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PubMed2006

Computational inference of neural information flow networks.

Determining how information flows along anatomical brain pathways is a fundamental requirement for understanding how animals perceive their environments, learn, and behave. Attempts to reveal such neural information flow have been made using linear computational methods, but neural interactions are known to be nonlinear. Here, we demonstrate that a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) inference algorithm we originally developed to infer nonlinear transcriptional regulatory networks from gene expression data collected with microarrays is also successful at inferring nonlinear neural information flow networks from electrophysiology data collected with microelectrode arrays. The inferred networks we recover from the songbird auditory pathway are correctly restricted to a subset of known anatomical paths, are consistent with timing of the system, and reveal both the importance of reciprocal feedback in auditory processing and greater information flow to higher-order auditory areas when birds hear natural as opposed to synthetic sounds. A linear method applied to the same data incorrectly produces networks with information flow to non-neural tissue and over paths known not to exist. To our knowledge, this study represents the first biologically validated demonstration of an algorithm to successfully infer neural information flow networks.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed1987

The AIDS information crisis: confluence of the roles of information creator, seeker, and provider.

The dramatic increase in the number of cases and deaths from AIDS since 1981 has been accompanied by an information explosion on the topic. The government, health professionals, service organizations, consumers, and the media are each vital links in both formal and informal AIDS information networks. New information sources and systems have emerged from these five sectors, and their roles as information creators, seekers, and providers have come together. The need for integrative or synthesizing databases and systems which reflect the sectors' interdependence and acknowledge their roles in the information process is discussed. Databases and systems which reflect a multi-sector approach, such as the Computerized AIDS Information Network (CAIN), are suggested as potential solutions to the AIDS information problem.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Family relations and informal social networks in the social structure and demographic change].

Demographic changes and social structural transformations lead to changes in family size, the family cycle and in intergenerational relationships. Contrary to an abridged and overgeneralized public, political and scientific discussion, one can, by no means, assume a decrease in family functions concerning the aged. It seems that in some areas emotional and instrumental functions of the family increase. In other areas functions are transferred and generally there is a whole new division of labor between family and other informal networks. These informal networks are obviously becoming increasingly meaningful in the sense of a family "freely chosen". Because of considerable variability in social structure generalizations in this area cannot be made. On the whole, one can expect a continuing expansion and differentiation in the range and type of support offered the elderly by the family and other networks.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

[Experience of Aozora Medical Clinic in EMInet].

We present here the EMInet (Electronic Medical Information network), a closed information network established by the City government and the Medical Association in Matsudo City, Chiba, Japan. In this network, medical information is shared by multiple certified medical facilities under the informed consent of the patients. The medical record is written only by the physician in charge of the patient and reserved in the server computer. The medical record cannot be rewritten or modified by anyone except the physician in charge of the patient. Other medical professionals can only have access to the record. In the emergency room of certified hospitals, a physician can open the patient's record by using the IC card carried by the patient.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed2002

The people who make organizations go--or stop.

Managers invariably use their personal contacts when they need to, say, meet an impossible deadline or learn the truth about a new boss. Increasingly, it's through these informal networks--not just through traditional organizational hierarchies--that information is found and work gets done. But to many senior executives, informal networks are unobservable and ungovernable--and, therefore, not amenable to the tools of management. As a result, executives tend to work around informal networks or, worse, try to ignore them. When they do acknowledge the networks' existence, executives fall back on intuition--scarcely a dependable tool--to guide them in nurturing this social capital. It doesn't have to be that way. It is entirely possible to develop and manage informal networks systematically, say management experts Cross and Prusak. Specifically, senior executives need to focus their attention on four key role-players in informal networks: Central connectors link most employees in an informal network with one another; they provide the critical information or expertise that the entire network draws on to get work done. Boundary spanners connect an informal network with other parts of the company or with similar networks in other organizations. Information brokers link different subgroups in an informal network; if they didn't, the network would splinter into smaller, less effective segments. And finally, there are peripheral specialists, who anyone in an informal network can turn to for specialized expertise but who work apart from most people in the network. The authors describe the four roles in detail, discuss the use of a well-established tool called social network analysis for determining who these role-players are in the network, and suggest ways that executives can transform ineffective informal networks into productive ones.

Administrative Personnel↗

PubMed1994

Classifying and identifying servers for biomedical information retrieval.

Useful retrieval of biomedical information from network information sources requires methods for organized access to those information sources. This access must be organized in terms of the information content of information sources and in terms of the discovery of the network location of those information sources. We have developed an approach to providing organized access to information sources based on a scheme of hierarchical classifiers and identifiers of the servers providing access to those information sources. This approach uses MeSH tree numbers as both classifiers and identifiers of servers. MeSH tree numbers are used to indicate the information content of servers, and also as OSF/DCE server identifiers. This allows the identity and location of a server providing access to a given information source to be determined from the information classification of that information source.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed1985

Size and composition of the informal helper networks of elderly blacks.

Research on the informal support networks of older persons recognizes that network size and composition (i.e., family vs. nonkin) may have important consequences for care. Factors that determine these aspects of networks among older blacks, however, have not been explored systematically. The present study examined the relationship of a group of sociodemographic, health, family, and availability factors to the size and composition of the informal support network. The data were taken from the National Survey of Black Americans and constitute a nationally representative sample (N = 581) of older blacks (55 years and older). The results for several of the sociodemographic factors (i.e., sex and marital status) are consistent with previous work. Regional differences in network dimensions, however, suggest new areas of inquiry. The findings underscore the importance of availability and family factors in support relationships and the relative ineffectiveness of health factors as predictors of network size and composition.

Black or African American↗

PubMed2002

[Aeropalynological Surveillance Rhone-Alpes (ASRA: a new network of surveillance and information].

The spread of ragweed in the Lyon region and Rhône valley has lead two associations regarding this problem: Association Française d'Etudes Des Ambroisies (AFEDA) and Groupement d'Allergologie et d'Immunologie Clinique du Rhône-Moyen (GAICRM) to join their competences and create a new group: Surveillance Aéropalynologique Rhône-Alpes (SARA). SARA manages six pollen traps in the Lyon area and central Rhône valley and has set up an original and effective information network.

Environmental Monitoring↗

PubMed2004

Dynamics of sensory thalamocortical synaptic networks during information processing states.

The thalamocortical network consists of the pathways that interconnect the thalamus and neocortex, including thalamic sensory afferents, corticothalamic and thalamocortical pathways. These pathways are essential to acquire, analyze, store and retrieve sensory information. However, sensory information processing mostly occurs during behavioral arousal, when activity in thalamus and neocortex consists of an electrographic sign of low amplitude fast activity, known as activation, which is caused by several neuromodulator systems that project to the thalamocortical network. Logically, in order to understand how the thalamocortical network processes sensory information it is essential to study its response properties during states of activation. This paper reviews the temporal and spatial response properties of synaptic pathways in the whisker thalamocortical network of rodents during activated states as compared to quiescent (non-activated) states. The evidence shows that these pathways are differentially regulated via the effects of neuromodulators as behavioral contingencies demand. Thus, during activated states, the temporal and spatial response properties of pathways in the thalamocortical network are transformed to allow the processing of sensory information.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Application of four-layer neural network on information extraction.

This paper applies neural network to extract marsh information. An adaptive back-propagation algorithm based on a robust error function is introduced to build a four-layer neural network, and it is used to classify Thematic Mapper (TM) image of Zhalong Wetland in China and then extract marsh information. Comparing marsh information extraction results of the four-layer neural network with three-layer neural network and the maximum likelihood classifier, conclusion can be drawn as follows: the structure of the four-layer neural network and the adaptive back-propagation algorithm based on the robust error function is effective to extract marsh information. The four-layer neural network adopted in this paper succeeded in building the complex model of TM image, and it avoided the problem of great storage of remotely sensed data, and the adaptive back-propagation algorithm speeded up the descending of error. Above all, the four-layer neural network is superior to the three-layer neural network and the maximum likelihood classifier in the accuracy of the total classification and marsh information extraction.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2003

Formal and informal social networks of women with serious mental illness.

The case study method was used to describe formal and informal social networks of four women with serious mental illness and to capture what happens in network interactions. Supportive roles were identified, with significant overlap between roles performed by formal and informal network members. In contrast to many studies, this study's participants all showed reciprocity in relationships. Network relationships, while supportive, often were conflicted. Themes related to stability of relationships were identified. Practice recommendations include recognition of each person's "context" apart from his or her illness and the importance of capitalizing on positive factors within the person's life context. Further research is needed to identify confirming and contradictory findings.

Female↗

PubMed2006

Specialist capacity in public health: are we hitting the target?

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to audit specialist public health capacity in one strategic health authority (SHA), and to compare capacity with the targets suggested by the Faculty of Public Health (FPH). METHODS: A census of all public health specialists and specialists in training, working within the geographical boundary of one SHA, was performed in late 2004. The number of whole-time-equivalent (WTE) public health specialists was quantified using a variety of methods, including the public health network database, informal networks, existing written reports, personal knowledge and telephone interviews. The number of specialists was compared with the targets suggested by the FPH and with other regions. RESULTS: There were 12 WTE public health specialists per million population in the SHA, and the FPH's target was 25 WTE per million population. There was a particular shortage of specialists in academic public health. CONCLUSIONS: There was a marked shortfall in specialist public health capacity in the SHA compared with the FPH's targets. Comparisons with the FPH's targets were difficult; the FPA used WTE as the metric, while the local public health network database provided information in terms of numbers of specialists and WTE data were time consuming to obtain. Comparisons with other regions were of limited use as the workforce data were not comparable. The FPH's targets were found to have little resonance outside the world of specialist public health, and so are unlikely to be helpful in securing local investment in specialist public health capacity. The service needs to be marketed, and new ways of inter-organizational and collaborative working and of expanding the wider public health workforce need to be examined in order to deliver effective public health.

Career Choice↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Health information community networks.

The author supports the development of health information community networks (HICNs) as an important tool for use by individuals and community groups. HICNs can enable citizens, organizations, and communities to exchange geographically based information on community health status. Through HICNs, individuals and groups will be able to share information, prioritize issues, resolve conflicts, estimate the impact of policy initiatives, and plan, organize, manage, and evaluate programs and projects that deal with community health issues.

Community Health Planning↗

PubMed1997

Information in full and reduced data sets of electrical impedance spectra from various skin conditions, compared using a holographic neural network.

Information relating to patho-physiological events in living tissues, including skin, should be found in the beta-dispersion frequency range of the electrical impedance. For intact skin, the alpha-dispersion is strongly influenced by the condition of the stratum corneum, particularly its hydration. For intact skin, these dispersions are not well separated: in a Nyquist plot, most of the relatively small beta-dispersion will be hidden behind the upper-frequency end of the alpha-dispersion arc. In the study, information obtained with a set of four indices, claimed to extract most of the information in the pertinent frequency interval, is compared with the full information measured at 31 frequencies, between 1 kHz and 1 MHz, for irritant and allergic contact reactions and nodular basal cell carcinomas, using a holographic neural network that appears to be useful for model-independent evaluation of the consequences of data-reduction procedures. Cole parameters should be avoided in the beta-range for intact skin. The indices are well supported, as long as differences from a reference site are used, and it seems that they can serve as the basis for differential diagnostics even as absolute values, although more information may be extracted from the complete spectrum.

Diagnosis, Differential↗

PubMed1991

Size and effectiveness of informal helping networks: a panel study of older people in the community.

This paper examines the impact over time of changes in older people's health and functional capacity on the size and effectiveness of their informal helping networks. Theoretical perspectives on networks differ in their predictions regarding the impact of declines in health on network size. Previous empirical studies have not examined the effects of changes in health on the size of networks. We examine empirical evidence on the impact of health changes on informal helping networks with longitudinal data obtained from a probability sample of older people living in the community. Results suggest that networks respond to diminishing health by increasing the scope of assistance provided but neither increase nor decrease in size as a consequence. The results also suggest that declines in functioning can produce increases in needs which exceed the capacity of informal networks.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2005

Health information exchange networks: understanding stakeholder views.

As the National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) gains momentum, regional health information exchange networks are developing as a means to support this structure. While successful networks exist, their sustainability is complicated by the existence of multiple stakeholders with differing incentives for participation. Interviews conducted regarding the development of the NMESH network produced several key areas of stakeholder focus, an important step in creating network sustainability.

Delivery of Health Care↗

PubMed1995

Will CHINs be able to mesh with enterprise networks?

The current proliferation of enterprisewide information networks developed by integrated delivery systems wasn't foreseen when the community health information network concept was spawned. Now, many are wondering how enterprise networks will mesh with CHINs and whether there will be needless and expensive duplication of services.

Community Health Planning↗

PubMed1993

An information sources map for Occupational and Environmental Medicine: guidance to network-based information through domain-specific indexing.

This paper describes a prototype information sources map (ISM), an on-line information source finder, for Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM). The OEM ISM was built as part of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) project of the National Library of Medicine. It allows a user to identify sources of on-line information appropriate to a specific OEM question, and connect to the sources. In the OEM ISM we explore a domain-specific method of indexing information source contents, and also a domain-specific user interface. The indexing represents a domain expert's opinion of the specificity of an information source in helping to answer specific types of domain questions. For each information source, an index field represents whether a source might provide useful information in an occupational, industrial, or environmental category. Additional fields represent the degree of specificity of a source in individual question types in each category. The paper discusses the development, design, and implementation of the prototype OEM ISM.

Abstracting and Indexing↗