Implementation of an anonymisation tool for clinical trials using a clinical trial processor integrated with an existing trial patient data information system

To present an adapted Clinical Trial Processor (CTP) test set-up for receiving, anonymising and saving Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data using external input from the original database of an existing clinical study information system to guide the anonymisation process. Two methods are presented for an adapted CTP test set-up. In the first method, images are pushed from the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) using the DICOM protocol through a local network. In the second method, images are transferred through the internet using the HTTPS protocol. In total 25,000 images from 50 patients were moved from the PACS, anonymised and stored within roughly 2 h using the first method. In the second method, an average of 10 images per minute were transferred and processed over a residential connection. In both methods, no duplicated images were stored when previous images were retransferred. The anonymised images are stored in appropriate directories. The CTP can transfer and process DICOM images correctly in a very easy set-up providing a fast, secure and stable environment. The adapted CTP allows easy integration into an environment in which patient data are already included in an existing information system. Store DICOM images correctly in a very easy set-up in a fast, secure and stable environment Allows adaptation of the software to perform a certain task based on specific needs Allows easy integration into an existing environment Reduce the possibility of inappropriate anonymisation

Ecology of the Missouri River: Missouri River Creel Survey, Bellevue Bridge to Camp Creek, 3 April through 29 May 2004

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission\u27s strategic plan has stated the following management goal for the Missouri River: Restore, protect, and maintain the diversity of historic Missouri River habitats, resources, and ecosystem functions in order that present and future generations may enjoy consumptive and non-consumptive outdoor recreational opportunities (NGPC 1996). To accomplish this goal the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission identified the following five objectives: • To restore terrestrial and aquatic floodplain habitat types by 2008. This would include old oxbows, chutes, side channels, sand bars, backwaters, wetlands, and other shallow water habitats. To restore ftows that reflect the natural hydrograph of the Missouri River by the year 2008. • To inform and educate the general public and constituency about Missouri River ecosystem functions and management. To double the number of total recreational use days by the year 2008. To investigate and manage native fish, wildlife, waterfowl, and fur bearers on a sustainable basis. Even though several of these objectives fall outside of NGPC management authority, this project has and will provide the data necessary to plan, implement and evaluate them. This strategic plan is currently being reviewed and updated. Creel surveys on large rivers with numerous public and private access points are difficult and expensive to design and conduct. The first creel survey conducted on the channelized Missouri River in Nebraska was a roving creel during 1972 t01973 (Groen 1973). Segments of the channelized river covered included, Sioux City to Blair, Blair to Nebraska City and Nebraska City to Rulo. These same segments were surveyed again in 1978 and 1979 (Hesse 1980). The Missouri Department of Conservation conducted a recreational use survey on the channelized Missouri River from the mouth to the Iowa-Missouri state line in four segments over a four year period from 1983 through 1987 (Fleener 1989). The segment adjacent to Nebraska was sampled in 1985 and 1986 and extended from the lowaMissouri state line downstream to St Joseph, Missouri. The present project examining several reaches of the channelized Missouri River had several objectives: Develop a creel survey design that when repeated over time would measure changes in recreational fishing activity and success and allow us to estimate the effects of large scale restoration efforts on recreational fishing. Estimate recreational fishing use. Estimate the number and species of fish harvested and released by recreational anglers. Estimate recreational fishing effort on public and private lands and by boating anglers using public and private boat ramps Correlate fishing effort and success with a combination of season, physical habitat variables (location, macrohabitat, microhabitat, water temperature and secchi disk transparency) and fishing methods (bait) Develop recreational fishing educational information based on survey result

Mapping spot blotch resistance genes in four barley populations

Bipolaris sorokiniana (teleomorph: Cochliobolus sativus) is the fungal pathogen responsible for spot blotch in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and occurs worldwide in warmer, humid growing conditions. Current Australian barley varieties are largely susceptible to this disease and attempts are being made to introduce sources of resistance from North America. In this study we have compared chromosomal locations of spot blotch resistance reactions in four North American two-rowed barley lines; the North Dakota lines ND11231-12 and ND11231-11 and the Canadian lines TR251 and WPG8412-9-2-1. Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT)-based PCR, expressed sequence tag (EST) and SSR markers have been mapped across four populations derived from crosses between susceptible parental lines and these four resistant parents to determine the location of resistance loci. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) conferring resistance to spot blotch in adult plants (APR) were detected on chromosomes 3HS and 7HS. In contrast, seedling resistance (SLR) was controlled solely by a locus on chromosome 7HS. The phenotypic variance explained by the APR QTL on 3HS was between 16 and 25% and the phenotypic variance explained by the 7HS APR QTL was between 8 and 42% across the four populations. The SLR QTL on 7HS explained between 52 to 64% of the phenotypic variance. An examination of the pedigrees of these resistance sources supports the common identity of resistance in these lines and indicates that only a limited number of major resistance loci are available in current two-rowed germplasm

Adolescent self-control predicts midlife hallucinatory experiences:40-year follow-up of a national birth cohort

Associations between self-control in adolescence and adult mental health are unclear in the general population; to our knowledge, no study has investigated self-control in relation to psychotic-like symptoms

Lower emotional complexity as a prospective predictor of psychopathology in adolescents from the general population

Emotional complexity (EC) involves the ability to distinguish between distinct emotions (differentiation) and the experience of a large range of emotions (diversity). Lower EC has been related to psychopathology in cross-sectional studies. This study aimed to investigate (a) whether EC prospectively predicts psychopathology and (b) whether this effect is contingent on stressful life events. To further explore EC, we compared the effects of differentiation and diversity. Adolescents from the general population (N = 401) rated 8 negatively valenced emotions 10 times a day for 6 consecutive days. Further, they completed the Symptom Checklist-90 (baseline and 1-year follow-up) and a questionnaire on past year's life events at follow-up. Logistic regression analyses tested whether EC-reflected by emotion differentiation (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]) and diversity (diversity index [DI])-predicted prognosis (good: remitting or lacking symptoms vs. bad: worsening or persisting symptoms). EC predicted prognoses but only when based on the ICC (OREC.ICC = 1.42, p = .02). An ECICC 1 SD above average increased the probability of good prognosis from .67 to .74. This effect was not related to stressful life events (OREC × Life events = 1.03, p = .86) and disappeared when emotion intensity (mean level) was taken into account (OREC = 1.20, p = .20). Predicting future prognosis does not necessitate complex measures of emotional experience (ICC, DI) but rather might be achieved through simpler indices (mean). The discrepant effects of the ICC and DI on prognosis suggest that impaired emotion representation (ICC) plays a more important role in vulnerability to mental ill health than does low diversity of emotions (DI)

Early warning signals in psychopathology:what do they tell?

BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing understanding of factors that might underlie psychiatric disorders, prospectively detecting shifts from a healthy towards a symptomatic state has remained unattainable. A complex systems perspective on psychopathology implies that such symptom shifts may be foreseen by generic indicators of instability, or early warning signals (EWS). EWS include, for instance, increasing variability, covariance, and autocorrelation in momentary affective states-of which the latter was studied. The present study investigated if EWS predict (i) future worsening of symptoms as well as (ii) the type of symptoms that will develop, meaning that the association between EWS and future symptom shifts would be most pronounced for congruent affective states and psychopathological domains (e.g., feeling down and depression). METHODS: A registered general population cohort of adolescents (mean age 18 years, 36% male) provided ten daily ratings of their affective states for 6 consecutive days. The resulting time series were used to compute EWS in feeling down, listless, anxious, not relaxed, insecure, suspicious, and unwell. At baseline and 1-year follow-up, symptom severity was assessed by the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). We selected four subsamples of participants who reported an increase in one of the following SCL-90 domains: depression (N = 180), anxiety (N = 192), interpersonal sensitivity (N = 184), or somatic complaints (N = 166). RESULTS: Multilevel models showed that EWS in feeling suspicious anticipated increases in interpersonal sensitivity, as hypothesized. EWS were absent for other domains. While the association between EWS and symptom increases was restricted to the interpersonal sensitivity domain, post hoc analyses showed that symptom severity at baseline was related to heightened autocorrelations in congruent affective states for interpersonal sensitivity, depression, and anxiety. This pattern replicated in a second, independent dataset. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of EWS prior to symptom shifts may depend on the dynamics of the psychopathological domain under consideration: for depression, EWS may manifest only several weeks prior to a shift, while for interpersonal sensitivity, EWS may already occur 1 year in advance. Intensive longitudinal designs where EWS and symptoms are assessed in real-time are required in order to determine at what timescale and for what type of domain EWS are most informative of future psychopathology

Systematic monitoring of needs for care and global outcomes in patients with severe mental illness

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It was hypothesised that the introduction of tools that allow clinicians to assess patients' needs and to negotiate treatment (Cumulative Needs for Care Monitor; CNCM), would be associated with global outcome improvements in patients diagnosed with severe mental illness.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The CNCM was introduced in one region in South Limburg (the Netherlands) in 1998 (REGION-1998) and in the rest of South Limburg in 2004 (REGION-2004). By comparing these two regions, changes after the introduction of the CNCM could be assessed (between-region comparison). In addition, a pre-post within-patient comparison was conducted in both regions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The within-patient comparison revealed that global outcomes of psychopathology and impairment improved in the first 3-5 years after the introduction of the CNCM. The between-region comparison revealed an improvement in global psychopathology but not in global impairment in REGION-2004 after 2004, while there was no such improvement in REGION-1998.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Systematic clinical monitoring of individual severe mental illness patients, in combination with provision of feedback, is associated with global improvement in psychopathology. More research is needed to determine the degree to which this association reflects a causal effect.</p