Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2004

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2004

Benefits of and barriers to involving users in medical device technology development and evaluation

Objectives: This study investigated the benefits of, and barriers to user involvement in medical device technology development and evaluation. Methods: A structured review of published literature in peer-reviewed journals. Results: This review revealed that the main benefits of user involvement were an increased access to user needs, experiences and ideas; improvements in medical device designs and user interfaces; and an increase in the functionality, usability and quality of the devices. On the other hand, resource issues, particularly those of time and money were found the key impediments to involving users in the development and evaluation of medical device technologies. This study has categorised both the benefits and barriers to user involvement also. Conclusions: The involvement of users in MDTD&E requires resources, which are limited; however, it is essential from both users and manufacturers perspectives

Course Manual - National Workshop on Effective Management of E-Resources in Research Libraries

The National Workshop on “Effective Management of EResources in Research Libraries" is the first of its kind organised by the Library & Documentation Centre of ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi. Periodic trainings on newer technologies developed in the field of Library & Information Sciences help library professionals to enhance their professional competencies that will contribute largely to the output of the parent organization. Digital repositories are the need of the hour where the Institute can showcase the research findings. ICAR-CMFRI is a pioneer in developing Institute repository and the open access repository of the Institute "eprints@cmfri" now stands 1st among ICAR Institute repositories, 3rd among Indian repositories and 343rd among the world repositories. Topics of current relevance towards development and modernisation of research libraries are included in the Workshop which is expected to help the participants to understand the possibilities and ways of supporting the research activities of the parent Institution more effectively

Personalised antimicrobial management in secondary care

Background: The growing threat of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) requires innovative methods to promote the sustainable effectiveness of antimicrobial agents. Hypothesis: This thesis aimed to explore the hypothesis that personalised decision support interventions have the utility to enhance antimicrobial management across secondary care. Methods: Different research methods were used to investigate this hypothesis. Individual physician decision making was mapped and patient experiences of engagement with decision making explored using semi-structured interviews. Cross-specialty engagement with antimicrobial management was investigated through cross-sectional analysis of conference abstracts and educational training curricula. Artificial intelligence tools were developed to explore their ability to predict the likelihood of infection and provide individualised prescribing recommendations using routine patient data. Dynamic, individualised dose optimisation was explored through: (i) development of a microneedle based, electrochemical biosensor for minimally invasive monitoring of beta-lactams; and (ii) pharmacokinetic (PK)-pharmacodynamic (PD) modelling of a new PK-PD index using C-Reactive protein (CRP) to predict the pharmacodynamics of vancomycin. Ethics approval was granted for all aspects of work explored within this thesis. Results: Mapping of individual physician decision making during infection management demonstrated several areas where personalised, technological interventions could enhance antimicrobial management. At specialty level, non-infection specialties have little engagement with antimicrobial management. The importance of engaging surgical specialties, who have relatively high rates of antimicrobial usage and healthcare associated infections, was observed. An individualised information leaflet, co-designed with patients, to provide personalised infection information to in-patients receiving antibiotics significantly improved knowledge and reported engagement with decision making. Artificial intelligence was able to enhance the prediction of infection and the prescribing of antimicrobials using routinely available clinical data. Real-time, continuous penicillin monitoring was demonstrated using a microneedle based electrochemical sensor in-vivo. A new PK-PD index, using C-Reactive Protein, was able to predict individual patient response to vancomycin therapy at 96-120 hours of therapy. Conclusion: Through co-design and the application of specific technologies it is possible to provide personalised antimicrobial management within secondary care.Open Acces

Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2005

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2005

Overview of the interactive task in BioCreative V

Fully automated text mining (TM) systems promote efficient literature searching, retrieval, and review but are not sufficient to produce ready-to-consume curated documents. These systems are not meant to replace biocurators, but instead to assist them in one or more literature curation steps. To do so, the user interface is an important aspect that needs to be considered for tool adoption. The BioCreative Interactive task (IAT) is a track designed for exploring user-system interactions, promoting development of useful TM tools, and providing a communication channel between the biocuration and the TM communities. In BioCreative V, the IAT track followed a format similar to previous interactive tracks, where the utility and usability of TM tools, as well as the generation of use cases, have been the focal points. The proposed curation tasks are user-centric and formally evaluated by biocurators. In BioCreative V IAT, seven TM systems and 43 biocurators participated. Two levels of user participation were offered to broaden curator involvement and obtain more feedback on usability aspects. The full level participation involved training on the system, curation of a set of documents with and without TM assistance, tracking of time-on-task, and completion of a user survey. The partial level participation was designed to focus on usability aspects of the interface and not the performance per se. In this case, biocurators navigated the system by performing pre-designed tasks and then were asked whether they were able to achieve the task and the level of difficulty in completing the task. In this manuscript, we describe the development of the interactive task, from planning to execution and discuss major findings for the systems tested

Overview of the interactive task in BioCreative V

Fully automated text mining (TM) systems promote efficient literature searching, retrieval, and review but are not sufficient to produce ready-to-consume curated documents. These systems are not meant to replace biocurators, but instead to assist them in one or more literature curation steps. To do so, the user interface is an important aspect that needs to be considered for tool adoption. The BioCreative Interactive task (IAT) is a track designed for exploring user-system interactions, promoting development of useful TM tools, and providing a communication channel between the biocuration and the TM communities. In BioCreative V, the IAT track followed a format similar to previous interactive tracks, where the utility and usability of TM tools, as well as the generation of use cases, have been the focal points. The proposed curation tasks are user-centric and formally evaluated by biocurators. In BioCreative V IAT, seven TM systems and 43 biocurators participated. Two levels of user participation were offered to broaden curator involvement and obtain more feedback on usability aspects. The full level participation involved training on the system, curation of a set of documents with and without TM assistance, tracking of time-on-task, and completion of a user survey. The partial level participation was designed to focus on usability aspects of the interface and not the performance per se. In this case, biocurators navigated the system by performing pre-designed tasks and then were asked whether they were able to achieve the task and the level of difficulty in completing the task. In this manuscript, we describe the development of the interactive task, from planning to execution and discuss major findings for the systems tested

Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2003

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2003

Phycobilins as Potent Food Bioactive Broad-Spectrum Inhibitors Against Proteases of SARS-CoV-2 and Other Coronaviruses: A Preliminary Study

In the 21st century, we have witnessed three coronavirus outbreaks: SARS in 2003, MERS in 2012, and the ongoing pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The search for efficient vaccines and development and repurposing of therapeutic drugs are the major approaches in the COVID-19 pandemic research area. There are concerns about the evolution of mutant strains (e.g., VUI – 202012/01, a mutant coronavirus in the United Kingdom), which can potentially reduce the impact of the current vaccine and therapeutic drug development trials. One promising approach to counter the mutant strains is the “development of effective broad-spectrum antiviral drugs” against coronaviruses. This study scientifically investigates potent food bioactive broad-spectrum antiviral compounds by targeting main protease (Mpro) and papain-like protease (PLpro) proteases of coronaviruses (CoVs) using in silico and in vitro approaches. The results reveal that phycocyanobilin (PCB) shows potential inhibitor activity against both proteases. PCB had the best binding affinity to Mpro and PLpro with IC50 values of 71 and 62 μm, respectively. Also, in silico studies with Mpro and PLpro enzymes of other human and animal CoVs indicate broad-spectrum inhibitor activity of the PCB. As with PCB, other phycobilins, such as phycourobilin (PUB), phycoerythrobilin (PEB), and phycoviolobilin (PVB) show similar binding affinity to SARS-CoV-2 Mpro and PLpro

The Computational Diet: A Review of Computational Methods Across Diet, Microbiome, and Health.

Food and human health are inextricably linked. As such, revolutionary impacts on health have been derived from advances in the production and distribution of food relating to food safety and fortification with micronutrients. During the past two decades, it has become apparent that the human microbiome has the potential to modulate health, including in ways that may be related to diet and the composition of specific foods. Despite the excitement and potential surrounding this area, the complexity of the gut microbiome, the chemical composition of food, and their interplay in situ remains a daunting task to fully understand. However, recent advances in high-throughput sequencing, metabolomics profiling, compositional analysis of food, and the emergence of electronic health records provide new sources of data that can contribute to addressing this challenge. Computational science will play an essential role in this effort as it will provide the foundation to integrate these data layers and derive insights capable of revealing and understanding the complex interactions between diet, gut microbiome, and health. Here, we review the current knowledge on diet-health-gut microbiota, relevant data sources, bioinformatics tools, machine learning capabilities, as well as the intellectual property and legislative regulatory landscape. We provide guidance on employing machine learning and data analytics, identify gaps in current methods, and describe new scenarios to be unlocked in the next few years in the context of current knowledge