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Setting human-health-based groundwater protection standards when toxicological data are inadequate.

Toxicological data are not adequate to assess fully the health effects of many of the pesticides that currently contaminate or have the potential to contaminate groundwater. The National Academy of Sciences estimated in 1984 that data to conduct a complete health hazard assessment exist for only 10% of the pesticides currently on the market. Many pesticides have not been tested for their ability to cause cancer, genetic mutation, or birth defects. There are significant gaps in the toxicological data base for the majority of pesticides for which the Environmental Protection Agency proposed health advisories in 1987. To help assure that groundwater standards are adequately protective of human health when toxicological data are not adequate, additional uncertainty factors can be incorporated into such standards. Alternatively, standards can be set at the level of detection. This should be the approach when no data exist to assess major potential health effects. For example, the detection limit could be the standard if no adequate oncogenicity studies have been conducted. In addition, generic standards may be employed when data are inadequate to set chemical-specific standards. New York State has recently taken this innovative generic standard approach.

Databases, Factual

Reporting of highly individual genetic typing results: a practical approach.

This paper considers the interpretation of serological typing data as a problem in forensic science, as opposed to a problem in population genetics or statistics. Controversies arising in this area are partly due to an overly narrow perspective that ignores basic forensic science principles. After an initial discussion of the special problem that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) blood typing poses to forensic science, the three difficulties common to all the proposed interpretive methods are discussed. These are: predicting genotype incidence from allele frequencies, predicting frequencies for the joint occurrence of genotypes in a number of different genetic marker systems, and determining the appropriate population to use to measure the frequencies. The inability to test assumptions that are inherent in our routine methods is noted. This is a procedural weakness that unnecessarily limits the admissibility of DNA typing evidence in court. A practical solution to this problem is offered that begins with minimal assumptions. Initially a statement is made based on (1) how many reference samples the laboratory has typed and (2) how many of these samples show genotypes corresponding to the case samples. The second stage of the presentation begins with a statement that additional assumptions are necessary to fully interpret the evidence and that although these assumptions are scientifically very reasonable, they cannot be absolutely proven. The presentation can then proceed, if desired, to consideration of the specific assumptions and frequency estimates of any of the methods that have been proposed to date. To follow this approach population data must be kept in a form that allows the simple first-stage statement to be made. This means that each individual's record would include typing results in each genetic marker system. Although this method of data storage differs from that used in most forensic science laboratories, it is exceptionally versatile, and allows great flexibility in data analysis.

Alleles

Oxygen toxicity.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the biochemistry of oxygen metabolism, including the formation of free radicals and the role of endogenous antioxidants. Pathophysiologic correlates underlying the clinical manifestations of oxygen toxicity are reviewed and management strategies are outlined. DATA SOURCES: References from basic science and clinical journals were selected from the authors' files and from a search of a computerized database of the biomedical literature. STUDY SELECTION: Articles selected for review included both historical and current literature concerning the biochemistry and pathophysiology of oxygen toxicity in animals and humans. DATA SYNTHESIS: The benefits of oxygen therapy have been known for many years; however, its potential toxicity has not been recognized until the last two decades. The lungs, the eyes, and, under certain conditions, the central nervous system are the organs most affected by prolonged exposure to hyperoxic environments. Free radical formation during cellular metabolism under hyperoxic conditions is recognized as the biochemical basis of oxygen injury to cells and organs. Endogenous antioxidants are a primary means of detoxifying reactive oxygen species and preventing hyperoxia-induced cellular damage. When this defense fails or is overwhelmed by the excessive production of hyperoxia-induced free-radical species, distinctive morphologic changes occur at the cellular level. The amount of hyperoxia required to cause cellular damage and the time course of these changes vary from species to species and from individual to individual within the same species. Age, nutritional status, presence of underlying diseases, and certain drugs may influence the development of oxygen toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: There is currently no reliably effective drug for preventing or delaying the development of oxygen toxicity in humans. Use of the lowest effective oxygen concentration, the avoidance of certain drugs, and attention to nutritional and metabolic factors remain the best means currently available to avoid or minimize oxygen toxicity. Research is continuing into more effective ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat this disorder.

Animals

A decentralized future for the open-science databases.

The continuous and reliable open access to curated biological data repositories is indispensable for accelerating rigorous scientific inquiry and fostering reproducible research outcomes. However, the current paradigm, which relies heavily on centralized infrastructure for the storage and distribution of foundational biomedical datasets, inherently introduces significant vulnerabilities. This centralized model is susceptible to single points of failure, including cyberattacks, technical malfunctions, natural disasters, and even political or funding uncertainties. Such disruptions can lead to widespread data unavailability, data loss, integrity compromises, and substantial delays in critical research, ultimately impeding scientific progress. The downstream effect of such interruptions can be the widespread paralysis of diverse research activities, including computational, clinical, molecular, and climate studies. This scenario vividly illustrates the inherent dangers of consolidating essential scientific resources within a single geopolitical or institutional locus. As data generation is accelerating and the global landscape continues to fluctuate, the sustainability of centralized models must be critically re-evaluated. A shift toward federated and decentralized architectures may offer a robust and forward-looking approach to enhancing the resilience of scientific data infrastructures by reducing exposure to governance instability, infrastructural fragility, and funding volatility, while also promoting equity and global accessibility. Inspired by established models such as ELIXIR's federated infrastructure and the policy and funding frameworks developed by CODATA and the Global Biodata Coalition (GBC), emerging Decentralized Science (DeSci) initiatives can contribute to building more resilient, fair, and incentive-aligned data ecosystems. The future of open science depends on integrating these complementary approaches to establish a globally distributed, economically sustainable, and institutionally robust infrastructure that safeguards scientific data as a public good, further ensuring continued accessibility, interoperability, and preservation for generations to come. Here, we examine the structural limitations of centralized repositories, evaluate federated and decentralized models, and propose a hybrid framework for resilient, fair, and sustainable scientific data stewardship.

data accessibility

Implications of a biopsychosocial model for research in psychiatry.

Developments in general and living systems theory, in computer science, and in research instrumentation and technology have led to new perspectives on the patient as a person. The biopsychosocial model forces realization that states of health and illness can be understood fully only in terms of their biological, psychological, and social parameters. Research implications of this model, particularly the appreciation it engenders for the brain's role in mediating and regulating transactions along the society-mind-brain-body continuum, are discussed. Objective data generated by skilled clinical psychiatric methods will be needed in addition to data generated in the basic science area for the full range of research challenges in psychiatry to be met.

Adult

Project community diagnosis: participatory research as a first step toward community involvement in primary health care.

'Community participation' and 'bottom up planning' have become fashionable themes in international health circles. However, in the absence of sociocultural perspective these themes remain largely rhetoric. In this paper, a deprofessionalization of social science is advocated in the service of participatory research as a first step towards community involvement in primary health care. Deprofessionalization is suggested as an adjunct to, not a replacement for in-depth professional social science research. An exploratory community diagnosis of health project conducted in rural south India is described. During the project, lay researchers received rudimentary social science field training and collected data on health behaviour deemed important to health planners as well as the health concerns of the community. Illustrative data, generated by the project is presented on the rural poors' utilization of government health facilities, their attitudes towards Primary Health Centre staff, and their ideas about how a proposed community health worker scheme could best serve them.

Community Health Workers

Health care machine-readable data files: secondary analysis, access, and the role of the library.

Access to health care machine-readable data files (MRDF) is becoming increasingly important to students and researchers in the health care field who use the data in secondary analysis. Health sciences libraries must play a role in providing such access, and this role should consist primarily in providing users with information about the identity and contents of available MRDF and about how they may be obtained. Libraries should therefore collect extensive materials containing information about the MRDF that may be of interest to their users. Many such materials are available in print, and their quality may be expected to improve as newly developed methods and procedures for constructing bibliographic citations, abstracts, and catalog entries for MRDF are put into practice. Also, it is now feasible to incorporate data file abstracts into existing online bibliographic databases.

Health Services Research

Quantitative reviewing of medical literature. An approach to synthesizing research results in clinical pediatrics.

The quantitative literature review is presented as a unique type of research endeavor complete with formal stages that parallel those associated with primary or experimental research. This article provides a tutorial overview of the quantitative literature review procedure and, in conjunction with the companion article published in this issue, serves to illustrate the application of this technique in the review process. The stages in quantitative review include: (1) problem formation; (2) data collection; (3) data evaluation; (4) analysis and interpretation; and (5) reporting results. It is argued that inferences made in the research review process are as central to the establishment of valid biomedical and clinical knowledge as inferences made in primary research. Despite some limitations, quantitative reviewing procedures constitute a significant advance over the traditional narrative methods of integrating empirical research in an area of interest. The use of quantitative reviewing procedures represents a paradigm shift in which the literature review is conceptualized as a unique form of scientific inquiry complete with formal stages and methods. The adoption of these methods should assist researchers in the behavioral and biomedical sciences in establishing scientifically valid data bases to guide theory development and direct future clinical investigation.

Data Collection

Academic origin of geneticists--a second look.

The academic and geographic origins of 1186 members of the Genetics Society of America whose biographies appear in the fourteenth edition of American Men and Women of Science were researched and the data collected compared to comparable data for 1019 GSA members studied in 1968. In general, the colleges and universities that were major producers of geneticists at both the baccalaureate and doctoral levels in the 1968 study continue to be so. The geographic regions of the United States continue to produce and employ geneticists much as they did in 1968, but in the current study, 17 percent of the geneticists were found to be foreign-born, as compared to only 5.4 percent in 1968. Of the 1186 geneticists, 167 or 14.1 percent were women vs. 12.5 percent in the 1968 study. Over 80 percent of the geneticists were employed in academia, but the percent employed in government, business, and industry was nearly twice what it was in 1968. Compared to 1968, geneticists in the current study were decidedly older, a fact that could portend a threat to the continued viability of the science of genetics in the United States.

Adult

The book availability study as an objective measure of performance in a health sciences library.

In its search for an objective overall diagnostic evaluation, the University of Illinois Library of the Health Sciences' Program Evaluation Committee selected a book availability measure; it is easy to administer and repeat, results are reproducible, and comparable data exist for other academic and health sciences libraries. The study followed the standard methodology in the literature with minor modifications. Patrons searching for particular books were asked to record item(s) needed and the outcome of the search. Library staff members then determined the reasons for failures in obtaining desired items. The results of the study are five performance scores. The first four represent the percentage probability of a library's operating with ideal effectiveness; the last provides an overall performance score. The scores of the Library of the Health Sciences demonstrated no unusual availability problems. The study was easy to implement and provided meaningful, quantitative, and objective data.

Books

A pair comparison study of the relevance of nine basic science courses.

A judgment of the relevance of nine basic sciences courses was tested by the pair comparison method. The test groups consisted of first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year medical students; interns and residents; basic sciences faculty; and clinical faculty. The data obtained from all groups proved to be consistent. Three strata of relevance were detected. Physiology, pathology, and pharmacology comprised the stratum of maximum relevance. The anatomy sciences (gross anatomy, histology, cell biology, and embryology) formed a stratum of lowest relevancy. The comparative relevancy of biochemisty and microbiology fell between the two extremes. Two approaches for making the anatomy disciplines more relevant are discussed.

Curriculum

Friends of the library groups in health sciences libraries.

The Houston Academy of Medicine--Texas Medical Center (HAM--TMC) Library collected data on friends of the library groups from 103 health sciences libraries, using a mail questionnaire. Sixteen of the responding libraries had independent friends groups; seven had friends groups that were subordinate to a university group. The sixteen independent groups gave as their major purposes (1) to raise money for their associated library and (2) to develop support for their library. These groups contributed an average of $4,870 a year to their libraries, the money being used primarily to purchase rare books and working-collection books and to sponsor social events. The subordinate groups contributed relatively little money to the health sciences libraries responding to the survey.

Evaluation Studies as Topic

[The use of large morbidity data bases in the evaluation of health services].

The major developments of recent years in computer sciences have led to the creation of large morbidity data bases. Although these data sets are not compiled expressly for research, they serve researchers if certain precautions are taken. These concern definition of the study population, unit of analysis, record linkage and both reliability and validity of the data.

Canada