Bridging communication between public and government: a case study on kim surabaya

Science.gov (United States)

Aji, G. G.; Tsuroyya; Dewi, P. A. R.

2018-01-01

In democratic era, the public communication paradigm has shifted from a one-way socialization to more interactive one. As a consequence of freedom of speech, the public can Actively communicate with the government and vice versa. The problem is government is almost impossible to reach all public groups. Therefore, they has created the concept of social institutions as a communication hub between the government and its public, named the Kelompok Informasi Masyarakat (KIM). This research examines the activity of KIM in Surabaya on bridging public between government and the public. Using a case study approach, this research utilized various techniques of data collection such as: interviews, observation, and documentation. The results Showed that KIM plays a role in the two-way flow of information; to diseminate program and submit complaints and suggestions from the public about the policy. This study confirm the urgency of utilization on various channels in communicating with the public.

Curating NASA's Past, Present, and Future Extraterrestrial Sample Collections

Science.gov (United States)

McCubbin, F. M.; Allton, J. H.; Evans, C. A.; Fries, M. D.; Nakamura-Messenger, K.; Righter, K.; Zeigler, R. A.; Zolensky, M.; Stansbery, E. K.

2016-01-01

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office (henceforth referred to herein as NASA Curation Office) at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is responsible for curating all of NASA's extraterrestrial samples. Under the governing document, NASA Policy Directive (NPD) 7100.10E "Curation of Extraterrestrial Materials", JSC is charged with "...curation of all extra-terrestrial material under NASA control, including future NASA missions." The Directive goes on to define Curation as including "...documentation, preservation, preparation, and distribution of samples for research, education, and public outreach." Here we describe some of the past, present, and future activities of the NASA Curation Office.

[KIM-1 and NGAL as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and cancer progression].

Science.gov (United States)

Marchewka, Zofia; Tacik, Aneta; Piwowar, Agnieszka

2016-04-18

On the basis of scientific literature, there is growing evidence that KIM-1 and NGAL are interesting and promising biomarkers not only in acute and chronic inflammatory processes but also in oncogenesis. There are a number of studies which investigate their possible use in diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of therapy effectiveness. The results of recent research suggests that they may play an important role in standard oncology practice. Simultaneous measurement of KIM-1 and NGAL in urine can play a crucial role in carcinogenesis assessment and cancer progression. In the future, they can become rapid diagnostic indicators, which allow one to determine cancer subtype leading to biopsy replacement and therapy improvement. In the present work, beside biochemical characteristics of KIM-1 and NGAL, we will also discuss their role in the diagnosis and assessment of development of cancer.

KIM-1 and NGAL as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and cancer progression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zofia Marchewka

2016-04-01

Full Text Available On the basis of scientific literature, there is growing evidence that KIM-1 and NGAL are interesting and promising biomarkers not only in acute and chronic inflammatory processes but also in oncogenesis. There are a number of studies which investigate their possible use in diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of therapy effectiveness. The results of recent research suggests that they may play an important role in standard oncology practice. Simultaneous measurement of KIM-1 and NGAL in urine can play a crucial role in carcinogenesis assessment and cancer progression. In the future, they can become rapid diagnostic indicators, which allow one to determine cancer subtype leading to biopsy replacement and therapy improvement. In the present work, beside biochemical characteristics of KIM-1 and NGAL, we will also discuss their role in the diagnosis and assessment of development of cancer.

Research Problems in Data Curation: Outcomes from the Data Curation Education in Research Centers Program

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, C. L.; Mayernik, M. S.; Weber, N.; Baker, K. S.; Kelly, K.; Marlino, M. R.; Thompson, C. A.

2013-12-01

The need for data curation is being recognized in numerous institutional settings as national research funding agencies extend data archiving mandates to cover more types of research grants. Data curation, however, is not only a practical challenge. It presents many conceptual and theoretical challenges that must be investigated to design appropriate technical systems, social practices and institutions, policies, and services. This presentation reports on outcomes from an investigation of research problems in data curation conducted as part of the Data Curation Education in Research Centers (DCERC) program. DCERC is developing a new model for educating data professionals to contribute to scientific research. The program is organized around foundational courses and field experiences in research and data centers for both master's and doctoral students. The initiative is led by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in collaboration with the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee, and library and data professionals at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). At the doctoral level DCERC is educating future faculty and researchers in data curation and establishing a research agenda to advance the field. The doctoral seminar, Research Problems in Data Curation, was developed and taught in 2012 by the DCERC principal investigator and two doctoral fellows at the University of Illinois. It was designed to define the problem space of data curation, examine relevant concepts and theories related to both technical and social perspectives, and articulate research questions that are either unexplored or under theorized in the current literature. There was a particular emphasis on the Earth and environmental sciences, with guest speakers brought in from NCAR, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Through the assignments, students

Can we replace curation with information extraction software?

Science.gov (United States)

Karp, Peter D

2016-01-01

Can we use programs for automated or semi-automated information extraction from scientific texts as practical alternatives to professional curation? I show that error rates of current information extraction programs are too high to replace professional curation today. Furthermore, current IEP programs extract single narrow slivers of information, such as individual protein interactions; they cannot extract the large breadth of information extracted by professional curators for databases such as EcoCyc. They also cannot arbitrate among conflicting statements in the literature as curators can. Therefore, funding agencies should not hobble the curation efforts of existing databases on the assumption that a problem that has stymied Artificial Intelligence researchers for more than 60 years will be solved tomorrow. Semi-automated extraction techniques appear to have significantly more potential based on a review of recent tools that enhance curator productivity. But a full cost-benefit analysis for these tools is lacking. Without such analysis it is possible to expend significant effort developing information-extraction tools that automate small parts of the overall curation workflow without achieving a significant decrease in curation costs.Database URL. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Curating research data a handbook of current practice

CERN Document Server

Johnston, Lisa R

2017-01-01

Curating Research Data, Volume Two: A Handbook of Current Practice guides you across the data lifecycle through the practical strategies and techniques for curating research data in a digital repository setting. The data curation steps for receiving, appraising, selecting, ingesting, transforming, describing, contextualizing, disseminating, and preserving digital research data are each explored, and then supplemented with detailed case studies written by more than forty international practitioners from national, disciplinary, and institutional data repositories. The steps in this volume detail the sequential actions that you might take to curate a data set from receiving the data (Step 1) to eventual reuse (Step 8). Data curators, archivists, research data management specialists, subject librarians, institutional repository managers, and digital library staff will benefit from these current and practical approaches to data curation.

Digital curation: a proposal of a semi-automatic digital object selection-based model for digital curation in Big Data environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moisés Lima Dutra

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: This work presents a new approach for Digital Curations from a Big Data perspective. Objective: The objective is to propose techniques to digital curations for selecting and evaluating digital objects that take into account volume, velocity, variety, reality, and the value of the data collected from multiple knowledge domains. Methodology: This is an exploratory research of applied nature, which addresses the research problem in a qualitative way. Heuristics allow this semi-automatic process to be done either by human curators or by software agents. Results: As a result, it was proposed a model for searching, processing, evaluating and selecting digital objects to be processed by digital curations. Conclusions: It is possible to use Big Data environments as a source of information resources for Digital Curation; besides, Big Data techniques and tools can support the search and selection process of information resources by Digital Curations.

Arhitektuurimuuseum vaatab Aasiasse / Kim Sung Hong ; intervjueerinud Karin Hallas-Murula

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Kim Sung Hong

2009-01-01

Näituse kuraatori Kim Sung Hongiga 21. aprillini Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseumis avatud Lõuna-Korea kaasaegse arhitektuuri näitusest "Megacity network" ("Megalinna võrgustik"), Korea arhitektuurist, arhitektidest, muinsuskaitsest ja avalikust ruumist. Näituse kujundas Hwang Doo Jin

Investigating Astromaterials Curation Applications for Dexterous Robotic Arms

Science.gov (United States)

Snead, C. J.; Jang, J. H.; Cowden, T. R.; McCubbin, F. M.

2018-01-01

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation office at NASA Johnson Space Center is currently investigating tools and methods that will enable the curation of future astromaterials collections. Size and temperature constraints for astromaterials to be collected by current and future proposed missions will require the development of new robotic sample and tool handling capabilities. NASA Curation has investigated the application of robot arms in the past, and robotic 3-axis micromanipulators are currently in use for small particle curation in the Stardust and Cosmic Dust laboratories. While 3-axis micromanipulators have been extremely successful for activities involving the transfer of isolated particles in the 5-20 micron range (e.g. from microscope slide to epoxy bullet tip, beryllium SEM disk), their limited ranges of motion and lack of yaw, pitch, and roll degrees of freedom restrict their utility in other applications. For instance, curators removing particles from cosmic dust collectors by hand often employ scooping and rotating motions to successfully free trapped particles from the silicone oil coatings. Similar scooping and rotating motions are also employed when isolating a specific particle of interest from an aliquot of crushed meteorite. While cosmic dust curators have been remarkably successful with these kinds of particle manipulations using handheld tools, operator fatigue limits the number of particles that can be removed during a given extraction session. The challenges for curation of small particles will be exacerbated by mission requirements that samples be processed in N2 sample cabinets (i.e. gloveboxes). We have been investigating the use of compact robot arms to facilitate sample handling within gloveboxes. Six-axis robot arms potentially have applications beyond small particle manipulation. For instance, future sample return missions may involve biologically sensitive astromaterials that can be easily compromised by physical interaction with

North Korean Leadership Dynamics and Decision-making under Kim Jong-un: A Second Year Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

2014-03-01

Kim Kyong-hui was critically ill. Kim has a reported history of alcoholism and depression , which was exacerbated in the mid-2000s with her mari- tal...problems and the death of her daughter, Jang Kum-song, who com- mitted suicide in 2006. Some reports claim that she is also suffering from... teens , were

Self-Rerouting and Curative Interconnect Technology (SERCUIT)

Science.gov (United States)

2017-12-01

SPECIAL REPORT RDMR-CS-17-01 SELF-REROUTING AND CURATIVE INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGY (SERCUIT) Shiv Joshi Concepts to Systems, Inc...Final 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Self-Rerouting and Curative Interconnect Technology (SERCUIT) 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Shiv Joshi...concepts2systems.com (p) 434-207-5189 x (f) Click to view full size Title Contract Number SELF-REROUTING AND CURATIVE INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGY (SERCUIT) W911W6-17-C-0029

Lõuna-Korea teatel võib Kim peagi surra / Evelyn Kaldoja

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Kaldoja, Evelyn, 1980-

2009-01-01

Viidates Lõuna-Korea ja Hiina luureandmetele, väidab Lõuna-Korea meedia, et Põhja-Korea liidril Kim Jong-ilil on kõhunäärmevähk ja talle pole antud elada rohkem kui 5 aastat. Põhja-Korea valitsejadünastia

Curating NASA's Past, Present, and Future Astromaterial Sample Collections

Science.gov (United States)

Zeigler, R. A.; Allton, J. H.; Evans, C. A.; Fries, M. D.; McCubbin, F. M.; Nakamura-Messenger, K.; Righter, K.; Zolensky, M.; Stansbery, E. K.

2016-01-01

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASA Johnson Space Center (hereafter JSC curation) is responsible for curating all of NASA's extraterrestrial samples. JSC presently curates 9 different astromaterials collections in seven different clean-room suites: (1) Apollo Samples (ISO (International Standards Organization) class 6 + 7); (2) Antarctic Meteorites (ISO 6 + 7); (3) Cosmic Dust Particles (ISO 5); (4) Microparticle Impact Collection (ISO 7; formerly called Space-Exposed Hardware); (5) Genesis Solar Wind Atoms (ISO 4); (6) Stardust Comet Particles (ISO 5); (7) Stardust Interstellar Particles (ISO 5); (8) Hayabusa Asteroid Particles (ISO 5); (9) OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Coupons and Witness Plates (ISO 7). Additional cleanrooms are currently being planned to house samples from two new collections, Hayabusa 2 (2021) and OSIRIS-REx (2023). In addition to the labs that house the samples, we maintain a wide variety of infra-structure facilities required to support the clean rooms: HEPA-filtered air-handling systems, ultrapure dry gaseous nitrogen systems, an ultrapure water system, and cleaning facilities to provide clean tools and equipment for the labs. We also have sample preparation facilities for making thin sections, microtome sections, and even focused ion-beam sections. We routinely monitor the cleanliness of our clean rooms and infrastructure systems, including measurements of inorganic or organic contamination, weekly airborne particle counts, compositional and isotopic monitoring of liquid N2 deliveries, and daily UPW system monitoring. In addition to the physical maintenance of the samples, we track within our databases the current and ever changing characteristics (weight, location, etc.) of more than 250,000 individually numbered samples across our various collections, as well as more than 100,000 images, and countless "analog" records that record the sample processing records of each individual sample. JSC Curation is co-located with JSC

Monte Carlo lattice program KIM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cupini, E.; De Matteis, A.; Simonini, R.

1980-01-01

The Monte Carlo program KIM solves the steady-state linear neutron transport equation for a fixed-source problem or, by successive fixed-source runs, for the eigenvalue problem, in a two-dimensional thermal reactor lattice. Fluxes and reaction rates are the main quantities computed by the program, from which power distribution and few-group averaged cross sections are derived. The simulation ranges from 10 MeV to zero and includes anisotropic and inelastic scattering in the fast energy region, the epithermal Doppler broadening of the resonances of some nuclides, and the thermalization phenomenon by taking into account the thermal velocity distribution of some molecules. Besides the well known combinatorial geometry, the program allows complex configurations to be represented by a discrete set of points, an approach greatly improving calculation speed

Alfred Drury: The Artist as Curator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ben Thomas

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article presents a series of reflections on the experience of curating the exhibition ‘Alfred Drury and the New Sculpture’ in 2013. In particular, it charts the evolution of the design of the exhibition, notably its central tableau based on a photograph of the sculptor Alfred Drury’s studio in 1900. This photograph records a display of Drury’s works for visiting Australian patrons, and could be said to record evidence of the artist curating his own work. The legitimacy of deriving a curatorial approach from this photographic evidence is discussed, along with the broader problem of ‘historicizing’ approaches to curating.

Advanced Curation Activities at NASA: Preparation for Upcoming Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Fries, M. D.; Evans, C. A.; McCubbin, F. M.; Harrington, A. D.; Regberg, A. B.; Snead, C. J.; Zeigler, R. A.

2017-07-01

NASA Curation cares for NASA's astromaterials and performs advanced curation so as to improve current practices and prepare for future collections. Cold curation, microbial monitoring, contamination control/knowledge and other aspects are reviewed.

The curation of genetic variants: difficulties and possible solutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Pandey, Kapil Raj; Maden, Narendra; Poudel, Barsha; Pradhananga, Sailendra; Sharma, Amit Kumar

2012-12-01

The curation of genetic variants from biomedical articles is required for various clinical and research purposes. Nowadays, establishment of variant databases that include overall information about variants is becoming quite popular. These databases have immense utility, serving as a user-friendly information storehouse of variants for information seekers. While manual curation is the gold standard method for curation of variants, it can turn out to be time-consuming on a large scale thus necessitating the need for automation. Curation of variants described in biomedical literature may not be straightforward mainly due to various nomenclature and expression issues. Though current trends in paper writing on variants is inclined to the standard nomenclature such that variants can easily be retrieved, we have a massive store of variants in the literature that are present as non-standard names and the online search engines that are predominantly used may not be capable of finding them. For effective curation of variants, knowledge about the overall process of curation, nature and types of difficulties in curation, and ways to tackle the difficulties during the task are crucial. Only by effective curation, can variants be correctly interpreted. This paper presents the process and difficulties of curation of genetic variants with possible solutions and suggestions from our work experience in the field including literature support. The paper also highlights aspects of interpretation of genetic variants and the importance of writing papers on variants following standard and retrievable methods. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

DataShare: Empowering Researcher Data Curation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Abrams

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Researchers are increasingly being asked to ensure that all products of research activity – not just traditional publications – are preserved and made widely available for study and reuse as a precondition for publication or grant funding, or to conform to disciplinary best practices. In order to conform to these requirements, scholars need effective, easy-to-use tools and services for the long-term curation of their research data. The DataShare service, developed at the University of California, is being used by researchers to: (1 prepare for curation by reviewing best practice recommendations for the acquisition or creation of digital research data; (2 select datasets using intuitive file browsing and drag-and-drop interfaces; (3 describe their data for enhanced discoverability in terms of the DataCite metadata schema; (4 preserve their data by uploading to a public access collection in the UC3 Merritt curation repository; (5 cite their data in terms of persistent and globally-resolvable DOI identifiers; (6 expose their data through registration with well-known abstracting and indexing services and major internet search engines; (7 control the dissemination of their data through enforceable data use agreements; and (8 discover and retrieve datasets of interest through a faceted search and browse environment. Since the widespread adoption of effective data management practices is highly dependent on ease of use and integration into existing individual, institutional, and disciplinary workflows, the emphasis throughout the design and implementation of DataShare is to provide the highest level of curation service with the lowest possible technical barriers to entry by individual researchers. By enabling intuitive, self-service access to data curation functions, DataShare helps to contribute to more widespread adoption of good data curation practices that are critical to open scientific inquiry, discourse, and advancement.

Against the Nihilism of Suffering and Death: Richard E. K. Kim and His Works

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jooyeon Rhee

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This article examines the life and works of Richard E. K. Kim (1932–2009, a first-generation Korean diasporic writer in the United States. It focuses on how Kim struggled to overcome the nihilism of suffering and death that derived from colonialism and the Korean War through his literary works. Kim witnessed firsthand these two major historical events, which caused irrevocable psychological and physical damage to many people of his generation. In his autobiographical fiction, he conveys painful memories of the events by reviving the voices of people in that era. What his works offer us goes beyond vivid memories of the past, however; they also present the power of forgiveness as a condition to overcome the nihilism of suffering and death. Remembrance and forgiveness are, therefore, two major thematic pillars of his works that enable us to connect to these difficult and traumatic times. These themes are portrayed in such a gripping way mainly because Kim tried to maintain a certain distance—an emotional and linguistic distance—from the familiar, in order to elucidate the reality of the human condition: an ontological position of the exile from which he produced his works. This article argues that Kim’s works provide us the possibility to transcend the nihilism of historical trauma through articulating the meaning of remembrance and forgiveness from his self-assumed position of exile.

Curating research data practical strategies for your digital repository

CERN Document Server

Johnston, Lisa R

2017-01-01

Volume One of Curating Research Data explores the variety of reasons, motivations, and drivers for why data curation services are needed in the context of academic and disciplinary data repository efforts. Twelve chapters, divided into three parts, take an in-depth look at the complex practice of data curation as it emerges around us. Part I sets the stage for data curation by describing current policies, data sharing cultures, and collaborative efforts currently underway that impact potential services. Part II brings several key issues, such as cost recovery and marketing strategy, into focus for practitioners when considering how to put data curation services in action. Finally, Part III describes the full lifecycle of data by examining the ethical and practical reuse issues that data curation practitioners must consider as we strive to prepare data for the future.

Global Policing and the Case of Kim Dotcom

OpenAIRE

Darren Palmer; Ian J Warren

2013-01-01

In early 2012, 76 heavily armed police conducted a raid on a house in Auckland, New Zealand. The targets were Kim Dotcom, a German national with a NZ residency visa, and several colleagues affiliated with Megaupload, an online subscription-based peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing facility. The alleged offences involved facilitating unlawful file sharing and United States federal criminal copyright violations. Following the raid, several court cases provide valuable insights into emerging ‘global...

Ab initio and Gordon--Kim intermolecular potentials for two nitrogen molecules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ree, F.H.; Winter, N.W.

1980-01-01

Both ab initio MO--LCAO--SCF and the electron-gas (or Gordon--Kim) methods have been used to compute the intermolecular potential (Phi) of N 2 molecules for seven different N 2 --N 2 orientations. The ab initio calculations were carried out using a [4s3p] contracted Gaussian basis set with and without 3d polarization functions. The larger basis set provides adequate results for Phi>0.002 hartree or intermolecular separations less than 6.5--7 bohr. We use a convenient analytic expression to represent the ab initio data in terms of the intermolecular distance and three angles defining the orientations of the two N 2 molecules. The Gordon--Kim method with Rae's self-exchange correction yields Phi, which agrees reasonably well over a large repulsive range. However, a detailed comparison of the electron kinetic energy contributions shows a large difference between the ab initio and the Gordon--Kim calculations. Using the ab initio data we derive an atom--atom potential of the two N 2 molecules. Although this expression does not accurately fit the data at some orientations, its spherical average agrees with the corresponding average of the ab initio Phi remarkably well. The spherically averaged ab initio Phi is also compared with the corresponding quantities derived from experimental considerations. The approach of the ab initio Phi to the classical quadrupole--quadrupole interaction at large intermolecular separation is also discussed

Kim C. Sturgess. Shakespeare and the American Nation.

OpenAIRE

Claret, Jean‑Louis

2006-01-01

The front page of Kim C Sturgess’s recent book entitled Shakespeare and the American Nation is particularly mind‑teasing insofar as it represents the famous Droeshout engraving of the bard (it illustrated the front‑page of the 1623 edition of Shakespeare’s works) standing out against a background that superimposes the head of the Statue of Liberty on the spangled banner. The starting point of Sturgess’s 234‑page demonstration endorsed by Cambridge University Press is a paradox that the Britis...

Urinary NGAL, KIM-1 and L-FABP concentrations in antenatal hydronephrosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Noyan, Aytul; Parmaksiz, Gonul; Dursun, Hasan; Ezer, Semire Serin; Anarat, Ruksan; Cengiz, Nurcan

2015-10-01

The clinical tests currently in use for obstructive nephropathy (such as renal ultrasonography, differential radionuclide renal scans and urinary creatinine concentration data) are not efficient predictors of the subsequent clinical course. Novel and simple biomarkers are required which, if proven, could be clinically beneficial in determining if a patient is eligible for surgery or reno-protective therapy. More recently, the interest of clinicians has focused on the potential of urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL), urinary kidney injury molecule-1 (uKIM-1) and urinary liver-type fatty acid-binding proteins (uL-FABP) as biomarkers for renal function in children with hydronephrosis (HN). The purpose of this study was to investigate possible clinical applications of uNGAL, uKIM-1 and uL-FABP as beneficial non-invasive biomarkers to determine whether or not surgical intervention is required in children with HN. Renal ultrasonography and radionuclide renal scans were used as diagnostic tools to detect HN. Patients were divided into two groups based on the antero-posterior diameter of their renal pelvis and the presence of dysfunction. Group 1 included 26 children with severe HN (with dysfunction), and group 2 consisted of 36 children with mild HN (without dysfunction). Urine samples were collected from 62 children with HN and 20 healthy children. Hydronephrosis was more common in males than in females, with a male to female ratio of 9:1 in the study sample. The incidence of left kidney involvement (32 patients) was slightly higher than right kidney involvement (28 patients). Compared with controls and group 2, the ratio of uNGAL to creatinine was significantly higher in group 1 (p hydronephrosis and dysfunction had significantly increased uNGAL, and uNGAL/Cr concentrations. However, uKIM-1, uKIM-1/Cr, uL-FABP and uL-FABP/Cr concentrations were not significantly different when compared with controls. These results support the use of u

Qrator: A web-based curation tool for glycan structures

Science.gov (United States)

Eavenson, Matthew; Kochut, Krys J; Miller, John A; Ranzinger, René; Tiemeyer, Michael; Aoki, Kazuhiro; York, William S

2015-01-01

Most currently available glycan structure databases use their own proprietary structure representation schema and contain numerous annotation errors. These cause problems when glycan databases are used for the annotation or mining of data generated in the laboratory. Due to the complexity of glycan structures, curating these databases is often a tedious and labor-intensive process. However, rigorously validating glycan structures can be made easier with a curation workflow that incorporates a structure-matching algorithm that compares candidate glycans to a canonical tree that embodies structural features consistent with established mechanisms for the biosynthesis of a particular class of glycans. To this end, we have implemented Qrator, a web-based application that uses a combination of external literature and database references, user annotations and canonical trees to assist and guide researchers in making informed decisions while curating glycans. Using this application, we have started the curation of large numbers of N-glycans, O-glycans and glycosphingolipids. Our curation workflow allows creating and extending canonical trees for these classes of glycans, which have subsequently been used to improve the curation workflow. PMID:25165068

Kim C. Sturgess. Shakespeare and the American Nation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean‑Louis Claret

2006-04-01

Full Text Available The front page of Kim C Sturgess’s recent book entitled Shakespeare and the American Nation is particularly mind‑teasing insofar as it represents the famous Droeshout engraving of the bard (it illustrated the front‑page of the 1623 edition of Shakespeare’s works standing out against a background that superimposes the head of the Statue of Liberty on the spangled banner. The starting point of Sturgess’s 234‑page demonstration endorsed by Cambridge University Press is a paradox that the Britis...

Curating Gothic Nightmares

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heather Tilley

2007-10-01

Full Text Available This review takes the occasion of a workshop given by Martin Myrone, curator of Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake, and the Romantic Imagination (Tate Britain, 2006 as a starting point to reflect on the practice of curating, and its relation to questions of the verbal and the visual in contemporary art historical practice. The exhibition prompted an engagement with questions of the genre of Gothic, through a dramatic display of the differences between ‘the Gothic' in literature and ‘the Gothic' in the visual arts within eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century culture. I also address the various ways in which 'the Gothic' was interpreted and reinscribed by visitors, especially those who dressed up for the exhibition. Finally, I consider some of the show's ‘marginalia' (specifically the catalogue, exploring the ways in which these extra events and texts shaped, and continue to shape, the cultural effect of the exhibition.

Data Curation in the World Data System: Proposed Framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P Laughton

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The value of data in society is increasing rapidly. Organisations that work with data should have standard practices in place to ensure successful curation of data. The World Data System (WDS consists of a number of data centres responsible for curating research data sets for the scientific community. The WDS has no formal data curation framework or model in place to act as a guideline for member data centres. The objective of this research was to develop a framework for the curation of data in the WDS. A multiple-case case study was conducted. Interviews were used to gather qualitative data and analysis of the data, which led to the development of this framework. The proposed framework is largely based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS functional model and caters for the curation of both analogue and digital data.

The first clinical treatment with kilovoltage intrafraction monitoring (KIM): A real-time image guidance method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Keall, Paul J.; Aun Ng, Jin; O'Brien, Ricky

2015-01-01

on September 16, 2014. Methods: KIM uses current and prior 2D x-ray images to estimate the 3D target position during cancer radiotherapy treatment delivery. KIM software was written to process kilovoltage (kV) images streamed from a standard C-arm linear accelerator with a gantry-mounted kV x-ray imaging...... system. A 120° pretreatment kV imaging arc was acquired to build the patient-specific 2D to 3D motion correlation. The kV imager was activated during the megavoltage (MV) treatment, a dual arc VMAT prostate treatment, to estimate the 3D prostate position in real-time. All necessary ethics, legal......, and regulatory requirements were met for this clinical study. The quality assurance processes were completed and peer reviewed. Results: During treatment, a prostate position offset of nearly 3 mm in the posterior direction was observed with KIM. This position offset did not trigger a gating event. After...

The curation paradigm and application tool used for manual curation of the scientific literature at the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Allan Peter; Wiegers, Thomas C.; Murphy, Cynthia G.; Mattingly, Carolyn J.

2011-01-01

The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) is a public resource that promotes understanding about the effects of environmental chemicals on human health. CTD biocurators read the scientific literature and convert free-text information into a structured format using official nomenclature, integrating third party controlled vocabularies for chemicals, genes, diseases and organisms, and a novel controlled vocabulary for molecular interactions. Manual curation produces a robust, richly annotated dataset of highly accurate and detailed information. Currently, CTD describes over 349 000 molecular interactions between 6800 chemicals, 20 900 genes (for 330 organisms) and 4300 diseases that have been manually curated from over 25 400 peer-reviewed articles. This manually curated data are further integrated with other third party data (e.g. Gene Ontology, KEGG and Reactome annotations) to generate a wealth of toxicogenomic relationships. Here, we describe our approach to manual curation that uses a powerful and efficient paradigm involving mnemonic codes. This strategy allows biocurators to quickly capture detailed information from articles by generating simple statements using codes to represent the relationships between data types. The paradigm is versatile, expandable, and able to accommodate new data challenges that arise. We have incorporated this strategy into a web-based curation tool to further increase efficiency and productivity, implement quality control in real-time and accommodate biocurators working remotely. Database URL: http://ctd.mdibl.org PMID:21933848

Curating NASA's Future Extraterrestrial Sample Collections: How Do We Achieve Maximum Proficiency?

Science.gov (United States)

McCubbin, Francis; Evans, Cynthia; Zeigler, Ryan; Allton, Judith; Fries, Marc; Righter, Kevin; Zolensky, Michael

2016-01-01

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office (henceforth referred to herein as NASA Curation Office) at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is responsible for curating all of NASA's extraterrestrial samples. Under the governing document, NASA Policy Directive (NPD) 7100.10E "Curation of Extraterrestrial Materials", JSC is charged with "The curation of all extraterrestrial material under NASA control, including future NASA missions." The Directive goes on to define Curation as including "... documentation, preservation, preparation, and distribution of samples for research, education, and public outreach." Here we describe some of the ongoing efforts to ensure that the future activities of the NASA Curation Office are working towards a state of maximum proficiency.

Opening Data in the Long Tail for Community Discovery, Curation and Action Using Active and Social Curation

Science.gov (United States)

Hedstrom, M. L.; Kumar, P.; Myers, J.; Plale, B. A.

2012-12-01

In data science, the most common sequence of steps for data curation are to 1) curate data, 2) enable data discovery, and 3) provide for data reuse. The Sustainable Environments - Actionable Data (SEAD) project, funded through NSF's DataNet program, is creating an environment for sustainability scientists to discover data first, reuse data next, and curate data though an on-going process that we call Active and Social Curation. For active curation we are developing tools and services that support data discovery, data management, and data enhancement for the community while the data is still being used actively for research. We are creating an Active Content Repository, using drop box, semantic web technologies, and a Flickr-like interface for researchers to "drop" data into a repository where it will be replicated and minimally discoverable. For social curation, we are deploying a social networking tool, VIVO, which will allow researchers to discover data-publications-people (e.g. expertise) through a route that can start at any of those entry points. The other dimension of social curation is developing mechanisms to open data for community input, for example, using ranking and commenting mechanisms for data sets and a community-sourcing capability to add tags, clean up and validate data sets. SEAD's strategies and services are aimed at the sustainability science community, which faces numerous challenges including discovery of useful data, cleaning noisy observational data, synthesizing data of different types, defining appropriate models, managing and preserving their research data, and conveying holistic results to colleagues, students, decision makers, and the public. Sustainability researchers make significant use of centrally managed data from satellites and national sensor networks, national scientific and statistical agencies, and data archives. At the same time, locally collected data and custom derived data products that combine observations and

Meeting Curation Challenges in a Neuroimaging Group

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angus Whyte

2008-08-01

Full Text Available The SCARP project is a series of short studies with two aims; firstly to discover more about disciplinary approaches and attitudes to digital curation through ‘immersion’ in selected cases; secondly to apply known good practice, and where possible, identify new lessons from practice in the selected discipline areas. The study summarised here is of the Neuroimaging Group in the University of Edinburgh’s Division of Psychiatry, which plays a leading role in eScience collaborations to improve the infrastructure for neuroimaging data integration and reuse. The Group also aims to address growing data storage and curation needs, given the capabilities afforded by new infrastructure. The study briefly reviews the policy context and current challenges to data integration and sharing in the neuroimaging field. It then describes how curation and preservation risks and opportunities for change were identified throughout the curation lifecycle; and their context appreciated through field study in the research site. The results are consistent with studies of neuroimaging eInfrastructure that emphasise the role of local data sharing and reuse practices. These sustain mutual awareness of datasets and experimental protocols through sharing peer to peer, and among senior researchers and students, enabling continuity in research and flexibility in project work. This “human infrastructure” is taken into account in considering next steps for curation and preservation of the Group’s datasets and a phased approach to supporting data documentation.

The diagnostic importance of the new marker KIM-1 in kidney damage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zofia Marchewka

2013-07-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the rapid development of scientific research led to the introduction of strategies based on new markers that allow for estimation of the latent disease period before the clinical symptoms of actual kidney failure are revealed.The experimental tests carried out on animals and cell lines derived from the proximal tubule have made possible the detection of genes that are induced early after hypoxia [1].The protein products of these genes can be considered as useful markers for the diagnosis of renal failure. The induction of gene KIM-1 (called Kidney Injury Molecule-1 results in the formation of protein that can be considered as a diagnostic marker.This work describes the data on the structure, biological function and importance of determining the concentrations of KIM-1 in the diagnosis of drug-induced toxicity and kidney damage.

[The diagnostic importance of the new marker KIM-1 in kidney damage].

Science.gov (United States)

Marchewka, Zofia; Płonka, Joanna

2013-07-24

In recent years, the rapid development of scientific research led to the introduction of strategies based on new markers that allow for estimation of the latent disease period before the clinical symptoms of actual kidney failure are revealed. The experimental tests carried out on animals and cell lines derived from the proximal tubule have made possible the detection of genes that are induced early after hypoxia. The protein products of these genes can be considered as useful markers for the diagnosis of renal failure. The induction of gene KIM-1 (called Kidney Injury Molecule-1) results in the formation of protein that can be considered as a diagnostic marker. This work describes the data on the structure, biological function and importance of determining the concentrations of KIM-1 in the diagnosis of drug-induced toxicity and kidney damage.

Research Data Curation Pilots: Lessons Learned

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Minor

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In the spring of 2011, the UC San Diego Research Cyberinfrastructure (RCI Implementation Team invited researchers and research teams to participate in a research curation and data management pilot program. This invitation took the form of a campus-wide solicitation. More than two dozen applications were received and, after due deliberation, the RCI Oversight Committee selected five curation-intensive projects. These projects were chosen based on a number of criteria, including how they represented campus research, varieties of topics, researcher engagement, and the various services required. The pilot process began in September 2011, and will be completed in early 2014. Extensive lessons learned from the pilots are being compiled and are being used in the on-going design and implementation of the permanent Research Data Curation Program in the UC San Diego Library. In this paper, we present specific implementation details of these various services, as well as lessons learned. The program focused on many aspects of contemporary scholarship, including data creation and storage, description and metadata creation, citation and publication, and long term preservation and access. Based on the lessons learned in our processes, the Research Data Curation Program will provide a suite of services from which campus users can pick and choose, as necessary. The program will provide support for the data management requirements from national funding agencies.

An Emergent Micro-Services Approach to Digital Curation Infrastructure

OpenAIRE

Abrams, Stephen; Kunze, John; Loy, David

2010-01-01

In order better to meet the needs of its diverse University of California (UC) constituencies, the California Digital Library UC Curation Center is re-envisioning its approach to digital curation infrastructure by devolving function into a set of granular, independent, but interoperable micro-services. Since each of these services is small and self-contained, they are more easily developed, deployed, maintained, and enhanced; at the same time, complex curation function can emerge from the str...

Kim Wŏn-haeng’s Intellectual Influences on Hong Tae-yong: The Case of Relations between

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Login Lok-yin Law

2015-08-01

Full Text Available In the 18th century Chosŏn (1392-1910, some scholars, such as Hong Tae-yong (1731-1783 advocated that Chosŏn should learn the advantages of the Qing (1644-1912 society to reform the social structure and government of Chosŏn. The school of these advocates has been known as Pukhak by historians. The intellectual factors of the school of Pukhak’s formation and development have been overlooked by the academia of Chosŏn intellectual history. In fact, Pukhak was closely related to the idea of the school of Nakhak which believed that nature of things was equivalent to humans. Kim Wŏn-haeng, was one of the supporters of Nakhak and Hong Tae-yong was one of the students of Kim. Hong’s thought and writing exposed that his thought was profoundly influenced by Kim Wŏn-haeng. Hong was deemed to be the first prominent scholar of the Pukhak School during the 18th century Chosŏn. Hong and other scholars of Pukhak advocated learning the new knowledge from Qing China even though it was a barbarian society. Therefore, this paper will investigate the intellectual relationships between Hong Tae-yong and Kim Wŏn-haeng to reveal how intellectuals of Nakhak shaped the formation of Pukhak School and exposed the idea of learning from Qing China.

WeCurate: Designing for synchronised browsing and social negotiation

OpenAIRE

Hazelden, Katina; Yee-King, Matthew; d'Inverno, Mark; Confalonieri, Roberto; De Jonge, Dave; Amgoud, Leila; Osman, Nardine; Prade, Henri; Sierra, Carles

2012-01-01

WeCurate is a shared image browser for collaboratively curating a virtual exhibition from a cultural image archive. This paper is concerned with the evaluation and iteration of a prototype UI (User Interface) design to enable this community image browsing. In WeCurate, several remote users work together with autonomic agents to browse the archive and to select, through negotiation and voting, a set of images which are of the greatest interest to the group. The UI allows users to synchronize v...

Improving the Acquisition and Management of Sample Curation Data

Science.gov (United States)

Todd, Nancy S.; Evans, Cindy A.; Labasse, Dan

2011-01-01

This paper discusses the current sample documentation processes used during and after a mission, examines the challenges and special considerations needed for designing effective sample curation data systems, and looks at the results of a simulated sample result mission and the lessons learned from this simulation. In addition, it introduces a new data architecture for an integrated sample Curation data system being implemented at the NASA Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation department and discusses how it improves on existing data management systems.

Scaling drug indication curation through crowdsourcing.

Science.gov (United States)

Khare, Ritu; Burger, John D; Aberdeen, John S; Tresner-Kirsch, David W; Corrales, Theodore J; Hirchman, Lynette; Lu, Zhiyong

2015-01-01

Motivated by the high cost of human curation of biological databases, there is an increasing interest in using computational approaches to assist human curators and accelerate the manual curation process. Towards the goal of cataloging drug indications from FDA drug labels, we recently developed LabeledIn, a human-curated drug indication resource for 250 clinical drugs. Its development required over 40 h of human effort across 20 weeks, despite using well-defined annotation guidelines. In this study, we aim to investigate the feasibility of scaling drug indication annotation through a crowdsourcing technique where an unknown network of workers can be recruited through the technical environment of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). To translate the expert-curation task of cataloging indications into human intelligence tasks (HITs) suitable for the average workers on MTurk, we first simplify the complex task such that each HIT only involves a worker making a binary judgment of whether a highlighted disease, in context of a given drug label, is an indication. In addition, this study is novel in the crowdsourcing interface design where the annotation guidelines are encoded into user options. For evaluation, we assess the ability of our proposed method to achieve high-quality annotations in a time-efficient and cost-effective manner. We posted over 3000 HITs drawn from 706 drug labels on MTurk. Within 8 h of posting, we collected 18 775 judgments from 74 workers, and achieved an aggregated accuracy of 96% on 450 control HITs (where gold-standard answers are known), at a cost of $1.75 per drug label. On the basis of these results, we conclude that our crowdsourcing approach not only results in significant cost and time saving, but also leads to accuracy comparable to that of domain experts. Published by Oxford University Press 2015. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

Screen Practice in Curating

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Tanya Søndergaard

2014-01-01

During the past one and a half decade, a curatorial orientation towards "screen practice" has expanded the moving image and digital art into the public domain, exploring alternative artistic uses of the screen. The emergence of urban LED screens in the late 1990s provided a new venue that allowed...... for digital art to expand into public space. It also offered a political point of departure, inviting for confrontation with the Spectacle and with the politics and ideology of the screen as a mass communication medium that instrumentalized spectator positions. In this article I propose that screen practice...... to the dispositif of screen practice in curating, resulting in a medium-based curatorial discourse. With reference to the nomadic exhibition project Nordic Outbreak that I co-curated with Nina Colosi in 2013 and 2014, I suggest that the topos of the defined visual display area, frequently still known as "the screen...

Language and Family Dispersion: North Korean Linguist Kim Su-gyŏng and the Korean War

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ryuta Itagaki

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the unpublished memoir of Kim Su-gyŏng (1918–2000, a linguist who was active in North Korea from the mid-1940s until the late 1960s, and situates his account of his experience of the Korean War within the context of his linguistic essays and correspondence. In doing so, the article considers the role that the personal and the social play in language, utilizing Saussure’s theoretical framework, with which Kim himself was well versed. Kim wrote his memoirs in the 1990s to his family, from whom he had become separated during the Korean War and who now lived in Toronto. In this text, he writes in “personal” language that reveals his uncertainty and his feelings for his family, but then immediately negates these feelings through the use of “social” language, which resonates with his interpretation of the linguistic thesis that Josef Stalin developed during the Korean War on language and national identity. For Kim, the relationship between language and nation was not at all self-evident, but something that he idealized in response to the dispersal of his family. By offering a reflexive reading of a memoir written by a North Korean linguist, this article makes a breakthrough in the investigation of North Korean wartime academic history, which has not risen above the level of analyzing articles in the field of linguistics that were published at the time.

Understanding internal backgrounds in NaI(Tl) crystals toward a 200 kg array for the KIMS-NaI experiment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adhikari, P.; Adhikari, G.; Oh, S.Y. [Sejong University, Department of Physics, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Choi, S.; Joo, H.W.; Kim, K.W.; Kim, S.K. [Seoul National University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Ha, C.; Jeon, E.J.; Kang, W.G.; Kim, H.O.; Kim, N.Y.; Lee, H.S.; Lee, J.H.; Lee, M.H.; Leonard, D.S.; Li, J.; Olsen, S.L.; Park, H.K.; Park, K.S.; So, J.H.; Yoon, Y.S. [Institute for Basic Science, Center for Underground Physics, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Hahn, I.S. [Ewha Womans University, Department of Science Education, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, H.J. [Kyungpook National University, Department of Physics, Daegu (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Y.D. [Sejong University, Department of Physics, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Institute for Basic Science, Center for Underground Physics, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Y.H. [Institute for Basic Science, Center for Underground Physics, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Park, H.S. [Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-04-15

The Korea Invisible Mass Search (KIMS) collaboration has developed low-background NaI(Tl) crystals that are suitable for the direct detection of WIMP dark matter. Building on experience accumulated during the KIMS-CsI programs, the KIMS-NaI experiment will consist of a 200 kg NaI(Tl) crystal array surrounded by layers of shielding structures and will be operated at the Yangyang underground laboratory. The goal is to provide an unambiguous test of the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signature. Measurements of six prototype crystals show progress in the reduction of internal contamination from radioisotopes. Based on our understanding of these measurements, we expect to achieve a background level in the final detector configuration that is less than 1 count/day/keV/kg for recoil energies around 2 keV. The annual modulation sensitivity for the KIMS-NaI experiment shows that an unambiguous 7σ test of the DAMA/LIBRA signature would be possible with a 600 kg year exposure with this system. (orig.)

Data Curation Network: How Do We Compare? A Snapshot of Six Academic Library Institutions’ Data Repository and Curation Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lisa R. Johnston

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Objective: Many academic and research institutions are exploring opportunities to better support researchers in sharing their data. As partners in the Data Curation Network project, our six institutions developed a comparison of the current levels of support provided for researchers to meet their data sharing goals through library-based data repository and curation services. Methods: Each institutional lead provided a written summary of their services based on a previously developed structure, followed by group discussion and refinement of descriptions. Service areas assessed include the repository services for data, technologies used, policies, and staffing in place. Conclusions: Through this process we aim to better define the current levels of support offered by our institutions as a first step toward meeting our project's overarching goal to develop a shared staffing model for data curation across multiple institutions.

Digital curation theory and practice

CERN Document Server

Hedges, Mark

2016-01-01

Digital curation is a multi-skilled profession with a key role to play not only in domains traditionally associated with the management of information, such as libraries and archives, but in a broad range of market sectors. Digital information is a defining feature of our age. As individuals we increasingly communicate and record our lives and memories in digital form, whether consciously or as a by-product of broader social, cultural and business activities. Throughout government and industry, there is a pressing need to manage complex information assets and to exploit their social, cultural and commercial value. This book addresses the key strategic, technical and practical issues around digital curation, curatorial practice, and locating the discussions within an appropriate theoretical context.

The Importance of Contamination Knowledge in Curation - Insights into Mars Sample Return

Science.gov (United States)

Harrington, A. D.; Calaway, M. J.; Regberg, A. B.; Mitchell, J. L.; Fries, M. D.; Zeigler, R. A.; McCubbin, F. M.

2018-01-01

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), in Houston, TX (henceforth Curation Office) manages the curation of extraterrestrial samples returned by NASA missions and shared collections from international partners, preserving their integrity for future scientific study while providing the samples to the international community in a fair and unbiased way. The Curation Office also curates flight and non-flight reference materials and other materials from spacecraft assembly (e.g., lubricants, paints and gases) of sample return missions that would have the potential to cross-contaminate a present or future NASA astromaterials collection.

Text Mining to Support Gene Ontology Curation and Vice Versa.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruch, Patrick

2017-01-01

In this chapter, we explain how text mining can support the curation of molecular biology databases dealing with protein functions. We also show how curated data can play a disruptive role in the developments of text mining methods. We review a decade of efforts to improve the automatic assignment of Gene Ontology (GO) descriptors, the reference ontology for the characterization of genes and gene products. To illustrate the high potential of this approach, we compare the performances of an automatic text categorizer and show a large improvement of +225 % in both precision and recall on benchmarked data. We argue that automatic text categorization functions can ultimately be embedded into a Question-Answering (QA) system to answer questions related to protein functions. Because GO descriptors can be relatively long and specific, traditional QA systems cannot answer such questions. A new type of QA system, so-called Deep QA which uses machine learning methods trained with curated contents, is thus emerging. Finally, future advances of text mining instruments are directly dependent on the availability of high-quality annotated contents at every curation step. Databases workflows must start recording explicitly all the data they curate and ideally also some of the data they do not curate.

Curative radiotherapy of supraglottic cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Yong Ho; Chai, Gyu Young

1998-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of curative radiotherapy in the management of supraglottic cancer. Twenty-one patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the supraglottis were treated with radiotherapy at Gyeongsang National University Hospital between 1990 and 1994. Median follow-up period was 36 months and 95% were observed for at least 2 years. Actuarial survival rate at 5 years was 39.3% for 21 patients. The 5-year actuarial survival rate was 75.0% in Stage I, 42.9% in Stage II, 33.3% in Stage III, and 28.6% in Stage IV(p=0.54). The 5-year local control rate was 52.0% for 21 patients. The 5-year local control rate was 75.0% in Stage I, 57.1% in Stage II, 66.7% in Stage III, and 28.6% in Stage IV(p=0.33). Double primary cancer was developed in 3 patients and those were all esophageal cancers. In early stage(Stage I and II) supraglottic cancer, curative radiotherapy would be a treatment of choice and surgery would be better to be reserved for salvage of radiotherapy failure. In advanced stage(Stage III and IV), radiotherapy alone is inadequate for curative therapy and combination with surgery should be done in operable patients. This report emphasizes the importance of esophagoscopy and esophagogram at the follow-up of patients with supraglottic cancer

An Emergent Micro-Services Approach to Digital Curation Infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Abrams

2010-07-01

Full Text Available In order better to meet the needs of its diverse University of California (UC constituencies, the California Digital Library UC Curation Center is re-envisioning its approach to digital curation infrastructure by devolving function into a set of granular, independent, but interoperable micro-services. Since each of these services is small and self-contained, they are more easily developed, deployed, maintained, and enhanced; at the same time, complex curation function can emerge from the strategic combination of atomistic services. The emergent approach emphasizes the persistence of content rather than the systems in which that content is managemed, thus the paradigmatic archival culture is not unduly coupled to any particular technological context. This results in a curation environment that is comprehensive in scope, yet flexible with regard to local policies and practices and sustainable despite the inevitability of disruptive change in technology and user expectation.

International survey of academic library data curation practices

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

This survey looks closely at the data curation practices of a sample of research-oriented universities largely from the USA, the UK, Australia and Scandinavia but also including India, South Africa and other countries. The study looks at how major universities are assisting faculty in developing data curation and management plans for large scale data projects, largely in the sciences and social sciences, often as pre-conditions for major grants. The report looks at which departments of universities are shouldering the data curation burden, the personnel involved in the efforts, the costs involved, types of software used, difficulties in procuring scientific experiment logs and other hard to obtain information, types of training offered to faculty, and other issues in large scale data management.

Curating NASA's future extraterrestrial sample collections: How do we achieve maximum proficiency?

Science.gov (United States)

McCubbin, Francis; Evans, Cynthia; Allton, Judith; Fries, Marc; Righter, Kevin; Zolensky, Michael; Zeigler, Ryan

2016-07-01

Introduction: The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office (henceforth referred to herein as NASA Curation Office) at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is responsible for curating all of NASA's extraterrestrial samples. Under the governing document, NASA Policy Directive (NPD) 7100.10E "Curation of Extraterrestrial Materials", JSC is charged with "The curation of all extraterrestrial material under NASA control, including future NASA missions." The Directive goes on to define Curation as including "…documentation, preservation, preparation, and distribution of samples for research, education, and public outreach." Here we describe some of the ongoing efforts to ensure that the future activities of the NASA Curation Office are working to-wards a state of maximum proficiency. Founding Principle: Curatorial activities began at JSC (Manned Spacecraft Center before 1973) as soon as design and construction planning for the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) began in 1964 [1], not with the return of the Apollo samples in 1969, nor with the completion of the LRL in 1967. This practice has since proven that curation begins as soon as a sample return mission is conceived, and this founding principle continues to return dividends today [e.g., 2]. The Next Decade: Part of the curation process is planning for the future, and we refer to these planning efforts as "advanced curation" [3]. Advanced Curation is tasked with developing procedures, technology, and data sets necessary for curating new types of collections as envisioned by NASA exploration goals. We are (and have been) planning for future curation, including cold curation, extended curation of ices and volatiles, curation of samples with special chemical considerations such as perchlorate-rich samples, curation of organically- and biologically-sensitive samples, and the use of minimally invasive analytical techniques (e.g., micro-CT, [4]) to characterize samples. These efforts will be useful for Mars Sample Return

Content curation en periodismo (y en documentación periodística)

OpenAIRE

Guallar, Javier

2014-01-01

The last years we have seen the appearance of concepts such as content curation and content curator as, respectively, the activity or system and the professional or specialist. Although the term is originally linked to the world of marketing, -considering marketer's Rohit Bhargava 'Manifesto for the content curator' (2009) as its founding article-, and its features mostly identify with those of the Information Science professional, content curation goes beyond a specific discipline or profess...

[Curative effect of ozone hydrotherapy for pemphigus].

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Fuqiong; Deng, Danqi; Li, Xiaolan; Wang, Wenfang; Xie, Hong; Wu, Yongzhuo; Luan, Chunyan; Yang, Binbin

2018-02-28

To determine clinical curative effects of ozone therapy for pemphigus vulgaris.
 Methods: Ozone hydrotherapy was used as an aid treatment for 32 patients with pemphigus vulgaris. The hydropathic compression of potassium permanganate solution for 34 patients with pemphigus vulgaris served as a control. The main treatment for both groups were glucocorticoids and immune inhibitors. The lesions of patients, bacterial infection, usage of antibiotics, patient's satisfaction, and clinical curative effect were evaluated in the 2 groups.
 Results: There was no significant difference in the curative effect and the average length of staying at hospital between the 2 groups (P>0.05). But rate for the usage of antibiotics was significantly reduced in the group of ozone hydrotherapy (P=0.039). The patients were more satisfied in using ozone hydrotherapy than the potassium permanganate solution after 7-day therapy (P>0.05).
 Conclusion: Ozone hydrotherapy is a safe and effective aid method for pemphigus vulgaris. It can reduce the usage of antibiotics.

Non-integrability of the Armbruster-Guckenheimer-Kim quartic Hamiltonian through Morales-Ramis theory

OpenAIRE

Acosta-Humánez, P.; Alvarez-Ramírez, M.; Stuchi, T.

2017-01-01

We show the non-integrability of the three-parameter Armburster-Guckenheimer-Kim quartic Hamiltonian using Morales-Ramis theory, with the exception of the three already known integrable cases. We use Poincar\\'e sections to illustrate the breakdown of regular motion for some parameter values.

Validation Study of Kim's Sham Needle by Measuring Facial Temperature: An N-of-1 Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanghun Lee

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. In 2008, Kim's sham needle was developed to improve the quality of double-blinded studies. The aim of this study is to validate Kim's sham needle by measuring facial temperature. Methods. We designed “N-of-1” trials involving 7 smokers. One session was composed of 2 stimulations separated by a 2 h washout period. Six sessions were applied daily for all subjects. Infrared thermal imaging was used to examine the effects of acupuncture (HT8, KI2 on facial temperature following smoking-induced decrease. Results. All subjects demonstrated decreased temperatures after sham needle treatment, but 5 of the 7 subjects showed increased temperatures after real needle treatment. 6 of the 7 subjects showed a significant difference (P<0.05 between treatments with real and sham needles. Thus, the physiological stimulation of Kim's sham needle is different from that of a real needle, suggesting that Kim's sham needle is a potential inactive control intervention.

Directly e-mailing authors of newly published papers encourages community curation

Science.gov (United States)

Bunt, Stephanie M.; Grumbling, Gary B.; Field, Helen I.; Marygold, Steven J.; Brown, Nicholas H.; Millburn, Gillian H.

2012-01-01

Much of the data within Model Organism Databases (MODs) comes from manual curation of the primary research literature. Given limited funding and an increasing density of published material, a significant challenge facing all MODs is how to efficiently and effectively prioritize the most relevant research papers for detailed curation. Here, we report recent improvements to the triaging process used by FlyBase. We describe an automated method to directly e-mail corresponding authors of new papers, requesting that they list the genes studied and indicate (‘flag’) the types of data described in the paper using an online tool. Based on the author-assigned flags, papers are then prioritized for detailed curation and channelled to appropriate curator teams for full data extraction. The overall response rate has been 44% and the flagging of data types by authors is sufficiently accurate for effective prioritization of papers. In summary, we have established a sustainable community curation program, with the result that FlyBase curators now spend less time triaging and can devote more effort to the specialized task of detailed data extraction. Database URL: http://flybase.org/ PMID:22554788

Curated routes: the project of developing experiential tracks in sub-urban landscape

OpenAIRE

Papathanasiou, Maximi; Uyttenhove, Pieter

2015-01-01

The Curated Routes project reflects on the visiting routes’ ability to make apparent the internal characteristics of urban environments. The project’s name allude to the intellectual function of curation and the materiality of routes. Curate deals with the practice of arranging material –tangible or intangible- in a way that a new understanding of an area is revealed. The word routes refers to the linear associations that link places and guide movement. The Curated Routes aim to reinforce the...

Advanced Curation Activities at NASA: Implications for Astrobiological Studies of Future Sample Collections

Science.gov (United States)

McCubbin, F. M.; Evans, C. A.; Fries, M. D.; Harrington, A. D.; Regberg, A. B.; Snead, C. J.; Zeigler, R. A.

2017-01-01

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office (henceforth referred to herein as NASA Curation Office) at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is responsible for curating all of NASA's extraterrestrial samples. Under the governing document, NASA Policy Directive (NPD) 7100.10F JSC is charged with curation of all extraterrestrial material under NASA control, including future NASA missions. The Directive goes on to define Curation as including documentation, preservation, preparation, and distribution of samples for re-search, education, and public outreach. Here we briefly describe NASA's astromaterials collections and our ongoing efforts related to enhancing the utility of our current collections as well as our efforts to prepare for future sample return missions. We collectively refer to these efforts as advanced curation.

How should the completeness and quality of curated nanomaterial data be evaluated?

Science.gov (United States)

Marchese Robinson, Richard L.; Lynch, Iseult; Peijnenburg, Willie; Rumble, John; Klaessig, Fred; Marquardt, Clarissa; Rauscher, Hubert; Puzyn, Tomasz; Purian, Ronit; Åberg, Christoffer; Karcher, Sandra; Vriens, Hanne; Hoet, Peter; Hoover, Mark D.; Hendren, Christine Ogilvie; Harper, Stacey L.

2016-05-01

Nanotechnology is of increasing significance. Curation of nanomaterial data into electronic databases offers opportunities to better understand and predict nanomaterials' behaviour. This supports innovation in, and regulation of, nanotechnology. It is commonly understood that curated data need to be sufficiently complete and of sufficient quality to serve their intended purpose. However, assessing data completeness and quality is non-trivial in general and is arguably especially difficult in the nanoscience area, given its highly multidisciplinary nature. The current article, part of the Nanomaterial Data Curation Initiative series, addresses how to assess the completeness and quality of (curated) nanomaterial data. In order to address this key challenge, a variety of related issues are discussed: the meaning and importance of data completeness and quality, existing approaches to their assessment and the key challenges associated with evaluating the completeness and quality of curated nanomaterial data. Considerations which are specific to the nanoscience area and lessons which can be learned from other relevant scientific disciplines are considered. Hence, the scope of this discussion ranges from physicochemical characterisation requirements for nanomaterials and interference of nanomaterials with nanotoxicology assays to broader issues such as minimum information checklists, toxicology data quality schemes and computational approaches that facilitate evaluation of the completeness and quality of (curated) data. This discussion is informed by a literature review and a survey of key nanomaterial data curation stakeholders. Finally, drawing upon this discussion, recommendations are presented concerning the central question: how should the completeness and quality of curated nanomaterial data be evaluated?Nanotechnology is of increasing significance. Curation of nanomaterial data into electronic databases offers opportunities to better understand and predict

Clinical significance of NGAL and KIM-1 for acute kidney injury in patients with scrub typhus.

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In O Sun

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical significance of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1 for acute kidney injury (AKI in patients with scrub typhus.From 2014 to 2015, 145 patients were diagnosed with scrub typhus. Of these, we enrolled 138 patients who were followed up until renal recovery or for at least 3 months. We measured serum and urine NGAL and KIM-1 levels and evaluated prognostic factors affecting scrub typhus-associated AKI.Of the 138 patients, 25 had scrub typhus-associated AKI. The incidence of AKI was 18.1%; of which 11.6%, 4.3%, and 2.2% were classified as risk, injury, and failure, respectively, according to RIFLE criteria. Compared with patients in the non-AKI group, patients in the AKI group were older and showed higher total leukocyte counts and hypoalbuminemia or one or more comorbidities such as hypertension (72% vs 33%, p<0.01, diabetes (40% vs 14%, p<0.01, or chronic kidney disease (32% vs 1%, p<0.01. In addition, serum NGAL values (404± 269 vs 116± 78 ng/mL, P<0.001, KIM-1 values (0.80± 0.52 vs 0.33± 0.68 ng/mL, P<0.001, urine NGAL/creatinine values (371± 672 vs 27± 39 ng/mg, P<0.001 and urine KIM-1/creatinine values (4.04± 2.43 vs 2.38± 1.89 ng/mg, P<0.001 were higher in the AKI group than in the non-AKI group. By multivariate logistic regression, serum NGAL and the presence of chronic kidney disease were significant predictors of AKI.Serum NGAL might be an additive predictor for scrub typhus-associated AKI.

DCC DIFFUSE Standards Frameworks: A Standards Path through the Curation Lifecycle

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Sarah Higgins

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 DCC DIFFUSE Standards Frameworks aims to offer domain specific advice on standards relevant to digital preservation and curation, to help curators identify which standards they should be using and where they can be appropriately implemented, to ensure authoritative digital material. The Project uses the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model and Web 2.0 technology, to visually present standards frameworks for a number of disciplines. The Digital Curation Centre (DCC is actively working with a different relevant organisations to present searchable frameworks of standards, for a number of domains. These include digital repositories, records management, the geo-information sector, archives and the museum sector. Other domains, such as e-science, will shortly be investigated.

Social influence of a religious hero: the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan's effect on cornea donation and volunteerism.

Science.gov (United States)

Bae, Hyuhn-Suhck; Brown, William J; Kang, Seok

2011-01-01

This study examined the mediated influence of a celebrated religious hero in South Korea, Cardinal Stephen Kim, through two forms of involvement--parasocial interaction and identification--on intention toward cornea donation and volunteerism, and it investigated how the news media diffused of his death. A structural equation modeling analysis with a Web-based voluntary survey of more than 1,200 people in South Korea revealed a multistep social influence process, beginning with parasocial interaction with Cardinal Kim, leading to identification with him, which predicted intention toward cornea donation and volunteerism. Additional investigations found that news of Cardinal Kim's death diffused rapidly through media and interpersonal communication. Results of this study demonstrate that religious leaders who achieve a celebrity hero status can prompt public discussion of important issues rather quickly through extensive media coverage, enabling them to promote prosocial behavior and positively affect public health.

The Annotometer; Encouraging uptake and use of freely available curation tools.

OpenAIRE

Zhe, Xiao Si; Edmunds, Scott; Li, Peter; Goodman, Laurie; Hunter, Christopher

2016-01-01

In recent years it has become clear that the amount of data being generated worldwide cannot be curated and annotated by any individual or small group. Currently, there is recognition that one of the best ways to provide ongoing curation is to employ the power of the community. To achieve this, the first hurdle to overcome was the development of user-friendly tools and apps that non-expert curators would be comfortable and capable of using. Such tools are now in place, inclu...

Global Policing and the Case of Kim Dotcom

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Darren Palmer

2013-11-01

Full Text Available In early 2012, 76 heavily armed police conducted a raid on a house in Auckland, New Zealand. The targets were Kim Dotcom, a German national with a NZ residency visa, and several colleagues affiliated with Megaupload, an online subscription-based peer-to-peer (P2P file sharing facility. The alleged offences involved facilitating unlawful file sharing and United States federal criminal copyright violations. Following the raid, several court cases provide valuable insights into emerging ‘global policing’ practices (Bowling and Sheptycki 2012 based on communications between sovereign enforcement agencies.  This article uses these cases to explore the growth of ‘extraterritorial’ police powers that operate ‘across borders’ (Nadelmann 1993 as part of several broader transformations of global policing in the digital age.

Advances in Astromaterials Curation: Supporting Future Sample Return Missions

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Evans, C. A.; Zeigler, R. A.; Fries, M. D..; Righter, K.; Allton, J. H.; Zolensky, M. E.; Calaway, M. J.; Bell, M. S.

2015-01-01

NASA's Astromaterials, curated at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, are the most extensive, best-documented, and leastcontaminated extraterrestrial samples that are provided to the worldwide research community. These samples include lunar samples from the Apollo missions, meteorites collected over nearly 40 years of expeditions to Antarctica (providing samples of dozens of asteroid bodies, the Moon, and Mars), Genesis solar wind samples, cosmic dust collected by NASA's high altitude airplanes, Comet Wild 2 and interstellar dust samples from the Stardust mission, and asteroid samples from JAXA's Hayabusa mission. A full account of NASA's curation efforts for these collections is provided by Allen, et al [1]. On average, we annually allocate about 1500 individual samples from NASA's astromaterials collections to hundreds of researchers from around the world, including graduate students and post-doctoral scientists; our allocation rate has roughly doubled over the past 10 years. The curation protocols developed for the lunar samples returned from the Apollo missions remain relevant and are adapted to new and future missions. Several lessons from the Apollo missions, including the need for early involvement of curation scientists in mission planning [1], have been applied to all subsequent sample return campaigns. From the 2013 National Academy of Sciences report [2]: "Curation is the critical interface between sample return missions and laboratory research. Proper curation has maintained the scientific integrity and utility of the Apollo, Antarctic meteorite, and cosmic dust collections for decades. Each of these collections continues to yield important new science. In the past decade, new state-of-the-art curatorial facilities for the Genesis and Stardust missions were key to the scientific breakthroughs provided by these missions." The results speak for themselves: research on NASA's astromaterials result in hundreds of papers annually, yield fundamental

Teacher Training in Curative Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Juul, Kristen D.; Maier, Manfred

1992-01-01

This article considers the application of the philosophical and educational principles of Rudolf Steiner, called "anthroposophy," to the training of teachers and curative educators in the Waldorf schools. Special emphasis is on the Camphill movement which focuses on therapeutic schools and communities for children with special needs. (DB)

Curation of complex, context-dependent immunological data

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Sidney John

2006-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB is dedicated to capturing, housing and analyzing complex immune epitope related data http://www.immuneepitope.org. Description To identify and extract relevant data from the scientific literature in an efficient and accurate manner, novel processes were developed for manual and semi-automated annotation. Conclusion Formalized curation strategies enable the processing of a large volume of context-dependent data, which are now available to the scientific community in an accessible and transparent format. The experiences described herein are applicable to other databases housing complex biological data and requiring a high level of curation expertise.

Advanced Curation Protocols for Mars Returned Sample Handling

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, M.; Mickelson, E.; Lindstrom, D.; Allton, J.

Introduction: Johnson Space Center has over 30 years experience handling precious samples which include Lunar rocks and Antarctic meteorites. However, we recognize that future curation of samples from such missions as Genesis, Stardust, and Mars S mple Return, will require a high degree of biosafety combined witha extremely low levels of inorganic, organic, and biological contamination. To satisfy these requirements, research in the JSC Advanced Curation Lab is currently focused toward two major areas: preliminary examination techniques and cleaning and verification techniques . Preliminary Examination Techniques : In order to minimize the number of paths for contamination we are exploring the synergy between human &robotic sample handling in a controlled environment to help determine the limits of clean curation. Within the Advanced Curation Laboratory is a prototype, next-generation glovebox, which contains a robotic micromanipulator. The remotely operated manipulator has six degrees-of- freedom and can be programmed to perform repetitive sample handling tasks. Protocols are being tested and developed to perform curation tasks such as rock splitting, weighing, imaging, and storing. Techniques for sample transfer enabling more detailed remote examination without compromising the integrity of sample science are also being developed . The glovebox is equipped with a rapid transfer port through which samples can be passed without exposure. The transfer is accomplished by using a unique seal and engagement system which allows passage between containers while maintaining a first seal to the outside environment and a second seal to prevent the outside of the container cover and port door from becoming contaminated by the material being transferred. Cleaning and Verification Techniques: As part of the contamination control effort, innovative cleaning techniques are being identified and evaluated in conjunction with sensitive cleanliness verification methods. Towards this

North Korea after Kim Chong-il: Leadership Dynamics and Potential Crisis Scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-01

legal responsibility, and with specified procedures , the actual process is different.3 To date, regime dynamics in the Kim Chong-il era have been... procedures and regulations provide the outlines of formal rule, the 3 For a detailed examination of how...was also made an alternate member. It is also worth noting that 10 of the 12 members of the NDC were represented in the new Politburo lineup , thus

Data Curation Education in Research Centers (DCERC)

Science.gov (United States)

Marlino, M. R.; Mayernik, M. S.; Kelly, K.; Allard, S.; Tenopir, C.; Palmer, C.; Varvel, V. E., Jr.

2012-12-01

Digital data both enable and constrain scientific research. Scientists are enabled by digital data to develop new research methods, utilize new data sources, and investigate new topics, but they also face new data collection, management, and preservation burdens. The current data workforce consists primarily of scientists who receive little formal training in data management and data managers who are typically educated through on-the-job training. The Data Curation Education in Research Centers (DCERC) program is investigating a new model for educating data professionals to contribute to scientific research. DCERC is a collaboration between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science, the University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The program is organized around a foundations course in data curation and provides field experiences in research and data centers for both master's and doctoral students. This presentation will outline the aims and the structure of the DCERC program and discuss results and lessons learned from the first set of summer internships in 2012. Four masters students participated and worked with both data mentors and science mentors, gaining first hand experiences in the issues, methods, and challenges of scientific data curation. They engaged in a diverse set of topics, including climate model metadata, observational data management workflows, and data cleaning, documentation, and ingest processes within a data archive. The students learned current data management practices and challenges while developing expertise and conducting research. They also made important contributions to NCAR data and science teams by evaluating data management workflows and processes, preparing data sets to be archived, and developing recommendations for particular data management activities. The master's student interns will return in summer of 2013

MET network in PubMed: a text-mined network visualization and curation system.

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Hong-Jie; Su, Chu-Hsien; Lai, Po-Ting; Huang, Ming-Siang; Jonnagaddala, Jitendra; Rose Jue, Toni; Rao, Shruti; Chou, Hui-Jou; Milacic, Marija; Singh, Onkar; Syed-Abdul, Shabbir; Hsu, Wen-Lian

2016-01-01

Metastasis is the dissemination of a cancer/tumor from one organ to another, and it is the most dangerous stage during cancer progression, causing more than 90% of cancer deaths. Improving the understanding of the complicated cellular mechanisms underlying metastasis requires investigations of the signaling pathways. To this end, we developed a METastasis (MET) network visualization and curation tool to assist metastasis researchers retrieve network information of interest while browsing through the large volume of studies in PubMed. MET can recognize relations among genes, cancers, tissues and organs of metastasis mentioned in the literature through text-mining techniques, and then produce a visualization of all mined relations in a metastasis network. To facilitate the curation process, MET is developed as a browser extension that allows curators to review and edit concepts and relations related to metastasis directly in PubMed. PubMed users can also view the metastatic networks integrated from the large collection of research papers directly through MET. For the BioCreative 2015 interactive track (IAT), a curation task was proposed to curate metastatic networks among PubMed abstracts. Six curators participated in the proposed task and a post-IAT task, curating 963 unique metastatic relations from 174 PubMed abstracts using MET.Database URL: http://btm.tmu.edu.tw/metastasisway. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

The Distinction Between Curative and Assistive Technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Stramondo, Joseph A

2018-05-01

Disability activists have sometimes claimed their disability has actually increased their well-being. Some even say they would reject a cure to keep these gains. Yet, these same activists often simultaneously propose improvements to the quality and accessibility of assistive technology. However, for any argument favoring assistive over curative technology (or vice versa) to work, there must be a coherent distinction between the two. This line is already vague and will become even less clear with the emergence of novel technologies. This paper asks and tries to answer the question: what is it about the paradigmatic examples of curative and assistive technologies that make them paradigmatic and how can these defining features help us clarify the hard cases? This analysis will begin with an argument that, while the common views of this distinction adequately explain the paradigmatic cases, they fail to accurately pick out the relevant features of those technologies that make them paradigmatic and to provide adequate guidance for parsing the hard cases. Instead, it will be claimed that these categories of curative or assistive technologies are defined by the role the technologies play in establishing a person's relational narrative identity as a member of one of two social groups: disabled people or non-disabled people.

Content curation en periodismo (y en documentación periodística

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Javier Guallar

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Desde hace unos pocos años están con nosotros los conceptos de content curation y de content curator como actividad o sistema y como profesional o especialista, respectivamente. Aunque el origen del término se vincule al mundo del marketing –se considera como artículo fundacional “Manifesto for the content curator” del marketer Rohit Bhargava (2009-, y sus características se identifiquen en buena medida con las del profesional de la Información y la Documentación, la content curation va más allá de una disciplina concreta o de un rol profesional determinado. Ambos perfiles citados, marketers y bibliotecarios-documentalistas, pueden hacer content curation por supuesto, pero también otros, como educadores, por ejemplo. Y, como es el caso que tratamos aquí, periodistas (y documentalistas de prensa. Porque en estas breves líneas nos vamos a centrar en presentar el papel de la content curation en el ámbito del periodismo.

Urinary KIM-1, NGAL and L-FABP for the diagnosis of AKI in patients with acute coronary syndrome or heart failure undergoing coronary angiography.

Science.gov (United States)

Torregrosa, Isidro; Montoliu, Carmina; Urios, Amparo; Andrés-Costa, María Jesús; Giménez-Garzó, Carla; Juan, Isabel; Puchades, María Jesús; Blasco, María Luisa; Carratalá, Arturo; Sanjuán, Rafael; Miguel, Alfonso

2015-11-01

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication after coronary angiography. Early biomarkers of this disease are needed since increase in serum creatinine levels is a late marker. To assess the usefulness of urinary kidney injury molecule-1 (uKIM-1), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL) and liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (uL-FABP) for early detection of AKI in these patients, comparing their performance with another group of cardiac surgery patients. Biomarkers were measured in 193 patients, 12 h after intervention. In the ROC analysis, AUC for KIM-1, NGAL and L-FABP was 0.713, 0.958 and 0.642, respectively, in the coronary angiography group, and 0.716, 0.916 and 0.743 in the cardiac surgery group. Urinary KIM-1 12 h after intervention is predictive of AKI in adult patients undergoing coronary angiography, but NGAL shows higher sensitivity and specificity. L-FABP provides inferior discrimination for AKI than KIM-1 or NGAL in contrast to its performance after cardiac surgery. This is the first study showing the predictive capacity of KIM-1 for AKI after coronary angiography. Further studies are still needed to answer relevant questions about the clinical utility of biomarkers for AKI in different clinical settings.

Advanced Curation: Solving Current and Future Sample Return Problems

Science.gov (United States)

Fries, M.; Calaway, M.; Evans, C.; McCubbin, F.

2015-01-01

Advanced Curation is a wide-ranging and comprehensive research and development effort at NASA Johnson Space Center that identifies and remediates sample related issues. For current collections, Advanced Curation investigates new cleaning, verification, and analytical techniques to assess their suitability for improving curation processes. Specific needs are also assessed for future sample return missions. For each need, a written plan is drawn up to achieve the requirement. The plan draws while upon current Curation practices, input from Curators, the analytical expertise of the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) team, and suitable standards maintained by ISO, IEST, NIST and other institutions. Additionally, new technologies are adopted on the bases of need and availability. Implementation plans are tested using customized trial programs with statistically robust courses of measurement, and are iterated if necessary until an implementable protocol is established. Upcoming and potential NASA missions such as OSIRIS-REx, the Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM), sample return missions in the New Frontiers program, and Mars sample return (MSR) all feature new difficulties and specialized sample handling requirements. The Mars 2020 mission in particular poses a suite of challenges since the mission will cache martian samples for possible return to Earth. In anticipation of future MSR, the following problems are among those under investigation: What is the most efficient means to achieve the less than 1.0 ng/sq cm total organic carbon (TOC) cleanliness required for all sample handling hardware? How do we maintain and verify cleanliness at this level? The Mars 2020 Organic Contamination Panel (OCP) predicts that organic carbon, if present, will be present at the "one to tens" of ppb level in martian near-surface samples. The same samples will likely contain wt% perchlorate salts, or approximately 1,000,000x as much perchlorate oxidizer as organic carbon

Integration of data: the Nanomaterial Registry project and data curation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guzan, K A; Mills, K C; Gupta, V; Murry, D; Ostraat, M L; Scheier, C N; Willis, D A

2013-01-01

Due to the use of nanomaterials in multiple fields of applied science and technology, there is a need for accelerated understanding of any potential implications of using these unique and promising materials. There is a multitude of research data that, if integrated, can be leveraged to drive toward a better understanding. Integration can be achieved by applying nanoinformatics concepts. The Nanomaterial Registry is using applied minimal information about nanomaterials to support a robust data curation process in order to promote integration across a diverse data set. This paper describes the evolution of the curation methodology used in the Nanomaterial Registry project as well as the current procedure that is used. Some of the lessons learned about curation of nanomaterial data are also discussed. (paper)

Protective, curative and eradicative activities of fungicides against grapevine rust

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francislene Angelotti

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The protective, eradicative and curative activities of the fungicides azoxystrobin, tebuconazole, pyraclostrobin+metiram, and ciproconazole against grapevine rust, were determined in greenhouse. To evaluate the protective activity, leaves of potted ´Niagara´ (Vitis labrusca vines were artificially inoculated with an urediniospore suspension of Phakopsora euvitis four, eight or forteen days after fungicidal spray; and to evaluate the curative and eradicative activities, leaves were sprayed with fungicides two, four or eight days after inoculation. Disease severity was assessed 14 days after each inoculation. All tested fungicides present excellent preventive activity against grapevine rust; however, tebuconazole and ciproconazole provide better curative activity than azoxystrobin and pyraclostrobin+metiram. It was observed also that all tested fungicides significantly reduced the germination of urediniospore produced on sprayed leaves.

Data Stewardship: Environmental Data Curation and a Web-of-Repositories

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Karen S. Baker

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Scientific researchers today frequently package measurements and associated metadata as digital datasets in anticipation of storage in data repositories. Through the lens of environmental data stewardship, we consider the data repository as an organizational element central to data curation. One aspect of non-commercial repositories, their distance-from-origin of the data, is explored in terms of near and remote categories. Three idealized repository types are distinguished – local, center, and archive - paralleling research, resource, and reference collection categories respectively. Repository type characteristics such as scope, structure, and goals are discussed. Repository similarities in terms of roles, activities and responsibilities are also examined. Data stewardship is related to care of research data and responsible scientific communication supported by an infrastructure that coordinates curation activities; data curation is defined as a set of repeated and repeatable activities focusing on tending data and creating data products within a particular arena. The concept of “sphere-of-context” is introduced as an aid to distinguishing repository types. Conceptualizing a “web-of-repositories” accommodates a variety of repository types and represents an ecologically inclusive approach to data curation.

Data Curation Education Grounded in Earth Sciences and the Science of Data

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, C. L.

2015-12-01

This presentation looks back over ten years of experience advancing data curation education at two Information Schools, highlighting the vital role of earth science case studies, expertise, and collaborations in development of curriculum and internships. We also consider current data curation practices and workforce demand in data centers in the geosciences, drawing on studies conducted in the Data Curation Education in Research Centers (DCERC) initiative and the Site-Based Data Curation project. Outcomes from this decade of data curation research and education has reinforced the importance of key areas of information science in preparing data professionals to respond to the needs of user communities, provide services across disciplines, invest in standards and interoperability, and promote open data practices. However, a serious void remains in principles to guide education and practice that are distinct to the development of data systems and services that meet both local and global aims. We identify principles emerging from recent empirical studies on the reuse value of data in the earth sciences and propose an approach for advancing data curation education that depends on systematic coordination with data intensive research and propagation of current best practices from data centers into curriculum. This collaborative model can increase both domain-based and cross-disciplinary expertise among data professionals, ultimately improving data systems and services in our universities and data centers while building the new base of knowledge needed for a foundational science of data.

The Hayabusa Curation Facility at Johnson Space Center

Science.gov (United States)

Zolensky, M.; Bastien, R.; McCann, B.; Frank, D.; Gonzalez, C.; Rodriguez, M.

2013-01-01

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Hayabusa spacecraft made contact with the asteroid 25143 Itokawa and collected regolith dust from Muses Sea region of smooth terrain [1]. The spacecraft returned to Earth with more than 10,000 grains ranging in size from just over 300 µm to less than 10 µm [2, 3]. These grains represent the only collection of material returned from an asteroid by a spacecraft. As part of the joint agreement between JAXA and NASA for the mission, 10% of the Hayabusa grains are being transferred to NASA for parallel curation and allocation. In order to properly receive process and curate these samples, a new curation facility was established at Johnson Space Center (JSC). Since the Hayabusa samples within the JAXA curation facility have been stored free from exposure to terrestrial atmosphere and contamination [4], one of the goals of the new NASA curation facility was to continue this treatment. An existing lab space at JSC was transformed into a 120 sq.ft. ISO class 4 (equivalent to the original class 10 standard) clean room. Hayabusa samples are stored, observed, processed, and packaged for allocation inside a stainless steel glove box under dry N2. Construction of the clean laboratory was completed in 2012. Currently, 25 Itokawa particles are lodged in NASA's Hayabusa Lab. Special care has been taken during lab construction to remove or contain materials that may contribute contaminant particles in the same size range as the Hayabusa grains. Several witness plates of various materials are installed around the clean lab and within the glove box to permit characterization of local contaminants at regular intervals by SEM and mass spectrometry, and particle counts of the lab environment are frequently acquired. Of particular interest is anodized aluminum, which contains copious sub-mm grains of a multitude of different materials embedded in its upper surface. Unfortunately the use of anodized aluminum was necessary in the construction

Organic Contamination Baseline Study: In NASA JSC Astromaterials Curation Laboratories. Summary Report

Science.gov (United States)

Calaway, Michael J.

2013-01-01

In preparation for OSIRIS-REx and other future sample return missions concerned with analyzing organics, we conducted an Organic Contamination Baseline Study for JSC Curation Labsoratories in FY12. For FY12 testing, organic baseline study focused only on molecular organic contamination in JSC curation gloveboxes: presumably future collections (i.e. Lunar, Mars, asteroid missions) would use isolation containment systems over only cleanrooms for primary sample storage. This decision was made due to limit historical data on curation gloveboxes, limited IR&D funds and Genesis routinely monitors organics in their ISO class 4 cleanrooms.

Sexualidad violenta en el cine de Kim Ki-duk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Muñoz Ruiz

2011-07-01

Full Text Available En sus más de 110 años de vida el cine ha representado la sexualidad humana en todas sus modalidades y desde los más variados puntos de vista. El cine de Kim Ki-duk ha sorprendido y escandalizado al público por su crudeza y, a veces, excesiva violencia. El director surcoreano ha explorado a lo largo de su filmografía el tema del sexo siempre desde puntos de vista dramáticos y hasta truculentos. En sus películas la mayoría de las relaciones sexuales carecen de amor y afecto. Nunca son placenteras. La violación, la prostitución, la violencia de género y las frustraciones sexuales son temas recurrentes en su cine.

Data Curation Program Development in U.S. Universities: The Georgia Institute of Technology Example

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tyler O. Walters

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The curation of scientific research data at U.S. universities is a story of enterprising individuals and of incremental progress. A small number of libraries and data centers who see the possibilities of becoming “digital information management centers” are taking entrepreneurial steps to extend beyond their traditional information assets and include managing scientific and scholarly research data. The Georgia Institute of Technology (GT has had a similar development path toward a data curation program based in its library. This paper will articulate GT’s program development, which the author offers as an experience common in U.S. universities. The main characteristic is a program devoid of top-level mandates and incentives, but rich with independent, “bottom-up” action. The paper will address program antecedents and context, inter-institutional partnerships that advance the library’s curation program, library organizational developments, partnerships with campus research communities, and a proposed model for curation program development. It concludes that despite the clear need for data curation put forth by researchers such as the groups of neuroscientists and bioscientists referenced in this paper, the university experience examined suggests that gathering resources for developing data curation programs at the institutional level is proving to be a quite onerous. However, and in spite of the challenges, some U.S. research universities are beginning to establish perceptible data curation programs.

Curating Public Art 2.0: The case of Autopoiesis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ajana, Btihaj

2017-01-01

This article examines the intersections between public art, curation and Web 2.0 technology. Building on the case study of Autopoiesis, a digital art project focusing on the curation and online exhibition of artworks received from members of the public in the United Arab Emirates, the article...... to facilitate autonomous creative self-expressions and enable greater public participation in culture. By providing a critical reflection on the ‘material’ contexts of this digital project, the article also demonstrates the related tensions between the virtual and the physical, and the wider ‘local’ realities...

Children on Social Media, Twiter and Facebook (profile of Beyonce and Kim Kardashian

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anamarija Bilan

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Publishing children’s photos in the media violates their privacy right, which is protected, guaranteed and regulated by numerous international and Croatian laws and regulations. Likewise, publishing photos of children on social network profiles, such as Facebook or Twitter, violates the right to privacy. In this paper it will be researched the extent to which children’s photos are being disclosed and their privacy is being undermined in case of two Facebook and two Twitter profiles - Beyonce Knowles and Kim Kardashian. It will also research whether children are used for business purposes, whether they are advertising some of their products or shows, and so on, with the photographs of children. The content analysis methodology analyzed the Facebook and Twitter profiles of two respondents in the period from January 1 to February 22, 2016, during which they published a total of 459 posts on profiles of both networks. The analysis found that the total number of “posts” shows a small number of photographs of children but also that those published by Kim Kardashian are often used to promote or promote some of the products or programs, which violates the privacy of children and increases the number “like”.

TreeFam: a curated database of phylogenetic trees of animal gene families

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Heng; Coghlan, Avril; Ruan, Jue

2006-01-01

TreeFam is a database of phylogenetic trees of gene families found in animals. It aims to develop a curated resource that presents the accurate evolutionary history of all animal gene families, as well as reliable ortholog and paralog assignments. Curated families are being added progressively......, based on seed alignments and trees in a similar fashion to Pfam. Release 1.1 of TreeFam contains curated trees for 690 families and automatically generated trees for another 11 646 families. These represent over 128 000 genes from nine fully sequenced animal genomes and over 45 000 other animal proteins...

Practices of research data curation in institutional repositories: A qualitative view from repository staff.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Dong Joon; Stvilia, Besiki

2017-01-01

The importance of managing research data has been emphasized by the government, funding agencies, and scholarly communities. Increased access to research data increases the impact and efficiency of scientific activities and funding. Thus, many research institutions have established or plan to establish research data curation services as part of their Institutional Repositories (IRs). However, in order to design effective research data curation services in IRs, and to build active research data providers and user communities around those IRs, it is essential to study current data curation practices and provide rich descriptions of the sociotechnical factors and relationships shaping those practices. Based on 13 interviews with 15 IR staff members from 13 large research universities in the United States, this paper provides a rich, qualitative description of research data curation and use practices in IRs. In particular, the paper identifies data curation and use activities in IRs, as well as their structures, roles played, skills needed, contradictions and problems present, solutions sought, and workarounds applied. The paper can inform the development of best practice guides, infrastructure and service templates, as well as education in research data curation in Library and Information Science (LIS) schools.

Curation of US Martian Meteorites Collected in Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

Lindstrom, M.; Satterwhite, C.; Allton, J.; Stansbury, E.

1998-01-01

To date the ANSMET field team has collected five martian meteorites (see below) in Antarctica and returned them for curation at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Meteorite Processing Laboratory (MPL). ne meteorites were collected with the clean procedures used by ANSMET in collecting all meteorites: They were handled with JSC-cleaned tools, packaged in clean bags, and shipped frozen to JSC. The five martian meteorites vary significantly in size (12-7942 g) and rock type (basalts, lherzolites, and orthopyroxenite). Detailed descriptions are provided in the Mars Meteorite compendium, which describes classification, curation and research results. A table gives the names, classifications and original and curatorial masses of the martian meteorites. The MPL and measures for contamination control are described.

Curative and eradicant action of fungicides to control Phakopsora pachyrhizi in soybean plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erlei Melo Reis

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Experiments were carried out in a growth chamber and laboratory to quantify the curative and eradicant actions of fungicides in Asian soybean rust control. The experiments were conducted with the CD 214 RR cultivar, assessing the following fungicides, separately or in association, chlorothalonil, flutriafol, cyproconazole + trifloxystrobin, epoxiconazole + pyraclostrobin, cyproconazole + azoxystrobin, and cyproconazole + picoxystrobin. The fungicides were applied at four (curative and nine days after inoculation (eradicant treatment. Treatments were evaluated according to the density of lesions and uredia/cm2, and the eradicant treatment was assessed based on the necrosis of lesions/uredia and on uredospore viability. Except for the fungicide chlorothalonil, there was curative action of latent/virtual infections by the fungicides. Penetrant fungicides that are absorbed have curative and eradicant action to soybean rust.

An emerging role: the nurse content curator.

Science.gov (United States)

Brooks, Beth A

2015-01-01

A new phenomenon, the inverted or "flipped" classroom, assumes that students are no longer acquiring knowledge exclusively through textbooks or lectures. Instead, they are seeking out the vast amount of free information available to them online (the very essence of open source) to supplement learning gleaned in textbooks and lectures. With so much open-source content available to nursing faculty, it benefits the faculty to use readily available, technologically advanced content. The nurse content curator supports nursing faculty in its use of such content. Even more importantly, the highly paid, time-strapped faculty is not spending an inordinate amount of effort surfing for and evaluating content. The nurse content curator does that work, while the faculty uses its time more effectively to help students vet the truth, make meaning of the content, and learn to problem-solve. Brooks. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The MIntAct project—IntAct as a common curation platform for 11 molecular interaction databases

Science.gov (United States)

Orchard, Sandra; Ammari, Mais; Aranda, Bruno; Breuza, Lionel; Briganti, Leonardo; Broackes-Carter, Fiona; Campbell, Nancy H.; Chavali, Gayatri; Chen, Carol; del-Toro, Noemi; Duesbury, Margaret; Dumousseau, Marine; Galeota, Eugenia; Hinz, Ursula; Iannuccelli, Marta; Jagannathan, Sruthi; Jimenez, Rafael; Khadake, Jyoti; Lagreid, Astrid; Licata, Luana; Lovering, Ruth C.; Meldal, Birgit; Melidoni, Anna N.; Milagros, Mila; Peluso, Daniele; Perfetto, Livia; Porras, Pablo; Raghunath, Arathi; Ricard-Blum, Sylvie; Roechert, Bernd; Stutz, Andre; Tognolli, Michael; van Roey, Kim; Cesareni, Gianni; Hermjakob, Henning

2014-01-01

IntAct (freely available at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/intact) is an open-source, open data molecular interaction database populated by data either curated from the literature or from direct data depositions. IntAct has developed a sophisticated web-based curation tool, capable of supporting both IMEx- and MIMIx-level curation. This tool is now utilized by multiple additional curation teams, all of whom annotate data directly into the IntAct database. Members of the IntAct team supply appropriate levels of training, perform quality control on entries and take responsibility for long-term data maintenance. Recently, the MINT and IntAct databases decided to merge their separate efforts to make optimal use of limited developer resources and maximize the curation output. All data manually curated by the MINT curators have been moved into the IntAct database at EMBL-EBI and are merged with the existing IntAct dataset. Both IntAct and MINT are active contributors to the IMEx consortium (http://www.imexconsortium.org). PMID:24234451

Argo: an integrative, interactive, text mining-based workbench supporting curation

Science.gov (United States)

Rak, Rafal; Rowley, Andrew; Black, William; Ananiadou, Sophia

2012-01-01

Curation of biomedical literature is often supported by the automatic analysis of textual content that generally involves a sequence of individual processing components. Text mining (TM) has been used to enhance the process of manual biocuration, but has been focused on specific databases and tasks rather than an environment integrating TM tools into the curation pipeline, catering for a variety of tasks, types of information and applications. Processing components usually come from different sources and often lack interoperability. The well established Unstructured Information Management Architecture is a framework that addresses interoperability by defining common data structures and interfaces. However, most of the efforts are targeted towards software developers and are not suitable for curators, or are otherwise inconvenient to use on a higher level of abstraction. To overcome these issues we introduce Argo, an interoperable, integrative, interactive and collaborative system for text analysis with a convenient graphic user interface to ease the development of processing workflows and boost productivity in labour-intensive manual curation. Robust, scalable text analytics follow a modular approach, adopting component modules for distinct levels of text analysis. The user interface is available entirely through a web browser that saves the user from going through often complicated and platform-dependent installation procedures. Argo comes with a predefined set of processing components commonly used in text analysis, while giving the users the ability to deposit their own components. The system accommodates various areas and levels of user expertise, from TM and computational linguistics to ontology-based curation. One of the key functionalities of Argo is its ability to seamlessly incorporate user-interactive components, such as manual annotation editors, into otherwise completely automatic pipelines. As a use case, we demonstrate the functionality of an in

The DigCurV Curriculum Framework for Digital Curation in the Cultural Heritage Sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Molloy

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In 2013, the DigCurV collaborative network completed development of a Curriculum Framework for digital curation skills in the European cultural heritage sector. DigCurV synthesised a variety of established skills and competence models in the digital curation and LIS sectors with expertise from digital curation professionals, in order to develop a new Curriculum Framework. The resulting Framework provides a common language and helps define the skills, knowledge and abilities that are necessary for the development of digital curation training; for benchmarking existing programmes; and for promoting the continuing production, improvement and refinement of digital curation training programmes. This paper describes the salient points of this work, including how the project team conducted the research necessary to develop the Framework, the structure of the Framework, the processes used to validate the Framework, and three ‘lenses’ onto the Framework. The paper also provides suggestions as to how the Framework might be used, including a description of potential audiences and purposes.

The art and science of data curation: Lessons learned from constructing a virtual collection

Science.gov (United States)

Bugbee, Kaylin; Ramachandran, Rahul; Maskey, Manil; Gatlin, Patrick

2018-03-01

A digital, or virtual, collection is a value added service developed by libraries that curates information and resources around a topic, theme or organization. Adoption of the virtual collection concept as an Earth science data service improves the discoverability, accessibility and usability of data both within individual data centers but also across data centers and disciplines. In this paper, we introduce a methodology for systematically and rigorously curating Earth science data and information into a cohesive virtual collection. This methodology builds on the geocuration model of searching, selecting and synthesizing Earth science data, metadata and other information into a single and useful collection. We present our experiences curating a virtual collection for one of NASA's twelve Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), the Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC), and describe lessons learned as a result of this curation effort. We also provide recommendations and best practices for data centers and data providers who wish to curate virtual collections for the Earth sciences.

Clinical significance of NGAL and KIM-1 for acute kidney injury in patients with scrub typhus.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, In O; Shin, Sung Hye; Cho, A Young; Yoon, Hyun Ju; Chang, Mi Yok; Lee, Kwang Young

2017-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical significance of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) for acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients with scrub typhus. From 2014 to 2015, 145 patients were diagnosed with scrub typhus. Of these, we enrolled 138 patients who were followed up until renal recovery or for at least 3 months. We measured serum and urine NGAL and KIM-1 levels and evaluated prognostic factors affecting scrub typhus-associated AKI. Of the 138 patients, 25 had scrub typhus-associated AKI. The incidence of AKI was 18.1%; of which 11.6%, 4.3%, and 2.2% were classified as risk, injury, and failure, respectively, according to RIFLE criteria. Compared with patients in the non-AKI group, patients in the AKI group were older and showed higher total leukocyte counts and hypoalbuminemia or one or more comorbidities such as hypertension (72% vs 33%, pscrub typhus-associated AKI.

Competencies for preservation and digital curation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sonia Boeres

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Information Science, throughout its existence, has been a multi and interdisciplinary field, and has undergone constant change because of its object of study: information. Seen that this element is not static and is increasingly linked to information technology, we have witnessed a challenge arise: how to ensure the permanence of digital libraries? How to secure the terabytes generated with increasing speed, and in various formats, will be available and fully capable of use over time? This is a challenge that Information Science professionals are being challenged to solve in the process of so-called digital preservation and curation. Thus, this article aims to raise the skills that the information professional must have to carry out the process of preservation and digital curation. The article discusses the emergence of professions (from the perspective of Sociology, the need to work for the realization of the human being (Psychology and proficiencies of exercising the office of Information Science to ensure the preservation of digital information in information units.

LncRNAWiki: harnessing community knowledge in collaborative curation of human long non-coding RNAs

KAUST Repository

Ma, L.

2014-11-15

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) perform a diversity of functions in numerous important biological processes and are implicated in many human diseases. In this report we present lncRNAWiki (http://lncrna.big.ac.cn), a wiki-based platform that is open-content and publicly editable and aimed at community-based curation and collection of information on human lncRNAs. Current related databases are dependent primarily on curation by experts, making it laborious to annotate the exponentially accumulated information on lncRNAs, which inevitably requires collective efforts in community-based curation of lncRNAs. Unlike existing databases, lncRNAWiki features comprehensive integration of information on human lncRNAs obtained from multiple different resources and allows not only existing lncRNAs to be edited, updated and curated by different users but also the addition of newly identified lncRNAs by any user. It harnesses community collective knowledge in collecting, editing and annotating human lncRNAs and rewards community-curated efforts by providing explicit authorship based on quantified contributions. LncRNAWiki relies on the underling knowledge of scientific community for collective and collaborative curation of human lncRNAs and thus has the potential to serve as an up-to-date and comprehensive knowledgebase for human lncRNAs.

Organic Contamination Baseline Study in NASA Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Curation Laboratories

Science.gov (United States)

Calaway, Michael J.; Allen, Carlton C.; Allton, Judith H.

2014-01-01

Future robotic and human spaceflight missions to the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and comets will require curating astromaterial samples with minimal inorganic and organic contamination to preserve the scientific integrity of each sample. 21st century sample return missions will focus on strict protocols for reducing organic contamination that have not been seen since the Apollo manned lunar landing program. To properly curate these materials, the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office under the Astromaterial Research and Exploration Science Directorate at NASA Johnson Space Center houses and protects all extraterrestrial materials brought back to Earth that are controlled by the United States government. During fiscal year 2012, we conducted a year-long project to compile historical documentation and laboratory tests involving organic investigations at these facilities. In addition, we developed a plan to determine the current state of organic cleanliness in curation laboratories housing astromaterials. This was accomplished by focusing on current procedures and protocols for cleaning, sample handling, and storage. While the intention of this report is to give a comprehensive overview of the current state of organic cleanliness in JSC curation laboratories, it also provides a baseline for determining whether our cleaning procedures and sample handling protocols need to be adapted and/or augmented to meet the new requirements for future human spaceflight and robotic sample return missions.

A Misleading Review of Response Bias: Comment on McGrath, Mitchell, Kim, and Hough (2010)

Science.gov (United States)

Rohling, Martin L.; Larrabee, Glenn J.; Greiffenstein, Manfred F.; Ben-Porath, Yossef S.; Lees-Haley, Paul; Green, Paul; Greve, Kevin W.

2011-01-01

In the May 2010 issue of "Psychological Bulletin," R. E. McGrath, M. Mitchell, B. H. Kim, and L. Hough published an article entitled "Evidence for Response Bias as a Source of Error Variance in Applied Assessment" (pp. 450-470). They argued that response bias indicators used in a variety of settings typically have insufficient data to support such…

The baladi curative system of Cairo, Egypt.

Science.gov (United States)

Early, E A

1988-03-01

The article explores the symbolic structure of the baladi (traditional) cultural system as revealed in everyday narratives, with a focus on baladi curative action. The everyday illness narrative provides a cultural window to the principles of fluidity and restorative balance of baladi curative practices. The body is seen as a dynamic organism through which both foreign objects and physiological entities can move. The body should be in balance, as with any humorally-influenced system, and so baladi cures aim to restore normal balance and functioning of the body. The article examines in detail a narrative on treatment of a sick child, and another on treatment of fertility problems. It traces such cultural oppositions as insider: outsider; authentic:inauthentic; home remedy:cosmopolitan medicine. In the social as well as the medical arena these themes organize social/medical judgements about correct action and explanations of events.

New Nordic Exceptionalism: Jeuno JE Kim and Ewa Einhorn's The United Nations of Norden and other realist utopias

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mathias Danbolt

2016-11-01

Full Text Available At the 2009 Nordic Culture Forum summit in Berlin that centered on the profiling and branding of the Nordic region in a globalized world, one presenter stood out from the crowd. The lobbyist Annika Sigurdardottir delivered a speech that called for the establishment of “The United Nations of Norden”: A Nordic union that would gather the nations and restore Norden's role as the “moral superpower of the world.” Sigurdardottir's presentation generated such a heated debate that the organizers had to intervene and reveal that the speech was a performance made by the artists Jeuno JE Kim and Ewa Einhorn. This article takes Kim and Einhorn's intervention as a starting point for a critical discussion of the history and politics of Nordic image-building. The article suggests that the reason Kim and Einhorn's speech passed as a serious proposal was due to its meticulous mimicking of two discursive formations that have been central to the debates on the branding of Nordicity over the last decades: on the one hand, the discourse of “Nordic exceptionalism,” that since the 1960s has been central to the promotion of a Nordic political, socio-economic, and internationalist “third way” model, and, on the other hand, the discourse on the “New Nordic,” that emerged out of the New Nordic Food-movement in the early 2000s, and which has given art and culture a privileged role in the international re-fashioning of the Nordic brand. Through an analysis of Kim and Einhorn's United Nations of Norden (UNN-performance, the article examines the historical development and ideological underpinnings of the image of Nordic unity at play in the discourses of Nordic exceptionalism and the New Nordic. By focusing on how the UNN-project puts pressure on the role of utopian imaginaries in the construction of Nordic self-images, the article describes the emergence of a discursive framework of New Nordic Exceptionalism.

The MIntAct project--IntAct as a common curation platform for 11 molecular interaction databases

OpenAIRE

Orchard, S; Ammari, M; Aranda, B; Breuza, L; Briganti, L; Broackes-Carter, F; Campbell, N; Chavali, G; Chen, C; del-Toro, N; Duesbury, M; Dumousseau, M; Galeota, E; Hinz, U; Iannuccelli, M

2014-01-01

IntAct (freely available at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/intact) is an open-source, open data molecular interaction database populated by data either curated from the literature or from direct data depositions. IntAct has developed a sophisticated web-based curation tool, capable of supporting both IMEx- and MIMIx-level curation. This tool is now utilized by multiple additional curation teams, all of whom annotate data directly into the IntAct database. Members of the IntAct team supply appropriate l...

Judson_Mansouri_Automated_Chemical_Curation_QSAREnvRes_Data

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Here we describe the development of an automated KNIME workflow to curate and correct errors in the structure and identity of chemicals using the publically...

Reducing Organic Contamination in NASA JSC Astromaterial Curation Facility

Science.gov (United States)

Calaway, M. J.; Allen, C. C.; Allton, J. H.

2013-01-01

Future robotic and human spaceflight missions to the Moon, Mars, asteroids and comets will require handling and storing astromaterial samples with minimal inorganic and organic contamination to preserve the scientific integrity of each sample. Much was learned from the rigorous attempts to minimize and monitor organic contamination during Apollo, but it was not adequate for current analytical requirements; thus [1]. OSIRIS-REx, Hayabusa-2, and future Mars sample return will require better protocols for reducing organic contamination. Future isolation con-tainment systems for astromaterials, possibly nitrogen enriched gloveboxes, must be able to reduce organic and inorganic cross-contamination. In 2012, a baseline study established the current state of organic cleanliness in gloveboxes used by NASA JSC astromaterials curation labs that could be used as a benchmark for future mission designs [2, 3]. After standard ultra-pure water (UPW) cleaning, the majority of organic contaminates found were hydrocarbons, plasticizers, silicones, and solvents. Hydro-carbons loads (> C7) ranged from 1.9 to 11.8 ng/cm2 for TD-GC-MS wafer exposure analyses and 5.0 to 19.5 ng/L for TD-GC-MS adsorbent tube exposure. Plasticizers included peracetic acid sterilization were used in the atmospheric de-contamination (R) cabinets. Later, Lunar curation gloveboxes were degreased with a pressurized Freon 113 wash. Today, UPW has replaced Freon as the standard cleaning procedure, but does not have the degreasing solvency power of Freon. Future Cleaning Studies: Cleaning experiments are cur-rently being orchestrated to study how to degrease and reduce organics in a JSC curation glovebox lower than the established baseline. Several new chemicals in the industry have replaced traditional degreasing solvents such as Freon and others that are now federally restricted. However, these new suites of chemicals remain untested for lowering organics in curation gloveboxes. 3M's HFE-7100DL and Du

Sharing Responsibility for Data Stewardship Between Scientists and Curators

Science.gov (United States)

Hedstrom, M. L.

2012-12-01

Data stewardship is becoming increasingly important to support accurate conclusions from new forms of data, integration of and computation across heterogeneous data types, interactions between models and data, replication of results, data governance and long-term archiving. In addition to increasing recognition of the importance of data management, data science, and data curation by US and international scientific agencies, the National Academies of Science Board on Research Data and Information is sponsoring a study on Data Curation Education and Workforce Issues. Effective data stewardship requires a distributed effort among scientists who produce data, IT staff and/or vendors who provide data storage and computational facilities and services, and curators who enhance data quality, manage data governance, provide access to third parties, and assume responsibility for long-term archiving of data. The expertise necessary for scientific data management includes a mix of knowledge of the scientific domain; an understanding of domain data requirements, standards, ontologies and analytical methods; facility with leading edge information technology; and knowledge of data governance, standards, and best practices for long-term preservation and access that rarely are found in a single individual. Rather than developing data science and data curation as new and distinct occupations, this paper examines the set of tasks required for data stewardship. The paper proposes an alternative model that embeds data stewardship in scientific workflows and coordinates hand-offs between instruments, repositories, analytical processing, publishers, distributors, and archives. This model forms the basis for defining knowledge and skill requirements for specific actors in the processes required for data stewardship and the corresponding educational and training needs.

Curating Big Data Made Simple: Perspectives from Scientific Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Sowe, Sulayman K; Zettsu, Koji

2014-03-01

The digital universe is exponentially producing an unprecedented volume of data that has brought benefits as well as fundamental challenges for enterprises and scientific communities alike. This trend is inherently exciting for the development and deployment of cloud platforms to support scientific communities curating big data. The excitement stems from the fact that scientists can now access and extract value from the big data corpus, establish relationships between bits and pieces of information from many types of data, and collaborate with a diverse community of researchers from various domains. However, despite these perceived benefits, to date, little attention is focused on the people or communities who are both beneficiaries and, at the same time, producers of big data. The technical challenges posed by big data are as big as understanding the dynamics of communities working with big data, whether scientific or otherwise. Furthermore, the big data era also means that big data platforms for data-intensive research must be designed in such a way that research scientists can easily search and find data for their research, upload and download datasets for onsite/offsite use, perform computations and analysis, share their findings and research experience, and seamlessly collaborate with their colleagues. In this article, we present the architecture and design of a cloud platform that meets some of these requirements, and a big data curation model that describes how a community of earth and environmental scientists is using the platform to curate data. Motivation for developing the platform, lessons learnt in overcoming some challenges associated with supporting scientists to curate big data, and future research directions are also presented.

[Curative Effects of Hydroxyurea on the Patients with β-thalassaemia Intermadia].

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Li; Yao, Hong-Xia

2016-06-01

To investigate the clinical features of β-thalassaemia intermediate (TI) patients and the curative effect and side reactions of hydroxyurea therapys. Twenty nine patients with TI were divided into hydroxyurea therapy group and no hydroxyurea therapy group; the curative effect and side reactions in 2 groups were compared; the situation of blood transfusion in the 2 groups was evaluated. In hydroxyurea therapy group, the hemoglobin level increased after treatment for 3 months; the reticulocyte percentage obviously decreased after treatment for 12 months; the serum ferritin had been maintained at a low level; while in no hydroxyurea therapy group, the levels of hemoglobin and reticulocytes were not significantly improved after treatment, the serum ferritin level gradually increased. In hydroxyurea therapy group, 12 cases were out of blood transfusion after treatment for 12 months, effective rate of treatment was 85.71%; while in no hydroxyurea therapy group, the blood transfusion dependency was not improved after treatment. No serious side reactions were found in all the hydroxyurea treated patients. The hydroxyurea shows a better curative effect on TI patients, no serious side reactions occur in all the patients treated with hydroxyurea, but the long-term curative effect and side reactions should be observed continuously.

Morbidity of curative cancer surgery and suicide risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Jayakrishnan, Thejus T; Sekigami, Yurie; Rajeev, Rahul; Gamblin, T Clark; Turaga, Kiran K

2017-11-01

Curative cancer operations lead to debility and loss of autonomy in a population vulnerable to suicide death. The extent to which operative intervention impacts suicide risk is not well studied. To examine the effects of morbidity of curative cancer surgeries and prognosis of disease on the risk of suicide in patients with solid tumors. Retrospective cohort study using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data from 2004 to 2011; multilevel systematic review. General US population. Participants were 482 781 patients diagnosed with malignant neoplasm between 2004 and 2011 who underwent curative cancer surgeries. Death by suicide or self-inflicted injury. Among 482 781 patients that underwent curative cancer surgery, 231 committed suicide (16.58/100 000 person-years [95% confidence interval, CI, 14.54-18.82]). Factors significantly associated with suicide risk included male sex (incidence rate [IR], 27.62; 95% CI, 23.82-31.86) and age >65 years (IR, 22.54; 95% CI, 18.84-26.76). When stratified by 30-day overall postoperative morbidity, a significantly higher incidence of suicide was found for high-morbidity surgeries (IR, 33.30; 95% CI, 26.50-41.33) vs moderate morbidity (IR, 24.27; 95% CI, 18.92-30.69) and low morbidity (IR, 9.81; 95% CI, 7.90-12.04). Unit increase in morbidity was significantly associated with death by suicide (odds ratio, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00-1.03; P = .02) and decreased suicide-specific survival (hazards ratio, 1.02; 95% CI, 1.00-1.03, P = .01) in prognosis-adjusted models. In this sample of cancer patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, patients that undergo high-morbidity surgeries appear most vulnerable to death by suicide. The identification of this high-risk cohort should motivate health care providers and particularly surgeons to adopt screening measures during the postoperative follow-up period for these patients. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Observations on the Curative Effect of Acupuncture on Depressive Neurosis

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

FU Wen-bin; WANG Si-you

2003-01-01

Purpose To evaluate the curative effect of acupuncture on depressive neurosis. Method Sixty-two patients were randomly divided into a treatment group of 32 cases and a control group of 30 cases. The treatment group and the control group were treated with acupuncture and Fluoxetine, respectively. The curative effects were evaluated by HAMD. Results There was a significant difference between pretreatment and posttreatmentin each group ( P 0.05). But acupuncture had no side effects and was good in compliance. Conclusion Acupuncture is an effective method for treating depressive neurosis.

Jean-Paul Martinon, ed. - The Curatorial: A Philosophy of Curating

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sofia Romualdo

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the words of Jean-Paul Martinon, this book’s editor, The Curatorial: A Philosophy of Curating originated from a “wish to talk about curating”, the same wish that led to the creation, in 2006, of a practice-led PhD programme at Goldsmiths College, called Curatorial/Knowledge. The anthology features contributions from tutors, guest speakers and students, all of whom delve into what “the curatorial” is and what it might mean in the future. Curating, or the act of organizing exhibitions, paral...

Solubility Study of Curatives in Various Rubbers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guo, R.; Talma, Auke; Datta, Rabin; Dierkes, Wilma K.; Noordermeer, Jacobus W.M.

2008-01-01

The previous works on solubility of curatives in rubbers were mainly carried out in natural rubber. Not too much information available on dissimilar rubbers and this is important because most of the compounds today are blends of dissimilar rubbers. Although solubility can be expected to certain

Procjena citomorfologije, HPV statusa i HPV 16 genotipa u predikciji ishoda bolesti kod pacijentica s citološkim nalazom ASCUS i LSIL

OpenAIRE

Vrdoljak-Mozetič, Danijela; Štemberger-Papić, Snježana; Verša Ostojić, Damjana; Rubeša-Mihaljević, Roberta; Dinter, Morana; Brnčić-Fischer, Alemka; Krašević, Maja

2016-01-01

Cilj: Istražiti međusobnu povezanost i prognostički značaj HPV statusa (humani papiloma-virus), HPV 16 genotipa i citomorfologije kod pacijentica s citološkim nalazom abnormalnih stanica pločastog epitela vrata maternice graničnog i blagog stupnja. Materijali i metode: U studiju su uključene pacijentice s inicijalnim citološkim nalazom vrata maternice atipičnih skvamoznih stanica neodređenog značenja (ASCUS, N = 160) i skvamozne intraepitelne lezije niskog stupnja (LSIL, N = 155). Analizirane...

A hybrid human and machine resource curation pipeline for the Neuroscience Information Framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Bandrowski, A E; Cachat, J; Li, Y; Müller, H M; Sternberg, P W; Ciccarese, P; Clark, T; Marenco, L; Wang, R; Astakhov, V; Grethe, J S; Martone, M E

2012-01-01

The breadth of information resources available to researchers on the Internet continues to expand, particularly in light of recently implemented data-sharing policies required by funding agencies. However, the nature of dense, multifaceted neuroscience data and the design of contemporary search engine systems makes efficient, reliable and relevant discovery of such information a significant challenge. This challenge is specifically pertinent for online databases, whose dynamic content is 'hidden' from search engines. The Neuroscience Information Framework (NIF; http://www.neuinfo.org) was funded by the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research to address the problem of finding and utilizing neuroscience-relevant resources such as software tools, data sets, experimental animals and antibodies across the Internet. From the outset, NIF sought to provide an accounting of available resources, whereas developing technical solutions to finding, accessing and utilizing them. The curators therefore, are tasked with identifying and registering resources, examining data, writing configuration files to index and display data and keeping the contents current. In the initial phases of the project, all aspects of the registration and curation processes were manual. However, as the number of resources grew, manual curation became impractical. This report describes our experiences and successes with developing automated resource discovery and semiautomated type characterization with text-mining scripts that facilitate curation team efforts to discover, integrate and display new content. We also describe the DISCO framework, a suite of automated web services that significantly reduce manual curation efforts to periodically check for resource updates. Lastly, we discuss DOMEO, a semi-automated annotation tool that improves the discovery and curation of resources that are not necessarily website-based (i.e. reagents, software tools). Although the ultimate goal of automation was to

State of the Art of Cost and Benefit Models for Digital Curation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kejser, Ulla Bøgvad; Davidson, Joy; Wang, David

2014-01-01

, to support decision-making and for selecting the most efficient processes – all of which are critical for ensuring sustainability of digital curation investment. The evaluation revealed that the most prominent challenges are associated with the models’ usability, their inability to model quality and benefits......This paper presents the results of an evaluation carried out by the EU 4C project to assess how well current digital curation cost and benefit models meet a range of stakeholders’ needs. This work aims to elicit a means of modelling that enables comparing financial information across organisations...... of curation, and the lack of a clear terminology and conceptual description of costs and benefits. The paper provides recommendations on how these gaps in cost and benefit modelling can be bridged....

JSC Advanced Curation: Research and Development for Current Collections and Future Sample Return Mission Demands

Science.gov (United States)

Fries, M. D.; Allen, C. C.; Calaway, M. J.; Evans, C. A.; Stansbery, E. K.

2015-01-01

Curation of NASA's astromaterials sample collections is a demanding and evolving activity that supports valuable science from NASA missions for generations, long after the samples are returned to Earth. For example, NASA continues to loan hundreds of Apollo program samples to investigators every year and those samples are often analyzed using instruments that did not exist at the time of the Apollo missions themselves. The samples are curated in a manner that minimizes overall contamination, enabling clean, new high-sensitivity measurements and new science results over 40 years after their return to Earth. As our exploration of the Solar System progresses, upcoming and future NASA sample return missions will return new samples with stringent contamination control, sample environmental control, and Planetary Protection requirements. Therefore, an essential element of a healthy astromaterials curation program is a research and development (R&D) effort that characterizes and employs new technologies to maintain current collections and enable new missions - an Advanced Curation effort. JSC's Astromaterials Acquisition & Curation Office is continually performing Advanced Curation research, identifying and defining knowledge gaps about research, development, and validation/verification topics that are critical to support current and future NASA astromaterials sample collections. The following are highlighted knowledge gaps and research opportunities.

Sample Transport for a European Sample Curation Facility

Science.gov (United States)

Berthoud, L.; Vrublevskis, J. B.; Bennett, A.; Pottage, T.; Bridges, J. C.; Holt, J. M. C.; Dirri, F.; Longobardo, A.; Palomba, E.; Russell, S.; Smith, C.

2018-04-01

This work has looked at the recovery of Mars Sample Return capsule once it arrives on Earth. It covers possible landing sites, planetary protection requirements, and transportation from the landing site to a European Sample Curation Facility.

A Grand Challenge: Immortal Information and Through-Life Knowledge Management (KIM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Ball

2006-11-01

Full Text Available ‘Immortal information and through-life knowledge management: strategies and tools for the emerging product-service business paradigm’, is a Grand Challenge project involving eleven different UK universities and incorporating substantial industry collaboration. It is investigating a range of issues associated with the move towards a product-service paradigm in the engineering sector, in particular the long-term curation of digital data, learning from production and use, and appropriate governance and management techniques.

Curating and Nudging in Virtual CLIL Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Helle Lykke

2014-01-01

Foreign language teachers can benefit substantially from the notions of curation and nudging when scaffolding CLIL activities on the internet. This article shows how these principles can be integrated into CLILstore, a free multimedia-rich learning tool with seamless access to online dictionaries, and presents feedback from first and second year…

Outcomes of the 'Data Curation for Geobiology at Yellowstone National Park' Workshop

Science.gov (United States)

Thomer, A.; Palmer, C. L.; Fouke, B. W.; Rodman, A.; Choudhury, G. S.; Baker, K. S.; Asangba, A. E.; Wickett, K.; DiLauro, T.; Varvel, V.

2013-12-01

The continuing proliferation of geological and biological data generated at scientifically significant sites (such as hot springs, coral reefs, volcanic fields and other unique, data-rich locales) has created a clear need for the curation and active management of these data. However, there has been little exploration of what these curation processes and policies would entail. To that end, the Site-Based Data Curation (SBDC) project is developing a framework of guidelines and processes for the curation of research data generated at scientifically significant sites. A workshop was held in April 2013 at Yellowstone National Park (YNP) to gather input from scientists and stakeholders. Workshop participants included nine researchers actively conducting geobiology research at YNP, and seven YNP representatives, including permitting staff and information professionals from the YNP research library and archive. Researchers came from a range of research areas -- geology, molecular and microbial biology, ecology, environmental engineering, and science education. Through group discussions, breakout sessions and hands-on activities, we sought to generate policy recommendations and curation guidelines for the collection, representation, sharing and quality control of geobiological datasets. We report on key themes that emerged from workshop discussions, including: - participants' broad conceptions of the long-term usefulness, reusability and value of data. - the benefits of aggregating site-specific data in general, and geobiological data in particular. - the importance of capturing a dataset's originating context, and the potential usefulness of photographs as a reliable and easy way of documenting context. - researchers' and resource managers' overlapping priorities with regards to 'big picture' data collection and management in the long-term. Overall, we found that workshop participants were enthusiastic and optimistic about future collaboration and development of community

Organic Contamination Baseline Study on NASA JSC Astromaterial Curation Gloveboxes

Science.gov (United States)

Calaway, Michael J.; Allton, J. H.; Allen, C. C.; Burkett, P. J.

2013-01-01

Future planned sample return missions to carbon-rich asteroids and Mars in the next two decades will require strict handling and curation protocols as well as new procedures for reducing organic contamination. After the Apollo program, astromaterial collections have mainly been concerned with inorganic contamination [1-4]. However, future isolation containment systems for astromaterials, possibly nitrogen enriched gloveboxes, must be able to reduce organic and inorganic cross-contamination. In 2012, a baseline study was orchestrated to establish the current state of organic cleanliness in gloveboxes used by NASA JSC astromaterials curation labs that could be used as a benchmark for future mission designs.

Curating Media Learning: Towards a Porous Expertise

Science.gov (United States)

McDougall, Julian; Potter, John

2015-01-01

This article combines research results from a range of projects with two consistent themes. Firstly, we explore the potential for curation to offer a productive metaphor for the convergence of digital media learning across and between home/lifeworld and formal educational/system-world spaces--or between the public and private spheres. Secondly, we…

Hospital of Diagnosis Influences the Probability of Receiving Curative Treatment for Esophageal Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

van Putten, Margreet; Koëter, Marijn; van Laarhoven, Hanneke W M; Lemmens, Valery E P P; Siersema, Peter D; Hulshof, Maarten C C M; Verhoeven, Rob H A; Nieuwenhuijzen, Grard A P

2018-02-01

The aim of this article was to study the influence of hospital of diagnosis on the probability of receiving curative treatment and its impact on survival among patients with esophageal cancer (EC). Although EC surgery is centralized in the Netherlands, the disease is often diagnosed in hospitals that do not perform this procedure. Patients with potentially curable esophageal or gastroesophageal junction tumors diagnosed between 2005 and 2013 who were potentially curable (cT1-3,X, any N, M0,X) were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Multilevel logistic regression was performed to examine the probability to undergo curative treatment (resection with or without neoadjuvant treatment, definitive chemoradiotherapy, or local tumor excision) according to hospital of diagnosis. Effects of variation in probability of undergoing curative treatment among these hospitals on survival were investigated by Cox regression. All 13,017 patients with potentially curable EC, diagnosed in 91 hospitals, were included. The proportion of patients receiving curative treatment ranged from 37% to 83% and from 45% to 86% in the periods 2005-2009 and 2010-2013, respectively, depending on hospital of diagnosis. After adjustment for patient- and hospital-related characteristics these proportions ranged from 41% to 77% and from 50% to 82%, respectively (both P < 0.001). Multivariable survival analyses showed that patients diagnosed in hospitals with a low probability of undergoing curative treatment had a worse overall survival (hazard ratio = 1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.06-1.20; hazard ratio = 1.15, 95% confidence interval 1.07-1.24). The variation in probability of undergoing potentially curative treatment for EC between hospitals of diagnosis and its impact on survival indicates that treatment decision making in EC may be improved.

Curator's process of meaning-making in National museums

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cole, Anne Jodon

2014-01-01

The paper aims to understand the meaning-making process curators engage in designing/developing exhibitions of the nations indigenous peoples. How indigenous people are represented can with perpetuate stereotypes or mediate change while strengthening their personal and group identity. Analysis...

Observation of curative effect of 131I in treatment of hyperthyroidism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Kebin; Xu Fan; Zhang Yaping; Wang Jingchang; Zhao Mingli; Ye Ming

2012-01-01

Objective: To explore the curative effect of 131 I in the treatment of hyperthyroidism. Method: 126 patients with hyperthyroidism were treated with 131 I and the curative effect was analyzed. Result: The results showed that among 126 cases of hyperthyroidism treated with 131 I, 117 cases had recovered and the cure rate was 92.9%. 9 cases were found hypothyroidism in one-year follow-up and the occurrence rate was 7.1%. Conclusion: The treatment of hyperthyroidism with 131 I is safe and effective method. (authors)

Curating NASA's Astromaterials Collections: Past, Present, and Future

Science.gov (United States)

Zeigler, Ryan

2015-01-01

Planning for the curation of samples from future sample return missions must begin during the initial planning stages of a mission. Waiting until the samples have been returned to Earth, or even when you begin to physically build the spacecraft is too late. A lack of proper planning could lead to irreversible contamination of the samples, which in turn would compromise the scientific integrity of the mission. For example, even though the Apollo missions first returned samples in 1969, planning for the curation facility began in the early 1960s, and construction of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory was completed in 1967. In addition to designing the receiving facility and laboratory that the samples will be characterized and stored in, there are many aspects of contamination that must be addressed during the planning and building of the spacecraft: planetary protection (both outbound and inbound); cataloging, documenting, and preserving the materials used to build spacecraft (also known as coupons); near real-time monitoring of the environment in which the spacecraft is being built using witness plates for critical aspects of contamination (known as contamination control); and long term monitoring and preservation of the environment in which the spacecraft is being built for most aspects of potential contamination through the use of witness plates (known as contamination knowledge). The OSIRIS REx asteroid sample return mission, currently being built, is dealing with all of these aspects of contamination in order to ensure they return the best preserved sample possible. Coupons and witness plates from OSIRIS REx are currently being studied and stored (for future studies) at the Johnson Space Center. Similarly, planning for the clean room facility at Johnson Space Center to house the OSIRIS-REx samples is well advanced, and construction of the facility should begin in early 2017 (despite a nominal 2023 return date for OSIRIS-REx samples). Similar development is being

A justification for semantic training in data curation frameworks development

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, X.; Branch, B. D.; Wegner, K.

2013-12-01

In the complex data curation activities involving proper data access, data use optimization and data rescue, opportunities exist where underlying skills in semantics may play a crucial role in data curation professionals ranging from data scientists, to informaticists, to librarians. Here, We provide a conceptualization of semantics use in the education data curation framework (EDCF) [1] under development by Purdue University and endorsed by the GLOBE program [2] for further development and application. Our work shows that a comprehensive data science training includes both spatial and non-spatial data, where both categories are promoted by standard efforts of organizations such as the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), as well as organizations such as the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) that share knowledge and propagate best practices in applications. Outside the context of EDCF, semantics training may be same critical to such data scientists, informaticists or librarians in other types of data curation activity. Past works by the authors have suggested that such data science should augment an ontological literacy where data science may become sustainable as a discipline. As more datasets are being published as open data [3] and made linked to each other, i.e., in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) format, or at least their metadata are being published in such a way, vocabularies and ontologies of various domains are being created and used in the data management, such as the AGROVOC [4] for agriculture and the GCMD keywords [5] and CLEAN vocabulary [6] for climate sciences. The new generation of data scientist should be aware of those technologies and receive training where appropriate to incorporate those technologies into their reforming daily works. References [1] Branch, B.D., Fosmire, M., 2012. The role of interdisciplinary GIS and data curation librarians in enhancing authentic scientific

Collecting, curating, and researching writers' libraries a handbook

CERN Document Server

Oram, Richard W

2014-01-01

Collecting, Curating, and Researching Writers' Libraries: A Handbook is the first book to examine the history, acquisition, cataloging, and scholarly use of writers' personal libraries. This book also includes interviews with several well-known writers, who discuss their relationship with their books.

A relevancy algorithm for curating earth science data around phenomenon

Science.gov (United States)

Maskey, Manil; Ramachandran, Rahul; Li, Xiang; Weigel, Amanda; Bugbee, Kaylin; Gatlin, Patrick; Miller, J. J.

2017-09-01

Earth science data are being collected for various science needs and applications, processed using different algorithms at multiple resolutions and coverages, and then archived at different archiving centers for distribution and stewardship causing difficulty in data discovery. Curation, which typically occurs in museums, art galleries, and libraries, is traditionally defined as the process of collecting and organizing information around a common subject matter or a topic of interest. Curating data sets around topics or areas of interest addresses some of the data discovery needs in the field of Earth science, especially for unanticipated users of data. This paper describes a methodology to automate search and selection of data around specific phenomena. Different components of the methodology including the assumptions, the process, and the relevancy ranking algorithm are described. The paper makes two unique contributions to improving data search and discovery capabilities. First, the paper describes a novel methodology developed for automatically curating data around a topic using Earth science metadata records. Second, the methodology has been implemented as a stand-alone web service that is utilized to augment search and usability of data in a variety of tools.

The art of curation at a biological database: Principles and application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah G. Odell

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The variety and quantity of data being produced by biological research has grown dramatically in recent years, resulting in an expansion of our understanding of biological systems. However, this abundance of data has brought new challenges, especially in curation. The role of biocurators is in part to filter research outcomes as they are generated, not only so that information is formatted and consolidated into locations that can provide long-term data sustainability, but also to ensure that the relevant data that was captured is reliable, reusable, and accessible. In many ways, biocuration lies somewhere between an art and a science. At GrainGenes (https://wheat.pw.usda.gov;https://graingenes.org, a long-time, stably-funded centralized repository for data about wheat, barley, rye, oat, and other small grains, curators have implemented a workflow for locating, parsing, and uploading new data so that the most important, peer-reviewed, high-quality research is available to users as quickly as possible with rich links to past research outcomes. In this report, we illustrate the principles and practical considerations of curation that we follow at GrainGenes with three case studies for curating a gene, a quantitative trait locus (QTL, and genomic elements. These examples demonstrate how our work allows users, i.e., small grains geneticists and breeders, to harness high-quality small grains data at GrainGenes to help them develop plants with enhanced agronomic traits.

Learning relationships: Church of England curates and training ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2017-06-20

Jun 20, 2017 ... exploring how this affects the dynamic of the relationship with their curates. Scripture is also ... factors, as employed in the models of personality advanced by Costa and .... psychological type preferences of their training incumbents. The data ..... to conceptualising and implementing Christian vocation.

Materialismo percettivo. Da Democrito a Lenin, da Hobbes a Kim

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michele Gardini

2012-05-01

Full Text Available The paper tries to outline something like a short “critique of pure materialism” in the domain of perception, a sketch showing – through a series of examples, picked out in an apparently heterogeneous fashion from the Western philosophical tradition – how this epistemological model each time, and in everyone of its forms, fails in giving account of the basic features of perceiving.  After giving a survey of authors like Democritus, Hobbes, De Sade, Lenin, the final appendix, devoted to the concept of “supervenience” and its treatment in Davidson and Kim, aims at summarizing the whole problem through the categories of the contemporary philosophy of mind. The conclusion is that a pure materialistic approach is incapable to give reason to some of the fundamental characteristics of perception, that make it one of the basic moods of “being-in-the-world”.

"The Day All of the Different Parts of Me Can Come Along": Intersectionality and U.S. Third World Feminism in the Poetry of Pat Parker and Willyce Kim.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Ausdall, Mimi Iimuro

2015-01-01

This article brings to light the poetry of Pat Parker and Willyce Kim, two key figures within the 1970s and '80s women in print movement. While Parker and Kim have been rightly placed within African-American and Asian-American histories, respectively, and working-class and lesbian-feminist literary histories, their work is most fully understood within the context of U.S. Third World Feminism. Through close readings of poetic form and content in addition to engagement with current debates about intersectionality as a methodology, the article links Kim and Parker's works to central contributions of U.S. Third World Feminism such as intersectionality and power across and within difference that continue to influence feminist theory today.

Somatic cancer variant curation and harmonization through consensus minimum variant level data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Deborah I. Ritter

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background To truly achieve personalized medicine in oncology, it is critical to catalog and curate cancer sequence variants for their clinical relevance. The Somatic Working Group (WG of the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen, in cooperation with ClinVar and multiple cancer variant curation stakeholders, has developed a consensus set of minimal variant level data (MVLD. MVLD is a framework of standardized data elements to curate cancer variants for clinical utility. With implementation of MVLD standards, and in a working partnership with ClinVar, we aim to streamline the somatic variant curation efforts in the community and reduce redundancy and time burden for the interpretation of cancer variants in clinical practice. Methods We developed MVLD through a consensus approach by i reviewing clinical actionability interpretations from institutions participating in the WG, ii conducting extensive literature search of clinical somatic interpretation schemas, and iii survey of cancer variant web portals. A forthcoming guideline on cancer variant interpretation, from the Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP, can be incorporated into MVLD. Results Along with harmonizing standardized terminology for allele interpretive and descriptive fields that are collected by many databases, the MVLD includes unique fields for cancer variants such as Biomarker Class, Therapeutic Context and Effect. In addition, MVLD includes recommendations for controlled semantics and ontologies. The Somatic WG is collaborating with ClinVar to evaluate MVLD use for somatic variant submissions. ClinVar is an open and centralized repository where sequencing laboratories can report summary-level variant data with clinical significance, and ClinVar accepts cancer variant data. Conclusions We expect the use of the MVLD to streamline clinical interpretation of cancer variants, enhance interoperability among multiple redundant curation efforts, and increase submission of

Use of Ontologies for Data Integration and Curation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Judith Gelernter

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Data curation includes the goal of facilitating the re-use and combination of datasets, which is often impeded by incompatible data schema. Can we use ontologies to help with data integration? We suggest a semi-automatic process that involves the use of automatic text searching to help identify overlaps in metadata that accompany data schemas, plus human validation of suggested data matches.Problems include different text used to describe the same concept, different forms of data recording and different organizations of data. Ontologies can help by focussing attention on important words, providing synonyms to assist matching, and indicating in what context words are used. Beyond ontologies, data on the statistical behavior of data can be used to decide which data elements appear to be compatible with which other data elements. When curating data which may have hundreds or even thousands of data labels, semi-automatic assistance with data fusion should be of great help.

Curating the Poster

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Line Hjorth

2017-01-01

Parallel to the primary functions performed by posters in the urban environment, we find a range of curatorial practices that tie the poster, a mass-produced graphic design media, to the museum institution. Yet little research has attempted to uncover the diverse subject of curatorial work...... and the process where posters created to live in a real-world environment are relocated in a museum. According to Peter Bil’ak (2006), it creates a situation where ”the entire raison d’être of the work is lost as a side effect of losing the context of the work”. The article investigates how environmental...... structures can work as guidelines for curating posters and graphic design in a museum context. By applying an ecological view to design, specifically the semiotic notion “counter-ability”, it stresses the reciprocal relationship of humans and their built and product-designed environments. It further suggests...

A Phase Blending Study on Rubber Blends Based on the Solubility Preference of Curatives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guo, R.; Talma, Auke; Datta, Rabin; Dierkes, Wilma K.; Noordermeer, Jacobus W.M.

2009-01-01

Using previously obtained data on the solubilities of curatives in SBR, EPDM and in NBR, different mixing procedures were performed on 50/50 SBR/EPDM and NBR/EPDM blends. In contrast to a previous phase-mixing study, the curatives were added to separate phases before final blending, in an attempt to

Smart Mobility Stakeholders - Curating Urban Data & Models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sperling, Joshua [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-09-01

This presentation provides an overview of the curation of urban data and models through engaging SMART mobility stakeholders. SMART Mobility Urban Science Efforts are helping to expose key data sets, models, and roles for the U.S. Department of Energy in engaging across stakeholders to ensure useful insights. This will help to support other Urban Science and broader SMART initiatives.

Muusikauudised : Lu : k ja Jäääär koos laval. Britney Spears tegutseb. Lenny Kravitz ja Mick Jagger. Kim Wilde

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

2001-01-01

Tartus Sõbra majas toimunud kontserdist. Videost "Britney: The video". Heliplaatidest: "Britney", "The Best of Pink Floyd", "Lenny", Mick Jagger "Goddess In The Doorway", "The Very Best Of Kim Wilde"

Estimating the annotation error rate of curated GO database sequence annotations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brown Alfred L

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Annotations that describe the function of sequences are enormously important to researchers during laboratory investigations and when making computational inferences. However, there has been little investigation into the data quality of sequence function annotations. Here we have developed a new method of estimating the error rate of curated sequence annotations, and applied this to the Gene Ontology (GO sequence database (GOSeqLite. This method involved artificially adding errors to sequence annotations at known rates, and used regression to model the impact on the precision of annotations based on BLAST matched sequences. Results We estimated the error rate of curated GO sequence annotations in the GOSeqLite database (March 2006 at between 28% and 30%. Annotations made without use of sequence similarity based methods (non-ISS had an estimated error rate of between 13% and 18%. Annotations made with the use of sequence similarity methodology (ISS had an estimated error rate of 49%. Conclusion While the overall error rate is reasonably low, it would be prudent to treat all ISS annotations with caution. Electronic annotators that use ISS annotations as the basis of predictions are likely to have higher false prediction rates, and for this reason designers of these systems should consider avoiding ISS annotations where possible. Electronic annotators that use ISS annotations to make predictions should be viewed sceptically. We recommend that curators thoroughly review ISS annotations before accepting them as valid. Overall, users of curated sequence annotations from the GO database should feel assured that they are using a comparatively high quality source of information.

"Sundiata, Lion King of Mali." Adapted by Kim Hines, Featuring Griot Alhaji Papa Susso, Cue Sheet for Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Freeman, Aakhu TuahNera

This performance guide is designed for teachers to use with students before and after a performance of "Sundiata: Lion King of Mali," adapted by Kim Hines and featuring Griot Alhaji Papa Susso. The guide, called a "Cuesheet," contains seven activity sheets for use in class, addressing: (1) Sundiata: Man & Myth (discusses…

Recovery, Transportation and Acceptance to the Curation Facility of the Hayabusa Re-Entry Capsule

Science.gov (United States)

Abe, M.; Fujimura, A.; Yano, H.; Okamoto, C.; Okada, T.; Yada, T.; Ishibashi, Y.; Shirai, K.; Nakamura, T.; Noguchi, T.;

Discovering New Global Climate Patterns: Curating a 21-Year High Temporal (Hourly) and Spatial (40km) Resolution Reanalysis Dataset

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, C. Y.; Dattore, R.; Peng, G. S.

2014-12-01

The National Center for Atmospheric Research's Global Climate Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation (CFDDA) Hourly 40km Reanalysis dataset is a dynamically downscaled dataset with high temporal and spatial resolution. The dataset contains three-dimensional hourly analyses in netCDF format for the global atmospheric state from 1985 to 2005 on a 40km horizontal grid (0.4°grid increment) with 28 vertical levels, providing good representation of local forcing and diurnal variation of processes in the planetary boundary layer. This project aimed to make the dataset publicly available, accessible, and usable in order to provide a unique resource to allow and promote studies of new climate characteristics. When the curation project started, it had been five years since the data files were generated. Also, although the Principal Investigator (PI) had generated a user document at the end of the project in 2009, the document had not been maintained. Furthermore, the PI had moved to a new institution, and the remaining team members were reassigned to other projects. These factors made data curation in the areas of verifying data quality, harvest metadata descriptions, documenting provenance information especially challenging. As a result, the project's curation process found that: Data curator's skill and knowledge helped make decisions, such as file format and structure and workflow documentation, that had significant, positive impact on the ease of the dataset's management and long term preservation. Use of data curation tools, such as the Data Curation Profiles Toolkit's guidelines, revealed important information for promoting the data's usability and enhancing preservation planning. Involving data curators during each stage of the data curation life cycle instead of at the end could improve the curation process' efficiency. Overall, the project showed that proper resources invested in the curation process would give datasets the best chance to fulfill their potential to

Preventive but Not Curative Efficacy of Celecoxib on Bladder Carcinogenesis in a Rat Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Sereno

2010-01-01

Full Text Available To evaluate the effect of a cyclooxygenase 2 inhibitor, celecoxib (CEL, on bladder cancer inhibition in a rat model, when used as preventive versus as curative treatment. The study comprised 52 male Wistar rats, divided in 5 groups, during a 20-week protocol: control: vehicle, carcinogen: 0.05% of N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl nitrosamine (BBN, CEL: 10 mg/kg/day of the selective COX-2 inhibitor Celebrex, preventive CEL (CEL+BBN-P, and curative CEL (BBN+CEL-C groups. Although tumor growth was markedly inhibited by the preventive application of CEL, it was even aggravated by the curative treatment. The incidence of gross bladder carcinoma was: control 0/8(0%, BBN 13/20(65%, CEL 0/8(0%, CEL+BBN-P 1/8(12.5%, and BBN+CEL-C 6/8(75%. The number and volume of carcinomas were significantly lower in the CEL+BBN-P versus BBN, accompanied by an ample reduction in hyperplasia, dysplasia, and papillary tumors as well as COX-2 immunostaining. In spite of the reduction of tumor volumes in the curative BBN+CEL-C group, tumor malignancy was augmented. An anti-inflammatory and antioxidant profile was encountered only in the group under preventive treatment. In conclusion, preventive, but not curative, celecoxib treatment promoted a striking inhibitory effect on bladder cancer development, reinforcing the potential role of chemopreventive strategies based on cyclooxygenase 2 inhibition.

Differences in immunolocalization of Kim-1, RPA-1, and RPA-2 in kidneys of gentamicin-, cisplatin-, and valproic acid-treated rats: potential role of iNOS and nitrotyrosine.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jun; Goering, Peter L; Espandiari, Parvaneh; Shaw, Martin; Bonventre, Joseph V; Vaidya, Vishal S; Brown, Ronald P; Keenan, Joe; Kilty, Cormac G; Sadrieh, Nakissa; Hanig, Joseph P

2009-08-01

The present study compared the immunolocalization of Kim-1, renal papillary antigen (RPA)-1, and RPA-2 with that of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and nitrotyrosine in kidneys of gentamicin sulfate (Gen)- and cisplatin (Cis)-treated rats. The specificity of acute kidney injury (AKI) biomarkers, iNOS, and nitrotyrosine was evaluated by dosing rats with valproic acid (VPA). Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were injected subcutaneously (sc) with 100 mg/kg/day of Gen for six or fourteen days; a single intraperitoneal (ip) dose of 1, 3, or 6 mg/kg of Cis; or 650 mg/kg/day of VPA (ip) for four days. In Gen-treated rats, Kim-1 was expressed in the epithelial cells, mainly in the S1/S2 segments but less so in the S3 segment, and RPA-1 was increased in the epithelial cells of collecting ducts (CD) in the cortex. Spatial expression of iNOS or nitrotyrosine with Kim-1 or RPA-1 was detected. In Cis-treated rats, Kim-1 was expressed only in the S3 segment cells, and RPA-1 and RPA-2 were increased in the epithelial cells of medullary CD or medullary loop of Henle (LH), respectively. Spatial expression of iNOS or nitrotyrosine with RPA-1 or RPA-2 was also identified. These findings suggest that peroxynitrite formation may be involved in the pathogenesis of Gen and Cis nephrotoxicity and that Kim-1, RPA-1, and RPA-2 have the potential to serve as site-specific biomarkers for Gen or Cis AKI.

Surveillance Patterns After Curative-Intent Colorectal Cancer Surgery in Ontario

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jensen Tan

2014-01-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Postoperative surveillance following curative-intent resection of colorectal cancer (CRC is variably performed due to existing guideline differences and to the limited data supporting different strategies.

A Practice and Value Proposal for Doctoral Dissertation Data Curation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. Aaron Collie

2011-10-01

Full Text Available The preparation and publication of dissertations can be viewed as a subsystem of scholarly communication, and the treatment of data that support doctoral research can be mapped in a very controlled manner to the data curation lifecycle. Dissertation datasets represent “low-hanging fruit” for universities who are developing institutional data collections. The current workflow for processing electronic theses and dissertations (ETD at a typical American university is presented, and a new practice is proposed that includes datasets in the process of formulating, awarding, and disseminating dissertations in a way that enables them to be linked and curated together. The value proposition and new roles for the university and its student-authors, faculty, graduate programs and librarians are explored.

Distribution and utilization of curative primary healthcare services in Lahej, Yemen.

Science.gov (United States)

Bawazir, A A; Bin Hawail, T S; Al-Sakkaf, K A Z; Basaleem, H O; Muhraz, A F; Al-Shehri, A M

2013-09-01

No evidence-based data exist on the availability, accessibility and utilization of healthcare services in Lahej Governorate, Yemen. The aim of this study was to assess the distribution and utilization of curative services in primary healthcare units and centres in Lahej. Cross-sectional study (clustering sample). This study was conducted in three of the 15 districts in Lahej between December 2009 and August 2010. Household members were interviewed using a questionnaire to determine sociodemographic characteristics and types of healthcare services available in the area. The distribution of health centres, health units and hospitals did not match the size of the populations or areas of the districts included in this study. Geographical accessibility was the main obstacle to utilization. Factors associated with the utilization of curative services were significantly related to the time required to reach the nearest facility, seeking curative services during illness and awareness of the availability of health facilities (P < 0.01). There is an urgent need to look critically and scientifically at the distribution of healthcare services in the region in order to ensure accessibility and quality of services. Copyright © 2013 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Digital Curation as a Core Competency in Current Learning and Literacy: A Higher Education Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Ungerer, Leona M.

2016-01-01

Digital curation may be regarded as a core competency in higher education since it contributes to establishing a sense of metaliteracy (an essential requirement for optimally functioning in a modern media environment) among students. Digital curation is gradually finding its way into higher education curricula aimed at fostering social media…

The latest evidence for possible HIV-1 curative strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Hanh Thi; Mesplède, Thibault

2018-01-01

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection remains a major health issue worldwide. In developed countries, antiretroviral therapy has extended its reach from treatment of people living with HIV-1 to post-exposure prophylaxis, treatment as prevention, and, more recently, pre-exposure prophylaxis. These healthcare strategies offer the epidemiological tools to curve the epidemic in rich settings and will be concomitantly implemented in developing countries. One of the remaining challenges is to identify an efficacious curative strategy. This review manuscript will focus on some of the current curative strategies aiming at providing a sterilizing or functional cure to HIV-1-positive individuals. These include the following: early treatment initiation in post-treatment controllers as a long-term HIV-1 remission strategy, latency reversal, gene editing with or without stem cell transplantation, and antibodies against either the viral envelope protein or the host integrin α4β7.

Data Preservation and Curation for the Planetary Science Community

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, J. S.; Crichton, D. J.; Joyner, R.; Hardman, S.; Rye, E.

2013-12-01

The Planetary Data System (PDS) has just released PDS4 Version 1.0, its next generation data standards for the planetary science archive. These data standards are the result of a multi-year effort to develop an information model based on accepted standards for data preservation, data curation, metadata management, and model development. The resulting information model is subsequently used to drive information system development from the generation of data standards documentation to the configuration of federated registries and search engines. This paper will provide an overview of the development of the PDS4 Information Model and focus on the application of the Open Archive Information System (OAIS) Reference Model - ISO 14721:2003, the Metadata Registry (MDR) Standard - ISO/IEC 11179, and the E-Business XML Standard to help ensure the long-term preservation and curation of planetary science data. Copyright 2013 California Institute of Technology Government sponsorship acknowledged

Virtual Collections: An Earth Science Data Curation Service

Science.gov (United States)

Bugbee, Kaylin; Ramachandran, Rahul; Maskey, Manil; Gatlin, Patrick

2016-01-01

The role of Earth science data centers has traditionally been to maintain central archives that serve openly available Earth observation data. However, in order to ensure data are as useful as possible to a diverse user community, Earth science data centers must move beyond simply serving as an archive to offering innovative data services to user communities. A virtual collection, the end product of a curation activity that searches, selects, and synthesizes diffuse data and information resources around a specific topic or event, is a data curation service that improves the discoverability, accessibility, and usability of Earth science data and also supports the needs of unanticipated users. Virtual collections minimize the amount of the time and effort needed to begin research by maximizing certainty of reward and by providing a trustworthy source of data for unanticipated users. This presentation will define a virtual collection in the context of an Earth science data center and will highlight a virtual collection case study created at the Global Hydrology Resource Center data center.

Virtual Collections: An Earth Science Data Curation Service

Science.gov (United States)

Bugbee, K.; Ramachandran, R.; Maskey, M.; Gatlin, P. N.

2016-12-01

The role of Earth science data centers has traditionally been to maintain central archives that serve openly available Earth observation data. However, in order to ensure data are as useful as possible to a diverse user community, Earth science data centers must move beyond simply serving as an archive to offering innovative data services to user communities. A virtual collection, the end product of a curation activity that searches, selects, and synthesizes diffuse data and information resources around a specific topic or event, is a data curation service that improves the discoverability, accessibility and usability of Earth science data and also supports the needs of unanticipated users. Virtual collections minimize the amount of time and effort needed to begin research by maximizing certainty of reward and by providing a trustworthy source of data for unanticipated users. This presentation will define a virtual collection in the context of an Earth science data center and will highlight a virtual collection case study created at the Global Hydrology Resource Center data center.

Textpresso Central: a customizable platform for searching, text mining, viewing, and curating biomedical literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, H-M; Van Auken, K M; Li, Y; Sternberg, P W

2018-03-09

The biomedical literature continues to grow at a rapid pace, making the challenge of knowledge retrieval and extraction ever greater. Tools that provide a means to search and mine the full text of literature thus represent an important way by which the efficiency of these processes can be improved. We describe the next generation of the Textpresso information retrieval system, Textpresso Central (TPC). TPC builds on the strengths of the original system by expanding the full text corpus to include the PubMed Central Open Access Subset (PMC OA), as well as the WormBase C. elegans bibliography. In addition, TPC allows users to create a customized corpus by uploading and processing documents of their choosing. TPC is UIMA compliant, to facilitate compatibility with external processing modules, and takes advantage of Lucene indexing and search technology for efficient handling of millions of full text documents. Like Textpresso, TPC searches can be performed using keywords and/or categories (semantically related groups of terms), but to provide better context for interpreting and validating queries, search results may now be viewed as highlighted passages in the context of full text. To facilitate biocuration efforts, TPC also allows users to select text spans from the full text and annotate them, create customized curation forms for any data type, and send resulting annotations to external curation databases. As an example of such a curation form, we describe integration of TPC with the Noctua curation tool developed by the Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium. Textpresso Central is an online literature search and curation platform that enables biocurators and biomedical researchers to search and mine the full text of literature by integrating keyword and category searches with viewing search results in the context of the full text. It also allows users to create customized curation interfaces, use those interfaces to make annotations linked to supporting evidence statements

Determination of protective properties of Bardejovske Kuple spa curative waters by rotational viscometry and ABTS assay

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TOPOLSKA Dominika

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Mineral waters from Bardejovske Kupele spa are natural, strongly mineralized, with healing effects. They are classified as hydrocarbonic - containing chloride and sodium - carbonic, cold, hypotonic, with a relatively high boric acid content. Potential anti-oxidative effects of curative waters from Bardejovske Kupele were investigated against the hyaluronan (HA degradation. High-molar-mass HA was exposed to the action of ascorbate and cupric ions, which initiate free-radical chain degradation. Time-dependent changes of dynamic viscosity (h of the HA solutions were monitored by rotational viscometry. The radical scavenging capacity of curative waters was determined by the ABTS assay. Despite a significantly high content of transition metal ions, especially iron, remarkable protective effects of the two curative spa waters were found, namely Alzbeta and Klara. Even though “Alzbeta´s“ iron content was 3.5-fold higher than “Klara´s“, “Alzbeta“ was shown to have better protective properties against the HA degradation compared to “Klara“. Bolus addition of ferric ions to the reaction system instead of the natural iron-containing curative water caused a significant HA degradation. The ABTS decolorization assay revealed that the curative spa waters were proven as poorly effective scavengers of the ABTS·+ cation radical.

The curative effect analysis of 131I-therapy on patients with Graves' disease

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cui Qin; Lu Shujun; Lu Tianhe

2002-01-01

To investigate the curative effect of 131 I-therapy on Graves' disease, the authors analyse conditions of patients who have received 131 I-therapy (n -674). These results showed that the incidence of fully recover, improve, Graves' disease and invalid is 80.11%, 7.28%, 11.87% and 0.74% respectively. Therefore, 131 I-therapy on Graves' disease is convenient. It has little side effect, low cost and better curative effect, it is one of the best therapeutic methods to treat hyperthyroidism

EURO-CARES as Roadmap for a European Sample Curation Facility

Science.gov (United States)

Brucato, J. R.; Russell, S.; Smith, C.; Hutzler, A.; Meneghin, A.; Aléon, J.; Bennett, A.; Berthoud, L.; Bridges, J.; Debaille, V.; Ferrière, L.; Folco, L.; Foucher, F.; Franchi, I.; Gounelle, M.; Grady, M.; Leuko, S.; Longobardo, A.; Palomba, E.; Pottage, T.; Rettberg, P.; Vrublevskis, J.; Westall, F.; Zipfel, J.; Euro-Cares Team

2018-04-01

EURO-CARES is a three-year multinational project funded under the European Commission Horizon2020 research program to develop a roadmap for a European Extraterrestrial Sample Curation Facility for samples returned from solar system missions.

Curative care through administration of plant-derived medicines in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Curative care through administration of plant-derived medicines in Sekhukhune district municipality of Limpopo province, South Africa. ... Sources of medicine were mostly herbs followed by shrubs, trees, creepers and aloe collected from the communal land. The leaves, bark, roots and bulbs were prepared into decoctions ...

Urinary Biomarkers KIM-1 and NGAL for Detection of Chronic Kidney Disease of Uncertain Etiology (CKDu) among Agricultural Communities in Sri Lanka

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammed Abdul, Khaja Shameem; Eakanayake, Eakanayake M. D. V.; Jayasinghe, Sudheera Sammanthi; Jayasumana, Channa; Asanthi, Hewa Bandulage; Perera, Hettiarachigae S. D.; Chaminda, Gamage G. Tushara; Chandana, Ediriweera P. S.; Siribaddana, Sisira H.

2016-01-01

Chronic Kidney Disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu) is an emerging epidemic among farming communities in rural Sri Lanka. Victims do not exhibit common causative factors, however, histopathological studies revealed that CKDu is a tubulointerstitial disease. Urine albumin or albumin-creatinine ratio is still being used as a traditional diagnostic tool to identify CKDu, but accuracy and prevalence data generated are questionable. Urinary biomarkers have been used in similar nephropathy and are widely recognised for their sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in determining CKDu and early renal injury. However, these biomarkers have never been used in diagnosing CKDu in Sri Lanka. Male farmers (n = 1734) were recruited from 4 regions in Sri Lanka i.e. Matara and Nuwara Eliya (farming locations with no CKDu prevalence) and two CKDu emerging locations from Hambantota District in Southern Sri Lanka; Angunakolapelessa (EL1) and Bandagiriya (EL2). Albuminuria (ACR ≥ 30mg/g); serum creatinine based estimation of glomerular filtration rate (eGFR); creatinine normalized urinary kidney injury molecule (KIM-1) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) were measured. Fourteen new CKDu cases (18%) from EL1 and nine CKDu cases (9%) from EL2 were recognized for the first time from EL1, EL2 locations, which were previously considered as non-endemic of the disease and associated with persistent albuminuria (ACR ≥ 30mg/g Cr). No CKDu cases were identified in non-endemic study locations in Matara (CM) and Nuwara Eliya (CN). Analysis of urinary biomarkers showed urinary KIM-1 and NGAL were significantly higher in new CKDu cases in EL1 and EL2. However, we also reported significantly higher KIM-1 and NGAL in apparently healthy farmers in EL 1 and EL 2 with comparison to both control groups. These observations may indicate possible early renal damage in absence of persistent albuminuria and potential capabilities of urinary KIM-1 and NGAL in early detection of renal injury

Urinary Biomarkers KIM-1 and NGAL for Detection of Chronic Kidney Disease of Uncertain Etiology (CKDu among Agricultural Communities in Sri Lanka.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pallagae Mangala C S De Silva

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Chronic Kidney Disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu is an emerging epidemic among farming communities in rural Sri Lanka. Victims do not exhibit common causative factors, however, histopathological studies revealed that CKDu is a tubulointerstitial disease. Urine albumin or albumin-creatinine ratio is still being used as a traditional diagnostic tool to identify CKDu, but accuracy and prevalence data generated are questionable. Urinary biomarkers have been used in similar nephropathy and are widely recognised for their sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in determining CKDu and early renal injury. However, these biomarkers have never been used in diagnosing CKDu in Sri Lanka. Male farmers (n = 1734 were recruited from 4 regions in Sri Lanka i.e. Matara and Nuwara Eliya (farming locations with no CKDu prevalence and two CKDu emerging locations from Hambantota District in Southern Sri Lanka; Angunakolapelessa (EL1 and Bandagiriya (EL2. Albuminuria (ACR ≥ 30mg/g; serum creatinine based estimation of glomerular filtration rate (eGFR; creatinine normalized urinary kidney injury molecule (KIM-1 and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL were measured. Fourteen new CKDu cases (18% from EL1 and nine CKDu cases (9% from EL2 were recognized for the first time from EL1, EL2 locations, which were previously considered as non-endemic of the disease and associated with persistent albuminuria (ACR ≥ 30mg/g Cr. No CKDu cases were identified in non-endemic study locations in Matara (CM and Nuwara Eliya (CN. Analysis of urinary biomarkers showed urinary KIM-1 and NGAL were significantly higher in new CKDu cases in EL1 and EL2. However, we also reported significantly higher KIM-1 and NGAL in apparently healthy farmers in EL 1 and EL 2 with comparison to both control groups. These observations may indicate possible early renal damage in absence of persistent albuminuria and potential capabilities of urinary KIM-1 and NGAL in early detection of renal

Urinary Biomarkers KIM-1 and NGAL for Detection of Chronic Kidney Disease of Uncertain Etiology (CKDu) among Agricultural Communities in Sri Lanka.

Science.gov (United States)

De Silva, Pallagae Mangala C S; Mohammed Abdul, Khaja Shameem; Eakanayake, Eakanayake M D V; Jayasinghe, Sudheera Sammanthi; Jayasumana, Channa; Asanthi, Hewa Bandulage; Perera, Hettiarachigae S D; Chaminda, Gamage G Tushara; Chandana, Ediriweera P S; Siribaddana, Sisira H

2016-09-01

Chronic Kidney Disease of uncertain etiology (CKDu) is an emerging epidemic among farming communities in rural Sri Lanka. Victims do not exhibit common causative factors, however, histopathological studies revealed that CKDu is a tubulointerstitial disease. Urine albumin or albumin-creatinine ratio is still being used as a traditional diagnostic tool to identify CKDu, but accuracy and prevalence data generated are questionable. Urinary biomarkers have been used in similar nephropathy and are widely recognised for their sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in determining CKDu and early renal injury. However, these biomarkers have never been used in diagnosing CKDu in Sri Lanka. Male farmers (n = 1734) were recruited from 4 regions in Sri Lanka i.e. Matara and Nuwara Eliya (farming locations with no CKDu prevalence) and two CKDu emerging locations from Hambantota District in Southern Sri Lanka; Angunakolapelessa (EL1) and Bandagiriya (EL2). Albuminuria (ACR ≥ 30mg/g); serum creatinine based estimation of glomerular filtration rate (eGFR); creatinine normalized urinary kidney injury molecule (KIM-1) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) were measured. Fourteen new CKDu cases (18%) from EL1 and nine CKDu cases (9%) from EL2 were recognized for the first time from EL1, EL2 locations, which were previously considered as non-endemic of the disease and associated with persistent albuminuria (ACR ≥ 30mg/g Cr). No CKDu cases were identified in non-endemic study locations in Matara (CM) and Nuwara Eliya (CN). Analysis of urinary biomarkers showed urinary KIM-1 and NGAL were significantly higher in new CKDu cases in EL1 and EL2. However, we also reported significantly higher KIM-1 and NGAL in apparently healthy farmers in EL 1 and EL 2 with comparison to both control groups. These observations may indicate possible early renal damage in absence of persistent albuminuria and potential capabilities of urinary KIM-1 and NGAL in early detection of renal injury

Text mining effectively scores and ranks the literature for improving chemical-gene-disease curation at the comparative toxicogenomics database.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Allan Peter Davis

Full Text Available The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD; http://ctdbase.org/ is a public resource that curates interactions between environmental chemicals and gene products, and their relationships to diseases, as a means of understanding the effects of environmental chemicals on human health. CTD provides a triad of core information in the form of chemical-gene, chemical-disease, and gene-disease interactions that are manually curated from scientific articles. To increase the efficiency, productivity, and data coverage of manual curation, we have leveraged text mining to help rank and prioritize the triaged literature. Here, we describe our text-mining process that computes and assigns each article a document relevancy score (DRS, wherein a high DRS suggests that an article is more likely to be relevant for curation at CTD. We evaluated our process by first text mining a corpus of 14,904 articles triaged for seven heavy metals (cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, and nickel. Based upon initial analysis, a representative subset corpus of 3,583 articles was then selected from the 14,094 articles and sent to five CTD biocurators for review. The resulting curation of these 3,583 articles was analyzed for a variety of parameters, including article relevancy, novel data content, interaction yield rate, mean average precision, and biological and toxicological interpretability. We show that for all measured parameters, the DRS is an effective indicator for scoring and improving the ranking of literature for the curation of chemical-gene-disease information at CTD. Here, we demonstrate how fully incorporating text mining-based DRS scoring into our curation pipeline enhances manual curation by prioritizing more relevant articles, thereby increasing data content, productivity, and efficiency.

Text Mining Effectively Scores and Ranks the Literature for Improving Chemical-Gene-Disease Curation at the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Robin J.; Lay, Jean M.; Lennon-Hopkins, Kelley; Saraceni-Richards, Cynthia; Sciaky, Daniela; Murphy, Cynthia Grondin; Mattingly, Carolyn J.

2013-01-01

The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD; http://ctdbase.org/) is a public resource that curates interactions between environmental chemicals and gene products, and their relationships to diseases, as a means of understanding the effects of environmental chemicals on human health. CTD provides a triad of core information in the form of chemical-gene, chemical-disease, and gene-disease interactions that are manually curated from scientific articles. To increase the efficiency, productivity, and data coverage of manual curation, we have leveraged text mining to help rank and prioritize the triaged literature. Here, we describe our text-mining process that computes and assigns each article a document relevancy score (DRS), wherein a high DRS suggests that an article is more likely to be relevant for curation at CTD. We evaluated our process by first text mining a corpus of 14,904 articles triaged for seven heavy metals (cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, and nickel). Based upon initial analysis, a representative subset corpus of 3,583 articles was then selected from the 14,094 articles and sent to five CTD biocurators for review. The resulting curation of these 3,583 articles was analyzed for a variety of parameters, including article relevancy, novel data content, interaction yield rate, mean average precision, and biological and toxicological interpretability. We show that for all measured parameters, the DRS is an effective indicator for scoring and improving the ranking of literature for the curation of chemical-gene-disease information at CTD. Here, we demonstrate how fully incorporating text mining-based DRS scoring into our curation pipeline enhances manual curation by prioritizing more relevant articles, thereby increasing data content, productivity, and efficiency. PMID:23613709

Curating for engagement: Identifying the nature and impact of organizational marketing strategies on Pinterest

OpenAIRE

Saxton, Gregory D.; Ghosh, Amanda

2016-01-01

In an increasingly overloaded information environment sparked by the explosion of digital media, the ability to curate content has taken on greater importance. This study begins with the supposition that businesses that are able to adopt a content curation role and help consumers sort through the daily influx of information may be more successful in attracting, engaging, and retaining customers while fostering brand awareness and word of mouth. Accordingly, this study investigates organizatio...

The value of imaging examinations in diagnosis and curative effect evaluation of breast cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xia Xiaotian; Zhang Yongxue

2010-01-01

Breast cancer is a serious impact on women's physical and mental health and a life-threatening common disease. Imaging examinations have great significances in diagnosing and evaluating curative effect on breast cancer. This article aims to introduce and comprehensive the value of diagnosis and curative effect evaluation of breast cancer in the context of imaging examinations (ultrasonography, mammography, breast CT, breast MRI, breast 99 Tc m -MIBI imaging, PET, PET-CT, etc). (authors)

Curating and nudging in virtual CLIL environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helle Lykke Nielsen

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Foreign language teachers can benefit substantially from the notions of curation and nudging when scaffolding CLIL activities on the internet. This article shows how these principles can be integrated into CLILstore, a free multimedia-rich learning tool with seamless access to online dictionaries, and presents feedback from first and second year university students of Arabic as a second language to inform foreign language teachers about students’ needs and preferences in virtual learning environments.

Technology Development and Advanced Planning for Curation of Returned Mars Samples

Science.gov (United States)

Lindstrom, David J.; Allen, Carlton C.

2002-01-01

NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) curates extraterrestrial samples, providing the international science community with lunar rock and soil returned by the Apollo astronauts, meteorites collected in Antarctica, cosmic dust collected in the stratosphere, and hardware exposed to the space environment. Curation comprises initial characterization of new samples, preparation and allocation of samples for research, and clean, secure long-term storage. The foundations of this effort are the specialized cleanrooms (class 10 to 10,000) for each of the four types of materials, the supporting facilities, and the people, many of whom have been doing detailed work in clean environments for decades. JSC is also preparing to curate the next generation of extraterrestrial samples. These include samples collected from the solar wind, a comet, and an asteroid. Early planning and R\\&D are underway to support post-mission sample handling and curation of samples returned from Mars. One of the strong scientific reasons for returning samples from Mars is to search for evidence of current or past life in the samples. Because of the remote possibility that the samples may contain life forms that are hazardous to the terrestrial biosphere, the National Research Council has recommended that all samples returned from Mars be kept under strict biological containment until tests show that they can safely be released to other laboratories. It is possible that Mars samples may contain only scarce or subtle traces of life or prebiotic chemistry that could readily be overwhelmed by terrestrial contamination . Thus, the facilities used to contain, process, and analyze samples from Mars must have a combination of high-level biocontainment and organic / inorganic chemical cleanliness that is unprecedented. JSC has been conducting feasibility studies and developing designs for a sample receiving facility that would offer biocontainment at least the equivalent of current maximum containment BSL-4 (Bio

Curative effects of small incision cataract surgery versus phacoemulsification: a Meta-analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang-Jian Yang

2013-08-01

Full Text Available AIM: To evaluate the curative efficacy of small incision cataract surgery(SICSversus phacoemulsification(Phaco.METHODS: A computerized literature search was carried out in Chinese Biomedical Database(CBM, Wanfang Data, VIP and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKIto collect articles published between 1989-2013 concerning the curative efficacy of SICS versus Phaco. The studies were assessed in terms of clinical case-control criteria. Meta-analysis were performed to assess the visual acuity, the complications rates between SICS and Phaco 90 days after surgery. Treatment effects were measured as risk difference(RDbetween SICS and Phaco. Fixed and random effect models were employed to combine results after a heterogeneity test. RESULTS:A total of 8 studies were included in our Meta-analysis. At 90 days postoperative time, there were no significant differences between the two groups at the visual acuity >0.5(P=0.14; and no significant differences on the complications rates of corneal astigmatism, corneal edema, posterior capsular rupture and anterior iris reaction(P>0.05.CONCLUSION: These results suggest that there is no different on the curative effects of SICS and Phaco for cataract.

Magnetic flux creep in HTSC and Anderson-Kim theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lykov, A.N.

2014-01-01

The theoretical and experimental data on flux creep in high-temperature superconductors (HTSC) were analyzed in the review paper. On the one hand, the main attention is paid to the most striking experimental results which have had a significant influence on the investigations of flux creep in HTSC. On the other hand, the analysis of theoretical studies is concentrated on the works, which explain the features of flux creep on the basis of the Anderson-Kim (AK) theory modifications, and received previously unsufficient attention. However, it turned out that the modified AK theory could explain a lot of features of flux creep in HTSC: the scaling behaviour of current-voltage curves of HTSC, the finite rate of flux creep at ultra low temperatures, the logarithmic dependence of effective pinning potential as a function of transport current and its decrease with temperature. The harmonic potential field which is used in this approach makes it possible to solve accurately the both problems: viscous vortex motion and flux creep in this field. Moreover the distribution of pinning potential and the interaction of vortices with each other are taken into account in the approach. Thus, the modification of the AK theory consists, essentially, in its detailed elaboration and approaching to real situations in superconductors

Reduction of proteinuria in adriamycin-induced nephropathy is associated with reduction of renal kidney injury molecule (Kim-1) over time

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kramer, Andrea B.; van Timmeren, Mirjan M.; Schuurs, Theo A.; Vaidya, Vishal S.; Bonventre, Joseph V.; van Goor, Harry; Navis, Gerjan

Kramer AB, van Timmeren MM, Schuurs TA, Vaidya VS, Bonventre JV, van Goor H, Navis G. Reduction of proteinuria in adriamycin-induced nephropathy is associated with reduction of renal kidney injury molecule (Kim-1) over time. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 296: F1136-F1145, 2009. First published February

Sharing and community curation of mass spectrometry data with GNPS

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Don Duy; Watrous, Jeramie; Kapono, Clifford A; Luzzatto-Knaan, Tal; Porto, Carla; Bouslimani, Amina; Melnik, Alexey V; Meehan, Michael J; Liu, Wei-Ting; Crüsemann, Max; Boudreau, Paul D; Esquenazi, Eduardo; Sandoval-Calderón, Mario; Kersten, Roland D; Pace, Laura A; Quinn, Robert A; Duncan, Katherine R; Hsu, Cheng-Chih; Floros, Dimitrios J; Gavilan, Ronnie G; Kleigrewe, Karin; Northen, Trent; Dutton, Rachel J; Parrot, Delphine; Carlson, Erin E; Aigle, Bertrand; Michelsen, Charlotte F; Jelsbak, Lars; Sohlenkamp, Christian; Pevzner, Pavel; Edlund, Anna; McLean, Jeffrey; Piel, Jörn; Murphy, Brian T; Gerwick, Lena; Liaw, Chih-Chuang; Yang, Yu-Liang; Humpf, Hans-Ulrich; Maansson, Maria; Keyzers, Robert A; Sims, Amy C; Johnson, Andrew R.; Sidebottom, Ashley M; Sedio, Brian E; Klitgaard, Andreas; Larson, Charles B; P., Cristopher A Boya; Torres-Mendoza, Daniel; Gonzalez, David J; Silva, Denise B; Marques, Lucas M; Demarque, Daniel P; Pociute, Egle; O'Neill, Ellis C; Briand, Enora; Helfrich, Eric J. N.; Granatosky, Eve A; Glukhov, Evgenia; Ryffel, Florian; Houson, Hailey; Mohimani, Hosein; Kharbush, Jenan J; Zeng, Yi; Vorholt, Julia A; Kurita, Kenji L; Charusanti, Pep; McPhail, Kerry L; Nielsen, Kristian Fog; Vuong, Lisa; Elfeki, Maryam; Traxler, Matthew F; Engene, Niclas; Koyama, Nobuhiro; Vining, Oliver B; Baric, Ralph; Silva, Ricardo R; Mascuch, Samantha J; Tomasi, Sophie; Jenkins, Stefan; Macherla, Venkat; Hoffman, Thomas; Agarwal, Vinayak; Williams, Philip G; Dai, Jingqui; Neupane, Ram; Gurr, Joshua; Rodríguez, Andrés M. C.; Lamsa, Anne; Zhang, Chen; Dorrestein, Kathleen; Duggan, Brendan M; Almaliti, Jehad; Allard, Pierre-Marie; Phapale, Prasad; Nothias, Louis-Felix; Alexandrov, Theodore; Litaudon, Marc; Wolfender, Jean-Luc; Kyle, Jennifer E; Metz, Thomas O; Peryea, Tyler; Nguyen, Dac-Trung; VanLeer, Danielle; Shinn, Paul; Jadhav, Ajit; Müller, Rolf; Waters, Katrina M; Shi, Wenyuan; Liu, Xueting; Zhang, Lixin; Knight, Rob; Jensen, Paul R; Palsson, Bernhard O; Pogliano, Kit; Linington, Roger G; Gutiérrez, Marcelino; Lopes, Norberto P; Gerwick, William H; Moore, Bradley S; Dorrestein, Pieter C; Bandeira, Nuno

2017-01-01

The potential of the diverse chemistries present in natural products (NP) for biotechnology and medicine remains untapped because NP databases are not searchable with raw data and the NP community has no way to share data other than in published papers. Although mass spectrometry techniques are well-suited to high-throughput characterization of natural products, there is a pressing need for an infrastructure to enable sharing and curation of data. We present Global Natural Products Social molecular networking (GNPS, http://gnps.ucsd.edu), an open-access knowledge base for community wide organization and sharing of raw, processed or identified tandem mass (MS/MS) spectrometry data. In GNPS crowdsourced curation of freely available community-wide reference MS libraries will underpin improved annotations. Data-driven social-networking should facilitate identification of spectra and foster collaborations. We also introduce the concept of ‘living data’ through continuous reanalysis of deposited data. PMID:27504778

Patient-reported symptoms during radiotherapy : Clinically relevant symptom burden in patients treated with palliative and curative intent.

Science.gov (United States)

Körner, Philipp; Ehrmann, Katja; Hartmannsgruber, Johann; Metz, Michaela; Steigerwald, Sabrina; Flentje, Michael; van Oorschot, Birgitt

2017-07-01

The benefits of patient-reported symptom assessment combined with integrated palliative care are well documented. This study assessed the symptom burden of palliative and curative-intent radiation oncology patients. Prior to first consultation and at the end of RT, all adult cancer patients planned to receive fractionated percutaneous radiotherapy (RT) were asked to answer the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS; nine symptoms from 0 = no symptoms to 10 = worst possible symptoms). Mean values were used for curative vs. palliative and pre-post comparisons, and the clinical relevance was evaluated (symptom values ≥ 4). Of 163 participating patients, 151 patients (90.9%) completed both surveys (116 curative and 35 palliative patients). Before beginning RT, 88.6% of palliative and 72.3% of curative patients showed at least one clinically relevant symptom. Curative patients most frequently named decreased general wellbeing (38.6%), followed by tiredness (35.0%), anxiety (32.4%), depression (30.0%), pain (26.3%), lack of appetite (23.5%), dyspnea (17.8%), drowsiness (8.0%) and nausea (6.1%). Palliative patients most frequently named decreased general wellbeing (62.8%), followed by pain (62.8%), tiredness (60.0%), lack of appetite (40.0%), anxiety (38.0%), depression (33.3%), dyspnea (28.5%), drowsiness (25.7%) and nausea (14.2%). At the end of RT, the proportion of curative and palliative patients with a clinically relevant symptom had increased significantly to 79.8 and 91.4%, respectively; whereas the proportion of patients reporting clinically relevant pain had decreased significantly (42.8 vs. 62.8%, respectively). Palliative patients had significantly increased tiredness. Curative patients reported significant increases in pain, tiredness, nausea, drowsiness, lack of appetite and restrictions in general wellbeing. Assessment of patient-reported symptoms was successfully realized in radiation oncology routine. Overall, both groups showed a high symptom

Patient-reported symptoms during radiotherapy. Clinically relevant symptom burden in patients treated with palliative and curative intent

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koerner, Philipp; Ehrmann, Katja; Hartmannsgruber, Johann; Metz, Michaela; Steigerwald, Sabrina; Flentje, Michael; Oorschot, Birgitt van

2017-01-01

The benefits of patient-reported symptom assessment combined with integrated palliative care are well documented. This study assessed the symptom burden of palliative and curative-intent radiation oncology patients. Prior to first consultation and at the end of RT, all adult cancer patients planned to receive fractionated percutaneous radiotherapy (RT) were asked to answer the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS; nine symptoms from 0 = no symptoms to 10 = worst possible symptoms). Mean values were used for curative vs. palliative and pre-post comparisons, and the clinical relevance was evaluated (symptom values ≥ 4). Of 163 participating patients, 151 patients (90.9%) completed both surveys (116 curative and 35 palliative patients). Before beginning RT, 88.6% of palliative and 72.3% of curative patients showed at least one clinically relevant symptom. Curative patients most frequently named decreased general wellbeing (38.6%), followed by tiredness (35.0%), anxiety (32.4%), depression (30.0%), pain (26.3%), lack of appetite (23.5%), dyspnea (17.8%), drowsiness (8.0%) and nausea (6.1%). Palliative patients most frequently named decreased general wellbeing (62.8%), followed by pain (62.8%), tiredness (60.0%), lack of appetite (40.0%), anxiety (38.0%), depression (33.3%), dyspnea (28.5%), drowsiness (25.7%) and nausea (14.2%). At the end of RT, the proportion of curative and palliative patients with a clinically relevant symptom had increased significantly to 79.8 and 91.4%, respectively; whereas the proportion of patients reporting clinically relevant pain had decreased significantly (42.8 vs. 62.8%, respectively). Palliative patients had significantly increased tiredness. Curative patients reported significant increases in pain, tiredness, nausea, drowsiness, lack of appetite and restrictions in general wellbeing. Assessment of patient-reported symptoms was successfully realized in radiation oncology routine. Overall, both groups showed a high symptom burden

Curative resection of transverse colon cancer via minilaparotomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Ishida, Hideyuki; Ishiguro, Tohru; Ishibashi, Keiichiro; Ohsawa, Tomonori; Okada, Norimichi; Kumamoto, Kensuke; Haga, Norihiro

2011-01-01

Minilaparotomy has been reported to be a minimally invasive alternative to laparoscopically assisted surgery. We retrospectively evaluated the usefulness of minilaparotomy for the resection of transverse colon cancer, which has generally been considered difficult to resect laparoscopically. Patients for whom curative resection was attempted for transverse colon cancer (n = 21) or sigmoid colon cancer (n = 81) via minilaparotomy (skin incision, transverse colon cancer as well as those with sigmoid colon cancer.

Advancing Site-Based Data Curation for Geobiology: The Yellowstone Exemplar (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, C. L.; Fouke, B. W.; Rodman, A.; Choudhury, G. S.

2013-12-01

While advances in the management and archiving of scientific digital data are proceeding apace, there is an urgent need for data curation services to collect and provide access to high-value data fit for reuse. The Site-Based Data Curation (SBDC) project is establishing a framework of guidelines and processes for the curation of research data generated at scientifically significant sites. The project is a collaboration among information scientists, geobiologists, data archiving experts, and resource managers at Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Based on our previous work with the Data Conservancy on indicators of value for research data, several factors made YNP an optimal site for developing the SBDC framework, including unique environmental conditions, a permitting process for data collection, and opportunities for geo-located longitudinal data and multiple data sources for triangulation and context. Stakeholder analysis is informing the SBDC requirements, through engagement with geologists, geochemists, and microbiologists conducting research at YNP and personnel from the Yellowstone Center for Resources and other YNP units. To date, results include data value indicators specific to site-based research, minimum and optimal parameters for data description and metadata, and a strategy for organizing data around sampling events. New value indicators identified by the scientists include ease of access to park locations for verification and correction of data, and stable environmental conditions important for controlling variables. Researchers see high potential for data aggregated from the many individual investigators conducting permitted research at YNP, however reuse is clearly contingent on detailed and consistent sampling records. Major applications of SBDC include identifying connections in dynamic systems, spatial temporal synthesis, analyzing variability within and across geological features, tracking site evolution, assessing anomalies, and greater awareness

Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score is a prognostic marker for gastric cancer patients after curative resection.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuroda, Daisuke; Sawayama, Hiroshi; Kurashige, Junji; Iwatsuki, Masaaki; Eto, Tsugio; Tokunaga, Ryuma; Kitano, Yuki; Yamamura, Kensuke; Ouchi, Mayuko; Nakamura, Kenichi; Baba, Yoshifumi; Sakamoto, Yasuo; Yamashita, Yoichi; Yoshida, Naoya; Chikamoto, Akira; Baba, Hideo

2018-03-01

Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT), as calculated from serum albumin, total cholesterol concentration, and total lymphocyte count, was previously shown to be useful for nutritional assessment. The current study investigated the potential use of CONUT as a prognostic marker in gastric cancer patients after curative resection. Preoperative CONUT was retrospectively calculated in 416 gastric cancer patients who underwent curative resection at Kumamoto University Hospital from 2005 to 2014. The patients were divided into two groups: CONUT-high (≥4) and CONUT-low (≤3), according to time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The associations of CONUT with clinicopathological factors and survival were evaluated. CONUT-high patients were significantly older (p nutritional status but also for predicting long-term OS in gastric cancer patients after curative resection.

Strategies for the Curation of CAD Engineering Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manjula Patel

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Normal 0 Product Lifecycle Management (PLM has become increasingly important in the engineering community over the last decade or so, due to the globalisation of markets and the rising popularity of products provided as services. It demands the efficient capture, representation, organisation, retrieval and reuse of product data over its entire life. Simultaneously, there is now a much greater reliance on CAD models for communicating designs to manufacturers, builders, maintenance crews and regulators, and for definitively expressing designs. Creating the engineering record digitally, however, presents problems not only for its long-term maintenance and accessibility - due in part to the rapid obsolescence of the hardware, software and file formats involved - but also for recording the evolution of designs, artefacts and products. We examine the curation and preservation requirements in PLM and suggest ways of alleviating the problems of sustaining CAD engineering models through the use of lightweight formats, layered annotation and the collection of Representation Information as defined in the Open Archival Information System (OAIS Reference Model.  We describe two tools which have been specifically developed to aid in the curation of CAD engineering models in the context of PLM: Lightweight Models with Multilayered Annotation (LiMMA and a Registry/Repository of Representation Information for Engineering (RRoRIfE.

Local high voltage radiotherapy with curative intent for prostatic carcinoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jacobi, G.H.; Kurth, K.H.; Hohenfellner, R.

1979-01-01

In a 10-year interval 179 patients with prostatic carcinoma were treated by cobalt-60 teletherapy (7600 R). A selected group of 47 patients with localized disease and irradiated with curative intent had serial prostatic biopsies and were analized after a minimum follow-up of 1 year. Biopsies of half of the patients rendered definitively negative, on an average 14 months after radiotherapy. 8 patients with initial negative biopsy changed to positive secondarily. In one third of the patients histological conversion was missed, considered as radiation persister. Persistent carcinoma were of predominant low grade. 5 patients developed distant metastases 30 months after irradiation on an average. These patients had persistent positive tissue studies. Over all cumulative 5-years survival was 89%. In patients with prostatic carcinoma and local high voltage radiotherapy with curative intent (stage A through C) serial prostatic biopsies to document therapy effect seen mandatory. (orig.) 891 AJ/orig. 892 BRE [de

Planning Related to the Curation and Processing of Returned Martian Samples

Science.gov (United States)

McCubbin, F. M.; Harrington, A. D.

2018-04-01

Many of the planning activities in the NASA Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at JSC are centered around Mars Sample Return. The importance of contamination knowledge and the benefits of a mobile/modular receiving facility are discussed.

Active and Social Data Curation: Reinventing the Business of Community-scale Lifecycle Data Management

Science.gov (United States)

McDonald, R. H.; Kumar, P.; Plale, B. A.; Myers, J.; Hedstrom, M. L.

2012-12-01

Effective long-term curation and preservation of data for community use has historically been limited to high-value and homogeneous collections produced by mission-oriented organizations. The technologies and practices that have been applied in these cases, e.g. relational data bases, development of comprehensive standardized vocabularies, and centralized support for reference data collections, are arguably applicable to the much broader range of data generated by the long tail of investigator-led research, with the logical conclusion of such an argument leading to the call for training, evangelism, and vastly increased funding as the best means of broadening community-scale data management. In this paper, we question this reasoning and explore how alternative approaches focused on the overall data lifecycle and the sociological and business realities of distributed multi-disciplinary research communities might dramatically lower costs, increase value, and consequently drive dramatic advances in our ability to use and re-use data, and ultimately enable more rapid scientific advance. Specifically, we introduce the concepts of active and social curation as a means to decrease coordination costs, align costs and values for individual data producers and data consumers, and improve the immediacy of returns for data curation investments. Further, we describe the specific architecture and services for active and social curation that are being prototyped within the Sustainable Environment - Actionable Data (SEAD) project within NSF's DataNet network and discuss how they are motivated by the long-tail dynamics in the cross-disciplinary sustainability research community.

Teasing out the compressed education debates in contemporary South Korea: Media portrayal of figure skater Yuna Kim

OpenAIRE

Kim, Hye Jin

2013-01-01

In this thesis, I argue that the heated debates about South Korea’s education policy consist of problems that arise from different genres of discourses that in turn belong to different historical moments and education values. I engage in a media discourse analysis of the reportage on South Korean international sport celebrity Yuna Kim that highlight the key education debates currently taking place in South Korea. First, I deal with the neologism umchinttal (my mom’s friend’s daughter) as an i...

Interview with Smithsonian NASM Spacesuit Curator Dr. Cathleen Lewis

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Cathleen; Wright, Rebecca

2012-01-01

Dr. Cathleen Lewis was interviewed by Rebecca Wright during the presentation of an "Interview with Smithsonian NASM Spacesuit Curator Dr. Cathleen Lewis" on May 14, 2012. Topics included the care, size, and history of the spacesuit collection at the Smithsonian and the recent move to the state-of-the-art permanent storage facility at the Udvar-Hazy facility in Virginia.

The role of non-governmental organizations in providing curative health services in North Darfur State, Sudan.

Science.gov (United States)

Yagub, Abdallah I A; Mtshali, Khondlo

2015-09-01

Conflict in North Darfur state, Western Sudan started in 2003, and the delivering of curative health services was becoming a greater challenge for the country's limited resources. NGOs have played an important role in providing curative health services. To examine the role that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have played in providing curative health services, as well as to identify the difficulties and challenges that affect NGOs in delivering curative health services. Secondary data was collected from different sources, including government offices and medical organizations in Sudan and in North Darfur state. Primary data was obtained through interviews with government and NGOs representatives. The interviews were conducted with (1) expatriates working for international NGOs (N=15) (2) health professionals and administrators working in health sector (N= 45) in the period from November 2010 to January 2011. The government in North Darfur state spent 70% of its financial budget on security, while it spent it less than 1% on providing health services. The international NGOs have been providing 70% of curative health services to the State's population by contributing 52.9% of the health budget and 1 390 health personnel. Since 2003 NGOs have provided technical assistance to the health staff. As a result, more than fifty nurses have been trained to provide care and treatment, more than twenty-three doctors have been trained in laboratory equipment operation, and approximately six senior doctors and hospital directors have received management training. NGOs have been managing and supporting 89 public health facilities, and established 24 health centres in IDP camps, and 20 health centres across all the districts in North Darfur state. The NGOs have played an important role in providing curative health services and in establishing good health facilities, but a future problem is how the government will run these health facilities after a peaceful settlement has been

Data Albums: An Event Driven Search, Aggregation and Curation Tool for Earth Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, Rahul; Kulkarni, Ajinkya; Maskey, Manil; Bakare, Rohan; Basyal, Sabin; Li, Xiang; Flynn, Shannon

2014-01-01

Approaches used in Earth science research such as case study analysis and climatology studies involve discovering and gathering diverse data sets and information to support the research goals. To gather relevant data and information for case studies and climatology analysis is both tedious and time consuming. Current Earth science data systems are designed with the assumption that researchers access data primarily by instrument or geophysical parameter. In cases where researchers are interested in studying a significant event, they have to manually assemble a variety of datasets relevant to it by searching the different distributed data systems. This paper presents a specialized search, aggregation and curation tool for Earth science to address these challenges. The search rool automatically creates curated 'Data Albums', aggregated collections of information related to a specific event, containing links to relevant data files [granules] from different instruments, tools and services for visualization and analysis, and information about the event contained in news reports, images or videos to supplement research analysis. Curation in the tool is driven via an ontology based relevancy ranking algorithm to filter out non relevant information and data.

[Two Cases of Curative Resection of Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer after Preoperative Chemotherapy].

Science.gov (United States)

Mitsuhashi, Noboru; Shimizu, Yoshiaki; Kuboki, Satoshi; Yoshitomi, Hideyuki; Kato, Atsushi; Ohtsuka, Masayuki; Shimizu, Hiroaki; Miyazaki, Masaru

2015-11-01

Reports of conversion in cases of locally advanced colorectal cancer have been increasing. Here, we present 2 cases in which curative resection of locally advanced rectal cancer accompanied by intestinal obstruction was achieved after establishing a stoma and administering chemotherapy. The first case was of a 46-year-old male patient diagnosed with upper rectal cancer and intestinal obstruction. Because of a high level of retroperitoneal invasion, after establishing a sigmoid colostomy, 13 courses of mFOLFOX6 plus Pmab were administered. Around 6 months after the initial surgery, low anterior resection for rectal cancer and surgery to close the stoma were performed. Fourteen days after curative resection, the patient was discharged from the hospital. The second case was of a 66-year-old male patient with a circumferential tumor extending from Rs to R, accompanied by right ureter infiltration and sub-intestinal obstruction. After establishing a sigmoid colostomy, 11 courses of mFOLFOX6 plus Pmab were administered. Five months after the initial surgery, anterior resection of the rectum and surgery to close the stoma were performed. Twenty days after curative resection, the patient was released from the hospital. No recurrences have been detected in either case.

Text mining facilitates database curation - extraction of mutation-disease associations from Bio-medical literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Ravikumar, Komandur Elayavilli; Wagholikar, Kavishwar B; Li, Dingcheng; Kocher, Jean-Pierre; Liu, Hongfang

2015-06-06

Advances in the next generation sequencing technology has accelerated the pace of individualized medicine (IM), which aims to incorporate genetic/genomic information into medicine. One immediate need in interpreting sequencing data is the assembly of information about genetic variants and their corresponding associations with other entities (e.g., diseases or medications). Even with dedicated effort to capture such information in biological databases, much of this information remains 'locked' in the unstructured text of biomedical publications. There is a substantial lag between the publication and the subsequent abstraction of such information into databases. Multiple text mining systems have been developed, but most of them focus on the sentence level association extraction with performance evaluation based on gold standard text annotations specifically prepared for text mining systems. We developed and evaluated a text mining system, MutD, which extracts protein mutation-disease associations from MEDLINE abstracts by incorporating discourse level analysis, using a benchmark data set extracted from curated database records. MutD achieves an F-measure of 64.3% for reconstructing protein mutation disease associations in curated database records. Discourse level analysis component of MutD contributed to a gain of more than 10% in F-measure when compared against the sentence level association extraction. Our error analysis indicates that 23 of the 64 precision errors are true associations that were not captured by database curators and 68 of the 113 recall errors are caused by the absence of associated disease entities in the abstract. After adjusting for the defects in the curated database, the revised F-measure of MutD in association detection reaches 81.5%. Our quantitative analysis reveals that MutD can effectively extract protein mutation disease associations when benchmarking based on curated database records. The analysis also demonstrates that incorporating

The BioC-BioGRID corpus: full text articles annotated for curation of protein–protein and genetic interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sun; Chatr-aryamontri, Andrew; Chang, Christie S.; Oughtred, Rose; Rust, Jennifer; Wilbur, W. John; Comeau, Donald C.; Dolinski, Kara; Tyers, Mike

2017-01-01

A great deal of information on the molecular genetics and biochemistry of model organisms has been reported in the scientific literature. However, this data is typically described in free text form and is not readily amenable to computational analyses. To this end, the BioGRID database systematically curates the biomedical literature for genetic and protein interaction data. This data is provided in a standardized computationally tractable format and includes structured annotation of experimental evidence. BioGRID curation necessarily involves substantial human effort by expert curators who must read each publication to extract the relevant information. Computational text-mining methods offer the potential to augment and accelerate manual curation. To facilitate the development of practical text-mining strategies, a new challenge was organized in BioCreative V for the BioC task, the collaborative Biocurator Assistant Task. This was a non-competitive, cooperative task in which the participants worked together to build BioC-compatible modules into an integrated pipeline to assist BioGRID curators. As an integral part of this task, a test collection of full text articles was developed that contained both biological entity annotations (gene/protein and organism/species) and molecular interaction annotations (protein–protein and genetic interactions (PPIs and GIs)). This collection, which we call the BioC-BioGRID corpus, was annotated by four BioGRID curators over three rounds of annotation and contains 120 full text articles curated in a dataset representing two major model organisms, namely budding yeast and human. The BioC-BioGRID corpus contains annotations for 6409 mentions of genes and their Entrez Gene IDs, 186 mentions of organism names and their NCBI Taxonomy IDs, 1867 mentions of PPIs and 701 annotations of PPI experimental evidence statements, 856 mentions of GIs and 399 annotations of GI evidence statements. The purpose, characteristics and possible future

Palliative or curative treatment intent affects communication in radiation therapy consultations.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Timmermans, L.; Maazen, R.W.M. van der; Leer, J.W.H.; Kraaimaat, F.W.

2006-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether communication in radiotherapy consultations is affected by palliative or curative treatment intent. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study involved 160 patients and 8 radiation oncologists. Eighty patients visited the radiation oncologist (RO) for palliative treatment and 80

3DSwap: Curated knowledgebase of proteins involved in 3D domain swapping

KAUST Repository

Shameer, Khader; Shingate, Prashant N.; Manjunath, S. C. P.; Karthika, M.; Pugalenthi, Ganesan; Sowdhamini, Ramanathan

2011-01-01

structures in oligomeric conformation. Protein structures in swapped conformations perform diverse functional roles and are also associated with deposition diseases in humans. We have performed in-depth literature curation and structural bioinformatics

Sample Curation at a Lunar Outpost

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Carlton C.; Lofgren, Gary E.; Treiman, A. H.; Lindstrom, Marilyn L.

2007-01-01

The six Apollo surface missions returned 2,196 individual rock and soil samples, with a total mass of 381.6 kg. Samples were collected based on visual examination by the astronauts and consultation with geologists in the science back room in Houston. The samples were photographed during collection, packaged in uniquely-identified containers, and transported to the Lunar Module. All samples collected on the Moon were returned to Earth. NASA's upcoming return to the Moon will be different. Astronauts will have extended stays at an out-post and will collect more samples than they will return. They will need curation and analysis facilities on the Moon in order to carefully select samples for return to Earth.

3DSwap: Curated knowledgebase of proteins involved in 3D domain swapping

KAUST Repository

Shameer, Khader

2011-09-29

Three-dimensional domain swapping is a unique protein structural phenomenon where two or more protein chains in a protein oligomer share a common structural segment between individual chains. This phenomenon is observed in an array of protein structures in oligomeric conformation. Protein structures in swapped conformations perform diverse functional roles and are also associated with deposition diseases in humans. We have performed in-depth literature curation and structural bioinformatics analyses to develop an integrated knowledgebase of proteins involved in 3D domain swapping. The hallmark of 3D domain swapping is the presence of distinct structural segments such as the hinge and swapped regions. We have curated the literature to delineate the boundaries of these regions. In addition, we have defined several new concepts like \\'secondary major interface\\' to represent the interface properties arising as a result of 3D domain swapping, and a new quantitative measure for the \\'extent of swapping\\' in structures. The catalog of proteins reported in 3DSwap knowledgebase has been generated using an integrated structural bioinformatics workflow of database searches, literature curation, by structure visualization and sequence-structure-function analyses. The current version of the 3DSwap knowledgebase reports 293 protein structures, the analysis of such a compendium of protein structures will further the understanding molecular factors driving 3D domain swapping. The Author(s) 2011.

Immunisation in a curative setting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kofoed, Poul-Erik; Nielsen, B; Rahman, A K

1990-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To study the uptake of vaccination offered to women and children attending a curative health facility. DESIGN: Prospective survey over eight months of the uptake of vaccination offered to unimmunised women and children attending a diarrhoeal treatment centre as patients or attendants....... SETTING: The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh. SUBJECTS: An estimated 19,349 unimmunised women aged 15 to 45 and 17,372 children attending the centre for treatment or accompanying patients between 1 January and 31 August 1989. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The number...... of women and children who were unimmunised or incompletely immunised was calculated and the percentage of this target population accepting vaccination was recorded. RESULTS: 7530 (84.2%) Of 8944 eligible children and 7730 (40.4%) of 19,138 eligible women were vaccinated. Of the children, 63.8% were boys...

Semi-automated curation of metabolic models via flux balance analysis: a case study with Mycoplasma gallisepticum.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eddy J Bautista

Full Text Available Primarily used for metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, genome-scale metabolic modeling shows tremendous potential as a tool for fundamental research and curation of metabolism. Through a novel integration of flux balance analysis and genetic algorithms, a strategy to curate metabolic networks and facilitate identification of metabolic pathways that may not be directly inferable solely from genome annotation was developed. Specifically, metabolites involved in unknown reactions can be determined, and potentially erroneous pathways can be identified. The procedure developed allows for new fundamental insight into metabolism, as well as acting as a semi-automated curation methodology for genome-scale metabolic modeling. To validate the methodology, a genome-scale metabolic model for the bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum was created. Several reactions not predicted by the genome annotation were postulated and validated via the literature. The model predicted an average growth rate of 0.358±0.12[Formula: see text], closely matching the experimentally determined growth rate of M. gallisepticum of 0.244±0.03[Formula: see text]. This work presents a powerful algorithm for facilitating the identification and curation of previously known and new metabolic pathways, as well as presenting the first genome-scale reconstruction of M. gallisepticum.

AtomPy: an open atomic-data curation environment

Science.gov (United States)

Bautista, Manuel; Mendoza, Claudio; Boswell, Josiah S; Ajoku, Chukwuemeka

2014-06-01

We present a cloud-computing environment for atomic data curation, networking among atomic data providers and users, teaching-and-learning, and interfacing with spectral modeling software. The system is based on Google-Drive Sheets, Pandas (Python Data Analysis Library) DataFrames, and IPython Notebooks for open community-driven curation of atomic data for scientific and technological applications. The atomic model for each ionic species is contained in a multi-sheet Google-Drive workbook, where the atomic parameters from all known public sources are progressively stored. Metadata (provenance, community discussion, etc.) accompanying every entry in the database are stored through Notebooks. Education tools on the physics of atomic processes as well as their relevance to plasma and spectral modeling are based on IPython Notebooks that integrate written material, images, videos, and active computer-tool workflows. Data processing workflows and collaborative software developments are encouraged and managed through the GitHub social network. Relevant issues this platform intends to address are: (i) data quality by allowing open access to both data producers and users in order to attain completeness, accuracy, consistency, provenance and currentness; (ii) comparisons of different datasets to facilitate accuracy assessment; (iii) downloading to local data structures (i.e. Pandas DataFrames) for further manipulation and analysis by prospective users; and (iv) data preservation by avoiding the discard of outdated sets.

Predicting prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma after curative surgery with common clinicopathologic parameters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hao, Ke; Sham, Pak C; Poon, Ronnie TP; Luk, John M; Lee, Nikki PY; Mao, Mao; Zhang, Chunsheng; Ferguson, Mark D; Lamb, John; Dai, Hongyue; Ng, Irene O

2009-01-01

Surgical resection is one important curative treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the prognosis following surgery differs substantially and such large variation is mainly unexplained. A review of the literature yields a number of clinicopathologic parameters associated with HCC prognosis. However, the results are not consistent due to lack of systemic approach to establish a prediction model incorporating all these parameters. We conducted a retrospective analysis on the common clinicopathologic parameters from a cohort of 572 ethnic Chinese HCC patients who received curative surgery. The cases were randomly divided into training (n = 272) and validation (n = 300) sets. Each parameter was individually tested and the significant parameters were entered into a linear classifier for model building, and the prediction accuracy was assessed in the validation set Our findings based on the training set data reveal 6 common clinicopathologic parameters (tumor size, number of tumor nodules, tumor stage, venous infiltration status, and serum α-fetoprotein and total albumin levels) that were significantly associated with the overall HCC survival and disease-free survival (time to recurrence). We next built a linear classifier model by multivariate Cox regression to predict prognostic outcomes of HCC patients after curative surgery This analysis detected a considerable fraction of variance in HCC prognosis and the area under the ROC curve was about 70%. We further evaluated the model using two other protocols; leave-one-out procedure (n = 264) and independent validation (n = 300). Both were found to have excellent prediction power. The predicted score could separate patients into distinct groups with respect to survival (p-value = 1.8e-12) and disease free survival (p-value = 3.2e-7). This described model will provide valuable guidance on prognosis after curative surgery for HCC in clinical practice. The adaptive nature allows easy accommodation for future new

Endogenous Tim-1 (Kim-1) promotes T-cell responses and cell-mediated injury in experimental crescentic glomerulonephritis.

Science.gov (United States)

Nozaki, Yuji; Nikolic-Paterson, David J; Snelgrove, Sarah L; Akiba, Hisaya; Yagita, Hideo; Holdsworth, Stephen R; Kitching, A Richard

2012-05-01

The T-cell immunoglobulin mucin 1 (Tim-1) modulates CD4(+) T-cell responses and is also expressed by damaged proximal tubules in the kidney where it is known as kidney injury molecule-1 (Kim-1). We sought to define the role of endogenous Tim-1 in experimental T-cell-mediated glomerulonephritis induced by sheep anti-mouse glomerular basement membrane globulin acting as a planted foreign antigen. Tim-1 is expressed by infiltrating activated CD4(+) cells in this model, and we studied the effects of an inhibitory anti-Tim-1 antibody (RMT1-10) on immune responses and glomerular disease. Crescentic glomerulonephritis, proliferative injury, and leukocyte accumulation were attenuated following treatment with anti-Tim-1 antibodies, but interstitial foxp3(+) cell accumulation and interleukin-10 mRNA were increased. T-cell proliferation and apoptosis decreased in the immune system along with a selective reduction in Th1 and Th17 cellular responses both in the immune system and within the kidney. The urinary excretion and renal expression of Kim-1 was reduced by anti-Tim-1 antibodies reflecting diminished interstitial injury. The effects of anti-Tim-1 antibodies were not apparent in the early phase of renal injury, when the immune response to sheep globulin was developing. Thus, endogenous Tim-1 promotes Th1 and Th17 nephritogenic immune responses and its neutralization reduces renal injury while limiting inflammation in cell-mediated glomerulonephritis.

Viscous flux flow velocity and stress distribution in the Kim model of a long rectangular slab superconductor

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yong; Chai, Xueguang

2018-05-01

When a bulk superconductor endures the magnetization process, enormous mechanical stresses are imposed on the bulk, which often leads to cracking. In the present work, we aim to resolve the viscous flux flow velocity υ 0/w, i.e. υ 0 (because w is a constant) and the stress distribution in a long rectangular slab superconductor for the decreasing external magnetic field (B a ) after zero-field cooling (ZFC) and field cooling (FC) using the Kim model and viscous flux flow equation simultaneously. The viscous flux flow velocity υ 0/w and the magnetic field B* at which the body forces point away in all of the slab volumes during B a reduction, are determined by both B a and the decreasing rate (db a /dt) of the external magnetic field normalized by the full penetration field B p . In previous studies, υ 0/w obtained by the Bean model with viscous flux flow is only determined by db a /dt, and the field B* that is derived only from the Kim model is a positive constant when the maximum external magnetic field is chosen. This means that the findings in this paper have more physical contents than the previous results. The field B* stress changing with decreasing field B a after ZFC if B* ≤ 0. The effect of db a /dt on the stress is significant in the cases of both ZFC and FC.

Helen Kim as New Woman and Collaborator: A Comprehensive Assessment of Korean Collaboration under Japanese Colonial Rule

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

AhRan Ellie Bae

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Although almost seventy years has passed since Korea's liberation from Japanese rule, the issue of collaboration still haunts Korea today. Attempts to resolve this issue have tended to focus attention on the traitorous actions of "collaborators" without considering the gray areas that surround their actions such as the circumstances that influenced the accused to commit their alleged traitorous acts and the intentions that drove their decisions. Helen Kim, as a "new woman" and an educator, valued the necessity of providing education for women. Yet, her efforts to realize this goal, to the contrary, forced her into actions that would later be used to construct a reputation as a Japanese collaborator. Korea's nationalist historiography has a tendency to polarize this issue by categorizing a "collaborator" as either a traitor or a patriot. However, when we take a closer look at these collaborators' lives, we discover that most collaboration happened in gray areas where it is often difficult to clearly draw a line between treason and collaboration. Helen Kim's case suggests that the issue of collaboration cannot be fully explained by nationalist historiography's framework and we must give attention to these gray areas. Through her story I hope to complicate the issue of collaboration by raising questions that address the gray areas that surround the actions of "collaborators." In doing so, I hope to challenge the nationalist historiography's propensity to oversimplify this issue and present a more nuanced understanding of it.

Sharing and community curation of mass spectrometry data with Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Mingxun; Carver, Jeremy J.; Pevzner, Pavel

2016-01-01

are well-suited to high-throughput characterization of NP, there is a pressing need for an infrastructure to enable sharing and curation of data. We present Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS; http://gnps.ucsd.edu), an open-access knowledge base for community-wide organization...... and sharing of raw, processed or identified tandem mass (MS/MS) spectrometry data. In GNPS, crowdsourced curation of freely available community-wide reference MS libraries will underpin improved annotations. Data-driven social-networking should facilitate identification of spectra and foster collaborations...

Ebola Preparedness in the Netherlands: The Need for Coordination Between the Public Health and the Curative Sector.

Science.gov (United States)

Swaan, Corien M; Öry, Alexander V; Schol, Lianne G C; Jacobi, André; Richardus, Jan Hendrik; Timen, Aura

During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2015, close cooperation between the curative sector and the public health sector in the Netherlands was necessary for timely identification, referral, and investigation of patients with suspected Ebola virus disease (EVD). In this study, we evaluated experiences in preparedness among stakeholders of both curative and public health sectors to formulate recommendations for optimizing preparedness protocols. Timeliness of referred patients with suspected EVD was used as indicator for preparedness. In focus group sessions and semistructured interviews, experiences of curative and public health stakeholders about the regional and national process of preparedness and response were listed. Timeliness recordings of all referred patients with suspected EVD (13) were collected from first date of illness until arrival in the referral academic hospital. Ebola preparedness was considered extensive compared with the risk of an actual patient, however necessary. Regional coordination varied between regions. More standardization of regional preparation and operational guidelines was requested, as well as nationally standardized contingency criteria, and the National Centre for Infectious Disease Control was expected to coordinate the development of these guidelines. For the timeliness of referred patients with suspected EVD, the median delay between first date of illness until triage was 2.0 days (range: 0-10 days), and between triage and arrival in the referral hospital, it was 5.0 hours (range: 2-7.5 hours). In none of these patients Ebola infection was confirmed. Coordination between the public health sector and the curative sector needs improvement to reduce delay in patient management in emerging infectious diseases. Standardization of preparedness and response practices, through guidelines for institutional preparedness and blueprints for regional and national coordination, is necessary, as preparedness for emerging infectious

A theoretical and experimental study on solubility of curatives in rubbers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guo, R.; Talma, Auke; Datta, Rabin; Dierkes, Wilma K.; Noordermeer, Jacobus W.M.

2009-01-01

The current study provides indications for improving the properties of dissimilar rubber blends. As solubility is a key factor for the distribution and a driving force for the migration of curatives in dissimilar rubber blends, it is of importance to have precise data of their solubilities. The

The BioC-BioGRID corpus: full text articles annotated for curation of protein-protein and genetic interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Islamaj Dogan, Rezarta; Kim, Sun; Chatr-Aryamontri, Andrew; Chang, Christie S; Oughtred, Rose; Rust, Jennifer; Wilbur, W John; Comeau, Donald C; Dolinski, Kara; Tyers, Mike

2017-01-01

A great deal of information on the molecular genetics and biochemistry of model organisms has been reported in the scientific literature. However, this data is typically described in free text form and is not readily amenable to computational analyses. To this end, the BioGRID database systematically curates the biomedical literature for genetic and protein interaction data. This data is provided in a standardized computationally tractable format and includes structured annotation of experimental evidence. BioGRID curation necessarily involves substantial human effort by expert curators who must read each publication to extract the relevant information. Computational text-mining methods offer the potential to augment and accelerate manual curation. To facilitate the development of practical text-mining strategies, a new challenge was organized in BioCreative V for the BioC task, the collaborative Biocurator Assistant Task. This was a non-competitive, cooperative task in which the participants worked together to build BioC-compatible modules into an integrated pipeline to assist BioGRID curators. As an integral part of this task, a test collection of full text articles was developed that contained both biological entity annotations (gene/protein and organism/species) and molecular interaction annotations (protein-protein and genetic interactions (PPIs and GIs)). This collection, which we call the BioC-BioGRID corpus, was annotated by four BioGRID curators over three rounds of annotation and contains 120 full text articles curated in a dataset representing two major model organisms, namely budding yeast and human. The BioC-BioGRID corpus contains annotations for 6409 mentions of genes and their Entrez Gene IDs, 186 mentions of organism names and their NCBI Taxonomy IDs, 1867 mentions of PPIs and 701 annotations of PPI experimental evidence statements, 856 mentions of GIs and 399 annotations of GI evidence statements. The purpose, characteristics and possible future

A predictive model for swallowing dysfunction after curative radiotherapy in head and neck cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langendijk, Johannes A.; Doornaert, Patricia; Rietveld, Derek H.F.; Verdonck-de Leeuw, Irma M.; Rene Leemans, C.; Slotman, Ben J.

2009-01-01

Introduction: Recently, we found that swallowing dysfunction after curative (chemo) radiation (CH) RT has a strong negative impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL), even more than xerostomia. The purpose of this study was to design a predictive model for swallowing dysfunction after curative radiotherapy or chemoradiation. Materials and methods: A prospective study was performed including 529 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) treated with curative (CH) RT. In all patients, acute and late radiation-induced morbidity (RTOG Acute and Late Morbidity Scoring System) was scored prospectively. To design the model univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out with grade 2 or higher RTOG swallowing dysfunction at 6 months as the primary (SWALL 6months ) endpoint. The model was validated by comparing the predicted and observed complication rates and by testing if the model also predicted acute dysphagia and late dysphagia at later time points (12, 18 and 24 months). Results: After univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, the following factors turned out to be independent prognostic factors for SWALL 6months : T3-T4, bilateral neck irradiation, weight loss prior to radiation, oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal tumours, accelerated radiotherapy and concomitant chemoradiation. By summation of the regression coefficients derived from the multivariate model, the Total Dysphagia Risk Score (TDRS) could be calculated. In the logistic regression model, the TDRS was significantly associated with SWALL 6months ((p 6months was 5%, 24% and 46% in case of low-, intermediate- and high-risk patients, respectively. These observed percentages were within the 95% confidence intervals of the predicted values. The TDRS risk group classification was also significantly associated with acute dysphagia (P < 0.001 at all time points) and with late swallowing dysfunction at 12, 18 and 24 months (p < 0.001 at all time points

The importance of community building for establishing data management and curation practices for physical samples

Science.gov (United States)

Ramdeen, S.; Hangsterfer, A.; Stanley, V. L.

2017-12-01

There is growing enthusiasm for curation of physical samples in the Earth Science community (see sessions at AGU, GSA, ESIP). Multiple federally funded efforts aim to develop best practices for curation of physical samples; however, these efforts have not yet been consolidated. Harmonizing these concurrent efforts would enable the community as a whole to build the necessary tools and community standards to move forward together. Preliminary research indicate the various groups focused on this topic are working in isolation, and the development of standards needs to come from the broadest view of `community'. We will investigate the gaps between communities by collecting information about preservation policies and practices from curators, who can provide a diverse cross-section of the grand challenges to the overall community. We will look at existing reports and study results to identify example cases, then develop a survey to gather large scale data to reinforce or clarify the example cases. We will be targeting the various community groups which are working on similar issues, and use the survey to improve the visibility of developed best practices. Given that preservation and digital collection management for physical samples are both important and difficult at present (GMRWG, 2015; NRC, 2002), barriers to both need to be addressed in order to achieve open science goals for the entire community. To address these challenges, EarthCube's iSamples, a research coordination network established to advance discoverability, access, and curation of physical samples using cyberinfrastructure, has formed a working group to collect use cases to examine the breadth of earth scientists' work with physical samples. This research team includes curators of state survey and oceanographic geological collections, and a researcher from information science. In our presentation, we will share our research and the design of the proposed survey. Our goal is to engage the audience in a

Curation Pedagogy for Media Studies: (Further Towards the Inexpert

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ben Andrews

2012-12-01

Full Text Available An educational ‘model’ for participatory learning and media literacy in the contemporary context of digitally mediated lifeworlds is emerging (Jenkins, 2010; Gauntlett, 2011; Fraser and Wardle, 2011. The critical problem, we argue, for its ‘adequacy’ is the privilege granted to curriculum content and skills over pedagogy. Elsewhere, we offered a ‘pedagogy of the inexpert’ as such a model for textconscious disciplines such as, but not restricted to, Media Studies. This strategy removes ‘the media’ from our gaze and looks awry to develop new ways of working with students – to ‘show and tell’ textual agency and more reflexive deconstruction of what it is to read and make media, and to ‘be’ in mediation. In this article, we develop this approach further towards a model of ‘curation’. Understood in this way, students ‘show’ media literacy in new spaces – not by recourse to skills, competences or analytical unmasking of the properties of a (contained text, but by exhibiting, by curating a moment in time of textual meaningmaking and meaning-taking, but with a mindfulness – a critical acceptance of such an attempt to hold and curate the flow of meaning as an artifice.

Curating Research: e-Merging New Roles and Responsibilities in the European Landscape (Conference Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inge Angevaare

2009-11-01

Full Text Available On 17 April 2009 LIBER, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB and the Netherlands Coalition for Digital Preservation (NCDD co-organised LIBER’s first workshop on digital curation/preservation, providing an introduction to the theme of digital curation and different perspectives on the roles research libraries can and/or must play in keeping the digital records of science safe for future generations. Speakers included Eileen Fenton (Portico, Dale Peters (DRIVER, Maria Heijne (TU Delft Library, Jeffrey van der Hoeven (KB, PARSE.insight and ninety workshop attendees. The paper includes the conference report and some results of the PARSE.insight online survey into digital preservation practices of LIBER libraries.

Strict follow-up programme including CT and (18) F-FDG-PET after curative surgery for colorectal cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, N F; Jensen, A B; Wille-Jørgensen, P

2010-01-01

Aim The risk of local recurrence following curative surgery for colorectal cancer (CRC) is up to 50%. A rigorous follow-up program may increase survival. Guidelines on suitable methods for scheduled follow up examinations are needed. This study evaluates a strict follow-up program including...... supported a strict follow-up program following curative surgery for colorectal cancer. FDG-PET combined with CT should be included in control programs....

miRandola 2017: a curated knowledge base of non-invasive biomarkers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Russo, Francesco; Di Bella, Sebastiano; Vannini, Federica

2018-01-01

databases. Data are manually curated from 314 articles that describe miRNAs, long non-coding RNAs and circular RNAs. Fourteen organisms are now included in the database, and associations of ncRNAs with 25 drugs, 47 sample types and 197 diseases. miRandola also classifies extracellular RNAs based...

Improving Access to NASA Earth Science Data through Collaborative Metadata Curation

Science.gov (United States)

Sisco, A. W.; Bugbee, K.; Shum, D.; Baynes, K.; Dixon, V.; Ramachandran, R.

2017-12-01

The NASA-developed Common Metadata Repository (CMR) is a high-performance metadata system that currently catalogs over 375 million Earth science metadata records. It serves as the authoritative metadata management system of NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), enabling NASA Earth science data to be discovered and accessed by a worldwide user community. The size of the EOSDIS data archive is steadily increasing, and the ability to manage and query this archive depends on the input of high quality metadata to the CMR. Metadata that does not provide adequate descriptive information diminishes the CMR's ability to effectively find and serve data to users. To address this issue, an innovative and collaborative review process is underway to systematically improve the completeness, consistency, and accuracy of metadata for approximately 7,000 data sets archived by NASA's twelve EOSDIS data centers, or Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). The process involves automated and manual metadata assessment of both collection and granule records by a team of Earth science data specialists at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The team communicates results to DAAC personnel, who then make revisions and reingest improved metadata into the CMR. Implementation of this process relies on a network of interdisciplinary collaborators leveraging a variety of communication platforms and long-range planning strategies. Curating metadata at this scale and resolving metadata issues through community consensus improves the CMR's ability to serve current and future users and also introduces best practices for stewarding the next generation of Earth Observing System data. This presentation will detail the metadata curation process, its outcomes thus far, and also share the status of ongoing curation activities.

Improved Functionality and Curation Support in the ADS

Science.gov (United States)

Accomazzi, Alberto; Kurtz, Michael J.; Henneken, Edwin A.; Grant, Carolyn S.; Thompson, Donna; Chyla, Roman; Holachek, Alexandra; Sudilovsky, Vladimir; Murray, Stephen S.

2015-01-01

In this poster we describe the developments of the new ADS platform over the past year, focusing on the functionality which improves its discovery and curation capabilities.The ADS Application Programming Interface (API) is being updated to support authenticated access to the entire suite of ADS services, in addition to the search functionality itself. This allows programmatic access to resources which are specific to a user or class of users.A new interface, built directly on top of the API, now provides a more intuitive search experience and takes into account the best practices in web usability and responsive design. The interface now incorporates in-line views of graphics from the AAS Astroexplorer and the ADS All-Sky Survey image collections.The ADS Private Libraries, first introduced over 10 years ago, are now being enhanced to allow the bookmarking, tagging and annotation of records of interest. In addition, libraries can be shared with one or more ADS users, providing an easy way to collaborate in the curation of lists of papers. A library can also be explicitly made public and shared at large via the publishing of its URL.In collaboration with the AAS, the ADS plans to support the adoption of ORCID identifiers by implementing a plugin which will simplify the import of papers in ORCID via a query to the ADS API. Deeper integration between the two systems will depend on available resources and feedback from the community.

The observation of curative effects by therapy with low-dose 131I in younger with Graves' disease

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cui Liqun; Li Lingling; Zhang Chenggang

2007-01-01

Objective: To observe the the curative effects in younger with Graves disease therapied by 131 I. Methods: The dose of 131 I is administrated with 1480-2220kBq/g of thyroid tissue which was decided by many factors that include the paticnt's Age, volume of thyroid, course and if antihyroid drug is administrated. The curative effects was classfide into four groups: complete remission, excellence, parts of remission, no effect. Results: 47 were complete remission, 34 were excellence, 10 were the parts of remission and 0 was no effects. The total effective power was 100%. Conclusions: Therapy with low-dose of mi for younger with Graves' disease is an effect, simple and safe method. Repeating treatment with 131 I will improve the curative rate of Graves' disease in younger, and the incidence of hypothyroidism cannot be increased. (authors)

Locally Advanced Rectal Carcinoma: Curative Surgery Alone vs. postoperative Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Seung Do; Choi, Eun Kyung; Kim, Jin Cheon; Kim, Sang Hee

1995-01-01

Purpose : To evaluate the effects of postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy on the pattern of failure and survival for locally advanced rectal carcinoma, we analyzed the two groups of patients who received curative resection only and who received postoperative radiochemotherapy retrospectively. Materials and Methods : From June 1989 to December 1992, ninety nine patients with rectal cancer were treated by curative resection and staged as B2-3 or C. Group I(25) patients received curative resection only and group II(74) patients postoperative adjuvant therapy. Postoperative adjuvant group received radiation therapy (4500 cGy/ 25fx to whole pelvis)with 5-FU (500 mg/m 2 , day 1-3 IV infusion) as radiosensitizer and maintenance chemotherapy with 5-FU(400mg/m 2 for 5 days) and leucovorin (20mg/m 2 for 5 days) for 6 cycles. Results : The patients in group I and group II were comparable in terms of age, sex, performance status, but in group II 74% of patients showed stage C compared with 56% of group I. All patients were flowed from 6 to 60 months with a median follow up of 29 months. Three year overall survival rates and disease free survival rates were 68%, 64% respectively in group I and 64%, 61%, respectively in group II. There was no statistical difference between the two treatment groups in overall survival rate and disease free survival rate. Local recurrences occurred in 28% of group I, 21% of group II (p>.05) and distant metastases occurred in 20% of group I, 27% of group II(p>.05). The prognostic value of several variables other that treatment modality was assessed. In multivariate analysis for prognostic factors stage and histologic grade showed statistically significant effect on local recurrences, and lymphatic or vessel invasion on distant metastasis. Conclusion : This retrospective study showed no statistical difference between two groups on the pattern of failure and survival. But considering that group II had more advanced stage and poor prognostic

Uptake of [3H]PAH and [14C]urate into isolated proximal tubular segments of the pig kidney

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schali, C.; Roch-Ramel, F.

1981-01-01

Segments of proximal convoluted (PCT) and proximal straight (PST) tubules of minipigs and normal-sized pigs were microdissected (without collagenase treatment) and incubated (30 min, 37 0 C, pH 7.4) in Ringer solution (under O 2 ) containing [ 3 H]PAH (3.10 -5 M) or [ 14 C]urate (9.10 -5 M) and, in inhibitor studies, probenecid, pyrazinoic acid (PZA), urate, or PAH, all at 1 mM. In both strains the uptake of [ 3 H]PAH expressed as mean T/M ratio (cpm per ml tissue water/cpm per ml incubation medium) was significantly higher (P 14 C]urate. In eight minipigs the T/M was 4.9 +/- 0.5 in 24 PCT and 2 +/- 0.2 in 25 PST. In normal-sized pigs the T/M was 3.8 +/- 0.3 in 35 PCT (five pigs) and 1.9 +/- 0.4 in eight PST (two pigs). In inhibitor studies urate significantly depressed the uptake of [ 3 H]PAH, and unlabeled PAH depressed the uptake of [ 14 C]urate. PZA significantly inhibited the uptake of [ 14 C]urate but not that of [ 3 H]PAH, whereas probenecid had a strong inhibitory efect on the uptake of both compounds. These results suggest that [ 14 C]urate and [ 3 H]PAH are transported by a transport system located mainly in the proximal convoluted tubule. These findings are in contrast in the findings are in contrast to the findings obtained in rabbits in which the transport system of PAH and urate is mainly located in the proximal part of the pars recta

Angiosarcoma of the scalp treated with curative radiotherapy plus recombinant interleukin-2 immunotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohguri, Takayuki; Imada, Hajime; Nomoto, Satoshi; Yahara, Katsuya; Hisaoka, Masanori; Hashimoto, Hiroshi; Tokura, Yoshiki; Nakamura, Katsumasa; Shioyama, Yoshiyuki; Honda, Hiroshi; Terashima, Hiromi; Moroi, Yoiichi; Furue, Masutaka; Korogi, Yukunori

2005-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of curative radiotherapy (RT) plus recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) immunotherapy regarding the treatment results for angiosarcoma of the scalp. Curative resection of angiosarcoma of the scalp is usually difficult because of the diffuse, clinically undetectable local spread. RT is a rational therapeutic approach, because a wide region of the dermis can be treated, while sparing the underlying normal tissues. Recently, the effectiveness of immunotherapy with rIL-2 has also been reported in the treatment of angiosarcoma of the scalp. Methods and Materials: The data of 20 patients with angiosarcoma of the scalp treated with curative RT plus rIL-2 immunotherapy between January 1988 and June 2002 were retrospectively analyzed. The total radiation dose was 70.3 ± 6.9 Gy. The fractions were 2-3 Gy daily, given 5 d/wk. rIL-2 immunotherapy was performed by transcatheter arterial administration in 10 patients, systemic administration in 11 during the course of RT, and intratumoral injection in 10 during and/or after RT; 12 patients received a combination of two. Five patients underwent limited surgery, and concomitant pacilitaxel chemotherapy was also used in 2 patients. Results: The median survival time for overall, local recurrence-free, and distant metastasis-free survival was 36.2, 11.1, and 17.8 months, respectively. Local recurrence developed in 7 patients (35%), 4 of whom also had evidence of distant metastases. An additional 7 patients (35%) developed distant metastases alone. Recurrence within the radiation field was recognized in 2 patients with systemic rIL-2 administration alone (p < 0.05). Arterial or intratumoral administration combined with systemic administration of rIL-2 resulted in better distant metaststasis-free survival rates (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Curative RT plus rIL-2 immunotherapy provided an efficient, effective means of treating angiosarcoma of the scalp. Arterial or intratumoral administration combined

When a Patient Declines Curative Care: Management of a Ruptured Aortic Aneurysm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sangeeta Lamba

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The management of major vascular emergencies in the emergency department (ED involves rapid, aggressive resuscitation followed by emergent definitive surgery. However, for some patients this traditional approach may not be consistent with their goals and values. We explore the appropriate way to determine best treatment practices when patients elect to forego curative care in the ED, while reviewing such a case. We present the case of a 72-year-old patient who presented to the ED with a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, but refused surgery. We discuss the transition of the patient from a curative to a comfort care approach with appropriate direct referral to hospice from the ED. Using principles of autonomy, decision-making capacity, informed consent, prognostication, and goals-of-care, ED clinicians are best able to align their approach with patients’ goals and values. [West J Emerg Med. 2013;14(5:555–558.

User-generated content curation with deep convolutional neural networks

OpenAIRE

Tous Liesa, Rubén; Wust, Otto; Gómez, Mauro; Poveda, Jonatan; Elena, Marc; Torres Viñals, Jordi; Makni, Mouna; Ayguadé Parra, Eduard

2016-01-01

In this paper, we report a work consisting in using deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for curating and filtering photos posted by social media users (Instagram and Twitter). The final goal is to facilitate searching and discovering user-generated content (UGC) with potential value for digital marketing tasks. The images are captured in real time and automatically annotated with multiple CNNs. Some of the CNNs perform generic object recognition tasks while others perform what we call v...

An Inquiry of Intentions in Kim Hye-yong's 'First Meeting': A North Korean Short Story in Korea Today (2007).

OpenAIRE

Alzo David-West

2013-01-01

This paper examines the problem of the intentional fallacy in the North Korean short story 'First Meeting' by Kim Hye-yong. Serially published in Korea Today in 2007, the nationalist allegory centres on Shin Ch'ong-mi, a young female journalist in Pyongyang, who falls in love with her penfriend Song-u, a soldier in the Korean People's Army, and struggles to remain devoted to him when he suddenly stops writing. With the literary-critical method of counterintuitive reading, the inquiry analyses...

A comprehensive curated resource for follicle stimulating hormone signaling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sharma Jyoti

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH is an important hormone responsible for growth, maturation and function of the human reproductive system. FSH regulates the synthesis of steroid hormones such as estrogen and progesterone, proliferation and maturation of follicles in the ovary and spermatogenesis in the testes. FSH is a glycoprotein heterodimer that binds and acts through the FSH receptor, a G-protein coupled receptor. Although online pathway repositories provide information about G-protein coupled receptor mediated signal transduction, the signaling events initiated specifically by FSH are not cataloged in any public database in a detailed fashion. Findings We performed comprehensive curation of the published literature to identify the components of FSH signaling pathway and the molecular interactions that occur upon FSH receptor activation. Our effort yielded 64 reactions comprising 35 enzyme-substrate reactions, 11 molecular association events, 11 activation events and 7 protein translocation events that occur in response to FSH receptor activation. We also cataloged 265 genes, which were differentially expressed upon FSH stimulation in normal human reproductive tissues. Conclusions We anticipate that the information provided in this resource will provide better insights into the physiological role of FSH in reproductive biology, its signaling mediators and aid in further research in this area. The curated FSH pathway data is freely available through NetPath (http://www.netpath.org, a pathway resource developed previously by our group.

From field to database : a user-oriented approche to promote cyber-curating of scientific drilling cores

Science.gov (United States)

Pignol, C.; Arnaud, F.; Godinho, E.; Galabertier, B.; Caillo, A.; Billy, I.; Augustin, L.; Calzas, M.; Rousseau, D. D.; Crosta, X.

2016-12-01

Managing scientific data is probably one the most challenging issues in modern science. In plaeosciences the question is made even more sensitive with the need of preserving and managing high value fragile geological samples: cores. Large international scientific programs, such as IODP or ICDP led intense effort to solve this problem and proposed detailed high standard work- and dataflows thorough core handling and curating. However many paleoscience results derived from small-scale research programs in which data and sample management is too often managed only locally - when it is… In this paper we present a national effort leads in France to develop an integrated system to curate ice and sediment cores. Under the umbrella of the national excellence equipment program CLIMCOR, we launched a reflexion about core curating and the management of associated fieldwork data. Our aim was then to conserve all data from fieldwork in an integrated cyber-environment which will evolve toward laboratory-acquired data storage in a near future. To do so, our demarche was conducted through an intimate relationship with field operators as well laboratory core curators in order to propose user-oriented solutions. The national core curating initiative proposes a single web portal in which all teams can store their fieldwork data. This portal is used as a national hub to attribute IGSNs. For legacy samples, this requires the establishment of a dedicated core list with associated metadata. However, for forthcoming core data, we developed a mobile application to capture technical and scientific data directly on the field. This application is linked with a unique coring-tools library and is adapted to most coring devices (gravity, drilling, percussion etc.) including multiple sections and holes coring operations. Those field data can be uploaded automatically to the national portal, but also referenced through international standards (IGSN and INSPIRE) and displayed in international

NeuroRDF: semantic integration of highly curated data to prioritize biomarker candidates in Alzheimer's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Iyappan, Anandhi; Kawalia, Shweta Bagewadi; Raschka, Tamara; Hofmann-Apitius, Martin; Senger, Philipp

2016-07-08

Neurodegenerative diseases are incurable and debilitating indications with huge social and economic impact, where much is still to be learnt about the underlying molecular events. Mechanistic disease models could offer a knowledge framework to help decipher the complex interactions that occur at molecular and cellular levels. This motivates the need for the development of an approach integrating highly curated and heterogeneous data into a disease model of different regulatory data layers. Although several disease models exist, they often do not consider the quality of underlying data. Moreover, even with the current advancements in semantic web technology, we still do not have cure for complex diseases like Alzheimer's disease. One of the key reasons accountable for this could be the increasing gap between generated data and the derived knowledge. In this paper, we describe an approach, called as NeuroRDF, to develop an integrative framework for modeling curated knowledge in the area of complex neurodegenerative diseases. The core of this strategy lies in the usage of well curated and context specific data for integration into one single semantic web-based framework, RDF. This increases the probability of the derived knowledge to be novel and reliable in a specific disease context. This infrastructure integrates highly curated data from databases (Bind, IntAct, etc.), literature (PubMed), and gene expression resources (such as GEO and ArrayExpress). We illustrate the effectiveness of our approach by asking real-world biomedical questions that link these resources to prioritize the plausible biomarker candidates. Among the 13 prioritized candidate genes, we identified MIF to be a potential emerging candidate due to its role as a pro-inflammatory cytokine. We additionally report on the effort and challenges faced during generation of such an indication-specific knowledge base comprising of curated and quality-controlled data. Although many alternative approaches

Automatic vs. manual curation of a multi-source chemical dictionary: the impact on text mining

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

Background Previously, we developed a combined dictionary dubbed Chemlist for the identification of small molecules and drugs in text based on a number of publicly available databases and tested it on an annotated corpus. To achieve an acceptable recall and precision we used a number of automatic and semi-automatic processing steps together with disambiguation rules. However, it remained to be investigated which impact an extensive manual curation of a multi-source chemical dictionary would have on chemical term identification in text. ChemSpider is a chemical database that has undergone extensive manual curation aimed at establishing valid chemical name-to-structure relationships. Results We acquired the component of ChemSpider containing only manually curated names and synonyms. Rule-based term filtering, semi-automatic manual curation, and disambiguation rules were applied. We tested the dictionary from ChemSpider on an annotated corpus and compared the results with those for the Chemlist dictionary. The ChemSpider dictionary of ca. 80 k names was only a 1/3 to a 1/4 the size of Chemlist at around 300 k. The ChemSpider dictionary had a precision of 0.43 and a recall of 0.19 before the application of filtering and disambiguation and a precision of 0.87 and a recall of 0.19 after filtering and disambiguation. The Chemlist dictionary had a precision of 0.20 and a recall of 0.47 before the application of filtering and disambiguation and a precision of 0.67 and a recall of 0.40 after filtering and disambiguation. Conclusions We conclude the following: (1) The ChemSpider dictionary achieved the best precision but the Chemlist dictionary had a higher recall and the best F-score; (2) Rule-based filtering and disambiguation is necessary to achieve a high precision for both the automatically generated and the manually curated dictionary. ChemSpider is available as a web service at http://www.chemspider.com/ and the Chemlist dictionary is freely available as an XML file in

Improving the Discoverability and Availability of Sample Data and Imagery in NASA's Astromaterials Curation Digital Repository Using a New Common Architecture for Sample Databases

Science.gov (United States)

Todd, N. S.; Evans, C.

2015-01-01

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) is the designated facility for curating all of NASA's extraterrestrial samples. The suite of collections includes the lunar samples from the Apollo missions, cosmic dust particles falling into the Earth's atmosphere, meteorites collected in Antarctica, comet and interstellar dust particles from the Stardust mission, asteroid particles from the Japanese Hayabusa mission, and solar wind atoms collected during the Genesis mission. To support planetary science research on these samples, NASA's Astromaterials Curation Office hosts the Astromaterials Curation Digital Repository, which provides descriptions of the missions and collections, and critical information about each individual sample. Our office is implementing several informatics initiatives with the goal of better serving the planetary research community. One of these initiatives aims to increase the availability and discoverability of sample data and images through the use of a newly designed common architecture for Astromaterials Curation databases.

SolCyc: a database hub at the Sol Genomics Network (SGN) for the manual curation of metabolic networks in Solanum and Nicotiana specific databases

Science.gov (United States)

Foerster, Hartmut; Bombarely, Aureliano; Battey, James N D; Sierro, Nicolas; Ivanov, Nikolai V; Mueller, Lukas A

2018-01-01

Abstract SolCyc is the entry portal to pathway/genome databases (PGDBs) for major species of the Solanaceae family hosted at the Sol Genomics Network. Currently, SolCyc comprises six organism-specific PGDBs for tomato, potato, pepper, petunia, tobacco and one Rubiaceae, coffee. The metabolic networks of those PGDBs have been computationally predicted by the pathologic component of the pathway tools software using the manually curated multi-domain database MetaCyc (http://www.metacyc.org/) as reference. SolCyc has been recently extended by taxon-specific databases, i.e. the family-specific SolanaCyc database, containing only curated data pertinent to species of the nightshade family, and NicotianaCyc, a genus-specific database that stores all relevant metabolic data of the Nicotiana genus. Through manual curation of the published literature, new metabolic pathways have been created in those databases, which are complemented by the continuously updated, relevant species-specific pathways from MetaCyc. At present, SolanaCyc comprises 199 pathways and 29 superpathways and NicotianaCyc accounts for 72 pathways and 13 superpathways. Curator-maintained, taxon-specific databases such as SolanaCyc and NicotianaCyc are characterized by an enrichment of data specific to these taxa and free of falsely predicted pathways. Both databases have been used to update recently created Nicotiana-specific databases for Nicotiana tabacum, Nicotiana benthamiana, Nicotiana sylvestris and Nicotiana tomentosiformis by propagating verifiable data into those PGDBs. In addition, in-depth curation of the pathways in N.tabacum has been carried out which resulted in the elimination of 156 pathways from the 569 pathways predicted by pathway tools. Together, in-depth curation of the predicted pathway network and the supplementation with curated data from taxon-specific databases has substantially improved the curation status of the species–specific N.tabacum PGDB. The implementation of this

Long-term results of curative intraluminal high dose rate brachytherapy for endobronchial carcinoma

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Kawamura Hidemasa

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The treatment strategy of central lung tumors is not established. Intraluminal brachytherapy (ILBT is widely used for palliative treatment of endobronchial tumors, however, it is also a promising option for curative treatment with limited data. This study evaluates the results after ILBT for endobronchial carcinoma. Method Sixteen-endobronchial carcinoma of 13 patients treated with ILBT in curative intent for 2000 to 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. ILBT using high dose rate 192 iridium thin wire system was performed with 5 Gy/fraction at mucosal surface. The patient age ranged from 57 to 82 years old with median 75 years old. The 16 lesions consisted of 13 central endobronchial cancers including 7 roentgenographically occult lung cancers and 3 of tracheal cancers. Of them, 10 lesions were treated with ILBT of median 20 Gy combined with external beam radiation therapy of median 45 Gy and 6 lesions were treated with ILBT alone of median 25 Gy. Results Median follow-up time was 32.5 months. Two-year survival rate and local control rate were 92.3% and 86.2%, respectively. Local recurrences were observed in 2 lesions. Three patients died due to lung cancer (1 patient and intercurrent disease (2 patients. Complications greater than grade 2 were not observed except for one grade 3 dyspnea. Conclusions ILBT combined with or without EBRT might be a curative treatment option in inoperable endobronchial carcinoma patients with tolerable complication.

The trouble with halos: invited commentary on Kim, S., & Harris, P. L. (2014). Children prefer to learn from mind-readers. British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Richert, Rebekah A

2014-11-01

This commentary on Kim and Harris (2014) addresses the authors' interpretation of the halo effect, in which 5- to 6-year-old children preferentially agreed with an informant who could read other people's minds, regardless of domain of knowledge. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Comparative analysis of four active compounds of Baikal skullcap and its classical TCM prescriptions according to different clinical curative effects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guang-Wei Zhu

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Objective: A sensitive HPLC-DAD detection method was established for the comparative analysis of the four active compounds (including baicalin, baicalein, wogonoside and wogonin of Baikal Skullcap and its classical TCM prescriptions according to different clinical curative effects. And analyze the relationship between compatibility of medicines, content and clinical curative effect.

On Curating Multimodal Sensory Data for Health and Wellness Platforms

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Muhammad Bilal Amin

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the focus of healthcare and wellness technologies has shown a significant shift towards personal vital signs devices. The technology has evolved from smartphone-based wellness applications to fitness bands and smartwatches. The novelty of these devices is the accumulation of activity data as their users go about their daily life routine. However, these implementations are device specific and lack the ability to incorporate multimodal data sources. Data accumulated in their usage does not offer rich contextual information that is adequate for providing a holistic view of a user’s lifelog. As a result, making decisions and generating recommendations based on this data are single dimensional. In this paper, we present our Data Curation Framework (DCF which is device independent and accumulates a user’s sensory data from multimodal data sources in real time. DCF curates the context of this accumulated data over the user’s lifelog. DCF provides rule-based anomaly detection over this context-rich lifelog in real time. To provide computation and persistence over the large volume of sensory data, DCF utilizes the distributed and ubiquitous environment of the cloud platform. DCF has been evaluated for its performance, correctness, ability to detect complex anomalies, and management support for a large volume of sensory data.

CCDB: a curated database of genes involved in cervix cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Agarwal, Subhash M; Raghav, Dhwani; Singh, Harinder; Raghava, G P S

2011-01-01

The Cervical Cancer gene DataBase (CCDB, http://crdd.osdd.net/raghava/ccdb) is a manually curated catalog of experimentally validated genes that are thought, or are known to be involved in the different stages of cervical carcinogenesis. In spite of the large women population that is presently affected from this malignancy still at present, no database exists that catalogs information on genes associated with cervical cancer. Therefore, we have compiled 537 genes in CCDB that are linked with cervical cancer causation processes such as methylation, gene amplification, mutation, polymorphism and change in expression level, as evident from published literature. Each record contains details related to gene like architecture (exon-intron structure), location, function, sequences (mRNA/CDS/protein), ontology, interacting partners, homology to other eukaryotic genomes, structure and links to other public databases, thus augmenting CCDB with external data. Also, manually curated literature references have been provided to support the inclusion of the gene in the database and establish its association with cervix cancer. In addition, CCDB provides information on microRNA altered in cervical cancer as well as search facility for querying, several browse options and an online tool for sequence similarity search, thereby providing researchers with easy access to the latest information on genes involved in cervix cancer.

On Curating Multimodal Sensory Data for Health and Wellness Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Amin, Muhammad Bilal; Banos, Oresti; Khan, Wajahat Ali; Muhammad Bilal, Hafiz Syed; Gong, Jinhyuk; Bui, Dinh-Mao; Cho, Soung Ho; Hussain, Shujaat; Ali, Taqdir; Akhtar, Usman; Chung, Tae Choong; Lee, Sungyoung

2016-01-01

In recent years, the focus of healthcare and wellness technologies has shown a significant shift towards personal vital signs devices. The technology has evolved from smartphone-based wellness applications to fitness bands and smartwatches. The novelty of these devices is the accumulation of activity data as their users go about their daily life routine. However, these implementations are device specific and lack the ability to incorporate multimodal data sources. Data accumulated in their usage does not offer rich contextual information that is adequate for providing a holistic view of a user’s lifelog. As a result, making decisions and generating recommendations based on this data are single dimensional. In this paper, we present our Data Curation Framework (DCF) which is device independent and accumulates a user’s sensory data from multimodal data sources in real time. DCF curates the context of this accumulated data over the user’s lifelog. DCF provides rule-based anomaly detection over this context-rich lifelog in real time. To provide computation and persistence over the large volume of sensory data, DCF utilizes the distributed and ubiquitous environment of the cloud platform. DCF has been evaluated for its performance, correctness, ability to detect complex anomalies, and management support for a large volume of sensory data. PMID:27355955

The curative management of synchronous rectal and prostate cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Kavanagh, Dara O; Martin, Joseph; Small, Cormac; Joyce, Myles R; Faul, Clare M; Kelly, Paul J; O'Riordain, Michael; Gillham, Charles M; Armstrong, John G; Salib, Osama; McNamara, Deborah A; McVey, Gerard; O'Neill, Brian D P

2016-01-01

Objective: Neoadjuvant “long-course” chemoradiation is considered a standard of care in locally advanced rectal cancer. In addition to prostatectomy, external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy with or without androgen suppression (AS) are well established in prostate cancer management. A retrospective review of ten cases was completed to explore the feasibility and safety of applying these standards in patients with dual pathology. To our knowledge, this is the largest case series of synchronous rectal and prostate cancers treated with curative intent. Methods: Eligible patients had synchronous histologically proven locally advanced rectal cancer (defined as cT3-4Nx; cTxN1-2) and non-metastatic prostate cancer (pelvic nodal disease permissible). Curative treatment was delivered to both sites simultaneously. Follow-up was as per institutional guidelines. Acute and late toxicities were reviewed, and a literature search performed. Results: Pelvic external beam radiotherapy (RT) 45–50.4 Gy was delivered concurrent with 5-fluorouracil (5FU). Prostate total dose ranged from 70.0 to 79.2 Gy. No acute toxicities occurred, excluding AS-induced erectile dysfunction. Nine patients proceeded to surgery, and one was managed expectantly. Three relapsed with metastatic colorectal cancer, two with metastatic prostate cancer. Five patients have no evidence of recurrence, and four remain alive with metastatic disease. With a median follow-up of 2.2 years (range 1.2–6.3 years), two significant late toxicities occurred; G3 proctitis in a patient receiving palliative bevacizumab and a G3 anastomotic stricture precluding stoma reversal. Conclusion: Patients proceeding to synchronous radical treatment of both primary sites should receive 45–50.4 Gy pelvic RT with infusional 5FU. Prostate dose escalation should be given with due consideration to the potential impact of prostate cancer on patient survival, as increasing dose may result in significant late morbidity

The French initiative for scientific cores virtual curating : a user-oriented integrated approach

Science.gov (United States)

Pignol, Cécile; Godinho, Elodie; Galabertier, Bruno; Caillo, Arnaud; Bernardet, Karim; Augustin, Laurent; Crouzet, Christian; Billy, Isabelle; Teste, Gregory; Moreno, Eva; Tosello, Vanessa; Crosta, Xavier; Chappellaz, Jérome; Calzas, Michel; Rousseau, Denis-Didier; Arnaud, Fabien

2016-04-01

Managing scientific data is probably one the most challenging issue in modern science. The question is made even more sensitive with the need of preserving and managing high value fragile geological sam-ples: cores. Large international scientific programs, such as IODP or ICDP are leading an intense effort to solve this problem and propose detailed high standard work- and dataflows thorough core handling and curating. However most results derived from rather small-scale research programs in which data and sample management is generally managed only locally - when it is … The national excellence equipment program (Equipex) CLIMCOR aims at developing French facilities for coring and drilling investigations. It concerns indiscriminately ice, marine and continental samples. As part of this initiative, we initiated a reflexion about core curating and associated coring-data management. The aim of the project is to conserve all metadata from fieldwork in an integrated cyber-environment which will evolve toward laboratory-acquired data storage in a near future. In that aim, our demarche was conducted through an close relationship with field operators as well laboratory core curators in order to propose user-oriented solutions. The national core curating initiative currently proposes a single web portal in which all scientifics teams can store their field data. For legacy samples, this will requires the establishment of a dedicated core lists with associated metadata. For forthcoming samples, we propose a mobile application, under Android environment to capture technical and scientific metadata on the field. This application is linked with a unique coring tools library and is adapted to most coring devices (gravity, drilling, percussion, etc...) including multiple sections and holes coring operations. Those field data can be uploaded automatically to the national portal, but also referenced through international standards or persistent identifiers (IGSN, ORCID and INSPIRE

Can You Anchor a Shimmering Nation State via Regional Indigenous Roots? Kim Scott talks to Anne Brewster about That Deadman Dance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne Brewster

2011-10-01

Full Text Available This interview focuses mainly on Kim Scott’s new novel That Deadman Dance which won the regional Commonwealth Writers Prize (Southeast Asian and Pacific region and the Miles Franklin Award. The topics of conversation include Scott’s involvement in the Noongar language project (and the relationship of this project to the novel, the novel itself, the challenges of writing in English, the resistance paradigm and indigenous sovereignty and nationalism.

Digital Management and Curation of the National Rock and Ore Collections at NMNH, Smithsonian

Science.gov (United States)

Cottrell, E.; Andrews, B.; Sorensen, S. S.; Hale, L. J.

2011-12-01

The National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, is home to the world's largest curated rock collection. The collection houses 160,680 physical rock and ore specimen lots ("samples"), all of which already have a digital record that can be accessed by the public through a searchable web interface (http://collections.mnh.si.edu/search/ms/). In addition, there are 66 accessions pending that when catalogued will add approximately 60,000 specimen lots. NMNH's collections are digitally managed on the KE EMu° platform which has emerged as the premier system for managing collections in natural history museums worldwide. In 2010 the Smithsonian released an ambitious 5 year Digitization Strategic Plan. In Mineral Sciences, new digitization efforts in the next five years will focus on integrating various digital resources for volcanic specimens. EMu sample records will link to the corresponding records for physical eruption information housed within the database of Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program (GVP). Linkages are also planned between our digital records and geochemical databases (like EarthChem or PetDB) maintained by third parties. We anticipate that these linkages will increase the use of NMNH collections as well as engender new scholarly directions for research. Another large project the museum is currently undertaking involves the integration of the functionality of in-house designed Transaction Management software with the EMu database. This will allow access to the details (borrower, quantity, date, and purpose) of all loans of a given specimen through its catalogue record. We hope this will enable cross-referencing and fertilization of research ideas while avoiding duplicate efforts. While these digitization efforts are critical, we propose that the greatest challenge to sample curation is not posed by digitization and that a global sample registry alone will not ensure that samples are available for reuse. We suggest instead that the ability

MortalityPredictors.org: a manually-curated database of published biomarkers of human all-cause mortality.

Science.gov (United States)

Peto, Maximus V; De la Guardia, Carlos; Winslow, Ksenia; Ho, Andrew; Fortney, Kristen; Morgen, Eric

2017-08-31

Biomarkers of all-cause mortality are of tremendous clinical and research interest. Because of the long potential duration of prospective human lifespan studies, such biomarkers can play a key role in quantifying human aging and quickly evaluating any potential therapies. Decades of research into mortality biomarkers have resulted in numerous associations documented across hundreds of publications. Here, we present MortalityPredictors.org , a manually-curated, publicly accessible database, housing published, statistically-significant relationships between biomarkers and all-cause mortality in population-based or generally healthy samples. To gather the information for this database, we searched PubMed for appropriate research papers and then manually curated relevant data from each paper. We manually curated 1,576 biomarker associations, involving 471 distinct biomarkers. Biomarkers ranged in type from hematologic (red blood cell distribution width) to molecular (DNA methylation changes) to physical (grip strength). Via the web interface, the resulting data can be easily browsed, searched, and downloaded for further analysis. MortalityPredictors.org provides comprehensive results on published biomarkers of human all-cause mortality that can be used to compare biomarkers, facilitate meta-analysis, assist with the experimental design of aging studies, and serve as a central resource for analysis. We hope that it will facilitate future research into human mortality and aging.

Correcting Inconsistencies and Errors in Bacterial Genome Metadata Using an Automated Curation Tool in Excel (AutoCurE).

Science.gov (United States)

Schmedes, Sarah E; King, Jonathan L; Budowle, Bruce

2015-01-01

Whole-genome data are invaluable for large-scale comparative genomic studies. Current sequencing technologies have made it feasible to sequence entire bacterial genomes with relative ease and time with a substantially reduced cost per nucleotide, hence cost per genome. More than 3,000 bacterial genomes have been sequenced and are available at the finished status. Publically available genomes can be readily downloaded; however, there are challenges to verify the specific supporting data contained within the download and to identify errors and inconsistencies that may be present within the organizational data content and metadata. AutoCurE, an automated tool for bacterial genome database curation in Excel, was developed to facilitate local database curation of supporting data that accompany downloaded genomes from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. AutoCurE provides an automated approach to curate local genomic databases by flagging inconsistencies or errors by comparing the downloaded supporting data to the genome reports to verify genome name, RefSeq accession numbers, the presence of archaea, BioProject/UIDs, and sequence file descriptions. Flags are generated for nine metadata fields if there are inconsistencies between the downloaded genomes and genomes reports and if erroneous or missing data are evident. AutoCurE is an easy-to-use tool for local database curation for large-scale genome data prior to downstream analyses.

Curative Radiation Therapy for T2N0M0

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, In Kyu; Kim, Jae Choel

1995-01-01

Purpose : Surgery is the treatment of choice for resectable non-small cell lung cancer. For patients who are medically unable to tolerate a surgical resection or who refuse surgery, radiation therapy is an acceptable alternative. A retrospective analysis of patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer treated with curative radiation therapy was performed to determine the results of curative radiation therapy and patterns of failure, and to identify factors that may influence survival. Materials and Methods : From 1986 through 1993, 39 patients with T2N0M0 non-small cell lung cancer were treated with curative radiation therapy at department of radiation oncology, Kyungpook national university hospital All patients were not candidates for surgical resection because of either patient refusal (16 patients), poor pulmonary function (12 patients), old age (7 patients), poor performance (2 patients) or coexisting medical disease (2 patients). Median age of patients was 67 years. Histologic cell type was squamous cell carcinoma in 1. All patients were treated with megavoltage irradiation and radiation dose raged from 5000cGy to 6150 cGy with a median dose of 600cGy. The median follow-up was 17 months with a range of 4 to 82 months. Survival was measured from the date therapy initiated. Results : The overall survival rate for entire patients was 40.6% at 2 years and 27.7% at 3 years, with a median survival time of 21 months he disease-free survival at 2 and 3 years was 51.7% and 25.8%, respectively. Of evaluable 20 Patients with complete response, 15 Patients were considered to have failed. Of these, 13 patients showed local failure and 2 patients failed distantly. Response to treatment (p=0.0001), tumor size (p=0.0019) and age p=0.0247) were favorably associated with overall survival. Only age was predictive for disease-free survival (p=0.0452). Conclusion : Radiation therapy is an effective treatment for small (less than 3 cm) tumors, and should be offered as an

A STUDY OF MICROBES IN FRUIT JUICES, KIMS-AMALAPURAM

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Nagaraja

2015-12-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION Fruit and sugarcane juices are nutritious drinks with great taste and health benefits. Food borne illnesses associated with consumption of Fruit and sugarcane juices at several places in India and elsewhere. Fruit juices were served with added ice pieces. Hygienic standards are not maintained while transporting from the field to the place of extraction and preparation. Hence a rapid review of the fruit juices from street vendors has been undertaken along with sugarcane juice. Raw sugarcane juice is a refreshing juice in many parts of Andhra Pradesh. The present study is to assess the prevalence of different organisms from different fruit juices collected from street vendors. METHODS Fruit juices are collected namely sugarcane, sweet lemon, orange, grape apple, pineapple pomegranate. A total 100 samples of fruit juices were collected from road side from different vendors. 150 ml of each variety of fruit juices were collected from different vendors in screw capped bottles and subjected to microbial analysis, processed with in 30mts in the department of microbiology at KIMS by standard methods. RESULTS The analysed samples of fruit juices are found to be contaminated with different bacteria, Escherichia coli 30% Klebsiella pneumoniae 10% Staphylococcus aureus 20% Enterococcus faecalis 04% Pseudomonas aeruginosa 10% ASB 04% (aerobic spore bearers Micrococci 02% Proteus 20% Salmonella. Shigella and Vibrios were not isolated. CONCLUSION It is high time that street vendors should have health education by volunteers, health workers from PHC (primary health centers and people well versed with community medicine practice for implementation of standard hygienic protocols may reduce contamination of fruit and sugarcane juices The concerned health authorities need to ensure and insist to follow the protocols by the vendors and license holders to the vendors.

Outcome and prognostic factors following curative-intent surgery for oral tumours in dogs: 234 cases (2004 to 2014).

Science.gov (United States)

Sarowitz, B N; Davis, G J; Kim, S

2017-03-01

To describe the long-term outcomes and prognostic factors associated with curative-intent surgery for oral tumours in a large series of dogs. Retrospective review of records for dogs with oral tumours treated with curative-intent surgery. Data collected included signalment, weight, surgical procedure, lymph node staging results, computed tomography results, tumour size, histopathology results including margin evaluation, complications, adjunctive therapies, local recurrence or metastasis, date and cause of death and owner satisfaction. Median cause-specific survival was shortest for malignant melanoma (206 days) and osteosarcoma (209 days). Local recurrence rate was highest for fibrosarcoma (54·2%) and distant metastatic rate was highest for malignant melanoma (30%). Curative-intent surgery resulted in complete surgical margins in 85·2% of cases. Results suggest tumour type, completeness of excision, tumour size, and age may affect disease-free interval and cause-specific survival. Fibrosarcoma had a higher risk of recurrence compared to other tumour types. © 2017 British Small Animal Veterinary Association.

Modern oncologic and operative outcomes for oesophageal cancer treated with curative intent.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Reynolds, J V

2011-09-01

The curative approach to oesophageal cancer carries significant risks and a cure is achieved in approximately 20 per cent. There has been a recent trend internationally to observe improved operative and oncological outcomes. This report audits modern outcomes from a high volume centre with a prospective database for the period 2004-08. 603 patients were referred and 310 (52%) were treated with curative intent. Adenocarcinoma represented 68% of the cohort, squamous cell cancer 30%. Of the 310 cases, 227 (73%) underwent surgery, 105 (46%) underwent surgery alone, and 122 (54%) had chemotherapy or combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The postoperative mortality rate was 1.7%. The median and 5-year survival of the 310 patients based on intention to treat was 36 months and 36%, respectively, and of the 181 patients undergoing R0 resection, 52 months and 42%, respectively. An in-hospital postoperative mortality rate of less than 2 per cent, and 5-year survival of between 35 and 42% is consistent with benchmarks from international series.

Hepatoprotective and curative properties of Kombucha tea against carbon tetrachloride-induced toxicity.

Science.gov (United States)

Murugesan, G S; Sathishkumar, M; Jayabalan, R; Binupriya, A R; Swaminathan, K; Yun, S E

2009-04-01

Kombucha tea (KT) is sugared black tea fermented with a symbiotic culture of acetic acid bacteria and yeasts, which is said to be tea fungus. KT is claimed to have various beneficial effects on human health, but there is very little scientific evidence available in the literature. In the present study, KT along with black tea (BT) and black tea manufactured with tea fungus enzymes (enzyme-processed tea, ET) was evaluated for hepatoprotective and curative properties against CCl4-induced toxicity, using male albino rats as an experimental model by analyzing aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, and alkaline phosphatase in plasma and malondialdehyde content in plasma and liver tissues. Histopathological analysis of liver tissue was also included. Results showed that BT, ET, and KT have the potential to revert the CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity. Among the three types of teas tried, KT was found to be more efficient than BT and ET. Antioxidant molecules produced during the fermentation period could be the reason for the efficient hepatoprotective and curative properties of KT against CCI4-induced hepatotoxicity.

Evaluation of a commercially available ELISA kit for quantifying imidacloprid residues in Erthrina sandwicensis leaves for management of the Erythrina gall wasp, Quadrastichus erythrinae Kim.

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph Fischer; Brian Strom; Sheri Smith

2009-01-01

The erythrina gall wasp (EGW), Quadrastichus erythrinae Kim 2004, was first detected in Hawaii in 2005 and has been infesting and killing Erythrina trees throughout the island chain since. It is believed EGW originated from Africa (Messing et al. 2009). Its host range appears to be limited to Erythrina; its...

Trafkintu: seed curators defending food sovereignty

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Nastassja Nicole Mancilla Ivaca

2014-10-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the resurgence of Trafkintu, an ancient Mapuche ritual of seed trade; now as a folk-communication practice of resistance, against neoliberal transformations in farming that threaten food sovereignty of rural communities in southern Chile. Drawing onparticipant observation and semi-structured interviews with peasant and Mapuche women involved in these practices, we show that seed curators women act as agents that revalue the localness [lo local] through a process of resignification of Trafkintu, this time linking it tofood self-sufficiency. In addition, they build networks between indigenous and peasant communities as a resistance strategy. However, this resurgence of Trafkintu becomes ambivalent as its new symbolic expression is being appropriated by local mainstreampoliticians, for electoral purposes, to promote an image of 'concern about popular culture'. That is, a tool of resistance, on the one hand, and a kind of political folk-marketing, on the other.

Report on visit from Prof. Kim Lutzen: Friday, 6 November 1998, Korolinska Institute (dept of nursing Stockholm, Sweden

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim Lutzen

1999-10-01

Full Text Available Prof. Kim Lutzen contacted the Department of Advanced Nursing Sciences, Unisa, via the Department's Web Page. Prof. Lutzen is the Chair of the Department of Nursing, which offers undergraduate, master and doctoral programmes. This Department of Nursing is situated within the Karolinska Institute, which comprises 29 Departments of Health Sciences, including a number of Medical Departments, Dentistry, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, and Nursing. Prof. Lutzen emphasised that there is no Swedish phrase similar to "nursing science", consequently this t e n seems to be somewhat unfamiliar to the Swedish nurses. *Please note: This is a reduced version of the abstract. Please refer to PDF for full text.

Strict follow-up programme including CT and (18) F-FDG-PET after curative surgery for colorectal cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, N F; Jensen, A B; Wille-Jørgensen, P

2010-01-01

carcinogenic embryonic antigen (CEA), chest X-ray, abdominal ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT) and (18) F-FDG positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Method  A cohort of 132 patients, treated by surgery with curative intent for CRC, was included. Patients were followed prospectively with scheduled...... controls at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after curative surgery. CEA, chest X-ray, US, CT and FDG-PET supplemented by clinical examination. The end-point was recurrence. Sensitivity and specificity was estimated 2 years after surgery. Results  Of the 132 patients included in the study, 25 experienced recurrence...

Single-Pilot Workload Management

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, Jason; Williams, Kevin; Hackworth, Carla; Burian, Barbara; Pruchnicki, Shawn; Christopher, Bonny; Drechsler, Gena; Silverman, Evan; Runnels, Barry; Mead, Andy

2013-01-01

Integrated glass cockpit systems place a heavy cognitive load on pilots (Burian Dismukes, 2007). Researchers from the NASA Ames Flight Cognition Lab and the FAA Flight Deck Human Factors Lab examined task and workload management by single pilots. This poster describes pilot performance regarding programming a reroute while at cruise and meeting a waypoint crossing restriction on the initial descent.

Prospects for 6-party talks: Nuclear weapons are a means of survival for Kim Jong Un

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyake, Kunihiko

2012-04-01

The author considers the impact of leader Kim Jong Il's death on 6-party talks surrounding the nuclear issue. Firstly, the history of these 6-party talks has to be reexamined to ensure an accurate understanding of their 'objectives and limitations' because the author believes that there are 3 'unpleasant truths' behind these talks, held 6 times since the summer of 2003, that no one wants to talk about. 1. North Korea has no interest in abandoning nuclear weapons; 2. Japan, the U.S., China, and South Korea do not want war; 3. The nuclear issue will not be resolved by 6-party talks. In fact, there is little potential that 6-party talks which aim to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue will move towards a new substantive agreement

Community Intelligence in Knowledge Curation: An Application to Managing Scientific Nomenclature

OpenAIRE

Dai, Lin; Xu, Chao; Tian, Ming; Sang, Jian; Zou, Dong; Li, Ang; Liu, Guocheng; Chen, Fei; Wu, Jiayan; Xiao, Jingfa; Wang, Xumin; Yu, Jun; Zhang, Zhang

2013-01-01

Harnessing community intelligence in knowledge curation bears significant promise in dealing with communication and education in the flood of scientific knowledge. As knowledge is accumulated at ever-faster rates, scientific nomenclature, a particular kind of knowledge, is concurrently generated in all kinds of fields. Since nomenclature is a system of terms used to name things in a particular discipline, accurate translation of scientific nomenclature in different languages is of critical im...

The role of endobroncial irradiation as a curative therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fuwa, Nobukazu; Ito, Yoshiyuki; Kato, Eriko; Kamata, Minoru; Morita, Kozo; Kikuchi, Yuzo.

1997-01-01

Endobronchial irradiation for lung cancer has primarily been used in cases of local progression or recurrence. Although its use for palliation of symptoms has been well evaluated, its role in treatment for cure is still unknown. We would like to report on the role of endobronchial irradiation as a curative therapy based on our clinical experience (long time survivors). Forty-one patients treated with endobronchial irradiation using low dose rate 192Iridium between February 1987 and December 1993 were made available for study. Of these, 17 were chest X-P negative cancer, 13 were post operative recurrent cancer, 7 were advanced cancer and 4 were tracheal cancer, respectively. The dose of endobronchial irradiation using an applicator with spacer was 5 to 7 Gy per session, administered either once or twice a week. External irradiation was administered except one case. Local recurrence was observed in two cases of chest X-P negative cancer, three cases of post operative cancer and five cases of advanced cancer. More than three years survivors were observed in 6 cases of chest X-P negative cancer, 5 cases of post operative cancer and one case of tracheal cancer. Complications due to endobronchial irradiation were seen in 2 cases, one case was pulmonary hemorrage and the other was shallow ulceration of the bronchus. It was shown that chest X-P negative lung cancer and part of post operative recurrent cancer could be cured by endobronchial irradiation. This technique is considered to be useful for not only palliative therapy but curative therapy as well. (author)

Astrolabe: Curating, Linking, and Computing Astronomy’s Dark Data

Science.gov (United States)

Heidorn, P. Bryan; Stahlman, Gretchen R.; Steffen, Julie

2018-05-01

Where appropriate repositories are not available to support all relevant astronomical data products, data can fall into darkness: unseen and unavailable for future reference and reuse. Some data in this category are legacy or old data, but newer data sets are also often uncurated and could remain dark. This paper provides a description of the design motivation and development of Astrolabe, a cyberinfrastructure project that addresses a set of community recommendations for locating and ensuring the long-term curation of dark or otherwise at-risk data and integrated computing. This paper also describes the outcomes of the series of community workshops that informed creation of Astrolabe. According to participants in these workshops, much astronomical dark data currently exist that are not curated elsewhere, as well as software that can only be executed by a few individuals and therefore becomes unusable because of changes in computing platforms. Astronomical research questions and challenges would be better addressed with integrated data and computational resources that fall outside the scope of existing observatory and space mission projects. As a solution, the design of the Astrolabe system is aimed at developing new resources for management of astronomical data. The project is based in CyVerse cyberinfrastructure technology and is a collaboration between the University of Arizona and the American Astronomical Society. Overall, the project aims to support open access to research data by leveraging existing cyberinfrastructure resources and promoting scientific discovery by making potentially useful data available to the astronomical community, in a computable format.

Social Media Selves: College Students' Curation of Self and Others through Facebook

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Kasch, David Michael

2013-01-01

This qualitative study used cyber-ethnography and grounded theory to explore the ways in which 35 undergraduate students crafted and refined self-presentations on the social network site Facebook. Findings included the identification of two unique forms of self-presentation that students enacted: a "curated self" and a "commodified…

The complete larval development of Eurypanopeus canalensis Abele and Kim, 1989 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Panopeidae described from laboratory reared material

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo U. García-Guerrero

2005-09-01

Full Text Available The estuarine panopeid crab Eurypanopeus canalensis Abele and Kim, 1989, is an eastern tropical Pacific species with a known distribution from the southeastern Gulf of California, Mexico, to Panama. Its complete larval development is fully described and illustrated from laboratory-reared material. The four zoeal stages and the megalopa are compared with two congeneric species from the West Atlantic, E. abbreviatus (Stimpson, 1860 and E. depressus (Smith, 1869. The main differences between larvae of E. canalensis and those of these two species include telson setation and the presence/absence of a stout hook-like spine in the megalopae cheliped ischium.

The Expression of the Femininity and Imperialism : Through comparison study of works of Toshiko Tamura and Myung-soon Kim

OpenAIRE

金, 玟妵

2005-01-01

Toshiko Tamura and Myung-soon Kim flourished in 1910-20 in Japan and Korea. In those days it was an act of a man to write. The feminine was demanded above all to the thing which a woman wrote by the literary world and the society, so that woman does not invade a domain of a man. A lot of studies about that the motherhood is one of a model of feminine, it was used to mobilize a woman for war, while militarism advances. Then is what kind of position was there the femininity at socially and cult...

Pattern of failure in 5001 patients treated for glottic squamous cell carcinoma with curative intent - A population based study from the DAHANCA group

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lyhne, Nina Munk; Johansen, Jørgen; Kristensen, Claus A

2016-01-01

Purpose To describe the pattern of failure in a national consecutive cohort of patients with glottic squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) treated with primary radiotherapy (RT) with curative intent over a 41-year period. Materials and methods All patients undergoing curative treatment for a glottic SCC...

SABIO-RK: an updated resource for manually curated biochemical reaction kinetics

Science.gov (United States)

Rey, Maja; Weidemann, Andreas; Kania, Renate; Müller, Wolfgang

2018-01-01

Abstract SABIO-RK (http://sabiork.h-its.org/) is a manually curated database containing data about biochemical reactions and their reaction kinetics. The data are primarily extracted from scientific literature and stored in a relational database. The content comprises both naturally occurring and alternatively measured biochemical reactions and is not restricted to any organism class. The data are made available to the public by a web-based search interface and by web services for programmatic access. In this update we describe major improvements and extensions of SABIO-RK since our last publication in the database issue of Nucleic Acid Research (2012). (i) The website has been completely revised and (ii) allows now also free text search for kinetics data. (iii) Additional interlinkages with other databases in our field have been established; this enables users to gain directly comprehensive knowledge about the properties of enzymes and kinetics beyond SABIO-RK. (iv) Vice versa, direct access to SABIO-RK data has been implemented in several systems biology tools and workflows. (v) On request of our experimental users, the data can be exported now additionally in spreadsheet formats. (vi) The newly established SABIO-RK Curation Service allows to respond to specific data requirements. PMID:29092055

IMPPAT: A curated database of Indian Medicinal Plants, Phytochemistry And Therapeutics.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohanraj, Karthikeyan; Karthikeyan, Bagavathy Shanmugam; Vivek-Ananth, R P; Chand, R P Bharath; Aparna, S R; Mangalapandi, Pattulingam; Samal, Areejit

2018-03-12

Phytochemicals of medicinal plants encompass a diverse chemical space for drug discovery. India is rich with a flora of indigenous medicinal plants that have been used for centuries in traditional Indian medicine to treat human maladies. A comprehensive online database on the phytochemistry of Indian medicinal plants will enable computational approaches towards natural product based drug discovery. In this direction, we present, IMPPAT, a manually curated database of 1742 Indian Medicinal Plants, 9596 Phytochemicals, And 1124 Therapeutic uses spanning 27074 plant-phytochemical associations and 11514 plant-therapeutic associations. Notably, the curation effort led to a non-redundant in silico library of 9596 phytochemicals with standard chemical identifiers and structure information. Using cheminformatic approaches, we have computed the physicochemical, ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, toxicity) and drug-likeliness properties of the IMPPAT phytochemicals. We show that the stereochemical complexity and shape complexity of IMPPAT phytochemicals differ from libraries of commercial compounds or diversity-oriented synthesis compounds while being similar to other libraries of natural products. Within IMPPAT, we have filtered a subset of 960 potential druggable phytochemicals, of which majority have no significant similarity to existing FDA approved drugs, and thus, rendering them as good candidates for prospective drugs. IMPPAT database is openly accessible at: https://cb.imsc.res.in/imppat .

Text Mining Genotype-Phenotype Relationships from Biomedical Literature for Database Curation and Precision Medicine.

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Singhal, Ayush; Simmons, Michael; Lu, Zhiyong

2016-11-01

The practice of precision medicine will ultimately require databases of genes and mutations for healthcare providers to reference in order to understand the clinical implications of each patient's genetic makeup. Although the highest quality databases require manual curation, text mining tools can facilitate the curation process, increasing accuracy, coverage, and productivity. However, to date there are no available text mining tools that offer high-accuracy performance for extracting such triplets from biomedical literature. In this paper we propose a high-performance machine learning approach to automate the extraction of disease-gene-variant triplets from biomedical literature. Our approach is unique because we identify the genes and protein products associated with each mutation from not just the local text content, but from a global context as well (from the Internet and from all literature in PubMed). Our approach also incorporates protein sequence validation and disease association using a novel text-mining-based machine learning approach. We extract disease-gene-variant triplets from all abstracts in PubMed related to a set of ten important diseases (breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, Alzheimer's disease, hemochromatosis, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetes mellitus, and cystic fibrosis). We then evaluate our approach in two ways: (1) a direct comparison with the state of the art using benchmark datasets; (2) a validation study comparing the results of our approach with entries in a popular human-curated database (UniProt) for each of the previously mentioned diseases. In the benchmark comparison, our full approach achieves a 28% improvement in F1-measure (from 0.62 to 0.79) over the state-of-the-art results. For the validation study with UniProt Knowledgebase (KB), we present a thorough analysis of the results and errors. Across all diseases, our approach returned 272 triplets (disease

A comparative study to analyze the cost of curative care at primary health center in Ahmedabad

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mathur Neeta

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives: To determine the unit cost of curative care provided at Primary Health Centers (PHCs and to examine the variation in unit cost in different PHCs. Materials and Methods: The present study was carried out in three PHCs of Ahmedabad district namely Sanathal, Nandej, and Uperdal, between 1 April, 2006 and 31 March, 2007. For estimating the cost of a health program, information on all the physical and human resources that were basic inputs to the PHC services were collected and grouped into two categories, non-recurrent (capital resources vehicles, buildings, etc. and recurrent resources (salaries, drugs, vaccines, contraceptives, maintenance, etc.. To generate the required data, two types of schedules were developed, daily time schedule and PHC/SC (Subcenter information schedule. Results: The unit cost of curative care was lowest (Rs. 29.43 for the Sanathal PHC and highest (Rs. 88.26 for the Uperdal PHC, followed by the Nandej PHC with Rs. 40.88, implying severe underutilization of curative care at the Uperdal PHC. Conclusions: Location of health facilities is a problem at many places. As relocation is not possible or even feasible, strengthening of infrastructure and facilities at these centers can be taken up immediately.

[Determination of barium in natural curative waters by ICP-OES technique. Part I. Waters taken on the area of health resorts in Poland].

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Garboś, Sławomir; Swiecicka, Dorota

2011-01-01

Maximum admissible concentration level (MACL) of barium in natural mineral waters, natural spring waters and potable waters was set at the level of 1 mg/l, while MACL of this element in natural curative waters intended for drinking therapies and inhalations were set at the levels of 1.0 mg/l and 10.0 mg/l, respectively. Those requirements were related to therapies which are applied longer than one month. Above mentioned maximum admissible concentration levels of barium in consumed waters were established after taking into account actual criteria of World Health Organization which determined the guidelines value for this element in water intended for human consumption at the level of 0.7 mg/l. In this work developed and validated method of determination of barium by inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry technique was applied for determination of this element in 45 natural curative waters sampled from 24 spa districts situated on the area of Poland. Concentrations of barium determined were in the range from 0.0036 mg/l to 24.0 mg/l. Natural curative waters characterized by concentrations of barium in the ranges of 0.0036 - 0.073 mg/l, 0.0036 - 1.31 mg/l and 0.0036 - 24.0 mg/l, were applied to drinking therapy, inhalations and balneotherapy, respectively (some of waters analyzed were simultaneously applied to drinking therapy, inhalations and balneotherapy). In the cases of 11 natural curative waters exceeding limit of 1 mg/l were observed, however they were classified mainly as waters applied to balneotherapy and in two cases to inhalation therapies (concentrations of barium - 1.08 mg/l and 1.31 mg/l). The procedure of classification of curative waters for adequate therapies based among other things on barium concentrations meets requirements of the Decree of Minister of Health from 13 April 2006 on the range of studies indispensable for establishing medicinal properties of natural curative materials and curative properties of climate, criteria of their

Determinants of recurrence after intended curative resection for colorectal cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wilhelmsen, Michael; Kring, Thomas; Jorgensen, Lars N

2014-01-01

Despite intended curative resection, colorectal cancer will recur in ∼45% of the patients. Results of meta-analyses conclude that frequent follow-up does not lead to early detection of recurrence, but improves overall survival. The present literature shows that several factors play important roles...... in development of recurrence. It is well established that emergency surgery is a major determinant of recurrence. Moreover, anastomotic leakages, postoperative bacterial infections, and blood transfusions increase the recurrence rates although the exact mechanisms still remain obscure. From pathology studies...

Results of adjuvant chemo radiation after curative surgery for gastric cancer. A retrospective study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muller, Bettina; Balbontin, Paulina; Trujillo, Cristian; Becerra, Sergio; Sola, Antonio; Neveu, Rodrigo; Fernandez, Roberto; Buchholtz, Martin; Villanueva, Luis; Cerda, Berta

2009-01-01

Background: Survival rates after curative surgery for gastric cancer are disappointing. Therefore adjuvant therapeutic strategies are required. Aim: To analyze survival and side effects of treatment among gastric cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemoradiotherapy after curative resection of gastric adenocarcinoma. Material and methods: Retrospective review of medical records of 74 patients aged 20 to 74 years, treated with complete resection of gastric adenocarcinoma followed by adjuvant chemo radiation. Survival analysis was based on the records and information from the National Mortality Registry. Results: Five years survival fluctuated from 50% among patients in stage 1B to 25% among those is stage IV. Significant acute toxicity was observed in 23 patients (31%). No patients died due to acute toxicity. Eleven patients (16.4%) developed significant late toxicity, with two possible deaths related to treatment. Conclusions: Postoperative chemoradiotherapy is feasible in our experience. Continuos infusion of 5- fluoruracil is recommended to reduce toxicity

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics' resources: focus on curated databases

OpenAIRE

Bultet, Lisandra Aguilar; Aguilar Rodriguez, Jose; Ahrens, Christian H; Ahrne, Erik Lennart; Ai, Ni; Aimo, Lucila; Akalin, Altuna; Aleksiev, Tyanko; Alocci, Davide; Altenhoff, Adrian; Alves, Isabel; Ambrosini, Giovanna; Pedone, Pascale Anderle; Angelina, Paolo; Anisimova, Maria

2016-01-01

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (www.isb-sib.ch) provides world-class bioinformatics databases, software tools, services and training to the international life science community in academia and industry. These solutions allow life scientists to turn the exponentially growing amount of data into knowledge. Here, we provide an overview of SIB's resources and competence areas, with a strong focus on curated databases and SIB's most popular and widely used resources. In particular, SIB'...

Collaboration between Government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Delivering Curative Health Services in North Darfur State, Sudan- a National Report.

Science.gov (United States)

I A Yagub, Abdallah

2014-05-01

North Darfur State has been affected by conflict since 2003 and the government has not been able to provide adequate curative health services to the people. The government has come to rely on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to provide curative health services. This study was conducted to examine the existing collaboration between government and NGOs in curative health service delivery in North Darfur State, and to identify the challenges that affect their collaboration. Documentary data were collected from government offices and medical organizations. Primary data were obtained through interviews with government and NGOs representatives. The interviews were conducted with (1) expatriates working for international NGOs (N=15) and (2), health professionals and administrators working in the health sector (N= 45). The collaboration between the government and NGOs has been very weak because of security issues and lack of trust. The NGOs collaborate by providing human and financial resources, material and equipment, and communication facilities. The NGOs supply 70% of curative health services, and contribute 52.9% of the health budget in North Darfur State. The NGOs have employed 1 390 health personnel, established 44 health centres and manage and support 83 health facilities across the State. The NGOs have played a positive role in collaborating with the government in North Darfur State in delivering curative health services, while government's role has been negative. The problem that faces the government in future is how health facilities will be run should a peaceful settlement be reached and NGOs leave the region.

Opioid Prescribing After Curative-Intent Surgery: A Qualitative Study Using the Theoretical Domains Framework.

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Lee, Jay S; Parashar, Vartika; Miller, Jacquelyn B; Bremmer, Samantha M; Vu, Joceline V; Waljee, Jennifer F; Dossett, Lesly A

2018-07-01

Excessive opioid prescribing is common after curative-intent surgery, but little is known about what factors influence prescribing behaviors among surgeons. To identify targets for intervention, we performed a qualitative study of opioid prescribing after curative-intent surgery using the Theoretical Domains Framework, a well-established implementation science method for identifying factors influencing healthcare provider behavior. Prior to data collection, we constructed a semi-structured interview guide to explore decision making for opioid prescribing. We then conducted interviews with surgical oncology providers at a single comprehensive cancer center. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, then independently coded by two investigators using the Theoretical Domains Framework to identify theoretical domains relevant to opioid prescribing. Relevant domains were then linked to behavior models to select targeted interventions likely to improve opioid prescribing. Twenty-one subjects were interviewed from November 2016 to May 2017, including attending surgeons, resident surgeons, physician assistants, and nurses. Five theoretical domains emerged as relevant to opioid prescribing: environmental context and resources; social influences; beliefs about consequences; social/professional role and identity; and goals. Using these domains, three interventions were identified as likely to change opioid prescribing behavior: (1) enablement (deploy nurses during preoperative visits to counsel patients on opioid use); (2) environmental restructuring (provide on-screen prompts with normative data on the quantity of opioid prescribed); and (3) education (provide prescribing guidelines). Key determinants of opioid prescribing behavior after curative-intent surgery include environmental and social factors. Interventions targeting these factors are likely to improve opioid prescribing in surgical oncology.

Evaluation of recent curative effect of chemotherapy on hepatocellular carcinoma with MSCT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao Jing; Zheng Keguo

2009-01-01

Objective: To study the value of MSCT in evaluating the recent curative effect of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after the chemotherapy with Oxaliplatin combined with 5-FU and Folinic Acid. Methods: 6 cases with HCC or post hepatectomy metastasis HCC confirmed by pathohistology underwent chemotherapy with Oxaliplatin combined with 5-FU and Folinic Acid. MultiSpiral Computed Tomography was used to determine the target lesions before and after the chemotherapy. The size of the target lesions before the chemotherapy was refer as the basic value (x0), and that after the chemotherapy was regarded as the observed value (y1). The theoretic value was obtained based on tumor growth dynamics mathematic model y2(x)=X 0 2 t/3td . Results: Before and after the first chemotherapy or between the consecutive chemotherapy cycles, the target lesions could be follow-up one by one with MSCT. There was significant statistical difference between observed increase size and theoretical increase size, P=0.0442. Conclusion: Tumor growth velocity can be effectively controlled with this chemotherapy plan, and MSCT may used to be an objective tool to evaluate the recent curative effect of chemotherapy on hepatocellular carcinoma. (authors)

Patterns of failure following curative resection of gastric carcinoma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Landry, J.; Tepper, J.E.; Wood, W.C.; Moulton, E.O.; Koerner, F.; Sullinger, J. (Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston (USA))

1990-12-01

To identify patterns of failure following curative resection of gastric carcinoma, the records of 130 patients undergoing resection with curative intent at the Massachusetts General Hospital were reviewed. The total local-regional failure rate was 38% (49/130 patients), with 21 patients having local-regional failure alone and 28 patients having local-regional failure and distant metastases. The incidence of local failure rose with the more advanced stages of disease. Tumors staged B2, B3, C2, and C3 had local-regional failure rates in excess of 35%. This group of patients might benefit from adjuvant radiation therapy to the tumor bed and regional lymphatics. Local-regional failure rate was highest in the anastomosis or stump 33/130 (25%), followed by the stomach bed 27/130 (21%). The overall incidence of distant metastases was 52% (67/130 patients) and rose in the more advanced disease stages. Tumors staged B2, B3, C2, and C3 had rates of distant metastases greater than 50%. Sixty-one patients (77%) had failure in the abdomen (liver, peritoneal surface, adrenal, kidney, and spleen, but excluding tumor bed, anastomosis, or regional nodes). Patients with Stage B2, B3, C2, and C3 tumors had total abdominal failure rates greater than 40%. The highest failure rates in the liver were in Stages B3 and C3, in which the subsequent development of liver metastasis was 40% and 47%, respectively. Peritoneal seeding occurred in 30/130 (23%) of patients and was highest in Stages C2 and C3, with rates of 27% and 41%, respectively.

Patterns of failure following curative resection of gastric carcinoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Landry, J.; Tepper, J.E.; Wood, W.C.; Moulton, E.O.; Koerner, F.; Sullinger, J.

1990-01-01

To identify patterns of failure following curative resection of gastric carcinoma, the records of 130 patients undergoing resection with curative intent at the Massachusetts General Hospital were reviewed. The total local-regional failure rate was 38% (49/130 patients), with 21 patients having local-regional failure alone and 28 patients having local-regional failure and distant metastases. The incidence of local failure rose with the more advanced stages of disease. Tumors staged B2, B3, C2, and C3 had local-regional failure rates in excess of 35%. This group of patients might benefit from adjuvant radiation therapy to the tumor bed and regional lymphatics. Local-regional failure rate was highest in the anastomosis or stump 33/130 (25%), followed by the stomach bed 27/130 (21%). The overall incidence of distant metastases was 52% (67/130 patients) and rose in the more advanced disease stages. Tumors staged B2, B3, C2, and C3 had rates of distant metastases greater than 50%. Sixty-one patients (77%) had failure in the abdomen (liver, peritoneal surface, adrenal, kidney, and spleen, but excluding tumor bed, anastomosis, or regional nodes). Patients with Stage B2, B3, C2, and C3 tumors had total abdominal failure rates greater than 40%. The highest failure rates in the liver were in Stages B3 and C3, in which the subsequent development of liver metastasis was 40% and 47%, respectively. Peritoneal seeding occurred in 30/130 (23%) of patients and was highest in Stages C2 and C3, with rates of 27% and 41%, respectively

Lifestyle changes in cancer patients undergoing curative or palliative chemotherapy: is it feasible?

Science.gov (United States)

Vassbakk-Brovold, Karianne; Berntsen, Sveinung; Fegran, Liv; Lian, Henrik; Mjåland, Odd; Mjåland, Svein; Nordin, Karin; Seiler, Stephen; Kersten, Christian

2017-12-14

This study aimed to explore the feasibility of an individualized comprehensive lifestyle intervention in cancer patients undergoing curative or palliative chemotherapy. At one cancer center, serving a population of 180,000, 100 consecutive of 161 eligible newly diagnosed cancer patients starting curative or palliative chemotherapy entered a 12-month comprehensive, individualized lifestyle intervention. Participants received a grouped startup course and monthly counseling, based on self-reported and electronically evaluated lifestyle behaviors. Patients with completed baseline and end of study measurements are included in the final analyses. Patients who did not complete end of study measurements are defined as dropouts. More completers (n = 61) vs. dropouts (n = 39) were married or living together (87 vs. 69%, p = .031), and significantly higher baseline physical activity levels (960 vs. 489 min . wk -1 , p = .010), more healthy dietary choices (14 vs 11 points, p = .038) and fewer smokers (8 vs. 23%, p = .036) were observed among completers vs. dropouts. Logistic regression revealed younger (odds ratios (OR): 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.91, 0.99) and more patients diagnosed with breast cancer vs. more severe cancer types (OR: 0.16, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.56) among completers vs. dropouts. Improvements were observed in completers healthy (37%, p < 0.001) and unhealthy dietary habits (23%, p = .002), and distress (94%, p < .001). No significant reductions were observed in physical activity levels. Patients treated with palliative intent did not reduce their physical activity levels while healthy dietary habits (38%, p = 0.021) and distress (104%, p = 0.012) was improved. Favorable and possibly clinical relevant lifestyle changes were observed in cancer patients undergoing curative or palliative chemotherapy after a 12-month comprehensive and individualized lifestyle intervention. Palliative patients were able to

Cynodon dactylon extract as a preventive and curative agent in experimentally induced nephrolithiasis.

Science.gov (United States)

Atmani, F; Sadki, C; Aziz, M; Mimouni, M; Hacht, B

2009-04-01

Cynodon dactylon (Poaceae family) decoction was used in the treatment of kidney stones. However, no scientific study was undertaken so far to demonstrate the beneficial effect of the plant. Thus, the aim of the current study is to evaluate the effect of Cynodon aqueous extract as a preventive and curative agent in experimentally induced nephrolithiasis in a rat model. Ethylene glycol (EG) was used in the experiment to induce calcium oxalate (CaOx) deposition into kidneys. In preventive protocol, Cynodon decoction was administered in the same day with EG to evaluate the ability of the extract to prevent crystal deposition. However, in curative protocol, rats were first rendered nephrolithiasic and then the extract was administered to assess the ability of the plant to eliminate the pre-existing crystal deposition. In both protocols, urinary biochemical and other variables were measured during the course of the study. Crystalluria and renal histology were examined as well. The results showed that, in both protocols, all measured variables were similar for both the rat groups. Nevertheless, urinary biochemical analysis was apparently unaffected by the extract except oxalate in preventive protocol, and calcium, sodium, and potassium in curative protocol which were significantly highly excreted in treated rats compared to untreated animals. Crystalluria was characterized mostly by the presence of large quantities of CaOx monohydrate and CaOx dihydrate particles in untreated rats. However, crystalluria was mainly dominated by the presence of CaOx dihydrate particles with reduced size. The most apparent beneficial effect of Cynodon extract was seen in kidney tissues where reduced levels of CaOx deposition have been noticed especially in medullary and papillary sections from treated rats. We concluded that C. dactylon extract has beneficial effect in preventing and eliminating CaOx deposition into kidneys. Such findings provide a scientific explanation for its use in the

Association of urinary KIM-1, L-FABP, NAG and NGAL with incident end-stage renal disease and mortality in American Indians with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Science.gov (United States)

Fufaa, Gudeta D; Weil, E Jennifer; Nelson, Robert G; Hanson, Robert L; Bonventre, Joseph V; Sabbisetti, Venkata; Waikar, Sushrut S; Mifflin, Theodore E; Zhang, Xiaoming; Xie, Dawei; Hsu, Chi-Yuan; Feldman, Harold I; Coresh, Josef; Vasan, Ramachandran S; Kimmel, Paul L; Liu, Kathleen D

2015-01-01

Kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM-1), liver fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP), N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) are urinary biomarkers of renal tubular injury. We examined their association with incident end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and all-cause mortality in American Indians with type 2 diabetes. Biomarker concentrations were measured in baseline urine samples in 260 Pima Indians who were followed for a median of 14 years. HRs were reported per SD of creatinine (Cr)-normalised log-transformed KIM-1, NAG and NGAL, and for three categories of L-FABP. During follow-up, 74 participants developed ESRD and 101 died. Median concentrations of KIM-1/Cr, NAG/Cr and NGAL/Cr and the proportion of detectable L-FABP were highest in those with macroalbuminuria (p associated with ESRD (HR 1.59, 95% CI 1.20, 2.11) and mortality (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.06, 1.82); L-FABP/Cr was inversely associated with ESRD (HR [for highest vs lowest tertile] 0.40, 95% CI 0.19, 0.83). Addition of NGAL/Cr to models that included albuminuria and glomerular filtration rate increased the c-statistic for predicting ESRD from 0.828 to 0.833 (p = 0.001) and for death from 0.710 to 0.722 (p = 0.018). Addition of L-FABP/Cr increased the c-statistic for ESRD from 0.828 to 0.832 (p = 0.042). In Pima Indians with type 2 diabetes, urinary concentrations of NGAL and L-FABP are associated with important health outcomes, but they are unlikely to add to risk prediction with standard markers in a clinically meaningful way given the small increase in the c-statistic.

Stop the Bleeding: the Development of a Tool to Streamline NASA Earth Science Metadata Curation Efforts

Science.gov (United States)

le Roux, J.; Baker, A.; Caltagirone, S.; Bugbee, K.

2017-12-01

The Common Metadata Repository (CMR) is a high-performance, high-quality repository for Earth science metadata records, and serves as the primary way to search NASA's growing 17.5 petabytes of Earth science data holdings. Released in 2015, CMR has the capability to support several different metadata standards already being utilized by NASA's combined network of Earth science data providers, or Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). The Analysis and Review of CMR (ARC) Team located at Marshall Space Flight Center is working to improve the quality of records already in CMR with the goal of making records optimal for search and discovery. This effort entails a combination of automated and manual review, where each NASA record in CMR is checked for completeness, accuracy, and consistency. This effort is highly collaborative in nature, requiring communication and transparency of findings amongst NASA personnel, DAACs, the CMR team and other metadata curation teams. Through the evolution of this project it has become apparent that there is a need to document and report findings, as well as track metadata improvements in a more efficient manner. The ARC team has collaborated with Element 84 in order to develop a metadata curation tool to meet these needs. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of this metadata curation tool and its current capabilities. Challenges and future plans for the tool will also be discussed.

Science Support: The Building Blocks of Active Data Curation

Science.gov (United States)

Guillory, A.

2013-12-01

While the scientific method is built on reproducibility and transparency, and results are published in peer reviewed literature, we have come to the digital age of very large datasets (now of the order of petabytes and soon exabytes) which cannot be published in the traditional way. To preserve reproducibility and transparency, active curation is necessary to keep and protect the information in the long term, and 'science support' activities provide the building blocks for active data curation. With the explosive growth of data in all fields in recent years, there is a pressing urge for data centres to now provide adequate services to ensure long-term preservation and digital curation of project data outputs, however complex those may be. Science support provides advice and support to science projects on data and information management, from file formats through to general data management awareness. Another purpose of science support is to raise awareness in the science community of data and metadata standards and best practice, engendering a culture where data outputs are seen as valued assets. At the heart of Science support is the Data Management Plan (DMP) which sets out a coherent approach to data issues pertaining to the data generating project. It provides an agreed record of the data management needs and issues within the project. The DMP is agreed upon with project investigators to ensure that a high quality documented data archive is created. It includes conditions of use and deposit to clearly express the ownership, responsibilities and rights associated with the data. Project specific needs are also identified for data processing, visualization tools and data sharing services. As part of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), the Centre for Environmental Data Archival (CEDA) fulfills this science support role of facilitating atmospheric and Earth observation data generating projects to ensure

The prognostic importance of jaundice in surgical resection with curative intent for gallbladder cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xin-wei; Yuan, Jian-mao; Chen, Jun-yi; Yang, Jue; Gao, Quan-gen; Yan, Xing-zhou; Zhang, Bao-hua; Feng, Shen; Wu, Meng-chao

2014-09-03

Preoperative jaundice is frequent in gallbladder cancer (GBC) and indicates advanced disease. Resection is rarely recommended to treat advanced GBC. An aggressive surgical approach for advanced GBC remains lacking because of the association of this disease with serious postoperative complications and poor prognosis. This study aims to re-assess the prognostic value of jaundice for the morbidity, mortality, and survival of GBC patients who underwent surgical resection with curative intent. GBC patients who underwent surgical resection with curative intent at a single institution between January 2003 and December 2012 were identified from a prospectively maintained database. A total of 192 patients underwent surgical resection with curative intent, of whom 47 had preoperative jaundice and 145 had none. Compared with the non-jaundiced patients, the jaundiced patients had significantly longer operative time (p jaundice was the only independent predictor of postoperative complications. The jaundiced patients had lower survival rates than the non-jaundiced patients (p jaundiced patients. The survival rates of the jaundiced patients with preoperative biliary drainage (PBD) were similar to those of the jaundiced patients without PBD (p = 0.968). No significant differences in the rate of postoperative intra-abdominal abscesses were found between the jaundiced patients with and without PBD (n = 4, 21.1% vs. n = 5, 17.9%, p = 0.787). Preoperative jaundice indicates poor prognosis and high postoperative morbidity but is not a surgical contraindication. Gallbladder neck tumors significantly increase the surgical difficulty and reduce the opportunities for radical resection. Gallbladder neck tumors can independently predict poor outcome. PBD correlates with neither a low rate of postoperative intra-abdominal abscesses nor a high survival rate.

The role of tumor marker CA 15-3 in detection of breast cancer relapse after curative mastectomy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hyun, In Young; Kim, In Ho; Lee, Moon Hee; Kim, Chul Soo

2004-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the utility of tumor marker CA 15-3 in the following: the diagnosis of breast cancer relapse after curative mastectomy, and the differentiation of the value of tumor marker by site of metastases. Two hundred two patients (median age 48 years) with breast cancer included in the follow-up after curative mastectomy. The tumor marker CA 15-3 was determined by IRMA (CIS BIO INTERNATIONAl, France). Test values > 30 U/ml were considered elevated (positive). Among 202 patients, recurrent diseases were found in 16 patients. CA 15-3 was elevated in 5 of 16 patients with recurrences. There was no false-positive patients who had elevated CA 15-3. Sensitivity and specificity of CA 15-3 for detection of breast cancer recurrence were 31%, and 100%. CA 15-3 was elevated in all of the 4 patients with liver metastases. CA 15-3 was elevated in none of the patients who relapsed with metastasis to bone-only or contralateral breast-only. The tumor marker CA 15-3 in the detection of breast cancer relapse after curative mastectomy is specific, but not sensitive. However, it is useful to rule out liver metastases of breast cancer, which indicates bad prognosis

Curative Intent Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma - 844 Cases Treated in a General Surgery and Liver Transplantation Center.

Science.gov (United States)

Grigorie, Răzvan; Alexandrescu, Sorin; Smira, Gabriela; Ionescu, Mihnea; Hrehoreţ, Doina; Braşoveanu, Vladislav; Dima, Simona; Ciurea, Silviu; Boeţi, Patricia; Dudus, Ionut; Picu, Nausica; Zamfir, Radu; David, Leonard; Botea, Florin; Gheorghe, Liana; Tomescu, Dana; Lupescu, Ioana; Boroş, Mirela; Grasu, Mugur; Dumitru, Radu; Toma, Mihai; Croitoru, Adina; Herlea, Vlad; Pechianu, Cătălin; Năstase, Anca; Popescu, Irinel

2017-01-01

Background: The objective of this study is to assess the outcome of the patients treated for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a General Surgery and Liver Transplantation Center. Methods: This retrospective study includes 844 patients diagnosed with HCC and surgically treated with curative intent methods. Curative intent treatment is mainly based on surgery, consisting of liver resection (LR), liver transplantation (LT). Tumor ablation could become the choice of treatment in HCC cases not manageable for surgery (LT or LR). 518 patients underwent LR, 162 patients benefited from LT and in 164 patients radiofrequency ablation (RFA) was performed. 615 patients (73%) presented liver cirrhosis. Results: Mordidity rates of patient treated for HCC was 30% and mortality was 4,3% for the entire study population. Five year overall survival rate was 39 % with statistically significant differences between transplanted, resected, or ablated patients (p 0.05) with better results in case of LT followed by LR and RFA. Conclusions: In HCC patients without liver cirrhosis, liver resection is the treatment of choice. For early HCC occurred on cirrhosis, LT offers the best outcome in terms of overall and disease free survival. RFA colud be a curative method for HCC patients not amenable for LT of LR. Celsius.

KIM, Steady-State Transport for Fixed Source in 2-D Thermal Reactor by Monte-Carlo

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cupini, E.; De Matteis, A.; Simonini, R.

1980-01-01

1 - Description of problem or function: KIM (K-infinite Monte Carlo) is a program which solves the steady-state linear transport equation for a fixed-source problem (or, by successive fixed-source runs, for the eigenvalue problem) in a two-dimensional infinite thermal reactor lattice. The main quantities computed in some broad energy groups are the following: - Fluxes and cross sections averaged over the region (i.e. a space portion that can be unconnected but contains everywhere the same homogeneous material), grouping of regions, the whole element. - Average absorption and fission rates per nuclide. - Average flux, absorption and production distributions versus energy. 2 - Method of solution: Monte Carlo simulation is used by tracing particle histories from fission birth down through the resonance region until absorption in the thermal range. The program is organised in three sections for fast, epithermal and thermal simulation, respectively; each section implements a particular model for both numerical techniques and cross section representation (energy groups in the fast section, groups or resonance parameters in the epithermal section, points in the thermal section). During slowing down (energy above 1 eV) nuclei are considered as stationary, with the exception of some resonance nuclei whose spacing between resonances is much greater than the resonance width. The Doppler broadening of s-wave resonances of these nuclides is taken into account by computing cross sections at the current neutron energy and at the temperature of the nucleus hit. During thermalization (energy below 1 eV) the thermal motion of some nuclides is also considered, by exploiting scattering kernels provided by the library for light water, heavy water and oxygen at several temperatures. KIM includes splitting and Russian roulette. A characteristic feature of the program is its approach to the lattice geometry. In fact, besides the usual continuous treatment of the geometry using the well

Reducing data friction through site-based data curation

Science.gov (United States)

Thomer, A.; Palmer, C. L.

2017-12-01

Much of geoscience research takes place at "scientifically significant sites": localities which have attracted a critical mass of scientific interest, and thereby merit protection by government bodies, as well as the preservation of specimen and data collections and the development of site-specific permitting requirements for access to the site and its associated collections. However, many data standards and knowledge organization schemas do not adequately describe key characteristics of the sites, despite their centrality to research projects. Through work conducted as part of the IMLS-funded Site-Based Data Curation (SBDC) project, we developed a Minimum Information Framework (MIF) for site-based science, in which "information about a site's structure" is considered a core class of information. Here we present our empirically-derived information framework, as well as the methods used to create it. We believe these approaches will lead to the development of more effective data repositories and tools, and thereby will reduce "data friction" in interdisciplinary, yet site-based, geoscience workflows. The Minimum Information Framework for Site-based Research was developed through work at two scientifically significant sites: the hot springs at Yellowstone National Park, which are key to geobiology research; and the La Brea Tar Pits, an important paleontology locality in Southern California. We employed diverse methods of participatory engagement, in which key stakeholders at our sites (e.g. curators, collections managers, researchers, permit officers) were consulted through workshops, focus groups, interviews, action research methods, and collaborative information modeling and systems analysis. These participatory approaches were highly effective in fostering on-going partnership among a diverse team of domain scientists, information scientists, and software developers. The MIF developed in this work may be viewed as a "proto-standard" that can inform future

Text Mining Genotype-Phenotype Relationships from Biomedical Literature for Database Curation and Precision Medicine.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayush Singhal

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The practice of precision medicine will ultimately require databases of genes and mutations for healthcare providers to reference in order to understand the clinical implications of each patient's genetic makeup. Although the highest quality databases require manual curation, text mining tools can facilitate the curation process, increasing accuracy, coverage, and productivity. However, to date there are no available text mining tools that offer high-accuracy performance for extracting such triplets from biomedical literature. In this paper we propose a high-performance machine learning approach to automate the extraction of disease-gene-variant triplets from biomedical literature. Our approach is unique because we identify the genes and protein products associated with each mutation from not just the local text content, but from a global context as well (from the Internet and from all literature in PubMed. Our approach also incorporates protein sequence validation and disease association using a novel text-mining-based machine learning approach. We extract disease-gene-variant triplets from all abstracts in PubMed related to a set of ten important diseases (breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, Alzheimer's disease, hemochromatosis, age-related macular degeneration (AMD, diabetes mellitus, and cystic fibrosis. We then evaluate our approach in two ways: (1 a direct comparison with the state of the art using benchmark datasets; (2 a validation study comparing the results of our approach with entries in a popular human-curated database (UniProt for each of the previously mentioned diseases. In the benchmark comparison, our full approach achieves a 28% improvement in F1-measure (from 0.62 to 0.79 over the state-of-the-art results. For the validation study with UniProt Knowledgebase (KB, we present a thorough analysis of the results and errors. Across all diseases, our approach returned 272 triplets

The curative effect of a second curettage in persistent trophoblastic disease: a retrospective cohort survey.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Trommel, N.E. van; Massuger, L.F.A.G.; Verheijen, R.; Sweep, C.G.J.; Thomas, C.M.G.

2005-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To assess the curative effect of a second curettage in patients with low-risk Persistent Trophoblastic Disease (PTD) after molar pregnancy. METHODS: A retrospective cohort survey was performed on 2122 patients registered with the Dutch Central Registry for Hydatidiform Moles between 1987

Characteristics of knowledge content in a curated online evidence library.

Science.gov (United States)

Varada, Sowmya; Lacson, Ronilda; Raja, Ali S; Ip, Ivan K; Schneider, Louise; Osterbur, David; Bain, Paul; Vetrano, Nicole; Cellini, Jacqueline; Mita, Carol; Coletti, Margaret; Whelan, Julia; Khorasani, Ramin

2018-05-01

To describe types of recommendations represented in a curated online evidence library, report on the quality of evidence-based recommendations pertaining to diagnostic imaging exams, and assess underlying knowledge representation. The evidence library is populated with clinical decision rules, professional society guidelines, and locally developed best practice guidelines. Individual recommendations were graded based on a standard methodology and compared using chi-square test. Strength of evidence ranged from grade 1 (systematic review) through grade 5 (recommendations based on expert opinion). Finally, variations in the underlying representation of these recommendations were identified. The library contains 546 individual imaging-related recommendations. Only 15% (16/106) of recommendations from clinical decision rules were grade 5 vs 83% (526/636) from professional society practice guidelines and local best practice guidelines that cited grade 5 studies (P < .0001). Minor head trauma, pulmonary embolism, and appendicitis were topic areas supported by the highest quality of evidence. Three main variations in underlying representations of recommendations were "single-decision," "branching," and "score-based." Most recommendations were grade 5, largely because studies to test and validate many recommendations were absent. Recommendation types vary in amount and complexity and, accordingly, the structure and syntax of statements they generate. However, they can be represented in single-decision, branching, and score-based representations. In a curated evidence library with graded imaging-based recommendations, evidence quality varied widely, with decision rules providing the highest-quality recommendations. The library may be helpful in highlighting evidence gaps, comparing recommendations from varied sources on similar clinical topics, and prioritizing imaging recommendations to inform clinical decision support implementation.

MS_HistoneDB, a manually curated resource for proteomic analysis of human and mouse histones.

Science.gov (United States)

El Kennani, Sara; Adrait, Annie; Shaytan, Alexey K; Khochbin, Saadi; Bruley, Christophe; Panchenko, Anna R; Landsman, David; Pflieger, Delphine; Govin, Jérôme

2017-01-01

Histones and histone variants are essential components of the nuclear chromatin. While mass spectrometry has opened a large window to their characterization and functional studies, their identification from proteomic data remains challenging. Indeed, the current interpretation of mass spectrometry data relies on public databases which are either not exhaustive (Swiss-Prot) or contain many redundant entries (UniProtKB or NCBI). Currently, no protein database is ideally suited for the analysis of histones and the complex array of mammalian histone variants. We propose two proteomics-oriented manually curated databases for mouse and human histone variants. We manually curated >1700 gene, transcript and protein entries to produce a non-redundant list of 83 mouse and 85 human histones. These entries were annotated in accordance with the current nomenclature and unified with the "HistoneDB2.0 with Variants" database. This resource is provided in a format that can be directly read by programs used for mass spectrometry data interpretation. In addition, it was used to interpret mass spectrometry data acquired on histones extracted from mouse testis. Several histone variants, which had so far only been inferred by homology or detected at the RNA level, were detected by mass spectrometry, confirming the existence of their protein form. Mouse and human histone entries were collected from different databases and subsequently curated to produce a non-redundant protein-centric resource, MS_HistoneDB. It is dedicated to the proteomic study of histones in mouse and human and will hopefully facilitate the identification and functional study of histone variants.

Long-Term Results of Radiochemotherapy for Solitary Lymph Node Metastasis After Curative Resection of Esophageal Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jingu, Keiichi; Ariga, Hisanori; Nemoto, Kenji; Narazaki, Kakutaro; Umezawa, Rei; Takeda, Ken; Koto, Masashi; Sugawara, Toshiyuki; Kubozono, Masaki; Miyata, Go; Onodera, Ko; Yamada, Shogo

2012-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term efficacy and toxicity of definitive radiochemotherapy for solitary lymph node metastasis after curative surgery of esophageal cancer. Methods and Materials: We performed a retrospective review of 35 patients who underwent definitive radiochemotherapy at Tohoku University Hospital between 2000 and 2009 for solitary lymph node metastasis after curative esophagectomy with lymph node dissection for esophageal cancer. Radiotherapy doses ranged from 60 to 66 Gy (median, 60 Gy). Concurrent chemotherapy was platinum based in all patients. The endpoints of the present study were overall survival, cause-specific survival, progression-free survival, irradiated-field control, overall tumor response, and prognostic factors. Results: The median observation period for survivors was 70.0 months. The 5-year overall survival was 39.2% (median survival, 39.0 months). The 5-year cause-specific survival, progression-free survival, and irradiated-field control were 43.3%, 31.0% and 59.9%, respectively. Metastatic lesion, size of the metastatic lymph node, and performance status before radiochemotherapy were significantly correlated with prognosis. Complete response and partial response were observed in 22.9% and 57.1% of the patients, respectively. There was no Grade 3 or higher adverse effect based on theCommon Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE v3.0) in the late phase. Conclusions: Based on our study findings, approximately 40% of patients with solitary lymph node metastasis after curative resection for esophageal cancer have a chance of long-term survival with definitive radiochemotherapy.

The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and occupational risk factors in Kashan SAIPA automobile industry workers by key indicator method (KIM, 1390

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: work related musculoskeletal disorders are the most wide spread type of occupational diseases among workers. Awkward body postures during work and manual material handling are among the most important risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders in different jobs. Due to importance of recognizing these factors prevalence and risk factor of work related musculoskeletal disorders, this research was aimed to study the among employees of Kashan City’s Saipa automobile industry in 2011. .Material and Method: This study is a descriptive-cross sectional study conducted among workers with manual material handling 37 activities and 84 work duties. To recognize musculoskeletal disorders, body map questionnaire was applied and occupational risk factors were evaluated using Key Index Method (KIM. Data was analyzed using SPSS and Excel software. .Result: Highest prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was in low and upper back region (%92. Based on the results from KIM, workers in the installing the tire, shuttle-aided fitting of seat, and engine work station had higher risk level with the scores of 66, 52 and 52, respectively. Risk level among three individuals (%3.6 was at 1, 40 (%47.6 at 2, 38 (%45.2 risk level 3, and 3 (%3.6 at 4. .Conclusion: Awkward body posture, improper twisting and flexion of low back were major risk factor among worker doing manual material handling tasks. Regarding the high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, appropriate ergonomic interventions such as engineering and organization interactions can reduce this risk factors (posture, heavy load, duration, workplace conditions as much as the risk level reach to an acceptable level.

Older age impacts on survival outcome in patients receiving curative surgery for solid cancer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang-Hsien Lu

2018-07-01

Full Text Available Summary: Background: Given the global increase in aging populations and cancer incidence, understanding the influence of age on postoperative outcome after cancer surgery is imperative. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of age on survival outcome in solid cancer patients receiving curative surgery. Methods: A total of 37,288 patients receiving curative surgeries for solid cancers between 2007 and 2012 at four affiliated Chang Gung Memorial Hospital were included in the study. All patients were categorized into age groups by decades for survival analysis. Results: The percentages of patient populations aged <40 years, 40–49 years, 50–59 years, 60–69 years, 70–79 years, and ≥80 years were 9.7%, 17.7%, 27.8%, 22.1%, 16.9%, and 5.7%, respectively. The median follow-up period was 38.9 months (range, 22.8–60.4 months and the overall, cancer-specific, and noncancer-specific mortality rates were 26.0%, 17.6%, and 8.5%, respectively. The overall mortality rate of patients in different age groups were 18.5%, 21.1%, 22.0%, 25.3%, 35.3%, and 49.0%, respectively. Compared to patients aged <40 years, more significant decrease in long-term survival were observed in aging patients. Multivariate analysis showed higher postoperative short-term mortality rates in patients older than 70 years, and the adjusted odds ratio of mortality risk ranged from 1.47 to 1.74 and 2.26 to 3.03 in patients aged 70–79 years and ≥80 years, respectively, compared to those aged <40 years. Conclusion: Aging was a negative prognostic factor of survival outcome in solid cancer patients receiving curative surgery. After adjustment of other clinicopathologic factors, the influence of age on survival outcome was less apparent in the elderly. Keywords: Age, Solid cancer, Surgical resection, Prognosis

Curation-Based Network Marketing: Strategies for Network Growth and Electronic Word-of-Mouth Diffusion

Science.gov (United States)

Church, Earnie Mitchell, Jr.

2013-01-01

In the last couple of years, a new aspect of online social networking has emerged, in which the strength of social network connections is based not on social ties but mutually shared interests. This dissertation studies these "curation-based" online social networks (CBN) and their suitability for the diffusion of electronic word-of-mouth…

Anastomotic Leak Increases Distant Recurrence and Long-Term Mortality After Curative Resection for Colonic Cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krarup, Peter-Martin; Nordholm-Carstensen, Andreas; Jorgensen, Lars N

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of anastomotic leak (AL) on disease recurrence and long-term mortality in patients alive 120 days after curative resection for colonic cancer. BACKGROUND: There is no solid data as to whether AL after colonic cancer surgery increases the risk of disease...

Efficient Workflows for Curation of Heterogeneous Data Supporting Modeling of U-Nb Alloy Aging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ward, Logan Timothy; Hackenberg, Robert Errol

2016-01-01

These are slides from a presentation summarizing a graduate research associate's summer project. The following topics are covered in these slides: data challenges in materials, aging in U-Nb Alloys, Building an Aging Model, Different Phase Trans. in U-Nb, the Challenge, Storing Materials Data, Example Data Source, Organizing Data: What is a Schema?, What does a 'XML Schema' look like?, Our Data Schema: Nice and Simple, Storing Data: Materials Data Curation System (MDCS), Problem with MDCS: Slow Data Entry, Getting Literature into MDCS, Staging Data in Excel Document, Final Result: MDCS Records, Analyzing Image Data, Process for Making TTT Diagram, Bottleneck Number 1: Image Analysis, Fitting a TTP Boundary, Fitting a TTP Curve: Comparable Results, How Does it Compare to Our Data?, Image Analysis Workflow, Curating Hardness Records, Hardness Data: Two Key Decisions, Before Peak Age? - Automation, Interactive Viz, Which Transformation?, Microstructure-Informed Model, Tracking the Entire Process, General Problem with Property Models, Pinyon: Toolkit for Managing Model Creation, Tracking Individual Decisions, Jupyter: Docs and Code in One File, Hardness Analysis Workflow, Workflow for Aging Models, and conclusions.

Efficient Workflows for Curation of Heterogeneous Data Supporting Modeling of U-Nb Alloy Aging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ward, Logan Timothy [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Hackenberg, Robert Errol [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2016-08-31

These are slides from a presentation summarizing a graduate research associate's summer project. The following topics are covered in these slides: data challenges in materials, aging in U-Nb Alloys, Building an Aging Model, Different Phase Trans. in U-Nb, the Challenge, Storing Materials Data, Example Data Source, Organizing Data: What is a Schema?, What does a "XML Schema" look like?, Our Data Schema: Nice and Simple, Storing Data: Materials Data Curation System (MDCS), Problem with MDCS: Slow Data Entry, Getting Literature into MDCS, Staging Data in Excel Document, Final Result: MDCS Records, Analyzing Image Data, Process for Making TTT Diagram, Bottleneck Number 1: Image Analysis, Fitting a TTP Boundary, Fitting a TTP Curve: Comparable Results, How Does it Compare to Our Data?, Image Analysis Workflow, Curating Hardness Records, Hardness Data: Two Key Decisions, Before Peak Age? - Automation, Interactive Viz, Which Transformation?, Microstructure-Informed Model, Tracking the Entire Process, General Problem with Property Models, Pinyon: Toolkit for Managing Model Creation, Tracking Individual Decisions, Jupyter: Docs and Code in One File, Hardness Analysis Workflow, Workflow for Aging Models, and conclusions.

Curative effect of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius tuber on experimental hemorrhoids in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Dey, Yadu Nandan; Wanjari, Manish M; Kumar, Dharmendra; Lomash, Vinay; Jadhav, Ankush D

2016-11-04

Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson (Family- Araceae) is a crop of south East Asian origin. In India, its tuber is widely used in ethnomedicinal practices by different tribes for the treatment of piles (hemorrhoids). The present study evaluated the effect of methanolic and aqueous extract of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius tuber on croton oil induced hemorrhoids in rats. The methanolic extract was standardized with the major phenolic compound, betulinic acid, by HPLC. The hemorrhoids were induced by applying 6% croton oil preparation in the ano-rectal region. Rats were orally administered methanolic and aqueous extract at doses of 250 and 500mg/kg, each for 7 days. Pilex (200mg/kg) was used as reference anti-hemorrhoidal drug. Hemorrhoids were assessed on eighth day by measuring hemorrhoidal and biochemical parameters along with histology of ano-rectal tissue. Croton oil application caused induction of hemorrhoids as indicated by significant (phemorrhoidal parameters and other biochemical parameters with attenuation of tissue damage compared to hemorrhoid control rats. The results indicate that tuber extracts exhibited curative action on hemorrhoids. The aqueous extract showed more pronounced effect than methanolic extract. The effects may be attributed to anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Results indicate that tuber of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius exhibited curative action on hemorrhoids through anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. The study validates the ethnomedicinal use of tuber in hemorrhoids and implicates its therapeutic potential as an anti-hemorrhoidal agent. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lnc2Cancer: a manually curated database of experimentally supported lncRNAs associated with various human cancers.

Science.gov (United States)

Ning, Shangwei; Zhang, Jizhou; Wang, Peng; Zhi, Hui; Wang, Jianjian; Liu, Yue; Gao, Yue; Guo, Maoni; Yue, Ming; Wang, Lihua; Li, Xia

2016-01-04

Lnc2Cancer (http://www.bio-bigdata.net/lnc2cancer) is a manually curated database of cancer-associated long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) with experimental support that aims to provide a high-quality and integrated resource for exploring lncRNA deregulation in various human cancers. LncRNAs represent a large category of functional RNA molecules that play a significant role in human cancers. A curated collection and summary of deregulated lncRNAs in cancer is essential to thoroughly understand the mechanisms and functions of lncRNAs. Here, we developed the Lnc2Cancer database, which contains 1057 manually curated associations between 531 lncRNAs and 86 human cancers. Each association includes lncRNA and cancer name, the lncRNA expression pattern, experimental techniques, a brief functional description, the original reference and additional annotation information. Lnc2Cancer provides a user-friendly interface to conveniently browse, retrieve and download data. Lnc2Cancer also offers a submission page for researchers to submit newly validated lncRNA-cancer associations. With the rapidly increasing interest in lncRNAs, Lnc2Cancer will significantly improve our understanding of lncRNA deregulation in cancer and has the potential to be a timely and valuable resource. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Progression following neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy may not be a contraindication to a curative approach for colorectal carcinomatosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Passot, Guillaume; Vaudoyer, Delphine; Cotte, Eddy; You, Benoit; Isaac, Sylvie; Noël Gilly, François; Mohamed, Faheez; Glehen, Olivier

2012-07-01

The objective of this retrospective study was to evaluate the influence of neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy on patients with colorectal carcinomatosis before a curative procedure. Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) from colorectal cancer may be treated with a curative intent by cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). The role of perioperative systemic chemotherapy for this particular metastatic disease remains unclear. One hundred twenty patients with PC from colorectal cancer were consecutively treated by 131 procedures combining CRS with HIPEC. The response to neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy was assessed on data from previous explorative surgery and/or radiological imaging. Ninety patients (75%) were treated with neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy in whom 32 (36%) were considered to have responded, 19 (21%) had stable disease, and 19 (21%) developed diseases progression. Response could not be evaluated in 20 patients (22%). On univariate analysis, the use of neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy had a significant positive prognostic influence (P = 0.042). On multivariate analysis, the completeness of CRS and the use of adjuvant systemic chemotherapy were the only significant prognostic factors (P systemic chemotherapy had no significant prognostic impact with median survival of 31.4 months in patients showing disease progression. In patients with PC from colorectal cancer without extraperitoneal metastases, failure of neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy should not constitute an absolute contraindication to a curative procedure combining CRS and HIPEC.

Cumulative Radiation Exposure during Follow-Up after Curative Surgery for Gastric Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Yeo Jin; Chung, Yong Eun; Lim, Joon Seok; Kim, Joo Hee; Kim, Young Jin; Lee, Hye Jeong; Kim, Myeong Jin; Kim, Ki Whang; You, Je Sung

2012-01-01

To quantify the cumulative effective dose (cED) of radiation due to repeated CT and PET/CT examinations after curative resection of gastric cancer and to assess the lifetime attributable risk (LAR) estimates based on Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VII models. Patients who underwent a curative resection for gastric cancer between January 2006 and December 2006 and were followed-up until May 2010 were included in this study. The cED was calculated by using the dose-length product values and conversion factors for quantitative risk assessment of radiation exposure. cED and LAR were compared between early and advanced gastric cancer patients and among American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM stage groups (stage I, II, and III). The nonparametric Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests, followed by a post-hoc analysis with Bonferroni adjustment, were employed as part of the statistical analysis. The overall median cED was 57.8 mSv (interquartile range [IQR], 43.9-74.7). The cED was significantly higher in the advanced (median, 67.0; IQR, 49.1-102.3) than in the early gastric cancer group (median, 52.3; IQR, 41.5-67.9) (p < 0.001), and increased as the TNM stage increased. For radiation exposure, 62% of all patients received an estimated cED of over 50 mSv, while 11% of patients received over 100 mSv. The median LAR of cancer incidence was 0.28% (IQR, 0.20-0.40) and there were significant differences between the early gastric cancer and advanced gastric cancer group (p < 0.001) as well as among the three TNM stage groups (p = 0.015). The LAR of cancer incidence exceeded 1% in 2.4% of the patients. The cED increases proportionally along with tumor stage and, even in early gastric cancer or stage I patients, cED is much higher than that found among the general population. Considering the very good prognosis of early gastric cancer after curative surgery, the cED should be considered when designing a postoperative follow-up CT protocol.

Secondary Malignancy As A Manifestation Of Late Toxicity Of Curative Treatment For Testicular Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reckova, M.; Kakalejcik, M.; Beniak, J.; Boljesikova, E.

2008-01-01

The case presents the patient with a diagnosis of bladder carcinosarcoma. He was diagnosed 42 years after adjuvant middle abdominal and pelvic radiotherapy for testicular seminoma. We discuss the problem of late toxicity of oncology treatment in patients with potentially curative germ cell tumors of testes together with diagnosis and treatment of patients with bladder carcinoma and carcinosarcoma. (author)

Archive of Geosample Information from the Geological Survey of Canada Atlantic (GSC A) Marine Geoscience Curation Facility

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Geological Survey of Canada Atlantic (GSC A) Marine Geoscience Curation Facility contributed information on 40,428 cores, grabs, and dredges in their holdings to...

EURO-CARES: European Roadmap for a Sample Return Curation Facility and Planetary Protection Implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Brucato, John Robert

2016-07-01

A mature European planetary exploration program and evolving sample return mission plans gathers the interest of a wider scientific community. The interest is generated from studying extraterrestrial samples in the laborato-ry providing new opportunities to address fundamental issues on the origin and evolution of the Solar System, on the primordial cosmochemistry, and on the nature of the building blocks of terrestrial planets and on the origin of life. Major space agencies are currently planning for missions that will collect samples from a variety of Solar Sys-tem environments, from primitive (carbonaceous) small bodies, from the Moon, Mars and its moons and, final-ly, from icy moons of the outer planets. A dedicated sample return curation facility is seen as an essential re-quirement for the receiving, assessment, characterization and secure preservation of the collected extraterrestrial samples and potentially their safe distribution to the scientific community. EURO-CARES is a European Commission study funded under the Horizon-2020 program. The strategic objec-tive of EURO-CARES is to create a roadmap for the implementation of a European Extraterrestrial Sample Cu-ration Facility. The facility has to provide safe storage and handling of extraterrestrial samples and has to enable the preliminary characterization in order to achieve the required effectiveness and collaborative outcomes for the whole international scientific community. For example, samples returned from Mars could pose a threat on the Earth's biosphere if any living extraterrestrial organism are present in the samples. Thus planetary protection is an essential aspect of all Mars sample return missions that will affect the retrival and transport from the point of return, sample handling, infrastructure methodology and management of a future curation facility. Analysis of the state of the art of Planetary Protection technology shows there are considerable possibilities to define and develop

Patient-reported symptoms during radiotherapy. Clinically relevant symptom burden in patients treated with palliative and curative intent

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koerner, Philipp [Universitaetsklinikum Wuerzburg, Interdisziplinaeres Zentrum Palliativmedizin, Wuerzburg (Germany); Universitaetsklinikum Wuerzburg, Klinik und Poliklinik fuer Strahlentherapie, Wuerzburg (Germany); Ehrmann, Katja [Universitaetsklinikum Wuerzburg, Medizinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Medizinische Soziologie und Rehabilitationswissenschaften, Wuerzburg (Germany); Hartmannsgruber, Johann [Praxis Landshut, Kinderzahnheilkunde, Landshut (Germany); Metz, Michaela; Steigerwald, Sabrina; Flentje, Michael [Universitaetsklinikum Wuerzburg, Klinik und Poliklinik fuer Strahlentherapie, Wuerzburg (Germany); Oorschot, Birgitt van [Universitaetsklinikum Wuerzburg, Interdisziplinaeres Zentrum Palliativmedizin, Wuerzburg (Germany)

2017-07-15

The benefits of patient-reported symptom assessment combined with integrated palliative care are well documented. This study assessed the symptom burden of palliative and curative-intent radiation oncology patients. Prior to first consultation and at the end of RT, all adult cancer patients planned to receive fractionated percutaneous radiotherapy (RT) were asked to answer the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS; nine symptoms from 0 = no symptoms to 10 = worst possible symptoms). Mean values were used for curative vs. palliative and pre-post comparisons, and the clinical relevance was evaluated (symptom values ≥ 4). Of 163 participating patients, 151 patients (90.9%) completed both surveys (116 curative and 35 palliative patients). Before beginning RT, 88.6% of palliative and 72.3% of curative patients showed at least one clinically relevant symptom. Curative patients most frequently named decreased general wellbeing (38.6%), followed by tiredness (35.0%), anxiety (32.4%), depression (30.0%), pain (26.3%), lack of appetite (23.5%), dyspnea (17.8%), drowsiness (8.0%) and nausea (6.1%). Palliative patients most frequently named decreased general wellbeing (62.8%), followed by pain (62.8%), tiredness (60.0%), lack of appetite (40.0%), anxiety (38.0%), depression (33.3%), dyspnea (28.5%), drowsiness (25.7%) and nausea (14.2%). At the end of RT, the proportion of curative and palliative patients with a clinically relevant symptom had increased significantly to 79.8 and 91.4%, respectively; whereas the proportion of patients reporting clinically relevant pain had decreased significantly (42.8 vs. 62.8%, respectively). Palliative patients had significantly increased tiredness. Curative patients reported significant increases in pain, tiredness, nausea, drowsiness, lack of appetite and restrictions in general wellbeing. Assessment of patient-reported symptoms was successfully realized in radiation oncology routine. Overall, both groups showed a high symptom burden

Curation of Laboratory Experimental Data as Part of the Overall Data Lifecycle

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Jeremy Frey

2008-08-01

Full Text Available The explosion in the production of scientific data in recent years is placing strains upon conventional systems supporting integration, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of data and thus constraining the whole scientific process. Support for handling large quantities of diverse information can be provided by e-Science methodologies and the cyber-infrastructure that enables collaborative handling of such data. Regard needs to be taken of the whole process involved in scientific discovery. This includes the consideration of the requirements of the users and consumers further down the information chain and what they might ideally prefer to impose on the generators of those data. As the degree of digital capture in the laboratory increases, it is possible to improve the automatic acquisition of the ‘context of the data’ as well as the data themselves. This process provides an opportunity for the data creators to ensure that many of the problems they often encounter in later stages are avoided. We wish to elevate curation to an operation to be considered by the laboratory scientist as part of good laboratory practice, not a procedure of concern merely to the few specialising in archival processes. Designing curation into experiments is an effective solution to the provision of high-quality metadata that leads to better, more re-usable data and to better science.

BELIEF dashboard - a web-based curation interface to support generation of BEL networks

OpenAIRE

Madan, Sumit; Hodapp, Sven; Fluck, Juliane

2015-01-01

The relevance of network-based approaches in systems biology to achieve a better understanding of biological mechanisms has increased enormously. The Biological Expression Language (BEL) is well designed to collate findings from scientific literature into biological network models. To facilitate encoding and biocuration of such findings in BEL, a free and user-friendly web-based curation interface called BELIEF Dashboard has been developed. The interface incorporates an information extraction...

The curator/patron: Foundations and contemporary art

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Rebecca Coates

2008-12-01

Full Text Available This article addresses the role of private foundations in commissioning site-specific ephemeral art works: contemporary art projects of a temporary nature that are realised outside of public institutions. Though small in number, I argue that the private individuals creating and managing private foundations of this nature demonstrate a new form of patronage, creating in the process a new role of ‘curator/patron’. Equally, this process of realisation reflects the changing needs of contemporary art practice. Work of this scale and ambition would increasingly not be possible without the vision, perseverance and funding of these kinds of foundation. In Australia, this trend is demonstrated by two foundations: Kaldor Art Projects, and their commissioning of works by artists such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Gilbert & George and Jeff Koons; and the more recently formed Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, whose first project was with Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. In this article, these examples are placed within the broader international context of foundation models such as Artangel, UK, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, and The Public Art Fund, New York.

DAMPD: A manually curated antimicrobial peptide database

KAUST Repository

Seshadri Sundararajan, Vijayaraghava

2011-11-21

The demand for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is rising because of the increased occurrence of pathogens that are tolerant or resistant to conventional antibiotics. Since naturally occurring AMPs could serve as templates for the development of new anti-infectious agents to which pathogens are not resistant, a resource that contains relevant information on AMP is of great interest. To that extent, we developed the Dragon Antimicrobial Peptide Database (DAMPD, http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/dampd) that contains 1232 manually curated AMPs. DAMPD is an update and a replacement of the ANTIMIC database. In DAMPD an integrated interface allows in a simple fashion querying based on taxonomy, species, AMP family, citation, keywords and a combination of search terms and fields (Advanced Search). A number of tools such as Blast, ClustalW, HMMER, Hydrocalculator, SignalP, AMP predictor, as well as a number of other resources that provide additional information about the results are also provided and integrated into DAMPD to augment biological analysis of AMPs. The Author(s) 2011. Published by Oxford University Press.

DAMPD: A manually curated antimicrobial peptide database

KAUST Repository

Seshadri Sundararajan, Vijayaraghava; Gabere, Musa Nur; Pretorius, Ashley; Adam, Saleem; Christoffels, Alan; Lehvaslaiho, Minna; Archer, John A.C.; Bajic, Vladimir B.

2011-01-01

The demand for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is rising because of the increased occurrence of pathogens that are tolerant or resistant to conventional antibiotics. Since naturally occurring AMPs could serve as templates for the development of new anti-infectious agents to which pathogens are not resistant, a resource that contains relevant information on AMP is of great interest. To that extent, we developed the Dragon Antimicrobial Peptide Database (DAMPD, http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/dampd) that contains 1232 manually curated AMPs. DAMPD is an update and a replacement of the ANTIMIC database. In DAMPD an integrated interface allows in a simple fashion querying based on taxonomy, species, AMP family, citation, keywords and a combination of search terms and fields (Advanced Search). A number of tools such as Blast, ClustalW, HMMER, Hydrocalculator, SignalP, AMP predictor, as well as a number of other resources that provide additional information about the results are also provided and integrated into DAMPD to augment biological analysis of AMPs. The Author(s) 2011. Published by Oxford University Press.

Curated compendium of human transcriptional biomarker data.

Science.gov (United States)

Golightly, Nathan P; Bell, Avery; Bischoff, Anna I; Hollingsworth, Parker D; Piccolo, Stephen R

2018-04-17

One important use of genome-wide transcriptional profiles is to identify relationships between transcription levels and patient outcomes. These translational insights can guide the development of biomarkers for clinical application. Data from thousands of translational-biomarker studies have been deposited in public repositories, enabling reuse. However, data-reuse efforts require considerable time and expertise because transcriptional data are generated using heterogeneous profiling technologies, preprocessed using diverse normalization procedures, and annotated in non-standard ways. To address this problem, we curated 45 publicly available, translational-biomarker datasets from a variety of human diseases. To increase the data's utility, we reprocessed the raw expression data using a uniform computational pipeline, addressed quality-control problems, mapped the clinical annotations to a controlled vocabulary, and prepared consistently structured, analysis-ready data files. These data, along with scripts we used to prepare the data, are available in a public repository. We believe these data will be particularly useful to researchers seeking to perform benchmarking studies-for example, to compare and optimize machine-learning algorithms' ability to predict biomedical outcomes.

Comprehensive curation and analysis of global interaction networks in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Science.gov (United States)

Reguly, Teresa; Breitkreutz, Ashton; Boucher, Lorrie; Breitkreutz, Bobby-Joe; Hon, Gary C; Myers, Chad L; Parsons, Ainslie; Friesen, Helena; Oughtred, Rose; Tong, Amy; Stark, Chris; Ho, Yuen; Botstein, David; Andrews, Brenda; Boone, Charles; Troyanskya, Olga G; Ideker, Trey; Dolinski, Kara; Batada, Nizar N; Tyers, Mike

2006-01-01

Background The study of complex biological networks and prediction of gene function has been enabled by high-throughput (HTP) methods for detection of genetic and protein interactions. Sparse coverage in HTP datasets may, however, distort network properties and confound predictions. Although a vast number of well substantiated interactions are recorded in the scientific literature, these data have not yet been distilled into networks that enable system-level inference. Results We describe here a comprehensive database of genetic and protein interactions, and associated experimental evidence, for the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as manually curated from over 31,793 abstracts and online publications. This literature-curated (LC) dataset contains 33,311 interactions, on the order of all extant HTP datasets combined. Surprisingly, HTP protein-interaction datasets currently achieve only around 14% coverage of the interactions in the literature. The LC network nevertheless shares attributes with HTP networks, including scale-free connectivity and correlations between interactions, abundance, localization, and expression. We find that essential genes or proteins are enriched for interactions with other essential genes or proteins, suggesting that the global network may be functionally unified. This interconnectivity is supported by a substantial overlap of protein and genetic interactions in the LC dataset. We show that the LC dataset considerably improves the predictive power of network-analysis approaches. The full LC dataset is available at the BioGRID () and SGD () databases. Conclusion Comprehensive datasets of biological interactions derived from the primary literature provide critical benchmarks for HTP methods, augment functional prediction, and reveal system-level attributes of biological networks. PMID:16762047

A curated database of cyanobacterial strains relevant for modern taxonomy and phylogenetic studies

OpenAIRE

Ramos, Vitor; Morais, Jo?o; Vasconcelos, Vitor M.

2017-01-01

The dataset herein described lays the groundwork for an online database of relevant cyanobacterial strains, named CyanoType (http://lege.ciimar.up.pt/cyanotype). It is a database that includes categorized cyanobacterial strains useful for taxonomic, phylogenetic or genomic purposes, with associated information obtained by means of a literature-based curation. The dataset lists 371 strains and represents the first version of the database (CyanoType v.1). Information for each strain includes st...

Health promotion, preventive and curative aspects of diseases in astrology.

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Sharma, Bhuvnesh Kumar; Subhakta, P K J P; Narayana, A

2007-01-01

The whole universe is intermingling into a unit in the period of globalization. Different cultures, life-styles and sciences are co-operating with each other in this situation. World Health Organization is working towards collaborating all prevalent medical sciences for attainment of good health and family welfare for each and every individual by 2020. Astrology is a part of Indian heritage. Astrology means the art of predicting or determining the influence of the planets and stars on human affairs. The origin of this word is from Greek word astron, star + logos (discourse). The account of deeds of good and bad during the present life and previous lives, their consequences of health or ill health during this life i.e. what, when and how the things takes place will be clearly known through Astrology. Highly advanced knowledge related to Astrology on medicine is preserved in Indian scriptures and the knowledge was transmitted from generation to generation. It is also a good source for health promotion, preventive, curative and other medical aspects. Brief direction related to astrological medical aspects is also available in Ayurvedic literature (Carakasamhită, Suśrutasamhhită, Aşţăngasangraha, Aşţăngahŗdaya, Sărngadharasamhită , Băvaprakăśa etc.) Some Ayurvedic practitioners, scholars and scientists realize the need of astrological knowledge related to medicine in the present time. In ancient times physician, astrologer and purŏhita (Hindu priest) simultaneously looked after the health and family welfare of individual, families and country. Astrologer guides medication and suitable time for the better cure of ailments. Even the medicinal herbs were collected and treated at appropriate time for their efficacy. Astrology and Ayurvĕda are inseparable sciences of life. Hence, in this article, a concise astrological evaluation related to health promotion, preventive and curative aspects of Astrology is being presented.

From idol to art : African 'objects with power': a challenge for missionaries, anthropologists and museum curators

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leyten, H.

2015-01-01

After his theological studies, Harrie Leyten (1935) worked as a missionary in Ghana for ten years. He studied social anthropology at Oxford University and became Africa curator of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam in 1975, and taught at the University of Amsterdam and the Reinwardt Academy in Amsterdam.

The Quality of Curative-intent Radiotherapy for Non-small Cell Lung Cancer in the UK.

Science.gov (United States)

McAleese, J; Baluch, S; Drinkwater, K

2015-09-01

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the UK. The quality of curative-intent radiotherapy is associated with better outcomes. National quality standards from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on patient work-up and treatment selection were used, with guidance from the Royal College of Radiologists on the technical delivery of radiotherapy, to assess the quality of curative-intent non-small cell lung cancer radiotherapy and to describe current UK practice. Radiotherapy departments completed one questionnaire for each patient started on curative-intent radiotherapy for 8 weeks in 2013. Eighty-two per cent of centres returned a total of 317 proformas. Patient selection with positron emission tomography/computed tomography, performance status and Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second (FEV1) was usually undertaken. Fifty-six per cent had pathological confirmation of mediastinal lymph nodes and 22% staging brain scans; 20% were treated with concurrent chemoradiation, 12% with Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR) and 8% with Continuous Hyperfractionated Accelerated Radiotherapy (CHART). Sixty-three per cent of patients received 55 Gy/20 fractions. Although respiratory compensation was routinely undertaken, only 33% used four-dimensional computed tomography. Seventy per cent of patients were verified with cone beam computed tomography. There was consistency of practice in dosimetric constraints for organs at risk and follow-up. This audit has described current UK practice. The latest recommendations for patient selection with pathological confirmation of mediastinal lymph nodes, brain staging and respiratory function testing are not universally followed. Although there is evidence of increasing use of newer techniques such as four-dimensional computed tomography and cone beam image-guided radiotherapy, there is still variability in access. Efforts should be made to improve access to modern technologies and quality

Moral is political Notions of ideal citizenship in Lie Kim Hok’s Hikajat Khonghoetjoe

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Evi Sutrisno

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that the Hikajat Khonghoetjoe (The life story of Confucius, written by Lie Kim Hok in 1897, is a medium to propose modern ideas of flexible subjectivity, cosmopolitanism, active citizenship and the concepts of good governance to the Chinese Peranakans who experienced political and racial discrimination under Dutch colonization. Using the figure of Confucius, Lie aimed to cultivate virtuous subjects who apply their faith and morality in political sphere. He intended to raise political awareness and rights among the Chinese as colonial subjects and to valorize their bargaining power with the Dutch colonial government. By introducing Confucianism, Lie proposed that the Chinese reconnect themselves with China as an alternative patronage which could subvert White supremacy. Instead of using sources in Chinese, Lie translated the biography of Confucius from the European texts. In crafting his story, Lie applied conglomerate authorship, a technique commonly practised by Malay authors. It allowed him to select, combine and appropriate the source texts. To justify that Confucius' virtue and his teaching were superb and are applicable to contemporary life, Lie borrowed and emphasized European writers’ high appraisal of Confucianism, instead of using his own arguments and opinions. I call this writing technique “indirect agency”.

Heritage and archaeology in the digital age acquisition, curation, and dissemination of spatial cultural heritage data

CERN Document Server

Bendicho, Víctor; Ioannides, Marinos; Levy, Thomas

2017-01-01

This book examines how computer-based programs can be used to acquire ‘big’ digital cultural heritage data, curate, and disseminate it over the Internet and in 3D visualization platforms with the ultimate goal of creating long-lasting “digital heritage repositories.’ The organization of the book reflects the essence of new technologies applied to cultural heritage and archaeology. Each of these stages bring their own challenges and considerations that need to be dealt with. The authors in each section present case studies and overviews of how each of these aspects might be dealt with. While technology is rapidly changing, the principles laid out in these chapters should serve as a guide for many years to come. The influence of the digital world on archaeology and cultural heritage will continue to shape these disciplines as advances in these technologies facilitate new lines of research.  The book is divided into three sections covering acquisition, curation, and dissemination (the major life cycles ...

Curative resection for locally advanced sigmoid colon cancer using neoadjuvant chemotherapy with FOLFOX plus panitumumab: A case report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenji Tomizawa

2017-01-01

Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first report of a successful curative resection in a patient with initially unresectable, locally advanced colorectal cancer who was treated with FOLFOX4 combined with panitumumab.

Ebola Preparedness in the Netherlands: The Need for Coordination Between the Public Health and the Curative Sector.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Swaan, Corien M; Öry, Alexander V; Schol, Lianne G C; Jacobi, André; Richardus, Jan Hendrik; Timen, Aura

2018-01-01

During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2015, close cooperation between the curative sector and the public health sector in the Netherlands was necessary for timely identification, referral, and investigation of patients with suspected Ebola virus disease (EVD).

Using random forests for assistance in the curation of G-protein coupled receptor databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Shkurin, Aleksei; Vellido, Alfredo

2017-08-18

Biology is experiencing a gradual but fast transformation from a laboratory-centred science towards a data-centred one. As such, it requires robust data engineering and the use of quantitative data analysis methods as part of database curation. This paper focuses on G protein-coupled receptors, a large and heterogeneous super-family of cell membrane proteins of interest to biology in general. One of its families, Class C, is of particular interest to pharmacology and drug design. This family is quite heterogeneous on its own, and the discrimination of its several sub-families is a challenging problem. In the absence of known crystal structure, such discrimination must rely on their primary amino acid sequences. We are interested not as much in achieving maximum sub-family discrimination accuracy using quantitative methods, but in exploring sequence misclassification behavior. Specifically, we are interested in isolating those sequences showing consistent misclassification, that is, sequences that are very often misclassified and almost always to the same wrong sub-family. Random forests are used for this analysis due to their ensemble nature, which makes them naturally suited to gauge the consistency of misclassification. This consistency is here defined through the voting scheme of their base tree classifiers. Detailed consistency results for the random forest ensemble classification were obtained for all receptors and for all data transformations of their unaligned primary sequences. Shortlists of the most consistently misclassified receptors for each subfamily and transformation, as well as an overall shortlist including those cases that were consistently misclassified across transformations, were obtained. The latter should be referred to experts for further investigation as a data curation task. The automatic discrimination of the Class C sub-families of G protein-coupled receptors from their unaligned primary sequences shows clear limits. This study has

Introverts and Extraverts Reflecting on the Experience of Parish Ministry: Conversation between Training Incumbents and Curates

Science.gov (United States)

Francis, Leslie J.; Smith, Greg

2016-01-01

Psychological type theory suggests that introverts and extraverts may approach Christian ministry somewhat differently. This theory was tested within the context of a residential workshop attended by 15 curates, 12 of whom were accompanied by their training incumbents. Twelve themes were identified within responses to the question, "What does…

Salvage liver transplantation for patients with recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma after curative resection.

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LinWei Wu

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To summarize the experience with salvage liver transplantation (SLT for patients with recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC after primary hepatic resection in a single center. METHODS: A total of 376 adult patients with HCC underwent orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT at Organ Transplantation Center, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, between 2004 and 2008. Among these patients, 36 underwent SLT after primary liver curative resection due to intrahepatic recurrence. During the same period, one hundred and forty-seven patients with HCC within Milan criteria underwent primary OLT (PLTW group, the intra-operative and post-operative parameters were compared between these two groups. Furthermore, we compared tumor recurrence and patient survival of patients with SLT to 156 patients with HCC beyond Milan criteria (PLTB group. Cox Hazard regression was made to identify the risk factors for tumor recurrence. RESULTS: The median interval between initial liver resection and SLT was 35 months (1-63 months. The intraoperative blood loss (P0.05. When compared to those patients with HCC beyond Milan criteria undergoing primary OLT, patients undergoing SLT achieved a better survival and a lower tumor recurrence. Cox Proportional Hazards model showed that vascular invasion, including macrovascular and microvascular invasion, as well as AFP level >400 IU/L were risk factors for tumor recurrence after LT. CONCLUSIONS: In comparison with primary OLT, although SLT is associated with increased operation difficulties, it provides a good option for patients with HCC recurrence after curative resection.

Ebola Preparedness in the Netherlands: The Need for Coordination Between the Public Health and the Curative Sector

NARCIS (Netherlands)

C. Swaan (Corien); Öry, A.V. (Alexander V.); Schol, L.G.C. (Lianne G. C.); A. Jacobi (Andre); J.H. Richardus (Jan Hendrik); A. Timen (Aura)

2017-01-01

markdownabstractContext: During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2015, close cooperation between the curative sector and the public health sector in the Netherlands was necessary for timely identification, referral, and investigation of patients with suspected Ebola virus disease (EVD).

From Map Curator to Information Manager Or The Last of the Dinosaurs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Korsgaard

2008-09-01

Full Text Available The National Survey and Cadastre of Denmark has now made such progress in scanning its collection of maps and putting it on the internet that the question arises: What to do next? There are several options: improving the quality of the metadata; incorporating maps from other institutions etc. But the expert knowledge of map curators is crucial in serving users, and their knowledge must be passed on to future generations. Finally, the author points out that much thought must be given to the process of collecting maps digitally made.

Refusal of curative radiation therapy and surgery among patients with cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Aizer, Ayal A; Chen, Ming-Hui; Parekh, Arti; Choueiri, Toni K; Hoffman, Karen E; Kim, Simon P; Martin, Neil E; Hu, Jim C; Trinh, Quoc-Dien; Nguyen, Paul L

2014-07-15

Surgery and radiation therapy represent the only curative options for many patients with solid malignancies. However, despite the recommendations of their physicians, some patients refuse these therapies. This study characterized factors associated with refusal of surgical or radiation therapy as well as the impact of refusal of recommended therapy on patients with localized malignancies. We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program to identify a population-based sample of 925,127 patients who had diagnoses of 1 of 8 common malignancies for which surgery and/or radiation are believed to confer a survival benefit between 1995 and 2008. Refusal of oncologic therapy, as documented in the SEER database, was the primary outcome measure. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate factors associated with refusal. The impact of refusal of therapy on cancer-specific mortality was assessed with Fine and Gray's competing risks regression. In total, 2441 of 692,938 patients (0.4%) refused surgery, and 2113 of 232,189 patients (0.9%) refused radiation, despite the recommendations of their physicians. On multivariable analysis, advancing age, decreasing annual income, nonwhite race, and unmarried status were associated with refusal of surgery, whereas advancing age, decreasing annual income, Asian American race, and unmarried status were associated with refusal of radiation (PRefusal of surgery and radiation were associated with increased estimates of cancer-specific mortality for all malignancies evaluated (hazard ratio [HR], 2.80, 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.59-3.03; Prefuse curative surgical and/or radiation-based oncologic therapy, raising concern that socioeconomic factors may drive some patients to forego potentially life-saving care. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Curating Performance on the Edge of the Art Museum

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Groth, Sanne Krogh; Schwarzbart, Judith

two-day festival offers a format that vary considerable from the exhibition series the museum puts on most of the time. The performance program includes artists such as composers usually working with contemporary music, electronic music composers, as well as performance artists working from......Since the Intermedia and Fluxus movements a variety of timebased artforms have been contained within visual art contexts. The performative works draw often as much on the tradition of theatre, music, dance, and poetry reading as fine art. Although the institutional context plays a role...... art institution. Our research relates specifically to a festival for performative art, ACTS 2014, which we co-curate for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde. Having grown out of a Fluxus spirit, the museum is not foreign to time-based practices like many museums are. Nevertheless, the intensive...

[The relation of the patient's condition and outcome of drug maintainance therapy in schizophrenia (analysis of the curative effect in 324 cases)].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Z

1989-12-01

Cf, the methodology and diagnostic standard of 12 collaborative units about "Epidemiological investigation" of 1982, we traced to investigate the relation between the patients' condition outcome and drug maintain therapy of 324 cases with schizophrenia in community. The investigative result showed the cure rate of insisting on taking medicine group was 25.21%, the effective rate was 97.48%, the cure rate of irregular taking medicine groups was 6.63%, the effective rate was 68.37%, there was remarkable difference between the cure rate and the effective rate in two groups. Otherwise we also compared the patients, condition of insisting on taking drug groups with during investigation. We found there was no remarkable change that showed insisting a drug maintain therapy out the hospital to the curative effect of the disease to possess on important meaning. The pattern also compared the curative effect of a time onset of disease group and many times. There was no remarkable difference about the statistical analysis of the curative effect among each group. It showed me never lose confidence to the patients. We should treat actively them.

Non-imputability, criminal dangerousness and curative safety measures: myths and realities

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Frank Harbottle Quirós

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The curative safety measures are imposed in a criminal proceeding to the non-imputable people provided that through a prognosis it is concluded in an affirmative way about its criminal dangerousness. Although this statement seems very elementary, in judicial practice several myths remain in relation to these legal institutes whose versions may vary, to a greater or lesser extent, between the different countries of the world. In this context, the present article formulates ten myths based on the experience of Costa Rica and provides an explanation that seeks to weaken or knock them down, inviting the reader to reflect on them.

Curative effect of moisturizing eye decoction combined with artificial tears in treatment on ophthalmoxerosis

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Yu-Ping Ren

2017-08-01

Full Text Available AIM: To observe the clinical effects of moisturizing eye decoction combined with artificial tears in the treatment of ophthalmoxerosis.METHODS: A randomized controlled clinical research method was employed. One hundred-sixty patients diagnosed with ophthalmoxerosis were equally divided into a treatment group and a control group. In the treatment group, patients were given one dose per day of the moisturizing eye decoction as well as artificial tear drops three times a day. The patients in the control group were treated with artificial tears drops three times a day. The course of treatment was 3mo. Dry-eye symptoms, tear break-up time(BUTby the slit lamp, the time of tear secretion(Schirmers Ⅰ test, corneal fluorescein staining(FL, and curative effects were observed before treatment as well as in the first and third months after treatment.RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of BUT, SⅠt, and FL before treatment(P>0.05. After treatment in the first and the third months, the BUT, SⅠt, FL, and curative effects were significantly different between the two groups(PCONCLUSION: Moisturizing eye decoction combined with artificial tears in the treatment of ophthalmoxerosis can improve efficacy.

Data Curation for the Exploitation of Large Earth Observation Products Databases - The MEA system

Science.gov (United States)

Mantovani, Simone; Natali, Stefano; Barboni, Damiano; Cavicchi, Mario; Della Vecchia, Andrea

2014-05-01

National Space Agencies under the umbrella of the European Space Agency are performing a strong activity to handle and provide solutions to Big Data and related knowledge (metadata, software tools and services) management and exploitation. The continuously increasing amount of long-term and of historic data in EO facilities in the form of online datasets and archives, the incoming satellite observation platforms that will generate an impressive amount of new data and the new EU approach on the data distribution policy make necessary to address technologies for the long-term management of these data sets, including their consolidation, preservation, distribution, continuation and curation across multiple missions. The management of long EO data time series of continuing or historic missions - with more than 20 years of data available already today - requires technical solutions and technologies which differ considerably from the ones exploited by existing systems. Several tools, both open source and commercial, are already providing technologies to handle data and metadata preparation, access and visualization via OGC standard interfaces. This study aims at describing the Multi-sensor Evolution Analysis (MEA) system and the Data Curation concept as approached and implemented within the ASIM and EarthServer projects, funded by the European Space Agency and the European Commission, respectively.

submitter BioSharing: curated and crowd-sourced metadata standards, databases and data policies in the life sciences

CERN Document Server

McQuilton, Peter; Rocca-Serra, Philippe; Thurston, Milo; Lister, Allyson; Maguire, Eamonn; Sansone, Susanna-Assunta

2016-01-01

BioSharing (http://www.biosharing.org) is a manually curated, searchable portal of three linked registries. These resources cover standards (terminologies, formats and models, and reporting guidelines), databases, and data policies in the life sciences, broadly encompassing the biological, environmental and biomedical sciences. Launched in 2011 and built by the same core team as the successful MIBBI portal, BioSharing harnesses community curation to collate and cross-reference resources across the life sciences from around the world. BioSharing makes these resources findable and accessible (the core of the FAIR principle). Every record is designed to be interlinked, providing a detailed description not only on the resource itself, but also on its relations with other life science infrastructures. Serving a variety of stakeholders, BioSharing cultivates a growing community, to which it offers diverse benefits. It is a resource for funding bodies and journal publishers to navigate the metadata landscape of the ...

NaviCell: a web-based environment for navigation, curation and maintenance of large molecular interaction maps.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuperstein, Inna; Cohen, David P A; Pook, Stuart; Viara, Eric; Calzone, Laurence; Barillot, Emmanuel; Zinovyev, Andrei

2013-10-07

Molecular biology knowledge can be formalized and systematically represented in a computer-readable form as a comprehensive map of molecular interactions. There exist an increasing number of maps of molecular interactions containing detailed and step-wise description of various cell mechanisms. It is difficult to explore these large maps, to organize discussion of their content and to maintain them. Several efforts were recently made to combine these capabilities together in one environment, and NaviCell is one of them. NaviCell is a web-based environment for exploiting large maps of molecular interactions, created in CellDesigner, allowing their easy exploration, curation and maintenance. It is characterized by a combination of three essential features: (1) efficient map browsing based on Google Maps; (2) semantic zooming for viewing different levels of details or of abstraction of the map and (3) integrated web-based blog for collecting community feedback. NaviCell can be easily used by experts in the field of molecular biology for studying molecular entities of interest in the context of signaling pathways and crosstalk between pathways within a global signaling network. NaviCell allows both exploration of detailed molecular mechanisms represented on the map and a more abstract view of the map up to a top-level modular representation. NaviCell greatly facilitates curation, maintenance and updating the comprehensive maps of molecular interactions in an interactive and user-friendly fashion due to an imbedded blogging system. NaviCell provides user-friendly exploration of large-scale maps of molecular interactions, thanks to Google Maps and WordPress interfaces, with which many users are already familiar. Semantic zooming which is used for navigating geographical maps is adopted for molecular maps in NaviCell, making any level of visualization readable. In addition, NaviCell provides a framework for community-based curation of maps.

An Inquiry of Intentions in Kim Hye-yong's 'First Meeting': A North Korean Short Story in Korea Today (2007.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alzo David-West

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the problem of the intentional fallacy in the North Korean short story 'First Meeting' by Kim Hye-yong. Serially published in Korea Today in 2007, the nationalist allegory centres on Shin Ch'ong-mi, a young female journalist in Pyongyang, who falls in love with her penfriend Song-u, a soldier in the Korean People's Army, and struggles to remain devoted to him when he suddenly stops writing. With the literary-critical method of counterintuitive reading, the inquiry analyses the structural relations of the narrative, its discourse on desire, its apparent intentions, and its contravening elements, revealing an incidental unstable narrative that is symbolically protesting of the moral of the story to affectionately embrace the political authority of the North Korean party-army regime in the military-first (songun era.

Cooling Simulation and Thermal Abuse Modeling of Lithium-Ion Batteries Using the Newman, Tiedemann, Gu, and Kim (NTGK) Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Saeed Madani, Seyed; Swierczynski, Maciej Jozef; Kær, Søren Knudsen

2017-01-01

This paper gives insight into the cooling simulation and thermal abuse modeling of lithium-ion batteries by ANSYS FLUENT. Cooling strategies are important issues in the thermal management of lithium-ion battery systems, and it is essential to investigate them attentively in order to maintain...... the functioning temperature of batteries within an optimum range. The high temperature is able not only to decrease the efficiency of batteries but also may lead to the thermal runaway. To comprehend further, the thermal abuse behavior of lithium-ion batteries based on The Newman, Tiedemann, Gu, and Kim (NTGK......) model has been implemented in ANSYS FLUENT software. The results show that to achieve an optimum energy consumption for battery cooling, a minimum value of average heat transfer coefficient can be selected in order to keep the functioning temperature of batteries within an optimum range....

tRNA sequence data, annotation data and curation data - tRNADB-CE | LSDB Archive [Life Science Database Archive metadata

Lifescience Database Archive (English)

Full Text Available switchLanguage; BLAST Search Image Search Home About Archive Update History Data List Contact us tRNAD... tRNA sequence data, annotation data and curation data - tRNADB-CE | LSDB Archive ...

A spindle cell anaplastic pancreatic carcinoma with rhabdoid features following curative resection.

Science.gov (United States)

Abe, Tomoyuki; Amano, Hironobu; Hanada, Keiji; Okazaki, Akihisa; Yonehara, Shuji; Kuranishi, Fumito; Nakahara, Masahiro; Kuroda, Yoshinori; Noriyuki, Toshio

2016-08-01

Anaplastic pancreatic carcinoma (ANPC) accounts for ~5% of all pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cases. Due to its rarity, its clinical features and surgical outcomes remain to be clearly understood. A 74-year-old woman was admitted to Onomichi General Hospital (Onomichi, Japan) in April 2015 without any significant past medical history. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) revealed a 9.5×8.0 cm tumor in the body and tail of the pancreas. The patient developed acute abdominal pain 3 weeks later and the CT revealed massive abdominal bleeding caused by tumor rupture. The tumor increased in size and reached 12.0×10.0 cm in maximal diameter. The tumor doubling time was estimated to be 13 days. 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/CT confirmed the absence of distant metastasis since FDG accumulation was detected only in the tumor lesion. Emergency distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy were performed. Histologically, the tumor was classified as a spindle cell ANPC with rhabdoid features. The patient succumbed to mortality 8 months following the surgery while undergoing systemic adjuvant chemotherapy for multiple liver metastases. ANPC is difficult to detect in the early stages due to its progressive nature and atypical radiological findings. Long-term survival can be achieved only by curative resection; therefore, surgical resection must be performed whenever possible, even if the chance of long-term survival following surgery is considered dismal. As the present case suggested, spindle cell ANPC with rhabdoid features is highly aggressive and curative-intent resection must not be delayed.

Earth System Model Development and Analysis using FRE-Curator and Live Access Servers: On-demand analysis of climate model output with data provenance.

Science.gov (United States)

Radhakrishnan, A.; Balaji, V.; Schweitzer, R.; Nikonov, S.; O'Brien, K.; Vahlenkamp, H.; Burger, E. F.

2016-12-01

There are distinct phases in the development cycle of an Earth system model. During the model development phase, scientists make changes to code and parameters and require rapid access to results for evaluation. During the production phase, scientists may make an ensemble of runs with different settings, and produce large quantities of output, that must be further analyzed and quality controlled for scientific papers and submission to international projects such as the Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). During this phase, provenance is a key concern:being able to track back from outputs to inputs. We will discuss one of the paths taken at GFDL in delivering tools across this lifecycle, offering on-demand analysis of data by integrating the use of GFDL's in-house FRE-Curator, Unidata's THREDDS and NOAA PMEL's Live Access Servers (LAS).Experience over this lifecycle suggests that a major difficulty in developing analysis capabilities is only partially the scientific content, but often devoted to answering the questions "where is the data?" and "how do I get to it?". "FRE-Curator" is the name of a database-centric paradigm used at NOAA GFDL to ingest information about the model runs into an RDBMS (Curator database). The components of FRE-Curator are integrated into Flexible Runtime Environment workflow and can be invoked during climate model simulation. The front end to FRE-Curator, known as the Model Development Database Interface (MDBI) provides an in-house web-based access to GFDL experiments: metadata, analysis output and more. In order to provide on-demand visualization, MDBI uses Live Access Servers which is a highly configurable web server designed to provide flexible access to geo-referenced scientific data, that makes use of OPeNDAP. Model output saved in GFDL's tape archive, the size of the database and experiments, continuous model development initiatives with more dynamic configurations add complexity and challenges in providing an on

Utility of Inflammatory Marker- and Nutritional Status-based Prognostic Factors for Predicting the Prognosis of Stage IV Gastric Cancer Patients Undergoing Non-curative Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Mimatsu, Kenji; Fukino, Nobutada; Ogasawara, Yasuo; Saino, Yoko; Oida, Takatsugu

2017-08-01

The present study aimed to compare the utility of various inflammatory marker- and nutritional status-based prognostic factors, including many previous established prognostic factors, for predicting the prognosis of stage IV gastric cancer patients undergoing non-curative surgery. A total of 33 patients with stage IV gastric cancer who had undergone palliative gastrectomy and gastrojejunostomy were included in the study. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the relationships between the mGPS, PNI, NLR, PLR, the CONUT, various clinicopathological factors and cancer-specific survival (CS). Among patients who received non-curative surgery, univariate analysis of CS identified the following significant risk factors: chemotherapy, mGPS and NLR, and multivariate analysis revealed that the mGPS was independently associated with CS. The mGPS was a more useful prognostic factor than the PNI, NLR, PLR and CONUT in patients undergoing non-curative surgery for stage IV gastric cancer. Copyright© 2017, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

Hayabusa Asteroidal Sample Preliminary Examination Team (HASPET) and the Astromaterial Curation Facility at JAXA/ISAS

Science.gov (United States)

Yano, H.; Fujiwara, A.

After the successful launch in May 2003, the Hayabusa (MUSES-C) mission of JAXA/ISAS will collect surface materials (e.g., regolith) of several hundred mg to several g in total from the S-type near Earth asteroid (25143) Itokawa in late 2005 and bring them back to ground laboratories in the summer of 2007. The retrieved samples will be given initial analysis at the JAXA/ISAS astromaterial curation facility, which is currently in the preparation for its construction, by the Hayabusa Asteroidal Sample Preliminary Examination Team (HASPET). HASPET is consisted of the ISAS Hayabusa team, the international partners from NASA and Australia and all-Japan meteoritic scientists to be selected as outsourcing parts of the initial analyses. The initial analysis to characterize general aspects of returned samples can consume only 15 % of its total mass and must complete the whole analyses including the database building before international AO for detailed analyses within the maximum of 1 year. Confident exercise of non-destructive, micro-analyses whenever possible are thus vital for the HASPET analysis. In the purpose to survey what kinds and levels of micro-analysis techniques in respective fields, from major elements and mineralogy to trace and isotopic elements and organics, are available in Japan at present, ISAS has conducted the HASPET open competitions in 2000-01 and 2004. The initial evaluation was made by multiple domestic peer reviews. Applicants were then provided two kinds of unknown asteroid sample analogs in order to conduct proposed analysis with self-claimed amount of samples in self-claimed duration. After the completion of multiple, international peer reviews, the Selection Committee compiled evaluations and recommended the finalists of each round. The final members of the HASPET will be appointed about 2 years prior to the Earth return. Then they will conduct a test-run of the whole initial analysis procedures at the ISAS astromaterial curation facility and

Predictive performance of TPA testing for recurrent disease during follow-up after curative intent surgery for colorectal carcinoma

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Sluis, Frederik J.; Zhan, Zhuozhao; Verberne, Charlotte J.; Muller Kobold, Anneke C.; Wiggers, Theo; de Bock, Geertruida H.

Background: The aim of the present study was to investigate the predictive performance of serial tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) testing after curative intent resection for detection of recurrence of colorectal malignancy. Methods: Serum samples were obtained in 572 patients from three different

Refusal of Curative Radiation Therapy and Surgery Among Patients With Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aizer, Ayal A.; Chen, Ming-Hui; Parekh, Arti; Choueiri, Toni K.; Hoffman, Karen E.; Kim, Simon P.; Martin, Neil E.; Hu, Jim C.; Trinh, Quoc-Dien; Nguyen, Paul L.

2014-01-01

Purpose: Surgery and radiation therapy represent the only curative options for many patients with solid malignancies. However, despite the recommendations of their physicians, some patients refuse these therapies. This study characterized factors associated with refusal of surgical or radiation therapy as well as the impact of refusal of recommended therapy on patients with localized malignancies. Methods and Materials: We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program to identify a population-based sample of 925,127 patients who had diagnoses of 1 of 8 common malignancies for which surgery and/or radiation are believed to confer a survival benefit between 1995 and 2008. Refusal of oncologic therapy, as documented in the SEER database, was the primary outcome measure. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate factors associated with refusal. The impact of refusal of therapy on cancer-specific mortality was assessed with Fine and Gray's competing risks regression. Results: In total, 2441 of 692,938 patients (0.4%) refused surgery, and 2113 of 232,189 patients (0.9%) refused radiation, despite the recommendations of their physicians. On multivariable analysis, advancing age, decreasing annual income, nonwhite race, and unmarried status were associated with refusal of surgery, whereas advancing age, decreasing annual income, Asian American race, and unmarried status were associated with refusal of radiation (P<.001 in all cases). Refusal of surgery and radiation were associated with increased estimates of cancer-specific mortality for all malignancies evaluated (hazard ratio [HR], 2.80, 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.59-3.03; P<.001 and HR 1.97 [95% CI, 1.78-2.18]; P<.001, respectively). Conclusions: Nonwhite, less affluent, and unmarried patients are more likely to refuse curative surgical and/or radiation-based oncologic therapy, raising concern that socioeconomic factors may drive some patients to forego potentially life

Refusal of Curative Radiation Therapy and Surgery Among Patients With Cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aizer, Ayal A., E-mail: aaaizer@partners.org [Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Chen, Ming-Hui [Department of Statistics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut (United States); Parekh, Arti [Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Choueiri, Toni K. [Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Hoffman, Karen E. [Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Kim, Simon P. [Department of Urology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota (United States); Martin, Neil E. [Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Hu, Jim C. [Department of Urology, University of California, Los Angeles, California (United States); Trinh, Quoc-Dien [Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit, University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, Quebec (Canada); Nguyen, Paul L. [Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States)

2014-07-15

Purpose: Surgery and radiation therapy represent the only curative options for many patients with solid malignancies. However, despite the recommendations of their physicians, some patients refuse these therapies. This study characterized factors associated with refusal of surgical or radiation therapy as well as the impact of refusal of recommended therapy on patients with localized malignancies. Methods and Materials: We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program to identify a population-based sample of 925,127 patients who had diagnoses of 1 of 8 common malignancies for which surgery and/or radiation are believed to confer a survival benefit between 1995 and 2008. Refusal of oncologic therapy, as documented in the SEER database, was the primary outcome measure. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate factors associated with refusal. The impact of refusal of therapy on cancer-specific mortality was assessed with Fine and Gray's competing risks regression. Results: In total, 2441 of 692,938 patients (0.4%) refused surgery, and 2113 of 232,189 patients (0.9%) refused radiation, despite the recommendations of their physicians. On multivariable analysis, advancing age, decreasing annual income, nonwhite race, and unmarried status were associated with refusal of surgery, whereas advancing age, decreasing annual income, Asian American race, and unmarried status were associated with refusal of radiation (P<.001 in all cases). Refusal of surgery and radiation were associated with increased estimates of cancer-specific mortality for all malignancies evaluated (hazard ratio [HR], 2.80, 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.59-3.03; P<.001 and HR 1.97 [95% CI, 1.78-2.18]; P<.001, respectively). Conclusions: Nonwhite, less affluent, and unmarried patients are more likely to refuse curative surgical and/or radiation-based oncologic therapy, raising concern that socioeconomic factors may drive some patients to forego potentially life

Use of an autologous liver round ligament flap zeros postoperative bile leak after curative resection of hilar cholangiocarcinoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Da-Xin; Tan, Xiao-Dong; Gao, Feng; Xu, Jin; Cui, Dong-Xu; Dai, Xian-Wei

2015-01-01

Postoperative bile leak is a major surgical morbidity after curative resection with hepaticojejunostomy for hilar cholangiocarcinoma, especially in Bismuth-Corlette types III and IV. This retrospective study assessed the effectiveness and safety of an autologous hepatic round ligament flap (AHRLF) for reducing bile leak after hilar hepaticojejunostomy. Nine type III and IV hilar cholangiocarcinoma patients were consecutively hospitalized for elective perihilar partial hepatectomy with hilar hepaticojejunostomy using an AHRLF between October 2009 and September 2013. The AHRLF was harvested to reinforce the perihilar hepaticojejunostomy. Main outcome measures included operative time, blood loss, postoperative recovery times, morbidity, bile leak, R0 resection rate, and overall survival. All patients underwent uneventful R0 resection with hilar hepaticojejunostomy. No patient experienced postoperative bile leak. The AHRLF was associated with lack of bile leak after curative perihilar hepatectomy with hepaticojejunostomy for hilar cholangiocarcinoma, without compromising oncologic safety, and is recommended in selected patients.

Genesis Contingency Planning and Mishap Recovery: The Sample Curation View

Science.gov (United States)

Stansbery, E. K.; Allton, J. H.; Allen, C. C.; McNamara, K. M.; Calaway, M.; Rodriques, M. C.

2007-01-01

Planning for sample preservation and curation was part of mission design from the beginning. One of the scientific objectives for Genesis included collecting samples of three regimes of the solar wind in addition to collecting bulk solar wind during the mission. Collectors were fabricated in different thicknesses for each regime of the solar wind and attached to separate frames exposed to the solar wind during specific periods of solar activity associated with each regime. The original plan to determine the solar regime sampled for specific collectors was to identify to which frame the collector was attached. However, the collectors were dislodged during the hard landing making identification by frame attachment impossible. Because regimes were also identified by thickness of the collector, the regime sampled is identified by measuring fragment thickness. A variety of collector materials and thin films applied to substrates were selected and qualified for flight. This diversity provided elemental measurement in more than one material, mitigating effects of diffusion rates and/or radiation damage. It also mitigated against different material and substrate strengths resulting in differing effects of the hard landing. For example, silicon crystal substrates broke into smaller fragments than sapphire-based substrates and diamond surfaces were more resilient to flying debris damage than gold. The primary responsibility of the curation team for recovery was process documentation. Contingency planning for the recovery phase expanded this responsibility to include not only equipment to document, but also gather, contain and identify samples from the landing area and the recovered spacecraft. The team developed contingency plans for various scenarios as part of mission planning that included topographic maps to aid in site recovery and identification of different modes of transport and purge capability depending on damage. A clean tent, set-up at Utah Test & Training Range

Estimation of annual committed effective dose due to radioactivity of curative drinking thermal spring waters in Turkey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dirican, A.; Shahin, M.; Serefinoglu, M.; Erden, P.E.; Shahin, N.K.

2014-01-01

Full text : Spa customers protection against natural radioactivity in curative drinking thermal water is not regulated in Europe and Turkey. For this reason, a technical cooperation project was conducted to provide a report containing radioactivity measurement results, dosimetric calculations and analysis of the radiation protection regulations to be applied in spas

Prognostic Factors of Patients with Gastric Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor after Curative Resection: A Retrospective Analysis of 406 Consecutive Cases in a Multicenter Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, In-Hwan; Kwak, Sang-Gyu; Chae, Hyun-Dong

2015-01-01

Gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) have a highly variable clinical course, and recurrent disease sometimes develops despite curative surgery. This study was undertaken to investigate the surgical role in treating gastric GISTs and evaluate the clinicopathological features of a large series of patients who underwent curative resection for gastric GISTs to clarify which features were independent prognostic factors. The clinicopathological data of 406 patients with gastric GISTs who underwent curative resection at 4 university hospitals in Daegu, South Korea, from March 1998 to March 2012 were reviewed. All cases were confirmed as gastric GISTs by immunohistochemical staining, in which CD117 or CD34 was positive. Clinical follow-up was performed periodically, and disease-free survival rates were retrospectively investigated using the medical records. The mean follow-up period was 42.9 months (range: 2-166). There were 11 recurrent patients (2.7%). Due to the small number of recurrences, age, sex and location were controlled using propensity score matching before performing any statistical analysis. Tumor size, mitotic count, NIH classification, and cellularity were judged to be independent prognostic factors for recurrence by univariate analysis. In a multivariate analysis, tumor size and mitotic count were significantly and independently related to recurrence, and tumor size was determined to be the most important prognostic factor for recurrence after curative resection (hazard ratio: 1.204; p < 0.01). The results of this multicenter study demonstrate that disease-free survival rates are good. Tumor size was disclosed as the most important factor for recurrence in gastric GIST patients who underwent radical resection. 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

[Observation of curative effect of herpes zoster treated with acupuncture based on syndrome differentiation combined with pricking and cupping].

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Hua

2011-10-01

To compare the differences of curative effects of herpes zoster treated with acupuncture based on syndrome differentiation combined with pricking and cupping and simple pricking and cupping. Eighty-six cases were randomly divided into an observation group (43 cases) and a control group (43 cases). In observation group, acupoints selection based on syndrome differentiation i.e. Quchi (LI 11), Zusanli (ST 36), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), etc. were selected and pricking and cupping at affected parts were applied, and the cases were classified into damp heat in liver and gallbladder, damp retention and spleen deficiency, and qi deficiency and blood stasis. In control group, all the cases were simplely treated with pricking and cupping at affected parts. The treatment was given once a day, and seven days were made one session. The curative effect was evaluated after 2 courses, and the follow-up was carried on after 1 month. The cured and markedly effective rate was 93.0% (40/43) in observation group, superior to that of 67.4% (29/43) in control group (P 0.05). The cured and markedly effective rate of damp retention and spleen deficiency: 93.8% (15/16) in observation group, superior to that of 60.0% (9/15) in control group (P cupping therapy is high pertinent and effective, the postherpetic neuralgia can be reduced significantly and the curative effect is superior to that of simple pricking and cupping.

Toxicological and biochemical studies on Schinus terebinthifolius concerning its curative and hepatoprotective effects against carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury

Science.gov (United States)

Abdou, Rania H.; Saleh, Sherif Y.; Khalil, Waleed F.

2015-01-01

Background: Recently, many efforts have been made to discover new products of natural origin which can limit the xenobiotic-induced hepatic injury. Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is a highly toxic chemical that is widely used to study hepatotoxicity in animal models. Objective: The present study was conducted to investigate the curative and protective effects of Schinus terbenthifolius ethanolic extract against CCl4 -induced acute hepatotoxicity in rats. Materials and Methods: S. terbenthifolius extract was orally administered in a dose of 350 mg dried extract/kg b.wt. before and after intoxication with CCl4 for curative and protective experiments, respectively. A group of hepatotoxicity indicative enzymes, oxidant-antioxidant capacity, DNA oxidation, and apoptosis markers were measured. Results: CCl4 increased liver enzyme leakage, oxidative stress, hepatic apoptosis, DNA oxidation, and inflammatory markers. Administration of S. terebinthifolius, either before or after CCl4 intoxication, significantly decreased elevated serum liver enzymes and reinstated the antioxidant capacity. Interestingly, S. terebinthifolius extract inhibited hepatocyte apoptosis as revealed by approximately 20 times down-regulation in caspase-3 expression when compared to CCl4 untreated group. On the other hand, there was neither protective nor curative effect of S. terebinthifolius against DNA damage caused by CCl4. Conclusion: The present study suggests that S. terebinthifolius extract could be a substantially promising hepatoprotective agent against CCl4 toxic effects and may be against other hepatotoxic chemical or drugs. PMID:26109780

No impact of perioperative blood transfusion on prognosis after curative resection for hepatocellular carcinoma: a propensity score matching analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, T; Zhao, G; Wang, L; Wu, J; Cui, H; Liang, Y; Zhou, R; Liu, Z; Wang, Q

2017-10-27

The relationship between perioperative blood transfusion and long-term survival after curative resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains controversial. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of blood transfusion on the long-term prognosis of HCC patients. Patients with primary HCC who underwent a curative hepatectomy from 2003 to 2011 were enrolled and then retrospectively studied. The clinicopathologic characteristics between patients in the blood transfusion and non-transfusion groups were matched using a propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to identify whether perioperative blood transfusion affects long-term survival after resection for HCC. A total of 374 patients were enrolled and 113 patients received perioperative transfusions. The 1-, 3- and 5-year disease-free and overall survival rates of the entire cohort were 65.0, 37.3 and 23.9%, and 90.9, 70.7 and 57.5%, respectively. The disease-free and overall survival rates of the blood transfusion group were significantly worse than the disease-free and overall survival rates of the non-transfusion group in the entire cohort (p blood transfusion was not an independent predictor of disease-free and overall survival in the propensity-matched cohort (p = 0.154, p = 0.667). The present study demonstrates that perioperative blood transfusion has no impact on disease-free and overall survival after curative resection for HCC.

Systematic follow-up after curative surgery for colorectal cancer in Norway: a population-based audit of effectiveness, costs, and compliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Körner, Hartwig; Söreide, Kjetil; Stokkeland, Pål J; Söreide, Jon Arne

2005-03-01

In this study, we analyzed the Norwegian guidelines for systematic follow-up after curative colorectal cancer surgery in a large single institution. Three hundred fourteen consecutive unselected patients undergoing curative surgery for colorectal cancer between 1996 and 1999 were studied with regard to asymptomatic curable recurrence, compliance with the program, and cost. Follow-up included carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) interval measurements, colonoscopy, ultrasonography of the liver, and radiography of the chest. In 194 (62%) of the patients, follow-up was conducted according to the Norwegian guidelines. Twenty-one patients (11%) were operated on for curable recurrence, and 18 patients (9%) were disease free after curative surgery for recurrence at evaluation. Four metachronous tumors (2%) were found. CEA interval measurement had to be made most frequently (534 tests needed) to detect one asymptomatic curable recurrence. Follow-up program did not influence cancer-specific survival. Overall compliance with the surveillance program was 66%, being lowest for colonoscopy (55%) and highest for ultrasonography of the liver (85%). The total program cost was 228,117 euro (US 280,994 dollars), translating into 20,530 euro (US 25,289 dollars) for one surviving patient after surgery for recurrence. The total diagnosis yield with regard to disease-free survival after surgery for recurrence was 9%. Compliance was moderate. Whether the continuing implementation of such program and cost are justified should be debated.

Development and validation of a prediction model for tube feeding dependence after curative (chemo- radiation in head and neck cancer.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim Wopken

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Curative radiotherapy or chemoradiation for head and neck cancer (HNC may result in severe acute and late side effects, including tube feeding dependence. The purpose of this prospective cohort study was to develop a prediction model for tube feeding dependence 6 months (TUBEM6 after curative (chemo- radiotherapy in HNC patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Tube feeding dependence was scored prospectively. To develop the multivariable model, a group LASSO analysis was carried out, with TUBEM6 as the primary endpoint (n = 427. The model was then validated in a test cohort (n = 183. The training cohort was divided into three groups based on the risk of TUBEM6 to test whether the model could be extrapolated to later time points (12, 18 and 24 months. RESULTS: Most important predictors for TUBEM6 were weight loss prior to treatment, advanced T-stage, positive N-stage, bilateral neck irradiation, accelerated radiotherapy and chemoradiation. Model performance was good, with an Area under the Curve of 0.86 in the training cohort and 0.82 in the test cohort. The TUBEM6-based risk groups were significantly associated with tube feeding dependence at later time points (p<0.001. CONCLUSION: We established an externally validated predictive model for tube feeding dependence after curative radiotherapy or chemoradiation, which can be used to predict TUBEM6.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of potentially curative and combination treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma with person-level data in a Canadian setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Thein, Hla-Hla; Isaranuwatchai, Wanrudee; Qiao, Yao; Wong, Kenny; Sapisochin, Gonzalo; Chan, Kelvin K W; Yoshida, Eric M; Earle, Craig C

2017-09-01

Patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are potential candidates for curative treatments such as radiofrequency ablation (RFA), surgical resection (SR), or liver transplantation (LT), which have demonstrated a significant survival benefit. We aimed to estimate the cost-effectiveness of curative and combination treatment strategies among patients diagnosed with HCC during 2002-2010. This study used Ontario Cancer Registry-linked administrative data to estimate effectiveness and costs (2013 USD) of the treatment strategies from the healthcare payer's perspective. Multiple imputation by logistic regression was used to handle missing data. A net benefit regression approach of baseline important covariates and propensity score adjustment were used to calculate incremental net benefit to generate incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and uncertainty measures. Among 2,222 patients diagnosed with HCC, 10.5%, 14.1%, and 10.3% received RFA, SR, and LT monotherapy, respectively; 0.5-3.1% dual treatments; and 0.5% triple treatments. Compared with no treatment (53.2%), transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) + RFA (average $2,465, 95% CI: -$20,000-$36,600/quality-adjusted life years [QALY]) or RFA monotherapy ($15,553, 95% CI: $3,500-$28,500/QALY) appears to be the most cost-effective modality with lowest ICER value. The cost-effectiveness acceptability curve showed that if the relevant threshold was $50,000/QALY, RFA monotherapy and TACE+ RFA would have a cost-effectiveness probability of 100%. Strategies using LT delivered the most additional QALYs and became cost-effective at a threshold of $77,000/QALY. Our findings found that TACE+ RFA dual treatment or RFA monotherapy appears to be the most cost-effective curative treatment for patients with potential early stage of HCC in Ontario. These findings highlight the importance of identifying and measuring differential benefits, costs, and cost-effectiveness of alternative HCC curative treatments in

[Short-term curative effects of Tantalum rod treatment in early avascular necrosis].

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Fu-Sheng; Ni, Zhe-Ji; Chu, Xiao-Bing; He, Bang-Jian; Li, Ju; Tong, Pei-Jian

2013-08-01

To explore the recent clinical curative effect of Tantalum rod in treating the early avascular necrosis. From January 2008 to November 2008, the 25 patients (39 hips) with early avascular necrosis accepted tantalum rod placement and included 9 males (11 hips) and 16 females (28 hips) with an average age of 37 years old ranging from 18 to 74 years old. Four patients (6 hips) caused by Alcoholic, 6 patients (8 hips) by hormone, 2 cases (2 hips) by traumatic, 13 cases (23 hips) by idiopathic. Steinberg preoperative stage involved 7 hips in period I, 24 hips in period II, 8 hips in period III. Curative effect analysis included preoperative and postoperative Harris score, radiographic changes and hip replacement for follow-up to accept the end of the femoral head survival rate. All patients were followed up for 6 to 47 months (averaged 37.4 months). All 12 hips imaging appeard progress,including tantalum rod exit in 1 hip, hip hemiarthroplasty collapse in 3 hips, the area increased to avascular necrosis in 8 hips. Six hips accepted total hip replacement, including imaging progress in 5 hips (41.7%, 5/12), no imaging progress in 1 hip (3.7%,1/27). All hips' Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed 6-month survival rate was (97.4 +/- 2.5)% after tantalum stick insertion, 1-year survival rate was (94.7 +/- 3.6), and 2-year survival rate was (88.6 +/- 5.4)%, 3-year survival rate was (72.5 +/- 11.2). It is effective for treatment of avascular necrosis of femoral head in Steinberg I and II by Tantalum rod, and it can effectively relieve femoral head replacement time.

Analysis of the clinical benefit of intraoperative radiotherapy in patients undergoing macroscopically curative resection for pancreatic cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kokubo, Masaki; Nishimura, Yasumasa; Shibamoto, Yuta; Sasai, Keisuke; Kanamori, Shuichi; Hosotani, Ryo; Imamura, Masayuki; Hiraoka, Masahiro

2000-01-01

Purpose: To determine the survival of pancreatic cancer patients treated with intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) and/or external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) following macroscopically curative resection. Methods and Materials: One hundred and thirty-eight patients with pancreatic cancer who had undergone potentially curative total or regional pancreatectomy between 1980 and 1997 were retrospectively analyzed. Among the 138 patients, 98 had a pathologically negative surgical margin and the remaining 40 patients had a positive surgical margin. The usual EBRT dose was 45-55 Gy with a daily fraction of 1.5-2.0 Gy. The median IORT dose was 25 Gy in a single fraction. Results: The 2-year cause-specific survival rate of patients with pathologically negative surgical margins was 19%, and that of patients with positive margins was 4% (p < 0.005). Although the median survival time (MST) of patients with negative margins treated with IORT and EBRT was significantly longer than that of those treated with operation alone (17 vs. 11 months), no significant difference in survival curves was observed. In patients with positive surgical margins in peripancreatic soft tissue, the difference between the survival curve of patients treated with surgery alone and that of those treated with surgery and radiation therapy was borderline significant (p < 0.10). Patients receiving intraarterial or intraportal infusion chemotherapy had significantly improved survival rates compared with those who did not receive it (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Although the MST was longer in patients with negative margins receiving IORT and EBRT than in those receiving no radiation, improved long-term survival by IORT and/or EBRT was not suggested. In patients with positive margins, our results obtained by IORT/EBRT were encouraging. Randomized studies with much higher patient numbers are necessary to define the role of IORT in curatively resected pancreatic cancer

MicroScope—an integrated microbial resource for the curation and comparative analysis of genomic and metabolic data

Science.gov (United States)

Vallenet, David; Belda, Eugeni; Calteau, Alexandra; Cruveiller, Stéphane; Engelen, Stefan; Lajus, Aurélie; Le Fèvre, François; Longin, Cyrille; Mornico, Damien; Roche, David; Rouy, Zoé; Salvignol, Gregory; Scarpelli, Claude; Thil Smith, Adam Alexander; Weiman, Marion; Médigue, Claudine

2013-01-01

MicroScope is an integrated platform dedicated to both the methodical updating of microbial genome annotation and to comparative analysis. The resource provides data from completed and ongoing genome projects (automatic and expert annotations), together with data sources from post-genomic experiments (i.e. transcriptomics, mutant collections) allowing users to perfect and improve the understanding of gene functions. MicroScope (http://www.genoscope.cns.fr/agc/microscope) combines tools and graphical interfaces to analyse genomes and to perform the manual curation of gene annotations in a comparative context. Since its first publication in January 2006, the system (previously named MaGe for Magnifying Genomes) has been continuously extended both in terms of data content and analysis tools. The last update of MicroScope was published in 2009 in the Database journal. Today, the resource contains data for >1600 microbial genomes, of which ∼300 are manually curated and maintained by biologists (1200 personal accounts today). Expert annotations are continuously gathered in the MicroScope database (∼50 000 a year), contributing to the improvement of the quality of microbial genomes annotations. Improved data browsing and searching tools have been added, original tools useful in the context of expert annotation have been developed and integrated and the website has been significantly redesigned to be more user-friendly. Furthermore, in the context of the European project Microme (Framework Program 7 Collaborative Project), MicroScope is becoming a resource providing for the curation and analysis of both genomic and metabolic data. An increasing number of projects are related to the study of environmental bacterial (meta)genomes that are able to metabolize a large variety of chemical compounds that may be of high industrial interest. PMID:23193269

NSDNA: a manually curated database of experimentally supported ncRNAs associated with nervous system diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jianjian; Cao, Yuze; Zhang, Huixue; Wang, Tianfeng; Tian, Qinghua; Lu, Xiaoyu; Lu, Xiaoyan; Kong, Xiaotong; Liu, Zhaojun; Wang, Ning; Zhang, Shuai; Ma, Heping; Ning, Shangwei; Wang, Lihua

2017-01-04

The Nervous System Disease NcRNAome Atlas (NSDNA) (http://www.bio-bigdata.net/nsdna/) is a manually curated database that provides comprehensive experimentally supported associations about nervous system diseases (NSDs) and noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). NSDs represent a common group of disorders, some of which are characterized by high morbidity and disabilities. The pathogenesis of NSDs at the molecular level remains poorly understood. ncRNAs are a large family of functionally important RNA molecules. Increasing evidence shows that diverse ncRNAs play a critical role in various NSDs. Mining and summarizing NSD-ncRNA association data can help researchers discover useful information. Hence, we developed an NSDNA database that documents 24 713 associations between 142 NSDs and 8593 ncRNAs in 11 species, curated from more than 1300 articles. This database provides a user-friendly interface for browsing and searching and allows for data downloading flexibility. In addition, NSDNA offers a submission page for researchers to submit novel NSD-ncRNA associations. It represents an extremely useful and valuable resource for researchers who seek to understand the functions and molecular mechanisms of ncRNA involved in NSDs. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Effects of the protective, curative, and eradicative applications of chitosan against Penicillium expansum in apples

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Josiane Cecília Darolt

Full Text Available Abstract Apple is one of the most important temperate fruit to Brazil economy, and the use of synthetic chemicals has been the main method for reducing postharvest diseases, such as the blue mold, caused by Penicillium expansum. This work intends to evaluate the practical utilization of chitosan for blue mold control. For this purpose, fruits were treated in a preventive and curative way, immersing the fruits in chitosan solution (5 or 10 mg mL-1, or adding a single drop of this solution (10 mg mL-1 directly into the injuries. The eradicative effect of the polysaccharide was also evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Chitosan did not show a curative effect against the blue mold, and its eradicative effect was only evidenced on the higher concentration (10 mg mL-1. On the other hand, preventively, without the addition of adjuvants, chitosan reduced blue mold incidence in fruits by 24% and 93%, through the immersion or the single drop methods, respectively. Thus, it was found that, for long scale utilization, some improvements in the physico-chemical properties of the chitosan are needed, since it was only capable to prevent the infection by P. expansum when directly added on the fruit injury.

Curative radiotherapy for primary orbital lymphoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bhatia, Sudershan; Paulino, Arnold C.; Buatti, John M.; Mayr, Nina A.; Wen, B.-C.

2002-01-01

Purpose: To review our institutional experience with primary orbital lymphoma and determine the prognostic factors for survival, local control, and distant metastases. In addition, we also analyzed the risk factors for complications in the radiotherapeutic management of this tumor. Methods and Materials: Between 1973 and 1998, 47 patients (29 women [62%] and 18 men [38%], median age 69 years, range 32-89) with Stage IAE orbital lymphoma were treated with curative intent at one department. Five had bilateral orbital involvement. The tumor was located in the eyelid and extraocular muscles in 23 (44%), conjunctiva in 17 (33%), and lacrimal apparatus in 12 (23%). The histologic features according to the World Heath Organization classification of lymphoid neoplasms was follicular lymphoma in 25, extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue type in 8, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in 12, mantle cell lymphoma in 6, and peripheral T-cell lymphoma in 1. For the purposes of comparison with the existing literature on orbital lymphomas, the grading system according to the Working Formulation was also recorded. The histologic grade was low in 33 (63%), intermediate in 18 (35%), and high in 1 (2%). All patients were treated with primary radiotherapy alone. The median dose for low-grade tumors was 3000 cGy (range 2000-4020); the median dose for intermediate and high-grade tumors was 4000 cGy (range 3000-5100). A lens-sparing approach was used in 19 patients (37%). Late complications for the lens and cornea were scored according to the subjective, objective, management, and analytic (SOMA) scale of the Late Effects of Normal Tissue (LENT) scoring system. The median follow-up was 55 months (range 6-232). Results: The local control rate was 100% in the 52 orbits treated. The 5-year overall survival and relapse-free survival rate was 73.6% and 65.5%, respectively. Tumor grade and location did not predict for overall survival or relapse-free survival

The KnownLeaf literature curation system captures knowledge about Arabidopsis leaf growth and development and facilitates integrated data mining

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Szakonyi, D.; Landeghem, van S.; Baerenfaller, K.; Baeyens, L.; Blomme, J.; Casanova-Saéz, R.; Bodt, De S.; Esteve-Bruna, D.; Fiorani, F.; Gonzalez, N.; Grønlund, J.; Immink, R.G.H.; Jover-Gil, S.; Kuwabara, A.; Muñoz-Nortes, T.; Dijk, van A.D.J.; Wilson-Sánchez, D.; Buchanan-Wollaston, V.; Angenent, G.C.; Peer, Van de Y.; Inzé, D.; Micol, J.L.; Gruissem, W.; Walsh, S.; Hilson, P.

2015-01-01

The information that connects genotypes and phenotypes is essentially embedded in research articles written in natural language. To facilitate access to this knowledge, we constructed a framework for the curation of the scientific literature studying the molecular mechanisms that control leaf growth

Early results of quality of life for curatively treated rectal cancers in Chinese patients with EORTC QLQ-CR29

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peng, Junjie; Shi, Debing; Goodman, Karyn A; Goldstein, David; Xiao, Changchun; Guan, Zuqing; Cai, Sanjun

2011-01-01

To assess the quality of life in curatively treated patients with rectal cancer in a prospectively collected cohort. Patients with stage I-III rectal cancer who were treated curatively in a single institution were accrued prospectively. Quality of life was assessed by use of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer questionnaire module for all cancer patients (QLQ-C30) and for colorectal cancer patients (QLQ-CR29). Quality of life among different treatment modalities and between stoma and nonstoma patients was evaluated in all patients. A total of 154 patients were assessed. The median time of completion for the questionnaires was 10 months after all the treatments. For patients with different treatment modalities, faecal incontinence and diarrhea were significantly higher in radiation group (p = 0.002 and p = 0.001, respectively), and no difference in male or female sexual function was found between radiation group and non-radiation group. For stoma and nonstoma patients, the QLQ-CR29 module found the symptoms of Defaecation and Embarrassment with Bowel Movement were more prominent in stoma patients, while no difference was detected in scales QLQ-C30 module. Our study provided additional information in evaluating QoL of Chinese rectal cancer patients with currently widely used QoL questionnaires. As a supplement to the QLQ-C30, EORTC QLQ-CR29 is a useful questionnaire in evaluating curatively treated patients with rectal cancer. Bowel dysfunction (diarrhea and faecal incontinence) was still the major problem compromising QoL in patients with either pre- or postoperative chemoradiotherapy

„Ritualno” i „struktuirano” odbacivanje u arheološkim interpretacijama: primer sistema za vodosnabdevanje na lokalitetu „Kale” u Krševici

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan Vranić

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Pitanja vezana za rituale, kultove, religiju ili magiju predstavljaju važne ali u značajnoj meri zanemarene i teorijski nedovoljno precizno utemeljene teme u savremenim arheološkim interpretacijama. Cilj rada jeste da na konkretnim primerima potencijalno ritualnih aktivnosti vezanih za izgradnju i moguće „ritualno ubijanje” sistema za vodosnabdevanje na lokalitetu „Kale” u Krševici pokaže kako ovo zanemarivanje nije samo posledica aktuelnosti i trendova o odabiru istraživačkih tema, već se radi o ozbiljnijem problemu koji pokazuje određene nedostatke savremenih pristupa vezanih za arheologiju identiteta i koncepte struktuiranog ili simboličkog odbacivanja.

Curative procedures of oral health and structural characteristics of primary dental care.

Science.gov (United States)

Baumgarten, Alexandre; Hugo, Fernando Neves; Bulgarelli, Alexandre Fávero; Hilgert, Juliana Balbinot

2018-04-09

To evaluate if the provision of clinical dental care, by means of the main curative procedures recommended in Primary Health Care, is associated with team structural characteristics, considering the presence of a minimum set of equipment, instrument, and supplies in Brazil's primary health care services. A cross-sectional exploratory study based on data collected from 18,114 primary healthcare services with dental health teams in Brazil, in 2014. The outcome was created from the confirmation of five clinical procedures performed by the dentist, accounting for the presence of minimum equipment, instrument, and supplies to carry them out. Covariables were related to structural characteristics. Poisson regression with robust variance was used to obtain crude and adjusted prevalence ratios, with 95% confidence intervals. A total of 1,190 (6.5%) dental health teams did not present the minimum equipment to provide clinical dental care and only 2,498 (14.8%) had all the instrument and supplies needed and provided the five curative procedures assessed. There was a positive association between the outcome and the composition of dental health teams, higher workload, performing analysis of health condition, and monitoring of oral health indicators. Additionally, the dental health teams that planned and programmed oral health actions with the primary care team monthly provided the procedures more frequently. Dentists with better employment status, career plans, graduation in public health or those who underwent permanent education activities provided the procedures more frequently. A relevant number of Primary Health Care services did not have the infrastructure to provide clinical dental care. However, better results were found in dental health teams with oral health technicians, with higher workload and that plan their activities, as well as in those that employed dentists with better working relationships, who had dentists with degrees in public health and who underwent

Curative procedures of oral health and structural characteristics of primary dental care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandre Baumgarten

2018-04-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To evaluate if the provision of clinical dental care, by means of the main curative procedures recommended in Primary Health Care, is associated with team structural characteristics, considering the presence of a minimum set of equipment, instrument, and supplies in Brazil’s primary health care services. METHODS A cross-sectional exploratory study based on data collected from 18,114 primary healthcare services with dental health teams in Brazil, in 2014. The outcome was created from the confirmation of five clinical procedures performed by the dentist, accounting for the presence of minimum equipment, instrument, and supplies to carry them out. Covariables were related to structural characteristics. Poisson regression with robust variance was used to obtain crude and adjusted prevalence ratios, with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS A total of 1,190 (6.5% dental health teams did not present the minimum equipment to provide clinical dental care and only 2,498 (14.8% had all the instrument and supplies needed and provided the five curative procedures assessed. There was a positive association between the outcome and the composition of dental health teams, higher workload, performing analysis of health condition, and monitoring of oral health indicators. Additionally, the dental health teams that planned and programmed oral health actions with the primary care team monthly provided the procedures more frequently. Dentists with better employment status, career plans, graduation in public health or those who underwent permanent education activities provided the procedures more frequently. CONCLUSIONS A relevant number of Primary Health Care services did not have the infrastructure to provide clinical dental care. However, better results were found in dental health teams with oral health technicians, with higher workload and that plan their activities, as well as in those that employed dentists with better working relationships

Curative procedures of oral health and structural characteristics of primary dental care

Science.gov (United States)

Baumgarten, Alexandre; Hugo, Fernando Neves; Bulgarelli, Alexandre Fávero; Hilgert, Juliana Balbinot

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To evaluate if the provision of clinical dental care, by means of the main curative procedures recommended in Primary Health Care, is associated with team structural characteristics, considering the presence of a minimum set of equipment, instrument, and supplies in Brazil’s primary health care services. METHODS A cross-sectional exploratory study based on data collected from 18,114 primary healthcare services with dental health teams in Brazil, in 2014. The outcome was created from the confirmation of five clinical procedures performed by the dentist, accounting for the presence of minimum equipment, instrument, and supplies to carry them out. Covariables were related to structural characteristics. Poisson regression with robust variance was used to obtain crude and adjusted prevalence ratios, with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS A total of 1,190 (6.5%) dental health teams did not present the minimum equipment to provide clinical dental care and only 2,498 (14.8%) had all the instrument and supplies needed and provided the five curative procedures assessed. There was a positive association between the outcome and the composition of dental health teams, higher workload, performing analysis of health condition, and monitoring of oral health indicators. Additionally, the dental health teams that planned and programmed oral health actions with the primary care team monthly provided the procedures more frequently. Dentists with better employment status, career plans, graduation in public health or those who underwent permanent education activities provided the procedures more frequently. CONCLUSIONS A relevant number of Primary Health Care services did not have the infrastructure to provide clinical dental care. However, better results were found in dental health teams with oral health technicians, with higher workload and that plan their activities, as well as in those that employed dentists with better working relationships, who had dentists

The Neotoma Paleoecology Database: An International Community-Curated Resource for Paleoecological and Paleoenvironmental Data

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, J. W.; Grimm, E. C.; Ashworth, A. C.; Blois, J.; Charles, D. F.; Crawford, S.; Davis, E.; Goring, S. J.; Graham, R. W.; Miller, D. A.; Smith, A. J.; Stryker, M.; Uhen, M. D.

2017-12-01

The Neotoma Paleoecology Database supports global change research at the intersection of geology and ecology by providing a high-quality, community-curated data repository for paleoecological data. These data are widely used to study biological responses and feedbacks to past environmental change at local to global scales. The Neotoma data model is flexible and can store multiple kinds of fossil, biogeochemical, or physical variables measured from sedimentary archives. Data additions to Neotoma are growing and include >3.5 million observations, >16,000 datasets, and >8,500 sites. Dataset types include fossil pollen, vertebrates, diatoms, ostracodes, macroinvertebrates, plant macrofossils, insects, testate amoebae, geochronological data, and the recently added organic biomarkers, stable isotopes, and specimen-level data. Neotoma data can be found and retrieved in multiple ways, including the Explorer map-based interface, a RESTful Application Programming Interface, the neotoma R package, and digital object identifiers. Neotoma has partnered with the Paleobiology Database to produce a common data portal for paleobiological data, called the Earth Life Consortium. A new embargo management is designed to allow investigators to put their data into Neotoma and then make use of Neotoma's value-added services. Neotoma's distributed scientific governance model is flexible and scalable, with many open pathways for welcoming new members, data contributors, stewards, and research communities. As the volume and variety of scientific data grow, community-curated data resources such as Neotoma have become foundational infrastructure for big data science.

Advanced Cancer and End-of-Life Preferences: Curative Intent Surgery Versus Noncurative Intent Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Schubart, Jane R; Green, Michael J; Van Scoy, Lauren J; Lehman, Erik; Farace, Elana; Gusani, Niraj J; Levi, Benjamin H

2015-12-01

People with cancer face complex medical decisions, including whether to receive life-sustaining treatments at the end of life. It is not unusual for clinicians to make assumptions about patients' wishes based on whether they had previously chosen to pursue curative treatment. We hypothesized that cancer patients who initially underwent curative intent surgery (CIS) would prefer more aggressive end-of-life treatments compared to patients whose treatment was noncurative intent (non-CIT). This study was a retrospective review of data from a large, randomized controlled trial examining the use of an online decision aid for advance care planning, "Making Your Wishes Known" (MYWK), with patients who had advanced cancer. We reviewed patients' medical records to determine which patients underwent CIS versus non-CIT. In the parent trial, conducted at an academic medical center (2007-2012), 200 patients were enrolled with stage IV malignancy or other poor prognosis cancer. Patients' preferences for aggressive treatment were measured in two ways: using patient-selected General Wishes statements generated by the decision aid and patient-selected wishes for specific treatments under various hypothetical clinical scenarios (Specific Wishes). We evaluated 79 patients. Of these, 48 had undergone initial CIS and 31 had non-CIT. Cancer patients who initially underwent CIS did not prefer more aggressive end-of-life treatments compared to patients whose treatment was non-CIT. Clinicians should avoid assumptions about patients' preferences for life-sustaining treatment based on their prior choices for aggressive treatment.

Collection, Curation, Citation at Source: Publication@Source 10 Years On

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeremy Frey

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The Southampton chemical information group had its genesis in 2001, when we began an e-Science pilot project to investigate structure-property mapping, combinatorial chemistry, and the Grid. CombeChem instigated a range of activities that have since been underway for more than ten years, in many ways matching the expansion of interest in using the Web as a vehicle for collection, curation, dissemination, reuse, and exploitation of scientific data and information. Chemistry has frequently provided the exemplar case studies, notably for the series of projects – funded by Jisc and EPSRC – that investigated the issues associated with the long-term preservation of data to support the scholarly knowledge cycle, such as the eBank UK project. Rapid developments in Internet access and mobile technology have significantly influenced the way researchers view connectivity, data standards, and the increasing importance and power of semantics and the Semantic Web. These technical advances interact strongly with the social dimension and have led to a reconsideration of the responsibilities of researchers for the quality of their research and for satisfying the requirements of modern stakeholders. Such obligations have given rise to discussions about Open Access and Open Data, creating a range of alternatives that are now technically feasible but need to be socially acceptable. Business plans are changing too, but in a strange contradiction, desire can run ahead of what is possible, sensible, and affordable, while lagging behind in imagination of what would be technically possible and potentially game-changing! Taking the chemical sciences as our example and focusing on the curation of research data, we explore from our perspective, ten years back and ten years forward, how far we have been able to re-imagine the data/information value pathway from bench to publication. We assess not only the major advances and changes that have been achieved, but also

Medicinal Meditations on Korean History and Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura C. Nelson

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Soyoung Suh. Naming the Local: Medicine, Language, and Identity in Korea since the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017. 244 pp. $40 (cloth. Eunjung Kim. Curative Violence: Rehabilitating Disability, Gender, and Sexuality in Modern Korea. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017. 312 pp. $100 (cloth; $26 (paper. Taken together, and particularly situated in the context of related studies of science and medicine in Korea and the East Asian region, Naming the Local and Curative Violence illustrate the productive power of ideas of health and wellness in the formation of Korean culture, society, and institutions. Medicine and medical care obviously are central elements of biopolitics, but the reach and complexity of their effects are often overlooked. Given the massive social and financial investments in health, it is no wonder that looking at South Korea through these lenses illuminates whole aspects of Korean society with new light...

miRSponge: a manually curated database for experimentally supported miRNA sponges and ceRNAs.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Peng; Zhi, Hui; Zhang, Yunpeng; Liu, Yue; Zhang, Jizhou; Gao, Yue; Guo, Maoni; Ning, Shangwei; Li, Xia

2015-01-01

In this study, we describe miRSponge, a manually curated database, which aims at providing an experimentally supported resource for microRNA (miRNA) sponges. Recent evidence suggests that miRNAs are themselves regulated by competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) or 'miRNA sponges' that contain miRNA binding sites. These competitive molecules can sequester miRNAs to prevent them interacting with their natural targets to play critical roles in various biological and pathological processes. It has become increasingly important to develop a high quality database to record and store ceRNA data to support future studies. To this end, we have established the experimentally supported miRSponge database that contains data on 599 miRNA-sponge interactions and 463 ceRNA relationships from 11 species following manual curating from nearly 1200 published articles. Database classes include endogenously generated molecules including coding genes, pseudogenes, long non-coding RNAs and circular RNAs, along with exogenously introduced molecules including viral RNAs and artificial engineered sponges. Approximately 70% of the interactions were identified experimentally in disease states. miRSponge provides a user-friendly interface for convenient browsing, retrieval and downloading of dataset. A submission page is also included to allow researchers to submit newly validated miRNA sponge data. Database URL: http://www.bio-bigdata.net/miRSponge. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

The Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories: A Call for Community Curation

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Scott E.; Trizna, Michael G.; Graham, Eileen; Crane, Adele E.

2016-01-01

Abstract The Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories is an online metadata resource for biodiversity collections, the institutions that contain them, and associated staff members. The registry provides contact and address information, characteristics of the institutions and collections using controlled vocabularies and free-text descripitons, links to related websites, unique identifiers for each institution and collection record, text fields for loan and use policies, and a variety of other descriptors. Each institution record includes an institutionCode that must be unique, and each collection record must have a collectionCode that is unique within that institution. The registry is populated with records imported from the largest similar registries and more can be harmonized and added. Doing so will require community input and curation and would produce a truly comprehensive and unifying information resource. PMID:27660523

The Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories: A Call for Community Curation.

Science.gov (United States)

Schindel, David E; Miller, Scott E; Trizna, Michael G; Graham, Eileen; Crane, Adele E

2016-01-01

The Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories is an online metadata resource for biodiversity collections, the institutions that contain them, and associated staff members. The registry provides contact and address information, characteristics of the institutions and collections using controlled vocabularies and free-text descripitons, links to related websites, unique identifiers for each institution and collection record, text fields for loan and use policies, and a variety of other descriptors. Each institution record includes an institutionCode that must be unique, and each collection record must have a collectionCode that is unique within that institution. The registry is populated with records imported from the largest similar registries and more can be harmonized and added. Doing so will require community input and curation and would produce a truly comprehensive and unifying information resource.

A Novel Inflammation-Based Prognostic Score: The Fibrinogen/Albumin Ratio Predicts Prognoses of Patients after Curative Resection for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiaodong Xu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Inflammation is an important hallmark of cancer. Fibrinogen and albumin are both vital factors in systemic inflammation. This study investigated the prognostic value of the fibrinogen/albumin ratio in HCC patients who underwent curative resection. Methods. HCC patients (n=151 who underwent curative resection were evaluated retrospectively. The optimal cutoff value for the fibrinogen/albumin ratio was selected by receiver operating characteristic (ROC curve analysis. Correlations between preoperative fibrinogen/albumin ratios and clinicopathologic characteristics were analyzed by χ2 test. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC was calculated to compare the prognostic value of the fibrinogen/albumin ratio with other prognostic scores (neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR, platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR, and albumin-bilirubin (ALBI score. The overall survival (OS and time to recurrence (TTR were assessed by the log-rank test and the Cox proportional hazard regression model. Results. An optimal cutoff value of the preoperative fibrinogen/albumin ratio (0.062 was determined for 151 patients who underwent curative resection for HCC via a ROC curve analysis. Fibrinogen/albumin ratio > 0.062 was significantly associated with microvascular invasion, an advanced BCLC stage, and ALBI grade. Multivariate analyses revealed that fibrinogen/albumin ratio was an independent predictor for OS (P=0.003 and TTR (P=0.035. The prognostic ability of fibrinogen/albumin ratio was comparable to other prognostic scores (NLR, PLR, and ALBI score by AUC analysis. Patients with a fibrinogen/albumin ratio > 0.062 had lower 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates (66.0%, 41.8%, and 28.2% versus 81.9%, 69.3%, and 56.1%, resp., P<0.001 and higher 1-, 3-, and 5-year recurrence rates (60.9%, 79.2%, and 90.5% versus 49.5%, 69.1%, and 77.1%, resp., P=0.008 compared with patients with fibrinogen/albumin ratio ≤ 0.062. Conclusion. The

Preventive and curative effects of ginger extract against histopathologic changes of gentamicin-induced tubular toxicity in rats

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Hamid Nasri

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Gentamicin (GM is a commonly used aminoglycoside, however, renal toxicity has limited its usage. This study was designed to evaluate the curative and protective effects of Zingiber officinale (ginger against gentamicin tubular toxicity in rats. The phenolic and flavonoid components and antioxidant activity of ginger were also evaluated. Methods: In a preclinical study, 50 male Wistar rats were designated into 5 groups of 10 and treated as follows: Group I: vehicle. Group II: 200 mg/kg/d of ginger for 3 days then, GM (80 mg/kg for 7 days. Group III: 200 mg/kg ginger orally for 3 days, then ginger plus GM for 7 days. Group IV: GM for 7 days. Group V: GM for 10 days. Group VI: GM for 7 days, then 200 mg/kg ginger orally for 10 days. At the end of the study, the animals were sacrificed and their kidneys were histologically evaluated. Results: Ginger could prevent degeneration of the renal cells and reduce the severity of tubular damage caused by gentamicin. However, it could not regenerate the GM degeneration. Conclusions: The results indicate that ginger is effective as a prophylaxis agent, but has not curative effect.

Urinary Vitamin D Binding Protein and KIM-1 Are Potent New Biomarkers of Major Adverse Renal Events in Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography.

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Lyubov Chaykovska

Full Text Available Vitamin-D-binding protein (VDBP is a low molecular weight protein that is filtered through the glomerulus as a 25-(OH vitamin D 3/VDBP complex. In the normal kidney VDBP is reabsorbed and catabolized by proximal tubule epithelial cells reducing the urinary excretion to trace amounts. Acute tubular injury is expected to result in urinary VDBP loss. The purpose of our study was to explore the potential role of urinary VDBP as a biomarker of an acute renal damage.We included 314 patients with diabetes mellitus or mild renal impairment undergoing coronary angiography and collected blood and urine before and 24 hours after the CM application. Patients were followed for 90 days for the composite endpoint major adverse renal events (MARE: need for dialysis, doubling of serum creatinine after 90 days, unplanned emergency rehospitalization or death.Increased urine VDBP concentration 24 hours after contrast media exposure was predictive for dialysis need (no dialysis: 113.06 ± 299.61 ng/ml, n = 303; need for dialysis: 613.07 ± 700.45 ng/ml, n = 11, Mean ± SD, p<0.001, death (no death during follow-up: 121.41 ± 324.45 ng/ml, n = 306; death during follow-up: 522.01 ± 521.86 ng/ml, n = 8; Mean ± SD, p<0.003 and MARE (no MARE: 112.08 ± 302.00 ng/ml, n = 298; MARE: 506.16 ± 624.61 ng/ml, n = 16, Mean ± SD, p<0.001 during the follow-up of 90 days after contrast media exposure. Correction of urine VDBP concentrations for creatinine excretion confirmed its predictive value and was consistent with increased levels of urinary Kidney Injury Molecule-1 (KIM-1 and baseline plasma creatinine in patients with above mentioned complications. The impact of urinary VDBP and KIM-1 on MARE was independent of known CIN risk factors such as anemia, preexisting renal failure, preexisting heart failure, and diabetes.Urinary VDBP is a promising novel biomarker of major contrast induced nephropathy-associated events 90 days after contrast media exposure.

Imitating manual curation of text-mined facts in biomedicine.

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Raul Rodriguez-Esteban

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Text-mining algorithms make mistakes in extracting facts from natural-language texts. In biomedical applications, which rely on use of text-mined data, it is critical to assess the quality (the probability that the message is correctly extracted of individual facts--to resolve data conflicts and inconsistencies. Using a large set of almost 100,000 manually produced evaluations (most facts were independently reviewed more than once, producing independent evaluations, we implemented and tested a collection of algorithms that mimic human evaluation of facts provided by an automated information-extraction system. The performance of our best automated classifiers closely approached that of our human evaluators (ROC score close to 0.95. Our hypothesis is that, were we to use a larger number of human experts to evaluate any given sentence, we could implement an artificial-intelligence curator that would perform the classification job at least as accurately as an average individual human evaluator. We illustrated our analysis by visualizing the predicted accuracy of the text-mined relations involving the term cocaine.

Here, KAPTUR This! Identifying and Selecting the Infrastructure Required to Support the Curation and Preservation of Visual Arts Research Data

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Leigh Garrett

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Research data is increasingly perceived as a valuable resource and, with appropriate curation and preservation, it has much to offer learning, teaching, research, knowledge transfer and consultancy activities in the visual arts. However, very little is known about the curation and preservation of this data: none of the specialist arts institutions have research data management policies or infrastructure and anecdotal evidence suggests that practice is ad hoc, left to individual researchers and teams with little support or guidance. In addition, the curation and preservation of such diverse and complex digital resources as found in the visual arts is, in itself, challenging. Led by the Visual Arts Data Service, a research centre of the University for the Creative Arts, in collaboration with the Glasgow School of Art; Goldsmiths College, University of London; and University of the Arts London, and funded by JISC, the KAPTUR project (2011-2013 seeks to address the lack of awareness and explore the potential of research data management systems in the arts by discovering the nature of research data in the visual arts, investigating the current state of research data management, developing a model of best practice applicable to both specialist arts institutions and arts departments in multidisciplinary institutions, and by applying, testing and piloting the model with the four institutional partners. Utilising the findings of the KAPTUR user requirement and technical review, this paper will outline the method and selection of an appropriate research data management system for the visual arts and the issues the team encountered along the way.

Dosimetric analysis of tapered midline shielding block and rectangular central shield utilised in the curative treatment of carcinoma of cervix

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Badkul, Rajeev K.; Kumar, S.; Sanyal, B.; Panday, R.K.; Patel, Aarti K.

1998-01-01

Carcinoma of uterine cervix is the most common malignant neoplasm among the Indian women. The incidence of cervical carcinoma is substantially higher among the women in low socio-economic classes. Radiotherapy is one of the effective modality in the curative treatment of carcinoma of cervix

Diagnostic performance of contrast enhanced CT and 18F-FDG PET/CT in suspicious recurrence of biliary tract cancer after curative resection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Yun-Gyoo; Bang, Yung-Jue; Han, Sae-Won; Oh, Do-Youn; Chie, Eui Kyu; Jang, Jin-Young; Im, Seock-Ah; Kim, Tae-You; Kim, Sun-Whe; Ha, Sung Whan

2011-01-01

Because of the late clinical presentation of biliary tract cancer (BTC), only 10% of patients are eligible for curative surgery. Even among those patients who have undergone curative surgery, most patients develop recurrent cancer. This study is to determine the clinical role of 18 F-FDG PET/CT during post-operative surveillance of suspected recurrent BTC based on symptoms, laboratory findings and contrast-enhanced CT (ceCT) findings. We consecutively enrolled 50 patients with BTC who underwent curative surgery. An 18 F-FDG PET/CT was obtained for assessment of recurrence based on clinical suspicion during post-operative surveillance. The final confirmation of recurrence was determined pathologically or clinically. When a pathologic confirmation was impossible or inconclusive, a clinical confirmation was used by radiologic correlation with subsequent follow-up ceCT at a minimum of 3-month intervals. Diagnostic efficacy was evaluated by comparing the results of ceCT and 18 F-FDG PET/CT with the final diagnosis. Among the 50 patients, 34(68%) were confirmed to have a recurrence. PET/CT showed higher sensitivity (88% vs. 76%, p = 0.16) and accuracy (82% vs. 66%, p = 0.11) for recurrence compared to ceCT, even though the difference was not significant. The positive (86% vs. 74%, p = 0.72) and negative predictive values for recurrence (73% vs. 47%, p = 0.55) were not significantly different between PET/CT and ceCT. However, an additional PET/CT on ceCT significantly improved the sensitivity than did a ceCT alone (94% [32/34] for PET/CT on ceCT vs. 76% [26/34] for ceCT alone, p = 0.03) without increasing the specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. 18 F-FDG PET/CT alone is not more sensitive or specific than ceCT in the detection of recurrent BTC after curative surgery. These results do not reach statistical significance, probably due to the low number of patients. However, an additional 18 F-FDG PET/CT on ceCT significantly improves the

Orthology prediction methods: a quality assessment using curated protein families.

Science.gov (United States)

Trachana, Kalliopi; Larsson, Tomas A; Powell, Sean; Chen, Wei-Hua; Doerks, Tobias; Muller, Jean; Bork, Peer

2011-10-01

The increasing number of sequenced genomes has prompted the development of several automated orthology prediction methods. Tests to evaluate the accuracy of predictions and to explore biases caused by biological and technical factors are therefore required. We used 70 manually curated families to analyze the performance of five public methods in Metazoa. We analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the methods and quantified the impact of biological and technical challenges. From the latter part of the analysis, genome annotation emerged as the largest single influencer, affecting up to 30% of the performance. Generally, most methods did well in assigning orthologous group but they failed to assign the exact number of genes for half of the groups. The publicly available benchmark set (http://eggnog.embl.de/orthobench/) should facilitate the improvement of current orthology assignment protocols, which is of utmost importance for many fields of biology and should be tackled by a broad scientific community. Copyright © 2011 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

CPAD, Curated Protein Aggregation Database: A Repository of Manually Curated Experimental Data on Protein and Peptide Aggregation.

Science.gov (United States)

Thangakani, A Mary; Nagarajan, R; Kumar, Sandeep; Sakthivel, R; Velmurugan, D; Gromiha, M Michael

2016-01-01

Accurate distinction between peptide sequences that can form amyloid-fibrils or amorphous β-aggregates, identification of potential aggregation prone regions in proteins, and prediction of change in aggregation rate of a protein upon mutation(s) are critical to research on protein misfolding diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as well as biotechnological production of protein based therapeutics. We have developed a Curated Protein Aggregation Database (CPAD), which has collected results from experimental studies performed by scientific community aimed at understanding protein/peptide aggregation. CPAD contains more than 2300 experimentally observed aggregation rates upon mutations in known amyloidogenic proteins. Each entry includes numerical values for the following parameters: change in rate of aggregation as measured by fluorescence intensity or turbidity, name and source of the protein, Uniprot and Protein Data Bank codes, single point as well as multiple mutations, and literature citation. The data in CPAD has been supplemented with five different types of additional information: (i) Amyloid fibril forming hexa-peptides, (ii) Amorphous β-aggregating hexa-peptides, (iii) Amyloid fibril forming peptides of different lengths, (iv) Amyloid fibril forming hexa-peptides whose crystal structures are available in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and (v) Experimentally validated aggregation prone regions found in amyloidogenic proteins. Furthermore, CPAD is linked to other related databases and resources, such as Uniprot, Protein Data Bank, PUBMED, GAP, TANGO, WALTZ etc. We have set up a web interface with different search and display options so that users have the ability to get the data in multiple ways. CPAD is freely available at http://www.iitm.ac.in/bioinfo/CPAD/. The potential applications of CPAD have also been discussed.

Clinical application and observation of curative effect in the near future of iodine-131 therapy in juvenile patients with hyperthyroidism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Huilin; Liang Jun; Liang Fengyun

2004-01-01

Objective: To assess clinical application of 131 I therapy and observation of curative effect in the near future after treatment in juvenile patients with hyperthyroidism Methods: 44 juvenile patients with hyperthyroidism were divided two subgroups of that children and early youths .The dosage of 131 I were respectively 135.1±34.0(3.65±0.92), 200.2±64.0 MBq(5.41±1.73 mCi). The curative effect belonged in four kinds being to fully recovered, quite a lot, fail to respond to medical and hypothyroidism at six month slater or from then. Results: 46 times treatment were gave and therapy effect was same in every subgroups. The effective rate of total was 89.1% and rater on clinical hypothyroidism was 4.3%. Conclusions: It had an obvious effect that 131 I therapy for juvenile patients with hyperthyroidism. 131 I therapy was also a firmly good select because a well ratio effect/cost. (authors)

Effect of Increased Radiotoxicity on Survival of Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with Curatively Intended Radiotherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Holgersson, Georg; Bergström, Stefan; Liv, Per; Nilsson, Jonas; Edlund, Per; Blomberg, Carl; Nyman, Jan; Friesland, Signe; Ekman, Simon; Asklund, Thomas; Henriksson, Roger; Bergqvist, Michael

2015-10-01

To elucidate the impact of different forms of radiation toxicities (esophagitis, radiation pneumonitis, mucositis and hoarseness), on the survival of patients treated with curatively intended radiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Data were individually collected retrospectively for all patients diagnosed with NSCLC subjected to curatively intended radiotherapy (≥50 Gy) in Sweden during the time period 1990 to 2000. Esophagitis was the only radiation-induced toxicity with an impact on survival (hazard ratio=0.83, p=0.016). However, in a multivariate model, with clinical- and treatment-related factors taken into consideration, the impact of esophagitis on survival was no longer statistically significant (hazard ratio=0.88, p=0.17). The effect on survival seen in univariate analysis may be related to higher radiation dose and to the higher prevalence of chemotherapy in this group. The results do not suggest that the toxicities examined have any detrimental effect on overall survival. Copyright© 2015 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.

Primary observation of clinical curative effect of superselective uterine artery embolization for treatment of placenta increta

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Changfu; Zhang Heping; Zhang Hongxia; Jin Haiying; Wang Binjie; He Xiang; Zhang Jie; Li Changbo

2008-01-01

Objective: To explore the curative effect on superselective uterine artery embolization for treatment of placenta increta. Methods: Pelvic arteriography was performed to confirm bleeding vessels. Then a 5 F Cobra catheter was inserted superselectively into uterine artery ipsilateral to bleeding, through which methotrexatum (MTX) and gelatin sponge were injected for embolization. After the procedure, bleeding, blood pressure, dischargement of placenta tissue, uterine recuperation, and plasma β-HCG were monitored. Results: Bleeding vessels were confirmed in all of the 5 cases of placenta increta. Uterine artery embolization was successful at sole procedure. The operation time was 25.0 to 60.0 min, with the mean time (37.4 ± 5.8) min. Vaginal bleeding stoped in 3.0 to 12.0 minutes after embolization and the mean time was (5.7 ± 2.4) min. Blood pressure returned to normal after operation and vital signs were stable. Placenta tissue discharged on the 5th day to the 4th week after embolization and the mean time was 17 d. The uterus recuperated and blood β-HCG recovered simutaneously. The menstruation and ovulation during follow-up returned to normal. Conclusion: Superselective uterine artery embolization for treatment of placenta increta has advantages such as short operation time, minimal invasion, definite curative effect and reservation of uterus, which is worthy in clinical application. (authors)

Optimum curative dose and the results of radiotherapy of the lower lip, larynx and cervix uteri neoplasms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kholin, V.V.; Libson, I.L.; Bartova, V.F.; Lubenets, Eh.N.

1982-01-01

An analysis of the results of radiotherapy of 951 patients with cancer of the lower lip, larynx and cervix uteri on the basis of the concept of a single optimum curative dose (OCD 1 ) is presented. The best long-term results (in good health for 3 years and more) were obtained for T 1 Stage with summary focal doses that were equivalent to OCD 1 : 98% for the lowel lip, 95% for the larynx, and 93.9% for cervix uteri. It has been shown that OCD 1 estimated for identical tumor volumes (1 cm 3 ) taking account of the character of fractionation and dose rate for all known sites is practically the same - about 24 Gy. It has been demonstrated that to reach a maximum effect with the growth of tumor volume, the summary curative dose should be increased; however, of common knowledge is that under the conditions of γ-beam therapy by simple fractionation the summary focal doses cannot exceed 60-80 Gy. The above doses can result in a radical effect in tumor volumes not more than 5-6 cm 3 . This tumor volume is regarded as a maximum one for cure of malignant epithelial tumors. In large volume tumors one should rely upon palliative radiotherapeutic results [ru

MSDD: a manually curated database of experimentally supported associations among miRNAs, SNPs and human diseases

OpenAIRE

Yue, Ming; Zhou, Dianshuang; Zhi, Hui; Wang, Peng; Zhang, Yan; Gao, Yue; Guo, Maoni; Li, Xin; Wang, Yanxia; Zhang, Yunpeng; Ning, Shangwei; Li, Xia

2017-01-01

Abstract The MiRNA SNP Disease Database (MSDD, http://www.bio-bigdata.com/msdd/) is a manually curated database that provides comprehensive experimentally supported associations among microRNAs (miRNAs), single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and human diseases. SNPs in miRNA-related functional regions such as mature miRNAs, promoter regions, pri-miRNAs, pre-miRNAs and target gene 3′-UTRs, collectively called ‘miRSNPs’, represent a novel category of functional molecules. miRSNPs can lead to m...

Unique molecular landscapes in cancer: implications for individualized, curated drug combinations.

Science.gov (United States)

Wheler, Jennifer; Lee, J Jack; Kurzrock, Razelle

2014-12-15

With increasingly sophisticated technologies in molecular biology and "omic" platforms to analyze patients' tumors, more molecular diversity and complexity in cancer are being observed. Recently, we noted unique genomic profiles in a group of patients with metastatic breast cancer based on an analysis with next-generation sequencing. Among 57 consecutive patients, no two had the same molecular portfolio. Applied genomics therefore appears to represent a disruptive innovation in that it unveils a heterogeneity to metastatic cancer that may be ill-suited to canonical clinical trials and practice paradigms. Upon recognizing that patients have unique tumor landscapes, it is possible that there may be a "mismatch" between our traditional clinical trials system that selects patients based on common characteristics to evaluate a drug (drug-centric approach) and optimal treatment based on curated, individualized drug combinations for each patient (patient-centric approach). ©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.

First year university student engagement using digital curation and career goal setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amy Antonio

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The engagement of students is one of the most pressing issues facing higher education in the 21st century. Around the world, participation rates in tertiary education are on the rise and one of the key challenges facing educators is finding ways to engage these students. We present the results of a project that assesses the impact of an engagement strategy in which a cohort of students entering their first year of university (1 establish and maintain a clear goal of their ideal future career and (2 make use of a web-based digital curation tool to research and present their findings. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategy, which could arguably be applied to a broad range of disciplines given that the majority of students today are technologically literate.

Linking data repositories - an illustration of agile data curation principles through robust documentation and multiple application programming interfaces

Science.gov (United States)

Benedict, K. K.; Servilla, M. S.; Vanderbilt, K.; Wheeler, J.

2015-12-01

The growing volume, variety and velocity of production of Earth science data magnifies the impact of inefficiencies in data acquisition, processing, analysis, and sharing workflows, potentially to the point of impairing the ability of researchers to accomplish their desired scientific objectives. The adaptation of agile software development principles (http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html) to data curation processes has significant potential to lower barriers to effective scientific data discovery and reuse - barriers that otherwise may force the development of new data to replace existing but unusable data, or require substantial effort to make data usable in new research contexts. This paper outlines a data curation process that was developed at the University of New Mexico that provides a cross-walk of data and associated documentation between the data archive developed by the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Office (PASTA - http://lno.lternet.edu/content/network-information-system) and UNM's institutional repository (LoboVault - http://repository.unm.edu). The developed automated workflow enables the replication of versioned data objects and their associated standards-based metadata between the LTER system and LoboVault - providing long-term preservation for those data/metadata packages within LoboVault while maintaining the value-added services that the PASTA platform provides. The relative ease with which this workflow was developed is a product of the capabilities independently developed on both platforms - including the simplicity of providing a well-documented application programming interface (API) for each platform enabling scripted interaction and the use of well-established documentation standards (EML in the case of PASTA, Dublin Core in the case of LoboVault) by both systems. These system characteristics, when combined with an iterative process of interaction between the Data Curation Librarian (on the LoboVault side of the process

Outcome following curative-intent surgery for oral melanoma in dogs: 70 cases (1998-2011).

Science.gov (United States)

Tuohy, Joanne L; Selmic, Laura E; Worley, Deanna R; Ehrhart, Nicole P; Withrow, Stephen J

2014-12-01

To evaluate the outcome in terms of progression-free interval (PFI) and overall survival time (ST) after curative-intent resection of oral melanoma in dogs. Retrospective case series. 70 client-owned dogs. An electronic medical record search and review was performed for dogs that underwent curative-intent resection of oral melanoma (May 1, 1998, to December 31, 2011). Information gathered included signalment, oral location of tumor, staging results, type of surgery, type of adjuvant therapy, findings on histologic evaluation, and outcome. 36 (51.4%), 16 (22.9%), 13 (18.6%), and 1 (1.4%) of 70 dogs had tumors classified as stage I, II, III, and IV, respectively; tumor stage could not be determined for 4 (5.7%) dogs because of the lack of tumor size information. Fifty-one (72.9%) dogs had tumors completely excised. Twenty-nine (41.4%) dogs received adjuvant therapy. Median PFI and ST were 508 and 723 days, respectively. Thirty-two (45.7%) dogs had disease progression. Significant associations with PFI or ST were found for administration of adjuvant therapy, presence of metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis, higher tumor stage (III or IV), increased tumor size (> 3 cm), and sexually intact female dogs. Administration of adjuvant treatment was associated with a 130% increased hazard (hazard ratio, 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0 to 5.0) of disease progression; the presence of metastases at the time of diagnosis was associated with a 281% increased hazard (hazard ratio, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.5 to 9.6) of death. Results indicated that dogs with oral melanoma can have a long PFI and ST after resection with wide margins.

Agile Data Curation at a State Geological Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Hills, D. J.

2015-12-01

State agencies, including geological surveys, are often the gatekeepers for myriad data products essential for scientific research and economic development. For example, the Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA) is mandated to explore for, characterize, and report Alabama's mineral, energy, water, and biological resources in support of economic development, conservation, management, and public policy for the betterment of Alabama's citizens, communities, and businesses. As part of that mandate, the GSA has increasingly been called upon to make our data more accessible to stakeholders. Even as demand for greater data accessibility grows, budgets for such efforts are often small, meaning that agencies must do more for less. Agile software development has yielded efficient, effective products, most often at lower cost and in shorter time. Taking guidance from the agile software development model, the GSA is working towards more agile data management and curation. To date, the GSA's work has been focused primarily on data rescue. By using workflows that maximize clear communication while encouraging simplicity (e.g., maximizing the amount of work not done or that can be automated), the GSA is bringing decades of dark data into the light. Regular checks by the data rescuer with the data provider (or their proxy) provides quality control without adding an overt burden on either party. Moving forward, these workflows will also allow for more efficient and effective data management.

Crowdsourcing and curation: perspectives from biology and natural language processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirschman, Lynette; Fort, Karën; Boué, Stéphanie; Kyrpides, Nikos; Islamaj Doğan, Rezarta; Cohen, Kevin Bretonnel

2016-01-01

Crowdsourcing is increasingly utilized for performing tasks in both natural language processing and biocuration. Although there have been many applications of crowdsourcing in these fields, there have been fewer high-level discussions of the methodology and its applicability to biocuration. This paper explores crowdsourcing for biocuration through several case studies that highlight different ways of leveraging 'the crowd'; these raise issues about the kind(s) of expertise needed, the motivations of participants, and questions related to feasibility, cost and quality. The paper is an outgrowth of a panel session held at BioCreative V (Seville, September 9-11, 2015). The session consisted of four short talks, followed by a discussion. In their talks, the panelists explored the role of expertise and the potential to improve crowd performance by training; the challenge of decomposing tasks to make them amenable to crowdsourcing; and the capture of biological data and metadata through community editing.Database URL: http://www.mitre.org/publications/technical-papers/crowdsourcing-and-curation-perspectives. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Anthropocene Knowledge Practices in McKenzie Wark’s Molecular Red and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora

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Gib Prettyman

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Through a close reading of McKenzie Wark’s theoretical treatise 'Molecular Red' (2015 and Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel 'Aurora' (2015, this essay examines how Anthropocene knowledge practices challenge our conceptions of human agency in provocative and potentially productive ways. For example, our knowledge of climate science arises through global material infrastructures. As material components of Anthropocene knowledge practices, these infrastructures reveal the material labors and cyborg structures by means of which our knowledge is produced. Wark sees the heterogenous materiality of Anthropocene knowledge practices as evidence for the value of ‘low theories’ based on a ‘labor point of view.’ At the same time, Anthropocene knowledge practices reveal ‘eco-logical’ complexities and fundamental recognitions of the ‘intra-action’ of entangled matter. These complexities produce very estranged views of human agency. Robinson’s novel highlights the eco-logical implications of contemporary knowledge practices by imagining an interstellar ship that must function as a completely artificial ecosystem for a 170-year voyage to another solar system. The significance of knowledge practices and eco-logical complexity is most evident when failures or crises arise, and 'Aurora' tells the story of many such failures. However, I argue that Robinson’s novel and Wark’s ‘low theory’ ultimately function as hopeful accounts of Anthropocene knowledge practices. Among other things, these practices show the material importance of storytelling and point the way toward more complexly realist theories of human agency.

'First we go to the small doctor': First contact for curative health care sought by rural communities in Andhra Pradesh & Orissa, India

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Gautham (Meenakshi); E. Binnendijk (Erica); R. Koren (Ruth); D.M. Dror (David)

2011-01-01

textabstractBackground & objectives: Against the backdrop of insufficient public supply of primary care and reports of informal providers, the present study sought to collect descriptive evidence on 1 st contact curative health care seeking choices among rural communities in two States of India -

Preventative and Curative Effects of Several Plant Derived Agents Against Powdery Mildew Disease of Okra

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moustafa Hemdan Ahmed MOHARAM

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The preventative and curative effects of some plant derived agents based on plant extracts or essential oils were studied at different concentrations against Erysiphe cichoracearum DC. ex Merat, the causal pathogen of okra powdery mildew by the detached leaf-disk and potted plants bioassays. Through detached leaf-disk assay, the highest mean preventative effect (97.74% was recorded by neem seed oil followed by jojoba oil (89.82% and extract of Rynoutria sachalinensis (82.77%. Neem seed oil at 1% was the most effective agent followed by jojoba oil and extract of R. sachalinensis at 1.5% and 2%, respectively, where they suppressed E. cichoracearum completely. Potted plants assay revealed that neem seed oil, jojoba oil and extract of R. sachalinensis as well as the fungicide (active ingredient dinocap showed higher preventative efficacy at all leaf olds treated after 7 and 14 days of inoculation as compared with extracts of henna and garlic. Moreover, the preventative efficacy partly remained apparent after 14 days of inoculation at all leaf olds tested. In field trials through 2010 and 2011 growing seasons, when the first symptoms of powdery mildew appeared naturally, 1.5% jojoba oil, 2% extract of R. sachalinensis and 1% neem seed oil were sprayed individually twice on grown plants to evaluate their efficacy on controlling powdery mildew, growth and yield of okra. Resulted showed that neem seed oil was the most effective agent and highly decreased the disease severity to 29.92%, recorded the highly curative effect (68.15% and also improved plant growth and pods yield.

Excess mortality after curative surgery for colorectal cancer changes over time and differs for patients with colon versus rectal cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Nedrebø, Bjørn Steinar; Søreide, Kjetil; Eriksen, Morten Tandberg; Kvaløy, Jan Terje; Søreide, Jon Arne; Kørner, Hartwig

2013-06-01

Improved management of colorectal cancer patients has resulted in better five-year survival for rectal cancer compared with colon cancer. We compared excess mortality rates in various time intervals after surgery in patients with colon and rectal cancer. We analysed all patients with curative resection of colorectal cancers reported in the Cancer Registry of Norway before (1994-1996) and after (2001-2003) national treatment guidelines were introduced. Excess mortality was analysed in different postoperative time intervals within the five-year follow-up periods for patients treated in 1994-1996 vs. 2001-2003. A total of 11 437 patients that underwent curative resection were included. For patients treated from 1994 to 1996, excess mortality was similar in colon and rectal cancer patients in all time intervals. For those treated from 2001 to 2003, excess mortality was significantly lower in rectal cancer patients than in colon cancer patients perioperatively (in the first 60 days: excess mortality ratio = 0.46, p = 0.007) and during the first two postoperative years (2-12 months: excess mortality ratio = 0.54, p = 0.010; 1-2 years: excess mortality ratio = 0.60, p = 0.009). Excess mortality in rectal cancer patients was significantly greater than in colon cancer patients 4-5 years postoperatively (excess mortality ratio = 2.18, p = 0.003). Excess mortality for colon and rectal cancer changed substantially after the introduction of national treatment guidelines. Short-term excess mortality rates was higher in colon cancer compared to rectal cancer for patients treated in 2001-2003, while excess mortality rates for rectal cancer patients was significantly higher later in the follow-up period. This suggests that future research should focus on these differences of excess mortality in patients curatively treated for cancer of the colon and rectum.

The transcriptome of Trichuris suis--first molecular insights into a parasite with curative properties for key immune diseases of humans.

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Cinzia Cantacessi

Full Text Available Iatrogenic infection of humans with Trichuris suis (a parasitic nematode of swine is being evaluated or promoted as a biological, curative treatment of immune diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD and ulcerative colitis, in humans. Although it is understood that short-term T. suis infection in people with such diseases usually induces a modified Th2-immune response, nothing is known about the molecules in the parasite that induce this response.As a first step toward filling the gaps in our knowledge of the molecular biology of T. suis, we characterised the transcriptome of the adult stage of this nematode employing next-generation sequencing and bioinformatic techniques. A total of ∼65,000,000 reads were generated and assembled into ∼20,000 contiguous sequences ( = contigs; ∼17,000 peptides were predicted and classified based on homology searches, protein motifs and gene ontology and biological pathway mapping.These analyses provided interesting insights into a number of molecular groups, particularly predicted excreted/secreted molecules (n = 1,288, likely to be involved in the parasite-host interactions, and also various molecules (n = 120 linked to chemokine, T-cell receptor and TGF-β signalling as well as leukocyte transendothelial migration and natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity, which are likely to be immuno-regulatory or -modulatory in the infected host. This information provides a conceptual framework within which to test the immunobiological basis for the curative effect of T. suis infection in humans against some immune diseases. Importantly, the T. suis transcriptome characterised herein provides a curated resource for detailed studies of the immuno-molecular biology of this parasite, and will underpin future genomic and proteomic explorations.

The clinical usefulness of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) in follow-up of curatively resected pancreatic cancer patients.

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Jung, Woohyun; Jang, Jin-Young; Kang, Mee Joo; Chang, Ye Rim; Shin, Yong Chan; Chang, Jihoon; Kim, Sun-Whe

2016-01-01

Computed tomography and serum tumor markers have limited value in detecting recurrence after curative surgery of pancreatic cancer. This study evaluated the clinical utility of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) in diagnosing recurrence. One hundred ten patients underwent curative resection of pancreatic cancer were enrolled. The diagnostic value of abdominal computed tomography (CT), PET-CT and serum carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 concentration were compared. The prognostic value of SUVmax on PET-CT was evaluated. PET-CT showed relatively higher sensitivity (84.5% vs. 75.0%) and accuracy (84.5% vs. 74.5%) than CT, whereas PET-CT plus CT showed greater sensitivity (97.6%) and accuracy (90.0%) than either alone. In detecting distant recurrences, PET-CT showed higher sensitivity (83.1% vs. 67.7%) than CT. Nineteen patients showed recurrences only on PET-CT, with eleven having invisible or suspected benign lesions on CT, and eight had recurrences in areas not covered by CT. SUVmax over 3.3 was predictive of poor survival after recurrence. PET-CT in combination with CT improves the detection of recurrence. PET-CT was especially advantageous in detecting recurrences in areas not covered by CT. If active post-operative surveillance after curative resection of pancreatic cancer is deemed beneficial, then it should include PET-CT combined with CT. Copyright © 2015 International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Australian and New Zealand Faculty of Radiation Oncology Genito-Urinary Group: 2011 consensus guidelines for curative radiotherapy for urothelial carcinoma of the bladder

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Hindson, Benjamin R.; Turner, Sandra L.; Millar, Jeremy L.

2012-01-01

Curative radiotherapy, with or without concurrent chemotherapy, is recognized as a standard treatment option for muscle-invasive bladder cancer. It is commonly used for two distinct groups of patients: either for those medically unfit for surgery, or as part of a 'bladder preserving' management plan incorporating the possibility of salvage cystectomy. However, in both situations, the approach to radiotherapy varies widely around the world. The Australian and New Zealand Faculty of Radiation Oncology Genito-Urinary Group recognised a need to develop consistent, evidence-based guidelines for patient selection and radiotherapy technique in the delivery of curative radiotherapy. Following a workshop convened in May 2009, a working party collated opinions and conducted a wide literature appraisal linking each recommendation with the best available evidence. This process was subject to ongoing re-presentation to the Faculty of Radiation Oncology Genito-Urinary Group members prior to final endorsement. These Guidelines include patient selection, radiation target delineation, dose and fractionation schedules, normal tissue constraints and investigational techniques. Particular emphasis is given to the rationale for the target volumes described. These Guidelines provide a consensus-based framework for the delivery of curative radiotherapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Widespread input from radiation oncologists treating bladder cancer ensures that these techniques are feasible in practice. We recommend these Guidelines be adopted widely in order to encourage a uniformly high standard of radiotherapy in this setting, and to allow for better comparison of outcomes.

MSDD: a manually curated database of experimentally supported associations among miRNAs, SNPs and human diseases.

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Yue, Ming; Zhou, Dianshuang; Zhi, Hui; Wang, Peng; Zhang, Yan; Gao, Yue; Guo, Maoni; Li, Xin; Wang, Yanxia; Zhang, Yunpeng; Ning, Shangwei; Li, Xia

2018-01-04

The MiRNA SNP Disease Database (MSDD, http://www.bio-bigdata.com/msdd/) is a manually curated database that provides comprehensive experimentally supported associations among microRNAs (miRNAs), single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and human diseases. SNPs in miRNA-related functional regions such as mature miRNAs, promoter regions, pri-miRNAs, pre-miRNAs and target gene 3'-UTRs, collectively called 'miRSNPs', represent a novel category of functional molecules. miRSNPs can lead to miRNA and its target gene dysregulation, and resulting in susceptibility to or onset of human diseases. A curated collection and summary of miRSNP-associated diseases is essential for a thorough understanding of the mechanisms and functions of miRSNPs. Here, we describe MSDD, which currently documents 525 associations among 182 human miRNAs, 197 SNPs, 153 genes and 164 human diseases through a review of more than 2000 published papers. Each association incorporates information on the miRNAs, SNPs, miRNA target genes and disease names, SNP locations and alleles, the miRNA dysfunctional pattern, experimental techniques, a brief functional description, the original reference and additional annotation. MSDD provides a user-friendly interface to conveniently browse, retrieve, download and submit novel data. MSDD will significantly improve our understanding of miRNA dysfunction in disease, and thus, MSDD has the potential to serve as a timely and valuable resource. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

A Comprehensive Curation Shows the Dynamic Evolutionary Patterns of Prokaryotic CRISPRs

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Guoqin Mai

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Motivation. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR is a genetic element with active regulation roles for foreign invasive genes in the prokaryotic genomes and has been engineered to work with the CRISPR-associated sequence (Cas gene Cas9 as one of the modern genome editing technologies. Due to inconsistent definitions, the existing CRISPR detection programs seem to have missed some weak CRISPR signals. Results. This study manually curates all the currently annotated CRISPR elements in the prokaryotic genomes and proposes 95 updates to the annotations. A new definition is proposed to cover all the CRISPRs. The comprehensive comparison of CRISPR numbers on the taxonomic levels of both domains and genus shows high variations for closely related species even in the same genus. The detailed investigation of how CRISPRs are evolutionarily manipulated in the 8 completely sequenced species in the genus Thermoanaerobacter demonstrates that transposons act as a frequent tool for splitting long CRISPRs into shorter ones along a long evolutionary history.

Clinical curative effect of fuzi-cake-separated moxibustion for preventing dysuria after operation for lower limb fracture.

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Yue, Yan; Tao, Lijun; Fang, Jianqiao; Xie, Qi; He, Shaofeng; Huang, Chunxia; Yang, Xueming

2014-10-01

To assess the clinical curative effect of fuzi-cake-separated moxibustion at Zhongji (CV 3) and Guanyuan (CV 4) for preventing dysuria after internal fixation of lower limb fractures. Sixty patients conforming to the inclusion standards were randomly divided into a treatment group (n = 30) and a control group (n = 30). Fuzi-cake-separated moxibustion was performed at Guanyuan (CV 4) and Zhongji (CV 3), 20 min at a time, twice a day, for 3 days before operation in the treatment group. No fuzi-cake-separated moxibustion was performed in the control group. After treatment, the score for symptoms of first urination, urinary time, urinary volume, 24 h remaining urinary volume, incidence of uroschesis, and rate of controlling dysuria were compared to evaluate the curative effect of preventing post-operative dysuria. The score for symptoms of first urination, 24 h remaining urinary volume (maximum 120 mL vs 250 ml, and less than 10 ml in 24 cases vs 15 cases), and the rate of controlling dysuria (83.34% vs 30%) were significantly better (P 0.05) between the two groups in first post-operative urinary time, urinary volume, or incidence of 24 h uroschesis. Fuzi-cake-separated moxibustion at Zhongji (CV 3) and Guanyuan (CV 4) can better prevent post-operative dysuria, effectively promote the functional restoration of the urinary bladder, and control the incidence of post-operative dysuria.

The research for the clinical curative effect through combing traditional Chinese medicine with insulin to cure diabetes.

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Wu, Qianfeng; Fan, Hongxia

2014-07-01

The clinical curative effect is observed through curing type 2 diabetes mellitus with the therapy of combing Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with insulin. Both the insulin prescription and the treatment of traditional Chinese medicine prescription are applied as mutual comparison. And the dosage, time, blood sugar level and curative effect etc are recorded. Healthy human body is taken as comparison for monitoring physical indicators. Through comparing insulin prescription and the combing therapy of insulin and traditional Chinese medicine, the insulin treatment group is better than contrast group (Pblending use group, the ISI in each group is significantly lower than that of health control group (P<0.01), where accumulation of damp heat in spleen type is the lowest; the BM I, H bA1C of type 2 diabetic patient is higher than health control group, its accumulation of damp heat in spleen type is the highest, TC, TG typical accumulation of damp heat in spleen are higher than other pattern of syndrome. the treatment method of combing TCM with insulin in curing type 2 diabetes mellitus has better effect than using insulin treatment alone; the resistance degree of insulin demonstrates the changing trend of first increase and later decrease with the development of disease course. Accumulation of damp heat in spleen type accounts for the highest proportion in type 2 diabetic patients, and there exists serious insulin resistance.

Research-Grade 3D Virtual Astromaterials Samples: Novel Visualization of NASA's Apollo Lunar Samples and Antarctic Meteorite Samples to Benefit Curation, Research, and Education

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Blumenfeld, E. H.; Evans, C. A.; Oshel, E. R.; Liddle, D. A.; Beaulieu, K. R.; Zeigler, R. A.; Righter, K.; Hanna, R. D.; Ketcham, R. A.

2017-01-01

NASA's vast and growing collections of astromaterials are both scientifically and culturally significant, requiring unique preservation strategies that need to be recurrently updated to contemporary technological capabilities and increasing accessibility demands. New technologies have made it possible to advance documentation and visualization practices that can enhance conservation and curation protocols for NASA's Astromaterials Collections. Our interdisciplinary team has developed a method to create 3D Virtual Astromaterials Samples (VAS) of the existing collections of Apollo Lunar Samples and Antarctic Meteorites. Research-grade 3D VAS will virtually put these samples in the hands of researchers and educators worldwide, increasing accessibility and visibility of these significant collections. With new sample return missions on the horizon, it is of primary importance to develop advanced curation standards for documentation and visualization methodologies.

The Role of Narrow Band Imaging in the Detection of Recurrent Laryngeal and Hypopharyngeal Cancer after Curative Radiotherapy

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Michal Zabrodsky

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Narrow band imaging is considered a significant improvement in the possibility of detecting early mucosal lesion of the upper aerodigestive tract. Early detection of mucosal neoplastic lesions is of utmost importance for patients survival. There is evidence that, especially in patients previously treated by means of curative radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy, the early detection rate of recurrent disease is quite low. The aim of this study was to prove whether the videoendoscopy coupled with NBI might help detect recurrent or secondary tumors of the upper aerodigestive tract. 66 patients previously treated by means of RT or CRT with curative intent were enrolled in the study. All patients underwent transnasal flexible videoendoscopy with NBI mode under local anesthesia. When a suspicious lesion was identified in an ambulatory setting, its nature was proved histologically. Many of these changes were not identifiable by means of conventional white light (WL endoscopy. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value of the method are very high (88%, 92%, 76%, 96%, and 91%, resp.. Results demonstrate that outpatient transnasal endoscopy with NBI is an excellent method for the follow-up of patients with carcinomas of the larynx and the hypopharynx primarily treated with radiotherapy.

Research resources: curating the new eagle-i discovery system

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Vasilevsky, Nicole; Johnson, Tenille; Corday, Karen; Torniai, Carlo; Brush, Matthew; Segerdell, Erik; Wilson, Melanie; Shaffer, Chris; Robinson, David; Haendel, Melissa

2012-01-01

Development of biocuration processes and guidelines for new data types or projects is a challenging task. Each project finds its way toward defining annotation standards and ensuring data consistency with varying degrees of planning and different tools to support and/or report on consistency. Further, this process may be data type specific even within the context of a single project. This article describes our experiences with eagle-i, a 2-year pilot project to develop a federated network of data repositories in which unpublished, unshared or otherwise ‘invisible’ scientific resources could be inventoried and made accessible to the scientific community. During the course of eagle-i development, the main challenges we experienced related to the difficulty of collecting and curating data while the system and the data model were simultaneously built, and a deficiency and diversity of data management strategies in the laboratories from which the source data was obtained. We discuss our approach to biocuration and the importance of improving information management strategies to the research process, specifically with regard to the inventorying and usage of research resources. Finally, we highlight the commonalities and differences between eagle-i and similar efforts with the hope that our lessons learned will assist other biocuration endeavors. Database URL: www.eagle-i.net PMID:22434835

Complication of Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT) in Gastric Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Myung Se; Kim, Sung Kyu; Song, Sung Kyo; Kim, Hong Jin; Kwan, Koing Bo; Kim, Heung Dae

1992-01-01

Local control is the important prognostic factor in cancer treatment because local control decrease the relative risk of metastatic spread and increase distant metastasis free survival. IORT is the modality which could increase local control without increasing complication, combined with curative operation. Even though we could achieve significant decreased local failure by IORT and curative resection, it should not be committed as a main treatment modality without proving acceptable complications. Therapeutic Radiology Department of Yeungnam University Medical Center have tried 58 IORT from June 15, 1988, and performed 53 IORT in patients with gastric cancer. No local failure has been report? by regular follow up so far. Nine cases(17%) of treatment related complication were reported including intestinal obstruction, hemorrhage, sepsis, and bone marrow depression. These complications could be comparable to Jo 25.2% (chemotherapy + operation), Kim 18% (chemotherapy only in inoperable patients), because our treatment regimen is consisted of IORT (1500 cGy), external irradiation(--4500 cGy) and extensive chemotherapy (FAM, 5FU+MMC, BACOP). Our data encouraged us to re-inforce further IORT in stomach cancer treatment

Complication of Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT) in Gastric Cancer

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Kim, Myung Se; Kim, Sung Kyu; Song, Sung Kyo; Kim, Hong Jin; Kwan, Koing Bo; Kim, Heung Dae [Yeungnam University College of Medicine, Taegu (Korea, Republic of)

1992-12-15

Local control is the important prognostic factor in cancer treatment because local control decrease the relative risk of metastatic spread and increase distant metastasis free survival. IORT is the modality which could increase local control without increasing complication, combined with curative operation. Even though we could achieve significant decreased local failure by IORT and curative resection, it should not be committed as a main treatment modality without proving acceptable complications. Therapeutic Radiology Department of Yeungnam University Medical Center have tried 58 IORT from June 15, 1988, and performed 53 IORT in patients with gastric cancer. No local failure has been report? by regular follow up so far. Nine cases(17%) of treatment related complication were reported including intestinal obstruction, hemorrhage, sepsis, and bone marrow depression. These complications could be comparable to Jo 25.2% (chemotherapy + operation), Kim 18% (chemotherapy only in inoperable patients), because our treatment regimen is consisted of IORT (1500 cGy), external irradiation(--4500 cGy) and extensive chemotherapy (FAM, 5FU+MMC, BACOP). Our data encouraged us to re-inforce further IORT in stomach cancer treatment.

Aggregation Tool to Create Curated Data albums to Support Disaster Recovery and Response

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Ramachandran, R.; Kulkarni, A.; Maskey, M.; Li, X.; Flynn, S.

2014-12-01

Economic losses due to natural hazards are estimated to be around 6-10 billion dollars annually for the U.S. and this number keeps increasing every year. This increase has been attributed to population growth and migration to more hazard prone locations. As this trend continues, in concert with shifts in weather patterns caused by climate change, it is anticipated that losses associated with natural disasters will keep growing substantially. One of challenges disaster response and recovery analysts face is to quickly find, access and utilize a vast variety of relevant geospatial data collected by different federal agencies. More often analysts may be familiar with limited, but specific datasets and are often unaware of or unfamiliar with a large quantity of other useful resources. Finding airborne or satellite data useful to a natural disaster event often requires a time consuming search through web pages and data archives. The search process for the analyst could be made much more efficient and productive if a tool could go beyond a typical search engine and provide not just links to web sites but actual links to specific data relevant to the natural disaster, parse unstructured reports for useful information nuggets, as well as gather other related reports, summaries, news stories, and images. This presentation will describe a semantic aggregation tool developed to address similar problem for Earth Science researchers. This tool provides automated curation, and creates "Data Albums" to support case studies. The generated "Data Albums" are compiled collections of information related to a specific science topic or event, containing links to relevant data files (granules) from different instruments; tools and services for visualization and analysis; information about the event contained in news reports, and images or videos to supplement research analysis. An ontology-based relevancy-ranking algorithm drives the curation of relevant data sets for a given event. This

Definitive chemoradiation for locoregional recurrences of esophageal cancer after primary curative treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeene, P M; Versteijne, E; van Berge Henegouwen, M I; Bergmann, J J G H M; Geijsen, E D; Muller, K; van Laarhoven, H W M; Hulshof, M C C M

2017-02-01

The aim of this study was to determine the outcome of salvage definitive chemoradiation (dCRT) for a locoregional recurrence after any prior curative treatment outside previously irradiated areas. Thirty-nine patients treated between January 2005 and December 2014 were reviewed for locoregional recurrent esophageal cancer outside previously irradiated areas. All patients received salvage treatment with external beam radiotherapy (50.4 Gy in 28 fractions) combined with weekly concurrent paclitaxel and carboplatin. The median follow-up period was 15 months (range 1.7-120). The median overall survival (OS) for all patients after salvage dCRT was 22 months (95% CI 6.2-37.6). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS was 72%, 31%, and 28%, respectively. Median survival after salvage dCRT for a regional lymph node recurrence was 33 months (95% CI 5.8-60.3) versus 14 months (95% CI 6.8-21.6) for a recurrence at the anastomosis (P = 0.022, logrank). Median OS was 35 months for the squamous cell carcinoma group and 19 months for the adenocarcinoma group (P = 0.67). Sixteen of 39 patients developed a locoregional recurrence after salvaged dCRT. The median locoregional recurrence-free survival (LRFS) was 24 months. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year LRFS was 79%, 36%, and 36%, respectively. Median disease-free survival (DFS) was 15 months. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year DFS was 66%, 27%, and 27%, respectively. Of 16 patients, 8 (50%) with a primary failure at the site of the anastomosis developed a local recurrence after salvaged dCRT compared to 7 of 22 patients (32%) with a primary recurrence in a lymph node. Definitive chemoradiation is a feasible and effective treatment for locoregional recurrent esophageal cancer outside a previously irradiated area, and should be given with a curative intent. This holds true for recurrence of both squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Lymph node recurrences have a markedly better prognosis than recurrences at the site of the anastomosis. © 2016

Volumetric parameters on FDG PET can predict early intrahepatic recurrence-free survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after curative surgical resection

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Lee, Jeong Won [Catholic Kwandong University College of Medicine, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Incheon (Korea, Republic of); Hwang, Sang Hyun; Kim, Hyun Jeong; Kim, Dongwoo; Cho, Arthur; Yun, Mijin [Yonsei University College of Medicine, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2017-11-15

This study assessed the prognostic values of volumetric parameters on {sup 18}F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) in predicting early intrahepatic recurrence-free survival (RFS) after curative resection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A retrospective analysis was performed on 242 patients with HCC who underwent staging FDG PET and subsequent curative surgical resection. The tumor-to-non-tumorous liver uptake ratio, metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) of the HCC lesions on PET were measured. The prognostic values of clinical factors and PET parameters for predicting overall RFS, overall survival (OS), extrahepatic RFS, and early and late intrahepatic RFS were assessed. The median follow-up period was 54.7 months, during which 110 patients (45.5%) experienced HCC recurrence and 62 (25.6%) died. Patients with extrahepatic and early intrahepatic recurrence showed worse OS than did those with no recurrence or late intrahepatic recurrence (p < 0.001). Serum bilirubin level, MTV, and TLG were independent prognostic factors for overall RFS and OS (p < 0.05). Only MTV and TLG were prognostic for extrahepatic RFS (p < 0.05). Serum alpha-fetoprotein and bilirubin levels, MTV, and TLG were prognostic for early intrahepatic RFS (p < 0.05) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) positivity and serum albumin level were independently prognostic for late intrahepatic RFS (p < 0.05). Intrahepatic recurrence showed different prognoses according to the time interval of recurrence in which early recurrence had as poor survival as extrahepatic recurrence. MTV and TLG on initial staging PET were significant independent factors for predicting early intrahepatic and extrahepatic RFS in patients with HCC after curative resection. Only HCV positivity and serum albumin level were significant for late intrahepatic RFS, which is mainly attributable to the de novo formation of new primary HCC. (orig.)

Long-Term Outcomes and Patterns of Relapse of Early-Stage Extranodal Marginal Zone Lymphoma Treated With Radiation Therapy With Curative Intent

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Teckie, Sewit; Qi, Shunan; Lovie, Shona; Navarrett, Scott; Hsu, Meier; Noy, Ariela; Portlock, Carol; Yahalom, Joachim

2015-01-01

Purpose: To report the long-term outcome and patterns of relapse of a large cohort of marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) patients treated with curative-intent radiation therapy (RT) alone. Patients and Methods: We reviewed the charts of 490 consecutive patients with stage IE or IIE MZL referred between 1992 and 2012 to our institution. Of those, 244 patients (50%) were treated with RT alone. Pathology was confirmed by hematopathologists at our institution. Patient and disease factors were analyzed for association with relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: Median age of the cohort was 59 years, and median follow-up was 5.2 years. Ann Arbor stage was IE in 92%. Most common disease sites were stomach (50%), orbit (18%), non-thyroid head-and-neck (8%), skin (8%), and breast (5%). Median RT dose was 30 Gy. Five-year OS and RFS were 92% and 74%, respectively. Cumulative incidence of disease-specific death was just 1.1% by 5 years. Sixty patients (24%) developed relapse of disease; 10 were in the RT field. Crude rate of transformation to pathologically confirmed large-cell lymphoma was 1.6%. On multivariable analysis, primary disease site (P=.007) was independently associated with RFS, along with age (P=.04), presence of B-symptoms (P=.02), and International Prognostic Index risk group (P=.03). All disease sites except for head-and-neck had worse RFS relative to stomach. Conclusion: Overall and cause-specific survival are high in early-stage extra-nodal MZL treated with curative RT alone. In this large cohort of 244 patients, most patients did not experience relapse of MZL after curative RT; when relapses did occur, the majority were in distant sites. Stomach cases were less likely to relapse than other anatomic sites. Transformation to large-cell lymphoma was rare

Liver stiffness value-based risk estimation of late recurrence after curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma: development and validation of a predictive model.

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Kyu Sik Jung

Full Text Available Preoperative liver stiffness (LS measurement using transient elastography (TE is useful for predicting late recurrence after curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC. We developed and validated a novel LS value-based predictive model for late recurrence of HCC.Patients who were due to undergo curative resection of HCC between August 2006 and January 2010 were prospectively enrolled and TE was performed prior to operations by study protocol. The predictive model of late recurrence was constructed based on a multiple logistic regression model. Discrimination and calibration were used to validate the model.Among a total of 139 patients who were finally analyzed, late recurrence occurred in 44 patients, with a median follow-up of 24.5 months (range, 12.4-68.1. We developed a predictive model for late recurrence of HCC using LS value, activity grade II-III, presence of multiple tumors, and indocyanine green retention rate at 15 min (ICG R15, which showed fairly good discrimination capability with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC of 0.724 (95% confidence intervals [CIs], 0.632-0.816. In the validation, using a bootstrap method to assess discrimination, the AUROC remained largely unchanged between iterations, with an average AUROC of 0.722 (95% CIs, 0.718-0.724. When we plotted a calibration chart for predicted and observed risk of late recurrence, the predicted risk of late recurrence correlated well with observed risk, with a correlation coefficient of 0.873 (P<0.001.A simple LS value-based predictive model could estimate the risk of late recurrence in patients who underwent curative resection of HCC.

A retrospective study on the use of post-operative colonoscopy following potentially curative surgery for colorectal cancer in a Canadian province

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Bryant Heather E

2004-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Surveillance colonoscopy is commonly recommended following potentially curative surgery for colorectal cancer. We determined factors associated with patients undergoing a least one colonoscopy within five years of surgery. Methods In this historical cohort study, data on 3918 patients age 30 years or older residing in Alberta, Canada, who had undergone a potentially curative surgical resection for local or regional stage colorectal cancer between 1983 and 1995 were obtained from the provincial cancer registry, ministry of health and cancer clinic charts. Kaplan-Meier estimates of the probability of undergoing a post-operative colonoscopy were calculated for patient, tumor and treatment-related variables of interest. Results A colonoscopy was performed within five years of surgery in 1979 patients. The probability of undergoing a colonoscopy for those diagnosed in the 1990s was greater than for those diagnosed earlier (0.65 vs 0.55, P Conclusions The majority of patients undergo colonoscopy following colorectal cancer surgery. However, there are important variations in surveillance practices across different patient and treatment characteristics.

Short-Term Results of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer with Curative Radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Sung Ja; Park, Seung Jin; Chung, Woong Ki; Nah, Byung Sik

1990-01-01

A retrospective analysis was performed on 102 patients with non-small cell lung cancer who received the curative radiotherapy from August 1985 to October 1988 at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology of Chonnam University Hospital. The follow-up period was ranged from 1 to 37 months and the median follow-up time was 15 months. The actuarial 1 and 2 year survival rate of all the patients was 28% and 5%, respectively. The median survival was 10 months for stage II, 6 months for stage III A, and 9 for III B and the actuarial 2 year survival tate was 12.5%, 12.1%, and 0% respectively. The treatment failure was identified in 32 patients and the locoregional failure was seem in 9 patients (28%) and the distant failure in 23 patients (72%). The initial performance status was related to the survival with statistical significance (p 0.05)

Culto: AN Ontology-Based Annotation Tool for Data Curation in Cultural Heritage

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Garozzo, R.; Murabito, F.; Santagati, C.; Pino, C.; Spampinato, C.

2017-08-01

This paper proposes CulTO, a software tool relying on a computational ontology for Cultural Heritage domain modelling, with a specific focus on religious historical buildings, for supporting cultural heritage experts in their investigations. It is specifically thought to support annotation, automatic indexing, classification and curation of photographic data and text documents of historical buildings. CULTO also serves as a useful tool for Historical Building Information Modeling (H-BIM) by enabling semantic 3D data modeling and further enrichment with non-geometrical information of historical buildings through the inclusion of new concepts about historical documents, images, decay or deformation evidence as well as decorative elements into BIM platforms. CulTO is the result of a joint research effort between the Laboratory of Surveying and Architectural Photogrammetry "Luigi Andreozzi" and the PeRCeiVe Lab (Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision Lab) of the University of Catania,

CULTO: AN ONTOLOGY-BASED ANNOTATION TOOL FOR DATA CURATION IN CULTURAL HERITAGE

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R. Garozzo

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes CulTO, a software tool relying on a computational ontology for Cultural Heritage domain modelling, with a specific focus on religious historical buildings, for supporting cultural heritage experts in their investigations. It is specifically thought to support annotation, automatic indexing, classification and curation of photographic data and text documents of historical buildings. CULTO also serves as a useful tool for Historical Building Information Modeling (H-BIM by enabling semantic 3D data modeling and further enrichment with non-geometrical information of historical buildings through the inclusion of new concepts about historical documents, images, decay or deformation evidence as well as decorative elements into BIM platforms. CulTO is the result of a joint research effort between the Laboratory of Surveying and Architectural Photogrammetry “Luigi Andreozzi” and the PeRCeiVe Lab (Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision Lab of the University of Catania,

The Developmental Brain Disorders Database (DBDB): a curated neurogenetics knowledge base with clinical and research applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirzaa, Ghayda M; Millen, Kathleen J; Barkovich, A James; Dobyns, William B; Paciorkowski, Alex R

2014-06-01

The number of single genes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders has increased dramatically over the past decade. The identification of causative genes for these disorders is important to clinical outcome as it allows for accurate assessment of prognosis, genetic counseling, delineation of natural history, inclusion in clinical trials, and in some cases determines therapy. Clinicians face the challenge of correctly identifying neurodevelopmental phenotypes, recognizing syndromes, and prioritizing the best candidate genes for testing. However, there is no central repository of definitions for many phenotypes, leading to errors of diagnosis. Additionally, there is no system of levels of evidence linking genes to phenotypes, making it difficult for clinicians to know which genes are most strongly associated with a given condition. We have developed the Developmental Brain Disorders Database (DBDB: https://www.dbdb.urmc.rochester.edu/home), a publicly available, online-curated repository of genes, phenotypes, and syndromes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. DBDB contains the first referenced ontology of developmental brain phenotypes, and uses a novel system of levels of evidence for gene-phenotype associations. It is intended to assist clinicians in arriving at the correct diagnosis, select the most appropriate genetic test for that phenotype, and improve the care of patients with developmental brain disorders. For researchers interested in the discovery of novel genes for developmental brain disorders, DBDB provides a well-curated source of important genes against which research sequencing results can be compared. Finally, DBDB allows novel observations about the landscape of the neurogenetics knowledge base. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A curated gluten protein sequence database to support development of proteomics methods for determination of gluten in gluten-free foods.

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Bromilow, Sophie; Gethings, Lee A; Buckley, Mike; Bromley, Mike; Shewry, Peter R; Langridge, James I; Clare Mills, E N

2017-06-23

The unique physiochemical properties of wheat gluten enable a diverse range of food products to be manufactured. However, gluten triggers coeliac disease, a condition which is treated using a gluten-free diet. Analytical methods are required to confirm if foods are gluten-free, but current immunoassay-based methods can unreliable and proteomic methods offer an alternative but require comprehensive and well annotated sequence databases which are lacking for gluten. A manually a curated database (GluPro V1.0) of gluten proteins, comprising 630 discrete unique full length protein sequences has been compiled. It is representative of the different types of gliadin and glutenin components found in gluten. An in silico comparison of their coeliac toxicity was undertaken by analysing the distribution of coeliac toxic motifs. This demonstrated that whilst the α-gliadin proteins contained more toxic motifs, these were distributed across all gluten protein sub-types. Comparison of annotations observed using a discovery proteomics dataset acquired using ion mobility MS/MS showed that more reliable identifications were obtained using the GluPro V1.0 database compared to the complete reviewed Viridiplantae database. This highlights the value of a curated sequence database specifically designed to support the proteomic workflows and the development of methods to detect and quantify gluten. We have constructed the first manually curated open-source wheat gluten protein sequence database (GluPro V1.0) in a FASTA format to support the application of proteomic methods for gluten protein detection and quantification. We have also analysed the manually verified sequences to give the first comprehensive overview of the distribution of sequences able to elicit a reaction in coeliac disease, the prevalent form of gluten intolerance. Provision of this database will improve the reliability of gluten protein identification by proteomic analysis, and aid the development of targeted mass

A Novel Prognostic Score, Based on Preoperative Nutritional Status, Predicts Outcomes of Patients after Curative Resection for Gastric Cancer.

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Liu, Xuechao; Qiu, Haibo; Liu, Jianjun; Chen, Shangxiang; Xu, Dazhi; Li, Wei; Zhan, Youqing; Li, Yuanfang; Chen, Yingbo; Zhou, Zhiwei; Sun, Xiaowei

2016-01-01

PURPOSE: We aimed to determine whether preoperative nutritional status (PNS) was a valuable predictor of outcome in patients with gastric cancer (GC). METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 1320 patients with GC undergoing curative resection. The PNS score was constructed based on four objective and easily measurable criteria: prognostic nutritional index (PNI) score 1, serum albumin nutritional-based prognostic score, is independently associated with OS in GC. Prospective studies are needed to validate its clinical utility.

Integration of curated databases to identify genotype-phenotype associations

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Li Jianrong

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The ability to rapidly characterize an unknown microorganism is critical in both responding to infectious disease and biodefense. To do this, we need some way of anticipating an organism's phenotype based on the molecules encoded by its genome. However, the link between molecular composition (i.e. genotype and phenotype for microbes is not obvious. While there have been several studies that address this challenge, none have yet proposed a large-scale method integrating curated biological information. Here we utilize a systematic approach to discover genotype-phenotype associations that combines phenotypic information from a biomedical informatics database, GIDEON, with the molecular information contained in National Center for Biotechnology Information's Clusters of Orthologous Groups database (NCBI COGs. Results Integrating the information in the two databases, we are able to correlate the presence or absence of a given protein in a microbe with its phenotype as measured by certain morphological characteristics or survival in a particular growth media. With a 0.8 correlation score threshold, 66% of the associations found were confirmed by the literature and at a 0.9 correlation threshold, 86% were positively verified. Conclusion Our results suggest possible phenotypic manifestations for proteins biochemically associated with sugar metabolism and electron transport. Moreover, we believe our approach can be extended to linking pathogenic phenotypes with functionally related proteins.

Digital curation of research data experiences of a baseline study in Germany

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Strathmann, Stefan; Oßwald, Achim; Ludwig, Jens

2013-01-01

The relevance of research data today and for the future is well documented and discussed, in Germany as well as internationally. Ensuring that research data are accessible, sharable, and re-usable over time is increasingly becoming an essential task for researchers and research infrastructure institutions. Some reasons for this development include the following: - research data are documented and could therefore be validated - research data could be the basis for new research questions - research data could be re-analyzed by using innovative digital methods - research data could be used by other disciplines Therefore, it is essential that research data are curated, which means they are kept accessible and interpretable over time. In Germany, a baseline study was undertaken analyzing the situation in eleven research disciplines in 2012. The results were then published in a German-language edition. To address an international audience, the German-language edition of the study has been translated and abridged. T...

Impact of MLH1 expression on tumor evolution after curative surgical tumor resection in a murine orthotopic xenograft model for human MSI colon cancer.

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Meunier, Katy; Ferron, Marianne; Calmel, Claire; Fléjou, Jean-François; Pocard, Marc; Praz, Françoise

2017-09-01

Colorectal cancers (CRCs) displaying microsatellite instability (MSI) most often result from MLH1 deficiency. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of MLH1 expression per se on tumor evolution after curative surgical resection using a xenograft tumor model. Transplantable tumors established with the human MLH1-deficient HCT116 cell line and its MLH1-complemented isogenic clone, mlh1-3, were implanted onto the caecum of NOD/SCID mice. Curative surgical resection was performed at day 10 in half of the animals. The HCT116-derived tumors were more voluminous compared to the mlh1-3 ones (P = .001). Lymph node metastases and peritoneal carcinomatosis occurred significantly more often in the group of mice grafted with HCT116 (P = .007 and P = .035, respectively). Mlh1-3-grafted mice did not develop peritoneal carcinomatosis or liver metastasis. After surgical resection, lymph node metastases only arose in the group of mice implanted with HCT116 and the rate of cure was significantly lower than in the mlh1-3 group (P = .047). The murine orthotopic xenograft model based on isogenic human CRC cell lines allowed us to reveal the impact of MLH1 expression on tumor evolution in mice who underwent curative surgical resection and in mice whose tumor was left in situ. Our data indicate that the behavior of MLH1-deficient CRC is not only governed by mutations arising in genes harboring microsatellite repeated sequences but also from their defect in MLH1 as such. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Perioperative and long-term outcome of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma involving the hepatic hilus after curative-intent resection: comparison with peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and hilar cholangiocarcinoma.

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Zhang, Xu-Feng; Bagante, Fabio; Chen, Qinyu; Beal, Eliza W; Lv, Yi; Weiss, Matthew; Popescu, Irinel; Marques, Hugo P; Aldrighetti, Luca; Maithel, Shishir K; Pulitano, Carlo; Bauer, Todd W; Shen, Feng; Poultsides, George A; Soubrane, Olivier; Martel, Guillaume; Koerkamp, B Groot; Guglielmi, Alfredo; Itaru, Endo; Pawlik, Timothy M

2018-05-01

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with hepatic hilus involvement has been either classified as intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma or hilar cholangiocarcinoma. The present study aimed to investigate the clinicopathologic characteristics and short- and long-term outcomes after curative resection for hilar type intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in comparison with peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and hilar cholangiocarcinoma. A total of 912 patients with mass-forming peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, 101 patients with hilar type intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and 159 patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma undergoing curative resection from 2000 to 2015 were included from two multi-institutional databases. Clinicopathologic characteristics and short- and long-term outcomes were compared among the 3 groups. Patients with hilar type intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma had more aggressive tumor characteristics (eg, higher frequency of vascular invasion and lymph nodes metastasis) and experienced more extensive resections in comparison with either peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma or hilar cholangiocarcinoma patients. The odds of lymphadenectomy and R0 resection rate among patients with hilar type intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma were comparable with hilar cholangiocarcinoma patients, but higher than peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients (lymphadenectomy incidence, 85.1% vs 42.5%, P hilar type intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma experienced a higher rate of technical-related complications compared with peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients. Of note, hilar type intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma was associated with worse disease-specific survival and recurrence-free survival after curative resection versus peripheral intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (median disease-specific survival, 26.0 vs 54.0 months, P hilar cholangiocarcinoma (median disease-specific survival, 26.0 vs 49.0 months, P = .003; median recurrence-free survival

Sample Curation in Support of the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

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Righter, Kevin; Nakamura-Messenger, Keiko

2017-01-01

The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission launched to asteroid Bennu Sept. 8, 2016. The spacecraft will arrive at Bennu in late 2019, orbit and map the asteroid, and perform a touch and go (TAG) sampling maneuver in July 2020. After sample is stowed and confirmed the spacecraft will return to Earth, and the sample return capsule (SRC) will land in Utah in September 2023. Samples will be recovered from Utah [2] and then transported and stored in a new sample cleanroom at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston [3]. The materials curated for the mission are described here. a) Materials Archive and Witness Plate Collection: The SRC and TAGSAM were built between March 2014 and Summer of 2015, and instruments (OTES,OVIRS, OLA, OCAMS, REXIS) were integrated from Summer 2015 until May 2016. A total of 395 items were received for the materials archive at NASA-JSC, with archiving finishing 30 days after launch (with the final archived items being related to launch operations)[4]. The materials fall into several general categories including metals (stainless steel, aluminum, titanium alloys, brass and BeCu alloy), epoxies, paints, polymers, lubricants, non-volatile-residue samples (NVR), sapphire, and various miscellaneous materials. All through the ATLO process (from March 2015 until late August 2016) contamination knowledge witness plates (Si wafer and Al foil) were deployed in the various cleanrooms in Denver and KSC to provide an additional record of particle counts and volatiles that is archived for current and future scientific studies. These plates were deployed in roughly monthly increments with each unit containing 4 Si wafers and 4 Al foils. We archived 128 individual witness plates (64 Si wafers and 64 Al foils); one of each witness plate (Si and Al) was analyzed immediately by the science team after archiving, while the remaining 3 of each are archived indefinitely. Information about each material archived is stored in an extensive database at NASA-JSC, and key

Preoperative C-Reactive Protein/Albumin Ratio Predicts Prognosis of Patients after Curative Resection for Gastric Cancer

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Xuechao Liu

2015-08-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: An elevated preoperative C-reactive protein/albumin (CRP/Alb ratio has been reported to be associated with a poor prognosis for hepatocellular carcinoma. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prognostic value of the preoperative CRP/Alb ratio and compare it with other systemic inflammatory response markers in patients with gastric cancer (GC. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed in 455 patients with GC undergoing curative resection. We investigated the correlations between the preoperative CRP/Alb ratio and overall survival (OS. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models were used to assess independent prognostic factors. The area under the curve was used to compare the prognostic value of different markers. RESULTS: On multivariate analysis, the CRP/Alb ratio were independently associated with OS in patients with GC (hazard ratio: 1.626; 95% confidence interval: 1.191-2.219; P = .002, along with age (P = .003, preoperative body weight loss (P = .001, tumor location (P = .008, metastatic lymph node ratio (P < .001, and seventh tumor-nodes-metastasis stage (American Joint Committee on Cancer (P = .007. However, several other systemic inflammation–based prognostic scores (neutrophil lymphocyte ratio, platelet lymphocyte ratio and systemic immune-inflammation index, Glasgow Prognostic Score, modified Glasgow prognostic score, and high-sensitivity modified Glasgow prognostic score were not. In addition, the CRP/Alb ratio had a higher area under the curve value (0.625 compared with several other systemic inflammation–based prognostic scores (P < .001. CONCLUSION: The preoperative CRP/Alb ratio, a system inflammation-based prognostic score, is a superior predictor of OS in patients undergoing curative resection for GC and may help to identify the high-risk patients for treatment decisions.

Advanced Age is Not a Contraindication for Treatment With Curative Intent in Esophageal Cancer.

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Voncken, Francine E M; van der Kaaij, Rosa T; Sikorska, Karolina; van Werkhoven, Erik; van Dieren, Jolanda M; Grootscholten, Cecile; Snaebjornsson, Petur; van Sandick, Johanna W; Aleman, Berthe M P

2017-07-31

The objective of this study is to compare long-term outcomes between younger and older (70 y and above) esophageal cancer patients treated with curative intent. Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and locoregional recurrence-free interval were compared between older (70 y and above) and younger (below 70 y) esophageal cancer patients treated between 1998 and 2013. Treatment consisted of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with surgery or definitive chemoradiotherapy: 36 to 50.4 Gy in 18 to 28 fractions combined with 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin or carboplatin/paclitaxel. The study comprised 253 patients, of whom 76 were 70 years and older. Median age was 64 years (range, 41 to 83). Most patients had stage II-IIIA disease (83%). Planned treatment was neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with surgery for 169 patients (41 patients aged 70 y and older) and definitive chemoradiotherapy for 84 patients (31 patients aged 70 y and older). The compliance to radiotherapy was 92%, with no difference between older and younger patients. In 33 patients (13 patients aged 70 y and older) planned surgery was not performed. Median follow-up was 4.9 years. Three-year OS was 42%. The multivariable analysis showed no statistical difference in OS or in DFS comparing older and younger patients: OS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61-1.28), DFS (HR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.60-1.25). Elderly showed a longer locoregional recurrence-free interval; HR, 0.53 (95% CI, 0.30-0.92; P=0.02) and a higher pathologic complete response rate (50% vs. 25%; P=0.02). Long-term outcomes of older esophageal cancer patients (70 y and above) selected for treatment with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery or definitive chemoradiotherapy were comparable with the outcomes of their younger counterparts. Advanced age alone should not be a contraindication for potentially curative chemoradiotherapy-based treatment in esophageal cancer patients.

Empowering Instructors to Become Effective Content Curators: Using the Building Blocks of Today to Manage Dynamic Curriculums for the Education Space

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Alex Hottenstein

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This paper will examine key technologies that exist in the market today which can be used to enable instructor content curation and idea growth through direct student collaboration. Existing tools can be used to not only recreate the in-class collaborative experience in a distance-learning environment, but can also be used to support growing collections of knowledge on topics/subjects than just what can be gained from a single class or semester. This paper envisions a method for both instructors and students to help them effectively curate content and helps empower them to communicate through references to a combination of text and digital media. These references originate from multiple platforms across the Web, but relate to a single topic or idea. This “compilation” of material can then be treated as its own form of content and can be assignable, consumable, and gradable in the well-established pedagogy of standard learning management systems. This form of content would allow instructors or students to present ideas that are greater than the sum of their individual parts and provide a platform for further discussion and learning, ultimately, growing the value of the content itself.

MIPS: curated databases and comprehensive secondary data resources in 2010.

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Mewes, H Werner; Ruepp, Andreas; Theis, Fabian; Rattei, Thomas; Walter, Mathias; Frishman, Dmitrij; Suhre, Karsten; Spannagl, Manuel; Mayer, Klaus F X; Stümpflen, Volker; Antonov, Alexey

2011-01-01

The Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences (MIPS at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany) has many years of experience in providing annotated collections of biological data. Selected data sets of high relevance, such as model genomes, are subjected to careful manual curation, while the bulk of high-throughput data is annotated by automatic means. High-quality reference resources developed in the past and still actively maintained include Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Neurospora crassa and Arabidopsis thaliana genome databases as well as several protein interaction data sets (MPACT, MPPI and CORUM). More recent projects are PhenomiR, the database on microRNA-related phenotypes, and MIPS PlantsDB for integrative and comparative plant genome research. The interlinked resources SIMAP and PEDANT provide homology relationships as well as up-to-date and consistent annotation for 38,000,000 protein sequences. PPLIPS and CCancer are versatile tools for proteomics and functional genomics interfacing to a database of compilations from gene lists extracted from literature. A novel literature-mining tool, EXCERBT, gives access to structured information on classified relations between genes, proteins, phenotypes and diseases extracted from Medline abstracts by semantic analysis. All databases described here, as well as the detailed descriptions of our projects can be accessed through the MIPS WWW server (http://mips.helmholtz-muenchen.de).

Consensus coding sequence (CCDS) database: a standardized set of human and mouse protein-coding regions supported by expert curation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pujar, Shashikant; O'Leary, Nuala A; Farrell, Catherine M; Loveland, Jane E; Mudge, Jonathan M; Wallin, Craig; Girón, Carlos G; Diekhans, Mark; Barnes, If; Bennett, Ruth; Berry, Andrew E; Cox, Eric; Davidson, Claire; Goldfarb, Tamara; Gonzalez, Jose M; Hunt, Toby; Jackson, John; Joardar, Vinita; Kay, Mike P; Kodali, Vamsi K; Martin, Fergal J; McAndrews, Monica; McGarvey, Kelly M; Murphy, Michael; Rajput, Bhanu; Rangwala, Sanjida H; Riddick, Lillian D; Seal, Ruth L; Suner, Marie-Marthe; Webb, David; Zhu, Sophia; Aken, Bronwen L; Bruford, Elspeth A; Bult, Carol J; Frankish, Adam; Murphy, Terence; Pruitt, Kim D

2018-01-04

The Consensus Coding Sequence (CCDS) project provides a dataset of protein-coding regions that are identically annotated on the human and mouse reference genome assembly in genome annotations produced independently by NCBI and the Ensembl group at EMBL-EBI. This dataset is the product of an international collaboration that includes NCBI, Ensembl, HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee, Mouse Genome Informatics and University of California, Santa Cruz. Identically annotated coding regions, which are generated using an automated pipeline and pass multiple quality assurance checks, are assigned a stable and tracked identifier (CCDS ID). Additionally, coordinated manual review by expert curators from the CCDS collaboration helps in maintaining the integrity and high quality of the dataset. The CCDS data are available through an interactive web page (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CCDS/CcdsBrowse.cgi) and an FTP site (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/CCDS/). In this paper, we outline the ongoing work, growth and stability of the CCDS dataset and provide updates on new collaboration members and new features added to the CCDS user interface. We also present expert curation scenarios, with specific examples highlighting the importance of an accurate reference genome assembly and the crucial role played by input from the research community. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research 2017.

X-Ray Micro-Computed Tomography of Apollo Samples as a Curation Technique Enabling Better Research

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Ziegler, R. A.; Almeida, N. V.; Sykes, D.; Smith, C. L.

2014-01-01

X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is a technique that has been used to research meteorites for some time and many others], and recently it is becoming a more common tool for the curation of meteorites and Apollo samples. Micro-CT is ideally suited to the characterization of astromaterials in the curation process as it can provide textural and compositional information at a small spatial resolution rapidly, nondestructively, and without compromising the cleanliness of the samples (e.g., samples can be scanned sealed in Teflon bags). This data can then inform scientists and curators when making and processing future sample requests for meteorites and Apollo samples. Here we present some preliminary results on micro-CT scans of four Apollo regolith breccias. Methods: Portions of four Apollo samples were used in this study: 14321, 15205, 15405, and 60639. All samples were 8-10 cm in their longest dimension and approximately equant. These samples were micro-CT scanned on the Nikon HMXST 225 System at the Natural History Museum in London. Scans were made at 205-220 kV, 135-160 microamps beam current, with an effective voxel size of 21-44 microns. Results: Initial examination of the data identify a variety of mineral clasts (including sub-voxel FeNi metal grains) and lithic clasts within the regolith breccias. Textural information within some of the lithic clasts was also discernable. Of particular interest was a large basalt clast (approx.1.3 cc) found within sample 60639, which appears to have a sub-ophitic texture. Additionally, internal void space, e.g., fractures and voids, is readily identifiable. Discussion: It is clear from the preliminary data that micro-CT analyses are able to identify important "new" clasts within the Apollo breccias, and better characterize previously described clasts or igneous samples. For example, the 60639 basalt clast was previously believed to be quite small based on its approx.0.5 sq cm exposure on the surface of the main mass

The Curative Activity of Isolated Fraction from Spathodea campanulata Beauv Stem Bark on Rat’s Exposed to Benzopyrene

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Masruri Masruri

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This paper reports a screening results of the secondary metabolites composed in Spathodea campanulata Beauv stem bark, evaluate inhibiting activity of malondialdehyde (MDA on rat’s cancer model exposed with benzopyrene, and the histology of its lung. The secondary metabolite of the stem bark fraction consisted of alkaloids, flavonoids-phenolic, terpenoid and steroid compounds. The isolated fraction contained of these metabolites significantly indicate bioactivity by reducting of malondialdehyde (MDA level, and also histology appearance of the lung tissue prepared from the benzopyrene-exposed rat indicated a curative activity.

Information Models, Data Requirements, and Agile Data Curation

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Hughes, John S.; Crichton, Dan; Ritschel, Bernd; Hardman, Sean; Joyner, Ron

2015-04-01

The Planetary Data System's next generation system, PDS4, is an example of the successful use of an ontology-based Information Model (IM) to drive the development and operations of a data system. In traditional systems engineering, requirements or statements about what is necessary for the system are collected and analyzed for input into the design stage of systems development. With the advent of big data the requirements associated with data have begun to dominate and an ontology-based information model can be used to provide a formalized and rigorous set of data requirements. These requirements address not only the usual issues of data quantity, quality, and disposition but also data representation, integrity, provenance, context, and semantics. In addition the use of these data requirements during system's development has many characteristics of Agile Curation as proposed by Young et al. [Taking Another Look at the Data Management Life Cycle: Deconstruction, Agile, and Community, AGU 2014], namely adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, continuous improvement, and rapid and flexible response to change. For example customers can be satisfied through early and continuous delivery of system software and services that are configured directly from the information model. This presentation will describe the PDS4 architecture and its three principle parts: the ontology-based Information Model (IM), the federated registries and repositories, and the REST-based service layer for search, retrieval, and distribution. The development of the IM will be highlighted with special emphasis on knowledge acquisition, the impact of the IM on development and operations, and the use of shared ontologies at multiple governance levels to promote system interoperability and data correlation.

Transanal Pull-Through Procedure with Delayed versus Immediate Coloanal Anastomosis for Anus-Preserving Curative Resection of Lower Rectal Cancer: A Case-Control Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Yong; Huang, Ping; Ren, Qing-Gui

2016-06-01

This case-control study compared the effectiveness and safety of transanal pull-through procedure (TPP) with delayed or immediate coloanal anastomosis (CAA) for anus-preserving curative resection of lower rectal cancer. Lower rectal cancer patients (n = 128) were hospitalized between January 2003 and December 2013 for elective anus-preserving curative resection through a TPP with delayed (n = 72) or immediate (n = 56) CAA. Main outcome measures including surgical safety, resection radicality, and defecation function were assessed. The two groups were comparable in age, sex, gross pathology, histology, and tumor-node-metastasis staging. Both the delayed and immediate CAA TPPs had similar resection radicality and safety profiles. The immediate CAA was associated with a significantly higher risk of anastomotic leakage and defecation impairment. None of patients in the delayed CAA group experienced anastomotic leakage. In conclusion, TPP with delayed CAA may be superior to immediate CAA in minimizing the risk of anastomotic leakage and relevant surgical morbidities, and does not require a temporary ileostomy and second-look restoration of ostomy.

Possible curative role of the anti psychotic drug fluphenazine against post-irradiation injury in rats

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hassan, S.H.M.; Abu-Ghadeer, A.R.M.; Osman, S.A.A.; Roushdy, H.M.

1986-01-01

In the present study, investigation of the possible curative role of the anti psychotic agent ''fluphenazine'' against post irradiation injury of certain sensitive biological targets has been studied in rats. Such investigation includes evaluation of the haematological levels, liver function as manifested by levels of relevant serum enzymes and kidney function as reflected by level of serum creatinine and rate of urine creatinine clearance. Data of the present study indicated that fractionated whole body gamma-irradiation resulted in haematological disorders, significant elevation in serum enzyme activities of both serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT) and serum alkaline phosphatase (SALKPH.), significant decrease in serum cholinesterase (SCHE) activity and a significant increase in serum creatinine accompanied by a significant decrease in creatinine clearance. 4 figs., 4 tabs

DataStaR: Using the Semantic Web approach for Data Curation

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Huda Khan

2011-10-01

Full Text Available In disciplines as varied as medicine, social sciences, and economics, data and their analyses are essential parts of researchers’ contributions to their respective fields. While sharing research data for review and analysis presents new opportunities for furthering research, capturing these data in digital forms and providing the digital infrastructure for sharing data and metadata pose several challenges. This paper reviews the motivations behind and design of the Data Staging Repository (DataStaR platform that targets specific portions of the research data curation lifecycle: data and metadata capture and sharing prior to publication, and publication to permanent archival repositories. The goal of DataStaR is to support both the sharing and publishing of data while at the same time enabling metadata creation without imposing additional overheads for researchers and librarians. Furthermore, DataStaR is intended to provide cross-disciplinary support by being able to integrate different domain-specific metadata schemas according to researchers’ needs. DataStaR’s strategy of a usable interface coupled with metadata flexibility allows for a more scaleable solution for data sharing, publication, and metadata reuse.

AtomPy: An Open Atomic Data Curation Environment for Astrophysical Applications

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Claudio Mendoza

2014-05-01

Full Text Available We present a cloud-computing environment, referred to as AtomPy, based on Google-Drive Sheets and Pandas (Python Data Analysis Library DataFrames to promote community-driven curation of atomic data for astrophysical applications, a stage beyond database development. The atomic model for each ionic species is contained in a multi-sheet workbook, tabulating representative sets of energy levels, A-values and electron impact effective collision strengths from different sources. The relevant issues that AtomPy intends to address are: (i data quality by allowing open access to both data producers and users; (ii comparisons of different datasets to facilitate accuracy assessments; (iii downloading to local data structures (i.e., Pandas DataFrames for further manipulation and analysis by prospective users; and (iv data preservation by avoiding the discard of outdated sets. Data processing workflows are implemented by means of IPython Notebooks, and collaborative software developments are encouraged and managed within the GitHub social network. The facilities of AtomPy are illustrated with the critical assessment of the transition probabilities for ions in the hydrogen and helium isoelectronic sequences with atomic number Z ≤ 10.

Concept development of "compassion fatigue" in clinical nurses: Application of Schwartz-Barcott and Kim's hybrid model

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Mahdieh Sabery

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Compassion fatigue is not a new concept in nursing; yet, it is not well known and there is no fixed clear definition of the term. The ambiguity surrounding how to define compassion fatigue has challenged its measurement and evaluation. Thus, any attempt to determine attributes of this underdeveloped concept and studying it in a new socio-cultural context requires concept development. The purpose of this study is to clarify the concept of compassion fatigue through concept development and to produce a vivid and tentative definition of this concept in clinical practice. Concept development was conducted using a three-step hybrid concept analysis including theoretical, fieldwork, and final analysis phases according to Schwartz-Barcott and Kim's method. We reviewed and analyzed 48 articles that met the inclusion criteria. Following, the first author conducted 13 interviews with clinical nurses followed by an inductive content analysis. Finally, a comprehensive definition of compassion fatigue in nurses was attained. Compassion fatigue in nurses can be explained as a cumulative and progressive process of absorption of the patient’s pain and suffering formed from the sympathetic and caring interactions with the patients and their families. The physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, and organizational consequences of compassion fatigue are so extensive that they threaten the existential integrity of the nurse. Context-based variables (culture, family, and community such as personality features like devotion behaviors and commitment towards the patient, exposure to multiple stressors, organizational challenges, and lack of self-care are factors associated with an increased risk of compassion fatigue. Concept development of compassion fatigue is the first step in the protection of nurses against the destructive consequences of compassion fatigue and to improve quality of care.

The Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics: An Example of Software Curation and Citation in the Geodynamics Community

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Hwang, L.; Kellogg, L. H.

2017-12-01

Curation of software promotes discoverability and accessibility and works hand in hand with scholarly citation to ascribe value to, and provide recognition for software development. To meet this challenge, the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG) maintains a community repository built on custom and open tools to promote discovery, access, identification, credit, and provenance of research software for the geodynamics community. CIG (geodynamics.org) originated from recognition of the tremendous effort required to develop sound software and the need to reduce duplication of effort and to sustain community codes. CIG curates software across 6 domains and has developed and follows software best practices that include establishing test cases, documentation, and a citable publication for each software package. CIG software landing web pages provide access to current and past releases; many are also accessible through the CIG community repository on github. CIG has now developed abc - attribution builder for citation to enable software users to give credit to software developers. abc uses zenodo as an archive and as the mechanism to obtain a unique identifier (DOI) for scientific software. To assemble the metadata, we searched the software's documentation and research publications and then requested the primary developers to verify. In this process, we have learned that each development community approaches software attribution differently. The metadata gathered is based on guidelines established by groups such as FORCE11 and OntoSoft. The rollout of abc is gradual as developers are forward-looking, rarely willing to go back and archive prior releases in zenodo. Going forward all actively developed packages will utilize the zenodo and github integration to automate the archival process when a new release is issued. How to handle legacy software, multi-authored libraries, and assigning roles to software remain open issues.

Curative salvage liver transplantation in patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma: An intention-to-treat analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

de Haas, Robbert J; Lim, Chetana; Bhangui, Prashant; Salloum, Chady; Compagnon, Philippe; Feray, Cyrille; Calderaro, Julien; Luciani, Alain; Azoulay, Daniel

2018-01-01

The salvage liver transplantation (SLT) strategy was conceived for initially resectable and transplantable (R&T) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, to try to obviate upfront liver transplantation, with the "safety net" of SLT in case of postresection recurrence. The SLT strategy is successful or curative when patients are recurrence free following primary resection alone, or after SLT for recurrence. The aim of the current study was to determine the SLT strategy's potential for cure in R&T HCC patients, and to identify predictors for its success. From 1994 to 2012, all R&T HCC patients with cirrhosis were enrolled in the SLT strategy. An intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis was used to determine this strategy's outcomes and predictors of success according to the above definition. In total, 110 patients were enrolled in the SLT strategy. Sixty-three patients (57%) had tumor recurrence after initial resection, and in 30 patients SLT could be performed (recurrence transplantability rate = 48%). From the time of initial resection, ITT 5-year overall and disease-free survival rates were 69% and 60%, respectively. The SLT strategy was successful in 60 patients (56%), either by resection alone (36%), or by SLT for recurrence (19%). Preresection predictors of successful SLT strategy at multivariate analysis included Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score >10, and absence of neoadjuvant transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Additional postresection predictive factors were absence of postresection morbidity, and T-stage 1-2 at the resection specimen. The SLT strategy is curative in only 56% of cases. Higher MELD score at inception of the strategy and no pre-resection TACE are predictors of successful SLT strategy. (Hepatology 2018;67:204-215). © 2017 by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Curative effect of monosialotetrahexosylganglioside combined with Xingnaojing injection on acute cerebral hemorrhage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rui-xing SUN

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to observe the curative effect of monosialotetrahexosylganglioside combined with Xingnaojing injection on acute cerebral hemorrhage. A total of 120 cases with acute cerebral hemorrhage were treated with Xingnaojing injection monotherapy (control group, N = 60 or monosialotetrahexosylganglioside combined with Xingnaojing injection (combined treatment group, N = 60. Bleeding amount and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS scores of 2 groups were both significantly reduced on the 21th day after treatment (P = 0.000, for all, but bleeding amount and NIHSS scores in combined treatment group were significantly lower than those in control group (P = 0.000, for all. After 21 d treatment, total effective rate of combined treatment group was 86.67% (52/60, which was significantly higher than that of control group [66.67% (40/60; χ2 = 1.493, P = 0.024]. For patients with acute cerebral hemorrhage, monosialotetrahexosylganglioside combined with Xingnaojing injection can significantly improve the neurological function. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2015.07.014

The AraGWAS Catalog: a curated and standardized Arabidopsis thaliana GWAS catalog

Science.gov (United States)

Togninalli, Matteo; Seren, Ümit; Meng, Dazhe; Fitz, Joffrey; Nordborg, Magnus; Weigel, Detlef

2018-01-01

Abstract The abundance of high-quality genotype and phenotype data for the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana enables scientists to study the genetic architecture of many complex traits at an unprecedented level of detail using genome-wide association studies (GWAS). GWAS have been a great success in A. thaliana and many SNP-trait associations have been published. With the AraGWAS Catalog (https://aragwas.1001genomes.org) we provide a publicly available, manually curated and standardized GWAS catalog for all publicly available phenotypes from the central A. thaliana phenotype repository, AraPheno. All GWAS have been recomputed on the latest imputed genotype release of the 1001 Genomes Consortium using a standardized GWAS pipeline to ensure comparability between results. The catalog includes currently 167 phenotypes and more than 222 000 SNP-trait associations with P < 10−4, of which 3887 are significantly associated using permutation-based thresholds. The AraGWAS Catalog can be accessed via a modern web-interface and provides various features to easily access, download and visualize the results and summary statistics across GWAS. PMID:29059333

The NOAA OneStop System: From Well-Curated Metadata to Data Discovery

Science.gov (United States)

McQuinn, E.; Jakositz, A.; Caldwell, A.; Delk, Z.; Neufeld, D.; Shapiro, J.; Partee, R.; Milan, A.

2017-12-01

The NOAA OneStop project is a pathfinder in the realm of enabling users to search for, discover, and access NOAA data. As the project continues along its path to maturity, it has become evident that three areas are of utmost importance to its success in the Earth science community: ensuring quality metadata, building a robust and scalable backend architecture, and keeping the user interface simple to use. Why is this the case? Because, simply put, we are dealing with all aspects of a Big Data problem: large volumes of disparate data needing to be quickly and easily processed and retrieved. In this presentation we discuss the three key aspects of OneStop architecture and how development in each area must be done through cross-team collaboration in order to succeed. We cover aspects of the web-based user interface and OneStop API and how metadata curators and software engineers have worked together to continually iterate on an ever-improving data discovery tool meant to be used by a variety of users searching across a broad assortment of data types.

Prognostic significance of microsatellite instability in curatively resected adenocarcinoma of the small intestine.

Science.gov (United States)

Brueckl, Wolfgang M; Heinze, Elvira; Milsmann, Catrin; Wein, Axel; Koebnick, Corinna; Jung, Andreas; Croner, Roland S; Brabletz, Thomas; Günther, Klaus; Kirchner, Thomas; Hahn, Eckhart G; Hohenberger, Werner; Becker, Heinz; Reingruber, Bertram

2004-01-20

Adenocarcinoma of the small intestine (ACSI) is a rare condition with few studies addressing follow-up and prognosis. Tumors of 35 patients with curative resection of an ACSI were retrospectively analyzed by immunohistochemistry: p53, hMLH1, hMSH2 and hMSH6 and microsatellite instability (MSI): BAT-26, BAX, TGF-beta RII. With a median follow up of 6.1 years, the median cancer-specific survival (CSS) was 36.2 months. Patients who were highly instable (MSI-H) (n=10) had a CSS of 49.6 months in contrast to patients with stable tumors (23.2 months) (P=0.010). Additionally, a low tumor stage according to UICC and MSI-H were shown to be independent factors (P=0.005 and P<0.001) for an increased survival in multivariate analysis. Therefore, it is suggested that analysis of the MSI status might prove useful in discerning prognosis within cancers of the same stage.

A curated database of cyanobacterial strains relevant for modern taxonomy and phylogenetic studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramos, Vitor; Morais, João; Vasconcelos, Vitor M

2017-04-25

The dataset herein described lays the groundwork for an online database of relevant cyanobacterial strains, named CyanoType (http://lege.ciimar.up.pt/cyanotype). It is a database that includes categorized cyanobacterial strains useful for taxonomic, phylogenetic or genomic purposes, with associated information obtained by means of a literature-based curation. The dataset lists 371 strains and represents the first version of the database (CyanoType v.1). Information for each strain includes strain synonymy and/or co-identity, strain categorization, habitat, accession numbers for molecular data, taxonomy and nomenclature notes according to three different classification schemes, hierarchical automatic classification, phylogenetic placement according to a selection of relevant studies (including this), and important bibliographic references. The database will be updated periodically, namely by adding new strains meeting the criteria for inclusion and by revising and adding up-to-date metadata for strains already listed. A global 16S rDNA-based phylogeny is provided in order to assist users when choosing the appropriate strains for their studies.

Role of blood tumor markers in predicting metastasis and local recurrence after curative resection of colon cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Yifan; Zhai, Zhiwei; Li, Zhongmin; Wang, Lin; Gu, Jin

2015-01-01

Aim: To investigate the prognostic value of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), CA199, CA724 and CA242 in peripheral blood and local draining venous blood in colon cancer patients after curative resection. Methods: 92 colon cancer patients who received curative resection were retrospectively analyzed. The CEA, CA199, CA724 and CA242 were detected in peripheral blood and local draining venous blood. Results: Metastasis or local recurrence was found in 29 (29/92, 31.5%) patients during follow-up period. 92 patients were divided into two groups: metastasis/local recurrence group (n = 29) and non-metastasis/local recurrence group (n = 63). Peripheral venous CEA, CA199, CA724 and CA242 (p-CEA, p-CA199, p-CA724 and p-CA242) were comparable between two groups (P > 0.05). The median draining venous CEA (d-CEA) in metastases/local recurrence group (23.7 ± 6.9 ng/ml) was significantly higher than that in non-metastases/local recurrence group (18.1 ± 6.3 ng/ml; P 0.05). The optimal cut-off value of d-CEA was 2.76 ng/ml, with the sensitivity and specificity of 90% and 40% in the prediction of metastasis or local recurrence, respectively. d-CEA correlated with tumor differentiation, T stage, TNM stage, metastasis and local recurrence. Subgroup analysis showed that, of 41 patients with stage II colon cancer, the optimal cut-off value of d-CEA was 8.78 ng/mL, and the sensitivity and specificity were 87.5% and 69.7% in the prediction of metastasis or local recurrence, respectively. Conclusion: d-CEA may be a prognostic factor for stage II colon cancer patients. PMID:25785084

Phelan-McDermid syndrome data network: Integrating patient reported outcomes with clinical notes and curated genetic reports.

Science.gov (United States)

Kothari, Cartik; Wack, Maxime; Hassen-Khodja, Claire; Finan, Sean; Savova, Guergana; O'Boyle, Megan; Bliss, Geraldine; Cornell, Andria; Horn, Elizabeth J; Davis, Rebecca; Jacobs, Jacquelyn; Kohane, Isaac; Avillach, Paul

2017-09-01

The heterogeneity of patient phenotype data are an impediment to the research into the origins and progression of neuropsychiatric disorders. This difficulty is compounded in the case of rare disorders such as Phelan-McDermid Syndrome (PMS) by the paucity of patient clinical data. PMS is a rare syndromic genetic cause of autism and intellectual deficiency. In this paper, we describe the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Data Network (PMS_DN), a platform that facilitates research into phenotype-genotype correlation and progression of PMS by: a) integrating knowledge of patient phenotypes extracted from Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) data and clinical notes-two heterogeneous, underutilized sources of knowledge about patient phenotypes-with curated genetic information from the same patient cohort and b) making this integrated knowledge, along with a suite of statistical tools, available free of charge to authorized investigators on a Web portal https://pmsdn.hms.harvard.edu. PMS_DN is a Patient Centric Outcomes Research Initiative (PCORI) where patients and their families are involved in all aspects of the management of patient data in driving research into PMS. To foster collaborative research, PMS_DN also makes patient aggregates from this knowledge available to authorized investigators using distributed research networks such as the PCORnet PopMedNet. PMS_DN is hosted on a scalable cloud based environment and complies with all patient data privacy regulations. As of October 31, 2016, PMS_DN integrates high-quality knowledge extracted from the clinical notes of 112 patients and curated genetic reports of 176 patients with preprocessed PRO data from 415 patients. © 2017 The Authors. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Hâkim Tasarım ve Ekşi Sözlük: İnternet’in Dönüşümünü Anlamak

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Babacan Taşdemir

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Son yıllarda bir yanda devletler, diğer yanda sermaye kuruluşları, siyasi, idari ve ticari amaçları ile İnternet ortamını gittikçe daha fazla kolonileştirmektedirler. Bu da siyasi ve ticari baskılardan azade bir özgürlük alanı olarak görülen İnternet’e ilişkin toplumsal beklentilere zıt bir durum ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Çalışmamız, İnternet’teki bu dönüşümü üretim gücü ve üretim ilişkileri kavramları üzerinden eleştirel bir gözle değerlendirmeyi önermektedir. Dönüşüm, ‘Teknolojik Değişimin Döngüsel Modeli’ndeki ‘mayalanma dönemi’ ve ‘hâkim tasarım’ kavramlarının sunduğu potansiyelden faydalanılarak açıklanmaya çalışılmaktadır.  Burada ‘mayalanma dönemi’ ile İnternette ifade özgürlüğü açısından daha uygun olan ilk dönemlere, ‘hâkim tasarım’ ile ise yerleşik üretim ve iktidar ilişkilerinin daha fazla nüfuz ettiği yakın döneme gönderme yapılmaktadır. Ekşi Sözlük örneği ile de savlarını destekleyen çalışmamız, üç kategori üzerinden örnek olaylarla Sözlük’ün dönüşümünü değerlendirmektedir: İş çevreleriyle ticari ilişkilere bağlı dönüşüm, İnternet’in düzenlenmesine dair hukuki çerçeve ve kamu otoriteleri ile ilişkilere bağlı olarak geçirilen dönüşüm, Sözlük kullanıcıları ve sahipleri arasındaki örgütsel ilişkinin değişimi dolayımında geçirilen dönüşüm. Sonuç olarak, İnternet’in ‘mayalanma döneminde’, yani görece serbest bir ortamda, Ekşi Sözlük popülaritesini ve saygınlığını, yaratıcı ve muhalif duruş ile karakterize olan bir ifade alanı olarak kazansa da, zaman içinde tamamen kâr merkezli bir işletmeye dönüşmektedir. Böylece bir yandan pazarlama stratejilerinin ana mecralarından biri diğer yandan da politik baskıya tabii sıradan bir forum ve paylaşım sitesi haline gelmektedir. Sözlük’ün gelişimine ilişkin örnek olaylar ele

Percutaneous transhepatic stent placement in the management of portal venous stenosis after curative surgery for pancreatic and biliary neoplasms.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Kyung Rae; Ko, Gi-Young; Sung, Kyu-Bo; Yoon, Hyun-Ki

2011-04-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of stent placement in the management of portal venous stenosis after curative surgery for pancreatic and biliary neoplasms. From September 1995 to April 2007, percutaneous transhepatic portal venous stent placement was attempted in 19 patients with postoperative portal venous stenosis. Portal venous stenosis was a complication of surgery in 11 patients and caused by tumor recurrence in eight patients. The clinical manifestations were ascites, hematochezia, melena, esophageal varices, and abnormal liver function. Stents were placed in the stenotic or occluded lesions after percutaneous transhepatic portography. Technical and clinical success, stent patency, and complications were evaluated. Stent placement was successful in 18 patients (technical success rate, 95%). Clinical manifestations improved in 16 patients (clinical success rate, 84%). The mean patency period among the 18 patients with technical success was 21.3 ± 23.2 months. The mean patency period of the benign stenosis group (30.1 ± 25.6 months) was longer than that of the tumor recurrence group (7.3 ± 7.7 months), and the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.038). There were two cases of a minor complication (transient fever) and three cases of major complications (septicemia, liver abscess, and acute portal venous thrombosis). Percutaneous transhepatic stent placement can be safe and effective in relieving portal venous stenosis after curative surgery for pancreatic and biliary neoplasms. Patients with benign stenosis had more favorable results than did those with tumor recurrence.

A Case of De Novo Anterior Condylar Dural Arteriovenous Fistula Long after Curative Transvenous Embolization of Contralateral Anterior Condylar Arteriovenous Fistula

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shinya Hagiwara

2016-01-01

Full Text Available We report on a 55-year-old man who developed a de novo DAVF in left ACC 5 years after curative transvenous embolization for DAVF in right ACC. Angiography revealed that the de novo lesion demonstrated more aggressive arteriovenous shunt flow than the initial lesion. Successful transvenous embolization was performed for also the second lesion. The authors describe the possible pathophysiological mechanisms and management strategies for this rare occurrence.

Synthetic Polymer with a Structure-Driven Hepatic Deposition and Curative Pharmacological Activity in Hepatic Cells

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Riber, Camilla Frich; Halling Folkmar Andersen, Anna; Anegaard Rolskov, Lærke

2017-01-01

Synthetic polymers make strong contributions as tools for delivery of biological drugs and chemotherapeutics. The most praised characteristic of polymers in these applications is complete lack of pharmacological function such as to minimize the side effects within the human body. In contrast......, synthetic polymers with curative pharmacological activity are truly rare. Moreover, such activity is typically nonspecific rather than structure-defined. In this work, we present the discovery of poly(ethylacrylic acid) (PEAA) as a polymer with a suit of structure-defined, unexpected, pharmacological......, and pharmacokinetic properties not observed in close structural analogues. Specifically, PEAA reveals capacity to bind to albumin with ensuing natural hepatic deposition in vivo and exhibits concurrent inhibitory activity against the hepatitis C virus and inflammation in hepatic cells. Our findings provide a view...

Quality of life after curative radiotherapy in Stage I non-small-cell lung cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langendijk, Johannes A.; Aaronson, Neil K.; Jong, Jos M.A. de; Velde, Guul P.M. ten; Muller, Martin J.; Slotman, Ben J.; Wouters, Emiel F.M.

2002-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate changes in quality of life (QOL) among medically inoperable Stage I non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with curative radiotherapy. Patients and Methods: The study sample was composed of 46 patients irradiated for Stage I NSCLC. Quality of life was assessed before, during, and after radiotherapy using the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13. Changes in symptom and QOL scores over time were evaluated with a repeated measurement analysis of variance using the mixed effect modeling procedure, SAS Proc Mixed. Twenty-seven patients were treated only at the primary site, whereas for 19 patients, the regional lymph nodes were included in the target volume as well. Results: The median follow-up time of patients alive was 34 months. The median survival was 19.0 months. None of the locally treated patients developed regional recurrence. A significant, gradual increase over time was observed for dyspnea, fatigue, and appetite loss. A significant, gradual deterioration was observed also for role functioning. No significant changes were noted for the other symptoms or the functioning scales. Significantly higher levels of dysphagia, which persisted up to 12 months, were observed in those in which the regional lymph nodes were treated, as compared to the locally treated patients. Radiation-induced pulmonary changes assessed with chest radiograph were more pronounced in the group treated with locoregional radiotherapy. Conclusions: After curative radiotherapy for Stage I medically inoperable NSCLC, a gradual increase in dyspnea, fatigue, and appetite loss, together with a significant deterioration of role functioning, was observed, possibly because of pre-existing, slowly progressive chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and radiation-induced pulmonary changes. Taking into account the low incidence of regional recurrences after local irradiation, the higher incidence

Analysis of the coexisting pathways for NO and N2O formation in Chernozem using the (15)N-tracer SimKIM-Advanced model.

Science.gov (United States)

Stange, Claus Florian; Spott, Oliver; Russow, Rolf

2013-01-01

The nitrogen (N) cycle consists of a variety of microbial processes. These processes often occur simultaneously in soils, but respond differently to local environmental conditions due to process-specific biochemical restrictions (e.g. oxygen levels). Hence, soil nitrogen cycling (e.g. soil N gas production through nitrification and denitrification) is individually affected through these processes, resulting in the complex and highly dynamic behaviour of total soil N turnover. The development and application of methods that facilitate the quantification of individual contributions of coexisting processes is a fundamental prerequisite for (i) understanding the dynamics of soil N turnover and (ii) implementing these processes in ecosystem models. To explain the unexpected results of the triplet tracer experiment (TTE) of Russow et al. (Role of nitrite and nitric oxide in the processes of nitrification and denitrification in soil: results from (15)N tracer experiments. Soil Biol Biochem. 2009;41:785-795) the existing SimKIM model was extended to the SimKIM-Advanced model through the addition of three separate nitrite subpools associated with ammonia oxidation, oxidation of organic nitrogen (Norg), and denitrification, respectively. For the TTE, individual treatments with (15)N ammonium, (15)N nitrate, and (15)N nitrite were conducted under oxic, hypoxic, and anoxic conditions, respectively, to clarify the role of nitric oxide as a denitrification intermediate during N2O formation. Using a split nitrite pool, this analysis model explains the observed differences in the (15)N enrichments in nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O) which occurred in dependence on different oxygen concentrations. The change from oxic over hypoxic to anoxic conditions only marginally increased the NO and N2O release rates (1.3-fold). The analysis using the model revealed that, under oxic and hypoxic conditions, Norg-based N2O production was the dominant pathway, contributing to 90 and 50�

Stressed out or subjective acquisition of competence – how do veterinary students see their curative work placement?

Science.gov (United States)

Dilly, Marc; Tipold, Andrea; Geuenich, Katja

2016-01-01

Veterinary studies in Germany are regulated by the Veterinary Certification Act (TAppV). The practical part of the education consists of 1,170 hours, whereby up to 850 hours can be spent on the curative work placement. A curative work placement can result in physical and psychological stress in the sense of a professional overload. It is the aim of this study to find out in what areas and to what extent competence is acquired and psychological stress exists in students during their work placement. Veterinary students (n=142) from all German education institutes participated in a voluntary online-study based on Burnout Screening Scales (BOSS) as well as a questionnaire regarding the acquisition of competence and excessive stress during the work placement (FKÜP). The distribution of values for work placement related stress show that such work placement related stress is generally slightly increased (T=60) and lies above that of occupational stresses within the normal population. Work placement related physical complaints also show a significant slight increase (T=61). A value (T=42) within the normal range was determined for the resource values. Few of the students questioned considered themselves to be excessively stressed in favour of a high subjective acquisition of competences. The largest increase regarding the acquisition of competence was noted for the areas of animal handling/restraint and application and injection techniques. In the sense of a perceived excessive demand regarding practical capabilities the areas of emergency management, surgery and medication dispensation were mentioned. With regard to the load structure and the acquisition of competence by veterinary students during their work placement, more support of the individual and a balancing of teaching/learning goals would be desirable and represents a promising approach. PMID:26958657

Psychological morbidities in adolescent and young adult blood cancer patients during curative-intent therapy and early survivorship.

Science.gov (United States)

Muffly, Lori S; Hlubocky, Fay J; Khan, Niloufer; Wroblewski, Kristen; Breitenbach, Katherine; Gomez, Joseline; McNeer, Jennifer L; Stock, Wendy; Daugherty, Christopher K

2016-03-15

Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer face unique psychosocial challenges. This pilot study was aimed at describing the prevalence of psychological morbidities among AYAs with hematologic malignancies during curative-intent therapy and early survivorship and at examining provider perceptions of psychological morbidities in their AYA patients. Patients aged 15 to 39 years with acute leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, or Hodgkin lymphoma who were undergoing curative-intent therapy (on-treatment group) or were in remission within 2 years of therapy completion (early survivors) underwent a semistructured interview that incorporated measures of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress (PTS). A subset of providers (n = 15) concomitantly completed a survey for each of the first 30 patients enrolled that evaluated their perception of each subject's anxiety, depression, and PTS. Sixty-one of 77 eligible AYAs participated. The median age at diagnosis was 26 years (range, 15-39 years), 64% were male, and 59% were non-Hispanic white. On-treatment demographics differed significantly from early-survivor demographics only in the median time from diagnosis to interview. Among the 61 evaluable AYAs, 23% met the criteria for anxiety, 28% met the criteria for depression, and 13% met the criteria for PTS; 46% demonstrated PTS symptomatology. Thirty-nine percent were impaired in 1 or more psychological domains. Psychological impairments were as frequent among early survivors as AYAs on treatment. Provider perceptions did not significantly correlate with patient survey results. AYAs with hematologic malignancies experience substantial psychological morbidities while they are undergoing therapy and during early survivorship, with more than one-third of the patients included in this study meeting the criteria for anxiety, depression, or traumatic stress. This psychological burden may not be accurately identified by their oncology providers. © 2016 American Cancer Society.

Kim Magrini | NREL

Science.gov (United States)

System Control software Education Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1984-1989 But Converges During Decomposition-Transformation," Soil Biology and Biochemistry (2013) " Catalytic Conditioning of Biomass-Derived Syngas," Topics in Catalysis (2012) "Transformation of

The curative role of radiotherapy in adenocarcinoma of the prostate in patients under 55 years of age: A rare cancer network retrospective study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nguyen, Tan Dat; Poortmans, Philip M.P.; Hulst, Marleen van der; Studer, Gabriela; Pigois, Eva; Collen, Timothy D.; Belkacemi, Yazid; Beckendorf, Veronique; Miralbell, Raymond; Scandolaro, Luciano; Soete, Guy; Villa, Salvador; Gez, Eliahu; Thomas, Olivier; Krengli, Marco; Jovenin, Nicolas

2005-01-01

To determine whether radiation therapy could be an acceptable alternative to surgery in young patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate, we analysed the outcome of 39 patients aged under 55 with organ confined tumours who received external radiation therapy in a curative intent. Our results suggest that similar local control in younger and older patients can be expected from either external beam radiotherapy or radical prostatectomy

Distant Metastasis Risk Stratification for Patients Undergoing Curative Resection Followed by Adjuvant Chemoradiation for Extrahepatic Bile Duct Cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Kyubo [Department of Radiation Oncology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Chie, Eui Kyu, E-mail: ekchie93@snu.ac.kr [Department of Radiation Oncology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Jang, Jin-Young; Kim, Sun Whe [Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Han, Sae-Won; Oh, Do-Youn; Im, Seock-Ah; Kim, Tae-You; Bang, Yung-Jue [Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Ha, Sung W. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Institute of Radiation Medicine, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University (Korea, Republic of)

2012-09-01

Purpose: To analyze the prognostic factors predicting distant metastasis in patients undergoing adjuvant chemoradiation for extrahepatic bile duct (EHBD) cancer. Methods and Materials: Between January 1995 and August 2006, 166 patients with EHBD cancer underwent resection with curative intent, followed by adjuvant chemoradiation. There were 120 males and 46 females, and median age was 61 years (range, 34-86). Postoperative radiotherapy was delivered to tumor bed and regional lymph nodes (median dose, 40 Gy; range, 34-56 Gy). A total of 157 patients also received fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy as a radiosensitizer, and fluoropyrimidine-based maintenance chemotherapy was administered to 127 patients. Median follow-up duration was 29 months. Results: The treatment failed for 97 patients, and the major pattern of failure was distant metastasis (76 patients, 78.4%). The 5-year distant metastasis-free survival rate was 49.4%. The most common site of distant failure was the liver (n = 36). On multivariate analysis, hilar tumor, tumor size {>=}2 cm, involved lymph node, and poorly differentiated tumor were associated with inferior distant metastasis-free survival (p = 0.0348, 0.0754, 0.0009, and 0.0078, respectively), whereas T stage was not (p = 0.8081). When patients were divided into four groups based on these risk factors, the 5-year distant metastasis-free survival rates for patients with 0, 1, 2, and 3 risk factors were 86.4%, 59.9%, 32.5%, and 0%, respectively (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Despite maintenance chemotherapy, distant metastasis was the major pattern of failure in patients undergoing adjuvant chemoradiation for EHBD cancer after resection with curative intent. Intensified chemotherapy is warranted to improve the treatment outcome, especially in those with multiple risk factors.

Nomogram Prediction of Survival and Recurrence in Patients With Extrahepatic Bile Duct Cancer Undergoing Curative Resection Followed by Adjuvant Chemoradiation Therapy

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Song, Changhoon [Department of Radiation Oncology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Kyubo, E-mail: kyubokim@snu.ac.kr [Department of Radiation Oncology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Chie, Eui Kyu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Institute of Radiation Medicine, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Jin Ho [Department of Radiation Oncology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Jang, Jin-Young; Kim, Sun Whe [Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Han, Sae-Won; Oh, Do-Youn; Im, Seock-Ah; Kim, Tae-You; Bang, Yung-Jue [Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Ha, Sung W. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Institute of Radiation Medicine, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2013-11-01

Purpose: To develop nomograms for predicting the overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) in patients with extrahepatic bile duct cancer undergoing adjuvant chemoradiation therapy after curative resection. Methods and Materials: From January 1995 through August 2006, a total of 166 consecutive patients underwent curative resection followed by adjuvant chemoradiation therapy. Multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards regression was performed, and this Cox model was used as the basis for the nomograms of OS and RFS. We calculated concordance indices of the constructed nomograms and American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system. Results: The OS rate at 2 years and 5 years was 60.8% and 42.5%, respectively, and the RFS rate at 2 years and 5 years was 52.5% and 38.2%, respectively. The model containing age, sex, tumor location, histologic differentiation, perineural invasion, and lymph node involvement was selected for nomograms. The bootstrap-corrected concordance index of the nomogram for OS and RFS was 0.63 and 0.62, respectively, and that of AJCC staging for OS and RFS was 0.50 and 0.52, respectively. Conclusions: We developed nomograms that predicted survival and recurrence better than AJCC staging. With caution, clinicians may use these nomograms as an adjunct to or substitute for AJCC staging for predicting an individual's prognosis and offering tailored adjuvant therapy.

Changing the focus of care: from curative to palliative care

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Silvia Soffritti

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The improvements in the obstetrical and neonatal diagnosis and therapies have resulted into an increase in the survival rate of infants previously considered as non-viable. Debate is focusing on professionals’ behaviour about withdrawal or withholding of life sustaining treatment (LST and administration of palliative care for newborns whose conditions are incompatible with a prolonged life. Decisions about treatment should be made jointly by the professionals’ team and the family, placing the interest of the baby at the very heart of the decision process. It is very important that the environment in which the family has to make the decision is characterized by openness, dialogue and frankness. A proper and effective communication with parents is always necessary and can resolve any conflict caused by disagreement. Furthermore, parents need time in the decision making process. Other supports, which could help the family in the final decision are the possibility to ask for a specialist’s second opinion and the involvement of religious leaders and of an indipendent clinical ethics committee. Withholding or withdrawal of LST does not mean cessation of care for the baby, it means to change the focus of care from curative to palliative care. Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Neonatology · Cagliari (Italy · October 22nd-25th, 2014 · The last ten years, the next ten years in Neonatology Guest Editors: Vassilios Fanos, Michele Mussap, Gavino Faa, Apostolos Papageorgiou 

The curative effects of radiotherapy-based therapies for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive breast cancer: A meta-analysis.

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Shao, Minghai; Zhang, Chi; Qin, Qin; Zhang, Zhaoyue; Zhu, Hongcheng; Di, Xiaoke; Sun, Xinchen

2017-09-01

This meta-analysis was designed to fully assess the curative effects of radiotherapy-based therapies for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer (BC). English articles were retrieved through searching Cochrane library, PubMed, and Embase databases updated to February 2017. Studies were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The curative effects of radiotherapy-based therapies forHER2+ BC patients were assessed using hazard rates (HRs) or odds ratios (ORs), as well as their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). In addition, Egger test was used to assess publication bias, followed by sensitivity analysis. All statistic methods were conducted using R 3.12 software. A total of 9 eligible studies were included into this meta-analysis, which involved 2236 HER2+ BC patients. Egger test showed that the eligible studies had no publication bias (t = 2.198, P = .05918). Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the results were stable. HER2+ BC patients in radiotherapy group had lower locoregional recurrences than those in other groups. Moreover, meta-analysis showed that no significant difference was found between HER2+ BC patients in radiotherapy group and other groups on the 1-year overall survival (P = 0.5263, I = 65.4%), 3-year overall survival (P = 0.4591, I = 0), and 5-year overall survival (P = 0.06277, I = 0). Radiotherapy-based therapies might have certain advantages in treating HER2+ BC patients.

Curative and health enhancement effects of aquatic exercise: evidence based on interventional studies

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Honda T

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Takuya Honda1, Hiroharu Kamioka21Research Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, 2Laboratory of Physical and Health Education, Faculty of Regional Environment Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, JapanBackground: The purpose of this study was to report on the health benefits and curative effects of aquatic exercise.Methods: We adopted the results of high-grade study designs (ie, randomized controlled trials and nonrandomized controlled trials, for which there were many studies on aquatic exercise. Aquatic exercise, in this study, means walking in all directions, stretching, and various exercises and conditioning performed with the feet grounded on the floor of a swimming pool. We excluded swimming. We decided to treat aquatic exercise, underwater exercise, hydrotherapy, and pool exercise as all having the same meaning.Results: Aquatic exercise had significant effects on pain relief and related outcome measurements for locomotor diseases.Conclusion: Patients may become more active, and improve their quality of life, as a result of aquatic exercise.Keywords: aquatic exercise, health enhancement, evidence

A STUDY OF METABOLIC SYNDROME IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING CORONARY ANGIOGRAPHY AT KIMS HOSPITAL, HUBBALLI, KARNATAKA, INDIA

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Chandrashekar K

2018-01-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND Coronary heart disease has become an epidemic since 20th century. Deaths due to the same are increasing of around 17.5 million deaths in year 2012. The deaths are increasing more in developing countries and metabolic syndrome is a cluster of disorders, which are promoting the development of coronary artery diseases. The disorders include central obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and hypertension. Increasing prevalence, changing lifestyle and progression of the disease without obvious symptoms had led to increasing morbidity and mortality. The non-infectious epidemic of the century is posing great challenges to healthcare and research in development of more infrastructure and funds to prevent and treat the disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 100 patients diagnosed with CAD and posted for Coronary Angiogram (CAG in ICCU at KIMS Hospital, Hubballi, were studied over a period of one and a half year. Cases were categorised according to ATPIII and new IDF criteria for metabolic syndrome and compared. Clinical evaluation, ECG, lipid profile and 2D-echo was done. Statistical analysis done using unpaired t-test, Mann-Whitney tests, Chi-square test and Kappa statistics. RESULTS Of the total 100, 57 had metabolic syndrome by either ATP criteria or IDF criteria. Kappa=0.859 (p-value 150 mg/dL and DM or FBS >100 mg/dL (p value <0.001. The mean values of SBP (144.0 vs. 120.8, DBP (85.6 vs. 73.8 and waist circumference (95.4 vs. 87.7 was statistically significant (p value <0.01 between patients with metabolic syndrome and without metabolic syndrome with IDF criteria (p value <0.001. It was observed LAD (28.1% was the most common vessel involved individually. There was no much significance related to metabolic syndrome. Incidence of CAD was more common in patients with metabolic syndrome than other group. CONCLUSION The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was high in patients with CAD. Both metabolic syndrome definitions identify subset

El individuo en el cambio: la transformación de las relaciones bilaterales entre la República de Corea y la República Popular Democrática de Corea, bajo la figura del presidente surcoreano Kim Dae-Jung

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Perilla Moreno, Jairo Andrés

2017-01-01

Este artículo busca interpretar el proceso mediante el cual las ideas y presupuestos políticos y sociales del expresidente surcoreano Kim Dae-Jung, permitieron una transformación significativa de las relaciones bilaterales entre Corea del Sur y Corea del Norte, durante su periodo presidencial entre los años 1998 y 2003. Inicialmente, dichas relaciones estuvieron caracterizadas por una incesante tensión militar como resultado de la Guerra de Corea, escenario dentro del cual apareció la figura ...

STAGES OF FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF CURATIVE PEDAGOGICS IN RUSSIA AND ABROAD

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S. V. Shmachilina-Tsybenko

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Nowadays, humanistic problems of rehabilitation and successful socialization of children with border mental state and special needs arising because of various deviations from norms of physical and intellectual development are brought into focus due to the emphasis of value of each personality capable to make strong contribution to progressive economic, technological, and intellectual development of civilization. The problems listed above can be solved through the use of Curative Pedagogics (CP. CP is an integrative scientific direction which has appeared at the intersection of such disciplines as pedagogics, psychology, and medicine.The aim of the article is to present retrospective analysis of formation and development of CP trends in Russia and abroad; open the stages of its development from the point of view of axiological and anthropological approaches; demonstrate the heritage significance of works of the Russian and foreign scientists, which influence on formation and development of anthroposophical curative education have proved to be the most important one.Methodology and research methods. The methodological basis of the study was a set of general scientific methods of obtaining knowledge: analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, and generalization.Results and scientific novelty. Having studied historical sources, psychological-pedagogical and medical publications and documents, the stages of formation of CP and challenges on the way of its development as an integrative scientific branch are highlighted and characterized from the point of view of axiological and anthropological approaches. The value and viability of scientific ideas of great educators and anthropologists of the past are confirmed; in particular, their thesis about formation of the humane medical and pedagogical environment. The research field of modern CP is designated: studying the questions of health-saving; rehabilitations of physical and mental well

Structural Quality and Utilization of Outpatient Curative Care Under Family Medicine Scheme in Rural Area of Mazandaran– Iran

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Samad Rouhani

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Background & purpose: Since 2005, a reform known as Rural Insurance and Family Medicine Scheme has introduced to primary health care network in Iran in rural areas and small towns. The content of the reform implies a substantial change in those aspects of health centers that mainly could be categorized as structural quality. Although, this is the requirement of all health care providers, they are not identical in those items. In this article, we have tried to report the relation between structural quality of health centers and utilization of curative care in Mazandran province. Materials & Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 2013. Secondary and routinely collected data was used to answer the research questions. The source of original data was provincial health authority’s data set. A check list containing pre-identified variables was used to extract the data. Using SPSS software package, regression analysis was run to measure the role of different independent variable on dependent variable. Results: There were 215 rural health centers affiliated to 16 cities or small towns that the reform has taken place. The outreach area population of these health centers was 1ˏ330ˏ212 of which 834ˏ189 (62.71% were covered by rural insurance solely. Health centers are not identical in terms of the characteristics of health centers and their utilization. Among the variables with significant impact on the utilization of outpatient care, except for number of physician in each health centre and existence of state owned pharmacy that were found in some health centers, the rest of variables had significant positive impact on the demand for physician visit. Conclusion: Structural quality has significant impact on the utilization of curative care of primary healthcare units at rural area in Iran. The reform seems well targeted the quality improvement and utilization of effective primary health care.

Reduce manual curation by combining gene predictions from multiple annotation engines, a case study of start codon prediction.

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Thomas H A Ederveen

Full Text Available Nowadays, prokaryotic genomes are sequenced faster than the capacity to manually curate gene annotations. Automated genome annotation engines provide users a straight-forward and complete solution for predicting ORF coordinates and function. For many labs, the use of AGEs is therefore essential to decrease the time necessary for annotating a given prokaryotic genome. However, it is not uncommon for AGEs to provide different and sometimes conflicting predictions. Combining multiple AGEs might allow for more accurate predictions. Here we analyzed the ab initio open reading frame (ORF calling performance of different AGEs based on curated genome annotations of eight strains from different bacterial species with GC% ranging from 35-52%. We present a case study which demonstrates a novel way of comparative genome annotation, using combinations of AGEs in a pre-defined order (or path to predict ORF start codons. The order of AGE combinations is from high to low specificity, where the specificity is based on the eight genome annotations. For each AGE combination we are able to derive a so-called projected confidence value, which is the average specificity of ORF start codon prediction based on the eight genomes. The projected confidence enables estimating likeliness of a correct prediction for a particular ORF start codon by a particular AGE combination, pinpointing ORFs notoriously difficult to predict start codons. We correctly predict start codons for 90.5±4.8% of the genes in a genome (based on the eight genomes with an accuracy of 81.1±7.6%. Our consensus-path methodology allows a marked improvement over majority voting (9.7±4.4% and with an optimal path ORF start prediction sensitivity is gained while maintaining a high specificity.

Lived experiences of everyday life during curative radiotherapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer: A phenomenological study

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Suzanne Petri

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Aim: To explore and describe the essential meaning of lived experiences of the phenomenon: Everyday life during curative radiotherapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC. Background: Radiotherapy treatment in patients with NSCLC is associated with severe side effects such as fatigue, anxiety, and reduced quality of life. However, little is known about the patients’ experience of everyday life during the care trajectory. Design: This study takes a reflective lifeworld approach using an empirical application of phenomenological philosophy described by Dahlberg and colleagues. Method: A sample of three patients treated with curative radiotherapy for NSCLC was interviewed 3 weeks after the end of radiotherapy treatment about their experiences of everyday life during their treatment. Data were collected in 2014 and interviews and analysis were conducted within the descriptive phenomenological framework. Findings: The essential meaning structure of the phenomenon studied was described as “Hope for recovery serving as a compass in a changed everyday life,” which was a guide for the patients through the radiotherapy treatment to support their efforts in coping with side effects. The constituents of the structure were: Radiotherapy as a life priority, A struggle for acceptance of an altered everyday life, Interpersonal relationships for better or worse, and Meeting the health care system. Conclusion: The meaning of hope was essential during radiotherapy treatment and our results suggest that interpersonal relationships can be a prerequisite to the experience of hope. “Hope for recovery serving as a compass in a changed everyday life,” furthermore identifies the essentials in the patients’ assertive approach to believing in recovery and thereby enabling hope in a serious situation.

Curating blood: how students' and researchers' drawings bring potential phenomena to light

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Hay, D. B.; Pitchford, S.

2016-11-01

This paper explores students and researchers drawings of white blood cell recruitment. The data combines interviews with exhibit of review-type academic images and analyses of student model-drawings. The analysis focuses on the material aspects of bio-scientific data-making and we use the literature of concrete bioscience modelling to differentiate the qualities of students model-making choices: novelty versus reproduction; completeness versus simplicity; and the achievement of similarity towards selected model targets. We show that while drawing on already published images, some third-year undergraduates are able to curate novel, and yet plausible causal channels in their graphic representations, implicating new phenomenal potentials as lead researchers do in their review-type academic publications. Our work links the virtues of drawing to learn to the disclosure of potential epistemic things, involving close attention to the contours of non-linguistic stuff and corresponding sensory perception of substance; space; time; shape and size; position; and force. The paper documents the authority and power students may achieve through making knowledge rather than repeating it. We show the ways in which drawing on the images elicited by others helps to develop physical, sensory, and sometimes affective relations towards the real and concrete world of scientific practice.

Evolution of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory to the Astromaterial Sample Curation Facility: Technical Tensions Between Containment and Cleanliness, Between Particulate and Organic Cleanliness

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Allton, J. H.; Zeigler, R. A.; Calaway, M. J.

2016-01-01

The Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) was planned and constructed in the 1960s to support the Apollo program in the context of landing on the Moon and safely returning humans. The enduring science return from that effort is a result of careful curation of planetary materials. Technical decisions for the first facility included sample handling environment (vacuum vs inert gas), and instruments for making basic sample assessment, but the most difficult decision, and most visible, was stringent biosafety vs ultra-clean sample handling. Biosafety required handling of samples in negative pressure gloveboxes and rooms for containment and use of sterilizing protocols and animal/plant models for hazard assessment. Ultra-clean sample handling worked best in positive pressure nitrogen environment gloveboxes in positive pressure rooms, using cleanable tools of tightly controlled composition. The requirements for these two objectives were so different, that the solution was to design and build a new facility for specific purpose of preserving the scientific integrity of the samples. The resulting Lunar Curatorial Facility was designed and constructed, from 1972-1979, with advice and oversight by a very active committee comprised of lunar sample scientists. The high precision analyses required for planetary science are enabled by stringent contamination control of trace elements in the materials and protocols of construction (e.g., trace element screening for paint and flooring materials) and the equipment used in sample handling and storage. As other astromaterials, especially small particles and atoms, were added to the collections curated, the technical tension between particulate cleanliness and organic cleanliness was addressed in more detail. Techniques for minimizing particulate contamination in sample handling environments use high efficiency air filtering techniques typically requiring organic sealants which offgas. Protocols for reducing adventitious carbon on sample

Lumière Word Cloud (voicesonfilm, 2017: Creativity, Curation, Projection in Film Education

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Taylor, Barnaby

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Lumière Word Cloud (voicesonfilm, 2017 is a co-curated experiment in the design and execution of academic/student collaborative assessment methods at Third Level. Inspired by classroom conversations regarding the parallels between the earliest forms of cinema – as exemplified by the films of Auguste and Louis Lumière – and the ubiquitous gif file that now appears on every social media platform, Lumière Word Cloud also asks us to reconsider the position and role that cinema history occupies in the contemporary classroom. A film composed entirely of gif files, Lumière Word Cloud also acts as an opportunity to interrogate exactly what cinema means in 2017. The film does not seek to eschew narrative altogether but rather aims to demonstrate the multifarious ways in which the collaborative nature of a film’s construction can enhance our understanding of storytelling in the digital age. In this way, Lumière Word Cloud also stands as a challenge to more traditional understandings of not only assessment methods but also to older pedagogic models regarding the status of skills and the transfer of knowledge in the contemporary learning environment.

Network Thermodynamic Curation of Human and Yeast Genome-Scale Metabolic Models

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Martínez, Verónica S.; Quek, Lake-Ee; Nielsen, Lars K.

2014-01-01

Genome-scale models are used for an ever-widening range of applications. Although there has been much focus on specifying the stoichiometric matrix, the predictive power of genome-scale models equally depends on reaction directions. Two-thirds of reactions in the two eukaryotic reconstructions Homo sapiens Recon 1 and Yeast 5 are specified as irreversible. However, these specifications are mainly based on biochemical textbooks or on their similarity to other organisms and are rarely underpinned by detailed thermodynamic analysis. In this study, a to our knowledge new workflow combining network-embedded thermodynamic and flux variability analysis was used to evaluate existing irreversibility constraints in Recon 1 and Yeast 5 and to identify new ones. A total of 27 and 16 new irreversible reactions were identified in Recon 1 and Yeast 5, respectively, whereas only four reactions were found with directions incorrectly specified against thermodynamics (three in Yeast 5 and one in Recon 1). The workflow further identified for both models several isolated internal loops that require further curation. The framework also highlighted the need for substrate channeling (in human) and ATP hydrolysis (in yeast) for the essential reaction catalyzed by phosphoribosylaminoimidazole carboxylase in purine metabolism. Finally, the framework highlighted differences in proline metabolism between yeast (cytosolic anabolism and mitochondrial catabolism) and humans (exclusively mitochondrial metabolism). We conclude that network-embedded thermodynamics facilitates the specification and validation of irreversibility constraints in compartmentalized metabolic models, at the same time providing further insight into network properties. PMID:25028891

The Protective and Curative Role of Selenium and Vitamin E Against Disorders Induced by Gamma Radiation on The Hypophysis Thyroid Axis in Rats

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Abdel-Fattah, K.I.; Abou-Safi, H.M.; Abdel-Khalek, L.G.; Mehany, N.L.; Ragab, M.T.

2003-01-01

This work aimed to investigate the protective and curative potency of both selenium and vitamin E on the hypophysis-thyroid axis hormones of rats exposed to a collective dose of 4 Gy whole body gamma irradiation. Rats were divided into five groups; control, drenched with antioxidants (2.5 mcg selenium and 1.5 mg vitamin E/100 GB wt), exposed to fractionated dose (4 Gy) of gamma radiation (0.5 Gy twice weekly for one month), drenched with antioxidants before each dose of irradiation and a group of rats supplied with antioxidants both before each dose of irradiation and for one month after the last dose of irradiation. Results obtained showed that administration of the two antioxidants both before irradiation doses and for one month after the last dose of irradiation showed the best effects on plasma levels of T 3 , T 4 , and TSH. SO, it could be concluded that oral administration of both selenium and vitamin E before and after exposure to fractionated whole body gamma irradiation showed protective and curative effects on the hypophysis-thyroid axis hormones in rats. Depending on the obtained results and in order to protect patients from gamma irradiation hazard, we recommend the use of these two antioxidants (selenium and vitamin E) before and after the exposure to the therapeutic doses of gamma radiation

The occurrence of new arrhythmias after catheter-ablation of accessory pathway: Delayed arrhythmic side-effect of curative radiofrequency lesion?

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Mujović Nebojša

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. New arrhythmias (NA may appear late after accessory pathway (AP ablation, but their relation to curative radiofrequency (RF lesion is unknown. Objective. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and predictors for NA occurrence after AP ablation and to investigate pro-arrhythmic effect of RF. Methods. Total of 124 patients (88 males, mean age 43±14 years with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and single AP have been followed after successful RF ablation. Post-ablation finding of arrhythmia, not recorded before the procedure, was considered a NA. The origin of NA was assessed by analysis of P-wave and/or QRS-complex morphology, and, thereafter, it was compared with locations of previously ablated APs. Results. Over the follow-up of 4.3±3.9 years, NA was registered in 20 patients (16%. The prevalence of specific NAs was as follows: atrioventricular (AV block 0.8%, atrial premature beats 1.6%, atrial fibrillation 5.4%, atrial flutter 0.8%, sinus tachycardia 4.8%, ventricular premature beats (VPBs 7.3%. Multivariate Cox-regression analysis identified (1 pre-ablation history of pathway-mediated tachyarrhythmias >10 years (HR=3.54, p=0.016 and (2 septal AP location (HR=4.25, p=0.003, as the independent predictors for NA occurrence. In four NA cases (two cases of septal VPBs, one of typical AFL and one of AV-block presumed NA origin was identified in the vicinity of previous ablation target. Conclusion. NAs were found in 16% of patients after AP elimination. In few of these cases, late on-site arrhythmic effect of initially curative RF lesion might be possible. While earlier intervention could prevent NA occurrence, closer follow-up is advised after ablation of septal AP.

Evaluation of the radioprotective and curative role of a natural antioxidant against cellular ultrastructural hazards induced in rats by gamma radiation exposure

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Abdel-Azeem, M.G.

2005-01-01

This study was designed to investigate the effects of Nigella sativa known as black seed in the amelioration of the histological disorders that occur in different tissues of albino rats exposed to 8 Gy whole body gamma irradiation, delivered as a single dose. Nigella sativa oil was administered daily to rats at a dose of 30 mg / 100 g body weight by gavage, 10 days before irradiation and to another group 10 days after irradiation. Experimental investigations performed one day after radiation for the first group and ten days after radiation for the second group showed that Nigella sativa treatment exerted a radioprotective and curative role on the fine structure of the renal tissue detected as swelling and cristalysis of mitochondria, fragmentation and dilatation damage in the rough endoplasmic reticulum which exhibited in various degrees such as active lysosomes, irregular nuclear membrane, clumped marginal chromatin, pyknotic nucleus with abnormal brush border, absence of infolding and irregularity of basement membrane. Moreover, the radiated hepatic cells showed dilation and thickness in membrane of blood sinasoid as well as lysis of cytoplasmic matrix. Treatment of rats with Nigella sativa during 10 consecutive days either before or after exposure to 8 Gy single dose led to partial improvement of hepatic and kidney cells.The results of the current study indicated that Nigella sativa oil exerted an important protective and curative role against radiation-induced damage in the ultrastructure configuration of kidney and liver cells

Neural systems language: a formal modeling language for the systematic description, unambiguous communication, and automated digital curation of neural connectivity.

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Brown, Ramsay A; Swanson, Larry W

2013-09-01

Systematic description and the unambiguous communication of findings and models remain among the unresolved fundamental challenges in systems neuroscience. No common descriptive frameworks exist to describe systematically the connective architecture of the nervous system, even at the grossest level of observation. Furthermore, the accelerating volume of novel data generated on neural connectivity outpaces the rate at which this data is curated into neuroinformatics databases to synthesize digitally systems-level insights from disjointed reports and observations. To help address these challenges, we propose the Neural Systems Language (NSyL). NSyL is a modeling language to be used by investigators to encode and communicate systematically reports of neural connectivity from neuroanatomy and brain imaging. NSyL engenders systematic description and communication of connectivity irrespective of the animal taxon described, experimental or observational technique implemented, or nomenclature referenced. As a language, NSyL is internally consistent, concise, and comprehensible to both humans and computers. NSyL is a promising development for systematizing the representation of neural architecture, effectively managing the increasing volume of data on neural connectivity and streamlining systems neuroscience research. Here we present similar precedent systems, how NSyL extends existing frameworks, and the reasoning behind NSyL's development. We explore NSyL's potential for balancing robustness and consistency in representation by encoding previously reported assertions of connectivity from the literature as examples. Finally, we propose and discuss the implications of a framework for how NSyL will be digitally implemented in the future to streamline curation of experimental results and bridge the gaps among anatomists, imagers, and neuroinformatics databases. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Curative Metatarsal Bone Surgery Combined with Intralesional Administration of Recombinant Human Epidermal Growth Factor in Diabetic Neuropathic Ulceration of the Forefoot: A Prospective, Open, Uncontrolled, Nonrandomized, Observational Study

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Aristides L. Garcia Herrera, MD, PhD

2017-01-01

Conclusions: The combination of curative metatarsal bone surgery with intralesional administration of recombinant human EGF resulted in a significant reduction in the re-epithelization time, recidivism, and development of new diabetic lesions. The safety profile was appropriate. However, more randomized, triple-blind, and placebo trials are needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this new therapy.

OzFlux data: network integration from collection to curation

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P. Isaac

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Measurement of the exchange of energy and mass between the surface and the atmospheric boundary-layer by the eddy covariance technique has undergone great change in the last 2 decades. Early studies of these exchanges were confined to brief field campaigns in carefully controlled conditions followed by months of data analysis. Current practice is to run tower-based eddy covariance systems continuously over several years due to the need for continuous monitoring as part of a global effort to develop local-, regional-, continental- and global-scale budgets of carbon, water and energy. Efficient methods of processing the increased quantities of data are needed to maximise the time available for analysis and interpretation. Standardised methods are needed to remove differences in data processing as possible contributors to observed spatial variability. Furthermore, public availability of these data sets assists with undertaking global research efforts. The OzFlux data path has been developed (i to provide a standard set of quality control and post-processing tools across the network, thereby facilitating inter-site integration and spatial comparisons; (ii to increase the time available to researchers for analysis and interpretation by reducing the time spent collecting and processing data; (iii to propagate both data and metadata to the final product; and (iv to facilitate the use of the OzFlux data by adopting a standard file format and making the data available from web-based portals. Discovery of the OzFlux data set is facilitated through incorporation in FLUXNET data syntheses and the publication of collection metadata via the RIF-CS format. This paper serves two purposes. The first is to describe the data sets, along with their quality control and post-processing, for the other papers of this Special Issue. The second is to provide an example of one solution to the data collection and curation challenges that are encountered by similar flux

A Library approach to establish an Educational Data Curation Framework (EDCF) that supports K-12 data science sustainability

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Branch, B. D.; Wegner, K.; Smith, S.; Schulze, D. G.; Merwade, V.; Jung, J.; Bessenbacher, A.

2013-12-01

It has been the tradition of the libraries to support literacy. Now in the realm of Executive Order, Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information, May 9, 2013, the library has the responsibility to support geospatial data, big data, earth science data or cyber infrastructure data that may support STEM for educational pipeline stimulation. (Such information can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/09/executive-order-making-open-and-machine-readable-new-default-government-.) Provided is an Educational Data Curation Framework (EDCF) that has been initiated in Purdue research, geospatial data service engagement and outreach endeavors for future consideration and application to augment such data science and climate literacy needs of future global citizens. In addition, this endorsement of this framework by the GLOBE program may facilitate further EDCF implementations, discussion points and prototypes for libraries. In addition, the ECDF will support teacher-led, placed-based and large scale climate or earth science learning systems where such knowledge transfer of climate or earth science data is effectively transferred from higher education research of cyberinfrastructure use such as, NOAA or NASA, to K-12 teachers and school systems. The purpose of this effort is to establish best practices for sustainable K-12 data science delivery system or GLOBE-provided system (http://vis.globe.gov/GLOBE/) where libraries manage the data curation and data appropriateness as data reference experts for such digital data. Here, the Purdue University Libraries' GIS department works to support soils, LIDAR and water science data experiences to support teacher training for an EDCF development effort. Lastly, it should be noted that the interdisciplinary collaboration and demonstration of library supported outreach partners and national organizations such the GLOBE program may best foster EDCF development. This trend in data

Evaluation of the Radioprotective and Curative Capacities of Certain Vitamins and Sulfhydryl Compounds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hassan, S.H.M.; El-Kady, M.H.R.

2002-01-01

The present work was directed to review and evaluate the development of effective of certain vitamins and/or chemical radiation in modifying post-irradiation injury induced by radiation exposure. Sulfhydryl radioprotectors are one of the best radioprotectors known today. Their use encounters two great difficulties their toxicity and the short period during which they are active.In parallel with the use of single radioprotectors, observations have been made in rats using combined treatment with vitamins and SH bearing radioprotectors. Such combinations of radioprotective drugs via different mechanisms, hence, markedly improve the degree of protection and keep toxicity to acceptable level. The selected vitamins were : vitamin A alone and in combination with vitamins of B group (B complex), vitamins of group B and folic acid as well as combination of vitamin E and cysteine in addition to vitamin C with cystamine. ata completed in this study showed the efficacy of vitamin A administered alone as a radio-prophylactic agent. Combination treatment with vitamins of B complex with folic acid as well as the use of vitamins with chemical radioprotector seem to be promising as curative agents. Consequently, treatment of radiation injury using multi - vitamins preparation may be fruitful understanding in radiotherapy as well as to control incidence of radiation over exposure among radiation workers

Preventive and curative effects of dicaffeoylquinic acid on early pulmonary fibrosis in mice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Tao; Song Liangwen; Dong Junxing; Huang Shanying; Li Yang

2005-01-01

Objective: To explore the effect of dicaffeoylquinic acid (IBE5) on prevention and treatment of pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin (BLM) in mice and its mechanism. Methods: Hydroxyproline content determination, imaging analysis, collagen I and III assay, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP-7 ) immunohistochemistry were performed. Results: 1)Hydroxyproline content decreased in fibrotic lung tissue after administration of IBE5(P<0.05). 2)The number of pulmonary alveoli reduced, alveolus interstitium was thickened and collagen deposition and fibrosis were formed in lung tissue of BLM group. The break of pulmonary alveoli and extension of pulmonary fibrosis were decreased by use of IBE5 (P<0.05). 3)A lot of collagen I and III were synthesized in lung interstitium in BLM group and their quantity was reduced in IBE5 group (P<0.05). 4) In BLM group, α-SMA expression increased and located in myofibroblasts in fibrotic area, and MMP7 immunohistochemical signal was located in myofibroblasts also. They were decreased in IBE5 group(P<0.05). Conclusion: IBE5 plays a preventive and curative role in pulmonary fibrosis by inhibition of transformation of fibroblasts towards myofibroblasts and MMP7 expression. (authors)

The PDS4 Information Model and its Role in Agile Science Data Curation

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, J. S.; Crichton, D.

2017-12-01

PDS4 is an information model-driven service architecture supporting the capture, management, distribution and integration of massive planetary science data captured in distributed data archives world-wide. The PDS4 Information Model (IM), the core element of the architecture, was developed using lessons learned from 20 years of archiving Planetary Science Data and best practices for information model development. The foundational principles were adopted from the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model (ISO 14721), the Metadata Registry Specification (ISO/IEC 11179), and W3C XML (Extensible Markup Language) specifications. These provided respectively an object oriented model for archive information systems, a comprehensive schema for data dictionaries and hierarchical governance, and rules for rules for encoding documents electronically. The PDS4 Information model is unique in that it drives the PDS4 infrastructure by providing the representation of concepts and their relationships, constraints, rules, and operations; a sharable, stable, and organized set of information requirements; and machine parsable definitions that are suitable for configuring and generating code. This presentation will provide an over of the PDS4 Information Model and how it is being leveraged to develop and evolve the PDS4 infrastructure and enable agile curation of over 30 years of science data collected by the international Planetary Science community.

Network thermodynamic curation of human and yeast genome-scale metabolic models.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez, Verónica S; Quek, Lake-Ee; Nielsen, Lars K

2014-07-15

Genome-scale models are used for an ever-widening range of applications. Although there has been much focus on specifying the stoichiometric matrix, the predictive power of genome-scale models equally depends on reaction directions. Two-thirds of reactions in the two eukaryotic reconstructions Homo sapiens Recon 1 and Yeast 5 are specified as irreversible. However, these specifications are mainly based on biochemical textbooks or on their similarity to other organisms and are rarely underpinned by detailed thermodynamic analysis. In this study, a to our knowledge new workflow combining network-embedded thermodynamic and flux variability analysis was used to evaluate existing irreversibility constraints in Recon 1 and Yeast 5 and to identify new ones. A total of 27 and 16 new irreversible reactions were identified in Recon 1 and Yeast 5, respectively, whereas only four reactions were found with directions incorrectly specified against thermodynamics (three in Yeast 5 and one in Recon 1). The workflow further identified for both models several isolated internal loops that require further curation. The framework also highlighted the need for substrate channeling (in human) and ATP hydrolysis (in yeast) for the essential reaction catalyzed by phosphoribosylaminoimidazole carboxylase in purine metabolism. Finally, the framework highlighted differences in proline metabolism between yeast (cytosolic anabolism and mitochondrial catabolism) and humans (exclusively mitochondrial metabolism). We conclude that network-embedded thermodynamics facilitates the specification and validation of irreversibility constraints in compartmentalized metabolic models, at the same time providing further insight into network properties. Copyright © 2014 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rabies Control and Treatment: From Prophylaxis to Strategies with Curative Potential

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Shimao; Guo, Caiping

2016-01-01

Rabies is an acute, fatal, neurological disease that affects almost all kinds of mammals. Vaccination (using an inactivated rabies vaccine), combined with administration of rabies immune globulin, is the only approved, effective method for post-exposure prophylaxis against rabies in humans. In the search for novel rabies control and treatment strategies, live-attenuated viruses have recently emerged as a practical and promising approach for immunizing and controlling rabies. Unlike the conventional, inactivated rabies vaccine, live-attenuated viruses are genetically modified viruses that are able to replicate in an inoculated recipient without causing adverse effects, while still eliciting robust and effective immune responses against rabies virus infection. A number of viruses with an intrinsic capacity that could be used as putative candidates for live-attenuated rabies vaccine have been intensively evaluated for therapeutic purposes. Additional novel strategies, such as a monoclonal antibody-based approach, nucleic acid-based vaccines, or small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) interfering with virus replication, could further add to the arena of strategies to combat rabies. In this review, we highlight current advances in rabies therapy and discuss the role that they might have in the future of rabies treatment. Given the pronounced and complex impact of rabies on a patient, a combination of these novel modalities has the potential to achieve maximal anti-rabies efficacy, or may even have promising curative effects in the future. However, several hurdles regarding clinical safety considerations and public awareness should be overcome before these approaches can ultimately become clinically relevant therapies. PMID:27801824

Ordering the mob: Insights into replicon and MOB typing schemes from analysis of a curated dataset of publicly available plasmids.

Science.gov (United States)

Orlek, Alex; Phan, Hang; Sheppard, Anna E; Doumith, Michel; Ellington, Matthew; Peto, Tim; Crook, Derrick; Walker, A Sarah; Woodford, Neil; Anjum, Muna F; Stoesser, Nicole

2017-05-01

Plasmid typing can provide insights into the epidemiology and transmission of plasmid-mediated antibiotic resistance. The principal plasmid typing schemes are replicon typing and MOB typing, which utilize variation in replication loci and relaxase proteins respectively. Previous studies investigating the proportion of plasmids assigned a type by these schemes ('typeability') have yielded conflicting results; moreover, thousands of plasmid sequences have been added to NCBI in recent years, without consistent annotation to indicate which sequences represent complete plasmids. Here, a curated dataset of complete Enterobacteriaceae plasmids from NCBI was compiled, and used to assess the typeability and concordance of in silico replicon and MOB typing schemes. Concordance was assessed at hierarchical replicon type resolutions, from replicon family-level to plasmid multilocus sequence type (pMLST)-level, where available. We found that 85% and 65% of the curated plasmids could be replicon and MOB typed, respectively. Overall, plasmid size and the number of resistance genes were significant independent predictors of replicon and MOB typing success. We found some degree of non-concordance between replicon families and MOB types, which was only partly resolved when partitioning plasmids into finer-resolution groups (replicon and pMLST types). In some cases, non-concordance was attributed to ambiguous boundaries between MOBP and MOBQ types; in other cases, backbone mosaicism was considered a more plausible explanation. β-lactamase resistance genes tended not to show fidelity to a particular plasmid type, though some previously reported associations were supported. Overall, replicon and MOB typing schemes are likely to continue playing an important role in plasmid analysis, but their performance is constrained by the diverse and dynamic nature of plasmid genomes. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CpG island methylator phenotype is an independent predictor of survival after curative resection for colorectal cancer: A prospective cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Chang Hyun; Huh, Jung Wook; Kim, Hyeong Rok; Kim, Young Jin

2017-08-01

The CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) is found in approximately 30% of colorectal cancer (CRC) cases. However, the role of CIMP status in predicting oncologic outcomes in curatively resected CRC is still unclear. Between January 2006 and December 2006, we retrospectively reviewed 157 consecutive patients who underwent curative surgery for CRC. Prognostic significance of CIMP status was evaluated using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. CIMP-high (H) and CIMP-none/low (N/L) tumors were found in 50 cases (31.8%) and 107 cases (68.2%), respectively. CIMP-H tumors were significantly associated with female sex, colonic location, poorly/mucinous histologic type, higher T category, perineural invasion, and MSI-high status (P = 0.001). During a median of 64.5 months, tumor recurrence developed in 47 (29.9%) patients. The 5-year disease-free survival for CIMP-H and CIMP-N/L was 61.4% and 76.3% (P = 0.018). In addition, multivariate analysis showed that CIMP-H was also a significant prognostic factor (P = 0.042). When analysis was performed according to anatomical location, more marked survival differences were observed in patients with colon cancer (P = 0.026) than in patients with rectal cancer (P = 0.210). Similarly, the role of CIMP status as a prognostic indicator was more prominent in patients with stage I/II (P = 0.006) than in patients with stage III/IV CRC (P = 0.65). DNA methylation status can be considered as a useful predictor of survival after CRC surgery, particularly for patients with stage I/II disease or colon cancer. © 2017 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Curative Treatment of Severe Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections by a New Class of Antibiotics Targeting LpxC.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemaître, Nadine; Liang, Xiaofei; Najeeb, Javaria; Lee, Chul-Jin; Titecat, Marie; Leteurtre, Emmanuelle; Simonet, Michel; Toone, Eric J; Zhou, Pei; Sebbane, Florent

2017-07-25

The infectious diseases caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria pose serious threats to humankind. It has been suggested that an antibiotic targeting LpxC of the lipid A biosynthetic pathway in Gram-negative bacteria is a promising strategy for curing Gram-negative bacterial infections. However, experimental proof of this concept is lacking. Here, we describe our discovery and characterization of a biphenylacetylene-based inhibitor of LpxC, an essential enzyme in the biosynthesis of the lipid A component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. The compound LPC-069 has no known adverse effects in mice and is effective in vitro against a broad panel of Gram-negative clinical isolates, including several multiresistant and extremely drug-resistant strains involved in nosocomial infections. Furthermore, LPC-069 is curative in a murine model of one of the most severe human diseases, bubonic plague, which is caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis Our results demonstrate the safety and efficacy of LpxC inhibitors as a new class of antibiotic against fatal infections caused by extremely virulent pathogens. The present findings also highlight the potential of LpxC inhibitors for clinical development as therapeutics for infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria. IMPORTANCE The rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance among Gram-negative bacilli highlights the urgent need for new antibiotics. Here, we describe a new class of antibiotics lacking cross-resistance with conventional antibiotics. The compounds inhibit LpxC, a key enzyme in the lipid A biosynthetic pathway in Gram-negative bacteria, and are active in vitro against a broad panel of clinical isolates of Gram-negative bacilli involved in nosocomial and community infections. The present study also constitutes the first demonstration of the curative treatment of bubonic plague by a novel, broad-spectrum antibiotic targeting LpxC. Hence, the data highlight the therapeutic potential of Lpx

Curative Treatment of Severe Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections by a New Class of Antibiotics Targeting LpxC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lemaître, Nadine; Liang, Xiaofei; Najeeb, Javaria; Lee, Chul-Jin; Titecat, Marie; Leteurtre, Emmanuelle; Simonet, Michel; Toone, Eric J.; Zhou, Pei; Sebbane, Florent; Nacy, Carol A.

2017-07-25

The infectious diseases caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria pose serious threats to humankind. It has been suggested that an antibiotic targeting LpxC of the lipid A biosynthetic pathway in Gram-negative bacteria is a promising strategy for curing Gram-negative bacterial infections. However, experimental proof of this concept is lacking. Here, we describe our discovery and characterization of a biphenylacetylene-based inhibitor of LpxC, an essential enzyme in the biosynthesis of the lipid A component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. The compound LPC-069 has no known adverse effects in mice and is effectivein vitroagainst a broad panel of Gram-negative clinical isolates, including several multiresistant and extremely drug-resistant strains involved in nosocomial infections. Furthermore, LPC-069 is curative in a murine model of one of the most severe human diseases, bubonic plague, which is caused by the Gram-negative bacteriumYersinia pestis. Our results demonstrate the safety and efficacy of LpxC inhibitors as a new class of antibiotic against fatal infections caused by extremely virulent pathogens. The present findings also highlight the potential of LpxC inhibitors for clinical development as therapeutics for infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria.

IMPORTANCEThe rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance among Gram-negative bacilli highlights the urgent need for new antibiotics. Here, we describe a new class of antibiotics lacking cross-resistance with conventional antibiotics. The compounds inhibit LpxC, a key enzyme in the lipid A biosynthetic pathway in Gram-negative bacteria, and are activein vitroagainst a broad panel of clinical isolates of Gram-negative bacilli involved in nosocomial and community infections. The present study also constitutes the first demonstration of the curative treatment of bubonic plague by a novel, broad

A systematic review of randomized controlled trials on curative and health enhancement effects of forest therapy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kamioka H

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Hiroharu Kamioka,1 Kiichiro Tsutani,2 Yoshiteru Mutoh,3 Takuya Honda,4 Nobuyoshi Shiozawa,5 Shinpei Okada,6 Sang-Jun Park,6 Jun Kitayuguchi,7 Masamitsu Kamada,8 Hiroyasu Okuizumi,9 Shuichi Handa91Faculty of Regional Environment Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, 2Department of Drug Policy and Management, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 3Todai Policy Alternatives Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 4Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, 5Food Labeling Division, Consumer Affairs Agency, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, Tokyo, 6Physical Education and Medicine Research Foundation, Nagano, 7Physical Education and Medicine Research Center Unnan, Shimane, 8Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Shimane University School of Medicine, Shimane, 9Mimaki Onsen (Spa Clinic, Tomi City, Nagano, JapanObjective: To summarize the evidence for curative and health enhancement effects through forest therapy and to assess the quality of studies based on a review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs.Study design: A systematic review based on RCTs.Methods: Studies were eligible if they were RCTs. Studies included one treatment group in which forest therapy was applied. The following databases – from 1990 to November 9, 2010 – were searched: MEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Ichushi-Web. All Cochrane databases and Campbell Systematic Reviews were also searched up to November 9, 2010.Results: Two trials met all inclusion criteria. No specific diseases were evaluated, and both studies reported significant effectiveness in one or more outcomes for health enhancement. However, the results of evaluations with the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials 2010 and CLEAR NPT (A Checklist to Evaluate a Report of a Nonpharmacological Trial checklists generally showed a remarkable lack of description in the studies. Furthermore, there was a