Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Technology Transfer”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,099 records · Page 61Linked to original sources
PubMed2003

Visualization of the spatial and temporal dynamics of intracellular signaling.

In recent years, our ability to unravel the finer details of intracellular signaling has improved remarkably. Technological innovations resulting from the introduction of green fluorescent protein (GFP) have played a significant role in these advances. Fluorescent indicators allow us to visualize events within a cell in real-time and space. This review focuses on indicators that use GFP-based fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) technologies and discusses how these methodologies have given insights into biological questions relating to the spatiotemporal patterns of signaling by cAMP, calcium, receptor tyrosine kinases, and other molecules.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Propagation of an infertile hermaphrodite mouse lacking germ cells by using nuclear transfer and embryonic stem cell technology.

Animals generated by systematic mutagenesis and routine breeding are often infertile because they lack germ cells, and maintenance of such lines of animals has been impossible. We found a hermaphrodite infertile mouse in our colony, a genetic male with an abnormal Y chromosome lacking developing germ cells. We tried to clone this mouse by conventional nuclear transfer but without success. ES cells produced from blastocysts, which had been cloned by using somatic cell nuclear transfer (ntES cells) from this mouse, were also unable to produce offspring when injected into enucleated oocytes. Although we were able to produce two chimeric offspring using these ntES cells by tetraploid complementation, they were infertile, because they also lacked developing germ cells. However, when such ntES cells were injected into normal diploid blastocysts, many chimeric offspring were produced. One such male offspring transmitted hermaphrodite mouse genes to fertile daughters via X chromosome-bearing sperm. Thus, ntES cells were used to propagate offspring from infertile mice lacking germ cells.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Gene transfer and expression in plants.

Until recently, agriculture and plant breeding relied solely on the accumulated experience of generations of farmers and breeders that is, on sexual transfer of genes between plant species. However, recent developments in plant molecular biology and genomics now give us access to knowledge and understanding of plant genomes and the possibility of modifying them. This chapter presents an updated overview of the two most powerful technologies for transferring genetic material (DNA) into plants: Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and microparticle bombardment (biolistics). Some of the topics that are discussed in detail are the main variables controlling the transformation efficiency that can be achieved using each one of these approaches; the advantages and limitations of each methodology; transient versus stable transformation approaches; the potential of some in planta transformation systems; alternatives to developing transgenic plants without selection markers; the availability of diverse genetic tools generated as part of the genome sequencing of different plant species; transgene expression, gene silencing, and their association with regulatory elements; and prospects and ways to possibly overcome some transgene expression difficulties, in particular the use of matrix-attachment regions (MARs).

Biolistics↗
PubMed2005

[Transfer of research findings into the practice of rehabilitation and effects on the development and stabilization of the infrastructure of rehabilitation sciences--the pension insurance perspective].

The programme for research in rehabilitation has been established by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Pension Insurance scheme in 1998 to further develop the methodology in this field. In addition to other effects, the large number of projects has strengthened the research structure in Germany. An important aim of the programme is the transfer of the research findings into the practice of rehabilitation. The initiators also organize this transformation process in terms of a long-term task. The paper describes the transfer of findings in the topics selected by the Pension Insurance scheme: patient education, access to rehabilitation, and vocational orientation in medical rehabilitation. Furthermore, additional activities concerning the transfer are outlined. To improve the practice of rehabilitation by transferring research findings is of great importance for the Pension Insurance scheme.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2001

The power distance between users of information technology and experts and satisfaction with the information system: implication for cross cultural transfer of IT.

There is a need for research into Information Technology (IT) transfer from one culture to another. Two of the more important cultural factors which affects IT transfer are power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The IT expert, by virtue of specialized knowledge is in a position of power. The user of information technology may or may not accept the authority of the IT professional. When the user and the expert is in agreement on the issue of power-distance the IT systems provided will be viewed in a more positive light. This hypothesis is tested and confirmed in the present study. A list of twelve statements expressing special IT knowledge and authority was constructed and a sample of IT experts and users were asked to rate their level of agreement with these on a scale 0 to 5. The simple sum of respondent rating was used as a measure of acceptance of IT authority and power. Users were also asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the progress of a new Hospital Information System been implemented. The IT acceptance score of users who were satisfied with implementation progress did not differ from IT personnel but differed significantly from users who were not satisfied with progress. This study has implications for cross culture transfer of IT.

Attitude to Computers↗
PubMed1999

Cancer chemotherapy, biodiversity, public and private property: the case of the anti-cancer drug taxol.

The drug taxol has been hailed by many in the cancer community as a major breakthrough in the treatment of cancer. It has already been approved in use against ovarian and advanced breast cancer in many countries worldwide. Taxol has also promoted profound debates in the policy arena not, as one might expect, because of the characteristics or purposes of the drug itself, but because of other far-reaching effects. Taxol is a complex compound found in the bark of the Pacific yew tree, primarily in Oregon and Washington in the USA. The bark was first collected in 1962 and cytotoxicity demonstrated in 1964. Yet it was not until 1989 that the first results of clinical trials were reported. In the US taxol was then rushed through the Food and Drug Administration's regulatory procedures, approval being granted for use in refractory ovarian cancer in 1992. The controversies surrounding taxol surfaced in 1989 and grew substantially over the next few years. In this paper we examine two principal controversies concerning taxol, the first of which focused on apparent conflicts between the needs of environmental protection and those of cancer chemotherapy. Although the media portrayed this as a clash of interests between the environment and people with cancer, we argue that it was an attempt to increase lay participation in biomedical decision making and policy formulation. The second controversy was between health policy and the transfer of public scientific property to the corporate sector. The pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb was given exclusive rights to provide taxol from Pacific yew trees under a Co-operative Research and Development Agreement signed in 1991. While this was seen to be in the US Government's (as well as the company's) interest, it provoked a public reaction questioning the terms and consequences of the transfer of publicly generated scientific knowledge to the private sector.

Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic↗
PubMed2003

Molecular logic circuits.

Miniaturization has been an essential ingredient in the outstanding progress of information technology over the past fifty years. The next, perhaps ultimate, limit of miniaturization is that of molecules, which are the smallest entities with definite size, shape, and properties. Recently, great effort has been devoted to design and investigate molecular-level systems that are capable of transferring, processing, and storing information in binary form. Some of these nanoscale devices can, in fact, perform logic operations of remarkable complexity. This research--although far from being transferred into technology--is attracting interest, as the nanometer realm seems to be out of reach for the "top-down" techniques currently available to microelectronics industry. Moreover, such studies introduce new concepts in the "old" field of chemistry and stimulate the ingenuity of researchers engaged in the "bottom-up" approach to nanotechnology.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Effects of Command and Control Vehicle (C2V) operational environment on soldier health and performance.

The purpose of this project was to use NASA technology to assist the US Army in the assessment of motion sickness incidences and effects on soldier performance and mood states within the Command and Control Vehicle (C2V). Specific objectives were (1) to determine if there was a significant difference between three internal configurations of the C2V and/or between seats within these vehicles; (2) to determine if there was a significant difference between the park, move, or short-halt field conditions; and (3) to validate a method of converging indicators developed by NASA to assess environmental impact of long duration spaceflight on crewmembers, using a large sample of subjects under ground-based operational conditions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Electric pulse-mediated gene delivery to various animal tissues.

Electroporation designates the use of electric pulses to transiently permeabilize the cell membrane. It has been shown that DNA can be transferred to cells through a combined effect of electric pulses causing (1) permeabilization of the cell membrane and (2) an electrophoretic effect on DNA, leading the polyanionic molecule to move toward or across the destabilized membrane. This process is now referred to as DNA electrotransfer or electro gene transfer (EGT). Several studies have shown that EGT can be highly efficient, with low variability both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the area transfected is restricted by the placement of the electrodes, and is thus highly controllable. This has led to an increasing use of the technology to transfer reporter or therapeutic genes to various tissues, as evidenced from the large amount of data accumulated on this new approach for non-viral gene therapy, termed electrogenetherapy (EGT as well). By transfecting cells with a long lifetime, such as muscle fibers, a very long-term expression of genes can be obtained. A great variety of tissues have been transfected successfully, from muscle as the most extensively used, to both soft (e.g., spleen) and hard tissue (e.g., cartilage). It has been shown that therapeutic levels of systemically circulating proteins can be obtained, opening possibilities for using EGT therapeutically. This chapter describes the various aspects of in vivo gene delivery by means of electric pulses, from important issues in methodology to updated results concerning the electrotransfer of reporter and therapeutic genes to different tissues.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Knowledge-based systems in medicine--a Nordic research and development programme.

A Nordic research and development programme, 'KBS in Medicine' (KUSIN-MEDICINE), was run in 1986-89. Its main goal was to acquire an understanding of applying knowledge-based techniques in medicine and of the limitations of present-day artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies. The programme comprised four experimental installation sites (Tampere in Finland, Uppsala and Linköping in Sweden, and Aalborg in Denmark) each prototyping in one or more medical domains. The programme was financed by the Nordic Fund for Technological and Industrial Development, by national funds for applied research and by a number of industries. Prototype decision support systems were produced in the following domains: intensive care (Tampere, Uppsala, Linköping, Aalborg), clinical chemistry (Tampere, Uppsala) and clinical neurophysiology (Aalborg in collaboration with Turku and Uppsala). These served to transfer this technology to industry and helped to identify limitations of this technology.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMed1990

Language and cognitive development: a systematic behavioral program and technology for increasing the language and cognitive skills of developmentally disabled and at-risk preschool children.

Behavioral research in teaching verbal behavior to language-delayed and developmentally disabled preschool children has progressed greatly during the past 30 years. It is now possible to produce improvements in the verbal behavior of language-delayed and developmentally disabled children that previously would have been considered impossible. Not only is it possible to teach language-delayed children a wide variety of individual elements and forms of speech, such as plurals, adjectives, syntax, and grammar, but it is also possible to achieve functional language in nonverbal children and produce total recovery in some autistic and functionally mentally retarded preschool children. The results of our research with the TALK Language Development Program provide techniques, procedures, and new directions to further advance the technology of verbal behavior. First, development of a standard procedure for the analysis, reinforcement, and recording of verbal behavior provides a precise and standard method for evaluating the effect of contingencies of reinforcement on verbal behavior. Second, the TALK program, by systematizing and operationalizing the process of shaping functional language, provides a program that is relatively easily learned by therapists, teachers, speech pathologists, and others. Third, the robustness and reliability of the TALK program, as demonstrated by replication across diagnostic groups, settings, and therapists, makes it an attractive program for use with a variety of developmentally disabled children. Fourth, the identification of specific parent-child reinforcement paradigms that appear to be functionally related to language delay may facilitate research in the prevention of language delay. Finally, our research with functionally retarded children and normal infants has led to the development of a behavioral strategy and technology for the prevention of and total recovery from some cases of language delay and functional mental retardation. At least two important opportunities now exist for making a substantial social impact through the technology of verbal behavior. First, the passage of Public Law 99-457 has created a major need for effective language programs that can be used by public school teachers of handicapped preschool children. The need will increase as more programs for the birth to 3 population are mandated. This presents a major opportunity for transferring the technology of verbal behavior to other professionals who are in daily contact with young handicapped preschool children, such as teachers, speech pathologists, pediatricians, and social workers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed2005

A comparability study of the emerging protein array platforms with established ELISA procedures.

Recent developments in microarray technology have made it possible to perform immunoassays in a multiplexed format. This ability is highly desirable given the potential for greater throughput analysis. In spite of the obvious advantages, a number of issues arise as a result of multiplexing the reactions. In this study, we have assessed the performance characteristics that are associated with the transfer of technology from a uniplexed to a multiplexed format. Two solution phase array platforms were chosen for this study: the commercially available Luminex(100) xMap system (Austin, Texas, USA) and the UltraPlex technology devised by SmartBead Technologies Ltd. (Cambridge, UK). For this comparative study, a test for the presence of six autoantibodies in a selection of human patient serum samples was chosen as a model system. The multiplexed Luminex xMap and SmartBead UltraPlex assays were generally comparable. However, both systems generated some results that were at variance with those obtained by ELISA. The different methods used for the assignment of the cut-off levels for each of the assays within any given platform was identified as the major source of these non-concordant results. The present study demonstrates that array platforms have the potential to be used in immunodiagnostics providing that suitable cut-off levels are established.

Antibodies↗
PubMed2001

Insertional mutagenesis of the adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) capsid gene and generation of AAV2 vectors targeted to alternative cell-surface receptors.

Recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are of interest in the context of gene therapy because of their ability to mediate efficient transfer and stable expression of therapeutic genes in a wide variety of tissues. However, AAV-mediated gene delivery to specific cell populations is often precluded by the widespread distribution of heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG), the primary cellular receptor for the virus. Conversely, an increasing number of cell types are being identified that do not express HSPG and are therefore poor targets for AAV-mediated gene transfer. To address these issues, we have developed strategies to physically modify AAV vectors and allow efficient, HSPG-independent, receptor-targeted infection. We began by generating a series of 38 virus capsid mutants containing peptide insertions at 25 unique sites within the AAV capsid protein. The mutant viruses were characterized on the basis of their phenotypes and grouped into three classes: class I mutants (4 of 38) did not assemble particles; class II mutants (14 of 38) assembled noninfectious particles; and class III mutants (20 of 38) assembled fully infectious particles. We examined the HSPG-binding characteristics of the class II mutants and showed that a defect in receptor binding was a common reason for their lack of infectivity. The display of foreign peptide epitopes on the surface of the mutant AAV particles was found to be highly dependent on the inclusion of appropriate scaffolding sequences. Optimal scaffolding sequences and five preferred sites for the insertion of targeting peptide epitopes were identified. These sites are located within each of the three AAV capsid proteins, and thus display inserted epitopes 3, 6, or 60 times per vector particle. Modified AAV vectors displaying a 15-amino acid peptide, which binds to the human luteinizing hormone receptor (LH-R), were generated and assessed for their ability to target gene delivery to receptor-bearing cell lines. Titers of these mutant vectors were essentially the same as wild-type vector. The LH-R-targeted vector was able to transduce ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR-3) in an HSPG-independent manner. Furthermore, transduction was shown to proceed via the LH-R and therefore treatment of OVCAR-3 cells with progesterone, to increase LH-R expression, accordingly increased LH mutant-mediated gene transfer. This technology may have a significant impact on the use of AAV vectors for human gene therapy.

Binding Sites↗
PubMed1997

The study of natural disasters, 1977-1997: some reflection on a changing field of knowledge.

As part of a series of papers to mark the 21st year of publication of Disasters, it is opportune to consider some of the changes that have occurred in the field it has covered so diligently for the last two decades. The paper begins with a brief review of the major natural disasters during this period and assesses their impact. It then considers the problem of how to define two key concepts: natural disaster and vulnerability, which remains an open question. The latter is one of the key determinants of the former. Next comes a review of what has occurred in the disasters field since the journal began publication, including some notes on the rise in vulnerability, the information technology revolution and the dilemmas of hazard mitigation. The following two sections assess, respectively, what hoped-for developments did not occur during the period studied and what assets were lost in the name of progress. For example, on the theoretical front, academic over-specialisation has predominated, while on the practical side there has been insufficient transfer of technology to where it is needed. The paper concludes that analyses of disaster need to become more sophisticated and multi-disciplinary and must take account of several forms of context within which developments take place.

Disaster Planning↗