in any patient during a mean follow-up of 2.6 years (1 month to 5.5 years). Conclusions: Percutaneous angioplasty/stent placement is a safe method for the treatment of hepatic artery stenosis after orthotopic liver transplantation, with a high technical success rate and promising mid-term results.« less

Retrieval of diagnostic and treatment studies for clinical use through PubMed and PubMed's Clinical Queries filters.

PubMed

Lokker, Cynthia; Haynes, R Brian; Wilczynski, Nancy L; McKibbon, K Ann; Walter, Stephen D

2011-01-01

Clinical Queries filters were developed to improve the retrieval of high-quality studies in searches on clinical matters. The study objective was to determine the yield of relevant citations and physician satisfaction while searching for diagnostic and treatment studies using the Clinical Queries page of PubMed compared with searching PubMed without these filters. Forty practicing physicians, presented with standardized treatment and diagnosis questions and one question of their choosing, entered search terms which were processed in a random, blinded fashion through PubMed alone and PubMed Clinical Queries. Participants rated search retrievals for applicability to the question at hand and satisfaction. For treatment, the primary outcome of retrieval of relevant articles was not significantly different between the groups, but a higher proportion of articles from the Clinical Queries searches met methodologic criteria (p=0.049), and more articles were published in core internal medicine journals (p=0.056). For diagnosis, the filtered results returned more relevant articles (p=0.031) and fewer irrelevant articles (overall retrieval less, p=0.023); participants needed to screen fewer articles before arriving at the first relevant citation (p<0.05). Relevance was also influenced by content terms used by participants in searching. Participants varied greatly in their search performance. Clinical Queries filtered searches returned more high-quality studies, though the retrieval of relevant articles was only statistically different between the groups for diagnosis questions. Retrieving clinically important research studies from Medline is a challenging task for physicians. Methodological search filters can improve search retrieval.

Detailed analysis of periprocedural strokes in patients undergoing intracranial stenting in Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS).

PubMed

Fiorella, David; Derdeyn, Colin P; Lynn, Michael J; Barnwell, Stanley L; Hoh, Brian L; Levy, Elad I; Harrigan, Mark R; Klucznik, Richard P; McDougall, Cameron G; Pride, G Lee; Zaidat, Osama O; Lutsep, Helmi L; Waters, Michael F; Hourihane, J Maurice; Alexandrov, Andrei V; Chiu, David; Clark, Joni M; Johnson, Mark D; Torbey, Michel T; Rumboldt, Zoran; Cloft, Harry J; Turan, Tanya N; Lane, Bethany F; Janis, L Scott; Chimowitz, Marc I

2012-10-01

Enrollment in the Stenting and Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent stroke in Intracranial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS) trial was halted due to the high risk of stroke or death within 30 days of enrollment in the percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting arm relative to the medical arm. This analysis focuses on the patient and procedural factors that may have been associated with periprocedural cerebrovascular events in the trial. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate whether patient and procedural variables were associated with cerebral ischemic or hemorrhagic events occurring within 30 days of enrollment (termed periprocedural) in the percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting arm. Of 224 patients randomized to percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting, 213 underwent angioplasty alone (n=5) or with stenting (n=208). Of these, 13 had hemorrhagic strokes (7 parenchymal, 6 subarachnoid), 19 had ischemic stroke, and 2 had cerebral infarcts with temporary signs within the periprocedural period. Ischemic events were categorized as perforator occlusions (13), embolic (4), mixed perforator and embolic (2), and delayed stent occlusion (2). Multivariate analyses showed that higher percent stenosis, lower modified Rankin score, and clopidogrel load associated with an activated clotting time above the target range were associated (P ≤ 0.05) with hemorrhagic stroke. Nonsmoking, basilar artery stenosis, diabetes, and older age were associated (P ≤ 0.05) with ischemic events. Periprocedural strokes in SAMMPRIS had multiple causes with the most common being perforator occlusion. Although risk factors for periprocedural strokes could be identified, excluding patients with these features from undergoing percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting to lower the procedural risk would limit percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting to a small subset of patients. Moreover, given the small number of events

Genome sequencing of the sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci MED/Q.

PubMed

Xie, Wen; Chen, Chunhai; Yang, Zezhong; Guo, Litao; Yang, Xin; Wang, Dan; Chen, Ming; Huang, Jinqun; Wen, Yanan; Zeng, Yang; Liu, Yating; Xia, Jixing; Tian, Lixia; Cui, Hongying; Wu, Qingjun; Wang, Shaoli; Xu, Baoyun; Li, Xianchun; Tan, Xinqiu; Ghanim, Murad; Qiu, Baoli; Pan, Huipeng; Chu, Dong; Delatte, Helene; Maruthi, M N; Ge, Feng; Zhou, Xueping; Wang, Xiaowei; Wan, Fanghao; Du, Yuzhou; Luo, Chen; Yan, Fengming; Preisser, Evan L; Jiao, Xiaoguo; Coates, Brad S; Zhao, Jinyang; Gao, Qiang; Xia, Jinquan; Yin, Ye; Liu, Yong; Brown, Judith K; Zhou, Xuguo Joe; Zhang, Youjun

2017-05-01

The sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a highly destructive agricultural and ornamental crop pest. It damages host plants through both phloem feeding and vectoring plant pathogens. Introductions of B. tabaci are difficult to quarantine and eradicate because of its high reproductive rates, broad host plant range, and insecticide resistance. A total of 791 Gb of raw DNA sequence from whole genome shotgun sequencing, and 13 BAC pooling libraries were generated by Illumina sequencing using different combinations of mate-pair and pair-end libraries. Assembly gave a final genome with a scaffold N50 of 437 kb, and a total length of 658 Mb. Annotation of repetitive elements and coding regions resulted in 265.0 Mb TEs (40.3%) and 20 786 protein-coding genes with putative gene family expansions, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on orthologs across 14 arthropod taxa suggested that MED/Q is clustered into a hemipteran clade containing A. pisum and is a sister lineage to a clade containing both R. prolixus and N. lugens. Genome completeness, as estimated using the CEGMA and Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs pipelines, reached 96% and 79%. These MED/Q genomic resources lay a foundation for future 'pan-genomic' comparisons of invasive vs. noninvasive, invasive vs. invasive, and native vs. exotic Bemisia, which, in return, will open up new avenues of investigation into whitefly biology, evolution, and management. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Death, dying and informatics: misrepresenting religion on MedLine

PubMed Central

Rodríguez del Pozo, Pablo; Fins, Joseph J

2005-01-01

Background The globalization of medical science carries for doctors worldwide a correlative duty to deepen their understanding of patients' cultural contexts and religious backgrounds, in order to satisfy each as a unique individual. To become better informed, practitioners may turn to MedLine, but it is unclear whether the information found there is an accurate representation of culture and religion. To test MedLine's representation of this field, we chose the topic of death and dying in the three major monotheistic religions. Methods We searched MedLine using PubMed in order to retrieve and thematically analyze full-length scholarly journal papers or case reports dealing with religious traditions and end-of-life care. Our search consisted of a string of words that included the most common denominations of the three religions, the standard heading terms used by the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRCBL), and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used by the National Library of Medicine. Eligible articles were limited to English-language papers with an abstract. Results We found that while a bibliographic search in MedLine on this topic produced instant results and some valuable literature, the aggregate reflected a selection bias. American writers were over-represented given the global prevalence of these religious traditions. Denominationally affiliated authors predominated in representing the Christian traditions. The Islamic tradition was under-represented. Conclusion MedLine's capability to identify the most current, reliable and accurate information about purely scientific topics should not be assumed to be the same case when considering the interface of religion, culture and end-of-life care. PMID:15992401

11-dehydro thromboxane B2 levels after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease during a one year follow-up period.

PubMed

Maga, P; Sanak, M; Jawien, J; Rewerska, B; Maga, M; Wachsmann, A; Koziej, M; Gregorczyk-Maga, I; Nizankowski, R

2016-06-01

The aim of our study was to determine if the generation of thromboxane is altered in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease following percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) during a one year follow-up period. In this study, 175 patients diagnosed with peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) and demonstrating short-distance claudication or ischemic rest pain, requiring PTA in either the iliac, femoral, or popliteal arteries, were enrolled. The excretion of 11-dehydro thromboxane B2 (TXB2) was measured in urine samples by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and recalculated based on the creatinine concentration. The urine samples were collected the morning prior to PTA, immediately following PTA and the day after PTA. All of the study subjects were then observed for a period of 12 months. Urine samples were also collected during the follow-up visits, and the levels of 11-dehydro TXB2 were measured at 1 month (1458.1 pg/mg creatinine ± 1240.8), 3 months (1623.3 pg/mg creatinine ± 1362.2), 6 months (1314.8 pg/mg creatinine ± 1378.7) and 12 months (1473.2 pg/mg creatinine ± 1455.2) after the PTA procedure. All of the patients were taking 75 mg of aspirin per day throughout the course of the study, as well as 75 mg of clopidogrel for six weeks following PTA. Overall, the mean TXB2 values immediately after PTA were significantly higher than either before the procedure (1524.4 pg/mg creatinine ± 1411.1 vs. 2098.1 pg/mg creatinine ± 1661.8; P = 0.00002), the day after PTA, or at any other point during the study. Moreover, preoperative TXB2 levels correlated well with the composite endpoints of death, myocardial infarction and stroke during the follow-up period (OR 7.42 [CI 95% = 1.2-48.8]; P = 0.02). Our findings suggest that clinicians should consider the use of TXA2 synthase inhibitors and receptor antagonists in combination with peripheral percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in patients with peripheral arterial

Bosnian and Herzegovinian medical scientists in PubMed database.

PubMed

Masic, Izet

2013-01-01

In this paper it is shortly presented PubMed as one of the most important on-line databases of the scientific biomedical literature. Also, the author has analyzed the most cited authors, professors of the medical faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the published papers in the biomedical journals abstracted and indexed in PubMed.

A novel semi-automatic snake robot for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery: preclinical tests in animal and human cadaver models (with video).

PubMed

Son, Jaebum; Cho, Chang Nho; Kim, Kwang Gi; Chang, Tae Young; Jung, Hyunchul; Kim, Sung Chun; Kim, Min-Tae; Yang, Nari; Kim, Tae-Yun; Sohn, Dae Kyung

2015-06-01

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is an emerging surgical technique. We aimed to design, create, and evaluate a new semi-automatic snake robot for NOTES. The snake robot employs the characteristics of both a manual endoscope and a multi-segment snake robot. This robot is inserted and retracted manually, like a classical endoscope, while its shape is controlled using embedded robot technology. The feasibility of a prototype robot for NOTES was evaluated in animals and human cadavers. The transverse stiffness and maneuverability of the snake robot appeared satisfactory. It could be advanced through the anus as far as the peritoneal cavity without any injury to adjacent organs. Preclinical tests showed that the device could navigate the peritoneal cavity. The snake robot has advantages of high transverse force and intuitive control. This new robot may be clinically superior to conventional tools for transanal NOTES.

Software-Enabled Distributed Network Governance: The PopMedNet Experience.

PubMed

Davies, Melanie; Erickson, Kyle; Wyner, Zachary; Malenfant, Jessica; Rosen, Rob; Brown, Jeffrey

2016-01-01

The expanded availability of electronic health information has led to increased interest in distributed health data research networks. The distributed research network model leaves data with and under the control of the data holder. Data holders, network coordinating centers, and researchers have distinct needs and challenges within this model. The concerns of network stakeholders are addressed in the design and governance models of the PopMedNet software platform. PopMedNet features include distributed querying, customizable workflows, and auditing and search capabilities. Its flexible role-based access control system enables the enforcement of varying governance policies. Four case studies describe how PopMedNet is used to enforce network governance models. Trust is an essential component of a distributed research network and must be built before data partners may be willing to participate further. The complexity of the PopMedNet system must be managed as networks grow and new data, analytic methods, and querying approaches are developed. The PopMedNet software platform supports a variety of network structures, governance models, and research activities through customizable features designed to meet the needs of network stakeholders.

Graduating med-peds residents' interest in part-time employment.

PubMed

Fix, Amy L; Kaelber, David C; Melgar, Thomas A; Chamberlain, John; Cull, William; Robbins, Brett W

2011-01-01

As part-time work is becoming more popular among the primary care specialties, we examined the demographic descriptors of med-peds residents seeking and finding part-time employment upon completion of residency training. As part of the 2006 annual American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Graduating Med-Peds Residents Survey, we surveyed the graduating residents of all med-peds programs about their interest in and plans for part-time employment. A total of 199 (60%) of the residents responded. Of the resident respondents applying for nonfellowship jobs, 19% sought part-time positions and 10% actually accepted a part-time position. Female residents were significantly more likely than male residents to apply for part-time jobs (26% vs. 7%, P = .034). Sixty percent of female residents immediately seeking work and 58% of those going on to fellowship reported an interest in arranging a part-time or reduced-hours position at some point in the next 5 years. Part-time employment among med-peds residents applying for nonfellowship positions after graduation is similar to the current incidence of part-time employment in other fields of primary care. A much higher percentage of med-peds residents are interested in arranging part-time work within 5 years after graduation. This strong interest in part-time work has many implications for the primary care workforce. Copyright © 2011 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Time-dependent migration of citations through PubMed and OvidSP subsets: a study on a series of simultaneous PubMed and OvidSP searches.

PubMed

Boeker, Martin; Vach, Werner; Motschall, Edith

2013-01-01

To quantitatively describe (1) differences between search results derived at consecutive time points with the PubMed and OvidSP literature search interfaces over a five day interval, and (2) the migration of citations through different subsets to estimate the timeliness of OvidSP. PubMed-Identifiers (PMIDs) of the following subsets were retrieved from PubMed and OvidSP simultaneously (within 8 h) at 11 days in March and April 2010 including 5 consecutive days: as supplied by publisher, in process, PubMed not MEDLINE, and OLDMEDLINE. Search results were compared for difference and intersection sets. The migration of citations on individual level was determined by comparison of corresponding sets over several days. The "in process" set was stable with about 446,000 - 452,000 citations; a small fraction of up to 3 % of the total subsets were in PubMed only and OvidSP only subsets. About 96 % of the ca. 10,500 citations in the OvidSP only subset migrated within 2 days out of the "in process" subset. The database of OvidSP is updated within a period of two days.

Susceptibility of MED-Q1 and MED-Q3 Biotypes of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Populations to Essential and Seed Oils.

PubMed

Samuel Fogné, Drabo; Olivier, Gnankine; Bassolé, Imael H N; Nébié, Roger Charles; Laurence, Mouton

2017-06-01

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a major pest of many agricultural and ornamental crops in tropical and subtropical regions causing damages that result in important economic losses. Insecticides are commonly used in greenhouses or fields to control B. tabaci populations leading to rapid evolution of resistance that render treatments inefficient. Therefore, and for environmental and human health concerns, other approaches must be developed for this pest management. In the present study, we compare, using the leaf dip method, the toxicity of three essential oils (Cymbopogon citratus, Ocimum americanum, and Hyptis spicigera) and three seed oils (Lannea microcarpa, Lannea acida, and Carapa procera) with three chemical insecticides (acetamiprid, deltamethrin, and chlorpyrifos-ethyl) on adults. Two B. tabaci biotypes (MED-Q1 and MED-Q3) belonging to the Mediterranean species and collected in Burkina Faso were used. Essential oils were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-flame ionization detector. We showed that these two biotypes have different levels of resistance to the three insecticides, MED-Q3 being more sensitive than MED-Q1. Moreover, they differ in the frequency of resistance alleles to insecticides, especially for organophosphates, as these alleles are almost fixed in MED-Q1. On the other hand, the two biotypes prove to be more susceptible to the plant extracts than to insecticides except for chlorpyrifos-ethyl, with essential oils that showed the highest insecticidal activities. Monoterpenes content were the most abundant and showed the highest insecticidal activities. Our results indicated that essential oils, but also seed oils, have the potential to constitute an alternative strategy of pest management. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

CyberMedVPS: visual programming for development of simulators.

PubMed

Morais, Aline M; Machado, Liliane S

2011-01-01

Computer applications based on Virtual Reality (VR) has been outstanding in training and teaching in the medical filed due to their ability to simulate realistic in which users can practice skills and decision making in different situations. But was realized in these frameworks a hard interaction of non-programmers users. Based on this problematic will be shown the CyberMedVPS, a graphical module which implement Visual Programming concepts to solve an interaction trouble. Frameworks to develop such simulators are available but their use demands knowledge of programming. Based on this problematic will be shown the CyberMedVPS, a graphical module for the CyberMed framework, which implements Visual Programming concepts to allow the development of simulators by non-programmers professionals of the medical field.

Differential expression of Mediator complex subunit MED15 in testicular germ cell tumors.

PubMed

Klümper, Niklas; Syring, Isabella; Offermann, Anne; Shaikhibrahim, Zaki; Vogel, Wenzel; Müller, Stefan C; Ellinger, Jörg; Strauß, Arne; Radzun, Heinz Joachim; Ströbel, Philipp; Brägelmann, Johannes; Perner, Sven; Bremmer, Felix

2015-09-17

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) are the most common cancer entities in young men with increasing incidence observed in the last decades. For therapeutic management it is important, that TGCT are divided into several histological subtypes. MED15 is part of the multiprotein Mediator complex which presents an integrative hub for transcriptional regulation and is known to be deregulated in several malignancies, such as prostate cancer and bladder cancer role, whereas the role of the Mediator complex in TGCT has not been investigated so far. Aim of the study was to investigate the implication of MED15 in TGCT development and its stratification into histological subtypes. Immunohistochemical staining (IHC) against Mediator complex subunit MED15 was conducted on a TGCT cohort containing tumor-free testis (n = 35), intratubular germ cell neoplasia unclassified (IGCNU, n = 14), seminomas (SEM, n = 107) and non-seminomatous germ cell tumors (NSGCT, n = 42), further subdivided into embryonic carcinomas (EC, n = 30), yolk sac tumors (YST, n = 5), chorionic carcinomas (CC, n = 5) and teratomas (TER, n = 2). Quantification of MED15 protein expression was performed through IHC followed by semi-quantitative image analysis using the Definiens software. In tumor-free seminiferous tubules, MED15 protein expression was absent or only low expressed in spermatogonia. Interestingly, the precursor lesions IGCNU exhibited heterogeneous but partly very strong MED15 expression. SEM weakly express the Mediator complex subunit MED15, whereas NSGCT and especially EC show significantly enhanced expression compared to tumor-free testis. In conclusion, MED15 is differentially expressed in tumor-free testis and TGCT. While MED15 is absent or low in tumor-free testis and SEM, NSGCT highly express MED15, hinting at the diagnostic potential of this marker to distinguish between SEM and NSGCT. Further, the precursor lesion IGCNU showed increased nuclear MED15

Mediator MED23 cooperates with RUNX2 to drive osteoblast differentiation and bone development.

PubMed

Liu, Zhen; Yao, Xiao; Yan, Guang; Xu, YiChi; Yan, Jun; Zou, Weiguo; Wang, Gang

2016-04-01

How lineage specifiers are regulated during development is an outstanding question, and the molecular regulation of osteogenic factor RUNX2 remains to be fully understood. Here we report that the Mediator subunit MED23 cooperates with RUNX2 to regulate osteoblast differentiation and bone development. Med23 deletion in mesenchymal stem cells or osteoblast precursors results in multiple bone defects similar to those observed in Runx2(+/-) mice. In vitro, Med23-deficient progenitor cells are refractory to osteoblast differentiation, and Med23 deficiency reduces Runx2-target gene activity without changing Runx2 expression. Mechanistically, MED23 binds to RUNX2 and modulates its transcriptional activity. Moreover, Med23 deficiency in osteoprogenitor cells exacerbates the skeletal abnormalities observed in Runx2(+/-) mice. Collectively, our results establish a genetic and physical interaction between RUNX2 and MED23, suggesting that MED23 constitutes a molecular node in the regulatory network of anabolic bone formation and related diseases.

Can MR Measurement of Renal Artery Flow and Renal Volume Predict the Outcome of Percutaneous Transluminal Renal Angioplasty?

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

Binkert, Christoph A.; Debatin, Jorg F.; Schneider, Ernst

2001-07-15

Purpose: Predicting therapeutic benefit from percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) in patients with renal artery stenosis (RAS) remains difficult. This study investigates whether magnetic resonance (MR)-based renal artery flow measurements relative to renal parenchymal volume can predict clinical outcome following PTRA.Methods: The data on 23 patients (13 men, 10 women; age range 47-82 years, mean age 64 years) were analyzed. The indication for treatment was hypertension (n = 18) or renal insufficiency (n = 5). Thirty-four cases of RAS were identified: bilateral disease was manifest in 11 and unilateral disease in 12 patients. The MR imaging protocol included a breath-hold,more » cardiac-gated cine phase-contrast sequence for renal flow measurement and a fast multiplanar spoiled gradient-echo sequence for renal volume measurement. MR measurements were performed on the day prior to and the day following PTRA. Clinical success was defined as (a) a reduction in diastolic blood pressure > 15% or (b) a reduction in serum creatinine > 20%. Kidneys were categorized as normal volume or low volume. A renal flow index (RFI) was calculated by dividing the renal flow (ml/min) by the renal volume (cm{sup 3}).Results: Clinical success was observed in 11 patients. Twelve patients did not benefit from angioplasty. Normal kidney volume was seen in 10 of 11 responders and in 8 of 12 nonresponders, resulting in a sensitivity of 91%, specificity of 33%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 56% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 80%. A RFI below a threshold of 1.5 ml/min/cm{sup 3} predicted successful outcome with 100% sensitivity, 33% specificity, 58% PPV, and 100% NPV. The combination of normal renal volume and a RFI below 1.5 ml/min/cm{sup 3} identified PTRA responders with a sensitivity of 91%, a specificity of 67%, a PPV of 71%, and a NPV of 89%. PTRA resulted in a greater increase in renal flow in responders compared with nonresponders (p < 0.001).Conclusion

The inclusion of an online journal in PubMed central - a difficult path.

PubMed

Grech, Victor

2016-01-01

The indexing of a journal in a prominent database (such as PubMed) is an important imprimatur. Journals accepted for inclusion in PubMed Central (PMC) are automatically indexed in PubMed but must provide the entire contents of their publications as XML-tagged (Extensible Markup Language) data files compliant with PubMed's document type definition (DTD). This paper describes the various attempts that the journal Images in Paediatric Cardiology made in its efforts to convert the journal contents (including all of the extant backlog) to PMC-compliant XML for archiving and indexing in PubMed after the journal was accepted for inclusion by the database.

Gaps in affiliation indexing in Scopus and PubMed.

PubMed

Schmidt, Cynthia M; Cox, Roxanne; Fial, Alissa V; Hartman, Teresa L; Magee, Martha L

2016-04-01

The authors sought to determine whether unexpected gaps existed in Scopus's author affiliation indexing of publications written by the University of Nebraska Medical Center or Nebraska Medicine (UNMC/NM) authors during 2014. First, we compared Scopus affiliation identifier search results to PubMed affiliation keyword search results. Then, we searched Scopus using affiliation keywords (UNMC, etc.) and compared the results to PubMed affiliation keyword and Scopus affiliation identifier searches. We found that Scopus's records for approximately 7% of UNMC/NM authors' publications lacked appropriate UNMC/NM author affiliation identifiers, and many journals' publishers were supplying incomplete author affiliation information to PubMed. Institutions relying on Scopus to track their impact should determine whether Scopus's affiliation identifiers will, in fact, identify all articles published by their authors and investigators.

Gaps in affiliation indexing in Scopus and PubMed

PubMed Central

Schmidt, Cynthia M.; Cox, Roxanne; Fial, Alissa V.; Hartman, Teresa L.; Magee, Martha L.

2016-01-01

Objective The authors sought to determine whether unexpected gaps existed in Scopus's author affiliation indexing of publications written by the University of Nebraska Medical Center or Nebraska Medicine (UNMC/NM) authors during 2014. Methods First, we compared Scopus affiliation identifier search results to PubMed affiliation keyword search results. Then, we searched Scopus using affiliation keywords (UNMC, etc.) and compared the results to PubMed affiliation keyword and Scopus affiliation identifier searches. Results We found that Scopus's records for approximately 7% of UNMC/NM authors' publications lacked appropriate UNMC/NM author affiliation identifiers, and many journals' publishers were supplying incomplete author affiliation information to PubMed. Conclusions Institutions relying on Scopus to track their impact should determine whether Scopus's affiliation identifiers will, in fact, identify all articles published by their authors and investigators. PMID:27076801

GO2PUB: Querying PubMed with semantic expansion of gene ontology terms

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background With the development of high throughput methods of gene analyses, there is a growing need for mining tools to retrieve relevant articles in PubMed. As PubMed grows, literature searches become more complex and time-consuming. Automated search tools with good precision and recall are necessary. We developed GO2PUB to automatically enrich PubMed queries with gene names, symbols and synonyms annotated by a GO term of interest or one of its descendants. Results GO2PUB enriches PubMed queries based on selected GO terms and keywords. It processes the result and displays the PMID, title, authors, abstract and bibliographic references of the articles. Gene names, symbols and synonyms that have been generated as extra keywords from the GO terms are also highlighted. GO2PUB is based on a semantic expansion of PubMed queries using the semantic inheritance between terms through the GO graph. Two experts manually assessed the relevance of GO2PUB, GoPubMed and PubMed on three queries about lipid metabolism. Experts’ agreement was high (kappa = 0.88). GO2PUB returned 69% of the relevant articles, GoPubMed: 40% and PubMed: 29%. GO2PUB and GoPubMed have 17% of their results in common, corresponding to 24% of the total number of relevant results. 70% of the articles returned by more than one tool were relevant. 36% of the relevant articles were returned only by GO2PUB, 17% only by GoPubMed and 14% only by PubMed. For determining whether these results can be generalized, we generated twenty queries based on random GO terms with a granularity similar to those of the first three queries and compared the proportions of GO2PUB and GoPubMed results. These were respectively of 77% and 40% for the first queries, and of 70% and 38% for the random queries. The two experts also assessed the relevance of seven of the twenty queries (the three related to lipid metabolism and four related to other domains). Expert agreement was high (0.93 and 0.8). GO2PUB and GoPubMed performances

PubMed enhancements: fulfilling the promise of a great product.

PubMed

Schott, Michael J

2004-01-01

There have been many recent changes to PubMed to enhance its usefulness. Those changes include: LinkOut Libraries (local holding field), PubMed Central (full-text articles archived by the National Library of Medicine), and LinkOut (access to full-text articles right from the PubMed citation). Medical librarians should be aware of how these features work to best assist their clients. These new features offer the possibility of true desktop access for library patrons. Not only will patrons appreciate these new features, but their use in libraries will literally change what we do, who does it, and how it is done.

Gonioscopy-assisted Transluminal Trabeculotomy: An Ab Interno Circumferential Trabeculotomy: 24 Months Follow-up.

PubMed

Grover, Davinder S; Smith, Oluwatosin; Fellman, Ronald L; Godfrey, David G; Gupta, Aditi; Montes de Oca, Ildamaris; Feuer, William J

2018-05-01

The purpose of this study was to provide 24-month follow-up on surgical success and safety of an ab interno circumferential 360-degree trabeculotomy. Chart review of patients who underwent a gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) procedure was performed by 4 of the authors (D.S.G., O.S., R.L.F., and D.G.G.). The surgery was performed in adults with various types of open-angle glaucoma with preoperative intraocular pressures (IOPs) of ≥18 mm Hg. In total, 198 patients aged 24 to 89 years underwent the GATT procedure with at least 18 months follow-up. Patients with primary open-angle glaucoma had an average IOP decrease of 9.2 mm Hg at 24 months with an average decrease of 1.43 glaucoma medications. The mean percentage of IOP decrease in these primary open-angle glaucoma groups at 24 months was 37.3%. In secondary open-angle glaucoma, at 24 months there was an average decrease in IOP of 14.1 mm Hg on an average of 2.0 fewer medications. The mean percentage of IOP decrease in the secondary open-angle glaucoma groups at 24 months was 49.8%. The cumulative proportion of failure at 24 months ranged from 0.18 to 0.48, depending on the group. In all 6 study groups, at all 5 postoperative time points (3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 mo) the mean IOP and reduction in glaucoma medications was significantly reduced from baseline (P<0.001) with the exception of one time point. The 24-month results demonstrate that GATT is relatively safe and effective in treating various forms of open-angle glaucoma. The long-term results for GATT are relatively equivalent to those previously reported for GATT and ab externo trabeculotomy studies.

Efficient bibliographic searches on allergology using PubMed.

PubMed

Sáez Gómez, J M; Aguinaga Ontoso, E; Negro Alvarez, J M; Guillén-Grima, F; Ivancevich, J C; Bozzola, C M

2007-01-01

PubMed is the most important of the non-specialized databases on biomedical literature. International and quickly updated is elaborated by the American Government and contains only information about papers published in scientific journal/s. Although it can be used as an unique Data Base, as a matter of fact is the addition of several subgroups (among them MEDLINE) that can be searched simultaneously. To present the main characteristics of PubMed, as well as the most important procedures of search, for obtaining efficient results in searches on allergology. PubMed is elaborated by the American Administration, that condition the character of the registered papers, 90 % of them are written in English in American (50 %) or British (20 %) Journals. Because of this, the information for certain specialties or countries must be obtained from other sources. This paper shows how PubMed allows to search in natural language due to the Automatic Term Mapping that links terms from the natural language with the descriptors producing searches with a higher sensitivity although with a low specificity. Nevertheless the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) thesaurus allows to translate those terms from the natural language to the equivalent descriptor, as well as to make queries in the PubMed's documental language with a high specificity but with lower sensitivity than the natural language. The use of union (OR), intersection (AND) and exclusion (NOT) operators, as well as tags, such as delimiters of the search fields, allows to increase the specificity of the results. Similar results may be obtained with the use of Limits. Searches done using Clinical Queries are very interesting due to their direct clinical application and because allow to find systematic reviews, metaanalysis or clinically oriented papers (treatment, diagnostic, etiology, prognosis or clinical prediction guides) on the area of interest. Other procedures such as the Index, History of searches, and the widening of the

Using PubMed search strings for efficient retrieval of manual therapy research literature.

PubMed

Pillastrini, Paolo; Vanti, Carla; Curti, Stefania; Mattioli, Stefano; Ferrari, Silvano; Violante, Francesco Saverio; Guccione, Andrew

2015-02-01

The aim of this study was to construct PubMed search strings that could efficiently retrieve studies on manual therapy (MT), especially for time-constrained clinicians. Our experts chose 11 Medical Subject Heading terms describing MT along with 84 additional potential terms. For each term that was able to retrieve more than 100 abstracts, we systematically extracted a sample of abstracts from which we estimated the proportion of studies potentially relevant to MT. We then constructed 2 search strings: 1 narrow (threshold of pertinent articles ≥40%) and 1 expanded (including all terms for which a proportion had been calculated). We tested these search strings against articles on 2 conditions relevant to MT (thoracic and temporomandibular pain). We calculated the number of abstracts needed to read (NNR) to identify 1 potentially pertinent article in the context of these conditions. Finally, we evaluated the efficiency of the proposed PubMed search strings to identify relevant articles included in a systematic review on spinal manipulative therapy for chronic low back pain. Fifty-five search terms were able to extract more than 100 citations. The NNR to find 1 potentially pertinent article using the narrow string was 1.2 for thoracic pain and 1.3 for temporomandibular pain, and the NNR for the expanded string was 1.9 and 1.6, respectively. The narrow search strategy retrieved all the randomized controlled trials included in the systematic review selected for comparison. The proposed PubMed search strings may help health care professionals locate potentially pertinent articles and review a large number of MT studies efficiently to better implement evidence-based practice. Copyright © 2015 National University of Health Sciences. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program

MedlinePlus

... Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program MedWatch: The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program Share ... use. [Posted 06/01/2018] More What's New FDA Approved Safety Information DailyMed (National Library of Medicine) ...

Selection and validation of reference genes for qRT-PCR analysis during biological invasions: The thermal adaptability of Bemisia tabaci MED.

PubMed

Dai, Tian-Mei; Lü, Zhi-Chuang; Liu, Wan-Xue; Wan, Fang-Hao

2017-01-01

The Bemisia tabaci Mediterranean (MED) cryptic species has been rapidly invading to most parts of the world owing to its strong ecological adaptability, which is considered as a model insect for stress tolerance studies under rapidly changing environments. Selection of a suitable reference gene for quantitative stress-responsive gene expression analysis based on qRT-PCR is critical for elaborating the molecular mechanisms of thermotolerance. To obtain accurate and reliable normalization data in MED, eight candidate reference genes (β-act, GAPDH, β-tub, EF1-α, GST, 18S, RPL13A and α-tub) were examined under various thermal stresses for varied time periods by using geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper algorithms, respectively. Our results revealed that β-tub and EF1-α were the best reference genes across all sample sets. On the other hand, 18S and GADPH showed the least stability for all the samples studied. β-act was proved to be highly stable only in case of short-term thermal stresses. To our knowledge this was the first comprehensive report on validation of reference genes under varying temperature stresses in MED. The study could expedite particular discovery of thermotolerance genes in MED. Further, the present results can form the basis of further research on suitable reference genes in this invasive insect and will facilitate transcript profiling in other invasive insects.

MedBlock: Efficient and Secure Medical Data Sharing Via Blockchain.

PubMed

Fan, Kai; Wang, Shangyang; Ren, Yanhui; Li, Hui; Yang, Yintang

2018-06-21

With the development of electronic information technology, electronic medical records (EMRs) have been a common way to store the patients' data in hospitals. They are stored in different hospitals' databases, even for the same patient. Therefore, it is difficult to construct a summarized EMR for one patient from multiple hospital databases due to the security and privacy concerns. Meanwhile, current EMRs systems lack a standard data management and sharing policy, making it difficult for pharmaceutical scientists to develop precise medicines based on data obtained under different policies. To solve the above problems, we proposed a blockchain-based information management system, MedBlock, to handle patients' information. In this scheme, the distributed ledger of MedBlock allows the efficient EMRs access and EMRs retrieval. The improved consensus mechanism achieves consensus of EMRs without large energy consumption and network congestion. In addition, MedBlock also exhibits high information security combining the customized access control protocols and symmetric cryptography. MedBlock can play an important role in the sensitive medical information sharing.

Surgical Outcomes of Gonioscopy-assisted Transluminal Trabeculotomy (GATT) in Patients With Open-angle Glaucoma.

PubMed

Rahmatnejad, Kamran; Pruzan, Noelle L; Amanullah, Sarah; Shaukat, Bilal A; Resende, Arthur F; Waisbourd, Michael; Zhan, Tingting; Moster, Marlene R

2017-12-01

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) in patients with open-angle glaucoma. A retrospective chart review of adult patients who underwent GATT due to inadequately controlled intraocular pressure (IOP) or intolerance to medication. Main outcome measures were success rate, IOP, and number of glaucoma medications. Success was defined as IOP reduction >20% from baseline or IOP between 5 to 21 mm Hg, and no need for further glaucoma surgery. When success criteria were not met for any postoperative visit >3 months after surgery, failure was determined. In total, 66 patients, average age 62.9±14.9 years (50.8% female) were included in the analysis. Average follow-up was 11.9 months (range, 3 to 30 mo) and overall success rate was 63.0%. Mean IOP was 26.1±9.9 mm Hg preoperatively and 14.6±4.7 mm Hg at 12 months (44% IOP decrease; P<0.001). Mean number of medications decreased from 3.1±1.1 preoperatively to 1.2±0.9 at 12 months (P<0.001). No significant differences between patients with primary open-angle glaucoma and other types of glaucoma were found.The rate of hyphema at 1 week and 1 month postoperatively was 38% and 6%, respectively. Overall GATT success rate among white and black patients was 69% and 42%, respectively, which was statistically significant (P<0.05). The future of GATT as a minimally invasive glaucoma surgery in adults seems promising. This position is supported by its low rate of long-term complications and the conjunctiva-sparing nature of the surgery.

Diabetes insipidus-like state complicating percutaneous transluminal renal stenting for transplant renal artery stenosis.

PubMed

Tian, Lu; He, Yangyan; Zhang, Hongkun; Wu, Ziheng; Li, Donglin; Chen, Shanwen

2014-07-01

To report the incidence, etiology, and treatments of diabetes insipidus-like state that complicate percutaneous transluminal renal stenting (PTRS) for transplant renal artery stenosis (TRAS). Data from 7 patients on whom PTRS for TRAS was performed between October 2008 and March 2012 were reviewed retrospectively. The parameters investigated included blood flow velocity, blood pressure, and creatinine levels before and after the intervention. The procedural success rate was 100%. Three cases developed a diabetes insipidus-like state in the immediate postprocedural period. Urine output returned to normal within 2 weeks after treatment. The median blood flow velocity was significantly reduced from 4.51 m/sec (4.31-4.61 m/sec) at the time of TRAS diagnosis to 1.33 m/sec (1.31-1.51 m/sec) at the most recent follow-up of the group with a diabetes insipidus-like state. The ratio of median blood flow velocity before and after stenting in the group with a diabetes insipidus-like state was significantly higher than that in the group without a diabetes insipidus-like state (3.39 vs. 1.93). Diabetes insipidus-like state that complicates PTRS for TRAS is not an uncommon event, but appears to be underreported in the medical literature. A high ratio of pre- and poststenting median blood flow velocity may be a predictor for a postprocedural diabetes insipidus-like state. The most probable cause may be the marked increase in renal arterial flow. Early recognition of the condition is essential to avoid dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Role for the MED21-MED7 Hinge in Assembly of the Mediator-RNA Polymerase II Holoenzyme*

PubMed Central

Sato, Shigeo; Tomomori-Sato, Chieri; Tsai, Kuang-Lei; Yu, Xiaodi; Sardiu, Mihaela; Saraf, Anita; Washburn, Michael P.; Florens, Laurence; Asturias, Francisco J.; Conaway, Ronald C.

2016-01-01

Mediator plays an integral role in activation of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription. A key step in activation is binding of Mediator to Pol II to form the Mediator-Pol II holoenzyme. Here, we exploit a combination of biochemistry and macromolecular EM to investigate holoenzyme assembly. We identify a subset of human Mediator head module subunits that bind Pol II independent of other subunits and thus probably contribute to a major Pol II binding site. In addition, we show that binding of human Mediator to Pol II depends on the integrity of a conserved “hinge” in the middle module MED21-MED7 heterodimer. Point mutations in the hinge region leave core Mediator intact but lead to increased disorder of the middle module and markedly reduced affinity for Pol II. These findings highlight the importance of Mediator conformation for holoenzyme assembly. PMID:27821593

PubMed had a higher sensitivity than Ovid-MEDLINE in the search for systematic reviews.

PubMed

Katchamart, Wanruchada; Faulkner, Amy; Feldman, Brian; Tomlinson, George; Bombardier, Claire

2011-07-01

To compare the performance of Ovid-MEDLINE vs. PubMed for identifying randomized controlled trials of methotrexate (MTX) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We created search strategies for Ovid-MEDLINE and PubMed for a systematic review of MTX in RA. Their performance was evaluated using sensitivity, precision, and number needed to read (NNR). Comparing searches in Ovid-MEDLINE vs. PubMed, PubMed retrieved more citations overall than Ovid-MEDLINE; however, of the 20 citations that met eligibility criteria for the review, Ovid-MEDLINE retrieved 17 and PubMed 18. The sensitivity was 85% for Ovid-MEDLINE vs. 90% for PubMed, whereas the precision and NNR were comparable (precision: 0.881% for Ovid-MEDLINE vs. 0.884% for PubMed and NNR: 114 for Ovid-MEDLINE vs. 113 for PubMed). In systematic reviews of RA, PubMed has higher sensitivity than Ovid-MEDLINE with comparable precision and NNR. This study highlights the importance of well-designed database-specific search strategies. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

JTF CapMed Initial Outfitting and Transition (IO&T) - History, Process, Benefits

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-26

Sharing Knowledge: Achieving Breakthrough Performance 2010 Military Health System Conference JTF CapMed 26 January, 2011 CAPT Russell Pendergrass...The Quadruple Aim: Working Together, Achieving Success 2011 Military Health System Confer nce JTF CapMed Initial Outfitting and Transition (IO&T...number. 1. REPORT DATE 26 JAN 2011 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED 00-00-2011 to 00-00-2011 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE JTF CapMed Initial Outfitting

How Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners Use PubMed

PubMed Central

Quint-Rapoport, Mia

2007-01-01

Background PubMed is the largest bibliographic index in the life sciences. It is freely available online and is used by professionals and the public to learn more about medical research. While primarily intended to serve researchers, PubMed provides an array of tools and services that can help a wider readership in the location, comprehension, evaluation, and utilization of medical research. Objective This study sought to establish the potential contributions made by a range of PubMed tools and services to the use of the database by complementary and alternative medicine practitioners. Methods In this study, 10 chiropractors, 7 registered massage therapists, and a homeopath (N = 18), 11 with prior research training and 7 without, were taken through a 2-hour introductory session with PubMed. The 10 PubMed tools and services considered in this study can be divided into three functions: (1) information retrieval (Boolean Search, Limits, Related Articles, Author Links, MeSH), (2) information access (Publisher Link, LinkOut, Bookshelf ), and (3) information management (History, Send To, Email Alert). Participants were introduced to between six and 10 of these tools and services. The participants were asked to provide feedback on the value of each tool or service in terms of their information needs, which was ranked as positive, positive with emphasis, negative, or indifferent. Results The participants in this study expressed an interest in the three types of PubMed tools and services (information retrieval, access, and management), with less well-regarded tools including MeSH Database and Bookshelf. In terms of their comprehension of the research, the tools and services led the participants to reflect on their understanding as well as their critical reading and use of the research. There was universal support among the participants for greater access to complete articles, beyond the approximately 15% that are currently open access. The abstracts provided by PubMed were

CDAPubMed: a browser extension to retrieve EHR-based biomedical literature.

PubMed

Perez-Rey, David; Jimenez-Castellanos, Ana; Garcia-Remesal, Miguel; Crespo, Jose; Maojo, Victor

2012-04-05

Over the last few decades, the ever-increasing output of scientific publications has led to new challenges to keep up to date with the literature. In the biomedical area, this growth has introduced new requirements for professionals, e.g., physicians, who have to locate the exact papers that they need for their clinical and research work amongst a huge number of publications. Against this backdrop, novel information retrieval methods are even more necessary. While web search engines are widespread in many areas, facilitating access to all kinds of information, additional tools are required to automatically link information retrieved from these engines to specific biomedical applications. In the case of clinical environments, this also means considering aspects such as patient data security and confidentiality or structured contents, e.g., electronic health records (EHRs). In this scenario, we have developed a new tool to facilitate query building to retrieve scientific literature related to EHRs. We have developed CDAPubMed, an open-source web browser extension to integrate EHR features in biomedical literature retrieval approaches. Clinical users can use CDAPubMed to: (i) load patient clinical documents, i.e., EHRs based on the Health Level 7-Clinical Document Architecture Standard (HL7-CDA), (ii) identify relevant terms for scientific literature search in these documents, i.e., Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), automatically driven by the CDAPubMed configuration, which advanced users can optimize to adapt to each specific situation, and (iii) generate and launch literature search queries to a major search engine, i.e., PubMed, to retrieve citations related to the EHR under examination. CDAPubMed is a platform-independent tool designed to facilitate literature searching using keywords contained in specific EHRs. CDAPubMed is visually integrated, as an extension of a widespread web browser, within the standard PubMed interface. It has been tested on a public dataset

Efficacy of Ultrasound-Guided Axillary Brachial Plexus Block for Analgesia During Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty for Dialysis Access

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

Chiba, Emiko, E-mail: chibaemi23@comet.ocn.ne.jp; Hamamoto, Kohei, E-mail: hkouhei917@gmail.com; Nagashima, Michio, E-mail: nagamic00@gmail.com

PurposeTo evaluate the efficacy and safety of ultrasound (US)-guided axillary brachial plexus block (ABPB) for analgesia during percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) for dialysis access.Subjects and MethodsTwenty-one patients who underwent PTA for stenotic dialysis access shunts and who had previous experience of PTA without sedation, analgesia, and anesthesia were included. The access type in all patients was native arteriovenous fistulae in the forearm. Two radiologists performed US-guided ABPB for the radial and musculocutaneous nerves before PTA. The patients’ pain scores were evaluated using a visual analog scale (VAS) after PTA, and these were compared with previous sessions without US-guided ABPB. Themore » patient’s motor/sensory paralysis after PTA was also examined.ResultsThe mean time required to achieve US-guided ABPB was 8 min. The success rate of this procedure was 100 %, and there were no significant complications. All 21 patients reported lower VAS with US-guided ABPB as compared to without the block (p < 0.01). All patients expressed the desire for an ABPB for future PTA sessions, if required. Transient motor paralysis occurred in 8 patients, but resolved in all after 60 min.ConclusionUS-guided ABPB is feasible and effective for analgesia in patients undergoing PTA for stenotic dialysis access sites.Level of EvidenceLevel 4 (case series).« less

MedRapid--medical community & business intelligence system.

PubMed

Finkeissen, E; Fuchs, H; Jakob, T; Wetter, T

2002-01-01

currently, it takes at least 6 months for researchers to communicate their results. This delay is caused (a) by partial lacks of machine support for both representation as well as communication and (b) by media breaks during the communication process. To make an integrated communication between researchers and practitioners possible, a general structure for medical content representation has been set up. The procedure for data entry and quality management has been generalized and implemented in a web-based authoring system. The MedRapid-system supports the medical experts in entering their knowledge into a database. Here, the level of detail is still below that of current medical guidelines representation. However, the symmetric structure for an area-wide medical knowledge representation is highly retrievable and thus can quickly be communicated into daily routine for the improvement of the treatment quality. In addition, other sources like journal articles and medical guidelines can be references within the MedRapid-system and thus be communicated into daily routine. The fundamental system for the representation of medical reference knowledge (from reference works/books) itself is not sufficient for the friction-less communication amongst medical staff. Rather, the process of (a) representing medical knowledge, (b) refereeing the represented knowledge, (c) communicating the represented knowledge, and (d) retrieving the represented knowledge has to be unified. MedRapid will soon support the whole process on one server system.

Improving accuracy for identifying related PubMed queries by an integrated approach.

PubMed

Lu, Zhiyong; Wilbur, W John

2009-10-01

PubMed is the most widely used tool for searching biomedical literature online. As with many other online search tools, a user often types a series of multiple related queries before retrieving satisfactory results to fulfill a single information need. Meanwhile, it is also a common phenomenon to see a user type queries on unrelated topics in a single session. In order to study PubMed users' search strategies, it is necessary to be able to automatically separate unrelated queries and group together related queries. Here, we report a novel approach combining both lexical and contextual analyses for segmenting PubMed query sessions and identifying related queries and compare its performance with the previous approach based solely on concept mapping. We experimented with our integrated approach on sample data consisting of 1539 pairs of consecutive user queries in 351 user sessions. The prediction results of 1396 pairs agreed with the gold-standard annotations, achieving an overall accuracy of 90.7%. This demonstrates that our approach is significantly better than the previously published method. By applying this approach to a one day query log of PubMed, we found that a significant proportion of information needs involved more than one PubMed query, and that most of the consecutive queries for the same information need are lexically related. Finally, the proposed PubMed distance is shown to be an accurate and meaningful measure for determining the contextual similarity between biological terms. The integrated approach can play a critical role in handling real-world PubMed query log data as is demonstrated in our experiments.

A functional portrait of Med7 and the mediator complex in Candida albicans.

PubMed

Tebbji, Faiza; Chen, Yaolin; Richard Albert, Julien; Gunsalus, Kearney T W; Kumamoto, Carol A; Nantel, André; Sellam, Adnane; Whiteway, Malcolm

2014-11-01

Mediator is a multi-subunit protein complex that regulates gene expression in eukaryotes by integrating physiological and developmental signals and transmitting them to the general RNA polymerase II machinery. We examined, in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans, a set of conditional alleles of genes encoding Mediator subunits of the head, middle, and tail modules that were found to be essential in the related ascomycete Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Intriguingly, while the Med4, 8, 10, 11, 14, 17, 21 and 22 subunits were essential in both fungi, the structurally highly conserved Med7 subunit was apparently non-essential in C. albicans. While loss of CaMed7 did not lead to loss of viability under normal growth conditions, it dramatically influenced the pathogen's ability to grow in different carbon sources, to form hyphae and biofilms, and to colonize the gastrointestinal tracts of mice. We used epitope tagging and location profiling of the Med7 subunit to examine the distribution of the DNA sites bound by Mediator during growth in either the yeast or the hyphal form, two distinct morphologies characterized by different transcription profiles. We observed a core set of 200 genes bound by Med7 under both conditions; this core set is expanded moderately during yeast growth, but is expanded considerably during hyphal growth, supporting the idea that Mediator binding correlates with changes in transcriptional activity and that this binding is condition specific. Med7 bound not only in the promoter regions of active genes but also within coding regions and at the 3' ends of genes. By combining genome-wide location profiling, expression analyses and phenotyping, we have identified different Med7p-influenced regulons including genes related to glycolysis and the Filamentous Growth Regulator family. In the absence of Med7, the ribosomal regulon is de-repressed, suggesting Med7 is involved in central aspects of growth control.

Solar-assisted MED treatment of Eskom power station waste water

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roos, Thomas H.; Rogers, David E. C.; Gericke, Gerhard

2017-06-01

The comparative benefits of multi-effect distillation (MED) used in conjunction with Nano Filtration (NF), Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Eutectic Freeze Crystallization (EFC) are determined for waste water minimization for inland coal fired power stations for Zero Liquid Effluent Discharge (ZLED). A sequence of technologies is proposed to achieve maximal water recovery and brine concentration: NF - physico-chemical treatment - MED - EFC. The possibility of extending the concentration of RO reject arising from minewater treatment at the Lethabo power station with MED alone is evaluated with mineral formation modelling using the thermochemical modelling software Phreeq-C. It is shown that pretreatment is essential to extend the amount of water that can be recovered, and this can be beneficially supported by NF.

Enabling multi-level relevance feedback on PubMed by integrating rank learning into DBMS.

PubMed

Yu, Hwanjo; Kim, Taehoon; Oh, Jinoh; Ko, Ilhwan; Kim, Sungchul; Han, Wook-Shin

2010-04-16

Finding relevant articles from PubMed is challenging because it is hard to express the user's specific intention in the given query interface, and a keyword query typically retrieves a large number of results. Researchers have applied machine learning techniques to find relevant articles by ranking the articles according to the learned relevance function. However, the process of learning and ranking is usually done offline without integrated with the keyword queries, and the users have to provide a large amount of training documents to get a reasonable learning accuracy. This paper proposes a novel multi-level relevance feedback system for PubMed, called RefMed, which supports both ad-hoc keyword queries and a multi-level relevance feedback in real time on PubMed. RefMed supports a multi-level relevance feedback by using the RankSVM as the learning method, and thus it achieves higher accuracy with less feedback. RefMed "tightly" integrates the RankSVM into RDBMS to support both keyword queries and the multi-level relevance feedback in real time; the tight coupling of the RankSVM and DBMS substantially improves the processing time. An efficient parameter selection method for the RankSVM is also proposed, which tunes the RankSVM parameter without performing validation. Thereby, RefMed achieves a high learning accuracy in real time without performing a validation process. RefMed is accessible at http://dm.postech.ac.kr/refmed. RefMed is the first multi-level relevance feedback system for PubMed, which achieves a high accuracy with less feedback. It effectively learns an accurate relevance function from the user's feedback and efficiently processes the function to return relevant articles in real time.

Role for the MED21-MED7 Hinge in Assembly of the Mediator-RNA Polymerase II Holoenzyme.

PubMed

Sato, Shigeo; Tomomori-Sato, Chieri; Tsai, Kuang-Lei; Yu, Xiaodi; Sardiu, Mihaela; Saraf, Anita; Washburn, Michael P; Florens, Laurence; Asturias, Francisco J; Conaway, Ronald C; Conaway, Joan W

2016-12-23

Mediator plays an integral role in activation of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription. A key step in activation is binding of Mediator to Pol II to form the Mediator-Pol II holoenzyme. Here, we exploit a combination of biochemistry and macromolecular EM to investigate holoenzyme assembly. We identify a subset of human Mediator head module subunits that bind Pol II independent of other subunits and thus probably contribute to a major Pol II binding site. In addition, we show that binding of human Mediator to Pol II depends on the integrity of a conserved "hinge" in the middle module MED21-MED7 heterodimer. Point mutations in the hinge region leave core Mediator intact but lead to increased disorder of the middle module and markedly reduced affinity for Pol II. These findings highlight the importance of Mediator conformation for holoenzyme assembly. © 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

PubMedPortable: A Framework for Supporting the Development of Text Mining Applications.

PubMed

Döring, Kersten; Grüning, Björn A; Telukunta, Kiran K; Thomas, Philippe; Günther, Stefan

2016-01-01

Information extraction from biomedical literature is continuously growing in scope and importance. Many tools exist that perform named entity recognition, e.g. of proteins, chemical compounds, and diseases. Furthermore, several approaches deal with the extraction of relations between identified entities. The BioCreative community supports these developments with yearly open challenges, which led to a standardised XML text annotation format called BioC. PubMed provides access to the largest open biomedical literature repository, but there is no unified way of connecting its data to natural language processing tools. Therefore, an appropriate data environment is needed as a basis to combine different software solutions and to develop customised text mining applications. PubMedPortable builds a relational database and a full text index on PubMed citations. It can be applied either to the complete PubMed data set or an arbitrary subset of downloaded PubMed XML files. The software provides the infrastructure to combine stand-alone applications by exporting different data formats, e.g. BioC. The presented workflows show how to use PubMedPortable to retrieve, store, and analyse a disease-specific data set. The provided use cases are well documented in the PubMedPortable wiki. The open-source software library is small, easy to use, and scalable to the user's system requirements. It is freely available for Linux on the web at https://github.com/KerstenDoering/PubMedPortable and for other operating systems as a virtual container. The approach was tested extensively and applied successfully in several projects.

PubMedPortable: A Framework for Supporting the Development of Text Mining Applications

PubMed Central

Döring, Kersten; Grüning, Björn A.; Telukunta, Kiran K.; Thomas, Philippe; Günther, Stefan

2016-01-01

Information extraction from biomedical literature is continuously growing in scope and importance. Many tools exist that perform named entity recognition, e.g. of proteins, chemical compounds, and diseases. Furthermore, several approaches deal with the extraction of relations between identified entities. The BioCreative community supports these developments with yearly open challenges, which led to a standardised XML text annotation format called BioC. PubMed provides access to the largest open biomedical literature repository, but there is no unified way of connecting its data to natural language processing tools. Therefore, an appropriate data environment is needed as a basis to combine different software solutions and to develop customised text mining applications. PubMedPortable builds a relational database and a full text index on PubMed citations. It can be applied either to the complete PubMed data set or an arbitrary subset of downloaded PubMed XML files. The software provides the infrastructure to combine stand-alone applications by exporting different data formats, e.g. BioC. The presented workflows show how to use PubMedPortable to retrieve, store, and analyse a disease-specific data set. The provided use cases are well documented in the PubMedPortable wiki. The open-source software library is small, easy to use, and scalable to the user’s system requirements. It is freely available for Linux on the web at https://github.com/KerstenDoering/PubMedPortable and for other operating systems as a virtual container. The approach was tested extensively and applied successfully in several projects. PMID:27706202

Improving accuracy for identifying related PubMed queries by an integrated approach

PubMed Central

Lu, Zhiyong; Wilbur, W. John

2009-01-01

PubMed is the most widely used tool for searching biomedical literature online. As with many other online search tools, a user often types a series of multiple related queries before retrieving satisfactory results to fulfill a single information need. Meanwhile, it is also a common phenomenon to see a user type queries on unrelated topics in a single session. In order to study PubMed users’ search strategies, it is necessary to be able to automatically separate unrelated queries and group together related queries. Here, we report a novel approach combining both lexical and contextual analyses for segmenting PubMed query sessions and identifying related queries and compare its performance with the previous approach based solely on concept mapping. We experimented with our integrated approach on sample data consisting of 1,539 pairs of consecutive user queries in 351 user sessions. The prediction results of 1,396 pairs agreed with the gold-standard annotations, achieving an overall accuracy of 90.7%. This demonstrates that our approach is significantly better than the previously published method. By applying this approach to a one day query log of PubMed, we found that a significant proportion of information needs involved more than one PubMed query, and that most of the consecutive queries for the same information need are lexically related. Finally, the proposed PubMed distance is shown to be an accurate and meaningful measure for determining the contextual similarity between biological terms. The integrated approach can play a critical role in handling real-world PubMed query log data as is demonstrated in our experiments. PMID:19162232

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI): Complete Flight Data Set

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheatwood, F. McNeil; Bose, Deepak; Karlgaard, Christopher D.; Kuhl, Christopher A.; Santos, Jose A.; Wright, Michael J.

2014-01-01

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) entry vehicle (EV) successfully entered the Mars atmosphere and landed the Curiosity rover safely on the surface of the planet in Gale crater on August 6, 2012. MSL carried the MSL Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Instrumentation (MEDLI). MEDLI delivered the first in-depth understanding of the Mars entry environments and the response of the entry vehicle to those environments. MEDLI was comprised of three major subsystems: the Mars Entry Atmospheric Data System (MEADS), the MEDLI Integrated Sensor Plugs (MISP), and the Sensor Support Electronics (SSE). Ultimately, the entire MEDLI sensor suite consisting of both MEADS and MISP provided measurements that were used for trajectory reconstruction and engineering validation of aerodynamic, atmospheric, and thermal protection system (TPS) models in addition to Earth-based systems testing procedures. This report contains in-depth hardware descriptions, performance evaluation, and data information of the three MEDLI subsystems.

Mars2020 Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI2): Science Objectives and Instrument Requirements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bose, Deepak; White, Todd; Schoenenberger, Mark; Karlgaard, Chris; Wright, Henry

2015-01-01

NASAs exploration and technology roadmaps call for capability advancements in Mars entry, descent, and landing (EDL) systems to enable increased landed mass, a higher landing precision, and a wider planetary access. It is also recognized that these ambitious EDL performance goals must be met while maintaining a low mission risk in order to pave the way for future human missions. As NASA is engaged in developing new EDL systems and technologies via testing at Earth, instrumentation of existing Mars missions is providing valuable engineering data for performance improvement, risk reduction, and an improved definition of entry loads and environment. The most notable recent example is the Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Instrument (MEDLI) suite hosted by Mars Science Laboratory for its entry in Aug 2012. The MEDLI suite provided a comprehensive dataset for Mars entry aerodynamics, aerothermodynamics and thermal protection system (TPS) performance. MEDLI data has since been used for unprecedented reconstruction of aerodynamic drag, vehicle attitude, in-situ atmospheric density, aerothermal heating, and transition to turbulence, in-depth TPS performance and TPS ablation. [1,2] In addition to validating predictive models, MEDLI data has demonstrated extra margin available in the MSL forebody TPS, which can potentially be used to reduce vehicle parasitic mass. The presentation will introduce a follow-on MEDLI instrumentation suite (called MEDLI2) that is being developed for Mars-2020 mission. MEDLI2 has an enhanced scope that includes backshell instrumentation, a wider forebody coverage, and instruments that specifically target supersonic aerodynamics. Similar to MEDLI, MEDLI2 uses thermal plugs with embedded thermocouples and ports through the TPS to measure surface pressure. MEDLI2, however, also includes heat flux sensors in the backshell and a low range pressure transducer to measure afterbody pressure.

Enabling multi-level relevance feedback on PubMed by integrating rank learning into DBMS

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Finding relevant articles from PubMed is challenging because it is hard to express the user's specific intention in the given query interface, and a keyword query typically retrieves a large number of results. Researchers have applied machine learning techniques to find relevant articles by ranking the articles according to the learned relevance function. However, the process of learning and ranking is usually done offline without integrated with the keyword queries, and the users have to provide a large amount of training documents to get a reasonable learning accuracy. This paper proposes a novel multi-level relevance feedback system for PubMed, called RefMed, which supports both ad-hoc keyword queries and a multi-level relevance feedback in real time on PubMed. Results RefMed supports a multi-level relevance feedback by using the RankSVM as the learning method, and thus it achieves higher accuracy with less feedback. RefMed "tightly" integrates the RankSVM into RDBMS to support both keyword queries and the multi-level relevance feedback in real time; the tight coupling of the RankSVM and DBMS substantially improves the processing time. An efficient parameter selection method for the RankSVM is also proposed, which tunes the RankSVM parameter without performing validation. Thereby, RefMed achieves a high learning accuracy in real time without performing a validation process. RefMed is accessible at http://dm.postech.ac.kr/refmed. Conclusions RefMed is the first multi-level relevance feedback system for PubMed, which achieves a high accuracy with less feedback. It effectively learns an accurate relevance function from the user’s feedback and efficiently processes the function to return relevant articles in real time. PMID:20406504

Retrieving clinical evidence: a comparison of PubMed and Google Scholar for quick clinical searches.

PubMed

Shariff, Salimah Z; Bejaimal, Shayna Ad; Sontrop, Jessica M; Iansavichus, Arthur V; Haynes, R Brian; Weir, Matthew A; Garg, Amit X

2013-08-15

Physicians frequently search PubMed for information to guide patient care. More recently, Google Scholar has gained popularity as another freely accessible bibliographic database. To compare the performance of searches in PubMed and Google Scholar. We surveyed nephrologists (kidney specialists) and provided each with a unique clinical question derived from 100 renal therapy systematic reviews. Each physician provided the search terms they would type into a bibliographic database to locate evidence to answer the clinical question. We executed each of these searches in PubMed and Google Scholar and compared results for the first 40 records retrieved (equivalent to 2 default search pages in PubMed). We evaluated the recall (proportion of relevant articles found) and precision (ratio of relevant to nonrelevant articles) of the searches performed in PubMed and Google Scholar. Primary studies included in the systematic reviews served as the reference standard for relevant articles. We further documented whether relevant articles were available as free full-texts. Compared with PubMed, the average search in Google Scholar retrieved twice as many relevant articles (PubMed: 11%; Google Scholar: 22%; P<.001). Precision was similar in both databases (PubMed: 6%; Google Scholar: 8%; P=.07). Google Scholar provided significantly greater access to free full-text publications (PubMed: 5%; Google Scholar: 14%; P<.001). For quick clinical searches, Google Scholar returns twice as many relevant articles as PubMed and provides greater access to free full-text articles.

Mediator MED23 regulates basal transcription in vivo via an interaction with P-TEFb.

PubMed

Wang, Wei; Yao, Xiao; Huang, Yan; Hu, Xiangming; Liu, Runzhong; Hou, Dongming; Chen, Ruichuan; Wang, Gang

2013-01-01

The Mediator is a multi-subunit complex that transduces regulatory information from transcription regulators to the RNA polymerase II apparatus. Growing evidence suggests that Mediator plays roles in multiple stages of eukaryotic transcription, including elongation. However, the detailed mechanism by which Mediator regulates elongation remains elusive. In this study, we demonstrate that Mediator MED23 subunit controls a basal level of transcription by recruiting elongation factor P-TEFb, via an interaction with its CDK9 subunit. The mRNA level of Egr1, a MED23-controlled model gene, is reduced 4-5 fold in Med23 (-/-) ES cells under an unstimulated condition, but Med23-deficiency does not alter the occupancies of RNAP II, GTFs, Mediator complex, or activator ELK1 at the Egr1 promoter. Instead, Med23 depletion results in a significant decrease in P-TEFb and RNAP II (Ser2P) binding at the coding region, but no changes for several other elongation regulators, such as DSIF and NELF. ChIP-seq revealed that Med23-deficiency partially reduced the P-TEFb occupancy at a set of MED23-regulated gene promoters. Further, we demonstrate that MED23 interacts with CDK9 in vivo and in vitro. Collectively, these results provide the mechanistic insight into how Mediator promotes RNAP II into transcription elongation.

The performances of standard and ResMed masks during bag-valve-mask ventilation.

PubMed

Lee, Hyoung Youn; Jeung, Kyung Woon; Lee, Byung Kook; Lee, Seung Joon; Jung, Yong Hun; Lee, Geo Sung; Min, Yong Il; Heo, Tag

2013-01-01

A tight mask seal is frequently difficult to obtain and maintain during single-rescuer bag-valve-mask (BVM) ventilation. The ResMed mask (Bella Vista, NSW, Australia) is a continuous-positive-airway-pressure mask (CM) designed for noninvasive ventilation. In this study, we compared the ventilation performances of a standard mask (SM) and a ResMed CM using a simulation manikin in an out-of-hospital single-rescuer BVM ventilation scenario. Thirty emergency medical technicians (EMTs) performed two 2-minute attempts to ventilate a simulation manikin using BVM ventilation, alternatively, with the SM or the ResMed CM in a randomized order. Ventilation parameters including tidal volume and peak airway pressure were measured using computer analysis software connected to the simulation manikin. Successful volume delivery was defined as delivery of 440-540 mL of tidal volume in accord with present cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines. BVM ventilation using the ResMed CM produced higher mean (± standard deviation) tidal volumes (452 ± 50 mL vs. 394 ± 113 mL, p = 0.014) and had a higher proportion of successful volume deliveries (65.3% vs. 26.7%, p < 0.001) than that using the SM. Peak airway pressure was higher in BVM ventilation using the ResMed CM (p = 0.035). Stomach insufflation did not occur during either method. Twenty-nine of the participants (96.7%) preferred BVM ventilation using the ResMed CM. BVM ventilations using ResMed CM resulted in a significantly higher proportion of successful volume deliveries meeting the currently recommended range of tidal volume. Clinical studies are needed to determine the value of the ResMed CM for BVM ventilation.

CDAPubMed: a browser extension to retrieve EHR-based biomedical literature

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Over the last few decades, the ever-increasing output of scientific publications has led to new challenges to keep up to date with the literature. In the biomedical area, this growth has introduced new requirements for professionals, e.g., physicians, who have to locate the exact papers that they need for their clinical and research work amongst a huge number of publications. Against this backdrop, novel information retrieval methods are even more necessary. While web search engines are widespread in many areas, facilitating access to all kinds of information, additional tools are required to automatically link information retrieved from these engines to specific biomedical applications. In the case of clinical environments, this also means considering aspects such as patient data security and confidentiality or structured contents, e.g., electronic health records (EHRs). In this scenario, we have developed a new tool to facilitate query building to retrieve scientific literature related to EHRs. Results We have developed CDAPubMed, an open-source web browser extension to integrate EHR features in biomedical literature retrieval approaches. Clinical users can use CDAPubMed to: (i) load patient clinical documents, i.e., EHRs based on the Health Level 7-Clinical Document Architecture Standard (HL7-CDA), (ii) identify relevant terms for scientific literature search in these documents, i.e., Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), automatically driven by the CDAPubMed configuration, which advanced users can optimize to adapt to each specific situation, and (iii) generate and launch literature search queries to a major search engine, i.e., PubMed, to retrieve citations related to the EHR under examination. Conclusions CDAPubMed is a platform-independent tool designed to facilitate literature searching using keywords contained in specific EHRs. CDAPubMed is visually integrated, as an extension of a widespread web browser, within the standard PubMed interface. It has

On the COSMO-SkyMed Exploitation for Interferometric DEM Generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teresa, C. M.; Raffaele, N.; Oscar, N. D.; Fabio, B.

2011-12-01

Work supported by ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) in the framework of the project "AO-COSMO Project ID-1462 - Feasibility of possible use of COSMO/SkyMed in bistatic SAR Earth observation - ASI Contract I/063/09/0". References [1] B. Rabus, M. Eineder, A. Roth, and R. Bamler, "The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission-A new class of digital elevation models acquired by spaceborne radar," ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens., vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 241-262, Feb. 2003. [2] F. BOVENGA, D. O. NITTI, R. NUTRICATO, M. T. CHIARADIA, "C- and X-band multi-pass InSAR analysis over Alpine and Apennine regions". In Proceedings of the European Space Agency Living Planet Symposium, June 28 - July 2, 2010, Bergen, Norway. [3] D. REALE, D. O. NITTI, D. PEDUTO, R. NUTRICATO, F. BOVENGA, G. FORNARO, "Postseismic Deformation Monitoring With The COSMO/SKYMED Constellation". IEEE Geoscience Remote Sensing Letters, 2011. DOI: 10.1109/LGRS.2010.2100364 [4] Nitti, D.O., Nutricato, R., Bovenga, F., Conte, D., Guerriero, L. & Milillo, G., "Quantitative Analysis of Stripmap And Spotlight SAR Interferometry with CosmoSkyMed constellation.", Proceedings if IEEE IGARSS 2009, July 13-17, 2009. Cape Town, South Africa.

Overview of the SkyMed/COSMO mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caltagirone, Francesco; Spera, Paolo; Vigliotti, R.; Manoni, Gemma

1998-12-01

The impact of natural and man-made disasters on the social and economic progress is going to become more significant, making necessary to consider natural disasters reduction. Therefore civil protection and resource managers need elements to make quicker and better decisions on a day-to-day basis, so giving the start to an emerging world-wide remote sensing market. A deep analysis on the potential users, mainly devoted to Mediterranean basin, highlights that existing and/or planned systems are not able to completely satisfy their requirements. To fulfill this gap, Italy decided to promote the SkyMed/COSMO system, presently financed by the Italian Space Agency. SkyMed/COSMO is a constellation of small satellites for observation, remote sensing and data exploitation for risks management and coastal zone monitoring, conceived to provide products, services and logistics to both institutional and commercial remote sensing users on global scale. Furthermore the system is able to satisfy a broad spectrum of important applications also in the field of the resource management, land use and law enforcement. The SkyMed/COSMO current system architecture foresees a constellation of small satellites in two different orbit planes composed by 4 satellite equipped with X-band SAR and 3 satellites equipped with optical sensors. The system is characterized by good spatial resolution, day and night/all-weather imaging capability and by a very good revisit time. The program, currently in phase B, is carried out by an industrial consortium lead by Alenia Aerospazio.

Observing floods from space: Experience gained from COSMO-SkyMed observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierdicca, N.; Pulvirenti, L.; Chini, M.; Guerriero, L.; Candela, L.

2013-03-01

The COSMO-SkyMed mission offers a unique opportunity to obtain all weather radar images characterized by short revisit time, thus being useful for flood evolution mapping. The COSMO-SkyMed system has been activated several times in the last few years in occasion of flood events all over the world in order to provide very high resolution X-band SAR images useful for flood detection purposes. This paper discusses the major outcomes of the experience gained, within the framework of the OPERA Pilot Project funded by the Italian Space Agency, from using COSMO-SkyMed data for the purpose of near real time generation of flood maps. A review of the mechanisms which determine the imprints of the inundation on the radar images and of the fundamental simulation tools able to predict these imprints and help image interpretation is provided. The approach developed to process the data and to generate the flood maps is also summarized. Then, the paper illustrates the experience gained with COSMO-SkyMed by describing and discussing a number of significant examples. These examples demonstrate the potential of the COSMO-SkyMed system and the suitability of the approach developed for generating the final products, but they also highlight some critical aspects that require further investigations to improve the reliability of the flood maps.

A Functional Portrait of Med7 and the Mediator Complex in Candida albicans

PubMed Central

Tebbji, Faiza; Chen, Yaolin; Richard Albert, Julien; Gunsalus, Kearney T. W.; Kumamoto, Carol A.; Nantel, André; Sellam, Adnane; Whiteway, Malcolm

2014-01-01

Mediator is a multi-subunit protein complex that regulates gene expression in eukaryotes by integrating physiological and developmental signals and transmitting them to the general RNA polymerase II machinery. We examined, in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans, a set of conditional alleles of genes encoding Mediator subunits of the head, middle, and tail modules that were found to be essential in the related ascomycete Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Intriguingly, while the Med4, 8, 10, 11, 14, 17, 21 and 22 subunits were essential in both fungi, the structurally highly conserved Med7 subunit was apparently non-essential in C. albicans. While loss of CaMed7 did not lead to loss of viability under normal growth conditions, it dramatically influenced the pathogen's ability to grow in different carbon sources, to form hyphae and biofilms, and to colonize the gastrointestinal tracts of mice. We used epitope tagging and location profiling of the Med7 subunit to examine the distribution of the DNA sites bound by Mediator during growth in either the yeast or the hyphal form, two distinct morphologies characterized by different transcription profiles. We observed a core set of 200 genes bound by Med7 under both conditions; this core set is expanded moderately during yeast growth, but is expanded considerably during hyphal growth, supporting the idea that Mediator binding correlates with changes in transcriptional activity and that this binding is condition specific. Med7 bound not only in the promoter regions of active genes but also within coding regions and at the 3′ ends of genes. By combining genome-wide location profiling, expression analyses and phenotyping, we have identified different Med7p-influenced regulons including genes related to glycolysis and the Filamentous Growth Regulator family. In the absence of Med7, the ribosomal regulon is de-repressed, suggesting Med7 is involved in central aspects of growth control. PMID:25375174

Integrated and implicit: how residents learn CanMEDS roles by participating in practice.

PubMed

Renting, Nienke; Raat, A N Janet; Dornan, Tim; Wenger-Trayner, Etienne; van der Wal, Martha A; Borleffs, Jan C C; Gans, Rijk O B; Jaarsma, A Debbie C

2017-09-01

Learning outcomes for residency training are defined in competency frameworks such as the CanMEDS framework, which ultimately aim to better prepare residents for their future tasks. Although residents' training relies heavily on learning through participation in the workplace under the supervision of a specialist, it remains unclear how the CanMEDS framework informs practice-based learning and daily interactions between residents and supervisors. This study aimed to explore how the CanMEDS framework informs residents' practice-based training and interactions with supervisors. Constructivist grounded theory guided iterative data collection and analyses. Data were collected by direct observations of residents and supervisors, combined with formal and field interviews. We progressively arrived at an explanatory theory by coding and interpreting the data, building provisional theories and through continuous conversations. Data analysis drew on sensitising insights from communities of practice theory, which provided this study with a social learning perspective. CanMEDS roles occurred in an integrated fashion and usually remained implicit during interactions. The language of CanMEDS was not adopted in clinical practice, which seemed to impede explicit learning interactions. The CanMEDS framework seemed only one of many factors of influence in practice-based training: patient records and other documents were highly influential in daily activities and did not always correspond with CanMEDS roles. Additionally, the position of residents seemed too peripheral to allow them to learn certain aspects of the Health Advocate and Leader roles. The CanMEDS framework did not really guide supervisors' and residents' practice or interactions. It was not explicitly used as a common language in which to talk about resident performance and roles. Therefore, the extent to which CanMEDS actually helps improve residents' learning trajectories and conversations between residents and

The medical dictionary for regulatory activities (MedDRA).

PubMed

Brown, E G; Wood, L; Wood, S

1999-02-01

The International Conference on Harmonisation has agreed upon the structure and content of the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) version 2.0 which should become available in the early part of 1999. This medical terminology is intended for use in the pre- and postmarketing phases of the medicines regulatory process, covering diagnoses, symptoms and signs, adverse drug reactions and therapeutic indications, the names and qualitative results of investigations, surgical and medical procedures, and medical/social history. It can be used for recording adverse events and medical history in clinical trials, in the analysis and tabulations of data from these trials and in the expedited submission of safety data to government regulatory authorities, as well as in constructing standard product information and documentation for applications for marketing authorisation. After licensing of a medicine, it may be used in pharmacovigilance and is expected to be the preferred terminology for international electronic regulatory communication. MedDRA is a hierarchical terminology with 5 levels and is multiaxial: terms may exist in more than 1 vertical axis, providing specificity of terms for data entry and flexibility in data retrieval. Terms in MedDRA were derived from several sources including the WHO's adverse reaction terminology (WHO-ART), Coding Symbols for a Thesaurus of Adverse Reaction Terms (COSTART), International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 9 and ICD9-CM. It will be maintained, further developed and distributed by a Maintenance Support Services Organisation (MSSO). It is anticipated that using MedDRA will improve the quality of data captured on databases, support effective analysis by providing clinically relevant groupings of terms and facilitate electronic communication of data, although as a new tool, users will need to invest time in gaining expertise in its use.

Retrieving Clinical Evidence: A Comparison of PubMed and Google Scholar for Quick Clinical Searches

PubMed Central

Bejaimal, Shayna AD; Sontrop, Jessica M; Iansavichus, Arthur V; Haynes, R Brian; Weir, Matthew A; Garg, Amit X

2013-01-01

Background Physicians frequently search PubMed for information to guide patient care. More recently, Google Scholar has gained popularity as another freely accessible bibliographic database. Objective To compare the performance of searches in PubMed and Google Scholar. Methods We surveyed nephrologists (kidney specialists) and provided each with a unique clinical question derived from 100 renal therapy systematic reviews. Each physician provided the search terms they would type into a bibliographic database to locate evidence to answer the clinical question. We executed each of these searches in PubMed and Google Scholar and compared results for the first 40 records retrieved (equivalent to 2 default search pages in PubMed). We evaluated the recall (proportion of relevant articles found) and precision (ratio of relevant to nonrelevant articles) of the searches performed in PubMed and Google Scholar. Primary studies included in the systematic reviews served as the reference standard for relevant articles. We further documented whether relevant articles were available as free full-texts. Results Compared with PubMed, the average search in Google Scholar retrieved twice as many relevant articles (PubMed: 11%; Google Scholar: 22%; P<.001). Precision was similar in both databases (PubMed: 6%; Google Scholar: 8%; P=.07). Google Scholar provided significantly greater access to free full-text publications (PubMed: 5%; Google Scholar: 14%; P<.001). Conclusions For quick clinical searches, Google Scholar returns twice as many relevant articles as PubMed and provides greater access to free full-text articles. PMID:23948488

An objective structured clinical exam to measure intrinsic CanMEDS roles.

PubMed

Kassam, Aliya; Cowan, Michèle; Donnon, Tyrone

2016-01-01

Background The CanMEDS roles provide a comprehensive framework to organize competency-based curricula; however, there is a challenge in finding feasible, valid, and reliable assessment methods to measure intrinsic roles such as Communicator and Collaborator. The objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) is more commonly used in postgraduate medical education for the assessment of clinical skills beyond medical expertise. Method We developed the CanMEDS In-Training Exam (CITE), a six-station OSCE designed to assess two different CanMEDS roles (one primary and one secondary) and general communication skills at each station. Correlation coefficients were computed for CanMEDS roles within and between stations, and for general communication, global rating, and total scores. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate differences between year of residency, sex, and the type of residency program. Results In total, 63 residents participated in the CITE; 40 residents (63%) were from internal medicine programs, whereas the remaining 23 (37%) were pursuing other specialties. There was satisfactory internal consistency for all stations, and the total scores of the stations were strongly correlated with the global scores r=0.86, p<0.05. Noninternal medicine residents scored higher in terms of the Professional competency overall, whereas internal medicine residents scored significantly higher in the Collaborator competency overall. Discussion The OSCE checklists developed for the assessment of intrinsic CanMEDS roles were functional, but the specific items within stations required more uniformity to be used between stations. More generic types of checklists may also improve correlations across stations. Conclusion An OSCE measuring intrinsic competence is feasible; however, further development of our cases and checklists is needed. We provide a model of how to develop an OSCE to measure intrinsic CanMEDS roles that educators may adopt as residency programs move

[Use of PubMed to improve evidence-based medicine in routine urological practice].

PubMed

Rink, M; Kluth, L A; Shariat, S F; Chun, F K; Fisch, M; Dahm, P

2013-03-01

Applying evidence-based medicine in daily clinical practice is the basis of patient-centered medicine and knowledge of accurate literature acquisition skills is necessary for informed clinical decision-making. PubMed is an easy accessible, free bibliographic database comprising over 21 million citations from the medical field, life-science journals and online books. The article summarizes the effective use of PubMed in routine urological clinical practice based on a common case scenario. This article explains the simple use of PubMed to obtain the best search results with the highest evidence. Accurate knowledge about the use of PubMed in routine clinical practice can improve evidence-based medicine and also patient treatment.

Enriching PubMed Related Article Search with Sentence Level Co-citations

PubMed Central

Tran, Nam; Alves, Pedro; Ma, Shuangge

2009-01-01

PubMed related article links identify closely related articles and enhance our ability to navigate the biomedical literature. They are derived by calculating the word similarity between two articles, relating articles with overlapping word content. In this paper, we propose to enrich PubMed with a new type of related article link based on citations within a single sentence (i.e. sentence level co-citations or SLCs). Using different similarity metrics, we demonstrated that articles linked by SLCs are highly related. We also showed that only half of SLCs are found among PubMed related article links. Additionally, we discuss how the citing sentence of an SLC explains the connection between two articles. PMID:20351935

The mediator subunit Med23 contributes to controlling T-cell activation and prevents autoimmunity.

PubMed

Sun, Yang; Zhu, Xiaoyan; Chen, Xufeng; Liu, Haifeng; Xu, Yu; Chu, Yajing; Wang, Gang; Liu, Xiaolong

2014-10-10

T-cell activation is critical for successful immune responses and is controlled at multiple levels. Although many changes of T-cell receptor-associated signalling molecules affect T-cell activation, the transcriptional mechanisms that control this process remain largely unknown. Here we find that T cell-specific deletion of the mediator subunit Med23 leads to hyperactivation of T cells and aged Med23-deficient mice exhibit an autoimmune syndrome. Med23 specifically and consistently promotes the transcription of multiple negative regulators of T-cell activation. In the absence of Med23, the T-cell activation threshold is lower, which results in enhanced antitumour T-cell function. Cumulatively, our data suggest that Med23 contributes to controlling T-cell activation at the transcriptional level and prevents the development of autoimmunity.

The Contrasting Role of the Mediator Subunit MED30 in the Progression of Bladder Cancer.

PubMed

Syring, Isabella; Weiten, Richard; Müller, Tim; Schmidt, Doris; Steiner, Susanne; Kristiansen, Glen; Müller, Stefan C; Ellinger, Jörg

2017-12-01

The Mediator complex is a key regulator of gene transcription, and several studies have demonstrated altered expression of particular subunits in diverse human diseases, especially cancer. To date, nothing is known about the role of MED30 in bladder cancer. We, therefore, performed an RNA expression and survival analysis of the subunit MED30 in 537 samples of bladder cancer by using the database cBioPortal. To validate these data on the protein level, we practiced immunohistochemical staining against MED30 on a tissue microarray containing 210 samples of all tumour stages and performed survival analyses. For functional analysis, the siRNA-mediated knockdown of MED30 was performed in the cell lines T24 and TCCSUP followed by proliferation, migration, and invasion assays. On the mRNA and protein levels, higher expression of MED30 is associated with better patient survival. In accordance with this, advanced T- and N-stages showed lower expression of MED30. In contrast, knockdown of MED30 led to reduction of the tumour parameters proliferation, migration, and invasion in the BCa cell lines. MED30 appears to be integrated in the progression of the urothelial tumour in the bladder. Copyright© 2017, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

The MedCLIVAR program and the climate of the Mediterranean region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lionello, P.; Gacic, M.; Gomis, G.; Garcia-Herrera, R.; Giorgi, F.; Planton, S.; Trigo, R.; Theocharis, A.; Tsimplis, M. N.; Ulbrich, U.; Xoplaki, E.

2012-04-01

MedCLIVAR has become an independent platform for scientific discussion, the exchange of information and the coordination of activities across scientific groups around the Mediterranean. The scientific objects of the programme include past climate variability, connections between the Mediterranean and global climate, the Mediterranean Sea circulation and sea level, feedbacks on the global climate system, and the regional responses to greenhouse gas, air pollution, and aerosols. A strength of the MedCLIVAR programme is the development of a multidisciplinary vision of the evolution of Mediterranean climate, which includes atmospheric, marine and terrestrial components at multiple time scales, covering the range from paleo-reconstructions to future climate scenarios. MedCLIVAR has promoted scientific dissemination with many publication and by producing two books, which review the climate-related knowledge of the Mediterranean basin, one published at the beginning of the project and the second just recently finalized. Over these years, MedCLIVAR (www.medclivar.eu) has held 6 workshops and 2 schools, assigned 31 young scientist exchange grants and 7 senior scientist short visits, sponsored or co-sponsored 11 scientific meetings and organized annual sessions during the European Geophysical Union general assembly. A systematic archive of observations and model data simulations on the Mediterranean Climate, in order to both share data across the scientific community and ensure the data availability for 10 years, is presently being organized at the WDCC (http://cera-www.dkrz.de/CERA/MedCLIVAR.html)

Rapid Estimation of TPH Reduction in Oil-Contaminated Soils Using the MED Method

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

Edenborn, H.M.; Zenone, V.A.

2007-09-01

Oil-contaminated soil and sludge generated during federal well plugging activities in northwestern Pennsylvania are currently remediated on small landfarm sites in lieu of more expensive landfill disposal. Bioremediation success at these sites in the past has been gauged by the decrease in total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) concentrations to less than 10,000 mg/kg measured using EPA Method 418.1. We tested the “molarity of ethanol droplet” (MED) water repellency test as a rapid indicator of TPH concentration in soil at one landfarm near Bradford, PA. MED was estimated by determining the minimum ethanol concentration (0 – 6 M) required to penetrate air-driedmore » and sieved soil samples within 10 sec. TPH in soil was analyzed by rapid fluorometric analysis of methanol soil extracts, which correlated well with EPA Method 1664. Uncontaminated landfarm site soil amended with increasing concentrations of waste oil sludge showed a high correlation between MED and TPH. MED values exceeded the upper limit of 6 M as TPH estimates exceed ca. 25,000 mg/kg. MED and TPH at the land farm were sampled monthly during summer months over two years in a grid pattern that allowed spatial comparisons of site remediation effectiveness. MED and TPH decreased at a constant rate over time and remained highly correlated. Inexpensive alternatives to reagent-grade ethanol gave comparable results. The simple MED approach served as an inexpensive alternative to the routine laboratory analysis of TPH during the monitoring of oily waste bioremediation at this landfarm site.« less

MED12 Regulates HSC-Specific Enhancers Independently of Mediator Kinase Activity to Control Hematopoiesis.

PubMed

Aranda-Orgilles, Beatriz; Saldaña-Meyer, Ricardo; Wang, Eric; Trompouki, Eirini; Fassl, Anne; Lau, Stephanie; Mullenders, Jasper; Rocha, Pedro P; Raviram, Ramya; Guillamot, María; Sánchez-Díaz, María; Wang, Kun; Kayembe, Clarisse; Zhang, Nan; Amoasii, Leonela; Choudhuri, Avik; Skok, Jane A; Schober, Markus; Reinberg, Danny; Sicinski, Piotr; Schrewe, Heinrich; Tsirigos, Aristotelis; Zon, Leonard I; Aifantis, Iannis

2016-12-01

Hematopoietic-specific transcription factors require coactivators to communicate with the general transcription machinery and establish transcriptional programs that maintain hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self-renewal, promote differentiation, and prevent malignant transformation. Mediator is a large coactivator complex that bridges enhancer-localized transcription factors with promoters, but little is known about Mediator function in adult stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. We show that MED12, a member of the Mediator kinase module, is an essential regulator of HSC homeostasis, as in vivo deletion of Med12 causes rapid bone marrow aplasia leading to acute lethality. Deleting other members of the Mediator kinase module does not affect HSC function, suggesting kinase-independent roles of MED12. MED12 deletion destabilizes P300 binding at lineage-specific enhancers, resulting in H3K27Ac depletion, enhancer de-activation, and consequent loss of HSC stemness signatures. As MED12 mutations have been described recently in blood malignancies, alterations in MED12-dependent enhancer regulation may control both physiological and malignant hematopoiesis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Use of scientific social networking to improve the research strategies of PubMed readers.

PubMed

Evdokimov, Pavel; Kudryavtsev, Alexey; Ilgisonis, Ekaterina; Ponomarenko, Elena; Lisitsa, Andrey

2016-02-18

Keeping up with journal articles on a daily basis is an important activity of scientists engaged in biomedical research. Usually, journal articles and papers in the field of biomedicine are accessed through the Medline/PubMed electronic library. In the process of navigating PubMed, researchers unknowingly generate user-specific reading profiles that can be shared within a social networking environment. This paper examines the structure of the social networking environment generated by PubMed users. A web browser plugin was developed to map [in Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms] the reading patterns of individual PubMed users. We developed a scientific social network based on the personal research profiles of readers of biomedical articles. A browser plugin is used to record the digital object identifier or PubMed ID of web pages. Recorded items are posted on the activity feed and automatically mapped to PubMed abstract. Within the activity feed a user can trace back previously browsed articles and insert comments. By calculating the frequency with which specific MeSH occur, the research interests of PubMed users can be visually represented with a tag cloud. Finally, research profiles can be searched for matches between network users. A social networking environment was created using MeSH terms to map articles accessed through the Medline/PubMed online library system. In-network social communication is supported by the recommendation of articles and by matching users with similar scientific interests. The system is available at http://bioknol.org/en/.

Prognosis: the "missing link" within the CanMEDS competency framework.

PubMed

Maida, Vincent; Cheon, Paul M

2014-05-13

The concept of prognosis dates back to antiquity. Quantum advances in diagnostics and therapeutics have relegated this once highly valued core competency to an almost negligible role in modern medical practice. Medical curricula are devoid of teaching opportunities focused on prognosis. This void is driven by a corresponding relative dearth within physician competency frameworks. This study aims to assess the level of content related to prognosis within CanMEDS (Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists), a leading and prototypical physician competency framework. A quantitative content analysis of CanMEDS competency framework was carried out to measure the extent of this deficiency. Foxit Reader 5.1 (Foxit Corporation), a keyword scanning software, was used to assess the CanMEDS 2005 framework documents of 29 physician specialties and 37 subspecialties across the seven physician roles (medical expert, communicator, collaborator, manager, health advocate, scholar, and professional). The keywords used in the search included prognosis, prognostic, prognosticate, and prognostication. Of the 29 specialties six (20.7%) contained at least one citation of the keyword "prognosis", and one (3.4%) contained one citation of the keyword "prognostic". Of the 37 subspecialties, sixteen (43.2%) contained at least one citation of the keyword "prognosis", and three (8.1%) contained at least one citation of the keyword "prognostic". The terms "prognosticate" and "prognostication" were completely absent from all CanMEDS 2005 documents. Overall, the combined citations for "prognosis" and "prognostic" were linked with the following competency roles: Medical Expert (80.3%), Scholar (11.5%), and Communicator (8.2%). Given the fundamental and foundational importance of prognosis within medical practice, it is recommended that physicians develop appropriate attitudes, skills and knowledge related to the formulation and communication of prognosis. The deficiencies within CanMEDS

A search engine to access PubMed monolingual subsets: proof of concept and evaluation in French.

PubMed

Griffon, Nicolas; Schuers, Matthieu; Soualmia, Lina Fatima; Grosjean, Julien; Kerdelhué, Gaétan; Kergourlay, Ivan; Dahamna, Badisse; Darmoni, Stéfan Jacques

2014-12-01

PubMed contains numerous articles in languages other than English. However, existing solutions to access these articles in the language in which they were written remain unconvincing. The aim of this study was to propose a practical search engine, called Multilingual PubMed, which will permit access to a PubMed subset in 1 language and to evaluate the precision and coverage for the French version (Multilingual PubMed-French). To create this tool, translations of MeSH were enriched (eg, adding synonyms and translations in French) and integrated into a terminology portal. PubMed subsets in several European languages were also added to our database using a dedicated parser. The response time for the generic semantic search engine was evaluated for simple queries. BabelMeSH, Multilingual PubMed-French, and 3 different PubMed strategies were compared by searching for literature in French. Precision and coverage were measured for 20 randomly selected queries. The results were evaluated as relevant to title and abstract, the evaluator being blind to search strategy. More than 650,000 PubMed citations in French were integrated into the Multilingual PubMed-French information system. The response times were all below the threshold defined for usability (2 seconds). Two search strategies (Multilingual PubMed-French and 1 PubMed strategy) showed high precision (0.93 and 0.97, respectively), but coverage was 4 times higher for Multilingual PubMed-French. It is now possible to freely access biomedical literature using a practical search tool in French. This tool will be of particular interest for health professionals and other end users who do not read or query sufficiently in English. The information system is theoretically well suited to expand the approach to other European languages, such as German, Spanish, Norwegian, and Portuguese.

A Search Engine to Access PubMed Monolingual Subsets: Proof of Concept and Evaluation in French

PubMed Central

Schuers, Matthieu; Soualmia, Lina Fatima; Grosjean, Julien; Kerdelhué, Gaétan; Kergourlay, Ivan; Dahamna, Badisse; Darmoni, Stéfan Jacques

2014-01-01

Background PubMed contains numerous articles in languages other than English. However, existing solutions to access these articles in the language in which they were written remain unconvincing. Objective The aim of this study was to propose a practical search engine, called Multilingual PubMed, which will permit access to a PubMed subset in 1 language and to evaluate the precision and coverage for the French version (Multilingual PubMed-French). Methods To create this tool, translations of MeSH were enriched (eg, adding synonyms and translations in French) and integrated into a terminology portal. PubMed subsets in several European languages were also added to our database using a dedicated parser. The response time for the generic semantic search engine was evaluated for simple queries. BabelMeSH, Multilingual PubMed-French, and 3 different PubMed strategies were compared by searching for literature in French. Precision and coverage were measured for 20 randomly selected queries. The results were evaluated as relevant to title and abstract, the evaluator being blind to search strategy. Results More than 650,000 PubMed citations in French were integrated into the Multilingual PubMed-French information system. The response times were all below the threshold defined for usability (2 seconds). Two search strategies (Multilingual PubMed-French and 1 PubMed strategy) showed high precision (0.93 and 0.97, respectively), but coverage was 4 times higher for Multilingual PubMed-French. Conclusions It is now possible to freely access biomedical literature using a practical search tool in French. This tool will be of particular interest for health professionals and other end users who do not read or query sufficiently in English. The information system is theoretically well suited to expand the approach to other European languages, such as German, Spanish, Norwegian, and Portuguese. PMID:25448528

Mental Health and Academic Achievement among M.Ed. Students in Kerala

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moradi Sheykhjan, Tohid; K., Rajeswari; Jabari, Kamran

2017-01-01

The present research endeavor was aimed to assess relationship between Mental Health and Academic Achievement among M.Ed. students in Kerala. The sample of the study consisted of 314 M.Ed. students in Kerala. The method used for the present study was survey method. Mental Health Status Scale (M.H.S. Scale) was used and the study used the total…

Quantity and quality assessment of randomized controlled trials on orthodontic practice in PubMed.

PubMed

Shimada, Tatsuo; Takayama, Hisako; Nakamura, Yoshiki

2010-07-01

To find current high-quality evidence for orthodontic practice within a reasonable time, we tested the performance of a PubMed search. PubMed was searched using publication type randomized controlled trial and medical subject heading term "orthodontics" for articles published between 2003 and 2007. The PubMed search results were compared with those from a hand search of four orthodontic journals to determine the sensitivity of PubMed search. We evaluated the precision of the PubMed search result and assessed the quality of individual randomized controlled trials using the Jadad scale. Sensitivity and precision were 97.46% and 58.12%, respectively. In PubMed, of the 277 articles retrieved, 161 (58.12%) were randomized controlled trials on orthodontic practice, and 115 of the 161 articles (71.42%) were published in four orthodontic journals: American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, The Angle Orthodontist, the European Journal of Orthodontics, and the Journal of Orthodontics. Assessment by the Jadad scale revealed 60 high-quality randomized controlled trials on orthodontic practice, of which 45 (75%) were published in these four journals. PubMed is a highly desirable search engine for evidence-based orthodontic practice. To stay current and get high-quality evidence, it is reasonable to look through four orthodontic journals: American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, The Angle Orthodontist, the European Journal of Orthodontics, and the Journal of Orthodontics.

Mediator MED23 Links Pigmentation and DNA Repair through the Transcription Factor MITF.

PubMed

Xia, Min; Chen, Kun; Yao, Xiao; Xu, Yichi; Yao, Jiaying; Yan, Jun; Shao, Zhen; Wang, Gang

2017-08-22

DNA repair is related to many physiological and pathological processes, including pigmentation. Little is known about the role of the transcriptional cofactor Mediator complex in DNA repair and pigmentation. Here, we demonstrate that Mediator MED23 plays an important role in coupling UV-induced DNA repair to pigmentation. The loss of Med23 specifically impairs the pigmentation process in melanocyte-lineage cells and in zebrafish. Med23 deficiency leads to enhanced nucleotide excision repair (NER) and less DNA damage following UV radiation because of the enhanced expression and recruitment of NER factors to chromatin for genomic stability. Integrative analyses of melanoma cells reveal that MED23 controls the expression of a melanocyte master regulator, Mitf, by modulating its distal enhancer activity, leading to opposing effects on pigmentation and DNA repair. Collectively, the Mediator MED23/MITF axis connects DNA repair to pigmentation, thus providing molecular insights into the DNA damage response and skin-related diseases. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PubMed Phrases, an open set of coherent phrases for searching biomedical literature

PubMed Central

Kim, Sun; Yeganova, Lana; Comeau, Donald C.; Wilbur, W. John; Lu, Zhiyong

2018-01-01

In biomedicine, key concepts are often expressed by multiple words (e.g., ‘zinc finger protein’). Previous work has shown treating a sequence of words as a meaningful unit, where applicable, is not only important for human understanding but also beneficial for automatic information seeking. Here we present a collection of PubMed® Phrases that are beneficial for information retrieval and human comprehension. We define these phrases as coherent chunks that are logically connected. To collect the phrase set, we apply the hypergeometric test to detect segments of consecutive terms that are likely to appear together in PubMed. These text segments are then filtered using the BM25 ranking function to ensure that they are beneficial from an information retrieval perspective. Thus, we obtain a set of 705,915 PubMed Phrases. We evaluate the quality of the set by investigating PubMed user click data and manually annotating a sample of 500 randomly selected noun phrases. We also analyze and discuss the usage of these PubMed Phrases in literature search. PMID:29893755

High-performance information search filters for acute kidney injury content in PubMed, Ovid Medline and Embase.

PubMed

Hildebrand, Ainslie M; Iansavichus, Arthur V; Haynes, R Brian; Wilczynski, Nancy L; Mehta, Ravindra L; Parikh, Chirag R; Garg, Amit X

2014-04-01

We frequently fail to identify articles relevant to the subject of acute kidney injury (AKI) when searching the large bibliographic databases such as PubMed, Ovid Medline or Embase. To address this issue, we used computer automation to create information search filters to better identify articles relevant to AKI in these databases. We first manually reviewed a sample of 22 992 full-text articles and used prespecified criteria to determine whether each article contained AKI content or not. In the development phase (two-thirds of the sample), we developed and tested the performance of >1.3-million unique filters. Filters with high sensitivity and high specificity for the identification of AKI articles were then retested in the validation phase (remaining third of the sample). We succeeded in developing and validating high-performance AKI search filters for each bibliographic database with sensitivities and specificities in excess of 90%. Filters optimized for sensitivity reached at least 97.2% sensitivity, and filters optimized for specificity reached at least 99.5% specificity. The filters were complex; for example one PubMed filter included >140 terms used in combination, including 'acute kidney injury', 'tubular necrosis', 'azotemia' and 'ischemic injury'. In proof-of-concept searches, physicians found more articles relevant to topics in AKI with the use of the filters. PubMed, Ovid Medline and Embase can be filtered for articles relevant to AKI in a reliable manner. These high-performance information filters are now available online and can be used to better identify AKI content in large bibliographic databases.

Tracking Australian health and medical research expenditure with a PubMed bibliometric method.

PubMed

Mendis, Kumara; Bailey, Jannine; McLean, Rick

2015-06-01

To assess Australian health and medical research (HMR) investment returns by measuring the trends in HMR expenditure and PubMed publications by Australian authors. Bibliometric analysis collating Australian HMR expenditure reported by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Australian HMR publications indexed in PubMed. Similar methods were applied to data from the United Kingdom and New Zealand. From financial year 2000/01 through 2011/12, HMR investment increased by 232% from $1.49 to $4.94 billion (current prices adjusted for inflation), while PubMed publications increased by 123% from 10,696 to 23,818. The average HMR investment required for a single PubMed publication rose by 49% from $139,304 in 2000/01 to $207,364 in 2011/12. Quality analyses showed an increase in systematic reviews, cohort studies and clinical trials, and a decrease in publications in PubMed's core clinical journal collection. Comparisons with New Zealand and the United Kingdom showed that Australia has had the greatest overall percentage increase in gross publication numbers and publications per capita. Our analyses confirm that increased HMR expenditure is associated with an increase in HMR publications in PubMed. Tracking HMR investment outcomes using this method could be useful for future policy and funding decisions at a federal and specific institution level. © 2015 Public Health Association of Australia.

An automatic method to generate domain-specific investigator networks using PubMed abstracts.

PubMed

Yu, Wei; Yesupriya, Ajay; Wulf, Anja; Qu, Junfeng; Gwinn, Marta; Khoury, Muin J

2007-06-20

Collaboration among investigators has become critical to scientific research. This includes ad hoc collaboration established through personal contacts as well as formal consortia established by funding agencies. Continued growth in online resources for scientific research and communication has promoted the development of highly networked research communities. Extending these networks globally requires identifying additional investigators in a given domain, profiling their research interests, and collecting current contact information. We present a novel strategy for building investigator networks dynamically and producing detailed investigator profiles using data available in PubMed abstracts. We developed a novel strategy to obtain detailed investigator information by automatically parsing the affiliation string in PubMed records. We illustrated the results by using a published literature database in human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit) as a test case. Our parsing strategy extracted country information from 92.1% of the affiliation strings in a random sample of PubMed records and in 97.0% of HuGE records, with accuracies of 94.0% and 91.0%, respectively. Institution information was parsed from 91.3% of the general PubMed records (accuracy 86.8%) and from 94.2% of HuGE PubMed records (accuracy 87.0). We demonstrated the application of our approach to dynamic creation of investigator networks by creating a prototype information system containing a large database of PubMed abstracts relevant to human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit), indexed using PubMed medical subject headings converted to Unified Medical Language System concepts. Our method was able to identify 70-90% of the investigators/collaborators in three different human genetics fields; it also successfully identified 9 of 10 genetics investigators within the PREBIC network, an existing preterm birth research network. We successfully created a web-based prototype capable of creating domain

An automatic method to generate domain-specific investigator networks using PubMed abstracts

PubMed Central

Yu, Wei; Yesupriya, Ajay; Wulf, Anja; Qu, Junfeng; Gwinn, Marta; Khoury, Muin J

2007-01-01

Background Collaboration among investigators has become critical to scientific research. This includes ad hoc collaboration established through personal contacts as well as formal consortia established by funding agencies. Continued growth in online resources for scientific research and communication has promoted the development of highly networked research communities. Extending these networks globally requires identifying additional investigators in a given domain, profiling their research interests, and collecting current contact information. We present a novel strategy for building investigator networks dynamically and producing detailed investigator profiles using data available in PubMed abstracts. Results We developed a novel strategy to obtain detailed investigator information by automatically parsing the affiliation string in PubMed records. We illustrated the results by using a published literature database in human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit) as a test case. Our parsing strategy extracted country information from 92.1% of the affiliation strings in a random sample of PubMed records and in 97.0% of HuGE records, with accuracies of 94.0% and 91.0%, respectively. Institution information was parsed from 91.3% of the general PubMed records (accuracy 86.8%) and from 94.2% of HuGE PubMed records (accuracy 87.0). We demonstrated the application of our approach to dynamic creation of investigator networks by creating a prototype information system containing a large database of PubMed abstracts relevant to human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit), indexed using PubMed medical subject headings converted to Unified Medical Language System concepts. Our method was able to identify 70–90% of the investigators/collaborators in three different human genetics fields; it also successfully identified 9 of 10 genetics investigators within the PREBIC network, an existing preterm birth research network. Conclusion We successfully created a web-based prototype

MedEx: a medication information extraction system for clinical narratives

PubMed Central

Stenner, Shane P; Doan, Son; Johnson, Kevin B; Waitman, Lemuel R; Denny, Joshua C

2010-01-01

Medication information is one of the most important types of clinical data in electronic medical records. It is critical for healthcare safety and quality, as well as for clinical research that uses electronic medical record data. However, medication data are often recorded in clinical notes as free-text. As such, they are not accessible to other computerized applications that rely on coded data. We describe a new natural language processing system (MedEx), which extracts medication information from clinical notes. MedEx was initially developed using discharge summaries. An evaluation using a data set of 50 discharge summaries showed it performed well on identifying not only drug names (F-measure 93.2%), but also signature information, such as strength, route, and frequency, with F-measures of 94.5%, 93.9%, and 96.0% respectively. We then applied MedEx unchanged to outpatient clinic visit notes. It performed similarly with F-measures over 90% on a set of 25 clinic visit notes. PMID:20064797

Mitigation of Volcanic Risk: The COSMO-SkyMed Contribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sacco, Patrizia; Daraio, Maria Girolamo; Battagliere, Maria Libera; Coletta, Alessandro

2015-05-01

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) promotes Earth Observation (EO) applications related to themes such as the prediction, monitoring, management and mitigation of natural and anthropogenic hazards. The approach generally followed is the development and demonstration of prototype services, using currently available data from space missions, in particular the COSMO-SkyMed (Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin observation) mission, which represents the largest Italian investment in Space System for EO and thanks to which Italy plays a key role worldwide. Projects funded by ASI provide the convergence of various national industry expertise, research and institutional reference users. In this context a significant example is represented by the ASI Pilot Projects, recently concluded, dealing with various thematic, such as volcanoes. In this paper a special focus will be addressed to the volcanic risk management and the contribution provided in this field by COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation during the last years. A comprehensive overview of the various national and international projects using COSMO-SkyMed data for the volcanic risk mitigation will be given, highlighting the Italian contribution provided worldwide in this operational framework.

[Systematic literature search in PubMed : A short introduction].

PubMed

Blümle, A; Lagrèze, W A; Motschall, E

2018-03-01

In order to identify current (and relevant) evidence for a specific clinical question within the unmanageable amount of information available, solid skills in performing a systematic literature search are essential. An efficient approach is to search a biomedical database containing relevant literature citations of study reports. The best known database is MEDLINE, which is searchable for free via the PubMed interface. In this article, we explain step by step how to perform a systematic literature search via PubMed by means of an example research question in the field of ophthalmology. First, we demonstrate how to translate the clinical problem into a well-framed and searchable research question, how to identify relevant search terms and how to conduct a text word search and a search with keywords in medical subject headings (MeSH) terms. We then show how to limit the number of search results if the search yields too many irrelevant hits and how to increase the number in the case of too few citations. Finally, we summarize all essential principles that guide a literature search via PubMed.

Mediator Med23 deficiency enhances neural differentiation of murine embryonic stem cells through modulating BMP signaling.

PubMed

Zhu, Wanqu; Yao, Xiao; Liang, Yan; Liang, Dan; Song, Lu; Jing, Naihe; Li, Jinsong; Wang, Gang

2015-02-01

Unraveling the mechanisms underlying early neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is crucial to developing cell-based therapies of neurodegenerative diseases. Neural fate acquisition is proposed to be controlled by a 'default' mechanism, for which the molecular regulation is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the functional roles of Mediator Med23 in pluripotency and lineage commitment of murine ESCs. Unexpectedly, we found that, despite the largely unchanged pluripotency and self-renewal of ESCs, Med23 depletion rendered the cells prone to neural differentiation in different differentiation assays. Knockdown of two other Mediator subunits, Med1 and Med15, did not alter the neural differentiation of ESCs. Med15 knockdown selectively inhibited endoderm differentiation, suggesting the specificity of cell fate control by distinctive Mediator subunits. Gene profiling revealed that Med23 depletion attenuated BMP signaling in ESCs. Mechanistically, MED23 modulated Bmp4 expression by controlling the activity of ETS1, which is involved in Bmp4 promoter-enhancer communication. Interestingly, med23 knockdown in zebrafish embryos also enhanced neural development at early embryogenesis, which could be reversed by co-injection of bmp4 mRNA. Taken together, our study reveals an intrinsic, restrictive role of MED23 in early neural development, thus providing new molecular insights for neural fate determination. © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

47 CFR 95.628 - MedRadio transmitters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... human body, radiated emissions and EIRP measurements for transmissions by stations authorized under this section may be made in accordance with a Commission-approved human body simulator and test technique. A... from a medical implant or medical body-worn device on that channel. The MedRadio communications session...

47 CFR 95.628 - MedRadio transmitters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... human body, radiated emissions and EIRP measurements for transmissions by stations authorized under this section may be made in accordance with a Commission-approved human body simulator and test technique. A... from a medical implant or medical body-worn device on that channel. The MedRadio communications session...

Dynamic mathematical modeling of IL13-induced signaling in Hodgkin and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma allows prediction of therapeutic targets.

PubMed

Raia, Valentina; Schilling, Marcel; Böhm, Martin; Hahn, Bettina; Kowarsch, Andreas; Raue, Andreas; Sticht, Carsten; Bohl, Sebastian; Saile, Maria; Möller, Peter; Gretz, Norbert; Timmer, Jens; Theis, Fabian; Lehmann, Wolf-Dieter; Lichter, Peter; Klingmüller, Ursula

2011-02-01

Primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBL) and classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) share a frequent constitutive activation of JAK (Janus kinase)/STAT signaling pathway. Because of complex, nonlinear relations within the pathway, key dynamic properties remained to be identified to predict possible strategies for intervention. We report the development of dynamic pathway models based on quantitative data collected on signaling components of JAK/STAT pathway in two lymphoma-derived cell lines, MedB-1 and L1236, representative of PMBL and cHL, respectively. We show that the amounts of STAT5 and STAT6 are higher whereas those of SHP1 are lower in the two lymphoma cell lines than in normal B cells. Distinctively, L1236 cells harbor more JAK2 and less SHP1 molecules per cell than MedB-1 or control cells. In both lymphoma cell lines, we observe interleukin-13 (IL13)-induced activation of IL4 receptor α, JAK2, and STAT5, but not of STAT6. Genome-wide, 11 early and 16 sustained genes are upregulated by IL13 in both lymphoma cell lines. Specifically, the known STAT-inducible negative regulators CISH and SOCS3 are upregulated within 2 hours in MedB-1 but not in L1236 cells. On the basis of this detailed quantitative information, we established two mathematical models, MedB-1 and L1236 model, able to describe the respective experimental data. Most of the model parameters are identifiable and therefore the models are predictive. Sensitivity analysis of the model identifies six possible therapeutic targets able to reduce gene expression levels in L1236 cells and three in MedB-1. We experimentally confirm reduction in target gene expression in response to inhibition of STAT5 phosphorylation, thereby validating one of the predicted targets.

The invasive MED/Q Bemisia tabaci genome: a tale of gene loss and gene gain.

PubMed

Xie, Wen; Yang, Xin; Chen, Chunhai; Yang, Zezhong; Guo, Litao; Wang, Dan; Huang, Jinqun; Zhang, Hailin; Wen, Yanan; Zhao, Jinyang; Wu, Qingjun; Wang, Shaoli; Coates, Brad S; Zhou, Xuguo; Zhang, Youjun

2018-01-22

Sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci MED/Q and MEAM1/B, are two economically important invasive species that cause considerable damages to agriculture crops through direct feeding and indirect vectoring of plant pathogens. Recently, a draft genome of B. tabaci MED/Q has been assembled. In this study, we focus on the genomic comparison between MED/Q and MEAM1/B, with a special interest in MED/Q's genomic signatures that may contribute to the highly invasive nature of this emerging insect pest. The genomes of both species share similarity in syntenic blocks, but have significant divergence in the gene coding sequence. Expansion of cytochrome P450 monooxygenases and UDP glycosyltransferases in MED/Q and MEAM1/B genome is functionally validated for mediating insecticide resistance in MED/Q using in vivo RNAi. The amino acid biosynthesis pathways in MED/Q genome are partitioned among the host and endosymbiont genomes in a manner distinct from other hemipterans. Evidence of horizontal gene transfer to the host genome may explain their obligate relationship. Putative loss-of-function in the immune deficiency-signaling pathway due to the gene loss is a shared ancestral trait among hemipteran insects. The expansion of detoxification genes families, such as P450s, may contribute to the development of insecticide resistance traits and a broad host range in MED/Q and MEAM1/B, and facilitate species' invasions into intensively managed cropping systems. Numerical and compositional changes in multiple gene families (gene loss and gene gain) in the MED/Q genome sets a foundation for future hypothesis testing that will advance our understanding of adaptation, viral transmission, symbiosis, and plant-insect-pathogen tritrophic interactions.

Mars2020 Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) Do No Harm Test Series

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swanson, Gregory; Santos, Jose; White, Todd; Bruce, Walt; Kuhl, Chris; Wright, Henry

2017-01-01

A total of seventeen instrumented thermal sensor plugs, eight pressure transducers, two heat flux sensors, and one radiometer are planned to be utilized on the Mars 2020 missions thermal protection system (TPS) as part of the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation II (MEDLI2) project. Of the MEDLI2 instrumentation, eleven instrumented thermal plugs and seven pressure transducers will be installed on the heatshield of the Mars 2020 vehicle while the rest will be installed on the backshell. The goal of the MEDLI2 instrumentation is to directly inform the large performance uncertainties that contribute to the design and validation of a Mars entry system. A better understanding of the entry environment and TPS performance could lead to reduced design margins enabling a greater payload mass-fraction and smaller landing ellipses. To prove that the MEDLI2 system will not degrade the performance of the Mars 2020 TPS, an Aerothermal Do No Harm (DNH) test series was designed and conducted. Like Mars 2020s predecessor, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the heatshield material will be Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA); the Mars 2020 entry conditions are enveloped by the MSL design environments, therefore the development and qualification testing performed during MEDLI is sufficient to show that the similar MEDLI2 heatshield instrumentation will not degrade PICA performance. However, given that MEDLI did not include any backshell instrumentation, the MEDLI2 team was required to design and execute a DNH test series utilizing the backshell TPS material (SLA-561V) with the intended flight sensor suite. To meet the requirements handed down from Mars 2020, the MEDLI2 DNH test series emphasized the interaction between the MEDLI2 sensors and sensing locations with the surrounding backshell TPS and substrucutre. These interactions were characterized by performing environmental testing of four 12 by 12 test panels, which mimicked the construction of the backshell TPS and

ProMED-mail: 22 years of digital surveillance of emerging infectious diseases.

PubMed

Carrion, Malwina; Madoff, Lawrence C

2017-05-01

ProMED-mail (ProMED) was launched in 1994 as an email service to identify unusual health events related to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and toxins affecting humans, animals and plants. It is used daily by public health leaders, government officials at all levels, physicians, veterinarians and other healthcare workers, researchers, private companies, journalists and the general public. Reports are produced and commentary provided by a global team of subject matter experts in a variety of fields including virology, parasitology, epidemiology, entomology, veterinary and plant disease specialists. ProMED operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and has over 83 000 subscribers, representing every country in the world. Additionally, ProMED disseminates information via its website and through social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook as well as through RSS feeds. Over the last 22 years, it has been the first to report on numerous major and minor disease outbreaks including SARS, MERS, Ebola and the early spread of Zika. ProMED is transparent, apolitical, open to all and free of charge, making it an important and longstanding contributor to global health surveillance. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Extracting and standardizing medication information in clinical text - the MedEx-UIMA system.

PubMed

Jiang, Min; Wu, Yonghui; Shah, Anushi; Priyanka, Priyanka; Denny, Joshua C; Xu, Hua

2014-01-01

Extraction of medication information embedded in clinical text is important for research using electronic health records (EHRs). However, most of current medication information extraction systems identify drug and signature entities without mapping them to standard representation. In this study, we introduced the open source Java implementation of MedEx, an existing high-performance medication information extraction system, based on the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) framework. In addition, we developed new encoding modules in the MedEx-UIMA system, which mapped an extracted drug name/dose/form to both generalized and specific RxNorm concepts and translated drug frequency information to ISO standard. We processed 826 documents by both systems and verified that MedEx-UIMA and MedEx (the Python version) performed similarly by comparing both results. Using two manually annotated test sets that contained 300 drug entries from medication list and 300 drug entries from narrative reports, the MedEx-UIMA system achieved F-measures of 98.5% and 97.5% respectively for encoding drug names to corresponding RxNorm generic drug ingredients, and F-measures of 85.4% and 88.1% respectively for mapping drug names/dose/form to the most specific RxNorm concepts. It also achieved an F-measure of 90.4% for normalizing frequency information to ISO standard. The open source MedEx-UIMA system is freely available online at http://code.google.com/p/medex-uima/.

MedEdPORTAL: a report on oral health resources for health professions educators.

PubMed

Chickmagalur, Nithya S; Allareddy, Veerasathpurush; Sandmeyer, Sue; Valachovic, Richard W; Candler, Christopher S; Saleh, Michael; Cahill, Emily; Karimbux, Nadeem Y

2013-09-01

MedEdPORTAL is a unique web-based peer-reviewed publication venue for clinical health educators sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The open exchange of educational resources promotes professional collaboration across health professions. In 2008, the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) collaborated with AAMC to allow dental educators to use the platform to publish dental curriculum resources. Oral health is integral to general health; hence, collaboration among health care professionals brings enormous value to patient-centered care. The aim of this study was to conduct a current survey of metrics and submission statistics of MedEdPORTAL resources. The data were collected using the MedEdPORTAL search engine and ADEA and AAMC staff. The data collected were categorized and reported in tables and charts. Results showed that at the time of this study there were over 2,000 medical and dental resources available to anyone worldwide. Oral health resources constituted approximately 30 percent of the total resources, which included cross-indexing with information relevant to both medical and dental audiences. There were several types of dental resources available; the most common were the ones focusing on critical thinking. The usage of MedEdPORTAL has been growing, with participation from over 190 countries and 10,000 educational institutions around the world. The findings of this report suggest that MedEdPORTAL is succeeding in its aim to foster global collaborative education, professional education, and educational scholarship. As such, MedEdPORTAL is providing a new forum for collaboration and opens venues for promising future work in professional education.

Past and future trends in cancer and biomedical research: a comparison between Egypt and the world using PubMed-indexed publications.

PubMed

Zeeneldin, Ahmed Abdelmabood; Taha, Fatma Mohamed; Moneer, Manar

2012-07-10

PubMed is a free web literature search service that contains almost 21 millions of abstracts and publications with almost 5 million user queries daily. The purposes of the study were to compare trends in PubMed-indexed cancer and biomedical publications from Egypt to that of the world and to predict future publication volumes. The PubMed was searched for the biomedical publications between 1991 and 2010 (publications dates). Affiliation was then limited to Egypt. Further limitation was applied to cancer, human and animal publications. Poisson regression model was used for prediction of future number of publications between 2011 and 2020. Cancer publications contributed 23% to biomedical publications both for Egypt and the world. Egyptian biomedical and cancer publications contributed about 0.13% to their world counterparts. This contribution was more than doubled over the study period. Egyptian and world's publications increased from year to year with rapid rise starting the year 2003. Egyptian as well as world's human cancer publications showed the highest increases. Egyptian publications had some peculiarities; they showed some drop at the years 1994 and 2002 and apart from the decline in the animal: human ratio with time, all Egyptian publications in the period 1991-2000 were significantly more than those in 2001-2010 (P < 0.05 for all). By 2020, Egyptian biomedical and cancer publications will increase by 158.7% and 280% relative to 2010 to constitute 0.34% and 0.17% of total PubMed publications, respectively. The Egyptian contribution to world's biomedical and cancer publications needs significant improvements through research strategic planning, setting national research priorities, adequate funding and researchers' training.

Past and future trends in cancer and biomedical research: a comparison between Egypt and the World using PubMed-indexed publications

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background PubMed is a free web literature search service that contains almost 21 millions of abstracts and publications with almost 5 million user queries daily. The purposes of the study were to compare trends in PubMed-indexed cancer and biomedical publications from Egypt to that of the world and to predict future publication volumes. Methods The PubMed was searched for the biomedical publications between 1991 and 2010 (publications dates). Affiliation was then limited to Egypt. Further limitation was applied to cancer, human and animal publications. Poisson regression model was used for prediction of future number of publications between 2011 and 2020. Results Cancer publications contributed 23% to biomedical publications both for Egypt and the world. Egyptian biomedical and cancer publications contributed about 0.13% to their world counterparts. This contribution was more than doubled over the study period. Egyptian and world’s publications increased from year to year with rapid rise starting the year 2003. Egyptian as well as world’s human cancer publications showed the highest increases. Egyptian publications had some peculiarities; they showed some drop at the years 1994 and 2002 and apart from the decline in the animal: human ratio with time, all Egyptian publications in the period 1991-2000 were significantly more than those in 2001-2010 (P < 0.05 for all). By 2020, Egyptian biomedical and cancer publications will increase by 158.7% and 280% relative to 2010 to constitute 0.34% and 0.17% of total PubMed publications, respectively. Conclusions The Egyptian contribution to world’s biomedical and cancer publications needs significant improvements through research strategic planning, setting national research priorities, adequate funding and researchers’ training. PMID:22780908

Mars 2020 Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hwang, Helen H.; Bose, Deepak; White, Todd R.; Wright, Henry S.; Schoenenberger, Mark; Kuhl, Christopher A.; Trombetta, Dominic; Santos, Jose A.; Oishi, Tomomi; Karlgaard, Christopher D.;

Silencing SlMED18, tomato Mediator subunit 18 gene, restricts internode elongation and leaf expansion.

PubMed

Wang, Yunshu; Hu, Zongli; Zhang, Jianling; Yu, XiaoHui; Guo, Jun-E; Liang, Honglian; Liao, Changguang; Chen, Guoping

2018-02-19

Mediator complex, a conserved multi-protein, is necessary for controlling RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription in eukaryotes. Given little is known about them in tomato, a tomato Mediator subunit 18 gene was isolated and named SlMED18. To further explore the function of SlMED18, the transgenic tomato plants targeting SlMED18 by RNAi-mediated gene silencing were generated. The SlMED18-RNAi lines exhibited multiple developmental defects, including smaller size and slower growth rate of plant and significantly smaller compound leaves. The contents of endogenous bioactive GA 3 in SlMED18 silenced lines were slightly less than that in wild type. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis indicated that expression of gibberellins biosynthesis genes such as SlGACPS and SlGA20x2, auxin transport genes (PIN1, PIN4, LAX1 and LAX2) and several key regulators, KNOX1, KNOX2, PHAN and LANCEOLATE(LA), which involved in the leaf morphogenesis were significantly down-regulated in SlMED18-RNAi lines. These results illustrated that SlMED18 plays an essential role in regulating plant internode elongation and leaf expansion in tomato plants and it acts as a key positive regulator of gibberellins biosynthesis and signal transduction as well as auxin proper transport signalling. These findings are the basis for understanding the function of the individual Mediator subunits in tomato.

The MicroMed DeBakey VAD

NASA Image and Video Library

2004-06-23

JSC2004-E-26519 --- Dr. Michael DeBakey (far right) observes preparation procedures before the implantation of a MicroMed DeBakey VAD® (ventricular assist device). The revolutionary heart pump received FDA approval in February 2004 for use in critically ill children awaiting heart transplants. The heart pump was designed with the help of NASA engineers who began working with Dr. DeBakey on the pump's development in the mid-1980s.

DataMed - an open source discovery index for finding biomedical datasets.

PubMed

Chen, Xiaoling; Gururaj, Anupama E; Ozyurt, Burak; Liu, Ruiling; Soysal, Ergin; Cohen, Trevor; Tiryaki, Firat; Li, Yueling; Zong, Nansu; Jiang, Min; Rogith, Deevakar; Salimi, Mandana; Kim, Hyeon-Eui; Rocca-Serra, Philippe; Gonzalez-Beltran, Alejandra; Farcas, Claudiu; Johnson, Todd; Margolis, Ron; Alter, George; Sansone, Susanna-Assunta; Fore, Ian M; Ohno-Machado, Lucila; Grethe, Jeffrey S; Xu, Hua

2018-01-13

Finding relevant datasets is important for promoting data reuse in the biomedical domain, but it is challenging given the volume and complexity of biomedical data. Here we describe the development of an open source biomedical data discovery system called DataMed, with the goal of promoting the building of additional data indexes in the biomedical domain. DataMed, which can efficiently index and search diverse types of biomedical datasets across repositories, is developed through the National Institutes of Health-funded biomedical and healthCAre Data Discovery Index Ecosystem (bioCADDIE) consortium. It consists of 2 main components: (1) a data ingestion pipeline that collects and transforms original metadata information to a unified metadata model, called DatA Tag Suite (DATS), and (2) a search engine that finds relevant datasets based on user-entered queries. In addition to describing its architecture and techniques, we evaluated individual components within DataMed, including the accuracy of the ingestion pipeline, the prevalence of the DATS model across repositories, and the overall performance of the dataset retrieval engine. Our manual review shows that the ingestion pipeline could achieve an accuracy of 90% and core elements of DATS had varied frequency across repositories. On a manually curated benchmark dataset, the DataMed search engine achieved an inferred average precision of 0.2033 and a precision at 10 (P@10, the number of relevant results in the top 10 search results) of 0.6022, by implementing advanced natural language processing and terminology services. Currently, we have made the DataMed system publically available as an open source package for the biomedical community. © The Author 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Validation of search filters for identifying pediatric studies in PubMed.

PubMed

Leclercq, Edith; Leeflang, Mariska M G; van Dalen, Elvira C; Kremer, Leontien C M

2013-03-01

To identify and validate PubMed search filters for retrieving studies including children and to develop a new pediatric search filter for PubMed. We developed 2 different datasets of studies to evaluate the performance of the identified pediatric search filters, expressed in terms of sensitivity, precision, specificity, accuracy, and number needed to read (NNR). An optimal search filter will have a high sensitivity and high precision with a low NNR. In addition to the PubMed Limits: All Child: 0-18 years filter (in May 2012 renamed to PubMed Filter Child: 0-18 years), 6 search filters for identifying studies including children were identified: 3 developed by Kastner et al, 1 developed by BestBets, one by the Child Health Field, and 1 by the Cochrane Childhood Cancer Group. Three search filters (Cochrane Childhood Cancer Group, Child Health Field, and BestBets) had the highest sensitivity (99.3%, 99.5%, and 99.3%, respectively) but a lower precision (64.5%, 68.4%, and 66.6% respectively) compared with the other search filters. Two Kastner search filters had a high precision (93.0% and 93.7%, respectively) but a low sensitivity (58.5% and 44.8%, respectively). They failed to identify many pediatric studies in our datasets. The search terms responsible for false-positive results in the reference dataset were determined. With these data, we developed a new search filter for identifying studies with children in PubMed with an optimal sensitivity (99.5%) and precision (69.0%). Search filters to identify studies including children either have a low sensitivity or a low precision with a high NNR. A new pediatric search filter with a high sensitivity and a low NNR has been developed. Copyright © 2013 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Factors affecting the loss of MED12-mutated leiomyoma cells during in vitro growth.

PubMed

Bloch, Jeannine; Holzmann, Carsten; Koczan, Dirk; Helmke, Burkhard Maria; Bullerdiek, Jörn

2017-05-23

Uterine leiomyomas (UL) are the most prevalent symptomatic human tumors at all and somatic mutations of the gene encoding mediator subcomplex 12 (MED12) constitute the most frequent driver mutations in UL. Recently, a rapid loss of mutated cells during in vitro growth of UL-derived cell cultures was reported, resulting in doubts about the benefits of UL-derived cell cultures. To evaluate if the rapid loss of MED12-mutated cells in UL cell cultures depends on in vitro passaging, we set up cell cultures from nine UL from 40-50 year old Caucasian patients with at least one UL. Cultured UL cells were investigated for loss of MED12-mutated cells. Genetic characterization of native tumor samples and adjacent myometrium was done by array analysis. "Aged" primary cultures without passaging were compared to cells of three subsequent passages. Comparative analyses of the mutated/non-mutated ratios between native tissue, primary cells, and cultured tumor cells revealed a clear decrease of MED12-mutated cells. None of the tumors showed gross alterations of the array profiles, excluding the presence of gross genomic imbalances besides the MED12 mutations as a reason for the intertumoral variation in the loss of MED12-mutated cells. Albeit at a lesser rate, loss of MED12-mutated cells from cell cultures of UL occurs even without passaging thus indicating the requirement of soluble factors or matrix components lacking in vitro. Identification of these factors can help to understand the mechanisms of the growth of the most frequent type of uterine leiomyomas and to decipher novel drug targets.

Med-Tech Program. Tech Prep Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chicago Public Schools, IL.

Staff from DuSable High School in Chicago, Illinois, collaborated with Malcolm X College and three area hospitals to develop a medical technician training program focusing on career awareness and development of the basic reading and math skills needed for any career. A 3-year Med Tech curriculum for grades 9, 10, and 11 and a career awareness…

Med5(Nut1) and Med17(Srb4) Are Direct Targets of Mediator Histone H4 Tail Interactions

PubMed Central

Liu, Zhongle; Myers, Lawrence C.

2012-01-01

The Mediator complex transmits activation signals from DNA bound transcription factors to the core transcription machinery. In addition to its canonical role in transcriptional activation, recent studies have demonstrated that S. cerevisiae Mediator can interact directly with nucleosomes, and their histone tails. Mutations in Mediator subunits have shown that Mediator and certain chromatin structures mutually impact each other structurally and functionally in vivo. We have taken a UV photo cross-linking approach to further delineate the molecular basis of Mediator chromatin interactions and help determine whether the impact of certain Mediator mutants on chromatin is direct. Specifically, by using histone tail peptides substituted with an amino acid analog that is a UV activatible crosslinker, we have identified specific subunits within Mediator that participate in histone tail interactions. Using Mediator purified from mutant yeast strains we have evaluated the impact of these subunits on histone tail binding. This analysis has identified the Med5 subunit of Mediator as a target for histone tail interactions and suggests that the previously observed effect of med5 mutations on telomeric heterochromatin and silencing is direct. PMID:22693636

Translational education: tools for implementing the CanMEDS competencies in Canadian urology residency training

PubMed Central

Mickelson, J.J.; MacNeily, A.E.

2008-01-01

It has been more than a decade since the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada implemented the Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists (CanMEDS) project. Despite frequent and widespread correspondence to Canadian practitioners and educators, the adoption of the 7 core competencies espoused by CanMEDS has been slow. Barriers to the teaching and acquisition of these skills include a lack of understanding of what they actually represent, a paucity of tools to teach them and an inability to quantify performance. It is essential to translate the goals of the CanMEDS project into clinically relevant concepts. We define the current status of the CanMEDS competencies with respect to urological training and provide some context to what has been, until now, a poorly defined and abstract educational construct. PMID:18781207

MED: a new non-supervised gene prediction algorithm for bacterial and archaeal genomes.

PubMed

Zhu, Huaiqiu; Hu, Gang-Qing; Yang, Yi-Fan; Wang, Jin; She, Zhen-Su

2007-03-16

Despite a remarkable success in the computational prediction of genes in Bacteria and Archaea, a lack of comprehensive understanding of prokaryotic gene structures prevents from further elucidation of differences among genomes. It continues to be interesting to develop new ab initio algorithms which not only accurately predict genes, but also facilitate comparative studies of prokaryotic genomes. This paper describes a new prokaryotic genefinding algorithm based on a comprehensive statistical model of protein coding Open Reading Frames (ORFs) and Translation Initiation Sites (TISs). The former is based on a linguistic "Entropy Density Profile" (EDP) model of coding DNA sequence and the latter comprises several relevant features related to the translation initiation. They are combined to form a so-called Multivariate Entropy Distance (MED) algorithm, MED 2.0, that incorporates several strategies in the iterative program. The iterations enable us to develop a non-supervised learning process and to obtain a set of genome-specific parameters for the gene structure, before making the prediction of genes. Results of extensive tests show that MED 2.0 achieves a competitive high performance in the gene prediction for both 5' and 3' end matches, compared to the current best prokaryotic gene finders. The advantage of the MED 2.0 is particularly evident for GC-rich genomes and archaeal genomes. Furthermore, the genome-specific parameters given by MED 2.0 match with the current understanding of prokaryotic genomes and may serve as tools for comparative genomic studies. In particular, MED 2.0 is shown to reveal divergent translation initiation mechanisms in archaeal genomes while making a more accurate prediction of TISs compared to the existing gene finders and the current GenBank annotation.

[Limiting a Medline/PubMed query to the "best" articles using the JCR relative impact factor].

PubMed

Avillach, P; Kerdelhué, G; Devos, P; Maisonneuve, H; Darmoni, S J

2014-12-01

Medline/PubMed is the most frequently used medical bibliographic research database. The aim of this study was to propose a new generic method to limit any Medline/PubMed query based on the relative impact factor and the A & B categories of the SIGAPS score. The entire PubMed corpus was used for the feasibility study, then ten frequent diseases in terms of PubMed indexing and the citations of four Nobel prize winners. The relative impact factor (RIF) was calculated by medical specialty defined in Journal Citation Reports. The two queries, which included all the journals in category A (or A OR B), were added to any Medline/PubMed query as a central point of the feasibility study. Limitation using the SIGAPS category A was larger than the when using the Core Clinical Journals (CCJ): 15.65% of PubMed corpus vs 8.64% for CCJ. The response time of this limit applied to the entire PubMed corpus was less than two seconds. For five diseases out of ten, limiting the citations with the RIF was more effective than with the CCJ. For the four Nobel prize winners, limiting the citations with the RIF was more effective than the CCJ. The feasibility study to apply a new filter based on the relative impact factor on any Medline/PubMed query was positive. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

47 CFR 95.627 - MedRadio transmitters in the 401-406 MHz band.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... the MedRadio programmer/control transmitter monitoring system antenna gain relative to an isotropic... level must be increased or decreased by an amount equal to the monitoring system antenna gain above or below the gain of an isotropic antenna, respectively. (4) If no signal in a MedRadio channel above the...

47 CFR 95.627 - MedRadio transmitters in the 401-406 MHz band.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... the MedRadio programmer/control transmitter monitoring system antenna gain relative to an isotropic... level must be increased or decreased by an amount equal to the monitoring system antenna gain above or below the gain of an isotropic antenna, respectively. (4) If no signal in a MedRadio channel above the...

47 CFR 95.627 - MedRadio transmitters in the 401-406 MHz band.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... the MedRadio programmer/control transmitter monitoring system antenna gain relative to an isotropic... level must be increased or decreased by an amount equal to the monitoring system antenna gain above or below the gain of an isotropic antenna, respectively. (4) If no signal in a MedRadio channel above the...

Management of data from clinical trials using the ArchiMed system.

PubMed

Duftschmid, Georg; Gall, Walter; Eigenbauer, Ernst; Dorda, Wolfgang

2002-06-01

Clinical trials constitute a key source of medical research and are therefore conducted on a regular basis at university hospitals. The professional execution of trials requires, among other things, a repertoire of tools that support efficient data management. Tasks that are essential for efficient data management in clinical trials include the following: the design of the trial database, the design of electronic case report forms, recruiting patients, collection of data, and statistical analysis. The present article reports the manner in which these tasks are supported by the ArchiMed system at the University of Vienna and Graz Medical Schools. ArchiMed is customized for clinical end users, allowing them to autonomously manage their clinical trials without having to consult computer experts. An evaluation of the ArchiMed system in 12 trials recently conducted at the University of Vienna Medical School shows that the individual system functions can be usefully applied for data management in clinical trials.

MET network in PubMed: a text-mined network visualization and curation system.

PubMed

Dai, Hong-Jie; Su, Chu-Hsien; Lai, Po-Ting; Huang, Ming-Siang; Jonnagaddala, Jitendra; Rose Jue, Toni; Rao, Shruti; Chou, Hui-Jou; Milacic, Marija; Singh, Onkar; Syed-Abdul, Shabbir; Hsu, Wen-Lian

2016-01-01

Metastasis is the dissemination of a cancer/tumor from one organ to another, and it is the most dangerous stage during cancer progression, causing more than 90% of cancer deaths. Improving the understanding of the complicated cellular mechanisms underlying metastasis requires investigations of the signaling pathways. To this end, we developed a METastasis (MET) network visualization and curation tool to assist metastasis researchers retrieve network information of interest while browsing through the large volume of studies in PubMed. MET can recognize relations among genes, cancers, tissues and organs of metastasis mentioned in the literature through text-mining techniques, and then produce a visualization of all mined relations in a metastasis network. To facilitate the curation process, MET is developed as a browser extension that allows curators to review and edit concepts and relations related to metastasis directly in PubMed. PubMed users can also view the metastatic networks integrated from the large collection of research papers directly through MET. For the BioCreative 2015 interactive track (IAT), a curation task was proposed to curate metastatic networks among PubMed abstracts. Six curators participated in the proposed task and a post-IAT task, curating 963 unique metastatic relations from 174 PubMed abstracts using MET.Database URL: http://btm.tmu.edu.tw/metastasisway. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Extracting and standardizing medication information in clinical text – the MedEx-UIMA system

PubMed Central

Jiang, Min; Wu, Yonghui; Shah, Anushi; Priyanka, Priyanka; Denny, Joshua C.; Xu, Hua

2014-01-01

Extraction of medication information embedded in clinical text is important for research using electronic health records (EHRs). However, most of current medication information extraction systems identify drug and signature entities without mapping them to standard representation. In this study, we introduced the open source Java implementation of MedEx, an existing high-performance medication information extraction system, based on the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) framework. In addition, we developed new encoding modules in the MedEx-UIMA system, which mapped an extracted drug name/dose/form to both generalized and specific RxNorm concepts and translated drug frequency information to ISO standard. We processed 826 documents by both systems and verified that MedEx-UIMA and MedEx (the Python version) performed similarly by comparing both results. Using two manually annotated test sets that contained 300 drug entries from medication list and 300 drug entries from narrative reports, the MedEx-UIMA system achieved F-measures of 98.5% and 97.5% respectively for encoding drug names to corresponding RxNorm generic drug ingredients, and F-measures of 85.4% and 88.1% respectively for mapping drug names/dose/form to the most specific RxNorm concepts. It also achieved an F-measure of 90.4% for normalizing frequency information to ISO standard. The open source MedEx-UIMA system is freely available online at http://code.google.com/p/medex-uima/. PMID:25954575

COSMO-SkyMed and GIS applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milillo, Pietro; Sole, Aurelia; Serio, Carmine

2013-04-01

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing have become key technology tools for the collection, storage and analysis of spatially referenced data. Industries that utilise these spatial technologies include agriculture, forestry, mining, market research as well as the environmental analysis . Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a coherent active sensor operating in the microwave band which exploits relative motion between antenna and target in order to obtain a finer spatial resolution in the flight direction exploiting the Doppler effect. SAR have wide applications in Remote Sensing such as cartography, surface deformation detection, forest cover mapping, urban planning, disasters monitoring , surveillance etc… The utilization of satellite remote sensing and GIS technology for this applications has proven to be a powerful and effective tool for environmental monitoring. Remote sensing techniques are often less costly and time-consuming for large geographic areas compared to conventional methods, moreover GIS technology provides a flexible environment for, analyzing and displaying digital data from various sources necessary for classification, change detection and database development. The aim of this work si to illustrate the potential of COSMO-SkyMed data and SAR applications in a GIS environment, in particular a demostration of the operational use of COSMO-SkyMed SAR data and GIS in real cases will be provided for what concern DEM validation, river basin estimation, flood mapping and landslide monitoring.

Wartime Medical Requirements Models: A Comparison of MPM, MEPES, and LPX-MED.

DTIC Science & Technology

1996-10-01

theater-level models: • Medical Planning Module (MPM) • Medical Planning and Execution System (MEPES) • External Logistics Processor-Medical Module ...current plan is to modify LPX-MED to include a requirements calculator, there is no plan to link the require- ments calculation module and the...simulation module . We believe the simulation module (i.e., today’s LPX-MED) needs reasonable starting values, which a calculator model can pro- vide

Cardiomyocyte-Specific Ablation of Med1 Subunit of the Mediator Complex Causes Lethal Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Mice.

PubMed

Jia, Yuzhi; Chang, Hsiang-Chun; Schipma, Matthew J; Liu, Jing; Shete, Varsha; Liu, Ning; Sato, Tatsuya; Thorp, Edward B; Barger, Philip M; Zhu, Yi-Jun; Viswakarma, Navin; Kanwar, Yashpal S; Ardehali, Hossein; Thimmapaya, Bayar; Reddy, Janardan K

2016-01-01

Mediator, an evolutionarily conserved multi-protein complex consisting of about 30 subunits, is a key component of the polymerase II mediated gene transcription. Germline deletion of the Mediator subunit 1 (Med1) of the Mediator in mice results in mid-gestational embryonic lethality with developmental impairment of multiple organs including heart. Here we show that cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of Med1 in mice (csMed1-/-) during late gestational and early postnatal development by intercrossing Med1fl/fl mice to α-MyHC-Cre transgenic mice results in lethality within 10 days after weaning due to dilated cardiomyopathy-related ventricular dilation and heart failure. The csMed1-/- mouse heart manifests mitochondrial damage, increased apoptosis and interstitial fibrosis. Global gene expression analysis revealed that loss of Med1 in heart down-regulates more than 200 genes including Acadm, Cacna1s, Atp2a2, Ryr2, Pde1c, Pln, PGC1α, and PGC1β that are critical for calcium signaling, cardiac muscle contraction, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor regulated energy metabolism. Many genes essential for oxidative phosphorylation and proper mitochondrial function such as genes coding for the succinate dehydrogenase subunits of the mitochondrial complex II are also down-regulated in csMed1-/- heart contributing to myocardial injury. Data also showed up-regulation of about 180 genes including Tgfb2, Ace, Atf3, Ctgf, Angpt14, Col9a2, Wisp2, Nppa, Nppb, and Actn1 that are linked to cardiac muscle contraction, cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac fibrosis and myocardial injury. Furthermore, we demonstrate that cardiac specific deletion of Med1 in adult mice using tamoxifen-inducible Cre approach (TmcsMed1-/-), results in rapid development of cardiomyopathy and death within 4 weeks. We found that the key findings of the csMed1-/- studies described above are highly reproducible in TmcsMed1-/- mouse heart

A Model for Persistent Improvement of Medical Education as Illustrated by the Surgical Reform Curriculum HeiCuMed.

PubMed

Kadmon, Guni; Schmidt, Jan; De Cono, Nicola; Kadmon, Martina

2011-01-01

Heidelberg Medical School underwent a major curricular change with the implementation of the reform curriculum HeiCuMed (Heidelberg Curriculum Medicinale) in October 2001. It is based on rotational modules with daily cycles of interactive, case-based small-group seminars, PBL tutorials and training of sensomotor and communication skills. For surgical undergraduate training an organisational structure was developed that ensures continuity of medical teachers for student groups and enables their unimpaired engagement for defined periods of time while accounting for the daily clinical routine in a large surgery department of a university hospital. It includes obligatory didactic training, standardising teaching material on the basis of learning objectives and releasing teaching doctors from clinical duties for the duration of a module. To compare the effectiveness of the undergraduate surgical reform curriculum with that of the preceding traditional one as reflected by students' evaluations. The present work analyses student evaluations of the undergraduate surgical training between 1999 and 2008 including three cohorts (~360 students each) in the traditional curriculum and 13 cohorts (~150 students each) in the reform curriculum. The evaluation of the courses, their organisation, the teaching quality, and the subjective learning was significantly better in HeiCuMed than in the preceding traditional curriculum over the whole study period. A medical curriculum based on the implementation of interactive didactical methods is more important to successful teaching and the subjective gain of knowledge than knowledge transfer by traditional classroom teaching. The organisational strategy adopted in the surgical training of HeiCuMed has been successful in enabling the maintenance of a complex modern curriculum on a continuously high level within the framework of a busy surgical environment.

Multi-lingual search engine to access PubMed monolingual subsets: a feasibility study.

PubMed

Darmoni, Stéfan J; Soualmia, Lina F; Griffon, Nicolas; Grosjean, Julien; Kerdelhué, Gaétan; Kergourlay, Ivan; Dahamna, Badisse

2013-01-01

PubMed contains many articles in languages other than English but it is difficult to find them using the English version of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Thesaurus. The aim of this work is to propose a tool allowing access to a PubMed subset in one language, and to evaluate its performance. Translations of MeSH were enriched and gathered in the information system. PubMed subsets in main European languages were also added in our database, using a dedicated parser. The CISMeF generic semantic search engine was evaluated on the response time for simple queries. MeSH descriptors are currently available in 11 languages in the information system. All the 654,000 PubMed citations in French were integrated into CISMeF database. None of the response times exceed the threshold defined for usability (2 seconds). It is now possible to freely access biomedical literature in French using a tool in French; health professionals and lay people with a low English language may find it useful. It will be expended to several European languages: German, Spanish, Norwegian and Portuguese.

Google Scholar versus PubMed in locating primary literature to answer drug-related questions.

PubMed

Freeman, Maisha Kelly; Lauderdale, Stacy A; Kendrach, Michael G; Woolley, Thomas W

2009-03-01

Google Scholar linked more visitors to biomedical journal Web sites than did PubMed after the database's initial release; however, its usefulness in locating primary literature articles is unknown. To assess in both databases the availability of primary literature target articles; total number of citations; availability of free, full-text journal articles; and number of primary literature target articles retrieved by year within the first 100 citations of the search results. Drug information question reviews published in The Annals of Pharmacotherapy Drug Information Rounds column served as targets to determine the retrieval ability of Google Scholar and PubMed searches. Reviews printed in this column from January 2006 to June 2007 were eligible for study inclusion. Articles were chosen if at least 2 key words of the printed article were included in the PubMed Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) database, and these terms were searched in both databases. Twenty-two of 33 (67%) eligible Drug Information Rounds articles met the inclusion criteria. The median number of primary literature articles used in each of these articles was 6.5 (IQR 4.8, 8.3; mean +/- SD 8 +/- 5.4). No significant differences were found for the mean number of target primary literature articles located within the first 100 citations in Google Scholar and PubMed searches (5.1 +/- 3.9 vs 5.3 +/- 3.3; p = 0.868). Google Scholar searches located more total results than PubMed (2211.6 +/- 3999.5 vs 44.2 +/- 47.4; p = 0.019). The availability of free, full-text journal articles per Drug Information Rounds article was similar between the databases (1.8 +/- 1.7 vs 2.3 +/- 1.7; p = 0.325). More primary literature articles published prior to 2000 were located with Google Scholar searches compared with PubMed (62.8% vs 34.9%; p = 0.017); however, no statistically significant differences between the databases were observed for articles published after 2000 (66.4 vs 77.1; p = 0.074). No significant differences

Ablation of Coactivator Med1 Switches the Cell Fate of Dental Epithelia to That Generating Hair

PubMed Central

Nguyen, Thai; Sakai, Kiyoshi; He, Bing; Fong, Chak; Oda, Yuko

2014-01-01

Cell fates are determined by specific transcriptional programs. Here we provide evidence that the transcriptional coactivator, Mediator 1 (Med1), is essential for the cell fate determination of ectodermal epithelia. Conditional deletion of Med1 in vivo converted dental epithelia into epidermal epithelia, causing defects in enamel organ development while promoting hair formation in the incisors. We identified multiple processes by which hairs are generated in Med1 deficient incisors: 1) dental epithelial stem cells lacking Med 1 fail to commit to the dental lineage, 2) Sox2-expressing stem cells extend into the differentiation zone and remain multi-potent due to reduced Notch1 signaling, and 3) epidermal fate is induced by calcium as demonstrated in dental epithelial cell cultures. These results demonstrate that Med1 is a master regulator in adult stem cells to govern epithelial cell fate. PMID:24949995

Neointimal Hyperplasia after Silverhawk Atherectomy versus Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty (PTA) in Femoropopliteal Stent Reobstructions: A Controlled, Randomized Pilot Trial

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

Brodmann, Marianne, E-mail: marianne.brodmann@medunigraz.at; Rief, Peter; Froehlich, Harald

2013-02-15

Due to intimal hyperplasia instent reobstruction in the femoropopliteal arterial segment is still an unsolved problem. Different techniques have been discussed in case of reintervention to guarantee longlasting patency rate. We conducted a randomized, controlled, pilot trial comparing Silverhawk atherectomy with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in patients with a first instent reobstruction in the femoropopliteal arterial segment, to evaluate intima media thickness (IMT) within the treated segment, as a parameter of recurrence of intimal hyperplasia. In a total 19 patients were included: 9 patients in the atherectomy device and 10 patients in the PTA arm. IMT within the treated segmentmore » was statistically significantly elevated in all patients treated with the Silverhawk device versus the patients treated with PTA. The obvious differentiation in elevation of IMT in nonfavor for patients treated with the Silverhawk device started at month 2 (max IMT SH 0.178 mm vs. IMT PTA 0.1 mm, p = 0.001) with a spike at month 5 (max IMT SH 0.206 mm vs. IMT PTA 0.145 mm, p = 0.003) and a decline once again at month 6 (max IMT SH 0.177 mm vs. IMT PTA 0.121 mm, p = 0.02). The values for mean IMT performed the same way. Although Silverhawk atherectomy provides good results at first sight, in the midterm follow-up of treatment of first instent restenosis it did not perform better than PTA as it showed elevated reoccurrence of intimal media hyperplasia.« less

Canine ovariectomy by hybrid or total natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery: technical feasibility study and pain assessment.

PubMed

Linhares, Marcella Teixeira; Feranti, João Pedro Scussel; Coradini, Gabriela Pesamosca; Martins, Letícia Reginato; Martins, Arthur Rodrigues; Sarturi, Vanessa Zanchi; Gavioli, Felipe Baldissarella; Machado Silva, Marco Augusto; de Ataíde, Michelli Westphal; Teixeira, Luciana Gonçalves; Brun, Maurício Veloso

2018-06-13

To compare technical feasibility, surgical time, surgical complications, and postoperative pain in ovariectomy (OVE) by hybrid and total natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES). Prospective randomized clinical trial. Sixteen healthy and sexually intact bitches. Dogs were randomly assigned to the hybrid NOTES group (HNG; n = 8) and the total NOTES group (TNG; n = 8) to compare surgical time, pain scores and complications. Pain was assessed by using the visual analog scale (VAS) and the Melbourne pain scale (MPS). Surgical time did not differ between the experimental groups (HNG = 46.3 ± 18.5 minutes, TNG = 54.6 ± 31.1 minutes). Exteriorization of the ovaries through the vaginal wound was the major difficulty. Complications were minor in both groups and occurred intraoperatively only in the HNG, and in both groups post operatively. No dogs required rescue analgesia in the intraoperative or postoperative period. There were no differences in VAS or MPS scores between the groups for any surgical times except for the VAS assessment at 72 hours after extubation (HNG = 1.1 ± 0.3, TNG = 0.7 ± 0.4, P = .0221). Both NOTES techniques were comparable for canine OVE, with no requirement for additional analgesia in the postoperative periods. It was not possible to determine whether there was a clear advantage of one technique rather than the other. The minimally invasive techniques proposed for laparoscopic OVE are feasible for dogs with low pain scores and low rates of complications for both groups. © 2018 The American College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Prognosis: the “missing link” within the CanMEDS competency framework

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The concept of prognosis dates back to antiquity. Quantum advances in diagnostics and therapeutics have relegated this once highly valued core competency to an almost negligible role in modern medical practice. Medical curricula are devoid of teaching opportunities focused on prognosis. This void is driven by a corresponding relative dearth within physician competency frameworks. This study aims to assess the level of content related to prognosis within CanMEDS (Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists), a leading and prototypical physician competency framework. Methods A quantitative content analysis of CanMEDS competency framework was carried out to measure the extent of this deficiency. Foxit Reader 5.1 (Foxit Corporation), a keyword scanning software, was used to assess the CanMEDS 2005 framework documents of 29 physician specialties and 37 subspecialties across the seven physician roles (medical expert, communicator, collaborator, manager, health advocate, scholar, and professional). The keywords used in the search included prognosis, prognostic, prognosticate, and prognostication. Results Of the 29 specialties six (20.7%) contained at least one citation of the keyword “prognosis”, and one (3.4%) contained one citation of the keyword “prognostic”. Of the 37 subspecialties, sixteen (43.2%) contained at least one citation of the keyword “prognosis”, and three (8.1%) contained at least one citation of the keyword “prognostic”. The terms “prognosticate” and “prognostication” were completely absent from all CanMEDS 2005 documents. Overall, the combined citations for “prognosis” and “prognostic” were linked with the following competency roles: Medical Expert (80.3%), Scholar (11.5%), and Communicator (8.2%). Conclusions Given the fundamental and foundational importance of prognosis within medical practice, it is recommended that physicians develop appropriate attitudes, skills and knowledge related to the

Rural GRATEFUL MED outreach: project results, impact, and future needs.

PubMed Central

Dorsch, J L; Landwirth, T K

1993-01-01

The Library of the Health Sciences-Peoria (LHS-Peoria), located at a regional site of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, conducted an eighteen-month GRATEFUL MED outreach project funded by the National Library of Medicine. The project was designed to enhance information services for health professionals at eight underserved rural hospitals in west central Illinois. One hundred rural health professionals, mainly nonphysicians, received GRATEFUL MED training at these hospitals; LHS delivered more than 350 documents to the trainees. In this paper, investigators describe the project and its goals and discuss results and their evaluation, from both individual and institutional perspectives. Outcome is examined in the context of future outreach plans, both at LHS and elsewhere. PMID:8251973

EPA MED-DULUTH'S ECOTOX AND ECO-SSL WEB APPLICATIONS

EPA Science Inventory

The ECOTOX (ECOTOXicology Database) system developed by the USEPA, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), Mid-Continent Ecology Division in Duluth, MN (MED-Duluth), provides a web browser search interface for locating aquatic and terrestrial toxic...

Development of a disposable magnetically levitated centrifugal blood pump (MedTech Dispo) intended for bridge-to-bridge applications--two-week in vivo evaluation.

PubMed

Nagaoka, Eiki; Someya, Takeshi; Kitao, Takashi; Kimura, Taro; Ushiyama, Tomohiro; Hijikata, Wataru; Shinshi, Tadahiko; Arai, Hirokuni; Takatani, Setsuo

2010-09-01

Last year, we reported in vitro pump performance, low hemolytic characteristics, and initial in vivo evaluation of a disposable, magnetically levitated centrifugal blood pump, MedTech Dispo. As the first phase of the two-stage in vivo studies, in this study we have carried out a 2-week in vivo evaluation in calves. Male Holstein calves with body weight of 62.4–92.2 kg were used. Under general anesthesia, a left heart bypass with a MedTech Dispo pump was instituted between the left atrium and the descending aorta via left thoracotomy. Blood-contacting surface of the pump was coated with a 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine polymer. Post-operatively, with activated clotting time controlled at 180–220 s using heparin and bypass flow rate maintained at 50 mL/kg/min, plasma-free hemoglobin (Hb), coagulation, and major organ functions were analyzed for evaluation of biocompatibility. The animals were electively sacrificed at the completion of the 2-week study to evaluate presence of thrombus inside the pump,together with an examination of major organs. To date, we have done 13 MedTech Dispo implantations, of which three went successfully for a 2-week duration. In these three cases, the pump produced a fairly constant flow of 50 mL/Kg/min. Neurological disorders and any symptoms of thromboembolism were not seen. Levels of plasma-free Hb were maintained very low. Major organ functions remained within normal ranges. Autopsy results revealed no thrombus formation inside the pump. In the last six cases, calves suffered from severe pneumonia and they were excluded from the analysis. The MedTech Dispo pump demonstrated sufficient pump performance and biocompatibility to meet requirements for 1-week circulatory support. The second phase (2-month in vivo study) is under way to prove the safety and efficacy of MedTech Dispo for 1-month applications. © 2010, Copyright the Authors. Artificial Organs © 2010, International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation

Data regarding articles retracted from PubMed indexed dental journals from India.

PubMed

Shamim, Thorakkal

2018-06-01

This data aimed to audit the articles retracted from PubMed indexed dental journals from India. The PubMed indexed journals considered are Indian Journal of Dental research, Journal of Indian Society of Periodontology, Contemporary Clinical Dentistry, Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Journal of Indian Prosthodontic Society for type of article, name of dental specialty, topic of individual dental specialties, causes for retraction of article and authorship trend of retracted articles using web-based search. Among PubMed indexed Indian dental journals,the number of retracted articles were as follows: Indian Journal of Dental research (4) followed by Journal of Indian Society of Periodontology (3), Contemporary Clinical Dentistry (3), Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry (2), Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology (2) and Journal of Indian Prosthodontic Society (1). Out of 15 retracted articles from PubMed indexed Indian dental journals, case reports (7) form a major share followed by original articles(6) and review articles (2). Among the dental specialties of retracted articles, oral pathology and microbiology (5) constitute the major share followed by periodontics (4), pedodontics (4), oral medicine and radiology (1) and prosthodontics (1). Duplicate publication (7), plagiarism (5) and authorship dispute (3) are the causes for the retraction of article.

Leaving the Lecture Behind: Putting PubMed Instruction into the Hands of the Students.

PubMed

Turner, Rose L; M Ketchum, Andrea; Ratajeski, Melissa A; Wessel, Charles B

2017-01-01

This column describes the development of a one-shot PubMed instruction class for medical students at a health sciences library. Background information on the objective is presented and discussed in the context of educational practice literature. The new course design centers on a guided group method of instruction in order to integrate more active learning. Surveyed students reported that the method was an effective way to learn how to search PubMed and that they preferred it to a traditional lecture. Pros and cons of the method are offered for other health sciences libraries interested in presenting PubMed instruction in a similar manner.

MED1 mediates androgen receptor splice variant induced gene expression in the absence of ligand

PubMed Central

Liu, Gang; Sprenger, Cynthia; Wu, Pin-Jou; Sun, Shihua; Uo, Takuma; Haugk, Kathleen; Epilepsia, Kathryn Soriano; Plymate, Stephen

2015-01-01

The appearance of constitutively active androgen receptor splice variants (AR-Vs) has been proposed as one of the causes of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). However, the underlying mechanism of AR-Vs in CRPC transcriptional regulation has not been defined. A distinct transcriptome enriched with cell cycle genes, e.g. UBE2C, has been associated with AR-Vs, which indicates the possibility of an altered transcriptional mechanism when compared to full-length wild-type AR (ARfl). Importantly, a recent study reported the critical role of p-MED1 in enhancing UBE2C expression through a locus looping pattern, which only occurs in CRPC but not in androgen-dependent prostate cancer (ADPC). To investigate the potential correlation between AR-V and MED1, in the present study we performed protein co-immunoprecipitation, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and cell proliferation assays and found that MED1 is necessary for ARv567es induced UBE2C up-regulation and subsequent prostate cancer cell growth. Furthermore, p-MED1 is bound to ARv567es independent of full-length AR; p-MED1 has higher recruitment to UBE2C promoter and enhancer regions in the presence of ARv567es. Our data indicate that p-MED1 serves as a key mediator in ARv567es induced gene expression and suggests a mechanism by which AR-Vs promote the development and progression of CRPC. PMID:25481872

Supplementary searches of PubMed to improve currency of MEDLINE and MEDLINE In-Process searches via Ovid.

PubMed

Duffy, Steven; de Kock, Shelley; Misso, Kate; Noake, Caro; Ross, Janine; Stirk, Lisa

2016-10-01

The research investigated whether conducting a supplementary search of PubMed in addition to the main MEDLINE (Ovid) search for a systematic review is worthwhile and to ascertain whether this PubMed search can be conducted quickly and if it retrieves unique, recently published, and ahead-of-print studies that are subsequently considered for inclusion in the final systematic review. Searches of PubMed were conducted after MEDLINE (Ovid) and MEDLINE In-Process (Ovid) searches had been completed for seven recent reviews. The searches were limited to records not in MEDLINE or MEDLINE In-Process (Ovid). Additional unique records were identified for all of the investigated reviews. Search strategies were adapted quickly to run in PubMed, and reviewer screening of the results was not time consuming. For each of the investigated reviews, studies were ordered for full screening; in six cases, studies retrieved from the supplementary PubMed searches were included in the final systematic review. Supplementary searching of PubMed for studies unavailable elsewhere is worthwhile and improves the currency of the systematic reviews.

Supplementary searches of PubMed to improve currency of MEDLINE and MEDLINE In-Process searches via Ovid

PubMed Central

Duffy, Steven; de Kock, Shelley; Misso, Kate; Noake, Caro; Ross, Janine; Stirk, Lisa

2016-01-01

Objective The research investigated whether conducting a supplementary search of PubMed in addition to the main MEDLINE (Ovid) search for a systematic review is worthwhile and to ascertain whether this PubMed search can be conducted quickly and if it retrieves unique, recently published, and ahead-of-print studies that are subsequently considered for inclusion in the final systematic review. Methods Searches of PubMed were conducted after MEDLINE (Ovid) and MEDLINE In-Process (Ovid) searches had been completed for seven recent reviews. The searches were limited to records not in MEDLINE or MEDLINE In-Process (Ovid). Results Additional unique records were identified for all of the investigated reviews. Search strategies were adapted quickly to run in PubMed, and reviewer screening of the results was not time consuming. For each of the investigated reviews, studies were ordered for full screening; in six cases, studies retrieved from the supplementary PubMed searches were included in the final systematic review. Conclusion Supplementary searching of PubMed for studies unavailable elsewhere is worthwhile and improves the currency of the systematic reviews. PMID:27822154

Development and Early Piloting of a CanMEDS Competency-Based Feedback Tool for Surgical Grand Rounds.

PubMed

Fahim, Christine; Bhandari, Mohit; Yang, Ilun; Sonnadara, Ranil

2016-01-01

Grand rounds offer an excellent opportunity for the evaluation of medical expertise, and other competencies, such as communication and professionalism. The purpose of this study was to develop a tool that would facilitate the provision of formative feedback for grand rounds to improve learning. The resulting CanMEDS-based evaluation tool was piloted in an academic surgical department. This study employed the use of a 3-phase, qualitatively-focused, embedded mixed methods approach. In Phase 1, an intrinsic case study was conducted to identify preliminary themes. These findings were crystallized using a quantitative survey. Following interpretation of these data, a grand rounds evaluation tool was developed in Phase 2. The tool was piloted in the Phase 3 focus group. This study was piloted at an academic surgical center among members of the Department of Surgery, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. Purposive sampling was used for this study. A total of n = 7 individuals participated in the Phase 1 interviews, and n = 24 participants completed the Phase 1 survey. Participants included a representative sample of medical students, residents, fellows, and staff. The tool was piloted among n = 19 participants. The proposed evaluation tool contains 13 Likert-scale questions and 2 open-ended questions. The tool outlines specific questions to assess grand rounds presenters within the structure of the 7 CanMEDS competency domains. "Evaluation fatigue" was identified as a major barrier in the willingness to provide effective feedback. Further, a number of factors regarding the preferred content, structure, and format of surgical grand rounds were identified. This pilot study presents a CanMEDS-specific evaluation tool that can be applied to surgical grand rounds. With the increasing adoption of competency-based medical education, comprehensive evaluation of surgical activities is required. This form provides a template for the development of competency-based evaluation tools

Mediator subunit MED1 is a T3-dependent and T3-independent coactivator on the thyrotropin β gene promoter

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

Matsui, Keiji; Oda, Kasumi; Mizuta, Shumpei

2013-10-11

Highlights: •MED1 is a bona fide T3-dependent coactivator on TSHB promoter. •Mice with LxxLL-mutant MED1 have attenuated TSHβ mRNA and thyroid hormone levels. •MED1 activates TSHB promoter T3-dependently in cultured cells. •T3-dependent MED1 action is enhanced when SRC1/SRC2 or HDAC2 is downregulated. •MED1 is also a T3-independent GATA2/Pit1 coactivator on TSHB promoter. -- Abstract: The MED1 subunit of the Mediator transcriptional coregulator complex is a nuclear receptor-specific coactivator. A negative feedback mechanism of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH, or thyrotropin) expression in the thyrotroph in the presence of triiodothyronine (T3) is employed by liganded thyroid hormone receptor β (TRβ) on the TSHβmore » gene promoter, where conventional histone-modifying coactivators act as corepressors. We now provide evidence that MED1 is a ligand-dependent positive cofactor on this promoter. TSHβ gene transcription was attenuated in MED1 mutant mice in which the nuclear receptor-binding ability of MED1 was specifically disrupted. MED1 stimulated GATA2- and Pit1-mediated TSHβ gene promoter activity in a ligand-independent manner in cultured cells. MED1 also stimulated transcription from the TSHβ gene promoter in a T3-dependent manner. The transcription was further enhanced when the T3-dependent corepressors SRC1, SRC2, and HDAC2 were downregulated. Hence, MED1 is a T3-dependent and -independent coactivator on the TSHβ gene promoter.« less

Med Wise: A theory-based program to improve older adults' communication with pharmacists about their medicines.

PubMed

Martin, B A; Chewning, B A; Margolis, A R; Wilson, D A; Renken, J

2016-01-01

The health and economic toll of medication errors by older adults is well documented. Poor communication and medication coordination problems increase the likelihood of adverse drug events (ADEs). Older adults have difficulty communicating with health care professionals, including pharmacists. As such, the theory-based Med Wise program was designed. Building on the Self-efficacy Framework and the Chronic Care Model, this program was tested with community-dwelling older adults. This study and its resultant paper: (1) describe the theory-based design of the Med Wise program; (2) describe the collaboration of multiple community partners to develop a sustainable model for implementing Med Wise; and (3) present findings from the Med Wise course evaluation. Med Wise was designed to be a sustainable, skill-based educational and behavior change program consisting of two, 2-h interactive classes to enhance participants' medication communication skills and self-efficacy. To explore the potential to disseminate Med Wise throughout the state, a partnership was formed between the pharmacy team and the statewide Aging & Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs), as well as the Community-Academic Aging Research Network (CAARN). Over 30 lay volunteer leaders in 8 Wisconsin (U.S. State) counties were trained, and they delivered Med Wise through ADRC community centers. The CAARN staff evaluated the fidelity of the course delivery by leaders. To evaluate Med Wise, a quasi-experimental design using pre/post surveys assessed knowledge, worry and self-efficacy. A telephone follow-up three months later assessed self-efficacy and translation of medication management skills and behaviors. Med Wise programs were presented to 198 community-dwelling older adults while maintaining program fidelity. This evaluation found significant increases in older adults' knowledge about pharmacists' roles and responsibilities, likelihood of talking with a pharmacist about medication concerns, and self

MedTxting: Learning based and Knowledge Rich SMS-style Medical Text Contraction

PubMed Central

Liu, Feifan; Moosavinasab, Soheil; Houston, Thomas K.; Yu, Hong

2012-01-01

In mobile health (M-health), Short Message Service (SMS) has shown to improve disease related self-management and health service outcomes, leading to enhanced patient care. However, the hard limit on character size for each message limits the full value of exploring SMS communication in health care practices. To overcome this problem and improve the efficiency of clinical workflow, we developed an innovative system, MedTxting (available at http://medtxting.askhermes.org), which is a learning-based but knowledge-rich system that compresses medical texts in a SMS style. Evaluations on clinical questions and discharge summary narratives show that MedTxting can effectively compress medical texts with reasonable readability and noticeable size reduction. Findings in this work reveal potentials of MedTxting to the clinical settings, allowing for real-time and cost-effective communication, such as patient condition reporting, medication consulting, physicians connecting to share expertise to improve point of care. PMID:23304328

Mediation and the "Chilling" Effect of Med-Arb in a Simulated Labor-Management Dispute.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnevale, Peter J. D.; Leatherwood, Marya L.

Mediation and mediation-arbitration (med-arb) are two forms of third-party conflict intervention that can affect integrative agreements in labor-management negotiation. In an attempt to evaluate the relative value of each of these two methods, 160 volunteers, almost all business students, were randomly placed into a mediation triad, a med-arb…

Papillae formation on trichome cell walls requires the function of the mediator complex subunit Med25.

PubMed

Fornero, Christy; Suo, Bangxia; Zahde, Mais; Juveland, Katelyn; Kirik, Viktor

2017-11-01

Glassy Hair 1 (GLH1) gene that promotes papillae formation on trichome cell walls was identified as a subunit of the transcriptional mediator complex MED25. The MED25 gene is shown to be expressed in trichomes. The expression of the trichome development marker genes GLABRA2 (GL2) and Ethylene Receptor2 (ETR2) is not affected in the glh1 mutant. Presented data suggest that Arabidopsis MED25 mediator component is likely involved in the transcription of genes promoting papillae deposition in trichomes. The plant cell wall plays an important role in communication, defense, organization and support. The importance of each of these functions varies by cell type. Specialized cells, such as Arabidopsis trichomes, exhibit distinct cell wall characteristics including papillae. To better understand the molecular processes important for papillae deposition on the cell wall surface, we identified the GLASSY HAIR 1 (GLH1) gene, which is necessary for papillae formation. We found that a splice-site mutation in the component of the transcriptional mediator complex MED25 gene is responsible for the near papillae-less phenotype of the glh1 mutant. The MED25 gene is expressed in trichomes. Reporters for trichome developmental marker genes GLABRA2 (GL2) and Ethylene Receptor2 (ETR2) were not affected in the glh1 mutant. Collectively, the presented results show that MED25 is necessary for papillae formation on the cell wall surface of leaf trichomes and suggest that the Arabidopsis MED25 mediator component is likely involved in the transcription of a subset of genes that promote papillae deposition in trichomes.

#GeriMedJC: The Twitter Complement to the Traditional-Format Geriatric Medicine Journal Club.

PubMed

Gardhouse, Amanda I; Budd, Laura; Yang, Seu Y C; Wong, Camilla L

2017-06-01

Twitter is a public microblogging platform that overcomes physical limitations and allows unrestricted participation beyond academic silos, enabling interactive discussions. Twitter-based journal clubs have demonstrated growth, sustainability, and worldwide communication, using a hashtag (#) to follow participation. This article describes the first year of #GeriMedJC, a monthly 1-hour live, 23-hour asynchronous Twitter-based complement to the traditional-format geriatric medicine journal club. The Twitter moderator tweets from the handle @GeriMedJC; encourages use of #GeriMedJC; and invites content experts, study authors, and followers to participate in critical appraisal of medical literature. Using the hashtag #GeriMedJC, tweets were categorized according to thematic content, relevance to the journal club, and authorship. Third-party analytical tools Symplur and Twitter Analytics were used for growth and effect metrics (number of followers, participants, tweets, retweets, replies, impressions). Qualitative analysis of follower and participant profiles was used to establish country of origin and occupation. A semistructured interview of postgraduate trainees was conducted to ascertain qualitative aspects of the experience. In the first year, @GeriMedJC has grown to 541 followers on six continents. Most followers were physicians (43%), two-thirds of which were geriatricians. Growth metrics increased over 12 months, with a mean of 121 tweets, 25 participants, and 105,831 impressions per journal club. Tweets were most often related to the article being appraised (87.5%) and ranged in thematic content from clinical practice (29%) to critical appraisal (24%) to medical education (20%). #GeriMedJC is a feasible example of using social media platforms such as Twitter to encourage international and interprofessional appraisal of medical literature. © 2017, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2017, The American Geriatrics Society.

Risk factors for bladder cancer: challenges of conducting a literature search using PubMed.

PubMed

Joshi, Ashish; Preslan, Elicia

2011-04-01

The objective of this study was to assess the risk factors for bladder cancer using PubMed articles from January 2000 to December 2009. The study also aimed to describe the challenges encountered in the methodology of a literature search for bladder cancer risk factors using PubMed. Twenty-six categories of risk factors for bladder cancer were identified using the National Cancer Institute Web site and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Web site. A total of 1,338 PubMed searches were run using the term "urinary bladder cancer" and a risk factor term (e.g., "cigarette smoking") and were screened to identify 260 articles for final analysis. The search strategy had an overall precision of 3.42 percent, relative recall of 12.64 percent, and an F-measure of 5.39 percent. Although search terms derived from MeSH had the highest overall precision and recall, the differences did not reach significance, which indicates that for generalized, free-text searches of the PubMed database, the searchers' own terms are generally as effective as MeSH terms.

Effect of ketamine pretreatment for anaesthesia in patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty with continuous remifentanil infusion

PubMed Central

Jun, Na Hyung; Shim, Jae Kwang; Choi, Yong Sun; An, Seung Ho

2011-01-01

Background An appropriate level of sedation and pharmacological assist are essential during percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty (PTA). Ketamine provides good analgesia while preserving airway patency, ventilation, and cardiovascular stability with an opioid sparing effect suggesting that it would be ideal in combination with remifentanil and midazolam in spontaneously breathing patients. We evaluated the effect of a small dose of ketamine added to midazolam and remifentanil on analgesia/sedation for PTA procedures. Methods Sixty-four patients receiving PTA were enrolled. The Control group received midazolam 1.0 mg i.v. and continuous infusion of remifentanil 0.05 µg/kg/min. The Ketamine group received, in addition, an intravenous bolus of 0.5 mg/kg ketamine. Patients' haemodynamic data were monitored before remifentanil infusion, 5 min after remifentanil infusion, at 1, 3, 5, 30 min after incision, and at admission to the recovery room. Verbal numerical rating scales (VNRS) and sedation [OAA/S (Observer's Assessment of Alertness/Sedation)] scores were also recorded. Results The VNRS values at 1, 3, and 5 min after incision and OAA/S scores at 5 min after remifentanil infusion, and 1, 3, and 5 min after incision were lower in the Ketamine group than in the Control group. In the Control group, the VNRS value at 1 min after incision significantly increased and OAA/S values at 3, 5, and 30 min after incision significantly decreased compared to baseline values, while there were no significant changes in the ketamine group. Conclusions A small dose of ketamine as an adjunct sedative to the combination of midazolam and remifentanil produced a better quality of sedation and analgesia than without ketamine and provided stable respiration without cardiopulmonary deterioration. PMID:22110884

Outcome of patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy after percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation and septal myectomy surgery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Qin, J. X.; Shiota, T.; Lever, H. M.; Kapadia, S. R.; Sitges, M.; Rubin, D. N.; Bauer, F.; Greenberg, N. L.; Agler, D. A.; Drinko, J. K.;

Dialysis search filters for PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and Embase databases.

PubMed

Iansavichus, Arthur V; Haynes, R Brian; Lee, Christopher W C; Wilczynski, Nancy L; McKibbon, Ann; Shariff, Salimah Z; Blake, Peter G; Lindsay, Robert M; Garg, Amit X

2012-10-01

Physicians frequently search bibliographic databases, such as MEDLINE via PubMed, for best evidence for patient care. The objective of this study was to develop and test search filters to help physicians efficiently retrieve literature related to dialysis (hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis) from all other articles indexed in PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and Embase. A diagnostic test assessment framework was used to develop and test robust dialysis filters. The reference standard was a manual review of the full texts of 22,992 articles from 39 journals to determine whether each article contained dialysis information. Next, 1,623,728 unique search filters were developed, and their ability to retrieve relevant articles was evaluated. The high-performance dialysis filters consisted of up to 65 search terms in combination. These terms included the words "dialy" (truncated), "uremic," "catheters," and "renal transplant wait list." These filters reached peak sensitivities of 98.6% and specificities of 98.5%. The filters' performance remained robust in an independent validation subset of articles. These empirically derived and validated high-performance search filters should enable physicians to effectively retrieve dialysis information from PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and Embase.

TeleMed: Wide-area, secure, collaborative object computing with Java and CORBA for healthcare

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

Forslund, D.W.; George, J.E.; Gavrilov, E.M.

1998-12-31

Distributed computing is becoming commonplace in a variety of industries with healthcare being a particularly important one for society. The authors describe the development and deployment of TeleMed in a few healthcare domains. TeleMed is a 100% Java distributed application build on CORBA and OMG standards enabling the collaboration on the treatment of chronically ill patients in a secure manner over the Internet. These standards enable other systems to work interoperably with TeleMed and provide transparent access to high performance distributed computing to the healthcare domain. The goal of wide scale integration of electronic medical records is a grand-challenge scalemore » problem of global proportions with far-reaching social benefits.« less

Impact of PubMed search filters on the retrieval of evidence by physicians.

PubMed

Shariff, Salimah Z; Sontrop, Jessica M; Haynes, R Brian; Iansavichus, Arthur V; McKibbon, K Ann; Wilczynski, Nancy L; Weir, Matthew A; Speechley, Mark R; Thind, Amardeep; Garg, Amit X

2012-02-21

Physicians face challenges when searching PubMed for research evidence, and they may miss relevant articles while retrieving too many nonrelevant articles. We investigated whether the use of search filters in PubMed improves searching by physicians. We asked a random sample of Canadian nephrologists to answer unique clinical questions derived from 100 systematic reviews of renal therapy. Physicians provided the search terms that they would type into PubMed to locate articles to answer these questions. We entered the physician-provided search terms into PubMed and applied two types of search filters alone or in combination: a methods-based filter designed to identify high-quality studies about treatment (clinical queries "therapy") and a topic-based filter designed to identify studies with renal content. We evaluated the comprehensiveness (proportion of relevant articles found) and efficiency (ratio of relevant to nonrelevant articles) of the filtered and nonfiltered searches. Primary studies included in the systematic reviews served as the reference standard for relevant articles. The average physician-provided search terms retrieved 46% of the relevant articles, while 6% of the retrieved articles were relevant (corrected) (the ratio of relevant to nonrelevant articles was 1:16). The use of both filters together produced a marked improvement in efficiency, resulting in a ratio of relevant to nonrelevant articles of 1:5 (16 percentage point improvement; 99% confidence interval 9% to 22%; p < 0.003) with no substantive change in comprehensiveness (44% of relevant articles found; p = 0.55). The use of PubMed search filters improves the efficiency of physician searches. Improved search performance may enhance the transfer of research into practice and improve patient care.

Performing Environmental Change: MED Theatre and the Changing Face of Community-Based Performance Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaefer, Kerrie

2012-01-01

This article examines a programme of work produced by community-based theatre company, Manaton and East Dartmoor (MED) Theatre, addressing issues of climate change as they impact on life in rural Devon, UK. After some discussion of MED Theatre's constitution as a community-based company and the group's long-term engagement with the place, history,…

Neointimal hyperplasia after silverhawk atherectomy versus percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in femoropopliteal stent reobstructions: a controlled, randomized pilot trial.

PubMed

Brodmann, Marianne; Rief, Peter; Froehlich, Harald; Dorr, Andreas; Gary, Thomas; Eller, Philipp; Hafner, Franz; Deutschmann, Hannes; Seinost, Gerald; Pilger, Ernst

2013-02-01

Due to intimal hyperplasia instent reobstruction in the femoropopliteal arterial segment is still an unsolved problem. Different techniques have been discussed in case of reintervention to guarantee longlasting patency rate. We conducted a randomized, controlled, pilot trial comparing Silverhawk atherectomy with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in patients with a first instent reobstruction in the femoropopliteal arterial segment, to evaluate intima media thickness (IMT) within the treated segment, as a parameter of recurrence of intimal hyperplasia. In a total 19 patients were included: 9 patients in the atherectomy device and 10 patients in the PTA arm. IMT within the treated segment was statistically significantly elevated in all patients treated with the Silverhawk device versus the patients treated with PTA. The obvious differentiation in elevation of IMT in nonfavor for patients treated with the Silverhawk device started at month 2 (max IMT SH 0.178 mm vs. IMT PTA 0.1 mm, p = 0.001) with a spike at month 5 (max IMT SH 0.206 mm vs. IMT PTA 0.145 mm, p = 0.003) and a decline once again at month 6 (max IMT SH 0.177 mm vs. IMT PTA 0.121 mm, p = 0.02). The values for mean IMT performed the same way. Although Silverhawk atherectomy provides good results at first sight, in the midterm follow-up of treatment of first instent restenosis it did not perform better than PTA as it showed elevated reoccurrence of intimal media hyperplasia.

GenderMedDB: an interactive database of sex and gender-specific medical literature.

PubMed

Oertelt-Prigione, Sabine; Gohlke, Björn-Oliver; Dunkel, Mathias; Preissner, Robert; Regitz-Zagrosek, Vera

2014-01-01

Searches for sex and gender-specific publications are complicated by the absence of a specific algorithm within search engines and by the lack of adequate archives to collect the retrieved results. We previously addressed this issue by initiating the first systematic archive of medical literature containing sex and/or gender-specific analyses. This initial collection has now been greatly enlarged and re-organized as a free user-friendly database with multiple functions: GenderMedDB (http://gendermeddb.charite.de). GenderMedDB retrieves the included publications from the PubMed database. Manuscripts containing sex and/or gender-specific analysis are continuously screened and the relevant findings organized systematically into disciplines and diseases. Publications are furthermore classified by research type, subject and participant numbers. More than 11,000 abstracts are currently included in the database, after screening more than 40,000 publications. The main functions of the database include searches by publication data or content analysis based on pre-defined classifications. In addition, registrants are enabled to upload relevant publications, access descriptive publication statistics and interact in an open user forum. Overall, GenderMedDB offers the advantages of a discipline-specific search engine as well as the functions of a participative tool for the gender medicine community.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry, Descent And Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI): Hardware Performance and Data Reconstruction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Little, Alan; Bose, Deepak; Karlgaard, Chris; Munk, Michelle; Kuhl, Chris; Schoenenberger, Mark; Antill, Chuck; Verhappen, Ron; Kutty, Prasad; White, Todd

2013-01-01

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI) hardware was a first-of-its-kind sensor system that gathered temperature and pressure readings on the MSL heatshield during Mars entry on August 6, 2012. MEDLI began as challenging instrumentation problem, and has been a model of collaboration across multiple NASA organizations. After the culmination of almost 6 years of effort, the sensors performed extremely well, collecting data from before atmospheric interface through parachute deploy. This paper will summarize the history of the MEDLI project and hardware development, including key lessons learned that can apply to future instrumentation efforts. MEDLI returned an unprecedented amount of high-quality engineering data from a Mars entry vehicle. We will present the performance of the 3 sensor types: pressure, temperature, and isotherm tracking, as well as the performance of the custom-built sensor support electronics. A key component throughout the MEDLI project has been the ground testing and analysis effort required to understand the returned flight data. Although data analysis is ongoing through 2013, this paper will reveal some of the early findings on the aerothermodynamic environment that MSL encountered at Mars, the response of the heatshield material to that heating environment, and the aerodynamic performance of the entry vehicle. The MEDLI data results promise to challenge our engineering assumptions and revolutionize the way we account for margins in entry vehicle design.

PubMed vs. HighWire Press: a head-to-head comparison of two medical literature search engines.

PubMed

Vanhecke, Thomas E; Barnes, Michael A; Zimmerman, Janet; Shoichet, Sandor

2007-09-01

PubMed and HighWire Press are both useful medical literature search engines available for free to anyone on the internet. We measured retrieval accuracy, number of results generated, retrieval speed, features and search tools on HighWire Press and PubMed using the quick search features of each. We found that using HighWire Press resulted in a higher likelihood of retrieving the desired article and higher number of search results than the same search on PubMed. PubMed was faster than HighWire Press in delivering search results regardless of search settings. There are considerable differences in search features between these two search engines.

The Care and Feeding of Pre-Meds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magleby, Stephanie

2009-05-01

Most physics instructors will at some point in their teaching career face a room full of students bound for medical or dental school. This particular student clientele presents a host of distinctive challenges. My presentation will discuss insights gained while teaching premed sections of algebra-based College Physics over the last ten semesters. Topics will include syllabus structure, grading techniques, testing strategies, letters of recommendation and most importantly: how to get a good teaching evaluation from a Pre-Med.

The Care and Feeding of Pre-Meds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magleby, Stephanie

2008-10-01

Most physics instructors will at some point in their teaching career face a room full of students bound for medical or dental school. This particular student clientele presents a host of distinctive challenges. My presentation will discuss insights gained while teaching premed sections of algebra-based College Physics over the last ten semesters. Topics will include syllabus structure, quiz techniques, testing strategies, letters of recommendation and how to get a good teaching evaluation from a pre-med.

Form reconciles meds, but doctor buy-in difficult.

PubMed

2006-02-01

One ED has developed a medication reconciliation form to meet the National Patient Safety Goal of reconciling medications across the continuum of care. The form does require additional staff time to complete. Staff and physicians need training so they understand the importance of meeting the safety goal. Physicians may resist giving orders on previously prescribed meds and may see the form as redundant.

The Mediator Complex MED15 Subunit Mediates Activation of Downstream Lipid-Related Genes by the WRINKLED1 Transcription Factor.

PubMed

Kim, Mi Jung; Jang, In-Cheol; Chua, Nam-Hai

2016-07-01

The Mediator complex is known to be a master coordinator of transcription by RNA polymerase II, and this complex is recruited by transcription factors (TFs) to target promoters for gene activation or repression. The plant-specific TF WRINKLED1 (WRI1) activates glycolysis-related and fatty acid biosynthetic genes during embryogenesis. However, no Mediator subunit has yet been identified that mediates WRI1 transcriptional activity. Promoter-β-glucuronidase fusion experiments showed that MEDIATOR15 (MED15) is expressed in the same cells in the embryo as WRI1. We found that the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) MED15 subunit of the Mediator complex interacts directly with WRI1 in the nucleus. Overexpression of MED15 or WRI1 increased transcript levels of WRI1 target genes involved in glycolysis and fatty acid biosynthesis; these genes were down-regulated in wild-type or WRI1-overexpressing plants by silencing of MED15 However, overexpression of MED15 in the wri1 mutant also increased transcript levels of WRI1 target genes, suggesting that MED15 also may act with other TFs to activate downstream lipid-related genes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays confirmed the association of MED15 with six WRI1 target gene promoters. Additionally, silencing of MED15 resulted in reduced fatty acid content in seedlings and mature seeds, whereas MED15 overexpression increased fatty acid content in both developmental stages. Similar results were found in wri1 mutant and WRI1 overexpression lines. Together, our results indicate that the WRI1/MED15 complex transcriptionally regulates glycolysis-related and fatty acid biosynthetic genes during embryogenesis. © 2016 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.

DK phocomelia phenotype (von Voss-Cherstvoy syndrome) caused by somatic mosaicism for del(13q).

PubMed

Bamforth, J S; Lin, C C

1997-12-31

DK phocomelia (von Voss-Cherstvoy syndrome) is a rare condition characterized by radial ray defects, occipital encephalocoele, and urogenital abnormalities. Lubinsky et al. [1994: Am J Med Genet 52:272-278] pointed out similarities between this and the del(13q) syndrome. To date, all reported cases of DK phocomelia have been apparently normal chromosomally. We report on a case of DK phocomelia in which the proposita had normal lymphocyte chromosomes, but was mosaic in fibroblasts for del(13)(q12). Fibroblast chromosomes studies on other cases of DK phocomelia have not been reported: this raises the possibility that some cases of DK phocomelia may be somatic mosaics for del(13)(q12).

Mars 2020 Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) Sensor Suite

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hwang, Helen; Wright, Henry; Kuhl, Chris; Schoenenberger, Mark; White, Todd; Karlgaard, Chris; Mahzari, Milad; Oishi, Tomo; Pennington, Steve; Trombetta, Nick;

MEditerranean Supersite Volcanoes (MED-SUV) project: from objectives to results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Puglisi, Giuseppe; Spampinato, Letizia

2017-04-01

The MEditerranean Supersite Volcanoes (MED-SUV) was a FP7 3-year lasting project aimed at improving the assessment of volcanic hazards at two of the most active European volcanic areas - Campi Flegrei/Vesuvius and Mt. Etna. More than 3 million people are exposed to potential hazards in the two areas, and the geographic location of the volcanoes increases the number of people extending the impact to a wider region. MED-SUV worked on the (1) optimisation and integration of the existing and new monitoring systems, (2) understanding of volcanic processes, and on the (3) relationship between the scientific and end-user communities. MED-SUV fully exploited the unique multidisciplinary long-term in-situ datasets available for these volcanoes and integrated them with Earth observations. Technological developments and implemented algorithms allowed better constraint of pre-, sin- and post-eruptive phases. The wide range of styles and intensities of the volcanic phenomena observed at the targeted volcanoes - archetypes of 'closed' and 'open' conduit systems - observed by using the long-term multidisciplinary datasets, exceptionally upgraded the understanding of a variety of geo-hazards. Proper experiments and studies were carried out to advance the understanding of the volcanoes' internal structure and processes, and to recognise signals related to impending unrest/eruptive phases. Indeed, the hazard quantitative assessment benefitted from the outcomes of these studies and from their integration with cutting edge monitoring approaches, thus leading to step-changes in hazard awareness and preparedness, and leveraging the close relationship between scientists, SMEs, and end-users. Among the MED-SUV achievements, we can list the (i) implementation of a data policy compliant with the GEO Open Data Principles for ruling the exploitation and shared use of the project outcomes; (ii) MED-SUV e-infrastructure creation as test bed for designing an interoperable infrastructure to

Discrepancies among Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed coverage of funding information in medical journal articles.

PubMed

Kokol, Peter; Vošner, Helena Blažun

2018-01-01

The overall aim of the present study was to compare the coverage of existing research funding information for articles indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. The numbers of articles with funding information published in 2015 were identified in the three selected databases and compared using bibliometric analysis of a sample of twenty-eight prestigious medical journals. Frequency analysis of the number of articles with funding information showed statistically significant differences between Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. The largest proportion of articles with funding information was found in Web of Science (29.0%), followed by PubMed (14.6%) and Scopus (7.7%). The results show that coverage of funding information differs significantly among Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases in a sample of the same medical journals. Moreover, we found that, currently, funding data in PubMed is more difficult to obtain and analyze compared with that in the other two databases.

Med Diet 4.0: the Mediterranean diet with four sustainable benefits.

PubMed

Dernini, S; Berry, E M; Serra-Majem, L; La Vecchia, C; Capone, R; Medina, F X; Aranceta-Bartrina, J; Belahsen, R; Burlingame, B; Calabrese, G; Corella, D; Donini, L M; Lairon, D; Meybeck, A; Pekcan, A G; Piscopo, S; Yngve, A; Trichopoulou, A

2017-05-01

To characterize the multiple dimensions and benefits of the Mediterranean diet as a sustainable diet, in order to revitalize this intangible food heritage at the country level; and to develop a multidimensional framework - the Med Diet 4.0 - in which four sustainability benefits of the Mediterranean diet are presented in parallel: major health and nutrition benefits, low environmental impacts and richness in biodiversity, high sociocultural food values, and positive local economic returns. A narrative review was applied at the country level to highlight the multiple sustainable benefits of the Mediterranean diet into a single multidimensional framework: the Med Diet 4.0. Setting/subjects We included studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals that contained data on the characterization of sustainable diets and of the Mediterranean diet. The methodological framework approach was finalized through a series of meetings, workshops and conferences where the framework was presented, discussed and ultimately refined. The Med Diet 4.0 provides a conceptual multidimensional framework to characterize the Mediterranean diet as a sustainable diet model, by applying principles of sustainability to the Mediterranean diet. By providing a broader understanding of the many sustainable benefits of the Mediterranean diet, the Med Diet 4.0 can contribute to the revitalization of the Mediterranean diet by improving its current perception not only as a healthy diet but also a sustainable lifestyle model, with country-specific and culturally appropriate variations. It also takes into account the identity and diversity of food cultures and systems, expressed within the notion of the Mediterranean diet, across the Mediterranean region and in other parts of the world. Further multidisciplinary studies are needed for the assessment of the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet to include these new dimensions.

Chinese literatures of radiation oncology covered by PubMed over the past five years.

PubMed

Niu, Dao-Li; Zhen, Jun-Jie; He, Fen

2010-04-01

PubMed is generally acknowledged for its scientificity in literature coverage and authority of literature retrieval . In recent years, many studies have been published in China about radiation oncology. We aimed to investigate the literatures about radiation oncology in China covered by PubMed over the past five years. We collected primary data by searching the PubMed database using the related subject words. The collected data were analyzed and evaluated by bibliometric methods. In the past five years, 550 articles by Chinese authors related to radiotherapy were indexed in PubMed. These articles were published in 160 journals among 26 Chinese provinces/cities. These articles mainly focused on radiation dose and computer-aided radiation therapy. Sixty-four articles were published by Chinese Journal of Cancer , which ranked the top. Forty-four articles were published by the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (IF=4.29), with the largest number among SCI journals. One hundred and sixteen articles from Guangdong Province were covered, accounting for 21.09%. Over the past five years, the discipline of radiation oncology has been greatly developed. The literatures mainly focus on clinical radiation oncology and their regional distribution is uneven.

CardiaMed mechanical valve: mid-term results of a multicenter clinical trial.

PubMed

Nazarov, Vladimir M; Zheleznev, Sergey I; Bogachev-Prokophiev, Alexandr V; Afanasyev, Alexandr V; Nemchenko, Eugene V; Jeltovskiy, Yuri V; Lavinyukov, Sergey O

2014-01-01

Prosthesis choice is a major concern in valvular surgery. A multicenter clinical trial was performed to assess the efficacy and safety of the CardiaMed prosthetic heart valve. The study enrolled 420 patients who underwent mitral (209) or aortic (211) valve replacement from 2003 to 2004 at 7 institutions in Russia, and who were followed up from 2006 to 2011. The mean age was 52.2 ± 10.2 years (range, 12-78 years), 47.4% were female, and 99.05% completed the study. The maximum observation term was 7.5 years (2188.5 patient-years); 1081.6 patient-years for aortic and 1106.9 patient-years for mitral valve replacement. The overall 7-year survival rate was 85.1%  ± 3.7%; 86.1%  ± 4.8% and 84.4%  ± 5.4% for aortic and mitral valve replacement, respectively. The 7-year freedom from valve-related death was 93.9%  ± 3.7% and 94.5%  ± 3.2% for aortic and mitral valve replacement, respectively. When early mortality (<30 days) was excluded, these rates were 94.8%  ± 3.1% and 93.8%  ± 3.82%, respectively. Linearized valve-dependent complication rates were determined for structural valve failure (0%/patient-year overall), thrombosis (0.63%/patient-year, all for mitral valve replacement), thromboembolic complications including transient neurologic deficits (0.13%/patient-year overall, 0.5%/patient-year for aortic valve replacement, 0.8%/patient-year for mitral valve replacement), hemorrhagic bleeding (0.64%/patient-year overall, 0.55%/patient-year for aortic valve replacement, 0.09%/patient-year for mitral valve replacement), prosthetic endocarditis (0.28%/patient-year overall, 0.28%/patient-year for aortic valve replacement, 0%/patient-year for mitral valve replacement), and hemolysis (0%/patient-year overall). The CardiaMed mechanical heart valve prostheses meets world standards of safety and efficacy.

Med15B Regulates Acid Stress Response and Tolerance in Candida glabrata by Altering Membrane Lipid Composition

PubMed Central

Qi, Yanli; Liu, Hui; Yu, Jiayin; Chen, Xiulai

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Candida glabrata is a promising producer of organic acids. To elucidate the physiological function of the Mediator tail subunit Med15B in the response to low-pH stress, we constructed a deletion strain, C. glabrata med15BΔ, and an overexpression strain, C. glabrata HTUΔ/CgMED15B. Deletion of MED15B caused biomass production, glucose consumption rate, and cell viability to decrease by 28.3%, 31.7%, and 26.5%, respectively, compared with those of the parent (HTUΔ) strain at pH 2.0. Expression of lipid metabolism-related genes was significantly downregulated in the med15BΔ strain, whereas key genes of ergosterol biosynthesis showed abnormal upregulation. This caused the proportion of C18:1 fatty acids, the ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids (UFA/SFA), and the total phospholipid content to decrease by 11.6%, 27.4%, and 37.6%, respectively. Cells failed to synthesize fecosterol and ergosterol, leading to the accumulation and a 60.3-fold increase in the concentration of zymosterol. Additionally, cells showed reductions of 69.2%, 11.6%, and 21.8% in membrane integrity, fluidity, and H+-ATPase activity, respectively. In contrast, overexpression of Med15B increased the C18:1 levels, total phospholipids, ergosterol content, and UFA/SFA by 18.6%, 143.5%, 94.5%, and 18.7%, respectively. Membrane integrity, fluidity, and H+-ATPase activity also increased by 30.2%, 6.9%, and 51.8%, respectively. Furthermore, in the absence of pH buffering, dry weight of cells and pyruvate concentrations were 29.3% and 61.2% higher, respectively, than those of the parent strain. These results indicated that in C. glabrata, Med15B regulates tolerance toward low pH via transcriptional regulation of acid stress response genes and alteration in lipid composition. IMPORTANCE This study explored the role of the Mediator tail subunit Med15B in the metabolism of Candida glabrata under acidic conditions. Overexpression of MED15B enhanced yeast tolerance to low pH and improved

PubMed-based quantitative analysis of biomedical publications in the SAARC countries: 1985-2009.

PubMed

Azim Majumder, Md Anwarul; Shaban, Sami F; Rahman, Sayeeda; Rahman, Nuzhat; Ahmed, Moslehuddin; Bin Abdulrahman, Khalid A; Islam, Ziauddin

2012-09-01

To conduct a geographical analysis of biomedical publications from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries over the past 25 years (1985-2009) using the PubMed database. A qualitative study. Web-based search during September 2010. A data extraction program, developed by one of the authors (SFS), was used to extract the raw publication counts from the downloaded PubMed data. A search of PubMed was performed for all journals indexed by selecting the advanced search option and entering the country name in the 'affiliation' field. The publications were normalized by total population, adult illiteracy rate, gross domestic product (GDP), secondary school enrollment ratio and Internet usage rate. The number of PubMed-listed papers published by the SAARC countries over the last 25 years totalled 141,783, which is 1.1% of the total papers indexed by PubMed in the same period. India alone produced 90.5% of total publications generated by SAARC countries. The average number of papers published per year from 1985 to 2009 was 5671 and number of publication increased approximately 242-fold. Normalizing by the population (per million) and GDP (per billion), India (133, 27.6%) and Nepal (323, 37.3%) had the highest publications respectively. There was a marked imbalance among the SAARC countries in terms of biomedical research and publication. Because of huge population and the high disease burden, biomedical research and publication output should receive special attention to formulate health policies, re-orient medical education curricula, and alleviate diseases and poverty.

What time-lag for a retraction search on PubMed?

PubMed

Decullier, Evelyne; Huot, Laure; Maisonneuve, Hervé

2014-06-25

To investigate fraud and errors, scientists have studied cohorts of retraction notices. These researches have been performed using a PubMed search on publication type "retraction of publication" which retrieves the notices of the retractions. We assessed the stability of the indexation of retraction notices over a 15-month period and what was the time-lag to get stability. A search on notices of retraction issued in 2008 was repeated every 3 months during 15 months from February 2011. The first search resulted in 237 notices of retraction. Throughout the study period, 14 discrepancies with the initial search were observed (6%). We found that the number of retraction notices became stable 35 months after the retraction. The time-lag observed in this study has to be taken into account when performing a PubMed search.

PubMed Central Canada: Beyond an Open Access Repository?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nariani, Rajiv

2013-01-01

PubMed Central Canada (PMC Canada) represents a partnership between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the National Research Council's Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI), and the National Library of Medicine of the US. The present study was done to gauge faculty awareness about the CIHR Policy on…

Methods and pitfalls in searching drug safety databases utilising the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA).

PubMed

Brown, Elliot G

2003-01-01

The Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) is a unified standard terminology for recording and reporting adverse drug event data. Its introduction is widely seen as a significant improvement on the previous situation, where a multitude of terminologies of widely varying scope and quality were in use. However, there are some complexities that may cause difficulties, and these will form the focus for this paper. Two methods of searching MedDRA-coded databases are described: searching based on term selection from all of MedDRA and searching based on terms in the safety database. There are several potential traps for the unwary in safety searches. There may be multiple locations of relevant terms within a system organ class (SOC) and lack of recognition of appropriate group terms; the user may think that group terms are more inclusive than is the case. MedDRA may distribute terms relevant to one medical condition across several primary SOCs. If the database supports the MedDRA model, it is possible to perform multiaxial searching: while this may help find terms that might have been missed, it is still necessary to consider the entire contents of the SOCs to find all relevant terms and there are many instances of incomplete secondary linkages. It is important to adjust for multiaxiality if data are presented using primary and secondary locations. Other sources for errors in searching are non-intuitive placement and the selection of terms as preferred terms (PTs) that may not be widely recognised. Some MedDRA rules could also result in errors in data retrieval if the individual is unaware of these: in particular, the lack of multiaxial linkages for the Investigations SOC, Social circumstances SOC and Surgical and medical procedures SOC and the requirement that a PT may only be present under one High Level Term (HLT) and one High Level Group Term (HLGT) within any single SOC. Special Search Categories (collections of PTs assembled from various SOCs by

Reconstitution of active human core Mediator complex reveals a critical role of the MED14 subunit.

PubMed

Cevher, Murat A; Shi, Yi; Li, Dan; Chait, Brian T; Malik, Sohail; Roeder, Robert G

2014-12-01

The evolutionarily conserved Mediator complex is a critical coactivator for RNA polymerase II (Pol II)-mediated transcription. Here we report the reconstitution of a functional 15-subunit human core Mediator complex and its characterization by functional assays and chemical cross-linking coupled to MS (CX-MS). Whereas the reconstituted head and middle modules can stably associate, basal and coactivator functions are acquired only after incorporation of MED14 into the bimodular complex. This results from a dramatically enhanced ability of MED14-containing complexes to associate with Pol II. Altogether, our analyses identify MED14 as both an architectural and a functional backbone of the Mediator complex. We further establish a conditional requirement for metazoan-specific MED26 that becomes evident in the presence of heterologous nuclear factors. This general approach paves the way for systematic dissection of the multiple layers of functionality associated with the Mediator complex.

Vigi4Med Scraper: A Framework for Web Forum Structured Data Extraction and Semantic Representation

PubMed Central

Audeh, Bissan; Beigbeder, Michel; Zimmermann, Antoine; Jaillon, Philippe; Bousquet, Cédric

2017-01-01

The extraction of information from social media is an essential yet complicated step for data analysis in multiple domains. In this paper, we present Vigi4Med Scraper, a generic open source framework for extracting structured data from web forums. Our framework is highly configurable; using a configuration file, the user can freely choose the data to extract from any web forum. The extracted data are anonymized and represented in a semantic structure using Resource Description Framework (RDF) graphs. This representation enables efficient manipulation by data analysis algorithms and allows the collected data to be directly linked to any existing semantic resource. To avoid server overload, an integrated proxy with caching functionality imposes a minimal delay between sequential requests. Vigi4Med Scraper represents the first step of Vigi4Med, a project to detect adverse drug reactions (ADRs) from social networks founded by the French drug safety agency Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament (ANSM). Vigi4Med Scraper has successfully extracted greater than 200 gigabytes of data from the web forums of over 20 different websites. PMID:28122056

Characterization of the mechanism of drug-drug interactions from PubMed using MeSH terms.

PubMed

Lu, Yin; Figler, Bryan; Huang, Hong; Tu, Yi-Cheng; Wang, Ju; Cheng, Feng

2017-01-01

Identifying drug-drug interaction (DDI) is an important topic for the development of safe pharmaceutical drugs and for the optimization of multidrug regimens for complex diseases such as cancer and HIV. There have been about 150,000 publications on DDIs in PubMed, which is a great resource for DDI studies. In this paper, we introduced an automatic computational method for the systematic analysis of the mechanism of DDIs using MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms from PubMed literature. MeSH term is a controlled vocabulary thesaurus developed by the National Library of Medicine for indexing and annotating articles. Our method can effectively identify DDI-relevant MeSH terms such as drugs, proteins and phenomena with high accuracy. The connections among these MeSH terms were investigated by using co-occurrence heatmaps and social network analysis. Our approach can be used to visualize relationships of DDI terms, which has the potential to help users better understand DDIs. As the volume of PubMed records increases, our method for automatic analysis of DDIs from the PubMed database will become more accurate.

The Mediator subunit MED23 couples H2B mono-ubiquitination to transcriptional control and cell fate determination.

PubMed

Yao, Xiao; Tang, Zhanyun; Fu, Xing; Yin, Jingwen; Liang, Yan; Li, Chonghui; Li, Huayun; Tian, Qing; Roeder, Robert G; Wang, Gang

2015-12-02

The Mediator complex orchestrates multiple transcription factors with the Pol II apparatus for precise transcriptional control. However, its interplay with the surrounding chromatin remains poorly understood. Here, we analyze differential histone modifications between WT and MED23(-/-) (KO) cells and identify H2B mono-ubiquitination at lysine 120 (H2Bub) as a MED23-dependent histone modification. Using tandem affinity purification and mass spectrometry, we find that MED23 associates with the RNF20/40 complex, the enzyme for H2Bub, and show that this association is critical for the recruitment of RNF20/40 to chromatin. In a cell-free system, Mediator directly and substantially increases H2Bub on recombinant chromatin through its cooperation with RNF20/40 and the PAF complex. Integrative genome-wide analyses show that MED23 depletion specifically reduces H2Bub on a subset of MED23-controlled genes. Importantly, MED23-coupled H2Bub levels are oppositely regulated during myogenesis and lung carcinogenesis. In sum, these results establish a mechanistic link between the Mediator complex and a critical chromatin modification in coordinating transcription with cell growth and differentiation. © 2015 The Authors.

The Web-based CanMEDS Resident Learning Portfolio Project (WEBCAM): how we got started.

PubMed

Glen, Peter; Balaa, Fady; Momoli, Franco; Martin, Louise; Found, Dorothy; Arnaout, Angel

2016-12-01

The CanMEDS framework is ubiquitous in Canadian postgraduate medical education; however, training programs do not have a universal method of assessing competence. We set out to develop a novel portfolio that allowed trainees to generate a longitudinal record of their training and development within the framework. The portfolio provided an objective means for the residency program director to document and evaluate resident progress within the CanMEDS roles.

Do Language Fluency and Other Socioeconomic Factors Influence the Use of PubMed and MedlinePlus?

PubMed Central

Sheets, L.; Gavino, A.; Callaghan, F.; Fontelo, P.

2013-01-01

Background Increased usage of MedlinePlus by Spanish-speakers was observed after introduction of MedlinePlus in Spanish. This probably reflects increased usage of MEDLINE and PubMed by those with greater fluency in the language in which it is presented; but this has never been demonstrated in English speakers. Evidence that lack of English fluency deters international healthcare personnel from using PubMed could support the use of multi-language search tools like Babel-MeSH. Objectives This study aims to measure the effects of language fluency and other socioeconomic factors on PubMed MEDLINE and MedlinePlus access by international users. Methods We retrospectively reviewed server pageviews of PubMed and MedlinePlus from various periods of time, and analyzed them against country statistics on language fluency, GDP, literacy rate, Internet usage, medical schools, and physicians per capita, to determine whether they were associated. Results We found fluency in English to be positively associated with pageviews of PubMed and MedlinePlus in countries with high literacy rates. Spanish was generally found to be positively associated with pageviews of MedlinePlus en Español. The other parameters also showed varying degrees of association with pageviews. Conclusions After adjusting for the other factors investigated in this study, language fluency was a consistently significant predictor of the use of PubMed, MedlinePlus English and MedlinePlus en Español. This study may support the need for multi-language search tools and may increase access of health information resources from non-English speaking countries. PMID:23874356

Do language fluency and other socioeconomic factors influence the use of PubMed and MedlinePlus?

PubMed

Sheets, L; Gavino, A; Callaghan, F; Fontelo, P

2013-01-01

Increased usage of MedlinePlus by Spanish-speakers was observed after introduction of MedlinePlus in Spanish. This probably reflects increased usage of MEDLINE and PubMed by those with greater fluency in the language in which it is presented; but this has never been demonstrated in English speakers. Evidence that lack of English fluency deters international healthcare personnel from using PubMed could support the use of multi-language search tools like Babel-MeSH. This study aims to measure the effects of language fluency and other socioeconomic factors on PubMed MEDLINE and MedlinePlus access by international users. We retrospectively reviewed server pageviews of PubMed and MedlinePlus from various periods of time, and analyzed them against country statistics on language fluency, GDP, literacy rate, Internet usage, medical schools, and physicians per capita, to determine whether they were associated. We found fluency in English to be positively associated with pageviews of PubMed and MedlinePlus in countries with high literacy rates. Spanish was generally found to be positively associated with pageviews of MedlinePlus en Español. The other parameters also showed varying degrees of association with pageviews. After adjusting for the other factors investigated in this study, language fluency was a consistently significant predictor of the use of PubMed, MedlinePlus English and MedlinePlus en Español. This study may support the need for multi-language search tools and may increase access of health information resources from non-English speaking countries.

Comparing Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty and Stent Placement for Treatment of Subclavian Arterial Occlusive Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

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

Ahmed, Ahmed T., E-mail: Ahmed.Ahmed1@mayo.edu; Mohammed, Khaled, E-mail: Mohammed.Khaled@mayo.edu; Chehab, Monzer, E-mail: moe.chehab@beumont.edu

Background and PurposeSubclavian artery occlusive disease (SAOD) is often associated with cerebrovascular symptoms such as subclavian steal syndrome and stroke. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and stent placement for the treatment of SAOD.Materials and MethodsWe searched Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Scopus through October 16, 2014. From each study, we abstracted baseline patient characteristics, study design variables, and outcome data including rates of technical success, primary patency (≤2 and >2 years follow-up), symptom resolution, and complications. Meta-analysis was performed using a random-effects model.ResultsA total ofmore » 35 non-comparative studies with 1726 patients were included. Technical success rate was significantly higher in the stent group than the PTA group (92.8 vs 86.8 %, p = 0.007). Long-term primary patency rates (76.9 vs 79.6 %, p = 0.729) and symptom resolution rates (82.2 vs 73.0 %, p = 0.327) were not statistically different. There was no statistically significant difference in the rates of stroke or death.ConclusionStent placement for treatment of SAOD may be associated with higher rates of technical success but similar rates of symptom resolution and long-term outcomes. The confidence in the available estimates is low. Further comparative studies are needed to guide patients and clinicians in shared decision making.« less

[Non-pharmacologic therapy of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy--results of therapy based on percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation compared with results of dual-chamber cardiac pacing].

PubMed

Krejcí, J; Groch, L; Meluzín, J; Vykypel, T; Halámek, J; Vitovec, J

2006-04-01

Percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation (PTSMA) and pacemaker (PM) therapy with apical preexcitation are therapeutic options for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) patients with symptoms despite pharmacological therapy. evaluation and comparison of treatment results of PTSMA and PM implantation. 22 HOCM patients (NYHA class III and IV) with left ventricle outflow tract gradient (LVOTG) at rest more than 30 mm Hg. In group A were evaluated 11 patients treated by PTSMA. Left ventricle outflow tract gradient (LVOTG) was 90.5 +/- 16.0 mm Hg, NYHA class 3.1 +/- 0.2. Group B included 11 patients treated by dual chamber PM implantation, LVOTG in this group was 105 +/- 48 mm Hg, NYHA class 3.0 +/- 0.4. NYHA class in the group A decreased after treatment to 1.8 +/- 0.6 (p < 0.01), LVOTG to 24 +/- 12 mm Hg (p < 0.001). There was observed significant decrease in grade of systolic anterior motion (SAM), interventricular septum (IVS) thickness and left atrium (LA) size. Left ventricle end systolic diameter (LV SD) and left ventricle end diastolic diameter (LV DD) increased during follow-up. Decrease of NYHA class in the group B was to 2.1 +/- 0.6 (p < 0.001), LVOTG to 25.5 +/- 21.0 mm Hg (p < 0.001). Changes of other parameters in the group B were not significant, except decrease of SAM. Comparison of both groups: NYHA class change PTSMA/PM: 1.3 +/- 0.6/0.9 +/- 0.4 (p < 0.05), LVOTG change PTSMA/PM: -66 +/- 20/-79 +/- 46 mm Hg (p = n.s.). LV SD assessment comparison of LV SD change PTSMA/PM: 5 +/- 5/1 +/- 5 mm (p < 0.05). LA assessment - comparison of LA change PTSMA/PM: 5 +/- 5/-1 +/- 4 mm (p < 0.05). Other changes were not significant. Both therapeutic approaches - PTSMA and PM implantation - resulted in significant improvement of functional capacity assessed by NYHA classification. Decrease of LVOTG was also significant and was similar in both groups, NYHA class improvement as well as LA size decrease and LV DS increase were more expressed in PTSMA

CredibleMeds.org: What does it offer?

PubMed

Woosley, Raymond L; Black, Kristin; Heise, C William; Romero, Klaus

2018-02-01

Since the 1990s, when numerous non-cardiac drugs were first recognized to have the potential to prolong the QT interval and cause torsades de pointes (TdP), clinicians, drug regulators, drug developers, and clinical investigators have become aware of the complexities of assessing evidence and determining TdP causality for the many drugs being marketed or under development. To facilitate better understanding, the Arizona Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics, known as AZCERT, has developed the CredibleMeds.org website which includes QTdrugs, a listing of over 220 drugs placed in four risk categories based on their association with QT prolongation and TdP. Since the site was launched in 1999, it has become the single and most reliable source of information of its kind for patients, healthcare providers, and research scientists. Over 96,000 registered users rely on the QTdrugs database as their primary resource to inform their medication use, their prescribing or their clinical research into the impact of QT-prolonging drugs and drug-induced arrhythmias. The QTdrugs lists are increasingly used as the basis for clinical decision support systems in healthcare and for metrics of prescribing quality by healthcare insurers. A free smartphone app and an application program interface enable rapid and mobile access to the lists. Also, the CredibleMeds website offers numerous educational resources for patients, educators and healthcare providers that foster the safe use of medications. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modified UMS, Modified SemRep and SemMedDB-UTH | Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR)

Cancer.gov

Modified UMLS, modified SemRep and SemMedDB-UTH – these are resources (UMLS, SemMedDB-UT) and tools (SemRep) created and maintained by National Library of Medicine that we have modified for personalized cancer therapy and returned to the NLM.

User needs analysis and usability assessment of DataMed - a biomedical data discovery index.

PubMed

Dixit, Ram; Rogith, Deevakar; Narayana, Vidya; Salimi, Mandana; Gururaj, Anupama; Ohno-Machado, Lucila; Xu, Hua; Johnson, Todd R

2017-11-30

To present user needs and usability evaluations of DataMed, a Data Discovery Index (DDI) that allows searching for biomedical data from multiple sources. We conducted 2 phases of user studies. Phase 1 was a user needs analysis conducted before the development of DataMed, consisting of interviews with researchers. Phase 2 involved iterative usability evaluations of DataMed prototypes. We analyzed data qualitatively to document researchers' information and user interface needs. Biomedical researchers' information needs in data discovery are complex, multidimensional, and shaped by their context, domain knowledge, and technical experience. User needs analyses validate the need for a DDI, while usability evaluations of DataMed show that even though aggregating metadata into a common search engine and applying traditional information retrieval tools are promising first steps, there remain challenges for DataMed due to incomplete metadata and the complexity of data discovery. Biomedical data poses distinct problems for search when compared to websites or publications. Making data available is not enough to facilitate biomedical data discovery: new retrieval techniques and user interfaces are necessary for dataset exploration. Consistent, complete, and high-quality metadata are vital to enable this process. While available data and researchers' information needs are complex and heterogeneous, a successful DDI must meet those needs and fit into the processes of biomedical researchers. Research directions include formalizing researchers' information needs, standardizing overviews of data to facilitate relevance judgments, implementing user interfaces for concept-based searching, and developing evaluation methods for open-ended discovery systems such as DDIs. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Pressure-wire-guided percutaneous transluminal pulmonary angioplasty: a breakthrough in catheter-interventional therapy for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

PubMed

Inami, Takumi; Kataoka, Masaharu; Shimura, Nobuhiko; Ishiguro, Haruhisa; Yanagisawa, Ryoji; Fukuda, Keiichi; Yoshino, Hideaki; Satoh, Toru

2014-11-01

This study sought to prove the safety and effectiveness of pressure-wire-guided percutaneous transluminal pulmonary angioplasty (PTPA). PTPA has been demonstrated to be effective for treatment of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. However, a major and occasionally fatal complication after PTPA is reperfusion pulmonary edema. To avoid this, we developed the PEPSI (Pulmonary Edema Predictive Scoring Index). The pressure wire has been used to detect insufficiency of flow in a vessel. We included 350 consecutive PTPA sessions in 103 patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2013. During these 5 years, 140 PTPA sessions were performed without guidance, 65 with guidance of PEPSI alone, and 145 with both PEPSI and pressure-wire guidance. Each PTPA session was finished after achieving PEPSI scores of <35.4 with PEPSI guidance and each target lesion achieving distal mean pulmonary arterial pressure <35 mm Hg with pressure-wire guidance. The occurrence of clinically critical reperfusion pulmonary edema and vessel injuries were lowest in the group using the guidance of both pressure wire and PEPSI (0% and 6.9%, respectively). Furthermore, the group guided by pressure wire and PEPSI accomplished the same hemodynamic improvements with fewer numbers of target lesions treated and sessions performed. The combined approach using pressure wire and PEPSI produced more efficient clinical results and greatly reduced reperfusion pulmonary edema and vessel complications. This is further evidence that PTPA is an alternative strategy for treating chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. Copyright © 2014 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Can CanMEDS competencies be developed in medical school anatomy laboratories? A literature review.

PubMed

Hefler, Joshua; Ramnanan, Christopher J

2017-06-16

The purpose of this literature review was to identify potential ways in which undergraduate medical anatomy education may be relevant to the CanMEDS Roles, a competency-based framework used throughout Canadian medical training. A scoping review of medical education literature was conducted in March 2017 for English language publications that included key words related to anatomy education and to key competencies formally described for each of the Roles in the CanMEDS 2015 framework. Indicated benefits were then collated, characterized, and synthesized for each CanMEDS Role. There were 71 studies identified describing original findings. Perceived benefits of anatomy education were most often identified for competencies related to the Medical Expert Role. Multiple studies also cited benefits related to the Scholar, Professional and Collaborator Roles. There was a lack of literature related to the Health Advocate, Communicator, and Leader Roles. The majority of benefits defined in the literature were limited to student perceptions rather than objectively measured outcomes. There is some evidence to suggest that anatomy education can facilitate the development of core competencies related to several CanMEDS Roles, outside of simply developing medical knowledge in the Medical Expert Role. Future studies need to develop methods to objectively assess outcomes related to these competencies.

Can CanMEDS competencies be developed in medical school anatomy laboratories? A literature review

PubMed Central

Ramnanan, Christopher J.

2017-01-01

Objectives The purpose of this literature review was to identify potential ways in which undergraduate medical anatomy education may be relevant to the CanMEDS Roles, a competency-based framework used throughout Canadian medical training. Methods A scoping review of medical education literature was conducted in March 2017 for English language publications that included key words related to anatomy education and to key competencies formally described for each of the Roles in the CanMEDS 2015 framework. Indicated benefits were then collated, characterized, and synthesized for each CanMEDS Role. Results There were 71 studies identified describing original findings. Perceived benefits of anatomy education were most often identified for competencies related to the Medical Expert Role. Multiple studies also cited benefits related to the Scholar, Professional and Collaborator Roles. There was a lack of literature related to the Health Advocate, Communicator, and Leader Roles. The majority of benefits defined in the literature were limited to student perceptions rather than objectively measured outcomes. Conclusions There is some evidence to suggest that anatomy education can facilitate the development of core competencies related to several CanMEDS Roles, outside of simply developing medical knowledge in the Medical Expert Role. Future studies need to develop methods to objectively assess outcomes related to these competencies. PMID:28650843

TeleMed: An example of a new system developed with object technology

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

Forslund, D.; Phillips, R.; Tomlinson, B.

1996-12-01

Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a virtual patient record system called TeleMed which is based on a distributed national radiographic and patient record repository located throughout the country. Without leaving their offices, participating doctors can view clinical drug and radiographic data via a sophisticated multimedia interface. For example, a doctor can match a patient`s radiographic information with the data in the repository, review treatment history and success, and then determine the best treatment. Furthermore, the features of TeleMed that make it attractive to clinicians and diagnosticians make it valuable for teaching and presentation as well. Thus, a resident canmore » use TeleMed for self-training in diagnostic techniques and a physician can use it to explain to a patient the course of their illness. In fact, the data can be viewed simultaneously by users at two or more distant locations for consultation with specialists in different fields. This capability is of enormous value to a wide spectrum of healthcare providers. It is made possible by the integration of multimedia information using commercial CORBA technology linking object-enabled databases with client interfaces using a three-tiered architecture.« less

A bilateral integrative health-care knowledge service mechanism based on 'MedGrid'.

PubMed

Liu, Chao; Jiang, Zuhua; Zhen, Lu; Su, Hai

2008-04-01

Current health-care organizations are encountering impression of paucity of medical knowledge. This paper classifies medical knowledge with new scopes. The discovery of health-care 'knowledge flow' initiates a bilateral integrative health-care knowledge service, and we make medical knowledge 'flow' around and gain comprehensive effectiveness through six operations (such as knowledge refreshing...). Seizing the active demand of Chinese health-care revolution, this paper presents 'MedGrid', which is a platform with medical ontology and knowledge contents service. Each level and detailed contents are described on MedGrid info-structure. Moreover, a new diagnosis and treatment mechanism are formed by technically connecting with electronic health-care records (EHRs).

Reconstitution of active human core Mediator complex reveals a pivotal role of the MED14 subunit

PubMed Central

Cevher, Murat A.; Shi, Yi; Li, Dan; Chait, Brian T.; Malik, Sohail; Roeder, Robert G.

2014-01-01

The evolutionarily conserved Mediator complex is a critical coactivator for RNA polymerase II (Pol II)-mediated transcription. Here, we report the reconstitution of a functional 15-subunit human core Mediator complex and its characterization by functional assays and chemical cross-linking coupled to mass spectrometry (CX-MS). Whereas the reconstituted head and middle modules can stably associate, only with incorporation of MED14 into the bi-modular complex does it acquire basal and coactivator functions. This results from a dramatically enhanced ability of MED14-containing complexes to associate with Pol II. Altogether, our analyses identify MED14 as both an architectural and a functional backbone of the Mediator complex. We further establish a conditional requirement for metazoan-specific MED26 that becomes evident in the presence of heterologous nuclear factors. This general approach paves the way for systematically dissecting the multiple layers of functionalities associated with the Mediator complex. PMID:25383669

Comparison of PIRO, SOFA, and MEDS scores for predicting mortality in emergency department patients with severe sepsis and septic shock.

PubMed

Macdonald, Stephen P J; Arendts, Glenn; Fatovich, Daniel M; Brown, Simon G A

2014-11-01

The Predisposition Insult Response and Organ failure (PIRO) scoring system has been developed for use in the emergency department (ED) to risk stratify sepsis cases, but has not been well studied among high-risk patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. The PIRO score was compared with the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) and Mortality in ED Sepsis (MEDS) scores to predict mortality in ED patients with features suggesting severe sepsis or septic shock in the ED. This was an analysis of sepsis patients enrolled in a prospective observational ED study of patients presenting with evidence of shock, hypoxemia, or other organ failure. PIRO, MEDS, and SOFA scores were calculated from ED data. Analysis compared areas under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves for 30-day mortality. Of 240 enrolled patients, final diagnoses were septic shock in 128 (53%), severe sepsis without shock in 70 (29%), and infection with no organ dysfunction in 42 (18%). Forty-eight (20%) patients died within 30 days of presentation. Area under the ROC curve (AUC) for mortality was 0.86 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.80 to 0.92) for PIRO, 0.81 (95% CI = 0.74 to 0.88) for MEDS, and 0.78 (95% CI = 0.71 to 0.87) for SOFA scores. Pairwise comparisons of the AUC were as follows: PIRO versus SOFA, p = 0.01; PIRO versus MEDS, p = 0.064; and MEDS versus SOFA; p = 0.37. Mortality increased with increasing PIRO scores: PIRO < 5, 0%; PIRO 5 to 9, 5%; PIRO 10 to 14, 5%; PIRO 15 to 19, 37%; and PIRO ≥ 20, 80% (p < 0.001). The MEDS score also showed increasing mortality with higher scores: MEDS < 5, 0%; MEDS 5 to 7, 12%; MEDS 8 to 11, 15%; MEDS 12 to 14, 48%; and MEDS > 15, 65% (p < 0.001). The PIRO model, taking into account comorbidities and septic source as well as physiologic status, performed better than the SOFA score and similarly to the MEDS score for predicting mortality in ED patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. These findings have implications for identifying

Medical literature searches: a comparison of PubMed and Google Scholar.

PubMed

Nourbakhsh, Eva; Nugent, Rebecca; Wang, Helen; Cevik, Cihan; Nugent, Kenneth

2012-09-01

Medical literature searches provide critical information for clinicians. However, the best strategy for identifying relevant high-quality literature is unknown. We compared search results using PubMed and Google Scholar on four clinical questions and analysed these results with respect to article relevance and quality. Abstracts from the first 20 citations for each search were classified into three relevance categories. We used the weighted kappa statistic to analyse reviewer agreement and nonparametric rank tests to compare the number of citations for each article and the corresponding journals' impact factors. Reviewers ranked 67.6% of PubMed articles and 80% of Google Scholar articles as at least possibly relevant (P = 0.116) with high agreement (all kappa P-values < 0.01). Google Scholar articles had a higher median number of citations (34 vs. 1.5, P < 0.0001) and came from higher impact factor journals (5.17 vs. 3.55, P = 0.036). PubMed searches and Google Scholar searches often identify different articles. In this study, Google Scholar articles were more likely to be classified as relevant, had higher numbers of citations and were published in higher impact factor journals. The identification of frequently cited articles using Google Scholar for searches probably has value for initial literature searches. © 2012 The authors. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2012 Health Libraries Group.

Development and validation of the FertiMed questionnaire assessing patients' experiences with hormonal fertility medication.

PubMed

Lankreijer, K; D'Hooghe, T; Sermeus, W; van Asseldonk, F P M; Repping, S; Dancet, E A F

2016-08-01

Can a valid and reliable questionnaire be developed to assess patients' experiences with all of the characteristics of hormonal fertility medication valued by them? The FertiMed questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool that assesses patients' experiences with all medication characteristics valued by them and that can be used for all hormonal fertility medications, irrespective of their route of administration. Hormonal fertility medications cause emotional strain and differ in their dosage regime and route of administration, although they often have comparable effectiveness. Medication experiences of former patients would be informative for medication choices. A recent literature review showed that there is no trustworthy tool to compare patients' experiences of medications with differing routes of administration, regarding all medication characteristics which patients value. The items of the new FertiMed questionnaire were generated by literature review and 23 patient interviews. In 2013, 411 IVF-patients were asked to retrospectively complete the FertiMed questionnaire to assess 1 out of the 8 different medications used for ovarian stimulation, induction of pituitary quiescence, ovulation triggering or luteal support. In total, 276 patients (on average 35 per medication) from 2 university fertility clinics (Belgium, the Netherlands) completed the FertiMed questionnaire (67% response rate). The FertiMed questionnaire questioned whether items were valued by patients and whether these items were experienced while using the assessed medication. Hence, the final outcome 'Experiences with Valued Aspects Scores' (EVAS) combined importance and experience ratings. The content and face validity, reliability, feasibility and discriminative potential of the FertiMed questionnaire were tested and changes were made accordingly. Patient interviews defined 51 items relevant to seven medication characteristics previously proved to be important to patients. Item analysis deleted

MedEx/J: A One-Scan Simple and Fast NLP Tool for Japanese Clinical Texts.

PubMed

Aramaki, Eiji; Yano, Ken; Wakamiya, Shoko

2017-01-01

Because of recent replacement of physical documents with electronic medical records (EMR), the importance of information processing in the medical field has increased. In light of this trend, we have been developing MedEx/J, which retrieves important Japanese language information from medical reports. MedEx/J executes two tasks simultaneously: (1) term extraction, and (2) positive and negative event classification. We designate this approach as a one-scan approach, providing simplicity of systems and reasonable accuracy. MedEx/J performance on the two tasks is described herein: (1) term extraction (Fβ = 1 = 0.87) and (2) positive-negative classification (Fβ = 1 = 0.63). This paper also presents discussion and explains remaining issues in the medical natural language processing field.

The Tlo Proteins Are Stoichiometric Components of Candida albicans Mediator Anchored via the Med3 Subunit

PubMed Central

Zhang, Anda; Petrov, Kostadin O.; Hyun, Emily R.; Liu, Zhongle; Gerber, Scott A.

2012-01-01

The amplification of the TLO (for telomere-associated) genes in Candida albicans, compared to its less pathogenic, close relative Candida dubliniensis, suggests a role in virulence. Little, however, is known about the function of the Tlo proteins. We have purified the Mediator coactivator complex from C. albicans (caMediator) and found that Tlo proteins are a stoichiometric component of caMediator. Many members of the Tlo family are expressed, and each is a unique member of caMediator. Protein expression analysis of individual Tlo proteins, as well as the purification of tagged Tlo proteins, demonstrate that there is a large free population of Tlo proteins in addition to the Mediator-associated population. Coexpression and copurification of Tloα12 and caMed3 in Escherichia coli established a direct physical interaction between the two proteins. We have also made a C. albicans med3Δ/Δ strain and purified an intact Mediator from this strain. The analysis of the composition of the med3Δ Mediator shows that it lacks a Tlo subunit. Regarding Mediator function, the med3Δ/Δ strain serves as a substitute for the difficult-to-make tloΔ/Δ C. albicans strain. A potential role of the TLO and MED3 genes in virulence is supported by the inability of the med3Δ/Δ strain to form normal germ tubes. This study of caMediator structure provides initial clues to the mechanism of action of the Tlo genes and a platform for further mechanistic studies of caMediator's involvement in gene regulatory patterns that underlie pathogenesis. PMID:22562472

Roles of Estrogen Receptor-α and the Coactivator MED1 During Human Endometrial Decidualization

PubMed Central

Kaya Okur, Hatice S.; Das, Amrita; Taylor, Robert N.; Bagchi, Indrani C.

2016-01-01

The steroid hormones 17β-estradiol and progesterone are critical regulators of endometrial stromal cell differentiation, known as decidualization, which is a prerequisite for successful establishment of pregnancy. The present study using primary human endometrial stromal cells (HESCs) addressed the role of estrogen receptor-α (ESR1) in decidualization. Knockdown of ESR1 transcripts by RNA interference led to a marked reduction in decidualization of HESCs. Gene expression profiling at an early stage of decidualization indicated that ESR1 negatively regulates several cell cycle regulatory factors, thereby suppressing the proliferation of HESCs as these cells enter the differentiation program. ESR1 also controls the expression of WNT4, FOXO1, and progesterone receptor (PGR), well-known mediators of decidualization. Whereas ESR1 knockdown strongly inhibited the expression of FOXO1 and WNT4 transcripts within 24 hours of the initiation of decidualization, PGR expression remained unaffected at this early time point. Our study also revealed a major role of cAMP signaling in influencing the function of ESR1 during decidualization. Using a proteomic approach, we discovered that the cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylates Mediator 1 (MED1), a subunit of the mediator coactivator complex, during HESC differentiation. Using immunoprecipitation, we demonstrated that PKA-phosphorylated MED1 interacts with ESR1. The PKA-dependent phosphorylation of MED1 was also correlated with its enhanced recruitment to estrogen-responsive elements in the WNT4 gene. Knockdown of MED1 transcripts impaired the expression of ESR1-induced WNT4 and FOXO1 transcripts and blocked decidualization. Based on these findings, we conclude that modulation of ESR1-MED1 interactions by cAMP signaling plays a critical role in human decidualization. PMID:26849466

Motion of David Glacier in East Antarctica Observed by COSMO-SkyMed Differential SAR Interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, H.; Lee, H.

2011-12-01

David glacier, located in Victoria Land, East Antarctica (75°20'S, 161°15'E), is an outlet glacier of 13 km width near the grounding line and 50 km long from the source to the grounding line. David glacier flows into Ross Sea forming Drygalski Ice Tongue, 100 km long and 23 km wide. In this study, we extracted a surface displacement map of David by applying differential SAR interferometry (DInSAR) to one-day tandem pairs obtained from COSMO-SkyMed satellites on April 28-29 (descending orbit) and May 5-6 (ascending orbit), 2011, respectively. Terra ASTER global digital elevation model (GDEM) is used to remove the topographic effect from the COSMO-SkyMed interferograms. David glacier showed maximum displacement of 35 cm during April 28-29 and 20 cm during May 5-6 in the direction of radar line of sight. The glacier can be divided into several blocks by the disparities of displacement between the different sliding zone. Surface displacement map contains errors originated from orbit data, atmospheric conditions, DEM error. GDEM is generated from the ASTER optical images acquired from 2000 to 2008. It has the vertical accuracy of about 20 m at 95% confidence with the 30 m of horizontal posting. The accuracy of GDEM reduces when cloud cover is included in the ASTER image. Particularly in the snow and ice area, GDEM is inaccurate due to whiteout effect during stereo matching. The inaccuracy of GDEM could be a reason of the observed glacier motion in the opposite direction of gravity. This problem can be solved by using TanDEM-X DEM. Bistatic acquisition of SAR images from the constellation of TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X will generate a global DEM with the vertical accuracy better than 2 m and the horizontal posting of 12 m. We plan to perform DInSAR of COSMO-SkyMed one-day tandem pairs again when the high-accuracy TanDEM-X DEM is available in the near future. As a conclusion, we could analyze the displacement of David glacier in East Antarctica. The glacier showed very fast

Research Trend Visualization by MeSH Terms from PubMed.

PubMed

Yang, Heyoung; Lee, Hyuck Jai

2018-05-30

Motivation : PubMed is a primary source of biomedical information comprising search tool function and the biomedical literature from MEDLINE which is the US National Library of Medicine premier bibliographic database, life science journals and online books. Complimentary tools to PubMed have been developed to help the users search for literature and acquire knowledge. However, these tools are insufficient to overcome the difficulties of the users due to the proliferation of biomedical literature. A new method is needed for searching the knowledge in biomedical field. Methods : A new method is proposed in this study for visualizing the recent research trends based on the retrieved documents corresponding to a search query given by the user. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) are used as the primary analytical element. MeSH terms are extracted from the literature and the correlations between them are calculated. A MeSH network, called MeSH Net, is generated as the final result based on the Pathfinder Network algorithm. Results : A case study for the verification of proposed method was carried out on a research area defined by the search query (immunotherapy and cancer and "tumor microenvironment"). The MeSH Net generated by the method is in good agreement with the actual research activities in the research area (immunotherapy). Conclusion : A prototype application generating MeSH Net was developed. The application, which could be used as a "guide map for travelers", allows the users to quickly and easily acquire the knowledge of research trends. Combination of PubMed and MeSH Net is expected to be an effective complementary system for the researchers in biomedical field experiencing difficulties with search and information analysis.

How to improve your PubMed/MEDLINE searches: 3. advanced searching, MeSH and My NCBI.

PubMed

Fatehi, Farhad; Gray, Leonard C; Wootton, Richard

2014-03-01

Although the basic PubMed search is often helpful, the results may sometimes be non-specific. For more control over the search process you can use the Advanced Search Builder interface. This allows a targeted search in specific fields, with the convenience of being able to select the intended search field from a list. It also provides a history of your previous searches. The search history is useful to develop a complex search query by combining several previous searches using Boolean operators. For indexing the articles in MEDLINE, the NLM uses a controlled vocabulary system called MeSH. This standardised vocabulary solves the problem of authors, researchers and librarians who may use different terms for the same concept. To be efficient in a PubMed search, you should start by identifying the most appropriate MeSH terms and use them in your search where possible. My NCBI is a personal workspace facility available through PubMed and makes it possible to customise the PubMed interface. It provides various capabilities that can enhance your search performance.

Making and Executing Decisions for Safe and Independent Living (MED-SAIL): development and validation of a brief screening tool.

PubMed

Mills, Whitney L; Regev, Tziona; Kunik, Mark E; Wilson, Nancy L; Moye, Jennifer; McCullough, Laurence B; Naik, Aanand D

2014-03-01

Older adults prefer to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. The purpose of this article is to describe the development and preliminary validation of Making and Executing Decisions for Safe and Independent Living (MED-SAIL), a brief screening tool for capacity to live safely and independently in the community. Prospective preliminary validation study. Outpatient geriatrics clinic located in a community-based hospital. Forty-nine community-dwelling older adults referred to the clinic for a comprehensive capacity assessment. We examined internal consistency, criterion-based validity, concurrent validity, and accuracy of classification for MED-SAIL. The items included in MED-SAIL demonstrated internal consistency (5 items; α = 0.85). MED-SAIL was significantly correlated with the Independent Living Scales (r = 0.573, p ≤0.001) and instrumental activities of daily living (r = 0.440, p ≤0.01). The Mann-Whitney U test revealed significant differences between the no capacity and partial/full capacity classifications on MED-SAIL (U(48) = 60.5, Z = -0.38, p <0.0001). The area under the curve was 0.864 (95% confidence interval: 0.84-0.99). This study demonstrated the validity of MED-SAIL as a brief screening tool to identify older adults with impaired capacity for remaining safe and independent in their current living environment. MED-SAIL is useful tool for health and social service providers in the community for the purpose of referral for definitive capacity evaluation. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Cochlear implantation with Pulsar Med El: a novel small incision technique.

PubMed

Cuda, D

2009-04-01

Although still widely implanted, Pulsar Med-El is rarely considered for small incision approach. Overall, 30 teen-age and adult patients were operated upon with a novel small incision (4-5 cm). Full insertion of the electrode array was achieved in all cases. No major intra-operative complications occurred. At follow-up, no flap-related complications and no migration of the receiver-stimulator were observed in the "device suture" (14 patients) or "no device suture" groups (16 patients). All patients are full-time users of the device. In conclusion, a small incision for the Pulsar Med-El cochlear implant is feasible, safe and reproducible. Ligature fixation of the device is not critical with this operation. Also with this device, in adult and teen-age patients, it is, therefore, possible to retain several typical advantages of small incision approaches.

Student employment opportunities within ORD, with an emphasis on MED

EPA Science Inventory

This is a talk to undergraduate Juniors and Seniors in the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy's Pharm/Tox program about student employment opportunities w/in ORD such as SSC, ORISE, etc. wtih an emphasis on MED. I would classify as this as Outreach: how to navigate EPA websites to f...

Gonioscopy assisted transluminal trabeculotomy: an ab interno circumferential trabeculotomy for the treatment of primary congenital glaucoma and juvenile open angle glaucoma.

PubMed

Grover, Davinder S; Smith, Oluwatosin; Fellman, Ronald L; Godfrey, David G; Butler, Michelle R; Montes de Oca, Ildamaris; Feuer, William J

2015-08-01

To introduce a novel ab interno 360° trabeculotomy for treating primary congenital glaucoma (PCG) and juvenile open angle glaucoma (JOAG) and report preliminary results. A retrospective chart review of patients who underwent a gonioscopy assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) procedure by four of the authors (DSG, OS, RLF and DGG) between October 2011 and October 2013. The surgery was performed in patients ≤30 years old with a dysgenic anterior segment angle and uncontrolled PCG and JOAG. Fourteen eyes of 10 patients underwent GATT with follow-up >12 months (12-33 months; mean 20.4). Patients ranged in age from 17 months to 30 years (mean=18.4 years), and five (50%) were female patients. No complications occurred during or following surgery except for early postoperative hyphema in five (36%) of eyes, all cleared by 1 month. The mean intraocular pressure (IOP) decreased from 27.3 to 14.8 mm Hg and the mean number of medications required decreased from 2.6 to 0.86. Five eyes had a drop in IOP ≥15 mm Hg (range 15-39). The preliminary results and safety for GATT, a minimally invasive conjunctival sparing circumferential trabeculotomy, are promising and at least equivalent to previous results for ab externo trabeculotomy for the treatment of PCG and JOAG. All eyes in the study were considered a clinical success. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Recognition of Terrestrial Impact Craters with COSMO-SkyMed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Virelli, M.; Staffieri, S.; Battagliere, M. L.; Komatsu, G.; Di Martino, M.; Flamini, E.; Coletta, A.

2016-08-01

All bodies having a solid surface, without distinction, show, with greater or lesser evidence, the marks left by the geological processes they undergone during their evolution. There is a geomorphological feature that is evident in all the images obtained by the probes sent to explore our planetary system: impact craters.Craters formed by the impact of small cosmic bodies have dimensions ranging from some meters to hundreds of kilometers. However, for example on the Lunar regolith particles, have been observed also sub- millimeter craters caused by dust impacts. The kinetic energy of the impactor, which velocity is in general of the order of tens km/s, is released in fractions of a second, generally in a explosive way, generating complex phenomena that transform not only the morphology of the surface involved by the impact, but also the mineralogy and crystallography of the impacted material. Even our planet is not immune to these impacts. At present, more than 180 geological structures recognized as of impact origin are known on Earth.In this article, we aim to show how these impact structures on Earth's surface are observed from space. To do this, we used the images obtained by the COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation.Starting from 2013, ASI proposed, in collaboration with the Astrophysical Observatory of Turin and University D'Annunzio of Chieti, the realization of an Encyclopedic Atlas of Terrestrial Impact Craters using COSMO-SkyMed data that will become the first atlas of all recognized terrestrial impact craters based on images acquired by a X band radar. To observe these impact craters all radar sensor modes have been used, according to the size of the analyzed crater.The project includes research of any new features that could be classified as impact craters and, for the sites whereby it is considered necessary, the implementation of a geological survey on site to validate the observations.In this paper an overview of the Atlas of Terrestrial Impact

Drug-Coated Balloon Versus Standard Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty for the Treatment of Superficial Femoral and Popliteal Peripheral Artery Disease

PubMed Central

Tepe, Gunnar; Schneider, Peter; Brodmann, Marianne; Krishnan, Prakash; Micari, Antonio; Metzger, Christopher; Scheinert, Dierk; Zeller, Thomas; Cohen, David J.; Snead, David B.; Alexander, Beaux; Landini, Mario; Jaff, Michael R.

2015-01-01

Background— Drug-coated balloons (DCBs) have shown promise in improving the outcomes for patients with peripheral artery disease. We compared a paclitaxel-coated balloon with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) for the treatment of symptomatic superficial femoral and popliteal artery disease. Methods and Results— The IN.PACT SFA Trial is a prospective, multicenter, single-blinded, randomized trial in which 331 patients with intermittent claudication or ischemic rest pain attributable to superficial femoral and popliteal peripheral artery disease were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to treatment with DCB or PTA. The primary efficacy end point was primary patency, defined as freedom from restenosis or clinically driven target lesion revascularization at 12 months. Baseline characteristics were similar between the 2 groups. Mean lesion length and the percentage of total occlusions for the DCB and PTA arms were 8.94±4.89 and 8.81±5.12 cm (P=0.82) and 25.8% and 19.5% (P=0.22), respectively. DCB resulted in higher primary patency versus PTA (82.2% versus 52.4%; P<0.001). The rate of clinically driven target lesion revascularization was 2.4% in the DCB arm in comparison with 20.6% in the PTA arm (P<0.001). There was a low rate of vessel thrombosis in both arms (1.4% after DCB and 3.7% after PTA [P=0.10]). There were no device- or procedure-related deaths and no major amputations. Conclusions— In this prospective, multicenter, randomized trial, DCB was superior to PTA and had a favorable safety profile for the treatment of patients with symptomatic femoropopliteal peripheral artery disease. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique Identifiers: NCT01175850 and NCT01566461. PMID:25472980

Making and Executing Decisions for Safe and Independent Living (MED-SAIL): Development and Validation of a Brief Screening Tool

PubMed Central

Mills, Whitney L.; Regev, Tziona; Kunik, Mark E.; Wilson, Nancy L.; Moye, Jennifer; McCullough, Laurence B.; Naik, Aanand D.

2017-01-01

Objectives Older adults prefer to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. The purpose of this article is to describe the development and preliminary validation of Making and Executing Decisions for Safe and Independent Living (MED-SAIL), a brief screening tool for capacity to live safely and independently in the community. Design Prospective preliminary validation study. Setting Outpatient geriatrics clinic located in a community-based hospital. Participants Forty-nine community-dwelling older adults referred to the clinic for a comprehensive capacity assessment. Measurements We examined internal consistency, criterion-based validity, concurrent validity, and accuracy of classification for MED-SAIL. Results The items included in MED-SAIL demonstrated internal consistency (5 items; α = 0.85). MED-SAIL was significantly correlated with the Independent Living Scales (r = 0.573, p ≤ 0.001) and instrumental activities of daily living (r = 0.440, p ≤ 0.01). The Mann-Whitney U test revealed significant differences between the no capacity and partial/full capacity classifications on MED-SAIL (U(48) = 60.5, Z = −0.38, p <0.0001). The area under the curve was 0.864 (95% confidence interval: 0.84–0.99). Conclusions This study demonstrated the validity of MED-SAIL as a brief screening tool to identify older adults with impaired capacity for remaining safe and independent in their current living environment. MED-SAIL is useful tool for health and social service providers in the community for the purpose of referral for definitive capacity evaluation. PMID:23567420

MedSynDiKATe--design considerations for an ontology-based medical text understanding system.

PubMed Central

Hahn, U.; Romacker, M.; Schulz, S.

2000-01-01

MedSynDiKATe is a natural language processor for automatically acquiring knowledge from medical finding reports. The content of these documents is transferred to formal representation structures which constitute a corresponding text knowledge base. The general system architecture we present integrates requirements from the analysis of single sentences, as well as those of referentially linked sentences forming cohesive texts. The strong demands MedSynDiKATe poses to the availability of expressive knowledge sources are accounted for by two alternative approaches to (semi)automatic ontology engineering. PMID:11079899

Depletion of Mediator Kinase Module Subunits Represses Superenhancer-Associated Genes in Colon Cancer Cells.

PubMed

Kuuluvainen, Emilia; Domènech-Moreno, Eva; Niemelä, Elina H; Mäkelä, Tomi P

2018-06-01

In cancer, oncogene activation is partly mediated by acquired superenhancers, which therefore represent potential targets for inhibition. Superenhancers are enriched for BRD4 and Mediator, and both BRD4 and the Mediator MED12 subunit are disproportionally required for expression of superenhancer-associated genes in stem cells. Here we show that depletion of Mediator kinase module subunit MED12 or MED13 together with MED13L can be used to reduce expression of cancer-acquired superenhancer genes, such as the MYC gene, in colon cancer cells, with a concomitant decrease in proliferation. Whereas depletion of MED12 or MED13/MED13L caused a disproportional decrease of superenhancer gene expression, this was not seen with depletion of the kinases cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK8) and CDK19. MED12-MED13/MED13L-dependent superenhancer genes were coregulated by β-catenin, which has previously been shown to associate with MED12. Importantly, β-catenin depletion caused reduced binding of MED12 at the MYC superenhancer. The effect of MED12 or MED13/MED13L depletion on cancer-acquired superenhancer gene expression was more specific than and partially distinct from that of BRD4 depletion, with the most efficient inhibition seen with combined targeting. These results identify a requirement of MED12 and MED13/MED13L for expression of acquired superenhancer genes in colon cancer, implicating these Mediator subunits as potential therapeutic targets for colon cancer, alone or together with BRD4. Copyright © 2018 American Society for Microbiology.

The SPYRAL HTN Global Clinical Trial Program: Rationale and design for studies of renal denervation in the absence (SPYRAL HTN OFF-MED) and presence (SPYRAL HTN ON-MED) of antihypertensive medications.

PubMed

Kandzari, David E; Kario, Kazuomi; Mahfoud, Felix; Cohen, Sidney A; Pilcher, Garrett; Pocock, Stuart; Townsend, Raymond; Weber, Michael A; Böhm, Michael

2016-01-01

Renal sympathetic activation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of hypertension, as demonstrated by high renal norepinephrine spillover into plasma of patients with essential hypertension. Renal denervation has demonstrated a significant reduction in blood pressure in unblinded studies of hypertensive patients. The SYMPLICITY HTN-3 trial, the first prospective, masked, randomized study of renal denervation versus sham control, failed its primary efficacy end point and raised important questions around potentially confounding factors, such as drug changes and adherence, study population, and procedural methods. The SPYRAL HTN Global Clinical Trial Program is designed to address limitations associated with predicate studies and provide insight into the impact of pharmacotherapy on renal denervation efficacy. The 2 initial trials of the program focus on the effect of renal denervation using the Symplicity Spyral multielectrode renal denervation catheter in hypertensive patients in the absence (SPYRAL HTN OFF-MED) and presence (SPYRAL HTN ON-MED) of antihypertensive medications. The SPYRAL HTN ON-MED study requires patients to be treated with a consistent triple therapy antihypertensive regimen, whereas the SPYRAL HTN OFF-MED study includes a 3- to 4-week drug washout period followed by a 3-month efficacy and safety end point in the absence of antihypertensive medications. The studies will randomize patients with combined systolic-diastolic hypertension to renal denervation or sham procedure. Both studies allow renal denervation treatments in renal artery branches and accessories. These studies will inform the design of the second pivotal phase of the program, which will more definitively analyze the antihypertensive effect of renal denervation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Identifying nurse staffing research in Medline: development and testing of empirically derived search strategies with the PubMed interface

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background The identification of health services research in databases such as PubMed/Medline is a cumbersome task. This task becomes even more difficult if the field of interest involves the use of diverse methods and data sources, as is the case with nurse staffing research. This type of research investigates the association between nurse staffing parameters and nursing and patient outcomes. A comprehensively developed search strategy may help identify nurse staffing research in PubMed/Medline. Methods A set of relevant references in PubMed/Medline was identified by means of three systematic reviews. This development set was used to detect candidate free-text and MeSH terms. The frequency of these terms was compared to a random sample from PubMed/Medline in order to identify terms specific to nurse staffing research, which were then used to develop a sensitive, precise and balanced search strategy. To determine their precision, the newly developed search strategies were tested against a) the pool of relevant references extracted from the systematic reviews, b) a reference set identified from an electronic journal screening, and c) a sample from PubMed/Medline. Finally, all newly developed strategies were compared to PubMed's Health Services Research Queries (PubMed's HSR Queries). Results The sensitivities of the newly developed search strategies were almost 100% in all of the three test sets applied; precision ranged from 6.1% to 32.0%. PubMed's HSR queries were less sensitive (83.3% to 88.2%) than the new search strategies. Only minor differences in precision were found (5.0% to 32.0%). Conclusions As with other literature on health services research, nurse staffing studies are difficult to identify in PubMed/Medline. Depending on the purpose of the search, researchers can choose between high sensitivity and retrieval of a large number of references or high precision, i.e. and an increased risk of missing relevant references, respectively. More standardized

Identifying nurse staffing research in Medline: development and testing of empirically derived search strategies with the PubMed interface.

PubMed

Simon, Michael; Hausner, Elke; Klaus, Susan F; Dunton, Nancy E

2010-08-23

The identification of health services research in databases such as PubMed/Medline is a cumbersome task. This task becomes even more difficult if the field of interest involves the use of diverse methods and data sources, as is the case with nurse staffing research. This type of research investigates the association between nurse staffing parameters and nursing and patient outcomes. A comprehensively developed search strategy may help identify nurse staffing research in PubMed/Medline. A set of relevant references in PubMed/Medline was identified by means of three systematic reviews. This development set was used to detect candidate free-text and MeSH terms. The frequency of these terms was compared to a random sample from PubMed/Medline in order to identify terms specific to nurse staffing research, which were then used to develop a sensitive, precise and balanced search strategy. To determine their precision, the newly developed search strategies were tested against a) the pool of relevant references extracted from the systematic reviews, b) a reference set identified from an electronic journal screening, and c) a sample from PubMed/Medline. Finally, all newly developed strategies were compared to PubMed's Health Services Research Queries (PubMed's HSR Queries). The sensitivities of the newly developed search strategies were almost 100% in all of the three test sets applied; precision ranged from 6.1% to 32.0%. PubMed's HSR queries were less sensitive (83.3% to 88.2%) than the new search strategies. Only minor differences in precision were found (5.0% to 32.0%). As with other literature on health services research, nurse staffing studies are difficult to identify in PubMed/Medline. Depending on the purpose of the search, researchers can choose between high sensitivity and retrieval of a large number of references or high precision, i.e. and an increased risk of missing relevant references, respectively. More standardized terminology (e.g. by consistent use of the

What CORBA can do: An example of a new system developed with object technology: TeleMed

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

Forslund, D.; Phillips, R.; Tomlinson, B.

1996-05-01

The TeleMed application grew out of a relationship with physicians at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine (NJC) in Denver. These physicians are experts in pulmonary diseases and radiology, helping patients combat effects of TB and other lung diseases. To make the knowledge and experience at NJC available to a wider audience, LANL has developed a virtual patient record system called TeleMed which is based on distributed national radiographic and patient record repository located throughout the country. Without leaving their offices, participating doctors can view clinical drug and radiographic data via a sophisticated multimedia interface. TeleMed ismore » also valuable for teaching and presentation as well. Thus a resident can use TeleMed for self-training in diagnostic techniques and a physician can use it to explain to a patient the course of their illness. Data can be viewed simultaneously by users at two or more distant locations for consultation with specialists in different fields. This capability is made possible by integration of multimedia information using commercial CORBA technology linking object-enable databases with client interfaces using a three-tiered architecture.« less

PuReD-MCL: a graph-based PubMed document clustering methodology.

PubMed

Theodosiou, T; Darzentas, N; Angelis, L; Ouzounis, C A

2008-09-01

Biomedical literature is the principal repository of biomedical knowledge, with PubMed being the most complete database collecting, organizing and analyzing such textual knowledge. There are numerous efforts that attempt to exploit this information by using text mining and machine learning techniques. We developed a novel approach, called PuReD-MCL (Pubmed Related Documents-MCL), which is based on the graph clustering algorithm MCL and relevant resources from PubMed. PuReD-MCL avoids using natural language processing (NLP) techniques directly; instead, it takes advantage of existing resources, available from PubMed. PuReD-MCL then clusters documents efficiently using the MCL graph clustering algorithm, which is based on graph flow simulation. This process allows users to analyse the results by highlighting important clues, and finally to visualize the clusters and all relevant information using an interactive graph layout algorithm, for instance BioLayout Express 3D. The methodology was applied to two different datasets, previously used for the validation of the document clustering tool TextQuest. The first dataset involves the organisms Escherichia coli and yeast, whereas the second is related to Drosophila development. PuReD-MCL successfully reproduces the annotated results obtained from TextQuest, while at the same time provides additional insights into the clusters and the corresponding documents. Source code in perl and R are available from http://tartara.csd.auth.gr/~theodos/

MedTalks: developing teaching abilities and experience in undergraduate medical students.

PubMed

Bandeali, Suhair; Chiang, Albert; Ramnanan, Christopher J

2017-01-01

According to the CanMEDS' Scholar competency, physicians are expected to facilitate the learning of colleagues, patients and other health professionals. However, most medical students are not provided with formal opportunities to gain teaching experience with objective feedback. To address this, the University's Medical Education Interest Group (MEIG) created a pilot teaching program in January 2015 entitled 'MedTalks'. Four 3-hour sessions were held at the University Faculty of Medicine, where first and second year medical students taught clinically oriented topics to undergraduate university students. Each extracurricular session included three 30-minute content lectures, and a 90-minute small group session on physical examination skills. Each medical student-teacher received formal feedback from undergraduate students and from faculty educators regarding teaching style, communication abilities, and professionalism. In addition, medical student-teachers self-evaluated their own teaching experience. Over 50 medical students from the University participated as medical student-teachers. Based on quantitative and qualitative evaluation surveys, 100% of medical students agreed that MedTalks was a useful way to develop teaching skills and 92% gained a greater confidence in individual teaching capabilities, based largely on the opportunity to gain experience (with feedback) in teaching roles. A program designed to give medical students multi-source teaching experience (lecture- and small group-based) and feedback on their teaching (from learners and Faculty observers, in addition to their own self-reflection) can improve medical student confidence and enthusiasm towards teaching. Future studies will clarify if medical student self-perceived enhancements in teaching ability can be corroborated by independent (Faculty, learner) observations of future teaching activity.

Diagnosis checking of statistical analysis in RCTs indexed in PubMed.

PubMed

Lee, Paul H; Tse, Andy C Y

2017-11-01

Statistical analysis is essential for reporting of the results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), as well as evaluating their effectiveness. However, the validity of a statistical analysis also depends on whether the assumptions of that analysis are valid. To review all RCTs published in journals indexed in PubMed during December 2014 to provide a complete picture of how RCTs handle assumptions of statistical analysis. We reviewed all RCTs published in December 2014 that appeared in journals indexed in PubMed using the Cochrane highly sensitive search strategy. The 2014 impact factors of the journals were used as proxies for their quality. The type of statistical analysis used and whether the assumptions of the analysis were tested were reviewed. In total, 451 papers were included. Of the 278 papers that reported a crude analysis for the primary outcomes, 31 (27·2%) reported whether the outcome was normally distributed. Of the 172 papers that reported an adjusted analysis for the primary outcomes, diagnosis checking was rarely conducted, with only 20%, 8·6% and 7% checked for generalized linear model, Cox proportional hazard model and multilevel model, respectively. Study characteristics (study type, drug trial, funding sources, journal type and endorsement of CONSORT guidelines) were not associated with the reporting of diagnosis checking. The diagnosis of statistical analyses in RCTs published in PubMed-indexed journals was usually absent. Journals should provide guidelines about the reporting of a diagnosis of assumptions. © 2017 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation.

Combining Semantic and Lexical Methods for Mapping MedDRA to VCM Icons.

PubMed

Lamy, Jean-Baptiste; Tsopra, Rosy

2018-01-01

VCM (Visualization of Concept in Medicine) is an iconic language that represents medical concepts, such as disorders, by icons. VCM has a formal semantics described by an ontology. The icons can be used in medical software for providing a visual summary or enriching texts. However, the use of VCM icons in user interfaces requires to map standard medical terminologies to VCM. Here, we present a method combining semantic and lexical approaches for mapping MedDRA to VCM. The method takes advantage of the hierarchical relations in MedDRA. It also analyzes the groups of lemmas in the term's labels, and relies on a manual mapping of these groups to the concepts in the VCM ontology. We evaluate the method on 50 terms. Finally, we discuss the method and suggest perspectives.

The knowledge model of MedFrame/CADIAG-IV.

PubMed

Sageder, B; Boegl, K; Adlassnig, K P; Kolousek, G; Trummer, B

1997-01-01

The medical consultation system MedFrame/CADIAG-IV is a successor of the prior CADIAG projects. It is the result of a complete redesign to account for today's demands on state-of-the-art software. Its knowledge representation and inference process are based on fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic. Fuzzy sets are used for conversions from measured numeric values and observational data into symbolic ones. Medical relationships between findings, diseases, and therapies, the rules, are represented by fuzzy relations, that express positive or negative associations. Findings, diseases, and therapies are organised in hierarchies.

Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar: strengths and weaknesses.

PubMed

Falagas, Matthew E; Pitsouni, Eleni I; Malietzis, George A; Pappas, Georgios

2008-02-01

The evolution of the electronic age has led to the development of numerous medical databases on the World Wide Web, offering search facilities on a particular subject and the ability to perform citation analysis. We compared the content coverage and practical utility of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The official Web pages of the databases were used to extract information on the range of journals covered, search facilities and restrictions, and update frequency. We used the example of a keyword search to evaluate the usefulness of these databases in biomedical information retrieval and a specific published article to evaluate their utility in performing citation analysis. All databases were practical in use and offered numerous search facilities. PubMed and Google Scholar are accessed for free. The keyword search with PubMed offers optimal update frequency and includes online early articles; other databases can rate articles by number of citations, as an index of importance. For citation analysis, Scopus offers about 20% more coverage than Web of Science, whereas Google Scholar offers results of inconsistent accuracy. PubMed remains an optimal tool in biomedical electronic research. Scopus covers a wider journal range, of help both in keyword searching and citation analysis, but it is currently limited to recent articles (published after 1995) compared with Web of Science. Google Scholar, as for the Web in general, can help in the retrieval of even the most obscure information but its use is marred by inadequate, less often updated, citation information.

Effects of coding dictionary on signal generation: a consideration of use of MedDRA compared with WHO-ART.

PubMed

Brown, Elliot G

2002-01-01

To support signal generation a terminology should facilitate recognition of medical conditions by using terms which represent unique concepts, providing appropriate, homogeneous grouping of related terms. It should allow intuitive or mathematical identification of adverse events reaching a threshold frequency or with disproportionate incidence, permit identification of important events which are commonly drug-related, and support recognition of new syndromes. It is probable that the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) preferred terms (PTs) or high level terms (HLTs) will be used to represent adverse events for the purposes of signal generation. A comparison with 315 WHO Adverse Reaction Terminology (WHO-ART) PTs showed that for about 72% of WHO-ART PTs, there were one or two corresponding MedDRA PTs. However, there were instances where there were many MedDRA PTs corresponding to single WHO-ART PTs. In many cases, MedDRA HLTs grouped large numbers of PTs and sometimes there could be problems when a single HLT comprises PTs which represent very different medical concepts, or conditions which differ greatly in their clinical importance. Further studies are needed to compare the way in which identical data sets coded with MedDRA and with other terminologies actually function in generating and exploring signals using the same methods of detection and evaluation.

Quinic acid is a biologically active component of the Uncaria tomentosa extract C-Med 100.

PubMed

Akesson, Christina; Lindgren, Hanna; Pero, Ronald W; Leanderson, Tomas; Ivars, Fredrik

2005-01-01

We have previously reported that the C-Med 100 extract of the plant Uncaria tomentosa induces prolonged lymphocyte half life and hence increased spleen cell number in mice receiving the extract in their drinking water. Further, the extract induces cell proliferation arrest and inhibits activation of the transcriptional regulator nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) in vitro. We now report that mice exposed to quinic acid (QA), a component of this extract, had significantly increased number of spleen cells, thus recapitulating the in vivo biological effect of C-Med 100 exposure. Commercially supplied QA (H(+) form) did not, however, inhibit cell proliferation in vitro, while the ammonia-treated QA (QAA) was a potent inhibitor. Both QA and QAA inhibited NF-kappaB activity in exposed cells at similar concentrations. Thus, our present data identify QA as a candidate component for both in vivo and in vitro biological effects of the C-Med 100 extract.

Alternative Fuels Data Center: MedCorp Fuels Emergency Vehicles With

Science.gov Websites

. College Students Engineer Efficient Vehicles in EcoCAR 2 Competition Aug. 2, 2014 Photo of a police Propane in OhioA> MedCorp Fuels Emergency Vehicles With Propane in Ohio to someone by E-mail Television Related Videos Photo of a car Hydrogen Powers Fuel Cell Vehicles in California Nov. 18, 2017 Photo

PyBioMed: a python library for various molecular representations of chemicals, proteins and DNAs and their interactions.

PubMed

Dong, Jie; Yao, Zhi-Jiang; Zhang, Lin; Luo, Feijun; Lin, Qinlu; Lu, Ai-Ping; Chen, Alex F; Cao, Dong-Sheng

2018-03-20

With the increasing development of biotechnology and informatics technology, publicly available data in chemistry and biology are undergoing explosive growth. Such wealthy information in these data needs to be extracted and transformed to useful knowledge by various data mining methods. Considering the amazing rate at which data are accumulated in chemistry and biology fields, new tools that process and interpret large and complex interaction data are increasingly important. So far, there are no suitable toolkits that can effectively link the chemical and biological space in view of molecular representation. To further explore these complex data, an integrated toolkit for various molecular representation is urgently needed which could be easily integrated with data mining algorithms to start a full data analysis pipeline. Herein, the python library PyBioMed is presented, which comprises functionalities for online download for various molecular objects by providing different IDs, the pretreatment of molecular structures, the computation of various molecular descriptors for chemicals, proteins, DNAs and their interactions. PyBioMed is a feature-rich and highly customized python library used for the characterization of various complex chemical and biological molecules and interaction samples. The current version of PyBioMed could calculate 775 chemical descriptors and 19 kinds of chemical fingerprints, 9920 protein descriptors based on protein sequences, more than 6000 DNA descriptors from nucleotide sequences, and interaction descriptors from pairwise samples using three different combining strategies. Several examples and five real-life applications were provided to clearly guide the users how to use PyBioMed as an integral part of data analysis projects. By using PyBioMed, users are able to start a full pipelining from getting molecular data, pretreating molecules, molecular representation to constructing machine learning models conveniently. PyBioMed provides

Flower Power: The Armoured Expert in the CanMEDS Competency Framework?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitehead, Cynthia R.; Austin, Zubin; Hodges, Brian D.

2011-01-01

Competency frameworks based on roles definitions are currently being used extensively in health professions education internationally. One of the most successful and widely used models is the CanMEDS Roles Framework. The medical literature has raised questions about both the theoretical underpinnings and the practical application of outcomes-based…

Women's Perception of Transvaginal Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES): Results of a Survey of Female Medical Staff and Literature Review.

PubMed

Gerntke, Carina Isabel; Kersten, Jan Felix; Schön, Gerhard; Mann, Oliver; Stark, Michael; Benhidjeb, Tahar

2016-04-01

Over the past 8 years, natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) has developed from preclinical to routine clinical practice. However, there are still concerns regarding the transvaginal approach. In our survey, we were interested in females with a professional medical background, thus having at least a basic medical understanding, which might discriminate between objective and subjective concerns. A questionnaire with 14 items was distributed among 1895 female physicians and nursing and administration staff of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. In addition, a qualitative literature review was performed. Data analysis was carried out using statistical package R version 2.15.0. The questionnaire was answered anonymously by 553 employees (29%). Fifty-seven percent were nurses, 18.6% belonged to administration, and 17% were physicians. A total of 63.1% of our respondents would choose the transvaginal NOTES technique for an assumed ovariectomy, while only 30.4% would choose this access for cholecystectomy. Doubts regarding transvaginal NOTES were related to sexual dysfunction (44.8%), its experimental nature (43.8%), future pregnancies (36.8%), and ethical reasons (30.3%). The literature review showed that women's perception of the transvaginal access is documented very heterogeneously and therefore difficult to compare. Despite the good reported results of NOTES and the medical background of the surveyed female employees, our study and the literature review clearly shows that there are fears regarding the transvaginal access, which might be a result of limited information. More accurate explanation of the available methods by the attending surgeon can lead to a better choice of the patient's preferred method. © The Author(s) 2015.

Health-related quality of life of coronary artery bypass grafting and percutaneous transluminal coronary artery angioplasty patients: 1-year follow-up.

PubMed

Kattainen, Eija; Sintonen, Harri; Kettunen, Raimo; Meriläinen, Pirkko

2005-01-01

The aim of the study was to compare the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) before the interventions and 6 and 12 months afterward, and to compare their HRQoL also with that of the general population. The sample (n = 615) consisted of consecutive coronary artery disease patients treated with elective CABG (n=432) or PTCA (n=183). The baseline data before the treatments were collected by structured interview, the follow-up data mainly by mailed self-administered questionnaires. HRQoL was measured by the 15D. For comparisons, the groups were standardized for differences in socioeconomic and clinical characteristics with a regression analysis. At baseline, the average 15D scores of the patient groups were 0.752 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.743-0.761) in CABG and 0.730 (95 percent CI, 0.716-0.744) in PTCA. After standardization, the difference between the groups was statistically significant but not clinically important. These scores were significantly worse (statistically and clinically) than the score of 0.883 (95 percent CI, 0.871-0.879) in the general population sample matched with the gender and age distribution of the patients. By 6 months, the CABG and PTCA patients had experienced a statistically significant and clinically important improvement to 0.858 (95 percent CI, 0.844-0.872) and 0.824 (95 percent CI, 0.806-0.842), respectively. No significant change took place in either group from 6 to 12 months. Both CABG and PTCA produces an approximately similar, clinically important improvement in HRQoL in 1-year follow-up.

WebMedSA: a web-based framework for segmenting and annotating medical images using biomedical ontologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vega, Francisco; Pérez, Wilson; Tello, Andrés.; Saquicela, Victor; Espinoza, Mauricio; Solano-Quinde, Lizandro; Vidal, Maria-Esther; La Cruz, Alexandra

2015-12-01

Advances in medical imaging have fostered medical diagnosis based on digital images. Consequently, the number of studies by medical images diagnosis increases, thus, collaborative work and tele-radiology systems are required to effectively scale up to this diagnosis trend. We tackle the problem of the collaborative access of medical images, and present WebMedSA, a framework to manage large datasets of medical images. WebMedSA relies on a PACS and supports the ontological annotation, as well as segmentation and visualization of the images based on their semantic description. Ontological annotations can be performed directly on the volumetric image or at different image planes (e.g., axial, coronal, or sagittal); furthermore, annotations can be complemented after applying a segmentation technique. WebMedSA is based on three main steps: (1) RDF-ization process for extracting, anonymizing, and serializing metadata comprised in DICOM medical images into RDF/XML; (2) Integration of different biomedical ontologies (using L-MOM library), making this approach ontology independent; and (3) segmentation and visualization of annotated data which is further used to generate new annotations according to expert knowledge, and validation. Initial user evaluations suggest that WebMedSA facilitates the exchange of knowledge between radiologists, and provides the basis for collaborative work among them.

MedXViewer: an extensible web-enabled software package for medical imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Looney, P. T.; Young, K. C.; Mackenzie, Alistair; Halling-Brown, Mark D.

2014-03-01

MedXViewer (Medical eXtensible Viewer) is an application designed to allow workstation-independent, PACS-less viewing and interaction with anonymised medical images (e.g. observer studies). The application was initially implemented for use in digital mammography and tomosynthesis but the flexible software design allows it to be easily extended to other imaging modalities. Regions of interest can be identified by a user and any associated information about a mark, an image or a study can be added. The questions and settings can be easily configured depending on the need of the research allowing both ROC and FROC studies to be performed. The extensible nature of the design allows for other functionality and hanging protocols to be available for each study. Panning, windowing, zooming and moving through slices are all available while modality-specific features can be easily enabled e.g. quadrant zooming in mammographic studies. MedXViewer can integrate with a web-based image database allowing results and images to be stored centrally. The software and images can be downloaded remotely from this centralised data-store. Alternatively, the software can run without a network connection where the images and results can be encrypted and stored locally on a machine or external drive. Due to the advanced workstation-style functionality, the simple deployment on heterogeneous systems over the internet without a requirement for administrative access and the ability to utilise a centralised database, MedXViewer has been used for running remote paper-less observer studies and is capable of providing a training infrastructure and co-ordinating remote collaborative viewing sessions (e.g. cancer reviews, interesting cases).

Generating PubMed Chemical Queries for Consumer Health Literature

PubMed Central

Loo, Jeffery; Chang, Hua Florence; Hochstein, Colette; Sun, Ying

2005-01-01

Two popular NLM resources that provide information for consumers about chemicals and their safety are the Household Products Database and Haz-Map. Search queries to PubMed via web links were generated from these databases. The query retrieves consumer health-oriented literature about adverse effects of chemicals. The retrieval was limited to a manageable set of 20 to 60 citations, achieved by successively applying increasing limits to the search until the desired number of references was reached. PMID:16779322

Current Status of the Matson Evaluation of Drug Side Effects (MEDS)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matson, Johnny L.; Cervantes, Paige E.

2013-01-01

The Matson Evaluation of Drug Side Effects (MEDS) is currently the best established and most researched measure of drug side effects in the intellectual disability (ID) literature. Initial research was conducted on its psychometric properties such as reliability and validity. More recent research studies have used the measure to determine the…

Evaluation of Natural Language Processing (NLP) Systems to Annotate Drug Product Labeling with MedDRA Terminology.

PubMed

Ly, Thomas; Pamer, Carol; Dang, Oanh; Brajovic, Sonja; Haider, Shahrukh; Botsis, Taxiarchis; Milward, David; Winter, Andrew; Lu, Susan; Ball, Robert

2018-05-31

The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) is a primary data source for identifying unlabeled adverse events (AEs) in a drug or biologic drug product's postmarketing phase. Many AE reports must be reviewed by drug safety experts to identify unlabeled AEs, even if the reported AEs are previously identified, labeled AEs. Integrating the labeling status of drug product AEs into FAERS could increase report triage and review efficiency. Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) is the standard for coding AE terms in FAERS cases. However, drug manufacturers are not required to use MedDRA to describe AEs in product labels. We hypothesized that natural language processing (NLP) tools could assist in automating the extraction and MedDRA mapping of AE terms in drug product labels. We evaluated the performance of three NLP systems, (ETHER, I2E, MetaMap) for their ability to extract AE terms from drug labels and translate the terms to MedDRA Preferred Terms (PTs). Pharmacovigilance-based annotation guidelines for extracting AE terms from drug labels were developed for this study. We compared each system's output to MedDRA PT AE lists, manually mapped by FDA pharmacovigilance experts using the guidelines, for ten drug product labels known as the "gold standard AE list" (GSL) dataset. Strict time and configuration conditions were imposed in order to test each system's capabilities under conditions of no human intervention and minimal system configuration. Each NLP system's output was evaluated for precision, recall and F measure in comparison to the GSL. A qualitative error analysis (QEA) was conducted to categorize a random sample of each NLP system's false positive and false negative errors. A total of 417, 278, and 250 false positive errors occurred in the ETHER, I2E, and MetaMap outputs, respectively. A total of 100, 80, and 187 false negative errors occurred in ETHER, I2E, and MetaMap outputs, respectively. Precision ranged from 64% to 77%, recall from 64

Discovering biomedical semantic relations in PubMed queries for information retrieval and database curation

PubMed Central

Huang, Chung-Chi; Lu, Zhiyong

2016-01-01

Identifying relevant papers from the literature is a common task in biocuration. Most current biomedical literature search systems primarily rely on matching user keywords. Semantic search, on the other hand, seeks to improve search accuracy by understanding the entities and contextual relations in user keywords. However, past research has mostly focused on semantically identifying biological entities (e.g. chemicals, diseases and genes) with little effort on discovering semantic relations. In this work, we aim to discover biomedical semantic relations in PubMed queries in an automated and unsupervised fashion. Specifically, we focus on extracting and understanding the contextual information (or context patterns) that is used by PubMed users to represent semantic relations between entities such as ‘CHEMICAL-1 compared to CHEMICAL-2.’ With the advances in automatic named entity recognition, we first tag entities in PubMed queries and then use tagged entities as knowledge to recognize pattern semantics. More specifically, we transform PubMed queries into context patterns involving participating entities, which are subsequently projected to latent topics via latent semantic analysis (LSA) to avoid the data sparseness and specificity issues. Finally, we mine semantically similar contextual patterns or semantic relations based on LSA topic distributions. Our two separate evaluation experiments of chemical-chemical (CC) and chemical–disease (CD) relations show that the proposed approach significantly outperforms a baseline method, which simply measures pattern semantics by similarity in participating entities. The highest performance achieved by our approach is nearly 0.9 and 0.85 respectively for the CC and CD task when compared against the ground truth in terms of normalized discounted cumulative gain (nDCG), a standard measure of ranking quality. These results suggest that our approach can effectively identify and return related semantic patterns in a ranked

The publication echo: effects of retrieving literature in PubMed by year of publication.

PubMed

Spreckelsen, Cord; Deserno, Thomas M; Spitzer, Klaus

2010-04-01

In PubMed search forms, the publication date refers to both the date of electronic and printed publication. This fact is documented in PubMed, but difficult to anticipate by the users and can provoke misinterpretations of search results. The Technical Note aims at systematically investing the effect (referred to as the publication echo), clarifying onset and extent of the publication echo, and comments on its impact. Papers with ambiguous publication dates are systematically retrieved and a trend analysis with seasonal decomposition on monthly publication data is performed. First doubled search results were found for 1999, their number since then rapidly increasing. Up to 17.6% of all articles of a year are found to be published electronically and in print, which can be before or afterwards. Maximum delay between the two dates is three years, except for one singular publication, where it is five years. Publication trends are exponential and linear when considering echoed and echo-cleaned data, respectively. As a conclusion, we suggest using a query formulation that unambiguously retrieves literature from PubMed by the date of publication. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Taehan Kan Hakhoe Chi (The Korean Journal of Hepatology) and Index Medicus (Medline/PubMed)].

PubMed

Lee, Dong Hoo

2003-03-01

It is our great pleasure to announce that the Taehan Kan Hakhoe Chi (The Korean Journal of Hepatology) was approved for listing, from 2002, in the Index Medicus, Medline/PubMed of the National Library of Medicine, NIH of USA. Herein, I review the searching tools employing a Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) such as liver disease and liver neoplasm or an author index for this Journal in the PubMed at a website. Of course, The Korean Journal of Hepatology should be continually striving to be upgraded. Dream comes true.

MedCast: a discussion support system for cooperative work

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moreno, Ramon A.; Lima, Vinícius; Lopes, Isidro; Gutierrez, Marco A.

2012-02-01

The availability of low cost Internet connections and specialized hardware, like webcams and headsets, makes possible the development of solutions for remote collaborative work. These solutions can provide advantages compared to presential meetings, such as: availability of experts on remote locations; lower price compared to presential meetings; creation of online didactic material (e.g. video-classes); richer forms of interaction between participants. These technologies are particularly interesting for continent-sized countries where typically there is a short number of skilled people in remote areas. However, the application of these technologies in medical field represents a special challenge due to the more complex requirements of this area, such as: Provide confidentiality (patient de-identification) and integrity of patient data; Guarantee availability of the system; Guarantee authenticity of data and users; Provide simple and effective user interface; Be compliant with medical standards such as DICOM and HL7. In order to satisfy those requirements a prototype called MedCast is under development whose architecture allows the integration of the Hospital Information System (HIS) with a collaborative tool in compliance with the HIPAA rules. Some of the MedCast features are: videoconferencing, chat, recording of the sessions, sharing of documents and reports and still and dynamic images presentation. Its current version allows the remote discussion of clinical cases and the remote ECG evaluation.

The Influence of Plant Litter on Soil Water Repellency: Insight from 13C NMR Spectroscopy.

PubMed

Cesarano, Gaspare; Incerti, Guido; Bonanomi, Giuliano

2016-01-01

Soil water repellency (SWR, i.e. reduced affinity for water owing to the presence of organic hydrophobic coatings on soil particles) has relevant hydrological implications because low rates of infiltration enhance water runoff, and untargeted diffusion of fertilizers and pesticides. Previous studies investigated the occurrence of SWR in ecosystems with different vegetation cover but did not clarify its relationships with litter biochemical quality. Here, we investigated the capability of different plant litter types to induce SWR by using fresh and decomposed leaf materials from 12 species, to amend a model sandy soil over a year-long microcosm experiment. Water repellency, measured by the Molarity of an Ethanol Droplet (MED) test, was tested for the effects of litter species and age, and compared with litter quality assessed by 13C-CPMAS NMR in solid state and elemental chemical parameters. All litter types were highly water repellent, with MED values of 18% or higher. In contrast, when litter was incorporated into the soil, only undecomposed materials induced SWR, but with a large variability of onset and peak dynamics among litter types. Surprisingly, SWR induced by litter addition was unrelated to the aliphatic fraction of litter. In contrast, lignin-poor but labile C-rich litter, as defined by O-alkyl C and N-alkyl and methoxyl C of 13C-CPMAS NMR spectral regions, respectively, induced a stronger SWR. This study suggests that biochemical quality of plant litter is a major controlling factor of SWR and, by defining litter quality with 13C-CPMAS NMR, our results provide a significant novel contribution towards a full understanding of the relationships between plant litter biochemistry and SWR.

NaturCare from AlphaMed: the non-scented ostomy deodorant.

PubMed

Rudoni, C; Sica, J

NaturCare is an ostomy deodorant manufactured and distributed by AlphaMed. Currently, it is the only non-scented deodorant available on prescription. Odour can be extremely stressful to both the person with a stoma (ostomist) and those involved in their care. Since NaturCare has no artificial scents added to its formula, it can be extremely helpful to those who find the odour embarrassing.

ScMED7, a sugarcane mediator subunit gene, acts as a regulator of plant immunity and is responsive to diverse stress and hormone treatments.

PubMed

Zhang, Xu; Yang, Yuting; Zou, Jiake; Chen, Yun; Wu, Qibin; Guo, Jinlong; Que, Youxiong; Xu, Liping

2017-12-01

The Mediator complex, is an essential component of the RNA polymerase II general transcriptional machinery in eukaryotes. Mediator subunit 7 (MED7), a key subunit in the central module of this complex, plays an important role in gene transcriptional regulation. The present study isolated the full-length cDNA of the MED7 gene of sugarcane, hereby designated as ScMED7, which was characterized to harbor a 525-bp open reading frame that is predicted to encode a 174-amino acid protein with a molecular mass of 19.9 kDa and was localized to the nucleus and cytoplasm. ScMED7 contains one typical conserved domain of MED7 proteins and shares 98% homology with that from Sorghum bicolor (XP_002447862.1). ScMED7 was constitutively expressed, yet significantly higher in bud tissues. ScMED7 transcription was obviously induced by heavy metal (CdCl 2 ), low temperature (4 °C), and hormone (SA and MeJA) treatments, while inhibited by osmotic stresses of NaCl and PEG. The role of ScMED7 in plant immunity was demonstrated by transient overexpression in tobacco, which in turn induces the expression of six out of nine defense-related marker genes, including all the three hypersensitive response genes. The responses of defense-related marker genes in the mock and in the ScMED7 transiently overexpressed leaves challenged by pathogenic Pseudomonas solanacearum and Fusarium solani var. coeruleum suggest that ScMED7 acts as a negative regulator during pathogen infections, whereas only fungal infection was clearly phenotypically expressed. In sum, ScMED7 plays an important role in modulating sugarcane responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, and may have dual roles in hypersensitive responses and basal defense against pathogens.

Mediator Recruitment to Heat Shock Genes Requires Dual Hsf1 Activation Domains and Mediator Tail Subunits Med15 and Med16*

PubMed Central

Kim, Sunyoung; Gross, David S.

2013-01-01

The evolutionarily conserved Mediator complex is central to the regulation of gene transcription in eukaryotes because it serves as a physical and functional interface between upstream regulators and the Pol II transcriptional machinery. Nonetheless, its role appears to be context-dependent, and the detailed mechanism by which it governs the expression of most genes remains unknown. Here we investigate Mediator involvement in HSP (heat shock protein) gene regulation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We find that in response to thermal upshift, subunits representative of each of the four Mediator modules (Head, Middle, Tail, and Kinase) are rapidly, robustly, and selectively recruited to the promoter regions of HSP genes. Their residence is transient, returning to near-background levels within 90 min. Hsf1 (heat shock factor 1) plays a central role in recruiting Mediator, as indicated by the fact that truncation of either its N- or C-terminal activation domain significantly reduces Mediator occupancy, whereas removal of both activation domains abolishes it. Likewise, ablation of either of two Mediator Tail subunits, Med15 or Med16, reduces Mediator recruitment to HSP promoters, whereas deletion of both abolishes it. Accompanying the loss of Mediator, recruitment of RNA polymerase II is substantially diminished. Interestingly, Mediator antagonizes Hsf1 occupancy of non-induced promoters yet facilitates enhanced Hsf1 association with activated ones. Collectively, our observations indicate that Hsf1, via its dual activation domains, recruits holo-Mediator to HSP promoters in response to acute heat stress through cooperative physical and/or functional interactions with the Tail module. PMID:23447536

Analysis of queries sent to PubMed at the point of care: Observation of search behaviour in a medical teaching hospital

PubMed Central

Hoogendam, Arjen; Stalenhoef, Anton FH; Robbé, Pieter F de Vries; Overbeke, A John PM

2008-01-01

Background The use of PubMed to answer daily medical care questions is limited because it is challenging to retrieve a small set of relevant articles and time is restricted. Knowing what aspects of queries are likely to retrieve relevant articles can increase the effectiveness of PubMed searches. The objectives of our study were to identify queries that are likely to retrieve relevant articles by relating PubMed search techniques and tools to the number of articles retrieved and the selection of articles for further reading. Methods This was a prospective observational study of queries regarding patient-related problems sent to PubMed by residents and internists in internal medicine working in an Academic Medical Centre. We analyzed queries, search results, query tools (Mesh, Limits, wildcards, operators), selection of abstract and full-text for further reading, using a portal that mimics PubMed. Results PubMed was used to solve 1121 patient-related problems, resulting in 3205 distinct queries. Abstracts were viewed in 999 (31%) of these queries, and in 126 (39%) of 321 queries using query tools. The average term count per query was 2.5. Abstracts were selected in more than 40% of queries using four or five terms, increasing to 63% if the use of four or five terms yielded 2–161 articles. Conclusion Queries sent to PubMed by physicians at our hospital during daily medical care contain fewer than three terms. Queries using four to five terms, retrieving less than 161 article titles, are most likely to result in abstract viewing. PubMed search tools are used infrequently by our population and are less effective than the use of four or five terms. Methods to facilitate the formulation of precise queries, using more relevant terms, should be the focus of education and research. PMID:18816391

An in vivo requirement for the mediator subunit med14 in the maintenance of stem cell populations.

PubMed

Burrows, Jeffrey T A; Pearson, Bret J; Scott, Ian C

2015-04-14

The Mediator complex has recently been shown to be a key player in the maintenance of embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells. However, the in vivo consequences of loss of many Mediator subunits are unknown. We identified med14 as the gene affected in the zebrafish logelei (log) mutant, which displayed a morphological arrest by 2 days of development. Surprisingly, microarray analysis showed that transcription was not broadly affected in log mutants. Indeed, log cells transplanted into a wild-type environment were able to survive into adulthood. In planarians, RNAi knockdown demonstrated a requirement for med14 and many other Mediator components in adult stem cell maintenance and regeneration. Multiple stem/progenitor cell populations were observed to be reduced or absent in zebrafish med14 mutant embryos. Taken together, our results show a critical, evolutionarily conserved, in vivo function for Med14 (and Mediator) in stem cell maintenance, distinct from a general role in transcription. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Enhancing search efficiency by means of a search filter for finding all studies on animal experimentation in PubMed

PubMed Central

Hooijmans, Carlijn R; Tillema, Alice; Leenaars, Marlies; Ritskes-Hoitinga, Merel

2010-01-01

Collecting and analysing all available literature before starting an animal experiment is important and it is indispensable when writing a systematic review (SR) of animal research. Writing such review prevents unnecessary duplication of animal studies and thus unnecessary animal use (Reduction). One of the factors currently impeding the production of ‘high-quality’ SRs in laboratory animal science is the fact that searching for all available literature concerning animal experimentation is rather difficult. In order to diminish these difficulties, we developed a search filter for PubMed to detect all publications concerning animal studies. This filter was compared with the method most frequently used, the PubMed Limit: Animals, and validated further by performing two PubMed topic searches. Our filter performs much better than the PubMed limit: it retrieves, on average, 7% more records. Other important advantages of our filter are that it also finds the most recent records and that it is easy to use. All in all, by using our search filter in PubMed, all available literature concerning animal studies on a specific topic can easily be found and assessed, which will help in increasing the scientific quality and thereby the ethical validity of animal experiments. PMID:20551243

Enhancing search efficiency by means of a search filter for finding all studies on animal experimentation in PubMed.

PubMed

Hooijmans, Carlijn R; Tillema, Alice; Leenaars, Marlies; Ritskes-Hoitinga, Merel

2010-07-01

Collecting and analysing all available literature before starting an animal experiment is important and it is indispensable when writing a systematic review (SR) of animal research. Writing such review prevents unnecessary duplication of animal studies and thus unnecessary animal use (Reduction). One of the factors currently impeding the production of 'high-quality' SRs in laboratory animal science is the fact that searching for all available literature concerning animal experimentation is rather difficult. In order to diminish these difficulties, we developed a search filter for PubMed to detect all publications concerning animal studies. This filter was compared with the method most frequently used, the PubMed Limit: Animals, and validated further by performing two PubMed topic searches. Our filter performs much better than the PubMed limit: it retrieves, on average, 7% more records. Other important advantages of our filter are that it also finds the most recent records and that it is easy to use. All in all, by using our search filter in PubMed, all available literature concerning animal studies on a specific topic can easily be found and assessed, which will help in increasing the scientific quality and thereby the ethical validity of animal experiments.

The Reliability of Encounter Cards to Assess the CanMEDs Roles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherbino, Jonathan; Kulasegaram, Kulamakan; Worster, Andrew; Norman, Geoffrey R.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of a computer-based encounter card (EC) to assess medical students during an emergency medicine rotation. From April 2011 to March 2012, multiple physicians assessed an entire medical school class during their emergency medicine rotation using the CanMEDS framework. At the end of an…

Preceptors' understanding and use of role modeling to develop the CanMEDS competencies in residents.

PubMed

Côté, Luc; Laughrea, Patricia-Ann

2014-06-01

Role modeling by preceptors is a key strategy for training residents in the competencies defined within the CanMEDS conceptual framework. However, little is known about the extent to which preceptors are aware of the importance of role modeling or how they perceive and enact it in their daily interactions with residents. The purpose of this study was to describe how preceptors understand and use role modeling to develop CanMEDS competencies in residents. In 2010, the authors conducted a descriptive qualitative study with preceptors in medical, surgical, and laboratory specialties who supervised residents on a regular basis at the Université Laval Faculty of Medicine (Québec, Canada). Respondents participated in semistructured, individual interviews. An inductive thematic analysis of interview transcripts was conducted using triangulation. Most participants highlighted the importance of role modeling to support residents' development of the CanMEDS competencies, particularly communication, collaboration, and professionalism, which preceptors perceived as "less scientific" and the most difficult to teach. Although most participants reported using an implicit, unstructured role modeling process, some described more explicit strategies. Eight types of educational challenges in role modeling the CanMEDS competencies were identified, including encouraging reflective practice, understanding the competencies and their importance in one's specialty, and being aware of one's strengths and weaknesses as a clinical teacher. Preceptors are aware of the importance of role modeling competencies for residents, but many do so only implicitly. This study's findings are important for improving strategies for role modeling and for the professional development of preceptors.

Fast and automated functional classification with MED-SuMo: an application on purine-binding proteins.

PubMed

Doppelt-Azeroual, Olivia; Delfaud, François; Moriaud, Fabrice; de Brevern, Alexandre G

2010-04-01

Ligand-protein interactions are essential for biological processes, and precise characterization of protein binding sites is crucial to understand protein functions. MED-SuMo is a powerful technology to localize similar local regions on protein surfaces. Its heuristic is based on a 3D representation of macromolecules using specific surface chemical features associating chemical characteristics with geometrical properties. MED-SMA is an automated and fast method to classify binding sites. It is based on MED-SuMo technology, which builds a similarity graph, and it uses the Markov Clustering algorithm. Purine binding sites are well studied as drug targets. Here, purine binding sites of the Protein DataBank (PDB) are classified. Proteins potentially inhibited or activated through the same mechanism are gathered. Results are analyzed according to PROSITE annotations and to carefully refined functional annotations extracted from the PDB. As expected, binding sites associated with related mechanisms are gathered, for example, the Small GTPases. Nevertheless, protein kinases from different Kinome families are also found together, for example, Aurora-A and CDK2 proteins which are inhibited by the same drugs. Representative examples of different clusters are presented. The effectiveness of the MED-SMA approach is demonstrated as it gathers binding sites of proteins with similar structure-activity relationships. Moreover, an efficient new protocol associates structures absent of cocrystallized ligands to the purine clusters enabling those structures to be associated with a specific binding mechanism. Applications of this classification by binding mode similarity include target-based drug design and prediction of cross-reactivity and therefore potential toxic side effects.

Fast and automated functional classification with MED-SuMo: An application on purine-binding proteins

PubMed Central

Doppelt-Azeroual, Olivia; Delfaud, François; Moriaud, Fabrice; de Brevern, Alexandre G

2010-01-01

Ligand–protein interactions are essential for biological processes, and precise characterization of protein binding sites is crucial to understand protein functions. MED-SuMo is a powerful technology to localize similar local regions on protein surfaces. Its heuristic is based on a 3D representation of macromolecules using specific surface chemical features associating chemical characteristics with geometrical properties. MED-SMA is an automated and fast method to classify binding sites. It is based on MED-SuMo technology, which builds a similarity graph, and it uses the Markov Clustering algorithm. Purine binding sites are well studied as drug targets. Here, purine binding sites of the Protein DataBank (PDB) are classified. Proteins potentially inhibited or activated through the same mechanism are gathered. Results are analyzed according to PROSITE annotations and to carefully refined functional annotations extracted from the PDB. As expected, binding sites associated with related mechanisms are gathered, for example, the Small GTPases. Nevertheless, protein kinases from different Kinome families are also found together, for example, Aurora-A and CDK2 proteins which are inhibited by the same drugs. Representative examples of different clusters are presented. The effectiveness of the MED-SMA approach is demonstrated as it gathers binding sites of proteins with similar structure-activity relationships. Moreover, an efficient new protocol associates structures absent of cocrystallized ligands to the purine clusters enabling those structures to be associated with a specific binding mechanism. Applications of this classification by binding mode similarity include target-based drug design and prediction of cross-reactivity and therefore potential toxic side effects. PMID:20162627

Direct quantitative 13 C-filtered 1 H magnetic resonance imaging of PEGylated biomacromolecules in vivo.

PubMed

Alvares, Rohan D A; Lau, Justin Y C; Macdonald, Peter M; Cunningham, Charles H; Prosser, R Scott

2017-04-01

1 H MRI is an established diagnostic method that generally relies on detection of water. Imaging specific macromolecules is normally accomplished only indirectly through the use of paramagnetic tags, which alter the water signal in their vicinity. We demonstrate a new approach in which macromolecular constituents, such as proteins and drug delivery systems, are observed directly and quantitatively in vivo using 1 H MRI of 13 C-labeled poly(ethylene glycol) ( 13 C-PEG) tags. Molecular imaging of 13 C-PEG-labeled species was accomplished by incorporating a modified heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence filter into a gradient echo imaging sequence. We demonstrate the approach by monitoring the real-time distribution of 13 C-PEG and 13 C-PEGylated albumin injected into the hind leg of a mouse. Filtering the 1 H PEG signal through the directly coupled 13 C nuclei largely eliminates background water and fat signals, thus enabling the imaging of molecules using 1 H MRI. PEGylation is widely employed to enhance the performance of a multitude of macromolecular therapeutics and drug delivery systems, and 13 C-filtered 1 H MRI of 13 C-PEG thus offers the possibility of imaging and quantitating their distribution in living systems in real time. Magn Reson Med 77:1553-1561, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Combining PubMed knowledge and EHR data to develop a weighted bayesian network for pancreatic cancer prediction.

PubMed

Zhao, Di; Weng, Chunhua

2011-10-01

In this paper, we propose a novel method that combines PubMed knowledge and Electronic Health Records to develop a weighted Bayesian Network Inference (BNI) model for pancreatic cancer prediction. We selected 20 common risk factors associated with pancreatic cancer and used PubMed knowledge to weigh the risk factors. A keyword-based algorithm was developed to extract and classify PubMed abstracts into three categories that represented positive, negative, or neutral associations between each risk factor and pancreatic cancer. Then we designed a weighted BNI model by adding the normalized weights into a conventional BNI model. We used this model to extract the EHR values for patients with or without pancreatic cancer, which then enabled us to calculate the prior probabilities for the 20 risk factors in the BNI. The software iDiagnosis was designed to use this weighted BNI model for predicting pancreatic cancer. In an evaluation using a case-control dataset, the weighted BNI model significantly outperformed the conventional BNI and two other classifiers (k-Nearest Neighbor and Support Vector Machine). We conclude that the weighted BNI using PubMed knowledge and EHR data shows remarkable accuracy improvement over existing representative methods for pancreatic cancer prediction. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Combining PubMed Knowledge and EHR Data to Develop a Weighted Bayesian Network for Pancreatic Cancer Prediction

PubMed Central

Zhao, Di; Weng, Chunhua

2011-01-01

In this paper, we propose a novel method that combines PubMed knowledge and Electronic Health Records to develop a weighted Bayesian Network Inference (BNI) model for pancreatic cancer prediction. We selected 20 common risk factors associated with pancreatic cancer and used PubMed knowledge to weigh the risk factors. A keyword-based algorithm was developed to extract and classify PubMed abstracts into three categories that represented positive, negative, or neutral associations between each risk factor and pancreatic cancer. Then we designed a weighted BNI model by adding the normalized weights into a conventional BNI model. We used this model to extract the EHR values for patients with or without pancreatic cancer, which then enabled us to calculate the prior probabilities for the 20 risk factors in the BNI. The software iDiagnosis was designed to use this weighted BNI model for predicting pancreatic cancer. In an evaluation using a case-control dataset, the weighted BNI model significantly outperformed the conventional BNI and two other classifiers (k-Nearest Neighbor and Support Vector Machine). We conclude that the weighted BNI using PubMed knowledge and EHR data shows remarkable accuracy improvement over existing representative methods for pancreatic cancer prediction. PMID:21642013

GeneView: a comprehensive semantic search engine for PubMed.

PubMed

Thomas, Philippe; Starlinger, Johannes; Vowinkel, Alexander; Arzt, Sebastian; Leser, Ulf

2012-07-01

Research results are primarily published in scientific literature and curation efforts cannot keep up with the rapid growth of published literature. The plethora of knowledge remains hidden in large text repositories like MEDLINE. Consequently, life scientists have to spend a great amount of time searching for specific information. The enormous ambiguity among most names of biomedical objects such as genes, chemicals and diseases often produces too large and unspecific search results. We present GeneView, a semantic search engine for biomedical knowledge. GeneView is built upon a comprehensively annotated version of PubMed abstracts and openly available PubMed Central full texts. This semi-structured representation of biomedical texts enables a number of features extending classical search engines. For instance, users may search for entities using unique database identifiers or they may rank documents by the number of specific mentions they contain. Annotation is performed by a multitude of state-of-the-art text-mining tools for recognizing mentions from 10 entity classes and for identifying protein-protein interactions. GeneView currently contains annotations for >194 million entities from 10 classes for ∼21 million citations with 271,000 full text bodies. GeneView can be searched at http://bc3.informatik.hu-berlin.de/.

Precision and negative predictive value of links between ClinicalTrials.gov and PubMed.

PubMed

Huser, Vojtech; Cimino, James J

2012-01-01

One of the goals of translational science is to shorten the time from discovery to clinical use. Clinical trial registries were established to increase transparency in completed and ongoing clinical trials, and they support linking trials with resulting publications. We set out to investigate precision and negative predictive value (NPV) of links between ClinicalTrials.gov (CT.gov) and PubMed. CT.gov has been established to increase transparency in clinical trials and the link to PubMed is crucial for supporting a number of important functions, including ascertaining publication bias. We drew a random sample of trials downloaded from CT.gov and performed manual review of retrieved publications. We characterize two types of links between trials and publications (NCT-link originating from MEDLINE and PMID-link originating from CT.gov).The link precision is different based on type (NCT-link: 100%; PMID-link: 63% to 96%). In trials with no linked publication, we were able to find publications 44% of the time (NPV=56%) by searching PubMed. This low NPV shows that there are potentially numerous publications that should have been formally linked with the trials. Our results indicate that existing trial registry and publisher policies may not be fully enforced. We suggest some automated methods for improving link quality.

Figure summarizer browser extensions for PubMed Central

PubMed Central

Agarwal, Shashank; Yu, Hong

2011-01-01

Summary: Figures in biomedical articles present visual evidence for research facts and help readers understand the article better. However, when figures are taken out of context, it is difficult to understand their content. We developed a summarization algorithm to summarize the content of figures and used it in our figure search engine (http://figuresearch.askhermes.org/). In this article, we report on the development of web browser extensions for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari to display summaries for figures in PubMed Central and NCBI Images. Availability: The extensions can be downloaded from http://figuresearch.askhermes.org/articlesearch/extensions.php. Contact: agarwal@uwm.edu PMID:21493658

Neuro-, Trauma -, or Med/Surg-ICU: Does it matter where polytrauma patients with TBI are admitted? Secondary analysis of AAST-MITC decompressive craniectomy study

PubMed Central

Scalea, Tom; Sperry, Jason; Coimbra, Raul; Vercruysse, Gary; Jurkovich, Gregory J; Nirula, Ram

2016-01-01

Introduction Patients with non-traumatic acute intracranial pathology benefit from neurointensivist care. Similarly, trauma patients with and without TBI fare better when treated by a dedicated trauma team. No study has yet evaluated the role of specialized neurocritical (NICU) and trauma intensive care units (TICU) in the management of TBI patients, and it remains unclear which TBI patients are best served in NICU, TICU, or general (Med/Surg) ICU. Methods This study is a secondary analysis of The American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Multi-Institutional Trials Committee (AAST-MITC) decompressive craniectomy study. Twelve Level 1 trauma centers provided clinical data and head CT scans of patients with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) ≤13 and CT evidence of TBI. Non-ICU admissions were excluded. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to measure the association between ICU-type and survival and calculate the probability of death for increasing ISS. Polytrauma patients (ISS > 15) with TBI and isolated TBI patients (other AIS < 3) were analyzed separately. Results There were 3641 patients with CT evidence of TBI with 2951 admitted to an ICU. Prior to adjustment, patient demographics, injury severity, and survival differed significantly by unit type. After adjustment, unit-type, age and ISS remained independent predictors of death. Unit-type modified the effect of ISS on mortality. TBI-polytrauma patients admitted to a TICU had improved survival across increasing ISS (Fig1). Survival for isolated TBI patients was similar between TICU and NICU. Med/Surg ICU carried the greatest probability of death. Conclusion Polytrauma patients with TBI have lower mortality risk when admitted to a Trauma ICU. This survival benefit increases with increasing injury severity. Isolated TBI patients have similar mortality risk when admitted to a Neuro ICU compared to a Trauma ICU. Med/Surg ICU admission carries the highest mortality risk. PMID:28225527

Discovering biomedical semantic relations in PubMed queries for information retrieval and database curation.

PubMed

Huang, Chung-Chi; Lu, Zhiyong

2016-01-01

Identifying relevant papers from the literature is a common task in biocuration. Most current biomedical literature search systems primarily rely on matching user keywords. Semantic search, on the other hand, seeks to improve search accuracy by understanding the entities and contextual relations in user keywords. However, past research has mostly focused on semantically identifying biological entities (e.g. chemicals, diseases and genes) with little effort on discovering semantic relations. In this work, we aim to discover biomedical semantic relations in PubMed queries in an automated and unsupervised fashion. Specifically, we focus on extracting and understanding the contextual information (or context patterns) that is used by PubMed users to represent semantic relations between entities such as 'CHEMICAL-1 compared to CHEMICAL-2' With the advances in automatic named entity recognition, we first tag entities in PubMed queries and then use tagged entities as knowledge to recognize pattern semantics. More specifically, we transform PubMed queries into context patterns involving participating entities, which are subsequently projected to latent topics via latent semantic analysis (LSA) to avoid the data sparseness and specificity issues. Finally, we mine semantically similar contextual patterns or semantic relations based on LSA topic distributions. Our two separate evaluation experiments of chemical-chemical (CC) and chemical-disease (CD) relations show that the proposed approach significantly outperforms a baseline method, which simply measures pattern semantics by similarity in participating entities. The highest performance achieved by our approach is nearly 0.9 and 0.85 respectively for the CC and CD task when compared against the ground truth in terms of normalized discounted cumulative gain (nDCG), a standard measure of ranking quality. These results suggest that our approach can effectively identify and return related semantic patterns in a ranked order

PosMed-plus: an intelligent search engine that inferentially integrates cross-species information resources for molecular breeding of plants.

PubMed

Makita, Yuko; Kobayashi, Norio; Mochizuki, Yoshiki; Yoshida, Yuko; Asano, Satomi; Heida, Naohiko; Deshpande, Mrinalini; Bhatia, Rinki; Matsushima, Akihiro; Ishii, Manabu; Kawaguchi, Shuji; Iida, Kei; Hanada, Kosuke; Kuromori, Takashi; Seki, Motoaki; Shinozaki, Kazuo; Toyoda, Tetsuro

2009-07-01

Molecular breeding of crops is an efficient way to upgrade plant functions useful to mankind. A key step is forward genetics or positional cloning to identify the genes that confer useful functions. In order to accelerate the whole research process, we have developed an integrated database system powered by an intelligent data-retrieval engine termed PosMed-plus (Positional Medline for plant upgrading science), allowing us to prioritize highly promising candidate genes in a given chromosomal interval(s) of Arabidopsis thaliana and rice, Oryza sativa. By inferentially integrating cross-species information resources including genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, localizomes, phenomes and literature, the system compares a user's query, such as phenotypic or functional keywords, with the literature associated with the relevant genes located within the interval. By utilizing orthologous and paralogous correspondences, PosMed-plus efficiently integrates cross-species information to facilitate the ranking of rice candidate genes based on evidence from other model species such as Arabidopsis. PosMed-plus is a plant science version of the PosMed system widely used by mammalian researchers, and provides both a powerful integrative search function and a rich integrative display of the integrated databases. PosMed-plus is the first cross-species integrated database that inferentially prioritizes candidate genes for forward genetics approaches in plant science, and will be expanded for wider use in plant upgrading in many species.

EpxMedTracking: Feasibility Evaluation of an SMS-Based Medication Adherence Tracking System in Community Practice

PubMed Central

Tricarico, Christopher; Peters, Robert; Som, Avik; Javaherian, Kavon

2017-01-01

Background Medication adherence remains a difficult problem to both assess and improve in patients. It is a multifactorial problem that goes beyond the commonly cited reason of forgetfulness. To date, eHealth (also known as mHealth and telehealth) interventions to improve medication adherence have largely been successful in improving adherence. However, interventions to date have used time- and cost-intensive strategies or focused solely on medication reminding, leaving much room for improvement in using a modality as flexible as eHealth. Objective Our objective was to develop and implement a fully automated short message service (SMS)-based medication adherence system, EpxMedTracking, that reminds patients to take their medications, explores reasons for missed doses, and alerts providers to help address problems of medication adherence in real time. Methods EpxMedTracking is a fully automated bidirectional SMS-based messaging system with provider involvement that was developed and implemented through Epharmix, Inc. Researchers analyzed 11 weeks of de-identified data from patients cared for by multiple provider groups in routine community practice for feasibility and functionality. Patients included were those in the care of a provider purchasing the EpxMedTracking tool from Epharmix and were enrolled from a clinic by their providers. The primary outcomes assessed were the rate of engagement with the system, reasons for missing doses, and self-reported medication adherence. Results Of the 25 patients studied over the 11 weeks, 3 never responded and subsequently opted out or were deleted by their provider. No other patients opted out or were deleted during the study period. Across the 11 weeks of the study period, the overall weekly engagement rate was 85.9%. There were 109 total reported missed doses including “I forgot” at 33 events (30.3%), “I felt better” at 29 events (26.6%), “out of meds” at 20 events (18.4%), “I felt sick” at 19 events (17

A muscle-specific knockout implicates nuclear receptor coactivator MED1 in the regulation of glucose and energy metabolism.

PubMed

Chen, Wei; Zhang, Xiaoting; Birsoy, Kivanc; Roeder, Robert G

2010-06-01

As conventional transcriptional factors that are activated in diverse signaling pathways, nuclear receptors play important roles in many physiological processes that include energy homeostasis. The MED1 subunit of the Mediator coactivator complex plays a broad role in nuclear receptor-mediated transcription by anchoring the Mediator complex to diverse promoter-bound nuclear receptors. Given the significant role of skeletal muscle, in part through the action of nuclear receptors, in glucose and fatty acid metabolism, we generated skeletal muscle-specific Med1 knockout mice. Importantly, these mice show enhanced insulin sensitivity and improved glucose tolerance as well as resistance to high-fat diet-induced obesity. Furthermore, the white muscle of these mice exhibits increased mitochondrial density and expression of genes specific to type I and type IIA fibers, indicating a fast-to-slow fiber switch, as well as markedly increased expression of the brown adipose tissue-specific UCP-1 and Cidea genes that are involved in respiratory uncoupling. These dramatic results implicate MED1 as a powerful suppressor in skeletal muscle of genetic programs implicated in energy expenditure and raise the significant possibility of therapeutical approaches for metabolic syndromes and muscle diseases through modulation of MED1-nuclear receptor interactions.

MedXN: an open source medication extraction and normalization tool for clinical text

PubMed Central

Sohn, Sunghwan; Clark, Cheryl; Halgrim, Scott R; Murphy, Sean P; Chute, Christopher G; Liu, Hongfang

2014-01-01

Objective We developed the Medication Extraction and Normalization (MedXN) system to extract comprehensive medication information and normalize it to the most appropriate RxNorm concept unique identifier (RxCUI) as specifically as possible. Methods Medication descriptions in clinical notes were decomposed into medication name and attributes, which were separately extracted using RxNorm dictionary lookup and regular expression. Then, each medication name and its attributes were combined together according to RxNorm convention to find the most appropriate RxNorm representation. To do this, we employed serialized hierarchical steps implemented in Apache's Unstructured Information Management Architecture. We also performed synonym expansion, removed false medications, and employed inference rules to improve the medication extraction and normalization performance. Results An evaluation on test data of 397 medication mentions showed F-measures of 0.975 for medication name and over 0.90 for most attributes. The RxCUI assignment produced F-measures of 0.932 for medication name and 0.864 for full medication information. Most false negative RxCUI assignments in full medication information are due to human assumption of missing attributes and medication names in the gold standard. Conclusions The MedXN system (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ohnlp/files/MedXN/) was able to extract comprehensive medication information with high accuracy and demonstrated good normalization capability to RxCUI as long as explicit evidence existed. More sophisticated inference rules might result in further improvements to specific RxCUI assignments for incomplete medication descriptions. PMID:24637954

Cell cultures in uterine leiomyomas: rapid disappearance of cells carrying MED12 mutations.

PubMed

Nadine Markowski, Dominique; Tadayyon, Mahboobeh; Bartnitzke, Sabine; Belge, Gazanfer; Maria Helmke, Burkhard; Bullerdiek, Jörn

2014-04-01

Uterine leiomyomas (UL) are the most frequent symptomatic human tumors. Nevertheless, their molecular pathogenesis is not yet fully understood. To learn more about the biology of these common neoplasms and their response to treatment, cell cultures derived from UL are a frequently used model system, but until recently appropriate genetic markers confirming their origin from the tumor cell population were lacking for most UL, i.e., those not displaying karyotypic abnormalities. The identification of MED12 mutations in the majority of UL makes it possible to trace the tumor cell population during in vitro passaging in the absence of cytogenetic abnormalities. The present study is addressing the in vitro survival of cells carrying MED12 mutations and its association with karyotypic alterations. The results challenge numerous in vitro studies into the biology and behavior of leiomyomas. Cells of one genetic subtype of UL, i.e., those with rearrangements of the high mobility AT-hook 2 protein gene (HMGA2), seem to be able to proliferate in vitro for many passages whereas tumor cells from the much more frequent MED12-mutated lesions barely survive even the first passages. Apparently, for the most frequent type of human UL no good in vitro model seems to exist because cells do not survive culturing. On the other hand, this inability may point to an Achilles' heel of this type of UL. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PubMed and beyond: a survey of web tools for searching biomedical literature

PubMed Central

Lu, Zhiyong

2011-01-01

The past decade has witnessed the modern advances of high-throughput technology and rapid growth of research capacity in producing large-scale biological data, both of which were concomitant with an exponential growth of biomedical literature. This wealth of scholarly knowledge is of significant importance for researchers in making scientific discoveries and healthcare professionals in managing health-related matters. However, the acquisition of such information is becoming increasingly difficult due to its large volume and rapid growth. In response, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is continuously making changes to its PubMed Web service for improvement. Meanwhile, different entities have devoted themselves to developing Web tools for helping users quickly and efficiently search and retrieve relevant publications. These practices, together with maturity in the field of text mining, have led to an increase in the number and quality of various Web tools that provide comparable literature search service to PubMed. In this study, we review 28 such tools, highlight their respective innovations, compare them to the PubMed system and one another, and discuss directions for future development. Furthermore, we have built a website dedicated to tracking existing systems and future advances in the field of biomedical literature search. Taken together, our work serves information seekers in choosing tools for their needs and service providers and developers in keeping current in the field. Database URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Lu/search PMID:21245076

Publication Productivity of Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University Indexed in PubMed.

PubMed

Helal, Rm; Abou-ElWafa, Hs; El-Gilany, Ah

2014-09-01

Analysis of PubMed publications as an indicator of the research productivity of individual countries, regions, or institutions has recently become a field of interest. The aim was to assess the past trends in PubMed-indexed medical publications from Mansoura Faculty of Medicine and to have an idea about the current situation in medical research. PubMed was searched for publications affiliated to Mansoura from the end of the calendar year 2012 and earlier. Of 2798 papers related to Mansoura, 1756 publications were included in the analysis, and 1042 publications were excluded (false positives). The highest number of publications was in 2011 (10.6%, 187/1756) followed by 2012 (10.2%, 179/1756). There was an increase of the publication rate over 5-years period until it reaches 47.0% (826/1756) during the period from 2008 to 2012. The main high-producing department was Urology and Nephrology, which accounted for 35.9% (631/1756) of the total publications followed by Pediatrics and Parasitology. The median number of authors participated in the researches was four ranging from 1 to 23. Most of the publications were in the form of intervention/clinical trials (38.4%, 662/1756) followed by descriptive/cross-sectional study (38.3%, 659/1756). The median of the impact factor was 1.99 ranging from 0.27 to 53.3. The publication productivity of Mansoura Faculty of Medicine showed fluctuating pattern from the end of the calendar year 2012 and earlier. Future prospects for increasing research productivity should be considered to increase the number and quality of publications and academic staff participating in high-quality international researches.

Using the CanMEDS roles when interviewing for an ophthalmology residency program.

PubMed

Hamel, Patrick; Boisjoly, Hélène; Corriveau, Christine; Fallaha, Nicole; Lahoud, Salim; Luneau, Katie; Olivier, Sébastien; Rouleau, Jacinthe; Toffoli, Daniela

2007-04-01

To improve the admissions process for the Université de Montréal (UdeM) ophthalmology residency program, the interview structure was modified to encompass the seven CanMEDS roles introduced by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC). These roles include an applicant's abilities as a communicator, collaborator, manager, health advocate, professional, scholar, and medical expert. In this retrospective pilot study, the records of all applicants were reviewed by 8 members of the admissions committee, with a high intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.814. Four 2-person interview teams were then formed. The first 3 groups asked the applicants specific questions based on 2-3 of the CanMEDS roles, marking their impressions of each candidate on a visual analogue scale. The last group answered candidates' questions about the program but assigned no mark. The intraclass correlations for the teams were 0.900, 0.739, and 0.585, demonstrating acceptable interrater reliability for 2 of the teams. Pearson correlation coefficients between groups of interviewers were considered adequate at 0.562, 0.432, and 0.417 (p < 0.05). For each interviewer, the Pearson correlation coefficient between record marking and interview scoring was either not statistically significant or very low. By basing the 2006 interview process on the CanMEDS roles defined by the RCPSC, information was obtained about the candidates that could not have been retrieved by a review of the medical students' records alone. Reliability analysis confirmed that this new method of conducting interviews provided sound and reliable judging and rating consistency between all members of the admissions committee.

Independent Assessment of the Backshell Pressure Field for Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prince, Jill L.; Shoenenberger, Mark

2017-01-01

The Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) project requested that the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) support a ballistic range test to measure backshell pressures on scale models of the Mars 2020 entry capsule. The MEDLI2 project needed the test to provide important dynamic pressure data to help select a backshell pressure port, quantify drag coefficient reconstruction uncertainties, and design the data acquisition hardware. This document contains the outcome of the NESC assessment.

Sensitivity and predictive value of 15 PubMed search strategies to answer clinical questions rated against full systematic reviews.

PubMed

Agoritsas, Thomas; Merglen, Arnaud; Courvoisier, Delphine S; Combescure, Christophe; Garin, Nicolas; Perrier, Arnaud; Perneger, Thomas V

2012-06-12

Clinicians perform searches in PubMed daily, but retrieving relevant studies is challenging due to the rapid expansion of medical knowledge. Little is known about the performance of search strategies when they are applied to answer specific clinical questions. To compare the performance of 15 PubMed search strategies in retrieving relevant clinical trials on therapeutic interventions. We used Cochrane systematic reviews to identify relevant trials for 30 clinical questions. Search terms were extracted from the abstract using a predefined procedure based on the population, interventions, comparison, outcomes (PICO) framework and combined into queries. We tested 15 search strategies that varied in their query (PIC or PICO), use of PubMed's Clinical Queries therapeutic filters (broad or narrow), search limits, and PubMed links to related articles. We assessed sensitivity (recall) and positive predictive value (precision) of each strategy on the first 2 PubMed pages (40 articles) and on the complete search output. The performance of the search strategies varied widely according to the clinical question. Unfiltered searches and those using the broad filter of Clinical Queries produced large outputs and retrieved few relevant articles within the first 2 pages, resulting in a median sensitivity of only 10%-25%. In contrast, all searches using the narrow filter performed significantly better, with a median sensitivity of about 50% (all P < .001 compared with unfiltered queries) and positive predictive values of 20%-30% (P < .001 compared with unfiltered queries). This benefit was consistent for most clinical questions. Searches based on related articles retrieved about a third of the relevant studies. The Clinical Queries narrow filter, along with well-formulated queries based on the PICO framework, provided the greatest aid in retrieving relevant clinical trials within the 2 first PubMed pages. These results can help clinicians apply effective strategies to answer their

The use of a medical dictionary for regulatory activities terminology (MedDRA) in prescription-event monitoring in Japan (J-PEM).

PubMed

Yokotsuka, M; Aoyama, M; Kubota, K

2000-07-01

The Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities Terminology (MedDRA) version 2.1 (V2.1) was released in March 1999 accompanied by the MedDRA/J V2.1J specifically for Japanese users. In prescription-event monitoring in Japan (J-PEM), we have employed the MedDRA/J for data entry, signal generation and event listing. In J-PEM, the lowest level terms (LLTs) in the MedDRA/J are used in data entry because the richness of LLTs is judged to be advantageous. A signal is generated normally at the preferred term (PT) level, but it has been found that various reporters describe the same event using descriptions that are potentially encoded by LLTs under different PTs. In addition, some PTs are considered too specific to generate the proper signal. In the system used in J-PEM, when an LLT is selected as a candidate to encode an event, another LLT under a different PT, if any, is displayed on the computer screen so that it may be coded instead of, or in addition to, the candidate LLT. The five-level structure of the MedDRA is used when listing events but some modification is required to generate a functional event list.

Impact of pymetrozine on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly) and Amblyseius swirskii, 2017

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed upon over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) and Mediterranean (MED) whitefly are the two most destructive me...

Efficacy of Eretmocerus eremicus and flupyradifurone on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly), 2017

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed on over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) and Mediterranean (MED) whitefly are the two most destructive memb...

Efficacy of Eretmocerus eremicus and cyantraniliprole on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly), 2017

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) feeds on more than 900 host plants and vectors over 111 plant virus species and is considered to be a major invasive species worldwide. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, MEAM1 and MED whitefly are the two most destructive members posing threats to s...

Impact of Curricular Reforms on Educational Philosophy Courses in M.Ed Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gafoor, K. Abdul; Remia, K. R.

2014-01-01

In the context of Vision of Teacher Education envisaged in National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, this study probes "Do M.Ed programmes provide for the prerequisites of educational philosophy for teacher educators?" and "whether the syllabi following credit and non credit pattern vary in their coverage of content of…

PubFocus: semantic MEDLINE/PubMed citations analytics through integration of controlled biomedical dictionaries and ranking algorithm

PubMed Central

Plikus, Maksim V; Zhang, Zina; Chuong, Cheng-Ming

2006-01-01

Background Understanding research activity within any given biomedical field is important. Search outputs generated by MEDLINE/PubMed are not well classified and require lengthy manual citation analysis. Automation of citation analytics can be very useful and timesaving for both novices and experts. Results PubFocus web server automates analysis of MEDLINE/PubMed search queries by enriching them with two widely used human factor-based bibliometric indicators of publication quality: journal impact factor and volume of forward references. In addition to providing basic volumetric statistics, PubFocus also prioritizes citations and evaluates authors' impact on the field of search. PubFocus also analyses presence and occurrence of biomedical key terms within citations by utilizing controlled vocabularies. Conclusion We have developed citations' prioritisation algorithm based on journal impact factor, forward referencing volume, referencing dynamics, and author's contribution level. It can be applied either to the primary set of PubMed search results or to the subsets of these results identified through key terms from controlled biomedical vocabularies and ontologies. NCI (National Cancer Institute) thesaurus and MGD (Mouse Genome Database) mammalian gene orthology have been implemented for key terms analytics. PubFocus provides a scalable platform for the integration of multiple available ontology databases. PubFocus analytics can be adapted for input sources of biomedical citations other than PubMed. PMID:17014720

Future Energy Benchmark for Desalination: is it Better to have a Power (electricity) Plant with ro or Med/msf?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shahzad, Muhammad Wakil; Ng, Kim Choon; Thu, Kyaw

2016-06-01

Power and desalination cogeneration plants are common in many water scared courtiers. Designers and planners for cogeneration face tough challenges in deciding the options:- Is it better to operate a power plant (PP) with the reverse osmosis (i.e., PP+RO) or the thermally-driven multi-effect distillation/multi-stage flashed (PP+MED/MSF) methods. From literature, the RO methods are known to be energy efficient whilst the MED/MSF are known to have excellent thermodynamic synergies as only low pressure and temperature steam are used. Not with-standing the challenges of severe feed seawater of the Gulf, such as the frequent harmful algae blooms (HABs) and high silt contents, this presentation presents a quantitative analyses using the exergy and energetic approaches in evaluating the performances of a real cogeneration plant that was recently proposed in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. We demonstrate that the process choice of PP+RO versus PP+MED depends on the inherent efficiencies of individual process method which is closely related to innovative process design. In this connection, a method of primary fuel cost apportionment for a co-generation plant with a MED desalination is presented. We show that an energy approach, that captures the quality of expanding steam, is a better method over the conventional work output (energetic) and the energy method seems to be over-penalizing a thermally-driven MED by as much as 22% in the operating cost of water.

Effect of dinotefuran on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly) and Amblyseius swirskii, 2016

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed upon over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, MEAM1 and MED whitefly are the two most destructive members posing threats of several crops of ec...

Solution Structure of the N-Terminal Domain of Mediator Subunit MED26 and Molecular Characterization of Its Interaction with EAF1 and TAF7.

PubMed

Lens, Zoé; Cantrelle, François-Xavier; Peruzzini, Riccardo; Hanoulle, Xavier; Dewitte, Frédérique; Ferreira, Elisabeth; Baert, Jean-Luc; Monté, Didier; Aumercier, Marc; Villeret, Vincent; Verger, Alexis; Landrieu, Isabelle

2017-10-13

MED26 is a subunit of Mediator, a large complex central to the regulation of gene transcription by RNA Polymerase II. MED26 plays a role in the switch between the initiation and elongation phases of RNA Polymerase II-mediated transcription process. Regulation of these steps requires successive binding of MED26 N-terminal domain (NTD) to TATA-binding protein-associated factor 7 (TAF7) and Eleven-nineteen lysine-rich in leukemia-Associated Factor 1 (EAF1). In order to investigate the mechanism of regulation by MED26, MED26-NTD structure was solved by NMR, revealing a 4-helix bundle. EAF1 (239-268) and TAF7 (205-235) peptide interactions were both mapped to the same groove formed by H3 and H4 helices of MED26-NTD. Both interactions are characterized by dissociation constants in the 10-μM range. Further experiments revealed a folding-upon-binding mechanism that leads to the formation of EAF1 (N247-S260) and TAF7 (L214-S227) helices. Chemical shift perturbations and nuclear Overhauser enhancement contacts support the involvement of residues I222/F223 in anchoring TAF7 helix to a hydrophobic pocket of MED26-NTD, including residues L48, W80 and I84. In addition, Ala mutations of charged residues located in the C-terminal disordered part of TAF7 and EAF1 peptides affected the binding, with a loss of affinity characterized by a 10-time increase of dissociation constants. A structural model of MED26-NTD/TAF7 complex shows bi-partite components, combining ordered and disordered segments, as well as hydrophobic and electrostatic contributions to the binding. This study provides molecular detail that will help to decipher the mechanistic basis for the initiation to elongation switch-function mediated by MED26-NTD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the EMSC and its roles in the Euro-Med region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossu, R.; Godey, S.; Mazet-Roux, G.

2009-04-01

The Euro-Med seismological Centre (EMSC) is a scientific non-profit NGO created back in 1975 by the seismological community to collate data, make them available and provide earthquake information at a Euro-Med and global scales. The aim of this talk is to provide an overview of the EMSC's activities and its roles in the integration of the seismological community. Its first activity has been rapid earthquake information on its web site (www.emsc-csem.org) as well as earthquake notification services (SMS, email) for potentially damaging earthquakes. More recently, online macroseismic questionnaires were introduced in more than 20 different languages as well as tools to collect pictures of the earthquake's effects from the public. An innovative way to map the area where an earthquake was felt within 5 to 8 minutes of its occurrence was developed. It plots the geographical origin of the observed surges of traffic following felt events. This method is now being implemented in several other institutes. The Euro-Med seismological bulletin, which started in 1998, complements this service by offering a reference bulletin for the region. It significantly improved the data availability especially on the fringes of the region and the data collection is now comprehensive. Thanks to its 84 institutes from 55 different countries, EMSC offers a significant networking capacity and it plays a significant role in the integration of our community in close collaboration with ORFEUS, the second European organisation in seismology. It devotes significant efforts to improve collaboration especially towards Northern Africa and the Middle East. For example, it recently led an EC-project to improve coordination of the earthquake surveillance of the Western Mediterranean region and improve data exchanges. It contributes to the initiation of the NERIES project. It is involved, within this framework, in improving accelerometric data availability, developing rapid loss estimates and it it is in

ChronoMedIt--a computational quality audit framework for better management of patients with chronic conditions.

PubMed

Mabotuwana, Thusitha; Warren, Jim

2010-02-01

Quality audit and feedback to general practice is an important aspect of successful chronic disease management. However, due to the complex temporal relationships associated with the nature of chronic illness, formulating clinically relevant queries within the context of a specific evaluation period is difficult. We abstracted requirements from a set of previously developed criteria to develop a generic criteria model that can be used to formulate queries related to chronic condition management. We implemented and verified the framework, ChronoMedIt, to execute clinical queries within the scope of the criteria model. Our criteria model consists of four broad classes of audit criteria - lapse in indicated therapy, no measurement recording, time to achieve target and measurement contraindicating therapy. Using these criteria classes as a guide, ChronoMedIt has been implemented as an extensible framework. ChronoMedIt can produce criteria reports and has an integrated prescription and measurement timeline visualisation tool. We illustrate the use of the framework by identifying patients on suboptimal therapy based on a range of pre-determined audit criteria using production electronic medical record data from two general medical practices for 607 and 679 patients with hypertension. As the most prominent result, we find that 59% (out of 607) and 34% (out of 679) of patients with hypertension had at least one episode of >30day lapse in their antihypertensive therapy over a 12-month evaluation period. ChronoMedIt can reliably execute a wide range of clinically useful queries to identify patients whose chronic condition management can be improved.

Genetic and Physical Interactions between Tel2 and the Med15 Mediator Subunit in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

PubMed Central

Grandin, Nathalie; Corset, Laetitia; Charbonneau, Michel

2012-01-01

Background In budding yeast, the highly conserved Tel2 protein is part of several complexes and its main function is now believed to be in the biogenesis of phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase related kinases. Principal Findings To uncover potentially novel functions of Tel2, we set out to isolate temperature-sensitive (ts) mutant alleles of TEL2 in order to perform genetic screenings. MED15/GAL11, a subunit of Mediator, a general regulator of transcription, was isolated as a suppressor of these mutants. The isolated tel2 mutants exhibited a short telomere phenotype that was partially rescued by MED15/GAL11 overexpression. The tel2-15mutant was markedly deficient in the transcription of EST2, coding for the catalytic subunit of telomerase, potentially explaining the short telomere phenotype of this mutant. In parallel, a two-hybrid screen identified an association between Tel2 and Rvb2, a highly conserved member of the AAA+ family of ATPases further found by in vivo co-immunoprecipitation to be tight and constitutive. Transiently overproduced Tel2 and Med15/Gal11 associated together, suggesting a potential role for Tel2 in transcription. Other Mediator subunits, as well as SUA7/TFIIB, also rescued the tel2-ts mutants. Significance Altogether, the present data suggest the existence of a novel role for Tel2, namely in transcription, possibly in cooperation with Rvb2 and involving the existence of physical interactions with the Med15/Gal11 Mediator subunit. PMID:22291956

Resveratrol modulates MED28 (Magicin/EG-1) expression and inhibits epidermal growth factor (EGF)-induced migration in MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells.

PubMed

Lee, Ming-Fen; Pan, Min-Hsiung; Chiou, Yi-Siou; Cheng, An-Chin; Huang, Han

2011-11-09

Resveratrol and pterostilbene exhibit diverse biological activities. MED28, a subunit of the mammalian Mediator complex for transcription, was also identified as magicin, an actin cytoskeleton Grb2-associated protein, and as endothelial-derived gene (EG-1). Several tumors exhibit aberrant MED28 expression, whereas the underlying mechanism is unclear. Triple-negative breast cancers, often expressing epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR), are associated with metastasis and poor survival. The objective of this study is to compare the effect of resveratrol and pterostilbene and to investigate the role of MED28 in EGFR-overexpressing MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Pretreatment of resveratrol, but not pterostlbene, suppressed EGF-mediated migration and expression of MED28 and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 in MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, overexpression of MED28 increased migration, and the addition of EGF further enhanced migration. Our data indicate that resveratrol modulates the effect of MED28 on cellular migration, presumably through the EGFR/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway, in breast cancer cells.

How to improve your PubMed/MEDLINE searches: 2. display settings, complex search queries and topic searching.

PubMed

Fatehi, Farhad; Gray, Leonard C; Wootton, Richard

2014-01-01

The way that PubMed results are displayed can be changed using the Display Settings drop-down menu in the result screen. There are three groups of options: Format, Items per page and Sort by, which allow a good deal of control. The results from several searches can be temporarily stored on the Clipboard. Records of interest can be selected on the results page using check boxes and can then be combined, for example to form a reference list. The Related Citations is a valuable feature of PubMed that can provide a set of similar articles when you have identified a record of interest among the results. You can easily search for RCTs or reviews using the appropriate filters or field tags. If you are interested in clinical articles, rather than basic science or health service research, then the Clinical Queries tool on the PubMed home page can be used to retrieve them.

Approach to autism spectrum disorder: Using the new DSM-V diagnostic criteria and the CanMEDS-FM framework.

PubMed

Lee, Patrick F; Thomas, Roger E; Lee, Patricia A

2015-05-01

To review the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-V), and to develop an approach to managing ASD using the CanMEDS- Family Medicine (CanMEDS-FM) framework. The DSM-V from the American Psychiatric Association, published in May 2013, provides new diagnostic criteria for ASD. The College of Family Physicians of Canada's CanMEDS-FM framework provides a blueprint that can guide the complex management of ASD. We used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine the prevalence of ASD, and we used the comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis completed by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for their guidelines on ASD to assess the evidence for more than 100 interventions. The prevalence of ASD was 1 in 88 in 2008 in the United States according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The ASD classification in the fourth edition of the DSM included autism, Asperger syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder, and childhood disintegrative disorder. The new DSM-V revision incorporates all these disorders into one ASD umbrella term with different severity levels. The management of ASD is complex and requires a multidisciplinary team effort and continuity of care. The CanMEDS-FM roles provide a framework for management. Family physicians are the key leaders of the multidisciplinary care team for ASD, and the CanMEDS-FM framework provides a comprehensive guide to help manage a child with ASD and to help the child's family. Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Promotion of health information access via Grateful Med and Loansome Doc: why isn't it working?

PubMed Central

Burnham, J F; Perry, M

1996-01-01

Information gathered from Grateful Med and Loansome Doc outreach projects, including one involving seven health centers in rural southwest Alabama, raises questions about the effectiveness of such programs. This paper presents a review of the literature on Grateful Med as well as of information access and usage behaviors of physicians, an overview of the Alabama project, and data from other projects. Analysis of the responses and observations of the researchers reveal some strategies for enhancing the outcomes of such projects and improving access to medical care literature by health care professionals at rural sites. PMID:8913552

COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight interometry over rural areas: the Slumgullion landslide in Colorado, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Milillo, Pietro; Fielding, Eric J.; Schulz, William H.; Delbridge, Brent; Burgmann, Roland

2014-01-01

In the last 7 years, spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with resolution of better than a meter acquired by satellites in spotlight mode offered an unprecedented improvement in SAR interferometry (InSAR). Most attention has been focused on monitoring urban areas and man-made infrastructure exploiting geometric accuracy, stability, and phase fidelity of the spotlight mode. In this paper, we explore the potential application of the COSMO-SkyMed® Spotlight mode to rural areas where decorrelation is substantial and rapidly increases with time. We focus on the rapid repeat times of as short as one day possible with the COSMO-SkyMed® constellation. We further present a qualitative analysis of spotlight interferometry over the Slumgullion landslide in southwest Colorado, which moves at rates of more than 1 cm/day.

De novo mutations in genes of mediator complex causing syndromic intellectual disability: mediatorpathy or transcriptomopathy?

PubMed

Caro-Llopis, Alfonso; Rosello, Monica; Orellana, Carmen; Oltra, Silvestre; Monfort, Sandra; Mayo, Sonia; Martinez, Francisco

2016-12-01

Mutations in the X-linked gene MED12 cause at least three different, but closely related, entities of syndromic intellectual disability. Recently, a new syndrome caused by MED13L deleterious variants has been described, which shows similar clinical manifestations including intellectual disability, hypotonia, and other congenital anomalies. Genotyping of 1,256 genes related with neurodevelopment was performed by next-generation sequencing in three unrelated patients and their healthy parents. Clinically relevant findings were confirmed by conventional sequencing. Each patient showed one de novo variant not previously reported in the literature or databases. Two different missense variants were found in the MED12 or MED13L genes and one nonsense mutation was found in the MED13L gene. The phenotypic consequences of these mutations are closely related and/or have been previously reported in one or other gene. Additionally, MED12 and MED13L code for two closely related partners of the mediator kinase module. Consequently, we propose the concept of a common MED12/MED13L clinical spectrum, encompassing Opitz-Kaveggia syndrome, Lujan-Fryns syndrome, Ohdo syndrome, MED13L haploinsufficiency syndrome, and others.

Quality Management, Certification and Rating of Health Information on the Net with MedCERTAIN: Using a medPICS/RDF/XML metadata structure for implementing eHealth ethics and creating trust globally

PubMed Central

Eysenbach, Gunther; Yihune, Gabriel; Lampe, Kristian; Cross, Phil; Brickley, Dan

2000-01-01

MedCERTAIN (MedPICS Certification and Rating of Trustworthy Health Information on the Net, http://www.medcertain.org/) is a recently launched international project funded under the European Union's (EU) "Action Plan for safer use of the Internet". It provides a technical infrastructure and a conceptual basis for an international system of "quality seals", ratings and self-labelling of Internet health information, with the final aim to establish a global "trustmark" for networked health information. Digital "quality seals" are evaluative metadata (using standards such as PICS=Platform for Internet Content Selection, now being replaced by RDF/XML) assigned by trusted third-party raters. The project also enables and encourages self-labelling with descriptive metainformation by web authors. Together these measures will help consumers as well as professionals to identify high-quality information on the Internet. MedCERTAIN establishes a fully functional demonstrator for a self- and third-party rating system enabling consumers and professionals to filter harmful health information and to positively identify and select high quality information. We aim to provide a trustmark system which allows citizens to place greater confidence in networked information, to encourage health information providers to follow best practices guidelines such as the Washington eHealth Code of Ethics, to provide effective feedback and law enforcement channels to handle user complaints, and to stimulate medical societies to develop standard for patient information. The project further proposes and identifies standards for interoperability of rating and description services (such as libraries or national health portals) and fosters a worldwide collaboration to guide consumers to high-quality information on the web.

SafeMed: Using pharmacy technicians in a novel role as community health workers to improve transitions of care.

PubMed

Bailey, James E; Surbhi, Satya; Bell, Paula C; Jones, Angel M; Rashed, Sahar; Ugwueke, Michael O

2016-01-01

To describe the design, implementation, and early experience of the SafeMed program, which uses certified pharmacy technicians in a novel expanded role as community health workers (CPhT-CHWs) to improve transitions of care. A large nonprofit health care system serving the major medically underserved areas and geographic hotspots for readmissions in Memphis, TN. The SafeMed program is a care transitions program with an emphasis on medication management designed to use low-cost health workers to improve transitions of care from hospital to home for superutilizing patients with multiple chronic conditions and polypharmacy. CPhT-CHWs were given primary responsibility for patient outreach after hospital discharge with the use of home visits and telephone follow-up. SafeMed program CPhT-CHWs served as pharmacist extenders, obtaining medication histories, assisting in medication reconciliation and identification of potential drug therapy problems (DTPs), and reinforcing medication education previously provided by the pharmacist per protocol. CPhT-CHW training included patient communication skills, motivational interviewing, medication history taking, teach-back techniques, drug disposal practices, and basic disease management. Some CPhT-CHWs experienced difficulties adjusting to an expanded scope of practice. Nonetheless, once the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy affirmed that envisioned SafeMed CPhT-CHW roles were consistent with Board rules, additional responsibilities were added for CPhT-CHWs to enhance their effectiveness. Patient outreach teams including CPhT-CHWs achieved increases in home visit and telephone follow-up rates and were successful in helping identify potential DTPs. The early experience of the SafeMed program demonstrates that CPhT-CHWs are well suited for novel expanded roles to improve care transitions for superutilizing populations. CPhT-CHWs can identify and report potential DTPs to the pharmacist to help target medication therapy management. Critical

SparkMed: a framework for dynamic integration of multimedia medical data into distributed m-Health systems.

PubMed

Constantinescu, Liviu; Kim, Jinman; Feng, David Dagan

2012-01-01

With the advent of 4G and other long-term evolution (LTE) wireless networks, the traditional boundaries of patient record propagation are diminishing as networking technologies extend the reach of hospital infrastructure and provide on-demand mobile access to medical multimedia data. However, due to legacy and proprietary software, storage and decommissioning costs, and the price of centralization and redevelopment, it remains complex, expensive, and often unfeasible for hospitals to deploy their infrastructure for online and mobile use. This paper proposes the SparkMed data integration framework for mobile healthcare (m-Health), which significantly benefits from the enhanced network capabilities of LTE wireless technologies, by enabling a wide range of heterogeneous medical software and database systems (such as the picture archiving and communication systems, hospital information system, and reporting systems) to be dynamically integrated into a cloud-like peer-to-peer multimedia data store. Our framework allows medical data applications to share data with mobile hosts over a wireless network (such as WiFi and 3G), by binding to existing software systems and deploying them as m-Health applications. SparkMed integrates techniques from multimedia streaming, rich Internet applications (RIA), and remote procedure call (RPC) frameworks to construct a Self-managing, Pervasive Automated netwoRK for Medical Enterprise Data (SparkMed). Further, it is resilient to failure, and able to use mobile and handheld devices to maintain its network, even in the absence of dedicated server devices. We have developed a prototype of the SparkMed framework for evaluation on a radiological workflow simulation, which uses SparkMed to deploy a radiological image viewer as an m-Health application for telemedical use by radiologists and stakeholders. We have evaluated our prototype using ten devices over WiFi and 3G, verifying that our framework meets its two main objectives: 1) interactive

History and Trends of "Personal Health Record" Research in PubMed

PubMed Central

Kim, Jeongeun; Bates, David W.

2011-01-01

Objectives The purpose of this study was to review history and trends of personal health record research in PubMed and to provide accurate understanding and categorical analysis of expert opinions. Methods For the search strategy, PubMed was queried for 'personal health record, personal record, and PHR' in the title and abstract fields. Those containing different definitions of the word were removed by one-by-one analysis from the results, 695 articles. In the end, total of 229 articles were analyzed in this research. Results The results show that the changes in terms over the years and the shift to patient centeredness and mixed usage. And we identified history and trend of PHR research in some category that the number of publications by year, topic, methodologies and target diseases. Also from analysis of MeSH terms, we can show the focal interest in regards the PHR boundaries and related subjects. Conclusions For PHRs to be efficiently used by general public, initial understanding of the history and trends of PHR research may be helpful. Simultaneously, accurate understanding and categorical analysis of expert opinions that can lead to the development and growth of PHRs will be valuable to their adoption and expansion. PMID:21818452

Flower power: the armoured expert in the CanMEDS competency framework?

PubMed

Whitehead, Cynthia R; Austin, Zubin; Hodges, Brian D

2011-12-01

Competency frameworks based on roles definitions are currently being used extensively in health professions education internationally. One of the most successful and widely used models is the CanMEDS Roles Framework. The medical literature has raised questions about both the theoretical underpinnings and the practical application of outcomes-based frameworks, however little empirical research has yet been done examining specific roles frameworks. This study examines the historical development of an important early roles framework, the Educating Future Physicians of Ontario (EFPO) roles, which were instrumental in the development of the CanMEDS roles. Prominent discourses related to roles development are examined using critical discourse analysis methodology. Exploration of discourses that emerged in the development of this particular set of roles definitions highlights the contextual and negotiated nature of roles construction. The discourses of threat and protection prevalent in the EFPO roles development offer insight into the visual construction of a centre of medical expertise surrounded by supporting roles (such as collaborator and manager). Non-medical expert roles may perhaps play the part of 'armour' for the authority of medical expertise under threat. This research suggests that it may not be accurate to consider roles as objective ideals. Effective training models may require explicit acknowledgement of the socially negotiated and contextual nature of roles definitions.

Worldwide access to evidence-based mental health literature: how useful is PubMed in Anglo-Saxon and non-Anglo-Saxon countries?

PubMed

Morlino, Massimo; Polese, Daniela; Bruni, Andrea; Renato, Bellinello

2005-10-01

The aim of this study was to verify the presence of cultural variety among the psychiatric journals available on PubMed, the major online tool for accessing literature. Data for analysis were taken from a survey of the world psychiatric journals indexed in Index Medicus 1999 (IM), the alphabetical list used by PubMed, and from the mean impact factor (IF) values of the journals. Approximately 80% of international psychiatric literature available on PubMed is published in Anglo-Saxon countries, especially in the USA (59.8% of the total). The widespread use of the English language (94.9% of all the journals) further stresses the dominance of the Anglo-Saxon cultural model, as do the mean IF values of Anglo-Saxon journals compared to non-Anglo-Saxon publications (3.252 vs. 1.693; P=0.0079). The under-representation of non-Anglo-Saxon cultural models on PubMed plays a negative role for bringing about a truly multicultural literature in psychiatry.

What supervisors say in their feedback: construction of CanMEDS roles in workplace settings.

PubMed

Renting, Nienke; Dornan, Tim; Gans, Rijk O B; Borleffs, Jan C C; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke; Jaarsma, A Debbie C

2016-05-01

The CanMEDS framework has been widely adopted in residency education and feedback processes are guided by it. It is, however, only one of many influences on what is actually discussed in feedback. The sociohistorical culture of medicine and individual supervisors' contexts, experiences and beliefs are also influential. Our aim was to find how CanMEDS roles are constructed in feedback in a postgraduate curriculum-in-action. We applied a set of discourse analytic tools to written feedback from 591 feedback forms from 7 hospitals, including 3150 feedback comments in which 126 supervisors provided feedback to 120 residents after observing their performance in authentic settings. The role of Collaborator was constructed in two different ways: a cooperative discourse of equality with other workers and patients; and a discourse, which gave residents positions of power-delegating, asserting and 'taking a firm stance'. Efficiency-being fast and to the point emerged as an important attribute of physicians. Patients were seldom part of the discourses and, when they were, they were constructed as objects of communication and collaboration rather than partners. Although some of the discourses are in line with what might be expected, others were in striking contrast to the spirit of CanMEDS. This study's findings suggest that it takes more than a competency framework, evaluation instruments, and supervisor training to change the culture of workplaces. The impact on residents of training in such demanding, efficiency-focused clinical environments is an important topic for future research.

Pulmonary edema predictive scoring index (PEPSI), a new index to predict risk of reperfusion pulmonary edema and improvement of hemodynamics in percutaneous transluminal pulmonary angioplasty.

PubMed

Inami, Takumi; Kataoka, Masaharu; Shimura, Nobuhiko; Ishiguro, Haruhisa; Yanagisawa, Ryoji; Taguchi, Hiroki; Fukuda, Keiichi; Yoshino, Hideaki; Satoh, Toru

2013-07-01

This study sought to identify useful predictors for hemodynamic improvement and risk of reperfusion pulmonary edema (RPE), a major complication of this procedure. Percutaneous transluminal pulmonary angioplasty (PTPA) has been reported to be effective for the treatment of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). PTPA has not been widespread because RPE has not been well predicted. We included 140 consecutive procedures in 54 patients with CTEPH. The flow appearance of the target vessels was graded into 4 groups (Pulmonary Flow Grade), and we proposed PEPSI (Pulmonary Edema Predictive Scoring Index) = (sum total change of Pulmonary Flow Grade scores) × (baseline pulmonary vascular resistance). Correlations between occurrence of RPE and 11 variables, including hemodynamic parameters, number of target vessels, and PEPSI, were analyzed. Hemodynamic parameters significantly improved after median observation period of 6.4 months, and the sum total changes in Pulmonary Flow Grade scores were significantly correlated with the improvement in hemodynamics. Multivariate analysis revealed that PEPSI was the strongest factor correlated with the occurrence of RPE (p < 0.0001). Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated PEPSI to be a useful marker of the risk of RPE (cutoff value 35.4, negative predictive value 92.3%). Pulmonary Flow Grade score is useful in determining therapeutic efficacy, and PEPSI is highly supportive to reduce the risk of RPE after PTPA. Using these 2 indexes, PTPA could become a safe and common therapeutic strategy for CTEPH. Copyright © 2013 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A feedback system in residency to evaluate CanMEDS roles and provide high-quality feedback: Exploring its application.

PubMed

Renting, Nienke; Gans, Rijk O B; Borleffs, Jan C C; Van Der Wal, Martha A; Jaarsma, A Debbie C; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke

2016-07-01

Residents benefit from regular, high quality feedback on all CanMEDS roles during their training. However, feedback mostly concerns Medical Expert, leaving the other roles behind. A feedback system was developed to guide supervisors in providing feedback on CanMEDS roles. We analyzed whether feedback was provided on the intended roles and explored differences in quality of written feedback. In the feedback system, CanMEDS roles were assigned to five authentic situations: Patient Encounter, Morning Report, On-call, CAT, and Oral Presentation. Quality of feedback was operationalized as specificity and inclusion of strengths and improvement points. Differences in specificity between roles were tested with Mann-Whitney U tests with a Bonferroni correction (α = 0.003). Supervisors (n = 126) provided residents (n = 120) with feedback (591 times). Feedback was provided on the intended roles, most frequently on Scholar (78%) and Communicator (71%); least on Manager (47%), and Collaborator (56%). Strengths (78%) were mentioned more frequently than improvement points (52%), which were lacking in 40% of the feedback on Manager, Professional, and Collaborator. Feedback on Scholar was more frequently (p = 0.000) and on Reflective Professional was less frequently (p = 0.003) specific. Assigning roles to authentic situations guides supervisors in providing feedback on different CanMEDS roles. We recommend additional supervisor training on how to observe and evaluate the roles.

Inferring gene and protein interactions using PubMed citations and consensus Bayesian networks

PubMed Central

Dalman, Mark; Haddad, Joseph; Duan, Zhong-Hui

2017-01-01

The PubMed database offers an extensive set of publication data that can be useful, yet inherently complex to use without automated computational techniques. Data repositories such as the Genomic Data Commons (GDC) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) offer experimental data storage and retrieval as well as curated gene expression profiles. Genetic interaction databases, including Reactome and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, offer pathway and experiment data analysis using data curated from these publications and data repositories. We have created a method to generate and analyze consensus networks, inferring potential gene interactions, using large numbers of Bayesian networks generated by data mining publications in the PubMed database. Through the concept of network resolution, these consensus networks can be tailored to represent possible genetic interactions. We designed a set of experiments to confirm that our method is stable across variation in both sample and topological input sizes. Using gene product interactions from the KEGG pathway database and data mining PubMed publication abstracts, we verify that regardless of the network resolution or the inferred consensus network, our method is capable of inferring meaningful gene interactions through consensus Bayesian network generation with multiple, randomized topological orderings. Our method can not only confirm the existence of currently accepted interactions, but has the potential to hypothesize new ones as well. We show our method confirms the existence of known gene interactions such as JAK-STAT-PI3K-AKT-mTOR, infers novel gene interactions such as RAS- Bcl-2 and RAS-AKT, and found significant pathway-pathway interactions between the JAK-STAT signaling and Cardiac Muscle Contraction KEGG pathways. PMID:29049295

Inferring gene and protein interactions using PubMed citations and consensus Bayesian networks.

PubMed

Deeter, Anthony; Dalman, Mark; Haddad, Joseph; Duan, Zhong-Hui

2017-01-01

The PubMed database offers an extensive set of publication data that can be useful, yet inherently complex to use without automated computational techniques. Data repositories such as the Genomic Data Commons (GDC) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) offer experimental data storage and retrieval as well as curated gene expression profiles. Genetic interaction databases, including Reactome and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, offer pathway and experiment data analysis using data curated from these publications and data repositories. We have created a method to generate and analyze consensus networks, inferring potential gene interactions, using large numbers of Bayesian networks generated by data mining publications in the PubMed database. Through the concept of network resolution, these consensus networks can be tailored to represent possible genetic interactions. We designed a set of experiments to confirm that our method is stable across variation in both sample and topological input sizes. Using gene product interactions from the KEGG pathway database and data mining PubMed publication abstracts, we verify that regardless of the network resolution or the inferred consensus network, our method is capable of inferring meaningful gene interactions through consensus Bayesian network generation with multiple, randomized topological orderings. Our method can not only confirm the existence of currently accepted interactions, but has the potential to hypothesize new ones as well. We show our method confirms the existence of known gene interactions such as JAK-STAT-PI3K-AKT-mTOR, infers novel gene interactions such as RAS- Bcl-2 and RAS-AKT, and found significant pathway-pathway interactions between the JAK-STAT signaling and Cardiac Muscle Contraction KEGG pathways.

In vivo assessment of intracellular redox state in rat liver using hyperpolarized [1-13 C]Alanine.

PubMed

Park, Jae Mo; Khemtong, Chalermchai; Liu, Shie-Chau; Hurd, Ralph E; Spielman, Daniel M

2017-05-01

The intracellular lactate to pyruvate concentration ratio is a commonly used tissue assay biomarker of redox, being proportional to free cytosolic [NADH]/[NAD + ]. In this study, we assessed the use of hyperpolarized [1- 13 C]alanine and the subsequent detection of the intracellular products of [1- 13 C]pyruvate and [1- 13 C]lactate as a useful substrate for assessing redox levels in the liver in vivo. Animal experiments were conducted to measure in vivo metabolism at baseline and after ethanol infusion. A solution of 80-mM hyperpolarized [1- 13 C]alanine was injected intravenously at baseline (n = 8) and 45 min after ethanol infusion (n = 4), immediately followed by the dynamic acquisition of 13 C MRS spectra. In vivo rat liver spectra showed peaks from [1- 13 C] alanine and the products of [1- 13 C]lactate, [1- 13 C]pyruvate, and 13 C-bicarbonate. A significantly increased 13 C-lactate/ 13 C-pyruvate ratio was observed after ethanol infusion (8.46 ± 0.58 at baseline versus 13.58 ± 0.69 after ethanol infusion; P < 0.001) consistent with the increased NADH produced by liver metabolism of ethanol to acetaldehyde and then acetate. A decrease in 13 C-bicarbonate production was also noted, potentially reflecting ethanol-induced mitochondrial redox changes. A method to measure in vivo tissue redox using hyperpolarized [1- 13 C]alanine is presented, with the validity of the proposed 13 C-pyruvate/ 13 C-lactate metric tested using an ethanol challenge to alter liver redox state. Magn Reson Med 77:1741-1748, 2017. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Intra and interrater reliability of spinal sagittal curves and mobility using pocket goniometer IncliMed® in healthy subjects.

PubMed

Alderighi, Marzia; Ferrari, Raffaello; Maghini, Irene; Del Felice, Alessandra; Masiero, Stefano

2016-11-21

Radiographic examination is the gold standard to evaluate spine curves, but ionising radiations limit routine use. Non-invasive methods, such as skin-surface goniometer (IncliMed®) should be used instead. To evaluate intra- and interrater reliability to assess sagittal curves and mobility of the spine with IncliMed®. a reliability study on agonistic football players. Thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis and mobility of the spine were assessed by IncliMed®. Measurements were repeated twice by each examiner during the same session with between-rater blinding. Intrarater and interrater reliability were measured by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC), 95% Confidence Interval (CI 95%) and Standard Error of Measurement (SEM). Thirty-four healthy female football players (19.17 ± 4.52 years) were enrolled. Statistical results showed high intrarater (0.805-0.923) and interrater (0.701-0.886) reliability (ICC > 0.8). The obtained intra- and interrater SEM were low, with overall absolute intrarater values between 1.39° and 2.76° and overall interrater values between 1.71° and 4.25°. IncliMed® provides high intra- and interrater reliability in healthy subjects, with limited Standard Error of Measurement. These results encourage its use in clinical practice and scientific research.

PubstractHelper: A Web-based Text-Mining Tool for Marking Sentences in Abstracts from PubMed Using Multiple User-Defined Keywords.

PubMed

Chen, Chou-Cheng; Ho, Chung-Liang

2014-01-01

While a huge amount of information about biological literature can be obtained by searching the PubMed database, reading through all the titles and abstracts resulting from such a search for useful information is inefficient. Text mining makes it possible to increase this efficiency. Some websites use text mining to gather information from the PubMed database; however, they are database-oriented, using pre-defined search keywords while lacking a query interface for user-defined search inputs. We present the PubMed Abstract Reading Helper (PubstractHelper) website which combines text mining and reading assistance for an efficient PubMed search. PubstractHelper can accept a maximum of ten groups of keywords, within each group containing up to ten keywords. The principle behind the text-mining function of PubstractHelper is that keywords contained in the same sentence are likely to be related. PubstractHelper highlights sentences with co-occurring keywords in different colors. The user can download the PMID and the abstracts with color markings to be reviewed later. The PubstractHelper website can help users to identify relevant publications based on the presence of related keywords, which should be a handy tool for their research. http://bio.yungyun.com.tw/ATM/PubstractHelper.aspx and http://holab.med.ncku.edu.tw/ATM/PubstractHelper.aspx.

The Mediterranean Supersite Volcanoes (MED-SUV) Project: an overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Puglisi, G.

2013-12-01

The EC FP7 MEDiterranean SUpersite Volcanoes (MED-SUV) EC-FP7 Project, which started on June 2013, aims to improve the capacity of the scientific institutions, end users and SME forming the project consortium to assess the volcanic hazards at Italian Supersites, i.e. Mt. Etna and Campi Flegrei/Vesuvius. The Project activities will focus on the optimisation and integration of ground and space monitoring systems, the breakthrough in understanding of volcanic processes, and on the increase of the effectiveness of the coordination between the scientific and end-user communities in the hazard management. The overall goal of the project is to apply the rationale of the Supersites GEO initiative to Mt. Etna and Campi Flegrei/Vesuvius, considered as cluster of Supersites. For the purpose MED-SUV will integrate long-term observations of ground-based multidisciplinary data available for these volcanoes, i.e. geophysical, geochemical, and volcanological datasets, with Earth Observation (EO) data. Merging of different parameters over a long period will provide better understanding of the volcanic processes. In particular, given the variety of styles and intensities of the volcanic activity observed at these volcanoes, and which make them sort of archetypes for 'closed conduit '; and ';open conduit' volcanic systems, the combination of different data will allow discrimination between peculiar volcano behaviours associated with pre-, syn- and post-eruptive phases. Indeed, recognition of specific volcano patterns will allow broadening of the spectrum of knowledge of geo-hazards, as well as better parameterisation and modelling of the eruptive phenomena and of the processes occurring in the volcano supply system; thus improving the capability of carrying out volcano surveillance activities. Important impacts on the European industrial sector, arising from a partnership integrating the scientific community and SMEs to implement together new observation/monitoring sensors

The Mediterranean Supersite Volcanoes (MED-SUV) Project: an overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Puglisi, Giuseppe

2014-05-01

The EC FP7 MEDiterranean SUpersite Volcanoes (MED-SUV) EC-FP7 Project, which started on June 2013, aims to improve the capacity of the scientific institutions, end users and SME forming the project consortium to assess the volcanic hazards at Italian Supersites, i.e. Mt. Etna and Campi Flegrei/Vesuvius. The Project activities will focus on the optimisation and integration of ground and space monitoring systems, the breakthrough in understanding of volcanic processes, and on the increase of the effectiveness of the coordination between the scientific and end-user communities in the hazard management. The overall goal of the project is to apply the rationale of the Supersites GEO initiative to Mt. Etna and Campi Flegrei/Vesuvius, considered as cluster of Supersites. For the purpose MED-SUV will integrate long-term observations of ground-based multidisciplinary data available for these volcanoes, i.e. geophysical, geochemical, and volcanological datasets, with Earth Observation (EO) data. Merging of different parameters over a long period will provide better understanding of the volcanic processes. In particular, given the variety of styles and intensities of the volcanic activity observed at these volcanoes, and which make them sort of archetypes for 'closed conduit ' and 'open conduit' volcanic systems, the combination of different data will allow discrimination between peculiar volcano behaviours associated with pre-, syn- and post-eruptive phases. Indeed, recognition of specific volcano patterns will allow broadening of the spectrum of knowledge of geo-hazards, as well as better parameterisation and modelling of the eruptive phenomena and of the processes occurring in the volcano supply system; thus improving the capability of carrying out volcano surveillance activities. Important impacts on the European industrial sector, arising from a partnership integrating the scientific community and SMEs to implement together new observation/monitoring sensors/systems, are

Diabetes induced renal urea transport alterations assessed with 3D hyperpolarized 13 C,15 N-Urea.

PubMed

Bertelsen, Lotte B; Nielsen, Per M; Qi, Haiyun; Nørlinger, Thomas S; Zhang, Xiaolu; Stødkilde-Jørgensen, Hans; Laustsen, Christoffer

2017-04-01

In the current study, we investigated hyperpolarized urea as a possible imaging biomarker of the renal function by means of the intrarenal osmolality gradient. Hyperpolarized three-dimensional balanced steady state 13 C MRI experiments alongside kidney function parameters and quantitative polymerase chain reaction measurements was performed on two groups of rats, a streptozotocin type 1 diabetic group and a healthy control group. A significant decline in intrarenal steepness of the urea gradient was found after 4 weeks of untreated insulinopenic diabetes in agreement with an increased urea transport transcription. MRI and hyperpolarized [ 13 C, 15 N]urea can monitor the changes in the corticomedullary urea concentration gradients in diabetic and healthy control rats. Magn Reson Med 77:1650-1655, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Using Insider Research in MEd Final Projects to Bridge the Theory/Practice Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arar, Khalid

2018-01-01

This paper aims to identify key issues involved in MEd final project supervision and to highlight the potential of supervision from an academic institution to change educational reality through the postgraduate student-teachers' work-based final project as insider researchers in Israeli schools. It draws on analysis of case-study data from two…

A Quantitative Content Analysis of Mercer University MEd, EdS, and Doctoral Theses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Randolph, Justus J.; Gaiek, Lura S.; White, Torian A.; Slappey, Lisa A.; Chastain, Andrea; Harris, Rose Prejean

2010-01-01

Quantitative content analysis of a body of research not only helps budding researchers understand the culture, language, and expectations of scholarship, it helps identify deficiencies and inform policy and practice. Because of these benefits, an analysis of a census of 980 Mercer University MEd, EdS, and doctoral theses was conducted. Each thesis…

Bleomycin--electrical pulse delivery: electroporation therapy-bleomycin--Genetronics; MedPulser-bleomycin--Genetronics.

PubMed

2004-01-01

Genetronics Biomedical is using its electroporation therapy technology to deliver bleomycin to tumour cells for the treatment of cancer. Genetronics have developed the MedPulser Electroporation Therapy System, which consists of an electrical pulse generator and disposable electrode applicators. The MedPulser system enables the delivery of large molecules into cells by briefly applying an electric field to the cell. This causes a transient permeability in the cell's outer membrane characterised by the appearance of pores across the membrane. After the field is discontinued, the pores close, trapping the therapeutic molecules inside the target cells. Genetronics is using the MedPulser System in conjunction with bleomycin, an antineoplastic antibiotic that binds to DNA causing strand scissions. Genetronics is seeking a licensing partner for the use of electroporation for the delivery of drugs in chemotherapy. In 1998, Genetronics entered a licensing and development agreement with Ethicon for electroporation and electrofusion. Under the terms of this agreement, Ethicon was to develop and clinically test the Genetronics electroporation delivery system and conduct all regulatory activities throughout the world except Canada. Ethicon would also market the products once regulatory approval has been obtained and Genetronics was to receive a percentage of the net sales and as license fees. However, in July 2000, Ethicon exercised its rights to terminate the agreement without cause. All rights were returned to Genetronics in January 2001. In 1997, Genetronics entered an agreement with Abbott Laboratories for the manufacture of bleomycin for use in the US in its MedPulsar system after regulatory approval had been granted for its use in the treatment of solid tumours. In a separate supply agreement, Faulding Inc. has agreed to manufacture bleomycin for Genetronic for use in Canada after regulatory approval had been granted. The MedPulsar Electroporation Therapy System with

[Application analysis of adverse drug reaction terminology WHOART and MedDRA].

PubMed

Liu, Jing; Xie, Yan-ming; Gai, Guo-zhong; Liao, Xing

2015-12-01

Drug safety has always been a global focus. Discovery and accurate information acquisition of adverse drug reaction have been the most crucial concern. Terminology of adverse drug reaction makes adverse reaction medical report meaningful, standardized and accurate. This paper discussed the domestic use of the terminology WHOART and MedDRA in terms of content, structure, and application situation. It also analysed the differences between the two terminologies and discusses the future trend of application in our country

Micro-lightguide spectrophotometry (O2C®) as a predictor of intermediate outcome in patients with critical limb ischemia after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA).

PubMed

Weber, K; Gebauer, K; Lüders, F; Meyborg, M; Malyar, N; Goerge, T; Reinecke, H

2014-12-01

Micro-lightguide spectrophotometry (O2C®) provides easily and rapidly measurable parameters of tissue microcirculation. The aim of this study was to assess whether micro-lightguide spectrophotometer (O2C®) based parameters of the tissue microcirculation can serve as predictors of ulcer healing. Furthermore, we tried to identify cut off values to forecast patient outcome and check other diagnostic meanings of individual O2C-parameters. Forty individuals, all suffering from critical limb ischemia and arterial or arteriovenous ulcers were retrospectively investigated concerning O2C®- and ankle/toe brachial index-measurements before and up to two times after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). At a median follow-up of 7 (range 3 to 14) months after PTA the current peripheral arterial disease (PAD) status, ulcer healing, adverse cardiovascular events including death and endovascular or surgical treatments were noted. We found in patients with healing wounds a significant increase in oxygen saturation (SO2, median 26.35±26.94%) compared to non-healers (-4.27±25.24%, P=0.006) as well as regarding blood flow (median 41.12±51.23AU vs. -9.46±24.01 AU, P=0.005). Additionally, the parameter rHb separated reliably between arterial and arteriovenous ulcers (P=0.024). In Cox regression models, increases after revascularisation of more than 6 % in SO2 (HRR=6.08, 95%CI 1.56-23.65, P=0.009) and flow decreases of less than 12 AU (HRR 4.95, 95%CI 1.42-17.31, P=0.012) were significantly associated with amputation-free survival. The O2C®-parameters SO2 and flow provide prognostic information for ulcer healing as well as for amputation-free survival, and rHB adds information about a possible arterial or arteriovenous genesis of an ulcer.

The trend of indexed papers in PubMed covering different aspects of self-immolation.

PubMed

Rezaeian, Mohsen

2014-01-01

Self-immolation is a fatal and devastating method of committing suicide used around the world. The chief aim of the present article is to look at the trend of indexed papers in PubMed covering different aspects of self-immolation. PubMed search engine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) was searched by using six keywords i.e. "self-immolation", "self-inflicted burn", "self-burning", "self-incineration", "suicidal burns" and "suicide by burning". These keywords should appear either in the title or the abstract of the articles. The time frame was set as to retrieve papers expanding from early indexing time up to end of the year 2011. Based on the search strategy 132 papers were retrieved from these total numbers; 12 (9%) were categorized as review papers; 24 (18%) as case reports and the rest 96 (73%) were original studies. It seems that the number of papers increased during the years of investigations and the highest indexed papers i.e. 14 (10.6%) belonged to the year 2011. While most journals, published only one article the highest indexed papers i.e. 35 (26.5%) belonged to Burns. There was an increasing trend in the number of self-immolation articles indexed in PubMed since 1965. Three journals i.e. Burns, Journal of Burn Care and Rehabilitation and Journal of Forensic Sciences hosted for more than 37% of all those indexed articles. However, given the increasing trend of self-immolation still more studies are needed to shed light on the diverse aspects of this appalling human behavior.

TERENO-MED: Observation and Exploration Platform for Water Resources in the Mediterranean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krueger, E.; Zacharias, S.; Friesen, J.; Vereecken, H.; Bogena, H.; Kallioras, A.

2012-04-01

According to the latest IPCC projections, the Circum-Mediterranean region will be particularly affected by Global and Climate Change. These changes include population growth, increases in food, water and energy demands, changes in land use patterns and urbanization/industrialization, while at the same time, the renewable water resources in the region are predicted to decrease by up to 50 % within the next 100 years. However, a profound basis for estimating and predicting the long-term effects of Global and Climate Change on the development of the quantity and quality of water resources and on ecosystems is still lacking. The main reason for this is that environmental monitoring, in particular in the Mediterranean region, is strongly disciplinarily oriented, and financing is usually limited to short-term periods. The TERENO-MED (Terrestrial Environmental Observatories in the Mediterranean) initiative aims to fill the described gap. Together with partners in the region, TERENO-MED will establish a Circum-Mediterranean network of Global Change observatories, and will investigate the effects of anthropogenic impacts and of climate change on Mediterranean water resources and ecosystems. Within a set of representative catchments around the Circum-Mediterranean region (Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Near East), observatory sites will be installed with state-of-the-art and innovative monitoring equipment, in order to measure hydrological states and fluxes on a long-term basis (minimum 15 years). Monitoring equipment will cover all scales, from the point to the regional scale using ground-based and remote sensing technologies. Based on the acquired information, TERENO-MED, together with partners across the Mediterranean region will develop model scenarios that may serve as a basis for sustainable political and economical decisions. In order to gain a deep understanding of the most relevant processes and feedbacks, and to deliver reliable future scenarios for the

The Wheat Mediator Subunit TaMED25 Interacts with the Transcription Factor TaEIL1 to Negatively Regulate Disease Resistance against Powdery Mildew.

PubMed

Liu, Jie; Zhang, Tianren; Jia, Jizeng; Sun, Jiaqiang

2016-03-01

Powdery mildew, caused by the biotrophic fungal pathogen Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, is a major limitation for the production of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). However, to date, the transcriptional regulation of bread wheat defense against powdery mildew remains largely unknown. Here, we report the function and molecular mechanism of the bread wheat Mediator subunit 25 (TaMED25) in regulating the bread wheat immune response signaling pathway. Three homoalleles of TaMED25 from bread wheat were identified and mapped to chromosomes 5A, 5B, and 5D, respectively. We show that knockdown of TaMED25 by barley stripe mosaic virus-induced gene silencing reduced bread wheat susceptibility to the powdery mildew fungus during the compatible plant-pathogen interaction. Moreover, our results indicate that MED25 may play a conserved role in regulating bread wheat and barley (Hordeum vulgare) susceptibility to powdery mildew. Similarly, bread wheat ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE3-LIKE1 (TaEIL1), an ortholog of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE3, negatively regulates bread wheat resistance against powdery mildew. Using various approaches, we demonstrate that the conserved activator-interacting domain of TaMED25 interacts physically with the separate amino- and carboxyl-terminal regions of TaEIL1, contributing to the transcriptional activation activity of TaEIL1. Furthermore, we show that TaMED25 and TaEIL1 synergistically activate ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR1 (TaERF1) transcription to modulate bread wheat basal disease resistance to B. graminis f. sp. tritici by repressing the expression of pathogenesis-related genes and deterring the accumulation of reactive oxygen species. Collectively, we identify the TaMED25-TaEIL1-TaERF1 signaling module as a negative regulator of bread wheat resistance to powdery mildew. © 2016 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.

SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches - a preliminary study.

PubMed

Muin, Michael; Fontelo, Paul; Liu, Fang; Ackerman, Michael

2005-12-01

With the rapid growth of medical information and the pervasiveness of the Internet, online search and retrieval systems have become indispensable tools in medicine. The progress of Web technologies can provide expert searching capabilities to non-expert information seekers. The objective of the project is to create an alternative search interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches using JavaScript slider bars. SLIM, or Slider Interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches, was developed with PHP and JavaScript. Interactive slider bars in the search form controlled search parameters such as limits, filters and MeSH terminologies. Connections to PubMed were done using the Entrez Programming Utilities (E-Utilities). Custom scripts were created to mimic the automatic term mapping process of Entrez. Page generation times for both local and remote connections were recorded. Alpha testing by developers showed SLIM to be functionally stable. Page generation times to simulate loading times were recorded the first week of alpha and beta testing. Average page generation times for the index page, previews and searches were 2.94 milliseconds, 0.63 seconds and 3.84 seconds, respectively. Eighteen physicians from the US, Australia and the Philippines participated in the beta testing and provided feedback through an online survey. Most users found the search interface user-friendly and easy to use. Information on MeSH terms and the ability to instantly hide and display abstracts were identified as distinctive features. SLIM can be an interactive time-saving tool for online medical literature research that improves user control and capability to instantly refine and refocus search strategies. With continued development and by integrating search limits, methodology filters, MeSH terms and levels of evidence, SLIM may be useful in the practice of evidence-based medicine.

New generation extracorporeal membrane oxygenation with MedTech Mag-Lev, a single-use, magnetically levitated, centrifugal blood pump: preclinical evaluation in calves.

PubMed

Fujiwara, Tatsuki; Nagaoka, Eiki; Watanabe, Taiju; Miyagi, Naoto; Kitao, Takashi; Sakota, Daisuke; Mamiya, Taichi; Shinshi, Tadahiko; Arai, Hirokuni; Takatani, Setsuo

2013-05-01

We have evaluated the feasibility of a newly developed single-use, magnetically levitated centrifugal blood pump, MedTech Mag-Lev, in a 3-week extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) study in calves against a Medtronic Bio-Pump BPX-80. A heparin- and silicone-coated polypropylene membrane oxygenator MERA NHP Excelung NSH-R was employed as an oxygenator. Six healthy male Holstein calves with body weights of about 100 kg were divided into two groups, four in the MedTech group and two in the Bio-Pump group. Under general anesthesia, the blood pump and oxygenator were inserted extracorporeally between the main pulmonary artery and the descending aorta via a fifth left thoracotomy. Postoperatively, both the pump and oxygen flow rates were controlled at 3 L/min. Heparin was continuously infused to maintain the activated clotting time at 200-240 s. All the MedTech ECMO calves completed the study duration. However, the Bio-Pump ECMO calves were terminated on postoperative days 7 and 10 because of severe hemolysis and thrombus formation. At the start of the MedTech ECMO, the pressure drop across the oxygenator was about 25 mm Hg with the pump operated at 2800 rpm and delivering 3 L/min flow. The PO2 of the oxygenator outlet was higher than 400 mm Hg with the PCO2 below 45 mm Hg. Hemolysis and thrombus were not seen in the MedTech ECMO circuits (plasma-free hemoglobin [PFH] < 5 mg/dL), while severe hemolysis (PFH > 20 mg/dL) and large thrombus were observed in the Bio-Pump ECMO circuits. Plasma leakage from the oxygenator did not occur in any ECMO circuits. Three-week cardiopulmonary support was performed successfully with the MedTech ECMO without circuit exchanges. The MedTech Mag-Lev could help extend the durability of ECMO circuits by the improved biocompatible performances. © 2013, Copyright the Authors. Artificial Organs © 2013, International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

About the Mid-Continent Ecology Division (MED) of EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Mid-Continent Ecology Division (MED) conducts innovative research and predictive modeling to document and forecast the effects of pollutants on the integrity of watersheds and freshwater ecosystems.

Residency research requirements and the CanMEDS-FM scholar role

PubMed Central

Koo, Jonathan; Bains, Jason; Collins, Marisa B.; Dharamsi, Shafik

2012-01-01

Abstract Objective To explore the perspectives of family medicine residents and recent family medicine graduates on the research requirements and other CanMEDS scholar competencies in family practice residency training. Design Semistructured focus groups and individual interviews. Setting Family practice residency program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Participants Convenience sample of 6 second-year family medicine residents and 6 family physicians who had graduated from the University of British Columbia family practice residency program within the previous 5 years. Methods Two focus groups with residents and individual interviews with each of the 6 recently graduated physicians. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed for thematic content. Main findings Three themes emerged that captured key issues around research requirements in family practice training: 1) relating the scholar role to family practice, 2) realizing that scholarship is more than simply the creation or discovery of new knowledge, and 3) addressing barriers to integrating research into a clinical career. Conclusion Creation of new medical knowledge is just one aspect of the CanMEDS scholar role, and more attention should be paid to the other competencies, including teaching, enhancing professional activities through ongoing learning, critical appraisal of information, and learning how to better contribute to the dissemination, application, and translation of knowledge. Research is valued as important, but opinions still vary as to whether a formal research study should be required in residency. Completion of residency research projects is viewed as somewhat rewarding, but with an equivocal effect on future research intentions. PMID:22859631

Validity and reliability of an in-training evaluation report to measure the CanMEDS roles in emergency medicine residents.

PubMed

Kassam, Aliya; Donnon, Tyrone; Rigby, Ian

2014-03-01

There is a question of whether a single assessment tool can assess the key competencies of residents as mandated by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada CanMEDS roles framework. The objective of the present study was to investigate the reliability and validity of an emergency medicine (EM) in-training evaluation report (ITER). ITER data from 2009 to 2011 were combined for residents across the 5 years of the EM residency training program. An exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to explore the construct validity of the ITER. A total of 172 ITERs were completed on residents across their first to fifth year of training. A combined, 24-item ITER yielded a five-factor solution measuring the CanMEDs role Medical Expert/Scholar, Communicator/Collaborator, Professional, Health Advocate and Manager subscales. The factor solution accounted for 79% of the variance, and reliability coefficients (Cronbach alpha) ranged from α  =  0.90 to 0.95 for each subscale and α  =  0.97 overall. The combined, 24-item ITER used to assess residents' competencies in the EM residency program showed strong reliability and evidence of construct validity for assessment of the CanMEDS roles. Further research is needed to develop and test ITER items that will differentiate each CanMEDS role exclusively.

Identification of risk conditions for the development of adrenal disorders: how optimized PubMed search strategies makes the difference.

PubMed

Guaraldi, Federica; Parasiliti-Caprino, Mirko; Goggi, Riccardo; Beccuti, Guglielmo; Grottoli, Silvia; Arvat, Emanuela; Ghizzoni, Lucia; Ghigo, Ezio; Giordano, Roberta; Gori, Davide

2014-12-01

The exponential growth of scientific literature available through electronic databases (namely PubMed) has increased the chance of finding interesting articles. At the same time, search has become more complicated, time consuming, and at risk of missing important information. Therefore, optimized strategies have to be adopted to maximize searching impact. The aim of this study was to formulate efficient strings to search PubMed for etiologic associations between adrenal disorders (ADs) and other conditions. A comprehensive list of terms identifying endogenous conditions primarily affecting adrenals was compiled. An ad hoc analysis was performed to find the best way to express each term in order to find the highest number of potentially pertinent articles in PubMed. A predefined number of retrieved abstracts were read to assess their association with ADs' etiology. A more sensitive (providing the largest literature coverage) and a more specific (including only those terms retrieving >40 % of potentially pertinent articles) string were formulated. Various researches were performed to assess strings' ability to identify articles of interest in comparison with non-optimized literature searches. We formulated optimized, ready applicable tools for the identification of the literature assessing etiologic associations in the field of ADs using PubMed, and demonstrated the advantages deriving from their application. Detailed description of the methodological process is also provided, so that this work can easily be translated to other fields of practice.

[A statistical analysis and perspective of headache-related papers covered in 2011 PubMed].

PubMed

Zhang, Ming-jie; Yu, Sheng-yuan; Chu, Bing-qian; Dai, Wei

2013-01-01

To investigate the distribution and hot spots of literatures on headache by bibliometric analysis in order to provide reference for further study. Literatures that contained headache or migraine in text words published in 2011 in PubMed databases (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed) were searched. Journals, countries and subjects were bibliometrically analysed. There were 3683 papers involved to headache published in PubMed in 2011, of which 1527 papers were on headache research. The number of papers on headache research published by USA was the most followed by Italy and Germany (USA 23.25%, Italy 10.74%, Germany 5.83%). The mainly studied subjects were therapy (29.60%), pathophysiology (18.66%) and etiology (16.31%). 14.86% papers published in Cephalalgia, which is one of the most important journals, reported negative results. The emphasis of headache research was on migraine. Therapy, pathophysiology and etiology were the hot spot. Literatures with negative result attracted authors to give the more attention.

About the necessity to manage events coded with MedDRA prior to statistical analysis: proposal of a strategy with application to a randomized clinical trial, ANRS 099 ALIZE.

PubMed

Journot, Valérie; Tabuteau, Sophie; Collin, Fidéline; Molina, Jean-Michel; Chene, Geneviève; Rancinan, Corinne

2008-03-01

Since 2003, the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) is the regulatory standard for safety report in clinical trials in the European Community. Yet, we found no published example of a practical experience for a scientifically oriented statistical analysis of events coded with MedDRA. We took advantage of a randomized trial in HIV-infected patients with MedDRA-coded events to explain the difficulties encountered during the events analysis and the strategy developed to report events consistently with trial-specific objectives. MedDRA has a rich hierarchical structure, which allows the grouping of coded terms into 5 levels, the highest being "System Organ Class" (SOC). Each coded term may be related to several SOCs, among which one primary SOC is defined. We developed a new general 5-step strategy to select a SOC as trial primary SOC, consistently with trial-specific objectives for this analysis. We applied it to the ANRS 099 ALIZE trial, where all events were coded with MedDRA version 3.0. We compared the MedDRA and the ALIZE primary SOCs. In the ANRS 099 ALIZE trial, 355 patients were recruited, and 3,722 events were reported and documented, among which 35% had multiple SOCs (2 to 4). We applied the proposed 5-step strategy. Altogether, 23% of MedDRA primary SOCs were modified, mainly from MedDRA primary SOCs "Investigations" (69%) and "Ear and labyrinth disorders" (6%), for the ALIZE primary SOCs "Hepatobiliary disorders" (35%), "Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders" (21%), and "Gastrointestinal disorders" (15%). MedDRA largely enhanced in size and complexity with versioning and the development of Standardized MedDRA Queries. Yet, statisticians should not systematically rely on primary SOCs proposed by MedDRA to report events. A simple general 5-step strategy to re-classify events consistently with the trial-specific objectives might be useful in HIV trials as well as in other fields.

The Med-Peds Hospitalist Workforce: Results From the American Academy of Pediatrics Workforce Survey.

PubMed

Donnelly, Michael J; Lubrano, Lauren; Radabaugh, Carrie L; Lukela, Michael P; Friedland, Allen R; Ruch-Ross, Holly S

2015-11-01

There is no published literature about the med-peds hospitalist workforce, physicians dually trained in internal medicine and pediatrics. Our objective was to analyze this subset of physicians by using data from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) workforce survey to assess practice patterns and workforce demographics. We hypothesized that demographic differences exist between hospitalists and nonhospitalists. The AAP surveyed med-peds physicians from the Society of Hospital Medicine and the AAP to define workforce demographics and patterns of practice. We compared self-identified hospitalists with nonhospitalist physicians on multiple characteristics. Almost one-half of the hospitalists self-identified as being both primary care physicians and hospitalists; we therefore also compared the physicians self-identifying as being both primary care physicians and hospitalists with those who identified themselves solely as hospitalists. Of 1321 respondents, 297 physicians (22.4%) self-reported practicing as hospitalists. Hospitalists were more likely than nonhospitalists to have been practicing<10 years (P<.001), be employed by a health care organization (P<.001), work>50 hours per week (P<.001), and see only adults (P<.001) or children (P=.03) in their practice rather than a mix of both groups. Most, 191/229 (83.4%), see both adults and children in practice, and 250/277 (90.3%) stated that their training left them well prepared to practice both adult and pediatric medicine. Med-peds hospitalists are more likely to be newer to practice and be employed by a health care organization than nonhospitalists and to report satisfaction that their training sufficiently prepared them to see adults and children in practice. Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Automatic identification of high impact articles in PubMed to support clinical decision making.

PubMed

Bian, Jiantao; Morid, Mohammad Amin; Jonnalagadda, Siddhartha; Luo, Gang; Del Fiol, Guilherme

2017-09-01

The practice of evidence-based medicine involves integrating the latest best available evidence into patient care decisions. Yet, critical barriers exist for clinicians' retrieval of evidence that is relevant for a particular patient from primary sources such as randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses. To help address those barriers, we investigated machine learning algorithms that find clinical studies with high clinical impact from PubMed®. Our machine learning algorithms use a variety of features including bibliometric features (e.g., citation count), social media attention, journal impact factors, and citation metadata. The algorithms were developed and evaluated with a gold standard composed of 502 high impact clinical studies that are referenced in 11 clinical evidence-based guidelines on the treatment of various diseases. We tested the following hypotheses: (1) our high impact classifier outperforms a state-of-the-art classifier based on citation metadata and citation terms, and PubMed's® relevance sort algorithm; and (2) the performance of our high impact classifier does not decrease significantly after removing proprietary features such as citation count. The mean top 20 precision of our high impact classifier was 34% versus 11% for the state-of-the-art classifier and 4% for PubMed's® relevance sort (p=0.009); and the performance of our high impact classifier did not decrease significantly after removing proprietary features (mean top 20 precision=34% vs. 36%; p=0.085). The high impact classifier, using features such as bibliometrics, social media attention and MEDLINE® metadata, outperformed previous approaches and is a promising alternative to identifying high impact studies for clinical decision support. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery gastrotomy closure with an over-the-endoscope clip: a randomized, controlled porcine study (with videos).

PubMed

von Renteln, Daniel; Schmidt, Arthur; Vassiliou, Melina C; Gieselmann, Maria; Caca, Karel

2009-10-01

Secure endoscopic closure of transgastric natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) access is of paramount importance. The over-the-scope clip (OTSC) system has previously been shown to be effective for NOTES gastrotomy closure. To compare OTSC gastrotomy closure with surgical closure. Randomized, controlled animal study. Animal facility laboratory. Thirty-six female domestic pigs. Gastrotomies were created by using a needle-knife and an 18-mm balloon. The animals were subsequently randomized to either open surgical repair with interrupted sutures or endoscopic repair with 12-mm OTSCs. In addition, pressurized leak tests were performed in ex vivo specimens of 18-mm scalpel incisions closed with suture (n = 14) and of intact stomachs (n = 10). The mean time for endoscopic closure was 9.8 minutes (range 3-22, SD 5.5). No complications occurred during either type of gastrotomy closure. At necropsy, examination of all OTSC and surgical closures demonstrated complete sealing of gastrotomy sites without evidence of injury to adjacent organs. Pressurized leak tests showed a mean burst pressure of 83 mm Hg (range 30-140, SD 27) for OTSC closures and 67 mm Hg (range 30-130, SD 27.7) for surgical sutures. Ex vivo hand-sewn sutures of 18-mm gastrotomies (n = 14) exhibited a mean burst pressure of 65 mm Hg (range 20-140, SD 31) and intact ex vivo stomachs (n = 10) had a mean burst pressure of 126 mm Hg (range 90-170, SD 28). The burst pressure of ex vivo intact stomachs was significantly higher compared with OTSC closures (P < .01), in vivo surgical closures (P < .01), and ex vivo hand-sewn closures (P < .01). There was a trend toward higher burst pressures in the OTSC closures compared with surgical closures (P = .063) and ex vivo hand-sewn closures (P = .094). In vivo surgical closures demonstrated similar burst pressures compared with ex vivo hand-sewn closures (P = .848). Nonsurvival setting. Endoscopic closure by using the OTSC system is comparable to

The Wheat Mediator Subunit TaMED25 Interacts with the Transcription Factor TaEIL1 to Negatively Regulate Disease Resistance against Powdery Mildew1

PubMed Central

Zhang, Tianren; Jia, Jizeng; Sun, Jiaqiang

2016-01-01

Powdery mildew, caused by the biotrophic fungal pathogen Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, is a major limitation for the production of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). However, to date, the transcriptional regulation of bread wheat defense against powdery mildew remains largely unknown. Here, we report the function and molecular mechanism of the bread wheat Mediator subunit 25 (TaMED25) in regulating the bread wheat immune response signaling pathway. Three homoalleles of TaMED25 from bread wheat were identified and mapped to chromosomes 5A, 5B, and 5D, respectively. We show that knockdown of TaMED25 by barley stripe mosaic virus-induced gene silencing reduced bread wheat susceptibility to the powdery mildew fungus during the compatible plant-pathogen interaction. Moreover, our results indicate that MED25 may play a conserved role in regulating bread wheat and barley (Hordeum vulgare) susceptibility to powdery mildew. Similarly, bread wheat ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE3-LIKE1 (TaEIL1), an ortholog of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE3, negatively regulates bread wheat resistance against powdery mildew. Using various approaches, we demonstrate that the conserved activator-interacting domain of TaMED25 interacts physically with the separate amino- and carboxyl-terminal regions of TaEIL1, contributing to the transcriptional activation activity of TaEIL1. Furthermore, we show that TaMED25 and TaEIL1 synergistically activate ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR1 (TaERF1) transcription to modulate bread wheat basal disease resistance to B. graminis f. sp. tritici by repressing the expression of pathogenesis-related genes and deterring the accumulation of reactive oxygen species. Collectively, we identify the TaMED25-TaEIL1-TaERF1 signaling module as a negative regulator of bread wheat resistance to powdery mildew. PMID:26813794

Pure natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) with ultrasonography-guided transgastric access and over-the-scope-clip closure: a porcine feasibility and survival study.

PubMed

Donatsky, Anders Meller; Andersen, Luise; Nielsen, Ole Lerberg; Holzknecht, Barbara Juliane; Vilmann, Peter; Meisner, Søren; Jørgensen, Lars Nannestad; Rosenberg, Jacob

2012-07-01

Most natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) procedures to date rely on the hybrid technique with simultaneous laparoscopic access to protect against access-related complications and to achieve adequate triangulation for dissection. This is done at the cost of the potential benefits of this new minimally invasive technique. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of a transgastric (TG) pure-NOTES procedure in a diagnostic setting. A TG pure-NOTES procedure with endoscopic ultrasonograpy (EUS)-guided access and over-the-scope-clip (OTSC) closure was performed for 10 pigs in a survival and feasibility study. A full macroscopic necropsy with subsequent histologic evaluation was performed on postoperative day (POD) 14. The outcome parameters were uncomplicated follow-up assessment, survival, intraoperative complications, intraabdominal pathology, macroscopic full-thickness closure, and histology-proven full-thickness healing of the gastrotomy. An uncomplicated postoperative course was reported for 9 of the 10 pigs, and survival was reported for all 10 pigs. For all the pigs, EUS-guided access was performed successfully with a median duration of 25 min (range, 12-62 min) and without intraoperative complications or access-related lesions at necropsy. An OTSC closure was achieved with a median duration of 11 min (range, 3-28 min). The OTSC provided immediate closure, but according to the authors' definition of a full-thickness healing evaluated by histologic examination, this was not achieved in any of the cases. Although all the animals survived until POD 14, intraabdominal chronic abscesses were present in 3 of the 10 pigs at necropsy. The EUS-guided TG access proved to be feasible without access-related complications. Although OTSC provided an immediate closure, the histopathology raised concerns regarding the risk of perforation. Together with the high risk of intraabdominal infection, TG pure-NOTES is not yet ready for routine clinical

A systematic analysis of host factors reveals a Med23-interferon-λ regulatory axis against herpes simplex virus type 1 replication.

PubMed

Griffiths, Samantha J; Koegl, Manfred; Boutell, Chris; Zenner, Helen L; Crump, Colin M; Pica, Francesca; Gonzalez, Orland; Friedel, Caroline C; Barry, Gerald; Martin, Kim; Craigon, Marie H; Chen, Rui; Kaza, Lakshmi N; Fossum, Even; Fazakerley, John K; Efstathiou, Stacey; Volpi, Antonio; Zimmer, Ralf; Ghazal, Peter; Haas, Jürgen

2013-01-01

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is a neurotropic virus causing vesicular oral or genital skin lesions, meningitis and other diseases particularly harmful in immunocompromised individuals. To comprehensively investigate the complex interaction between HSV-1 and its host we combined two genome-scale screens for host factors (HFs) involved in virus replication. A yeast two-hybrid screen for protein interactions and a RNA interference (RNAi) screen with a druggable genome small interfering RNA (siRNA) library confirmed existing and identified novel HFs which functionally influence HSV-1 infection. Bioinformatic analyses found the 358 HFs were enriched for several pathways and multi-protein complexes. Of particular interest was the identification of Med23 as a strongly anti-viral component of the largely pro-viral Mediator complex, which links specific transcription factors to RNA polymerase II. The anti-viral effect of Med23 on HSV-1 replication was confirmed in gain-of-function gene overexpression experiments, and this inhibitory effect was specific to HSV-1, as a range of other viruses including Vaccinia virus and Semliki Forest virus were unaffected by Med23 depletion. We found Med23 significantly upregulated expression of the type III interferon family (IFN-λ) at the mRNA and protein level by directly interacting with the transcription factor IRF7. The synergistic effect of Med23 and IRF7 on IFN-λ induction suggests this is the major transcription factor for IFN-λ expression. Genotypic analysis of patients suffering recurrent orofacial HSV-1 outbreaks, previously shown to be deficient in IFN-λ secretion, found a significant correlation with a single nucleotide polymorphism in the IFN-λ3 (IL28b) promoter strongly linked to Hepatitis C disease and treatment outcome. This paper describes a link between Med23 and IFN-λ, provides evidence for the crucial role of IFN-λ in HSV-1 immune control, and highlights the power of integrative genome-scale approaches to

Oxidation of [U-13 C]glucose in the human brain at 7T under steady state conditions.

PubMed

Cheshkov, Sergey; Dimitrov, Ivan E; Jakkamsetti, Vikram; Good, Levi; Kelly, Dorothy; Rajasekaran, Karthik; DeBerardinis, Ralph J; Pascual, Juan M; Sherry, A Dean; Malloy, Craig R

2017-12-01

Disorders of brain energy metabolism and neurotransmitter recycling have been implicated in multiple neurological conditions. 13 C magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 13 C MRS) during intravenous administration of 13 C-labeled compounds has been used to measure turnover rates of brain metabolites. This approach, however, requires prolonged infusion inside the magnet. Proton decoupling is typically required but may be difficult to implement with standard equipment. We examined an alternative approach to monitor glucose metabolism in the human brain. 13 C-enriched glucose was infused in healthy subjects outside the magnet to a steady-state level of 13 C enrichment. Subsequently, the subjects were scanned at 7T for 60 min without 1 H decoupling. Metabolic modeling was used to calculate anaplerosis. Biomarkers of energy metabolism and anaplerosis were detected. The glutamate C5 doublet provided information about glucose-derived acetyl-coenzyme A flux into the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle via pyruvate dehydrogenase, and the bicarbonate signal reflected overall TCA cycle activity. The glutamate C1/C5 ratio is sensitive to anaplerosis. Brain 13 C MRS at 7T provides information about glucose oxidation and anaplerosis without the need of prolonged 13 C infusions inside the scanner and without technical challenges of 1 H decoupling, making it a feasible approach for clinical research. Magn Reson Med 78:2065-2071, 2017. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Validation of a search strategy to identify nutrition trials in PubMed using the relative recall method.

PubMed

Durão, Solange; Kredo, Tamara; Volmink, Jimmy

2015-06-01

To develop, assess, and maximize the sensitivity of a search strategy to identify diet and nutrition trials in PubMed using relative recall. We developed a search strategy to identify diet and nutrition trials in PubMed. We then constructed a gold standard reference set to validate the identified trials using the relative recall method. Relative recall was calculated by dividing the number of references from the gold standard our search strategy identified by the total number of references in the gold standard. Our gold standard comprised 298 trials, derived from 16 included systematic reviews. The initial search strategy identified 242 of 298 references, with a relative recall of 81.2% [95% confidence interval (CI): 76.3%, 85.5%]. We analyzed titles and abstracts of the 56 missed references for possible additional terms. We then modified the search strategy accordingly. The relative recall of the final search strategy was 88.6% (95% CI: 84.4%, 91.9%). We developed a search strategy to identify diet and nutrition trials in PubMed with a high relative recall (sensitivity). This could be useful for establishing a nutrition trials register to support the conduct of future research, including systematic reviews. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CENTRAL, PEDro, PubMed, and EMBASE are the most comprehensive databases indexing randomized controlled trials of physical therapy interventions.

PubMed

Michaleff, Zoe A; Costa, Leonardo O P; Moseley, Anne M; Maher, Christopher G; Elkins, Mark R; Herbert, Robert D; Sherrington, Catherine

2011-02-01

Many bibliographic databases index research studies evaluating the effects of health care interventions. One study has concluded that the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) has the most complete indexing of reports of randomized controlled trials of physical therapy interventions, but the design of that study may have exaggerated estimates of the completeness of indexing by PEDro. The purpose of this study was to compare the completeness of indexing of reports of randomized controlled trials of physical therapy interventions by 8 bibliographic databases. This study was an audit of bibliographic databases. Prespecified criteria were used to identify 400 reports of randomized controlled trials from the reference lists of systematic reviews published in 2008 that evaluated physical therapy interventions. Eight databases (AMED, CENTRAL, CINAHL, EMBASE, Hooked on Evidence, PEDro, PsycINFO, and PubMed) were searched for each trial report. The proportion of the 400 trial reports indexed by each database was calculated. The proportions of the 400 trial reports indexed by the databases were as follows: CENTRAL, 95%; PEDro, 92%; PubMed, 89%; EMBASE, 88%; CINAHL, 53%; AMED, 50%; Hooked on Evidence, 45%; and PsycINFO, 6%. Almost all of the trial reports (99%) were found in at least 1 database, and 88% were indexed by 4 or more databases. Four trial reports were uniquely indexed by a single database only (2 in CENTRAL and 1 each in PEDro and PubMed). The results are only applicable to searching for English-language published reports of randomized controlled trials evaluating physical therapy interventions. The 4 most comprehensive databases of trial reports evaluating physical therapy interventions were CENTRAL, PEDro, PubMed, and EMBASE. Clinicians seeking quick answers to clinical questions could search any of these databases knowing that all are reasonably comprehensive. PEDro, unlike the other 3 most complete databases, is specific to physical therapy, so studies not

Sensitivity and Predictive Value of 15 PubMed Search Strategies to Answer Clinical Questions Rated Against Full Systematic Reviews

PubMed Central

Merglen, Arnaud; Courvoisier, Delphine S; Combescure, Christophe; Garin, Nicolas; Perrier, Arnaud; Perneger, Thomas V

2012-01-01

Background Clinicians perform searches in PubMed daily, but retrieving relevant studies is challenging due to the rapid expansion of medical knowledge. Little is known about the performance of search strategies when they are applied to answer specific clinical questions. Objective To compare the performance of 15 PubMed search strategies in retrieving relevant clinical trials on therapeutic interventions. Methods We used Cochrane systematic reviews to identify relevant trials for 30 clinical questions. Search terms were extracted from the abstract using a predefined procedure based on the population, interventions, comparison, outcomes (PICO) framework and combined into queries. We tested 15 search strategies that varied in their query (PIC or PICO), use of PubMed’s Clinical Queries therapeutic filters (broad or narrow), search limits, and PubMed links to related articles. We assessed sensitivity (recall) and positive predictive value (precision) of each strategy on the first 2 PubMed pages (40 articles) and on the complete search output. Results The performance of the search strategies varied widely according to the clinical question. Unfiltered searches and those using the broad filter of Clinical Queries produced large outputs and retrieved few relevant articles within the first 2 pages, resulting in a median sensitivity of only 10%–25%. In contrast, all searches using the narrow filter performed significantly better, with a median sensitivity of about 50% (all P < .001 compared with unfiltered queries) and positive predictive values of 20%–30% (P < .001 compared with unfiltered queries). This benefit was consistent for most clinical questions. Searches based on related articles retrieved about a third of the relevant studies. Conclusions The Clinical Queries narrow filter, along with well-formulated queries based on the PICO framework, provided the greatest aid in retrieving relevant clinical trials within the 2 first PubMed pages. These results can help

Effect of foliar application of pyrifluquinazon on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly) and Amblyseius swirskii, 2016

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

With the overall goal to integrate the predatory mite Amblyseius swirskii in the management program of MED whitefly, the specific objective of this study was to evaluate pyrifluquinazon, a pyridine insecticide for whitefly control, and assess its compatibility with swirskii mite, and assess its comp...

Bibliometric assessment of publication output of child and adolescent psychiatric/psychological affiliations between 2005 and 2010 based on the databases PubMed and Scopus.

PubMed

Albayrak, Ozgür; Föcker, Manuel; Wibker, Katrin; Hebebrand, Johannes

2012-06-01

We aimed to determine the quantitative scientific publication output of child and adolescent psychiatric/psychological affiliations during 2005-2010 by country based on both, "PubMed" and "Scopus" and performed a bibliometric qualitative evaluation for 2009 using "PubMed". We performed our search by affiliation related to child and adolescent psychiatric/psychological institutions using "PubMed". For the quantitative analysis for 2005-2010, we counted the number of abstracts. For the qualitative analysis for 2009 we derived the impact factor of each abstract's journal from "Journal Citation Reports". We related total impact factor scores to the gross domestic product (GDP) and population size of each country. Additionally, we used "Scopus" to determine the number of abstracts for each country that was identified via "PubMed" for 2009 and compared the ranking of countries between the two databases. 61 % of the publications between 2005 and 2010 originated from European countries and 26 % from the USA. After adjustment for GDP and population size, the ranking positions changed in favor of smaller European countries with a population size of less than 20 million inhabitants. The ranking of countries for the count of articles in 2009 as derived from "Scopus" was similar to that identified via the "PubMed" search. The performed search revealed only minor differences between "Scopus" and "PubMed" related to the ranking of countries. Our data indicate a sharp difference between countries with a high versus low GDP with regard to scientific publication output in child and adolescent psychiatry/psychology.

COSMO-SkyMed vs RADARSAT-2 for Monitoring Natural and Anthropogenic Components of the Land Movement in Venice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tosi, Luigi; Da Lio, Cristina; Strozzi, Tazio; Teatini, Pietro

2016-08-01

We present the result of a test aimed at evaluating the capability of RADARSAT-2 and COSMO-SkyMed to map the natural subsidence and ground movements induced by anthropogenic activities in the historical center of Venice. Firstly, ground movements have been retrieved at quite long- and short-term by the Persistent Scattered Interferometry (PSI) on 2008-2015 RADARSA T-2 and 2013-2015 COSMO-SkyMed image stacks, respectively. Secondly, PSI has been calibrated at regional scale using the records of permanent GPS stations. Thirdly, considering that over the last two decades "in the historical center of Venice" natural land movements are primarily ascribed to long- term processes, and those induced by human activities act at short-term, we have properly resampled 83-month RADARSA T-2 C-band and 27-month COSMO- SkyMed X-band interferometric products by a common grid and processed the outcome to estimate the two components of the displacements. Results show that the average natural subsidence is generally in the range of 0.9 - 1.1 mm/yr and the anthropogenic ground movements are up to 2 mm/yr.

SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches – a preliminary study

PubMed Central

Muin, Michael; Fontelo, Paul; Liu, Fang; Ackerman, Michael

2005-01-01

Background With the rapid growth of medical information and the pervasiveness of the Internet, online search and retrieval systems have become indispensable tools in medicine. The progress of Web technologies can provide expert searching capabilities to non-expert information seekers. The objective of the project is to create an alternative search interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches using JavaScript slider bars. SLIM, or Slider Interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches, was developed with PHP and JavaScript. Interactive slider bars in the search form controlled search parameters such as limits, filters and MeSH terminologies. Connections to PubMed were done using the Entrez Programming Utilities (E-Utilities). Custom scripts were created to mimic the automatic term mapping process of Entrez. Page generation times for both local and remote connections were recorded. Results Alpha testing by developers showed SLIM to be functionally stable. Page generation times to simulate loading times were recorded the first week of alpha and beta testing. Average page generation times for the index page, previews and searches were 2.94 milliseconds, 0.63 seconds and 3.84 seconds, respectively. Eighteen physicians from the US, Australia and the Philippines participated in the beta testing and provided feedback through an online survey. Most users found the search interface user-friendly and easy to use. Information on MeSH terms and the ability to instantly hide and display abstracts were identified as distinctive features. Conclusion SLIM can be an interactive time-saving tool for online medical literature research that improves user control and capability to instantly refine and refocus search strategies. With continued development and by integrating search limits, methodology filters, MeSH terms and levels of evidence, SLIM may be useful in the practice of evidence-based medicine. PMID:16321145

In vivo study of flow-rate accuracy of the MedStream Programmable Infusion System.

PubMed

Venugopalan, Ramakrishna; Ginggen, Alec; Bork, Toralf; Anderson, William; Buffen, Elaine

2011-01-01

  Flow-rate accuracy and precision are important parameters to optimizing the efficacy of programmable intrathecal (IT) infusion pump delivery systems. Current programmable IT pumps are accurate within ±14.5% of their programmed infusion rate when assessed under ideal environmental conditions and specific flow-rate settings in vitro. We assessed the flow-rate accuracy of a novel programmable pump system across its entire flow-rate range under typical conditions in sheep (in vivo) and nominal conditions in vitro.   The flow-rate accuracy of the MedStream Programmable Pump was assessed in both the in vivo and in vitro settings. In vivo flow-rate accuracy was assessed in 16 sheep at various flow-rates (producing 90 flow intervals) more than 90 ± 3 days. Pumps were then explanted, re-sterilized and in vitro flow-rate accuracy was assessed at 37°C and 1013 mBar (80 flow intervals).   In vivo (sheep body temperatures 38.1°C-39.8°C), mean ± SD flow-rate error was 9.32% ± 9.27% and mean ± SD leak-rate was 0.028 ± 0.08 mL/day. Following explantation, mean in vitro flow-rate error and leak-rate were -1.05% ± 2.55% and 0.003 ± 0.004 mL/day (37°C, 1013 mBar), respectively.   The MedStream Programmable Pump demonstrated high flow-rate accuracy when tested in vivo and in vitro at normal body temperature and environmental pressure as well as when tested in vivo at variable sheep body temperature. The flow-rate accuracy of the MedStream Programmable Pump across its flow-rate range, compares favorably to the accuracy of current clinically utilized programmable IT infusion pumps reported at specific flow-rate settings and conditions. © 2011 International Neuromodulation Society.

What Supervisors Say in Their Feedback: Construction of CanMEDS Roles in Workplace Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renting, Nienke; Dornan, Tim; Gans, Rijk O. B.; Borleffs, Jan C. C.; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke; Jaarsma, A. Debbie C.

2016-01-01

The CanMEDS framework has been widely adopted in residency education and feedback processes are guided by it. It is, however, only one of many influences on what is actually discussed in feedback. The sociohistorical culture of medicine and individual supervisors' contexts, experiences and beliefs are also influential. Our aim was to find how…

The Mediterranean Diet and Cognitive Function among Healthy Older Adults in a 6-Month Randomised Controlled Trial: The MedLey Study.

PubMed

Knight, Alissa; Bryan, Janet; Wilson, Carlene; Hodgson, Jonathan M; Davis, Courtney R; Murphy, Karen J

2016-09-20

Evidence from a limited number of randomised controlled intervention trials (RCTs) have shown that a Mediterranean dietary pattern may reduce the risk of cognitive decline and enhance cognitive function among healthy older adults. However, there are currently no data in non-Mediterranean older adult populations. The present study aimed to address this gap by examining the effect of a Mediterranean dietary pattern (MedDiet) for six months on aspects of cognitive function in a randomised controlled intervention trial (the MedLey study) that extended for a duration of 18 months. In the final analysed cohort, a total of 137 men and women (mean age of 72.1 ± 5.0 years) randomly assigned to either a MedDiet or control diet (HabDiet) (i.e., habitual dietary intake), were assessed on a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery, including 11 individual tests. In multivariable-adjusted models, the MedDiet group did not perform significantly better than the HabDiet control group for executive functioning (adjusted mean differences: +2.53, 95% CI -2.59 to 7.65, p = 0.33); speed of processing (adjusted mean differences: +3.24, 95% CI -1.21 to 7.70, p = 0.15); memory (adjusted mean differences: +2.00, 95% CI -3.88 to 7.88, p = 0.50); visual-spatial ability (adjusted mean differences: +0.21, 95% CI -0.38 to 0.81, 0.48); and overall age-related cognitive performance (adjusted mean differences: +7.99, 95% CI -4.00 to 19.9, p = 0.19). In conclusion, this study did not find evidence of a beneficial effect of a MedDiet intervention on cognitive function among healthy older adults.

[Suicidal behavior prevention for children under age 13: A systematic review].

PubMed

Baux-Cazal, L; Gokalsing, E; Amadeo, S; Messiah, A

2017-05-01

Our objective was to review international literature on suicidal behavior prevention for children under age 13. We gathered all relevant articles on suicide prevention for children under 13. We researched all publications in the French and English languages in PubMed (MEDLINE), PsychINFO and SUDOC databases published until February 2014, with the keywords "child", "child preschool", "prevention and control", "suicide", and "suicide attempted". Publications were included if they described suicidal behavior prevention programs (suicide prevention programs, attempted-suicide prevention programs, suicidal ideation screening programs), and if the studies concerned children under age 13. We also included references cited in the articles if they were not already present in our searches but met inclusion criteria. Studies were excluded if they analyzed populations of children and adolescents without sub-analysis for children under age 13. A total of 350 potentially relevant articles were identified, 33 of which met the inclusion criteria, including 4 retrieved from articles' bibliography. Preventive measures against suicidal behavior for children under 13 exist and include: social programs, maltreatment prevention, curriculum-based suicide prevention programs, suicide screening in schools, gatekeepers, reduction of access of lethal means of suicide, suicide screening by primary care, and post-suicide intervention programs. Overall, the evidence was limited by methodological concerns, particularly a lack of RCTs. However, positive effects were found: school-based suicide prevention programs and gatekeepers increased knowledge about suicide and how to seek help, post-suicide programs helped to reduce psychological distress in the short term. One study showed a decreased risk of attempted-suicide after entry into the child welfare system. There are promising interventions but there is not enough scientific evidence to support any efficient preventive measure against

Mutation status of the mediator complex subunit 12 (MED12) in uterine leiomyomas and concurrent/metachronous multifocal peritoneal smooth muscle nodules (leiomyomatosis peritonealis disseminata).

PubMed

Rieker, Ralf J; Agaimy, Abbas; Moskalev, Evgeny A; Hebele, Simone; Hein, Alexander; Mehlhorn, Grit; Beckmann, Matthias W; Hartmann, Arndt; Haller, Florian

2013-06-01

The pathogenesis and classification of multicentric smooth muscle tumours with benign appearance and concurrent/metachronous uterine and peritoneal involvement is controversial and may on occasion be diagnostically challenging. Leiomyomatosis peritonealis disseminata (LPD) is a rare condition affecting women of reproductive age, characterised by the occurrence of multiple small peritoneal smooth muscle nodules with bland histology. We investigated a total of 12 uterine and seven concurrent/metachronous peritoneal smooth muscle nodules with benign appearance from two females for mutations in the mediator complex subunit 12 (MED12), which has recently been identified as the most frequent genetic aberration in uterine leiomyomas. The first case harboured different MED12 mutations in the peritoneal nodules. Mutational status of peritoneal nodules was discordant with that of the uterine leiomyomas. The second case displayed the same MED12 mutation in all five peritoneal nodules, but this mutation was not detected in her current uterine leiomyomas. Our results suggest that smooth muscle neoplasms with benign appearance of the primary and secondary müllerian system share a similar genetic background of MED12 mutation in combination with oestrogen dependency. Analysis of MED12 mutation status might be a valuable adjunct tool for the future classification of these sometimes diagnostically challenging multicentric tumours.

Mediterranean studies of cardiovascular disease and hyperglycemia: analytical modeling of population socio-economic transitions (MedCHAMPS)--rationale and methods.

PubMed

Maziak, Wasim; Critchley, Julia; Zaman, Shahaduz; Unwin, Nigel; Capewell, Simon; Bennett, Kathleen; Unal, Belgin; Husseini, Abdullatif; Romdhane, Habiba Ben; Phillimore, Peter

2013-08-01

In response to the escalating epidemic of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the Mediterranean Region (MR), an international collaboration aiming at understanding the burden of CVD and evaluating cost-effective strategies to combat it was recently established. This paper describes the rationale and methods of the project MedCHAMPS to disseminate this successful experience. The framework of MedCHAMPS is exceptional in combining multiple disciplines (e.g. epidemiology, anthropology, economics), countries [Turkey, Syria, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), Tunisia, UK, Ireland], research methods (situational and policy analysis, quantitative and qualitative studies, statistical modeling), and involving local stakeholders at all levels to assess trends of CVD/diabetes in the society and attributes of the local health care systems to provide optimal policy recommendations to reduce the burden of CVD/diabetes. MedCHAMPS provides policy makers in the MR and beyond needed guidance about the burden of CVD, and best cost-effective ways to combat it. Our approach of building developed-developing countries collaboration also provides a roadmap for other researchers seeking to build research base into CVD epidemiology and prevention in developing countries.

Interpretation of the Cosmo-SkyMed observations of the 2009 Tanaro river flood

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulvirenti, L.; Pierdicca, N.; Chini, M.; Guerriero, L.

2010-09-01

The potentiality of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for flood mapping was demonstrated by several past investigations. The synoptic view and the capability to operate in almost all-weather conditions and during both day and night are the key features that make the SAR images useful for monitoring inundation events. In addition, their high spatial resolution allows a fairly accurate delineation of the flood extent. The Cosmo-SkyMed (COnstellation of small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation) mission offers a unique opportunity to obtain radar images characterized by short revisit time, so that an operational use of Cosmo-SkyMed data in flood management systems can be envisaged. However, the interpretation of SAR images of flooded areas might be complex, because of the dependence of the radar response from flooded pixels on land cover, system parameters and environmental conditions. An example of radar data whose interpretation is not straightforward is represented by the Cosmo-SkyMed observations of the overflowing of the Tanaro river, close to the city of Alessandria (Northern Italy), occurred on April, 27-28 2009. Within the framework of a study, funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), aiming at evaluating the usefulness of Earth Observation techniques into operational flood prediction and assessment chains (named OPERA, civil protection from floods), ASI provided a number of Cosmo-SkyMed images of the Tanaro basin. In this study, we use three images that were acquired during three days in succession: from April, 29 to May, 1 2009, as well as other two acquisitions performed two weeks later (May, 16 and May, 17 2009), when the effects of the flood were disappeared. In this work, we firstly extract information on the spatial extension of homogeneous objects present in the scene through a segmentation procedure. In this way we cope with the speckle noise characteristic of SAR images and produce, from the multi-temporal series of five imagery

Epigenetic modification of histone 3 lysine 27: mediator subunit MED25 is required for the dissociation of polycomb repressive complex 2 from the promoter of cytochrome P450 2C9.

PubMed

Englert, Neal A; Luo, George; Goldstein, Joyce A; Surapureddi, Sailesh

2015-01-23

The Mediator complex is vital for the transcriptional regulation of eukaryotic genes. Mediator binds to nuclear receptors at target response elements and recruits chromatin-modifying enzymes and RNA polymerase II. Here, we examine the involvement of Mediator subunit MED25 in the epigenetic regulation of human cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9). MED25 is recruited to the CYP2C9 promoter through association with liver-enriched HNF4α, and we show that MED25 influences the H3K27 status of the HNF4α binding region. This region was enriched for the activating marker H3K27ac and histone acetyltransferase CREBBP after MED25 overexpression but was trimethylated when MED25 expression was silenced. The epigenetic regulator Polycomb repressive complex (PRC2), which represses expression by methylating H3K27, plays an important role in target gene regulation. Silencing MED25 correlated with increased association of PRC2 not only with the promoter region chromatin but with HNF4α itself. We confirmed the involvement of MED25 for fully functional preinitiation complex recruitment and transcriptional output in vitro. Formaldehyde-assisted isolation of regulatory elements (FAIRE) revealed chromatin conformation changes that were reliant on MED25, indicating that MED25 induced a permissive chromatin state that reflected increases in CYP2C9 mRNA. For the first time, we showed evidence that a functionally relevant human gene is transcriptionally regulated by HNF4α via MED25 and PRC2. CYP2C9 is important for the metabolism of many exogenous chemicals including pharmaceutical drugs as well as endogenous substrates. Thus, MED25 is important for regulating the epigenetic landscape resulting in transcriptional activation of a highly inducible gene, CYP2C9. © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Studying PubMed usages in the field for complex problem solving: Implications for tool design

PubMed Central

Song, Jean; Tonks, Jennifer Steiner; Meng, Fan; Xuan, Weijian; Ameziane, Rafiqa

2012-01-01

Many recent studies on MEDLINE-based information seeking have shed light on scientists’ behaviors and associated tool innovations that may improve efficiency and effectiveness. Few if any studies, however, examine scientists’ problem-solving uses of PubMed in actual contexts of work and corresponding needs for better tool support. Addressing this gap, we conducted a field study of novice scientists (14 upper level undergraduate majors in molecular biology) as they engaged in a problem solving activity with PubMed in a laboratory setting. Findings reveal many common stages and patterns of information seeking across users as well as variations, especially variations in cognitive search styles. Based on findings, we suggest tool improvements that both confirm and qualify many results found in other recent studies. Our findings highlight the need to use results from context-rich studies to inform decisions in tool design about when to offer improved features to users. PMID:24376375

COSMO-SkyMed Open Call: An Opportunity for the International Scientific Community and National SMEs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Battagliere, Maria Libera; Dini, Luigi; Daraio, Maria Girolamo; Sacco, Patrizia; Virelli, Maria; Coletta, Alessandro; Piperno, Osvaldo

2016-08-01

COSMO-SkyMed (Constellation of Small satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation) is an Italian Earth Observation (EO) Dual-Use (Civilian and Defence) Space System conceived with the aim to establish a global service able to satisfy almost all user application requirements and most of potential market demand. Thanks to its features, since 2008, Italy plays a key role in the international EO context, being one of the most exploited Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mission during awareness and disaster events.The Italian Space Agency (ASI) continues to stimulate also the scientific data exploitation of COSMO-SkyMed data, through the issue, in 2015, of an "Open Call for Science", addressed to the international EO scientific community, and an "Open Call for National Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)".This paper is focused on the status and results obtained after one year of activity by ASI through the mentioned calls, considering a quantitative analysis of the received proposals.

Chemotext: A Publicly Available Web Server for Mining Drug-Target-Disease Relationships in PubMed.

PubMed

Capuzzi, Stephen J; Thornton, Thomas E; Liu, Kammy; Baker, Nancy; Lam, Wai In; O'Banion, Colin P; Muratov, Eugene N; Pozefsky, Diane; Tropsha, Alexander

2018-02-26

Elucidation of the mechanistic relationships between drugs, their targets, and diseases is at the core of modern drug discovery research. Thousands of studies relevant to the drug-target-disease (DTD) triangle have been published and annotated in the Medline/PubMed database. Mining this database affords rapid identification of all published studies that confirm connections between vertices of this triangle or enable new inferences of such connections. To this end, we describe the development of Chemotext, a publicly available Web server that mines the entire compendium of published literature in PubMed annotated by Medline Subject Heading (MeSH) terms. The goal of Chemotext is to identify all known DTD relationships and infer missing links between vertices of the DTD triangle. As a proof-of-concept, we show that Chemotext could be instrumental in generating new drug repurposing hypotheses or annotating clinical outcomes pathways for known drugs. The Chemotext Web server is freely available at http://chemotext.mml.unc.edu .

Behavior of 10 patients with FG Syndrome (Opitz-Kaveggia Syndrome) and the p.R961W Mutation in the MED12 Gene

PubMed Central

Graham, John M; Visootsak, Jeannie; Dykens, Elisabeth; Huddleston, Lillie; Clark, Robin D; Jones, Kenneth L; Moeschler, John B; Opitz, John M; Morford, Jackie; Simensen, Richard; Rogers, R. Curtis; Schwartz, Charles E; Friez, Michael J; Stevenson, Roger E

2011-01-01

Opitz and Kaveggia [1974] reported on a family of five affected males with distinctive facial appearance, mental retardation, macrocephaly, imperforate anus and hypotonia. Risheg et al. [2007] identified an identical mutation (p.R961W) in MED12 in six families with Opitz-Kaveggia syndrome, including a surviving affected man from the family reported in 1974. The previously defined behavior phenotype of hyperactivity, affability, and excessive talkativeness is very frequent in young boys with this mutation, along with socially oriented, attention-seeking behaviors. We present case studies of two older males with FG syndrome and the p.R961W mutation to illustrate how their behavior changes with age. We also characterize the behavior of eight additional individuals with FG syndrome and this recurrent mutation in MED12 using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales 2nd ed., the Reiss Profile of Fundamental Goals and Motivation Sensitivities, and the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist. Males with this MED12 mutation had deficits in communication skills compared to their socialization and daily living skills. In addition, they were at increased risk for maladaptive behavior, with a propensity towards aggression, anxiety, and inattention. Based on the behavior phenotype in 10 males with this recurrent MED12 mutation, we offer specific recommendations and interventional strategies. Our findings reinforce the importance of testing for the p.R961W MED12 mutation in males who are suspected of having developmental and behavioral problems with a clinical phenotype that is consistent with FG syndrome. PMID:18973276

The Relationship Between Neutrophil–Lymphocyte Ratio and Primary Patency of Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty in Hemodialysis Arteriovenous Fistula Stenosis When Using Conventional and Drug-Eluting Balloons

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

Çildağ, Mehmet Burak, E-mail: mbcildag@yahoo.com; Çildağ, Songül, E-mail: songulcildag@yahoo.com; Köseoğlu, Ömer Faruk Kutsi, E-mail: kutsikoseoglu@yahoo.com

ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to investigate the potential association of neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) between primary patency of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in hemodialysis arteriovenous fistula stenosis and type (Conventional and Drug-Eluting) of balloons used in PTA.Material-MethodThis retrospective study consists of 78 patients with significant arteriovenous fistulas stenosis who were treated with PTA by using Drug-Eluting Balloon (DEB) (n = 29) or Conventional Balloon (CB) (n = 49). NLR was calculated from preinterventional blood samples. All patients were classified into two groups. Group A; primary patency <12 months (43/78), Group B; primary patency ≥12 months (35/78). Cox regression analysis and Kaplan–Meier method were used to determine respectivelymore » independent factors affecting the primary patency and to compare the primary patency for the two balloon types.ResultsNLR ratio and balloon type of the two groups were significantly different (p = 0.002, p = 0.010). The cut-off value of NLR was 3.18 for determination of primary patency, with sensitivity of 81.4 % and specificity of 51.4 %. Primary patency rates between PTA with DEB and CB displayed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05). The cut-off value was 3.28 for determination of 12-month primary patency with the conventional balloon group; sensitivity was 81.8 % and specificity was 81.3 %. There was no statistical relation between NLR levels and the drug-eluting balloon group in 12-month primary patency (p = 0.927).ConclusionIncreased level of NLR may be a risk factor in the development of early AVF restenosis after successful PTA. Preferring Drug-Eluting Balloon at an increased level of NLR can be beneficial to prolong patency.« less

Suppression of Mediator is regulated by Cdk8-dependent Grr1 turnover of the Med3 coactivator.

PubMed

Gonzalez, Deyarina; Hamidi, Nurul; Del Sol, Ricardo; Benschop, Joris J; Nancy, Thomas; Li, Chao; Francis, Lewis; Tzouros, Manuel; Krijgsveld, Jeroen; Holstege, Frank C P; Conlan, R Steven

2014-02-18

Mediator, an evolutionary conserved large multisubunit protein complex with a central role in regulating RNA polymerase II-transcribed genes, serves as a molecular switchboard at the interface between DNA binding transcription factors and the general transcription machinery. Mediator subunits include the Cdk8 module, which has both positive and negative effects on activator-dependent transcription through the activity of the cyclin-dependent kinase Cdk8, and the tail module, which is required for positive and negative regulation of transcription, correct preinitiation complex formation in basal and activated transcription, and Mediator recruitment. Currently, the molecular mechanisms governing Mediator function remain largely undefined. Here we demonstrate an autoregulatory mechanism used by Mediator to repress transcription through the activity of distinct components of different modules. We show that the function of the tail module component Med3, which is required for transcription activation, is suppressed by the kinase activity of the Cdk8 module. Med3 interacts with, and is phosphorylated by, Cdk8; site-specific phosphorylation triggers interaction with and degradation by the Grr1 ubiquitin ligase, thereby preventing transcription activation. This active repression mechanism involving Grr1-dependent ubiquitination of Med3 offers a rationale for the substoichiometric levels of the tail module that are found in purified Mediator and the corresponding increase in tail components seen in cdk8 mutants.

MedAd-AppQ: A quality assessment tool for medication adherence apps on iOS and android platforms.

PubMed

Ali, Eskinder Eshetu; Teo, Amanda Kai Sin; Goh, Sherlyn Xue Lin; Chew, Lita; Yap, Kevin Yi-Lwern

2018-02-02

With the recent proliferation of smartphone medication adherence applications (apps), it is increasingly more difficult for patients and clinicians to identify the most useful app. To develop a quality assessment tool for medication adherence apps, and evaluate the quality of such apps from the major app stores. In this study, a Medication Adherence App Quality assessment tool (MedAd-AppQ) was developed and two evaluators independently assessed apps that fulfilled the following criteria: availability in English, had at least a medication reminder feature, non-specific to certain disease conditions (generic apps), free of technical malfunctions and availability on both the iPhone Operating System (iOS) and Android platforms. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson product moment correlation and Spearman rank-order correlation were used for statistical analysis. MedAd-AppQ was designed to have 24 items (total 43 points) categorized under three sections: content reliability (11 points), feature usefulness (29 points) and feature convenience (3 points). The three sections of MedAd-AppQ were found to have inter-rater correlation coefficients of 0.801 (p-value < .001) or higher. Based on analysis of 52 apps (27 iOS and 25 Android), quality scores ranged between 7/43 (16.3%) and 28/43 (65.1%). There was no significant difference between the quality scores of the Android and iOS versions. None of the apps had features for self-management of side effects. Only two apps in each platform provided disease-related and/or medication information. MedAd-AppQ can be used to reliably assess the quality of adherence apps. Clinicians can use the tool in selecting apps for use by patients. Developers of adherence apps should consider features that provide therapy-related information and help patients in medications and side-effects management. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The proportion of cancer-related entries in PubMed has increased considerably; is cancer truly "The Emperor of All Maladies"?

PubMed

Reyes-Aldasoro, Constantino Carlos

2017-01-01

In this work, the public database of biomedical literature PubMed was mined using queries with combinations of keywords and year restrictions. It was found that the proportion of Cancer-related entries per year in PubMed has risen from around 6% in 1950 to more than 16% in 2016. This increase is not shared by other conditions such as AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Diabetes, Cardiovascular, Stroke and Infection some of which have, on the contrary, decreased as a proportion of the total entries per year. Organ-related queries were performed to analyse the variation of some specific cancers. A series of queries related to incidence, funding, and relationship with DNA, Computing and Mathematics, were performed to test correlation between the keywords, with the hope of elucidating the cause behind the rise of Cancer in PubMed. Interestingly, the proportion of Cancer-related entries that contain "DNA", "Computational" or "Mathematical" have increased, which suggests that the impact of these scientific advances on Cancer has been stronger than in other conditions. It is important to highlight that the results obtained with the data mining approach here presented are limited to the presence or absence of the keywords on a single, yet extensive, database. Therefore, results should be observed with caution. All the data used for this work is publicly available through PubMed and the UK's Office for National Statistics. All queries and figures were generated with the software platform Matlab and the files are available as supplementary material.

Language does not come "in boxes": Assessing discrepancies between adverse drug reactions spontaneous reporting and MedDRA® codes in European Portuguese.

PubMed

Inácio, Pedro; Airaksinen, Marja; Cavaco, Afonso

2015-01-01

The description of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by health care professionals (HCPs) can be highly variable. This variation can affect the coding of a reaction with the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA(®)), the gold standard for pharmacovigilance database entries. Ultimately, the strength of a safety signal can be compromised. The objective of this study was to assess: 1) participation of different HCPs in ADR reporting, and 2) variation of language used by HCPs when describing ADRs, and to compare it with the corresponding MedDRA(®) codes. A retrospective content analysis was performed, using the database of spontaneous reports submitted by HCPs in the region of the Southern Pharmacovigilance Unit, Portugal. Data retrieved consisted of the idiomatic description of all ADRs occurring in 2004 (first year of the Unit activity, n = 53) and in 2012 (n = 350). The agreement between the language used by HCPs and the MedDRA(®) dictionary codes was quantitatively assessed. From a total of 403 spontaneous reports received in the two years, 896 words describing ADRs were collected. HCPs presented different levels of pharmacovigilance participation and ADR idiomatic descriptions, with pharmacists providing the greatest overall contribution. The agreement between the language used in spontaneous reports and the corresponding MedDRA(®) terms varied by HCP background, with nurses presenting the poorer results than medical doctors and pharmacists when considering the dictionary as the gold standard in ADRs' language. Lexical accuracy and semantic variations exist between different HCP groups. These differences may interfere with the strength of a generated safety signal. Clinical and MedDRA(®) terminology training should be targeted to increase not only the frequency, but also the quality of spontaneous reports, in accordance with HCPs' experience and background. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A New Era of Therapeutic Strategies for Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension by Two Different Interventional Therapies; Pulmonary Endarterectomy and Percutaneous Transluminal Pulmonary Angioplasty

PubMed Central

Ando, Motomi; Fukuda, Keiichi; Yoshino, Hideaki; Satoh, Toru

2014-01-01

Background Pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) is established for the treatment of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Recently, percutaneous transluminal pulmonary angioplasty (PTPA) has been added for peripheral-type CTEPH, whose lesions exist in segmental, subsegmental, and more distal pulmonary arteries. A shift in clinical practice of interventional therapies occurred in 2009 (first mainly PEA, later PTPA). We examined the latest clinical outcomes of patients with CTEPH. Methods and Results This study retrospectively included 136 patients with CTEPH. Twenty-nine were treated only with drug (Drug-group), and the other 107 underwent interventional therapies (Interventions-group) (39 underwent PEA [PEA-group] and 68 underwent PTPA [PTPA-group]). Total 213 PTPA sessions (failures, 0%; mortality rate, 1.47%) was performed in the PTPA-group (complications: reperfusion pulmonary edema, 7.0%; hemosputum or hemoptysis, 5.6%; vessel dissection, 2.3%; wiring perforation, 0.9%). Although baseline hemodynamic parameters were significantly more severe in the Interventions-group, the outcome after the diagnosis was much better in the Interventions-group than in the Drug-group (98% vs. 64% 5-year survival, p<0.0001). Hemodynamic improvement in the PEA-group was a 46% decrease in mean pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) and a 49% decrease in total pulmonary resistance (TPR) (follow-up period; 74.7±32.3 months), while those in the PTPA-group were a 40% decrease in mean PAP and a 49% decrease in TPR (follow-up period; 17.4±9.3 months). The 2-year survival rate in the Drug-group was 82.0%, and the 2-year survival rate, occurrence of right heart failure, and re-vascularization rate in the PEA-group were 97.4%, 2.6%, and 2.8%, and those in the PTPA-group were 98.5%, 2.9%, and 2.9%, respectively. Conclusion The patients who underwent interventional therapies had better results than those treated only with drugs. The availability of both of these operative and catheter

Effect of drench application of flupyradifurone on Bemisia tabaci(MED whitefly) and Amblyseius swirskii, 2017

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed on over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) and Mediterranean (MED)whitefly are the two most destructive membe...

26 CFR 13.0-13.3 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 14 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false [Reserved] 13.0-13.3 Section 13.0-13.3 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) TEMPORARY INCOME TAX REGULATIONS UNDER THE TAX REFORM ACT OF 1969 §§ 13.0-13.3 [Reserved] ...

A 65nm CMOS low-power MedRadio-band integer-N cascaded phase-locked loop for implantable medical systems.

PubMed

Wang, Yi-Xiao; Chen, Wei-Ming; Wu, Chung-Yu

2014-01-01

This paper presents a low-power MedRadio-band integer-N phase-locked Loop (PLL) system which is composed of two charge-pump PLLs cascade connected. The PLL provides the operation clock and local carrier signals for an implantable medical electronic system. In addition, to avoid the off-chip crystal oscillator, the 13.56 MHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band signal from the wireless power transmission system is adopted as the input reference signal for the PLL. Ring-based voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) with current control units are adopted to reduce chip area and power dissipation. The proposed cascaded PLL system is designed and implemented in TSMC 65-nm CMOS technology. The measured jitter for 216.96 MHz signal is 12.23 ps and the phase noise is -65.9 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz frequency offset under 402.926 MHz carrier frequency. The measured power dissipations are 66 μW in the first PLL and 195 μW in the whole system under 1-V supply voltage. The chip area is 0.1088 mm(2) and no off-chip component is required which is suitable for the integration of the implantable medical electronic system.

A new service support tool for COSMO-SkyMed: civil user coordination service and civil request management optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daraio, M. G.; Battagliere, M. L.; Sacco, P.; Fasano, L.; Coletta, A.

2015-10-01

COSMO-SkyMed is a dual-use program for both civilian and defense provides user community (institutional and commercial) with SAR data in several environmental applications. In the context of COSMO-SkyMed data and User management, one of the aspects carefully monitored is the user satisfaction level, it is links to satisfaction of submitted user requests. The operational experience of the first years of operational phase, and the consequent lessons learnt by the COSMO-SkyMed data and user management, have demonstrated that a lot of acquisition rejections are due to conflicts (time conflicts or system conflicts) among two or more civilian user requests, and they can be managed and solved implementing an improved coordination of users and their requests on a daily basis. With this aim a new Service Support Tool (SST) has been designed and developed to support the operators in the User Request coordination. The Tool allow to analyze conflicts among Acquisition Requests (ARs) before the National Rankization phase and to elaborate proposals for conflict resolution. In this paper the most common causes of the occurred rejections will be showed, for example as the impossibility to aggregate different orders, and the SST functionalities will be described, in particular how it works to remove or minimize the conflicts among different orders.

Reprogramming Antagonizes the Oncogenicity of HOXA13-Long Noncoding RNA HOTTIP Axis in Gastric Cancer Cells.

PubMed

Wu, Deng-Chyang; Wang, Sophie S W; Liu, Chung-Jung; Wuputra, Kenly; Kato, Kohsuke; Lee, Yen-Liang; Lin, Ying-Chu; Tsai, Ming-Ho; Ku, Chia-Chen; Lin, Wen-Hsin; Wang, Shin-Wei; Kishikawa, Shotaro; Noguchi, Michiya; Wu, Chu-Chieh; Chen, Yi-Ting; Chai, Chee-Yin; Lin, Chen-Lung Steve; Kuo, Kung-Kai; Yang, Ya-Han; Miyoshi, Hiroyuki; Nakamura, Yukio; Saito, Shigeo; Nagata, Kyosuke; Lin, Chang-Shen; Yokoyama, Kazunari K

2017-10-01

Reprogramming of cancer cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is a compelling idea for inhibiting oncogenesis, especially through modulation of homeobox proteins in this reprogramming process. We examined the role of various long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs)-homeobox protein HOXA13 axis on the switching of the oncogenic function of bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7), which is significantly lost in the gastric cancer cell derived iPS-like cells (iPSLCs). BMP7 promoter activation occurred through the corecruitment of HOXA13, mixed-lineage leukemia 1 lysine N-methyltransferase, WD repeat-containing protein 5, and lncRNA HoxA transcript at the distal tip (HOTTIP) to commit the epigenetic changes to the trimethylation of lysine 4 on histone H3 in cancer cells. By contrast, HOXA13 inhibited BMP7 expression in iPSLCs via the corecruitment of HOXA13, enhancer of zeste homolog 2, Jumonji and AT rich interactive domain 2, and lncRNA HoxA transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) to various cis-element of the BMP7 promoter. Knockdown experiments demonstrated that HOTTIP contributed positively, but HOTAIR regulated negatively to HOXA13-mediated BMP7 expression in cancer cells and iPSLCs, respectively. These findings indicate that the recruitment of HOXA13-HOTTIP and HOXA13-HOTAIR to different sites in the BMP7 promoter is crucial for the oncogenic fate of human gastric cells. Reprogramming with octamer-binding protein 4 and Jun dimerization protein 2 can inhibit tumorigenesis by switching off BMP7. Stem Cells 2017;35:2115-2128. © 2017 The Authors Stem Cells published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of AlphaMed Press.

Development of a PubMed Based Search Tool for Identifying Sex and Gender Specific Health Literature.

PubMed

Song, Michael M; Simonsen, Cheryl K; Wilson, Joanna D; Jenkins, Marjorie R

2016-02-01

An effective literature search strategy is critical to achieving the aims of Sex and Gender Specific Health (SGSH): to understand sex and gender differences through research and to effectively incorporate the new knowledge into the clinical decision making process to benefit both male and female patients. The goal of this project was to develop and validate an SGSH literature search tool that is readily and freely available to clinical researchers and practitioners. PubMed, a freely available search engine for the Medline database, was selected as the platform to build the SGSH literature search tool. Combinations of Medical Subject Heading terms, text words, and title words were evaluated for optimal specificity and sensitivity. The search tool was then validated against reference bases compiled for two disease states, diabetes and stroke. Key sex and gender terms and limits were bundled to create a search tool to facilitate PubMed SGSH literature searches. During validation, the search tool retrieved 50 of 94 (53.2%) stroke and 62 of 95 (65.3%) diabetes reference articles selected for validation. A general keyword search of stroke or diabetes combined with sex difference retrieved 33 of 94 (35.1%) stroke and 22 of 95 (23.2%) diabetes reference base articles, with lower sensitivity and specificity for SGSH content. The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center SGSH PubMed Search Tool provides higher sensitivity and specificity to sex and gender specific health literature. The tool will facilitate research, clinical decision-making, and guideline development relevant to SGSH.

Development of a PubMed Based Search Tool for Identifying Sex and Gender Specific Health Literature

PubMed Central

Song, Michael M.; Simonsen, Cheryl K.; Wilson, Joanna D.

2016-01-01

Abstract Background: An effective literature search strategy is critical to achieving the aims of Sex and Gender Specific Health (SGSH): to understand sex and gender differences through research and to effectively incorporate the new knowledge into the clinical decision making process to benefit both male and female patients. The goal of this project was to develop and validate an SGSH literature search tool that is readily and freely available to clinical researchers and practitioners. Methods: PubMed, a freely available search engine for the Medline database, was selected as the platform to build the SGSH literature search tool. Combinations of Medical Subject Heading terms, text words, and title words were evaluated for optimal specificity and sensitivity. The search tool was then validated against reference bases compiled for two disease states, diabetes and stroke. Results: Key sex and gender terms and limits were bundled to create a search tool to facilitate PubMed SGSH literature searches. During validation, the search tool retrieved 50 of 94 (53.2%) stroke and 62 of 95 (65.3%) diabetes reference articles selected for validation. A general keyword search of stroke or diabetes combined with sex difference retrieved 33 of 94 (35.1%) stroke and 22 of 95 (23.2%) diabetes reference base articles, with lower sensitivity and specificity for SGSH content. Conclusions: The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center SGSH PubMed Search Tool provides higher sensitivity and specificity to sex and gender specific health literature. The tool will facilitate research, clinical decision-making, and guideline development relevant to SGSH. PMID:26555409

Impact of drench application of cyantraniliprole on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly) and Amblyseius swirskii, 2016

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed on over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, MEAM1 and MED whitefly are the two most destructive members posing threats of several crops of econ...

Effect of Eretmocerus eremicus and soil application of cyantraniliprole on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly), 2016

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed on over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, MEAM1 and MED whitefly are the two most destructive members posing threats to several crops of econ...

MedEthEx Online: A Computer-based Learning Program in Medical Ethics and Communication Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fleetwood, Janet; Vaught, Wayne; Feldman, Debra; Gracely, Edward; Kassutto, Zach; Novack, Dennis

2000-01-01

Assessed MedEthEx Online, a computer-based learning program, in improving communication skills as part of a required bioethics course for medical students. Exam scores of users were comparable with non-users, although computerized-learning students scored higher in specific exam areas, felt somewhat more clinically prepared, and rated the course…

Effect of soil application of cyantraniliprole on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly) and Amblyseius swirskii, 2016

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed upon over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, MEAM1 and MED whitefly are the two most destructive members posing threats of several crops of ec...

Effect of foliar application of Xxpire on Bemisisa tabaci (MED whitefly) and Amblyseius swirskii, 2016

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed upon over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, MEAM1 and MED whitefly are the two most destructive members posing threats of several crops of ec...

Effect of foliar application of pymetrozine on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly) and Amblyseius swirskii, 2016

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed upon over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, MEAM1 and MED whitefly are the two most destructive members posing threats of several crops of ec...

Efficacy of foliar application of flupyradifurone on Bemisia tabaci (MED whitefly) and Amblyseius swirskii, 2017

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous pest known to feed upon over 900 plant taxa, and is an effective vector of more than 100 plant damaging viruses. Among different biotypes of this cryptic species complex, MEAM1 and MED whitefly are the two most destructive members posing threats of several crops of ec...

Analyzing user-generated online content for drug discovery: development and use of MedCrawler.

PubMed

Helfenstein, Andreas; Tammela, Päivi

2017-04-15

Ethnopharmacology, or the scientific validation of traditional medicine, is a respected starting point in drug discovery. Home remedies and traditional use of plants are still widespread, also in Western societies. Instead of perusing ancient pharmacopeias, we developed MedCrawler, which we used to analyze blog posts for mentions of home remedies and their applications. This method is free and accessible from the office computer. We developed MedCrawler, a data mining tool for analyzing user-generated blog posts aiming to find modern 'traditional' medicine or home remedies. It searches user-generated blog posts and analyzes them for correlations between medically relevant terms. We also present examples and show that this method is capable of delivering both scientifically validated uses as well as not so well documented applications, which might serve as a starting point for follow-up research. Source code is available on GitHub at {{ https://github.com/a-hel/medcrawler }}. paivi.tammela@helsinki.fi. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

Association of the F13A1 Val34Leu polymorphism and recurrent pregnancy loss: A meta-analysis.

PubMed

Jung, Jae Hyun; Kim, Jae-Hoon; Song, Gwan Gyu; Choi, Sung Jae

2017-08-01

Factor XIII (FXIII) plays role in stabilizing the linkage between fibrins during blood clotting and has been implicated in recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). The relationship between the Val34Leu polymorphism in F13A1, which encodes the enzymatic subunit of FXIII, and RPL is unclear. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the association betweenF13A1 Val34Leu and the risk of RPL. We performed a meta-analysis of 11 studies involving 1092 cases and 678 controls using published literature from PubMed and Embase. We detected an association in recessive (Val/Val vs. Val/Leu+Leu/Leu; OR=0.71, 95% CI=0.51-0.99, P=0.04), and one of the two co-dominant (Val/Val vs. Val/Leu; OR=0.71, 95% CI=0.52-0.98, P=0.03) models of in heritance. Subgroup analysis revealed that the F13A1 Val34Leu polymorphism was associated with RPL in Asians (Val vs. Leu; OR=0.53, CI=0.33-0.85, P=0.01). However, there was no association between F13A1 Val34Leu and RPL in Europeans and South Americans. Our meta-analysis supports an association between F13A1 Val34Leu and RPL. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

MedTalks: developing teaching abilities and experience in undergraduate medical students

PubMed Central

Bandeali, Suhair; Chiang, Albert; Ramnanan, Christopher J.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Objectives: According to the CanMEDS’ Scholar competency, physicians are expected to facilitate the learning of colleagues, patients and other health professionals. However, most medical students are not provided with formal opportunities to gain teaching experience with objective feedback. Methods: To address this, the University’s Medical Education Interest Group (MEIG) created a pilot teaching program in January 2015 entitled ‘MedTalks’. Four 3-hour sessions were held at the University Faculty of Medicine, where first and second year medical students taught clinically oriented topics to undergraduate university students. Each extracurricular session included three 30-minute content lectures, and a 90-minute small group session on physical examination skills. Each medical student-teacher received formal feedback from undergraduate students and from faculty educators regarding teaching style, communication abilities, and professionalism. In addition, medical student-teachers self-evaluated their own teaching experience. Results: Over 50 medical students from the University participated as medical student-teachers. Based on quantitative and qualitative evaluation surveys, 100% of medical students agreed that MedTalks was a useful way to develop teaching skills and 92% gained a greater confidence in individual teaching capabilities, based largely on the opportunity to gain experience (with feedback) in teaching roles. Conclusions: A program designed to give medical students multi-source teaching experience (lecture- and small group-based) and feedback on their teaching (from learners and Faculty observers, in addition to their own self-reflection) can improve medical student confidence and enthusiasm towards teaching. Future studies will clarify if medical student self-perceived enhancements in teaching ability can be corroborated by independent (Faculty, learner) observations of future teaching activity. PMID:28178910

Characteristics of Retractions from Korean Medical Journals in the KoreaMed Database: A Bibliometric Analysis

PubMed Central

Cho, Hye-Min

2016-01-01

Background Flawed or misleading articles may be retracted because of either honest scientific errors or scientific misconduct. This study explored the characteristics of retractions in medical journals published in Korea through the KoreaMed database. Methods We retrieved retraction articles indexed in the KoreaMed database from January 1990 to January 2016. Three authors each reviewed the details of the retractions including the reason for retraction, adherence to retraction guidelines, and appropriateness of retraction. Points of disagreement were reconciled by discussion among the three. Results Out of 217,839 articles in KoreaMed published from 1990 to January 2016, the publication type of 111 articles was retraction (0.051%). Of the 111 articles (addressing the retraction of 114 papers), 58.8% were issued by the authors, 17.5% were jointly issued (author, editor, and publisher), 15.8% came from editors, and 4.4% were dispatched by institutions; in 5.3% of the instances, the issuer was unstated. The reasons for retraction included duplicate publication (57.0%), plagiarism (8.8%), scientific error (4.4%), author dispute (3.5%), and other (5.3%); the reasons were unstated or unclear in 20.2%. The degree of adherence to COPE’s retraction guidelines varied (79.8%–100%), and some retractions were inappropriate by COPE standards. These were categorized as follows: retraction of the first published article in the case of duplicate publication (69.2%), authorship dispute (15.4%), errata (7.7%), and other (7.7%). Conclusion The major reason for retraction in Korean medical journals is duplicate publication. Some retractions resulted from overreaction by the editors. Therefore, editors of Korean medical journals should take careful note of the COPE retraction guidelines and should undergo training on appropriate retraction practices. PMID:27706245

Linking MedDRA®-coded Clinical Phenotypes to Biological Mechanisms by The Ontology of Adverse Events: A pilot study on Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs)

PubMed Central

Sarntivijai, Sirarat; Zhang, Shelley; Jagannathan, Desikan G.; Zaman, Shadia; Burkhart, Keith K.; Omenn, Gilbert S.; He, Yongqun; Athey, Brian D.; Abernethy, Darrell R.

2016-01-01

Introduction A translational bioinformatics challenge lies in connecting population and individual’s clinical phenotypes in various formats to biological mechanisms. The Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA®) is the default dictionary for Adverse Event (AE) reporting in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). The Ontology of Adverse Events (OAE) represents AEs as pathological processes occurring after drug exposures. Objectives The aim is to establish a semantic framework to link biological mechanisms to phenotypes of AEs by combining OAE with MedDRA® in FAERS data analysis. We investigated the AEs associated with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting tyrosine kinases. The selected 5 TKIs/mAbs (i.e., dasatinib, imatinib, lapatinib, cetuximab, and trastuzumab) are known to induce impaired ventricular function (non-QT) cardiotoxicity. Results Statistical analysis of FAERS data identified 1,053 distinct MedDRA® terms significantly associated with TKIs/mAbs, where 884 did not have corresponding OAE terms. We manually annotated these terms, added them to OAE by the standard OAE development strategy, and mapped them to MedDRA®. The data integration to provide insights into molecular mechanisms for drug-associated AEs is performed by including linkages in OAE for all related AE terms to MedDRA® and existing ontologies including Human Phenotype Ontology (HP), Uber Anatomy Ontology (UBERON), and Gene Ontology (GO). Sixteen AEs are shared by all 5 TKIs/mAbs, and each of 17 cardiotoxicity AEs was associated with at least one TKI/mAb. As an example, we analyzed ‘cardiac failure’ using the relations established in OAE with other ontologies, and demonstrated that one of the biological processes associated with cardiac failure maps to the genes associated with heart contraction. Conclusion By expanding existing OAE ontological design, our TKI use case demonstrates that the combination of OAE and Med

Beyond PubMed: Searching the "Grey Literature" for Clinical Trial Results.

PubMed

Citrome, Leslie

2014-07-01

Clinical trial results have been traditionally communicated through the publication of scholarly reports and reviews in biomedical journals. However, this dissemination of information can be delayed or incomplete, making it difficult to appraise new treatments, or in the case of missing data, evaluate older interventions. Going beyond the routine search of PubMed, it is possible to discover additional information in the "grey literature." Examples of the grey literature include clinical trial registries, patent databases, company and industrywide repositories, regulatory agency digital archives, abstracts of paper and poster presentations on meeting/congress websites, industry investor reports and press releases, and institutional and personal websites.

75 FR 36456 - Channel America Television Network, Inc., EquiMed, Inc., Kore Holdings, Inc., Robotic Vision...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-25

... SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION [File No. 500-1] Channel America Television Network, Inc., EquiMed, Inc., Kore Holdings, Inc., Robotic Vision Systems, Inc. (n/k/a Acuity Cimatrix, Inc.), Security... information concerning the securities of Channel America Television Network, Inc. because it has not filed any...

Promoting appreciation of the study and practice of medicine: inner workings of a Mini-Med program.

PubMed

Lindenthal, Jacob Jay; Delisa, Joel A

2012-01-01

Dissatisfaction with the restrictions of the health care system, diminished reliance on the word of health care professionals, increased costs of medical care, and access to information online have increased consumers' interest in their own health care as well as their thirst for medical literacy. Mini-Med programs run by medical schools offer a more reliable method of learning about disease and disorders than does the indiscriminate surfing of the Internet. This article describes the efforts of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - the largest public university of the health sciences in the nation - to run and maintain such a program. The Mini-Med course provides lay students with insight into what a student undergoes while studying medicine and guides them through complex topics that range from anatomy and basic life support to the latest in stem cell research. It also provides early guidance for potential medical students, addresses patients' concerns, and gives some insight into the levels of comprehension of current medical students.

To Compare PubMed Clinical Queries and UpToDate in Teaching Information Mastery to Clinical Residents: A Crossover Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Sayyah Ensan, Ladan; Faghankhani, Masoomeh; Javanbakht, Anna; Ahmadi, Seyed-Foad; Baradaran, Hamid Reza

2011-01-01

Purpose To compare PubMed Clinical Queries and UpToDate regarding the amount and speed of information retrieval and users' satisfaction. Method A cross-over randomized trial was conducted in February 2009 in Tehran University of Medical Sciences that included 44 year-one or two residents who participated in an information mastery workshop. A one-hour lecture on the principles of information mastery was organized followed by self learning slide shows before using each database. Subsequently, participants were randomly assigned to answer 2 clinical scenarios using either UpToDate or PubMed Clinical Queries then crossed to use the other database to answer 2 different clinical scenarios. The proportion of relevantly answered clinical scenarios, time to answer retrieval, and users' satisfaction were measured in each database. Results Based on intention-to-treat analysis, participants retrieved the answer of 67 (76%) questions using UpToDate and 38 (43%) questions using PubMed Clinical Queries (P<0.001). The median time to answer retrieval was 17 min (95% CI: 16 to 18) using UpToDate compared to 29 min (95% CI: 26 to 32) using PubMed Clinical Queries (P<0.001). The satisfaction with the accuracy of retrieved answers, interaction with UpToDate and also overall satisfaction were higher among UpToDate users compared to PubMed Clinical Queries users (P<0.001). Conclusions For first time users, using UpToDate compared to Pubmed Clinical Querries can lead to not only a higher proportion of relevant answer retrieval within a shorter time, but also a higher users' satisfaction. So, addition of tutoring pre-appraised sources such as UpToDate to the information mastery curricula seems to be highly efficient. PMID:21858142

To compare PubMed Clinical Queries and UpToDate in teaching information mastery to clinical residents: a crossover randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Sayyah Ensan, Ladan; Faghankhani, Masoomeh; Javanbakht, Anna; Ahmadi, Seyed-Foad; Baradaran, Hamid Reza

2011-01-01

To compare PubMed Clinical Queries and UpToDate regarding the amount and speed of information retrieval and users' satisfaction. A cross-over randomized trial was conducted in February 2009 in Tehran University of Medical Sciences that included 44 year-one or two residents who participated in an information mastery workshop. A one-hour lecture on the principles of information mastery was organized followed by self learning slide shows before using each database. Subsequently, participants were randomly assigned to answer 2 clinical scenarios using either UpToDate or PubMed Clinical Queries then crossed to use the other database to answer 2 different clinical scenarios. The proportion of relevantly answered clinical scenarios, time to answer retrieval, and users' satisfaction were measured in each database. Based on intention-to-treat analysis, participants retrieved the answer of 67 (76%) questions using UpToDate and 38 (43%) questions using PubMed Clinical Queries (P<0.001). The median time to answer retrieval was 17 min (95% CI: 16 to 18) using UpToDate compared to 29 min (95% CI: 26 to 32) using PubMed Clinical Queries (P<0.001). The satisfaction with the accuracy of retrieved answers, interaction with UpToDate and also overall satisfaction were higher among UpToDate users compared to PubMed Clinical Queries users (P<0.001). For first time users, using UpToDate compared to Pubmed Clinical Queries can lead to not only a higher proportion of relevant answer retrieval within a shorter time, but also a higher users' satisfaction. So, addition of tutoring pre-appraised sources such as UpToDate to the information mastery curricula seems to be highly efficient.

GAPscreener: An automatic tool for screening human genetic association literature in PubMed using the support vector machine technique

PubMed Central

Yu, Wei; Clyne, Melinda; Dolan, Siobhan M; Yesupriya, Ajay; Wulf, Anja; Liu, Tiebin; Khoury, Muin J; Gwinn, Marta

2008-01-01

Background Synthesis of data from published human genetic association studies is a critical step in the translation of human genome discoveries into health applications. Although genetic association studies account for a substantial proportion of the abstracts in PubMed, identifying them with standard queries is not always accurate or efficient. Further automating the literature-screening process can reduce the burden of a labor-intensive and time-consuming traditional literature search. The Support Vector Machine (SVM), a well-established machine learning technique, has been successful in classifying text, including biomedical literature. The GAPscreener, a free SVM-based software tool, can be used to assist in screening PubMed abstracts for human genetic association studies. Results The data source for this research was the HuGE Navigator, formerly known as the HuGE Pub Lit database. Weighted SVM feature selection based on a keyword list obtained by the two-way z score method demonstrated the best screening performance, achieving 97.5% recall, 98.3% specificity and 31.9% precision in performance testing. Compared with the traditional screening process based on a complex PubMed query, the SVM tool reduced by about 90% the number of abstracts requiring individual review by the database curator. The tool also ascertained 47 articles that were missed by the traditional literature screening process during the 4-week test period. We examined the literature on genetic associations with preterm birth as an example. Compared with the traditional, manual process, the GAPscreener both reduced effort and improved accuracy. Conclusion GAPscreener is the first free SVM-based application available for screening the human genetic association literature in PubMed with high recall and specificity. The user-friendly graphical user interface makes this a practical, stand-alone application. The software can be downloaded at no charge. PMID:18430222

Comparison of the time-to-indexing in PubMed between biomedical journals according to impact factor, discipline, and focus.

PubMed

Irwin, Adriane N; Rackham, Daniel

Practicing evidence-based medicine requires health care professionals to efficiently retrieve relevant and current literature. The purpose of this study was to compare the time interval between PubMed entry and indexing with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) between biomedical journals with varying impact factors, focus areas, and health care discipline representation. This was a cross-sectional study of articles entered into PubMed database between January 1 and December 31, 2012. The primary endpoint was the number of days between PubMed entry and indexing with MeSH terms. A total of 7906 articles were reviewed across 18 journals. In the first comparison, the time-to-indexing was 177 ± 100 days, 111 ± 69 days, and 23 ± 40 days for articles published in journals with impact factors of 2.0-2.5, 4.5-6.5, and >25, respectively (P ≤ 0.001). In the second comparison, the time-to-indexing was 111 ± 69 days for general medicine versus 170 ± 74 days for specialty journals (P ≤ 0.001). In the third comparison, the overall time-to-indexing was 177 ± 100 days, 234 ± 107 days, and 163 ± 58 days for medicine, nursing, and pharmacy journals, respectively (P ≤ 0.001). Study results identified a significant delay between entry of articles into the PubMed database and time-to-indexing with MeSH terms across journals of varying impact factor, discipline, and focus. Results suggest that there may be factors that influence the priority by which articles are indexed with MeSH terms. Future research should focus on determining those journal characteristics and any impact of this delay on clinical practice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

GAPscreener: an automatic tool for screening human genetic association literature in PubMed using the support vector machine technique.

PubMed

Yu, Wei; Clyne, Melinda; Dolan, Siobhan M; Yesupriya, Ajay; Wulf, Anja; Liu, Tiebin; Khoury, Muin J; Gwinn, Marta

2008-04-22

Synthesis of data from published human genetic association studies is a critical step in the translation of human genome discoveries into health applications. Although genetic association studies account for a substantial proportion of the abstracts in PubMed, identifying them with standard queries is not always accurate or efficient. Further automating the literature-screening process can reduce the burden of a labor-intensive and time-consuming traditional literature search. The Support Vector Machine (SVM), a well-established machine learning technique, has been successful in classifying text, including biomedical literature. The GAPscreener, a free SVM-based software tool, can be used to assist in screening PubMed abstracts for human genetic association studies. The data source for this research was the HuGE Navigator, formerly known as the HuGE Pub Lit database. Weighted SVM feature selection based on a keyword list obtained by the two-way z score method demonstrated the best screening performance, achieving 97.5% recall, 98.3% specificity and 31.9% precision in performance testing. Compared with the traditional screening process based on a complex PubMed query, the SVM tool reduced by about 90% the number of abstracts requiring individual review by the database curator. The tool also ascertained 47 articles that were missed by the traditional literature screening process during the 4-week test period. We examined the literature on genetic associations with preterm birth as an example. Compared with the traditional, manual process, the GAPscreener both reduced effort and improved accuracy. GAPscreener is the first free SVM-based application available for screening the human genetic association literature in PubMed with high recall and specificity. The user-friendly graphical user interface makes this a practical, stand-alone application. The software can be downloaded at no charge.

Dr. med. – obsolete? A cross sectional survey to investigate the perception and acceptance of the German medical degree

PubMed Central

Heun, Xenia; Eisenlöffel, Christian; Barann, Bastian; Müller-Hilke, Brigitte

2014-01-01

Purpose: To obtain the German Medical Degree “Dr.med.” candidates are required to write a scientific thesis which is usually accomplished during Medical school education. This extra work load for the students amongst a lack of standardization and an M.D. awarded upon graduation in other European and Anglo-Saxon countries leads repeatedly to criticism of the German system. However, a systematic survey on the perception and acceptance of the German doctoral thesis among those affected is overdue. Methods: Using an online questionnaire, medical students as well as licensed doctors were asked for the status of their medical degree, their motivation, personal benefit, time and effort, scientific output, its meaningfulness and alternatives concerning their thesis. Patients were asked, how important they value their general practitioner’s title “Dr. med.”. The resulting data were evaluated performing basic statistic analyses. Results and Conclusions: The title “Dr. med.“ does not seem to be obsolete, but there is room for improvement. The scientific output is good and only a mere 15.1% of the candidates do not publish their results at all. Moreover, while at an early stage motivation, appreciation and recognition of personal benefits from the medical degree are considered as independent aspects, they merge to a general view at later stages. The current practice is considered most meaningful by the ones who have already finished their thesis. However, there are discrepancies between the expected and the actual length as well as the type of the thesis indicating that mentoring and educational advertising need improvement. As for the patients, their educational level seems to correlate with the significance attributed to the title “Dr. med.” held by their physician. PMID:25228932

Development of action levels for MED/MPD skin-testing units in ultraviolet phototherapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Connor, Una M.; O'Hare, Neil J.

2003-03-01

Ultraviolet (UV) Phototherapy is commonly used for treatment of skin diseases such as psoriasis and eczema. Treatment is carried out using UV phototherapy units, exposing all or part of the body for a certain exposure time. Prior to exposure in treatment units, an unaffected area of skin may be tested using UV skin-testing units in order to determine a suitable treatment regime. The exposure time at which barely perceptible erythema has developed is known as the Minimal Erythemal Dose (MED) for UVB therapy and Minimal Phototoxic Dose (MPD) for UVA therapy. This is used to determine the starting dose in the treatment regime. The presence of 'hotspots' and 'coldspots' in UV skin-testing units can result in inaccurate determination of MED/MPD. This could give rise to severe burns during treatment, or in a sub-optimal dose regime being used. Quality assurance protocols for UV phototherapy equipment have recently been developed and these protocols have highlighted the need for action levels for skin-testing units. An action level is a reference value, which is used to determine whether the difference in irradiance output level across a UV unit is acceptable. Current methodologies for skin-testing in Ireland have been characterised and errors introduced during testing have been estimated. Action levels have been developed based on analysis of errors and requirements of skin-testing.

Twitter journal clubs and continuing professional development: An analysis of a #MedRadJClub tweet chat.

PubMed

Bolderston, A; Watson, J; Woznitza, N; Westerink, A; Di Prospero, L; Currie, G; Beardmore, C; Hewis, J

2018-02-01

Online Twitter journal clubs are a recent and popular innovation with the potential to increase research awareness and inform practice. The medical radiation sciences' MedRadJournalClub (MJRC) is a Twitter-based event that attracts a global group of participants at the monthly chats. An analysis of a recent MedRadJournalClub discussion evaluated the perceived benefits and limitations of medical radiation practitioners participating in an online journal club. The February 2017 chat used for analysis was based on the Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences article by Currie et al. "Twitter Journal Club in Medical Radiation Science" that examines the educational theory behind learning and evidencing professional development through MRJC and social media. The data consisted of chat tweets which were collated using the Twitter advanced search function using the #medradjclub. An initial reviewed was performed to exclude irrelevant content. A second review was then undertaken to categorize the main theme of the tweet. The data were then subjected to thematic analysis which yielded seven different categories. The main benefits included global access due to the online nature of MRJC that has facilitated networking and collaboration. Open access to recently published research was another key benefit. The character limitation of a tweet was the most common constraint, and the dynamic nature of the twitter conversation requires multi-tasking that may be difficult. Our analysis indicated that participants use MedRadJournalClub as a source of continuing professional development with some evidence that this is directly informing clinical and educational practice. Copyright © 2017 The College of Radiographers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Clinical significance of CDH13 promoter methylation as a biomarker for bladder cancer: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Chen, Feng; Huang, Tao; Ren, Yu; Wei, Junjun; Lou, Zhongguan; Wang, Xue; Fan, Xiaoxiao; Chen, Yirun; Weng, Guobin; Yao, Xuping