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Introduction The advancement of the Army's National Emergency Tele-Critical Care Network (NETCCN) and planned evolution to an Intelligent Medical System rest on a digital transformation characterized by the application of analytic rigor anchored and machine learning. The goal is an enduring capability for telecritical care in support of the Nation's warfighters and, more broadly, for emergency response, crisis management, and mass casualty situations as the number and intensity of disasters increase nationwide. That said, technology alone is unlikely to solve the most pressing issues in operational medicine and combat casualty care. Materials and Methods A total performance system (TPS) creates opportunities to address vulnerabilities and overcome barriers to success. As applied during the NETCCN project, the TPS captures the best performance-centric information and know-how, increasing the potential to save lives, improve readiness, and accomplish missions. Results The purpose of this project was to apply a performance-based readiness model to aid in the evaluation of Army telehealth technologies. Through various user-facing surveys, polls, and reporting techniques, the project aimed to measure the perceived value of telehealth technologies within a sample of the project team member population. By providing a detailed approach to the collection of lessons learned, researchers were able to determine the importance of information and methods versus a focus on technology alone. The use of an emoji-based feedback assessment indicated that most lessons learned were helpful to the project team. Conclusions Through the NETCCN TPS, we have been able to address product-related measures, knowledge of product efficacy, project metrics, and many implementation considerations that can be further investigated by setting and engagement type. Through the Technology in Disaster Environments learning accelerator, it was possible to rapidly acquire, process, organize, and disseminate best practices and learnings in near real time, providing a critical feedback and improvement loop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Netpredictor is an R package for prediction of missing links in any given unipartite or bipartite network. The package provides utilities to compute missing links in a bipartite and well as unipartite networks using Random Walk with Restart and Network inference algorithm and a combination of both. The package also allows computation of Bipartite network properties, visualization of communities for two different sets of nodes, and calculation of significant interactions between two sets of nodes using permutation based testing. The application can also be used to search for top-K shortest paths between interactome and use enrichment analysis for disease, pathway and ontology. The R standalone package (including detailed introductory vignettes) and associated R Shiny web application is available under the GPL-2 Open Source license and is freely available to download. Results: We compared different algorithms performance in different small datasets and found random walk supersedes rest of the algorithms. The package is developed to perform network based prediction of unipartite and bipartite networks and use the results to understand the functionality of proteins in an interactome using enrichment analysis. Conclusion: The rapid application development envrionment like shiny, helps non programmers to develop fast rich visualization apps and we beleieve it would continue to grow in future with further enhancements. We plan to update our algorithms in the package in near future and help scientist to analyse data in a much streamlined fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Pharmacy Technician Forum (PTF) Executive Committee member Serena Spurlock and the opportunities available to technicians like her in the U.S. Also cited are her efforts to educate technicians about the potentials in the field of pharmacy, and her role as senior leader of pharmacy operations at Medly Pharmacy in Dallas, Texas.

The article features Aaron Gilbreath and his accomplishments as member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists' (ASHP) Pharmacy Technician Forum (PTF) Executive Committee. Also cited are the differences in state requirements in the employment of pharmacy technicians in the U.S., and the need to create national standards for technicians to reach their full potential.

Background: Highly chemically similar drugs usually possess similar biological activities, but sometimes, small changes in chemistry can result in a large difference in biological effects. Chemically similar drug pairs that show extreme deviations in activity represent distinctive drug interactions having important implications. These associations between chemical and biological similarity are studied as discontinuities in activity landscapes. Particularly, activity cliffs are quantified by the drop in similar activity of chemically similar drugs. In this paper, we construct a landscape using a large drug-target network and consider the rises in similarity and variation in activity along the chemical space. Detailed analysis of structure and activity gives a rigorous quantification of distinctive pairs and the probability of their occurrence. Results: We analyze pairwise similarity (s) and variation (d) in activity of drugs on proteins. Interactions between drugs are quantified by considering pairwise s and d weights jointly with corresponding chemical similarity (c) weights. Similarity and variation in activity are measured as the number of common and uncommon targets of two drugs respectively. Distinctive interactions occur between drugs having high c and above (below) average d (s). Computation of predicted probability of distinctiveness employs joint probability of c, s and of c, d assuming independence of structure and activity. Predictions conform with the observations at different levels of distinctiveness. Results are validated on the data used and another drug ensemble. In the landscape, while s and d decrease as c increases, d maintains value more than s. c ϵ [0.3, 0.64] is the transitional region where rises in d are significantly greater than drops in s. It is fascinating that distinctive interactions filtered with high d and low s are different in nature. It is crucial that high c interactions are more probable of having above average d than s. Identification of distinctive interactions is better with high d than low s. These interactions belong to diverse classes. d is greatest between drugs and analogs prepared for treatment of same class of ailments but with different therapeutic specifications. In contrast, analogs having low s would treat ailments from distinct classes. Conclusions: Intermittent spikes in d along the axis of c represent canyons in the activity landscape. This new representation accounts for distinctiveness through relative rises in s and d. It provides a mathematical basis for predicting the probability of occurrence of distinctiveness. It identifies the drug pairs at varying levels of distinctiveness and non-distinctiveness. The predicted probability formula is validated even if data approximately satisfy the conditions of its construction. Also, the postulated independence of structure and activity is of little significance to the overall assessment. The difference in distinctive interactions obtained by s and d highlights the importance of studying both of them, and reveals how the choice of measurement can affect the interpretation. The methods in this paper can be used to interpret whether or not drug interactions are distinctive and the probability of their occurrence. Practitioners and researchers can rely on this identification for quantitative modeling and assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides insights from Glen Gard, chairperson and inaugural member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Pharmacy Technician Forum (PTF) Executive Committee, on the needs of pharmacy technicians. Topics mentioned include resources to help technicians build a case for the creation of advanced roles and career ladders within their organizations, standardization of educational and accreditation requirements, and the complexity of making changes in pharmacy.

The article presents an interview with Jean Campbell, a lead IV pharmacy technician at Northwestern Medicine-Huntley Hospital in Huntley, Illinois. Among the issues she discussed include how she started her career as a pharmacy technician, the United States Pharmacopeia general chapter 797 as a huge win for patient safety, and the benefits she gained from joining the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

The article features Tyler Darcy, a pharmacy technician and manager of pharmacy training and development at Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts. Topics discussed include his career background, an advanced function that Darcy sees pharmacy technicians increasingly taking on, and importance of improving job satisfaction for all pharmacy technicians according to Darcy.

Effective integration of data andlaboratory informatics toolspromises the ability for organizations to make better informed decisionsabout resource allocation during the drug discovery and developmentprocess, and for more informed decisions to be made with respect tothe market opportunity for compounds. There are technologies on thehorizon that could dramatically change how informatics organizationsdesign, develop, deliver, and support applications and data infrastructuresto deliver maximum value to drug discovery organizations. There arenumerous benefits of integrating laboratory informatics tools likeLaboratory Information Management System (LIMS), Chromatographic DataSystems (CDS), Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELN), and AnalyticalInstrumentation and Scientific Data Management Systems (SDMS) fordrug discovery processes, but there is no well-established path foreffective integration of these tools. We propose in this article fournew integration models for effective integration of laboratory informaticstools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Associative classification mining (ACM) can be used to provide predictive models with high accuracy as well as interpretability. However, traditional ACM ignores the difference of significances among the features used for mining. Although weighted associative classification mining (WACM) addresses this issue by assigning different weights to features, most implementations can only be utilized when pre-assigned weights are available. In this paper, we propose a link-based approach to automatically derive weight information from a dataset using link-based models which treat the dataset as a bipartite model. By combining this link-based feature weighting method with a traditional ACM method-classification based on associations (CBA), a Link-based Associative Classifier (LAC) is developed. We then demonstrate the application of LAC to biomedical datasets for association discovery between chemical compounds and bioactivities or diseases. The results indicate that the novel link-based weighting method is comparable to support vector machine (SVM) and RELIEF method, and is capable of capturing significant features. Additionally, LAC is shown to produce models with high accuracies and discover interesting associations which may otherwise remain unrevealed by traditional ACM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systems chemical biology, the integration of chemistry, biology and computation to generate understanding about the way small molecules affect biological systems as a whole, as well as related fields such as chemogenomics, are central to emerging new paradigms of drug discovery such as drug repurposing and personalized medicine. Recent Semantic Web technologies such as RDF and SPARQL are technical enablers of systems chemical biology, facilitating the deployment of advanced algorithms for searching and mining large integrated datasets. In this paper, we aim to demonstrate how these technologies together can change the way that drug discovery is accomplished. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Relating chemical features to bioactivities is critical in molecular design and is used extensively in the lead discovery and optimization process. A variety of techniques from statistics, data mining and machine learning have been applied to this process. In this study, we utilize a collection of methods, called associative classification mining (ACM), which are popular in the data mining community, but so far have not been applied widely in cheminformatics. More specifically, classification based on predictive association rules (CPAR), classification based on multiple association rules (CMAR) and classification based on association rules (CBA) are employed on three datasets using various descriptor sets. Experimental evaluations on anti-tuberculosis (antiTB), mutagenicity and hERG (the human Ether-a-go-go-Related Gene) blocker datasets show that these three methods are computationally scalable and appropriate for high speed mining. Additionally, they provide comparable accuracy and efficiency to the commonly used Bayesian and support vector machines (SVM) methods, and produce highly interpretable models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Predictive models are widely used in computer-aided drug discovery, particularly for identifying potentially biologically active molecules based on training sets of compounds with known activity or inactivity. The use of these models (amongst others) has enabled “virtual screens” to be used to identify compounds in large data sets that are predicted to be active, and which would thus be good candidates for experimental testing. The PubChem BioAssay database contains an increasing amount of experimental data from biological screens that has the potential to be used to train predictive models for a wide range of assays and targets, yet there has been little work carried out on using this data to build models. In this paper, we take an initial look at this by investigating the quality of naive Bayesian predictive models built using BioAssay data, and find that overall the predictive quality of such models is good, indicating that they could have utility in virtual screening. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the ahistorical theory of Alain Badiou. It explores the book "Being and Event" of Badiou wherein he proposes the ontological concept of radically independent political action. Moreover, it examines the issues on the historical account of Badiou such as the circularity of the relation between the subject and the event. The author asserts that it is possible to construct an alternative account of political action by introducing the social dimensions of evental recurrence.

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the efficacy of beta-blockers (BBs) for primary prevention of heart failure (HF) in patients with hypertension. Background: The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association staging for HF classifies patients with hypertension as stage A HF, for which BBs are a treatment option. However, the evidence to support this is unknown. Methods: We conducted a MEDLINE/EMBASE/CENTRAL search of randomized controlled trials that evaluated BB as first-line therapy for hypertension with follow-up for at least 1 year and with data on new-onset HF. The primary outcome was new-onset HF. Secondary outcomes were all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Results: Among the 12 randomized controlled trials, which evaluated 112,177 patients with hypertension, BBs reduced blood pressure by 12.6/6.1 mm Hg when compared with placebo, resulting in a 23% (trend) reduction in HF risk (p = 0.055). When compared with other agents, the antihypertensive efficacy of BBs was comparable, which resulted in similar but no incremental benefit for HF risk reduction in the overall cohort (risk ratio: 1.00; 95% confidence interval: 0.92 to 1.08), in the elderly (≥60 years) or in the young (<60 years). Analyses of secondary outcomes showed that BBs confirmed similar but no incremental benefit for the outcomes of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and myocardial infarction but increased stroke risk by 19% in the elderly. Conclusions: In hypertensive patients, primary prevention of HF is strongly dependent on blood pressure reduction. When compared with other antihypertensive agents, there was similar but no incremental benefit of BBs for the prevention of HF. However, given the increased risk of stroke in the elderly, BBs should not be considered as first-line agents for prevention of HF. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: CRANKITE is a suite of programs for simulating backbone conformations of polypeptides and proteins. The core of the suite is an efficient Metropolis Monte Carlo sampler of backbone conformations in continuous three-dimensional space in atomic details. Methods: In contrast to other programs relying on local Metropolis moves in the space of dihedral angles, our sampler utilizes local crankshaft rotations of rigid peptide bonds in Cartesian space. Results: The sampler allows fast simulation and analysis of secondary structure formation and conformational changes for proteins of average length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article profiles Zachary Tolman as the new member of Pharmacy Technician Forum (PTF) Executive Committee. It offers a brief overview of his career as a call center agent, technician at a retail chain pharmacy and medication access coordinator at Huntsman Cancer Hospital's retail pharmacy where advocates to help patients get medications and information on insurance reimbursement. He also believes that the committee offers pharmacy technicians with career advancement opportunities.

The article presents an interview with JoAnne Myhre, member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). Among the issues she discussed include her affinity for the field of pharmacy which started when she was a 16-year-old clerk at a corner drugstore, the skills she was able build by moving through the practice, and her job as a drug diversion program manager of a health system.

The article highlights the career and achievements of Chadi Abbas, member of the Pharmacy Technician Forum Executive Committee. Topics mentioned include the pharmacy technician training curriculum co-developed by Abbas for the University of Michigan, thoughts from Abbas about the advancement of the pharmacy technician field, and his plan to develop pharmacy technician continuing education programming for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Chemoinformatics is rapidly becoming a core part of drug design informatics, yet the educational opportunities in the field are currently limited. This article reviews the academic and commercial educational programs that are available in chemoinformatics, considers the current challenges and takes a look at emerging trends, such as distance education and intensive short courses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Current structural genomics projects are being driven by two main goals; to produce a representative set of protein folds that could be used as templates for comparative modeling purposes, and to provide insight into the function of the currently unannotated protein sequences. Such projects may reveal that a newly determined protein structure shares structural similarity with a previously observed structure or that it is a novel fold. The manner in which structure can be used to suggest the function of a protein will depend on the number and diversity of homologous sequences and the extent to which these sequences are functionally characterized. Method and results: Using sequence searching methods, we analyzed structural genomics target sequences to ascertain if they were members of functionally characterized protein families, protein families of unknown function, or orphan sequences. This analysis provided an indication of what could be expected to emerge from structural genomics projects. Matches were found to approximately 25% of the current functionally unannotated protein families in the PFAM database (protein families database of alignments and hidden Markov models). The 16% of strict orphan sequences will be the most problematic if their structures reveal novel folds. However, out of the remaining target sequences that match families whose members are largely of unknown function, 28% are particularly interesting in that they are part of protein families with considerable sequence diversity. Conclusion:The determination of a new structure of a member of these families is likely to offer considerable insight into possible functional roles of these proteins even if it is a new fold. Mapping the sequence conservation onto the structure may reveal functionally important residues for further study by experimental methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WILD, D.M.,et al.:Pacemakers and Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators: Device Longevity is more Important than Smaller Size: The Patient's Viewpoint. The size of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) has been diminishing progressively. If two devices are otherwise identical in components, features and technology, the one with a larger battery should have a longer service life. Therefore, patients who receive smaller devices may require more frequent surgery to replace the devices. It is uncertain whether this tradeoff for smaller size is desired by patients. We surveyed 156 patients to determine whether patients prefer a larger, longer-lasting device, or a smaller device that is less noticeable but requires more frequent surgery. The effects of subgroups were evaluated; these included body habitus, age, gender, and patients seen at time of pulse generator replacement (PGR), initial implant, or follow-up. Among 156 patients surveyed, 151 expressed a preference. Of these, 90.1% preferred the larger device and 9.9% the smaller device (P<0.0001). Among thin patients, 79.5% preferred a larger device. Ninety percent of males and 89.2% of females selected the larger device. Among younger patients (≤72 years), 89.6% preferred the larger device, as did 90.5% of older patients (>72 years). Of patients undergoing PGR or initial implants, 95% favored the larger device, as did 86% of patients presenting for follow-up. The vast majority of patients prefer a larger device to reduce the number of potential replacement operations. This preference crosses the spectrum of those with a previously implanted device, those undergoing initial implants, those returning for routine follow-up, and patients of various ages, gender, and habitus.(PACE 2004; 27:1526–1529) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product design typically precedes factory implementation and requires an understanding of factory logistics to achieve optimized design for manufacturing. We developed a spreadsheet-based model of a future factory at the very earliest stages of design of an advanced range of medical products. The algorithms have since been applied to a wide range of product designs and manufacturing operations. The model was used to optimize product design for manufacturability, develop cost-effective manufacturing processes, and design and optimize the new factory. The model incorporates cost, inventory, and factory responsiveness, and can be applied to find the optimum solution between cost and cycle time reduction. Design changes initiated as a result of analysis using the model reduced subsequent manufacturing costs significantly and reduced the launch program by two years, because confidence in the model justified the commissioning of full-scale manufacturing equipment when the product was still only at the concept stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which demonstrates the invariance during the crankshaft or pivotal rotations and point out the main error in Betamcourt's Monte Carlo polypeptide sampling procedure. Unit vectors u and v are introduced that define orientation bonds N-Cα and Cα-C, respectively, and introduced unit vectors n' and n normal to peptide bond planes adjacent to the same alpha-carbon Cα. It is concluded that Betamcourt's unnecessary correction has resulted error.

The article reports on insights from Glen Gard, vice chairperson and inaugural/returning member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Pharmacy Technician Forum Executive Committee, on working as a pharmacy technician. Topics mentioned include Gard's managerial role in the corporate clinical department at healthcare company Option Care Health, his thoughts about travel as a rarity for pharmacy technicians, and his views on advancement of the pharmacy technician field.

The article provides insights from Tara McNulty, chairman of the Pharmacy Technician Forum (PTF), on the challenges facing pharmacy technicians and the field as a whole. Topics mentioned include McNulty's thoughts about teaching, the evolution of technician education, training, and certification, and the need for standardized educational requirements across the U.S.

The article highlights the career and accomplishments of Margarita Fedorova, inaugural member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists' (ASHP) Pharmacy Technician Forum (PTF) Executive Committee. Topics mentioned include her duties at the PTF Executive Committee, her efforts to redesign the organization's technician practice model, and her urge for pharmacy technicians to take advantage of the PTF and ASHP's resources.

The article highlights the career and accomplishments of Barbara Hintzen, pharmacy program manager at North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. Topics mentioned include 340B Drug Pricing Program services and purchasing and medication management systems supervised by Hintzen, her thoughts on the expansion of pharmacy technician practice, and her involvement in state and national professional pharmacy organizations.

The article features American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Pharmacy Technician Forum Executive Committee member Cindy Jeter, who has been working in the pharmacy sector for 17 years. Also cited are her current job as lead professional services consultant at RxO by McKesson, her responsibilities at her position like managing special projects, as well as her plan to promote mentorship at ASHP.

The article acknowledges Rafael Roman, training coordinator of technical operations at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, for his role as an influencer for pharmacy technicians. Topics discussed include background of his career in retail setting, his work as an inpatient pharmacy technician at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, and the importance of moving outside the comfort zone to succeed according to Roman.