DC元数据在数字图书馆中的应用

 

从元数据的概念入手，介绍了DC元数据的产生和发展，体系结构及其在电子资

源描述中的优势等，并从五个方面介绍了DC元数据在数字图书馆中的应用，包括信息资源的

组织，解决系统互操作问题，为用户实现知识导航，用户管理，数据库的设计与维护。

     

医药学知识咨询系统构建过程中相关概念的探讨

 

初步探讨了构建医药学知识咨询系统过程中一些相关概念：数据、信息与知识，数据库与知识库，知识仓库与知识库，知识的颗粒度等，以明确研制的医药学知识咨询系统的深层意义。

     

“一站式”医学文献资源整合系统的建立

 

对医学文献资源整合的必要性及其文献资源整合的类型进行了阐述，并提出了“一站式”医学文献资源整合系统建立的方法。

     

基于XML的PubMed生物医学工程文献的聚类分析方法的探讨

 

采用依据主题词表的聚类数据挖掘技术对基于可扩展标识语言（Extensible Markup

Language，XML）的PubMed生物医学工程方面的文献进行分析，实现PubMed生物医学工程文

献的概念导航，建立生物医学工程专题文献数据库，并利用加权的词频统计方法分析其文献

主题分布。

     

一体化医学语言系统中概念语义类型的分类审核

介绍了一项用以检查一体化医学语言系统在概念整合过程中发生的语义类型错误的审核技术。该技术通过对语义网络进行数据图表——数据-语义类型——单一交集的逐层划分，控制了需要检查的概念总数，达到事半功倍的效果。     

基于网络的生物医学信息导航系统的研发

 

阐明了建立网络生物医学信息导航系统的现实意义，介绍了系统的概念、功能，并就建立网

络生物医学信息导航系统的方法步骤及需要注意的问题进行了探讨。

     

UMLS与中医药一体化语言系统的建立

 

从词表、语义网络等方面介绍了一体化医学语言系统（UMLS）与中医药一体化语言系统（TCMLS）的异同及TCMLS的特点，阐述了在TCMLS建立过程中应注意的一些问题。

     

研究用户需求，开展医学情报专题服务

 

研究了不同用户信息需求的特点和国内外医学情报专题服务的类型，及开展专题情报服务应注意的问题。

     

双机容错技术在图书馆网络中的应用研究

 

介绍了双机容错技术的原理及其在图书馆中的应用，详细说明了双机互备援模式和双机热备份模式的双机容错模式及图书馆中常采用的系统数据镜像技术和共享磁盘技术这两种双机容错方案。

     

医药文献检索课双语教学研究

 

对双语教学的概念及内涵进行了说明，阐述了在高等医药院校开展医药文献检索课双语教学的必要性和可行性，并提出了几点具体的意见和建议。

     

Medication errors—an enduring problem for children and elderly patients

Abstract

Objective. To analyze the types and reasons of medication errors, committed by health care professionals, which led to toxicological consultations at the Czech Toxicological Information Centre (TIC).

Methods. Inquiries arising from medication errors for 2000–2010 were extracted and evaluated from the database of the TIC, recording the consultations of poisonings due to drugs, household products, plants, and mushrooms.

Results. From a total of 44,344 calls concerning pharmaceuticals, 215 (0.5%) were denoted by the caller as medication errors; 130 involved children (90 below 5 years of age) and 85 involved adults (30–60 years of age). The most common errors were: improper dosage (60.9%), wrong medication (19.3%), or erroneous route of administration (12.9%). The most frequent medication errors appeared using drugs affecting the nervous system (psycholeptics and antiepileptics), antibiotics, and drugs affecting the respiratory system. Nurses administering the drugs were responsible for 43.0%, physicians prescribing the drugs for 36.8%, and pharmacists dispensing the drugs for 20.2% of the errors. Of 25 patients with severe drug intoxications, 60.0% were children under 5 years of age treated with pharmaceuticals affecting the CNS, and 28.0% patients over 60 years of age with chronic application of theophylline, digoxin, or lithium.

Conclusions. The trend in medication errors has remained relatively stable over the past 11 years. The analysis of medication errors shows two high-risk categories: children of less than 5 years of age, in whom the dose was not correctly adjusted, and elderly people with chronic medication and insufficient control of their medication level. Therefore, the measures for risk reduction should focus primarily on them.     

Comprehensive History Taking for the Non-Psychiatrist

To an increasing degree the psychiatrist is oriented to the community and general hospital either as consultant, therapist, or collaborator in overall patient management. In these new roles, he becomes a more comprehensive physician and also conveys psychiatric insights to his colleagues.

Psychological factors and the patient's personality “style” influence the development and course of every disease, complicating diagnosis and effective treatment. It is a basic requirement that a good working alliance be established between patient and physician. This is assisted by comprehensive history taking, which clarifies the lifesetting in which the illness began, the patient's personality and his habitual reactions of emotional regression under stress. It will also point up errors introduced by the patient, omissions, and distortions in offering the subjective data which the physician must evaluate.

Seven major personality types and appropriate physician responses are outlined: the dependent demanding oral patient, the orderly controlled obsessive, the dramatic seductive hysteric, the long-suffering masochist, the querulous paranoid, the overbearing narcissist and the aloof withdrawn schizoid.

The non-psychiatrist can resolve complex and puzzling medical problems if he has an increased awareness of how emotional forces complicate illness and if he can exploit comprehensive history taking to the full.

     

Drug Addiction, Psychotic Illness and Brain Self-Stimulation: Effective Treatment and Explanatory Hypothesis

Similarities between drug addiction and psychotic illness suggested that drug addicts could be treated with intensive ECT and phenothiazine drugs, a therapeutic approach effective in more serious psychotic illnesses.

The use of this intensive treatment method is described in six drug addicts. Successful results were achieved in four patients who have been followed up for two to five years. The treatment program, the preliminary investigations and the follow-up procedures are described.

Particular reference is made to the brain self-stimulation studies of Olds and others in animals, and those of Heath in man. A hypothesis is advanced to explain the various aspects of the clinical picture in both psychotic illness and drug addiction.

The intensive method of treatment should be considered for drug addicts whose prognosis is otherwise poor. Further investigations along the lines of the proposed hypothesis might be profitable in other types of abnormal and maladaptive behaviour.

     

Profiling harmful medication errors in an acute Irish teaching hospital

Background

Medication error reporting systems in hospitals are faced with the challenge of processing vast numbers of reports which identify a myriad of safety issues. With such large volumes of data and limited resources it makes sense to adopt a prioritisation approach. Several published studies have focused solely on the subset of errors which cause patient harm. The majority of such research has concerned the individual analysis of criteria associated with medication errors. However, the research described here used an alternative approach which involved linking the three criteria of medication class, patient outcome, and type of error, in order to describe the medication-related scenarios presenting greatest risk to the organisation.

Aims

To identify the highest-priority medication-related risks in an acute teaching hospital. To profile harmful medication errors submitted to a voluntary reporting system in a tertiary healthcare setting in Ireland.

Methods

A database of medication errors, reported via an internal voluntary reporting system over a 5-year period, was analysed. The criteria of medication class, patient outcome and type of error were analysed separately and then cross-tabulated.

Results

The medication classes, error types and adverse patient outcomes most frequently associated with harm were identified. The cross-tabulation highlighted ten priority risk areas which accounted for the majority of patient harm.

Conclusions

A cross-tabulation strategy for prioritising medication-associated risks was successfully applied to a hospital database comprising medication errors. The profile developed for harmful medication errors in this acute tertiary healthcare setting was broadly in line with that published for error reporting systems internationally.     

Array comparative genomic hybridization identifies a heterozygous deletion of exon 3 of the RYR2 gene

Abstract

Background. Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is a heritable cardiac disorder characterized by life-threatening ventricular tachycardia caused by exercise or acute emotional stress. The standard diagnostic screening involves Sanger-based sequencing of 45 of the 105 translated exons of the RYR2 gene, and copy number changes of a limited number of exons that are detected using multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA).

Methods. In the current study, a previously validated bespoke array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) technique was used to detect copy number changes in the RYR2 gene in a 43-year-old woman clinically diagnosed with CPVT.

Results. The CGH array detected a 1.1 kb deletion encompassing exon 3 of the RYR2 gene. This is the first report using the aCGH technique to screen for mutations causing CPVT.

Conclusions. The aCGH method offers significant advantages over MLPA in genetic screening for heritable cardiac disorders.     

Patency rate and complications of polytetrafluoroethylene grafts compared with polyurethane grafts for hemodialysis access

Abstract

Background. The survival of hemodialysis patients requiring dialysis depends on the long-term functioning and patency of the vascular access. Prosthetic vascular grafts are inevitably used for patients whose vessels are unsuitable for an autogenous arteriovenous (AV) fistula. The purpose of this study was to compare the patency rate and associated complications using different types of grafts.

Methods. This prospective study was conducted on patients who did not have an appropriate vein for arteriovenous fistula from January 2004 through July 2006. They were divided into two groups, sex, age, and basic data matched. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyurethane (PVAG) were the two types of grafts used in this study. The functionality of the graft was assessed immediately 1 day and 2 weeks after operation. The clinical follow-up was performed each 3 months until 24 months.

Results. One-year patency rate was reported to be 64% and 52% in the PTFE and PVAG groups, respectively. There was no significant difference in 1-year (64% versus 52%) and 2-year (49% versus 41%) patency rate of the PTFE and PVAG grafts used as vascular access. There was also no difference between the numbers of complications reported in the two groups.

Conclusion. It could be concluded that either PTFE or PVAG grafts can be used with the same expected outcomes.     

Impact of Different Inspiratory Flow Patterns on Arterial CO2-tension

Abstract

Ventilation with decelerating inspiratory flow is known to reduce the dead space fraction and to decrease PaCO₂. Constant inspiratory flow with an end-inspiratory pause (EIP) is also known to increase the removal of CO₂.

The aim of the study was to elucidate the effect of the pause/no-flow period while both the pattern and rate of inspiratory flow was unchanged, and when the lung was ventilated with sufficient PEEP to prevent end-expiratory collapse.

Surfactant depleted piglets were assigned to decelerating or constant inspiratory flow with 24 breaths per minute (bpm) or 12 bpm, or to constant flow, without and with an end-inspiratory pause of 25%. By adding an EIP the total time without active inspiratory flow of the respiratory cycle was kept unchanged. Gas exchange, airway pressures, functional residual capacity (using sulfurhexafluoride) and haemodynamics (thermo-dye indicator dilution technique) were measured.

Irrespective of ventilatory frequency, PaCO₂ was lower and serial dead space reduced with decelerating flow, compared with constant inspiratory flow. With an end-inspiratory pause added to constant inspiratory flow, serial dead space was reduced but did not decrease PaCO₂.

The results of this study corroborate the assumption that total time without active inspiratory flow is important for arterial CO₂-tension.     

A New Lotion for the Treatment of Acne Vulgaris

A therapeutic assessment of a new lotion containing methylprednisolone, neomycin, colloidal sulfur and aluminum chlorhydroxide complex (Neo-Medrol Acne Lotion) was carried out on 187 patients suffering from acne vulgaris.

Of the 187 patients, 165 showed excellent or good response. Following enthusiastic acceptance of the lotion by the patients in the initial study, a second random study with an additional 134 subjects was undertaken to compare the active lotion with the lotion base alone.

The active lotion was superior to the placebo lotion in this study, at a statistically significant level. The overall findings suggest that this lotion is an efficient preparation for the control of acne vulgaris (early and late types) and it also showed promise in the treatment of a few cases of acne rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis facialis.