Medical Case Retrieval

ABSTRACT The proposed PhD project addresses the problem of finding descriptions of diseases or patients' health records that are relevant for a given description of patient's symptoms, also known as medical case retrieval (MCR). Designing an automatic multimodal MCR system applicable to general medical data sets still presents an open research problem, as indicated by the ImageCLEF 2013 MCR challenge, where the best submitted runs achieved only moderate retrieval performance and used purely textual techniques. This project therefore aims at designing a multimodal MCR model that is capable of achieving a substantially better retrieval performance on the ImageCLEF data set than state-of-the-art techniques. Moreover, the potential of further improvement by leveraging relevance feedback of medical expert users for long-term learning will be investigated

Social democracy transformed? Party change and union ties

Social democratic parties have undergone a transformative ideological and electoral shift. But how has this affected their alliance with trade unions in terms of personal ties? This article hypothesises that Social democratic parties appoint fewer union-linked ministers as they become more economically centrist and less dependent on working-class voters. However, institutions that stabilise party–union relations should moderate these effects (statutory linkages, high union density, or union involvement in policymaking). Data on 2,600 ministerial appointments in Western Europe show that there is no direct relationship between trade unionist appointments and changes in party electorates or party ideology. However, electoral change is correlated with appointment patterns when institutional stabilisers are weak. Thus, social democrats weaken their elite ties to unions in response to the middle-class shift in their electorates, but only when the institutional context is unfavourable for the party-union relationship

Impulse für einen Neustart der Wissenschaftskommunikation in Österreich

Die zwei Jahre der Pandemie haben nachdrücklich vor Augen geführt, welche Bedeutung Wissenschaft und Forschung für unsere heutige Gesellschaft haben. Auch die großen Herausforderungen der unmittelbaren Zukunft – Stichwort Klimakrise – werden sich nur mithilfe der Wissenschaft und im gesellschaftlichen Dialog mit dieser bewältigen lassen. Internationale Umfragen zum Thema Wissenschaft zeigen seit längerem, dass Österreich im internationalen Vergleich eine wissenschafts- und technologieskeptische Bevölkerung hat. Es gibt zwar etliche Initiativen im Bereich Wissenschaftsvermittlung. Doch diese scheinen angesichts dieser Umfrageergebnisse wenig wirksam. Im vorliegenden forschungspolitischen Kurzdossier wird nach einer Diskussion der gesellschaftlichen Bedeutung und einer begrifflichen Reflexion von Wissenschaftskommunikation versucht, die Lage in Österreich kurz zu umreißen. Unsere Diagnose: Es fehlen mehrere Grundelemente für eine nachhaltige und wirksame Wissenschaftskommunikation wie eine Koordination der Aktivitäten, gemeinsame Strategien, eine systematische Einbeziehung der Universitäten, Aus- und Weiterbildungsangebote und konkrete Anreize. Wir sprechen uns daher für einen Neustart der Wissenschaftskommunikation in Österreich aus, genauer gesagt: für einen Neustart insbesondere der Koordination. Wir empfehlen auf Basis dieser Problemdiagnose die Veranstaltung einer österreichweiten Enquete zu Wissenschaftskommunikation sowie eine wissenschaftliche nationale und internationale Erhebung, um die Aktivitäten und Maßnahmen in diesem Bereich künftig besser und wirksamer zu gestalten

Test purchase, synthesis, and characterization of 2-methoxydiphenidine (MXP) and differentiation from its meta- and para-substituted isomers

The structurally diverse nature of the 1,2-diphenylethylamine template provides access to a range of substances for drug discovery work but some have attracted attention as ‘research chemicals’. The most recent examples include diphenidine, i.e. 1-(1,2-diphenylethyl)piperidine and 2-methoxydiphenidine, i.e. 1-[1-(2-methoxyphenyl)-2-phenylethyl]piperidine (MXP, methoxyphenidine, 2-MXP) that have been associated with uncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist activity. Analytical challenges encountered during chemical analysis include the presence of positional isomers. Three powdered samples suspected to contain 2-MXP were obtained from three Internet retailers in the United Kingdom and subjected to analytical characterization by gas chromatography (GC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to various forms of mass spectrometry (MS). Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and thin layer chromatography were also employed. This was supported by the synthesis of all three isomers (2-, 3- and 4-MXP) by two different synthetic routes. The analytical data obtained for the three purchased samples were consistent with the synthesized 2-MXP standard and the differentiation between the isomers was possible. Distinct stability differences were observed for all three isomers during in-source collision-induced dissociation of the protonated molecule when employing detection under HPLC selected-ion monitoring detection, which added to the ability to differentiate between them. Furthermore, the analysis of a 2-MXP tablet by matrix assisted inlet ionization Orbitrap mass spectrometry confirmed that it was possible to detect the protonated molecule of 2-MXP directly from the tablet surface following addition of 3-nitrobenzonitrile as the matrix

Anatomy in the Third Reich: An outline, part 2. Bodies for anatomy and related medical disciplines

All anatomical departments of German universities used bodies of the executed and other victims of the National Socialist (NS) regime for their work. Many of these victims had been executed in prisons and were members of the German political opposition; others had perished in camps for prisoners of war or forced laborers and concentration camps, and were of various European and other descent. Anatomists generally welcomed the increased influx of “fresh material” for purposes of research and education of the growing numbers of medical students. No anatomist is known to have refused work with the bodies of NS victims. Other medical disciplines also made use of these bodies, among them were racial hygienists and neuropathologists. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the fields of anatomy, physical anthropology, and racial hygiene (eugenics) were closely related in their subject matter. Anatomists were involved in the biological foundation of racial hygiene, most prominently among them Eugen Fischer. The discipline was established as part of the medical curriculum after 1920. Racial hygiene became the scientific justification for NS policies that led to racial discrimination, involuntary sterilization and ultimately mass murder. Anatomists taught racial hygiene throughout the Third Reich and did research in this area. Some were actively involved in NS policies through propaganda and evaluations for the so-called Genetic Health Courts, whereas others became victims of their own science in that they were dismissed for racial reasons. 22:894–905, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64313/1/20873_ftp.pd

The avian cell line AGE1.CR.pIX characterized by metabolic flux analysis

Lohr V, Haedicke O, Genzel Y, et al. The avian cell line AGE1.CR.pIX characterized by metabolic flux analysis. BMC Biotechnology. 2014;14(1): 72.Background: In human vaccine manufacturing some pathogens such as Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara, measles, mumps virus as well as influenza viruses are still produced on primary material derived from embryonated chicken eggs. Processes depending on primary cell culture, however, are difficult to adapt to modern vaccine production. Therefore, we derived previously a continuous suspension cell line, AGE1.CR.pIX, from muscovy duck and established chemically-defined media for virus propagation. Results: To better understand vaccine production processes, we developed a stoichiometric model of the central metabolism of AGE1.CR.pIX cells and applied flux variability and metabolic flux analysis. Results were compared to literature dealing with mammalian and insect cell culture metabolism focusing on the question whether cultured avian cells differ in metabolism. Qualitatively, the observed flux distribution of this avian cell line was similar to distributions found for mammalian cell lines (e.g. CHO, MDCK cells). In particular, glucose was catabolized inefficiently and glycolysis and TCA cycle seem to be only weakly connected. Conclusions: A distinguishing feature of the avian cell line is that glutaminolysis plays only a minor role in energy generation and production of precursors, resulting in low extracellular ammonia concentrations. This metabolic flux study is the first for a continuous avian cell line. It provides a basis for further metabolic analyses to exploit the biotechnological potential of avian and vertebrate cell lines and to develop specific optimized cell culture processes, e.g. vaccine production processes