Population child health: understanding and addressing complex health needs.

Advances in paediatric care mean that more children with complex medical problems (heart disease, neurodevelopmental problems and so on) are surviving their early years. This has important implications for the design and delivery of healthcare given their extensive multidisciplinary requirements and susceptibility to poor outcomes when not optimally managed. Importantly, their medical needs must also be understood and addressed within the context of the child and family's life circumstances. There is growing recognition that many other factors contribute to a child's complex health needs (CHNs), for example, family problems, fragmentation of health and care provision, psychological difficulties or social issues.To facilitate proactive care for these patients, we must develop accurate ways to identify them. Whole Systems Integrated Care-an online platform that integrates routinely collected data from primary and secondary care-offers an example of how to do this. An algorithm applied to this data identifies children with CHNs from the entire patient population. When tested in a large inner-city GP practice, this analysis shows good concordance with clinical opinion and identifies complex children in the population to a much higher proportion than expected. Ongoing refinement of these data-driven processes will allow accurate quantification and identification of need in local populations, thus aiding the development of tailored services.

Online compensation detecting for real-time reduction of compensatory motions during reaching: a pilot study with stroke survivors.

BACKGROUND: Compensations are commonly observed in patients with stroke when they engage in reaching without supervision; these behaviors may be detrimental to long-term functional improvement. Automatic detection and reduction of compensation cab help patients perform tasks correctly and promote better upper extremity recovery. OBJECTIVE: Our first objective is to verify the feasibility of detecting compensation online using machine learning methods and pressure distribution data. Second objective was to investigate whether compensations of stroke survivors can be reduced by audiovisual or force feedback. The third objective was to compare the effectiveness of audiovisual and force feedback in reducing compensation. METHODS: Eight patients with stroke performed reaching tasks while pressure distribution data were recorded. Both the offline and online recognition accuracy were investigated to assess the feasibility of applying a support vector machine (SVM) based compensation detection system. During reduction of compensation, audiovisual feedback was delivered using virtual reality technology, and force feedback was delivered through a rehabilitation robot. RESULTS: Good classification performance was obtained in online compensation recognition, with an average F1-score of over 0.95. Based on accurate online detection, real-time feedback significantly decreased compensations of patients with stroke in comparison with no-feedback condition (p < 0.001). Meanwhile, the difference between audiovisual and force feedback was also significant (p < 0.001) and force feedback was more effective in reducing compensation in patients with stroke. CONCLUSIONS: Accurate online recognition validated the feasibility of monitoring compensations using machine learning algorithms and pressure distribution data. Reliable online detection also paved the way for reducing compensations by providing feedback to patients with stroke. Our findings suggested that real-time feedback could be an effective approach to reducing compensatory patterns and force feedback demonstrated a more enviable potential compared with audiovisual feedback.

Data Accuracy and Predictors of High Ratings of Colon and Rectal Surgeons on an Online Physician Rating Website.

BACKGROUND: Online physician rating Web sites are used by over half of consumers to select doctors. No studies have examined physician rating Web sites for colon and rectal surgeons. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and rating patterns of colon and rectal surgeons on the largest physician rating Web site. DESIGN: Physician characteristics and ratings were collected from a randomly selected sample of 500 from 3043 Healthgrades "colon and rectal surgery specialists." Board certifications were verified with the American Board of Surgery and American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery Web sites. SETTINGS: Data acquisition was completed on July 18, 2018. PATIENTS: Patients were not directly studied. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was to assess the accuracy of Healthgrades in reporting American Board of Surgery and American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery certification. The secondary outcome was to identify factors associated with high star ratings. RESULTS: A total of 48 (9.6%) of the 500 sampled were incorrectly identified as practicing US surgeons and excluded from subsequent analysis. Healthgrades showed 80.1% agreement with verified board certifications for American Board of Surgery and 85.4% for American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery. The mean star rating was 4.2 of 5.0 (SD = 0.9), and 77 (21.6%) had 5-star ratings. In a multivariable logistic model (p < 0.001), 5-star rating was associated with 1 to 9 years (OR = 2.76; p = 0.04) or >40 years in practice (OR = 3.35; p = 0.04) and fewer reviews (OR = 0.88; p < 0.001). There were no significant associations with surgeon sex, age, geographic region, or board certification. LIMITATIONS: Data were limited to a single physician rating Web site. CONCLUSIONS: In the modern age of healthcare consumerism, physician rating Web sites should be used with caution given inaccuracies. More accurate online resources are needed to inform patient decisions in the selection of specialized colon and rectal surgical care. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/B91. PRECISIÓN DE DATOS Y PREDICTORES DE ALTAS CALIFICACIONES DE CIRUJANOS DE COLON Y RECTO EN UN SITIO WEB DE CALIFICACIÓN MÉDICA EN LÍNEA: Más de la mitad de los consumidores utilizan los sitios web de calificación de médicos en línea para seleccionar médicos. Ningún estudio ha examinado los sitios web de calificación de médicos para cirujanos de colon y recto.Evaluar la precisión y los patrones de calificación de los cirujanos de colon y recto en el sitio web más grande de calificación de médicos.Las características y calificaciones de los médicos se obtuvieron de una muestra seleccionada al azar de 500 de 3,043 "especialistas en cirugía de colon y recto" de Healthgrades. Las certificaciones del Consejo se verificaron en los sitios web del Consejo Americano de Cirugía y del Consejo Americano de Cirugía de Colon y Recto.La adquisición de datos se completó el 18 de julio de 2018.Los pacientes no fueron estudiados directamente.El resultado primario fue evaluar la precisión de Healthgrades al informar la certificación por el Consejo Americano de Cirugía y por el Consejo Americano de Cirugía de Colon y Recto. El resultado secundario fue identificar factores asociados con altas calificaciones en estrellas.Un total de 48 (9.6%) de la muestra de 500 fueron identificados incorrectamente como cirujanos practicantes de EE. UU. y excluidos del análisis subsecuente. Healthgrades mostró un 80.1% de concordancia con las certificaciones verificadas del Consejo Americano de Cirugía y el 85.4% con el Consejo Americano de Cirugía de Colon y Recto. La calificación promedio de estrellas fue 4.2 / 5 (SD 0.9), y 77 (21.6%) tuvieron calificaciones de 5 estrellas. En un modelo logístico multivariable (p <0.001), la calificación de 5 estrellas se asoció con 1-9 años (OR 2.76, p = 0.04) o más de 40 años en la práctica (OR 3.35, p = 0.04) y menos evaluaciones (OR 0.88, p <0.001). No hubo asociaciones significativas con el género, edad, región geográfica o certificación por los Consejos del cirujano.Los datos se limitaron a un solo sitio web de calificación de médicos.En la era moderna del consumismo en atención médica, los sitios web de calificación de los médicos deben usarse con precaución debido a imprecisiones. Se necesitan recursos en línea más precisos para que las decisiones de los pacientes sean informadas en la selección de atención quirúrgica especializada de colon y recto. Consulte Video Resumen en http://links.lww.com/DCR/B91. (Traducción-Dr. Jorge Silva-Velazco).

Optimal Online Calibration Designs for Item Replenishment in Adaptive Testing.

The maintenance of item bank is essential for continuously implementing adaptive tests. Calibration of new items online provides an opportunity to efficiently replenish items for the operational item bank. In this study, a new optimal design for online calibration (referred to as D-c) is proposed by incorporating the idea of original D-optimal design into the reformed D-optimal design proposed by van der Linden and Ren (Psychometrika 80:263-288, 2015) (denoted as D-VR design). To deal with the dependence of design criteria on the unknown item parameters of new items, Bayesian versions of the locally optimal designs (e.g., D-c and D-VR) are put forward by adding prior information to the new items. In the simulation implementation of the locally optimal designs, five calibration sample sizes were used to obtain different levels of estimation precision for the initial item parameters, and two approaches were used to obtain the prior distributions in Bayesian optimal designs. Results showed that the D-c design performed well and retired smaller number of new items than the D-VR design at almost all levels of examinee sample size; the Bayesian version of D-c using the prior obtained from the operational items worked better than that using the default priors in BILOG-MG and PARSCALE; and Bayesian optimal designs generally outperformed locally optimal designs when the initial item parameters of the new items were poorly estimated.

Lyme snap: A feasibility study of on-line declarations of erythema migrans in a rural area of France.

The incidence of Lyme borreliosis remains a matter of debate, but it can be estimated using the incidence of erythema migrans (EM), which is pathognomonic of the first phase. The aim of this prospective pilot study was to assess the feasibility of the on-line declaration of EM in rural areas where the incidence of Lyme borreliosis was previously estimated at 85 per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The study was limited to a rural area (Les Combrailles, Auvergne) of approximately 52,800 inhabitants and was preceded by an information campaign for the inhabitants and the healthcare professionals. Patients who sent a photo of the suspected EM by email or MMS message between April 2017 and April 2018 and who accepted to answer a questionnaire were included in the study. Two physicians then evaluated the quality of the photographs and the probability of EM. In parallel, the number of EM seen by physicians and pharmacists in the area over the given period was recorded. Out of the 113 emails and MMS messages received, 73 people were outside of the trial area or period and 9 did not complete the questionnaire. The photos of the remaining 31 people were analysed. The median age was 51.5 years old ([38-58] IQR) and 18 (58%) were women. Seven people (25%) stated that they did not have a smartphone and in 9 cases (29%) the photo was sent by a third party. The quality of the photos was considered very good in 22 (71%) cases, good in 7 (23%) cases, and average in 2 (6%) cases. The probability of EM was determined to be strong or possible in 12 (38%) cases, i.e. an estimated incidence of 22.7 per 100,000 inhabitants. Over the study period, 40 physicians and 20 pharmacists were contacted on a monthly basis. A median of 5 physicians [3;7] and 4 pharmacists [3 ;7] answered each month for a total of 18 and 36 declared EM respectively. The EM (strong probability/possible) collected by on-line declaration and those declared by healthcare professionals were all sent between April and October 2017. The total time spent on the information campaign and collection has been estimated at 265 h (divided between 10 people) for an overall cost of 10,669 Euros. The incidence of EM recorded by on-line self-declaration in our study seems to be lower than in previous studies, the under-reporting was probably linked to the low use of new technologies in the rural areas. Increasing the human resources and finances appears difficult to achieve in practice over a longer time period but the development of an application for the automatic recognition of EM could be one method for a more exhaustive collection in the long term and at lower cost.

Portfólio on-line: estratégia para melhorar o sistema de avaliação da disciplina de Atenção Integral à Saúde do curso de Medicina / Online portfolio: strategy to improve the assessment system of the Integral Health Care discipline in the medical course / Portafolio on-line: estrategia para mejorar el sistema de evaluación de la disciplina de Atención Integral de Salud del Curso de Medicina

Resumo Este estudo relata a estratégia para aprimorar o portfólio como instrumento de avaliação da aprendizagem em uma disciplina oferecida aos estudantes do quarto ano de graduação em Medicina, por meio do portfólio on-line. A disciplina é constituída de atividades práticas de atendimento integral à saúde da criança, do adolescente, do adulto e da mulher na atenção primária do município de Campinas. A utilização do portfólio permite que os estudantes reflitam sobre os atendimentos realizados em relação ao conhecimento, à habilidade clínica e ao vínculo médico-paciente na consulta. O portfólio on-line possibilitou rever os critérios de avaliação, agilizar e facilitar a gestão da correção, realizada por oitenta avaliadores de três especialidades médicas. O acesso às informações do portfólio na plataforma moodle permitiu a rápida tomada de decisão em aspectos que precisam ser adequados para a melhoria do processo ensino-aprendizagem.(AU)

Abstract This study reports on the strategy to improve the use of online portfolios as a learning assessment instrument of a discipline taught to fourth-year medical students. The discipline comprises practical activities of comprehensive care of children, teenagers, adults, and women in primary care in the Brazilian city of Campinas. Using portfolios, students are able to reflect upon the provided care as to the knowledge, clinical skills, and doctor-patient bond shown in the appointment. The online portfolio enabled to review the assessment criteria, and streamline and facilitate managing the assessment conducted by 80 evaluators from three medical specialties. Access to the portfolio's information in the Moodle platform enabled a fast decision-making process in aspects that need to be adequate to improve the teaching and learning process.(AU)

Resumen Este estudio relata la estrategia para perfeccionar el portafolio como instrumento de evaluación del aprendizaje en una disciplina ofrecida a los estudiantes del 4º. año de la graduación en medicina, por medio del portafolio online. La asignatura se compone de actividades prácticas de atención integral a la salud del niño, del adolescente, del adulto y de la mujer en la atención primaria del municipio de Campinas. La utilización del portafolio permite que los estudiantes reflexionen sobre las atenciones realizadas con relación al conocimiento, a la habilidad clínica y al vínculo médico-paciente en la consulta. El portafolio online posibilitó revisar los criterios de evaluación, agilizar y facilitar la gestión de la corrección realizada por 80 evaluadores de tres especialidades médicas. El acceso a las informaciones del portafolio en la plataforma Moodle permitió la rápida toma de decisiones en aspectos que tienen que adecuarse para la mejora del proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje.(AU)

Online measurement of phthalate-particulate matter interactions by membrane introduction mass spectrometry (MIMS).

To enable further study and assessment of indoor inhalation exposure risk, an online apparatus enabling measurement of semi-volatile compound partitioning on household particulates was developed. An example for use of the apparatus is described using dimethyl phthalate (DMP). The system employs direct measurement by membrane introduction mass spectrometry (MIMS). The MIMS system was calibrated using known gas phase DMP concentrations produced by gravimetrically calibrated permeation devices. The quantity of DMP sorbed by particles is described first using a model particle type, a reverse-phase liquid chromatography packing material, and then with a household dust sample. In addition, the desorption of semi-volatile compounds from a household dust sample was monitored using the apparatus, and characteristic fragment ion signals for phthalate compounds were observed.

The DIY Digital Medical Centre.

Healthcare systems worldwide are confronted with major economic, organizational and logistical challenges. Historic evolution of health care has led to significant healthcare sector fragmentation, resulting in systemic inefficiencies and suboptimal resource exploitation. To attain a sustainable healthcare model, fundamental, system-wide improvements that effectively network, and ensure fulfilment of potential synergies between sectors, and include and facilitate coherent strategic planning and organisation of healthcare infrastructure are needed. Critically, they must be specifically designed to sustainably achieve peak performance within the current policy environment for cost-control, and efficiency and quality improvement for service delivery. We propose creation of a new healthcare cluster, to be embedded in existing healthcare systems. It consists of (i) local 24/7 walk-in virtually autonomous do-it-yourself Digital Medical Centres performing routine diagnosis, monitoring, prevention, treatment and standardized documentation and health outcome assessment/reporting, which are online interfaced with (ii) regional 24/7 eClinician Centres providing on-demand clinical supervision/assistance to Digital Medical Centre patients. Both of these are, in turn, online interfaced with (iii) the National Clinical Informatics Centre, which houses the national patient data centre (cloud) and data analysis units that conduct patient- and population-level, personalized and predictive(-medicine) intervention optimization analyses. The National Clinical Informatics Centre also interfaces with biomedical research and prioritizes and accelerates the translation of new discoveries into clinical practice. The associated Health Policy Innovation and Evaluation Centre rapidly integrates new findings with health policy/regulatory discussions. This new cluster would synergistically link all health system components in a circular format, enable not only access by all arms of the health service to latest patient data, but also automatic algorithm analysis and prediction of clinical development of individual patients, reduce bureaucratic burden on medical professionals by enabling a greater level of focus of their expertise on non-routine medical tasks, lead to automatic translation of aggregate patient data/new knowledge into medical practice, and orient future evolution of health systems towards greater cohesion/integration and hence efficiency. A central plank of the proposed concept is increased emphasis on reduction of disease incidence and severity, to diminish both patient suffering and treatment costs. This will be achieved at the individual and population levels, through (i) significantly improved access to medical services, (ii) stronger focus on primary and secondary prevention and early treatment measures, and disease susceptibility prediction via personalized medicine, involving inter alia genome analysis at birth and periodic analysis of microbiomes and biomarkers, and integration with other patient health and epidemiology parameters, (iii) improved surveillance and (iv) intervention outcome benchmarking. The dMCs will become drivers of innovation and integrative evolution in health systems, of disease reduction and efficiency gains, and thus major contributors to development of sustainability of health care.

Optimizing external carbon source addition in domestics wastewater treatment based on online sensoring data and a numerical model.

The removal of total nitrogen in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is often unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons. One possible measure to improve nitrogen removal is the addition of external carbon. However, the amount of carbon addition is directly related to WWTP operation costs, highlighting the importance of accurately determining the amount of external carbon required. The objective of this study was to obtain a low nitrate concentration in the anoxic zone of WWTPs efficiently and economically by optimizing the external carbon source dosage. Experiments were conducted using a pilot-scale pre-denitrification reactor at a Nanjing WWTP in China. External carbon source addition based on online monitoring of influent wastewater quality and a developed nitrification-denitrification numerical model was investigated. Results showed that carbon addition was reduced by 47.7% and aeration costs were reduced by 8.0% compared with those using a fixed-dose addition mode in the pilot reactor. The obtained technology was applied to the full-scale Jiangxinzhou WWTP in Nanjing with promising results.

Evaluation of the Fourier Frequency Spectrum Peaks of Milk Electrical Conductivity Signals as Indexes to Monitor the Dairy Goats' Health Status by On-Line Sensors.

The aim of this study is a further characterization of the electrical conductivity (EC) signal of goat milk, acquired on-line by EC sensors, to identify new indexes representative of the EC variations that can be observed during milking, when considering not healthy (NH) glands. Two foremilk gland samples from 42 Saanen goats, were collected for three consecutive weeks and for three different lactation stages (LS: 0-60 Days In Milking (DIM); 61-120 DIM; 121-180 DIM), for a total amount of 1512 samples. Bacteriological analyses and somatic cells counts (SCC) were used to define the health status of the glands. With negative bacteriological analyses and SCC < 1,000,000 cells/mL, glands were classified as healthy. When bacteriological analyses were positive or showed a SCC > 1,000,000 cells/mL, glands were classified as NH. For each milk EC signal, acquired on-line and for each gland considered, the Fourier frequency spectrum of the signal was calculated and three representative frequency peaks were identified. To evaluate data acquired a MIXED procedure was used considering the HS, LS and LS × HS as explanatory variables in the statistical model.Results showed that the studied frequency peaks had a significant relationship with the gland's health status. Results also explained how the milk EC signals' pattern change in case of NH glands. In fact, it is characterized by slower fluctuations (due to the lower frequencies of the peaks) and by an irregular trend (due to the higher amplitudes of all the main frequency peaks). Therefore, these frequency peaks could be used as new indexes to improve the performances of algorithms based on multivariate models which evaluate the health status of dairy goats through the use of gland milk EC sensors.

Development of an accelerometer-linked online intervention system to promote physical activity in adolescents.

Most adolescents do not achieve the recommended levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), placing them at increased risk for a diverse array of chronic diseases in adulthood. There is a great need for scalable and effective interventions that can increase MVPA in adolescents. Here we report the results of a measurement validation study and a preliminary proof-of-concept experiment testing the impact of Zamzee, an accelerometer-linked online intervention system that combines proximal performance feedback and incentive motivation features to promote MVPA. In a calibration study that parametrically varied levels of physical activity in 31 12-14 year-old children, the Zamzee activity meter was shown to provide a valid measure of MVPA (sensitivity in detecting MVPA = 85.9%, specificity = 97.5%, and r = .94 correspondence with the benchmark RT3 accelerometer system; all p < .0001). In a subsequent randomized controlled multi-site experiment involving 182 middle school-aged children assessed for MVPA over 6 wks, intent-to-treat analyses found that those who received access to the Zamzee intervention had average MVPA levels 54% greater than those of a passive control group (p < 0.0001) and 68% greater than those of an active control group that received access to a commercially available active videogame (p < .0001). Zamzee's effects on MVPA did not diminish significantly over the course of the 6-wk study period, and were statistically significant in both females and males, and in normal- vs. high-BMI subgroups. These results provide promising initial indications that combining the Zamzee activity meter with online proximal performance feedback and incentive motivation features can positively impact MVPA levels in adolescents.

On-line monitoring of airborne bioaerosols released from a composting/green waste site.

This study is the first to employ the on-line WIBS-4 (Wideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor) technique for the monitoring of bioaerosol emissions and non-fluorescing "dust" released from a composting/green waste site. The purpose of the research was to provide a "proof of principle" for using WIBS to monitor such a location continually over days and nights in order to construct comparative "bioaerosol site profiles". The real-time data obtained was then used to assess variations of the bioaerosol counts as a function of size, "shape", site location, working activity levels, time of day, relative humidity, wind speeds and wind directions. Three short campaigns were undertaken, one classified as a "light" workload period, another as a "heavy" workload period and finally a weekend when the site was closed. One main bioaerosol size regime was found to predominate: 0.5-3µm with morphologies ranging from elongated to ellipsoidal/spherical. The real-time number-concentration data provides a long-term "video" record of the site and were consistent with the Andersen sampling protocol performed that provides only a single "snapshot" for bioaerosol release. The number-concentration of fluorescent particles as a proportion of total particle counts amounted, on average, to ∼1% for the "light" workday period, ∼7% for the "heavy" workday period and ∼18% for the weekend. The bioaerosol release profiles at the weekend were considerably different from those monitored during the working weekdays.

Memristor-based multilayer neural networks with online gradient descent training.

Learning in multilayer neural networks (MNNs) relies on continuous updating of large matrices of synaptic weights by local rules. Such locality can be exploited for massive parallelism when implementing MNNs in hardware. However, these update rules require a multiply and accumulate operation for each synaptic weight, which is challenging to implement compactly using CMOS. In this paper, a method for performing these update operations simultaneously (incremental outer products) using memristor-based arrays is proposed. The method is based on the fact that, approximately, given a voltage pulse, the conductivity of a memristor will increment proportionally to the pulse duration multiplied by the pulse magnitude if the increment is sufficiently small. The proposed method uses a synaptic circuit composed of a small number of components per synapse: one memristor and two CMOS transistors. This circuit is expected to consume between 2% and 8% of the area and static power of previous CMOS-only hardware alternatives. Such a circuit can compactly implement hardware MNNs trainable by scalable algorithms based on online gradient descent (e.g., backpropagation). The utility and robustness of the proposed memristor-based circuit are demonstrated on standard supervised learning tasks.

Novel strategy for online monitoring of the degradation kinetics of propantheline bromide via a calixarene-based ion-selective electrode.

Propantheline bromide (PB) is a hydrolysable anti-cholinergic drug. A novel strategy for the online monitoring of PB degradation kinetics catalysed by hydroxyl ions is presented. This is achieved by the incorporation of an on-site PB-selective electrode constructed using as an ionophore. This sensor was used to track the hydrolysis of PB by continuous measurement of the decrease in the produced emf over time. The use of this new technique provides real-time observation and yields a continuous profile of the hydrolysis behaviour of PB under various pH conditions as well as the temperature dependency of each reaction. Moreover, a great advantage of this proposed on-line system is its higher accuracy for rate constant estimation relative to other off-line methods. This kinetic data analysis permitted the determination of the hydrolysis activation energy and prediction of the drug shelf life. The estimated activation energy from Arrhenius plot was 20.77 kcal mol(-1).

On designing multicore-aware simulators for systems biology endowed with OnLine statistics.

The paper arguments are on enabling methodologies for the design of a fully parallel, online, interactive tool aiming to support the bioinformatics scientists .In particular, the features of these methodologies, supported by the FastFlow parallel programming framework, are shown on a simulation tool to perform the modeling, the tuning, and the sensitivity analysis of stochastic biological models. A stochastic simulation needs thousands of independent simulation trajectories turning into big data that should be analysed by statistic and data mining tools. In the considered approach the two stages are pipelined in such a way that the simulation stage streams out the partial results of all simulation trajectories to the analysis stage that immediately produces a partial result. The simulation-analysis workflow is validated for performance and effectiveness of the online analysis in capturing biological systems behavior on a multicore platform and representative proof-of-concept biological systems. The exploited methodologies include pattern-based parallel programming and data streaming that provide key features to the software designers such as performance portability and efficient in-memory (big) data management and movement. Two paradigmatic classes of biological systems exhibiting multistable and oscillatory behavior are used as a testbed.

'Today and more than ever, I FEEL LIKE A RESEARCHER': successful online learning collaborations between librarians and a Graduate School.

This article describes the development and delivery of an online module at the University of Nottingham on the literature review process. In particular, it discusses how academic librarians collaborated with researcher developers at the Graduate School at the University to deliver a highly successful online learning experience for students. The article provides an overview of the course, a discussion on the experiences of both the tutors and participants involved, concentrating specifically on those in Medicine and Health Sciences. Details about future international collaborations and development of the course are also provided.

Discovery of xanthine oxidase inhibitors from a complex mixture using an online, restricted-access material coupled with column-switching liquid chromatography with a diode-array detection system.

To find potential lead compounds for antigout drug discovery, an automated online, restricted-access material coupled with column-switching liquid chromatography with a diode-array detection (RAM-LC-DAD) system was developed for screening of xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitors and their affinity rankings in complex mixtures. The system was first evaluated by analyzing a mixture of six compounds with known inhibition of XO. Nonspecific binding to the denatured XO was investigated and used as the control for screening. Subsequently, the newly developed system was applied to screening of a natural product, Oroxylum indicum extract, and four compounds which could specifically interact with XO were found and identified as oroxin B, oroxin A, baicalin, and baicalein. The results were verified by a competitive binding test using the known competitive inhibitor allopurinol and were further validated by an inhibition assay in vitro. The online RAM-LC-DAD system developed was shown to be a simple and effective strategy for the rapid screening of bioactive compounds from a complex mixture.

Build your own social network laboratory with Social Lab: a tool for research in social media.

Social networking has surpassed e-mail and instant messaging as the dominant form of online communication (Meeker, Devitt, & Wu, 2010). Currently, all large social networks are proprietary, making it difficult to impossible for researchers to make changes to such networks for the purpose of study design and access to user-generated data from the networks. To address this issue, the authors have developed and present Social Lab, an Internet-based free and open-source social network software system available from http://www.sociallab.es . Having full availability of navigation and communication data in Social Lab allows researchers to investigate behavior in social media on an individual and group level. Automated artificial users ("bots") are available to the researcher to simulate and stimulate social networking situations. These bots respond dynamically to situations as they unfold. The bots can easily be configured with scripts and can be used to experimentally manipulate social networking situations in Social Lab. Examples for setting up, configuring, and using Social Lab as a tool for research in social media are provided.