bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prototype tunnel in barcelona – test to check the construction feasibility with the 360° horizontal jet grouting and frontal septum
Authors: Guatteri G.  , Koshima A.  , Lopes J.R.  , Ravaglia A.  , Pieroni R.M.  , Rocha P.  , Castanheira M.
Published: February 2025

The authors are presenting here the behavior and instrumentation results of a prototype tunnel built to check the efficiency of a treatment fully carried out by horizontal jet grouting (HJG), applied for the first time in Barcelona, Spain. The 360° HJG treatment consolidates the unstable soil and stops the water flow all around the section to be excavated, including the inverted arch. It also creates a frontal septum inside the section, using HJG, so as to form a watertight chamber before the excavation. A specific site in the delta of the Llobregat river, composed by very fine, smooth and saturated sandy silt sediment (or vice-versa), was chosen to perform the test. It is typically a soil that can be washed away by the perforation water. The prototype tunnel presented a section equivalent to 80% of the section of the Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona-French Border High Speed Railway tunnel. After the test completion, the solution was accepted and its application to the main construction works found feasible.
L'enseignement à distance de la Géotechnique: une expérience éprouvée
Authors: Delmas Ph.  , Briançon L.
Published: February 2025

La formation ouverte à distance permet, grâce aux nouveaux moyens multimédia, de donner un accès plus large aux enseignements. Initiée par le Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam) il y a 12 ans, cette démarche a été pleinement mise en œuvre par la Chaire de Géotechnique. Elle s'est appuyée sur les nombreux outils pédagogiques de téléformation, dont une plateforme internet (plei@d) et des studios de cours permettant la diffusion des enseignements à distance en direct ou enregistrés. Les unités d'enseignement comprennent des cours magistraux, des travaux dirigés, des QCM, des exercices à résoudre, mais aussi des présentations PowerPoint commentées, incluant éventuellement de courtes vidéos. La mise à disposition pour les auditeurs des principaux logiciels de calcul via la plateforme plei@d pendant la durée de l'enseignement permet aussi aux auditeurs d'acquérir une réelle expérience d'utilisation de ces outils. Les cours sont aussi illustrés par des vidéos des présentations réalisées lors de journées techniques de spécialistes. La grande accessibilité de ces formations facilite la mise en œuvre aisée de collaborations avec des établissements d'enseignement d'autres pays francophones.
Une stratégie de reconnaissance géotechnique pour les argiles grands fonds
Authors: Puech A.  , Borel D.  , Palix E.  , Po S.
Published: February 2025

Le papier présente les besoins géotechniques pour le dimensionnement des structures pétrolières par grands fonds et rappelle les propriétés spécifiques des sédiments de la pente continentale. Il décrit ensuite la stratégie de reconnaissance mise au point, insiste sur la complémentarité entre essais in situ et essais de laboratoire et montre comment la combinaison judicieuse des différentes données permet d'accéder aux paramètres d'ingénierie.
Administrative Report of TC28 – Underground construction in soft ground
Authors: Kastner R.  , Standing J.
Published: February 2025

In 1994, under the leadership of the then Chairman, Prof K. Fujita, a one-day International Symposium was held in New Delhi – just before the 13th ICSMGE. Following the success of this, it was decided to initiate under the Chairmanship of Prof R. Mair a series of two-day International Symposia on Geotechnical Aspects of Underground Construction in Soft Ground, with a third day devoted to technical site visits to underground construction projects. These International Symposia have been held every three years over the past 10 years as follows: 1996 London, 1999 Tokyo, 2002 Toulouse, 2005 Amsterdam, and 2008 Shanghai. These symposia, for all of which comprehensive proceedings have been produced containing the written papers, selected and reviewed by members of TC28, along with general reports and special lectures, thus provide a regular means of presenting information about the latest construction projects and research linked to the theme of Underground Construction in Soft Ground.
A stress-dilatancy relation for cemented sands
Authors: Zhang J.  , Salgado R.
Published: February 2025

In numerical modeling of uncemented soils, Rowe's stress-dilatancy relation for frictional materials was widely used and supported by a large body of experimental results. Even though the derivation of the theory was questioned because the principle of minimum energy no longer applies when friction is involved, De Josselin de Jong (1976) did prove, with an alternative approach based on the laws of friction, that Rowe's final conclusions and his stress-dilatancy relation were valid. Besides frictional materials, Rowe (1962) also proposed a stress-dilatancy relation for cohesive-frictional materials. Recently, researchers applied this relation for cemented sands. Although the Rowe's relation for frictional materials was proved to be correct, the validity of his stress-dilatancy relation for cohesive-frictional materials was never checked. This must be done before the application of that relation to model cohesive-frictional materials. This paper will show that the Rowe's stress-dilatancy relation for cohesive-frictional materials is not correct. A correct stress-dilatancy relation for cemented sands will be proposed, which was derived using the friction laws used by De Josselin de Jong (1976).
Centrifuge modeling of failure patterns in mixed soil layers induced by normal faults
Authors: Hu P.  , Cai Q.P.  , Luo G.Y.  , Ding Y.H.  , Dong M.  , Hu L.W.  , Hou Y.J.  , Ng C.W.W.
Published: February 2025

Ground failures and ruptures may be induced by fault movements during an earthquake. Numerous notorious earthquakes including the recent Wenchuan earthquake have revealed that surface fault ruptures cause serious damage to structures located near bedrock fault zones. Physical model tests have been conducted by various researchers to investigate the influence of fault movements at one gravity (1-g) and elevated gravity. Most of these physical model tests have been carried out on clear dry sands even though very complex ground failure patterns have been observed in field case studies. In this study, three centrifuge model tests at 120-g were conducted to observe ground failure patterns in different types of soil. Three different models, a sand model, a silt model and a model with mixed soil layers, were tested in the centrifuge. A newly developed hydraulic setup was used at the bottom of the centrifuge models to simulate normal bedrock fault movement with a dip slip angle of 70° with respect to the horizontal direction. The centrifuge setup, model preparation and testing procedures and experimental results are described, reported and discussed in this paper.
Comportement hydromécanique des sols gonflants lors des cycles de séchage/humidification
Authors: Nowamooz H.  , Masrouri F.
Published: February 2025

Cet article présente les résultats d'études expérimentales effectuées à l'œdomètre avec imposition de succion par la méthode osmotique sur des matériaux gonflants compacté lâche et naturel dense. Plusieurs cycles de séchage/humidification ont été appliqués sur deux matériaux sous trois faibles charges mécaniques constantes. Pendant ces cycles, les éprouvettes manifestent un retrait cumulé pour le sol lâche et un gonflement cumulé pour le sol dense. Les résultats montrent que dans les deux cas, les déformations volumiques convergent vers un état d'équilibre où le sol présente un comportement réversible. A la fin des cycles de succion, un cycle de chargement/déchargement a été effectué sous trois succions différentes. Les valeurs de la pression de préconsolidation p0(s), de l'indice de compression vierge λ(s) et de l'indice de compression élastique κ dépendent directement des chemins de contrainte suivis. L'ensemble des résultats expérimentaux permet de déterminer les surfaces de charge : la surface de chargement-effondrement (LC : Loading Collapse) et la surface de comportement saturé (SCS). Les surfaces de charge SCS et LC se superposent à la fin des cycles de succion pour les deux sols.
La Pratique du dimensionnement des chaussées sahariennes
Authors: Morsli M.  , Bali A.
Published: February 2025

La modélisation du comportement des chaussées sahariennes réalisées en tufs est calquée sur celui des chaussées en Grave Non Traitée (GNT) en milieu humide. Or ces dernières sont construites avec un matériau à ossature, à grains durs, sans cohésion inter granulaire, sur un sol support généralement mou, compressible : le principal mode de dégradation de ces chaussées est alors l'orniérage. Les chaussées sahariennes sont réalisées avec un matériau fin, friable, évolutif, doté de cohésion, sur un sol support généralement sec, peu déformable : ces chaussées périssent par la fatigue du matériau. Les principes du dimensionnement ne sauraient donc être identiques dans les deux cas cités.
Evaluation of the Performance of Contaminant Mitigation of Chinese Standard Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Liner Systems
Authors: Du Y.J.  , Liu S.Y.  , Shen S.L.
Published: February 2025

In this paper, the Chinese stanadrd Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)landfill liner systems are introduced. Two types of the standard liners are composed of a natural clay layer with a thickness of 2 m (herein titled CN 1 liner), and a composite liner (a geomembrane (GM) liner underlain by a compacted clay liner (CCL) with a thickness of 1 m) (herein titled CN 2 liner), respectively. The performance of these two types of liners are evaluated based on three criteria: 1) maximum landfill leachate head (ymax) over the liners; 2) leachate rate through liner systems; 3) peak concentration and mass of the targeted contaminant (dichloromethane, DCM) discharged in to an aquifer below the assumed landfill. To calculate ymax, the Giroud's 1992 method is adopted. It is assumed that there a certain number of holed wrinkles in the geomembrane liner. The Rowe's 1998 analytical method is used to calculate the leachate leakage through the GM/CCL system. The results show that the value of ymaxfor Chinese standard liner systems are much higher than the limited value regulated by most European and northern American countries. The caclualted leakage rate, peak concentration and maximum mass at the aquifer for CN 1 are greater than that for CN 2, indicating that the former is less strict than the latter one.
Automatic Indexing in a Drug Information Portal
Authors: Sakji Saoussen  , Letord Catherine  , Dahamna Badisse  , Kergourlay Ivan  , Pereira Suzanne  , Joubert Michel  , Darmoni Stéfan
Published: February 2025

Objective: The objective of this work is to create a bilingual (French/English) Drug Information Portal (DIP), in a multi-terminological context and to emphasize its exploitation by an ATC automatic indexing allowing having more pertinent information about substances, organs or systems on which drugs act and their therapeutic and chemical characteristics. Methods: The development of the DIP was based on the CISMeF portal, which catalogues and indexes the most important and quality-controlled sources of institutional health information in French. DIP has created specific functionalities and uses specific drugs terminologies such as the ATC classification which used to automatic index the DIP resources. Results: DIP is the result of collaboration between the CISMeF team and the VIDAL Company, specialized in drug information. DIP is conceived to facilitate the user information retrieval. The ATC automatic indexing provided relevant results in 76% of cases. Conclusion: Using multi-terminological context and in the framework of the drug field, indexing drugs with the appropriate codes or/and terms revealed to be very important to have the appropriate information storage and retrieval. The main challenge in the coming year is to increase the accuracy of the approach.
A Knowledge Engineering Framework towards Clinical Support for Adverse Drug Event Prevention: The PSIP Approach
Authors: Koutkias Vassilis  , Stalidis George  , Chouvarda Ioanna  , Lazou Katerina  , Kilintzis Vassilis  , Maglaveras Nicos
Published: February 2025

Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) are currently considered as a major public health issue, endangering patients' safety and causing significant healthcare costs. Several research efforts are currently concentrating on the reduction of preventable ADEs by employing Information Technology (IT) solutions, which aim to provide healthcare professionals and patients with relevant knowledge and decision support tools. In this context, we present a knowledge engineering approach towards the construction of a Knowledge-based System (KBS) regarded as the core part of a CDSS (Clinical Decision Support System) for ADE prevention, all developed in the context of the EU-funded research project PSIP (Patient Safety through Intelligent Procedures in Medication). In the current paper, we present the knowledge sources considered in PSIP and the implications they pose to knowledge engineering, the methodological approach followed, as well as the components defining the knowledge engineering framework based on relevant state-of-the-art technologies and representation formalisms.
Computerised Physician Order Entry (CPOE)
Authors: Hartmann Hamilton Anne Regitze  , Anhøj Jacob  , Hellebek Annemarie  , Egebart Jonas  , Bjørn Brian  , Lilja Beth
Published: February 2025

The purpose of this study is to examine how everyday use of the Computerised Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system in the Capital Region of Denmark has led to medication errors. The study is based on clinicians' reporting of patient safety incidents. It was found that the immediate causes of the patient safety incidents primarily relates to a) a mismatch between clinical work routines and the structure of the CPOE system, b) the complexity of the user interface, and c) lack of barriers against commonly occurring, severe errors in some areas of the CPOE system. The following was concluded: A well designed CPOE system should be intuitive, provide barriers against serious mistakes, and make the correct choice an easy one. Furthermore it was concluded that it is important that the CPOE system closely supports accepted clinical work routines and that risk assessment is performed prior to implementing new design or functionality.
Detection of Adverse Drug Events: Proposal of a Data Model
Authors: Chazard Emmanuel  , Merlin Béatrice  , Ficheur Grégoire  , Sarfati Jean-Charles  , Beuscart Régis
Published: February 2025

Our main objective is to detect adverse drug events (ADEs) in former hospital stays. As ADEs are rare, that supposes to screen thousands of electronic health records (EHRs). For that purpose, we need to define a data model that has two main objectives: (1) being able to describe hospital stays from various hospitals (2) being tuned so as to prepare the data mining process: as ADEs are not flagged in the datasets, the data model must be optimized for ADE detection. The article presents the phases of the design and the data model that results from this work. It is compatible with many hospitals. It deals with diagnoses, drug prescriptions, lab results and administrative information. It allows for data mining and ADE detection in EHRs.
A Migration to an openEHR-Based Clinical Application
Authors: Kashfi Hajar  , Torgersson Olof
Published: February 2025

MedView is a suit of clinical applications for recording, retrieving and visualizing patient records, which has been developed and in use for more than ten years. By the introduction of the openEHR architecture, the MedView project started an investigation to migrate from its locally developed framework to openEHR. Issues related to this process, have been discussed in this paper.
Implementing an HL7 Version 3 Modeling Tool from an Ecore Model
Authors: Bánfai Balázs  , Ulrich Brandon  , Török Zsolt  , Natarajan Ravi  , Ireland Tim
Published: February 2025

One of the main challenges of achieving interoperability using the HL7 V3 healthcare standard is the lack of clear definition and supporting tools for modeling, testing, and conformance checking. Currently, the knowledge defining the modeling is scattered around in MIF schemas, tools and specifications or simply with the domain experts. Modeling core HL7 concepts, constraints, and semantic relationships in Ecore/EMF encapsulates the domain-specific knowledge in a transparent way while unifying Java, XML, and UML in an abstract, high-level representation. Moreover, persisting and versioning the core HL7 concepts as a single Ecore context allows modelers and implementers to create, edit and validate message models against a single modeling context. The solution discussed in this paper is implemented in the new HL7 Static Model Designer as an extensible toolset integrated as a standalone Eclipse RCP application.
Augmented Reality Telenavigation in Cranio Maxillofacial Oral Surgery
Authors: Ewers Rolf  , Schicho Kurt
Published: February 2025

Selected workflows combining computer-assisted teleplanning and navigation (including 3D-stereolithography) are presented. It is shown how interactive teleplanning of dental implants or optimization of a surgical treatment of large bone defects is done.
A Reference Set of SNOMED Terms for the Structured Representation of Respiratory Disorders of the Newborn Infant
Authors: James Andrew G.  , Ng Eugene  , Shah Prakesh S.
Published: February 2025

The SNOMED CT® July 2006 release was systematically examined using the CliniClue® terminology browser to identify SNOMED terms that might be relevant for the structured representation of respiratory disorders of the newborn infant. Three neonatologists evaluated 348 candidate terms for inclusion in a reference set. Two hundred and eighty-eight (83%) terms were selected for inclusion. Most of the terms (73%) are SNOMED terms that are very relevant for the specific domain of care for the newborn infant. Nearly half the terms are fully defined and a third have one or more synonyms. The estimated use for the RefSet terms was more than once per month for 9% of the SNOMED terms and less than once a year for 66% of the terms.
Using the CEN/ISO Standard for Categorial Structure to Harmonise the
Authors: Rodrigues Jean M.  , Kumar Anand  , Bousquet Cédric  , Trombert Béatrice
Published: February 2025

Semantic interoperability (SIOp) is a major issue for health care systems having to share information across professionals, teams, legacies, countries, languages and citizens. The World Health Organisation (WHO) develops and updates a family of health care terminologies (ICD, ICF, ICHI and ICPS) and has embarked on an open web-based cooperation to revise ICD 11 using ontology driven tools. The International Health Terminology Standard Development Organisation (IHTSDO) updates, translates and maps SNOMED CT to ICD 10. We present the application of the CEN/ISO standard on categorial structure to bind terminologies and ontologies to harmonise and to map between these international terminologies.
Informal Social Networks amongst Administrative Staff at a University Hospital
Authors: Bilge Ugur  , Senol Utku  , Saka Osman
Published: February 2025

In this study we apply Social Network Analysis and Agent Based Simulation techniques to visualize and explore informal social networks amongst staff at the Akdeniz University Hospital to assess and evaluate properties of the organization in terms of its ability to share knowledge and innovate, which is crucial for healthcare organizations delivering a health service. We first prepared an e-mail-based questionnaire, and asked administrative staff at Akdeniz University Hospital, a number of questions including (i) who they would contact if they had an innovative idea regarding their work (ii) who they would consult if they wanted to implement their idea, and (iii) to whom they would talk when they wanted to find out what is going on socially in the work place. We use a bespoke software tool called Organizational Forms Simulator to visualize and analyze informal social networks obtained from the questionnaire. The analysis reveals hubs, lynchpins, and unknown leaders as well as communications bottlenecks, and overall connectivity in the organization. The software tool we use also allows us to run what-if scenarios, to see how long it would take for an ‘epidemic’ of a good idea to spread across the staff social networks, using the informal links obtained from the questionnaire. We believe the study will help us to assess the current state of informal social networks amongst staff, and help the hospital management to improve connectivity in the organization.
Knowledge Sharing for Pediatric Pain Management via a Web 2.0 Framework
Authors: Abidi Syed Sibte Raza  , Hussini Salah  , Sriraj Wimorat  , Thienthong Somboon  , Finley G. Allen
Published: February 2025

The experiential knowledge of pediatric health practitioners encompasses vital insights into the clinical efficacy of diagnostic and therapeutic methods for pediatric pain management. Yet, this knowledge is not readily disseminated to other practitioners and translated into practice guidelines. We argue that a peer-to-peer knowledge sharing mechanism can serve as a key change agent to improve the attitudes, beliefs and methods for pediatric pain management. We are using collaborative technologies, in the realm of Web 2.0, to develop a web-based knowledge sharing medium for fostering a community of pediatric pain practitioners that engages in collaborative learning and problem solving. We present the design and use of a web portal featuring a discussion forum to facilitate experiential knowledge sharing based on our LINKS knowledge sharing model.
Adopting Software Quality Measures for Healthcare Processes
Authors: Yildiz Özkan  , Demirörs Onur
Published: February 2025

In this study, we investigated the adoptability of software quality measures for healthcare process measurement. Quality measures of ISO/IEC 9126 are redefined from a process perspective to build a generic healthcare process quality measurement model. Case study research method is used, and the model is applied to a public hospital's Entry to Care process. After the application, weak and strong aspects of the process can be easily observed. Access audibility, fault removal, completeness of documentation, and machine utilization are weak aspects and these aspects are the candidates for process improvement. On the other hand, functional completeness, fault ratio, input validity checking, response time, and throughput time are the strong aspects of the process.
Mobile Phone-Based Teledermatologic Compliance Management – Preliminary Results of the TELECOMP Study
Authors: Hayn Dieter  , Koller Silvia  , Hofmann-Wellenhof Rainer  , Salmhofer Wolfgang  , Kastner Peter  , Schreier Günter
Published: February 2025

A mobile phone-based telemonitoring system for long-term psoriasis therapy is described, intended to increase patients' compliance by optimizing the patient-physician communication. Patients themselves can acquire health parameters and take photos of their psoriasis lesions. The data are sent to a monitoring centre, where they are provided to the patients' physician who returns a feed-back message. The system is currently tested in a study with 20 patients. Preliminary results prove the feasibility and usabililty of such a system and indicate that it is useful for optimizing psoriasis-therapy.
The Development of a Swedish National Information Structure
Authors: Johansson Lars-Åke  , Wohed Rolf  , Kajbjer Karin
Published: February 2025

Sweden has as part of its national eHealth strategy decided to develop a generic National Information Structure. It is based on three models: The Generic Process, Concepts and Information model. The models are intended to be specialised for various forms of care including social and community care. The importance of interacting models developed in an iterative approach with user involvement is emphasised.
A Framework for Assessing Adherence and Persistence to Long-Term Medication
Authors: Mabotuwana Thusitha  , Warren Jim
Published: February 2025

Poor adherence and persistence to long-term medication is a growing concern worldwide. Despite their importance, tools that facilitate the identification of patients who show poor adherence and persistence rates are limited. Herein we present a framework we have developed to assist in assessing adherence and persistence rates. We demonstrate the framework's features using production electronic medical record data from a general medical practice in the context of analysis of antihypertensive and antidepressant prescribing. The framework is flexible and extensible and has the potential to be used as a tool to improve the management of patients on long-term medication either to benchmark quality over a specified evaluation period or for the direct identification of specific patients that would benefit from immediate follow-up.
Approaching Harmonised Medication Information Management through Process and Information Modelling
Authors: Nykänen Pirkko  , Mäkinen Joonas  , Kortekangas Pirkko  , Toivanen Antti
Published: February 2025

Medication information should be available in a correct content and format and where and when needed in medical care. In this paper process and information models are presented in order to identify the items, their relations, contents, sources and use contexts of medication information. The motivation for this study has been to develop a harmonized information model for medication information to overcome current problems and pitfalls in medication information management and information accessibility.
Medintel: Decision Support for General Practitioners: A Case Study
Authors: Brandhorst Christiaan J.  , Sent Danielle  , Stegwee Robert A.  , Van Dijk Betsy M.A.G.
Published: February 2025

Short consultations and a large and growing amount of available medical information make searching for suitable information difficult for general practitioners. Thus information is often not searched for or not found, diminishing the quality of care. We propose a system that offers decision support by combining medical information sources with data from the electronic patient record. A first evaluation shows that a system like Medintel can be a useful supportive tool and can increase the quality of care provided by general practitioners.
Emergency Access to Protected Health Records
Authors: Künzi Julien  , Koster Paul  , Petković Milan
Published: February 2025

Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes are receiving increased attention in the healthcare domain for the protection of sensitive health records as they offer security against insider attacks and advance protection features such as usage control. However, to be accepted by health care providers, a DRM solution has to fulfill specific healthcare requirements including emergency access. In this paper, we propose such DRM solution that can be deployed in highly distributed environments of electronic or personal health record infrastructures.
Testing Tactics to Localize De-Identification
Authors: Grouin Cyril  , Rosier Arnaud  , Dameron Olivier  , Zweigenbaum Pierre
Published: February 2025

Recent renewed interest in de-identification (also known as “anonymisation”) has led to the development of a series of systems in the United States with very good performance on challenge test sets. De-identification needs however to be tuned to the local documents and their specificities. We address here two issues raised in this context. First, tuning is generally performed by language engineers who should not have to work on identified text. We therefore perform a first gross de-identification step in the hospital. Second, to set up a de-identification system for new documents in a language different from English, here French patient reports, we tested two methods: the first attempts to adapt an existing US de-identifier for English, the second re-develops a new system which applies the same methods. The first method involved localizing patterns designed for English, which proved cumbersome and did not quickly obtain good performance. With a similar effort, the latter method obtained much better results. Evaluated on a set of 23 randomly selected texts from a corpus of 21,749 clinical texts, it obtained 83% recall and 92% precision.
Machine Learning Analysis of Proteomics Data for Early Diagnosis
Authors: Devetyarov Dmitry
Published: February 2025

Ovarian cancer (OC) can usually clinically be diagnosed only at the late stages of the disease. We show that the combination of the biomarker antigen CA125 with proteomic mass spectra data and applying newly developed machine learning algorithms, may establish a diagnosis of OC very early.
An Automated System for Processing Electrodermal Activity
Authors: Frantzidis Christos A.  , Konstantinidis Evdokimos  , Pappas Costas  , Bamidis Panagiotis D.
Published: February 2025

A new approach is presented in this paper for the display and processing of electrodermal activity. It offers a fully automated interface for the pre-processing and scoring individual skin conductance responses (SCRs). The application supports parallel processing by means of multiple threads. Batch processing is also available. The XML format is used to describe the derived features. The system is employed to analyze emotion-related data.
An Internet-Based Simulation System for Training and Development of Regional-Healthcare-Centers Managers
Authors: Bregman David  , Korman Arik  , Shetach Ana  , Shalom Nira
Published: February 2025

RHCMS (Regional Healthcare Center Management System) is an Internet-based simulation training system for Regional Healthcare-Centers (RHCs) managers. The system is based on an integrative model, designed and developed by an interdisciplinary team of experts, for the purpose of training and developing RHCs' managers. This model involves the study of the following fields: healthcare management, business administration, organizational behavior, health economics, management science, and information technologies. The simulation system enables the operation of a management decision-making game. In the game, teams of trainees, playing management teams of RHCs, within one specific community, compete among themselves. The simulation focuses on managerial performance, based on periodic team-decisions, within the internal and external environmental context. The simulation game has a major potential contribution in enabling management trainees to transfer theoretical knowledge into managerial practical tools, capabilities and skills.
Tele-Surgery: A New Virtual Tool for Medical Education
Authors: Russomano Thais  , Cardoso Ricardo B.  , Fernandes Jefferson  , Cardoso Paulizan G.  , Alves Jarcedy M.  , Pianta Christina D.  , Souza Hamilton P.  , Lopes Maria Helena I.
Published: February 2025

The rapid evolution of telecommunication technology has enabled advances to be made in low cost video-conferencing through the improvement of high speed computer communication networks and the enhancement of Internet security protocols. As a result of this progress, eHealth education programs are becoming a reality in universities, providing the opportunity for students to have greater interaction at live surgery classes by means of virtual participation. Undergraduate students can be introduced to new concepts of medical care, remote second opinion and to telecommunication systems, whilst virtually experiencing surgical procedures and lectures. The better access this provides to the operating theater environment, the patient and the surgeon can improve the learning process for students. An analogical system was used for this experimental pilot project due to the benefits of it being low cost with a comparatively easy setup. The tele-surgery lectures were also transmitted to other universities by means of a Pentium 4 computer using open source software and connected to a portable image acquisition device located in the São Lucas University Hospital. Telemedicine technology has proven to be an important instrument for the improvement of medical education and health care. This study allowed health professionals, professors and students to have greater interaction during surgical procedures, thus enabling a greater opportunity for knowledge exchange.
Printed with permission of Rodale Books Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. The Science Behind Radical Life Extension
Authors: Kurzweil Ray  , Grossman Terry
Published: February 2025

Putting an end to human aging is now becoming a reality, and immortality is no longer just a dream. Through what we are calling “Fantastic Voyage,” we provide a guide to achieving life extension through various means, thereby slowing down aging and disease processes.
Diagnostics for a Personalized Medical Future: Extending our Senses to the Molecular Scale
Authors: Miller Benjamin L.
Published: February 2025

Unprecedented advances in our understanding of the molecular world around us and within us have the potential to drive a revolution in health care. A key aspect of bringing this revolution to fruition is streamlining and simplifying our ability to detect and quantify molecules of biomedical relevance. New “sample in – answer out” diagnostic systems, some with the potential to detect even single viruses or single copies of molecules, are under development in many academic and industrial laboratories worldwide. This chapter discusses our efforts at the University of Rochester towards the development of three complementary molecular detection systems, with applications from allergy diagnosis to monitoring infectious disease.
Sustainable Clinical Knowledge Management: An Archetype Development Life Cycle
Authors: Madsen Maria  , Leslie Heather  , Hovenga Evelyn J.S.  , Heard Sam
Published: February 2025

This chapter gives an educational overview of:
Assessing and Improving Evidence Based Health Informatics Research
Authors: Wyatt Jeremy
Published: February 2025

This chapter gives an educational overview of:
Towards the Process-Ontological Modelling
Authors: Keto Harri  , Palomäki Jari  , Jaakkola Hannu
Published: February 2025

In this paper we are proposing a view of modelling which is based on a process-ontological modelling. Firstly we will consider different kinds of definitions for processes, and how these influence thinking in software engineering. Secondly, we define the basic modelling situation and different ways of its using. Thirdly, we will describe the problem of a common process connected with a mechanical view of processes, which we are compared with an alternative view based on process-ontological view. Lastly, we will introduce a Process-Ontological Model, (POM), according to which everything can be seen as processes. We are proposing that by means of process-ontological modelling we are able make a wider and more flexible view to modelling situations.
Aspects in Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases Research
Authors: Kamišaič Aida  , Mongus Domen  , Pavlič Luka  , Pohorec Sandi  , Sevčnikar Andrej  , Verlič Mateja  , Welzer Tatjana  , Hölbl Marko
Published: February 2025

The Faculty of electrical engineering and computer science is one of biggest faculties in the frame of the University of Maribor, Slovenia. Originally the basic research area of the faculty was in engineering but for many years a lot of research activities are concentrated on computer science and informatics. Information systems, information and data modelling as well as knowledge bases, knowledge based systems and knowledge management are the most important research topics nowadays. In the paper, we have collected some research results, covering the above mentioned topics. Most of them have been conducted by young researchers, Ph.D. students and post doctoral students, who are experts in the above mentioned research areas.
The Synergy of Optical VHR/HR Satellite Images and TerraSAR-X StripMap Data in Early and Rapid Agricultural Crops Mapping
Authors: Mróz Marek  , Mleczko Magdalena
Published: February 2025

The paper presents the methodology and results of early agricultural crops mapping achieved with TerraSAR-X StripMap images acquired at single and dual polarization mode, during spring and summer 2008 over test site Malbork in Northern Poland. Two types of images in time sequence were ordered and acquired: stripNear_013R, VV/VH and strip_007R, VV. The first TSX observations and Rapid Field Visits started at the moment just after spring cereals have been emerging over the soil but not yet influencing radar backscattered signal coming from soil. Two short-time TSX series were analyzed from crops identification's point of view regarding differences of: viewing angles between strips R013 and R007, radiometric and speckle characteristics of VV channel in single and dual pol. mode, significance of cross polarization component. The methodology of data analyses was subordinated to CAP/JRC/CwRS requirements demanding the maximum reliability and accuracy in crops mapping before the harvest. In this perspective TSX dataset was supported by optical IKONOS image taken the same day as the first TXS image (25.04.2008) and three input dataset were created for automatic classification purposes: 1) TSX images only, 2) VHR optical data and 3) merged radar-optical “product”. The results of classification are the main output from this methodological approach.
Medical Informatics and eHealth
Authors: McCullagh Paul J.  , Zheng Huiru  , Black Norman D.  , Davies Richard  , Mawson Sue  , McGlade Kieran
Published: February 2025

Medical Informatics comprises the theoretical and practical aspects of information processing and communication, based on knowledge and experience derived from processes in medicine and healthcare. The processing takes place within computers ranging from large supercomputers for research, high performance work stations for image processing and retrieval to smart phones which support mobility and pervasive health applications. A variety of Operating Systems are used, dominated by Microsoft and Linux. The latter promotes an ‘open source’ approach, which is favoured by many in health. In today's ‘connected health’ paradigm, end-user devices are linked to hospital servers, each other and the Internet. This requires knowledge and understanding of security considerations which are important in this disciple, due to the ethical dimension of healthcare. In this section we study the use of a web based system to facilitate rehabilitation of people with Stroke. This can be classified as an eHealth application, and is an exemplar of the self management paradigm, which is set to become more important due to the ageing society and associated prevalence of chronic disease.
Characterisation and Testing of Biomaterials
Authors: Dendorfer Sebastian  , Hammer Joachim  , Lenich Andreas
Published: February 2025

A proper knowledge of the mechanical and material properties of biomaterials is a necessity in all medical device technologies: from tissue engineering to prosthesis design. In many cases, the design of novel biomaterials is governed by the mechanical properties and their characterisation may become a crucial factor in determining the success of a product. This chapter discusses the basic concepts of the characterisation and testing of materials. Starting from the fundamental concepts of elastic, viscoelastic and plastic deformation, an introduction to experimental methods is given. The special limitations and requirements set by biomaterials are discussed.
Health economics
Authors: Wilensky Gail R.
Published: February 2025

Health care spending and more importantly, health care spending growth rates, are unsustainable. Past strategies of price controls, reliance on administered pricing for Medicare and the dominance of a la carte fee for service reimbursement have been part of the problem and do not represent promising strategies for the future. Too much time has been spent debating whether Medicare has done better or worse than the private sector since neither represents an acceptable path going forward. Understanding the effects of innovative payment strategies – including those that affect the patient – will be an important part in learning how to “bend the curve”. Making sure that there are strategies to implement the results of successful pilots and demonstrations will also be important.
Palliative and end of life care
Authors: Stroebel Robert  , Moynihan Timothy
Published: February 2025

Health care provided in the final year of life is typically costly and often delivers unintended outcomes. High value can be defined for end of life care. High value clinical practices exist for end of life care and a common set of high value processes can be identified. The current system structure of healthcare delivery does not consistently support those high value processes. An improved organizational schema could foster sustained delivery of high value delivery operations. The healthcare ecosystem needs to evolve to provide appropriate incentives and support for an appropriately designed care system.
US health care costs: The crushing burden
Authors: Darling Helen
Published: February 2025

This chapter provides an overview of health care costs in the United States, including trends, sources and uses of funds, employers' role, and factors driving costs. It also reviews what analysts believe are cost drivers especially compared to other countries that have significantly lower health care costs and, often, better health outcomes. Within the US, there are also important differences by geography, further demonstrating that higher US costs do not reflect higher quality and greater patient and physician satisfaction. In fact, the opposite is often the case.
Monitoring Service Clouds in the Future Internet
Authors: Clayman Stuart  , Galis Alex  , Chapman Clovis  , Toffetti Giovanni  , Rodero-Merino Luis  , Vaquero Luis M.  , Nagin Kenneth  , Rochwerger Benny
Published: February 2025

Service Clouds are a key emerging feature of the Future Internet which will provide a platform to execute virtualized services. To effectively operate a service cloud there needs to be a monitoring system which provides data on the actual usage and changes in resources of the cloud and of the services running in the cloud. We present the main aspects of Lattice, a new monitoring framework, which has been specially designed for monitoring resources and services in virtualized environments. Finally, we discuss the issues related to federation of service clouds, and how this affects monitoring in particular.
Scalable Cloud Defenses for Detection, Analysis and Mitigation of DDoS Attacks
Authors: Latanicki Joseph  , Massonet Philippe  , Naqvi Syed  , Rochwerger Benny  , Villari Massimo
Published: February 2025

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) is considered as one of the most serious threats to emerging cloud computing infrastructures. It aims at denying access to the cloud infrastructure by making it unavailable to its users. This can cause important economic and organizational damage depending on the type of applications running on the cloud that have become unavailable. This paper proposes an extension to a federated cloud architecture to use scalability and migration of virtual machines to build scalable cloud defenses against cloud DDoS attacks. The architecture is validated by showing how three DDoS attack scenarios are handled by the DDoS countermeasures.
Revenue optimization through demand forecasting
Authors: Stikvoort Wouter  , van der Zwan Frank
Published: February 2025

The revenue management processes usually consist of four components: Forecasting, overbooking, seat inventory control and pricing ([McGill and van Ryzin, 1999]). In this test study at the Dutch low cost carrier transavia.com, a full subsidiary of Air France-KLM, a research is done to improve the forecasting component by testing demand forecasting methodologies with actual data some scheduled routes in a MatlabTMenvironment. The new revenue management software has been used since August 2008 and has given new opportunities for the revenue controllers to optimize their flights. The forecasting possibilities are however not yet tested.
The Illusion of Presence Influences VR Distraction: Effects on Cold-pressor Pain
Authors: Gutierrez-Martinez Olga  , Gutierrez-Maldonado Jose  , Cabas-Hoyos Kattia  , Loreto Desirée
Published: February 2025

This study investigated whether VR presence influences how effectively VR distraction reduces pain intensity during a cold-pressor experience. Thirty-seven healthy students underwent a cold pressor task while interacting with a VR distraction world. After the VR cold-pressor experience, each subject provided VAS ratings of the most intense pain experienced during the hand immersion and rated their illusion of having been inside the virtual world. Results showed that the amount of VR presence reported correlated significantly and negatively with ratings of pain intensity. The importance of using an appropriately designed VR to achieve effective VR analgesia is highlighted.
Contributions of Functional Magnetic Resonance in the Field of Psychological Treatments with Virtual Reality
Authors: Clemente Miriam  , Rey Beatriz  , Alcañiz Mariano  , Bretón-López Juani  , Moragrega Inés  , Baños Rosa M.  , Botella Cristina  , Ávila César
Published: February 2025

Many studies have been developed using brain imaging methods to investigate psychological disorders. On the other hand, there are many studies that make use of virtual reality (VR) to simulate a real condition during psychological treatments. In this research, we plan to analyze brain activity during the exposure to a virtual environment related to phobias. Our first goal is to study the possibility of activating brain areas related to phobias, specifically phobias to small animals (spiders and cockroaches), using virtual reality as stimulus, while the patient is inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. The second goal of the research is to analyze if there are differences in the activated areas after patients have followed a psychological treatment for this specific phobia. That is why two different sessions with fMRI will be performed, before and after an intensive treatment for the phobia. In the fMRI room, participants will wear special glasses to visualize the VR environments in which they have to navigate (using also a joystick adapted to fMRI). They will have to perform some tasks while being exposed to the phobic stimuli. The VR environment used in the fMRI sessions has three different conditions: first, a clean room without spiders or cockroaches; second, the same room, but dirty and disordered (giving the sensation of having small animals, although actually there are none); third, the same dirty room but having spiders and cockroaches. It is our hypothesis that the patients will get anxious in the situation in which it is possible that the animal appears and the patterns of brain activation will be different in this condition.