An integrated database on ticks and tick-borne zoonoses in the tropics and subtropics with special reference to developing and emerging countries

Tick-borne zoonoses (TBZ) are emerging diseases worldwide. A large amount of information (e.g. case reports, results of epidemiological surveillance, etc.) is dispersed through various reference sources (ISI and non-ISI journals, conference proceedings, technical reports, etc.). An integrated database-derived from the ICTTD-3 project (http://www.icttd.nl)-was developed in order to gather TBZ records in the (sub-)tropics, collected both by the authors and collaborators worldwide. A dedicated website (http://www.tickbornezoonoses.org) was created to promote collaboration and circulate information. Data collected are made freely available to researchers for analysis by spatial methods, integrating mapped ecological factors for predicting TBZ risk. The authors present the assembly process of the TBZ database: the compilation of an updated list of TBZ relevant for (sub-)tropics, the database design and its structure, the method of bibliographic search, the assessment of spatial precision of geo-referenced records. At the time of writing, 725 records extracted from 337 publications related to 59 countries in the (sub-)tropics, have been entered in the database. TBZ distribution maps were also produced. Imported cases have been also accounted for. The most important datasets with geo-referenced records were those on Spotted Fever Group rickettsiosis in Latin-America and Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever in Africa. The authors stress the need for international collaboration in data collection to update and improve the database. Supervision of data entered remains always necessary. Means to foster collaboration are discussed. The paper is also intended to describe the challenges encountered to assemble spatial data from various sources and to help develop similar data collections.

The effects of normalisation on the ability of business end-users to detect data anomalies: An experimental evaluation

With the proliferation of relational database programs for PC's and other platforms, many business end-users are creating, maintaining, and querying their own databases. More importantly, business end-users use the output of these queries as the basis for operational, tactical, and strategic decisions. Inaccurate data reduce the expected quality of these decisions. Implementing various input validation controls, including higher levels of normalisation, can reduce the number of data anomalies entering the databases. Even in well-maintained databases, however, data anomalies will still accumulate. To improve the quality of data, databases can be queried periodically to locate and correct anomalies. This paper reports the results of two experiments that investigated the effects of different data structures on business end-users' abilities to detect data anomalies in a relational database. The results demonstrate that both unnormalised and higher levels of normalisation lower the effectiveness and efficiency of queries relative to the first normal form. First normal form databases appear to provide the most effective and efficient data structure for business end-users formulating queries to detect data anomalies.

Matching prescription claims with medication data for nursing home residents: Implications for prescriber feedback, drug utilisation studies and selection of prescription claims database

Medication data retrieved from Australian Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) claims for 44 veterans residing in nursing homes and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) claims for 898 nursing home residents were compared with medication data from nursing home records to determine the optimal time interval for retrieving claims data and its validity. Optimal matching was achieved using 12 weeks of RPBS claims data, with 60% of medications in the RPBS claims located in nursing home administration records, and 78% of medications administered to nursing home residents identified in RPBS claims. In comparison, 48% of medications administered to nursing home residents could be found in 12 weeks of PBS data, and 56% of medications present in PBS claims could be matched with nursing home administration records. RPBS claims data was superior to PBS, due to the larger number of scheduled items available to veterans and the veteran's file number, which acts as a unique identifier. These findings should be taken into account when using prescription claims data for medication histories, prescriber feedback, drug utilisation, intervention or epidemiological studies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Introducing OTseeker (Occupational Therapy Systematic Evaluation of Evidence): A new evidence database for occupational therapists

OTseeker (Occupational Therapy Systematic Evaluation of Evidence) is a new resource for occupational therapists that has been designed with the principle aim of increasing access to research to support clinical decisions. It contains abstracts of systematic reviews and quality ratings of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) relevant to occupational therapy. It is available, free of charge, at www.otseeker.com. This paper describes the OTseeker database and provides an example of how it may support occupational therapy practice.

Database technologies for l-system simulations in virtual plant applications on bioinformatics

One of the most important advantages of database systems is that the underlying mathematics is rich enough to specify very complex operations with a small number of statements in the database language. This research covers an aspect of biological informatics that is the marriage of information technology and biology, involving the study of real-world phenomena using virtual plants derived from L-systems simulation. L-systems were introduced by Aristid Lindenmayer as a mathematical model of multicellular organisms. Not much consideration has been given to the problem of persistent storage for these simulations. Current procedures for querying data generated by L-systems for scientific experiments, simulations and measurements are also inadequate. To address these problems the research in this paper presents a generic process for data-modeling tools (L-DBM) between L-systems and database systems. This paper shows how L-system productions can be generically and automatically represented in database schemas and how a database can be populated from the L-system strings. This paper further describes the idea of pre-computing recursive structures in the data into derived attributes using compiler generation. A method to allow a correspondence between biologists' terms and compiler-generated terms in a biologist computing environment is supplied. Once the L-DBM gets any specific L-systems productions and its declarations, it can generate the specific schema for both simple correspondence terminology and also complex recursive structure data attributes and relationships.

eMelanoBase: An online locus-specific variant database for familial melanoma

A proportion of melanoma,prone individuals in both familial and non,familial contexts has been shown to carry inactivating mutations in either CDKN2A or, rarely, CDK4. CDKN2A is a complex locus that encodes two unrelated proteins from alternately spliced transcripts that are read in different frames. The alpha transcript (exons 1a, 2, and 3) produces the p16INK4A cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, while the beta transcript (exons 1beta and 2) is translated as p14ARF, a stabilizing factor of p53 levels through binding to MDM2. Mutations in exon 2 can impair both polypeptides and insertions and deletions in exons 1alpha, 1beta, and 2, which can theoretically generate p16INK4A,p14ARF fusion proteins. No online database currently takes into account all the consequences of these genotypes, a situation compounded by some problematic previous annotations of CDKN2A related sequences and descriptions of their mutations. As an initiative of the international Melanoma Genetics Consortium, we have therefore established a database of germline variants observed in all loci implicated in familial melanoma susceptibility. Such a comprehensive, publicly accessible database is an essential foundation for research on melanoma susceptibility and its clinical application. Our database serves two types of data as defined by HUGO. The core dataset includes the nucleotide variants on the genomic and transcript levels, amino acid variants, and citation. The ancillary dataset includes keyword description of events at the transcription and translation levels and epidemiological data. The application that handles users' queries was designed in the model,view. controller architecture and was implemented in Java. The object-relational database schema was deduced using functional dependency analysis. We hereby present our first functional prototype of eMelanoBase. The service is accessible via the URL www.wmi.usyd.e, du.au:8080/melanoma.html.

Researchers' information needs in the bibliographic database : a literature review

This article is published online with Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.

Sistema de Informação Geográfica: uma arma estratégica para o Database Marketing

Os Sistemas de Informações Geográficas (SIG) tornaram-se disponíveis para uso em computadores de mesa, sendo extremamente adaptáveis para as atividades de marketing de relacionamento. Uma característica desses sistemas é que permitem uma análise de dados de forma praticamente inviável com outras ferramentas. A sua utilização depende da existência de mapas e dados possivelmente caros e difíceis de obter. No Brasil, seu uso vai popularizar-se nos próximos dois anos.

Efficient middleware for database replication

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia Informática