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[Gene therapy for malignant glioma].

Life sciences and computer technologies have begun to create new medical fields such as pharmacogenomics, nutrinogenomics, and genetic medicines (genetic diagnosis and gene therapy). In gene therapies for malignant brain tumors, suicide gene therapies using herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase gene and ganciclovir, and immuno-gene therapies using cytokine genes have been developed. Recently, we made a gene therapy protocol of our own, which used cationic multilamellar liposomes entrapped with interferon-beta (IFN-beta) gene as a vector and we started clinical trial of IFN-beta gene therapy for patients with malignant glioma in April 2000. Until now, five patients received the treatment and then they are under evaluation on safety and usefulness. Here the authors introduce present and prospect of gene therapy for malignant brain tumors.

Brain Neoplasms↗

New media in medical education.

In 1984 the American Association of Medical Colleges' Panel on the General Professional Education of the Physician challenged the medical community to take a leadership position in the effective application of information science and computer technology to medical education. The medical education community has risen to that challenge through the use of microcomputer technology and optical disc media including the recently developed fully integrated Hypermedia environment to enhance the learning environment.

Audiovisual Aids↗

Chronobiology, growth hormone and healthy and malignant growth.

Chronobiology, the computer-aided science (logos) of life (bios) in time (chronos), provides novel concepts, tools and facts for those concerned with mitosis, growth and growth hormone (GH). GH concentrations in human plasma demonstrate a statistically significant circadian rhythm on a 6h as well as on a 24h rest-activity cycle. On a 24h routine of light (L) and darkness (D), alternating at 12h intervals, and in continuous D, circadian mitotic rhythms in mice persist as a feature of growth or regeneration. A circadian cell cycle commences with an increase in phospholipid labeling, followed by an increase in cytoplasmic RNA formation, preceding, in regular sequences, an increase in nuclear DNA formation and the next mitotic peak in those cells that are dividing in a growing or regenerating (reversibly "post-mitotic') rodent liver. About 5-day (presumably estral) and about 7-day (circaseptan) components as well as circadians are resolved as a spectrum of mitotic rhythms in rodent cornea. The effects of hormones such as GH or a synthetic ACTH analogue, ACTH 1-17, depend upon the circadian cell cycle stages when the agent is administered. No effect or statistically significant effect can be the result only of 1) the timing of a fixed dose of GH or 2) of the timing of the samples taken to investigate any effect. For both the timing of administration and the assessment of effects, a multifrequency spectrum of rhythms, if taken into account, can provide (in lieu of a considerable and often formidable source of variation) a new critical dimension of growth and development.

Adolescent↗

A database for evaluating the toxicological risk of pesticides.

This study of Overtox-DB, a computerized database for managing chemical toxicity data, is a product of the application of typical methodologies regarding information science and computer technology. The methodology applied can be reduced to three-basic elements: the collection of requirements, design, and achievement. Overtox-DB was developed by defining technological elements for managing data and its structure and by identifing the procedures and methodologies for data storage, retrieval, distribution, and standardization of many kinds of test data stored in the same format. The program stores data about chemical identification, physical and chemical properties, toxicological tests, mutagenicity, teratogenicity, carcinogenicity, and a bibliography of chemical compounds. Overtox-DB consists of five modules: experimental and bibliographic, data collection, molecular data collection, data search, and data report. The Overtox-DB user responds to a simplified set of query commands and boolean operators that interact with the system to retrieve different toxicological data (the majority of fields are defined as search fields and identify the test system, results of the assays, administration route, dose, etc.). The collected information provides an analytical characterization of biological activities for many compounds and identifies evidence possibly lacking in experimental approaches. Indeed, this database could permit a comparative evaluation with other substances and can be used for structure-activity relationship studies.

Database Management Systems↗

On the design of computer-based models for integrated environmental science.

The current research agenda in environmental science is dominated by calls to integrate science and policy to better understand and manage links between social (human) and natural (nonhuman) processes. Freshwater resource management is one area where such calls can be heard. Designing computer-based models for integrated environmental science poses special challenges to the research community. At present it is not clear whether such tools, or their outputs, receive much practical policy or planning application. It is argued that this is a result of (1) a lack of appreciation within the research modeling community of the characteristics of different decision-making processes including policy, planning, and (2) participation, (3) a lack of appreciation of the characteristics of different decision-making contexts, (4) the technical difficulties in implementing the necessary support tool functionality, and (5) the socio-technical demands of designing tools to be of practical use. This article presents a critical synthesis of ideas from each of these areas and interprets them in terms of design requirements for computer-based models being developed to provide scientific information support for policy and planning. Illustrative examples are given from the field of freshwater resources management. Although computer-based diagramming and modeling tools can facilitate processes of dialogue, they lack adequate simulation capabilities. Component-based models and modeling frameworks provide such functionality and may be suited to supporting problematic or messy decision contexts. However, significant technical (implementation) and socio-technical (use) challenges need to be addressed before such ambition can be realized.

Computer Simulation↗

A methodology for web-enabling a computer-based patient record with contributions from cognitive science.

Cognitive science is a rich source of insight for creative use of new Web technologies by medical informatics workers. I outline a project to Web-enable an existing computer-based patient record (CPR) in the context of ideas from philosophy, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive psychology. Web prototypes play an important role (a) because Web technology lends itself to rapid prototype development, and (b) because prototypes help team members bridge among disparate medical, computing, and business ontologies. Six Web-enabled CPR prototypes were created and ranked. User scenarios were generated using a user communication matrix. Resulting prototypes were compared according to the degree to which they satisfied medical, computing, and business constraints. In a different organization, or at different time, candidate prototypes and their ranking might have been different. However, prototype generation and comparison are fundamentally influenced by factors usefully understood in a cognitive science framework.

Cognitive Science↗

Computers in the Faculty of Health Science--5 years on.

In 1989, the Faculty of Health Science at Central Queensland University (CQU) committed itself to a major instructional development project for its nursing education program. Partially supported by a National Priority (Reserve) Fund (NPRF) grant, the Faculty undertook a multi-year project to develop computer-based learning materials. The success of that project was mixed. However, by 1993 staff and students within the Faculty were using computers regularly, many of the staff were involved in developing computer-based instructional materials, and some staff were using available computer-based tools to extend the scope of the standard Health Science materials developed under the project. As well, the Faculty was committed to using Faculty funds for technical support staff to maintain its computer infrastructure and to assist both staff and students in using that infrastructure. The authors review the original NPRF project, then explore the Faculty's continued development and use of computer-based learning materials through an examination of student and staff evaluations, personal recollections, and subsequent projects. This paper demonstrates that the NPRF project spawned a number of other computer-based developments, including the offering of health informatics degree programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, the development of the Faculty's current Internet site and a CD-ROM based interactive multimedia project for diabetes education. It also demonstrates that moderate levels of funding can maintain a computer-literate Faculty which views computers as essential tools for learning.

Australia↗

Computer-assisted instruction in a health sciences library: an experimental project.

The Leon S. McGoogan Library of Medicine at the University of Nebraska received a grant from the University of Nebraska Computer Network to study management aspects of providing computer-assisted instruction (CAI) resources. The library wished to determine: (1) faculty and student receptiveness to CAI as a library resource and (2) user response to CAI library services. A user questionnaire was designed to ascertain the appropriateness of initial management decisions regarding CAI access. The methodology employed in implementing this pilot project, the results of the questionnaire, and the future of CAI at the University of Nebraska are addressed in this paper.

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗

Mediated computer search services relative to instruction services: a survey of one health sciences library.

To assess the quality and usefulness of one health sciences library's mediated computer search service, a survey was undertaken to determine satisfaction rates, why users do or do not use the service, and how useful the service is perceived to be in comparison to instructional service. Satisfaction rates were high, with users indicating librarian expertise and time/cost savings as the main reasons for using the service. Non-users indicated that they preferred to do their own searching, and many were unaware of the service. Though a majority of respondents do not currently use the service, surprisingly a majority of respondents placed significant value on the mediated search service in relation to instruction.

Attitude to Computers↗

Securing the future of nutritional sciences through integrative graduate education.

The new millennium has ushered in unprecedented opportunities for research and discovery in the nutritional sciences. These have arisen from major advancements in the social and biological sciences, notably genetics, genomic technologies, computational statistics, and behavioral sciences. The most exciting academic challenges and employment opportunities for nutritional sciences graduates interface with other disciplines, and doctoral training programs in the nutritional sciences must respond to the wealth of these emerging opportunities. The American Society for Nutritional Sciences (ASNS) Graduate Nutrition Education Committee suggests that three major challenges face the nutritional sciences: (a) to train doctoral students to be full and active participants in interdisciplinary research and discovery, and (b) to achieve this goal while maintaining nutrition's unique academic identity and (c) fostering a cohesive academic community. The committee proposes that these objectives are best engaged at the level of graduate education and that the future of ASNS will be secured by strengthening graduate nutrition programs. This manuscript reviews educational strategies that address these challenges and advocates that ASNS actively engage graduate doctoral programs in nutritional sciences.

Education, Graduate↗

First-principles quantum chemistry in the life sciences.

The area of computational quantum chemistry, which applies the principles of quantum mechanics to molecular and condensed systems, has developed drastically over the last decades, due to both increased computer power and the efficient implementation of quantum chemical methods in readily available computer programs. Because of this, accurate computational techniques can now be applied to much larger systems than before, bringing the area of biochemistry within the scope of electronic-structure quantum chemical methods. The rapid pace of progress of quantum chemistry makes it a very exciting research field; calculations that are too computationally expensive today may be feasible in a few months' time! This article reviews the current application of 'first-principles' quantum chemistry in biochemical and life sciences research, and discusses its future potential. The current capability of first-principles quantum chemistry is illustrated in a brief examination of computational studies on neurotransmitters, helical peptides, and DNA complexes.

Biochemistry↗

Data Grids: a new computational infrastructure for data-intensive science.

Twenty-first-century scientific and engineering enterprises are increasingly characterized by their geographic dispersion and their reliance on large data archives. These characteristics bring with them unique challenges. First, the increasing size and complexity of modern data collections require significant investments in information technologies to store, retrieve and analyse them. Second, the increased distribution of people and resources in these projects has made resource sharing and collaboration across significant geographic and organizational boundaries critical to their success. In this paper I explore how computing infrastructures based on Data Grids offer data-intensive enterprises a comprehensive, scalable framework for collaboration and resource sharing. A detailed example of a Data Grid framework is presented for a Large Hadron Collider experiment, where a hierarchical set of laboratory and university resources comprising petaflops of processing power and a multi-petabyte data archive must be efficiently used by a global collaboration. The experience gained with these new information systems, providing transparent managed access to massive distributed data collections, will be applicable to large-scale, data-intensive problems in a wide spectrum of scientific and engineering disciplines, and eventually in industry and commerce. Such systems will be needed in the coming decades as a central element of our information-based society.

Computer Communication Networks↗

An open system network for the biological sciences.

A description of an open system, distributed computing environment for the Biological Sciences is presented. This system utilizes a transparent interface in a computer network using NCS to implement an application system for molecular biologists to perform various processing activities from their local workstation. This system accepts requests for the services of a remote database server, located across the network, to perform all of the database searches needed to support the activities of the user. This database access is totally transparent to the user of the system and it appears, to the user, that all activities are being carried out on the local workstation. This system is a prototype for a much more extensive system being built to support the research efforts in the Biological Sciences at UMC.

Biological Science Disciplines↗