bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Development and Validation of Data Specifications for Nursing Problems in Maternal Nursing Care
Authors: Kim Younglan  , Min Yul Ha  , Lee Myung Kyung
Published: February 2025

The aims of this study were to develop data specifications for nursing problems related to maternal nursing care and to test the applicability of those data specifications. First, we identified focus concepts and characterizing concepts of nursing problems by analyzing nursing-problem statements from nursing records, reviewing the literature, and interviewing experts. Second, we identified relationships between the focus concepts and characterizing concepts. Third, value sets of characterizing concepts were identified and types and cardinalities of the characterizing concepts were defined based on those value sets. Finally, data specifications were evaluated by a group of experts and by applying them to published case reports. The adequacy of the characterizing concepts and value sets, and the types and cardinalities of the characterizing concepts were validated. In total, 58 data specifications were developed with 53 characterizing concepts, relationships, and value sets. Their validity was established by the experts and by their application to case reports. The data specifications developed in this study can ensure that electronic health records contain meaningful and valid information, and support the semantic interoperability of nursing information.
A Model-Driven Approach for Biomedical Data Integration
Authors: Carlson David  , Farkash Ariel  , Timm John T.E.
Published: February 2025

A core challenge in biomedical data integration is to enable semantic interoperability between its various stakeholders as well as other interested parties. Promoting the adoption of worldwide accepted information standards along with common controlled terminologies is the right path to achieve this. Our paper describes a solution to this fundamental problem by proposing an approach to semantic data integration based on information models serving as a common language to represent health data coupled with technology that is able to represent the data semantics. We used the HL7 v3 Reference Information Model (RIM) [1] to derive a specific data model for the integrated data, the Web Ontology Language (OWL) [2] to build an ontology that harmonizes the metadata from the disparate data sources, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) [3] to model the data representation, and the Object Constraint Language (OCL) [4] to specify UML model constraints. To illustrate the approach, we use the Essential Hypertension Summary CDA document and related models from Hypergenes, a European Commission funded project [5] exploring the Essential Hypertension disease model.
Retrieving Similar Cases from the Medical Literature – The ImageCLEF experience
Authors: Kalpathy-Cramer Jayashree  , Bedrick Steven  , Radhouani Saïd  , Hersh William  , Eggel Ivan  , Kahn Jr. Charles E.  , Müller Henning
Published: February 2025

An increasing number of clinicians, researchers, educators and patients routinely search for relevant medical images using search engines on the internet as well as in image archives and PACS systems. However, image retrieval is far less understood and developed compared to text-based searching. The ImageCLEF medical image retrieval task is an international challenge evaluation that enables researchers to assess and compare techniques for medical image retrieval using test collections. In this paper, we describe the development of the ImageCLEF medical image test collection, consisting of a database of images and their associated annotations, as well as a set of realistic search topics and relevance judgments obtained using a set of experts. 2009 was the sixth year for the ImageCLEF medical retrieval task and had strong participation from research groups across the globe. We will provide results from this year's evaluation and discuss the successes that we have had as well as challenges going forward.
Computerization of a Preanesthetic Evaluation and User satisfaction evaluation
Authors: Arias Antonio  , Benítez Sonia  , Canosa Daniela  , Borbolla Damián  , Staccia Gustavo  , Plazzotta Fernando  , Casais Marcela  , Michelangelo Hernán  , Luna Daniel  , de Quirós Fernán Gonzalez Bernaldo
Published: February 2025

Preanesthetic evaluation purpose is to reduce morbidity and mortality through the review of the patient's medical history, clinical examination, and targeted clinical studies, providing referrals for medical consultations when appropriated. Changes in patient care, standards of health information management and patterns of perioperative care, have resulted in a re-conceptualization of this process where the documentation of patient medical information, the efforts in training and maintaining the integrity of the medical-legal evaluation are areas of concern. The aim of this paper is to describe the design, development, training, and implementation of a computerized preanesthetic evaluation form associated to the evaluation of the user satisfaction with the system. Since the system went live in September 2008 there were 15121 closed structured forms, 60% for ambulatory procedures and 40 % for procedures that required hospital admission. 82% of total closed structured forms had recorded a risk of the procedures of 1-2, according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists classification. The survey indicates a positive general satisfaction of the users with the system.
How are clinicians involved in EHR planning? A process analysis case study of a region in Denmark
Authors: Høstgaard Anna Marie  , Bertelsen Pernille  , Nøhr Christian
Published: February 2025

Experience shows that to achieve a successful implementation of EHR clinicians must obtain joint ownership of the decisions made during the EHR-process. The EHR planning process in the Region of North Jutland, Denmark was studied with the aim of answering the question; “Why are not all Danish physicians overjoyed by the introduction of EHR? A case study was carried out from Oct. 2003 till April 2006 using process analysis. The EHR project management's strategy meant that there was no workload reduction. This was seen as one of the main barriers for the physicians to achieve real influence. History shows that clinician's on the one hand and administrators on the other have different perceptions of the purpose of the patient record and that they both have struggled to influence this definition. To date, the administrators have won the battle. This was the major reason for the approach chosen for the EHR planning process in North Jutland, Denmark. It explains the conditions made available for the physicians, which led to their role being reduced to clinical consultants – rather than real participants.
Formatively evaluating the importance of different aspects of an electronic blood transfusion system from the end users' point of view: a questionnaire study
Authors: Goddard Kate  , Shabestari Omid  , Kay Jonathan D. S.  , Roudsari Abdul
Published: February 2025

Blood transfusion is a process in which potential errors may result in serious adverse events to patients. To help improve the safety and efficiency of the blood transfusion process an electronic clinical transfusion management system is being piloted by NHS Connecting for Health. Evaluation of the implementation is being carried out in parallel. One component of the evaluation project aims to assess the importance placed in the various potential benefits of this new system by patients and healthcare workers. A questionnaire was generated and completed by healthcare workers and patients. Results indicate respondents viewing all factors as at least “important”. “System” factors were deemed most important. Overall, clinical workers expressed the lowest importance to new process factors. Ultimately these results will be measured against final satisfaction with the system to assess ‘fit’ between perceived importance and satisfaction to guide areas for attention and resource allocation.
Development and Testing of a Work Measurement Tool to Assess Caregivers' Activities In Residential Aged Care Facilities
Authors: Munyisia Esther  , Yu Ping  , Hailey David
Published: February 2025

The introduction of computerized information systems into health care practices may cause changes to the way healthcare workers conduct their routine work activities, such as work flow and the time spend on each activity. To date the available work measurement tools are confined to activities in hospitals and do not cover residential aged care facilities (RACFs). There is little evidence about the effects of technology on caregivers' work practices, including the distribution of time on activities in a RACF. This requires the measurement of caregivers' activities using a valid and reliable measurement tool. The contribution of this research is to develop and test such a tool. The tool was developed based on literature research and validation in two RACFs. The final instrument contains 48 activities that are grouped into seven categories. They include direct care, indirect care, communication, documentation, personal activities, in-transit and others. This measurement tool can be used to measure the changes in caregivers' work activities associated with the introduction of computerized information systems in RACFs, including the efficiency gains of such systems.
The Avoidable Misfortune of a Computerized Patient Chart
Authors: Sørby Inger Dybdahl  , Seland Gry  , Nytrø Øystein
Published: February 2025

The implementation of clinical information systems is demanding, particularly in hospitals, where reliable and well functioning information and communication tools are critical. In this paper we present different approaches to understanding and identifying challenges concerning the implementation of new electronic patient chart functionality. The context of the study was the development and implementation of the new system, which was withdrawn shortly after deployment in a medium-sized University Hospital. One year prior to the deployment we performed an observational study of current information and communication system usage in two hospital wards. Eight months later we conducted a usability test of the new functionality in a laboratory configured as a hospital ward. Four months after system deployment, the studies were followed up by interviews with healthcare personnel, members from the hospital implementation project group, and vendor representatives. The results of the studies show how the different approaches identify and reveal important issues that, if they had been taken into account, could have increased the chance of successful implementation of the system.
Evaluation of a French Medical Multi-Terminology Indexer for the Manual Annotation of Natural Language Medical Reports of Healthcare-Associated Infections
Authors: Sakji Saoussen  , Gicquel Quentin  , Pereira Suzanne  , Kergourlay Ivan  , Proux Denys  , Darmoni Stéfan  , Metzger Marie-Hélène
Published: February 2025

Background: Surveillance of healthcare-associated infections is essential to prevention. A new collaborative project, namely ALADIN, was launched in January 2009 and aims to develop an automated detection tool based on natural language processing of medical documents. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the annotation of natural language medical reports of healthcare-associated infections. Methods: A software MS Access application (NosIndex) has been developed to interface ECMT XML answer and manual annotation work. ECMT performances were evaluated by an infection control practitioner (ICP). Precision was evaluated for the 2 modules and recall only for the default module. Exclusion rate was defined as ratio between medical terms not found by ECMT and total number of terms evaluated. Results: The medical discharge summaries were randomly selected in 4 medical wards. From the 247 medical terms evaluated, ECMT proposed 428 and 3,721 codes, respectively for the default and expansion modules. The precision was higher with the default module (P1=0.62) than with the expansion (P2=0.47). Conclusion: Performances of ECMT as support tool for the medical annotation were satisfactory.
HL7 CDA Implementation Guide for Structured Anatomic Pathology Reports Methodology and Tools
Authors: Kussaibi Haitham  , Macary François  , Kennedy Mary  , Booker David  , Brodsky Victor  , Schrader Thomas  , Garcia-Rojo Marcial  , Daniel Christel
Published: February 2025

Anatomic pathology reports (APR) provide diagnostic and prognostic information crucial to patient care, clinical research and epidemiology. Currently, it is difficult to collect and exchange APR data between different healthcare organizations at an international level. Objective: IHE and HL7 anatomic pathology joint efforts aim at providing a methodology and tools to define an international HL7 “Clinical Document Architecture” (CDA) implementation guide for APRs and especially in the domain of cancer. Methods: A four-step methodology is employed, consisting of comparing existing clinical model of APRs originating from different countries; deriving consensus-based clinical models (Delphi technique); providing the corresponding HL7 CDA implementation guide (“CDA templates”) and validating these templates. Results: International experts defined HL7 CDA implementation guides for breast and colon cancer APRs within an IHE content profile. CDA templates include required data elements, as well as optional ones, that can be further specified as required in national extensions. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that it is possible to define an international HL7 CDA implementation guide for cancer APRs. Further efforts are needed to provide CDA templates for approximately 60 other cancer APRs dedicated to different organs, diagnoses, and procedures as well as for APRs of non neoplastic pathologies. The methodology is not confined to APRs and could be applied to clinical documents of any type.
The Role of Patients in Transiting Personal Health Information: A Field Study
Authors: Chen Yunan
Published: February 2025

Recent consumer health informatics initiatives advocate individual access and management of personal medical records. However, little is known regarding the impact of personal access of health information on clinical practice. This paper introduces a field study investigating the usage patterns of personal health records in medical consultations. The self-managed records provide patients with a strong sense of ownership and control over their own health information. Personal medical records have been used primarily for transiting information among different providers. This behavior changed patient-provider communication into a records sharing. Doing so effectively eliminated the potential errors in the verbal reporting process. This study indicates that patients can be effective contributors to their own health and suggest the design of health information systems to rethink the role of patients in the healthcare process and shift the responsibility of healthcare to the patients' side.
Can Brain Computer Interfaces Become Practical Assistive Devices in the Community?
Authors: McCullagh Paul  , Ware Melanie  , Mulvenna Maurice  , Lightbody Gaye  , Nugent Chris  , McAllister Gerry  , Thomson Eileen  , Martin Suzanne  , Mathews Stephen  , Todd David  , Cruz Medina Vicente  , Carro Sara
Published: February 2025

A Brain Computer Interface (BCI) provides direct communication from the brain to a computer or electronic device. In order for BCIs to become practical assistive devices it is necessary to develop robust systems, which can be used outside of the laboratory. This paper appraises the technical challenges, and outlines the design of an intuitive user interface, which can be used for smart device control and entertainment applications, of specific interest to users. We adopted a user-centred approach, surveying two groups of participants: fifteen volunteers who could use BCI as an additional technology and six users with complex communication and assistive technology needs. Interaction is based on a four way choice, parsing a hierarchical menu structure which allows selection of room location and then device (e.g. light, television) within a smart home. The interface promotes ease of use which aim to improve the BCI communication rate.
The Emergence of Mobile-Supported National Health Information Systems in Developing Countries
Authors: Asangansi Ime  , Braa Kristin
Published: February 2025

A major challenge for national health information systems in developing countries is their scalability and sustainability at the lowest levels where primary health care is delivered. This paper contributes to the discourse on how national health information systems can scale to the lower levels and how mobile technology is supporting the collection, handling and dissemination of data. But can mHealth go beyond the ‘hype’ and visions it has come to be associated with? Using an action research methodology in a long-term action research project, the usability and then scalability of mobile solutions for large scale national health information systems are studied. In this paper, initial successes and challenges with using m-Health for national public health information systems is reported and discussed.
Can Signalling Theory and the Semaphoric Nature of Information Systems Explain Clinicians' Ambivalence to Informatics?
Authors: Meyer Derek  , Cox Benita
Published: February 2025

Investment in information systems has traditionally been justified in terms of productivity or value-added gain. From this point of view the slow rate of adoption of IT in the healthcare sector appears paradoxical because the rapid increase in medical costs has created an urgent need for productivity improvements. Spence's market signal theory may explain why some information system investment decisions are made and may, in part, explains the reluctance of clinicians to embrace informatics. Case studies are presented where we argue that information system investment was made primarily to send a market signal. We call information systems that are used primarily to send a market signal, semaphoric information systems. Characteristics of semaphoric information systems are presented. It is postulated that the therapeutic relationship between doctor and patient is central to current models of healthcare, and that the semaphoric ‘message’ of the current generation of IT systems may be detrimental to this relationship. This suggests that clinicians will continue to be reluctant to embrace information systems until information systems are developed that can send signals that enhance the doctor-patient relationship.
The nature of unintended effects of health information systems concerning patient safety: A systematic review with thematic synthesis
Authors: Pirnejad Habibollah  , Bal Roland  , Shahsavar Nosrat
Published: February 2025

In order to understand the nature and causes through which Health Information Systems (HIS) can affect patient safety negatively, a systematic review with thematic synthesis of the qualitative studies was performed. 26 papers met our criteria and were included into content analysis. 40 error contributing factors in working with HIS were recognized. Upon which, 4 main categories of contributing factors were defined. Analysis of the semantic relation between contributing reasons and common types of errors in healthcare practice revealed 6 mechanisms that can function as secondary contributing reasons. Results of this study can support care providers, system designers, and system implementers to avoid unintended negative effects for patient safety.
The Health Service Bus: An Architecture and Case Study in Achieving Interoperability in Healthcare
Authors: Ryan Amanda  , Eklund Peter
Published: February 2025

Interoperability in healthcare is a requirement for effective communication between entities, to ensure timely access to up to-date patient information and medical knowledge, and thus facilitate consistent patient care. An interoperability framework called the Health Service Bus (HSB), based on the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) middleware software architecture is presented here as a solution to all three levels of interoperability as defined by the HL7 EHR Interoperability Work group in their definitive white paper “Coming to Terms”. A prototype HSB system was implemented based on the Mule Open-Source ESB and is outlined and discussed, followed by a clinically-based example.
Identification of relations between risk factors and their pathologies or health conditions by mining scientific literature
Authors: Hamon Thierry  , Graña Martin  , Raggio Víctor  , Grabar Natalia  , Naya Hugo
Published: February 2025

Risk factors discovery and prevention is an active research field within the biomedical domain. Despite abundant existing information on risk factors, as found in bibliographical databases or on several websites, accessing this information may be difficult. Methods from Natural Language Processing and Information Extraction can be helpful to access it more easily. Specifically, we show a procedure for analyzing massive amounts of scientific literature and for detecting linguistically marked associations between pathologies and risk factors. This approach allowed us to extract over 22,000 risk factors and associated pathologies. The performed evaluations pointed out that (1) over 88% of risk factors for coronary heart disease are correct, (2) associated pathologies, when they could be compared to MeSH indexing, are correct in about 70%, and (3) in existing terminologies links between risk factors and their pathologies are seldom recorded.
Coalition Formation Strategies for Self-Interested Agents in Hedonic Games
Authors: Génin Thomas  , Aknine Samir
Published: February 2025

In this article, we address the problem of coalition formation in multiagent systems. Our work focuses on the class of hedonic games, where the satisfaction of each agent depends on other agents taking part in the coalition. We present in this paper some strategies, which could be used by agents. We describe two types of strategies: proposal acceptance strategies, which allow agents to accept or reject a coalition formation proposal and proposal selection strategies based on the analysis of the history of a negotiation, which allow agents to select interesting coalitions to propose. We underline that a compromise between high and low selectivity allows agents to obtain a higher probability to form coalitions with a satisfying utility. Our proposal selection strategies allow agents to reduce the number of proposals to send during the coalition formation process without losing much utility. This speeds up considerably the process.
Egalitarian Utilities Divide-and-Coordinate: Stop arguing about decisions, let's share rewards!
Authors: Vinyals Meritxell  , Rodriguez-Aguilar Juan Antonio  , Cerquides Jesus
Published: February 2025

In this paper we formulate a novel Divide-and-Coordinate (DaC) algorithm, the so-called Egalitarian Utilities Divide-and-Coordinate (EU-DaC) algorithm. The Divide-and-Coordinate (DaC) framework [3] is a family of bounded DCOP algorithms that solve DCOPs by exploiting the concept of agreement. The intuition behind EU-DaC is that agents get closer to an agreement, on the optimal solution, when they communicate the local max-marginals utilities for their assignments instead of only their preferred assignments. We provide empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis as well as illustrating the competitiveness of EU-DaC.
A unified interaction-aware goal framework
Authors: Winikoff Michael  , Dastani Mehdi  , van Riemsdijk M. Birna
Published: February 2025

Goals are central to the design and implementation of intelligent software agents. Much of the literature on goals and reasoning about goals only deals with a limited set of goal types, typically achievement goals, and sometimes maintenance goals; and much of the work on interactions between goals only deals with achievement goals. We aim at extending a previously proposed unifying framework for goals with additional richer goal types, including a combined “achieve and maintain” goal type. We propose to provide an operationalization of these new goal types, proving that the operationalization meets desired properties.
Semi-Automatic Revision of Formalized Knowledge
Authors: Nikitina Nadejda
Published: February 2025

As the amount of available ontologies and their size grow, ontology reuse gains in importance. However, the online available formalized knowledge in many cases need a revision which can lead to a high manual effort. In this paper, we propose an approach to support the revision of ontologies. We show that our method reduces the manual effort measured in number of decisions that have to be made by an ontology engineer by up to 83%.
Prediction of Attributes and Links in Temporal Social Networks
Authors: Ouzienko Vladimir  , Guo Yuhong  , Obradovic Zoran
Published: February 2025

The analysis of social networks often assumes the time invariant scenario while in practice node attributes and links in such networks often evolve over time. In this paper, we propose a new method to predict node attributes and links in temporal networks.
Active Testing Strategy to Predict the Best Classification Algorithm via Sampling and Metalearning
Authors: Leite Rui  , Brazdil Pavel
Published: February 2025

Currently many classification algorithms exist and there is no algorithm that would outperform all the others in all tasks. Therefore it is of interest to determine which classification algorithm is the best one for a given task. Although direct comparisons can be made for any given problem using a cross-validation evaluation, it is desirable to avoid this, as the computational costs are significant. We describe a method which relies on relatively fast pairwise comparisons involving two algorithms. This method exploits sampling landmarks, that is information about learning curves besides classical data characteristics. One key feature of this method is an iterative procedure for extending the series of experiments used to gather new information in the form of sampling landmarks. Metalearning plays also a vital role. The comparisons between various pairs of algorithm are repeated and the result is represented in the form of a partially ordered ranking. Evaluation is done by comparing the partial order of algorithm that has been predicted to the partial order representing the supposedly correct result. The results of our analysis show that the method has good performance and could be of help in practical applications.
ProbLog Technology for Inference in a Probabilistic First Order Logic
Authors: Bruynooghe Maurice  , Mantadelis Theofrastos  , Kimmig Angelika  , Gutmann Bernd  , Vennekens Joost  , Janssens Gerda  , De Raedt Luc
Published: February 2025

We introduce First Order ProbLog, an extension of first order logic with soft constraints where formulas are guarded by probabilistic facts. The paper defines a semantics for FOProbLog, develops a translation into ProbLog, a system that allows a user to compute the probability of a query in a similar setting restricted to Horn clauses, and reports on initial experience with inference.
On Decomposability and Interaction Functions
Authors: Pipatsrisawat Knot  , Darwiche Adnan
Published: February 2025

A formal notion of a Boolean-function decomposition was introduced recently and used to provide lower bounds on various representations of Boolean functions, which are subsets of decomposable negation normal form (DNNF). This notion has introduced a fundamental optimization problem for DNNF representations, which calls for computing decompositions of minimal size for a given partition of the function variables. We consider the problem of computing optimal decompositions in this paper for general Boolean functions and those represented using CNFs. We introduce the notion of an interaction function, which characterizes the relationship between two sets of variables and can form the basis of obtaining such decompositions. We contrast the use of these functions to the current practice of computing decompositions, which is based on heuristic methods that can be viewed as using approximations of interaction functions. We show that current methods can lead to decompositions that are exponentially larger than optimal decompositions, pinpoint the specific reasons for this lack of optimality, and finally present empirical results that illustrate some characteristics of interaction functions in contrast to their approximations.
Algorithms and Complexity Results for Persuasive Argumentation
Authors: Kim Eun Jung  , Ordyniak Sebastian  , Szeider Stefan
Published: February 2025

Value-based argumentation frameworks, as introduced by Bench-Capon, allow the abstract representation of persuasive argumentation. This formalism takes into account the relative strength of arguments with respect to some ordering which represents an audience. Deciding subjective or objective acceptance (i.e., acceptance with respect to at least one or with respect to all orderings) are intractable computational problems.
Moving Between Argumentation Frameworks
Authors: Oren Nir  , Reed Chris  , Luck Michael
Published: February 2025

Abstract argument frameworks have been used for various applications within multi-agent systems, including reasoning and negotiation. Different argument frameworks make use of different inter-argument relations and semantics to identify some subset of arguments as coherent, yet there is no easy way to map between these frameworks; most commonly, this is done manually according to human intuition. In response, in this paper, we show how a set of arguments described using Dung's or Nielsen's argument frameworks can be mapped from and to an argument framework that includes both attack and support relations. This mapping preserves the framework's semantics in the sense that an argument deemed coherent in one framework is coherent in the other under a related semantics. Interestingly, this translation is not unique, with one set of arguments in the support based framework mapping to multiple argument sets within the attack only framework. Additionally, we show how EAF can be mapped into a subset of the argument interchange format (AIF). By using this mapping, any other argument framework using this subset of AIF can be translated into a DAF while preserving its semantics.
Virtual Doctor System (VDS): Framework on Reasoning issues
Authors: Fujita Hamido  , Hakura Jun  , Kurematsu Masaki
Published: February 2025

Human computer Interaction based on emotional modelling and physical views, collectively; has been investigated and reported in this paper. Two types of ontology have been presented to formalize a patient state: mental ontology reflecting the patient mental behavior due to certain disorder and physical ontology reflecting the observed physical behavior exhibited through disorder. These two types of ontology have been mapped and aligned for reasoning using a simple Bayesian Network for causal reasoning to define what we call as simple case diagnosis. We have constructed an integrated computerized model which reflects a human diagnostician as computer model and through it; an integrated interaction between that model and the real human user (patient) is utilized for 1ststage diagnosis purposes.
Real-Time Object Segmentation Using a Bag of Features Approach
Authors: Aldavert David  , Ramisa Arnau  , López de Mántaras Ramon  , Toledo Ricardo
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we propose an object segmentation framework, based on the popular bag of features (BoF), which can process several images per second while achieving a good segmentation accuracy assigning an object category to every pixel of the image. We propose an efficient color descriptor to complement the information obtained by a typical gradient-based local descriptor. Results show that color proves to be a useful cue to increase the segmentation accuracy, specially in large homogeneous regions. Then, we extend the Hierarchical K-Means codebook using the recently proposed Vector of Locally Aggregated Descriptors method. Finally, we show that the BoF method can be easily parallelized since it is applied locally, thus the time necessary to process an image is further reduced. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated in the standard PASCAL 2007 Segmentation Challenge object segmentation dataset.
BINAReE: (Bayesian Integrated Neural Architecture for Reasoning and Explanation)
Authors: Bobrow Robert (Rusty)  , Robertson Paul  , Laddaga Robert
Published: February 2025

Our goal is to lay a foundation for a model of high level cognition in humans that respects biological constraints. To do so, we integrate realistic neural models of attention, memory and control into an active information foraging system comprising many of the component neural systems and strategies in published models of high-level active vision. The direction of attentional focus requires integration of bottom-up and top-down attention. We base our modeling methodology for both individual components and the overall system operation on structured hierarchical Bayesian models. These models are built upon computationally tractable, neurally implementable sampling approximations to inference and control.
POMDP solving: what rewards do you really expect at execution?
Authors: Chanel Caroline Ponzoni Carvalho  , Farges Jean-Loup  , Teichteil-Königsbuch Florent  , Infantes Guillaume
Published: February 2025

Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes have gained an increasing interest in many research communities, due to sensible improvements of their optimization algorithms and of computers capabilities. Yet, most research focus on optimizing either average accumulated rewards (AI planning) or direct entropy (active perception), whereas none of them matches the rewards actually gathered at execution. Indeed, the first optimization criterion linearly averages over all belief states, so that it does not gain best information from different observations, while the second one totally discards rewards. Thus, motivated by simple demonstrative examples, we study an additive combination of these two criteria to get the best of reward gathering and information acquisition at execution. We then compare our criterion with classical ones, and highlight the need to consider new hybrid non-linear criteria, on a realistic multi-target recognition and tracking mission.
Towards Measuring User Query Tendency for Legal Document Retrieval
Authors: Sahilu Henok  , Atnafu Solomon
Published: February 2025

The law changes for several reasons and this change is manifested in the content of legal documents which in turn makes legal document retrieval systems be less efficient in their retrieval quality. In this work, we propose an approach for measuring a user query tendency that can augment the efficiency of XML based legal document retrieval systems. This approach has been used in the change-aware legal document retrieval model presented in [8].
XML-based Specification of the Project Management Domain and Its Application
Authors: Bērziša Solvita
Published: February 2025

Project management is a complex process regulated by project management methodologies, standards and other requirements. Different project management information systems are used to support this process. To ensure that the project management information system delivers expected results, it should be configured according requirements of the chosen methodology. In this configuration process XML is used for standardize definition and description of project management requirements. This paper describes structure and application of the aforementioned XML schema, which is referred as XML schema for Configuration of Project Management information systems (XCPM). XCPM is based on a comprehensive project management concept model. Each entity from the concept model can be described using the XCPM schema. The paper also surveys approaches for project management information system configuration. Configuration of the change control process in the project management information system is described to illustrate application of the XCPM.
Integrating IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance Management Processes
Authors: Racz Nicolas  , Weippl Edgar  , Seufert Andreas
Published: February 2025

Even though the field of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) has witnessed increased attention over the last years, there is a lack of research on the integrated approach to GRC. This research suggests an integrated process model for high-level IT GRC management. After a discussion of existing process models for integrated GRC, the scope of the research within GRC is defined and explained. Frameworks for the separate topics of IT governance, IT risk management, and IT compliance management are selected and discussed. Finally these frameworks are merged into a single integrated process model. The model is then validated through a comparison to IT GRC processes of three multinational companies.
The Discourse Tool: A Support Environment for Collaborative Modeling Efforts
Authors: Kozlov Denis  , Hoel Tore  , Pulkkinen Mirja  , Pawlowski Jan M.
Published: February 2025

This paper describes the first experiences in development and usage of an environment to support a community in collaborative modeling efforts in the area of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). With first priority, the domain of interest, the sub-domains and the relationships have to be modeled to have a common understanding and a shared model for the further work and exchange. While the work continues, the model, and the sub-domain models continue to evolve. The tool that is presented here supports the modeling, especially the discourse conducted on the models in the collaborating network. With the tool i) the model rationale can be made transparent, ii) reasoning and agreements on changes in the model or its elements are systematically recorded by issue iii) the semantic wiki functionalities enhance the analysis of the discussion and discussion tracks. With the help of the tool, the community has continuously an updated model version at hand. Community members can raise an issue whenever a change or enhancement in the model is seen necessary. The members can share their updated sub-domain models and model variants for discussion. The tool is called Discourse Tool, since a discursive process is induced for negotiating and decision making on the model issues.
Machine Learning and Personalized Modeling for Diagnosis of Acute GvHD: an Integrated Approach
Authors: Fiasché Maurizio  , Cuzzola Maria  , Fedele Roberta  , Iacopino Pasquale  , Morabito Francesco C.
Published: February 2025

In this paper a novel gene selection method based on personalized modeling is presented and is compared with classical machine learning techniques to identify diagnostic gene targets and to use them for a successful diagnosis of a medical problem - acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD). An analysis using the integrated approach of new data with the existing models is evaluated. The aGVHD is the major complication after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in which functional immune cells of donor, recognize the recipient as “foreign” and mount an immunologic attack. Identifying a compact set of genes from gene expression data is a critical step in bioinformatics research. Personalized modeling is a recently introduced technique for constructing clinical decision support systems. In this work we have provided a comparative study using the proposed Personalized Modeling based Gene Selection method (PMGS) on the GvHD Macroarray dataset collected. This is the first study which utilises both computational and biological evidence for the involvement of a limited number of genes for the diagnosis of aGVHD and the use of a personalized modeling for the analysis of this disease. Directions for further studies are also outlined.
Quantitative Modeling of Biochemical Networks
Authors: Hofestädt R.  , Thelen S.
Published: February 2025

Today different database systems for molecular structures (genes and proteins) and metabolic pathways are available. All these systems are characterized by the static data representation. For progress in biotechnology, the dynamic representation of this data is important. The metabolism can be characterized as a complex biochemical network. Different models for the quantitative simulation of biochemical networks are discussed, but no useful formalization is available. This paper shows that the theory of Petrinets is useful for the quantitative modeling of biochemical networks.
Progressive Simulation-Based Program for Training Cardiac Surgery-Related Skills
Authors: Cristancho Sayra  , Moussa Fuad  , Monclou Alex  , Moncayo Camilo  , Rueda Claudia  , Dubrowski Adam
Published: February 2025

Off Pump Coronary Artery Bypass (OPCAB) surgery is a strategy for revascularizing diseased coronary arteries without cardiopulmonary bypass. The complete operation can be deconstructed into individual tasks and subtasks that are ideal for creating simulation modules. Recently, we have developed a modular mechanical beating-heart OPCAB simulator for use in learner-centered training. In the present study, we describe the design of a progressive, simulation-augmented training program for OPCAB surgery. In particular, we a) define need-driven education and training goals, b) create simulation scenarios with progressive difficulty to specifically address these goals, and c) design corresponding assessment tools for both formative and summative purposes.
MSMS Software for VR Simulations of Neural Prostheses and Patient Training and Rehabilitation
Authors: Davoodi Rahman  , Loeb Gerald E.
Published: February 2025

In the increasingly complex prosthetic limbs for upper extremity amputees, more mechanical degrees of freedom are combined with various neural commands to produce versatile human-like movements. Development, testing, and fitting of such neural prosthetic systems and training patients to control them effectively are complex processes that cannot be performed efficiently or safely by ad hoc and trial-and-error approaches. We have developed a software tool known as MSMS to enable researchers and engineers to simulate the movement of these neural prostheses and evaluate their performance before they are built and to train the patients in virtual simulation environments to operate their prostheses before receiving them. Further, MSMS facilitates development of interactive virtual reality applications for training, rehabilitation, and treatment of patients suffering from movement disorders.
Design for Functional Occlusal Surface of CAD/CAM Crown Using VR Articulator
Authors: Ikawa Tomoko  , Ogawa Takumi  , Shigeta Yuko  , Kasama Shintaro  , Hirabayashi Rio  , Fukushima Shunji  , Hattori Asaki  , Suzuki Naoki
Published: February 2025

In this present study, we introduce an approach that utilizes the VR articulator to mimic lateral excursions and design a functional occlusal surface. We then take the resultant occlusal surface from this approach and compare it with a conventional method. As a result, we developed a novel CAD/CAM system which can render a functional occlusal surface, via a VR articulator. The marginal fit and occlusion in our CAD/CAM crown was sufficient to apply to the clinic.
Serious Games in the Classroom: Gauging Student Perceptions
Authors: Kapralos Bill  , Cristancho Sayra  , Porte Mark  , Backstein David  , Monclou Alex  , Dubrowski Adam
Published: February 2025

Serious games, or video game-based technology applied to training, learning applications, provide a high fidelity simulation of particular environments and situations that focus on high level skills that are required in the field. Given the popularity of video games, particularly with today's generation of learners, and the growing trend of restricted resident work hours and diminsihed operating room exposure due to limited budgets increased case complexity and medicolegal concerns, serious games provide a cost-effective viable training option. To develop effective serious games, the views and perceptions of both the end users (learners) and educators regarding their use “in the classroom” must be assessed and accounted for. Here we present the results of a survey that was designed to assess students' perceptions of serious games.
Real-Time 3D Avatars for Tele-rehabilitation in Virtual Reality
Authors: Kurillo Gregorij  , Koritnik Tomaz  , Bajd Tadej  , Bajcsy Ruzena
Published: February 2025

We present work in progress on a tele-immersion system for telerehabilitation using real-time stereo vision and virtual environments. Stereo reconstruction is used to capture user's 3D avatar in real time and project it into a shared virtual environment, enabling a patient and therapist to interact remotely. Captured data can also be used to analyze the movement and provide feedback to the patient as we present in a preliminary study of stepping-in-place task. Such tele-presence system could in the future allow patients to interact remotely with remote physical therapist and virtual environment while objectively tracking their performance.
A Bloodstream Simulation Based on Particle Method
Authors: Nakagawa Masashi  , Mukai Nobuhiko  , Niki Kiyomi  , Takanashi Shuichiro
Published: February 2025

Many surgical simulators use mesh method to deform CG models such as organs and blood vessels because the method can easily calculate the deformation of models; however, it has to split and reconstruct the mesh of the models when the model is broken such as bleeding. On the other hand, particle methods consider a continuous body such as solid and liquid as a set of particles and do not have to construct the mesh. Therefore, in this paper, we describe how to simulate bloodstream by using MPS (Moving Particle Semi-implicit) method that is one of particle ones. In the simulation, we use the aorta model as the blood vessel model, and the model is constructed with particles. As the result of the simulation, it took 20ms to deform the blood vessel and to simulate bleeding with the model that is constructed with 15,880 particles for the blood vessel and 6,688 particles for the blood.
A Design for Simulating and Validating the Nuss Procedure for the Minimally Invasive Correction of Pectus Excavatum
Authors: Rechowicz Krzysztof J.  , Kelly Robert  , Goretsky Michael  , Frantz Frazier W.  , Knisley Stephen B.  , Nuss Donald  , McKenzie Frederic D.
Published: February 2025

Surgical planners are used to achieve the optimal outcome for a surgery, especially in procedures where a positive aesthetic outcome is the primary goal, such as the Nuss procedure which is a minimally invasive surgery for correcting pectus excavatum (PE) – a congenital chest wall deformity. Although this procedure is routinely performed, the outcome depends mostly on the correct placement of the bar. It would be beneficial if a surgeon had a chance to practice and review possible strategies for placement of the corrective bar and the associated appearance of the chest. Therefore, we propose a strategy for the development and validation of a Nuss procedure surgical trainer and planner.
AISLE: an Automatic Volumetric Segmentation Method for the Study of Lung Allometry
Authors: Ren Hongliang  , Kazanzides Peter
Published: February 2025

We developed a fully automatic segmentation method for volumetric CT (computer tomography) datasets to support construction of a statistical atlas for the study of allometric laws of the lung. The proposed segmentation method, AISLE (Automated ITK-Snap based on Level-set), is based on the level-set implementation from an existing semi-automatic segmentation program, ITK-Snap. AISLE can segment the lung field without human interaction and provide intermediate graphical results as desired. The preliminary experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve accurate segmentation, in terms of volumetric overlap metric, by comparing with the ground-truth segmentation performed by a radiologist.