Crowdsourcing for Reminiscence Chatbot Design

In this work-in-progress paper we discuss the challenges in identifying effective and scalable crowd-based strategies for designing content, conversation logic, and meaningful metrics for a reminiscence chatbot targeted at older adults. We formalize the problem and outline the main research questions that drive the research agenda in chatbot design for reminiscence and for relational agents for older adults in general

Suppression of Proliferation of Human Glioblastoma Cells by Combined Phosphodiesterase and Multidrug Resistance-Associated Protein 1 Inhibition.

The paucity of currently available therapies for glioblastoma multiforme requires novel approaches to the treatment of this brain tumour. Disrupting cyclic nucleotide-signalling through phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibition may be a promising way of suppressing glioblastoma growth. Here, we examined the effects of 28 PDE inhibitors, covering all the major PDE classes, on the proliferation of the human U87MG, A172 and T98G glioblastoma cells. The PDE10A inhibitors PF-2545920, PQ10 and papaverine, the PDE3/4 inhibitor trequinsin and the putative PDE5 inhibitor MY-5445 potently decreased glioblastoma cell proliferation. The synergistic suppression of glioblastoma cell proliferation was achieved by combining PF-2545920 and MY-5445. Furthermore, a co-incubation with drugs that block the activity of the multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1) augmented these effects. In particular, a combination comprising the MRP1 inhibitor reversan, PF-2545920 and MY-5445, all at low micromolar concentrations, afforded nearly complete inhibition of glioblastoma cell growth. Thus, the potent suppression of glioblastoma cell viability may be achieved by combining MRP1 inhibitors with PDE inhibitors at a lower toxicity than that of the standard chemotherapeutic agents, thereby providing a new combination therapy for this challenging malignancy

The intellectual information system of medical aid control in the scope of Russian medical insurance

The article presents the developed intellectual information system, oriented for healthcare providers. The system solves a problem of medical aid quality control in the Russian medical insurance sphere. The main components are ISO13606, fuzzy logic and a case-based reasoning concept. The system provides medical insurance payments forecasting by the analysis of medical records and generates two evaluations based on medical standards and a set of precedents. The result of the system implementation allowed up to a 10% increase in insurance payments for the healthcare provider

Experimental study of stress-strain state of adhesive joints steel/carbon fiber under tension with a bend by digital image correlation

This paper presents a study of characteristics of an evolution of deformation fields in surface layers of medium-carbon low-alloy specimens under compression. The experiments were performed on the "Universal Testing Machine 4500" using a digital stereoscopic image processing system Vic-3D. A transition between stages is reflected as deformation redistribution on the near-surface layers

Recording long-term potentiation of synaptic transmission by three-dimensional multi-electrode arrays

BACKGROUND: Multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) have become popular tools for recording spontaneous and evoked electrical activity of excitable tissues. The majority of previous studies of synaptic transmission in brain slices employed MEAs with planar electrodes that had limited ability to detect signals coming from deeper, healthier layers of the slice. To overcome this limitation, we used three-dimensional (3D) MEAs with tip-shaped electrodes to probe plasticity of field excitatory synaptic potentials (fEPSPs) in the CA1 area of hippocampal slices of 129S5/SvEvBrd and C57BL/6J-Tyr(C-Brd )mice. RESULTS: Using 3D MEAs, we were able to record larger fEPSPs compared to signals measured by planar MEAs. Several stimulation protocols were used to induce long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic responses in the CA1 area recorded following excitation of Schäffer collateral/commissural fibres. Either two trains of high frequency tetanic stimulation or three trains of theta-burst stimulation caused a persistent, pathway specific enhancement of fEPSPs that remained significantly elevated for at least 60 min. A third LTP induction protocol that comprised 150 pulses delivered at 5 Hz, evoked moderate LTP if excitation strength was increased to 1.5× of the baseline stimulus. In all cases, we observed a clear spatial plasticity gradient with maximum LTP levels detected in proximal apical dendrites of pyramidal neurones. No significant differences in the manifestation of LTP were observed between 129S5/SvEvBrd and C57BL/6J-Tyr(C-Brd )mice with the three protocols used. All forms of plasticity were sensitive to inhibition of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. CONCLUSION: Principal features of LTP (magnitude, pathway specificity, NMDA receptor dependence) recorded in the hippocampal slices using MEAs were very similar to those seen in conventional glass electrode experiments. Advantages of using MEAs are the ability to record from different regions of the slice and the ease of conducting several experiments on a multiplexed platform which could be useful for efficient screening of novel transgenic mice

Implementation of a clinical decision support system for interpretation of laboratory tests for patients

The paper presents the results of the development and implementation of an expert system that automatically generates doctors' letters based on the results of laboratory tests. Medical knowledge is expressed using a first order predicate based language. The implementation of the system allowed increasing the number of patients who refer to a doctor after laboratory tests by 14%. A qualitative study with 100 patients demonstrated a high acceptance of the system. The majority (82%) of the patients reported that they trust the system and follow its advice to visit a doctor if necessary

Transcriptomics-Based Phenotypic Screening Supports Drug Discovery in Human Glioblastoma Cells.

We have used three established human glioblastoma (GBM) cell lines-U87MG, A172, and T98G-as cellular systems to examine the plasticity of the drug-induced GBM cell phenotype, focusing on two clinical drugs, the phosphodiesterase PDE10A inhibitor Mardepodect and the multi-kinase inhibitor Regorafenib, using genome-wide drug-induced gene expression (DIGEX) to examine the drug response. Both drugs upregulate genes encoding specific growth factors, transcription factors, cellular signaling molecules, and cell surface proteins, while downregulating a broad range of targetable cell cycle and apoptosis-associated genes. A few upregulated genes encode therapeutic targets already addressed by FDA approved drugs, but the majority encode targets for which there are no approved drugs. Amongst the latter, we identify many novel druggable targets that could qualify for chemistry-led drug discovery campaigns. We also observe several highly upregulated transmembrane proteins suitable for combined drug, immunotherapy, and RNA vaccine approaches. DIGEX is a powerful way of visualizing the complex drug response networks emerging during GBM drug treatment, defining a phenotypic landscape which offers many new diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities. Nevertheless, the extreme heterogeneity we observe within drug-treated cells using this technique suggests that effective pan-GBM drug treatment will remain a significant challenge for many years to come

ОБРАБОТКА И ПЕРЕДАЧА ДАННЫХ МЕДИЦИНСКОЙ СТАТИСТИКИ НА ОСНОВЕ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОГО СТАНДАРТА ISO 13606

A possibility to unite different healthcare providers in one network was investigated and proved. We developed solution based on ISO 13606 archetype model and service oriented architecture to enable an exchange of semantically meaningful medical data within a network of healthcare providers. Application of a data model of the ISO 13606 standard for data modeling and XML data transformation allowed organizing data exchange in the regional healthcare network.Исследована возможность применения стандарта хранения и передачи медицинских данных для сбора медицинской статистики. На базе стандарта ISO 13606 и сервис-ориентированной архитектуры была реализована система сбора и анализа медицинских данных для обеспечения оперативного сбора и анализа медицинской статистики органами управления здравоохранением региона. Показана эффективность данного решения для оптимизации работы системы здравоохранения в масштабе региона России

Automatic allergy classification based on Russian unstructured medical texts

Most of the medical data in hospital information systems databases are stored in an unstructured form. Techniques for processing unstructured records are widely presented in scientific papers focused on English data. This paper proposes a method for intellectual analysis of unstructured allergy anamnesis in Russian in order to identify the presence and type of allergy and intolerance of a patient. The method is based on machine learning algorithms and uses international standards for the exchange of medical data and terminology standards, such as FHIR and SNOMED CT. As a result of the experiment, about 12 thousand medical records were processed. F-measure for the developed classification models ranged from 0.93 to 0.96. The models showed high values of metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of the models. In the future, structured data can be used in models for predicting medical risks. Further development of methods for structuring medical texts will ensure the interoperability of medical data