1,264 research outputs found
Security and confidentiality approach for the Clinical E-Science Framework (CLEF)
Objectives: CLEF is an MRC sponsored project in the E-Science programme that aims to establish methodologies and a technical infrastructure for the next generation of integrated clinical and bioscience research. Methods: The heart of the CLEF approach to this challenge is to design and develop a pseudonymised repository of histories of cancer patients that can be accessed by researchers. Robust mechanisms and policies have been developed to ensure that patient privacy and confidentiality are preserved while delivering a repository of such medically rich information for the purposes of scientific research. Results: This paper summarises the overall approach adopted by CLEF to meet data protection requirements, including the data flows, pseudonymisation measures and additional monitoring policies that are currently being developed. Conclusion: Once evaluated, it is hoped that the CLEF approach can serve as a model for other distributed electronic health record repositories to be accessed for research
Security and confidentiality approach for the Clinical E-Science Framework (CLEF)
CLEF is an MRC sponsored project in the E-Science programme that aims to
establish policies and infrastructure for the next generation of integrated clinical and
bioscience research. One of the major goals of the project is to provide a
pseudonymised repository of histories of cancer patients that can be accessed by
researchers. Robust mechanisms and policies are needed to ensure that patient
privacy and confidentiality are preserved while delivering a repository of such
medically rich information for the purposes of scientific research. This paper
summarises the overall approach adopted by CLEF to meet data protection
requirements, including the data flows and pseudonymisation mechanisms that are
currently being developed. Intended constraints and monitoring policies that will
apply to research interrogation of the repository are also outlined. Once evaluated, it
is hoped that the CLEF approach can serve as a model for other distributed
electronic health record repositories to be accessed for research
Joining up health and bioinformatics: e-science meets e-health
CLEF (Co-operative Clinical e-Science Framework) is an MRC sponsored project in the e-Science programme that aims to establish methodologies and a technical infrastructure forthe next generation of integrated clinical and bioscience research. It is developing methodsfor managing and using pseudonymised repositories of the long-term patient histories whichcan be linked to genetic, genomic information or used to support patient care. CLEF concentrateson removing key barriers to managing such repositories ? ethical issues, informationcapture, integration of disparate sources into coherent ?chronicles? of events, userorientedmechanisms for querying and displaying the information, and compiling the requiredknowledge resources. This paper describes the overall information flow and technicalapproach designed to meet these aims within a Grid framework
Image-Processing Techniques for the Creation of Presentation-Quality Astronomical Images
The quality of modern astronomical data, the power of modern computers and
the agility of current image-processing software enable the creation of
high-quality images in a purely digital form. The combination of these
technological advancements has created a new ability to make color astronomical
images. And in many ways it has led to a new philosophy towards how to create
them. A practical guide is presented on how to generate astronomical images
from research data with powerful image-processing programs. These programs use
a layering metaphor that allows for an unlimited number of astronomical
datasets to be combined in any desired color scheme, creating an immense
parameter space to be explored using an iterative approach. Several examples of
image creation are presented.
A philosophy is also presented on how to use color and composition to create
images that simultaneously highlight scientific detail and are aesthetically
appealing. This philosophy is necessary because most datasets do not correspond
to the wavelength range of sensitivity of the human eye. The use of visual
grammar, defined as the elements which affect the interpretation of an image,
can maximize the richness and detail in an image while maintaining scientific
accuracy. By properly using visual grammar, one can imply qualities that a
two-dimensional image intrinsically cannot show, such as depth, motion and
energy. In addition, composition can be used to engage viewers and keep them
interested for a longer period of time. The use of these techniques can result
in a striking image that will effectively convey the science within the image,
to scientists and to the public.Comment: 104 pages, 38 figures, submitted to A
"Dark Matter" in Accretion Disks
Using Spitzer Space Telescope photometric observations of the eclipsing,
interacting binary WZ Sge, we have discovered that the accretion disk is far
more complex than previously believed. Our 4.5 and 8 micron time series
observations reveal that the well known gaseous accretion disk is surrounded by
an asymmetric disk of dusty material with a radius approximately 15 times
larger than the gaseous disk. This dust ring contains only a small amount of
mass and is completely invisible at optical and near-IR wavelengths, hence
consisting of "dark matter". We have produced a model dust ring using 1 micron
spherical particles with a density of 3 g/cm and with a temperature profile
ranging from 700-1500K. Our discovery about the accretion disk structure and
the presence of a larger, outer dust ring have great relevance for accretion
disks in general, including those in other interacting binary systems, pre-main
sequence stars, and active galaxies.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures (3 in color). Accepted to Ap
VLBI observations of seven BL Lac objects from RGB sample
We present EVN observations of seven BL Lac objects selected from the RGB
sample. To investigate the intrinsic radiation property of BL Lac objects, we
estimated the Doppler factor with the VLA or MERLIN core and the total 408 MHz
luminosity for a sample of 170 BL Lac objects. The intrinsic (comoving)
synchrotron peak frequency was then calculated by using the estimated Doppler
factor. Assuming a Lorentz factor of 5, the viewing angle of jets was
constrained. The high-resolution VLBI images of seven sources all show a
core-jet structure. We estimated the proper motions of three sources with the
VLBI archive data, and find that the apparent speed increases with the distance
of components to the core for all of them. In our BL Lacs sample, the Doppler
factor of LBLs is systematically larger than that of IBLs and HBLs. We find a
significant anti-correlation between the total 408 MHz luminosity and the
intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency. However, the scatter is much larger than
for the blazar sequence. Moreover, we find a significant positive correlation
between the viewing angle and the intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency. The BL
Lac objects show a continuous distribution on the viewing angle. While LBLs
have a smaller viewing angle than that of IBLs and HBLs, IBLs are comparable to
HBLs. We conclude that the intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency is not only
related to the intrinsic radio power (though with a large scatter), but also to
the viewing angle for the present sample.Comment: 22 pages,15figures, published by A&
Using graph transformation algorithms to generate natural language equivalents of icons expressing medical concepts
A graphical language addresses the need to communicate medical information in
a synthetic way. Medical concepts are expressed by icons conveying fast visual
information about patients' current state or about the known effects of drugs.
In order to increase the visual language's acceptance and usability, a natural
language generation interface is currently developed. In this context, this
paper describes the use of an informatics method ---graph transformation--- to
prepare data consisting of concepts in an OWL-DL ontology for use in a natural
language generation component. The OWL concept may be considered as a
star-shaped graph with a central node. The method transforms it into a graph
representing the deep semantic structure of a natural language phrase. This
work may be of future use in other contexts where ontology concepts have to be
mapped to half-formalized natural language expressions.Comment: Presented at the TSD 2014 conference: Text, Speech and Dialogue, 17th
international conference. Brno, Czech Republic, September 8-12, 2014. 10
pages, 7 figure
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