How to interact with medical terminologies? Formative usability evaluations comparing three approaches for supporting the use of MedDRA by pharmacovigilance specialists

Background: Medical terminologies are commonly used in medicine. For instance, to answer a pharmacovigilance question, pharmacovigilance specialists (PVS) search in a pharmacovigilance database for reports in relation to a given drug. To do that, they first need to identify all MedDRA terms that might have been used to code an adverse reaction in the database, but terms may be numerous and difficult to select as they may belong to different parts of the hierarchy. In previous studies, three tools have been developed to help PVS identify and group all relevant MedDRA terms using three different approaches: forms, structured query-builder, and icons. Yet, a poor usability of the tools may increase PVS' workload and reduce their performance. This study aims to evaluate, compare and improve the three tools during two rounds of formative usability evaluation. Methods: First, a cognitive walkthrough was performed. Based on the design recommendations obtained from this evaluation, designers made modifications to their tools to improve usability. Once this re-engineering phase completed, six PVS took part in a usability test: difficulties, errors and verbalizations during their interaction with the three tools were collected. Their satisfaction was measured through the System Usability Scale. The design recommendations issued from the tests were used to adapt the tools. Results: All tools had usability problems related to the lack of guidance in the graphical user interface (e.g., unintuitive labels). In two tools, the use of the SNOMED CT to find MedDRA terms hampered their use because French PVS were not used to it. For the most obvious and common terms, the icons-based interface would appear to be more useful. For the less frequently used MedDRA terms or those distributed in different parts of the hierarchy, the structured query-builder would be preferable thanks to its great power and flexibility. The form-based tool seems to be a compromise. Conclusion: These evaluations made it possible to identify the strengths of each tool but also their weaknesses to address them before further evaluation. Next step is to assess the acceptability of tools and the expressiveness of their results to help identify and group MedDRA terms

Advancement in heterogeneous base catalyzed technology: An efficient production of biodiesel fuels

Price fluctuation of petroleum-based diesel, climate change, emerging mandate obligations, availability of new feedstock and the upgrading of conversion technologies are expected to drive biodiesel market to grow robustly in the next coming 10 years. However, the current bottleneck in biodiesel production is the lack of economical sustainable conversion technologies. Generally, industrial production of biodiesel is greatly relied on alkaline homogeneous transesterification reaction. Limitation of the technology, such as multistep process which incur extra pre-step for high acid oil treatment and post-step for biodiesel purification and alkali washing as diminished the economic feasibility and low environmental impact of the entire biodiesel process. Heterogeneous catalysis offers immense potential to develop simple transesterification process, including one step reaction, easy separation, reusability of catalyst, and green reaction. Thus, the aim of this paper is to review the biodiesel production technologies such as blending, micro-emulsion, pyrolysis, and transesterification. Furthermore, recent studies on heterogeneous catalyzed transesterification were presented by discussing the issues such as catalytic performance on different types of biodiesel feedstock, transesterification reaction conditions, limitations encountered by heterogeneous catalysts, and reusability of solid catalysts. The heterogeneous catalysts presented in this review is mainly focused on solid base catalysts, which include single metal oxides, supported metal oxide, binary metal oxide, hydrotalcite, and natural waste shell-based catalyst. Furthermore, current perspectives on application of heterogeneous catalyzed technology in biodiesel industry were discussed herein. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC

Challenges and Best Practices in Ethical Review of Human and Organizational Factors Studies in Health Technology: a Synthesis of Testimonies

Objective: Human and Organizational Factors (HOF) studies in health technology involve human beings and thus require Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Yet HOF studies have specific constraints and methods that may not fit standard regulations and IRB practices. Gaining IRB approval may pose difficulties for HOF researchers. This paper aims to provide a first overview of HOF study challenges to get IRB review by exploring differences and best practices across different countries. Methods: HOF researchers were contacted by email to provide a testimony about their experience with IRB review and approval. Testimonies were thematically analyzed and synthesized to identify and discuss shared themes. Results: Researchers from seven European countries, Argentina, Canada, Australia, and the United States answered the call. Four themes emerged that indicate shared challenges in legislation, IRB inefficiencies and inconsistencies, general regulation and costs, and lack of HOF study knowledge by IRB members. We propose a model for IRB review of HOF studies based on best practices. Conclusion: International criteria are needed that define low and high-risk HOF studies, to allow identification of studies that can undergo an expedited (or exempted) process from those that need full IRB review. Enhancing IRB processes in such a way would be beneficial to the conduct of HOF studies. Greater knowledge and promotion of HOF methods and evidence-based HOF study designs may support the evolving discipline. Based on these insights, training and guidance to IRB members may be developed to support them in ensuring that appropriate ethical issues for HOF studies are considered

Evolution of Refining and Petrochemicals: What Is the Place of Zeolites

The first part of this paper presents the evolution of the refining and petrochemical industries during the last two or three decades and the principal trends of their evolution in the medium and long run. Then, it describes some important deals that both industries have and will have to cope with. The second part gives some information on the market of catalysts for refining and petrochemicals. It presents the market of zeolites for various industrial applications (detergency, sorption/drying and catalysis) and details their applications in refining and petrochemicals. Then, it describes the probable evolution of the market of zeolites in the medium run and, at last, lists some examples of possible opportunities for zeolites to bring significant progress in catalysis and sorption applied to refining and petrochemicals