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At least 685 records · Page 38Linked to original sources
PubMed1998

Indicators of human health in ecosystems: what do we measure?

Increasingly, scientists are being called upon to assist in the development of indicators for monitoring ecosystem health. For human health indicators, they may draw on environmental exposure, human morbidity/mortality or well-being and sustainability approaches. To improve the rigour of indicators, we propose six scientific criteria for indicator selection: (1) data availability, suitability and representativeness (of populations), (2) indicator validity (face, construct, predictive and convergent) and reliability; (3) indicator responsiveness to change; (4) indicator desegregation capability (across personal and community characteristics); (5) indicator comparability (across populations and jurisdictions); and (6) indicator representativeness (across important dimensions of concern). We comment on our current capacity to adhere to such criteria with examples of measures of environmental exposure, human health and sustainability. We recognize the considerable work still required on documenting environment-human health relationships and on monitoring potential indicators in similar ways over time. Yet we argue that such work is essential in order for science to inform policy decisions which affect the health of ecosystems and human health.

Biomarkers↗
PubMed2003

Information and communication technology in cardiovascular disease prevention in developing countries: hype and hope. Report of the International Collaboration on Information Use in Cardiovascular Health Promotion in Developing Countries.

Information can be an important tool in promoting a prevention strategy to address the emerging epidemic of cardiovascular disease in developing countries. Advances in information and communication technology offer new promises for global access to information and for global mobilization to prevent and control cardiovascular disease. This is especially true for health professionals, whose needs in areas such as networking, exchange of expertise and access to relevant advances remain unfulfilled. Information technology can also sensitize the lay public to the magnitude of cardiovascular diseases, creating awareness about risk states, and highlighting preventive strategies. Effective application mandates that the technology be relevant to local needs. Cost, feasibility, and relevance of information need to be considered before wide adoption is advocated. Several initiatives, such as ProCOR, Global Cardiovascular Infobase, Heartfile, and the Virtual Congress of Cardiology, have successfully utilized information technology to promote cardiovascular prevention. The experience of these initiatives suggests that, while information technology holds great potential, there are many potential perils, such as the widening global information gap, inequitable access, and irrelevant information. For now, information technology must be viewed as part of a broader strategy, which includes conventional communication media, to address the unmet information needs for cardiovascular prevention globally. Enlightened policies can exploit the energies of the recent information boom for promoting cardiovascular prevention, taking into account the considered limitations.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗
PubMed1998

Quantifying characteristics of information-technology applications based on expert knowledge for detection of oestrus and mastitis in dairy cows.

Expert opinions were elicited about the characteristics at the commercial-farm level of on-line information technology (IT) applications that are able to detect oestrus and mastitis in dairy cows. Since actual data of these characteristics are not available, judgmental data provided an alternative means to interpret the implications of research results for commercial farms. Applications included were activity measurement, milk-production measurement, electrical conductivity of quarter milk, automated concentrate feeders and milk-temperature measurement. Sensitivity and specificity of detection of oestrus (OD), clinical-mastitis (CMD) and subclinical-mastitis (SCMD) were ascertained. Conjoint-analysis was used to assess the effect of each application indirectly by decomposing the evaluated overall detection characteristics of a predefined number of IT combinations. The individual experts were consistent in evaluating the alternatives, but there was variation in estimates among experts. Estimations of the main effects of the applications and important first-order interactions were incorporated into the detection models. Implementation of all applications under study resulted in overall sensitivities and specificities of 82% and 90%, 73% and 87%, 58% and 82% for OD, CMD and SCMD, respectively. Further research is necessary that should take into account costs and benefits of the different detection systems based on the current status of farm performance (e.g. OD and mastitis incidence) and farm structure (e.g. farm size, years in operation of the milking parlour and parlour layout). Research to do this is currently in progress.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Information literacy: a resource for nurses as lifelong learners.

The use of information technologies throughout the world continues to increase rapidly and inexorably. Information exchange is rapidly becoming a major economic commodity. The short half-life of professional and technical knowledge necessitates nursing graduates having generic qualities that will enable them to adapt to technical change and cope with an 'information overabundant environment'. Today's nurses must have the capacity to access information, both physically and intellectually; that is, they must be information-literate. Nurses need to be discerning information consumers in order to acquire knowledge and skills in relation to their jobs and social roles and as participants of a democratic society. This paper examines information literacy as a critical resource for nurses as lifelong learners, and explores how information literacy is situated in the nursing literature. The authors pose two questions. Firstly, just how information-literate and aware of information literacy is the nursing profession? Secondly, how can the attitudes, skills and knowledge associated with information literacy be fostered, cultivated and attained in nursing education?

Computer Communication Networks↗
PubMed1998

Dynamics of time and information in dynamic time.

Time is intrinsically locally asynchronous, dynamic in itself, and self-organizing in having locally asynchronous time precipitate further asynchronous time while leaving behind globally synchronous time. The resulting global synchronism is skewed in locally asynchronous time, while being vertical to the effected globally synchronous time. Information is a dynamic attribute of time and can be represented as a skewed synchronism in locally asynchronous time. Information originates in the communication among asynchronous times of a local character.

Information Science↗
PubMed1998

Exaptation and torsion: toward a theory of natural information processing.

Several conundrums are provoked by attempts to provide algorithmic descriptions of natural phenomena. A characteristic feature of natural computation is a breakdown in the formal simulation relation. This is called hermeneutic torsion, and is formally the failure to commute of a diagram describing homomorphisms between dynamical systems. This torsion is a source of computational power. For example, it is deeply involved with phenomena such as exaptation, wherein an existing structure is recruited for a novel function. Exaptation occurs continually at the macromolecular level and is fundamentally nonalgorithmic; our system-theoretic models of computation deal with structural descriptions for which a functional semantics must be assigned in advance, and a natural system continually 'diagonalizes out' of this semantics. This perspective clarifies the nature of computing power and encourages consideration of a new kind of transcomputational complexity.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1998

An information typology for understanding living systems.

It is argued that we can improve our understanding of living systems by focusing on their informational processes. Recent developments, primarily in evolutionary biology, cybernetics and systems theory, suggest that informational processes are of at least two, and probably three, different types; and that the interaction of these types can be seen as a basis for the self-construction of living systems. Following the work of Csanyi and Kampis, a distinction is drawn between referential and nonreferential information. This typology is further extended to include statereferential information. The statereferential type serves to lend stability to informational arrangements (organization) that are viable so that they may be propagated in space and time.

Information Science↗
PubMed1998

Time, reflectivity and information processing in living systems: a sketch for the unified information paradigm in biology.

The recognition activity of biomacromolecules based on quantum non-demolition measurements is regarded as the basis of information processing. Reflective arrows in the set of mappings appearing from quantum measurements correspond to the Gödel numbers created inside a system overcoming its incompleteness. Temporal evolution is a consequence of contradictory statements about the whole system in which a reflective arrow is both an element of the system and its signification. It results from the solution of a paradox in which the system generates new descriptions non-deducible from its previous states. The active combinatorial process of self modification of information, being an internalized language game, allows a system to create Gödel numbers. The whole system is constructed according to percolating coherent events, providing 'vertical' self-assembly that is predetermined by the encoding and internal language games.

Biology↗
PubMed1998

The Feigenbaum scenario as a model of the limits of conscious information processing.

The Feigenbaum scenario of the mathematical period doubling sequence from order to deterministic chaos has led to new insights about the nonlinear dynamics of a wide variety of physical and biological systems. Multiple realms from purely mechanical systems, fluid dynamics and weather to the patterns of biological growth and the dynamic of the heart, hormone and brain rhythms have been found to exhibit aspects of the Feigenbaum period doubling sequence. We explore the possibility that the Feigenbaum scenario can be extended to experiences of sensation, perception and human cognition as well. We also review the empirical data that supports the view that the Feigenbaum scenario of the period doubling sequence may portray an important limit in conscious information processing. We conclude that a major function of consciousness may be to transform the nonlinear, irrational and difficult to predict dynamics of unconscious nature into the more linear, rational and predictable psychodynamics that make human experience and social life possible.

Cognition↗
PubMed1998

Dynamics and information processing in adaptive systems.

An adaptive system is capable of functioning despite some degree of environmental uncertainty. This requires an ability to identify relevant states of the environment, to adjust the value of internal variables so as to maintain a characteristic pattern of activity and, of course, to respond appropriately to environmental stimuli. Biological systems have responded to this challenge by developing information processing systems that are highly compatible with their functions. In this paper we analyze the relationship between dynamics and information processing in biological systems and refer to basic principles of biological information processing. An important trend that can be observed is that the specialization of information processing functions increases with the complexity of the environment faced by the systems. At the level of human populations, man-made organizations in particular, our study suggests that the design of computer-based information systems must be sensitive to the existing biological infrastructure if they are to effectively extend the cognitive and computational capabilities of organizations.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1998

Soft mathematics and information dynamics.

We present a brief overview of a new framework for interdisciplinary collaboration toward understanding the fundamentals of information dynamics in social systems. The need for a new mathematics is noted, and a promising component, soft mathematics, is described.

Information Science↗
PubMed1998

Cybersemiotics: a transdisciplinary framework for information studies.

This paper summarizes recent attempts by this author to create a transdisciplinary, non-Cartesian and non-reductionistic framework for information studies in natural, social, and technological systems. To confront, in a scientific way, the problems of modern information technology where phenomenological man is dealing with socially constructed texts in algorithmically based digital bit-machines we need a theoretical framework spanning from physics over biology and technological design to phenomenological and social production of signification and meaning. I am working with such pragmatic theories as second order cybernetics (coupled with autopolesis theory), Lakoffs biologically oriented cognitive semantics, Peirce's triadic semiotics, and Wittgenstein's pragmatic language game theory. A coherent synthesis of these theories is what the cybersemiotic framework attempts to accomplish.

Cybernetics↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Computation with the KEGG pathway database.

We introduce and discuss a new computational approach towards prediction and inference of biological functions from genomic sequences by making use of the pathway data in KEGG. Due to its piecewise nature, the current approach of predicting each gene function based on sequence similarity searches often fails to reconstruct cellular functions with all necessary components. The pathway diagram in KEGG, which may be considered a wiring diagram of molecules in biological systems, can be utilised as a reference for functional reconstruction. KEGG also contains binary relations that represent molecular interactions and relations and that can be utilised for computing and comparing pathways.

Database Management Systems↗
PubMedDate not supplied

On representation of metabolic pathways.

Problems involved in representation of metabolism are dealt with. The specific characteristics of the various ways (verbal, graphical and by electronic means), their advantages and limitations are discussed. New developments in research pose challenges for adequate and clear demonstration of results. Comments on nomenclature and on style are included.

Information Science↗