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Biomedical subjects

Tom Wilson

Publications and source records attributed to Tom Wilson.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2026

Zone equalisation normalisation for improved alignment of epigenetic signal.

MOTIVATION: High-throughput genomic technologies have transformed our understanding of biological systems, yet direct comparison and visualisation of these complex datasets remains challenging. Existing normalisation methods often fail to align genomic signal across samples due to sensitivity to sequencing depth differences and localised high-signal artefacts, leading to inconsistent replicate behaviour and increased downstream variability. RESULTS: We introduce Zone Equalisation Normalisation (ZEN), a novel approach designed to improve cross-sample signal alignment of genomic data. ZEN rescales genomic signal based on variance estimated within biologically enriched regions, reducing the influence of extreme outliers while preserving underlying biological structure. Using a diverse collection of data and our new genome-wide benchmarking approach, we reveal that ZEN improves biological and technical replicate alignment across the majority of tested conditions and experimental platforms. We further show that this improved signal comparability is associated with fewer differential accessibility calls between technical replicates and a more conservative set of biological differences. Together, these results demonstrate that ZEN provides a complementary framework to improve the accuracy and reliability of genomic data analysis and that normalisation choice can affect downstream analyses and biological interpretation. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: ZEN is available as an open-source Python package via conda and PyPI. Source code, documentation, tutorials, and code to reproduce the analyses are available at https://github.com/Genome-Function-Initiative-Oxford/Zone-Equalisation-Normalisation and Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21067751).

Epigenesis, Genetic↗
PubMed2004

Outpatient fibre-optic laryngoscopy for stridor in children and infants.

Many neonates are referred for a diagnosis with stridor. The gold standard investigation has traditionally been a rigid or direct microlaryngoscopy. This impacts on existing theatre schedules, demands a high level of skills from the paediatric anaesthetist along with the risk of exposing a neonate to a general anaesthetic. A bed in paediatric intensive care is often required and must be reserved. As laryngomalacia is the most common diagnosis and less serious than the investigations for infants with stridor themselves, clinicians have been looking to use the flexible fibre-optic laryngoscope to view the upper airway in awake neonatal patients. We present our experience in 66 neonatal patients initially managed by awake per-oral flexible fibre-optic laryngoscopy for stridor. We conclude that the technique is safe, straightforward and allows a diagnosis to be achieved in a significant number of cases. We recommend it as a first line investigation, reserving microlaryngoscopy for the group of patients in whom a diagnosis cannot be made in the outpatient clinic.

Ambulatory Care↗
PubMed2002

Local marriage markets in Great Britain: how diverse?

Estimates are made of the number of potential marriage partners available for unmarried men and women, by age, in Great Britain in 1991 and how this varies across local districts. The preferences of men and women in relation to partner ages are taken into account in the estimates. Average partner supply declines by age for women and increases with age for men. Marriage markets differ between local areas but the differentiation is not as substantial as in many other aspects of local demography and is a good deal less than the variation that occurs through time. Young women and older men have advantageous marriage markets almost everywhere while young men and older women are at a disadvantage in almost all areas.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Case for postoperative surveillance following colorectal cancer resection.

Over 4 years have elapsed since the first National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines were published for the management of patients after potentially curative resection of colorectal cancer. New information has now been published indicating that more intensive follow up than was originally recommended might provide a survival benefit for patients. This new information should be considered when formulating new NHMRC guidelines. In particular, meta-analyses of published individual trials have suggested a survival advantage that was not evident in the individual studies. There have been significant developments in chemotherapy with new individual agents and use of agents in combination that have proved far more effective than previous protocols. The therapeutic effect of these developments is the downstaging of some patients with metastatic disease, which was previously unresectable, to undergo resection. Furthermore, there is now some evidence that palliation of patients with advanced disease is more effective if commenced before the development of symptoms and this needs to be considered in the assessment of the benefits of follow up. There have been limited studies of cost-effectiveness, but international analyses suggest that the costs associated with more intensive follow-up regimes are within the accepted cost parameters associated with the management of many other conditions.

Colorectal Neoplasms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Revisiting a controversial surgical technique in the treatment of bulimic parotid hypertrophy.

Bulimia nervosa is a recognized cause of bilateral parotid gland enlargement that may not be appreciated by most otolaryngologists. Classically the parotid enlargement is transient but may be permanent and spectacular. Our review of the published literature revealed only 2 previous cases that have been considered for superficial parotidectomy, along with much debate as to the efficacy of such treatments. Neither case reported any postoperative complications. We present a bulimic patient who developed bilateral postoperative fistulae after surgery for marked, permanent enlargement of her parotids. Both fistulas closed spontaneously. However, a year later she has relapsed into bulimic behavior and developed further parotid gland hypertrophy. Because of this complication, we believe surgery has no role to play in the overall treatment of these severe cases unless the patients show a prolonged cessation of their bulimic behavior.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Designing and implementing a balanced scorecard: lessons learned in nonprofit implementation.

The balanced scorecard has been referred to as the management innovation of the century, and extensive articles have been written using case studies of organizations that use this performance measurement system. This article addresses the key issues of design and implementation with a step-by-step guide to how to design a balanced scorecard and lessons to avoid implementation problems in government and nonprofit settings.

Benchmarking↗