Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Computing Methodologies”

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 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

A multipurpose model of radiology appropriateness criteria.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Appropriateness criteria and practice guidelines are being developed in attempts to improve the cost-effectiveness of medical care. The authors sought to make a set of radiology appropriateness criteria usable for education, computer-based decision support, and utilization review. MODEL DEVELOPMENT: Sixty clinical conditions from the American College of Radiology's appropriateness criteria were selected. To make the information more suitable for automation, the names of the imaging procedures were standardized. Indexing terms were assigned to identify clinical conditions and to distinguish between each condition's variants. Semantic relationships between terms were defined. Information about the clinical conditions and variants, radiologic procedures, indexing terms, and relationships was encoded into a standardized language for document interchange. IMPLEMENTATION: The 1,956 rows in the appropriateness criteria tables for the 60 clinical conditions and their 212 variants were mapped into references to 163 distinct imaging procedures. The system's knowledge base included 301 indexing terms and 569 additional terms. CONCLUSION: Radiology appropriateness criteria can be indexed and encoded into a form that facilitates their use and interchange. The use of open, internationally accepted standards is an important step to make such knowledge portable and suitable for integration with evolving computer-based patient record systems.

Computing Methodologies↗

Intelligent machines in the twenty-first century: foundations of inference and inquiry.

The last century saw the application of Boolean algebra to the construction of computing machines, which work by applying logical transformations to information contained in their memory. The development of information theory and the generalization of Boolean algebra to Bayesian inference have enabled these computing machines, in the last quarter of the twentieth century, to be endowed with the ability to learn by making inferences from data. This revolution is just beginning as new computational techniques continue to make difficult problems more accessible. Recent advances in our understanding of the foundations of probability theory have revealed implications for areas other than logic. Of relevance to intelligent machines, we recently identified the algebra of questions as the free distributive algebra, which will now allow us to work with questions in a way analogous to that which Boolean algebra enables us to work with logical statements. In this paper, we examine the foundations of inference and inquiry. We begin with a history of inferential reasoning, highlighting key concepts that have led to the automation of inference in modern machine-learning systems. We then discuss the foundations of inference in more detail using a modern viewpoint that relies on the mathematics of partially ordered sets and the scaffolding of lattice theory. This new viewpoint allows us to develop the logic of inquiry and introduce a measure describing the relevance of a proposed question to an unresolved issue. Last, we will demonstrate the automation of inference, and discuss how this new logic of inquiry will enable intelligent machines to ask questions. Automation of both inference and inquiry promises to allow robots to perform science in the far reaches of our solar system and in other star systems by enabling them not only to make inferences from data, but also to decide which question to ask, which experiment to perform, or which measurement to take given what they have learned and what they are designed to understand.

Artificial Intelligence↗

EthoVision: a versatile video tracking system for automation of behavioral experiments.

The need for automating behavioral observations and the evolution of systems developed for that purpose is outlined. Video tracking systems enable researchers to study behavior in a reliable and consistent way and over longer time periods than if they were using manual recording. To overcome limitations of currently available systems, we have designed EthoVision, an integrated system for automatic recording of activity, movement, and interactions of animals. The EthoVision software is presented, highlighting some key features that separate EthoVision from other systems: easy file management, independent variable definition, flexible arena and zone design, several methods of data acquisition allowing identification and tracking of multiple animals in multiple arenas, and tools for visualization of the tracks and calculation of a range of analysis parameters. A review of studies using EthoVision is presented, demonstrating the system's use in a wide variety of applications. Possible future directions for development are discussed.

Animals↗

Unenhanced spiral CT for evaluating acute appendicitis in daily routine. A prospective study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The purpose of this study was to define in a routine setting the role of spiral computed tomography in patients with suspected acute appendicitis and to determine the effect of computed tomography on the treatment of such patients. METHODOLOGY: Appendiceal computed tomography was performed in 120 consecutive patients with acute appendicitis in the differential diagnosis, whose clinical findings were insufficient to perform surgery or to discharge from the hospital. Each scan was obtained in a single breath hold from the lower abdomen to the upper pelvis using a 5-mm collimation and a pitch of 1.6. Computed tomography results were correlated with surgical and pathologic findings at appendectomy or clinical follow-up. RESULTS: Eighty-eight of the 93 patients with acute appendicitis were correctly diagnosed by computed tomography, 24 of the 27 patients without acute appendicitis were correctly diagnosed by computed tomography (95% sensitivity, 89% specificity). Computed tomography signs of acute appendicitis included fat stranding (100%), enlarged appendix (> 6 mm) (97%), adenopathy (63%), appendicoliths (43%), abscess (10%), and phlegmon (5%). CONCLUSIONS: The use of spiral computed tomography in patients with equivocal clinical presentation suspected of having acute appendicitis led to a significant improvement in the preoperative diagnosis and a lower negative appendectomy rate. Appendiceal computed tomography is an accurate technique even if performed in the daily routine of scanning.

Acute Disease↗

A methodological tool for computer-assisted surgery interface design: its application to computer-assisted pericardial puncture.

Computer Assisted Surgery systems are becoming more and more prevalent. Design processes currently used, pay only a small attention to the surgeon's interaction. To address this lack in design, we propose the OP-a-S notation: OP-a-S modeling of a system adopts an interaction-centered point of view and highlights the links between the real world and the virtual world. Based on an OP-a-S modeling, predictive usability analysis can be performed by considering the ergonomic property. We illustrate our method on the retro-design of a computer assisted surgical application, CASPER.

Computer Simulation↗

An automated tool for an analysis of compliance to evidence-based clinical guidelines.

Evidence-based clinical guidelines have been developed in an attempt to decrease practice variation and improve patient outcomes. Although a number of studies and a few commercial products have attempted to measure guideline compliance, there still exists a strong need for an automated product that can take as input large amounts of data and create systematic and detailed profiles of compliance to evidence-based guidelines. The Guideline Compliance Assessment Tool is a product presently under development in our group that will accept as input medical and pharmacy claims data and create a guideline compliance profile that assesses provider practice patterns as compared to evidence-based standards. The system components include an episode of care grouper to standardize classifications of illnesses, an evidence-based guideline knowledge base that potentially contains information on several hundred distinct conditions, a guideline compliance scoring system that emphasizes systematic guideline variance rather than random variances, and an advanced data warehouse that would allow drilling into specific areas of interest. As provider profiling begins to shift away from a primary emphasis on cost to an emphasis on quality, automated methods for measuring guideline compliance will become important in measuring provider performance and increasing guideline usage, consequently improving the standard of care and the potential for better patient outcomes.

Computing Methodologies↗

Structure-activity study and design of multidrug-resistant reversal compounds by a computer automated structure evaluation methodology.

We have studied the relation between the structure and the multidrug resistance-reversal activity of a set of diverse chemicals with the MULTICASE structure-activity program. A number of key structural features were identified as being related to multidrug resistance reversal activity. Using these key features, we identified seven new compounds predicted to have substantial activity. These were obtained and tested experimentally on a CHO/CHRC5 cell line derived from the AB1 Chinese hamster ovary line in the presence of vincristine and vinblastine. Of the seven compounds tested so far, four showed substantial reversal activity, the most potent of them exhibiting activity at par with verapamil.

Animals↗

Medicare program; schedule of limits on home health agency costs per visit for cost reporting periods beginning on or after July 1, 1985--HCFA. Proposed notice.

This notice sets forth a proposed schedule of limits on home health agency (HHA) costs that may be reimbursed under the Medicare program. The schedule is an update of the limits to take into account more recent data and the effects of inflation on HHA operating costs and would apply to HHA costs for entire cost reporting periods beginning on or after July 1, 1985. The notice also explains the basic methodology for computing the cost limits and proposed changes to that methodology.

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

On Bayesian calculations for mixture likelihoods and priors.

We present methodology for calculating Bayes factors between models as well as posterior probabilities of the models when the indicator variables of the models are integrated out of the posterior before Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) computations. Standard methodology would include the indicator functions as part of the MCMC computations. We demonstrate that our methodology can give substantially greater accuracy than the traditional approach. We illustrate the methodology using the model selection prior of George and McCulloch applied to logistic regression and to a mixture model for observations in a hierarchical random effects model.

Bayes Theorem↗

Pseudocontact shifts as constraints for energy minimization and molecular dynamics calculations on solution structures of paramagnetic metalloproteins.

The pseudocontact shifts of NMR signals, which arise from the magnetic susceptibility anisotropy of paramagnetic molecules, have been used as structural constraints under the form of a pseudopotential in the SANDER module of the AMBER 4.1 molecular dynamics software package. With this procedure, restrained energy minimization (REM) and restrained molecular dynamics (RMD) calculations can be performed on structural models by using pseudocontact shifts. The structure of the cyanide adduct of the Met80Ala mutant of the yeast iso-1-cytochrome c has been used for successfully testing the calculations. For this protein, a family of structures is available, which was obtained by using NOE and pseudocontact shifts as constraints in a distance geometry program. The structures obtained by REM and RMD calculations with the inclusion of pseudocontact shifts are analyzed.

Algorithms↗