Family history recording in UK general practice: the lIFeLONG study

Background In order to integrate genomic medicine into routine patient care and stratify personal risk, it is increasingly important to record family history (FH) information in general/family practice records. This is true for classic genetic disease as well as multifactorial conditions. Research suggests that FH recording is currently inadequate. Objectives To provide an up-to-date analysis of the frequency, quality, and accuracy of FH recording in UK general/family practice. Methods An exploratory study, based at St Leonard’s Practice, Exeter—a suburban UK general/family practice. Selected adult patients registered for over 1 year were contacted by post and asked to complete a written FH questionnaire. The reported information was compared with the patients’ electronic medical record (EMR). Each EMR was assessed for its frequency (how often information was recorded), quality (the level of detail included), and accuracy (how closely the information matched the patient report) of FH recording. Results Two hundred and forty-one patients were approached, 65 (27.0%) responded and 62 (25.7%) were eligible to participate. Forty-three (69.4%) EMRs contained FH information. The most commonly recorded conditions were bowel cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. The mean quality score was 3.64 (out of 5). There was little negative recording. 83.2% of patient-reported FH information was inaccurately recorded or missing from the EMRs. Conclusion FH information in general/family practice records should be better prepared for the genomic era. Whilst some conditions are well recorded, there is a need for more frequent, higher quality recording with greater accuracy, especially for multifactorial conditions.

Modular designed Apps – an opportunity to standardize data collection methods and to encourage the reuse of software

<p>Data collection strategies vary among different citizen science projects. This complicates the intercomparability of parameter values acquired in different studies (e.g., methodological and scale issues) and results in variable data quality. This creates problems regarding the merging of different data sets and hampers the reuse of data from different projects. Modular designed applications for mobile devices (Apps) represent a framework that helps to foster the standardisation of data collection methods. While they encourage the reuse of the software, they provide enough flexibility for an adjustment in accordance with the research question(s) of interest.</p><p>The currently developed App “FieldMApp” offers such a framework running under Android and iOS. The related concept includes predefined frame functionalities, like settings for the user account and the user interface, and adaptable application-related functionalities. The latter comprise several modules that are categorized as sensor test, basic functionality, parameter collection and data quality collection modules. The interdependencies of these modules are documented in a wiki. This enables an individual and context-based selection of functionalities. The FieldMApp is based on open-source software libraries (Xamarin, Open Development Kit (ODK), SQLite, CoreCLR-NCalc, LusoV.YamarinUsbSerialForAndroid, Newtonsoft.Json, SharpZipLib) and will be published as open-source software. Hence, the existing catalogue of functionalities can be augmented in the future. The premise for such extensions is that modules are published together with smart, universally applicable data quality recording routines and a proper documentation in the wiki.</p><p>In this contribution, we present the concept and the structure of the FieldMApp and some current fields of application that are related to the cultivation of arable land, soil mapping, forest monitoring, and Earth Observation. The extension of the functionality catalogue is exemplified by the newly implemented speech recognition module. A related quality recording routine will be introduced. With this contribution we would like to encourage citizens and scientists to elicit which requirements such an App should fulfil from their point of view.</p>

Digitizing oral history: can you hear the difference?

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to answer the questions: Can students discern the difference between oral histories digitized at archival quality (96 kHz/24-bit) versus CD-quality (44.1 kHz/16-bit)? and How important do they believe this difference is? Digitization of analog audio recordings has become the recommended best practice in preserving and making available oral histories. Additionally, well-accepted standards in performing this work are available. However, there is relatively little research that addresses if individuals can hear a qualitative difference in recordings made with best practices versus those that have not. Design/methodology/approach – In all, 53 individuals participated in the study, where they listened to three sets of oral histories and had to decide which was the archival-quality recording versus the CD-quality recording and mark their answer on a survey. Findings – Students could discern less than half of the time on average which was the archival quality versus the CD-quality recording. Further, after listening to the differences, they most often indicated the difference was “a little bit important”. Practical implications – This research does not suggest that archivists abandon well-established sound digitization practices that produce results that audio archivists (and those able to hear fine-grain audio differences) find superior. Rather, it does imply that additional work may be needed to train listeners to discern these fine-grain differences, and appreciate the highest-fidelity replication of original audio recordings. Originality/value – This research addresses a gap in the literature by connecting audio digitization practices to its impact on listener perception.

SoccerEye: A Software Solution to Observe and Record Behaviours in Sport Settings

In soccer, the need for direct observation of tactical behaviour has led to continuous technological advances in motion recording software. Here we present SoccerEye, a sports-specific software tool to observe and record the behaviour of soccer players in their natural setting and in real time. The software was written in Visual Basic Express 2010 and includes the following features: computerised coding, improved-quality recording, episodic sampling, the measurement of time, and diachronic analysis. Its configuration is well defined but allows for incorporation of ad hoc categories. Data can be exported in multiple generic formats, including the SDIS format for the analysis of interaction sequences with GSEQ software. However, by considering time and sequential decisions, SoccerEye itself tracks activity profiles and the dynamics of play. The greatest advantage of SoccerEye is the possibility to conduct diachronic analysis, which regards an event or multi event sequence in terms of change over time. This type of analysis takes into account the behaviour of a player and his or her team when facing the opponent, the space (pitch area) and time (starting time and duration) of each event, and other factors such as match status, match time, and competition stage. SoccerEye is a freeaccess user-friendly application that can be used to observe a single player or an entire team while controlling over the environment in which the observation takes place. This tool will hopefully contribute to the better understanding of the dynamics of soccer play.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A MULTICHANNEL PREAMPLIFIER FOR INTRACORTICAL ACTIVITIES RECORDING USING COMMERCIAL COMPONENTS

Simple and useful methods are described herein for a portable and multichannel preamplifier circuit. These procedures include mainly operational amplifier selection, offset voltage reduction, active guarding circuit, selectable reference node, and grounded plate arrangement. A six-channel preamplifier board is designed and fabricated for intracortical activities recording using commercial components. The preamplifier has been successfully tested in vivo to process cortically derived extracellular evoked potentials under anesthetized rat. Results from both simulated circuit testing and practical animal measuring indicate that a high-quality recording can be obtained by adopting the presented circuits. This method needs only ready-made materials, general know-how, and a few components and is simple even for a nonelectronic engineering researcher in-house. The proposed preamplifier can be easily expanded by combining other post-processing circuits or recording devices. This preamplifier can also be easily modified and applied to the analogy front-end (AFE) of telemetric recording system, other related electrophysiological or physiological studies.