Cross-domain targeted ontology subsets for annotation: the case of SNOMED CORE and RxNorm.

The benefits of using ontology subsets versus full ontologies are well-documented for many applications. In this study, we propose an efficient subset extraction approach for a domain using a biomedical ontology repository with mappings, a cross-ontology, and a source subset from a related domain. As a case study, we extracted a subset of drugs from RxNorm using the UMLS Metathesaurus, the NDF-RT cross-ontology, and the CORE problem list subset of SNOMED CT.

Family, community and clinic collaboration to treat overweight and obese children: Stanford GOALS-A randomized controlled trial of a three-year, multi-component, multi-level, multi-setting intervention.

Objective: To test the effects of a three-year, community-based, multi-component, multi-level, multi-setting (MMM) approach for treating overweight and obese children.

Design: Two-arm, parallel group, randomized controlled trial with measures at baseline, 12, 24, and 36 months after randomization.

Participants: Seven through eleven year old, overweight and obese children (BMI ≥ 85th percentile) and their parents/caregivers recruited from community locations in low-income, primarily Latino neighborhoods in Northern California.

An alternative mechanism for international health aid: evaluating a Global Social Protection Fund.

Several public health groups have called for the creation of a global fund for 'social protection'-a fund that produces the international equivalent of domestic tax collection and safety net systems to finance care for the ill and disabled and related health costs. All participating countries would pay into a global fund based on a metric of their ability to pay and withdraw from the common pool based on a metric of their need for funds. We assessed how alternative strategies and metrics by which to operate such a fund would affect its size and impact on health system financing.

Baseline reach and adoption characteristics in a randomized controlled trial of two weight loss interventions translated into primary care: a structured report of real-world applicability.

Background: Although the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) lifestyle intervention reduced type 2 diabetes incidence by 58% among high-risk adults at academic centers, it requires translation into typical primary care settings. Using baseline data from the Evaluation of Lifestyle Interventions to Treat Elevated Cardiometabolic Risk in Primary Care (E-LITE) randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the potential of its two DPP-based interventions to reach their target populations and be adopted into routine use.

Methods: Overweight/obese adults with increased cardiometabolic risk enrolled from one primary care clinic.

Helminthic infection and the risk of neurologic disease progression in HTLV-1.

Background: Infection with the human T-cell lymphotropic virus, type 1 (HTLV-1) has been associated with an increased Th1 response. Interestingly, a higher prevalence of helminthic coinfection has been observed among infected individuals, and subsequent modulation of the immune response typically associated with helminths may influence clinical outcomes among HTLV-1 coinfected individuals.

Objective: This study was conducted to elucidate the association between helminthic coinfection and the development of clinically characterized neurologic disease that occurs in HTLV-1 infection.

Presumptive diagnosis of severe HIV infection to determine the need for antiretroviral therapy in children less than 18 months of age.

Objective: To develop a new algorithm for the presumptive diagnosis of severe disease associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in children less than 18 months of age for the purpose of identifying children who require antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Methods: A conditional probability model was constructed and non-virologic parameters in various combinations were tested in a hypothetical cohort of 1000 children aged 6 weeks, 6 months and 12 months to assess the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of these algorithms for identifying children in need of ART. The modelled parameters consisted of clinical criteria, rapid HIV antibody testing and CD4+ T-lymphocyte (CD4) count.

Promoting culturally targeted chronic disease prevention research through an adapted participatory research approach: The Qassim-Stanford Universities project.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), similar to other countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, has been experiencing a recent rapid increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases and associated risk factors. To begin to take advantage of the chronic disease prevention and health promotion (CDPHP) knowledge available from other nations, researchers at a newly established University in the Qassim Province of the KSA have partnered with Stanford University in the United States of America. To ensure that CDPHP research and interventions are culturally relevant and appropriate, a participatory research approach has been adopted where local researchers are the target "community.

Enabling enrichment analysis with the Human Disease Ontology.

Advanced statistical methods used to analyze high-throughput data such as gene-expression assays result in long lists of "significant genes." One way to gain insight into the significance of altered expression levels is to determine whether Gene Ontology (GO) terms associated with a particular biological process, molecular function, or cellular component are over- or under-represented in the set of genes deemed significant. This process, referred to as enrichment analysis, profiles a gene set, and is widely used to make sense of the results of high-throughput experiments.

Postmenopausal hormone therapy and cardiovascular disease in women.

Aim: The belief in the hypothesis of cardiovascular benefit of hormone therapy (HT) in postmenopausal women was widespread; however, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) hormone trials found no evidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) benefit among women aged 50-79 with no prior CHD diagnosis and HT increased risk of stroke. This article reviews the literature regarding HT and CHD, with emphasis on the findings from the WHI trials.

Data Synthesis: Findings from observational studies and animal studies addressing biological plausibility that had been interpreted as evidence to support the use of HT were reviewed and findings from the trials of women with cardiovascular disease and the WHI hormone trials are summarized, with specific commentary on the issue of differential effects of HT in younger versus older women.

A gene-coexpression network for global discovery of conserved genetic modules.

To elucidate gene function on a global scale, we identified pairs of genes that are coexpressed over 3182 DNA microarrays from humans, flies, worms, and yeast. We found 22,163 such coexpression relationships, each of which has been conserved across evolution. This conservation implies that the coexpression of these gene pairs confers a selective advantage and therefore that these genes are functionally related.