Community feedback on scholarly content: why it is important and why it should be preserved

Laparoscopic Appendectomy: Why It Should Be Done

OBJECTIVE Notwithstanding its widely perceived advantages, laparoscopic appendectomy has not yet met with universal acceptance. The aim of the present work is to illustrate retrospectively the results of a case-control experience with laparoscopic versus open appendectomy carried out at our institution. METHODS Between January 1993 and November 2000, 555 patients (M:F = 210:345; mean age 25.2...

Rheumatoid cachexia: what is it and why is it important?

Radiogenomics: what it is and why it is important.

In recent years, a new direction in cancer research has emerged that focuses on the relationship between imaging phenotypes and genomics. This direction is referred to as radiogenomics or imaging genomics. The question that subsequently arises is: What is the practical significance of elucidating this relationship in improving cancer patient outcomes. In this article, I address this question. A...

Cognitive Robotics: What it is and Why it is Important for the Assistive Robotics Community

Today robotics technology is broadening its applications from factory to more general-purpose applications in domestic and public use e.g., rehabilitation, search and rescue, etc. However, if robotics technology is to be successful in such environments, it will need to meet new levels of robustness, physical dexterity and cognitive capability. This paper discusses an emerging field called cogni...

Annotating scientific data : why it is important and why it is difficult

Annotation of existing data is becoming a standard tool in many branches of e-science. Increasingly, databases are being built to receive annotation, and other tools are being developed to annotate existing databases. Annotation is becoming an important part of communication among scientists. In this paper we review various kinds of annotation systems and describe the importance of designing da...