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At least 667 records · Page 37Linked to original sources
PubMed2005

Shielding for a cyclotron used for medical isotope production in China.

Monte Carlo and discrete ordinate calculations have been performed to determine the doses at several locations in a positron emission tomography (PET) facility in China, where the radiation source is a cyclotron that is used for the production of the isotopes necessary for PET scans. The energy-dependent neutron source term is obtained by calculations using the ALICE code, and is interpolated for input to Monte Carlo and discrete ordinate calculations. The building that houses the cyclotron has a labyrinth of walls to minimise dose to operators and to other occupants of the building. Unbiased Monte Carlo calculations did not converge after more than one week of CPU time, whereas direction biasing alone resulted in convergence in several days. A study of several biasing techniques indicated that about a factor of 3 in computational efficiency is obtained using evaluated biasing methods. The use of adjoint fluxes for biasing Monte Carlo calculations can improve computational efficiencies by one or two orders of magnitude for some problems.

China↗
PubMed1992

Radiation exposure inside reinforced concrete buildings at Nagasaki.

In this study, the radiation doses to occupants of two reinforced concrete buildings at Nagasaki, who survived the immediate effects of the nuclear weapon detonation, are determined using state-of-the-art radiation transport techniques. The radiation doses at all locations in the buildings are calculated using the Three-Dimensional Oak Ridge Discrete Ordinates Radiation Transport Code which was constructed especially for this task. This code represents a new and unique capability that has been previously reported. This study resulted in case-by-case lists of doses to occupants and an uncertainty analysis. These data have been used in a companion study as the basis for determining a new value of the dose producing a 50% risk of fatality.

Bone Marrow↗
PubMed2001

Application of three-dimensional resonant acoustic spectroscopy method to rock and building materials.

This paper presents the experimental and theoretical results of applying resonant acoustic spectroscopy (RAS) to determine elastic parameters and losses in such consolidated granular materials as rock and building bricks. First, the theoretical aspects of the RAS method are outlined. A computer code for the rectangular and cylindrical samples was developed and tested. The results of experiments on specimens of rock and ceramic brick are then described. Finally, a modification of the previously published RUS algorithm is presented which permits a significant reduction in computing time for elongated samples.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1994

Ubiquitin and ubiquitination in cells from the marine sponge Geodia cydonium.

Marine sponges, e.g. Geodia cydonium, have been intensively used to investigate the biochemical and molecular biological basis of cell-cell- and cell-matrix adhesion. It has been shown that a family of galactose-specific lectins, which are present in the extracellular space of G. cydonium, is a main component involved in cell-matrix adhesion in the sponge system. In the present study it is outlined that the purified 16-kDa lectin-1 binds to a 67-kDa membrane-associated protein. This lectin-binding protein undergoes mono- and diubiquitination after incubation of dissociated sponge cells with the homologous aggregation factor (AF), a molecule involved in cell-cell adhesion. The gene coding for polyubiquitin was characterized and found to be composed of three tandem repeat building blocks. Northern analysis indicated the presence of only one type of ubiquitin-specific mRNA (1.65 kb). The level of this transcript increased by 10-fold after incubation of the dissociated cells with AF for 8 h; in contrast, lectin-1 caused only a small effect on the steady-state level of ubiquitin mRNA. These data indicate that the expression of the polyubiquitin gene is directly or indirectly regulated by the AF and suggest that ubiquitination might be a process which controls the function of the membrane-associated lectin-binding protein during matrix-cell adhesion.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2005

The use of (symmetry) group theory as a predictive tool for studying bimanual coordination.

Symmetry groups-rules that connect different configurations of a given set of components-represent a compact means of coding for effects, a feature that is desirable in both model- and theory-building. The present study was designed to compare the effects of spatial orientation differences with the various other asymmetries (e.g., timing differences, handedness preferences, the direction of attention) that are accommodated by current models of bimanual coordination. The authors used symmetry groups to predict specific patterns of results. In 2 experiments, participants (N = 13, Experiment 1; N = 9, Experiment 2) coordinated the movements of differently oriented (1 downward and 1 upward) pendulum pairs at a low (0.62 Hz) or high (0.82 Hz) movement frequency to establish an in-phase or antiphase pattern. Consistent with previous results (P. G. Amazeen, E. L. Amazeen, & M. T. Turvey, 1998a), the downward-oriented pendulum tended to lead slightly. In contrast to the effects of other bimanual asymmetries, the downward-oriented pendulum lead was amplified at low frequencies. Although the results contradicted the predictions of existing models of bimanual coordination, they were consistent with predictions from symmetry group theory. In the discussion, the authors focus on the application of symmetry groups to both bimanual coordination and other phenomena with more complex symmetric structures.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Monoclonal antibodies: new agents for cancer detection and targeted therapy.

Antibodies directed against markers on cancer cells are gaining in importance for the purpose of targeting diagnostic and therapeutic agents. In the past, this approach has had very limited success principally because the classical methods for producing antibodies from blood serum of animals immunized with cancer cells or extracts were unsatisfactory. The situation has changed dramatically since 1975 following the design of procedures for "immortalizing" antibody-producing cells (lymphocytes) by fusing them with cultured myeloma cells to form hybridomas which continuously secrete antibodies. Since these hybridomas produce antibodies coded for by a single antibody-producing cell, the antibodies are called monoclonal. Building on these advances in biomedical research, it is now possible to reproducibly manufacture monoclonal antibodies on a scale suitable for use in cancer detection and therapy.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗
PubMed1998

Use of project ontologies and terminology servers to support software engineering.

Complex medical software imposes new requirements on the methods and tools used for maintenance. Appropriate maintenance tools can increase software reliability and quality by providing means to trace dependencies among software artifacts for reducing unexpected impacts in software caused by software changes. We have used the GRAIL concept-representation language for medical terminologies to build a project ontology that models relationships among software artifacts. Our approach involves modeling of the terminology used in software projects, which enables us to describe, classify and relate individual software artifacts. A networked repository accessible to the entire software development staff stores the conceptual model, source code and associated documents. We present an architecture for a maintenance tool, and show how developers can use GRAIL to build a project ontology.

Databases as Topic↗
PubMed2004

The Bayesian brain: the role of uncertainty in neural coding and computation.

To use sensory information efficiently to make judgments and guide action in the world, the brain must represent and use information about uncertainty in its computations for perception and action. Bayesian methods have proven successful in building computational theories for perception and sensorimotor control, and psychophysics is providing a growing body of evidence that human perceptual computations are "Bayes' optimal". This leads to the "Bayesian coding hypothesis": that the brain represents sensory information probabilistically, in the form of probability distributions. Several computational schemes have recently been proposed for how this might be achieved in populations of neurons. Neurophysiological data on the hypothesis, however, is almost non-existent. A major challenge for neuroscientists is to test these ideas experimentally, and so determine whether and how neurons code information about sensory uncertainty.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

The use of intraservice work per unit of time (IWPUT) and the building block method (BBM) for the calculation of surgical work.

OBJECTIVE: We will review the contribution to the Medicare Fee Schedule (MFS) by the techniques of intensity of work per unit of time (IWPUT), the building block methodology (BBM), and the work accomplished by the American College of Surgeons General Surgery Coding & Reimbursement Committee (GSCRC) in using IWPUT/BBM to detect undervalued surgical procedures and recommend payment increases. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: The MFS has had a major impact on surgeons' income since its introduction in 1992 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and additionally has been adopted for use by many commercial insurers. A major component of MFS is physician work, measured as the relative value of work (RVW), which has 2 components: time and intensity. These components are incorporated by: RVW = time x intensity. METHODS: This work formula can be rearranged to give the IWPUT, which has become a powerful tool to calculate the amount of RVW performed by physicians. Most procedures are valued by the total RVW in the global surgical package, which includes pre-, intra-, and postoperative care for a time after surgery. Summing these perioperative components into RVW is called the building block methodology (BBM). RESULTS: Using these techniques, the GSCRC increased the values for 314 surgery procedures during a recent CMS 5-year review, resulting in an increase to general surgeons of roughly 76 million dollars annually. CONCLUSIONS: The use of IWPUT/BBM has been instrumental to correct payment for undervalued surgical procedures. They are powerful methods to measure RVW across specialties and to solve reimbursement, compensation, and practice management problems facing surgeons.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.↗
PubMed2006

A tactile cockpit instrument supports the control of self-motion during spatial disorientation.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the effectiveness of a tactile torso display as a countermeasure to spatial disorientation (SD) and compared inside-out and outside-in codings. BACKGROUND: SD is a serious threat to military as well as civilian pilots and aircraft. Considerable effort has been put into SD countermeasures such as training programs and advanced cockpit displays. Tactile displays have been considered a promising technology. METHOD: Twenty-four participants were assigned to the two coding groups (12 per group and matched for age and gender). We used a rotating chair to build up a state of SD by rotating participants around their yaw axis followed by a sudden stop. During the following recovery phase a random disturbance signal was added to the chair's orientation. Participants actively controlled their orientation and were instructed to maintain a stable orientation. RESULTS: Statistical analyses revealed that recovery from SD was improved with support of the tactile instrument, but tracking performance was reduced. The effects were the same whether the instrument was available full time or during the recovery phase only. There were no differences between outside-in and inside-out coding. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates the potential of tactile cockpit instruments in controlling SD, even in the presence of strong but misleading self-motion information from the vestibular sense. APPLICATION: Actual or potential applications of this research include spatial disorientation countermeasures for pilots, divers, and astronauts.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

A collaborative approach to building a terminology for medical procedures using a Web-based application: from specifications to daily use.

The MAOUSSC (Model for Assistance in the Orientation of a User within Coding Systems) Web server supports a collaborative work on the description of medical procedures. The specifications for the MAOUSSC application are conceptual modeling, definition of semantically fully described procedures, re-use of an existing vocabulary, the UMLS, and sharability. This paper reports on some difficulties in applying those principles in a networked building and updating of the terminology. The users are physicians who have to represent procedure terms in the MAOUSSC formalism. They must apply the constraints of the underlying model, and re-use the representation of the UMLS knowledge base. In our experience, we found that the implementation of syntactic and semantic constraints was not sufficient. Guidelines for pragmatical aspects in representation are required to make a collaborative approach in terminology building more operational.

Humans↗
PubMed2004

Bacillus anthracis contamination and inhalational anthrax in a mail processing and distribution center.

AIMS: Four inhalational anthrax cases occurred in a large mail processing and distribution center in Washington, DC, after envelopes containing Bacillus anthracis spores were processed. This report describes the results of sampling for B. anthracis spores during investigations conducted in October and December 2001. METHODS AND RESULTS: Wet swabs, wet wipes, vacuum sock, and air-filter samples were collected throughout the facility to characterize the extent of building contamination. The results showed widespread contamination of B. anthracis spores, particularly associated with one delivery bar code sorter (DBCS) machine that had sorted the spore-containing envelopes and an area where the envelopes were handled by postal workers. Spore concentrations decreased as distance from the DBCS machine increased, but spores were widely dispersed into surrounding areas. CONCLUSION: The spatial distribution of culture positive samples was closely related to the work areas of the inhalational anthrax cases and supported epidemiological evidence that the workers became ill from exposure to B. anthracis spores in areas where the contaminated envelopes had travelled. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The results of this investigation were used to guide decontamination efforts and provided baseline spore concentrations for follow-up measurements after the building had been cleaned. Implementing methods to reduce aerosolization and dispersion of dust within the facility would reduce postal workers' potential exposures to bioterrorism agents.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗
PubMed2004

Syndromic surveillance: the effects of syndrome grouping on model accuracy and outbreak detection.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Data used by syndromic surveillance systems must be grouped into syndromes or prodromes. Previous studies have examined the accuracy of different methods of syndromic grouping. We seek to study the effects of different syndrome grouping methods on model accuracy, a key factor in the outbreak-detection performance of syndromic surveillance systems. METHODS: Daily emergency department visit rates were analyzed from 2 urban academic tertiary care hospitals for 1,680 consecutive days. During this period, each hospital census totaled approximately 230,000 patient visits. Three methods were used to group the visits into a respiratory-related syndrome category: 1 relying on chief complaint, 1 on diagnostic codes, and 1 on a combination of the two. The different groupings of the syndromic data resulting from these methods were used to build different historical models that were then tested for forecasting accuracy and for sensitivity to detecting simulated outbreaks. RESULTS: For both hospitals, the data grouped according to chief complaints alone yielded the lowest model accuracy and the lowest detection sensitivity. Using diagnostic codes to group the data yielded better results in accuracy and sensitivity. Combining the 2 grouping methods yielded the best results in accuracy and sensitivity. Temporal smoothing of the data was shown to improve sensitivity in all cases, although to various degrees in the different models. CONCLUSION: The methods used to group input data into syndromic categories can have substantial effects on the overall performance of syndromic surveillance systems. The results suggest that incorporating diagnostic data into these systems can improve the modeling accuracy and its detection sensitivity. Furthermore, the best results may be achieved by using a combination of methods to group visits into syndromic categories.

Bioterrorism↗
PubMed2006

Effect of gender and visit length on participation in pediatric visits.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of child, physician and parent genders as well as visit length on participation. METHODS: We analyzed videotapes and sociodemographics from 100 pediatric visits. Using the Roter Interaction Analysis System, coded utterances were aggregated to reflect key visit tasks: information giving, information gathering and relationship building. Negative binomial models were used to analyze how participation was associated with participants' genders and visit length. RESULTS: After adjustment, girls did twice as much relationship building as boys (incidence rate ratio = 2.33, 95% confidence interval = 1.01-5.36) and their physicians did 34% more information gathering (1.34, 1.16-1.55). Female physicians did 29% less information giving (0.71, 0.54-0.94). Having the father accompany the child reduced child relationship building 76% (0.24, 0.08-0.69) and reduced physician information giving 14% (0.86, 0.75-0.995), compared to having mother accompany. After adjusting for participants' genders, longer visits were associated with more participation for all participants. CONCLUSION: Child participation was impacted by child gender and by the accompanying parent's gender as well as the visit length. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Because gender-based patterns of participation are evident in childhood, interventions to facilitate participation might begin early in life. To improve participation, interventions might include advocating for policies to support longer visit lengths.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Role of advanced 2 and 3-dimensional ultrasound for detecting prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: We explored the clinical usefulness of spectrum analysis and neural networks for classifying prostate tissue and identifying prostate cancer in patients undergoing transrectal ultrasound for diagnostic or therapeutic reasons. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data on a cohort of 215 patients who underwent transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsies at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York were included in this study. Radio frequency data necessary for 2 and 3-dimensional (D) computer reconstruction of the prostate were digitally recorded at transrectal ultrasound and prostate biopsy. The data were spectrally processed and 2-D tissue typing images were generated based on a pre-trained neural network classification. We used manually masked 2-D tissue images as building blocks for generating 3-D tissue images and the images were tissue type color coded using custom software. Radio frequency data on the study cohort were analyzed for cancer probability using the data set pre-trained by neural network methods and compared with conventional B-mode imaging. ROC curves were generated for the 2 methods using biopsy results as the gold standard. RESULTS: The mean area under the ROC curve plus or minus SEM for detecting prostate cancer for the conventional B-mode and neural network methods was 0.66 +/- 0.03 and 0.80 +/- 0.05, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity for detecting prostate cancer by the neural network method were significantly increased compared with conventional B-mode imaging. In addition, the 2 and 3-D prostate images provided excellent visual identification of areas with a higher likelihood of cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Spectrum analysis could significantly improve the detection and evaluation of prostate cancer. Routine real-time application of spectrum analysis may significantly decrease the number of false-negative biopsies and improve the detection of prostate cancer at transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy. It may also provide improved identification of prostate cancer foci during therapeutic intervention, such as brachytherapy, external beam radiotherapy or cryotherapy. In addition, 2 and 3-D images with prostate cancer foci specifically identified can help surgical planning and may in the distant future be an additional reliable noninvasive method of selecting patients for prostate biopsy.

Area Under Curve↗
PubMed2001

The psychological construction of the Internet: from information foraging to social gathering to cultural mediation.

Psychological models influence both design and use of the Internet. Three models are considered. The first, cognitive, builds the Internet as an environment in which information foraging occurs. This model considers information seeking as an active process, but does take account of cooperation and communication. The second model, social, builds the Internet as a space for people's coming together and communicating. It makes sense of much of what is at present passing in the Internet, but focuses almost exclusively on the interpersonal aspects of electronic communication. The third model, cultural, builds the Internet as a powerful new artifact that requires the formation of appropriate cultural codes to be integrated smoothly with people's everyday experience.

Cognition↗
PubMed1977

Family therapy: using a transactional approach.

The family can be viewed as a natural group which includes a mutual influence phenomenon. Intervention follows relationship building and assessment and is geared towards helping the family members challenge and change dysfunctional coding, decoding and structural transactions which inhibit the family group from meeting its idividual psychological needs.

Family Therapy↗
PubMed1993

Generation and screening of an oligonucleotide-encoded synthetic peptide library.

We have prepared a library of approximately 10(6) different peptide sequences on small, spherical (10-microns diameter) beads by the combinatorial chemical coupling of both L- and D-amino acid building blocks. To each bead is covalently attached many copies of a single peptide sequence and, additionally, copies of a unique single-stranded oligonucleotide that codes for that peptide sequence. The oligonucleotide tags are synthesized through a parallel combinatorial procedure that effectively records the process by which the encoded peptide sequence is assembled. The collection of beads was screened for binding to a fluorescently labeled anti-peptide antibody using a fluorescence-activated cell sorting instrument. Those beads to which the antibody bound tightly were isolated by fluorescence-activated sorting, and the oligonucleotide identifiers attached to individual sorted beads were amplified by the PCR. Sequences of the amplified DNAs were determined to reveal the identity of peptide sequences that bound to the antibody with high affinity. By combining the capacity for information storage in an oligonucleotide code with the tremendous level of amplification possible through the PCR, we have devised a means for specifying the identity of each member of a vast library of molecules synthesized from both natural and unnatural chemical building blocks. In addition, we have shown that the use of flow cytometry instrumentation permits facile isolation of individual beads that bear high-affinity ligands for biological receptors.

Amino Acid Sequence↗