Electronic Health Record Functionality Needed to Better Support Primary Care

Electronic health records (EHRs) must support primary care clinicians and patients, yet many clinicians remain dissatisfied with their system. This manuscript presents a consensus statement about gaps in current EHR functionality and needed enhancements to support primary care. The Institute of Medicine primary care attributes were used to define needs and Meaningful Use (MU) objectives to define EHR functionality. Current objectives remain disease- rather than whole-person focused, ignoring factors like personal risks, behaviors, family structure, and occupational and environmental influences. Primary care needs EHRs to move beyond documentation to interpreting and tracking information over time as well as patient partnering activities, support for team based care, population management tools that deliver care, and reduced documentation burden. While Stage 3 MU’s focus on outcomes is laudable, enhanced functionality is still needed including EHR modifications, expanded use of patient portals, seamless integration with external applications, and advancement of national infrastructure and policies

Fast Inhibition of Glutamate-Activated Currents by Caffeine

Background: Caffeine stimulates calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) in many cell types. In neurons, caffeine stimulates CICR presynaptically and thus modulates neurotransmitter release. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using the whole-cell patch-clamp technique we found that caffeine (20 mM) reversibly increased the frequency and decreased the amplitude of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) in neocortical neurons. The increase in mEPSC frequency is consistent with a presynaptic mechanism. Caffeine also reduced exogenously applied glutamate-activated currents, confirming a separate postsynaptic action. This inhibition developed in tens of milliseconds, consistent with block of channel currents. Caffeine (20 mM) did not reduce currents activated by exogenous NMDA, indicating that caffeine block is specific to non-NMDA type glutamate receptors. Conclusions/Significance: Caffeine-induced inhibition of mEPSC amplitude occurs through postsynaptic block of non-NMDA type ionotropic glutamate receptors. Caffeine thus has both pre and postsynaptic sites of action at excitatory synapses

Origin and Evolution of Prebiotic Organic Matter as Inferred from the Tagish Lake Meteorite

The complex suite of organic materials in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites probably originally formed in the interstellar medium and/or the solar protoplanetary disk, but was subsequently modified in the meteorites' asteroidal parent bodies. The mechanisms of formation and modification are still very poorly understood. We carried out a systematic study of variations in the mineralogy, petrology, and soluble and insoluble organic matter in distinct fragments of the Tagish Lake meteorite. The variations correlate with indicators of parent body aqueous alteration and at least some molecules of pre-biotic importance formed during the alteration

Diversification of importin-α isoforms in cellular trafficking and disease states.

The human genome encodes seven isoforms of importin α which are grouped into three subfamilies known as α1, α2 and α3. All isoforms share a fundamentally conserved architecture that consists of an N-terminal, autoinhibitory, importin-β-binding (IBB) domain and a C-terminal Arm (Armadillo)-core that associates with nuclear localization signal (NLS) cargoes. Despite striking similarity in amino acid sequence and 3D structure, importin-α isoforms display remarkable substrate specificity in vivo. In the present review, we look at key differences among importin-α isoforms and provide a comprehensive inventory of known viral and cellular cargoes that have been shown to associate preferentially with specific isoforms. We illustrate how the diversification of the adaptor importin α into seven isoforms expands the dynamic range and regulatory control of nucleocytoplasmic transport, offering unexpected opportunities for pharmacological intervention. The emerging view of importin α is that of a key signalling molecule, with isoforms that confer preferential nuclear entry and spatiotemporal specificity on viral and cellular cargoes directly linked to human diseases

The biggest business process management problems to solve before we die

It may be tempting for researchers to stick to incremental extensions of their current work to plan future research activities. Yet there is also merit in realizing the grand challenges in one's field. This paper presents an overview of the nine major research problems for the Business Process Management discipline. These challenges have been collected by an open call to the community, discussed and refined in a workshop setting, and described here in detail, including a motivation why these problems are worth investigating. This overview may serve the purpose of inspiring both novice and advanced scholars who are interested in the radical new ideas for the analysis, design, and management of work processes using information technology.</p

The biggest business process management problems to solve before we die

It may be tempting for researchers to stick to incremental extensions of their current work to plan future research activities. Yet there is also merit in realizing the grand challenges in one’s field. This paper presents an overview of the nine major research problems for the Business Process Management discipline. These challenges have been collected by an open call to the community, discussed and refined in a workshop setting, and described here in detail, including a motivation why these problems are worth investigating. This overview may serve the purpose of inspiring both novice and advanced scholars who are interested in the radical new ideas for the analysis, design, and management of work processes using information technology

The biggest business process management problems to solve before we die

It may be tempting for researchers to stick to incremental extensions of their current work to plan future research activities. Yet there is also merit in realizing the grand challenges in one's field. This paper presents an overview of the nine major research problems for the Business Process Management discipline. These challenges have been collected by an open call to the community, discussed and refined in a workshop setting, and described here in detail, including a motivation why these problems are worth investigating. This overview may serve the purpose of inspiring both novice and advanced scholars who are interested in the radical new ideas for the analysis, design, and management of work processes using information technology

Determination of linear solvation energy relationship coefficients for sulfur-containing stationary phases by inverse GC analysis

Includes bibliographical references (pages [80]-82).M.S. (Master of Science