Digital Commons Network^™

Using Citation Data To Improve Retrieval From Medline, Elmer V Bernstam, Jorge R Herskovic, Yindalon Aphinyanaphongs, Constantin F Aliferis, Madurai G Sriram, William R Hersh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether algorithms developed for the World Wide Web can be applied to the biomedical literature in order to identify articles that are important as well as relevant. DESIGN AND MEASUREMENTS A direct comparison of eight algorithms: simple PubMed queries, clinical queries (sensitive and specific versions), vector cosine comparison, citation count, journal impact factor, PageRank, and machine learning based on polynomial support vector machines. The objective was to prioritize important articles, defined as being included in a pre-existing bibliography of important literature in surgical oncology. RESULTS Citation-based algorithms were more effective than noncitation-based algorithms at identifying important articles. …

Mapping Concepts In Medical Error Taxonomies, Min Zhu, Yong Huang, Yang Gong, Juliana J. Brixey, Jiajie Zhang, James P. Turley

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

The Earliest Dipodomyine Heteromyid In North America And The Phylogenetic Relationships Of Geomorph Rodent, Steven J Norris

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The proteome of the spirochete bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, the tick-borne agent of Lyme disease, has been characterized by two different approaches using mass spectrometry, providing a launching point for future studies on the dramatic changes in protein expression that occur during transmission of the bacterium between ticks and mammals.

Construction Of Improved Temperature-Sensitive And Mobilizable Vectors And Their Use For Constructing Mutations In The Adhesin-Encoding Acm Gene Of Poorly Transformable Clinical Enterococcus Faecium Strains, Sreedhar R Nallapareddy, Kavindra V Singh, Barbara E Murray

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Inactivation by allelic exchange in clinical isolates of the emerging nosocomial pathogen Enterococcus faecium has been hindered by lack of efficient tools, and, in this study, transformation of clinical isolates was found to be particularly problematic. For this reason, a vector for allelic replacement (pTEX5500ts) was constructed that includes (i) the pWV01-based gram-positive repAts replication region, which is known to confer a high degree of temperature intolerance, (ii) Escherichia coli oriR from pUC18, (iii) two extended multiple-cloning sites located upstream and downstream of one of the marker genes for efficient cloning of flanking regions for double-crossover mutagenesis, (iv) transcriptional terminator …

Chronic Exposure To Mdma (Ecstasy) Elicits Behavioral Sensitization In Rats But Fails To Induce Cross-Sensitization To Other Psychostimulants, Gunjan M Modi, Pamela B Yang, Alan C Swann, Nachum Dafny

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The recreational use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) among adolescents and young adults has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. While evidence suggests that the long-term consequences of MDMA use include neurodegeneration to serotonergic and, possibly, dopaminergic pathways, little is known about susceptibility, such as behavioral sensitization, to MDMA.

METHODS: The objectives of this study were to examine the dose-response characteristics of acute and chronic MDMA administration in rats and to determine whether MDMA elicits behavioral sensitization and whether it cross-sensitizes with amphetamine and methylphenidate. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three MDMA dosage groups (2.5 mg/kg, 5.0 …

Dose-Response Characteristics Of Methylphenidate On Locomotor Behavior And On Sensory Evoked Potentials Recorded From The Vta, Nac, And Pfc In Freely Behaving Rats, Pamela B Yang, Alan C Swann, Nachum Dafny

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Methylphenidate (MPD) is a psychostimulant commonly prescribed for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The mode of action of the brain circuitry responsible for initiating the animals' behavior in response to psychostimulants is not well understood. There is some evidence that psychostimulants activate the ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (NAc), and prefrontal cortex (PFC).

METHODS: The present study was designed to investigate the acute dose-response of MPD (0.6, 2.5, and 10.0 mg/kg) on locomotor behavior and sensory evoked potentials recorded from the VTA, NAc, and PFC in freely behaving rats previously implanted with permanent electrodes. For locomotor behavior, adult male Wistar-Kyoto …

Dinner With...Houston's Most Fascinating, Vol.19 (2) October - December 2005, Houston Academy Of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

Library Lines (1998-2009)

No abstract provided.

Hispanic Physicians' Tobacco Intervention Practices: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study, Francisco G. Soto Mas, Richard L. Papenfuss, Holly E. Jacobson, Chiehwen E. Hsu, William M. Kane

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background U.S. Hispanic physicians constitute a considerable professional collective, and they may be most suited to attend to the health education needs of the growing U.S. Hispanic population. These educational needs include tobacco use prevention and smoking cessation. However, there is a lack of information on Hispanic physicians' tobacco intervention practices, their level of awareness and use of cessation protocols, and the type of programs that would best address their tobacco training needs. The purpose of this study was to assess the tobacco intervention practices and training needs of Hispanic physicians.

Methods Data was collected through a validated survey instrument …

Welcome To The Ham-Tmc Library, Vol.19 (1) July - September 2005, Houston Academy Of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

Library Lines (1998-2009)

No abstract provided.

Does The Choice Of Bottle Nipple Affect The Oral Feeding Performance Of Very-Low-Birthweight (Vlbw) Infants?, C E. Scheel, Richard J. Schanler, Chantal Lau

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: There is a continuous debate regarding the best bottle nipple to be used to enhance the bottle-feeding performance of a preterm infant. Aim: To verify that feeding performance can be improved by using the bottle nipple with the physical characteristics that enhance infants' sucking skills. METHODS: Ten "healthy" VLBW infants (941+/-273 g) were recruited. Feeding performance was monitored at two time periods, when taking 1-2 and 6-8 oral feedings/d. At each time and within 24 h, performance was monitored using three different bottle nipples offered in a randomized order. Rate of milk transfer (ml/min) was the primary outcome measure. …

Gsbs News, Summer 2005, Graduate School Of Biomedical Sciences, University Of Texas Health Science Center At Houston/M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

GSBS News

No abstract provided.

Stress Levels, Psychological Symptoms, And C-Reactive Protein Levels In Covid-19: A Cross-Sectional Study, Jian Zhang, Wei Li, Hideo Hoshi, Stephen L Mills, Stephen C Massey

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The correlation between cholinergic sensitivity and the level of stratification for ganglion cells was examined in the rabbit retina. As examples, we have used ON or OFF alpha ganglion cells and ON/OFF directionally selective (DS) ganglion cells. Nicotine, a cholinergic agonist, depolarized ON/OFF DS ganglion cells and greatly enhanced their firing rates but it had modest excitatory effects on ON or OFF alpha ganglion cells. As previously reported, we conclude that DS ganglion cells are the most sensitive to cholinergic drugs. Confocal imaging showed that ON/OFF DS ganglion cells ramify precisely at the level of the cholinergic amacrine cell dendrites, …

Camp For All Connection: A Community Health Information Outreach Project, Jeffrey T. Huber, Teresa J. Walsh, Beatriz Varman

Library Staff Publications

Purpose: The purpose of the Camp For All Connection project is to facilitate access to electronic health information resources at the Camp For All facility. Setting/Participants/Resources: Camp For All is a barrier-free camp working in partnership with organizations to enrich the lives of children and adults with chronic illnesses and disabilities and their families by providing camping and retreat experiences. The camp facility is located on 206 acres in Burton, Texas. The project partners are Texas Woman's University, Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library, and Camp For All. Brief Description: The Camp For All Connection project placed Internet-connected workstations …

Pathways To Ptsd, Part Ii: Sexually Abused Children, Julie B Kaplow, Kenneth A Dodge, Lisa Amaya-Jackson, Glenn N Saxe

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this research was to develop and test a prospective model of posttraumatic stress symptoms in sexually abused children that includes pretrauma, trauma, and disclosure-related pathways.

METHOD: At time 1, several measures were used to assess pretrauma variables, trauma variables, and stress reactions upon disclosure for 156 sexually abused children ages 8 to 13 years. At the time 2 follow-up (7 to 36 months following the initial interview), the children were assessed for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

RESULTS: A path analysis involving a series of hierarchically nested ordinary least squares multiple regression analyses indicated three direct …

Ms211: Letter To Thmrf Board To Cease Operations, Armin Weinberg

Works on Radiation Effects: 1990-2020

Letter describing our closing down the Texas Hadassah Medical Research Foundation. See more at Armin Weinberg, PhD Papers and its finding aid.

Wifi Available To Library Card Holders, Vol.18 (4) April - June 2005, Houston Academy Of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

Library Lines (1998-2009)

No abstract provided.

Cart: An Hrs/Actinin-4/Berp/Myosin V Protein Complex Required For Efficient Receptor Recycling, Qing Yan, Wei Sun, Pekka Kujala, Yasmin Lotfi, Thomas A Vida, Andrew J Bean

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Altering the number of surface receptors can rapidly modulate cellular responses to extracellular signals. Some receptors, like the transferrin receptor (TfR), are constitutively internalized and recycled to the plasma membrane. Other receptors, like the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), are internalized after ligand binding and then ultimately degraded in the lysosome. Routing internalized receptors to different destinations suggests that distinct molecular mechanisms may direct their movement. Here, we report that the endosome-associated protein hrs is a subunit of a protein complex containing actinin-4, BERP, and myosin V that is necessary for efficient TfR recycling but not for EGFR degradation. The …

Library Usage Policy, Vol.3 (2) March - April 2005, Houston Academy Of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

The Insider (2003-2008)

No abstract provided.

Get Ready For The Next Big Thing: Institutional Repository, Vol.18 (3) January - March 2005, Houston Academy Of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

Library Lines (1998-2009)

No abstract provided.

Annual Report 2004-2005, Houston Academy Of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

Annual Reports: 1943 - Present

This file contains the Annual Report for the library from 2004-2005.

Ham-Tmc Library Strategic Plan 2005-2010, Houston Academy Of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

Strategic Plans

No abstract provided.

Ic079: Headlines Newsletter, Vol. 8, No. 1, January-April 2005; Muse News Newsletter, Summer & Fall 2005, John P. Mcgovern Museum Of Health And Medical Science

Museum Publications (1998-2009)

McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science January-April 2005 bulletin, Summer 2005, Fall 2005 featuring news and information on upcoming museum events, exhibits, and program. Also includes Invitation to Tailgate Party given by John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Science.

A Web Services Architecture For Umls Knowledge Sources, Parsa Mirhaji, Narendra Kunapareddy, Yanko Michea, Arunkumar Srinivasan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

A web service is a collection of industry standards to enable reusability of services and interoperability of heterogeneous applications. The UMLS Knowledge Source (UMLSKS) Server provides remote access to the UMLSKS and related resources. We propose a Web Services Architecture that encapsulates UMLSKS-API and makes it available in distributed and heterogeneous environments. This is the first step towards intelligent and automatic UMLS services discovery and invocation by computer systems in distributed environments such as web.

Interruptions In Workflow For Rns In A Level One Trauma Center, Juliana J. Brixey, David J. Robinson, Zhihua Tang, Todd R. Johnson, Jiajie Zhang, James P. Turley

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

An understanding of interruptions in healthcare is important for the design, implementation, and evaluation of health information systems and for the management of clinical workflow and medical errors. The purpose of this study is to identify and classify the types of interruptions experienced by Emergency Department(ED) nurses working in a Level One Trauma Center. This was an observational field study of Registered Nurses (RNs) employed in a Level One Trauma Center using the shadowing method. Results of the study indicate that nurses were both recipients and initiators of interruptions. Telephones, pagers, and face-to-face conversations were the most common sources of …

The Relationship Between Future Orientation And Street Substance Use Among Texas Alternative School Students, R J Peters, Susan R Tortolero, Regina Jones Johnson, Robert C Addy, Christine M Markham, S Liliana Escobar-Chaves, Holly Lewis, George S Yacoubian

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Self-reported substance use data were collected from 963 alternative school students in grades 7-12 who were surveyed through the Safer Choices 2 study in Houston, Texas. Data were collected between October 2000 and March 2001. Logistic regression analyses indicated that lower levels of future orientation was significantly associated (OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.81-0.97) with thirty-day substance use after controlling for age and gender. In addition, lower levels of future orientation was found to have a significant association with students' lifetime substance use (OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.87-.99) after controlling for age, race, and gender. While the …

Comparison Of Accuracy Captured By Different Controlled Languages In Oral Pathology Diagnoses, Jung-Wei Chen, Catherine Flaitz, Todd Johnson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This project was comparing the accuracy of capturing the oral pathology diagnoses among different coding systems. 55 diagnoses were selected for comparison among 5 coding systems. The results of accuracy in capturing oral diagnoses are: AFIP (96.4%), followed by Read 99 (85.5%), SNOMED 98 (74.5%), ICD-9 (43.6%), and CDT-3 (14.5%). It shows that the currently used coding systems, ICD-9 and CDT-3, were inadequate, whereas the AFIP coding system captured the majority of oral diagnoses. In conclusion, the most commonly used medical and dental coding systems lack terms for the diagnosis of oral and dental conditions.

Guideview: Structured Multi-Modal Delivery Of Clinical Guidelines, M Sriram Iyengar, Subhajit Sarkar, Kira Bacal, Gregory Defouw, Phyllis Mcculley, Victor Hurst

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

GuideView is a system designed for structured, multi-modal delivery of clinical guidelines. Clinical instructions are presented simultaneously in voice, text, pictures or video or animations. Users navigate using mouse-clicks and voice commands. An evaluation study performed at a medical simulation laboratory found that voice and video instructions were rated highly.

Using Incomplete Citation Data For Medline Results Ranking, Jorge R Herskovic, Elmer V Bernstam

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Information overload is a significant problem for modern medicine. Searching MEDLINE for common topics often retrieves more relevant documents than users can review. Therefore, we must identify documents that are not only relevant, but also important. Our system ranks articles using citation counts and the PageRank algorithm, incorporating data from the Science Citation Index. However, citation data is usually incomplete. Therefore, we explore the relationship between the quantity of citation information available to the system and the quality of the result ranking. Specifically, we test the ability of citation count and PageRank to identify "important articles" as defined by experts …

Persuasive Email Messages For Patient Communication, Muhammad Walji, Kathy Johnson-Throop, Todd Johnson, Elmer Bernstam, Jiajie Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

To improve health and reduce costs, we need to encourage patients to make better health care decisions. Since email is widely available, it may be useful for patient-directed interventions. However, we know little about how the contents of an email message can influence a health-related decision. We propose a model to understand how patients may process persuasive email messages.

Genetic Networks Controlling Retinal Injury, Felix R Vazquez-Chona, Amna N Khan, Chun K Chan, Anthony N Moore, Pramod K Dash, M Rosario Hernandez, Lu Lu, Elissa J Chesler, Kenneth F Manly, Robert W Williams, Eldon E Geisert

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: The present study defines genomic loci underlying coordinate changes in gene expression following retinal injury.

METHODS: A group of acute phase genes expressed in diverse nervous system tissues was defined by combining microarray results from injury studies from rat retina, brain, and spinal cord. Genomic loci regulating the brain expression of acute phase genes were identified using a panel of BXD recombinant inbred (RI) mouse strains. Candidate upstream regulators within a locus were defined using single nucleotide polymorphism databases and promoter motif databases.

RESULTS: The acute phase response of rat retina, brain, and spinal cord was dominated by transcription …