Computer-based Information Retrieval System Research Articles

Usage and Usability of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) among the Coordination Centers for Clinical Trials (KKS)

With Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) the conduction of clinical trials should be standardized so that the results are comparable and traceable. This aim can only be reached if the staff of clinical trials really uses the SOPs. Therefore, we conducted a survey to explore the use and usability of SOPs in clinical trials and to identify problems for their handling. Standardized, validated questionnaire among the staff of all 12 coordination centers for clinical trials in Germany (n = 238), anonymous, descriptive analyses A return rate of 58.8% was reached. When having questions about the daily work 18.4% more likely ask a colleague than read the corresponding SOP (13.8%). For the relevance of SOPs 16.9% of the staff regard less than 10% of SOPs as relevant for them. Exclusively working with electronic SOPs are 4%. The results of the survey indicate that improvements for the handling of SOPs are necessary. They could be used to design a computer-based information retrieval system for SOPs to increase the ease-of-use and usefulness of SOPs in clinical trials.

Cyclophosphamide-Induced Cystitis and Bladder Cancer in Patients with Wegener Granulomatosis

To describe the incidence of, clinical manifestations of, and risk factors for cyclophosphamide-induced urinary bladder toxicity in patients treated for nonmalignant disease. Retrospective analysis of patients followed at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1967 to 1993. The Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 145 patients who received cyclophosphamide for the treatment of Wegener granulomatosis and were followed for 0.5 to 27 years (median, 8.5 years), for a total of 1333 patient-years. Clinical characteristics, cystoscopic findings, results of cytologic examination of urine, surgical pathology, and total dose and duration of cyclophosphamide therapy were recorded and analyzed using a computer-based information retrieval system. Nonglomerular hematuria occurred in 73 of 145 patients treated with cyclophosphamide (50%). Sixty of the 73 patients with nonglomerular hematuria (82%) had cystoscopy at the NIH. Forty-two of the 60 patients (70%) who had cystoscopy had macroscopic changes consistent with cyclophosphamide-induced bladder injury. Seven patients (5%) developed transitional-cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. In 6 of these 7 patients, the total cumulative cyclophosphamide dose exceeded 100 g, and the cumulative duration of cyclophosphamide therapy exceeded 2.7 years. Before they were given a diagnosis of bladder cancer, all 7 patients had had one or more episodes of microscopic or gross nonglomerular hematuria. In contrast, none of the 72 patients who had never had nonglomerular hematuria developed bladder cancer. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that only microscopic nonglomerular hematuria was a significant risk factor for the development of bladder cancer (P < 0.01). Long-term oral cyclophosphamide therapy is associated with substantial urotoxicity, including the development of transitional-cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. In this cohort of patients, the estimated incidence of bladder cancer after the first exposure to cyclophosphamide was 5% at 10 years and 16% at 15 years. Nonglomerular hematuria was a frequent manifestation of cyclophosphamide-induced cystitis, and it identified a subgroup of patients at high risk for the development of bladder cancer.

Towards a cognitive theory of information accessing: An empirical study

How would users access an ‘ideal’ computer-based information retrieval system? What strategies would they use in seeking information if they had access to a truly expert knowledge-base which could respond effectively to any kind of questioning, phrased in any way? No such system exists. But this project provided the next best thing—a computer system which allowed unlimited access to genuinely expert knowledge. Unbeknown at the time of learning to 30 volunteer users who accessed the system, the knowledge-base included 2 human experts, communicating with them from a different building, via the computer screen. The interactions between users and the system were logged and analysed. The results reveal a number of different information accessing strategies linked to individual user characteristics and retrieval effectiveness. Implications for the design of improved information retrieval systems are discussed.

End-user reactions towards working with Computer-Based Information Retrieval Systems (CBIRS)

This paper reports the results of an investigation of users' perceptions of and feelings towards working with Computer-Based Information Retrieval Systems (CBIRS). Detailed questionnaires were distributed to members of the United Kingdom Online User Group (UKOLUG), to database users within a large organisation (Site A), and to end-users of a complex commercial database containing information about electronic components (Codus). The three groups differed significantly in their perceptions towards working with a CBIRS, with UKOLUG members holding the most positive perceptions. More frequent use of the CBIRS was found to be significantly related to perceived functional utility of the CBIRS in all three groups. In only two of the groups (UKOLUG and Codus) was perceived difficulty in operating the system negatively related to frequency of use. Job attitudes were not significantly related with perceptions towards working with a CBIRS, but were significantly related with current usage of the CBIRS. For all three groups, reported ‘planfulness’ (tendency to plan) when using a CBIRS was positively related to feelings of pressure when using the system. The paper discusses the implications of the study's findings for future research and development in the field of human-computer interaction.

Bibliographic Databases in Tribology

It is important that the modern-day researcher and engineer stay abreast of technology in his field, but this task is made very difficult by the recent flood of scientific and technical information. Coping with the information explosion requires the use of computerized information systems. This paper reviews computer-based information retrieval systems in engineering and focuses specifically on databases of literature and information relevant to tribologists and lubrication engineers. These databases are listed and their characteristics are discussed. Results of a sample computer-based literature search are included. It is shown that no single database has complete coverage of all aspects of tribology and that several databases should be searched to get all available information on a subject.

Data Organization

Three experiments investigated how people organize data. Subjects were given sets of 15-20 words and asked to organize them on paper. Each word set had a pre-defined organization (hierarchy, network, lists, table) based on the semantic relations among the words. Experiment 1 showed that college students have all these organizational structures available for use. They organized most word sets on the basis of the semantic relations inherent in them. Whereas most subjects used “appropriate” organizations (those that most easily preserved the relations), a few subjects organized nearly all word sets into lists. Experiment 2 showed that subjects can efficiently fit the word sets into “skeletons” that were explicitly designed to maintain all the semantic relations among the words. Experiment 3 showed that subjects have difficulty in preserving the relations among the words when they were required to organize them into inappropriate structures. These results are evaluated relative to the use of computer-based information retrieval systems.

A computer-based information retrieval system

A computer-based information retrieval system

A Scheme for recognizing chemicals and their hazards in an emergency

In recent years a number of potential emergency situations have arisen following traffic accidents or fires involving chemicals. In an attempt to minimise the danger from such incidents in the U.K., an emergency advice scheme has been established by the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) in collaboration with Central Government. As part of the scheme, chemical companies are providing information to facilitate the identification of products and their hazards, and advice for their safe treatment in an emergency. The information is being organised so that it can easily be searched using a computer-based information retrieval system. The data being collected initially are related to the requirements of the public emergency services but they can be extended to meet the needs of other organisations. Indeed, the data bank is being augmented in this way under a contract from the E.E.C.

On the problem of communicating complex information

The nature of the difficulty involved in communicating mathematical results between scientists using a computer based information retrieval system is examined. The problem is analyzed in terms of psychological and information-processing processes, and what turns out to be a vicious circle of effects is described. The paper then considers how the presentation of information by a computer-based information retrieval system, or by other media, can be improved. Some trade-offs which affect the design of the presentation are mentioned, and a number of ideas for improvement are described. These include ways of augmenting written natural language by various notational and linguistic devices, the exhibition of the structure inherent in the information we are communicating, and a sophisticated interactive system controlled by computer.

Computer assisted indexing

The paper describes a technique which enables an on line computer based information retrieval system to aid the indexers by selecting possible index terms to be assigned to a new document entering the system. The method analyses the index terms assigned to the references cited by the new article. This produces a list of index terms weighted according to their expected correlation with the subject matter of the new article. Thus, the indexer is presented with a weighted list of proposed indexing terms as an aid. An evaluation is made of the results produced by the technique for a trial set of documents. These documents have already been indexed for the MEDLARS system. The list of actual index terms for this trial set of documents is compared with the set of index terms proposed by the technique for each document. The results of this comparison are encouraging, and they are discussed in the paper. The economic aspects of implementing the technique in a working information retrieval system is considered. This includes the expected benefits, and an estimate of the actual cost of using the technique as an aid in terms of computer time and indexer time.