Agroecosystem productivity in a warmer and CO2 enriched atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernacchi, Carl; Köhler, Iris; Ort, Donald; Long, Steven; Clemente, Thomas

2017-04-01

A number of in-field manipulative experiments have been conducted that address the response of key ecosystem services of major agronomic species to rising CO2. Global warming, however, is inextricably linked to rising greenhouse gases in general, of which CO2 is the most dominant. Therefore, agroecosystem functioning in future conditions requires an understanding of plant responses to both rising CO2 and increased temperatures. Few in-field manipulative experiments have been conducted that supplement both heating and CO2 above background concentrations. Here, the results of six years of experimentation using a coupled Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) technology with variable output infrared heating arrays are reported. The manipulative experiment increased temperatures (+ 3.5˚ C) and CO2 (+ 200 μmol mol-1) above background levels for on two major agronomic crop species grown throughout the world, Zea mays (maize) and Glycine max (soybean). The first phase of this research addresses the response of plant physiological parameters to growth in elevated CO2 and warmer temperatures for maize and soybean grown in an open-air manipulative experiment. The results show that any increase in ecosystem productivity associated with rising CO2 is either similar or is offset by growth at higher temperatures, inconsistent with the perceived benefits of higher CO2 plus warmer temperatures on agroecosystem productivity. The second phase of this research addresses the opportunity to genetically modify soybean to allow for improved productivity under high CO2 and warmer temperatures by increasing a key photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle enzyme, SPBase. The results from this research demonstrates that manipulation of the photosynthetic pathway can lead to higher productivity in high CO2 and temperature relative to the wild-type control soybean. Overall, this research advances the understanding of the physiological responses of two major crops, and the impact on ecosystem services

In-line pressure within a HOTLINE® Fluid Warmer, under various flow conditions.

PubMed

Higashi, Midoriko; Yamaura, Ken; Matsubara, Yukie; Fukudome, Takuya; Hoka, Sumio

2015-04-01

Roller pump infusion devices are widely used for rapid infusion, and may be combined with separate warming devices. There may be instances however, where the pressures generated by the roller pump may not be compatible with the warming device. We assessed a commonly used roller pump in combination with a HOTLINE® Fluid Warmer, and found that it could generate pressures exceeding the HOTLINE® manufacturers specifications. This was of concern because the HOTLINE® manufacturer guideline states that not for use with pressure devices generating over 300 mmHg. Pressure greater than 300 mmHg may compromise the integrity of the HOTLINE® Fluid Warming Set. The aim of this study was to compare in-line pressure within a HOTLINE® Fluid Warmer at different infusion rates of a roller pump using various sizes of intravenous cannulae. The rapid infusion system comprised a 500 mL-normal saline bag, roller pump type infusion device, HOTLINE® Fluid Warmer (blood and fluid warmer system), and six different sizes of intravenous cannulae. In-line pressure was measured proximal to the HOTLINE® (pre-warmer) and proximal to the cannula (post-warmer), at flow rate of 50-160 mL/min. The in-line pressures increased significantly with increasing flow rate. The pre-warmer pressures exceeded 300 mmHg when the flow rate was ≥120 mL/min with 20-gauge, 48 mm length cannula, 130 with 20-gauge, 25 mm cannula, and 160 mL/min with 18-gauge, 48 mm cannula. However, they were <300 mmHg at any flow rates with 18-gauge, 30 mm cannula and 16-gauge cannulae. The post-warmer pressures exceeded 300 mmHg at the flow rate of 140 mL/min with 20-gauge, 48 mm cannula, and 160 mL/min with 20-gauge, 25 mm cannula, while they were <300 mmHg at any flow rates with 18 and 16-gauge cannulae. The in-line pressure within a HOTLINE® could exceed 300 mmHg, depending on the flow rate and size and length of cannula. It is important to pay attention to the size and length of cannulae and flow rate to keep the maximum

Pumps and warmers during amnioinfusion: is either necessary?

PubMed

Glantz, J C; Letteney, D L

1996-01-01

To determine if there is evidence from published reports that the use of infusion pumps or solution warmers during amnioinfusion is beneficial. We identified all English-language amnioinfusion reports published since 1983 through Medline and references. Fourteen prospective papers with at least 40 subjects were identified. For the amnioinfusion and control groups in each study, odds ratios (OR) were calculated for cesarean delivery, fetal distress, meconium below the cords, low 5-minute Apgar score, and endometritis. Cumulative ORs were calculated using the Mantel-Haenszel inverse variance method. This process was repeated after separation into pump-gravity and warmed-unwarmed groups. Multiple regression analyses were performed. Amnioinfusion improved the ability of the fetus to tolerate labor (fetal distress OR 0.40), decreased the incidence of meconium below the cords (OR 0.16), and decreased the rate of cesarean delivery (OR 0.56). There were no demonstrable benefits associated with the use of warmers or pumps. In multiple regression analysis, infusion pumps were associated with a significantly increased risk of fetal distress (P = .01). The use of amnioinfusion is associated with a decreased risk of fetal distress, meconium below the cords, and cesarean delivery. To date, there is no demonstrable benefit using infusion pumps or solution warmers during amnioinfusion.

Adapting to warmer climate through prolonged maize grain filling period in the US Midwest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, P.; Zhuang, Q.; Jin, Z.

2017-12-01

Climate warming is expected to negatively impact the US food productivity. How to adapt to the future warmer environment and meet the rising food requirement becomes unprecedented urgent. Continuous satellite observational data provides an opportunity to examine the historic responses of crop plants to climate variation. Here 16 years crop growing phases information across US Midwest is generated based on satellite observations. We found a prolonged grain-filling period during 2000-2015, which could partly explain the increasing trend in Midwest maize yield. This longer grain-filling period might be resulted from the adoption of longer maturity group varieties or more resistant varieties to temperature variation. Other management practice changes like advance in planting date could be also an effective way of adapting future warmer climate through lowering the possibility of exposure to heat and drought stresses. If the progress in breeding technology enables the maize grain-filling period to prolong with the current rate, the maize grain filling length could be longer and maize yield in Midwest could adapt to future climate despite of the warming.

[Influence of infra-red and super high frequency heating on food value of the beef meat].

PubMed

Beliaeva, M A

2005-01-01

In clause results of research of influence infrared and super high frequency heating on amino acid, fatty fabric and mineral; substances fresh beef are shown meat, after infra-red and the super high frequency of processing, also are shown influence of various modes infra-red heating of processing on amino acid of meat. Advantage of an infra-red way of processing is shown in comparison with super high frequency heating.

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

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.

InfraCAM (trade mark): A Hand-Held Commercial Infrared Camera Modified for Spaceborne Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Manitakos, Daniel; Jones, Jeffrey; Melikian, Simon

1996-01-01

In 1994, Inframetrics introduced the InfraCAM(TM), a high resolution hand-held thermal imager. As the world's smallest, lightest and lowest power PtSi based infrared camera, the InfraCAM is ideal for a wise range of industrial, non destructive testing, surveillance and scientific applications. In addition to numerous commercial applications, the light weight and low power consumption of the InfraCAM make it extremely valuable for adaptation to space borne applications. Consequently, the InfraCAM has been selected by NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC) in Cleveland, Ohio, for use as part of the DARTFire (Diffusive and Radiative Transport in Fires) space borne experiment. In this experiment, a solid fuel is ignited in a low gravity environment. The combustion period is recorded by both visible and infrared cameras. The infrared camera measures the emission from polymethyl methacrylate, (PMMA) and combustion products in six distinct narrow spectral bands. Four cameras successfully completed all qualification tests at Inframetrics and at NASA Lewis. They are presently being used for ground based testing in preparation for space flight in the fall of 1995.

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

Energy metabolism and substrate utilization in low birth weight neonates under radiant warmers.

PubMed

Marks, K H; Nardis, E E; Momin, M N

1986-09-01

We evaluated the metabolic response to the thermal demands of an open radiant warmer device, as distinct from convection incubator, in 13 healthy premature infants (1.395 +/- 169 g, 28 +/- 12 days of age, mean +/- SD). Metabolic rate was 10% higher for infants under the radiant warmer than in the incubator (2.60 +/- 0.4 v 2.36 +/- 0.3 kcal/kg/h; P less than .05). The radiant warmer also induced a small (4%), but significant, increase in nonprotein respiratory quotient (0.94 +/- 0.1 v 0.90 +/- 0.1; P less than .05) and a 13% increase in carbon dioxide production (8.26 +/- 1.1 v 7.31 +/- 1.1 mL/kg/min; P less than .05). Subcutaneous fat accumulation (estimated from 60-second skin-fold thickness measurements) was greater under the radiant warmer than in the incubator (0.08 +/- 0.05 v 0.04 +/- 0.04 mm/d; P less than .05). Under the warmer, the infant's mean skin temperatures and core temperatures were normal and similar to those found in the incubator, but the foot temperature was on average 0.6 degrees C cooler. The average rate of weight gain (18 g/kg/d) was the same in the radiant environment. The pattern of the elevated metabolic rate, shift of respiratory quotient coupled with the accumulation of subcutaneous fat, and cool extremities of infants under the radiant warmer may represent a physiologic adaptive response to thermal stress. However, the reasons for the elevated metabolic rate are unclear, because activation of the sympathetic nervous system with the release of catecholamines is not apparently involved.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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.

Dynamics of Nearshore Sand Bars and Infra-gravity Waves: The Optimal Theory Point of View

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouchette, F.; Mohammadi, B.

2016-12-01

It is well known that the dynamics of near-shore sand bars are partly controlled by the features (location of nodes, amplitude, length, period) of the so-called infra-gravity waves. Reciprocally, changes in the location, size and shape of near-shore sand bars can control wave/wave interactions which in their turn alter the infra-gravity content of the near-shore wave energy spectrum. The coupling infra-gravity / near-shore bar is thus definitely two ways. Regarding numerical modelling, several approaches have already been considered to analyze such coupled dynamics. Most of them are based on the following strategy: 1) define an energy spectrum including infra-gravity, 2) tentatively compute the radiation stresses driven by this energy spectrum, 3) compute sediment transport and changes in the seabottom elevation including sand bars, 4) loop on the computation of infra-gravity taking into account the morphological changes. In this work, we consider an alternative approach named Nearshore Optimal Theory, which is a kind of breakdown point of view for the modeling of near-shore hydro-morphodynamics and wave/ wave/ seabottom interactions. Optimal theory applied to near-shore hydro-morphodynamics arose with the design of solid coastal defense structures by shape optimization methods, and is being now extended in order to model dynamics of any near-shore system combining waves and sand. The basics are the following: the near-shore system state is through a functional J representative of the energy of the system in some way. This J is computed from a model embedding the physics to be studied only (here hydrodynamics forced by simple infra-gravity). Then the paradigm is to say that the system will evolve so that the energy J tends to minimize. No really matter the complexity of wave propagation nor wave/bottom interactions. As soon as J embeds the physics to be explored, the method does not require a comprehensive modeling. Near-shore Optimal Theory has already given

Heterodyne Interferometry in InfraRed at OCA-Calern Observatory in the seventies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gay, J.; Rabbia, Y.

2014-04-01

We report on various works carried four decades ago, so as to develop Heterodyne Interferometry in InfraRed (10 μm) at Calern Observatory (OCA, France), by building an experiment, whose the acronym "SOIRDETE" means "Synthese d'Ouverture en InfraRouge par Detection hETErodyne". Scientific and technical contexts by this time are recalled, as well as basic principles of heterodyne interferometry. The preliminary works and the SOIRDETE experiment are briefly described. Short comments are given in conclusion regarding the difficulties which have prevented the full success of the SOIRDETE experiment.

Comparison of the performance of battery-operated fluid warmers.

PubMed

Lehavi, Amit; Yitzhak, Avraham; Jarassy, Refael; Heizler, Rami; Katz, Yeshayahu Shai; Raz, Aeyal

2018-06-07

Warming intravenous fluids is essential to prevent hypothermia in patients with trauma, especially when large volumes are administered. Prehospital and transport settings require fluid warmers to be small, energy efficient and independent of external power supply. We compared the warming properties and resistance to flow of currently available battery-operated fluid warmers. Fluid warming was evaluated at 50, 100 and 200 mL/min at a constant input temperature of 20°C and 10°C using a cardiopulmonary bypass roller pump and cooler. Output temperature was continuously recorded. Performance of fluid warmers varied with flows and input temperatures. At an input temperature of 20°C and flow of 50 mL/min, the Buddy Lite, enFlow, Thermal Angel and Warrior warmed 3.4, 2.4, 1 and 3.6 L to over 35°C, respectively. However, at an input temperature of 10°C and flow of 200 mL/min, the Buddy Lite failed to warm, the enFlow warmed 3.3 L to 25.7°C, the Thermal Angel warmed 1.5 L to 20.9°C and the Warrior warmed 3.4 L to 34.4°C (p<0.0001). We found significant differences between the fluid warmers: the use of the Buddy Lite should be limited to moderate input temperature and low flow rates. The use of the Thermal Angel is limited to low volumes due to battery capacity and low output temperature at extreme conditions. The Warrior provides the best warming performance at high infusion rates, as well as low input temperatures, and was able to warm the largest volumes in these conditions. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Treatment of traumatic infra orbital nerve paresthesia

PubMed Central

Lone, Parveen Akhter; Singh, R. K.; Pal, U. S.

2012-01-01

This study was done to find out the role of topiramate therapy in infraorbital nerve paresthesia after miniplate fixation in zygomatic complxex fractures. A total 2 cases of unilateral zygomatic complex fracture, 2-3 weeks old with infra orbital nerve paresthesia were slected. Open reduction and plating was done in frontozygomaticregion. Antiepileptic drug tab topiramate was given in therapeutic doses and dose was increased slowly until functional recovery was noticed. PMID:23833503

Forced-Air Warmers and Surgical Site Infections in Patients Undergoing Knee or Hip Arthroplasty.

PubMed

Austin, Paul N

2017-01-01

The majority of the evidence indicates preventing inadvertent perioperative hypothermia reduces the incidence of many perioperative complications. Among the results of inadvertent perioperative hypothermia are increased bleeding, myocardial events, impaired wound healing, and diminished renal function. Most researchers agree there is an increased incidence of surgical site infections in patients who experience inadvertent perioperative hypothermia. Forced-air warming is effective in preventing inadvertent perioperative hypothermia. Paradoxically, forced-air warmers have been implicated in causing surgical site infections in patients undergoing total knee or hip arthroplasty. The results of investigations suggest these devices harbor pathogens and cause unwanted airflow disturbances. However, no significant increases in bacterial counts were found when forced-air warmers were used according to the manufacturer's directions. The results of one study suggested the incidence of surgical site infections in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty was increased when using a forced-air warmer. However these researchers did not control for other factors affecting the incidence of surgical site infections in these patients. Current evidence does not support forced-air warmers causing surgical site infections in patients undergoing total knee or hip arthroplasty. Clinicians must use and maintain these devices as per the manufacturer's directions. They may consider using alternative warming methods. Well-conducted studies are needed to help determine the role of forced-air warmers in causing infections in these patients.

Detecting defective electrical components in heterogeneous infra-red images by spatial control charts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jamshidieini, Bahman; Fazaee, Reza

2016-05-01

Distribution network components connect machines and other loads to electrical sources. If resistance or current of any component is more than specified range, its temperature may exceed the operational limit which can cause major problems. Therefore, these defects should be found and eliminated according to their severity. Although infra-red cameras have been used for inspection of electrical components, maintenance prioritization of distribution cubicles is mostly based on personal perception and lack of training data prevents engineers from developing image processing methods. New research on the spatial control chart encouraged us to use statistical approaches instead of the pattern recognition for the image processing. In the present study, a new scanning pattern which can tolerate heavy autocorrelation among adjacent pixels within infra-red image was developed and for the first time combination of kernel smoothing, spatial control charts and local robust regression were used for finding defects within heterogeneous infra-red images of old distribution cubicles. This method does not need training data and this advantage is crucially important when the training data is not available.

Pressure Infusion Cuff and Blood Warmer during Massive Transfusion: An Experimental Study About Hemolysis and Hypothermia.

PubMed

Poder, Thomas G; Pruneau, Denise; Dorval, Josée; Thibault, Louis; Fisette, Jean-François; Bédard, Suzanne K; Jacques, Annie; Beauregard, Patrice

2016-01-01

Blood warmers were developed to reduce the risk of hypothermia associated with the infusion of cold blood products. During massive transfusion, these devices are used with compression sleeve, which induce a major stress to red blood cells. In this setting, the combination of blood warmer and compression sleeve could generate hemolysis and harm the patient. We conducted this study to compare the impact of different pressure rates on the hemolysis of packed red blood cells and on the outlet temperature when a blood warmer set at 41.5°C is used. Pressure rates tested were 150 and 300 mmHg. Ten packed red blood cells units were provided by Héma-Québec and each unit was sequentially tested. We found no increase in hemolysis either at 150 or 300 mmHg. By cons, we found that the blood warmer was not effective at warming the red blood cells at the specified temperature. At 150 mmHg, the outlet temperature reached 37.1°C and at 300 mmHg, the temperature was 33.7°C. To use a blood warmer set at 41.5°C in conjunction with a compression sleeve at 150 or 300 mmHg does not generate hemolysis. At 300 mmHg a blood warmer set at 41.5°C does not totally avoid a risk of hypothermia.

Experimental Study of Isothermal Plate Uniformity for Blood Warmer Development using Geothermal Energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hendrarsakti, J.; Ichsan, Y.

2016-09-01

This research was conducted to assess the direct use of geothermal energy for blood warmer. The heating plate was made form aluminium plates with dimensions of 100 x 200 mm and then fed from the hot water heater. Tests were conducted in the laboratory where geothermal source water is replaced with the heat generated from the heater. The hot water from the heater in the temperature range 55°C - 60°C flowed into vertical chamber. Setting the temperature of the hot water heater is done by changing the flow of hot water coming out of the heater. Results showed that the value of a standard deviation of plate temperature was about 0.42 °C, so it can be said isothermal accordance with design requirement and objective. The test data used for the analysis of the manufacture of the heating plate in the blood warmer to regulate the discharge of hot water at intervals of 21.47 mL/s to 24.8 mL/s to obtain a temperature of 37.20 °C - 40.15 °C. Geothermal energy has the potential for blood warmer because blood warmer is part of the energy cascade in a temperature range of 40°C to 60°C

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.

Pressure Infusion Cuff and Blood Warmer during Massive Transfusion: An Experimental Study About Hemolysis and Hypothermia

PubMed Central

Pruneau, Denise; Dorval, Josée; Thibault, Louis; Fisette, Jean-François; Bédard, Suzanne K.; Jacques, Annie; Beauregard, Patrice

2016-01-01

Background Blood warmers were developed to reduce the risk of hypothermia associated with the infusion of cold blood products. During massive transfusion, these devices are used with compression sleeve, which induce a major stress to red blood cells. In this setting, the combination of blood warmer and compression sleeve could generate hemolysis and harm the patient. We conducted this study to compare the impact of different pressure rates on the hemolysis of packed red blood cells and on the outlet temperature when a blood warmer set at 41.5°C is used. Methods Pressure rates tested were 150 and 300 mmHg. Ten packed red blood cells units were provided by Héma-Québec and each unit was sequentially tested. Results We found no increase in hemolysis either at 150 or 300 mmHg. By cons, we found that the blood warmer was not effective at warming the red blood cells at the specified temperature. At 150 mmHg, the outlet temperature reached 37.1°C and at 300 mmHg, the temperature was 33.7°C. Conclusion To use a blood warmer set at 41.5°C in conjunction with a compression sleeve at 150 or 300 mmHg does not generate hemolysis. At 300 mmHg a blood warmer set at 41.5°C does not totally avoid a risk of hypothermia. PMID:27711116

Managing fire and fuels in a warmer climate

Treesearch

David L. Peterson

2010-01-01

This historical perspective on fire provides a window into the future of fire in the Pacific Northwest. Although fire will always be more common in the interior portion of the region, a warmer climate could bring more fire to the westside of the Cascade Range where summers are typically dry and will probably become drier. If future climate resembles the climate now...

Biases in simulation of the rice phenology models when applied in warmer climates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, T.; Li, T.; Yang, X.; Simelton, E.

2015-12-01

The current model inter-comparison studies highlight the difference in projections between crop models when they are applied to warmer climates, but these studies do not provide results on how the accuracy of the models would change in these projections because the adequate observations under largely diverse growing season temperature (GST) are often unavailable. Here, we investigate the potential changes in the accuracy of rice phenology models when these models were applied to a significantly warmer climate. We collected phenology data from 775 trials with 19 cultivars in 5 Asian countries (China, India, Philippines, Bangladesh and Thailand). Each cultivar encompasses the phenology observations under diverse GST regimes. For a given rice cultivar in different trials, the GST difference reaches 2.2 to 8.2°C, which allows us to calibrate the models under lower GST and validate under higher GST (i.e., warmer climates). Four common phenology models representing major algorithms on simulations of rice phenology, and three model calibration experiments were conducted. The results suggest that the bilinear and beta models resulted in gradually increasing phenology bias (Figure) and double yield bias per percent increase in phenology bias, whereas the growing-degree-day (GDD) and exponential models maintained a comparatively constant bias when applied in warmer climates (Figure). Moreover, the bias of phenology estimated by the bilinear and beta models did not reduce with increase in GST when all data were used to calibrate models. These suggest that variations in phenology bias are primarily attributed to intrinsic properties of the respective phenology model rather than on the calibration dataset. Therefore we conclude that using the GDD and exponential models has more chances of predicting rice phenology correctly and thus, production under warmer climates, and result in effective agricultural strategic adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.

Effects of a warmer climate on seed germination in the subarctic

PubMed Central

Milbau, Ann; Graae, Bente Jessen; Shevtsova, Anna; Nijs, Ivan

2009-01-01

Background and Aims In a future warmer subarctic climate, the soil temperatures experienced by dispersed seeds are likely to increase during summer but may decrease during winter due to expected changes in snow depth, duration and quality. Because little is known about the dormancy-breaking and germination requirements of subarctic species, how warming may influence the timing and level of germination in these species was examined. Methods Under controlled conditions, how colder winter and warmer summer soil temperatures influenced germination was tested in 23 subarctic species. The cold stratification and warm incubation temperatures were derived from real soil temperature measurements in subarctic tundra and the temperatures were gradually changed over time to simulate different months of the year. Key Results Moderate summer warming (+2·5 °C) substantially accelerated germination in all but four species but did not affect germination percentages. Optimum germination temperatures (20/10°C) further decreased germination time and increased germination percentages in three species. Colder winter soil temperatures delayed the germination in ten species and decreased the germination percentage in four species, whereas the opposite was found in Silene acaulis. In most species, the combined effect of a reduced snow cover and summer warming resulted in earlier germination and thus a longer first growing season, which improves the chance of seedling survival. In particular the recruitment of (dwarf) shrubs (Vaccinium myrtillus, V. vitis-idaea, Betula nana), trees (Alnus incana, Betula pubescens) and grasses (Calamagrostis lapponica, C. purpurea) is likely to benefit from a warmer subarctic climate. Conclusions Seedling establishment is expected to improve in a future warmer subarctic climate, mainly by considerably earlier germination. The magnitudes of the responses are species-specific, which should be taken into account when modelling population growth and migration

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.

Winter Far InfraRed Measurements in the High Arctic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

S Pelletier, L.; Libois, Q.; Laurence, C.; Blanchet, J. P.

2017-12-01

During the polar night the majority of earth emission to space occurs in the Far InfraRed (FIR) (l>15mm). Below 10 mm of column integrated water vapour (WV) the atmosphere becomes partially transparent in this spectral range, extending the atmospheric window to longer wavelength. Small variations of WV content can thus lead to strong variations of the transmittance of the atmosphere, impacting its cooling rate and the water vapor greenhouse effect. This is especially true in the Arctic since more than 50% of atmospheric cooling occurs in the FIR. Furthermore, remote sensing observations from CALIPSO and CloudSat satellites over the Arctic have enlighten the ubiquity of optically thin ice clouds (TIC). Those clouds act as effective radiators through the whole troposphere and their formation process is still poorly understood. Theoretical work has shown the added value of FIR measurements for WV and TIC optical properties retrieval. Even so there is currently no spaceborne instrument performing spectrally resolved measurements in the FIR. The TICFIRE (Thin ice cloud in the far infrared experiment) satellite project aims to fill this gap. Here we present the results of the first ground experiments using a breadboard of the satellite, the Far InfraRed Radiometer (FIRR). It measured downwelling radiance at Eureka, NU (79°59'20″N 085°56'27″W) from 25/02/2016 to 31/05/2016. The FIRR uses an array of uncooled microbolometers to measure radiance in 9 spectral channels spanning from 8 - 50 μm. The emission of the atmosphere in this spectral region is extremely sensitive to its WV content and the effective diameter of TIC ice crystals. By comparing these measurements with the E-AERI, a Fourier transform interferometer which serves as a reference, and a radiative transfers model , we aim to assess the radiative accuracy of this new technology as well as its sensitivity to the state of the atmosphere. Results shows that the in situ radiometric accuracy of the FIRR

Is a warmer climate wilting the forests of the north?

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

Taubes, G.

1995-03-17

The far-northern climate has warmed 2 degrees Celsium since the 1880s, much more than the rest of the world. A warmer climate might be expected to speed tree growth and drive the northern edge of the forest farther into the Arctic. However a 4 year study of growth rings in trees growing near the timberline in northern and central Alaska indicated differently. Two researchers, Jacoby and D`Arrigo of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, report that as the high latitudes warmed over the past 100 years, tree growth accelerated at first, but recently the growth rate has flattened while the climate continues tomore » warm. This article discusses how the research was done and the possible implications and explanations, including the possibility that warmer temperatures may encourage outbreaks of insect pests.« less

Precipitation Organization in a Warmer Climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rickenbach, T. M.; Nieto Ferreira, R.; Nissenbaum, M.

2014-12-01

This study will investigate changes in precipitation organization in a warmer climate using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and CMIP-5 ensemble climate simulations. This work builds from an existing four-year NEXRAD radar-based precipitation climatology over the southeastern U.S. that uses a simple two-category framework of precipitation organization based on instantaneous precipitating feature size. The first category - mesoscale precipitation features (MPF) - dominates winter precipitation and is linked to the more predictable large-scale forcing provided by the extratropical cyclones. In contrast, the second category - isolated precipitation - dominates the summer season precipitation in the southern coastal and inland regions but is linked to less predictable mesoscale circulations and to local thermodynamics more crudely represented in climate models. Most climate modeling studies suggest that an accelerated water cycle in a warmer world will lead to an overall increase in precipitation, but few studies have addressed how precipitation organization may change regionally. To address this, WRF will simulate representative wintertime and summertime precipitation events in the Southeast US under the current and future climate. These events will be simulated in an environment resembling the future climate of the 2090s using the pseudo-global warming (PGW) approach based on an ensemble of temperature projections. The working hypothesis is that the higher water vapor content in the future simulation will result in an increase in the number of isolated convective systems, while MPFs will be more intense and longer-lasting. In the context of the seasonal climatology of MPF and isolated precipitation, these results have implications for assessing the predictability of future regional precipitation in the southeastern U.S.

A low cost, simple, portable instrument for the measurement of infra-red reflectance of paints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marson, F.

1982-05-01

The construction and design of a low cost, simple, portable infra-red reflectometer which can be used to estimate the reflectance of paint films in the 800 nm region is described. The infra-red reflectances of a range of lustreless, semigloss and gloss olive drab camouflage paints determined using this instrument are compared to those obtained using modified commercial equipment and to the reflectances measured at 800 nm using a Cary model 17 spectrophotometer. The new reflectometer was shown to be superior to the modified commercial instrument currently specified in Australian government paint specifications and to be capable of estimating the reflectance of olive drab paints to within about one per cent of the Cary derived reflectance values. The reflectance values for a range of 24 experimental coatings made with pigments of varying absorption in the infra-red region are used to illustrate the effect of the instrument's spectral response and the necessity of establishing a reliable working standard.

Short-term acclimation to warmer temperatures accelerates leaf carbon exchange processes across plant types.

PubMed

Smith, Nicholas G; Dukes, Jeffrey S

2017-11-01

While temperature responses of photosynthesis and plant respiration are known to acclimate over time in many species, few studies have been designed to directly compare process-level differences in acclimation capacity among plant types. We assessed short-term (7 day) temperature acclimation of the maximum rate of Rubisco carboxylation (V cmax ), the maximum rate of electron transport (J max ), the maximum rate of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase carboxylation (V pmax ), and foliar dark respiration (R d ) in 22 plant species that varied in lifespan (annual and perennial), photosynthetic pathway (C 3 and C 4 ), and climate of origin (tropical and nontropical) grown under fertilized, well-watered conditions. In general, acclimation to warmer temperatures increased the rate of each process. The relative increase in different photosynthetic processes varied by plant type, with C 3 species tending to preferentially accelerate CO 2 -limited photosynthetic processes and respiration and C 4 species tending to preferentially accelerate light-limited photosynthetic processes under warmer conditions. R d acclimation to warmer temperatures caused a reduction in temperature sensitivity that resulted in slower rates at high leaf temperatures. R d acclimation was similar across plant types. These results suggest that temperature acclimation of the biochemical processes that underlie plant carbon exchange is common across different plant types, but that acclimation to warmer temperatures tends to have a relatively greater positive effect on the processes most limiting to carbon assimilation, which differ by plant type. The acclimation responses observed here suggest that warmer conditions should lead to increased rates of carbon assimilation when water and nutrients are not limiting. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

ARE LAKES GETTING WARMER? REMOTE SENSING OF LARGE LAKE TEMPERATURES

EPA Science Inventory

Recent studies (Levitus et al., 2000) suggest a warning of the world ocean over the past 50 years. Freshwater lakes could also be getting warmer but thermal measurements to determine this are lacking. Large lake temperatures are vertically and horizontally heterogeneous and vary ...

Science and Technology Text Mining: Global Technology Watch

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-07-01

22217 PHONE: 703-696-4198 FAX: 703-696-4274 INTERNET: KOSTOFR@ONR.NAVY.MIL http:// ww2 .onr.navy.mil/test/technowatch/default.htm (THE VIEWS IN THIS...is used in science and technology as an abbreviation for InfraRed (physics), Immuno-Reactivity (biology), Ischemia-Reperfusion (medicine), current(I

More Intense Mega Heat Waves in the Warmer World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, G.; Robinson, D. A.

2017-12-01

In this study, changes in the occurrences of heat waves on the globe since the mid- 20th century and the synoptic characteristics of mega heat waves at regional scales in the warmer climate are examined. The NCEP-NCAR reanalysis surface data show that there have been no obvious linear changes in the heat wave frequencies at the continental scales since the mid-20th century, but amplified interdecadal variations led to unprecedented intense heat waves in the recent decades at the regional scales. Such mega heat waves have been more frequently observed in the poleward subtropical climate belts as well as in the interior region of continents. According to the analyses of upper tropospheric data, the occurrences of more intense mega heat waves since the late 20th century may be associated with the expansion of subtropical high pressures. These results suggest that populous cities near the subtropical climate zones should provide proactive mega heat wave warning systems for residents due to their vulnerability to the sudden attack of human lives harvest by mega heat waves in the warmer 21st century.

Infra-red detector and method of making and using same

DOEpatents

Craig, Richard A [Richland, WA; Griffin, Jeffrey W [Kennewick, WA

2007-02-20

A low-cost infra-red detector is disclosed including a method of making and using the same. The detector employs a substrate, a filtering layer, a converting layer, and a diverter to be responsive to wavelengths up to about 1600 nm. The detector is useful for a variety of applications including spectroscopy, imaging, and defect detection.

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.

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

Alignment and Polarization Sensitivity Study for the Cassini-Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) Far InfraRed (FIR) Interferometer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crooke, Julie A.; Hagopian, John G.

1998-01-01

The Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) instrument flying on the Cassini spacecraft to Saturn is a cryogenic spectrometer with far-infrared (FIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) channels. The CIRS FIR channel is a polarizing interferometer that contains three polarizing grid components. These components are an input polarizer, a polarizing beamsplitter, and an output polarizer/analyzer. They consist of a 1.5 micron thick mylar substrate with 2 gm wide copper wires, with 2 gm spacing (4 micron pitch) photolithographically deposited on the substrate. This paper details the polarization sensitivity studies performed on the output polarizer/analyzer, and the alignment sensitivity studies performed on the input polarizer and beamsplitter components in the FIR interferometer.

75 FR 56124 - Notice of Issuance of Final Determination Concerning APC InfraStruXure® Solutions and of Certain...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-15

.... It also features output metering, branch current/circuit monitoring and auto-detection by the Infra...). Small system: 1 40 kW N+1 Symmetra PX UPS 1 40 kW InfraStruXure PDU with pre-fabricated circuits 10 Net...Xure PDU with pre-fabricated circuits 50 NetShelter SX enclosures 50 Rack power distribution units 16...

Effect of warming and flow rate conditions of blood warmers on red blood cell integrity.

PubMed

Poder, T G; Pruneau, D; Dorval, J; Thibault, L; Fisette, J-F; Bédard, S K; Jacques, A; Beauregard, P

2016-11-01

Fluid warmers are routinely used to reduce the risk of hypothermia and cardiac complications associated with the infusion of cold blood products. However, warming blood products could generate haemolysis. This study was undertaken to compare the impact of temperature of blood warmers on the per cent haemolysis of packed red blood cells (RBCs) heated at different flow rates as well as non-flow conditions. Infusion warmers used were calibrated at 41·5°C ± 0·5°C and 37·5°C ± 0·5°C. Cold RBC units stored at 4°C in AS-3 (n = 30), aged 30-39 days old, were divided into half units before being allocated under two different scenarios (i.e. infusion pump or syringe). Blood warmers were effective to warm cold RBCs to 37·5°C or 41·5°C when used in conjunction with an infusion pump at flow rate up to 600 ml/h. However, when the warmed blood was held in a syringe for various periods of time, such as may occur in neonatal transfusions, the final temperature was below the expected requirements with measurement as low as 33·1°C. Increasing the flow with an infusion pump increased haemolysis in RBCs from 0·2% to up to 2·1% at a flow rate of 600 ml/h regardless of the warming device used (P < 0·05). No relevant increase of haemolysis was observed using a syringe. The use of a blood warmer adjusted to 41·5°C is probably the best choice for reducing the risk of hypothermia for the patient without generating haemolysis. However, we should be cautious with the use of an infusion pump for RBC transfusion, particularly at high flow rates. © 2016 International Society of Blood Transfusion.

CIRCE: The Canarias InfraRed Camera Experiment for the Gran Telescopio Canarias

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eikenberry, Stephen S.; Charcos, Miguel; Edwards, Michelle L.; Garner, Alan; Lasso-Cabrera, Nestor; Stelter, Richard D.; Marin-Franch, Antonio; Raines, S. Nicholas; Ackley, Kendall; Bennett, John G.; Cenarro, Javier A.; Chinn, Brian; Donoso, H. Veronica; Frommeyer, Raymond; Hanna, Kevin; Herlevich, Michael D.; Julian, Jeff; Miller, Paola; Mullin, Scott; Murphey, Charles H.; Packham, Chris; Varosi, Frank; Vega, Claudia; Warner, Craig; Ramaprakash, A. N.; Burse, Mahesh; Punnadi, Sunjit; Chordia, Pravin; Gerarts, Andreas; Martín, Héctor De Paz; Calero, María Martín; Scarpa, Riccardo; Acosta, Sergio Fernandez; Sánchez, William Miguel Hernández; Siegel, Benjamin; Pérez, Francisco Francisco; Martín, Himar D. Viera; Losada, José A. Rodríguez; Nuñez, Agustín; Tejero, Álvaro; González, Carlos E. Martín; Rodríguez, César Cabrera; Sendra, Jordi Molgó; Rodriguez, J. Esteban; Cáceres, J. Israel Fernádez; García, Luis A. Rodríguez; Lopez, Manuel Huertas; Dominguez, Raul; Gaggstatter, Tim; Lavers, Antonio Cabrera; Geier, Stefan; Pessev, Peter; Sarajedini, Ata; Castro-Tirado, A. J.

The Canarias InfraRed Camera Experiment (CIRCE) is a near-infrared (1-2.5μm) imager, polarimeter and low-resolution spectrograph operating as a visitor instrument for the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) 10.4-m telescope. It was designed and built largely by graduate students and postdocs, with help from the University of Florida (UF) astronomy engineering group, and is funded by the UF and the US National Science Foundation. CIRCE is intended to help fill the gap in near-infrared capabilities prior to the arrival of Especrografo Multiobjecto Infra-Rojo (EMIR) to the GTC and will also provide the following scientific capabilities to compliment EMIR after its arrival: high-resolution imaging, narrowband imaging, high-time-resolution photometry, imaging polarimetry, and low resolution spectroscopy. In this paper, we review the design, fabrication, integration, lab testing, and on-sky performance results for CIRCE. These include a novel approach to the opto-mechanical design, fabrication, and alignment.

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.

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.

Spatial modeling to project Southern Appalachian Trout distribution in warmer climate

Treesearch

Patrica A. Flebbe; Laura D. Roghair; Jennifer L. Bruggink

2006-01-01

In the southern Appalachian Mountains, the distributions of native brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis and introduced rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and brown trout Salmo trutta are presently limited by temperature and are expected to be limited further by a warmer climate. To estimate trout habitat in a future...

Mediator Complex Subunits MED2, MED5, MED16, and MED23 Genetically Interact in the Regulation of Phenylpropanoid Biosynthesis.

PubMed

Dolan, Whitney L; Dilkes, Brian P; Stout, Jake M; Bonawitz, Nicholas D; Chapple, Clint

2017-12-01

The phenylpropanoid pathway is a major global carbon sink and is important for plant fitness and the engineering of bioenergy feedstocks. In Arabidopsis thaliana , disruption of two subunits of the transcriptional regulatory Mediator complex, MED5a and MED5b, results in an increase in phenylpropanoid accumulation. By contrast, the semidominant MED5b mutation reduced epidermal fluorescence4-3 ( ref4-3 ) results in dwarfism and constitutively repressed phenylpropanoid accumulation. Here, we report the results of a forward genetic screen for suppressors of ref4-3. We identified 13 independent lines that restore growth and/or phenylpropanoid accumulation in the ref4-3 background. Two of the suppressors restore growth without restoring soluble phenylpropanoid accumulation, indicating that the growth and metabolic phenotypes of the ref4-3 mutant can be genetically disentangled. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that all but one of the suppressors carry mutations in MED5b or other Mediator subunits. RNA-seq analysis showed that the ref4-3 mutation causes widespread changes in gene expression, including the upregulation of negative regulators of the phenylpropanoid pathway, and that the suppressors reverse many of these changes. Together, our data highlight the interdependence of individual Mediator subunits and provide greater insight into the transcriptional regulation of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis by the Mediator complex. © 2017 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.

Near infra-red astronomy with adaptive optics and laser guide stars at the Keck Observatory

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

Max, C.E.; Gavel, D.T.; Olivier, S.S.

1995-08-03

A laser guide star adaptive optics system is being built for the W. M. Keck Observatory`s 10-meter Keck II telescope. Two new near infra-red instruments will be used with this system: a high-resolution camera (NIRC 2) and an echelle spectrometer (NIRSPEC). The authors describe the expected capabilities of these instruments for high-resolution astronomy, using adaptive optics with either a natural star or a sodium-layer laser guide star as a reference. They compare the expected performance of these planned Keck adaptive optics instruments with that predicted for the NICMOS near infra-red camera, which is scheduled to be installed on the Hubblemore » Space Telescope in 1997.« less

Admission temperatures following radiant warmer or incubator transport for preterm infants <28 weeks: a randomised study.

PubMed

Meyer, Michael P; Bold, Geoff T

2007-07-01

Sixty two infants <28 weeks were occlusively wrapped and randomised to radiant warmer or incubator transport to the neonatal unit. Median axillary temperature on arrival was 36.8 degrees C in both groups. Target temperatures (36.5-37.5 degrees C) were achieved in 60% of the incubator group compared to 75% in the warmer group (not statistically significant). While powered to detect a 35% difference between warming devices, a more modest difference is not excluded.

Radiant energy and insensible water loss in the premature newborn infant nursed under a radiant warmer.

PubMed

Baumgart, S

1982-10-01

Radiant warmers are a powerful and efficient source of heat serving to warm the cold-stressed infant acutely and to provide uninterrupted maintenance of body temperature despite a multiplicity of nursing, medical, and surgical procedures required to care for the critically ill premature newborn in today's intensive care nursery. A recognized side-effect of radiant warmer beds is the now well-documented increase in insensible water loss through evaporation from an infant's skin. Particularly the very-low-birth-weight, severely premature, and critically ill neonate is subject to this increase in evaporative water loss. The clinician caring for the infant is faced with the difficult problem of fluid and electrolyte balance, which requires vigilant monitoring of all parameters of fluid homeostasis. Compounding these difficulties, other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (for example, phototherapy) may affect an infant's fluid metabolism by mechanisms that are not well understood. The role of plastic heat shielding in reducing large insensible losses in infants nursed on radiant warmer beds is currently under intense investigation. Apparently, convective air currents and not radiant heat energy may be the cause of the observed increase in insensible water loss in the intensive care nursery. A thin plastic blanket may be effective in reducing evaporative water loss by diminishing an infant's exposure to convective air currents while being nursed on an open radiant warmer bed. A rigid plastic body hood, although effective as a radiant heat shield, is not as effective in preventing exposure to convection in the intensive care nursery and, therefore, is not as effective as the thin plastic blanket in reducing insensible water loss. Care should be exercised in determining the effect of heat shielding on all parameters of heat exchange (convection, evaporation, and radiation) before application is made to the critically ill premature infant nursed on an open radiant

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.

The use of far infra-red radiation for the detection of concealed metal objects.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1971-11-01

The use of infra-red radiation for the detection : of conceal ed metal objects has been investiga ted both : theoretically and experimentally. The investigation was : divided into two phases, one which considered passive : techniques, and another whi...

New Millenium Inflatable Structures Technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mollerick, Ralph

1997-01-01

Specific applications where inflatable technology can enable or enhance future space missions are tabulated. The applicability of the inflatable technology to large aperture infra-red astronomy missions is discussed. Space flight validation and risk reduction are emphasized along with the importance of analytical tools in deriving structurally sound concepts and performing optimizations using compatible codes. Deployment dynamics control, fabrication techniques, and system testing are addressed.

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.

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

Photosynthetic oxygen production in a warmer ocean: the Sargasso Sea as a case study.

PubMed

Richardson, Katherine; Bendtsen, Jørgen

2017-09-13

Photosynthetic O 2 production can be an important source of oxygen in sub-surface ocean waters especially in permanently stratified oligotrophic regions of the ocean where O 2 produced in deep chlorophyll maxima (DCM) is not likely to be outgassed. Today, permanently stratified regions extend across approximately 40% of the global ocean and their extent is expected to increase in a warmer ocean. Thus, predicting future ocean oxygen conditions requires a better understanding of the potential response of photosynthetic oxygen production to a warmer ocean. Based on our own and published observations of water column processes in oligotrophic regions, we develop a one-dimensional water column model describing photosynthetic oxygen production in the Sargasso Sea to quantify the importance of photosynthesis for the downward flux of O 2 and examine how it may be influenced in a warmer ocean. Photosynthesis is driven in the model by vertical mixing of nutrients (including eddy-induced mixing) and diazotrophy and is found to substantially increase the downward O 2 flux relative to physical-chemical processes alone. Warming (2°C) surface waters does not significantly change oxygen production at the DCM. Nor does a 15% increase in re-mineralization rate (assuming Q 10  = 2; 2°C warming) have significant effect on net sub-surface oxygen accumulation. However, changes in the relative production of particulate (POM) and dissolved organic material (DOM) generate relatively large changes in net sub-surface oxygen production. As POM/DOM production is a function of plankton community composition, this implies plankton biodiversity and food web structure may be important factors influencing O 2 production in a warmer ocean.This article is part of the themed issue 'Ocean ventilation and deoxygenation in a warming world'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Photosynthetic oxygen production in a warmer ocean: the Sargasso Sea as a case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richardson, Katherine; Bendtsen, Jørgen

2017-08-01

Photosynthetic O2 production can be an important source of oxygen in sub-surface ocean waters especially in permanently stratified oligotrophic regions of the ocean where O2 produced in deep chlorophyll maxima (DCM) is not likely to be outgassed. Today, permanently stratified regions extend across approximately 40% of the global ocean and their extent is expected to increase in a warmer ocean. Thus, predicting future ocean oxygen conditions requires a better understanding of the potential response of photosynthetic oxygen production to a warmer ocean. Based on our own and published observations of water column processes in oligotrophic regions, we develop a one-dimensional water column model describing photosynthetic oxygen production in the Sargasso Sea to quantify the importance of photosynthesis for the downward flux of O2 and examine how it may be influenced in a warmer ocean. Photosynthesis is driven in the model by vertical mixing of nutrients (including eddy-induced mixing) and diazotrophy and is found to substantially increase the downward O2 flux relative to physical-chemical processes alone. Warming (2°C) surface waters does not significantly change oxygen production at the DCM. Nor does a 15% increase in re-mineralization rate (assuming Q10 = 2; 2°C warming) have significant effect on net sub-surface oxygen accumulation. However, changes in the relative production of particulate (POM) and dissolved organic material (DOM) generate relatively large changes in net sub-surface oxygen production. As POM/DOM production is a function of plankton community composition, this implies plankton biodiversity and food web structure may be important factors influencing O2 production in a warmer ocean. This article is part of the themed issue 'Ocean ventilation and deoxygenation in a warming world'.

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.

Warmer and wetter 6000 years ago?

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

Beck, W.

1998-02-13

The author discusses recent work on thermometer systems which can be used to study past climatic temperatures. The {sup 18}O/{sup 16}O isotope ratio of marine carbonates was originally expected to provide a definitive answer following its introduction. However this ratio has been shown to be a function of temperature and the isotope ratio in seawater, which has been seen to vary on glacial time scales. Recent work to link the {sup 18}O/{sup 16}O isotope ratio with the Sr/Ca ratio measurement in corals has shown promise to factor out some of this variability. One interpretation of recent work with 6000 yearmore » corals is that sea temperatures were 1.2{degrees}C warmer, and the extratropics should have been wetter. The authors discuss other interpretations, and additional work to validate the use of these types of thermometer systems.« less

Wind Turbine Infra and Low-Frequency Sound: Warning Signs that Were Not Heard

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

James, Richard R.

2012-01-01

Industrial wind turbines are frequently thought of as benign. However, the literature is reporting adverse health effects associated with the implementation of industrial-scale wind developments. This article explores the historical evidence about what was known regarding infra and low-frequency sound from wind turbines and other noise sources…

Snowmelt sensitivity to warmer temperatures: a field-validated model analysis, southern Sierra Nevada, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Musselman, K. N.; Molotch, N. P.; Margulis, S. A.

2014-12-01

We present model simulations of climate change impacts on snowmelt processes over a 1600 km2 area in the southern Sierra Nevada, including western Sequoia National Park. The domain spans a 3600 m elevation gradient and ecosystems ranging from semi-arid grasslands to giant sequoia groves to alpine tundra. Three reference years were evaluated: a moderately dry snow season (23% below average SWE), an average snow season (7% above average SWE), and a moderately wet snow season (54% above average SWE). The Alpine3D model was run for the reference years and results were evaluated against data from a multi-scale measurement campaign that included repeated manual snow courses and basin-scale snow surveys, dozens of automated snow depth sensors, and automated SWE stations. Compared to automated measurements, the model represented the date of snow disappearance within two days. Compared to manual measurements, model SWE RMSE values for the average and wet snow seasons were highly correlated (R2=0.89 and R2=0.73) with the distance of SWE measurements from the nearest precipitation gauge used to force the model; no significant correlation was found with elevation. The results suggest that Alpine3D is highly accurate during the melt season and that precipitation uncertainty may critically limit snow model accuracy. The air temperature measured at 19 regional stations for the three reference years was modified by +1°C to +6°C to simulate the impact of warmer temperatures on snowmelt dynamics over the 3600 m elevation gradient. For all years, progressively warmer temperatures caused the seasonal SWE centroid to shift earlier and higher in elevation. At forested middle elevations, 70 - 80% of the present-day snowpack volume is lost in a +2°C scenario; 30 - 40% of that change is a result of precipitation phase shift and the remainder is due to enhanced melt. At all elevations, spring and fall snowpack was most sensitive to warmer temperatures; mid-winter sensitivity was least

A Multi-Component Strategy to Decrease Wound Complications after Open Infra-Inguinal Re-Vascularization.

PubMed

Zamani, Nader; Sharath, Sherene E; Vo, Elaine; Awad, Samir S; Kougias, Panos; Barshes, Neal R

2018-01-01

Wound complications remain a significant source of morbidity for patients undergoing open infra-inguinal re-vascularization. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of several infection-control strategies on post-operative wound complications after open infra-inguinal re-vascularization. A retrospective cohort study was conducted among all patients who underwent an open infra-inguinal re-vascularization procedure before and after 2014. Since 2014, we have implemented strategies to reduce post-operative wound complications, including: (1) Decreasing the use of incisional skin staples, (2) increasing the use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) dressings, and (3) implementing an outpatient elective decontamination protocol for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. "Pre-era" is defined as the period between January 2012 and December 2013, before the implementation of infection control strategies; "Post-era" is between January 2015 and August 2016, after implementation. The primary outcome of interest is 30-day wound complications (infection or dehiscence). Multi-variable logistic regression analysis was used to identify significant predictors of wound-related complications between the two cohorts. Propensity score adjustment controlled for baseline patient characteristics, peri-operative variables, and surgeon experience. A total of 338 open infra-inguinal procedures were performed: 175 in the pre-era and 163 in the post-era. Chlorhexidine skin preparation was used in the majority (321 [95%]) of cases. Comparing the periods, the post-era is characterized by a significant decrease in the use of groin staples (118 [67%] vs. 51 [31%], p < 0.001), and an increased application of NPWT dressings (6 [4%] vs. 66 [43%], p < 0.001). Thirty-five (37%) outpatient elective cases received the pre-operative decontamination protocol in the post-era. Compared with the pre-era, there was a decrease in the 30-day rate of wound complications (68 [39%] to

Getting into hot water: sick guppies frequent warmer thermal conditions.

PubMed

Mohammed, Ryan S; Reynolds, Michael; James, Joanna; Williams, Chris; Mohammed, Azad; Ramsubhag, Adesh; van Oosterhout, Cock; Cable, Jo

2016-07-01

Ectotherms depend on the environmental temperature for thermoregulation and exploit thermal regimes that optimise physiological functioning. They may also frequent warmer conditions to up-regulate their immune response against parasite infection and/or impede parasite development. This adaptive response, known as 'behavioural fever', has been documented in various taxa including insects, reptiles and fish, but only in response to endoparasite infections. Here, a choice chamber experiment was used to investigate the thermal preferences of a tropical freshwater fish, the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata), when infected with a common helminth ectoparasite Gyrodactylus turnbulli, in female-only and mixed-sex shoals. The temperature tolerance of G. turnbulli was also investigated by monitoring parasite population trajectories on guppies maintained at a continuous 18, 24 or 32 °C. Regardless of shoal composition, infected fish frequented the 32 °C choice chamber more often than when uninfected, significantly increasing their mean temperature preference. Parasites maintained continuously at 32 °C decreased to extinction within 3 days, whereas mean parasite abundance increased on hosts incubated at 18 and 24 °C. We show for the first time that gyrodactylid-infected fish have a preference for warmer waters and speculate that sick fish exploit the upper thermal tolerances of their parasites to self medicate.

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/.

ASPIRE - Airborne Spectro-Polarization InfraRed Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeLuca, E.; Cheimets, P.; Golub, L.; Madsen, C. A.; Marquez, V.; Bryans, P.; Judge, P. G.; Lussier, L.; McIntosh, S. W.; Tomczyk, S.

2017-12-01

Direct measurements of coronal magnetic fields are critical for taking the next step in active region and solar wind modeling and for building the next generation of physics-based space-weather models. We are proposing a new airborne instrument to make these key observations. Building on the successful Airborne InfraRed Spectrograph (AIR-Spec) experiment for the 2017 eclipse, we will design and build a spectro-polarimeter to measure coronal magnetic field during the 2019 South Pacific eclipse. The new instrument will use the AIR-Spec optical bench and the proven pointing, tracking, and stabilization optics. A new cryogenic spectro-polarimeter will be built focusing on the strongest emission lines observed during the eclipse. The AIR-Spec IR camera, slit jaw camera and data acquisition system will all be reused. The poster will outline the optical design and the science goals for ASPIRE.

Crystal Growth and Luminescence Properties of Yb-doped Gd3Al2Ga3O12 Infra-red Scintillator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Akira; Kurosawa, Shunsuke; Nagata, Shinji; Yamamura, Tomoo; Pejchal, Jan; Yamaji, Akihiro; Yokota, Yuui; Shirasaki, Kenji; Homma, Yoshiya; Aoki, Dai; Shikama, Tatsuo; Yoshikawa, Akira

2014-07-01

1-mol%-Yb-doped Gd3Al2Ga3O12 infra-red scintillator crystal has been studied as a novel implantable radiation monitor in radiation therapy. Powder X-ray diffraction measurement and chemical analysis with a field emission scanning microscope and wavelength dispersive spectrometer determined its garnet structure and average chemical composition of Yb0.03±0.01Gd2.99±0.07Al2.21±0.08Ga2.64±0.09O12.10±0.09. Transmittance measurements reached high values of approximately 70% in the human body transparency region between 650 to 1200 nm. Photoluminescence peaks were detected around 970 and 1030 nm under the 940 nm excitation with a Xe lamp. Infra-red scintillation emissions were clearly observed around 970 and 1030 nm due to Yb3+ 4f-4f transitions under X-ray excitation. Therefore, these results suggest that Yb-doped Gd3Al2Ga3O12 might be used as an infra-red scintillator material.

In-line Microwave Warmer for Blood and Intravenous Fluids. Phase 2.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-02-15

occuring in the battlefield often requires restoring normothermia and infusion of fluids, such as saline or blood, into the patient. These two...elevation is required to restore normal body temperature in response to hypothermic cardioplegic arrest induced prior to the operation. 6 1.2 System... Microfiltration Devices," Acta Annaesth Scand, 23:40- 45, 1979. [20] K Linko, K Hynynen, "Erythrocyte Damage Caused by the Haemotherm Microwave Blood Warmer

Source technology as the foundation for modern infra-red counter measures (IRCM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grasso, Robert J.

2010-10-01

Protection of military aircraft from IR guided threats is paramount to ensure the survivability of aircrews, platforms, and to ensure mission success. At the foundation of all IRCM systems is the source; that component that provides the in-band radiant energy required for threat defeat. As such, source technology has evolved with IRCM technology to encompass the evolving systems architectures that encompass IRCM: 1) "Hot Brick" omni-directional sources; 2) arc lamps, and; 3) lasers. Lasers, as IRCM sources continue to evolve to meet the challenges of ever-evolving threats, superior techniques, economy of installation, and superior source technology. Lasers represent the single greatest advance in IRCM source technology and continue to evolve to meet ever more sophisticated threats. And have been used with great effect in all modern IRCM systems; evolving from frequency doubled CO2 lasers, to solid state lasers with OPOs, to semiconductor lasers including Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs); these last devices represent the latest advance in IRCM source technology offering all-band coverage, architectural simplicity, and economy of scale. While QCLs represent the latest advance in IRCM laser technology, fiber lasers show much promise in addressing multi-band operation as well as the ability to be coherently combined to achieve even greater output capability. Also, ultra-short pulse lasers are evolving to become practical for IRCM applications. Stay tuned ......

A Novel Supra-Brow Combined with Infra-Brow Lift Approach for Asian Women.

PubMed

Shu, Maoguo; He, Lin; Su, Yingjun; Shi, Junli; Zhang, Xi; Liu, Xiangyu; Yu, Xueyuan

2016-06-01

Direct brow lift surgery remains popular among Asian women despite its disadvantages. The traditional direct brow lift by a supra-brow incision is not suitable for Asian women because of their unique facial features, such as higher eyebrows, wider upper eyelids, and more orbital fat. Therefore, we designed a novel brow lift technique via a supra-brow combined with an infra-brow approach for Asian women. An area of skin above and below the eyebrow was measured, demarcated, and surgically removed. The redundant orbicularis oculi muscle (OOM) was excised while keeping the frontalis muscle intact. The OOM in the inferior flap was elevated and sutured to the frontalis muscle. In cases of puffy eyelids, orbital fat was partially removed through an infra-brow incision. Finally, a series of modifications were performed to reduce post-operative scarring. A total of 496 patients underwent this surgery from July 2009 to December 2013 and 432 patients were followed up for at least 6 months after surgery. Post-operative scars, in most patients (428/432), were inconspicuous. There were no facial nerve injuries documented and eight patients reported transient forehead numbness. The height of the palpebral fissure was increased but there was no marked increase observed of the distance between the upper eyelid edge and the eyebrow. In follow-up visits, 409 out of 432 patients (94.7 %) were satisfied with their surgical results. This new brow lift technique via a supra-brow combined with an infra-brow approach provided a simple and safe surgical repair of lateral brow ptosis, upper eyelids hooding, and crows' feet in Asian women. The surgical outcomes were predictable and the scars were inconspicuous. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

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

Asymmetric effects of cooler and warmer winters on beech phenology last beyond spring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Signarbieux, Constant; Toledano, Ester; Sangines, Paula; Fu, Yongshuo; Schlaepfer, Rodolphe; Buttler, Alexandre; Vitasse, Yann

2017-04-01

In temperate trees, the timing of plant growth onset and cessation affect biogeochemical cycles, water and energy balance. Currently, phenological studies largely focus on specific phenophases and on their responses to warming. How differently spring phenology responds to the warming and cooling, and affects the subsequent phases, has not been well investigated. Here, we exposed saplings of Fagus sylvatica L. to warmer and cooler climate during the winter 2013-2014 by conducting a reciprocal transplant experiment between two elevations (1340 vs. 371 m.a.s.l., ca. 6°C difference) in the Swiss Jura mountains. To test the legacy effects of earlier or later budburst on the budset timing, saplings were moved back to their original elevation shortly after the occurrence of budburst in spring 2014. One degree decrease of air temperature resulted in a delay of 10.9 days in budburst dates, whereas one degree of warming advanced the date by 8.8 days. Interestingly, we found an asymmetric effect of the warmer winter vs. cooler winter on the budset timing in autumn: saplings experiencing a cooler winter showed a delay of 31 days in their budset timing compared to the control, whereas saplings experiencing a warmer winter showed 10 days earlier budset. The dependency of spring over autumn phenophases might be partly explained by the building up of the non-structural carbohydrate storage and suggests that the potential delay in growth cessation due to global warming might be smaller than expected. We did not find a significant correlation in budburst dates between 2014 and 2015, indicating that the legacy effects of the different phenophases might be reset during each winter. Adapting phenological models to the whole annual phenological cycle, and considering the different response to cooling and warming, would improve predictions of tree phenology under future climate warming conditions.

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.

A study of doping influences on transmission of large-diameter gallium antimonide substrates for long-wave (LWIR) to very long wavelength (VLWIR) infra-red applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martinez, Rebecca; Tybjerg, Marius; Smith, Brian; Mowbray, Andrew; Furlong, Mark J.

2015-06-01

Gallium antimonide (GaSb) is an important Group III-V compound semiconductor for infra-red (IR) photodetectors used in sensing and imaging applications. Operating in the mid (3-5 μm) to long wavelength region (8-12 μm) of the IR spectrum, the application of GaSb detectors is extensive, encompassing military, industrial, medical and environmental uses. A significant developing technology for GaSb based detectors are those effective in the very long wavelength (VLWIR) infra-red region (13 μm and beyond) which are advantageous in space and stealth based applications which necessitate high operating temperatures. In this study different doping levels of GaSb are considered and the IR transmission spectra examined by Fourier Transform IR analysis. GaSb n-type doped material consistent in delivering long to very long wavelength transmission is demonstrated which is preferable to p-type material which requires backside thinning for IR transmission. Czochralski (Cz) grown GaSb wafers are assessed for electrical quality and uniformity results, on Hall mobility, resistivity and carrier level reported. Results of this work will establish the carrier concentration that ultimately results in high transparency substrates. In summary enhancements in IR transmission will be shown to be achieved in GaSb bulk crystals by tellurium (Te) compensation.

Differences in Temperature Changes in Premature Infants During Invasive Procedures in Incubators and Radiant Warmers.

PubMed

Handhayanti, Ludwy; Rustina, Yeni; Budiati, Tri

Premature infants tend to lose heat quickly. This loss can be aggravated when they have received an invasive procedure involving a venous puncture. This research uses crossover design by conducting 2 intervention tests to compare 2 different treatments on the same sample. This research involved 2 groups with 18 premature infants in each. The process of data analysis used a statistical independent t test. Interventions conducted in an open incubator showed a p value of .001 which statistically related to heat loss in premature infants. In contrast, the radiant warmer p value of .001 statistically referred to a different range of heat gain before and after the venous puncture was given. The radiant warmer saved the premature infant from hypothermia during the invasive procedure. However, it is inadvisable for routine care of newborn infants since it can increase insensible water loss.

Sensing of moisture content in in-shell peanuts by NIR (Near Infra Red) reflectance spectroscopy

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

It was found earlier that moisture content (MC) of intact kernels of grain and nuts could be determined by Near Infra Red (NIR) reflectance spectrometry. However, if the MC values can be determined while the nuts are in their shells, it would save lot of labor and money spent in shelling and cleanin...

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

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

Efficacy of full-fat milk and diluted lemon juice in reducing infra-cardiac activity of (99m)Tc sestamibi during myocardial perfusion imaging.

PubMed

Purbhoo, Khushica; Vangu, Mboyo Di Tamba Willy

2015-01-01

When using (99m)Tc sestamibi for myocardial perfusion imaging, increased splanchnic activity creates a problem in the visual and quantitative interpretation of the inferior and infero-septal walls of the left ventricle. We sought to determine whether the administration of diluted lemon juice or full-fat milk would be effective in reducing interfering infra-cardiac activity and therefore result in an improvement in image quality. We compared the administration of full-fat milk and diluted lemon juice to a control group that had no intervention. The study was carried out prospectively. All patients referred to our institution for myocardial perfusion imaging from November 2009 to May 2012 were invited to be enrolled in the study. A total of 630 patients were randomised into three groups. Group 0 (G0), 246 patients, were given diluted lemon juice, group 1 (G1), 313 patients, were given full-fat milk, and group 2 (G2), 71 patients, had no intervention (control group). A routine two-day protocol was used and the patients were given the same intervention on both days. Raw data of both the stress and rest images were visually assessed for the presence of infra-cardiac activity, and quantitative grading of the relative intensity of myocardial activity to infra-cardiac activity was determined. The physicians were blinded to the intervention received and the data were reviewed simultaneously. The overall incidence of interfering infra-cardiac activity at stress was 84.1, 84.5 and 96.6% in G0, G1 and G2, respectively (p = 0.005). At rest it was 91.7, 90.1 and 100% in G0, G1 and G2, respectively (p = 0.0063). The visual and quantitative results favoured both milk and lemon juice in reducing the amount of interfering infra-cardiac activity versus no intervention. The administration of milk or lemon juice resulted in a significant decrease in the intensity of infra-cardiac activity compared to the control group. This reduction in intensity was even more significant in the milk

Does warmer China land attract more super typhoons?

PubMed Central

Xu, Xiangde; Peng, Shiqiu; Yang, Xiangjing; Xu, Hongxiong; Tong, Daniel Q.; Wang, Dongxiao; Guo, Yudi; Chan, Johnny C. L.; Chen, Lianshou; Yu, Wei; Li, Yineng; Lai, Zhijuan; Zhang, Shengjun

2013-01-01

Accurate prediction of where and when typhoons (or named hurricanes which form over the North Atlantic Ocean) will make landfall is critical to protecting human lives and properties. Although the traditional method of typhoon track prediction based on the steering flow theory has been proven to be an effective way in most situations, it slipped up in some cases. Our analysis of the long-term Chinese typhoon records reveals that typhoons, especially super typhoons (those with maximum sustained surface winds of greater than 51 ms−1), have a trend to make landfalls toward warmer land in China over the past 50 years (1960–2009). Numerical sensitivity experiments using an advanced atmospheric model further confirm this finding. Our finding suggests an alternative approach to predict the landfall tracks of the most devastating typhoons in the southeastern China. PMID:23519311

The influence of physiological status on age prediction of Anopheles arabiensis using near infra-red spectroscopy

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Determining the age of malaria vectors is essential for evaluating the impact of interventions that reduce the survival of wild mosquito populations and for estimating changes in vectorial capacity. Near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) is a simple and non-destructive method that has been used to deter...

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.

Infra-red lamp panel study and assessment application to thermal vacuum testing of sigma telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mauduyt, Jacques; Merlet, Joseph; Poux, Christiane

1986-01-01

A research and development program of the Infra-Red Test has been conducted by the French Space Agency (CNES). A choice, after characterization, among several possibilities has been made on the type of methods and facilities for the I.R. test. An application to the Thermal Vacuum Test of the SIGMA Telescope is described.

AIRES: An Airborne Infra-Red Echelle Spectrometer for SOFIA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dotson, Jessie J.; Erickson, Edwin F.; Haas, Michael R.; Colgan, Sean W. J.; Simpson, Janet P.; Telesco, Charles M.; Pina, Robert K.; Wolf, Juergen; Young, Erick T.

1999-01-01

SOFIA will enable astronomical observations with unprecedented angular resolution at infrared wavelengths obscured from the ground. To help open this new chapter in the exploration of the infrared universe, we are building AIRES, an Airborne Infra-Red Echelle Spectrometer. AIRES will be operated as a first generation, general purpose facility instrument by USRA, NASA's prime contractor for SOFIA. AIRES is a long slit spectrograph operating from 17 - 210 microns. In high resolution mode the spectral resolving power is approx. 10(exp 6) microns/A or approx. 10(exp 4) at 100 microns. Unfortunately, since the conference, a low resolution mode with resolving power about 100 times lower has been deleted due to budgetary constraints. AIRES includes a slit viewing camera which operates in broad bands at 18 and 25 microns.

Redefining the MED13L syndrome

PubMed Central

Adegbola, Abidemi; Musante, Luciana; Callewaert, Bert; Maciel, Patricia; Hu, Hao; Isidor, Bertrand; Picker-Minh, Sylvie; Le Caignec, Cedric; Delle Chiaie, Barbara; Vanakker, Olivier; Menten, Björn; Dheedene, Annelies; Bockaert, Nele; Roelens, Filip; Decaestecker, Karin; Silva, João; Soares, Gabriela; Lopes, Fátima; Najmabadi, Hossein; Kahrizi, Kimia; Cox, Gerald F; Angus, Steven P; Staropoli, John F; Fischer, Ute; Suckow, Vanessa; Bartsch, Oliver; Chess, Andrew; Ropers, Hans-Hilger; Wienker, Thomas F; Hübner, Christoph; Kaindl, Angela M; Kalscheuer, Vera M

2015-01-01

Congenital cardiac and neurodevelopmental deficits have been recently linked to the mediator complex subunit 13-like protein MED13L, a subunit of the CDK8-associated mediator complex that functions in transcriptional regulation through DNA-binding transcription factors and RNA polymerase II. Heterozygous MED13L variants cause transposition of the great arteries and intellectual disability (ID). Here, we report eight patients with predominantly novel MED13L variants who lack such complex congenital heart malformations. Rather, they depict a syndromic form of ID characterized by facial dysmorphism, ID, speech impairment, motor developmental delay with muscular hypotonia and behavioral difficulties. We thereby define a novel syndrome and significantly broaden the clinical spectrum associated with MED13L variants. A prominent feature of the MED13L neurocognitive presentation is profound language impairment, often in combination with articulatory deficits. PMID:25758992

Redefining the MED13L syndrome.

PubMed

Adegbola, Abidemi; Musante, Luciana; Callewaert, Bert; Maciel, Patricia; Hu, Hao; Isidor, Bertrand; Picker-Minh, Sylvie; Le Caignec, Cedric; Delle Chiaie, Barbara; Vanakker, Olivier; Menten, Björn; Dheedene, Annelies; Bockaert, Nele; Roelens, Filip; Decaestecker, Karin; Silva, João; Soares, Gabriela; Lopes, Fátima; Najmabadi, Hossein; Kahrizi, Kimia; Cox, Gerald F; Angus, Steven P; Staropoli, John F; Fischer, Ute; Suckow, Vanessa; Bartsch, Oliver; Chess, Andrew; Ropers, Hans-Hilger; Wienker, Thomas F; Hübner, Christoph; Kaindl, Angela M; Kalscheuer, Vera M

2015-10-01

Congenital cardiac and neurodevelopmental deficits have been recently linked to the mediator complex subunit 13-like protein MED13L, a subunit of the CDK8-associated mediator complex that functions in transcriptional regulation through DNA-binding transcription factors and RNA polymerase II. Heterozygous MED13L variants cause transposition of the great arteries and intellectual disability (ID). Here, we report eight patients with predominantly novel MED13L variants who lack such complex congenital heart malformations. Rather, they depict a syndromic form of ID characterized by facial dysmorphism, ID, speech impairment, motor developmental delay with muscular hypotonia and behavioral difficulties. We thereby define a novel syndrome and significantly broaden the clinical spectrum associated with MED13L variants. A prominent feature of the MED13L neurocognitive presentation is profound language impairment, often in combination with articulatory deficits.

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.

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 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.

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

The effect of warmer winters on the demography of an outbreak insect is hidden by intraspecific competition

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

Goodsman, Devin W.; Grosklos, Guenchik; Aukema, Brian H.

Warmer climates are predicted to increase bark beetle outbreak frequency, severity, and range. Even in favorable climates, however, outbreaks can decelerate due to resource limitation, which necessitates the inclusion of competition for limited resources in analyses of climatic effects on populations. We evaluated several hypotheses of how climate impacts mountain pine beetle reproduction using an extensive 9-year dataset, in which nearly 10,000 trees were sampled across a region of approximately 90,000 km 2, that was recently invaded by the mountain pine beetle in Alberta, Canada. Our analysis supports the hypothesis of a positive effect of warmer winter temperatures on mountainmore » pine beetle overwinter survival and provides evidence that the increasing trend in minimum winter temperatures over time in North America is an important driver of increased mountain pine beetle reproduction across the region. Although we demonstrate a consistent effect of warmer minimum winter temperatures on mountain pine beetle reproductive rates that is evident at the landscape and regional scales, this effect is overwhelmed by the effect of competition for resources within trees at the site level. Our results suggest that detection of the effects of a warming climate on bark beetle populations at small spatial scales may be difficult without accounting for negative density dependence due to competition for resources.« less

The effect of warmer winters on the demography of an outbreak insect is hidden by intraspecific competition.

PubMed

Goodsman, Devin W; Grosklos, Guenchik; Aukema, Brian H; Whitehouse, Caroline; Bleiker, Katherine P; McDowell, Nate G; Middleton, Richard S; Xu, Chonggang

2018-05-29

Warmer climates are predicted to increase bark beetle outbreak frequency, severity, and range. Even in favorable climates, however, outbreaks can decelerate due to resource limitation, which necessitates the inclusion of competition for limited resources in analyses of climatic effects on populations. We evaluated several hypotheses of how climate impacts mountain pine beetle reproduction using an extensive 9-year dataset, in which nearly 10,000 trees were sampled across a region of approximately 90,000 km 2 , that was recently invaded by the mountain pine beetle in Alberta, Canada. Our analysis supports the hypothesis of a positive effect of warmer winter temperatures on mountain pine beetle overwinter survival and provides evidence that the increasing trend in minimum winter temperatures over time in North America is an important driver of increased mountain pine beetle reproduction across the region. Although we demonstrate a consistent effect of warmer minimum winter temperatures on mountain pine beetle reproductive rates that is evident at the landscape and regional scales, this effect is overwhelmed by the effect of competition for resources within trees at the site level. Our results suggest that detection of the effects of a warming climate on bark beetle populations at small spatial scales may be difficult without accounting for negative density dependence due to competition for resources. © 2018 The Authors. Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The effect of warmer winters on the demography of an outbreak insect is hidden by intraspecific competition

DOE PAGES

Goodsman, Devin W.; Grosklos, Guenchik; Aukema, Brian H.; ...

2018-05-29

Warmer climates are predicted to increase bark beetle outbreak frequency, severity, and range. Even in favorable climates, however, outbreaks can decelerate due to resource limitation, which necessitates the inclusion of competition for limited resources in analyses of climatic effects on populations. We evaluated several hypotheses of how climate impacts mountain pine beetle reproduction using an extensive 9-year dataset, in which nearly 10,000 trees were sampled across a region of approximately 90,000 km 2, that was recently invaded by the mountain pine beetle in Alberta, Canada. Our analysis supports the hypothesis of a positive effect of warmer winter temperatures on mountainmore » pine beetle overwinter survival and provides evidence that the increasing trend in minimum winter temperatures over time in North America is an important driver of increased mountain pine beetle reproduction across the region. Although we demonstrate a consistent effect of warmer minimum winter temperatures on mountain pine beetle reproductive rates that is evident at the landscape and regional scales, this effect is overwhelmed by the effect of competition for resources within trees at the site level. Our results suggest that detection of the effects of a warming climate on bark beetle populations at small spatial scales may be difficult without accounting for negative density dependence due to competition for resources.« less

Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope WFIRST

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, J.; Schechter, P.; Baltay, C.; Bean, R.; Bennett, D.; Brown, R.; Conselice, C.; Donahue, M.; Fan, X.; Rauscher, B.;

Infra-Red Characteristics of Faint Galactic Carbon Stars from the First Byurakan Spectral Sky Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kostandyan, G. R.; Gigoyan, K. S.

2017-07-01

Infra-Red (IR) astronomical databases, namely, IRAS, 2MASS, WISE, and Spitzer, are used to analyze photometric data of 126 carbon (C) stars whose spectra are visible in the First Byurakan Survey (FBS) (Markarian et al. 1989) low-resolution (lr) spectral plates. In this work several IR color-color diagrams are studied. Early and late-type C stars are separated in the JHK Near-Infra-Red (NIR) color-color plots, as well as in the WISE W3-W4 versus W1-W2 diagram. Late N-type Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars are redder in W1-W2, while early-types (CH and R giants) are redder in W3-W4 as expected. Objects with W2-W3 > 1.0m show double-peaked spectral energy distribution (SED), indicating the existence of the circumstellar envelopes around them. 26 N-type stars have IRAS Point Source Catalog (PSC) associations. The reddest object among the targets is N-type C star FBS 2213+421, which belong to the group of the cold post-AGB R Coronae Borealis (R CrB) variables (Rossi et al. 2016).

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.

Wibree: wireless communication technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandes e Fizardo, Trima Piedade

2011-12-01

Nowadays everywhere we come across electronic devices and now the world has become entirely mobile with so many new electronic equipments. The number of computing and telecommunications devices is increasing and consequently the focus on how to connect them to each other. The usual solution is to connect the device with cables or using infra red light to make file transfer and synchronizations possible but infrared light requires line of sight. To solve these problems a new technology,Wibree radio technology complements other local connectivity technologies, consuming only a fraction of the power compared to other radio technologies, enabling smaller and less costly implementations and being easy to integrate with Bluetooth solutions, Furthermore it can be also used to enable communication between several units such as small radio LANs.This paper focuses on why this technology has got large attention although there are pro's and con's with respect to other technologies.

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@ ...

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.

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

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

Accidental overheating of a newborn under an infant radiant warmer: a lesson for future use.

PubMed

Molgat-Seon, Y; Daboval, T; Chou, S; Jay, O

2013-09-01

A fully functional radiant warmer induced rapid and continuous increases in regional skin temperatures, heart rate, mean arterial blood pressure and respiratory rate in a newborn patient without corrective action. We report this case of passive overheating to create awareness of the risks associated with regulating radiant heat output based upon a single servo-controlled temperature.

Diamond Turning Of Infra-Red Components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hodgson, B.; Lettington, A. H.; Stillwell, P. F. T. C.

1986-05-01

Single point diamond machining of infra-red optical components such as aluminium mirrors, germanium lenses and zinc sulphide domes is potentially the most cost effective method for their manufacture since components may be machined from the blanks to a high surface finish, requiring no subsequent polishing, in a few minutes. Machines for the production of flat surfaces are well established. Diamond turning lathes for curved surfaces however require a high capital investment which can be justified only for research purposes or high volume production. The present paper describes the development of a low cost production machine based on a Bryant Symons diamond turning lathe which is able to machine spherical components to the required form and finish. It employs two horizontal spindles one for the workpiece the other for the tool. The machined radius of curvature is set by the alignment of the axes and the radius of the tool motion, as in conventional generation. The diamond tool is always normal to the workpiece and does not need to be accurately profiled. There are two variants of this basic machine. For machining hemispherical domes the axes are at right angles while for lenses with positive or negative curvature these axes are adjustable. An aspherical machine is under development, based on the all mechanical spherical machine, but in which a ± 2 mm aspherecity may be imposed on the best fit sphere by moving the work spindle under numerical control.

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

Warmer and drier conditions and nitrogen fertilizer application altered methanotroph abundance and methane emissions in a vegetable soil.

PubMed

Ran, Yu; Xie, Jianli; Xu, Xiaoya; Li, Yong; Liu, Yapeng; Zhang, Qichun; Li, Zheng; Xu, Jianming; Di, Hongjie

2017-01-01

Methane (CH 4 ) is a potent greenhouse gas, and soil can both be a source and sink for atmospheric CH 4 . It is not clear how future climate change may affect soil CH 4 emissions and related microbial communities. The aim of this study was to determine the interactive effects of a simulated warmer and drier climate scenarios and the application of different nitrogen (N) sources (urea and manure) on CH 4 emissions and related microbial community abundance in a vegetable soil. Greenhouses were used to control simulated climate conditions which gave 2.99 °C warmer and 6.2% lower water content conditions. The field experiment was divided into two phases. At the beginning of phase II, half of the greenhouses were removed to study possible legacy effects of the simulated warmer and drier conditions. The responses in methanogen and methanotroph abundance to a simulated climate change scenario were determined using real-time PCR. The results showed that the simulated warmer and drier conditions in the greenhouses significantly decreased CH 4 emissions largely due to the lower soil moisture content. For the same reason, CH 4 emissions of treatments in phase I were much lower than the same treatments in phase II. The abundance of methanotrophs showed a more significant response than methanogens to the simulated climate change scenario, increasing under simulated drier conditions. Methanogenic community abundance remained low, except where manure was applied which provided a source of organic C that stimulated methanogen growth. Soil moisture content was a major driver for methanotroph abundance and strongly affected CH 4 emissions. The application of N source decreased CH 4 emissions probably because of increased methanotrophic activity. CH 4 emissions were positively correlated to methanogenic abundance and negatively correlated to methanotrophic abundance. These results demonstrate that projected future climate change conditions can have a feedback impact on CH 4

Further confirmation of the MED13L haploinsufficiency syndrome.

PubMed

van Haelst, Mieke M; Monroe, Glen R; Duran, Karen; van Binsbergen, Ellen; Breur, Johannes M; Giltay, Jacques C; van Haaften, Gijs

2015-01-01

MED13L haploinsufficiency syndrome has been described in two patients and is characterized by moderate intellectual disability (ID), conotruncal heart defects, facial abnormalities and hypotonia. Missense mutations in MED13L are linked to transposition of the great arteries and non-syndromal intellectual disability. Here we describe two novel patients with de novo MED13L aberrations. The first patient has a de novo mutation in the splice acceptor site of exon 5 of MED13L. cDNA analysis showed this mutation results in an in-frame deletion, removing 15 amino acids in middle of the conserved MED13L N-terminal domain. The second patient carries a de novo deletion of exons 6-20 of MED13L. Both patients show features of the MED13L haploinsufficiency syndrome, except for the heart defects, thus further confirming the existence of the MED13L haploinsufficiency syndrome.

Will the warmer temperature bring the more intensity precipitation?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yutong, Z., II; Wang, T.

2017-12-01

Will the warmer temperature bring the more intensity precipitation?Over the past several decades, changes in climate are amplified over the Tibetan Plateau(TP), with warming trend almost being twice as large as the global average. In sharp contrast, there is a large spatial discrepancy of the variations in precipitation extremes, with increasing trends found in the southern and decreasing trends in central TP. These features motivate are urgent need for an observation-based understanding of how precipitation extremes respond to climate change. Here we examine the relation between precipitation intensity with atmospheric temperature, dew point temperature (Td) and convective available potential energy (CAPE) in Tibet Plateau. Owing to the influences of the westerlies and Indian monsoon on Tibetan climate, the stations can be divided into three sub-regions in TP: the westerlies region (north of 35°N, N = 28), the monsoon region (south of 30°N in TP, N = 31), and the transition region (located between 30°N and 35°N, N = 48). We found that the intensity precipitation does not follow the C-C relation and there is a mix of positive and negative slope. To better understand why different scaling occurs with temperature in district region, using the dew point temperature replace the temperature, although there is significant variability in relative humidity values, at most stations, there appears to be a general increase in relative humidity associated. It is likely that the observed rise in relative humidity can assist in explaining the negative scaling of extreme precipitation at westerlies domain and monsoon domain, with the primary reason why precipitation extremes expected to increase follows from the fact that a warmer atmosphere can "hold" more moisture. This suggests that not only on how much the moisture the atmosphere can hold, but on how much moisture exits in atmosphere. To understand the role of dynamic on extreme precipitation, we repeat the precipitation

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.

Thirty-Meter Telescope: A Technical Study of the InfraRed Multiobject Spectrograph

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

U, Vivian; Dekany, R.; Mobasher, B.

2013-01-01

The InfraRed Multiobject Spectrograph (IRMS) is an adaptive optics (AO)-fed, reconfigurable near-infrared multi-object spectrograph and imager on the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Its design is based on the MOSFIRE spectrograph currently operating on the Keck Observatory. As one of the first three first-light instruments on the TMT, IRMS is in a mini-conceptual design phase. Here we motivate the science goals of the instrument and present the anticipated sensitivity estimates based on the combination of MOSFIRE with the AO system NFIRAOS on TMT. An assessment of the IRMS on-instrument wavefront sensor performance and vignetting issue will also be discussed.

Reduced Urban Heat Island intensity under warmer conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scott, Anna A.; Waugh, Darryn W.; Zaitchik, Ben F.

2018-06-01

The Urban Heat Island (UHI), the tendency for urban areas to be hotter than rural regions, represents a significant health concern in summer as urban populations are exposed to elevated temperatures. A number of studies suggest that the UHI increases during warmer conditions, however there has been no investigation of this for a large ensemble of cities. Here we compare urban and rural temperatures in 54 US cities for 2000–2015 and show that the intensity of the Urban Heat Island, measured here as the differences in daily-minimum or daily-maximum temperatures between urban and rural stations or ΔT, in fact tends to decrease with increasing temperature in most cities (38/54). This holds when investigating daily variability, heat extremes, and variability across climate zones and is primarily driven by changes in rural areas. We relate this change to large-scale or synoptic weather conditions, and find that the lowest ΔT nights occur during moist weather conditions. We also find that warming cities have not experienced an increasing Urban Heat Island effect.

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 human brain pacemaker: Synchronized infra-slow neurovascular coupling in patients undergoing non-pulsatile cardiopulmonary bypass.

PubMed

Zanatta, Paolo; Toffolo, Gianna Maria; Sartori, Elisa; Bet, Anna; Baldanzi, Fabrizio; Agarwal, Nivedita; Golanov, Eugene

2013-05-15

In non-pulsatile cardiopulmonary bypass surgery, middle cerebral artery blood flow velocity (BFV) is characterized by infra-slow oscillations of approximately 0.06Hz, which are paralleled by changes in total EEG power variability (EEG-PV), measured in 2s intervals. Since the origin of these BFV oscillations is not known, we explored their possible causative relationships with oscillations in EEG-PV at around 0.06Hz. We monitored 28 patients undergoing non-pulsatile cardiopulmonary bypass using transcranial Doppler sonography and scalp electroencephalography at two levels of anesthesia, deep (prevalence of burst suppression rhythm) and moderate (prevalence of theta rhythm). Under deep anesthesia, the EEG bursts suppression pattern was highly correlative with BFV oscillations. Hence, a detailed quantitative picture of the coupling between electrical brain activity and BFV was derived, both in deep and moderate anesthesia, via linear and non linear processing of EEG-PV and BFV signals, resorting to widely used measures of signal coupling such as frequency of oscillations, coherence, Granger causality and cross-approximate entropy. Results strongly suggest the existence of coupling between EEG-PV and BFV. In moderate anesthesia EEG-PV mean dominant frequency is similar to frequency of BFV oscillations (0.065±0.010Hz vs 0.045±0.019Hz); coherence between the two signals was significant in about 55% of subjects, and the Granger causality suggested an EEG-PV→BFV causal effect direction. The strength of the coupling increased with deepening anesthesia, as EEG-PV oscillations mean dominant frequency virtually coincided with the BFV peak frequency (0.062±0.017Hz vs 0.060±0.024Hz), and coherence became significant in a larger number (65%) of subjects. Cross-approximate entropy decreased significantly from moderate to deep anesthesia, indicating a higher level of synchrony between the two signals. Presence of a subcortical brain pacemaker that drives vascular infra

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

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

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.

[On academic thought and clinical application of LI Yan-Fang's middle-warmer energy method].

PubMed

Li, Li-Jun

2010-10-01

The present paper introduces LI Yan-Fang's middle-warmer energy method from acupoint selection, needling methods, treatment principle and his clinical experiences in treatment of stroke and insomnia etc. The acupuncture prescription of this method consist of Shangwan (CV 13), Zhongwan (CV 12), Jianli (CV 11), Xiawan (CV 10), Shuifen (CV 9), Huangshu (KI 16) and Qihai (CV 6) etc as the main acupoints combined with strict manipulation and depth of needling to treat clinical diseases.

Tropical cyclones in a stabilized 1.5 and 2 degree warmer world.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wehner, M. F.; Stone, D. A.; Loring, B.; Krishnan, H.

2017-12-01

We present an ensemble of very high resolution global climate model simulations of a stabilized 1.5oC and 2oC warmer climate as envisioned by the Paris COP21 agreement. The resolution of this global climate model (25km) permits simulated tropical cyclones up to Category Five on the Saffir-Simpson scale Projected changes in tropical cyclones are significant. Tropical cyclones in the two stabilization scenarios are less frequent but more intense than in simulations of the present. Output data from these simulations is freely available to all interested parties and should prove a useful resource to those interested in studying the impacts of stabilized global warming.

Evaluating preservation methods for identifying Anopheles gambiae s.s. and Anopheles arabiensis complex mosquitoes species using near infra-red spectroscopy

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) has been successfully used on fresh and RNAlater® preserved Anopheles gambiae complex to identify sibling species and age. No preservation methods other than RNAlater® have been tested to preserve mosquitoes for species identification using NIRS. However, RNAlater®...

Infra-red and vibration tests of hybrid ablative/ceramic matrix technological breadboards for earth re-entry thermal protection systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barcena, Jorge; Garmendia, Iñaki; Triantou, Kostoula; Mergia, Konstatina; Perez, Beatriz; Florez, Sonia; Pinaud, Gregory; Bouilly, Jean-Marc; Fischer, Wolfgang P. P.

2017-05-01

A new thermal protection system for atmospheric earth re-entry is proposed. This concept combines the advantages of both reusable and ablative materials to establish a new hybrid concept with advanced capabilities. The solution consists of the design and the integration of a dual shield resulting on the overlapping of an external thin ablative layer with a Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC) thermo-structural core. This low density ablative material covers the relatively small heat peak encountered during re-entry the CMC is not able to bear. On the other hand the big advantage of the CMC based TPS is of great benefit which can deal with the high integral heat for the bigger time period of the re-entry. To verify the solution a whole testing plan is envisaged, which as part of it includes thermal shock test by infra-red heating (heating flux up to 1 MW/m2) and vibration test under launcher conditions (Volna and Ariane 5). Sub-scale tile samples (100×100 mm2) representative of the whole system (dual ablator/ceramic layers, insulation, stand-offs) are specifically designed, assembled and tested (including the integration of thermocouples). Both the thermal and the vibration test are analysed numerically by simulation tools using Finite Element Models. The experimental results are in good agreement with the expected calculated parameters and moreover the solution is qualified according to the specified requirements.

The last interglacial in eastern Canada and the northwest North Atlantic : further evidence for warmer climate and ocean conditions than during the Holocene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Vernal, A.; Fréchette, B.; Hillaire-Marcel, C.; van Nieuwenhove, N.; Retailleau, S.

2012-04-01

The climate conditions of the last interglacial (LI) in northeastern and southeastern Canada are documented from pollen data of Baffin Island and Cape Breton Island respectively. The LI pollen assemblages indicate very different vegetation than at present and a northern limit of the deciduous forest biome as far as 500 km north of its modern position. The application of the modern analogue technique also reveal warmer climate during the LI than at present, 4-5°C warmer on Baffin Island at ~67-70°N in the Canadian Arctic, and up to 7°C warmer on Cape Breton Island at ~45°N in the southeastern Canada. The contrast between LI and Holocene climates is also shown from marine data (dinocysts, foraminifers, oxygen and carbon isotopes) that document warmer than Holocene conditions in surface waters (up to 5.5°C in summer, notably off southwest Greenland) and very distinct distribution of intermediate to deep waters in northern and southern part of the Labrador Sea. An important zonal atmospheric circulation component at mid-latitudes of the North Atlantic is also evidenced from the pollen content of marine cores collected in central North Atlantic (IODP Site 1304), which strongly suggests an origin from southeastern Canada. Altogether the data demonstrate much warmer conditions along the eastern Canadian margins, from North to South. The mild conditions along the coastlines and the relatively warm waters off eastern Canada and southern Greenland suggest reduced Arctic outflow components through the East Greenland Current and Labrador Current. Comparisons with records from eastern North Atlantic lead us to conclude in a more zonal climate during the LI than the Holocene, especially the early Holocene that was marked by a particularly pronounced west to east gradient of temperatures. Hence, the thermal optimum of the LI and that of the Holocene provide two examples of very different climate and ocean circulation regimes in the circum-Atlantic region during the "warm

Near-InfraRed Planet Searcher to Join HARPS on the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouchy, F.; Doyon, R.; Artigau, É.; Melo, C.; Hernandez, O.; Wildi, F.; Delfosse, X.; Lovis, C.; Figueira, P.; Canto Martins, B. L..; González Hernández, J. I..; Thibault, S.; Reshetov, V.; Pepe, F.; Santos, N. C.; de Medeiros, J. R..; Rebolo, R.; Abreu, M.; Adibekyan, V. Z.; Bandy, T.; Benz, W.; Blind, N.; Bohlender, D.; Boisse, I.; Bovay, S.; Broeg, C.; Brousseau, D.; Cabral, A.; Chazelas, B.; Cloutier, R.; Coelho, J.; Conod, U.; Cumming, A.; Delabre, B.; Genolet, L.; Hagelberg, J.; Jayawardhana, R.; Käufl, H.-U.; Lafrenière, D.; de Castro Leão, I..; Malo, L.; de Medeiros Martins, A..; Matthews, J. M.; Metchev, S.; Oshagh, M.; Ouellet, M.; Parro, V. C.; Rasilla Piñeiro, J. L..; Santos, P.; Sarajlic, M.; Segovia, A.; Sordet, M.; Udry, S.; Valencia, D.; Vallée, P.; Venn, K.; Wade, G. A.; Saddlemyer, L.

2017-09-01

The Near-InfraRed Planet Searcher (NIRPS) is a new ultra-stable infrared (YJH) spectrograph that will be installed on ESO's 3.6-metre Telescope in La Silla, Chile. Aiming to achieve a precision of 1 m s-1, NIRPS is designed to find rocky planets orbiting M dwarfs, and will operate together with the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), also on the 3.6-metre Telescope. In this article we describe the NIRPS science cases and present its main technical characteristics.

Molded, wafer level optics for long wave infra-red applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franks, John

2016-05-01

For many years, the Thermal Imaging market has been driven by the high volume consumer market. The first signs of this came with the launch of night vision systems for cars, first by Cadillac and Honda and then, more successfully by BMW, Daimler and Audi. For the first time, simple thermal imaging systems were being manufactured at the rate of more than 10,000 units a year. This step change in volumes enabled a step change in system costs, with thermal imaging moving into the consumer's price range. Today we see that the consumer awareness and the consumer market continues to increase with the launch of a number of consumer focused smart phone add-ons. This has brought a further step change in system costs, with the possibility to turn your mobile phone into a thermal imager for under $250. As the detector technology has matured, the pixel pitches have dropped from 50μm in 2002 to 12 μm or even 10μm in today's detectors. This dramatic shrinkage in size has had an equally dramatic effect on the optics required to produce the image on the detector. A moderate field of view that would have required a focal length of 40mm in 2002 now requires a focal length of 8mm. For wide field of view applications and small detector formats, focal lengths in the range 1mm to 5mm are becoming common. For lenses, the quantity manufactured, quality and costs will require a new approach to high volume Infra-Red (IR) manufacturing to meet customer expectations. This, taken with the SwaP-C requirements and the emerging requirement for very small lenses driven by the new detectors, suggests that wafer scale optics are part of the solution. Umicore can now present initial results from an intensive research and development program to mold and coat wafer level optics, using its chalcogenide glass, GASIR®.

Performance comparison of improvised prehospital blood warming techniques and a commercial blood warmer.

PubMed

Milligan, James; Lee, Anna; Gill, Martin; Weatherall, Andrew; Tetlow, Chloe; Garner, Alan A

2016-08-01

Prehospital transfusion of packed red blood cells (PRBC) may be life saving for hypovolaemic trauma patients. PRBCs should preferably be warmed prior to administration but practical prehospital devices have only recently become available. The effectiveness of purpose designed prehospital warmers compared with previously used improvised methods of warming has not previously been described. Expired units of PRBCs were randomly assigned to a warming method in a bench study. Warming methods were exposure to body heat of an investigator, leaving the blood in direct sunlight on a dark material, wrapping the giving set around gel heat pads or a commercial fluid warmer (Belmont Buddy Lite). Methods were compared with control units that were run through the fluid circuit with no active warming strategy. The mean temperature was similar for all methods on removal from the fridge (4.5°C). The mean temperatures (degrees centigrade) for all methods were higher than the control group at the end of the circuit (all P≤0.001). For each method the mean (95% CI) temperature at the end of the circuit was; body heat 17.2 (16.4-18.0), exposure to sunlight 20.2 (19.4-21.0), gel heat pads 18.8 (18.0-19.6), Buddy Lite 35.2 (34.5-36.0) and control group 14.7 (13.9-15.5). All of the warming methods significantly warmed the blood but only the Buddy Lite reliably warmed the blood to a near normal physiological level. Improvised warming methods therefore cannot be recommended. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contradictory cooling in a warmer world? the climate of the Mediterranean region during the ';Holocene Thermal Maximum'

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davis, B.

2013-12-01

Extensive evidence from high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere indicates that temperatures were warmer than present during the early-mid Holocene, a period known as the Holocene thermal maximum (HTM). The existence of the HTM over lower mid-latitudes and the sub-tropics however is less clear, with pollen-based reconstructions in particular actually indicating a contrary cooling at this time in these regions. This apparent cooling is controversial because it is not shown in climate model simulations, which indicate that the HTM occurred across all extra-tropical latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. This is also supported by alkenone based SST reconstructions, which also show a much more widespread HTM than indicated by the pollen data. Here this problem is investigated by reviewing the evidence both for, and against, the HTM in the Mediterranean region, which represents one of the most intensively studied regions of sub-tropical climate in the Northern Hemisphere. This evidence includes a large number of both marine and terrestrial records that can be directly compared due to their close proximity around the Mediterranean Sea. The results highlight the potential for bias in both marine and terrestrial climate proxies, but despite many criticisms of the pollen-based record, it is shown that the existence of more extensive temperate vegetation in the early-mid Holocene in the Mediterranean is difficult to explain by anything other than a cooler climate. For instance, vegetation models driven by climate model output show that the warmer climate suggested by the models produces a HTM vegetation even more arid than today. The results have important implications in the interpretation of proxy records, but perhaps most importantly, the potential for climate models to underestimate cooling processes in a warmer world needs further investigation.

Correlation Study Of Diffenrential Skin Temperatures (DST) For Ovulation Detection Using Infra-Red Thermography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rao, K. H. S.; Shah, A. v.; Ruedi, B.

1982-11-01

The importance of ovulation time detection in the Practice of Natural Birth Control (NBC) as a contraceptive tool, and for natural/artificial insemination among women having the problem of in-fertility, is well known. The simple Basal Body Temperature (BBT) method of ovulation detection is so far unreliable. A newly proposed Differential Skin Temperature (DST) method may help minimize disturbing physiological effects and improve reliability. This paper explains preliminary results of a detailed correlative study on the DST method, using Infra-Red Thermography (IRT) imaging, and computer analysis techniques. Results obtained with five healthy, normally menstruating women volunteers will be given.

Warmer temperatures reduce net carbon uptake, but do not affect water use, in a mature southern Appalachian forest

Treesearch

A. Christopher Oishi; Chelcy F. Miniat; Kimberly A. Novick; Steven T. Brantley; James M. Vose; John T. Walker

2018-01-01

Increasing air temperature is expected to extend growing season length in temperate, broadleaf forests, leading to potential increases in evapotranspiration and net carbon uptake. However, other key processes affecting water and carbon cycles are also highly temperature-dependent. Warmer temperatures may result in higher ecosystem carbon loss through...

Simulations of the effect of a warmer climate on atmospheric humidity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Del Genio, Anthony D.; Lacis, Andrew A.; Ruedy, Reto A.

1991-01-01

Increases in the concentration of water vapor constitute the single largest positive feedback in models of global climate warming caused by greenhouse gases. It has been suggested that sinking air in the regions surrounding deep cumulus clouds will dry the upper troposphere and eliminate or reverse the direction of water vapor feedback. This hypothesis has been tested by performing an idealized simulation of climate change with two different versions of a climate model which both incorporate drying due to subsidence of clear air but differ in their parameterization of moist convection and stratiform clouds. Despite increased drying of the upper troposphere by cumulus clouds, upper-level humidity increases in the warmer climate because of enhanced upward moisture transport by the general circulation and increased accumulation of water vapor and ice at cumulus cloud tops.

A webcam in Bayer-mode as a light beam profiler for the near infra-red

PubMed Central

Langer, Gregor; Hochreiner, Armin; Burgholzer, Peter; Berer, Thomas

2013-01-01

Beam profiles are commonly measured with complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) or charge coupled devices (CCD). The devices are fast and reliable but expensive. By making use of the fact that the Bayer-filter in commercial webcams is transparent in the near infra-red (>800 nm) and their CCD chips are sensitive up to about 1100 nm, we demonstrate a cheap and simple way to measure laser beam profiles with a resolution down to around ±1 μm, which is close to the resolution of the knife-edge technique. PMID:23645943

A webcam in Bayer-mode as a light beam profiler for the near infra-red.

PubMed

Langer, Gregor; Hochreiner, Armin; Burgholzer, Peter; Berer, Thomas

2013-05-01

Beam profiles are commonly measured with complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) or charge coupled devices (CCD). The devices are fast and reliable but expensive. By making use of the fact that the Bayer-filter in commercial webcams is transparent in the near infra-red (>800 nm) and their CCD chips are sensitive up to about 1100 nm, we demonstrate a cheap and simple way to measure laser beam profiles with a resolution down to around ±1 μm, which is close to the resolution of the knife-edge technique.

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…

Spectroscopically forbidden infra-red emission in Au-vertical graphene hybrid nanostructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivadasan, A. K.; Parida, Santanu; Ghosh, Subrata; Pandian, Ramanathaswamy; Dhara, Sandip

2017-11-01

Implementation of Au nanoparticles (NPs) is a subject for frontier plasmonic research due to its fascinating optical properties. Herein, the present study deals with plasmonic assisted emission properties of Au NPs-vertical graphene (VG) hybrid nanostructures. The influence of effective polarizability of Au NPs on the surface enhanced Raman scattering and luminescence properties is investigated. In addition, a remarkable infra-red emission in the hybrid nanostructures is observed and interpreted on the basis of intra-band transitions in Au NPs. The flake-like nanoporous VG structure is invoked for the generation of additional confined photons to impart additional momentum and a gradient of confined excitation energy towards initiating the intra-band transitions of Au NPs. Integrating Au plasmonic materials in three-dimensional VG nanostructures enhances the light-matter interactions. The present study provides a new adaptable plasmonic assisted pathway for optoelectronic and sensing applications.

ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION PROGRAM: PROTOCOL FOR THE VERIFICATION OF GROUTING MATERIALS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE REHABILITATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON - CIGMAT

EPA Science Inventory

This protocol was developed under the Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program, and is intended to be used as a guide in preparing laboratory test plans for the purpose of verifying the performance of grouting materials used for infra...

Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopic signatures for lung cells' epithelial mesenchymal transition: A preliminary report

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarkar, Atasi; Sengupta, Sanghamitra; Mukherjee, Anirban; Chatterjee, Jyotirmoy

2017-02-01

Infra red (IR) spectral characterization can provide label-free cellular metabolic signatures of normal and diseased circumstances in a rapid and non-invasive manner. Present study endeavoured to enlist Fourier transform infra red (FTIR) spectroscopic signatures for lung normal and cancer cells during chemically induced epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) for which global metabolic dimension is not well reported yet. Occurrence of EMT was validated with morphological and immunocytochemical confirmation. Pre-processed spectral data was analyzed using ANOVA and principal component analysis-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA). Significant differences observed in peak area corresponding to biochemical fingerprint (900-1800 cm- 1) and high wave-number (2800-3800 cm- 1) regions contributed to adequate PCA-LDA segregation of cells undergoing EMT. The findings were validated by re-analysis of data using another in-house built binary classifier namely vector valued regularized kernel approximation (VVRKFA), in order to understand EMT progression. To improve the classification accuracy, forward feature selection (FFS) tool was employed in extracting potent spectral signatures by eliminating undesirable noise. Gradual increase in classification accuracy with EMT progression of both cell types indicated prominence of the biochemical alterations. Rapid changes in cellular metabolome noted in cancer cells within first 24 h of EMT induction along with higher classification accuracy for cancer cell groups in comparison to normal cells might be attributed to inherent differences between them. Spectral features were suggestive of EMT triggered changes in nucleic acid, protein, lipid and bound water contents which can emerge as the useful markers to capture EMT related cellular characteristics.

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

Tracking an atmospheric river in a warmer climate: from water vapor to economic impacts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dominguez, Francina; Dall'erba, Sandy; Huang, Shuyi; Avelino, Andre; Mehran, Ali; Hu, Huancui; Schmidt, Arthur; Schick, Lawrence; Lettenmaier, Dennis

2018-03-01

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) account for more than 75 % of heavy precipitation events and nearly all of the extreme flooding events along the Olympic Mountains and western Cascade Mountains of western Washington state. In a warmer climate, ARs in this region are projected to become more frequent and intense, primarily due to increases in atmospheric water vapor. However, it is unclear how the changes in water vapor transport will affect regional flooding and associated economic impacts. In this work we present an integrated modeling system to quantify the atmospheric-hydrologic-hydraulic and economic impacts of the December 2007 AR event that impacted the Chehalis River basin in western Washington. We use the modeling system to project impacts under a hypothetical scenario in which the same December 2007 event occurs in a warmer climate. This method allows us to incorporate different types of uncertainty, including (a) alternative future radiative forcings, (b) different responses of the climate system to future radiative forcings and (c) different responses of the surface hydrologic system. In the warming scenario, AR integrated vapor transport increases; however, these changes do not translate into generalized increases in precipitation throughout the basin. The changes in precipitation translate into spatially heterogeneous changes in sub-basin runoff and increased streamflow along the entire Chehalis main stem. Economic losses due to stock damages increase moderately, but losses in terms of business interruption are significant. Our integrated modeling tool provides communities in the Chehalis region with a range of possible future physical and economic impacts associated with AR flooding.

Luminescent properties of Cr-doped (GdX, Y1-X)3Al5O12 infra-red scintillator crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Akira; Kurosawa, Shunsuke; Yamaji, Akihiro; Shoji, Yasuhiro; Pejchal, Jan; Kamada, Kei; Yokota, Yuui; Yoshikawa, Akira

2014-10-01

Cr-doped (GdX Y1-X)3Al5O12 (X = 0, 0.25, 0.50) crystals prepared by the micro-pulling down method were investigated to develop a infra-red scintillator for implantable patient dosimeter in radiation therapy. In order to evaluate their optical and scintillation performance, the following properties were measured: (i) transmittance between ultra-violet and near-infra red region, (ii) photoluminescence spectra under Xe-lamp excitation, and (iii) X-ray excited radio-luminescence spectra. Cr:Y3Al5O12 and Cr:(Gd0.25 Y0.75)3Al5O12 crystals showed increased transmittance of 80%, while Cr:(Gd0.50 Y0.50)3Al5O12 had a lower transmittance of 40% due to its polycrystalline structure. In addition, all the Cr:(GdX Y1-X)3Al5O12 crystals showed sharp scintillation luminescence peaks ascribed to Cr3+ d-d transitions. Therefore, these results suggested that Cr:Y3Al5O12 and Cr:(Gd0.25 Y0.75)3Al5O12 crystals can be candidate materials for the dosimeter use.

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

A 2 °C warmer world is not safe for ecosystem services in the European Alps.

PubMed

Elkin, Ché; Gutiérrez, Alvaro G; Leuzinger, Sebastian; Manusch, Corina; Temperli, Christian; Rasche, Livia; Bugmann, Harald

2013-06-01

Limiting the increase in global average temperature to 2 °C is the objective of international efforts aimed at avoiding dangerous climate impacts. However, the regional response of terrestrial ecosystems and the services that they provide under such a scenario are largely unknown. We focus on mountain forests in the European Alps and evaluate how a range of ecosystem services (ES) are projected to be impacted in a 2 °C warmer world, using four novel regional climate scenarios. We employ three complementary forest models to assess a wide range of ES in two climatically contrasting case study regions. Within each climate scenario we evaluate if and when ES will deviate beyond status quo boundaries that are based on current system variability. Our results suggest that the sensitivity of mountain forest ES to a 2 °C warmer world depends heavily on the current climatic conditions of a region, the strong elevation gradients within a region, and the specific ES in question. Our simulations project that large negative impacts will occur at low and intermediate elevations in initially warm-dry regions, where relatively small climatic shifts result in negative drought-related impacts on forest ES. In contrast, at higher elevations, and in regions that are initially cool-wet, forest ES will be comparatively resistant to a 2 °C warmer world. We also found considerable variation in the vulnerability of forest ES to climate change, with some services such as protection against rockfall and avalanches being sensitive to 2 °C global climate change, but other services such as carbon storage being reasonably resistant. Although our results indicate a heterogeneous response of mountain forest ES to climate change, the projected substantial reduction of some forest ES in dry regions suggests that a 2 °C increase in global mean temperature cannot be seen as a universally 'safe' boundary for the maintenance of mountain forest ES. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Potential Costs of Acclimatization to a Warmer Climate: Growth of a Reef Coral with Heat Tolerant vs. Sensitive Symbiont Types

PubMed Central

Jones, Alison; Berkelmans, Ray

2010-01-01

One of the principle ways in which reef building corals are likely to cope with a warmer climate is by changing to more thermally tolerant endosymbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) genotypes. It is highly likely that hosting a more heat-tolerant algal genotype will be accompanied by tradeoffs in the physiology of the coral. To better understand one of these tradeoffs, growth was investigated in the Indo-Pacific reef-building coral Acropora millepora in both the laboratory and the field. In the Keppel Islands in the southern Great Barrier Reef this species naturally harbors nrDNA ITS1 thermally sensitive type C2 or thermally tolerant type D zooxanthellae of the genus Symbiodinium and can change dominant type following bleaching. We show that under controlled conditions, corals with type D symbionts grow 29% slower than those with type C2 symbionts. In the field, type D colonies grew 38% slower than C2 colonies. These results demonstrate the magnitude of trade-offs likely to be experienced by this species as they acclimatize to warmer conditions by changing to more thermally tolerant type D zooxanthellae. Irrespective of symbiont genotype, corals were affected to an even greater degree by the stress of a bleaching event which reduced growth by more than 50% for up to 18 months compared to pre-bleaching rates. The processes of symbiont change and acute thermal stress are likely to act in concert on coral growth as reefs acclimatize to more stressful warmer conditions, further compromising their regeneration capacity following climate change. PMID:20454653

Potential costs of acclimatization to a warmer climate: growth of a reef coral with heat tolerant vs. sensitive symbiont types.

PubMed

Jones, Alison; Berkelmans, Ray

2010-05-03

One of the principle ways in which reef building corals are likely to cope with a warmer climate is by changing to more thermally tolerant endosymbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) genotypes. It is highly likely that hosting a more heat-tolerant algal genotype will be accompanied by tradeoffs in the physiology of the coral. To better understand one of these tradeoffs, growth was investigated in the Indo-Pacific reef-building coral Acropora millepora in both the laboratory and the field. In the Keppel Islands in the southern Great Barrier Reef this species naturally harbors nrDNA ITS1 thermally sensitive type C2 or thermally tolerant type D zooxanthellae of the genus Symbiodinium and can change dominant type following bleaching. We show that under controlled conditions, corals with type D symbionts grow 29% slower than those with type C2 symbionts. In the field, type D colonies grew 38% slower than C2 colonies. These results demonstrate the magnitude of trade-offs likely to be experienced by this species as they acclimatize to warmer conditions by changing to more thermally tolerant type D zooxanthellae. Irrespective of symbiont genotype, corals were affected to an even greater degree by the stress of a bleaching event which reduced growth by more than 50% for up to 18 months compared to pre-bleaching rates. The processes of symbiont change and acute thermal stress are likely to act in concert on coral growth as reefs acclimatize to more stressful warmer conditions, further compromising their regeneration capacity following climate change.

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.

SPIRITS: SPitzer InfraRed Intensive Transients Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kasliwal, Mansi; Lau, Ryan; Cao, Yi; Masci, Frank; Helou, George; Williams, Robert; Bally, John; Bond, Howard; Whitelock, Patricia; Cody, Ann Marie; Gehrz, Robert; Jencson, Jacob; Tinyanont, Samaporn; Smith, Nathan; Surace, Jason; Armus, Lee; Cantiello, Matteo; Langer, Norbert; Levesque, Emily; Mohamed, Shazrene; Ofek, Eran; Parthasarathy, Mudumba; van Dyk, Schuyler; Boyer, Martha; Phillips, Mark; Hsiao, Eric; Morrell, Nidia; Perley, Dan; Gonzalez, Consuelo; Contreras, Carlos; Jones, Olivia; Ressler, Michael; Adams, Scott; Moore, Anna; Cook, David; Fox, Ori; Johansson, Joel; Khan, Rubab; Monson, Andy

2016-08-01

Spitzer is pioneering a systematic exploration of the dynamic infrared sky. Our SPitzer InfraRed Intensive Transients Survey (SPIRITS) has already discovered 147 explosive transients and 1948 eruptive variables. Of these 147 infrared transients, 35 are so red that they are devoid of optical counterparts and we call them SPRITEs (eSPecially Red Intermediate-luminosity Transient Events). The nature of SPRITEs is unknown and progress on deciphering the explosion physics depends on mid-IR spectroscopy. Multiple physical origins have been proposed including stellar merger, birth of a massive binary, electron capture supernova and stellar black-hole formation. Hence, we propose a modest continuation of SPIRITS, focusing on discovering and monitoring SPRITEs, in preparation for follow-up with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). As the SPRITEs evolve and cool, the bulk of the emission shifts to longer wavelengths. MIRI aboard JWST will be the only available platform in the near future capable of characterizing SPRITEs out to 28um. Specifically, the low resolution spectrometer would determine dust mass, grain chemistry, ice abundance and energetics to disentangle the proposed origins. The re-focused SPIRITS program consists of continued Spitzer monitoring of only those 104 luminous galaxies that are known SPRITE hosts or are most likely to host new SPRITEa. Scaling from the SPIRITS discovery rate, we estimate finding 22 new SPRITEs and 6 new supernovae over the next two years. The SPIRITS team remains committed to extensive ground-based follow-up. The Spitzer observations proposed here are essential for determining the final fates of active SPRITEs as well as bridging the time lag between the current SPIRITS survey and JWST launch.

SPIRITS: SPitzer InfraRed Intensive Transients Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kasliwal, Mansi; Jencson, Jacob; Lau, Ryan; Masci, Frank; Helou, George; Williams, Robert; Bally, John; Bond, Howard; Whitelock, Patricia; Cody, Ann Marie; Gehrz, Robert; Tinyanont, Samaporn; Smith, Nathan; Surace, Jason; Armus, Lee; Cantiello, Matteo; Langer, Norbert; Levesque, Emily; Mohamed, Shazrene; Ofek, Eran; Parthasarathy, Mudumba; van Dyk, Schuyler; Boyer, Martha; Phillips, Mark; Hsiao, Eric; Morrell, Nidia; Perley, Dan; Gonzalez, Consuelo; Contreras, Carlos; Jones, Olivia; Ressler, Michael; Adams, Scott; Moore, Anna; Cook, David; Fox, Ori; Johansson, Joel; Khan, Rubab; Monson, Andrew; Hankins, Matthew; Goldman, Steven; Jacob, Jencson

2018-05-01

Spitzer is pioneering a systematic exploration of the dynamic infrared sky. Our SPitzer InfraRed Intensive Transients Survey (SPIRITS) has already discovered 78 explosive transients and 2457 eruptive variables. Of these 78 infrared transients, 60 are so red that they are devoid of optical counterparts and we call them SPRITEs (eSPecially Red Intermediate-luminosity Transient Events). The nature of SPRITEs is unknown and progress on deciphering the explosion physics depends on mid-IR spectroscopy. Multiple physical origins have been proposed including stellar merger, birth of a massive binary, electron capture supernova and stellar black hole formation. Hence, we propose a modest continuation of SPIRITS, focusing on discovering and monitoring SPRITEs, in preparation for follow-up with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). As the SPRITEs evolve and cool, the bulk of the emission shifts to longer wavelengths. MIRI aboard JWST will be the only available platform in the near future capable of characterizing SPRITEs out to 28 um. Specifically, the low resolution spectrometer would determine dust mass, grain chemistry, ice abundance and energetics to disentangle the proposed origins. The re-focused SPIRITS program consists of continued Spitzer monitoring of those 106 luminous galaxies that are known SPRITE hosts or are most likely to host new SPRITEs. Scaling from the SPIRITS discovery rate, we estimate finding 10 new SPRITEs and 2-3 new supernovae in Cycle 14. The SPIRITS team remains committed to extensive ground-based follow-up. The Spitzer observations proposed here are essential for determining the final fates of active SPRITEs as well as bridging the time lag between the current SPIRITS survey and JWST launch.

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.

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 ...

Warm and touching tears: tearful individuals are perceived as warmer because we assume they feel moved and touched.

PubMed

Zickfeld, Janis H; Schubert, Thomas W

2018-01-31

Recent work investigated the inter-individual functions of emotional tears in depth. In one study (Van de Ven, N., Meijs, M. H. J., & Vingerhoets, A. (2017). What emotional tears convey: Tearful individuals are seen as warmer, but also as less competent. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56(1), 146-160. Https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12162) tearful individuals were rated as warmer, and participants expressed more intentions to approach and help such individuals. Simultaneously, tearful individuals were rated as less competent, and participants expressed less intention to work with the depicted targets. While tearful individuals were perceived as sadder, perceived sadness mediated only the effect on competence, but not on warmth. We argue that tearful individuals might be perceived as warm because they are perceived as feeling moved and touched. We ran a pre-registered extended replication of Van de Ven et al. Results replicate the warmth and helping findings, but not the competence and work effects. The increase in warmth ratings was completely mediated by perceiving feeling moved and touched. Possible functions of feeling moved and touched with regard to emotional tears are discussed.

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.

The Effect of Intravenous Catheter Diameter on the Temperature of Fluids Warmed by the Level 1(TM) Fluid Warmer

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-08-01

9 Pathophysiology of hypothermia............ 11 Hypothermia and anesthesia................ 16 Causes of hypothermia...Various causes exist for the development of hypothermia and many are intrinsic to the surgical environment. Cool operating room temperatures, cold skin...slower infusion rates (< 20 ml/min) cause heat loss from fluids warmed by conventional warmers (Baker, 1985), similar loss may occur using rapid infusion

The Earth Observation Technology Cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aplin, P.; Boyd, D. S.; Danson, F. M.; Donoghue, D. N. M.; Ferrier, G.; Galiatsatos, N.; Marsh, A.; Pope, A.; Ramirez, F. A.; Tate, N. J.

2012-07-01

The Earth Observation Technology Cluster is a knowledge exchange initiative, promoting development, understanding and communication about innovative technology used in remote sensing of the terrestrial or land surface. This initiative provides an opportunity for presentation of novel developments from, and cross-fertilisation of ideas between, the many and diverse members of the terrestrial remote sensing community. The Earth Observation Technology Cluster involves a range of knowledge exchange activities, including organisation of technical events, delivery of educational materials, publication of scientific findings and development of a coherent terrestrial EO community. The initiative as a whole covers the full range of remote sensing operation, from new platform and sensor development, through image retrieval and analysis, to data applications and environmental modelling. However, certain topical and strategic themes have been selected for detailed investigation: (1) Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles, (2) Terrestrial Laser Scanning, (3) Field-Based Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy, (4) Hypertemporal Image Analysis, and (5) Circumpolar and Cryospheric Application. This paper presents general activities and achievements of the Earth Observation Technology Cluster, and reviews state-of-the-art developments in the five specific thematic areas.

A warmer and drier climate in the northern sagebrush biome does not promote cheatgrass invasion or change its response to fire.

PubMed

Larson, Christian D; Lehnhoff, Erik A; Rew, Lisa J

2017-12-01

Dryland shrub communities have been degraded by a range of disturbances and now face additional stress from global climate change. The spring/summer growing season of the North American sagebrush biome is projected to become warmer and drier, which is expected to facilitate the expansion of the invasive annual grass Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) and alter its response to fire in the northern extent of the biome. We tested these predictions with a factorial experiment with two levels of burning (spring burn and none) and three climate treatments (warming, warming + drying, and control) that was repeated over 3 years in a Montana sagebrush steppe. We expected the climate treatments to make B. tectorum more competitive with the native perennial grass community, especially Pseudoroegneria spicata, and alter its response to fire. Experimental warming and warming + drying reduced B. tectorum cover, biomass, and fecundity, but there was no response to fire except for fecundity, which increased; the native grass community was the most significant factor that affected B. tectorum metrics. The experimental climate treatments also negatively affected P. spicata, total native grass cover, and community biodiversity, while fire negatively affected total native grass cover, particularly when climate conditions were warmer and drier. Our short-term results indicate that without sufficient antecedent moisture and a significant disruption to the native perennial grass community, a change in climate to a warmer and drier spring/summer growing season in the northern sagebrush biome will not facilitate B. tectorum invasion or alter its response to fire.

Influence of spectral resolution, spectral range and signal-to-noise ratio of Fourier transform infra-red spectra on identification of high explosive substances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banas, Krzysztof; Banas, Agnieszka M.; Heussler, Sascha P.; Breese, Mark B. H.

2018-01-01

In the contemporary spectroscopy there is a trend to record spectra with the highest possible spectral resolution. This is clearly justified if the spectral features in the spectrum are very narrow (for example infra-red spectra of gas samples). However there is a plethora of samples (in the liquid and especially in the solid form) where there is a natural spectral peak broadening due to collisions and proximity predominately. Additionally there is a number of portable devices (spectrometers) with inherently restricted spectral resolution, spectral range or both, which are extremely useful in some field applications (archaeology, agriculture, food industry, cultural heritage, forensic science). In this paper the investigation of the influence of spectral resolution, spectral range and signal-to-noise ratio on the identification of high explosive substances by applying multivariate statistical methods on the Fourier transform infra-red spectral data sets is studied. All mathematical procedures on spectral data for dimension reduction, clustering and validation were implemented within R open source environment.

Quantifying the risks of winter damage on overwintering crops under future climates: Will low-temperature damage be more likely in warmer climates?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vico, G.; Weih, M.

2014-12-01

Autumn-sown crops act as winter cover crop, reducing soil erosion and nutrient leaching, while potentially providing higher yields than spring varieties in many environments. Nevertheless, overwintering crops are exposed for longer periods to the vagaries of weather conditions. Adverse winter conditions, in particular, may negatively affect the final yield, by reducing crop survival or its vigor. The net effect of the projected shifts in climate is unclear. On the one hand, warmer temperatures may reduce the frequency of low temperatures, thereby reducing damage risk. On the other hand, warmer temperatures, by reducing plant acclimation level and the amount and duration of snow cover, may increase the likelihood of damage. Thus, warmer climates may paradoxically result in more extensive low temperature damage and reduced viability for overwintering plants. The net effect of a shift in climate is explored by means of a parsimonious probabilistic model, based on a coupled description of air temperature, snow cover, and crop tolerable temperature. Exploiting an extensive dataset of winter wheat responses to low temperature exposure, the risk of winter damage occurrence is quantified under conditions typical of northern temperate latitudes. The full spectrum of variations expected with climate change is explored, quantifying the joint effects of alterations in temperature averages and their variability as well as shifts in precipitation. The key features affecting winter wheat vulnerability to low temperature damage under future climates are singled out.

An infra-red imaging system for the analysis of tropisms in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings

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

Orbovic, V.; Poff, K.L.

1990-05-01

Since blue and green light will induce phototropism and red light is absorbed by phytochrome, no wavelength of visible radiation should be considered safe for any study of tropisms in etiolated seedlings. For this reason, we have developed an infra-red imaging system with a video camera with which we can monitor seedlings using radiation at wavelengths longer than 800 nm. The image of the seedlings can be observed in real time, recorded on a VCR and subsequently analyzed using the Java image analysis system. The time courses for curvature of seedlings differ in shape, amplitude, and lag time. This variabilitymore » accounts for much of the noise in the measurement of curvature for a population of seedlings.« less

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

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

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...

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.

Will seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) quality change in a warmer ocean?

PubMed

Barbosa, Vera; Maulvault, Ana Luísa; Alves, Ricardo N; Anacleto, Patrícia; Pousão-Ferreira, Pedro; Carvalho, Maria Luísa; Nunes, Maria Leonor; Rosa, Rui; Marques, António

2017-07-01

The impacts of climate change on seafood quality, safety and human health are still unknown. The present study investigated the effect of warming on fatty acids and elements content in two tissues (muscle and liver) of the relevant commercial seabass species (Dicentrarchus labrax). After exposing fish to increased seawater temperature for a period of 60days, higher saturated fatty acid (SFA) levels were observed in fish muscle (2.16% increase); whereas lower SFA levels were observed in fish liver (5.42% decrease). On the other hand, monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) contents decreased in both muscle (1.77% and 0.39%, respectively) and liver (10.54% and 8.11%, respectively) of fish subjected to warmer conditions. Additionally, warming promoted changes in fish elemental profiles, leading to significantly higher levels of Cl in the muscle and lower levels of Rb in the liver. Overall, data showed that fatty acids and elemental contents were affected by temperature, though representing small implications to human health. Moreover, this preliminary study highlights the importance of conducting further seafood risk-benefit assessments under climate change contexts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

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

Regional Precipitation Forecast with Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) Profile Assimilation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chou, S.-H.; Zavodsky, B. T.; Jedloved, G. J.

2010-01-01

Advanced technology in hyperspectral sensors such as the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS; Aumann et al. 2003) on NASA's polar orbiting Aqua satellite retrieve higher vertical resolution thermodynamic profiles than their predecessors due to increased spectral resolution. Although these capabilities do not replace the robust vertical resolution provided by radiosondes, they can serve as a complement to radiosondes in both space and time. These retrieved soundings can have a significant impact on weather forecasts if properly assimilated into prediction models. Several recent studies have evaluated the performance of specific operational weather forecast models when AIRS data are included in the assimilation process. LeMarshall et al. (2006) concluded that AIRS radiances significantly improved 500 hPa anomaly correlations in medium-range forecasts of the Global Forecast System (GFS) model. McCarty et al. (2009) demonstrated similar forecast improvement in 0-48 hour forecasts in an offline version of the operational North American Mesoscale (NAM) model when AIRS radiances were assimilated at the regional scale. Reale et al. (2008) showed improvements to Northern Hemisphere 500 hPa height anomaly correlations in NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) global system with the inclusion of partly cloudy AIRS temperature profiles. Singh et al. (2008) assimilated AIRS temperature and moisture profiles into a regional modeling system for a study of a heavy rainfall event during the summer monsoon season in Mumbai, India. This paper describes an approach to assimilate AIRS temperature and moisture profiles into a regional configuration of the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-ARW) model using its three-dimensional variational (3DVAR) assimilation system (WRF-Var; Barker et al. 2004). Section 2 describes the AIRS instrument and how the quality indicators are used to intelligently select the highest-quality data for assimilation

Thermodynamic Bounds on the Ultra- and Infra-affinity of Hsp70 for Its Substrates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Basile; Hartich, David; Seifert, Udo; Rios, Paolo De Los

2017-07-01

The 70 kDa Heat Shock Proteins Hsp70 have several essential functions in living systems, such as protecting cells against protein aggregation, assisting protein folding, remodeling protein complexes and driving the translocation into organelles. These functions require high affinity for non-specific amino-acid sequences that are ubiquitous in proteins. It has been recently shown that this high affinity, called ultra-affinity, depends on a process driven out of equilibrium by ATP hydrolysis. Here we establish the thermodynamic bounds for ultra-affinity, and further show that the same reaction scheme can in principle be used both to strengthen and to weaken affinities (leading in this case to infra-affinity). We show that cofactors are essential to achieve affinity beyond the equilibrium range. Finally, biological implications are discussed.

iMedEd: the role of mobile health technologies in medical education.

PubMed

Gaglani, Shiv M; Topol, Eric J

2014-09-01

Mobile health (mHealth) technologies have experienced a recent surge in attention because of their potential to transform the delivery of health care. This enthusiasm is partly due to the near ubiquity of smartphones and tablets among clinicians, as well as to the stream of mobile medical apps and devices being created. While much discussion has been devoted to how these tools will impact the practice of medicine, surprisingly little has been written on the role these technologies will play in medical education. In this commentary the authors describe the opportunities, applications, and challenges of mHealth apps and devices in medical education and argue that medical schools should make efforts to integrate these technologies into their curricula. By not doing so, medical educators risk producing a generation of clinicians underprepared for the changing realities of medical practice brought on by mHealth technologies.

Comparison of duplex ultrasound with digital subtraction angiography in the assessment of infra-inguinal autologous vein bypass grafts.

PubMed

Griffin, Nick M R; Wright, Isabel A; Buckenham, Tim M

2006-11-01

Postoperative surveillance of infra-inguinal vein grafts has arisen because of the high incidence of vein graft stenoses, which frequently progress to vein graft occlusion. The use of duplex ultrasound as the primary imaging method for graft surveillance is well established. This study aims to compare the accuracy of duplex ultrasound with the reference standard of digital subtraction angiography in the assessment of infra-inguinal vein grafts. Sixty patients underwent routine postoperative duplex ultrasound as part of the local graft surveillance programme. Angiography was subsequently carried out on 18 grafts. Each lower limb arterial tree was divided into three segments (native arteries proximal to the graft, the graft itself and native arteries distal to the graft) resulting in a total of 42 comparisons. Degree of diameter stenosis on ultrasound was compared with angiography findings to determine concordance. Agreement was also expressed as a kappa value. Overall accuracy of duplex ultrasound was 88% (37/42). A kappa value of 0.80 indicates good agreement. In three of the five discordant cases, ultrasound correctly identified a stenosis, but overestimated the degree of stenosis compared with angiography. In each of the remaining two discordant cases, ultrasound identified a focal stenosis that was not apparent on angiography. In both cases, the area of duplex described abnormality responded to balloon angioplasty. Duplex ultrasound as part of the local vein graft surveillance programme is a reliable and accurate method in the detection of failing grafts and in some instances may be more sensitive.

Characterization of silicon micro-strip sensors with a pulsed infra-red laser system for the CBM experiment at FAIR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghosh, P.

2015-03-01

The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR is composed of 8 tracking stations consisting of 1292 double sided silicon micro-strip sensors. For the quality assurance of produced prototype sensors a laser test system (LTS) has been developed. The aim of the LTS is to scan sensors with a pulsed infra-red laser driven by step motor to determine the charge sharing in-between strips and to measure qualitative uniformity of the sensor response over the whole active area. The prototype sensors which are tested with the LTS so far have 256 strips with a pitch of 50 μm on each side. They are read-out using a self-triggering prototype read-out electronic ASIC called n-XYTER. The LTS is designed to measure sensor response in an automatized procedure at several thousand positions across the sensor with focused infra-red laser light (spot size ≈ 12 μm , wavelength = 1060 nm). The pulse with duration (≈ 10 ns) and power (≈ 5 mW) of the laser pulses is selected such, that the absorption of the laser light in the 300 μm thick silicon sensors produces a number of about 24000 electrons, which is similar to the charge created by minimum ionizing particles (MIP) in these sensors. Laser scans different prototype sensors is reported.

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.

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.

Probing photochromic properties by correlation of UV-visible and infra-red absorption spectroscopy: a case study with cis-1,2-dicyano-1,2-bis(2,4,5-trimethyl-3-thienyl)ethene.

PubMed

Spangenberg, Arnaud; Piedras Perez, Jose Alejandro; Patra, Abhijit; Piard, Jonathan; Brosseau, Arnaud; Métivier, Rémi; Nakatani, Keitaro

2010-02-01

Quantification of the relative composition of the isomers in a photochromic system at any irradiation time interval is a critical issue in determining absolute quantum yields. For this purpose, we have developed a simple and convenient protocol involving combination of UV-visible and infra-red absorption spectroscopy. Photochromic cyclization reaction of cis-l,2-dicyano-l,2-bis(2,4,5-trimethyl-3-thieny1)ethene (CMTE) is analyzed to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methodology. This approach is based on the fact that the two isomers show distinctive infra-red bands. Detailed investigations of the UV-visible and infra-red spectra of the mixture obtained at different irradiation times in CCl(4) supported by quantum chemical computations lead to the unambiguous estimation of molar absorption coefficients of the closed isomer (epsilon(CF) = 4650 L mol(-1) cm(-1) at 512 nm). It facilitates the first determination of absolute quantum yields of this reversible photochromic reaction in CCl(4) by fitting the UV-visible spectral data (Phi(OF-->CF) = 0.41 +/- 0.05 and Phi(CF-->OF) = 0.12 +/- 0.02 at 405 nm and 546 nm, respectively).

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.

A Warmer Atmosphere on Mars near the Noachian-Hesperian Boundary: Evidence from Basal Melting of the South Polar Ice Cap (Dorsa Argentea Formation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fastook, J. L.; Head, J. W.; Marchant, D. R.; Forget, F.; Madeleine, J.-B.

2012-05-01

Eskers in the Dorsa Argentea Formation imply the presence of an ice sheet with a wet bed. With an ice sheet model, we examine a range of geothermal heat fluxes and warmer climates to determine what conditions could produce such an ice sheet.

Researchers consider U.S. Southwest's response to warmer, drier conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, Kevin M.; Webb, Robert H.

In 2000, the popular press frequently referred to reports that the southwestern United States might experience a shift from relatively wet to dry conditions during the next couple of decades (see http://topex-www.jpl.nasa.gov/discover/PDO.html). These predictions stemmed from observations that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) appeared to abruptly change from a “positive” to a “negative” phase in 1999 (Figure 1). During the mid-twentieth century, a similar negative phase of the PDO was accompanied by prolonged dry conditions in the southwest.By extrapolation, some climatologists predicted future drought in the southwest. Such a change would heavily affect land use planning in the region, because national demographics have stressed the region's resources over the past century From 1990 to 2000, for instance, the population of Nevada and Arizona increased by almost 2.3 million people (http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/respop.html). To discuss potential scenarios of landscape and ecosystem response to 25 years of hot and dry climate, scientists from diverse disciplines gathered at the University of Arizona in April 2001. The objectives of this workshop were to address evidence supporting predictions of warmer and drier climate and the possible landscape responses (http://geology.wr.usgs.gov/sw-workshop/).

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

Infra-red technique for cerebral blood flow: comparison with /sup 133/Xenon clearance

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

Colacino, J.M.; Grubb, B.; Joebsis, F.F.

A rapid infra-red optical technique has been developed for the measurement of cerebral blood flow. The method measures optical density changes across the intact skull during the passage of a bolus of the dye. Cardio-Green (CG). The clearance curves obtained for CG boluses are very short (less than 30 sec) in comparison with those obtained with tracers such as /sup 133/Xenon (10-30 min) that distribute into cerebral tissue. The volume of distribution of CG is totally intravascular, and the dye is relatively slowly cleared from the body. The important advantages of this spectrophotometric technique are its speed, versatility, and themore » avoidance of radioactive materials. The differential spectrophotometer used in this study, with trivial modifications, has been used to monitor changes in brain blood volume, oxygen saturation of hemoglobin, and cortical mitochondrial respiratory function, which illustrate the versatility of the technique for neurological assessments.« less

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.

The Research Plan: Closing the ExMC Med02 "Pharmacy" Gap

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daniels, Vernie; Bayuse, Tina; Mulcahy, Robert; Shah, Ronak; Antonsen, Erik

2017-01-01

HRP Human Research Roadmap: Risk and Gap Risk of Adverse Health Outcomes and Decrements in Performance due to Inflight Medical Conditions. Med02 "Pharmacy" Gap: We do not have the capability to provide a safe and effective medication formulary for exploration missions delivering a recommendation for a chemically stable, safe, and effective medication formulary that will support the operational needs of exploration space missions research strategy evidence-based formulary and models innovative analytical tools and methodologies novel treatments and preventive measures Planned review by a panel of experts from the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory, and academic scientific communities Formulary Selection Formulary Potency and Shelf life Formulary Safety and Toxicity Novel Technology Proof-of-Concept Portable real-time chemical analysis Innovative drug development / design

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

A hybrid strain and thermal energy harvester based on an infra-red sensitive Er3+ modified poly(vinylidene fluoride) ferroelectret structure.

PubMed

Ghosh, Sujoy Kumar; Xie, Mengying; Bowen, Christopher Rhys; Davies, Philip R; Morgan, David J; Mandal, Dipankar

2017-12-01

In this paper, a novel infra-red (IR) sensitive Er 3+ modified poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) (Er-PVDF) film is developed for converting both mechanical and thermal energies into useful electrical power. The addition of Er 3+ to PVDF is shown to improve piezoelectric properties due to the formation of a self-polarized ferroelectric β-phase and the creation of an electret-like porous structure. In addition, we demonstrate that Er 3+ acts to enhance heat transfer into the Er-PVDF film due to its excellent infrared absorbance, which, leads to rapid and large temperature fluctuations and improved pyroelectric energy transformation. We demonstrate the potential of this novel material for mechanical energy harvesting by creating a durable ferroelectret energy harvester/nanogenerator (FTNG). The high thermal stability of the β-phase enables the FTNG to harvest large temperature fluctuations (ΔT ~ 24 K). Moreover, the superior mechanosensitivity, S M  ~ 3.4 VPa -1 of the FTNG enables the design of a wearable self-powered health-care monitoring system by human-machine integration. The combination of rare-earth ion, Er 3+ with the ferroelectricity of PVDF provides a new and robust approach for delivering smart materials and structures for self-powered wireless technologies, sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

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.

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

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) ...

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

A Review of Assistive Listening Device and Digital Wireless Technology for Hearing Instruments

PubMed Central

Kim, Chun Hyeok

2014-01-01

Assistive listening devices (ALDs) refer to various types of amplification equipment designed to improve the communication of individuals with hard of hearing to enhance the accessibility to speech signal when individual hearing instruments are not sufficient. There are many types of ALDs to overcome a triangle of speech to noise ratio (SNR) problems, noise, distance, and reverberation. ALDs vary in their internal electronic mechanisms ranging from simple hard-wire microphone-amplifier units to more sophisticated broadcasting systems. They usually use microphones to capture an audio source and broadcast it wirelessly over a frequency modulation (FM), infra-red, induction loop, or other transmission techniques. The seven types of ALDs are introduced including hardwire devices, FM sound system, infra-red sound system, induction loop system, telephone listening devices, television, and alert/alarm system. Further development of digital wireless technology in hearing instruments will make possible direct communication with ALDs without any accessories in the near future. There are two technology solutions for digital wireless hearing instruments improving SNR and convenience. One is near-field magnetic induction combined with Bluetooth radio frequency (RF) transmission or proprietary RF transmission and the other is proprietary RF transmission alone. Recently launched digital wireless hearing aid applying this new technology can communicate from the hearing instrument to personal computer, phones, Wi-Fi, alert systems, and ALDs via iPhone, iPad, and iPod. However, it comes with its own iOS application offering a range of features but there is no option for Android users as of this moment. PMID:25566400

A review of assistive listening device and digital wireless technology for hearing instruments.

PubMed

Kim, Jin Sook; Kim, Chun Hyeok

2014-12-01

Assistive listening devices (ALDs) refer to various types of amplification equipment designed to improve the communication of individuals with hard of hearing to enhance the accessibility to speech signal when individual hearing instruments are not sufficient. There are many types of ALDs to overcome a triangle of speech to noise ratio (SNR) problems, noise, distance, and reverberation. ALDs vary in their internal electronic mechanisms ranging from simple hard-wire microphone-amplifier units to more sophisticated broadcasting systems. They usually use microphones to capture an audio source and broadcast it wirelessly over a frequency modulation (FM), infra-red, induction loop, or other transmission techniques. The seven types of ALDs are introduced including hardwire devices, FM sound system, infra-red sound system, induction loop system, telephone listening devices, television, and alert/alarm system. Further development of digital wireless technology in hearing instruments will make possible direct communication with ALDs without any accessories in the near future. There are two technology solutions for digital wireless hearing instruments improving SNR and convenience. One is near-field magnetic induction combined with Bluetooth radio frequency (RF) transmission or proprietary RF transmission and the other is proprietary RF transmission alone. Recently launched digital wireless hearing aid applying this new technology can communicate from the hearing instrument to personal computer, phones, Wi-Fi, alert systems, and ALDs via iPhone, iPad, and iPod. However, it comes with its own iOS application offering a range of features but there is no option for Android users as of this moment.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

WISPIR: A Wide-Field Imaging SPectrograph for the InfraRed for the SPICA Observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benford, Dominic J.; Mundy, Lee G.

2010-01-01

We have undertaken a study of a far infrared imaging spectrometer based on a Fourier transform spectrometer that uses well-understood, high maturity optics, cryogenics, and detectors to further our knowledge of the chemical and astrophysical evolution of the Universe as it formed planets, stars, and the variety of galaxy morphologies that we observe today. The instrument, Wide-field Imaging Spectrometer for the InfraRed (WISPIR), would operate on the SPICA observatory, and will feature a spectral range from 35 - 210 microns and a spectral resolving power of R=1,000 to 6,000, depending on wavelength. WISPIR provides a choice of full-field spectral imaging over a 2'x2' field or long-slit spectral imaging along a 2' slit for studies of astrophysical structures in the local and high-redshift Universe. WISPIR in long-slit mode will attain a sensitivity two orders of magnitude better than what is currently available.

Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST) Slitless Spectrometer: Design, Prototype, and Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gong, Qian; Content, David; Dominguez, Margaret; Emmett, Thomas; Griesmann, Ulf; Hagopian, John; Kruk, Jeffrey; Marx, Catherine; Pasquale, Bert; Wallace, Thomas;

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.

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.

National hydrogen technology competitiveness analysis with an integrated fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS approaches: In case of hydrogen production and storage technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Seongkon; Mogi, Gento

2017-02-01

The demand of fossil fuels, including oil, gas, and coal has been increasing with the rapid development of developing countries such as China and India. U.S., Japan, EU, and Korea have been making efforts to transfer to low carbon and green growth economics for sustainable development. And they also have been measuring to cope with climate change and the depletion of conventional fuels. Advanced nations implemented strategic energy technology development plans to lead the future energy market. Strategic energy technology development is crucial alternative to address the energy issues. This paper analyze the relative competitiveness of hydrogen energy technologies in case of hydrogen production and storage technologies from 2006 to 2010. Hydrogen energy technology is environmentally clean technology comparing with the previous conventional energy technologies and will play a key role to solve the greenhouse gas effect. Leading nations have increasingly focused on hydrogen technology R&D. This research is carried out the relative competitiveness of hydrogen energy technologies employed by an integrated fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (Fuzzy AHP) and The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approaches. We make four criteria, accounting for technological status, R&D budget, R&D human resource, and hydrogen infra. This research can be used as fundamental data for implementing national hydrogen energy R&D planning for energy policy-makers.

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

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

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.

Volatile out gassing characteristics of highly filled ethylene vinyl acetate binder materials: Gas phase infra-red spectroscopy

DOE PAGES

Patel, Mogon; Bowditch, Martin; Jones, Ben; ...

2012-12-08

Gas phase Infra-red (IR) spectroscopy has been used to investigate volatile out gassing properties of highly filled poly (ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) materials. In these studies, a Scout-EN TM heated gas cell was interfaced to a vacuum FTIR spectrometer, and the quantification of evolved species was achieved through calibration of the gas cell with certified gas standards. The volatile out gassing properties were monitored as a function of time during storage at 75°C under vacuum conditions (< 1mbar). Acetic acid, carbon dioxide and water were identified as the major out gassing products through IR absorption peaks at 1797, 2354 and 3853 cmmore » -1, respectively. We present a comparison of three highly filled poly (ethyleneco- vinyl acetate) resins.« less

Warmer winters modulate life history and energy storage but do not affect sensitivity to a widespread pesticide in an aquatic insect.

PubMed

Arambourou, Hélène; Stoks, Robby

2015-10-01

Despite the increased attention for the effects of pesticides under global warming no studies tested how winter warming affects subsequent sensitivity to pesticides. Winter warming is expected to cause delayed negative effects when it increases metabolic rates and thereby depletes energy reserves. Using a common-garden experiment, we investigated the combined effect of a 4 °C increase in winter temperature and subsequent exposure to chlorpyrifos in the aquatic larvae of replicated low- and high-latitude European populations of the damselfly Ischnura elegans. The warmer winter (8 °C) resulted in a higher winter survival and higher growth rates compared to the cold winter (4 °C) commonly experienced by European high-latitude populations. Low-latitude populations were better at coping with the warmer winter, indicating thermal adaptation to the local winter temperatures. Subsequent chlorpyrifos exposure at 20 °C induced strong negative effects on survival, growth rate, lipid content and acetylcholinesterase activity while phenoloxidase activity increased. These pesticide effects were not affected by winter warming. Our results suggest that for species where winter warming has positive effects on life history, no delayed effects on the sensitivity to subsequent pesticide exposure should be expected. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

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

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.

Some infra-red applications in combustion technology. Interim report 1 March-31 August 78

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

Swithenbank, J.; Turan, A.; Taylor, D.S.

1978-01-01

Infrared technology finds many applications in the field of combustion ranging from pollution monitoring, through military systems, to the control of industrial furnaces and boilers. This review of some selected concepts highlights the interaction between the diagnostic role of infrared measurements and the current status of mathematical modelling of combustion systems. The link between measurement and and computing has also evolved to the point where a digital processor is becoming an inherent part of many new instruments. This point is illustrated by reference to the diffraction particle size meter, fire detection and alarm systems, and furnace control. In the future,more » as fuels become scarce and expensive, and micro-electronics become more available and inexpensive, it is certain that infrared devices will find increasing application in smaller industries and the home. (Author)« less

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/.

Development of Critical Technologies for the COSMO/SkyMed Hyperspectral Camera

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-10-01

Carbide (SiC) material (SiC or lightweighted Zerodur mirrors , carbon fiber technology. structures). - development of electronics blocks at high - High...investigation was Kcarried out to get the highest lightening factors on the Zerodur mirror substrates. Several samples of the TMA Fig. 5 - Prototypes of...implementation of state-of-the-art - manufacturing of very light mirrors with special manufacturing techniques for light components emphasis on Silicon

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

MEDiterranean Supersite Volcanoes (MED-SUV) project: state of the art and main achievements after the first 18 months

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Puglisi, Giuseppe; Spampinato, Letizia; Allard, Patrick; Baills, Audrey; Briole, Pierre; D'Auria, Luca; Dingwell, Donald; Martini, Marcello; Kueppers, Ulrich; Marzocchi, Warner; Minet, Christian; Vagner, Amélie

2015-04-01

Taking account of the valuable resources and information available for Mt. Etna, Campi Flegrei, and Vesuvius Supersites, MED-SUV aims at exploiting the huge record of geophysical, geochemical and volcanological data available for the three Supersite volcanoes and carry out experiments to fill gaps in the knowledge of the structure of these volcanoes and of the processes driving their activity. The project's activities have focused on (1) gaining new insights into the inner structure of these volcanoes; (2) evaluating the suitability of the current EO and in-situ observations to track the dynamics of the volcano supply system and/or the eruptive phenomena, (3) making the access to observations easy; (4) defining the effects of magma ascent on the stress/strain field (and vice versa); (5) assessing the capability of the Earth science community to forecast the occurrence of eruptions in terms of both location and time of an eruption; (6) optimizing the chain from observations to end-users during an eruptive event; and (7) making the project outcomes "exportable" to other European volcanic areas and elsewhere. Indeed, the overall goal of the project is to apply the rationale of the Geohazard Supersites and Natural Laboratories GEO-GEOSS initiative to the three volcanoes, in order to better assess the volcanic hazards they posed. In the first 18 months, MED-SUV consortium carried out activities relating to coordination, scientific/technological development, and dissemination. Coordination included mainly meetings organised in order to start the project and consortium activity and to strengthen the synergy with EC and international initiatives, such as geohazard activities of GEO-GEOSS, EPOS-PP and the other two FP7 Supersite projects, MARsite and FUTUREVOLC. The main scientific/technological results included the design and development of a prototype (NETVIS) for the optimization and implementation of processing tools for the analysis of Mt. Etna's camera network, design

PISCES: An Integral Field Spectrograph Technology Demonstration for the WFIRST Coronagraph

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McElwain, Michael W.; Mandell, Avi M.; Gong, Qian; Llop-Sayson, Jorge; Brandt, Timothy; Chambers, Victor J.; Grammer, Bryan; Greeley, Bradford; Hilton, George; Perrin, Marshall D.;

PISCES: an integral field spectrograph technology demonstration for the WFIRST coronagraph

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McElwain, Michael W.; Mandell, Avi M.; Gong, Qian; Llop-Sayson, Jorge; Brandt, Timothy; Chambers, Victor J.; Grammer, Bryan; Greeley, Bradford; Hilton, George; Perrin, Marshall D.; Stapelfeldt, Karl R.; Demers, Richard; Tang, Hong; Cady, Eric

2016-07-01

We present the design, integration, and test of the Prototype Imaging Spectrograph for Coronagraphic Exoplanet Studies (PISCES) integral field spectrograph (IFS). The PISCES design meets the science requirements for the Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST) Coronagraph Instrument (CGI). PISCES was integrated and tested in the integral field spectroscopy laboratory at NASA Goddard. In June 2016, PISCES was delivered to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where it was integrated with the Shaped Pupil Coronagraph (SPC) High Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT). The SPC/PISCES configuration will demonstrate high contrast integral field spectroscopy as part of the WFIRST CGI technology development program.

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

Operational Monitoring of Mines by COSMO-SkyMed PSP SAR Interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Costantini, Mario; Malvarosa, Fabio; Miniati, Federico; de Assis, Luciano Mozer

2016-08-01

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry is a powerful technology for detection and monitoring of slow ground surface movements. Monitoring of ground deformations in mining structures is an important application, particularly difficult because the scene changes with time. The persistent scatterer pair (PSP) approach, recently proposed to overcome some limitations of standard persistent scatter interferometry, proved to be effective also for mine monitoring. In this work, after resuming the main ideas of the PSP method, we describe the PSP measurements obtained from high- resolution X-band COSMO-SkyMed data over a large mining area in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The outcomes demonstrate that dense and accurate ground deformation measurements can be obtained on the mining area and its structures (such as open pits, waste dumps, conveyor belts, water and tailings dams, etc.), achieving a consistent global view including also areas where field instruments are not installed.

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.

She's not a person...she's just a woman! Infra-humanization and intimate partner violence.

PubMed

Baldry, Anna Costanza; Pacilli, Maria Giuseppina; Pagliaro, Stefano

2015-05-01

This article examines the association between a target's perceived humanness and individuals' willingness to provide help and support in cases of violence against women (VAW), specifically, intimate partner violence (IPV). In an experimental study, undergraduates read a fictitious article from a newspaper describing an IPV episode of a man hitting his wife and accusing her of cheating on him. According to the experimental condition, they then read that the victim either had or had not admitted the infidelity. Participants then judged the victim on an infra-humanization scale and expressed their willingness to provide help and support to the victim herself as if they were a neighbor witnessing the attack. Results showed that a victim admitting an affair with another man (admission condition) elicited lower perceived humanness and lower willingness to provide help than a victim denying such adultery (no admission condition). Moreover, targets' perceived humanness mediated the effect of contextual features on participants' willingness to provide help to the victim. Results are discussed in terms of victim blaming, and practical implications for prevention strategies are presented. © The Author(s) 2014.

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.

Guided tissue regeneration for periodontal infra-bony defects.

PubMed

Needleman, I G; Giedrys-Leeper, E; Tucker, R J; Worthington, H V

2001-01-01

Conventional treatment of destructive periodontal (gum) disease arrests the disease but does not regain the bone support or connective tissue lost in the disease process. Guided tissue regeneration (GTR) is a surgical procedure that aims to regenerate the periodontal tissues when the disease is advanced and could overcome some of the limitations of conventional therapy. To assess the efficacy of GTR in the treatment of periodontal infra-bony defects measured against the current standard of surgical periodontal treatment, open flap debridement. We conducted an electronic search of the Cochrane Oral Health Group specialised trials register and MEDLINE up to October 2000. Hand searching included Journal of Periodontology, Journal of Clinical Periodontology, Journal of Periodontal Research and bibliographies of all relevant papers and review articles up to October 2000. In addition, we contacted experts/groups/companies involved in surgical research to find other trials or unpublished material or to clarify ambiguous or missing data and posted requests for data on two periodontal electronic discussion groups. Randomised, controlled trials of at least 12 months duration comparing guided tissue regeneration (with or without graft materials) with open flap debridement for the treatment of periodontal infra-bony defects. Furcation involvements and studies specifically treating early onset diseases were excluded. Screening of possible studies was conducted independently by two reviewers (RT & IN) and data abstraction by three reviewers (RT, IN & EGL). The methodological quality of studies was assessed in duplicate (RT & IN) using both individual components and a quality scale (Jadad 1998) and agreement determined by Kappa scores. Methodological quality was used in sensitivity analyses to test the robustness of the conclusions. The Cochrane Oral Health Group statistical guidelines were followed (HW) and the results expressed as weighted mean differences (WMD and 95% CI) for

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.

A High-Latitude Winter Continental Low Cloud Feedback Suppresses Arctic Air Formation in Warmer Climates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cronin, T.; Tziperman, E.; Li, H.

2015-12-01

High latitude continents have warmed much more rapidly in recent decades than the rest of the globe, especially in winter, and the maintenance of warm, frost-free conditions in continental interiors in winter has been a long-standing problem of past equable climates. It has also been found that the high-latitude lapse rate feedback plays an important role in Arctic amplification of climate change in climate model simulations, but we have little understanding of why lapse rates at high latitudes change so strongly with warming. To better understand these problems, we study Arctic air formation - the process by which a high-latitude maritime air mass is advected over a continent during polar night, cooled at the surface by radiation, and transformed into a much colder continental polar air mass - and its sensitivity to climate warming. We use a single-column version of the WRF model to conduct two-week simulations of the cooling process across a wide range of initial temperature profiles and microphysics schemes, and find that a low cloud feedback suppresses Arctic air formation in warmer climates. This cloud feedback consists of an increase in low cloud amount with warming, which shields the surface from radiative cooling, and increases the continental surface air temperature by roughly two degrees for each degree increase of the initial maritime surface air temperature. The time it takes for the surface air temperature to drop below freezing increases nonlinearly to ~10 days for initial maritime surface air temperatures of 20 oC. Given that this is about the time it takes an air mass starting over the Pacific to traverse the north American continent, this suggests that optically thick stratus cloud decks could help to maintain frost-free winter continental interiors in equable climates. We find that CMIP5 climate model runs show large increases in cloud water path and surface cloud longwave forcing in warmer climates, consistent with the proposed low-cloud feedback

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...

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/.

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

Patient-Provider Teamwork via Cooperative Note Taking on Tele-Board MED.

PubMed

Perlich, Anja; Meinel, Christoph

2016-01-01

There is significant, unexploited potential to improve the patients' engagement in psychotherapy treatment through technology use. We develop Tele-Board MED (TBM), a digital tool to support documentation and patient-provider collaboration in medical encounters. Our objective is the evaluation of TBM's practical effects on patient-provider relationships and patient empowerment in the domain of talk-based mental health interventions. We tested TBM in individual therapy sessions at a psychiatric ward using action research methods. The qualitative results in form of therapist observations and patient stories show an increased acceptance of diagnoses and patient-therapist bonding. We compare the observed effects to patient-provider relationship and patient empowerment models. We can conclude that the functions of TBM - namely that notes are shared and cooperatively taken with the patient, that diagnostics and treatment procedures are depicted via visuals and in plain language, and that patients get a copy of their file - lead to increased patient engagement and an improved collaboration, communication and integration in consultations.

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.

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.

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.

Consumer Sleep Technologies: A Review of the Landscape

PubMed Central

Ko, Ping-Ru T.; Kientz, Julie A.; Choe, Eun Kyoung; Kay, Matthew; Landis, Carol A.; Watson, Nathaniel F.

2015-01-01

Objective: To review sleep related consumer technologies, including mobile electronic device “apps,” wearable devices, and other technologies. Validation and methodological transparency, the effect on clinical sleep medicine, and various social, legal, and ethical issues are discussed. Methods: We reviewed publications from the digital libraries of the Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and PubMed; publications from consumer technology websites; and mobile device app marketplaces. Search terms included “sleep technology,” “sleep app,” and “sleep monitoring.” Results: Consumer sleep technologies are categorized by delivery platform including mobile device apps (integrated with a mobile operating system and utilizing mobile device functions such as the camera or microphone), wearable devices (on the body or attached to clothing), embedded devices (integrated into furniture or other fixtures in the native sleep environment), accessory appliances, and conventional desktop/website resources. Their primary goals include facilitation of sleep induction or wakening, self-guided sleep assessment, entertainment, social connection, information sharing, and sleep education. Conclusions: Consumer sleep technologies are changing the landscape of sleep health and clinical sleep medicine. These technologies have the potential to both improve and impair collective and individual sleep health depending on method of implementation. Citation: Ko PR, Kientz JA, Choe EK, Kay M, Landis CA, Watson NF. Consumer sleep technologies: a review of the landscape. J Clin Sleep Med 2015;11(12):1455–1461. PMID:26156958

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.

What Would Happen to Superstorm Sandy Under the Influence of a Substantially Warmer Atlantic Ocean?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lau, William K. M.; Shi, J. J.; Tao, W. K.; Kim, K. M.

2016-01-01

Based on ensemble numerical simulations, we find that possible responses of Sandy-like superstorms under the influence of a substantially warmer Atlantic Ocean bifurcate into two groups. In the first group, storms are similar to present-day Sandy from genesis to extratropical transition, except they are much stronger, with peak Power Destructive Index (PDI) increased by 50-80%, heavy rain by 30-50%, and maximum storm size (MSS) approximately doubled. In the second group, storms amplify substantially over the interior of the Atlantic warm pool, with peak PDI increased by 100-160%, heavy rain by 70-180%, and MSS more than tripled compared to present-day Superstorm Sandy. These storms when exiting the warm pool, recurve northeastward out to sea, subsequently interact with the developing midlatitude storm by mutual counterclockwise rotation around each other and eventually amplify into a severe Northeastern coastal storm, making landfall over the extreme northeastern regions from Maine to Nova Scotia.

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.

A Surveillance and Targeting System for an Unmanned Ground Vehicle

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-08-01

CHARACTERISTICS - SELECTABLE INFRASONIC AND ULTRASONIC FREQUENCY SHIFTING CAPABILITY - SUPER-BINAURAL CONFIGURATION ANGLE AND PICKUP SEPARATION GREATER THAN...HUMAN HEAD - VARIABLE GAIN WITH CLIPPING - INTEGRATABLE INTO TOV OPERATOR HELMET - CONTROL INTERFACE: VOLUME UP/DOWN, SONIC ON/OFF, ULTRA ON/OFF... INFRA ON/OFF, BOOST HI/MED/OFF ----- UGV/TOV ----- ---- AUVS/DAYTON ---- LASER SAFETY IMPLICATIONS IMPLICATIONS FOR DESIGN: - POWER UP SEQUENCE - ABORT

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

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…

Stability of hemostatic proteins in canine fresh-frozen plasma thawed with a modified commercial microwave warmer or warm water bath.

PubMed

Pashmakova, Medora B; Barr, James W; Bishop, Micah A

2015-05-01

To compare stability of hemostatic proteins in canine fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) thawed with a modified commercial microwave warmer (MCM) or warm water bath (37°C; WWB) or at room temperature (22°C). Fresh-frozen plasma obtained from 8 canine donors of a commercial blood bank. A commercial microwave warmer was modified with a thermocouple to measure surface temperature of bags containing plasma. The MCM and a WWB were each used to concurrently thaw a 60-mL bag of plasma obtained from the same donor. Two 3-mL control aliquots of FFP from each donor were thawed to room temperature without use of a heating device. Concentrations of hemostatic proteins, albumin, and D-dimers; prothrombin time (PT); and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) were determined for all samples. Significant decreases in concentrations of factors II, IX, X, XI, fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor, antithrombin, protein C, and albumin and significant increases in PT and aPTT were detected for plasma thawed with the MCM, compared with results for samples thawed with the WWB. Concentrations of factors VII, VIII, and XII were not significantly different between plasma thawed with the MCM and WWB. Concentrations of D-dimers were above the reference range for all thawed samples regardless of thawing method. No significant differences in factor concentrations were detected between control and WWB-thawed samples. Significant differences in hemostatic protein concentrations and coagulation times were detected for plasma thawed with an MCM but not between control and WWB-thawed samples. Clinical importance of these changes should be investigated.

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

Global drought and severe drought-affected populations in 1.5 and 2 °C warmer worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Wenbin; Sun, Fubao; Lim, Wee Ho; Zhang, Jie; Wang, Hong; Shiogama, Hideo; Zhang, Yuqing

2018-03-01

The 2015 Paris Agreement proposed a more ambitious climate change mitigation target on limiting global warming to 1.5 °C instead of 2 °C above preindustrial levels. Scientific investigations on environmental risks associated with these warming targets are necessary to inform climate policymaking. Based on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) climate models, we present the first risk-based assessment of changes in global drought and the impact of severe drought on populations from additional 1.5 and 2 °C warming conditions. Our results highlight the risk of drought on a global scale and in several hotspot regions such as the Amazon, northeastern Brazil, southern Africa and Central Europe at both 1.5 and 2 °C global warming relative to the historical period, showing increases in drought durations from 2.9 to 3.2 months. Correspondingly, more total and urban populations would be exposed to severe droughts globally (+132.5 ± 216.2 million and +194.5 ± 276.5 million total population and +350.2 ± 158.8 million and +410.7 ± 213.5 million urban populations in 1.5 and 2 °C warmer worlds) and regionally (e.g., East Africa, West Africa and South Asia). Less rural populations (-217.7 ± 79.2 million and -216.2 ± 82.4 million rural populations in 1.5 and 2 °C warmer worlds) would be exposed to severe drought globally under climate warming, population growth and especially the urbanization-induced population migration. By keeping global warming at 1.5 °C above the preindustrial levels instead of 2 °C, there is a decrease in drought risks (i.e., less drought duration, less drought intensity and severity but relatively more frequent drought) and the affected total, urban and rural populations would decrease globally and in most regions. While challenging for both East Africa and South Asia, the benefits of limiting warming to below 1.5 °C in terms of global drought risk and impact reduction are significant.

Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST) Mission and Synergies with LISA and LIGO-Virgo

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gehrels, N.; Spergel, D.

2015-01-01

The Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is a NASA space mission in study for launch in 2024. It has a 2.4 m telescope, wide-field IR instrument operating in the 0.7 - 2.0 micron range and an exoplanet imaging coronagraph instrument operating in the 400 - 1000 nm range. The observatory will perform galaxy surveys over thousands of square degrees to J=27 AB for dark energy weak lensing and baryon acoustic oscillation measurements and will monitor a few square degrees for dark energy SN Ia studies. It will perform microlensing observations of the galactic bulge for an exoplanet census and direct imaging observations of nearby exoplanets with a pathfinder coronagraph. The mission will have a robust and wellfunded guest observer program for 25% of the observing time. WFIRST will be a powerful tool for time domain astronomy and for coordinated observations with gravitational wave experiments. Gravitational wave events produced by mergers of nearby binary neutron stars (LIGO-Virgo) or extragalactic supermassive black hole binaries (LISA) will produce electromagnetic radiation that WFIRST can observe.

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.

The Impact of an Online Collaborative Learning Program on Students' Attitude towards Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magen-Nagar, Noga; Shonfeld, Miri

2018-01-01

This quantitative research examined the contribution of an Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) program on attitudes towards technology in terms of technological anxiety, self-confidence and technology orientation among M.Ed. students. The advanced online collaborative program was implemented at two teacher training colleges in Israel for a period…

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.

Efficacy of MedMyst: an Internet Teaching Tool for Middle School Microbiology.

PubMed

Miller, Leslie M; Moreno, Janette; Estrera, Vicky; Lane, David

2004-05-01

Can web-based technology be used to effectively introduce or reinforce aspects of microbiology to middle school students? This central hypothesis examines whether brief exposure to a web adventure format containing virtual lab experiments and computer games within an engaging story line can impact student learning. An episodic adventure series, MedMyst (http://medmyst.rice.edu), focuses on infectious diseases and the microbes that cause them. The website is not intended to replace classroom instruction, but rather to engage students in problem-solving activities not likely to be encountered elsewhere. It also provides scientists with a resource to introduce microbiology to adolescent audiences through outreach activities. In the online adventure, the player (student) enters a futuristic world in which he or she becomes a "Reconstructor," a member of an elite team charged with preventing the spread of infectious disease. The series consists of three "missions," each lasting approximately 30 to 40 minutes and designed to address a limited set of learning objectives. Middle school students participated in the creation of the characters and the stylized design through focus groups. Classroom teachers oversaw the alignment of the web adventure objectives with the National Science Content Standards. Scientists and clinicians reviewed the web adventure for content and accuracy. A field test involving over 700 students from nine different schools assessed the knowledge gains attributable to playing MedMyst. Gain scores from pretest to posttest indicated that middle school students retained important information by interacting with the online material for as little as 30 minutes per adventure; however, gains for high school students were less persuasive, perhaps indicating a different learning tool or content is required for this age audience.

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

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

Evidence for lower plasticity in CTMAX at warmer developmental temperatures.

PubMed

Kellermann, Vanessa; Sgrò, Carla M

2018-06-07

Understanding the capacity for different species to reduce their susceptibility to climate change via phenotypic plasticity is essential for accurately predicting species extinction risk. The climatic variability hypothesis suggests that spatial and temporal variation in climatic variables should select for more plastic phenotypes. However, empirical support for this hypothesis is limited. Here, we examine the capacity for ten Drosophila species to increase their critical thermal maxima (CT MAX ) through developmental acclimation and/or adult heat hardening. Using four fluctuating developmental temperature regimes, ranging from 13 to 33 °C, we find that most species can increase their CT MAX via developmental acclimation and adult hardening, but found no relationship between climatic variables and absolute measures of plasticity. However, when plasticity was dissected across developmental temperatures, a positive association between plasticity and one measure of climatic variability (temperature seasonality) was found when development took place between 26 and 28 °C, whereas a negative relationship was found when development took place between 20 and 23 °C. In addition, a decline in CT MAX and egg-to-adult viability, a proxy for fitness, was observed in tropical species at the warmer developmental temperatures (26-28 °C); this suggests that tropical species may be at even greater risk from climate change than currently predicted. The combined effects of developmental acclimation and adult hardening on CT MAX were small, contributing to a <0.60 °C shift in CT MAX . Although small shifts in CT MAX may increase population persistence in the shorter term, the degree to which they can contribute to meaningful responses in the long term is unclear. © 2018 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2018 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Tactical Infrasound

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-05-01

received briefings on a variety of infra - sonic sensor systenis. Materials were also received from the 2001 and 2002 Infrasonic Technology Workshops and...Systems to Tactical Acoustic Sys- tems One issue to be considered in the evaluation of a p)otential tactical infra - sonic system is the ability to...Communication range Fixed Fixed 5 km 7.4 A Design Approach for a Future Tactical Infra - sonic Sensor System This section describes a procedure used to

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

James Webb Space Telescope Mid Infra-Red Instrument Pulse-Tube Cryocooler Electronics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harvey, D.; Flowers, T.; Liu, N.; Moore, K.; Tran, D.; Valenzuela, P.; Franklin, B.; Michaels, D.

2013-01-01

The latest generation of long life, space pulse-tube cryocoolers require electronics capable of controlling self-induced vibration down to a fraction of a newton and coldhead temperature with high accuracy down to a few kelvin. Other functions include engineering diagnostics, heater and valve control, telemetry and safety protection of the cryocooler subsystem against extreme environments and operational anomalies. The electronics are designed to survive the thermal, vibration, shock and radiation environment of launch and orbit, while providing a design life in excess of 10 years on-orbit. A number of our current generation high reliability radiation-hardened electronics units are in various stages of integration on several space flight payloads. This paper describes the features and performance of our latest flight electronics designed for the pulse-tube cryocooler that is the pre-cooler for a closed cycle Joule-Thomson cooler providing 6K cooling for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mid Infra-Red Instrument (MIRI). The electronics is capable of highly accurate temperature control over the temperature range from 4K to 15K. Self-induced vibration is controlled to low levels on all harmonics up to the 16th. A unique active power filter controls peak-to-peak reflected ripple current on the primary power bus to a very low level. The 9 kg unit is capable of delivering 360W continuous power to NGAS's 3-stage pulse-tube High-Capacity Cryocooler (HCC).

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

Impact of warmer weather on electricity sector emissions due to building energy use

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meier, Paul; Holloway, Tracey; Patz, Jonathan; Harkey, Monica; Ahl, Doug; Abel, David; Schuetter, Scott; Hackel, Scott

2017-06-01

Most US energy consumption occurs in buildings, with cooling demands anticipated to increase net building electricity use under warmer conditions. The electricity generation units that respond to this demand are major contributors to sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), both of which have direct impacts on public health, and contribute to the formation of secondary pollutants including ozone and fine particulate matter. This study quantifies temperature-driven changes in power plant emissions due to increased use of building air conditioning. We compare an ambient temperature baseline for the Eastern US to a model-calculated mid-century scenario with summer-average temperature increases ranging from 1 C to 5 C across the domain. We find a 7% increase in summer electricity demand and a 32% increase in non-coincident peak demand. Power sector modeling, assuming only limited changes to current generation resources, calculated a 16% increase in emissions of NOx and an 18% increase in emissions of SO2. There is a high level of regional variance in the response of building energy use to climate, and the response of emissions to associated demand. The East North Central census region exhibited the greatest sensitivity of energy demand and associated emissions to climate.

Will a warmer and wetter future cause extinction of native Hawaiian forest birds?

PubMed

Liao, Wei; Elison Timm, Oliver; Zhang, Chunxi; Atkinson, Carter T; LaPointe, Dennis A; Samuel, Michael D

2015-12-01

Isolation of the Hawaiian archipelago produced a highly endemic and unique avifauna. Avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum), an introduced mosquito-borne pathogen, is a primary cause of extinctions and declines of these endemic honeycreepers. Our research assesses how global climate change will affect future malaria risk and native bird populations. We used an epidemiological model to evaluate future bird-mosquito-malaria dynamics in response to alternative climate projections from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. Climate changes during the second half of the century accelerate malaria transmission and cause a dramatic decline in bird abundance. Different temperature and precipitation patterns produce divergent trajectories where native birds persist with low malaria infection under a warmer and dryer projection (RCP4.5), but suffer high malaria infection and severe reductions under hot and dry (RCP8.5) or warm and wet (A1B) futures. We conclude that future global climate change will cause significant decreases in the abundance and diversity of remaining Hawaiian bird communities. Because these effects appear unlikely before mid-century, natural resource managers have time to implement conservation strategies to protect this unique avifauna from further decimation. Similar climatic drivers for avian and human malaria suggest that mitigation strategies for Hawai'i have broad application to human health. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Will a warmer and wetter future cause extinction of native Hawaiian forest birds?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Liao, Wei; Timm, Oliver Elison; Zhang, Chunxi; Atkinson, Carter T.; LaPointe, Dennis; Samuel, Michael D.

2015-01-01

Isolation of the Hawaiian archipelago produced a highly endemic and unique avifauna. Avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum), an introduced mosquito-borne pathogen, is a primary cause of extinctions and declines of these endemic honeycreepers. Our research assesses how global climate change will affect future malaria risk and native bird populations. We used an epidemiological model to evaluate future bird-mosquito-malaria dynamics in response to alternative climate projections from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). Climate changes during the second half of the century accelerate malaria transmission and cause a dramatic decline in bird abundance. Different temperature and precipitation patterns produce divergent trajectories where native birds persist with low malaria infection under a warmer and dryer projection (RCP4.5), but suffer high malaria infection and severe reductions under hot and dry (RCP8.5) or warm and wet (A1B) futures. We conclude that future global climate change will cause significant decreases in the abundance and diversity of remaining Hawaiian bird communities. Because these effects appear unlikely before mid-century, natural resource managers have time to implement conservation strategies to protect this unique avifauna from further decimation. Similar climatic drivers for avian and human malaria suggest that mitigation strategies for Hawai'i have broad application to human health.

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

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.

Familial hypercholesterolemia in the Czech Republic: more than 17 years of systematic screening within the MedPed project.

PubMed

Vrablík, M; Vaclová, M; Tichý, L; Soška, V; Bláha, V; Fajkusová, L; Češka, R; Šatný, M; Freiberger, T

2017-04-05

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is the most common autosomal dominant disorder. It is characterized by a decrease in LDL cholesterol catabolism and an early clinical manifestation of atherosclerotic vessel damage. The aim of the MedPed (Make early diagnosis to Prevent early deaths) project is an early diagnosis of FH patients in order to profit from early treatment and prevent cardiovascular events. Till November 30, 2016 The Czech National MedPed Database has registered 7,001 FH patients from 5,223 different families that is 17.4 % of expected patients in the Czech Republic considering 1:250 FH prevalence. The improvement in diagnostic accuracy, patient cooperation and above all familial cascade screening is enabled by FH mutation detection using the modern technology of next-generation sequencing. FH still remain undiagnosed even though the Czech Republic is one of the most successful countries with respect to FH detection. The opportunities of international collaboration and experience sharing within international programs (e.g. EAS FHSC, ScreenPro FH etc.) will improve the detection of FH patients in the future and enable even more accessible and accurate genetic diagnostics.

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

Managing diabetes mellitus using information technology: a systematic review.

PubMed

Riazi, H; Larijani, B; Langarizadeh, M; Shahmoradi, L

2015-01-01

To review published evidences about using information technology interventions in diabetes care and determine their effects on managing diabetes. Systematic review of information technology based interventions. MEDLINE®/PubMed were electronically searched for articles published between 2004/07/01 and 2014/07/01. A comprehensive, electronic search strategy was used to identify eligible articles. Inclusion criteria were defined based on type of study and effect of information technology based intervention in relation to glucose control and other clinical outcomes in diabetic patients. Studies must have used a controlled design to evaluate an information technology based intervention. A total of 3613 articles were identified based on the searches conducted in MEDLINE from PubMed. After excluding duplicates (n = 6), we screened titles and abstracts of 3607 articles based on inclusion criteria. The remaining articles matched with inclusion criteria (n = 277) were reviewed in full text, and 210 articles were excluded based on exclusion criteria. Finally, 67 articles complied with our eligibility criteria and were included in this study. In this study, the effect of various information technology based interventions on clinical outcomes in diabetic patients extracted and measured from selected articles is described and compared to each other. Information technology based interventions combined with the usual care are associated with improved glycemic control with different efficacy on various clinical outcomes in diabetic patients.

Critical bounds on noise and SNR for robust estimation of real-time brain activity from functional near infra-red spectroscopy.

PubMed

Aqil, Muhammad; Jeong, Myung Yung

2018-04-24

The robust characterization of real-time brain activity carries potential for many applications. However, the contamination of measured signals by various instrumental, environmental, and physiological sources of noise introduces a substantial amount of signal variance and, consequently, challenges real-time estimation of contributions from underlying neuronal sources. Functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging imaging modality whose real-time potential is yet to be fully explored. The objectives of the current study are to (i) validate a time-dependent linear model of hemodynamic responses in fNIRS, and (ii) test the robustness of this approach against measurement noise (instrumental and physiological) and mis-specification of the hemodynamic response basis functions (amplitude, latency, and duration). We propose a linear hemodynamic model with time-varying parameters, which are estimated (adapted and tracked) using a dynamic recursive least square algorithm. Owing to the linear nature of the activation model, the problem of achieving robust convergence to an accurate estimation of the model parameters is recast as a problem of parameter error stability around the origin. We show that robust convergence of the proposed method is guaranteed in the presence of an acceptable degree of model misspecification and we derive an upper bound on noise under which reliable parameters can still be inferred. We also derived a lower bound on signal-to-noise-ratio over which the reliable parameters can still be inferred from a channel/voxel. Whilst here applied to fNIRS, the proposed methodology is applicable to other hemodynamic-based imaging technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Women are Warmer but No Less Assertive than Men: Gender and Language on Facebook.

PubMed

Park, Gregory; Yaden, David Bryce; Schwartz, H Andrew; Kern, Margaret L; Eichstaedt, Johannes C; Kosinski, Michael; Stillwell, David; Ungar, Lyle H; Seligman, Martin E P

2016-01-01

Using a large social media dataset and open-vocabulary methods from computational linguistics, we explored differences in language use across gender, affiliation, and assertiveness. In Study 1, we analyzed topics (groups of semantically similar words) across 10 million messages from over 52,000 Facebook users. Most language differed little across gender. However, topics most associated with self-identified female participants included friends, family, and social life, whereas topics most associated with self-identified male participants included swearing, anger, discussion of objects instead of people, and the use of argumentative language. In Study 2, we plotted male- and female-linked language topics along two interpersonal dimensions prevalent in gender research: affiliation and assertiveness. In a sample of over 15,000 Facebook users, we found substantial gender differences in the use of affiliative language and slight differences in assertive language. Language used more by self-identified females was interpersonally warmer, more compassionate, polite, and-contrary to previous findings-slightly more assertive in their language use, whereas language used more by self-identified males was colder, more hostile, and impersonal. Computational linguistic analysis combined with methods to automatically label topics offer means for testing psychological theories unobtrusively at large scale.

Women are Warmer but No Less Assertive than Men: Gender and Language on Facebook

PubMed Central

Park, Gregory; Schwartz, H. Andrew; Kern, Margaret L.; Eichstaedt, Johannes C.; Kosinski, Michael; Stillwell, David; Ungar, Lyle H.; Seligman, Martin E. P.

2016-01-01

Using a large social media dataset and open-vocabulary methods from computational linguistics, we explored differences in language use across gender, affiliation, and assertiveness. In Study 1, we analyzed topics (groups of semantically similar words) across 10 million messages from over 52,000 Facebook users. Most language differed little across gender. However, topics most associated with self-identified female participants included friends, family, and social life, whereas topics most associated with self-identified male participants included swearing, anger, discussion of objects instead of people, and the use of argumentative language. In Study 2, we plotted male- and female-linked language topics along two interpersonal dimensions prevalent in gender research: affiliation and assertiveness. In a sample of over 15,000 Facebook users, we found substantial gender differences in the use of affiliative language and slight differences in assertive language. Language used more by self-identified females was interpersonally warmer, more compassionate, polite, and—contrary to previous findings—slightly more assertive in their language use, whereas language used more by self-identified males was colder, more hostile, and impersonal. Computational linguistic analysis combined with methods to automatically label topics offer means for testing psychological theories unobtrusively at large scale. PMID:27223607

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

Cermet based metamaterials for multi band absorbers over NIR to LWIR frequencies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pradhan, Jitendra K.; Behera, Gangadhar; Agarwal, Amit K.; Ghosh, Amitava; Ramakrishna, S. Anantha

2017-06-01

Cermets or ceramic-metals are known for their use in solar thermal technologies for their absorption across the solar band. Use of cermet layers in a metamaterial perfect absorber allows for flexible control of infra-red absorption over the short wave infra-red, to long wave infra-red bands, while keeping the visible/near infra-red absorption properties constant. We design multilayered metamaterials consisting of a conducting ground plane, a low metal volume fraction cermet/ZnS as dielectric spacer layers, and a top structured layer of an array of circular discs of metal/high volume metal fraction cermet that give rise to specified absorption bands in the near-infra-red (NIR) frequencies, as well as any specified band at SWIR-LWIR frequencies. Thus, a complete decoupling of the absorption at optical/NIR frequencies and the infra-red absorption behaviour of a structured metamaterial is demonstrated.

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...

Advantages and disadvantages of interdisciplinary consultation in the prescription of assistive technologies for mobility limitations.

PubMed

de Laat, Fred A; van Heerebeek, Bart; van Netten, Jaap J

2018-03-28

To explore the advantages and disadvantages experienced by professionals in interdisciplinary consultation involving the user, prescriber and technician in the prescription of assistive technologies for mobility limitations. Cross-sectional study. Prescribers (N = 39) and orthopaedic technicians (N = 50), who were regularly involved in an interdisciplinary consultation completed a questionnaire about advantages and disadvantages of the interdisciplinary consultation. Advantages of the interdisciplinary consultation were mentioned within all CanMEDS areas of medical practice, including better and quicker prescription of the assistive technology, shared knowledge of medical diagnosis and device possibilities, shared decision making of the device prescription and clear communication rules. Disadvantages were mentioned in the CanMEDS areas management and collaboration, including planning problems (financial) reimbursement of this type of consultation, and time efficiency. On a 10-point scale, mean (standard deviation) rates of interdisciplinary consultations were 7.9 (0.6) according to prescribers, and 7.8 (0.9) by technicians. All participants wanted to continue the interdisciplinary consultation. Prescribers and technicians in the field of assistive technologies for walking mobility limitations appreciate an interdisciplinary consultation. Advantages are found in all CanMEDS areas, whereas disadvantages only concern coordination. It should be encouraged to realize this kind of consultation in all situations where such technologies are prescribed. Implications for rehabilitation Interdisciplinary consultation involving the user, prescriber and technician to prescribe assistive technologies for mobility limitations has many advantages in all CanMEDS areas of medical practice, and few disadvantages, related to management and collaboration only. The disadvantages of interdisciplinary consultation, such as (financial) reimbursement by health insurance companies

Ab Initio Density Functional Calculations and Infra-Red Study of CO Interaction with Pd Atoms on θ-Al2O3 (010) Surface.

PubMed

Narula, Chaitanya K; Allard, Lawrence F; Wu, Zili

2017-07-24

The ab initio density functional theoretical studies show that energetics favor CO oxidation on single Pd atoms supported on θ-alumina. The diffuse reflectance infra-red spectroscopy (DRIFTS) results show that carbonates are formed as intermediates when single supported Pd atoms are exposed to a gaseous mixture of CO + O 2 . The rapid agglomeration of Pd atoms under CO oxidation conditions even at 6 °C leads to the presence of Pd particles along with single atoms during CO oxidation experiments. Thus, the observed CO oxidation has contributions from both single Pd atoms and Pd particles.

Supporting telemicroscopy and laboratory medicine activities. The Greek "TELE.INFO.MED.LAB" project.

PubMed

Miaoulis, G; Protopapa, E; Skourlas, C; Delides, G

1995-01-01

In this paper the authors present the basic results of the study for the "TELE.INFO.MED.LAB" project. This study is based on the local experience of the Metaxas Cancer Institute case and on international references. The possibilities rendered by current developments in telemedicine and particularly in telepathology accelerate and facilitate the communication of crucial medical data and creation of "second level" medical services overcoming the geographical particularities of the country. The availability of data transmission (signals, images, texts, etc.) enables the creation of a "uniform market" for various services. This system must take into account the financial realities, geographical aspects transportation problems and technological developments. Organization of this system, the choices of technical standards and the realization of a complete pilot project are described. For this system we also describe the functional and technical aspects, as well as software and hardware components for the different types of units.

Predicting nurses' use of healthcare technology using the technology acceptance model: an integrative review.

PubMed

Strudwick, Gillian

2015-05-01

The benefits of healthcare technologies can only be attained if nurses accept and intend to fully use them. One of the most common models utilized to understand user acceptance of technology is the Technology Acceptance Model. This model and modified versions of it have only recently been applied in the healthcare literature among nurse participants. An integrative literature review was conducted on this topic. Ovid/MEDLINE, PubMed, Google Scholar, and CINAHL were searched yielding a total of 982 references. Upon eliminating duplicates and applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the review included a total of four dissertations, three symposium proceedings, and 13 peer-reviewed journal articles. These documents were appraised and reviewed. The results show that a modified Technology Acceptance Model with added variables could provide a better explanation of nurses' acceptance of healthcare technology. These added variables to modified versions of the Technology Acceptance Model are discussed, and the studies' methodologies are critiqued. Limitations of the studies included in the integrative review are also examined.

Improving Regional Forecast by Assimilating Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) Profiles into WRF Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chou, Shih-Hung; Zavodsky, Brad; Jedlovec, Gary J.

2009-01-01

In data sparse regions, remotely-sensed observations can be used to improve analyses and produce improved forecasts. One such source comes from the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS), which together with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), represents one of the most advanced space-based atmospheric sounding systems. The purpose of this paper is to describe a procedure to optimally assimilate high resolution AIRS profile data into a regional configuration of the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) version 2.2 using WRF-Var. The paper focuses on development of background error covariances for the regional domain and background type, and an optimal methodology for ingesting AIRS temperature and moisture profiles as separate overland and overwater retrievals with different error characteristics. The AIRS thermodynamic profiles are derived from the version 5.0 Earth Observing System (EOS) science team retrieval algorithm and contain information about the quality of each temperature layer. The quality indicators were used to select the highest quality temperature and moisture data for each profile location and pressure level. The analyses were then used to conduct a month-long series of regional forecasts over the continental U.S. The long-term impacts of AIRS profiles on forecast were assessed against verifying NAM analyses and stage IV precipitation data.

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.

Nitrous oxide emissions are enhanced in a warmer and wetter world.

PubMed

Griffis, Timothy J; Chen, Zichong; Baker, John M; Wood, Jeffrey D; Millet, Dylan B; Lee, Xuhui; Venterea, Rodney T; Turner, Peter A

2017-11-07

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) has a global warming potential that is 300 times that of carbon dioxide on a 100-y timescale, and is of major importance for stratospheric ozone depletion. The climate sensitivity of N 2 O emissions is poorly known, which makes it difficult to project how changing fertilizer use and climate will impact radiative forcing and the ozone layer. Analysis of 6 y of hourly N 2 O mixing ratios from a very tall tower within the US Corn Belt-one of the most intensive agricultural regions of the world-combined with inverse modeling, shows large interannual variability in N 2 O emissions (316 Gg N 2 O-N⋅y -1 to 585 Gg N 2 O-N⋅y -1 ). This implies that the regional emission factor is highly sensitive to climate. In the warmest year and spring (2012) of the observational period, the emission factor was 7.5%, nearly double that of previous reports. Indirect emissions associated with runoff and leaching dominated the interannual variability of total emissions. Under current trends in climate and anthropogenic N use, we project a strong positive feedback to warmer and wetter conditions and unabated growth of regional N 2 O emissions that will exceed 600 Gg N 2 O-N⋅y -1 , on average, by 2050. This increasing emission trend in the US Corn Belt may represent a harbinger of intensifying N 2 O emissions from other agricultural regions. Such feedbacks will pose a major challenge to the Paris Agreement, which requires large N 2 O emission mitigation efforts to achieve its goals. Published under the PNAS license.

Nitrous oxide emissions are enhanced in a warmer and wetter world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griffis, Timothy J.; Chen, Zichong; Baker, John M.; Wood, Jeffrey D.; Millet, Dylan B.; Lee, Xuhui; Venterea, Rodney T.; Turner, Peter A.

2017-11-01

Nitrous oxide (N2O) has a global warming potential that is 300 times that of carbon dioxide on a 100-y timescale, and is of major importance for stratospheric ozone depletion. The climate sensitivity of N2O emissions is poorly known, which makes it difficult to project how changing fertilizer use and climate will impact radiative forcing and the ozone layer. Analysis of 6 y of hourly N2O mixing ratios from a very tall tower within the US Corn Belt—one of the most intensive agricultural regions of the world—combined with inverse modeling, shows large interannual variability in N2O emissions (316 Gg N2O-Nṡy‑1 to 585 Gg N2O-Nṡy‑1). This implies that the regional emission factor is highly sensitive to climate. In the warmest year and spring (2012) of the observational period, the emission factor was 7.5%, nearly double that of previous reports. Indirect emissions associated with runoff and leaching dominated the interannual variability of total emissions. Under current trends in climate and anthropogenic N use, we project a strong positive feedback to warmer and wetter conditions and unabated growth of regional N2O emissions that will exceed 600 Gg N2O-Nṡy‑1, on average, by 2050. This increasing emission trend in the US Corn Belt may represent a harbinger of intensifying N2O emissions from other agricultural regions. Such feedbacks will pose a major challenge to the Paris Agreement, which requires large N2O emission mitigation efforts to achieve its goals.

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

The development of PubMed search strategies for patient preferences for treatment outcomes.

PubMed

van Hoorn, Ralph; Kievit, Wietske; Booth, Andrew; Mozygemba, Kati; Lysdahl, Kristin Bakke; Refolo, Pietro; Sacchini, Dario; Gerhardus, Ansgar; van der Wilt, Gert Jan; Tummers, Marcia

2016-07-29

The importance of respecting patients' preferences when making treatment decisions is increasingly recognized. Efficiently retrieving papers from the scientific literature reporting on the presence and nature of such preferences can help to achieve this goal. The objective of this study was to create a search filter for PubMed to help retrieve evidence on patient preferences for treatment outcomes. A total of 27 journals were hand-searched for articles on patient preferences for treatment outcomes published in 2011. Selected articles served as a reference set. To develop optimal search strategies to retrieve this set, all articles in the reference set were randomly split into a development and a validation set. MeSH-terms and keywords retrieved using PubReMiner were tested individually and as combinations in PubMed and evaluated for retrieval performance (e.g. sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp)). Of 8238 articles, 22 were considered to report empirical evidence on patient preferences for specific treatment outcomes. The best search filters reached Se of 100 % [95 % CI 100-100] with Sp of 95 % [94-95 %] and Sp of 97 % [97-98 %] with 75 % Se [74-76 %]. In the validation set these queries reached values of Se of 90 % [89-91 %] with Sp 94 % [93-95 %] and Se of 80 % [79-81 %] with Sp of 97 % [96-96 %], respectively. Narrow and broad search queries were developed which can help in retrieving literature on patient preferences for treatment outcomes. Identifying such evidence may in turn enhance the incorporation of patient preferences in clinical decision making and health technology assessment.

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.

Fighting Ebola with novel spore decontamination technologies for the military

DOE PAGES

Doona, Christopher J.; Feeherry, Florence E.; Kustin, Kenneth; ...

2015-08-12

Recently, global public health organizations such as Doctors without Borders (MSF), the World Health Organization (WHO), Public Health Canada, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. government developed and deployed Field Decontamination Kits (FDKs), a novel, lightweight, compact, reusable decontamination technology to sterilize Ebola-contaminated medical devices at remote clinical sites lacking infra-structure in crisis-stricken regions of West Africa (medical waste materials are placed in bags and burned). Here, the basis for effectuating sterilization with FDKs is chlorine dioxide (ClO 2) produced from a patented invention developed by researchers at the US Army Natick Soldier RD&E Center (NSRDEC) and commercializedmore » as a dry mixed-chemical for bacterial spore decontamination.« less

Fighting Ebola with novel spore decontamination technologies for the military

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

Doona, Christopher J.; Feeherry, Florence E.; Kustin, Kenneth

Recently, global public health organizations such as Doctors without Borders (MSF), the World Health Organization (WHO), Public Health Canada, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. government developed and deployed Field Decontamination Kits (FDKs), a novel, lightweight, compact, reusable decontamination technology to sterilize Ebola-contaminated medical devices at remote clinical sites lacking infra-structure in crisis-stricken regions of West Africa (medical waste materials are placed in bags and burned). Here, the basis for effectuating sterilization with FDKs is chlorine dioxide (ClO 2) produced from a patented invention developed by researchers at the US Army Natick Soldier RD&E Center (NSRDEC) and commercializedmore » as a dry mixed-chemical for bacterial spore decontamination.« less

Extreme Temperatures over India in the 1.5°C and 2°C warmer worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thanigachalam, A.; Achutarao, K. M.

2017-12-01

n the summer of 2015 a heat wave claimed more than 2500 lives of southeastern India. Wehner et al., (2016) showed that the risk of this heat wave has increased due to anthropogenic forcings. Under the RCP 8.5 scenario, surface temperature over India shows a rate of increase of about 0.2°C/decade during the 21st Century (Basha et al., 2017). The extreme temperatures that have occurred in the recent past and further increases projected for the future have implications for human health and productivity. In light of the Paris accords, future stabilization of global mean temperature at the 1.5°C above pre-industrial aspirational target and the "not to be exceeded" 2°C target (still higher than current temperatures), the possibility of increases in extreme temperatures under these scenarios is very real. In this study we seek to understand the nature of extreme temperatures over India in the 1.5°C and 2°C worlds in comparison to the current climate. We make use of model output contributed under the Half a degree Additional warming, Prognosis and Projected Impacts project (HAPPI; Mitchell et al., 2017). The HAPPI database contains output from many atmospheric GCMs with multiple simulations ( 100 each) of historical (2005-2015), 1.5°C warmer decade, and 2°C warmer decade. The large number of ensembles provides an opportunity to study the extremes in temperature that occur over India and how they may change. In order to provide insights into the future comparable against current operational practices, we make use of definitions of "hot days", "heat waves", and "severe heat waves" used by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). We compare modelled data (and bias corrected model output where available) against observed daily temperatures from the IMD gridded (1°x1°) dataset available for 1951-2015 as also circulation features that lead to such events by comparing against reanalysis products. We also investigate the timing of such events in the future scenarios

#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.

Future summer mega-heatwave and record-breaking temperatures in a warmer France climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bador, Margot; Terray, Laurent; Boé, Julien; Somot, Samuel; Alias, Antoinette; Gibelin, Anne-Laure; Dubuisson, Brigitte

2017-07-01

This study focuses on future very hot summers associated with severe heatwaves and record-breaking temperatures in France. Daily temperature observations and a pair of historical and scenario (greenhouse gas radiative concentration pathway 8.5) simulations with the high-resolution (∼12.5 km) ALADIN regional climate model provide a robust framework to examine the spatial distribution of these extreme events and their 21st century evolution. Five regions are identified with an extreme event spatial clustering algorithm applied to observed temperatures. They are used to diagnose the 21st century heatwave spatial patterns. In the 2070s, we find a simulated mega-heatwave as severe as the 2003 observed heatwave relative to its contemporaneous climate. A 20-member initial condition ensemble is used to assess the sensitivity of this future heatwave to the internal variability in the regional climate model and to pre-existing land surface conditions. Even in a much warmer and drier climate in France, late spring dry land conditions may lead to a significant amplification of summer extreme temperatures and heatwave intensity through limitations in evapotranspiration. By 2100, the increase in summer temperature maxima exhibits a range from 6 °C to almost 13 °C in the five regions in France, relative to historical maxima. These projections are comparable with the estimates given by a large number of global climate models.

Warmer weather as a risk factor for hospitalisations due to urinary tract infections.

PubMed

Simmering, J E; Cavanaugh, J E; Polgreen, L A; Polgreen, P M

2018-02-01

The incidence of urinary tract infections (UTIs) is seasonal, and this seasonality may be explained by changes in weather, specifically, temperature. Using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, we identified the geographic location for 581 813 hospital admissions with the primary diagnosis of a UTI and 56 630 773 non-UTI hospitalisations in the United States. Next, we used data from the National Climatic Data Center to estimate the monthly average temperature for each location. Using a case-control design, we modelled the odds of a hospital admission having a primary diagnosis of UTI as a function of demographics, payer, location, patient severity, admission month, year and the average temperature for the admission month. We found, after controlling for patient factors and month of admission, the odds of a UTI diagnosis increased with higher temperatures in a dose-dependent manner. For example, relative to months with average temperatures of 5-7.5 °C, an admission in a month with an average temperature of 27.5-30 °C has 20% higher odds of a primary diagnosis of UTI. However, in months with extremely high average temperatures (above 30 °C), the odds of a UTI admissions decrease, perhaps due to changes in behaviour. Thus, at a population level, UTI-related hospitalisations are associated with warmer weather.

A complex molecular switch directs stress-induced cyclin C nuclear release through SCFGrr1-mediated degradation of Med13

PubMed Central

Stieg, David C.; Willis, Stephen D.; Ganesan, Vidyaramanan; Ong, Kai Li; Scuorzo, Joseph; Song, Mia; Grose, Julianne; Strich, Randy; Cooper, Katrina F.

2018-01-01

In response to oxidative stress, cells decide whether to mount a survival or cell death response. The conserved cyclin C and its kinase partner Cdk8 play a key role in this decision. Both are members of the Cdk8 kinase module, which, with Med12 and Med13, associate with the core mediator complex of RNA polymerase II. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, oxidative stress triggers Med13 destruction, which thereafter releases cyclin C into the cytoplasm. Cytoplasmic cyclin C associates with mitochondria, where it induces hyperfragmentation and regulated cell death. In this report, we show that residues 742–844 of Med13’s 600–amino acid intrinsic disordered region (IDR) both directs cyclin C-Cdk8 association and serves as the degron that mediates ubiquitin ligase SCFGrr1-dependent destruction of Med13 following oxidative stress. Here, cyclin C-Cdk8 phosphorylation of Med13 most likely primes the phosphodegron for destruction. Next, pro-oxidant stimulation of the cell wall integrity pathway MAP kinase Slt2 initially phosphorylates cyclin C to trigger its release from Med13. Thereafter, Med13 itself is modified by Slt2 to stimulate SCFGrr1-mediated destruction. Taken together, these results support a model in which this IDR of Med13 plays a key role in controlling a molecular switch that dictates cell fate following exposure to adverse environments. PMID:29212878

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.

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

Continuity of Microblade Technology in the Indian Subcontinent Since 45 ka: Implications for the Dispersal of Modern Humans

PubMed Central

Mishra, Sheila; Chauhan, Naveen; Singhvi, Ashok K.

2013-01-01

We extend the continuity of microblade technology in the Indian Subcontinent to 45 ka, on the basis of optical dating of microblade assemblages from the site of Mehtakheri, (22° 13' 44″ N Lat 76° 01' 36″ E Long) in Madhya Pradesh, India. Microblade technology in the Indian Subcontinent is continuously present from its first appearance until the Iron Age (~3 ka), making its association with modern humans undisputed. It has been suggested that microblade technology in the Indian Subcontinent was developed locally by modern humans after 35 ka. The dates reported here from Mehtakheri show this inference to be untenable and suggest alternatively that this technology arrived in the Indian Subcontinent with the earliest modern humans. It also shows that modern humans in Indian Subcontinent and SE Asia were associated with differing technologies and this calls into question the “southern dispersal” route of modern humans from Africa through India to SE Asia and then to Australia. We suggest that modern humans dispersed from Africa in two stages coinciding with the warmer interglacial conditions of MIS 5 and MIS 3. Competitive interactions between African modern humans and Indian archaics who shared an adaptation to tropical environments differed from that between modern humans and archaics like Neanderthals and Denisovans, who were adapted to temperate environments. Thus, while modern humans expanded into temperate regions during warmer climates, their expansion into tropical regions, like the Indian Subcontinent, in competition with similarly adapted populations, occurred during arid climates. Thus modern humans probably entered the Indian Subcontinent during the arid climate of MIS 4 coinciding with their disappearance from the Middle East and Northern Africa. The out of phase expansion of modern humans into tropical versus temperate regions has been one of the factors affecting the dispersal of modern humans from Africa during the period 200–40 ka. PMID

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.

Shifts of regional hydro-climatic regimes in the warmer future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, H.; Morishita, S.

2016-12-01

It is well known that the global climate is projected to be significantly warmer than pre-industrial period, and, in 2015, it was indicated as 1-degreen increase of global mean temperature that was unprecedented previously. Human-induced additional radiative forcing causes global and regional mean temperature increase and alters energy and water partitioning in the heterogeneous pathway. Budyko proposed a conceptual equation to estimate a climate-induced dryness relating available energy and precipitation, and it has been used broadly in hydrology communities to determine regional hydro-climatic characteristics. In this study, a diagnosis framework is proposed to traced how the regional hydro-climatic regimes are shifted under the warming condition with 4 °C increase of global mean temperature. A database for Policy Decision making for Future climate change (d4PDF) based on a super-ensemble AMIP-style experiment (11,400 model years, totally) with sea surface temperature patterns extracted from six CMIP5 models is used to estimate the probability distribution of the regime shifts maximizing signal-to-noise. It was found that the global future hydro-climate condition shifts slightly to more humid condition comparing to the historical condition, since the increase of precipitation is greater and the increate of net radiation, globally. Very humid regions including tropics and semi-arid regions tend to expand, and Semi-humid and arid-regions tend to shrink. Although the change of global mean state between historical and future climate is not considerable, temporal variability under the warming climate is amplified significantly, and it induces more frequent occurrence of once-in-a-century level drought over large terrestrial regions including Africa, South America, East and Central Asia, Australia, and United States. This analysis will be extended up to the availability (expected as October 2016) of a similar database being produced under the Half a degree Additional

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,…

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.

Wetland Accretion Rate Model of Ecosystem Resilience (WARMER) and its application to habitat sustainability for endangered species in the San Francisco Estuary

USGS Publications Warehouse

Swanson, Kathleen M.; Drexler, Judith Z.; Schoellhamer, David H.; Thorne, Karen M.; Casazza, Michael L.; Overton, Cory T.; Callaway, John C.; Takekawa, John Y.

2014-01-01

Salt marsh faunas are constrained by specific habitat requirements for marsh elevation relative to sea level and tidal range. As sea level rises, changes in relative elevation of the marsh plain will have differing impacts on the availability of habitat for marsh obligate species. The Wetland Accretion Rate Model for Ecosystem Resilience (WARMER) is a 1-D model of elevation that incorporates both biological and physical processes of vertical marsh accretion. Here, we use WARMER to evaluate changes in marsh surface elevation and the impact of these elevation changes on marsh habitat for specific species of concern. Model results were compared to elevation-based habitat criteria developed for marsh vegetation, the endangered California clapper rail (Rallus longirostris obsoletus), and the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys raviventris) to determine the response of marsh habitat for each species to predicted >1-m sea-level rise by 2100. Feedback between vertical accretion mechanisms and elevation reduced the effect of initial elevation in the modeled scenarios. Elevation decreased nonlinearly with larger changes in elevation during the latter half of the century when the rate of sea-level rise increased. Model scenarios indicated that changes in elevation will degrade habitat quality within salt marshes in the San Francisco Estuary, and degradation will accelerate in the latter half of the century as the rate of sea-level rise accelerates. A sensitivity analysis of the model results showed that inorganic sediment accumulation and the rate of sea-level rise had the greatest influence over salt marsh sustainability.

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.

Designing medical technology for resilience: integrating health economics and human factors approaches.

PubMed

Borsci, Simone; Uchegbu, Ijeoma; Buckle, Peter; Ni, Zhifang; Walne, Simon; Hanna, George B

2018-01-01

The slow adoption of innovation into healthcare calls into question the manner of evidence generation for medical technology. This paper identifies potential reasons for this including a lack of attention to human factors, poor evaluation of economic benefits, lack of understanding of the existing healthcare system and a failure to recognise the need to generate resilient products. Areas covered: Recognising a cross-disciplinary need to enhance evidence generation early in a technology's life cycle, the present paper proposes a new approach that integrates human factors and health economic evaluation as part of a wider systems approach to the design of technology. This approach (Human and Economic Resilience Design for Medical Technology or HERD MedTech) supports early stages of product development and is based on the recent experiences of the National Institute for Health Research London Diagnostic Evidence Co-operative in the UK. Expert commentary: HERD MedTech i) proposes a shift from design for usability to design for resilience, ii) aspires to reduce the need for service adaptation to technological constraints iii) ensures value of innovation at the time of product development, and iv) aims to stimulate discussion around the integration of pre- and post-market methods of assessment of medical technology.

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;

Climate change and bird reproduction: warmer springs benefit breeding success in boreal forest grouse.

PubMed

Wegge, Per; Rolstad, Jørund

2017-11-15

Global warming is predicted to adversely affect the reproduction of birds, especially in northern latitudes. A recent study in Finland inferred that declining populations of black grouse, Tetrao tetrix , could be attributed to advancement of the time of mating and chicks hatching too early-supporting the mismatch hypothesis. Here, we examine the breeding success of sympatric capercaillie, T. urogallus, and black grouse over a 38-year period in southeast Norway. Breeding season temperatures increased, being most pronounced in April. Although the onset of spring advanced nearly three weeks, the peak of mating advanced only 4-5 days. In contrast to the result of the Finnish study, breeding success increased markedly in both species (capercaillie: 62%, black grouse: 38%). Both brood frequency and brood size increased during the study period, but significantly so only for brood frequency in capercaillie. Whereas the frequency of capercaillie broods was positively affected by rising temperatures, especially during the pre-hatching period, this was not the case in black grouse. Brood size, on the other hand, increased with increasing post-hatching temperatures in both species. Contrary to the prediction that global warming will adversely affect reproduction in boreal forest grouse, our study shows that breeding success was enhanced in warmer springs. © 2017 The Authors.

Global lake evaporation accelerated by changes in surface energy allocation in a warmer climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Wei; Lee, Xuhui; Xiao, Wei; Liu, Shoudong; Schultz, Natalie; Wang, Yongwei; Zhang, Mi; Zhao, Lei

2018-06-01

Lake evaporation is a sensitive indicator of the hydrological response to climate change. Variability in annual lake evaporation has been assumed to be controlled primarily by the incoming surface solar radiation. Here we report simulations with a numerical model of lake surface fluxes, with input data based on a high-emissions climate change scenario (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5). In our simulations, the global annual lake evaporation increases by 16% by the end of the century, despite little change in incoming solar radiation at the surface. We attribute about half of this projected increase to two effects: periods of ice cover are shorter in a warmer climate and the ratio of sensible to latent heat flux decreases, thus channelling more energy into evaporation. At low latitudes, annual lake evaporation is further enhanced because the lake surface warms more slowly than the air, leading to more long-wave radiation energy available for evaporation. We suggest that an analogous change in the ratio of sensible to latent heat fluxes in the open ocean can help to explain some of the spread among climate models in terms of their sensitivity of precipitation to warming. We conclude that an accurate prediction of the energy balance at the Earth's surface is crucial for evaluating the hydrological response to climate change.

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.

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

Innovations in technology: social media and mobile technology in the care of adolescents with asthma.

PubMed

Nickels, Andrew; Dimov, Vesselin

2012-12-01

This literature review analyzed technological interventions in the adolescent asthmatic population. A PubMed search was performed with terms of asthma, adolescents, social media, Internet, website, mobile phone, text messaging, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Technology during a 2.5-year period and identified 64 abstracts. Three studies fulfilled the criteria for adolescent intervention using Internet-based sites but did not provide evidence for effectiveness. Two studies focused on mobile technology. One study included text message reminders for controller medication use in asthma patients. Perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and ease of use of text messages were high, but there was no improvement in asthma control. The literature search did not find any studies exploring the use of smartphone applications or social media services. Current studies of technology use in adolescents with asthma do not provide consistent evidence of effectiveness. The positive attitude toward use of social media or mobile technology opens the possibility for future studies to further explore the potential benefits of such interventions.

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.

Investigating the Water Vapor Component of the Greenhouse Effect from the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gambacorta, A.; Barnet, C.; Sun, F.; Goldberg, M.

2009-12-01

We investigate the water vapor component of the greenhouse effect in the tropical region using data from the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS). Differently from previous studies who have relayed on the assumption of constant lapse rate and performed coarse layer or total column sensitivity analysis, we resort to AIRS high vertical resolution to measure the greenhouse effect sensitivity to water vapor along the vertical column. We employ a "partial radiative perturbation" methodology and discriminate between two different dynamic regimes, convective and non-convective. This analysis provides useful insights on the occurrence and strength of the water vapor greenhouse effect and its sensitivity to spatial variations of surface temperature. By comparison with the clear-sky computation conducted in previous works, we attempt to confine an estimate for the cloud contribution to the greenhouse effect. Our results compare well with the current literature, falling in the upper range of the existing global circulation model estimates. We value the results of this analysis as a useful reference to help discriminate among model simulations and improve our capability to make predictions about the future of our climate.

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…

Assessing COSMO-SkyMed capability for crops identification and monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guarini, R.; Dini, L.

2015-12-01

In the last decade, it has been possible to better understand the impact of agricultural human practices on the global environmental change at different spatial (from local to global) and time (from seasonal to decadal) scales. This has been achieved thanks to: big dataset continuously acquired by Earth Observation (EO) satellites; the improved capabilities of remote sensing techniques in extracting valuable information from the EO datasets; the new EO data policy which allowed unrestricted data usage; the net technologies which allowed to quickly and easily share national, international and market-derived information; an increasingly performing computing technology which allows to massively process large amount of data easier and at decreasing costs. To better understand the environmental impacts of agriculture and to monitor the consequences of human agricultural activities on the biosphere, scientists require to better identify crops and monitor crop conditions over time and space. Traditionally, NDVI time series maps derived from optical sensors have been used to this aim. As well-known this important source of information is conditioned by cloud cover. Unlike passive systems, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ones are almost insensitive to atmospheric influences; thus, they are especially suitable for crop identification and condition monitoring. Among the other SAR systems currently in orbit, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) COSMO Sky-Med® (CSK®) constellation (X-band, frequency 9.6 GHz, wavelength 3.1 cm), especially for its peculiar high revisit capability (up to four images in 16 days with same acquisition geometry) seems to be particular suitable for providing information in addition and/or in alternative to other optical EO systems. To assess the capability of the CSK® constellation in identifying crops and in monitoring crops condition in 2013 ASI started the "AGRICIDOT" project. Some of the main project achievements will be presented at the congress.

Coherent Infra-Red as logically necessary to explain Piagetian psychology and neuro-microanatomy — Two independent corroborations for Gurwitsch's findings, and the importance of self-consistent theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Traill, Robert R.

2011-12-01

We can infer mechanisms underlying advanced human intelligence via •physics, chemistry and information-technology; but also •epistemology: analysing all knowledge-building processes (based on selection amongst micro-ideas). Hence Piaget offered "schèmes" as such items of thought/action, to account for actual human behaviour. In microphysiological terms, basic "schèmes" should have digital properties and a one-dimensional organization. That implied RNA-like molecules (and their "chorus" groups). — However for the necessary fast intermolecular communication, traditional action-potential "spikes" would be much too coarse. The alternative is Infra-Red. It then appears that myelinated nerve fibres seem suitable for an unexpected second role as coaxial cables for IR! Such opticalinterpretations also explain several enigmas: •What keeps (myelin-thickness / axon-diameter) ≈ constant? — (a mystery since 1905). •Why PNS myelination is delayed until the axon diameter reaches 1μm. •Why myelin often stops growing at a predictable angle in its wrapping. •Callahan's anomalous failure to detect sensory action-potentials even though his insects were responding to invisible IR signals. (Meanwhile RNA-like coding explains inherited behavioural traits, and memory-"recording" as Darwinian!) The important point: Here IR is independently identified as a necessary solution to logistical problems. In contrast the Gurwitsch tradition first discovered emissions, and then sought explanations. Thus the two approaches corroborate.

Managing perceived conflicts of interest while ensuring the continued innovation of medical technology.

PubMed

Van Haute, Andrew

2011-09-01

If it were not for the ongoing collaboration between vascular surgeons and the medical technology industry, many of these advanced treatments used every day in vascular interventional surgery would not exist. The flip side of this coin is that these vital relationships create multiple roles for surgeons and must be appropriately managed. The dynamic process of innovation, along with factors such as product delivery technique refinement, education, testing and clinical trials, and product support, all make it necessary for ongoing and close collaboration between surgeons and the device industry. This unique relationship sometimes leads to the perception of conflicts of interest for physicians, in part because the competing pressures from the multiple, overlapping roles as clinician/caregiver/investigator/innovator/customer are significant. To address this issue, the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), the nation's largest medical technology association representing medical device and diagnostics companies, developed a Code of Ethics to guide medical technology companies in their interactions with health care professionals. First introduced in 1993, the AdvaMed Code strongly encourages both industry and physicians to commit to openness and high ethical standards in the conduct of their business interactions. The AdvaMed Code addresses many of the types of interactions that can occur between companies and health care professionals, including training, consulting agreements, the provision of demonstration and evaluation units, and charitable donations. By following the Code, companies send a strong message that treatment decisions must always be based on the best interest of the patient. Copyright © 2011. Published by Mosby, Inc.

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.

Information and communication technology in medical education: an experience from a developing country.

PubMed

Houshyari, Asefeh Badiey; Bahadorani, Mahnaz; Tootoonchi, Mina; Gardiner, John Jacob Zucker; Peña, Roberto A; Adibi, Peyman

2012-03-01

This literature review was conducted using PubMed-Medline, PubMed-Central and ERIC databases, 1979- 2010, for research studies and pertinent theoretical publications including journals and texts. Key search words included general terms such as: "medical education," "information and communication technology in medical education," "medical students' computer skills" and "ICT use among medical students". Theoretical approaches were included to place the review within an educational and social context, and selected studies to demonstrate use of ICT in medical education through time and in different countries.

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.

Severe Autumn storms in future Western Europe with a warmer Atlantic Ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baatsen, Michiel; Haarsma, Reindert J.; Van Delden, Aarnout J.; de Vries, Hylke

2015-08-01

Simulations with a very high resolution (~25 km) global climate model indicate that more severe Autumn storms will impact Europe in a warmer future climate. The observed increase is mainly attributed to storms with a tropical origin, especially in the later part of the twentyfirst century. As their genesis region expands, tropical cyclones become more intense and their chances of reaching Europe increase. This paper investigates the properties and evolution of such storms and clarifies the future changes. The studied tropical cyclones feature a typical evolution of tropical development, extratropical transition and a re-intensification. A reduction of the transit area between regions of tropical and extratropical cyclogenesis increases the probability of re-intensification. Many of the modelled storms exhibit hybrid properties in a considerable part of their life cycle during which they exhibit the hazards of both tropical and extratropical systems. In addition to tropical cyclones, other systems such as cold core extratropical storms mainly originating over the Gulf Stream region also increasingly impact Western Europe. Despite their different history, all of the studied storms have one striking similarity: they form a warm seclusion. The structure, intensity and frequency of storms in the present climate are compared to observations using the MERRA and IBTrACS datasets. Damaging winds associated with the occurrence of a sting jet are observed in a large fraction of the cyclones during their final stage. Baroclinic instability is of great importance for the (re-)intensification of the storms. Furthermore, so-called atmospheric rivers providing tropical air prove to be vital for the intensification through diabatic heating and will increase considerably in strength in the future, as will the associated flooding risks.

The effects of ionizing radiations on L-, DL-phenylalanine and L-, DL- tryptophase studied by ultra-violet and infra-red spectrophotometry

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

Korgaonkar, K S; Donde, R B

Aqueous solutions of L-, DL-phenylalanlne and L-, DLtryptophane were irradiated with Co 60 gamma rays. Marked changes in the ultraviolet spectra of the samples and in the infra-red spectra of their solid residues were noted. The radiosensitivities of these irradiated molecules in terms of G-values were determined, and the modes of action and the nature of irradiation products are discussed. A common order of radiosensitivities among the three aromatic amino acids both L-, and DL-forms is observed. Apparent differences In the ultraviolet spectral responses of tryptophane on the one hand and phenylalanine and tyrosine on the other are explained. Evidencemore » is presented suggesting some common radiation end-product of a cellulose or sugar type from these aromatic amino acids.« less

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

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

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.

Feasibility of leakage detection in lake pressure pipes using the Distributed Temperature Sensing Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Apperl, Benjamin; Pressl, Alexander; Schulz, Karsten

2016-04-01

This contribution describes a feasibility study carried out in the laboratory for the detection of leakages in lake pressure pipes using high-resolution fiber-optic temperature measurements (DTS). The usage of the DTS technology provides spatiotemporal high-resolution temperature measurements along a fibre optic cable. An opto-electrical device serves both as a light emitter as well as a spectrometer for measuring the scattering of light. The fiber optic cable serves as linear sensor. Measurements can be taken at a spatial resolution of up to 25 cm with a temperature accuracy of higher than 0.1 °C. The first warmer days after the winter stagnation provoke a temperature rise of superficial layers of lakes with barely stable temperature stratification. The warmer layer in the epilimnion differs 4 °C to 5 °C compared to the cold layers in the meta- or hypolimnion before water circulation in spring starts. The warmer water from the surface layer can be rinsed on the entire length of the pipe. Water intrudes at leakages by generating a slightly negative pressure in the pipe. This provokes a local temperature change, in case that the penetrating water (seawater) differs in temperature from the water pumped through the pipe. These temperature changes should be detectable and localized with a DTS cable introduced in the pipe. A laboratory experiment was carried out to determine feasibility as well as limits and problems of this methodology. A 6 m long pipe, submerged in a water tank at constant temperature, was rinsed with water 5-10 °C warmer than the water in the tank. Temperature measurements were taken continuously along the pipe. A negative pressure of 0.1 bar provoked the intrusion of colder water from the tank into the pipe through the leakages, resulting in local temperature changes. Experiments where conducted with different temperature gradients, leakage sizes, number of leaks as well as with different positioning of the DTS cable inside the pipe. Results

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

Topical beta-carotene protects against infra-red-light-induced free radicals.

PubMed

Darvin, Maxim E; Fluhr, Joachim W; Meinke, Martina C; Zastrow, Leonhard; Sterry, Wolfram; Lademann, Juergen

2011-02-01

The influence of stress factors on human skin induces the production of free radicals. Free radicals react immediately with antioxidants contained in the skin, giving rise to their depletion and with the surrounding molecules, resulting in their damage, disorganization and even destruction. High amounts of free radicals are produced in the upper skin layers, i.e. mainly in the epidermis, subsequent to sun irradiation. Irradiation of the skin in the infra-red (IR) range of the spectra, applied at physiological doses, can produce free radicals. The magnitude of destruction of antioxidants, such as carotenoids, can serve as a marker of the extent of the stress factor, characterized by the quantity of produced free radicals. In this study, measurements on the degradation of cutaneous carotenoids following IR skin irradiation of 12 healthy volunteers (skin type II), with two IR sources (standard infrared radiator = SIR and water filter infrared = wIRA) were taken using resonance Raman spectroscopy. Topical application of the antioxidant beta-carotene (2 mg/cm(2) ) provided protection for the human skin when exposed to IR radiation. The magnitude of the degradation of dermal carotenoids after IR irradiation was significantly higher for SIR than for wIRA irradiation, for both non-treated and cream-treated skin areas. The amount of destroyed carotenoids after IR irradiation was higher in the case of pretreatment with beta-carotene than for the untreated skin, indicating that the superficial part of antioxidants is most important for protecting against external stressors. The direct comparison of beta-carotene content was significantly higher for the cream-treated compared to untreated areas for all pairs: baseline, wIRA, after wIRA, baseline SIR and after SIR. Additionally, topically applied carotenoids as a single antioxidant component are less stable than the carotenoids in the skin incorporated by nutrition and accumulated in a mixture with different antioxidant

Surface speciation of phosphate on goethite as seen by InfraRed Surface Titrations (IRST)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arroyave, Jeison Manuel; Puccia, Virginia; Zanini, Graciela P.; Avena, Marcelo J.

2018-06-01

Phosphate adsorption at the metal oxide-water interface has been intensely studied, and the system phosphate-goethite in aqueous media is normally used as a model system with abundant information regarding adsorption-desorption under very different conditions. In spite of this, there is still discussion on whether the main inner-sphere surface complexes that phosphate forms on goethite are monodentate or bidentate. A new spectroscopic technique, InfraRed Surface Titration (IRST), is presented here and used to systematically explore the surface speciation of phosphate on goethite in the pH range 4.5-9.5 at different surface coverages. IRST enabled to construct distribution curves of surface species and distribution curves of dissolved phosphate species. In combination with the CD-MUSIC surface complexation model it was possible to conclude that surface complexes are monodentate. Very accurate distribution curves were obtained, showing a crossing point at pH 5.5 at a surface coverage of 2.0 μmol m-2, with a mononuclear monoprotonated species predominating at pH > 5.5 and a mononuclear diprotonated species prevailing at pH < 5.5. On the contrary, at the low surface coverage of 0.7 μmol m-2 there is no crossing point, with the mononuclear monoprotonated species prevailing at all pH. IRST can become a powerful technique to investigate structure, properties and reactions of any IR-active surface complex at the solid-water interface.

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

Guided tissue regeneration for periodontal infra-bony defects.

PubMed

Needleman, I G; Worthington, H V; Giedrys-Leeper, E; Tucker, R J

2006-04-19

Conventional treatment of destructive periodontal (gum) disease arrests the disease but does not usually regain the bone support or connective tissue lost in the disease process. Guided tissue regeneration (GTR) is a surgical procedure that specifically aims to regenerate the periodontal tissues when the disease is advanced and could overcome some of the limitations of conventional therapy. To assess the efficacy of GTR in the treatment of periodontal infra-bony defects measured against conventional surgery (open flap debridement (OFD)) and factors affecting outcomes. We conducted an electronic search of the Cochrane Oral Health Group Trials Register, MEDLINE and EMBASE up to April 2004. Handsearching included Journal of Periodontology, Journal of Clinical Periodontology, Journal of Periodontal Research and bibliographies of all relevant papers and review articles up to April 2004. In addition, we contacted experts/groups/companies involved in surgical research to find other trials or unpublished material or to clarify ambiguous or missing data and posted requests for data on two periodontal electronic discussion groups. Randomised, controlled trials (RCTs) of at least 12 months duration comparing guided tissue regeneration (with or without graft materials) with open flap debridement for the treatment of periodontal infra-bony defects. Furcation involvements and studies specifically treating aggressive periodontitis were excluded. Screening of possible studies and data extraction was conducted independently. The methodological quality of studies was assessed in duplicate using individual components and agreement determined by Kappa scores. Methodological quality was used in sensitivity analyses to test the robustness of the conclusions. The Cochrane Oral Health Group statistical guidelines were followed and the results expressed as mean differences (MD and 95% CI) for continuous outcomes and risk ratios (RR and 95% CI) for dichotomous outcomes calculated using

Recommendations for strengthening the infrared technology component of any condition monitoring program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicholas, Jack R., Jr.; Young, R. K.

1999-03-01

This presentation provides insights of a long term 'champion' of many condition monitoring technologies and a Level III infra red thermographer. The co-authors present recommendations based on their observations of infra red and other components of predictive, condition monitoring programs in manufacturing, utility and government defense and energy activities. As predictive maintenance service providers, trainers, informal observers and formal auditors of such programs, the co-authors provide a unique perspective that can be useful to practitioners, managers and customers of advanced programs. Each has over 30 years experience in the field of machinery operation, maintenance, and support the origins of which can be traced to and through the demanding requirements of the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine forces. They have over 10 years each of experience with programs in many different countries on 3 continents. Recommendations are provided on the following: (1) Leadership and Management Support (For survival); (2) Life Cycle View (For establishment of a firm and stable foundation for a program); (3) Training and Orientation (For thermographers as well as operators, managers and others); (4) Analyst Flexibility (To innovate, explore and develop their understanding of machinery condition); (5) Reports and Program Justification (For program visibility and continued expansion); (6) Commitment to Continuous Improvement of Capability and Productivity (Through application of updated hardware and software); (7) Mutual Support by Analysts (By those inside and outside of the immediate organization); (8) Use of Multiple Technologies and System Experts to Help Define Problems (Through the use of correlation analysis of data from up to 15 technologies. An example correlation analysis table for AC and DC motors is provided.); (9) Root Cause Analysis (Allows a shift from reactive to proactive stance for a program); (10) Master Equipment Identification and Technology Application (To

Drivers of Daily Routines in an Ectothermic Marine Predator: Hunt Warm, Rest Warmer?

PubMed Central

Papastamatiou, Yannis P.; Watanabe, Yuuki Y.; Bradley, Darcy; Dee, Laura E.; Weng, Kevin; Lowe, Christopher G.; Caselle, Jennifer E.

2015-01-01

Animal daily routines represent a compromise between maximizing foraging success and optimizing physiological performance, while minimizing the risk of predation. For ectothermic predators, ambient temperature may also influence daily routines through its effects on physiological performance. Temperatures can fluctuate significantly over the diel cycle and ectotherms may synchronize behaviour to match thermal regimes in order to optimize fitness. We used bio-logging to quantify activity and body temperature of blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) at a tropical atoll. Behavioural observations were used to concurrently measure bite rates in herbivorous reef fishes, as an index of activity for potential diurnal prey. Sharks showed early evening peaks in activity, particularly during ebbing high tides, while body temperatures peaked several hours prior to the period of maximal activity. Herbivores also displayed peaks in activity several hours earlier than the peaks in shark activity. Sharks appeared to be least active while their body temperatures were highest and most active while temperatures were cooling, although we hypothesize that due to thermal inertia they were still warmer than their smaller prey during this period. Sharks may be most active during early evening periods as they have a sensory advantage under low light conditions and/or a thermal advantage over cooler prey. Sharks swam into shallow water during daytime low tide periods potentially to warm up and increase rates of digestion before the nocturnal activity period, which may be a strategy to maximize ingestion rates. “Hunt warm, rest warmer” may help explain the early evening activity seen in other ectothermic predators. PMID:26061229

Growth tradeoffs associated with thermotolerant symbionts in the coral Pocillopora damicornis are lost in warmer oceans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cunning, R.; Gillette, P.; Capo, T.; Galvez, K.; Baker, A. C.

2015-03-01

The growth and survival of reef corals are influenced by their symbiotic algal partners ( Symbiodinium spp.), which may be flexible in space and time. Tradeoffs among partnerships exist such that corals with thermotolerant symbionts (e.g., clade D) resist bleaching but grow more slowly, making the long-term ecosystem-level impacts of different host-symbiont associations uncertain. However, much of this uncertainty is due to limited data regarding these tradeoffs and particularly how they are mediated by the environment. To address this knowledge gap, we measured growth and survival of Pocillopora damicornis with thermally sensitive (clade C) or tolerant (clade D) symbionts at three temperatures over 18-55 weeks. Warming reduced coral growth overall, but altered the tradeoffs associated with symbiont type. While clade D corals grew 35-40 % slower than clade C corals at cooler temperatures (26 °C), warming of 1.5-3 °C reduced and eliminated this growth disadvantage. These results suggest that although warmer oceans will negatively impact corals, clade D may enhance survival at no cost to growth relative to clade C. Understanding these genotype-environment interactions can help improve modeling efforts and conservation strategies for reefs under global climate change.

De novo mutations in MED13, a component of the Mediator complex, are associated with a novel neurodevelopmental disorder.

PubMed

Snijders Blok, Lot; Hiatt, Susan M; Bowling, Kevin M; Prokop, Jeremy W; Engel, Krysta L; Cochran, J Nicholas; Bebin, E Martina; Bijlsma, Emilia K; Ruivenkamp, Claudia A L; Terhal, Paulien; Simon, Marleen E H; Smith, Rosemarie; Hurst, Jane A; McLaughlin, Heather; Person, Richard; Crunk, Amy; Wangler, Michael F; Streff, Haley; Symonds, Joseph D; Zuberi, Sameer M; Elliott, Katherine S; Sanders, Victoria R; Masunga, Abigail; Hopkin, Robert J; Dubbs, Holly A; Ortiz-Gonzalez, Xilma R; Pfundt, Rolph; Brunner, Han G; Fisher, Simon E; Kleefstra, Tjitske; Cooper, Gregory M

2018-05-08

Many genetic causes of developmental delay and/or intellectual disability (DD/ID) are extremely rare, and robust discovery of these requires both large-scale DNA sequencing and data sharing. Here we describe a GeneMatcher collaboration which led to a cohort of 13 affected individuals harboring protein-altering variants, 11 of which are de novo, in MED13; the only inherited variant was transmitted to an affected child from an affected mother. All patients had intellectual disability and/or developmental delays, including speech delays or disorders. Other features that were reported in two or more patients include autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, optic nerve abnormalities, Duane anomaly, hypotonia, mild congenital heart abnormalities, and dysmorphisms. Six affected individuals had mutations that are predicted to truncate the MED13 protein, six had missense mutations, and one had an in-frame-deletion of one amino acid. Out of the seven non-truncating mutations, six clustered in two specific locations of the MED13 protein: an N-terminal and C-terminal region. The four N-terminal clustering mutations affect two adjacent amino acids that are known to be involved in MED13 ubiquitination and degradation, p.Thr326 and p.Pro327. MED13 is a component of the CDK8-kinase module that can reversibly bind Mediator, a multi-protein complex that is required for Polymerase II transcription initiation. Mutations in several other genes encoding subunits of Mediator have been previously shown to associate with DD/ID, including MED13L, a paralog of MED13. Thus, our findings add MED13 to the group of CDK8-kinase module-associated disease genes.

Thermal responses from repeated exposures to severe cold with intermittent warmer temperatures.

PubMed

Ozaki, H; Enomoto-Koshimizu, H; Tochihara, Y; Nakamura, K

1998-09-01

This study was conducted to evaluate physiological reaction and manual performance during exposure to warm (30 degrees C) and cool (10 degrees C) environments after exposure to very low temperatures (-25 degrees C). Furthermore, this experiment was conducted to study whether it is desirable to remove cold-protective jackets in warmer rooms after severe cold exposure. Eight male students remained in an extremely cold room for 20 min, after which they transferred into either the warm room or the cool room for 20 min. This pattern was repeated three times, and the total cold exposure time was 60 min. In the warm and cool rooms, the subjects either removed their cold-protective jackets (Condition A), or wore them continuously (Condition B). Rectal temperature, skin temperatures, manual performance, blood pressure, thermal, comfort and pain sensations were measured during the experiment. The effects of severe cold on almost all measurements in the cool (10 degrees C) environment were greater than those in the warm (30 degrees C) environment under both clothing conditions. The effects of severe cold on all measurements under Condition A except rectal temperature and toe skin temperature were significantly greater than those under Condition B in the cool environment but, not at all differences between Condition A and Condition B in the warm environments were significant. It was recognized that to remove cold-protective jackets in the cool room (10 degrees C) after severe cold exposure promoted the effects of severe cold. When rewarming in the warm resting room (30 degrees C), the physiological and psychological responses and manual performance were not influenced by the presence or absence of cold-protective clothing. These results suggest that it is necessary for workers to make sure to rewarm in the warm room outside of the cold storage and continue to wear cold-protective clothing in the cool room.

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.

The Co-Existence of Technology and Caring in the Theory of Technological Competency as Caring in Nursing.

PubMed

Locsin, Rozzano C

2017-01-01

The coexistence of technology and caring is best exemplified in nursing. The theory of Technological Competency as Caring in Nursing illuminates this coexistence as the essence of technology in health care premised on machine technologies as a generic concept of objects or things that are mechanical, organic, and electronic. With its timely development these technologies are continually imbued with artificial general intelligence. As such, the ultimate expression of machine technologies in nursing turns out to be autonomous robots (ARs) with future potentials of functions comparable to human persons. While theory-based nursing practice is essential to nursing care practice, quality human care, particularly with technologies assuming indispensable practice process mechanisms is critical. Some practice-based questions informing ARs and human person engagements in nursing care practice include, "Will ARs which are imbued with artificial intelligence replace nurses in their practice?" "What contributions to quality human health care will autonomous and artificially intelligent robots provide?" While these questions may reflect far-reaching ramifications of technologies in health care, it must also be acknowledged that these technologies are fundamental to the delivery of quality human health care now, and in the future. J. Med. Invest. 64: 160-164, February, 2017.

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.

Health technology reassessment of non-drug technologies: current practices.

PubMed

Leggett, Laura; Noseworthy, Tom W; Zarrabi, Mahmood; Lorenzetti, Diane; Sutherland, Lloyd R; Clement, Fiona M

2012-07-01

Obsolescence is a natural phase of the lifecycle of health technologies. Given increasing cost of health expenditures worldwide, health organizations have little choice but to engage in health technology reassessment (HTR); a structured, evidence-based assessment of the medical, social, ethical, and economic effects of a technology, currently used within the healthcare system, to inform optimal use of that technology in comparison to its alternatives. This research was completed to identify and summarize international HTR initiatives for non-drug technologies. A systematic review was performed using the terms disinvestment, obsolescence, obsolete technology, ineffective, reassessment, reinvestment, reallocation, program budgeting, and marginal analysis to search PubMED, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL until November 2011. Websites of organizations listed as members of INAHTA and HTAi were hand-searched for gray literature. Documents were excluded if they were unavailable in English, if the title/abstract was irrelevant to HTR, and/or if the document made no mention of current practices. All citations were screened in duplicate with disagreements resolved by consensus. Sixty full-text documents were reviewed and forty were included. One model for reassessment was identified; however, it has never been put into practice. Eight countries have some evidence of past or current work related to reassessment; seven have shown evidence of continued work in HTR. There is negligible focus on monitoring and implementation. HTR is in its infancy. Although health technology reassessments are being conducted, there is no standardized approach. Future work should focus on developing and piloting a comprehensive methodology for completing HTR.

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...

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

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.

On-chip integrated functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) photoreceiver for portable brain imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamrani, Ehsan

Optical brain imaging using functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) offers a direct and noninvasive tool for monitoring of blood oxygenation. fNIRS is a noninvasive, safe, minimally intrusive, and high temporal-resolution technique for real-time and long-term brain imaging. It allows detecting both fast-neuronal and slow-hemodynamic signals. Besides the significant advantages of fNIRS systems, they still suffer from few drawbacks including low spatial-resolution, moderately high-level noise and high-sensitivity to movement. In order to overcome the limitations of currently available non-portable fNIRS systems, we have introduced a new low-power, miniaturized on-chip photodetector front-end intended for portable fNIRS systems. It includes silicon avalanche photodiode (SiAPD), Transimpedance amplifier (TIA), and Quench- Reset circuitry implemented using standard CMOS technologies to operate in both linear and Geiger modes. So it can be applied for both continuous-wave fNIRS (CW-fNIRS) and also single-photon counting applications. Several SiAPDs have been implemented in novel structures and shapes (Rectangular, Octagonal, Dual, Nested, Netted, Quadratic and Hexadecagonal) using different premature edge breakdown prevention techniques. The main characteristics of the SiAPDs are validated and the impact of each parameter and the device simulators (TCAD, COMSOL, etc.) have been studied based on the simulation and measurement results. Proposed techniques exhibit SiAPDs with high avalanche-gain (up to 119), low breakdown-voltage (around 12V) and high photon-detection efficiency (up to 72% in NIR region) in additional to a low dark-count rate (down to 30Hz at 1V excess bias voltage). Three new high gain-bandwidth product (GBW) and low-noise TIAs are introduced and implemented based on distributed-gain concept, logarithmic-amplification and automatic noise-rejection and have been applied in linear-mode of operation. The implemented TIAs offer a power

Developing technology-enhanced active learning for medical education: challenges, solutions, and future directions.

PubMed

McCoy, Lise; Pettit, Robin K; Lewis, Joy H; Bennett, Thomas; Carrasco, Noel; Brysacz, Stanley; Makin, Inder Raj S; Hutman, Ryan; Schwartz, Frederic N

2015-04-01

Growing up in an era of video games and Web-based applications has primed current medical students to expect rapid, interactive feedback. To address this need, the A.T. Still University-School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (Mesa) has developed and integrated a variety of approaches using technology-enhanced active learning for medical education (TEAL-MEd) into its curriculum. Over the course of 3 years (2010-2013), the authors facilitated more than 80 implementations of games and virtual patient simulations into the education of 550 osteopathic medical students. The authors report on 4 key aspects of the TEAL-MEd initiative, including purpose, portfolio of tools, progress to date regarding challenges and solutions, and future directions. Lessons learned may be of benefit to medical educators at academic and clinical training sites who wish to implement TEAL-MEd activities.

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

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.

Numerical developments for short-pulsed Near Infra-Red laser spectroscopy. Part I: direct treatment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boulanger, Joan; Charette, André

2005-03-01

This two part study is devoted to the numerical treatment of short-pulsed laser near infra-red spectroscopy. The overall goal is to address the possibility of numerical inverse treatment based on a recently developed direct model to solve the transient radiative transfer equation. This model has been constructed in order to incorporate the last improvements in short-pulsed laser interaction with semi-transparent media and combine a discrete ordinates computing of the implicit source term appearing in the radiative transfer equation with an explicit treatment of the transport of the light intensity using advection schemes, a method encountered in reactive flow dynamics. The incident collimated beam is analytically solved through Bouger Beer Lambert extinction law. In this first part, the direct model is extended to fully non-homogeneous materials and tested with two different spatial schemes in order to be adapted to the inversion methods presented in the following second part. As a first point, fundamental methods and schemes used in the direct model are presented. Then, tests are conducted by comparison with numerical simulations given as references. In a third and last part, multi-dimensional extensions of the code are provided. This allows presentation of numerical results of short pulses propagation in 1, 2 and 3D homogeneous and non-homogeneous materials given some parametrical studies on medium properties and pulse shape. For comparison, an integral method adapted to non-homogeneous media irradiated by a pulsed laser beam is also developed for the 3D case.

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

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/

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

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.

75 FR 71075 - Action Affecting Export Privileges; Anvik Technologies Sdn. Bhd., a/k/a Anvik Technologies; Babak...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-22

... office space'' leased by Respondents from a company called Servcorp. See note 4. infra. It is BIS's understanding that other persons also rent ``virtual office space'' at this address. The only current users at... ship those items to Iran through third countries. Respondents use the leased virtual office space in...

GeoMedStat: an integrated spatial surveillance system to track air pollution and associated healthcare events.

PubMed

Faruque, Fazlay S; Li, Hui; Williams, Worth B; Waller, Lance A; Brackin, Bruce T; Zhang, Lei; Grimes, Kim A; Finley, Richard W

2014-12-01

Air pollutants, such as particulate matter with a diameter ≤2.5 microns (PM2.5) and ozone (O3), are known to exacerbate asthma and other respiratory diseases. An integrated surveillance system that tracks such air pollutants and associated disease incidence can assist in risk assessment, healthcare preparedness and public awareness. However, the implementation of such an integrated environmental health surveillance system is a challenge due to the disparate sources of many types of data and the implementation becomes even more complicated for a spatial and real-time system due to lack of standardised technological components and data incompatibility. In addition, accessing and utilising health data that are considered as Protected Health Information (PHI) require maintaining stringent protocols, which have to be supported by the system. This paper aims to illustrate the development of a spatial surveillance system (GeoMedStat) that is capable of tracking daily environmental pollutants along with both daily and historical patient encounter data. It utilises satellite data and the groundmonitor data from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US Environemental Protection Agenecy (EPA), rspectively as inputs estimating air pollutants and is linked to hospital information systems for accessing chief complaints and disease classification codes. The components, developmental methods, functionality of GeoMedStat and its use as a real-time environmental health surveillance system for asthma and other respiratory syndromes in connection with with PM2.5 and ozone are described. It is expected that the framework presented will serve as an example to others developing real-time spatial surveillance systems for pollutants and hospital visits.

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.

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.

Automated infrasound signal detection algorithms implemented in MatSeis - Infra Tool.

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

Hart, Darren

2004-07-01

MatSeis's infrasound analysis tool, Infra Tool, uses frequency slowness processing to deconstruct the array data into three outputs per processing step: correlation, azimuth and slowness. Until now, an experienced analyst trained to recognize a pattern observed in outputs from signal processing manually accomplished infrasound signal detection. Our goal was to automate the process of infrasound signal detection. The critical aspect of infrasound signal detection is to identify consecutive processing steps where the azimuth is constant (flat) while the time-lag correlation of the windowed waveform is above background value. These two statements describe the arrival of a correlated set of wavefrontsmore » at an array. The Hough Transform and Inverse Slope methods are used to determine the representative slope for a specified number of azimuth data points. The representative slope is then used in conjunction with associated correlation value and azimuth data variance to determine if and when an infrasound signal was detected. A format for an infrasound signal detection output file is also proposed. The detection output file will list the processed array element names, followed by detection characteristics for each method. Each detection is supplied with a listing of frequency slowness processing characteristics: human time (YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS.SSS), epochal time, correlation, fstat, azimuth (deg) and trace velocity (km/s). As an example, a ground truth event was processed using the four-element DLIAR infrasound array located in New Mexico. The event is known as the Watusi chemical explosion, which occurred on 2002/09/28 at 21:25:17 with an explosive yield of 38,000 lb TNT equivalent. Knowing the source and array location, the array-to-event distance was computed to be approximately 890 km. This test determined the station-to-event azimuth (281.8 and 282.1 degrees) to within 1.6 and 1.4 degrees for the Inverse Slope and Hough Transform detection algorithms

STARFIRE: The Spectroscopic Terahertz Airborne Receiver for Far-InfraRed Exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aguirre, James; STARFIRE Collaboration

2018-01-01

Understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies is one of the foremost goals of astrophysics and cosmology today. The cosmic star formation rate has undergone a dramatic evolution over the course of the last seven billion years, with a peak in cosmic star formation near z ~ 1, largely in dust-obscured star forming galaxies (DSFGs), followed by a dramatic fall in both the star formation rate and the fraction of star formation occurring in DSFGs. A variety of unextincted diagnostic lines are present in the far-infrared (FIR) which can provide insight into the conditions of star formation in DSFGs. Spectroscopy in the far-infrared is thus scientifically crucial for understanding galaxy evolution, yet remains technically difficult, particularly for wavelengths shorter than those accessible to ALMA.STARFIRE (the Spectroscopic Terahertz Airborne Receiver for Far-InfraRed Exploration) is a proposed integral-field spectrometer using kinetic inductance detectors, operating from 240 - 420 μm and coupled to a 2.5 meter low-emissivity carbon-fiber balloon-borne telescope. Using dispersive spectroscopy and the stratospheric platform, STARFIRE can achieve better performance than SOFIA or Herschel-SPIRE FTS. STARFIRE is designed to study the ISM of galaxies from 0.5 < z < 1.5, primarily in the [CII](158 μm) line, and also in cross-correlation with [NII] (122 μm). This offers a view of the star-forming medium with minimal impact from dust extinction through the period of peak cosmic star formation and into the current epoch where the star formation rate begins to decline. STARFIRE will be capable of making a high significance detection of the [CII] power spectrum in at least 4 redshift bins and measuring the [CII] x [NII] power spectrum at z ~ 1. The intensity mapped power spectra will be sensitive to one- and two-halo clustering, as well as shot noise, and will relate the mean [CII] intensity as a function of redshift (a proxy for star formation rate density) to the

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.

Standardization of Shodhita Naga with special reference to thermogravimetry and infra-red spectroscopy.

PubMed

Rajput, Dhirajsingh S; Patgiri, Biswajyoti; Shukla, Vinay J

2014-01-01

Standardization of Ayurvedic medicine is the need of hour to obtain desired quality of final product. Shodhana literally means purification, is the initial step to make drugs like metals, minerals and poisonous herbs suitable for further procedure. Shodhana of metals/minerals help to expose maximum surface area of drug for chemical reactions and also in impregnation of organic materials and their properties in the drug. Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) facilitates in identifying the presence of organic matter and change in the melting point of metal whereas Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) assists in identifying the presence of various functional groups. To standardize the process of Naga Shodhana and to study the change in chemical nature of Shodhita Naga in each media through TGA and FTIR. Samanya and Vishesha Shodhana of Naga was carried out. Time taken for melting of Naga, physico-chemical changes in media used for Shodhana and weight changes after Shodhana were recorded. Samples of Naga were collected after Shodhana in each media for TGA and FTIR analysis. Average loss occurred during Shodhana was 6.26%. Melting point of Ashuddha Naga was 327.46°C, and it was 328.42°C after Shodhana. Percentage purity of Naga (percentage of lead in Naga) decreased after Shodhana from 99.80% to 99.40%. FTIR analysis of Shodhita Naga in each sample showed stretching vibrations particularly between C-H and C-N bonds that are indicating the presence of various organic compounds. According to TGA and FTIR analysis, Shodhana process increases melting point of Naga and initiation of new physico-chemical properties which are indicated by detection of large number of functional groups and organo-metallic nature of Shodhita Naga.

Standardization of Shodhita Naga with special reference to thermogravimetry and infra-red spectroscopy

PubMed Central

Rajput, Dhirajsingh S.; Patgiri, Biswajyoti; Shukla, Vinay J.

2014-01-01

Background: Standardization of Ayurvedic medicine is the need of hour to obtain desired quality of final product. Shodhana literally means purification, is the initial step to make drugs like metals, minerals and poisonous herbs suitable for further procedure. Shodhana of metals/minerals help to expose maximum surface area of drug for chemical reactions and also in impregnation of organic materials and their properties in the drug. Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) facilitates in identifying the presence of organic matter and change in the melting point of metal whereas Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) assists in identifying the presence of various functional groups. Aim: To standardize the process of Naga Shodhana and to study the change in chemical nature of Shodhita Naga in each media through TGA and FTIR. Material and Methods: Samanya and Vishesha Shodhana of Naga was carried out. Time taken for melting of Naga, physico-chemical changes in media used for Shodhana and weight changes after Shodhana were recorded. Samples of Naga were collected after Shodhana in each media for TGA and FTIR analysis. Results: Average loss occurred during Shodhana was 6.26%. Melting point of Ashuddha Naga was 327.46°C, and it was 328.42°C after Shodhana. Percentage purity of Naga (percentage of lead in Naga) decreased after Shodhana from 99.80% to 99.40%. FTIR analysis of Shodhita Naga in each sample showed stretching vibrations particularly between C-H and C-N bonds that are indicating the presence of various organic compounds. Conclusion: According to TGA and FTIR analysis, Shodhana process increases melting point of Naga and initiation of new physico-chemical properties which are indicated by detection of large number of functional groups and organo-metallic nature of Shodhita Naga. PMID:26664241

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.

Near infra red spectroscopy as a multivariate process analytical tool for predicting pharmaceutical co-crystal concentration.

PubMed

Wood, Clive; Alwati, Abdolati; Halsey, Sheelagh; Gough, Tim; Brown, Elaine; Kelly, Adrian; Paradkar, Anant

2016-09-10

The use of near infra red spectroscopy to predict the concentration of two pharmaceutical co-crystals; 1:1 ibuprofen-nicotinamide (IBU-NIC) and 1:1 carbamazepine-nicotinamide (CBZ-NIC) has been evaluated. A partial least squares (PLS) regression model was developed for both co-crystal pairs using sets of standard samples to create calibration and validation data sets with which to build and validate the models. Parameters such as the root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC), root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and correlation coefficient were used to assess the accuracy and linearity of the models. Accurate PLS regression models were created for both co-crystal pairs which can be used to predict the co-crystal concentration in a powder mixture of the co-crystal and the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). The IBU-NIC model had smaller errors than the CBZ-NIC model, possibly due to the complex CBZ-NIC spectra which could reflect the different arrangement of hydrogen bonding associated with the co-crystal compared to the IBU-NIC co-crystal. These results suggest that NIR spectroscopy can be used as a PAT tool during a variety of pharmaceutical co-crystal manufacturing methods and the presented data will facilitate future offline and in-line NIR studies involving pharmaceutical co-crystals. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

Calculation of lava discharge rates during effusive eruptions: an empirical approach using MODIS Middle InfraRed data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coppola, Diego; Laiolo, Marco; Cigolini, Corrado

2016-04-01

The rate at which the lava is erupted is a crucial parameter to be monitored during any volcanic eruption. However, its accurate and systematic measurement, throughout the whole duration of an event, remains a big challenge, also for volcanologists working on highly studied and well monitored volcanoes. The thermal approach (also known as thermal proxy) is actually one of most promising techniques adopted during effusive eruptions, since it allows to estimate Time Averaged lava Discharge Rates (TADR) from remote-sensed infrared data acquired several time per day. However, due to the complexity of the physic behind the effusive phenomenon and the difficulty to have field validations, the application of the thermal proxy is still debated and limited to few volcanoes only. Here we present the analysis of MODIS Middle InfraRed data, collected by during several distinct eruptions, in order to show how an alternative, empirical method (called radiant density approach; Coppola et al., 2013) permit to estimate TADRs over a wide range of emplacement styles and lava compositions. We suggest that the simplicity of this empirical approach allows its rapid application during eruptive crisis, and provides the basis for more complex models based on the cooling and spreading processes of the active lava bodies.

MgB2-Based Bolometer Array for Far Infra-Red Thermal Imaging and Fourier Transform Spectroscopy Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lakew, B.; Aslam, S.; Brasunas, J.

2012-01-01

The mid-superconducting critical temperature (T(sub c) approximately 39 K) of the simple binary, intermetallic MgB, [1] makes it a very good candidate for the development of the next generation of electrooptical devices (e.g. [2]). In particular, recent advances in thin film deposition teclmiques to attain higb quality polycrystalline thin film MgB, deposited on SiN-Si substrates, with T(sub c) approximately 38K [3] coupled with the low voltage noise performance of the film [4] makes it higbly desirable for the development of moderately cooled bolometer arrays for integration into future space-bourne far infra-red (FIR) spectrometers and thermal mappers for studying the outer planets, their icy moons and other moons of interest in the 17-250 micrometer spectral wavelength range. Presently, commercially available pyroelectric detectors operating at 300 K have specific detectivity, D(*), around 7 x 10(exp 8) to 2 x 10(exp 9) centimeters square root of Hz/W. However, a MgB2 thin film based bolometer using a low-stress (less than 140 MPa) SiN membrane isolated from the substrate by a small thermal conductive link, operating at 38 K, promises to have two orders of magnitude higher specific detectivity [5][6].

Educational technologies to encourage (self) care in postpartum women.

PubMed

Barbosa, Eryjosy Marculino Guerreiro; Sousa, Albertina Antonielly Sydney de; Vasconcelos, Mardênia Gomes Ferreira; Carvalho, Rhanna Emanuela Fontenele Lima de; Oriá, Mônica Oliveira Batista; Rodrigues, Dafne Paiva

2016-06-01

to evaluate national and international literature regarding the use of educational technologies to encourage self care in postpartum women. an integrative review of the literature. The articles were collected from the CINAHL, SCOPUS, PubMed, SciELO, LILACS and Cochrane databases; the time period for the articles referred to January/2004 to July/2014; the languages used in the articles were Portuguese, English, Spanish and French; the articles were selected from the following descriptors: postpartum care period, educational technology, nursing and self care. Twenty-seven articles were selected for analysis Results: based on the information found, the scales, counseling and home visits were among the most recommended educational technologies. the technologies promote communication, but are sometimes dependent on computer and internet access, which hinder their use by low-income women.

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…

Clinical utility of RapidArc™ radiotherapy technology

PubMed Central

Infusino, Erminia

2015-01-01

RapidArc™ is a radiation technique that delivers highly conformal dose distributions through the complete rotation (360°) and speed variation of the linear accelerator gantry. This technique, called volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), compared with conventional radiotherapy techniques, can achieve high-target volume coverage and sparing damage to normal tissues. RapidArc delivers precise dose distribution and conformity similar to or greater than intensity-modulated radiation therapy in a short time, generally a few minutes, to which image-guided radiation therapy is added. RapidArc has become a currently used technology in many centers, which use RapidArc technology to treat a large number of patients. Large and small hospitals use it to treat the most challenging cases, but more and more frequently for the most common cancers. The clinical use of RapidArc and VMAT technology is constantly growing. At present, a limited number of clinical data are published, mostly concerning planning and feasibility studies. Clinical outcome data are increasing for a few tumor sites, even if only a little. The purpose of this work is to discuss the current status of VMAT techniques in clinical use through a review of the published data of planning systems and clinical outcomes in several tumor sites. The study consisted of a systematic review based on analysis of manuscripts retrieved from the PubMed, BioMed Central, and Scopus databases by searching for the keywords “RapidArc”, “Volumetric modulated arc radiotherapy”, and “Intensity-modulated radiotherapy”. PMID:26648755

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

Evaluation of infrared brake screening technology : final report & appendices

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-12-01

This report documents the results of a field evaluation of the InfraRed Inspection System (IRISystem). The objective of the evaluation was to determine the effectiveness of the IRISystem in enhancing the screening of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) ...

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

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

Current treatments for erectile dysfunction (ED) have some limitations. This study evaluated the efficacy and tolerability of MED2005, a 0.2% glyceryl trinitrate topical gel, formulated into an enhanced absorption topical delivery system (DermaSys), administered on demand, in the treatment of ED. This randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, phase II crossover trial involved 232 men with ED (231 treated, 230 assessed for efficacy) and their partners. After a 4-week run-in period, patients were randomized to 1 of 2 treatment sequences, MED2005-placebo or placebo-MED2005. Each treatment was given for 4 weeks, separated by a 1-week washout interval. Efficacy was assessed by the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), the Sexual Encounter Profile, a Global Assessment Questionnaire (GAQ), and specific questions about the onset and offset of action and treatment preferences (patients and partners). The primary outcome measure was the IIEF erectile function domain (IIEF-EF) score. Other efficacy assessments were secondary outcomes. The mean baseline IIEF-EF score was 17.1 (SD = 5.7), and this increased to 19.6 (SD = 7.5) after MED2005 treatment and 18.5 (SD = 6.7) after placebo (P = .0132). Overall, 23.1% of patients showed a clinically relevant (≥4-point) increase in IIEF-EF scores after treatment with MED2005 only compared with 14.5% who responded after MED2005 and placebo, 14.0% who responded after placebo only, and 48.4% who did not respond after either treatment (P = .0272). MED2005 also was associated with significant improvements compared with placebo in the other IIEF domains, and this was consistent with patients' and partners' responses to the GAQ. For all assessments, significant effects of MED2005 were seen primarily in patients with mild ED. The start of erection was noticed within 5 and 10 minutes in 44.2% and 69.5%, respectively, of all intercourse attempts with MED2005. Patients and partners showed significant preferences for MED2005

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.

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

Simultaneous and continuous measurements of dissolved CO2, CH4, N2O and CO in rivers using Fourier-Transform-InfraRed (FTIR) spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Warneke, Thorsten; Müller, Denise; Caldow, Christopher; Rixen, Tim; Notholt, Justus

2015-04-01

We have coupled a Fourier-Transform InfraRed (FTIR) trace gas analyser to an equilibrator, which allows the simultaneous and continuous measurement of dissolved CO2, CH4, N2O and CO in water. The FTIR-technique has a high precision over a wide range of concentrations, making it very suitable for the measurement of these gases in freshwater systems. We have employed this measurement system on a commercial river barge on the Elbe river (Czech Republic, Germany) and on a fisher boat in the coastal area of Sarawak (Malaysia). In addition we have performed stationary continuous measurements at a small river in Northern Germany over the duration of 3 months. The presentation will outline the advantages and disadvantages of the FTIR-technique for freshwater measurements and will present results from the measurement campaigns.

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.

Infra-red thermometry: the reliability of tympanic and temporal artery readings for predicting brain temperature after severe traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Kirk, Danielle; Rainey, Timothy; Vail, Andy; Childs, Charmaine

2009-01-01

Temperature measurement is important during routine neurocritical care especially as differences between brain and systemic temperatures have been observed. The purpose of the study was to determine if infra-red temporal artery thermometry provides a better estimate of brain temperature than tympanic membrane temperature for patients with severe traumatic brain injury. Brain parenchyma, tympanic membrane and temporal artery temperatures were recorded every 15-30 min for five hours during the first seven days after admission. Twenty patients aged 17-76 years were recruited. Brain and tympanic membrane temperature differences ranged from -0.8 degrees C to 2.5 degrees C (mean 0.9 degrees C). Brain and temporal artery temperature differences ranged from -0.7 degrees C to 1.5 degrees C (mean 0.3 degrees C). Tympanic membrane temperature differed from brain temperature by an average of 0.58 degrees C more than temporal artery temperature measurements (95% CI 0.31 degrees C to 0.85 degrees C, P < 0.0001). At temperatures within the normal to febrile range, temporal artery temperature is closer to brain temperature than is tympanic membrane temperature.

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…

First results from GeMS/GSAOI for project SUNBIRD: Supernovae UNmasked By Infra-Red Detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kool, E. C.; Ryder, S.; Kankare, E.; Mattila, S.; Reynolds, T.; McDermid, R. M.; Pérez-Torres, M. A.; Herrero-Illana, R.; Schirmer, M.; Efstathiou, A.; Bauer, F. E.; Kotilainen, J.; Väisänen, P.; Baldwin, C.; Romero-Cañizales, C.; Alberdi, A.

2018-02-01

Core collapse supernova (CCSN) rates suffer from large uncertainties as many CCSNe exploding in regions of bright background emission and significant dust extinction remain unobserved. Such a shortfall is particularly prominent in luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), which have high star formation (and thus CCSN) rates and host bright and crowded nuclear regions, where large extinctions and reduced search detection efficiency likely lead to a significant fraction of CCSNe remaining undiscovered. We present the first results of project SUNBIRD (Supernovae UNmasked By Infra-Red Detection), where we aim to uncover CCSNe that otherwise would remain hidden in the complex nuclear regions of LIRGs, and in this way improve the constraints on the fraction that is missed by optical seeing-limited surveys. We observe in the near-infrared 2.15 μm Ks-band, which is less affected by dust extinction compared to the optical, using the multiconjugate adaptive optics imager GeMS/GSAOI on Gemini South, allowing us to achieve a spatial resolution that lets us probe close in to the nuclear regions. During our pilot program and subsequent first full year we have discovered three CCSNe and one candidate with projected nuclear offsets as small as 200 pc. When compared to the total sample of LIRG CCSNe discovered in the near-IR and optical, we show that our method is singularly effective in uncovering CCSNe in nuclear regions and we conclude that the majority of CCSNe exploding in LIRGs are not detected as a result of dust obscuration and poor spatial resolution.

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.

Infra-red photoresponse of mesoscopic NiO-based solar cells sensitized with PbS quantum dot

PubMed Central