Search results for "INFORMATICS"

Telomeres in the Brain Cortex of Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

2014

Telomeres are complex structures formed by the end of the DNA molecule at the tip of each chromosomal arm. The repeated (TTAGGG) telomeric sequence progressively shortens during lifespan because it cannot be replicated as somatic cells divide, and is highly susceptible to breakage by free radicals. Critically shortened telomeres activate the genetic program of cell senescence and/or apoptosis. The telomere length measured in peripheral blood leucocytes is considered a reliable marker of biological age, mortality risk and exposure to various pathological conditions, including cardiovascular disease, dementia, and metabolic syndrome. Telomere erosion has been observed in psychiatric disorders…

TRIF turns the switch for DIC in sepsis

2020

Compressive biological sequence analysis and archival in the era of high-throughput sequencing technologies

2013

High-throughput sequencing technologies produce large collections of data, mainly DNA sequences with additional information, requiring the design of efficient and effective methodologies for both their compression and storage. In this context, we first provide a classification of the main techniques that have been proposed, according to three specific research directions that have emerged from the literature and, for each, we provide an overview of the current techniques. Finally, to make this review useful to researchers and technicians applying the existing software and tools, we include a synopsis of the main characteristics of the described approaches, including details on their impleme…

Current bioinformatics tools in genomic biomedical research (Review).

2006

On the advent of a completely assembled human genome, modern biology and molecular medicine stepped into an era of increasingly rich sequence database information and high-throughput genomic analysis. However, as sequence entries in the major genomic databases currently rise exponentially, the gap between available, deposited sequence data and analysis by means of conventional molecular biology is rapidly widening, making new approaches of high-throughput genomic analysis necessary. At present, the only effective way to keep abreast of the dramatic increase in sequence and related information is to apply biocomputational approaches. Thus, over recent years, the field of bioinformatics has r…

Genomic Epidemiology of Salmonella Infantis in Ecuador: From Poultry Farms to Human Infections

2020

Salmonella enterica is one of the most important foodborne pathogens around the world. In the last years, S. enterica serovar Infantis has become an important emerging pathogen in many countries, often as multidrug resistant clones. To understand the importance of S. enterica in the broiler industry in Ecuador, we performed a study based on phenotypic and WGS data of isolates from poultry farms, chicken carcasses and humans. We showed a high prevalence of S. enterica in poultry farms (41.4%) and chicken carcasses (55.5%), but a low prevalence (1.98%) in human samples. S. Infantis was shown to be the most prevalent serovar with a 98.2, 97.8, and 50% in farms, foods, and humans, respectively,…

HepatomiRNoma: The proposal of a new network of targets for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy in hepatocellular carcinoma

2015

Abstract: The diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) underwent a huge advancement in the last years. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been also studied to provide a new tool for early diagnosis of high risk patients, for prognostic classification to identify those patients who benefit cancer treatment and for predictive definition to select the right targeted drug. In this review we revised all the available data obtained to explore the role of miRNAs in HCC. This analysis led to identification of miRNAs which could gain a diagnostic, prognostic or predictive role. The results of studies on miRNAs involved in HCC are initial and far from providing scientific evidences to…

Recommendations of a Laboratory Infrastructure for Simulation of Telemedicine Services

2018

In Norway, a health reform targeting coordination and continuity of care has urged municipalities to re-organize their services as there is an increasing use of remote monitoring and sensor technologies in citizens’ homes. In this context, the research project “Telemedicine Agder” is an opportunity to study the implementation, organization and operation of large scale telemedicine services, and identify the service models of the future. As part of the project, simulation of a telemedicine service for remote monitoring of diabetes II was tested in a clinical laboratory with key informants from municipalities, hospital and research partners. This paper presents the technical and physical infr…

Introduction to ICT Enabled Services Minitrack

2015

The purpose of the minitrack is to draw researchers’ attention to ICT Enabled Services for both Consumers and Enterprises. It provides a discussion forum for researchers interested in fostering a service-based approach to these areas as well as an opportunity to present and debate both design and theory-based solutions to the problems facing industry in the deployment of ICT enabled services [1-4]. In a broad sense, ICT enabled services can be defined as [1]: “..systems that enable value co-creation through the development and implementation of information and communication technology enabled processes that integrate system value propositions with customer value drivers.”

Exploring web-mediated communication: A genre-based linguistic study for new patterns of doctor–patient interaction in online environment

2016

This paper questions the nature of the communicative event that takes place in online contexts between doctors and web-users, showing computer-mediated linguistic norms and discussing the nature of the participants’ roles. Based on an analysis of 1005 posts occurring between doctors and the users of health service websites, I analyse how doctor–patient communication is affected by the medium and how health professionals overcome issues concerning the virtual medical visit. Results suggest that (a) online medical answers offer a different service from that expected by users, as doctors cannot always fulfill patient requests, and (b) net consultations use aspects of traditional doctor–patient…

MAGICPL: A Generic Process Description Language for Distributed Pseudonymization Scenarios

2021

Abstract Objectives Pseudonymization is an important aspect of projects dealing with sensitive patient data. Most projects build their own specialized, hard-coded, solutions. However, these overlap in many aspects of their functionality. As any re-implementation binds resources, we would like to propose a solution that facilitates and encourages the reuse of existing components. Methods We analyzed already-established data protection concepts to gain an insight into their common features and the ways in which their components were linked together. We found that we could represent these pseudonymization processes with a simple descriptive language, which we have called MAGICPL, plus a relati…