| Questions & Answers |
| Q: I did a publication trends analysis and have no data on experimental methods for years earlier than 2000. (8/20/2005) |
The BEA database traces experimental methods from 2000 onwards.
|
| Q: I searched for a patent I know exists but BEA did not show it - why? (7/20/2005) |
BEA currently covers only USPTO (US Patents and Trademarks Office)patents in the classification categories 424, 435, 436, 514 and 800. It does not cover EPO (European Patent Office) and JPO (Japanese Patent Office) patents.
If the patent you are looking for has not been classified in one of the above categories it will not show up in BEA.
|
| Q:
When starting up BEA I sometimes experience a long waiting period
before the main screen comes up after I select the project I wish to
work on. Why? (7/19/2005) |
This
is usually because of the way in which your internet connection is set
up. As part of its initialization procedure, as well as for security
considerations, BEA keeps track of the IP address and Host name of the
computer from which you are connecting. In some cases your network set
up may result in this operation taking a long time (e.g. slow Domain
Name Server(s) (DNS) being specified in your active connection). If
this issue persists, please consult with your system administrator.
|
| Q: Sometime BEA freezes and does not respond to my mouse. (7/18/2005) |
When
you leave BEA inactive for more that 1 minute, the connection with the
BEA database server may be cut. If BEA has frozen, move the mouse and
wait for a few seconds for the database connection to get
re-established. You will then be able to continue normally.
|
| Q:
I type in an author name that I know exists but BEA either says No
Entity found or suggests terms that do not include the one I am looking
for. (7/17/2005) |
Author names in Medline are of the form ‘Initial(s) Surname’ – for example A J SMITH or T MANOUSIS. As BEA looks for an exact match the best way to locate your author is to click on the expansion button “…” next to Authors in the Summary Statistics window.
This will pop-up the Entity Selection window.
Activate the Extended Search option and in the
Search Authors text box type in just the surname of your author. BEA
will search and list the closest matching names from which you can pick
the one you are interested in.
|
| Q: The entire BEA window does not fit properly into my screen. (7/17/2005) |
BEA has been designed for optimal viewing using a screen resolution of 1024X768.
Recent laptops with wide-screens may experience this viewing problem
due to their non-standard resolution. Try changing the screen
resolution.
|
| Q:
I am accessing BEA via Mac OS X. I have the following issue: I tried
exiting BEA through the main Mac menu (Biolab Experiment Assistant >
Quit Biolab Experiment Assistant, i.e. command-Q). The application
exits without the 'System Exit' warning. When I try to log back into
BEA I get the message that the user is already logged in. What am I
doing wrong? (7/15/2005) |
You
should always exit BEA through the application File menu, i.e.
'File>Exit' rather than the universal Mac menu bar. In the occasion
that you do exit via command-Q, wait for 15 minutes and then try to
log-in again.
|
| Q: Sometimes my graph window freezes. (7/15/2005) |
This
may happen on occasion, especially if you run a large query and the
internet connection is experiencing heavy traffic loads. Wait for a few
seconds until the window gets active again.
|
| Q: I have selected Set Selection Mode and now cannot select any node – why? (7/15/2005) |
The
Set Selection Mode button allows you to select a region of the graph
and capture only that region in a snapshot. The Set Selection Mode
button is a toggle which means that in order to return to your graph
window to its normal mouse selection mode you must click once again the
Button so that Selection Mode becomes inactive.
|
| Q:
I have created a graph with 3 entities. Can I treat this combination as
a single entity and show links to other things, e.g., drugs AND this
combination? (7/15/2005) |
Yes.
You select all 3 entities (e.g. by shift and L-clicking on each of
them). Once you have selected the entities you right click on the
background space of the graph and from the menu select Show Links and
from the sub menu you select Drugs. BEA will show the each of the
entities with drugs allowing you to see which drugs are common and
which unique to each of the entities. You can finally select any
entities present in the graph and do a Combinatorial Reference search
to get the relevant literature.
|
| Q: I had a graph displayed when using the Medline database. I then switched to the USPTO database and my Meldine graph vanished. (7/10/2005) |
This
is by design. Because Medline and USPTO have slightly different concept
sets (USPTO has Inventors and Assignees while Medline has Authors for
example) their graphs are kept separate to avoid confusion.
As soon as you switch back to the Medline database, your original graph will reappear.
|
| Q:
I want to search for a term that does not belong to one of the
categories covered by BEA (genes, diseases etc). Can I do this? (7/5/2005) |
YES. The way to do it is by using the Add Free Text Entry function of BEA. Here is how:
- In an open graph window Right click anywhere in the graph background.
- From the pop-up menu select Add a free Text Entry.
- In the Full Text Search pop-up window type in your term of interest.
- Press OK.
BEA will search in real time its database for instances of your
term. If it finds any it will add your term in the graph. You can then
right click on your term in the graph and search for links in the usual
way.
Note: This is a computationally heavy operation and can take some time to complete. You should use it sparingly.
|
| Q:
I have created a graph with 3 entities (“neurogenesis”, “dentate gyrus”
and “hippocampus”). Can I somehow make an "and" or an "or" Boolean link
(like I can in Medline)? For example, can I ask: "neurogenesis AND
(hippocampus OR dentate gyrus)"? (7/1/2005) |
Yes.
The way you do this is the "Combinatorial Analysis" option. You select
the entities you want (“neurogenesis”, “dentate gyrus” and
“hippocampus” and on the white background of the graph window, you
Right-click and from the menu select "Combinatorial Reference
Calculation". This takes all possible combinations of the selected
entities doing ALL the AND and ORs simultaneously for you. In the
example mentioned there are 4 combinations:
> “neurogenesis”, “dentate gyrus”
> “neurogenesis”, “ “hippocampus”
> “dentate gyrus” “hippocampus”
> “neurogenesis”, “dentate gyrus”, “hippocampus” …
and
each one of these are checked by BEA. The results are shown in the
bibliography window where the "Combinatorial Analysis" Tab shows you
the results for each of these combinations. You select the combinations
that you are interested in and double click on them to get the
literature. Note that in red are shown the combinations with no
supporting literature, in blue are the "outliers" (1-3 papers) and in
black the combinations with 4 or more supporting papers.
|
