Food safety and quality are pivotal to a country's economy and consumer health, with the whole food chain depending on its success. Hence, with immense progress in industrialization, the need arose ...to develop an integrated system constituting various essential elements to track, trace, and ensure food safety. The review reports various web-based tools and their integration for assessing food safety during each step of the food chain. Various research resources were ransacked to find articles on the current review. These included Google Scholar, journal articles, and other relevant sources with typical keywords and titles. Review data report about the feasibility of artificial intelligence and allied techniques, i.e., vision-based technology and machine learning, that includes the development of tailored algorithms for the food industry and food supply chain management. It also reports physical objects like sensors, devices, and food processing tools, which can be paired with the Internet to form the Internet of Things (IoT). Further, Big data pertains to a vast set of information from which complete data, patterns, and outcomes can be extracted. Blockchain is another important thing to share, store, and process authentic information, which securely reports every food processing step accordingly. Three is a network of tools called web-based resources, which are helpful for qualitatively and quantitatively predicting food safety and quality, thereby necessitating computer technology in food and nutrition science. Food-related hazards like toxins, pesticides, and heavy metals from food commodities like fruits, vegetables, and meats can be traced, reported, and eliminated. The review also presents insight into food fraud mitigation and related tools, including blockchain technology, Comptox, ComBase, FDAiRISK, and others.
•Food safety can be improved by the integration of A.I., big data, and blockchain.•Real-time monitoring and predictive analytics can enhance risk assessment methods.•Blockchain ensures transparency and rapid response to safety incidents.•Emerging technologies revolutionize traditional food safety approaches.
Introduction
Web-based tools allowed the provision of psychological counseling and therapy at-distance during the COVID-19 lockdown. Nevertheless, psychologists’ attitudes towards the adoption of ...these tools and its impact in their professional practices need to be further explored.
Objectives
The objective was to study the use of web-based tools on psychological practices before and during COVID-19 lockdown, trying to identify changes on psychologists’ professional practices related to the pandemic, as well as to explore factors that could have affected such changes.
Methods
One-hundred and eight psychologists filled-in an online survey, developed for the purposes of this study, during mandatory lockdown. The study was disseminated by mailing list, social networks, and by the Portuguese Psychologists Association.
Results
The results have shown that psychologists kept providing their services during lockdown thanks to the adoption of web-based tools. Although psychologists have recognized that additional precautions were needed for at-distance practice in comparison to in-person interventions, the experience of using IC technologies in clinical practice was described as positive, ensuring clients’ adherence with positive results. Additionally, despite psychological services were maintained on a larger scale by psychologists with more years of experience, professionals with average experience stated more favorable attitudes towards the use of web-based tools in counseling and therapy.
Conclusions
Although the implementation of ICT based practice was enforced by current circumstances, the experience that psychologists gathered and shared during the lockdown can guide future professional practice, improving and fostering the replication of best practices at distance.
•We need user-friendly communication and decision-making web-tools in dementia care.•Appearance, navigation, content delivery and support are important for usability.•We provide 11 recommendations to ...improve web-based tools for people with dementia.•Future research should address providing tailored support to enhance usability.
There is an increased number of web-based tools designed for people with dementia and their family caregivers and addressing communication and decision-making. The loss of cognitive functions associated with dementia can impact individuals’ experiences and use of web-based tools. There is a need for high quality and user-friendly web-based tools that support communication and decision-making for people with dementia and their family caregivers.
To identify usability requirements, usability testing methods, and design suggestions from studies focusing on web-based tools for communication and decision-making support in dementia care.
We conducted a systematic review with narrative synthesis. Five databases were systematically searched in February 2023. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool.
A total of 1,032 articles were identified and 7 fulfilled inclusion criteria. Web-based tools addressed technology usage, health promotion, home modification information, shared decision-making facilitation, information needs and social isolation. Methods to test usability included surveys, interviews, focus groups, cognitive walkthroughs and think-aloud procedures. Findings suggested reducing cognitive load, enhancing readability, providing clear language, and emphasising the need for additional support for people with dementia. Design recommendations include optimising information delivery and presentation, enhancing visual elements, streamlining navigation, providing concrete examples, using clear language, and offering training and tailored support.
Usability requirements ranged from visual appearance and navigation to delivery of content and support needed. This review contributes to efforts to improve design and development of web-based tools targeting communication and decision-making in dementia care. Further research should address tailored support to enhance usability for people with dementia.
SwissDrugDesign is an important initiative led by the Molecular Modeling Group of the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. This project provides a collection of freely available online tools for ...computer-aided drug design. Some of these web-based methods, i.e., SwissSimilarity and SwissTargetPrediction, were especially developed to perform virtual screening, while others such as SwissADME, SwissDock, SwissParam and SwissBioisostere can find applications in related activities. The present review aims at providing a short description of these methods together with examples of their application in virtual screening, where SwissDrugDesign tools successfully supported the discovery of bioactive small molecules.
DNA sequencing has allowed for the discovery of the genetic cause for a considerable number of diseases, paving the way for new disease diagnostics. However, due to the lack of clinical samples and ...records, the molecular cause for rare diseases is always hard to identify, significantly limiting the number of rare Mendelian diseases diagnosed through sequencing technologies. Clinical phenotype information therefore becomes a major resource to diagnose rare diseases. In this article, we adopted both a phenotypic similarity method and a machine learning method to build four diagnostic models to support rare disease diagnosis. All the diagnostic models were validated using the real medical records from RAMEDIS. Each model provides a list of the top 10 candidate diseases as the prediction outcome and the results showed that all models had a high diagnostic precision (≥98%) with the highest recall reaching up to 95% while the models with machine learning methods showed the best performance. To promote effective diagnosis for rare disease in clinical application, we developed the phenotype-based Rare Disease Auxiliary Diagnosis system (RDAD) to assist clinicians in diagnosing rare diseases with the above four diagnostic models. The system is freely accessible through http://www.unimd.org/RDAD/.
Digital technologies have enabled new possibilities to assess dietary intake and have shown promise in terms of decreased participant burden, improved accuracy and lower costs. However, their ...potential and validity in pregnant populations are scarcely explored. This study aimed to (a) validate energy intakes obtained from a web-based dietary recall method developed for national surveys (RiksmatenFlex) against total energy expenditure (TEE) by means of the doubly labelled water (DLW) method, and (b) to compare intakes of macronutrients, key unhealthy and healthy foods as well as adherence to food-based dietary guidelines between RiksmatenFlex and repeated 24 h telephone dietary recalls in healthy Swedish pregnant women. This study was conducted as a nested validation within the HealthyMoms trial. Intakes of foods, macronutrients and energy were assessed during three days through RiksmatenFlex and 24 h telephone dietary recalls, and Swedish Healthy Eating Index (SHEI) scores were also calculated for both methods (n = 52). For 24 women, TEE was also assessed through the DLW method. Paired Samples T-tests and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests were used to identify differences between means for foods, macronutrients, energy and SHEI scores. Pearson correlation coefficient or Spearman's rho were performed to identify relationships between variables. To compare energy intake (RiksmatenFlex) with TEE (DLW method) and 24 h telephone dietary recalls, Bland and Altman plots were constructed. Average energy intake from RiksmatenFlex (10,015 SD 2004 kJ) was not statistically different from TEE (10,252 SD 1197 kJ) (p = 0.596) (mean difference: -237 kJ/24 h). Correspondingly, there were small mean differences between average intakes of key unhealthy and healthy foods and average SHEI scores between RiksmatenFlex and 24 h telephone dietary recalls. However, the Bland and Altman plots showed wide limits of agreement for all dietary variables (e.g., for energy intake using RiksmatenFlex versus TEE: + or -4239 kJ/24 h). High correlations between the investigated dietary variables for the two dietary methods were observed (r = 0.751 to 0.931; all p < 0.001). RiksmatenFlex captured average intakes of energy, unhealthy and healthy food groups and adherence to food-based dietary guidelines in a comparable way to 24 h telephone dietary recalls and the DLW method. Our results support the validity of RiksmatenFlex as a web-based dietary assessment method for future use in pregnancy for intervention studies and national dietary surveys.
Background and aims
Medical education requires regular reforms to include emerging best practices and technologies, while also critically evaluating effectiveness of traditional didactic teaching ...methods. This manuscript examines the challenges and opportunities associated with modernizing the anesthesiology curriculum.
Methods
Narrative review of literature on innovations in medical education, with a specific emphasis on anesthesiology training.
Results
Educators face difficulties implementing new teaching approaches and evaluating their effectiveness. However, active learning methods, blended with selected traditional techniques, can enhance learner engagement and competencies. Self‐directed learning and simulations prepare students for real‐world practice, while flipped classrooms and online platforms increase accessibility.
Conclusions
A blended approach, integrating interactive technology alongside modified lectures and seminars, may optimize anesthesiology education. Despite the promise of improved pedagogies, further research is required to assess outcomes. By embracing innovation while retaining certain foundational methods, programs can equip anesthesiologists with modern skills. This evolution is key to meeting the needs of 21st‐century anesthesia care needs. Remaining at the forefront of this transformation will be vital in preparing competent future anesthesiologists through state‐of‐the‐art education.
High digital connectivity and a focus on reproducibility are contributing to an open science revolution in neuroscience. Repositories and platforms have emerged across the whole spectrum of ...subdisciplines, paving the way for a paradigm shift in the way we share, analyze, and reuse vast amounts of data collected across many laboratories. Here, we describe how open access web-based tools are changing the landscape and culture of neuroscience, highlighting six free resources that span subdisciplines from behavior to whole-brain mapping, circuits, neurons, and gene variants.
Over the past decades, different software programs have been developed for the Computer-Assisted Structure Elucidation (CASE) with NMR data using with various approaches. WebCocon is one of them that ...has been continuously improved over the past 20 years. Here, we present the inclusion of 4JCH correlations (4J-HMBC) in the HMBC interpretation of Cocon and NOE data in WebCocon. The 4J-HMBC data is used during the structure generation process, while the NOE data is used in post-processing of the results. The marine natural product oxocyclostylidol was selected to demonstrate WebCocon’s enhanced HMBC data processing capabilities. A systematic study of the 4JCH correlations of oxocyclostylidol was performed. The application of NOEs in CASE is demonstrated using the NOE correlations of the diterpene pyrone asperginol A known from the literature. As a result, we obtained a conformation that corresponds very well to the existing X-ray structure.
Web-based tools for miRNA studies analysis Shaker, Fatemeh; Nikravesh, Abbas; Arezumand, Roghaye ...
Computers in biology and medicine,
December 2020, 2020-12-00, 20201201, Letnik:
127
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In recent years, thousands of microRNAs (miRNA) have been found in numerous species. The huge data resulting from miRNA researches are ordered in several levels including miRNA discovery, the ...sequence of mature and precursor miRNAs, role in diseases, pathway interaction, target validation, and prediction, etc. To prepare a simple approach to this information, numerous databases for miRNA records have been established. The selection of the correct database can be laborious and prolonged, especially for scientists who do not have experience in this field. To facilitate access to these resources, we have classified the available databases into seven categories and have described each one. The different categories of miRNA databanks contain miRNA sequence, target validation, target prediction, expression, function, role in pathways and networks, and their roles in diseases. Moreover, examples are included to describe the prototype databases for the most common applications. Hence, this review introduces available miRNA databases and presents a convenient overview of these databases that will enable researchers with different backgrounds to find suitable miRNA-related bioinformatics web tools and relevant microRNA information rapidly.
•Numerous databases for miRNA records have been established.•The select of the correct database can be laborious, especially for scientists who do not have experience in this field.•To facilitate the access to these resources, we have classified them into seven categories and have described each one.•Categories include sequence, target validation, prediction, expression, function, role in pathways, networks and diseases.•This review introduce available miRNA databases and present a convenient overview of these databases.
PDF
