Taking risks: some background issues in the debate concerning recombinant DNA research.
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Concerns about the adequacy of clinical education in nursing courses in Australia have escalated since the transfer of pre-registration nursing education into the tertiary sector. This descriptive, interpretative study, informed by the tradition of critical social science, sought to understand the clinical learning experiences of undergraduate nursing students. At the same time, it fostered an active participation of students in their own learning. Daily post-clinical conferences with the students were taped and transcribed verbatim to provide data for the study. Additional data was collected from informal discussions and observations of the students during the placement. Analysis revealed three main categories, which reflected the students' experiences. These included: (1) I don't belong; (2) doing and practising: progress at last; and (3) transitions in thinking. Feeling part of the team was closely linked to the opportunity to learn, emphasizing the important role not only of educators but also clinicians in undergraduate learning on clinical placement. Though the findings reflect age-long problems associated with student learning in the clinical field, it serves to remind all nurses of the importance they play in the learning process. This study reflects the importance of effective communication between the health and education sectors and the need to concentrate on strategies which will strengthen this bond.
The purpose of this study was to examine the current status of health sciences libraries in Kuwait in terms of their staff, collections, facilities, use of information technology, information services, and cooperation. Seventeen libraries participated in the study. Results show that the majority of health sciences libraries were established during the 1980s. Their collections are relatively small. The majority of their staff is nonprofessional. The majority of libraries provide only basic information services. Cooperation among libraries is limited. Survey results also indicate that a significant number of health sciences libraries are not automated. Some recommendations for the improvement of existing resources, facilities, and services are made.
Science and the National Science Foundation announce the winners and honorable mentions in the categories of photography, illustration, informational graphics, noninteractive multimedia, and interactive multimedia in this year's Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.
In order to successfully sort out the information, both real and bogus, in an ultrasonic image, one must have a fundamental understanding of the physical and electronic events that produced the image. We have looked at the basic science, signal processing, some case examples of ultrasound science in practice, and some popular illusions. It is a good starting place for the newcomer to ultrasonic imaging.
For nearly a decade, "therapeutic jurisprudence" (TJ) has provided a theoretical framework within which legal rules, legal procedure, and legal roles are analyzed in terms of their therapeutic, neutral, or antitherapeutic effects. This article proposed "jurisprudent therapy" (JT), an extension of the TJ model, as a context for analyzing mental health science, mental health practice, and mental health roles in terms of their "jurisprudent," neutral, or "antijurisprudent" effects. The JT perspective neither supplants nor supersedes TJ; rather, it mirrors and augments an established process for interdisciplinary contrast, comparison, and integration. Just as an empathic and evolving legal system provides psychological benefits, so does a legally informed and juridically compatible progression of social science promote principles of justice and human freedom. Consideration of these two complementary models in tandem yields an array of brainstorming devices, to synergistic effect, with heuristic implications for teaching, research, and service delivery.
MOTIVATION: The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) Pathway database is a very valuable information resource for researchers in the fields of life sciences. It contains metabolic and regulatory processes in the form of wiring diagrams, which can be used for browsing and information retrieval as well as a base for modeling and simulation. Thus it helps in understanding biological processes and higher-order functions of biological systems. Currently the KEGG website uses semi-static visualizations for the presentation and navigation of its pathway information. While this visualization style offers a good pathway presentation and navigation, it does not provide some of the possibilities related to dynamic visualizations, most importantly, the creation and visualization of user-specific pathways. RESULTS: This paper presents methods for the dynamic visualization, interactive navigation and editing of KEGG pathway diagrams. These diagrams, given as KEGG Markup Language (KGML) files, can be visually explored using novel approaches combining semi-static and dynamic visualization, but also edited or even newly created and then exported into KGML files. AVAILABILITY: KGML-ED, a program implementing the presented methods, is available free of charge to the scientific community at http://kgml-ed.ipk-gatersleben.de.
The world is becoming more and more health conscious. Society, health policy and patients' needs are all changing dramatically. The challenges society is currently facing are related to the increase in the aging population, changes in lifestyle, the need for healthcare cost containment and the need for improvement and monitoring of healthcare quality. The emphasis is put on prevention rather than on treatment. In addition, patients and health consumers are waiting for non-invasive or minimally-invasive diagnosis and treatment methods, for home care, short stays in hospital, enhancement of rehabilitation, information and involvement in their own treatment. Progress in science and technology offers, today, miniaturization, speed, intelligence, sophistication and new materials at lower cost. In this new landscape, microtechnologies, information technologies and telecommunications are key factors. Telemedicine has also evolved. Used initially to exchange patients' files, radiographic data and other information between health providers, today telemedicine contributes to new trends in "hospital extension" through all-day monitoring of vital signs, professional activities, entertainment and home-based activities. The new possibilities for home care and ambulatory monitoring are provided at 4 levels: a) Microsensors. Microtechnologies offer the possibility of small size, but also of intelligent, active devices, working with low energy, wireless and non-invasive or minimally-invasive; b) Wrist devices are particularly user friendly and combine sensors, circuits, supply, display and wireless transmission in a single box, very convenient for common physical activities; c) Health smart clothes make contact with 90 % of the skin and offer many possibilities for the location of sensors. These sensors have to be thin, flexible and compatible with textiles, or made using textile technologies, such as new fibers with specific (mechanical, electrical and optical) properties; d) Health smart homes. The aim of this method is to improve the patient's living conditions and to avoid the cost of long hospitalization. "Exosensors" are used for measurement of the activity and behavior of the patient. The field of applications is very large, e.g. continuous monitoring of elderly populations, professional and military activities, athletes performance and condition, and people with disabilities. This new healthcare approach has to take into account lifestyle for improving prevention. For the patient to be more and more involved in his/her own therapy, new responsibilities and ethics have to be defined. A "societal health education" has to be provided to physicians and to patients to get all the benefits of this new context.
This article was written to share information concerning the establishment and implementation of a successful, integrated basic and clinical science conference series for resident trainees in dermatology. We discuss the underlying philosophy and describe the concepts employed in, and the dynamics that have resulted from, this educational experiment. Finally, we include the schedule and references for the 1993-1994 academic year.
This paper recognizes some of the scientists who conducted food consumption surveys and related methodology research for USDA over the past century. Information presented is drawn from published documents, interviews with scientists, and personal experiences of the author. "Survey greats" are identified for each of six time periods starting with W.O. Atwater in the period prior to 1900. Their activities are traced along several lines: The purposes and populations for which they sought food consumption information; the techniques they used to select survey participants and to collect and analyze data; the nature of the country's food supplies; and the understanding, at the time, of the nutritional composition of foods and of what constituted a good diet. Over the past century many creative and dedicated food consumption researchers have advanced their science to meet the demands for dietary information, taking advantage of new technologies and statistical procedures.
OBJECTIVES: On graduation, UK dentists wishing to advance their career enter two years of general professional training aimed at consolidating their undergraduate experience. The Membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgery examination (MFDS) attests to its successful completion and is a pre-requisite for entry into training programmes which lead to specialist status. Most MFDS candidates prepare for the examination on their own while in full-time employment and many reinforce this self-directed learning with participation in short revision courses or through distance learning. Here we seek to obtain data on the specific educational needs of these individuals. METHODS: Questionnaires were used to interrogate 92 UK graduates attending short MFDS revision courses of up to 1 week's duration to identify which topic areas were perceived as particular areas of weakness. To gain greater insight into the responses obtained, 18/92 respondents were selected at random and followed up with semi-structured interviews informed by the questionnaires. RESULTS: Basic medical science, human diseases, law and ethics and health and safety regulations were the areas of weakness most frequently highlighted by the respondents. Most had undergone comprehensive courses in the first two topics; however, the interviews suggested that this was generally in the early stages of undergraduate training when they had difficulty in contextualising large quantities of new information. In the case of the latter two, teaching had been very varied and several interviewees felt that it had been inadequate. CONCLUSION: Recent graduates preparing for MFDS have clear educational needs. These data have begun to characterise the requirements of this group and may inform the planning of short revision courses designed to assist them.
The completion of the human genome sequencing project has provided a flood of new information that is likely to change the way scientists approach the study of complex biological systems. A major challenge lies in translating this information into new and better ways to treat human disease. The multidisciplinary science of chemical proteomics can be used to distill this flood of new information. This approach makes use of synthetic small molecules that can be used to covalently modify a set of related enzymes and subsequently allow their purification and/or identification as valid drug targets. Furthermore, such methods enable rapid biochemical analysis and small-molecule screening of targets thereby accelerating the often difficult process of target validation and drug discovery.
An emerging field for the analysis of biological systems is the study of the complete protein complement of the genome, the 'proteome'. There are several complementary tools available for proteome analysis including 2D protein electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. Emerging technologies for proteome analysis include spotted-array-based methods and microfluidic devices. Taken together, these technologies provide a wealth of information that is useful in discovery-based science. However, there are some key limitations of these approaches and new technology is required to be able to fully integrate proteomic information with information obtained about DNA sequence, mRNA profiles and metabolite concentrations into effective models of biological systems.
Constructing home pages for World-Wide Web access has become a major activity in academic health sciences libraries. At the Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library staff are creating the library's new health information system using Web resources and integrating them with existing library systems-NUmed (OVID MEDLINE) and LUIS/NUcat (NOTIS). Development of Web pages, including selection and organization of electronic information, has become the building process for the electronic library. Selection, organization, design, and construction are important factors in the creation of an efficient and useful information system. Using resources like the World-Wide Web and tools like Netscape, library staff are designing an interface, defining policies and guidelines, and creating the tools that will give users easy access to local and international electronic, scholarly information resources. In this paper, the process used at Northwestern is shown as a model of an electronic health sciences library for the twenty-first century.
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Libraries will be changed by technological and social developments that are fueled by information technology, bioinformatics, and networked information. Libraries in highly focused settings such as the health sciences are at a pivotal point in their development as the synthesis of historically diverse and independent information sources transforms health care institutions. Boundaries are breaking down between published literature and research data, between research databases and clinical patient data, and between consumer health information and professional literature. This paper focuses on the dynamics that are occurring with networked information sources and the roles that libraries will need to play in the world of medical informatics in the early twenty-first century.
Vaccinology is a combinatorial science which studies the diversity of pathogens and the human immune system, and formulations that can modulate immune responses and prevent or cure disease. Huge amounts of data are produced by genomics and proteomics projects and large-scale screening of pathogen-host and antigen-host interactions. Current developments in computational vaccinology mainly support the analysis of antigen processing and presentation and the characterization of targets of immune response. Future development will also include systemic models of vaccine responses. Immunomics, the large-scale screening of immune processes which includes powerful immunoinformatic tools, offers great promise for future translation of basic immunology research advances into successful vaccines.
This article describes how information from mechanical ventilator settings, ABG, pulse oximetry, and capnography are useful in making therapeutic changes in mechanical ventilator settings. The nurse can use trial and error or apply scientific principles to adjust mechanical ventilator settings efficiently to correct abnormalities in ventilation or oxygenation. Consistent application of these principles improves nursing assessment and interventions as well as prevents undue pain and expense on the patient's behalf.