Ontological theory for ontological engineering: Biomedical systems information integration

Software application ontologies have the potential to become the keystone in state-of-the-art information management techniques. It is expected that these ontologies will support the sort of reasoning power required to navigate large and complex terminologies correctly and efficiently. Yet, there is one problem in particular that continues to stand in our way. As these terminological structures increase in size and complexity, and the drive to integrate them inevitably swells, it is clear that the level of consistency required for such navigation will become correspondingly difficult to maintain. While descriptive semantic representations are certainly a necessary component to any adequate ontology-based system, so long as ontology engineers rely solely on semantic information, without a sound ontological theory informing their modeling decisions, this goal will surely remain out of reach. In this paper we describe how Language and Computing nv (L&C), along with The Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Sciences (IFOMIS), are working towards developing and implementing just such a theory, combining the open software architecture of L&C’s LinkSuiteTM with the philosophical rigor of IFOMIS’s Basic Formal Ontology. In this way we aim to move beyond the more or less simple controlled vocabularies that have dominated the industry to date

Training Indiana's Family Medicine Residents to Address the Problem of Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug abuse has been a growing problem in Indiana and around the nation for almost two decades. In recent years, prescription drug overdoses have pushed drug poisonings ahead of motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury death. However, deaths due to overdoses of prescription drugs are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the much larger problem of abuse. This study has characterized prescription drug abuse in Indiana and taken an in-depth look at how it is and can be addressed both through organizational policies and state legislation. Opioid painkillers such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and methadone are the most commonly abused prescription drugs, and most of these prescriptions are written by primary care physicians. Because more than 70% of Indiana’s family medicine residents will remain in the state to practice medicine following the conclusion of their residencies, it is worthwhile to take a look at how these residents are being educated during their training. St. Vincent’s Family Medicine Residency program in Indianapolis is one of several residency programs in Indiana training their residents on best practices of prescribing controlled substances. A review of residents’ prescribing patterns before and after training on the subject went into effect showed significant reductions in the number of opioid painkillers being prescribed, and showed the same reductions for alprazolam, a benzodiazepine anxiolytic

Storage stability of whole and nibbed, conventional and high oleic peanuts (<i>Arachis hypogeae </i>L.)

Peanuts are increasingly being used as nibbed ingredients in cereal bars, confectionery and breakfast cereals. However, studies on their oxidative stability in this format are limited. Storage trials to determine the stability to oxidation were carried out on whole and nibbed kernels of conventional (CP) and high oleic (HOP) peanuts, with respect to temperature and modified atmosphere packaging. HOP exhibited the highest oxidative stability, with a lag phase in whole kernels of 12–15 weeks before significant oxidation occurred. HOP also showed higher levels of intrinsic antioxidants, a trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) of 70 mMol equivalence and radical scavenging percentage (RSP) of 99.8 % at the beginning of storage trials, whereas CP showed values of 40 mMol and 81.2 %, respectively. The intrinsic antioxidants at the beginning of these storage trials were shown to affect the peroxide value (PV), where RSP and TEAC decreased, and PV increased. Therefore, in peanuts the processing format (nibbed or whole) had the highest influence on susceptibility of lipid oxidation, highest to lowest importance: processing format &gt; temperature &gt; atmospheric conditions

Formal ontology for biomedical knowledge systems integration

The central hypothesis of the collaboration between Language and Computing (L&C) and the Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science (IFOMIS) is that the methodology and conceptual rigor of a philosophically inspired formal ontology will greatly benefit software application ontologies. To this end LinKBase®, L&C’s ontology, which is designed to integrate and reason across various external databases simultaneously, has been submitted to the conceptual demands of IFOMIS’s Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). With this, we aim to move beyond the level of controlled vocabularies to yield an ontology with the ability to support reasoning applications

Age-dependent transient shear banding in soft glasses

We study numerically the formation of long-lived transient shear bands during shear startup within two models of soft glasses (a simple fluidity model and an adapted `soft glassy rheology' model). The degree and duration of banding depends strongly on the applied shear rate, and on sample age before shearing. In both models the ultimate steady flow state is homogeneous at all shear rates, consistent with the underlying constitutive curve being monotonic. However, particularly in the SGR case, the transient bands can be extremely long lived. The banding instability is neither `purely viscous' nor `purely elastic' in origin, but is closely associated with stress overshoot in startup flow.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Second-line antiretroviral therapy in a workplace and community-based treatment programme in South Africa: determinants of virological outcome.

: Background: As antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes in resource-limited settings mature, more patients are experiencing virological failure. Without resistance testing, deciding who should switch to second-line ART can be difficult. The consequences for second-line outcomes are unclear. In a workplace- and community-based multi-site programme, with 6-monthly virological monitoring, we describe outcomes and predictors of viral suppression on second-line, protease inhibitor-based ART.Methods: We used prospectively collected clinic data from patients commencing first-line ART between 1/1/03 and 31/12/08 to construct a study cohort of patients switched to second-line ART in the presence of a viral load (VL) ?400 copies/ml. Predictors of VL&lt;400 copies/ml within 15 months of switch were assessed using modified Poisson regression to estimate risk ratios.Results: 205 workplace patients (91.7% male; median age 43 yrs) and 212 community patients (38.7% male; median age 36 yrs) switched regimens. At switch compared to community patients, workplace patients had a longer duration of viraemia, higher VL, lower CD4 count, and higher reported non-adherence on first-line ART. Non-adherence was the reported reason for switching in a higher proportion of workplace patients. Following switch, 48.3% (workplace) and 72.0% (community) achieved VL&lt;400, with non-adherence (17.9% vs. 1.4%) and virological rebound (35.6% vs. 13.2% with available measures) reported more commonly in the workplace programme. In adjusted analysis of the workplace programme, lower switch VL and younger age were associated with VL&lt;400. In the community programme, shorter duration of viraemia, higher CD4 count and transfers into programme on ART were associated with VL&lt;400.Conclusion: High levels of viral suppression on second-line ART can be, but are not always, achieved in multi-site treatment programmes with both individual- and programme-level factors influencing outcomes. Strategies to support both healthcare workers and patients during this switch period need to be evaluated; sub-optimal adherence, particularly in the workplace programme must be addressed

Application of computer-aided dispatch in law enforcement: An introductory planning guide

A set of planning guidelines for the application of computer-aided dispatching (CAD) to law enforcement is presented. Some essential characteristics and applications of CAD are outlined; the results of a survey of systems in the operational or planning phases are summarized. Requirements analysis, system concept design, implementation planning, and performance and cost modeling are described and demonstrated with numerous examples. Detailed descriptions of typical law enforcement CAD systems, and a list of vendor sources, are given in appendixes