A professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh tracks the fiscal fortunes of the National Institutes of Health. Any tightening of the NIH budget might starve out talented young researchers at Pittsburgh. Support from the agency amounts to about half of all government support. (MLW)

Describes the SAPHIRE (Semantic and Probabilistic Heuristic Information Retrieval Environment) that was developed to identify optimal approaches to indexing, retrieval, and evaluation of information retrieval systems in the biomedical domain. Six evaluation studies that have been done with SAPHIRE are summarized and future challenges are…

An African-American researcher is spearheading a black biomedical research movement to urge more African Americans to investigate the health issues affecting their communities. His research focuses on the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) virus, but he is encouraging general expansion of the black researcher population. (MSE)

Examines the structure of medical informatics and the relationship between biomedicine and information science and information technology. Uses co-occurrence analysis of subject headings assigned to items indexed for MEDLINE as well as multidimensional scaling to show seven to eight broad multidisciplinary subject clusters. (Contains 28…

While there is sufficient evidence to suggest that physical activity is inversely related to lifestyle diseases, researchers are far from being certain that this evidence extends to children. Nevertheless, the school physical education curriculum has been targeted as an institutional agency that could have a significant impact on health during…

Describes the architecture of an anthropocentric Biomedical Information Management System prototype that is based on a network of computational components, or agents, that expert biomedical users can define, use, and refine to serve their own communication and documentation habits and needs. The innovation of the proposal, the Participatory Design…

Undergraduate biology programs are currently undergoing reform to involve students in biomedical research. Engaging students in more active, hands-on experiments allows students to discover scientific principles for themselves, and to develop techniques of critical thinking and problem solving. This models the world of real scientific research,…

The medical scientist program at the Duke University School of Medicine was designed to prepare students with clinical experience for careers in basic science, clinical teaching, and investigation. The career selections and professional activities of graduates and the factors that may have influenced their career choices are examined. (MLW)

One of the most difficult problems involved in funding research is that of providing for the unexpected. The Biomedical Research Support Grants program of the National Institutes of Health has provided this type of funding but the amount has dwindled to two percent. (MLW)

Reviews the pros and cons of using animals or alternatives in scientific research. Such alternatives (as indicated in congressional bill HR 556) include mathematical models, isolated organs, tissue and cell cultures, computer simulations, mechanical models, and "lower" organisms among others. (SK)

What brain mechanisms underlie autism, and how do they give rise to autistic behavioral symptoms? This article describes a neural model, called the Imbalanced Spectrally Timed Adaptive Resonance Theory (iSTART) model, that proposes how cognitive, emotional, timing, and motor processes that involve brain regions such as the prefrontal and temporal…

Summarized in this document are the proceedings of a public hearing sponsored by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Board of Regents in order to provide a forum in which publishers, editors, paper manufacturers and distributors, printers, biomedical researchers, librarians, and other professionals concerned with preserving the biomedical…

The Biomedical Research Support Grant (BRSG) at The George Washington University Medical Center funds pilot projects submitted by the faculty. The procedures for allocating BRSG funds, their distribution in Medical Center departments, and their effect on attracting extramural funding over a five-year period are discussed.

Discusses unpaid postdoctoral researchers, especially those in biology and medicine, addressing reasons why they work without pay, how they receive funding, efforts to help them, their impacts on the field, and personal concerns. (DC)

The presentation of the Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education to Sherman M. Mellinkoff and the AAMC Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences to J. Michael Bishop is described. (MLW)