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Aim: Public health lifestyle databases at local authority level are currently poorly aligned across the UK. The integration of lifestyle databases at a regional level could provide a rich resource to support research and help inform public health leads and service commissioners in improving service delivery, facilitating decision-making and developing key public health policies. Prior to its implementation, the acceptability of an integrated lifestyle database should be explored. The aim of this study was to consult with public health stakeholders to explore the acceptability of developing and implementing a regional integrated lifestyle database across four key areas of public health: smoking cessation, diet, physical activity and alcohol consumption. Method: Qualitative interviews were conducted with public health stakeholders recruited from across the East Midlands region of England. All interviews were conducted using video conferencing software and recorded, transcribed, and analysed using the Framework approach. Sixteen public health stakeholders were purposively identified and invited to participate in interviews. Results: Stakeholders viewed the integrated database as having potential to support research, service development and commissioning decisions. Barriers such as providers' reluctance to reveal their business strategies to rival organisations, cost of setting up and running the proposed database, complex information-sharing and governance were identified. Conclusion: An integrated lifestyle database has the potential to support research and service commissioning regionally. However, several barriers were identified that must be addressed prior to the development and implementation of an integrated database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the conceptual design of a database for the European Portal of Logistics Services (EPLOS) and its application. The database contains the data on logistics companies, the infrastructure for road, railway, inland, and air transport, as well as the data on the nodal elements of logistics infrastructure (warehouse facilities, seaports, transhipment terminals). Complete and verified information is the fundamental condition for rational decisions about the realization of logistics processes on a meso-and macroeconomic scale. Authors present the relations in the making of the EPLOS database, its assumed scope, and the potential benefits for the TSL market from accessing the EPLOS database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the procedures leading to the construction of an integrated dataset for business firms. By merging information from sources such as business registries, financial statements and intellectual property offices, we show how to assemble a panel data that is suited to investigate issues ranging from firm demographics to industrial dynamics, also encompassing the analysis of innovation activities taking place within business firms. We test the validity of the proposed procedures resorting to the virtual universe of Italian limited liability companies, hence covering more than 1 million firms operating in both manufacturing and service sectors. The main purpose of the paper is to provide a unified set of procedures to help researchers dealing with the vast amount of information available on corporate firms and of ever increasing size. Our work also contributes to ease the replicability of empirical analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid growing concern over the changing climate, environment, and health care, the interconnectivity between cardiovascular diseases, coupled with rapid industrialization, and a variety of environmental factors, has been the focus of recent research. It is necessary to research risk factor extraction techniques that consider individual external factors and predict diseases and conditions. Therefore, we designed a framework to collect and store various domains of data on the causes of cardiovascular disease, and constructed a big data integrated database. A variety of open source databases were integrated and migrated onto distributed storage devices. The integrated database was composed of clinical data on cardiovascular diseases, national health and nutrition examination surveys, statistical geographic information, population and housing censuses, meteorological administration data, and Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service data. The framework was composed of data, speed, analysis, and service layers, all stored on distributed storage devices. Finally, we proposed a framework for a cardiovascular disease prediction system based on lambda architecture to solve the problems associated with the real-time analyses of big data. This system can be used to help predict and diagnose illnesses, such as cardiovascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During designing of warehouse facilities it is necessary to adopt series of input data. Each of the elements has a number of characteristics and parameters. In order to complex designing of warehouse facilities, it is necessary to develop an integrated database. The article discusses the concept of an integrated database, which will be prepared as part of the project SIMMAG 3D - System for modelling and visualization in the 3D warehouse facilities. Database allows for filtering of objects, depending on the function of the warehouse and the industry. It will contain also data connected with significant elements of the logistics network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Hypothesis: Pooled data from seven randomized placebo-controlled trials were analysed to evaluate relationships between baseline body mass index (BMI), gender or age and the efficacy/tolerability of solifenacin (5 - 10 mg daily) in patients with overactive bladder (OAB). Methods: Changes in efficacy variables from baseline to 12 weeks were compared in patients with symptoms at baseline between solifenacin-treated and placebo-treated groups. Normalization rates were calculated (no more than eight micturitions in 24 h, no more than one episode of nocturia per night, zero values for other variables over 24 h). Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were recorded. Results: The baseline incidence of incontinence and urgency incontinence increased with increasing BMI and age; relatively more women than men were incontinent. The baseline incidence of urgency was similar between genders and among age groups, but tended to increase with increasing BMI. The baseline frequencies of micturition and nocturia were similar in all BMI categories, between genders and in all age groups. The results from this meta-analysis of an integrated database of data from trials investigating solifenacin showed that solifenacin was more efficacious than placebo for all OAB symptoms across all BMI and age categories, and between genders. Normalization rates for micturition frequency, incontinence and urgency were greater in patients receiving solifenacin than in those receiving placebo across all categories. The overall incidence of TEAEs was higher in patients receiving solifenacin than in those receiving placebo; solifenacin was generally well tolerated in both groups. The overall frequency of TEAEs for solifenacin and placebo was slightly higher in women than in men and in older than in younger patients. The most commonly reported TEAEs were dry mouth and constipation. Conclusions: Regardless of BMI, gender or age, all patients with OAB can be considered candidates for solifenacin treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pleurochrysis is a coccolithophorid genus, which belongs to the Coccolithales in the Haptophyta. The genus has been used extensively for biological research, together with Emiliania in the Isochrysidales, to understand distinctive features between the two coccolithophorid-including orders. However, molecular biological research on Pleurochrysis such as elucidation of the molecular mechanism behind coccolith formation has not made great progress at least in part because of lack of comprehensive gene information. To provide such information to the research community, we built an open web database, the Pleurochrysome (http://bioinf.mind.meiji.ac.jp/phapt/), which currently stores 9,023 unique gene sequences (designated as UNIGENEs) assembled from expressed sequence tag sequences of P. haptonemofera as core information. The UNIGENEs were annotated with gene sequences sharing significant homology, conserved domains, Gene Ontology, KEGG Orthology, predicted subcellular localization, open reading frames and orthologous relationship with genes of 10 other algal species, a cyanobacterium and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This sequence and annotation information can be easily accessed via several search functions. Besides fundamental functions such as BLAST and keyword searches, this database also offers search functions to explore orthologous genes in the 12 organisms and to seek novel genes. The Pleurochrysome will promote molecular biological and phylogenetic research on coccolithophorids and other haptophytes by helping scientists mine data from the primary transcriptome of P. haptonemofera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there are considerable site-based data for individual or groups of ecosystems, these datasets are widely scattered, have different data formats and conventions, and often have limited accessibility. At the broader scale, national datasets exist for a large number of geospatial features of land, water, and air that are needed to fully understand variation among these ecosystems. However, such datasets originate from different sources and have different spatial and temporal resolutions. By taking an open-science perspective and by combining site-based ecosystem datasets and national geospatial datasets, science gains the ability to ask important research questions related to grand environmental challenges that operate at broad scales. Documentation of such complicated database integration efforts, through peer-reviewed papers, is recommended to foster reproducibility and future use of the integrated database. Here, we describe the major steps, challenges, and considerations in building an integrated database of lake ecosystems, called LAGOS (LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial and temporal database), that was developed at the sub-continental study extent of 17 US states (1,800,000 km2). LAGOS includes two modules: LAGOSGEO, with geospatial data on every lake with surface area larger than 4 ha in the study extent (∼50,000 lakes), including climate, atmospheric deposition, land use/cover, hydrology, geology, and topography measured across a range of spatial and temporal extents; and LAGOSLIMNO, with lake water quality data compiled from ∼100 individual datasets for a subset of lakes in the study extent (∼10,000 lakes). Procedures for the integration of datasets included: creating a flexible database design; authoring and integrating metadata; documenting data provenance; quantifying spatial measures of geographic data; quality-controlling integrated and derived data; and extensively documenting the database. Our procedures make a large, complex, and integrated database reproducible and extensible, allowing users to ask new research questions with the existing database or through the addition of new data. The largest challenge of this task was the heterogeneity of the data, formats, and metadata. Many steps of data integration need manual input from experts in diverse fields, requiring close collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there are considerable site-based data for individual or groups of ecosystems, these datasets are widely scattered, have different data formats and conventions, and often have limited accessibility. At the broader scale, national datasets exist for a large number of geospatial features of land, water, and air that are needed to fully understand variation among these ecosystems. However, such datasets originate from different sources and have different spatial and temporal resolutions. By taking an open-science perspective and by combining site-based ecosystem datasets and national geospatial datasets, science gains the ability to ask important research questions related to grand environmental challenges that operate at broad scales. Documentation of such complicated database integration efforts, through peer-reviewed papers, is recommended to foster reproducibility and future use of the integrated database. Here, we describe the major steps, challenges, and considerations in building an integrated database of lake ecosystems, called LAGOS (LAke multi-scaled GeOSpatial and temporal database), that was developed at the sub-continental study extent of 17 US states (1,800,000 km²). LAGOS includes two modules: LAGOSGEO, with geospatial data on every lake with surface area larger than 4 ha in the study extent (~50,000 lakes), including climate, atmospheric deposition, land use/cover, hydrology, geology, and topography measured across a range of spatial and temporal extents; and LAGOSLIMNO, with lake water quality data compiled from ~100 individual datasets for a subset of lakes in the study extent (~10,000 lakes). Procedures for the integration of datasets included: creating a flexible database design; authoring and integrating metadata; documenting data provenance; quantifying spatial measures of geographic data; quality-controlling integrated and derived data; and extensively documenting the database. Our procedures make a large, complex, and integrated database reproducible and extensible, allowing users to ask new research questions with the existing database or through the addition of new data. The largest challenge of this task was the heterogeneity of the data, formats, and metadata. Many steps of data integration need manual input from experts in diverse fields, requiring close collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This work describes the process of building Micro.3, an integrated database containing firm level information for Italian enterprises. Micro.3 covers the period 1989-2004 and represents the development of a previous database, Micro.1 which covered a much narrower set of variables and spanned only from 1989 to 1997. This works explains the motives that drove the development of Micro.3 and it details the decisions taken during the process of construction to ensure the continuity of the existing variables as they are retrieved from different sources. Finally, we presents some statistical evidence that enables the reader to assess the quality of Micro.3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recently, there has been an increasing tendency to go back to nature in search of new medicines. To facilitate this, a great deal of effort has been made to compile information on natural products worldwide, and as a result, many ethnic-based traditional medicine databases have been developed. In Ethiopia, there are more than 80 ethnic groups, each having their indigenous knowledge on the use of traditional medicine. About 80% of the population uses traditional medicine for primary health care. Despite this, there is no structured online database for Ethiopian traditional medicine, which limits natural products based drug discovery researches using natural products from this country. Description: To develop ETM-DB, online research articles, theses, books, and public databases containing Ethiopian herbal medicine and phytochemicals information were searched. These resources were thoroughly inspected and the necessary data were extracted. Then, we developed a comprehensive online relational database which contains information on 1054 Ethiopian medicinal herbs with 1465 traditional therapeutic uses, 573 multi-herb prescriptions, 4285 compounds, 11,621 human target gene/proteins, covering 5779 herb-phenotype, 1879 prescription-herb, 16,426 herb-compound, 105,202 compound-phenotype, 162,632 compound-gene/protein, and 16,584 phenotype-gene/protein relationships. Using various cheminformatics tools, we obtained predicted physicochemical and absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) properties of ETM-DB compounds. We also evaluated drug-likeness properties of these compounds using FAF-Drugs4 webserver. From the 4285 compounds, 4080 of them passed the FAF-Drugs4 input data curation stage, of which 876 were found to have acceptable drug-likeness properties. Conclusion: ETM-DB is the largest, freely accessible, web-based integrated resource on Ethiopian traditional medicine. It provides traditional herbal medicine entities and their relationships in well-structured forms including reference to the sources. The ETM-DB website interface allows users to search the entities using various options provided by the search menu. We hope that our database will expedite drug discovery and development researches from Ethiopian natural products as it contains information on the chemical composition and related human target gene/proteins. The current version of ETM-DB is openly accessible at http://biosoft.kaist.ac.kr/etm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the most important crop plants, globally providing staple food for a large proportion of the human population. However, improvement of this crop has been limited due to its large and complex genome. Advances in genomics are supporting wheat crop improvement. We provide a variety of web-based systems hosting wheat genome and genomic data to support wheat research and crop improvement. WheatGenome.info is an integrated database resource which includes multiple web-based applications. These include a GBrowse2-based wheat genome viewer with BLAST search portal, TAGdb for searching wheat second-generation genome sequence data, wheat autoSNPdb, links to wheat genetic maps using CMap and CMap3D, and a wheat genome Wiki to allow interaction between diverse wheat genome sequencing activities. This system includes links to a variety of wheat genome resources hosted at other research organizations. This integrated database aims to accelerate wheat genome research and is freely accessible via the web interface at http://www.wheatgenome.info/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]