A guide to sparkology: the taxonomy of elementary cellular Ca2+ signaling events

Since the discovery of the Ca(2+) spark as an elementary event of cellular Ca(2+) signaling almost 15 years ago, the family of newly described Ca(2+) signal entities has been ever growing. While scientists working in Ca(2+) signaling may have maintained an overview over the specifics of this nomenclature, those outside the field often make the complaint that they feel hopelessly lost. With the present review we collect and summarize systematic information on the many Ca(2+) signaling events described in a variety of tissues and cells, and we emphasize why and how each of them has its own importance. Most of these signals are taking place in the cytosol of the respective cells, but several events have been recorded from intracellular organelles as well, where they may serve their own specific functions. Finally, we also try to convey an integrated view as to why cellular microdomain signaling is of fundamental biological importance.

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius in the dog: taxonomy, diagnostics, ecology, epidemiology and pathogenicity

The dog is the natural host of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius. Many research efforts are currently being undertaken to expand our knowledge and understanding of this important canine commensal and opportunistic pathogen. The objective of this review is to summarize the current knowledge of the species, including the latest research outcomes, with emphasis on taxonomy, diagnostics, ecology, epidemiology and pathogenicity. Despite the important taxonomic changes that have occurred over the past few years, the risk of misidentification in canine specimens is low and does not have serious consequences for clinical practice. Staphylococcus pseudintermedius carriage in the dog is more frequent and genetically heterogeneous compared with that of Staphylococcus aureus in man. It appears that these staphylococcal species have evolved separately through adaptation to their respective natural hosts and differ with regard to various aspects concerning ecology, population structure and evolution of antibiotic resistance. Further understanding of the ecology and epidemiology of S. pseudintermedius is hampered by the lack of a standard method for rapid and discriminatory typing and by the limited data available on longitudinal carriage and population structure of meticillin-susceptible strains. With regard to pathogenicity, it is only now that we are starting to explore the virulence potential of S. pseudintermedius based on genomic and proteomic approaches, and more research is needed to assess the importance of individual virulence factors and the possible existence of hypervirulent strains.

Toward a cognitive taxonomy of medical errors.

One critical step in addressing and resolving the problems associated with human errors is the development of a cognitive taxonomy of such errors. In the case of errors, such a taxonomy may be developed (1) to categorize all types of errors along cognitive dimensions, (2) to associate each type of error with a specific underlying cognitive mechanism, (3) to explain why, and even predict when and where, a specific error will occur, and (4) to generate intervention strategies for each type of error. Based on Reason's (1992) definition of human errors and Norman's (1986) cognitive theory of human action, we have developed a preliminary action-based cognitive taxonomy of errors that largely satisfies these four criteria in the domain of medicine. We discuss initial steps for applying this taxonomy to develop an online medical error reporting system that not only categorizes errors but also identifies problems and generates solutions.

Evaluating a medical error taxonomy

Healthcare has been slow in using human factors principles to reduce medical errors. The Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) recognizes that a lack of attention to human factors during product development may lead to errors that have the potential for patient injury, or even death. In response to the need for reducing medication errors, the National Coordinating Council for Medication Errors Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP) released the NCC MERP taxonomy that provides a standard language for reporting medication errors. This project maps the NCC MERP taxonomy of medication error to MedWatch medical errors involving infusion pumps. Of particular interest are human factors associated with medical device errors. The NCC MERP taxonomy of medication errors is limited in mapping information from MEDWATCH because of the focus on the medical device and the format of reporting.

Taxonomy development and knowledge representation of nurses' personal cognitive artifacts.

Nurses prepare knowledge representations, or summaries of patient clinical data, each shift. These knowledge representations serve multiple purposes, including support of working memory, workload organization and prioritization, critical thinking, and reflection. This summary is integral to internal knowledge representations, working memory, and decision-making. Study of this nurse knowledge representation resulted in development of a taxonomy of knowledge representations necessary to nursing practice.This paper describes the methods used to elicit the knowledge representations and structures necessary for the work of clinical nurses, described the development of a taxonomy of this knowledge representation, and discusses translation of this methodology to the cognitive artifacts of other disciplines. Understanding the development and purpose of practitioner's knowledge representations provides important direction to informaticists seeking to create information technology alternatives. The outcome of this paper is to suggest a process template for transition of cognitive artifacts to an information system.

Towards a taxonomy of common factors in psychotherapy-results of an expert survey

BACKGROUND: How change comes about is hotly debated in psychotherapy research. One camp considers 'non-specific' or 'common factors', shared by different therapy approaches, as essential, whereas researchers of the other camp consider specific techniques as the essential ingredients of change. This controversy, however, suffers from unclear terminology and logical inconsistencies. The Taxonomy Project therefore aims at contributing to the definition and conceptualization of common factors of psychotherapy by analyzing their differential associations to standard techniques. METHODS: A review identified 22 common factors discussed in psychotherapy research literature. We conducted a survey, in which 68 psychotherapy experts assessed how common factors are implemented by specific techniques. Using hierarchical linear models, we predicted each common factor by techniques and by experts' age, gender and allegiance to a therapy orientation. RESULTS: Common factors differed largely in their relevance for technique implementation. Patient engagement, Affective experiencing and Therapeutic alliance were judged most relevant. Common factors also differed with respect to how well they could be explained by the set of techniques. We present detailed profiles of all common factors by the (positively or negatively) associated techniques. There were indications of a biased taxonomy not covering the embodiment of psychotherapy (expressed by body-centred techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback training and hypnosis). Likewise, common factors did not adequately represent effective psychodynamic and systemic techniques. CONCLUSION: This taxonomic endeavour is a step towards a clarification of important core constructs of psychotherapy. KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE: This article relates standard techniques of psychotherapy (well known to practising therapists) to the change factors/change mechanisms discussed in psychotherapy theory. It gives a short review of the current debate on the mechanisms by which psychotherapy works. We provide detailed profiles of change mechanisms and how they may be generated by practice techniques.

Functional taxonomy of bacterial hyperstructures.

The levels of organization that exist in bacteria extend from macromolecules to populations. Evidence that there is also a level of organization intermediate between the macromolecule and the bacterial cell is accumulating. This is the level of hyperstructures. Here, we review a variety of spatially extended structures, complexes, and assemblies that might be termed hyperstructures. These include ribosomal or "nucleolar" hyperstructures; transertion hyperstructures; putative phosphotransferase system and glycolytic hyperstructures; chemosignaling and flagellar hyperstructures; DNA repair hyperstructures; cytoskeletal hyperstructures based on EF-Tu, FtsZ, and MreB; and cell cycle hyperstructures responsible for DNA replication, sequestration of newly replicated origins, segregation, compaction, and division. We propose principles for classifying these hyperstructures and finally illustrate how thinking in terms of hyperstructures may lead to a different vision of the bacterial cell.

Taxonomy, phylogeny and molecular epidemiology of Echinococcus multilocularis: From fundamental knowledge to health ecology.

Alveolar echinococcosis, caused by the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis, is one of the most severe parasitic diseases in humans and represents one of the 17 neglected diseases prioritised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2012. Considering the major medical and veterinary importance of this parasite, the phylogeny of the genus Echinococcus is of considerable importance; yet, despite numerous efforts with both mitochondrial and nuclear data, it has remained unresolved. The genus is clearly complex, and this is one of the reasons for the incomplete understanding of its taxonomy. Although taxonomic studies have recognised E. multilocularis as a separate entity from the Echinococcus granulosus complex and other members of the genus, it would be premature to draw firm conclusions about the taxonomy of the genus before the phylogeny of the whole genus is fully resolved. The recent sequencing of E. multilocularis and E. granulosus genomes opens new possibilities for performing in-depth phylogenetic analyses. In addition, whole genome data provide the possibility of inferring phylogenies based on a large number of functional genes, i.e. genes that trace the evolutionary history of adaptation in E. multilocularis and other members of the genus. Moreover, genomic data open new avenues for studying the molecular epidemiology of E. multilocularis: genotyping studies with larger panels of genetic markers allow the genetic diversity and spatial dynamics of parasites to be evaluated with greater precision. There is an urgent need for international coordination of genotyping of E. multilocularis isolates from animals and human patients. This could be fundamental for a better understanding of the transmission of alveolar echinococcosis and for designing efficient healthcare strategies.