Tips for Using Quertle

1. Tips on Using
RELATIONSHIP-DRIVEN
BIOMEDICAL SEARCH
© 2010 Quertle, LLC

2. What are Relationships?
• Subject-Verb-Object triplet representing
an assertion by the author
– “streptozotocin induces diabetes”
• Relationships are order independent
– “diabetes is induced by streptozotocin”
• A sentence may have multiple
relationships
– “While A regulates B, A also regulates C”

3. Search
Quertle’s Search Interface

4. Search: Basics
• Use all or parts of a relationship
caffeine affects sleep caffeine sleep
caffeine affects caffeine
affects sleep sleep
• All variants and synonyms will
automatically be applied
• Use additional qualifiers, including
dates, as filters on the Results page

5. Search Tip #1 – Definitions
• Find Definitions
– Search for the relationship: XXX is
– Example:

6. Search Tip #2 – Be Clear
will get p53 as subject OR object
(p53 induces __) or (__ induces p53)
• Use “what” to clarify your intention
will return only p53 as subject

7. Search Tip #3 – Capitalization
• Many terms have different meanings
depending on case
– NO (nitric oxide); no (negative)
– MAID (a protein); maid (household help)
• Use proper capitalization to make the
distinction
– will find documents on nitric oxide and the
disease AIDS

8. Search: Power Terms™
• Power Terms represent classes of
entities
– $Diseases
• Allows you to query for all members of
the class in a single bound query
• You cannot make your own
– Such as, $MyFavoriteClass
– Let us know what you want & we will add it

9. Power Term Tip #1 – Term Choice
• Use $AdverseEffects to represent the
commonly measured side effects
– Heart rate change, hERG effect, etc.
• Use $Diseases to represent everything
physiologically bad
– Cancer, DNA mutation, etc.

10. Power Term Tip #2 – Models
• Use $AnimalModels to represent
common experimental animals
– Mice, rats, pigs, etc.
• Use $PlantModels to represent
common plant systems
– Corn, tobacco, Arabidopsis, etc.

11. Power Term Tip #3 – Verbs
• Use $PositiveActions to represent
positive actions
– Induce, activate, stimulate, etc.
• Use $NegativeActions to represent
negative actions
– Block, inhibit, prevent, etc.

12. Power Term Tip #4
• Use multiple Power Terms

13. Search: Authors and Journals
•
– Find documents with specific author(s)
• Example: Alzheimer or Genes
– Query finds articles with all authors
•
– Find documents in specific journal(s)
– Query finds articles with any journal

14. Author Search Tip #1
• An individual will be listed many ways
– Saffer J
– Saffer JD
– Saffer Jeffrey
– Saffer Jeffrey D
• To find all forms of a name, use the
lowest common denominator

15. Results
Quertle’s Results Page

16. Results: Relationships/Keywords
• When needed, results from a traditional
Keyword search are also available
• The number of documents updates as
filters are applied

17. Results: Contextual Highlighting
• The relevant relationship(s) are clearly
highlighted
• Click »More Relationships to see
additional relevant sentences

18. Results: Full-Text Documents
• Full-text documents, indicated by ,
are searched in all informative fields
(including Materials & Methods and
Figure Legends, but not References)
• Simply click to open the PDF

19. Results: Sorting
• Results are initially sorted by Relevance
• Click Sort by Date to list the most recent
first

20. Filters
Results can be filtered by:
• Additional terms
• Publication Date
• Publication Type
• Key Concepts
Simply click any filter to
update the results

21. Filters: Also Containing
• Add additional terms to
refine your query
• As with the main query,
use Power Terms and
proper capitalization
• Add as many additional
terms as needed

22. Filters: Published Within
• Click the time period of
interest
• Selecting a new time
period will replace any
current date choice

23. Filters: Publication Type
• Click the publication type
of interest
• Selecting more than one
Publication Type will limit
the results to any of the
selected types

24. Filters: Key Concepts
• Concepts are extracted
from Relationships (not
just anywhere in the
document)
• Relevant members of a
Power Term used in the
original search are listed
• General Concepts and
actions (verbs) are listed
separately

25. Filters: Managing
• Applied Filters show the
steps in your exploration
• Click the X at the top to
remove all filters
• Click the X after each
entry to remove just that
filter
• Click an underlined filter to
remove all filters below

26. Remember:
• More is not better!
• Only more relevant information is
better.
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