Web decoration of Micrathena sexpinosa (Araneae: Araneidae): a frame-web-choice experiment with stingless bees

The function of silk web decorations in orb weaving spiders has been debated for decades. The most accepted hypothesized functions are that web decorations I) provide camouflage against predators, 2) are an advertisement for vertebrates to avoid web damage, or 3) increase the attraction of prey to the web. Most studies have focused on only a few genera, Argiope being the most common. In this study, I evaluated the prey attraction hypothesis of silk decorations for a species of a poorly studied genus in this topic, Micrathena sexpinosa Hahn 1822. I used a web-choice experiment in which I presented empty or web-bearing frames at the end of a tunnel to stingless bees (Tetragonisca angustula). This frame-choice experiment consisted of the following comparisons: decorated web vs. empty frame, decorated web vs. undecorated web, and undecorated web vs. empty frame. Webs with decoration intercepted significantly more bees than empty frames and undecorated webs. Therefore, the decorations of Micrathena sexpinosa might play a role in increasing foraging success.

Dépistage et intervention brève par internet pour la consommation d'alcool a risque: www.alcooquizz.ch [Web-based screening and brief intervention for unhealthy alcohol use: www.alcooquizz.ch].

Many individuals with unhealthy alcohol use have few or no contact with the health care system and are therefore unlikely to receive information or a brief intervention from a health care professional. Consequently, many Internet-based interventions have been developed. These interventions can reach a large population. We present in this report www.alcooquizz.ch, a website providing tailored feedback and information on alcohol use and its consequences. In six months and a half, more than 15000 individuals visited the website. It appropriately targets individuals with unhealthy alcohol use and users' satisfaction was high. Internet is a valuable option to provide health related information and secondary prevention interventions for unhealthy alcohol use.

Swiss EMBnet node web server.

EMBnet is a consortium of collaborating bioinformatics groups located mainly within Europe (http://www.embnet.org). Each member country is represented by a 'node', a group responsible for the maintenance of local services for their users (e.g. education, training, software, database distribution, technical support, helpdesk). Among these services a web portal with links and access to locally developed and maintained software is essential and different for each node. Our web portal targets biomedical scientists in Switzerland and elsewhere, offering them access to a collection of important sequence analysis tools mirrored from other sites or developed locally. We describe here the Swiss EMBnet node web site (http://www.ch.embnet.org), which presents a number of original services not available anywhere else.

European guidelines for antifungal management in leukemia and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients: summary of the ECIL 3--2009 update.

In 2005, several groups, including the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the European Organization for Treatment and Research of Cancer, the European Leukemia Net and the Immunocompromised Host Society created the European Conference on Infections in Leukemia (ECIL). The main goal of ECIL is to elaborate guidelines, or recommendations, for the management of infections in leukemia and stem cell transplant patients. The first sets of ECIL slides about the management of invasive fungal disease were made available on the web in 2006 and the papers were published in 2007. The third meeting of the group (ECIL 3) was held in September 2009 and the group updated its previous recommendations. The goal of this paper is to summarize the new proposals from ECIL 3, based on the results of studies published after the ECIL 2 meeting: (1) the prophylactic recommendations for hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients were formulated differently, by splitting the neutropenic and the GVHD phases and taking into account recent data on voriconazole; (2) micafungin was introduced as an alternative drug for empirical antifungal therapy; (3) although several studies were published on preemptive antifungal approaches in neutropenic patients, the group decided not to propose any recommendation, as the only randomized study comparing an empirical versus a preemptive approach showed a significant excess of fungal disease in the preemptive group.

Phenotip - a web-based instrument to help diagnosing fetal syndromes antenatally.

Prenatal ultrasound can often reliably distinguish fetal anatomic anomalies, particularly in the hands of an experienced ultrasonographer. Given the large number of existing syndromes and the significant overlap in prenatal findings, antenatal differentiation for syndrome diagnosis is difficult. We constructed a hierarchic tree of 1140 sonographic markers and submarkers, organized per organ system. Subsequently, a database of prenatally diagnosable syndromes was built. An internet-based search engine was then designed to search the syndrome database based on a single or multiple sonographic markers. Future developments will include a database with magnetic resonance imaging findings as well as further refinements in the search engine to allow prioritization based on incidence of syndromes and markers.

The M-Coffee web server: a meta-method for computing multiple sequence alignments by combining alternative alignment methods.

The M-Coffee server is a web server that makes it possible to compute multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) by running several MSA methods and combining their output into one single model. This allows the user to simultaneously run all his methods of choice without having to arbitrarily choose one of them. The MSA is delivered along with a local estimation of its consistency with the individual MSAs it was derived from. The computation of the consensus multiple alignment is carried out using a special mode of the T-Coffee package [Notredame, Higgins and Heringa (T-Coffee: a novel method for fast and accurate multiple sequence alignment. J. Mol. Biol. 2000; 302: 205-217); Wallace, O'Sullivan, Higgins and Notredame (M-Coffee: combining multiple sequence alignment methods with T-Coffee. Nucleic Acids Res. 2006; 34: 1692-1699)] Given a set of sequences (DNA or proteins) in FASTA format, M-Coffee delivers a multiple alignment in the most common formats. M-Coffee is a freeware open source package distributed under a GPL license and it is available either as a standalone package or as a web service from www.tcoffee.org.

Identifying the unmet health needs of patients with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism using a web-based needs assessment: implications for online interventions and peer-to-peer support.

BACKGROUND: Patients with rare diseases such as congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) are dispersed, often challenged to find specialized care and face other health disparities. The internet has the potential to reach a wide audience of rare disease patients and can help connect patients and specialists. Therefore, this study aimed to: (i) determine if web-based platforms could be effectively used to conduct an online needs assessment of dispersed CHH patients; (ii) identify the unmet health and informational needs of CHH patients and (iii) assess patient acceptability regarding patient-centered, web-based interventions to bridge shortfalls in care. METHODS: A sequential mixed-methods design was used: first, an online survey was conducted to evaluate health promoting behavior and identify unmet health and informational needs of CHH men. Subsequently, patient focus groups were held to explore specific patient-identified targets for care and to examine the acceptability of possible online interventions. Descriptive statistics and thematic qualitative analyses were used. RESULTS: 105 male participants completed the online survey (mean age 37 ± 11, range 19-66 years) representing a spectrum of patients across a broad socioeconomic range and all but one subject had adequate healthcare literacy. The survey revealed periods of non-adherence to treatment (34/93, 37%) and gaps in healthcare (36/87, 41%) exceeding one year. Patient focus groups identified lasting psychological effects related to feelings of isolation, shame and body-image concerns. Survey respondents were active internet users, nearly all had sought CHH information online (101/105, 96%), and they rated the internet, healthcare providers, and online community as equally important CHH information sources. Focus group participants were overwhelmingly positive regarding online interventions/support with links to reach expert healthcare providers and for peer-to-peer support. CONCLUSION: The web-based needs assessment was an effective way to reach dispersed CHH patients. These individuals often have long gaps in care and struggle with the psychosocial sequelae of CHH. They are highly motivated internet users seeking information and tapping into online communities and are receptive to novel web-based interventions addressing their unmet needs.

T-Coffee: a web server for the multiple sequence alignment of protein and RNA sequences using structural information and homology extension.

This article introduces a new interface for T-Coffee, a consistency-based multiple sequence alignment program. This interface provides an easy and intuitive access to the most popular functionality of the package. These include the default T-Coffee mode for protein and nucleic acid sequences, the M-Coffee mode that allows combining the output of any other aligners, and template-based modes of T-Coffee that deliver high accuracy alignments while using structural or homology derived templates. These three available template modes are Expresso for the alignment of protein with a known 3D-Structure, R-Coffee to align RNA sequences with conserved secondary structures and PSI-Coffee to accurately align distantly related sequences using homology extension. The new server benefits from recent improvements of the T-Coffee algorithm and can align up to 150 sequences as long as 10,000 residues and is available from both http://www.tcoffee.org and its main mirror http://tcoffee.crg.cat.

Quality of web-based information on bipolar disorder

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate web-based information on bipolar disorder and to assess particular content quality indicators. METHODS: Two keywords, "bipolar disorder" and "manic depressive illness" were entered into popular World Wide Web search engines. Websites were assessed with a standardized proforma designed to rate sites on the basis of accountability, presentation, interactivity, readability and content quality. "Health on the Net" (HON) quality label, and DISCERN scale scores were used to verify their efficiency as quality indicators. RESULTS: Of the 80 websites identified, 34 were included. Based on outcome measures, the content quality of the sites turned-out to be good. Content quality of web sites dealing with bipolar disorder is significantly explained by readability, accountability and interactivity as well as a global score. CONCLUSIONS: The overall content quality of the studied bipolar disorder websites is good.

Evaluation de la qualité des sites internet francophones traitant de la dépendance à l'alcool [Assessing the quality of French language web sites pertaining to alcohol dependency]

The objective of this article is to systematically assess the quality of web-based information in French language on the alcohol dependence. The authors analysed, using a standardised pro forma, the 20 most highly ranked pages identified by 3 common internet search engines using 2 keywords. Results show that a total of 45 sites were analysed. The authors conclude that the overall quality of the sites was relatively poor, especially for the description of possible treatments, however with a wide variability. Content quality was not correlated with other aspects of quality such as interactivity, aesthetic or accountability.