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PubMed1995

In pursuit of computer literacy in health management education.

Computer literacy skills are essential tools students must possess to do well in computer-related and quantitative courses, and to be effective health managers. Many health management education programs are faced with the challenge of finding an ideal framework for teaching computer literacy courses. Recently, Austin and Malec (1990) proposed an instructional method for teaching computer literacy. This method was used for three consecutive semesters to teach the computer literacy course offered at Sangamon State University. A case analysis technique was utilized to assess of the effectiveness of this method. A pre-test and post-test design was used in the study. Post-test scores were found to be significantly higher than pre-test scores. Improvements in students' attitudes toward computers were noticed in the areas pertaining to how they view their competency levels. Overall, the data for this study suggest that this instructional method is effective for teaching computer literacy to adult students who have had limited exposure to computers.

Attitude to Computers↗
PubMed1995

An interactive qualitative model in cardiology.

Qualitative modeling is a generic term that involves explicit and qualitative representations of the physical world. It can extend the realm of pure mathematical modeling in the sense that qualitative descriptions can, on one hand, simulate complex physical systems and processes and, on the other, produce linguistic descriptions and summaries of simulated system behavior. These summaries should be an essential element of the human/machine interface if truly interactive computational environments are to be developed. In the context of cardiac arrhythmias, a thorough understanding of the underlying processes that lead to the different pathological states is a first step toward optimizing diagnosis and therapy. The CARDIOLAB project is dedicated to cardiology and is aimed at providing a theoretical framework composed of computational models of different grain size and based on different formalisms. One of the intended roles of the framework is to assist researchers, clinicians, and pharmacologists in their quest for a better understanding of rhythmic disorders and ischemic events. In this paper, we present the first element of the framework. It is a cardiac simulator conceptualized in terms of a research field known as qualitative physics. As a simulator, the model's role is to produce fairly detailed descriptions, at different levels of abstraction, of cardiac electrical events when initial tissue-state conditions are given. A crude simulated ECG is also produced as a visual aid. At the end of each simulation session, and upon user request, the system can memorize the initial conditions and the descriptions into an arrhythmia knowledge base. As such, the model can be used as an interactive tool, to grossly delineate the regions in parameter space that correspond to causing or predisposing states leading to specific rhythmic disorders. More refined analysis can thereafter be performed using finer-grained models, the initial conditions of which will have been suggested by the qualitative model.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac↗
PubMed2001

Computational modelling of visual attention.

Five important trends have emerged from recent work on computational models of focal visual attention that emphasize the bottom-up, image-based control of attentional deployment. First, the perceptual saliency of stimuli critically depends on the surrounding context. Second, a unique 'saliency map' that topographically encodes for stimulus conspicuity over the visual scene has proved to be an efficient and plausible bottom-up control strategy. Third, inhibition of return, the process by which the currently attended location is prevented from being attended again, is a crucial element of attentional deployment. Fourth, attention and eye movements tightly interplay, posing computational challenges with respect to the coordinate system used to control attention. And last, scene understanding and object recognition strongly constrain the selection of attended locations. Insights from these five key areas provide a framework for a computational and neurobiological understanding of visual attention.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

The perception of spatial structure with oblique viewing: an explanation for Byzantine perspective?

Earlier work has confirmed that (i) observers can judge divergent receding lines, placed directly in front of them, to be parallel, and (ii) converging lines which are displaced laterally, so that they are viewed obliquely, can also be judged to be parallel. The former observation is in accord with traditional views of perspective while the latter, which is in accord with the depictions of objects found in Byzantine painting, is not in accord with perspective but is predicted by the relative magnitude of the visual angles subtended by the near and far ends of the pair of lines. To investigate whether these effects occurred when the stimulus was clearly three-dimensional, experiments were conducted with a novel apparatus, consisting of a framework of computer-controlled motor-driven luminous rods. This could be remotely adjusted so that all visible sides appeared to be parallel, ie to resemble a cube. Results showed that observers set the sides of this trapezohedron framework as diverging when it was viewed immediately in front of them, a result which is concordant with linear perspective, ie they see the normal projection of a cube as having converging edges. When the framework was displaced from the median plane so that it was viewed obliquely, the sides were set as converging and the magnitude of this effect was significantly related to angle of view, ie observers see the normal projection of a cube as having diverging sides.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Art↗
PubMed2002

Universal quantum computation with spin-1/2 pairs and Heisenberg exchange.

An efficient and intuitive framework for universal quantum computation is presented that uses pairs of spin-1/2 particles to form logical qubits and a single physical interaction, Heisenberg exchange, to produce all gate operations. Only two Heisenberg gate operations are required to produce a controlled pi-phase shift, compared to nineteen for exchange-only proposals employing three spins. Evolved from well-studied decoherence-free subspaces, this architecture inherits immunity from collective decoherence mechanisms. The simplicity and adaptability of this approach should make it attractive for spin-based quantum computing architectures.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Photogrammetry--an alternative to conventional impressions in implant dentistry? A clinical pilot study.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this clinical pilot study was to describe a photogrammetric technique to determine implant positions in the oral cavity, and to test and compare this technique to conventional impression/master cast procedures for fabrication of titanium frameworks with a computer numeric-controlled (CNC) milling technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Implant positions were recorded by means of conventional impressions/master casts as well as intraoral 3-dimensional photogrammetric measurements in 2 patients who were provided with 5 Brånemark implants each in the edentulous mandible. For each patient 2 titanium frameworks were made by means of a CNC milling technique (All-in-One). Both frameworks had an identical design, but the orientations of the framework cylinder fit surfaces were machined either from measurements from the master casts or from the intraoral photogrammetric measurements. The frameworks were tried for fit in the oral cavity and on the master casts. RESULTS: Both cases showed different precision of fit when comparing the 2 frameworks on the master casts. One of the 2 photogrammetric frameworks was not considered acceptable when tried on the models. In the oral cavity, however, all 4 frameworks presented comparable fit, and all were accepted for clinical use. CONCLUSION: The clinical experiences with try-in of the 4 different frameworks indicated that the photogrammetric technique could be a valid option for conventional impressions when using CNC milling fabrication in implant dentistry. The different results from the model and oral examinations also imply the difficulties of assessing clinical fit when testing fit at the master cast level only.

Computer-Aided Design↗
PubMed2000

Feldkamp-type cone-beam tomography in the wavelet framework.

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is in transition from fan-beam to cone-beam geometry. For cone-beam volumetric imaging, reduction of radiation exposure remains an important issue. Because the wavelet approach was shown to be effective and flexible for two-dimensional (2-D) local region reconstruction, we are motivated to perform wavelet local CT in cone-beam geometry. In this paper, we formulate the Feldkamp cone-beam reconstruction from the wavelet perspective, derive both full-scan and half-scan Feldkamp-type formulas for either global or local reconstruction, and demonstrate the feasibility and utility in synthetic and real data. It is found that using the wavelet Feldkamp approach, a three-dimensional (3-D) region of interest (ROI) can be reconstructed with neither severe image artifacts nor any significant constant bias in our simulation and experiments.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

A pilot study on computer-assisted optimal contouring of orthopedic fixation devices.

Bending and shaping of longitudinal orthopedic fixation devices like rods and plates is often a difficult and time-consuming process to perform during surgery under sterile conditions. This study presents a novel device for implant contouring and introduces two strategies to obtain parameters necessary for the bending process. The first strategy is based on surgical navigation techniques as established within the framework of computer-assisted orthopedic surgery. Geometrical landmarks, e.g., the location of pedicle screws in a case of posterior spinal fixation, are collected with a three-dimensional pointing device. Subsequently, the final shape of the implant and the associated contouring parameters are calculated. The alternative strategy utilizes a flexible material intended to be used intra-operatively to enable the optimal shape of the implant to be modeled by hand. Contour parameters are calculated from a depth image of this model obtained using an object scanner. Bending of spinal rod systems is used to illustrate both strategies. A newly designed semi-automatic bending machine is proposed to impose the computed deformation on the implant material once parameters are obtained. Integrating the bending device into a system for computer-assisted surgery allows for the interactive control of the contouring process.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Computers and nursing. Possibilities for transforming nursing.

The use of computers is becoming commonplace in the clinical setting. However, the impact of computer use and its implications for nursing have yet to be understood (Birckhead, 1978). The purpose of this article is to explore how computer technology may transform nursing. The discourse is guided by Burch's (1985) thesis that "the use of technology is non-neutral. It transforms experience, whether for better or worse, and ultimately shapes human thinking and being". If one values nursing as a humanizing activity, then most of the potential transformations can be viewed as negative. When viewed from an instrumental framework, however, the computer may have a positive rather than a negative impact because computer use promotes expediency, efficiency, and precision.

Humans↗
PubMed2026

Integrated computational and experimental benchmarking of Bacillus phage endolysins reveals the relationship between peptidoglycan-fragment recognition descriptors and antibacterial performance.

Protein-based antibacterials such as bacteriophage endolysins offer a targeted therapeutic strategy against Gram-positive pathogens. However, prioritizing the most effective candidates from the large sequence diversity available remains a significant challenge. Here we present a standardized computational-experimental benchmarking framework that evaluates seven phage-derived endolysin variants (E1, E2, E3, E7, E10, E12, and E15) identified from Bacillus genomes. We combined molecular docking and residue-level interaction mapping against muramyl dipeptide (MDP), a minimal conserved peptidoglycan motif, with 1000-ns molecular dynamics simulations, MM/PBSA binding free-energy estimation, and matched functional inhibition assays against Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus luteus. Computational analyses revealed generally favorable MDP recognition across variants, albeit with notable differences in contact patterns and complex stability profiles. Experimental screening identified E2 as the most potent antibacterial agent against both species, while E7 and E1 performed strongly in selected computational metrics. Integrated analysis showed only modest correlations between computational descriptors of fragment recognition/stability and observed antibacterial performance. This study establishes a practical comparative benchmarking platform for endolysin candidate prioritization, nominates E2 and E7 as promising candidates for further development, and highlights E1 as a potential structural scaffold for rational engineering, while explicitly demonstrating both the utility and the current limitations of using minimal peptidoglycan fragments as proxies for full cell-wall recognition in lysin benchmarking.

Endopeptidases↗
PubMed1995

A general method for the computer simulation of biological systems interacting with fluids.

At this Symposium on Biological Fluid Dynamics, it is appropriate to ask whether there is any common theme that unites the diverse problems that arise in the study of living systems interacting with fluids. The answer that immediately comes to mind is this: biological fluid dynamics invariably involves the interaction of elastic flexible tissue with viscous incompressible fluid. (In many cases the tissue is not only elastic, it is also active, i.e. capable of doing work on the fluid). This paper describes the immersed boundary method, which is a general framework for the computer simulation of biofluid dynamic systems. This method has already been applied to blood flow in the heart (including the computer-assisted design of prosthetic cardiac valves), platelet aggregation during blood clotting, aquatic animal locomotion, wave propagation along the basilar membrane of the inner ear, and flow in collapsible tubes. In the immersed boundary method, the elastic (and possibly active) biological tissue is treated as a part of the fluid in which additional forces (derived from the tissue stresses) are applied. Because the tissue is represented in terms of its force field, the method remains straightforward, even when the geometry of the biological tissue is complicated, dynamic and not known in advance.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Preverbal and verbal counting and computation.

We describe the preverbal system of counting and arithmetic reasoning revealed by experiments on numerical representations in animals. In this system, numerosities are represented by magnitudes, which are rapidly but inaccurately generated by the Meck and Church (1983) preverbal counting mechanism. We suggest the following. (1) The preverbal counting mechanism is the source of the implicit principles that guide the acquisition of verbal counting. (2) The preverbal system of arithmetic computation provides the framework for the assimilation of the verbal system. (3) Learning to count involves, in part, learning a mapping from the preverbal numerical magnitudes to the verbal and written number symbols and the inverse mappings from these symbols to the preverbal magnitudes. (4) Subitizing is the use of the preverbal counting process and the mapping from the resulting magnitudes to number words in order to generate rapidly the number words for small numerosities. (5) The retrieval of the number facts, which plays a central role in verbal computation, is mediated via the inverse mappings from verbal and written numbers to the preverbal magnitudes and the use of these magnitudes to find the appropriate cells in tabular arrangements of the answers. (6) This model of the fact retrieval process accounts for the salient features of the reaction time differences and error patterns revealed by experiments on mental arithmetic. (7) The application of verbal and written computational algorithms goes on in parallel with, and is to some extent guided by, preverbal computations, both in the child and in the adult.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

[Computer-assisted surgical navigation with a dynamic mobile framework for the nasal fossae, sinuses and base of the skull].

Surgery of the skull base and of the paranasal sinuses is often difficult because of the complex anatomy and the delicate structures; serious complications (loss of vision, cerebral lesion) have been reported. To improve the safety of such operations, computer-assisted navigation surgery is increasingly being put to use. We introduce the system which was developed in Berne. Our computer-assisted system is based on an intraoperative pursuit of the head and instruments which are equipped with infrared diodes and registered by an opto-electronic system-camera. The CT-acquisition of the head is accomplished framelessly without a head-holding device. This allows free movement of the head during surgery. Between March and November 1997, 35 navigation operations were performed for various pathologies at the anterior and lateral skull base. The majority of the cases were endonasal operations. No surgical complications occurred inspite of the complexity of the operations. The measured accuracy of the system between the CT and the actual instrument location in the patient was 0.5-2 mm (mean : < 1 mm) for the anterior skull base and 1-2.5 mm (mean < 1.5 mm) for the lateral skull base. The intraoperative navigation system allows identification of essential anatomical structures and permits safe and efficient surgery without additional loss of time. In addition, such a system allows minimal invasive approaches, and new operations may become possible.

Adult↗
PubMed2026

Dynamic Protein Structure Paradox: An Integrative Framework for Endpoint-Conditioned Evidentiary Sufficiency in Structure-to-Function Claims.

Accurate coordinates for a represented protein state do not, by themselves, establish activity or any other condition-specific function. This article defines the Dynamic Protein Structure Paradox (DPSP) as the apparent conflict between structural accuracy and functional underdetermination and develops it as an integrative evidentiary assessment framework rather than a new theory or paradigm. The underlying problem has been longstanding, since structural genomics, function annotation, allostery, and disorder research each established that fold does not determine function and that function does not determine fold. DPSP consolidates those results into one endpoint-conditioned rule. Once a measurable endpoint is defined, it assesses four coupled dimensions: relevant-state completeness, context completeness, ensemble or kinetic dependence, and chemical dependence. A rubric rates each dimension as adequate, uncertain, or missing, and a materiality test determines which gaps influence the stated decision. The outcome is one of three mutually exclusive modes of utilization: geometry-led, conditional, or function-measured. The deliverable is a concise evidence statement delineating what the structure supports, which decisive variable remains unmeasured, and what corroboration is necessary. DPSP complements, rather than replaces, existing structural, ensemble, and computational approaches. The framework remains unvalidated, its thresholds are provisional, and the studies necessary to confirm or refute it are specified.

Proteins↗
PubMed2026

Mining the sHSP20 (small heat-shock protein) gene family in finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.): structural, evolutionary and predicted abiotic-stress-responsive insights.

Small heat-shock proteins (sHSPs, the HSP20 family) are ATP-independent molecular chaperones that hold partially unfolded substrates and protect the proteome during heat and other abiotic stresses; every member is defined by a conserved &#x3b1;-crystallin domain (ACD). Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is a climate-resilient, calcium-rich allotetraploid cereal of the semi-arid tropics whose HSP20 repertoire had not been catalogued. The present study is an entirely computational (in silico) analysis of the chromosome-scale reference genome of finger millet (NCBI GenBank assembly GCA_032690845.1, cultivar KNE 796-S). Mining the predicted proteome with the ACD profile (Pfam PF00011) and confirming every candidate by NCBI CD-search recovered 76 non-redundant ACD-bearing HSP20 genes (EcHSP20-1-EcHSP20-76). Based on phylogeny and TargetP-predicted localization, the members were classified into ten subfamilies: seven cytosolic/nuclear classes (C-I to C-VII, 60 members) together with chloroplastic (11), mitochondrial (3) and endoplasmic-reticulum (2) groups. The proteins ranged from 110 to 355 amino acids (12.1-39.2&#xa0;kDa) with theoretical pI of 4.85-9.69. The 76 loci were distributed over 14 of the 18 chromosomes and were conspicuously absent from chromosomes 8&#xa0;A, 8B, 9&#xa0;A and 9B, with pronounced clustering on chromosomes 1, 2, 3 and 6. Duplication analysis detected 149 paralogous pairs (49 homoeologous, 80 segmental/dispersed and 18 tandem); 147 of 148 pairs for which substitution rates could be calculated returned Ka/Ks&#x2009;<&#x2009;1 (mean 0.20), indicating strong purifying selection consistent with retention after whole-genome/allopolyploid duplication. Promoter analysis (PlantCARE) revealed enrichment of abscisic-acid-responsive (ABRE), MYB/MYC drought-related, STRE, DRE, low-temperature (LTR) and methyl-jasmonate/salicylic-acid elements, whereas canonical heat-shock elements (HSE) were not recovered. Expression profiling against a public drought transcriptome (SRP081350) showed that about half of the genes (39 of 76) are transcribed in leaf tissue, the expressed fraction being dominated by the cytosolic class C-I. This first finger-millet HSP20 catalogue provides a verified, reproducible framework and nominates computationally predicted candidate genes for future functional work on thermotolerance in cereals.

Allotetraploid↗
PubMed1996

Hormone replacement therapy in a risk-benefit perspective.

The relative cost-effectiveness of different treatment strategies for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was assessed within the framework of a computer model. Where data were lacking, it was necessary to make assumptions about the effects of HRT, particularly in relation to combined oestrogen-progestogen therapy and cardiovascular disease; however, sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the impact of changing these assumptions on the cost-effectiveness equation. It appears that net expenditure by the NHS will depend critically on the direct costs of treatment, rather than on any indirect costs incurred or saved as a result of side-effects. In terms of mortality, a reduction in cardiovascular disease risk would have greatest impact and would overshadow any small increase in breast cancer risk which may be associated with long-term use. If the cardioprotective effect of oestrogen is real, our results suggest that long-term prophylactic treatment of hysterectomised women would be relatively cost-effective. Treatment of symptomatic menopausal women for any period of time appears to offer very good value for money. The lack of data relating to combined oestrogen-progestogen therapy and cardioprotection, and the major importance of the latter in the equation of benefits and risks, make it more difficult to draw conclusions about the cost-effectiveness of treating non-hysterectomised asymptomatic women for prophylactic reasons.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

Exploring the relationship between rationality and bounded rationality in medical knowledge-based systems.

If our goal in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM) is to engineer systems health-care providers will both use and, in the process, improve their performance, we must concentrate on the development of causal theories of knowledge and problem solving. One broad direction in pursuing this goal is understanding the relationships between existing models of rationality and bounded rationality for similar tasks. Models of rationality refer to those approaches in which the optimal properties of the models are deductively provable, i.e. in which the processing is rational. Representative models of rationality used in AIM are deductive logical models, statistical models such as Bayesian inference models, and decision-analytic models. Models of bounded rationality are those which do not guarantee such optimal properties nor yield to deductive correctness proofs. These models have their roots in cognitive psychology. In this article we show how explicating the relationship between models of rationality and bounded rationality might be done in the case of abductive tasks in medicine. This is done by positioning these modeling approaches within the same framework (an abstract computational model) and interpreting in this context both computational complexity results concerning the nature of the task and empirical results studies of human problem-solving behavior.

Artificial Intelligence↗