Role of microglia in CNS inflammation

There is increasing confusion about the meaning of the terms inflammation, neuroinflammation, and microglial inflammation. We aim in this review to achieve greater clarity regarding these terms, which are essential for our understanding of the role of microglia in CNS inflammatory conditions. The important concept of sterile inflammation is explained against the backdrop of classical inflammation, and its key differences from what researchers refer to when they use the terms neuroinflammation and microglial inflammation are illustrated. We propose to replace the term "neuroinflammation" with "microglial activation" or "CNS pseudo-inflammation", if microglial activation does not suffice. In addition, we recommend abandoning the terms "microglial inflammation" and "inflamed microglia" because of the lack of a clear concept behind them.     

Effectively processing medical term queries on the UMLS Metathesaurus by layered dynamic programming

Background

Mapping medical terms to standardized UMLS concepts is a basic step for leveraging biomedical texts in data management and analysis. However, available methods and tools have major limitations in handling queries over the UMLS Metathesaurus that contain inaccurate query terms, which frequently appear in real world applications.

Methods

To provide a practical solution for this task, we propose a layered dynamic programming mapping (LDPMap) approach, which can efficiently handle these queries. LDPMap uses indexing and two layers of dynamic programming techniques to efficiently map a biomedical term to a UMLS concept.

Results

Our empirical study shows that LDPMap achieves much faster query speeds than LCS. In comparison to the UMLS Metathesaurus Browser and MetaMap, LDPMap is much more effective in querying the UMLS Metathesaurus for inaccurately spelled medical terms, long medical terms, and medical terms with special characters.

Conclusions

These results demonstrate that LDPMap is an efficient and effective method for mapping medical terms to the UMLS Metathesaurus.

     

Mandibular angle reduction versus mandible reduction

The terms "mandibular angle reduction" and "reduction angleplasty" refer to operations to reduce the width of the lower face and change a square face to an oval one. Because the terms emphasize the word angle, however, they imply that the operations apply to the mandibular angle. The most frequent complaint after these operations is that the change in the lateral appearance is clear but that the change in the frontal appearance is not noticeable. Such a result is related to the fact that bone resection is performed mainly in the mandibular angle area and is focused particularly on resection of the posterior projection through curved ostectomy. That is, because operations limited to the mandibular angle area cannot properly satisfy patients' requirements, the operation must be applied to a larger area. Therefore, it seems reasonable to change the terms "mandibular angle reduction" and "reduction angleplasty" to "mandible reduction" and "reduction mandibuloplasty." In addition, the most important technique in the operation is the resection of the outer cortex of the mandible. In particular, the corticectomy technique using a reciprocating saw is quite safe and effective for the maximum resection of lateral flaring within a very short time.     

A reference model based interface terminology for generic observations in Anatomic Pathology Structured Reports

Background

Current terminology systems for structured reporting in pathology are more or less focused on tumor pathology. They have not been compiled in a systematic approach, therefore they gather terms of very different granularity. Generic models for terminology development could help in establishing reference terminologies for all fields of anatomic pathology.The core principle of those models is the ontological structure of native speaking terminology. By analyzing the PathLex interface a generic terminology model will be derived.

Methods

For each element template of PathLex its possible generic nature and its value set was analyzed, looking for the uniqueness or multiplicity of the values in the value sets.The generic terms were mapped to SNOMED-CT terms using "ArtDecor".

Results

The 488 PathLex element templates for Anatomic Pathology (AP) observations can be reduced to 53 generic templates, leaving out only 17 templates very specific for organ and/or disease. Among those 53 templates 28 are describing UICC-TNM staging, ICD-O-classification, and grading. Further 15 templates describe the results from marker investigations. Almost all of the terms, used in those templates could be mapped to SNOMED CT.All of the generic elements have their "organ specific" counterparts by assigning them to one of 20 organs and invasive or noninvasive cancer, respectively. Studying the structure of generic and specific terms it becomes obvious that any AP observation- occurs always in a context- consists of three basic elements (target of observation, property of observation, additional qualifiers, added by value sets for coded data).

Conclusions

If a machine-readable terminology is aimed to preserve all the information of native speaking, then two principal solutions exist:- ystematic consideration of all the aspects mentioned above in each single term- ocusing on the generic elements of terms and combining this with the structure of communication, reflecting the non-obvious elements of the terminology.The fastest way for establishing an interface terminology is the first approach, which lists all of the terms needed for e.g. a checklist in a comprehensive manner (precoordination).However, if the list of terms and problems increases, or new requirements have to be met, considerable difficulties may arise in keeping the terminology consistent and complete.The second, postcoordination approach offers some advantages. It does not have limitations in the organ- or disease specificity, and it keeps the number of terms limited, making them more easily to survey.

     

Styles of verbal expression of emotional and physical experiences: A study of depressed patients and normal controls in China

Sixty depressed patients and 52 normal controls completed three selfreport inventories: the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and a new Verbal Style Investigation Schedule (VESIS) developed by the first author. The VESIS uses 16 key emotional and physical terms from Western inventories and identified the words and phrases most commonly used by Chinese patients to express these feeling states. Chinese subjects commonly used the key term itself for only 3 or the 16 key terms; they usually preferred to use other words or phrases to express the feeling state. We categorized these Chinese expressions into four styles of verbal expression: Psychological, Somatic, Neutral (i.e., a mixture of psychological and somatic) and Deficient (i.e., lack of expression because of denial or suppression). Three of the 12 key emotional terms of the VESIS (depressed, fearful, and anxiousness) were more commonly expressed in a somatic or neutral mode than the other key emotional terms. The key terms suicidal interest and being punished were more commonly expressed in a deficient style than other key emotional terms. The somatic factor score of the SCL-90 was not correlated with increased somatic expression of emotional states; thus patients who have multiple somatic complaints are not more likely to express emotions somatically. The hypothesis of somatization is discussed in light of this study.     

Differential diagnosis of back pain in adult scoliosis (non operated patients)

Background

This report is the SOSORT Consensus Paper on Terminology for use in the treatment of conservative spinal deformities. Figures are provided and relevant literature is cited where appropriate.

Methods

The Delphi method was used to reach a preliminary consensus before the meeting, where the terms that still needed further clarification were discussed.

Results

A final agreement was found for all the terms, which now constitute the base of this glossary. New terms will be added after being discussed and accepted.

Discussion

When only one set of terms is used for communication in a place or among a group of people, then everyone can clearly and efficiently communicate. This principle applies for any professional group. Until now, no common set of terms was available in the field of the conservative treatment of scoliosis and spinal deformities. This glossary gives a common base language to draw from to discuss data, findings and treatment.     

Stereochemical terminology and its discontents

Scrutiny of the purported misuse of some current stereochemical terms shows that obsolescence and faulty syntax may be less of a problem than previously assumed. Furthermore, changes in stereochemical terminology over time are not always due to obsolescence or to novel developments in chemical technology; for example, technical developments played no role whatsoever in the semantic transmutations over time of the terms "diastereomer" and "pseudoasymmetry." Finally, definitions of many stereochemical terms acquire meaning only within a given context and therefore cannot always be easily formulated. A prime example is the definition of "chirality," the concept at the heart of stereochemistry and, not coincidentally, the name of the journal in which this essay appears in print.     

"Epidemic" vs "epidemiological": linguistic aspects of epidemiological terminology

The meaning of the terms "epidemic" and "epidemiological" used in a medical discourse have been analyzed; differential signs have been found by the method of linguistic analysis, making it possible to avoid unjustified interchanges of these terms.     

A method for determining overall protein fold from NMR distance restraints

Summary We describe a simple method for determining the overall fold of a polypeptide chain from NOE-derived distance restraints. The method uses a reduced representation consisting of two particles per residue, and a force field containing pseudo-bond and pseudo-angle terms, an electrostatic term, but no van der Waals or hard shell repulsive terms. The method is fast and robust, requiring relatively few distance restraints to approximate the correct fold, and the correct mirror image is readily determined. The method is easily implemented using commercially available molecular modeling software.     

Traveling waves in cross-diffusion models of population dynamics

"Traveling wave"--type solutions of some models with cross-diffusion were considered. It was shown that "cross-diffusion" terms, as opposed to "diffusion" terms, do not increase the dimensionality of the automodel system. The bifurcation approach was used to study the dependence of the wave solutions on the parameters of the models being considered, and the waves were classified. It was shown that, at the same parameter values, both "fast" and "slow" waves can exist and that these waves are described by different automodel systems.     

Terminology of a computer network: notes of a non-epidemiologist

In the development of discussion on epidemiological terms containing definitions "epidemic" and "epidemiological" variants of these terms as used in electronic documents placed on Internet sites are considered. Both most common combinations and contradictions in the use of some terminological constructions are presented.     

Glossary of Terms Frequently Encountered in Soviet Psychology

Numerous terms are used in Soviet psychology, the direct translation of which may be misleading to American psychologists because they are habitually used in a different sense from that familiar to Western psychology. For example, righteous indignation has been vented by Western psychologists over the "Russian preoccupation" with interpreting all behavior in terms of Pavlovian reflexes. To the Russian psychologist, the word refleks is no more a specific term than the word "response" is to an American psychologist. Its use does not imply the classical Pavlovian conditioning paradigm. Since interpreters are not necessarily aware that the cognates are not synonymous, it is worthwhile for any Western psychologist to become aware of the most common and easy sources of terminological confusion. The following is a glossary of terms which are so familiar to the Russian psychologist that he will seldom stop to explain them. Most of them are cognates. Some are synonymous with their usual English translations; many are not.     

TRENDS IN AVIAN SYSTEMATICS

The classical "new systematics" with its replacement of the monotypic by the polytypic species, and of the morphological by the biological species concept, is now so universally accepted in ornithology that it can hardly be considered any longer as "new". Present trends indicate two areas of avian systematics favourable for active expansion, population systematics and phylogenetic systematics. Instead of describing the population structure of species in terms of subspecies, the trend will be to describe it in terms of "geographical isolates", "population continuats", and "zones of secondary intergradation" of former geographic isolates. Such an analysis can shed much light on the ecological requirements of species and on their former history. The other area of new avian systematics is a re-activated study of the higher categories of birds, with new methods and interpreted by a re-evaluated set of phylogenetic and evolutionary concepts.     

Automata with hierarchical control and evolutionary learning

We propose an automata-theoretical framework for structured hierarchical control, in terms of rules and meta-rules, for sequences of moves on a graph. This leads to a notion of a "universal" hierarchically structured automaton mu which can move on a given graph in such a way as to emulate any automaton which moves on that graph in response to inputs. This emulation is achieved via a mapping of the inputs in the given automaton to those of mu, and we think of such a mapping as an encoding of the given automaton. We see in several examples that efficient encodings of graph-search algorithms correspond to their natural hierarchical structure (in terms of rules and meta-rules), and this leads one to a precise notion of the "depth" of an automaton which moves on a given graph. By way of application, we discuss a proposed structure of a series of stochastic neural networks which can learn, by example, to encode a given sequence of moves on a graph, so that the encoding obtained is structurally the "natural" one for the given sequence of moves. Thus, such a learning system would perform both structural pattern recognition (in terms of "patterns" of moves), and encoding based on a desired outcome.     

The "protein-machine" concept and its consequences

Analysis is presented of the concept "protein-machine" and implying consequences, both of theoretical and experimental character. The approach "protein-machine" is compared with other approaches--"coherent excitation", "molecular dynamics" and "limited diffusion". In terms of the approach "protein-machine" valuable information inserted in the biological macromolecule and determining its functions is taken into account. It reflects the biological specificity and at the same time removes mystic shadow from this concept.     

"Rates" of birth defects

The proportion of children born with a particular defect is not a "birth defect rate" but, rather, a prevalence proportion. The implications of confusing a rate and a proportion are discussed in terms of the interpretation of birth defect data. It is recommended that "prevalence proportion" or "prevalence" be used to report the frequency of various defects rather than the often-used "prevalence rate."