Search Results

This Introduction discusses the reasons for writing this book and problems encountered. It mentions how the database of archaeological sites and bird records and the EndNote database of relevant literature came about, the imformation gathered from both are summarized in the book.

Present trends in the analytical characterization of cultural heritage materials are briefly reviewed, including the use of microbeams, portable instrumentation, non-invasive investigations, and standardization of the results. Some of the persisting problems and pitfalls are discussed in the general frame of cultural heritage investigations. Digital databases and virtual reality are a growing area that ought to make life easier for cultural heritage management and research, provided that academic curricula keep up with the pace of current developments.

This chapter discusses the concept of a database and its specific application to crystallography. Crystallographic databases generally contain bibliographic and experimental information, which in most cases includes the positions of atoms in the crystal structure together with other data allowing the structure to be represented graphically, analysed geometrically, and manipulated. Computer searches may be carried out based on any of the information stored, if the associated software provides the relevant functionality; these may include matching particular structural fragments based on chemical connectivity, as well as individual experimental and data items. Results may then be subjected to detailed statistical analysis or other treatment. Some possible uses are described. The crystallographic databases available are the Cambridge Structural Database, the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database, CrystMet for metals and related materials, and the Protein Data Bank and associated nucleobase database.

This chapter explicates the Domain Name System and the governance mechanisms attached to it. The first part of the chapter introduces the basic elements of the system. The second part of the chapter turns firstly to governance issues concerning ‘WHOIS’ databases, and thereafter it disuptes resolution processes in relation to domain names, focusing on the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The third part of the chapter provides an overview of the principal differentiating features of national regimes for allocating domain names under country-code top-level domains. Building on this overview, the final part of the chapter elaborates the domain name allocation regimes for .no and .uk respectively, examining particularly the roles played by Norid (the organization primarily responsible for managing the .no namespace) and Nominet (the equivalent organization in relation to .uk).

Advances in imaging technologies provide today an abundance of qualitatively diverse brain data sets with the purpose to guide the placement of subdural electrodes as a pre-requisite for epilepsy surgery. Current efforts focus on the development of integrative computational frameworks that allow quantitative assessment of relationships in anatomical and functional domains between complementing modalities. It is believed that such an approach is not simply additive but possesses an amplifying effect, as the information entailed in one modality is used to both enhance and re-interpret information derived from complementing modalities. By taking advantage of these advanced data integration schemes, quantitative results are subsequently combined into data structures that provide a consistent framework for the application of advanced data mining techniques. Such multimodality database structures hold promise of providing new insights into the formation, identification and maturation of epileptic foci and might eventually lead to new approaches in epilepsy surgery that are likely to improve clinical management of patients suffering from intractable epilepsy.

This chapter surveys state and federal database legislation. It shows that previous studies have overlooked or understated the restrictions on medical or behavioral genetics research with convicted offender samples. It identifies and assesses some of the bioethical and social arguments against allowing such research. These include concerns about the possible misuse of or misunderstandings about the fruits of the research and the lack of consent on the part of the “donors” of DNA samples. This issue also raises the related policy issue of whether the DNA samples should be retained at all—as well as the research value of DNA databases and repositories. It argues that an absolute prohibition on behavioral genetics research is not necessary. Instead, it proposes that if the samples are to be retained (as they currently are), then an independent body with appropriate expertise should evaluate proposals for research projects on a case-by-case basis.

This chapter presents an overview of evolving methods for tracking and compiling information on genetic factors in disease. It discusses bioinformatics, the Human Genome Epidemiology Network (HuGENet), and genomic databases. Building the knowledge base in human genome epidemiology involves organizing, sharing, mining, interpreting, and evaluating the results of genomic research from a population perspective. This effort faces many technical, scientific, and social challenges, which can be met only by unprecedented levels of interaction across multiple levels of the research enterprise, and by cooperation among individual scientists, research groups, institutions, and agencies.

Since the appearance in 1975 of John Jory's Key Word in Context index to volume VI of CIL, computer applications and databases have had a major influence on epigraphic studies. While an initial optimism diminished somewhat once the scale of the task in their creation became apparent, a great deal has been achieved under three headings: three major databases are now established within the federal organisation Electronic Archive of Greek and Roman Epigraphy, the Heidelberg Datenbank (post CIL texts), for non-Christian Rome and for Christian Rome; imaging using x-ray fluorescence, text mapping and computer-aided reconstructions of incomplete texts; and the editing of texts by EpiDoc, with Extensible Markup Language, Text Encoding Initiative and Unicode, successfully applied to the Vindolanda Writing Tablets and the Aphrodisias Inscriptions.

Efforts to identify the genes that modulate the risk for schizophrenia (SZ) have met with only limited success. This is at least in part due to problems that aggravate epidemiologic research in many psychiatric diseases, for example, a considerable degree of phenotypic variability and diagnostic uncertainty, the lack of extended pedigrees with Mendelian inheritance, and the absence of definitive disease-specific neuropathological features or biomarkers. The identification of susceptibility genes is further complicated by gene—gene interactions that are difficult to predict and model, and a likely substantial but difficult to detect, environmental component. Notwithstanding these challenges, several chromosomal regions thought to harbor SZ genes have been identified via whole genome linkage analyses, a few overlapping across different samples. This chapter focuses on the “SzGene” database developed by the Schizophrenia Research Forum, which systematically collects, summarizes, and meta-analyzes all genetic association studies published in the field of SZ, including genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

Large-scale archives of primary neuroimaging data of older populations are an essential element for contemporary research into normal and disease processes associated with aging. In this chapter, we describe the role of digital atlases of the human brain in aging research and how these resources are created, point to several such formal atlases that may be used for neuroimage data processing, as well as discuss why atlases require periodic revision. We also discuss neuroimaging data repositories related specifically to aging and to age-related disease, the role of databases in making inferences concerning functional activation, and their potential for data mining, meta-analysis, and model construction.

This chapter presents the database for the Seattle Longitudinal Study and details the study participants and the measurement battery. The chapter also discusses, in addition to the cognitive ability measures, the neuropsychological assessment battery; measures of cognitive style; everyday problem solving; self-reported cognitive change; lifestyles, health status, health behaviors, and the subjective environment; as well as measures of personality traits and attitudes.

We are in one of the most exciting periods in the evolution of health care. Never before have so many variables (that directly impact the basis of patient care) simultaneously been in transition. This confluence of changes, including technology, policy, legislation and consumer attitudes, involves and impacts all major health care stakeholder groups. Personalized Medicine is at the core of change and is the utilization of technology to deliver better health care outcomes. It places the consumer at the center, recognizing that individual needs differ and it addresses the full spectrum of personal needs, from disability to well being, and prevention. Health care is the latest in a long line of industries to be transformed by the digital wave. The turning point has already occurred and as seen from the previous waves the extent of change will be transformative. Solutions that fill a consumer need will need to have solid, reproducible effects, be easy to use, and cost effective. This will also require new business case models to ensure ongoing resourcing of marker discovery and implementation of the personalization of the “continuum of care.”

This chapter describes first the process and problems associated with the production of an electronic database incorporating the texts of, some of the chants of, and information about 1200 late medieval liturgical Offices; and second the computer files and programs written to analyze and search the poetry and chants. These data are associated with the publications abstracted as RILM 2337 and 578. The results of several analyses of melodic motives are presented and discussed. Final comments relate in general to the use of computer for humanistic data processing.

One of the results of extensive research on Northern European tonaries was a database of this material. This database is similar to CANTUS, the large and growing on-line database for Gregorian chant that contains indexes of all the chants in selected MSS and early printed sources of the Divine Office. Using both databases, this chapter compares modal assignments of certain antiphons. The results of these comparisons have implications for the study of both tonaries and antiphoners, two very different kinds of documents that include common information concerning chant melodies. This pilot study suggests that further comparisons hold great promise.

This chapter focuses on genetic databases, specifically their use as a regulatory instrument. It begins by considering forensic collections, entertaining the thought that in a community of rights, it might be plausible to argue for a comprehensive population-wide DNA database. The chapter then turns to collections for public health purposes. If the state is justified in compelling the supply of DNA samples for forensic purposes, there might seem to be a case for compelling participation in public health biobanking projects. It argues that agents who aspire to moral community need to be particularly mindful of the corrosive impact of a (bio)technological approach to social control whether concerned with the prevention of crime or the promotion of public health. If such an approach simply reduces the risks to which agents are exposed, all well and good; but if the effect is to corrode the conditions that underlie the very project of moral community itself, then this is a risk which no community of rights can afford to ignore and which it surely will not wish to run.

Chapter 4 showed examples of networks that have information stored at their vertices: the World Wide Web, citation networks, peer-to-peer networks, and so forth. These networks can store large amounts of data but those data would be virtually useless without some way of searching through them for particular items. So important is it to be able to perform fast and accurate searches that the companies that provide the most popular search services are now some of the largest in their respective industries — Google, Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis — and constitute multibillion dollar international operations. This chapter examines some of the network issues involved in efficient searching and some implications of search ideas for the structure and behaviour of networks. Exercises are provided at the end of the chapter.

The cost, complexity, and risk of selection bias often associated with primary data collection has led to the use of disease registries and databases as an alternative data source for studies of many epidemiological and clinical questions. Medical registries and administrative databases are attractive options. They often contain information on large study populations, and they can provide information on exposures, disease outcomes, and some potential confounding factors for subjects in those populations. Thus medical databases can be very useful for the efficient study of etiologic associations in large populations, and for the evaluation of utilization, effectiveness and safety of medical interventions in clinical settings. This chapter presents an approach for teaching use of routine medical databases covering teaching objectives, teaching method and format, and assessing students' achievements.