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At least 1,189 records · Page 66Linked to original sources
PubMed2006

A bibliometric analysis of global trends of research productivity in tropical medicine.

The field of tropical medicine has a long history due to the significance of the relevant diseases for the humanity. We estimated the contribution of different world regions to research published in the main journals of tropical medicine. Using the PubMed and the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) "Web of Science" databases, we retrieved articles from 12 journals included in the "Tropical Medicine" category of the "Journal Citation Reports" database of ISI for the period 1995-2003. Data on the country of origin of the research were available for 11,860 articles in PubMed (98.1% of all articles from the tropical medicine category). The contribution of different world regions during the studied period, as estimated by the location of the affiliation of the first author, was: Western Europe 22.7%, Africa 20.9%, Latin America and the Caribbean 20.7%, Asia (excluding Japan) 19.8%, USA 10.6%, Oceania 2.1%, Japan 1.5%, Eastern Europe 1.3%, and Canada 0.6%. The contribution of regions, estimated by the location of the affiliation of at least one author of the published papers (retrieved from the ISI database), was similar: Western Europe 36.6%, Africa 27.7%, Latin America and the Caribbean 24.4%, and Asia 23.3%. The mean impact factor of articles published in tropical medicine journals was highest for the USA (1.65). Our analysis suggests that the developing areas of the world produce a considerable amount of research in tropical medicine; however, given the specific geographic distribution of tropical diseases they probably still need help by the developed nations to produce more research in this field.

Bibliometrics↗
PubMed2006

Assessing prevention research impact: a bibliometric analysis.

BACKGROUND: This study was undertaken to explore a bibliometric approach to assessing the impact of selected prevention research center (PRC) peer-reviewed publications. METHODS: The 25 eligible PRCs were asked to submit 15 papers that they considered the most important to be published in the decade 1994-2004. Journal articles (n=227) were verified in 2004 and categorized: 73% were research reports, 10% discussion articles, 9% dissemination articles, and 7% review articles. RESULTS: Only 189 articles (83%) were searchable via the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science databases for citation tracking in 2004. These 189 articles were published in 76 distinct journals and subsequently cited 4628 times (range 0 to 1523) in 1013 journals. Articles published before 2001 were cited a median of 14 times each. Publishing journals had a median ISI impact factor of 2.6, and ISI half-life of 7.2. No suitable benchmarks were available for comparison. The PRC influence factor (number of PRCs that considered a journal highly influential) was only weakly correlated with the ISI impact factor and was not correlated with half-life. CONCLUSIONS: Conventional bibliometric analysis to assess the scientific impact of public health prevention research is feasible, but of limited utility because of omissions from ISI's databases, and because citation benchmarks for prevention research have not been established: these problems can and should be addressed. Assessment of impact on public health practice, policy, or on the health of populations, will require more than a bibliometric approach.

Academies and Institutes↗
PubMed2006

Natural language processing and visualization in the molecular imaging domain.

Molecular imaging is at the crossroads of genomic sciences and medical imaging. Information within the molecular imaging literature could be used to link to genomic and imaging information resources and to organize and index images in a way that is potentially useful to researchers. A number of natural language processing (NLP) systems are available to automatically extract information from genomic literature. One existing NLP system, known as BioMedLEE, automatically extracts biological information consisting of biomolecular substances and phenotypic data. This paper focuses on the adaptation, evaluation, and application of BioMedLEE to the molecular imaging domain. In order to adapt BioMedLEE for this domain, we extend an existing molecular imaging terminology and incorporate it into BioMedLEE. BioMedLEE's performance is assessed with a formal evaluation study. The system's performance, measured as recall and precision, is 0.74 (95% CI: [.70-.76]) and 0.70 (95% CI [.63-.76]), respectively. We adapt a JAVA viewer known as PGviewer for the simultaneous visualization of images with NLP extracted information.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Short tandem repeat (STRs) and sex specific Amelogenin analysis of blood samples from neurosurgical female transfused patients.

Blood transfusion and its effects on DNA profiles of an individual is an important issue in the forensic context. In the present study, the effects of unfiltered whole male blood transfusion in seven female subjects were investigated by PCR-based assays on serial post-transfusion blood samples. PCR analysis of specific short tandem repeat (STR) primer pair to CSF1PO, TPOX, TH01, F13A01, FESFPS, vWA and sex specific Amelogenin loci for banding pattern of alleles generated from the pre- and post-transfusion of seven female recipients and their corresponding donors were studied. Pre- and post-transfusion DNA profiles of all the seven female recipients were found to be consistent with no evidence of the male and female donor genetic material. It is concluded that currently used PCR-based STRs and sex specific Amelogenin loci DNA profiling techniques in forensic science are reliable and informative for paternity and identity purposes in situations of transfusion of 1 or 2 U of unfiltered whole male and female blood (> 72 h old) to female recipient up to 24 h post-transfusion.

Alleles↗
PubMed1999

Lung cancer staging and treatment in multidisciplinary trials: Cancer and Leukemia Group B cooperative group approach. Thoracic Surgeons of CALGB.

BACKGROUND: Aggressive routine surgical staging is necessary to evaluate patients to be treated on cooperative oncology protocols. Less than 1% of lung cancer patients in the United States are currently being treated in a clinical trial. Only with results from large, prospective trials can the questions of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy be answered. METHODS: An outline describing the schema of preoperative patient evaluation, surgical staging, and the definition of surgical staging and resection procedures appropriate for patients considered for cooperative group protocol is presented. Current Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) protocols are used in the discussion as examples of this systematic approach. CONCLUSIONS: Over the next few years, it will be important to enter the maximum number of patients into combined modality studies to identify the role of neoadjuvant treatment in lung cancer. Entry of patients into protocols will also make their pathological specimens and clinical information available for basic science research related to treatment results. Adherence to a logical sequence of patient evaluation as outlined above will optimize patient care, as well as accrual to cooperative group studies.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed2001

E-BioSci.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Molecular aspects of magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a well known diagnostic tool in radiology that produces unsurpassed images of the human body, in particular of soft tissue. However, the medical community is often not aware that MRI is an important yet limited segment of magnetic resonance (MR) or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) as this method is called in basic science. The tremendous morphological information of MR images sometimes conceal the fact that MR signals in general contain much more information, especially on processes on the molecular level. NMR is successfully used in physics, chemistry, and biology to explore and characterize chemical reactions, molecular conformations, biochemical pathways, solid state material, and many other applications that elucidate invisible characteristics of matter and tissue. In medical applications, knowledge of the molecular background of MRI and in particular MR spectroscopy (MRS) is an inevitable basis to understand molecular phenomenon leading to macroscopic effects visible in diagnostic images or spectra. This review shall provide the necessary background to comprehend molecular aspects of magnetic resonance applications in medicine. An introduction into the physical basics aims at an understanding of some of the molecular mechanisms without extended mathematical treatment. The MR typical terminology is explained such that reading of original MR publications could be facilitated for non-MR experts. Applications in MRI and MRS are intended to illustrate the consequences of molecular effects on images and spectra.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Diagnosis and therapy of herpes zoster ophthalmicus.

Studies in the basic and clinical sciences have yielded new information about the biology, infection, latency, and recurrence of the varicella-zoster virus. Contrast is made with the herpes simplex virus. The host-viral relationship is an extremely dynamic one with clinical disease being determined primarily by the host cellular immune system. The complications of herpes zoster ophthalmicus are related to multiple mechanisms including viral growth, vascular and neural damage, and the host-immune response to infection. There are several laboratory tests available for confirming the diagnosis or determining the immune status. Systemic acyclovir administered early in the course alleviates many of the symptoms of herpes zoster ophthalmicus. Acute and postherpetic neuralgia remain significant and enigmatic problems; an update of therapeutic options is offered. The role of corticosteroids in herpes zoster ophthalmicus is scrutinized along with the potential and uncertainties of a varicella-zoster virus vaccine.

Antiviral Agents↗
PubMed2000

Spatio-logical processes in intracellular signalling.

Classical models of intracellular signalling describe how small changes in a cell's external environment can bring about major changes in cellular activity. Recent findings from experimental biology indicate that many intracellular signalling systems show a high level of spatial organisation. This permits the modification, by protein kinase or protein phosphatase action, of specific subsets of intracellular proteins - an attribute that is not addressed in classical signalling models. Here we use ideas and concepts from computer science to describe the information processing nature of intracellular signalling pathways and the impact of spatial heterogeneity of their components (e.g. protein kinases and protein phosphatases) on signalling activity. We argue that it is useful to view the signalling ecology as a vast parallel distributed processing network of agents operating in heterogeneous microenvironments, and we conclude with an overview of the mathematical and semantic methodologies that might help clarify this analogy between biological and computational systems.

Models, Biological↗
PubMed2000

Unsolved problems in diastole.

It is now recognized that a sizable portion of patients who exhibit symptoms of congestive heart failure have relatively well-preserved systolic function, but have significantly elevated LV filling pressures. This syndrome, termed "diastolic heart failure," is associated with various conditions such as aging, anatomic abnormalities, hypertension, ischemic disease, tachycardia, and atrial fibrillation. Advances in the proper medical and surgical management of these patients will depend on the continued delineation of the basic physiologic mechanisms that account for normal and pathologic cardiac diastolic function. This goal can only be achieved by the integration of information acquired from basic science investigations conducted in vitro and in vivo, mathematic modeling simulation studies, and prospective, community-based investigations that characterize the incidence, prevalence, and natural history of the disease. In addition, randomized clinical trials will be needed to determine the optimal treatment strategies for this group of patients--strategy choices undoubtably complicated by a disease whose treatment is influenced to a large extent by its origin. The future therapies evaluated in these randomized clinical trials will most likely range from medical therapies that target either the heart directly or the peripheral vascular system, to surgical interventions such as direct myocardial revascularization, to gene therapy. Finally, it is worth mentioning one more unresolved issue that is of general practical concern not only to the physiologist studying diastolic function, but also to the clinician: whether or not it is even feasible to develop a single, sensitive, specific, clinically relevant index of diastolic function that is free from the contaminating influences of rate, contractility, and load. As observed by Glantz 20 years ago, developing indexes with the hope that one might fully delineate the left ventricle's diastolic properties, rather than concentrating on discovering the physiologic significance of such indexes, is probably counterproductive. More recently, in a related article, Slinker implied that an operational definition of any aspect of cardiac function must allow for the measurement of that function over an adequate range of essential variables. Therefore, as previously mentioned, the physiologist studying cardiac function has the daunting task of trying to understand, in a precise way, how the processes and mechanisms of the various phases of the cardiac cycle couple together to produce either a normal or abnormal functioning heart. It seems clear that because of the complex weave of factors that control overall cardiac diastolic function, the derivation of any single index that adequately describes LV diastolic function in vivo may not be possible.

Diastole↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prognostic factors: guidelines for investigation design and state of the art analytical methods.

The proliferation of putative prognostic factors, derived prognostic indices and computerised prediction of outcome in surgical oncology has led to some confusion over the exact methods available for deriving clinically significant prognostic factors. The realisation that the interaction between factors is often complex and non-linear has led to the development of new statistical techniques. The aim of this article is to review the currently available methods of analysis. A review of the relevant literature available from statistical, medical and computer science sources was performed. Information has been conveyed at a level aimed at producing a practical understanding of the techniques involved rather than their underlying mathematical basis. There are now clear guidelines for the investigation of putative prognostic factors (Table 1). The established role of linear statistical models and prognostic indices remains vitally important for the majority of diseases with many derived prognostic indices having been validated in a prospective fashion. However, in order to improve the delineation of prognostic factors other more complex methods of analysis are now being utilised. Furthermore, the recognition of complex dynamic non-linearity within biological systems has led to the increasing use of non-linear statistical techniques and artificial intelligence. As such it is incumbent upon the modern clinician to be able to understand the basic assumptions required for multivariate analysis and also to realise when alternative statistical techniques should be employed.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMed2001

The exploitation of regularities in the environment by the brain.

Statistical regularities of the environment are important for learning, memory, intelligence, inductive inference, and in fact, for any area of cognitive science where an information-processing brain promotes survival by exploiting them. This has been recognised by many of those interested in cognitive function, starting with Helmholtz, Mach, and Pearson, and continuing through Craik, Tolman, Attneave, and Brunswik. In the current era, many of us have begun to show how neural mechanisms exploit the regular statistical properties of natural images. Shepard proposed that the apparent trajectory of an object when seen successively at two positions results from internalising the rules of kinematic geometry, and although kinematic geometry is not statistical in nature, this is clearly a related idea. Here it is argued that Shepard's term, "internalisation," is insufficient because it is also necessary to derive an advantage from the process. Having mechanisms selectively sensitive to the spatio-temporal patterns of excitation commonly experienced when viewing moving objects would facilitate the detection, interpolation, and extrapolation of such motions, and might explain the twisting motions that are experienced. Although Shepard's explanation in terms of Chasles' rule seems doubtful, his theory and experiments illustrate that local twisting motions are needed for the analysis of moving objects and provoke thoughts about how they might be detected.

Brain↗
PubMed2004

Increasing the negative charge of a macroanion in the gas phase via sequential charge inversion reactions.

Protonated and deprotonated biological molecules in the gas phase play an important role in life sciences research. The structural information accessible from the ions is highly dependent upon their charge states. Therefore, it is desirable to develop means for increasing absolute charge states, particularly for ionization methods, such as MALDI, that yield relatively low charge ions. The work presented here demonstrates the formation of a doubly deprotonated polypeptide or oligonucleotide ion (dianion) from a singly deprotonated analogue via two sequential ion/ion proton-transfer reactions involving charge inversion. The high exoergicity and the large cross section arising from the long-range attractive Coulomb potential of ion/ion reactions make this process plausible. In this example, an overall efficiency of conversion of singly charged ions to doubly charged ions of roughly 8% for polypeptide was noted while lower efficiency (roughly 2%) observed with an oligonucleotide is likely due to a greater degree of neutralization. No other approach to increasing the net negative charge of an anion in the gas phase has as yet been reported.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2001

The use of dental anxiety questionnaires: a survey of a group of UK dental practitioners.

AIM: To determine the frequency of use of dental anxiety assessment questionnaires and factors associated with their use in a group of UK dental practitioners. METHOD: A postal questionnaire to all 328 dentists whose names appear in the British Society for Behavioural Sciences in Dentistry Directory. Information collected for each practitioner included gender, year of qualification, type of practice in which anxious dental patients were treated, treatment used to manage anxious dental patients, type and frequency of use of dental anxiety assessment indices. RESULTS: Questionnaires were returned from 275 (84%) practitioners. 269 were analyzed. Only 54 practitioners (20%) used adult dental anxiety assessment questionnaires and only 46 (17%) used child dental anxiety assessment questionnaires. Male practitioners were more likely to report questionnaire use in comparison with females (P< 0.05), when treating dentally anxious adults (26% v 14%). In addition, practitioners providing intravenous sedation were more likely to use an adult dental anxiety questionnaire (P < 0.04) than those who did not use intravenous sedation (29% v 15%). The type of treatment provided had a significant association with the use of child dental anxiety. Those providing general anaesthesia (P = 0.03) and hypnosis (P = 0.01) for dentally anxious children were more inclined to use a questionnaire. CONCLUSION: The use of pre-treatment dental anxiety assessment questionnaires was low in this group of dentists. Male practitioners and those providing intravenous sedation, general anaesthesia or hypnosis seem more likely to use dental anxiety assessment questionnaires.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Current trends in phonoarthrography].

The detection of sounds from the human body for diagnostic purposes has a long history. In the respiratory and circulatory systems such auscultation is a precise science yielding much useful information. The detection and interpretation of joint sounds, however, has been much less successful in its development. In this paper we outline the history of joint auscultation, of phonoarthrography, and of their modern equivalent: vibration arthrography. The relative merits of acoustic and vibration based systems are discussed and these are illustrated with data from simultaneous recordings of several joint phenomena. Finally, we concluded that the future of phonoarthrography as a clinical test is based on its further development using accelerometers rather than microphones as detectors.

Auscultation↗
PubMed2002

Working artefacts: ethnomethods of the prototype.

This paper follows recent science studies in theorizing information technologies as socio-material configurations, aligned into more and less durable forms. The study of how new technologies emerge shifts, on this view, from a focus on invention to an interest in ongoing practices of assembly, demonstration, and performance. This view is developed in relation to the case of the 'prototype', an exploratory technology designed to effect alignment between the multiple interests and working practices of technology research and development, and sites of technologies-in-use. In so far as it is successful, the prototype works as an exemplary artefact that is at once intelligibly familiar to the actors involved, and recognizably new.

Humans↗