Exploring a Case of Knowledge Infrastructure in the Pharmaceutical Environment - A case study at AstraZeneca

Vårterminen 2006Knowledge today tends to be an organization’s prime tool in order to compete on the business market. For companies like AstraZeneca where research is one of the corner stones there must be an easy way for accessing and sharing knowledge. To be able to meet these demands organizations have to rely intensively on a stable and welldesigned knowledge infrastructure. In this masters thesis we study one of AstraZeneca’s knowledge sources named AZ Glossary. We investigate how it works as a knowledge infrastructure and how it can be improved to better spread knowledge to the people in the organization. A problem for AstraZeneca today is that the information in the glossary is not machine processable, which means that the information cannot be easily used by other programs and applications. This structure limits the utilization of the glossary and is therefore also affecting the knowledge infrastructure in a less satisfactory way. An ethnographic study based on in-depth interviews with key users and administrators of the glossary was used for mapping AZ Glossary and its organization and usage. An examination of the semantic technologies including languages as XML, RDF (Resource Description Framework) and SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) was carried out in our search to improve the glossary. As a result recommendations are given involving new technical functions tied to the glossary combined with organizational changes to enhance the knowledge infrastructure and knowledge sharing in AstraZeneca

Understanding the role of health information in patients' experiences: secondary analysis of qualitative narrative interviews with people diagnosed with cancer in Germany

Objective To analyse the role and meaning of health information in individuals' experiences with either breast, colorectal or prostate cancer in order to better understand unmet information needs of people with a cancer diagnosis. Design This is a secondary analysis of data from a qualitative interview study including narrative interviews and maximum variation sampling. A thematic analysis was conducted, followed by an in-depth analysis based on the principles of grounded theory. Setting Interviewees were sought across Germany through self-help organisations, primary care clinics, rehabilitation facilities, physicians and other healthcare professionals to develop cancer modules for the website kr ankheitserfahrungen.de (illness experiences.de). Participants Women with a diagnosis of breast cancer, individuals with a diagnosis of colorectal cancer and men with a diagnosis of prostate cancer. Results The meaning and role of information in the illness experiences were clearly associated with gaining control in a seemingly uncontrollable situation in which others people, the disease take over. Four categories characterise the ways in which information helped interviewees to regain a sense of control following a diagnosis of cancer: 'becoming confident in one's treatment decision', 'taking responsibility for one's situation', 'understanding the consequences of the disease and treatment for one's life', and 'dealing with fear'. There was, however, always a fine line between information seeking and becoming overwhelmed by information. Conclusions Information needs to be understood as a management tool for handling the disease and its (potential) consequences. Patients' unmet needs for information might not be easily solved by a simple increase in the amount of information because emotional support and respect for patient autonomy might also play a role. The evaluation of one's own information behaviour and the information received is closely linked to how the illness unfolds. This makes it challenging to document unmet information needs and satisfaction with information independent of an individual's illness trajectory over time

HD 69686: A Mysterious High Velocity B Star

We report on the discovery of a high velocity B star, HD 69686. We estimate its space velocity, distance, surface temperature, gravity, and age. With these data, we are able to reconstruct the trajectory of the star and to trace it back to its birthplace. We use evolutionary tracks for single stars to estimate that HD 69686 was born 73 Myr ago in the outer part of our Galaxy ($r \sim 12$ kpc) at a position well below the Galactic plane ($z \sim -1.8$ kpc), a very unusual birthplace for a B star. Along the star's projected path in the sky, we also find about 12 other stars having similar proper motions, and their photometry data suggest that they are located at the same distance as HD 69686 and probably have the same age. We speculate on the origin of this group by star formation in a high velocity cloud or as a Galactic merger fragment.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Chirale Lactole, IV. Selektivitäten bei Acetalisierungsreaktionen enantiomerenreiner Lactole am Beispiel von Octahydro-8,9,9-trimethyl-5,8-methano-2H-1-benzopyran-2-ol

Eine Synthese für das Lactol 1 wird beschrieben und seine Eignung als Reagens zur Racemattrennung an einigen Beispielen gezeigt. Aufgrund einer Röntgenstruktur und konformationsanalytischer Überlegungen wird eine allgemeine Regel erarbeitet, nach welcher die Absolutkonfiguration acyclischer Alkyl-aryl-carbinole aus dem Verlauf der Acetalisierungsreaktion eines enantiomerenreinen Lactols mit dem racemischen Alkohol vorhergesagt werden kann

Roadmap to a One Health agenda 2030

The current fragmented framework of health governance for humans, animals and environment, together with the conventional linear approach to solving current health problems, is failing to meet today's health challenges and is proving unsustainable. Advances in healthcare depend increasingly on intensive interventions, technological developments and expensive pharmaceuticals. The disconnect grows between human health, animal health and environmental and ecosystems health. Human development gains have come with often unrecognized negative externalities affecting ecosystems. Deterioration in biodiversity and ecosystem services threatens to reverse the health gains of the last century. A paradigm shift is urgently required to de-sectoralize human, animal, plant and ecosystem health and to take a more integrated approach to health, One Health (OH). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a framework and unique opportunity for this. Through analysing individual SDGs, we argue the feasibility of an OH approach towards achieving them. Feasibility assessments and outcome evaluations are often constrained by sectoral politics within a national framework, historic possession of expertise, as well as tried and tested metrics. OH calls for a better understanding, acceptance and use of a broader and transdisciplinary set of assessment metrics. Key objectives of OH are presented: that humans reconnect with our natural past and accept our place in, and dependence on our planet's ecosystems; and that we recognize our dependence on ecosystem services, the impact of our development thereon and accept our responsibility towards future generations to address this. Several action points are proposed to meet these objectives.peer-reviewe

High Resolution HDS/SUBARU chemical abundances of the young stellar cluster Palomar 1

Context. Palomar\,1 is a peculiar globular cluster (GC). It is the youngest Galactic GC and it has been tentatively associated to several of the substructures recently discovered in the Milky Way (MW), including the Canis Major (CMa) overdensity and the Galactic Anticenter Stellar Structure (GASS). Aims. In order to provide further insights into its origin, we present the first high resolution chemical abundance analysis for one red giant in Pal\,1. Methods. We obtained high resolution (R=30000) spectra for one red giant star in Pal\,1 using the High Dispersion Spectrograph (HDS) mounted at the SUBARU telescope. We used ATLAS-9 model atmospheres coupled with the SYNTHE and WIDTH calculation codes to derive chemical abundances from the measured line equivalent widths of 18 among $\alpha$, Iron-peak, light and heavy elements. Results. The Palomar~1 chemical pattern is broadly compatible to that of the MW open clusters population and similar to disk stars. It is, instead, remarkably different from that of the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Conclusions. If Pal\,1 association with either CMa or GASS will be confirmed, this will imply that these systems had a chemical evolution similar to that of the Galactic disk.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Minor changes in the tex

Correction: The Endocytic Adaptor Eps15 Controls Marginal Zone B Cell Numbers.

Eps15 is an endocytic adaptor protein involved in clathrin and non-clathrin mediated endocytosis. In Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster lack of Eps15 leads to defects in synaptic vesicle recycling and synapse formation. We generated Eps15-KO mice to investigate its function in mammals. Eps15-KO mice are born at the expected Mendelian ratio and are fertile. Using a large-scale phenotype screen covering more than 300 parameters correlated to human disease, we found that Eps15-KO mice did not show any sign of disease or neural deficits. Instead, altered blood parameters pointed to an immunological defect. By competitive bone marrow transplantation we demonstrated that Eps15-KO hematopoietic precursor cells were more efficient than the WT counterparts in repopulating B220⁺ bone marrow cells, CD19⁻ thymocytes and splenic marginal zone (MZ) B cells. Eps15-KO mice showed a 2-fold increase in MZ B cell numbers when compared with controls. Using reverse bone marrow transplantation, we found that Eps15 regulates MZ B cell numbers in a cell autonomous manner. FACS analysis showed that although MZ B cells were increased in Eps15-KO mice, transitional and pre-MZ B cell numbers were unaffected. The increase in MZ B cell numbers in Eps15 KO mice was not dependent on altered BCR signaling or Notch activity. In conclusion, in mammals, the endocytic adaptor protein Eps15 is a regulator of B-cell lymphopoiesis

Optical multiband surface photometry of a sample of Seyfert galaxies. III. Global, isophotal, and bar parameters

This paper is third in a series, studying the optical properties of a sample of Seyfert galaxies. Here we present a homogeneous set of global (ellipticity, position angle, inclination, and total magnitude) and isophotal (semi-major axis and colour indices at 24 V mag/sq.arcsec) parameters of the galaxy sample. We find the following median corrected isophotal colour indices: B-Ic = 1.9 mag/sq.arcsec and V-Ic = 1.1 mag/sq.arcsec. A set of bar parameters - ellipticity, position angle, semi-major axis corresponding to the ellipticity maximum in the bar region, and length, are also reported; deprojection has been applied to the bar ellipticity, length, and relative length in terms of galaxy isophotal semi-major axis. Regarding bar length estimation, we use a method, based on the relation between the behaviour of the profiles and orbit analysis. The so estimated bar length tightly correlates with the semi-major axis, corresponding to the ellipticity maximum with a median ratio of the former to the latter of 1.22. The median of the deprojected bar ellipticity, length, and relative length are 0.39, 5.44 kpc, and 0.44, respectively. There is a correlation between the deprojected bar length and the corrected isophotal semi-major axis at 24 V mag/sq.arcsec. Three of the 17 large-scale bars appear strong, based on the deprojected bar ellipticity as a first-order approximation of bar strength. The deprojected relative bar length does not appear to correlate with the bar ellipticity.Comment: AN, in pres

Effects of the integrated galactic IMF on the chemical evolution of the solar neighbourhood

The initial mass function determines the fraction of stars of different intial mass born per stellar generation. In this paper, we test the effects of the integrated galactic initial mass function (IGIMF) on the chemical evolution of the solar neighbourhood. The IGIMF (Weidner & Kroupa 2005) is computed from the combination of the stellar intial mass function (IMF), i.e. the mass function of single star clusters, and the embedded cluster mass function, i.e. a power law with index beta. By taking into account also the fact that the maximum achievable stellar mass is a function of the total mass of the cluster, the IGIMF becomes a time-varying IMF which depends on the star formation rate. We applied this formalism to a chemical evolution model for the solar neighbourhood and compared the results obtained by assuming three possible values for beta with the results obtained by means of a standard, well-tested, constant IMF. In general, a lower absolute value of beta implies a flatter IGIMF, hence a larger number of massive stars and larger metal ejection rates. This translates into higher type Ia and II supernova rates, higher mass ejection rates from massive stars and a larger amount of gas available for star formation, coupled with lower present-day stellar mass densities. (abridged) We also discuss the importance of the present day stellar mass function (PDMF) in providing a way to disentangle among various assumptions for beta. Our results indicate that the model adopting the IGIMF computed with beta ~2 should be considered the best since it allows us to reproduce the observed PDMF and to account for most of the chemical evolution constraints considered in this work.Comment: 22 pages, 19 figure