bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Hydration and Dehydration Periods of Crown Fragments Prior to Reattachment
Authors: Shirani F , Malekipour MR , Manesh V Sakhaei , Aghaei F
Published: March 2012

Introduction

Tooth fragment bonding is an excellent treatment option in dealing with traumatic injuries of the anterior teeth. Rewetting the tooth fragment has been shown to increase restoration durability. The present study examined the effect various dry and wet storage periods had on the reattached fragment's bond to the tooth.

Materials and Methods

One hundred and eight human mandibular incisors were fractured and assigned to undergo a dehydration period of 30 minutes, six hours, 24 hours, or three days before the rewetting procedure. After fracturing the teeth and drying the fragments, each of the specimens was assigned to one of the three main groups (A, B, or C) intended to evaluate the effect of different rehydration periods. Groups A and B underwent a 30-minute and a 24-hour rewetting period, respectively. Group C served as a control (without a rewetting stage). Tooth fragments were then reattached and prepared for the strength test. Force was applied on the lingual side of the tooth at a 1 mm/min rate until failure.

Results

The mean loads (N) required to fracture the restored teeth were as follows: 204.43 ± 33.48 N, 322.59 ± 34.62 N, and 253.25 ± 29.05 N for groups A, B, and C, respectively. Two-way analysis of variance (p<0.05) showed that rehydration and dehydration periods as well as their interaction caused significant differences in the strength of the final restoration. Multiple comparison tests showed that, in general, significant differences were not seen among different dehydration times prior to the rewetting stage (p>0.05), except in the case of the 30-minute dehydrated specimens (p<0.05).

Conclusion

Compared to a 30-minute period, a 24-hour rehydration of the tooth fragment before treatment seems to salvage enough moisture to result in an increase in reattachment strength.
Sensors and Systems for the Detection of Explosive Devices - An Overview
Authors: Bielecki Zbigniew , Janucki Jacek , Kawalec Adam , Mikołajczyk Janusz , Pałka Norbert , Pasternak Mateusz , Pustelny Tadeusz , Stacewicz Tadeusz , Wojtas Jacek
Published: March 2012

Sensors and Systems for the Detection of Explosive Devices - An Overview

The paper presents analyses of current research projects connected with explosive material sensors. Sensors are described assigned to X and γ radiation, optical radiation sensors, as well as detectors applied in gas chromatography, electrochemical and chemical sensors. Furthermore, neutron techniques and magnetic resonance devices were analyzed. Special attention was drawn to optoelectronic sensors of explosive devices.
Hydrogeologic and Hydraulic Conditions of Old Mine Workings of the Former Jeroným Mine / Hydrogeologické A Hydraulické Poměry Starých Důlních Děl Bývalého Dolu Jeroným
Authors: Grmela Arnošt , Žůrek Petr , Kukutsch Radovan , Kořínek Robert
Published: March 2012

The Jeroným Mine, situated in the locality of the Slavkovský les Protected Landscape Area, is a unique heritage site associated with mining in the 15th and 16th centuries. To make this mine working accessible to the public, it is necessary in the first place to stabilize underground voids and to ensure such internal microclimatic conditions so that any degradation of the mine working and any hazard to workers performing restoration operations and later to visitors will not occur. The contribution deals with the factors conditioning and affecting the stability of this system of mine workings.
Neural Networks Usage in the Evaluation of European Union Cofinanced Projects
Authors: Grzeszczyk Tadeusz
Published: March 2012

Neural Networks Usage in the Evaluation of European Union Cofinanced Projects

Research concerns the implementation of modern computing technologies in the evaluation of projects cofinanced by the European Union. Crucial element of this research is the enrichment of currently used evaluation methods with modern mechanisms basing on artificial intelligence. The article deals with the possibility analysis of neural networks usage in such applications.
It Systems Security Management in Migration Process
Authors: Pięta Sylwester
Published: March 2012

It Systems Security Management in Migration Process

This paper looks at the issue of IT systems migration as well as problems related to security policy in migration processes. Problem of migration is viewed in a broad context of changes which occur during construction or modernization of an IT system. Migration projects were classified against the background of wide spectrum of informatization strategy issues and sources of threats to information security were pointed out. Also, guidelines for improvement of security in migration process were presented.
Effect of storage time and temperature on Poisson ratio of tomato fruit skin
Authors: Kuna-Broniowska I. , Gładyszewska B. , Ciupak A.
Published: March 2012

Effect of storage time and temperature on Poisson ratio of tomato fruit skin

The results of studies investigating the effects of storage time and temperature on variations in Poisson ratio of the skin of two greenhouse tomato varieties - Admiro and Encore were presented. In the initial period of the study, Poisson ratio of the skin of tomato fruit cv. Admiro, stored at 13°C, varied between 0.7 and 0.8. After the successive 10 days of the experiment, it decreased to approximately 0.6 and was stabilized until the end of study. By contrast, the skin of tomatoes cv. Encore was characterized by lower values and lower variability of Poisson ratio in the range of 0.4 to 0.5 during storage. The examinations involving tomato fruit cv. Admiro stored at 21°C were completed after 12 days due to fruit softening and progressive difficulty with preparing analytical specimens. The value of Poisson ratio for both varieties stored at room temperature fluctuated throughout the experiment to approximate 0.5.
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF GLASS BEADS FROM MADAGASCAR
Authors: Robertshaw Peter , Rasoarifetra Bako , Wood Marilee , Melchiorre Erik , Popelka-Filcoff Rachel S. , Glascock Michael D.
Published: March 2012

Chemical analysis of 31 glass beads from the sites of Mahilaka and Sandrakatsy in Madagascar, which date to approximately the 9th to 15th centuries CE, reveals the presence of two main types of glass: mineral- soda glasses and plant-ash glasses. Most of these glasses were probably made in South Asia.
Splitting the Difference: A Proposal for Benefit Sharing in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+)
Authors: Balderas Torres Arturo , Skutsch Margaret
Published: March 2012

The objective of REDD+ is to create incentives for the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and for the increase of carbon stocks through the enhancement, conservation and sustainable management of forests in developing countries. As part of the international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), compensation would be estimated in relation to national performance but how these incentives will be channeled within countries has not been specified and there are concerns about how the benefits will be shared among different stakeholders. One central issue is that under the national approach good performance in one region can be offset by underperformance in other regions of the country thus preventing the generation of predictable local incentives. Other issues relate to the need to provide incentives to a wide range of stakeholders and to avoid perverse reactions. To address these and other issues we propose separating the accounting of reduced deforestation, reduced degradation and enhancement of forests. The local attribution of credits would be easier for carbon enhancement, and possibly reduced degradation, than for reduced deforestation, since carbon gains can, in principle, be measured locally in the first two cases, while estimating achievements in reduced deforestation requires a regional approach. This separation in attribution of rewards can help to create adequate incentives for the different stakeholders and overcome some of the problems associated with the design and implementation of national REDD+ programs.
Robust Facial Expression Recognition via Compressive Sensing
Authors: Zhang Shiqing , Zhao Xiaoming , Lei Bicheng
Published: March 2012

Recently, compressive sensing (CS) has attracted increasing attention in the areas of signal processing, computer vision and pattern recognition. In this paper, a new method based on the CS theory is presented for robust facial expression recognition. The CS theory is used to construct a sparse representation classifier (SRC). The effectiveness and robustness of the SRC method is investigated on clean and occluded facial expression images. Three typical facial features, i.e., the raw pixels, Gabor wavelets representation and local binary patterns (LBP), are extracted to evaluate the performance of the SRC method. Compared with the nearest neighbor (NN), linear support vector machines (SVM) and the nearest subspace (NS), experimental results on the popular Cohn-Kanade facial expression database demonstrate that the SRC method obtains better performance and stronger robustness to corruption and occlusion on robust facial expression recognition tasks.
Industrial Informatics
Authors: Shahzadi Iram , Ahmad Qanita , Sarwar Imran
Published: March 2012

Correct and timely access to business information is the key to success in industry. However in industry, data is generated on daily basis and increases exponentially. Therefore, managing it is a challenging task for every organization. To deal with this phenomenon of information overload, organizations are in dire need to find and set up potential means for the analysis of raw industrial data (i.e. texts) and draw necessary information from it. This information can result in knowledge and knowledge leads towards wisdom, the essence of every business. This chapter is concerned with the use of knowledge management systems to cater information overload hassles, the organizations are facing today. As a solution, a detailed study of currently existing open source data and knowledge management systems is conducted. Hence, this chapter discusses the state of the art tools and technologies in this domain, and highlights the need and importance of semantic applications for industrial data processing.
Evolutionary Computing
Authors: Dutta Paramartha , Bhattacharya Paramita , Bhattacharyya Siddhartha
Published: March 2012

The field of evolutionary computation forms one of the tenets of the soft computing paradigm, which aims at deriving at some possible global optimal solutions to search problems. The field of industrial informatics, being an emergent field, faces tremendous data explosion and associated challenges of data redundancies and inconsistencies. Different evolutionary algorithms have been put to use to evolve intelligence out of redundancies immanent in industrial databases. Industrial portfolio management has been a much-talked affair nowadays, thanks to the evolving fields of data intelligent management and archival techniques. An overview of the different facets of evolutionary algorithms and their role in imbibing human intelligence in data management and retrieval is presented with regards to its application in the optimization of a collection of financial portfolio instruments.
Improving Industrial Product Lifecycle Management by Semantic Data Federations
Authors: Kunz Steffen , Fabian Benjamin , Aleksy Markus , Wauer Matthias , Schuster Daniel
Published: March 2012

It is expected that the amount of product information available from the Internet of Things and Services will be so tremendous that the main challenge will be to provide the right information, at the right time, in the right place, and to the right people. This objective is addressed by Aletheia – a distributed Information System that enables the federation and semantic integration of very heterogeneous information sources. This chapter discusses the goals, functionality, and architecture of Aletheia, guided by a real-world case study in the industrial service sector and conducted in cooperation with ABB, a major company providing power and automation technologies, products, and services for utility and industry customers. Further, the authors discuss several issues from the Aletheia project experience they believe to be valuable for researchers and implementers of semantic data federation systems as well as practitioners in the industrial service sector.
An Intelligent Hybrid Model for Bus Load Forecasting in Electrical Short-Term Operation Tasks
Authors: Salgado Ricardo Menezes , Ohishi Takaaki , Ballini Rosangela
Published: March 2012

The main objective of this chapter is to present a hybrid model for bus load forecasting. This approach represents an essential tool for the operation of the electrical power system and the hybrid model combines a bus clustering process and a load forecasting model. As a case study, the model was applied to the real Brazilian electrical system, and the results revealed a performance similar to that of conventional models for bus load forecasting, but about 14 times faster. The results are compatible with the safe operating load levels for the Brazilian electrical power system and have proved to be adequate for use in real operation tasks.
A Critical Assessment of the Evaluation Methods of ICT Investment
Authors: Ramesur Taruna
Published: March 2012

With the aim of becoming a cyber island and making Information and Communications Technology (ICT) one of the main pillars of the economy, the government of Mauritius has been investing huge sums of money in ICT projects. For instance, in 2009 ICT investments accounted for 5.7% of the total share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Given this situation, it becomes crucial to evaluate ICT investments, and as such, the main aim of this paper is to investigate the existing methods used in the evaluation of ICT investments in the public sector and propose a framework for the evaluation process. The main contribution of this work lies in the fact that evaluation of ICT projects in the public sector has remained an unexplored area, and even in the context of the private sector, most studies have concentrated on developed countries. The main results from the survey carried out in the 22 ministries reveal that Payback Period (PB) and Accounting Rate of Return (ARR) are the main financial criteria used for the evaluation. The survey also shows that the major factors, which are prioritised during evaluation process, are the relevant costs, risks, and benefits. Based on the research findings, this chapter also proposes a framework for evaluating investments in ICT projects by the public sector.
E-Government in Malaysia
Authors: Ghani Erlane K. , Said Jamaliah , Nasir Noraini Mohd
Published: March 2012

This chapter examines the development of e-Services among Malaysian local government authorities. Using content analysis on 147 Local Government Authorities (LGAs), this chapter shows that all agencies have Web sites with a marked improvement in the availability of each category of e-Services. Among the motivating factors to the drastic increase of e-Services were meeting the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) established by the state and federal governments, meeting the government’s requirement of providing most of the essential services online, easing the burden on staff, improving transparency, and providing more convenient service to the customers. The findings in this chapter indicate that the LGAs are implementing e-Services, which should make it easier for the government to rollout more e-Services to the LGAs under its NPM policy to help drive the country into developed nation status by the year 2020. However, there are issues that need to be addressed in order for the government to deliver services effectively and efficiently to its citizens.
E-Waste Management in East African Community
Authors: Asiimwe Edgar Napoleon , Åke Grönlund
Published: March 2012

The rapidly increased use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) has increased demand for electronic equipment such as mobile phones and computers. Individuals and government institutions worldwide are adopting ICTs at a fast pace. Increased consumption has resulted in huge amounts of e-Waste generated from scrapped electronics. E-Waste contains chemical substances that have adverse effects on the environment and human health. Consequently, handling of e-Waste needs to be organized in ways that minimize the adverse effects. This chapter investigates how the East African Community (EAC) governments, i.e., Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi, conceive their role in combating negative impact of e-Waste and how their views and current actions compare to the current state of the art practices in e-Waste management. As data on e-Waste handling in EAC countries is not publicly available, semi-structured interviews with high government officials and a literature review were conducted. The results show that EAC governments consider e-Waste to be an emerging problem. Despite this awareness and attempts to mitigate the problem in some of the countries, there are currently no solid solutions that have been crafted to rectify or mitigate this problem. The study suggests practical solutions for resolving e-Waste challenges in EAC.
New Technology Communication in American State Governments
Authors: Yun Hyun Jung , Opheim Cynthia
Published: March 2012

This study examines the effects of states’ e-government efforts, more specifically the progress of e-service and e-democracy, on citizens’ general political engagement and electoral participation. Utilizing the combined data with the state level of West’s e-Government measures (2008) and the individual level of the 2008 American Election Study, this study finds a strong link between state sponsored efforts at e-Government and traditional forms of the public’s political participation. State sponsored digital services and outreach increase general political participation more than campaign activities, and the implementation of e-democracy has a greater effect on mobilization than e-service. The results imply that e-government has potential to ameliorate political exclusion by letting the politically disadvantaged access a higher quality of information with an equalized accessibility through state governments’ electronic systems.
Experiences with Developing a User-Centered Digital Library
Authors: Kani-Zabihi Elahe , Ghinea Gheorghita , Chen Sherry Y.
Published: March 2012

The purpose of this study was to find out whether users should be involved in the design stage of a Digital Library (DL). Hence an experiment has been undertaken to find out the level of user satisfaction with a user-centred DL (UDL) compared to a non-user-centred DL (NDL). In this experiment, the UDL prototype has been compared with the NDL prototype. The two prototypes were then evaluated by separate users with various Information Technology (IT) backgrounds. Results show that users’ task performance was better in the UDL version of the prototype.
First Person Singular
Authors: Wu Shaoqun , Witten Ian H.
Published: March 2012

We use digital library technology to help language learners express themselves by capitalizing on the human-generated text available on the Web. From a massive collection of n-grams and their occurrence frequencies we extract sequences that begin with the word “I”, sequences that begin a question, and sequences containing statistically significant collocations. These are preprocessed, filtered, and organized as a digital library collection using the Greenstone software. Users can search the collection to see how particular words are typically used and browse by syntactic class. The digital library is richly interconnected to other resources. It includes links to external vocabularies and thesauri so that users can retrieve words related to any term of interest, and links the collection to the web by locating sample sentences containing these patterns and presenting them to the user. We have conducted an evaluation of how useful the system is in helping students, and the impact it has on their writing. Finally, language activities generated from the digital library content have been designed to help learners master important emotion related vocabulary and expressions. We predict that the application of digital library technology to assist language students will revolutionize second language learning.
Investigating Language Skills and Field of Knowledge on Multilingual Information Access in Digital Libraries
Authors: Clough Paul , Eleta Irene
Published: March 2012

Digital libraries remove physical barriers to accessing information, but the language barrier still remains due to multilingual collections and the linguistic diversity of users. This study aims at understanding the effect of users’ language skills and field of knowledge on their language preferences when searching for information online and to provide new insights on the access to multilingual digital libraries. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered using a questionnaire and results show that the language skills and the field of knowledge have an impact on the language choice for searching online. These factors also determine the interest in cross-language information retrieval: language-related fields constitute the best potential group of users, followed by the Arts and Humanities and the Social Sciences.
A Probabilistic SVM Approach to Annotation of Calcification Mammograms
Authors: Wei Chia-Hung , Chen Sherry Y.
Published: March 2012

Due to the increasing use of digital medical images, a need exists to develop an approach for automatic image annotation, which provides textual labels for images. Thus added labels can be used to access images using textual queries. Automatic image annotation can be separated into two individual tasks: feature extraction and image classification. In this paper, the authors present feature extraction methods for calcification mammograms. The resultant features, based on BI-RADS standards, make annotated image contents represent the correct medical meaning and tag correspondent terms. Furthermore, this paper also proposes a probabilistic SVM approach to image classification. Finally, the experimental results indicate that the probabilistic SVM approach to image annotation can achieve 79.5% in the average accuracy rate.
3D Face Reconstruction from Two Orthogonal Images for Face Recognition Applications
Authors: Berretti Stefano , Del Bimbo Alberto , Pala Pietro
Published: March 2012

In this paper, an original hybrid 2D-3D face recognition approach is proposed using two orthogonal face images, frontal and side views of the face, to reconstruct the complete 3D geometry of the face. This is obtained using a model based solution, in which a 3D template face model is morphed according to the correspondence of a limited set of control points identified on the frontal and side images in addition to the model. Control points identification is driven by an Active Shape Model applied to the frontal image, whereas subsequent manual assistance is required for control points localization on the side view. The reconstructed 3D model is finally matched, using the iso-geodesic regions approach against a gallery of 3D face scans for the purpose of face recognition. Preliminary experimental results are provided on a small database showing the viability of the approach.
Sampling the Web as Training Data for Text Classification
Authors: Day Wei-Yen , Chi Chun-Yi , Chen Ruey-Cheng , Cheng Pu-Jen
Published: March 2012

Data acquisition is a major concern in text classification. The excessive human efforts required by conventional methods to build up quality training collection might not always be available to research workers. In this paper, the authors look into possibilities to automatically collect training data by sampling the Web with a set of given class names. The basic idea is to populate appropriate keywords and submit them as queries to search engines for acquiring training data. The first of two methods presented in this paper is based on sampling the common concepts among classes and the other is based on sampling the discriminative concepts for each class. A series of experiments were carried out independently on two different datasets and results show that the proposed methods significantly improve classifier performance even without using manually labeled training data. The authors’ strategy for retrieving Web samples substantially helps in the conventional document classification in terms of accuracy and efficiency.
Comparing Repository Types
Authors: Armbruster Chris , Romary Laurent
Published: March 2012

After two decades of repository development, some conclusions may be drawn as to which type of repository and what kind of service best supports digital scholarly communication. In this regard, four types of publication repository may be distinguished, namely the subject-based repository, research repository, national repository system, and institutional repository. Two important shifts in the role of repositories may be noted and in regard to content, a well-defined and high quality corpus is essential. This implies that repository services are likely to be most successful when constructed with the user and reader in mind. With regard to service, high value to specific scholarly communities is essential. This implies that repositories are likely to be most useful to scholars when they offer dedicated services supporting the production of new knowledge. Along these lines, challenges and barriers to repository development may be identified in three key dimensions, i.e., identification and deposit of content, access and use of services, and preservation of content and sustainability of service. An indicative comparison of challenges and barriers in some major world regions is offered.
Bio-Interfaces
Authors: Zuanon Rachel
Published: March 2012

The bio-interfaces are widening the notions of complexity, affectiveness, and naturalness to an organic scale, in which the physiological information of the users acts as data to configure an interaction that responds to their emotional state in order to match the state of their body at that particular moment. In this context, the chapter discusses the role of the bio-interfaces in building a differentiated condition of interaction governed by the biology of the users. For this, the chapter presents applications of bio-interfaces in the areas of design, art, and games, considering their use as wearable devices that provide an organic interaction between man and machine, which could, in turn, lead these systems to a co-evolutionary relationship.
Cooperation of Nature and Physiologically Inspired Mechanisms in Visualisation
Authors: al-Rifaie Mohammad Majid , Aber Ahmed , Bishop John Mark
Published: March 2012

A novel approach of integrating two swarm intelligence algorithms is considered, one simulating the behaviour of birds flocking (Particle Swarm Optimisation) and the other one (Stochastic Diffusion Search) mimics the recruitment behaviour of one species of ants – Leptothorax acervorum. This hybrid algorithm is assisted by a biological mechanism inspired by the behaviour of blood flow and cells in blood vessels, where the concept of high and low blood pressure is utilised. The performance of the nature-inspired algorithms and the biologically inspired mechanisms in the hybrid algorithm is reflected through a cooperative attempt to make a drawing on the canvas. The scientific value of the marriage between the two swarm intelligence algorithms is currently being investigated thoroughly on many benchmarks, and the results reported suggest a promising prospect (al-Rifaie, Bishop & Blackwell, 2011). It may also be discussed whether or not the artworks generated by nature and biologically inspired algorithms can possibly be considered as computationally creative.
0h!m1gas
Authors: Auson Kuai Shen
Published: March 2012

Ants represent a natural superorganism, an autopoietic machine, much like the human society. Nevertheless, the ant society stands out due to self-organization. Ants accomplish the generation of bottom-up structures communicating mainly by pheromones, but they also produce modulatory vibrations. This phenomenon represents a fascinating subject of research that needs to be amplified in order to identify the connections between these social organisms and humans; they share the same environment with humans and participate, thus, in the construction and mutation of posthuman ecology. The human-ant relationship plays an important role in the creation of new ecosystems and the transformations of old ones. Man can approach and embrace this relationship by means of artistic experiments that explore the bioacoustics involved in the social behavior of ants supported by the combination of cybernetics, autopoiesis, self-organization, and emergence.
On the Designing and Prototyping of Kinetic Objects
Authors: Huang Scottie Chih-Chieh , Shih Shen-Guan
Published: March 2012

MSOrgm (Huang, 2009), SSOrgan, and LBSkeleton (Huang, 2011) were created to contain computation, aesthetic, and structural characteristics to employ physical kinetic motion to embody and communicate to people. MSOrgm raises its branches when it senses someone who is looking at it. MSOrgm was developed as a robot plant to interact with the viewer in a soothing way; it uses transformable module to build interconnected fabric and produce unexpected behavior. SSOrgan provides a novel tangible interaction, which generates color in response to touch. SSOrgan is an artificial skin system composed by dense individual sensing module; it creates the responsive behavior executed by its external contact and its internal computing mechanism. LBSkeleton explores a mutual interaction that happens between “the piper and the snake” ? through the change of the sound performance that should triggered by body movement reflectivity. LBSkeleton shows a kinetic structural system, which is engaged with the sensor networked framework and the origami tessellation module to perform a kind of growling behavior with sound. These works bring the specific type of modeling, controlling, and interacting on the designing of the kinetic creatures. The artworks are bringing novel user experiences with the biomimetic mechanism in a space.
A New Leaf
Authors: Lee Liz
Published: March 2012

The author and artist, Liz Lee discusses her latest digital image series, “A New Leaf Series,” within the context of early photographic imaging and its connection to science and biology by investigating and connecting to the work of Thomas Wedgewood, William Henry Fox-Talbot, and the early pioneers of photographic technologies. Hippolyte Bayard’s “Arrangement of Specimens” and Anna Atkins’ “Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions” serve as early examples of the scientific fundamentals of photography; the technological advances of the medium still draw on the same subject matter to reveal the basic structure of conceptual and aesthetic investigation. The author discusses how contemporary electronic imaging has returned to its photographic origins through nature-related subject matter.
Implementing Black Box Warnings (BBWs) in Health Information Systems
Authors: Yang E. , Daghstani A. , Kaelber D. C. , Ikezuagu M.
Published: March 2012

Objective: To develop a practical approach for implementing clinical decision support (CDS) for medication black box warnings (BBWs) into health information systems (HIS).

Methods: We reviewed all existing medication BBWs and organized them into a taxonomy that identifies opportunities and challenges for implementing CDS for BBWs into HIS.

Results: Of the over 400 BBWs that currently exist, they can be organized into 4 categories with 9 sub-categories based on the types of information contained in the BBWs, who should be notified, and potential actions to that could be taken by the person receiving the BBW. Informatics oriented categories and sub-categories of BBWs include – interactions (13%) (drug-drug (4%) and drug-diagnosis (9%)), testing (21%) (baseline (9%) and on-going (12%)), notifications (29%) (drug prescribers (7%), drug dispensers (2%), drug administrators (9%), patients (10%), and third parties (1%)), and non-actionable (37%). This categorization helps identify BBWs for which CDS can be easily implemented into HIS today (such as drug-drug interaction BBWs), those that cannot be easily implemented into HIS today (such as non-actionable BBWs), and those where advanced and/ or integrated HIS need to be in place to implement CDS for BBWs (such a drug dispensers BBWs).

Conclusions: HIS have the potential to improve patient safety by implementing CDS for BBWs. A key to building CDS for BBWs into HIS is developing a taxonomy to serve as an organizing roadmap for implementation. The informatics oriented BBWs taxonomy presented here identified types of BBWs in which CDS can be implemented easily into HIS currently (a minority of the BBWs) and those types of BBWs where CDS cannot be easily implemented today (a majority of BBWs).
The Application of RFID in Brazilian Harvest Facilities: Two Case Studies
Authors: Ribeiro Priscilla Cristina Cabral , Scavarda Annibal José , Batalha Mário Otávio
Published: March 2012

Using the two case studies presented in this work, this article aims to evaluate identification technology used in the Brazilian cattle market. Although Brazil possesses large companies in this sector (one of which is the largest exporter of meat in the world) some of them have yet to implement information technology (IT) for cattle identification purposes. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an IT that identifies cattle using electronic ear tags. This particular form of technology is especially accurate and dependable as it can be used to trace a product from the origin of conception to the consumer. This paper utilizes a qualitative approach – two case studies – which were created with the application of a questionnaire (open and closed questions). Using RFID for internal control purposes only, each of the sample companies has limited use of the technology. Instead, these companies use barcode systems to trace and identify cattle and to send important information to their supply chain partners.
Smart MCI Tracking and Tracing System Based on Colored Active RFID TriageTags
Authors: Chang Ching Hsiang
Published: March 2012

With regards of quick response, its importance can't be ingored during the mass-casualty incident (MCI) event. This paper focuses on the application of a mass-casualty incidents system in tracking and tracing with the use of the colored active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) triage tag to make information of each vicim visual at the base of operations as soon as possible. Its main funtion mentioned in this paper is to traige the victims with the means of active colored tag. Meanwhile, the injuried information will be saved as data in PDA reader. In the process of the victim's arrival in the hospital emergency department and the treatment data sheet will be sent back by the hospital information system, so that this system will get the RFID triage tag ID. This system of tracing and tracking is called as a smart MCIs management system.
A Comparison between Neural Networks and Traditional Forecasting Methods: A Case Study
Authors: Mitrea C. A. , Lee C. K. M. , Wu Z.
Published: March 2012

Forecasting accuracy drives the performance of inventory management. This study is to investigate and compare different forecasting methods like Moving Average (MA) and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) with Neural Networks (NN) models as Feed-forward NN and Nonlinear Autoregressive network with eXogenous inputs (NARX). Data used to forecast is acquired from inventory database of Panasonic Refrigeration Devices Company located in Singapore. Results have shown that forecasting with NN offers better performance in comparison with traditional methods.
Clarification of Failure Terminology by Examining a Generic Failure Development Process
Authors: Tam Allen S. B. , Gordon Ian
Published: March 2012

One key objective of good plant asset management is to prevent undesirable failure that may cause loss of life, destruction of asset, loss of economic benefit or damage to the environment. In order to deploy strategies that prevent failure, one needs to first understand the processes leading to failure, and definitions used for describing the failure of physical assets. A number of different definitions for the same terms related to equipment failure can be found in the literature. The looseness of terminology and often overlapping shades of meaning lead to ambiguity and confusion. This paper aims to offer clearer definitions derived from examining a generic failure development process exhibited by physical assets (herein referred to as “equipment”).
Using ERP Systems to Transform Business Processes: A Case Study at a Precession Engineering Company
Authors: Lee C.K.M. , Zhang Linda , Lee P.X. , Au K.O.
Published: March 2012

Enterprises nowadays strive to keep transforming their business processes in accordance with the fast-changing customer demands so as to survive the intense global competition. In an attempt to provide practitioners with an insight into ERP implementation and the resulting business performances, this paper investigate how a successful ERP implementation can help transform enterprises processes. Case based research which is based on an in-depth observation under managerial and practitioner situation. A case study at a precession engineering company is conducted to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed strategic enterprise information model. This paper focuses on the implementation of Sales & Marketing and Warehouse modules of an ERP system. The key performance indicators are used to evaluate how the ERP implementation can improve the business processes. It is found that ERP helps to improve data visibility and improve on-time delivery but less effective on improving employee productivity. This research proposes an enterprise information model to exploit what strategy should be formulate and how ERP tactic can be implemented in company to enhance enterprise competitive advantages. The strategic enterprise information model is formulated based on our in-depth case study and ERP consultant's experience.
Multi-Agent Modeling in Managing Six Sigma Projects
Authors: Chau K. Y. , Liu S. B. , Lam C. Y.
Published: March 2012

In this paper, a multi-agent model is proposed for considering the human resources factor in decision making in relation to the six sigma project. The proposed multi-agent system is expected to increase the acccuracy of project prioritization and to stabilize the human resources service level. A simulation of the proposed multi-agent model is conducted. The results show that a multi-agent model which takes into consideration human resources when making decisions about project selection and project team formation is important in enabling efficient and effective project management. The multi-agent modeling approach provides an alternative approach for improving communication and the autonomy of six sigma projects in business organizations.
Centralization of Intensive Care Units: Process Reengineering in a Hospital
Authors: Kumar Arun , Shim Sung J.
Published: March 2012

Centralization of intensive care units (ICUs) is a concept that has been around for several decades and the OECD countries have led the way in adopting this in their operations. Singapore Hospital was built in 1981, before the concept of centralization of ICUs took off. The hospital's ICUs were never centralized and were spread out across eight different blocks with the specialization they were associated with. Coupled with the acquisitions of the new concept of centralization and its benefits, the hospital recognizes the importance of having a centralized ICU to better handle major disasters. Using simulation models, this paper attempts to study the feasibility of centralization of ICUs in Singapore Hospital, subject to space constraints. The results will prove helpful to those who consider reengineering the intensive care process in hospitals.
Distribution of three SNPs related to low bone mineral density in amerindian groups and mestizos from Mexico
Authors: Nuño‐Arana Ismael , Sahagún‐Núñez Valeria Del Rocío , Muñoz‐Valle José Francisco , Sandoval Lucila , Pinto‐Escalante Doris , Páez‐Riberos Luis Antonio , Lazalde Brissia , Maldonado‐González Montserrat , Rangel‐Villalobos Héctor
Published: March 2012

Objectives:

Some Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of several candidate genes have been associated with low bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture risk. As the genetic variability of such SNPs in Hispanic and Native American populations is scarce, we analyzed the three SNPs that have been related with bone mass disorders (Sp1, A163G, and BsmI) located in the genes of Type I Collagen (COL1A1), Osteoprotegerin (OPG), and Vitamin D receptor (VDR) in Mexican Mestizos (people resulting from post‐Columbian admixture) and five Amerindian populations.

Methods:

We genotyped these three SNPs by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) in 523 individuals from five Mexican Amerindian groups (Nahua, Maya, Purépecha, Tarahumara, and Huichol) and 227 western Mestizos (Jalisco state).

Results:

The modal allele was the same in all the six populations for Sp1‐COL1A1 (S > 77%), A163G‐OPG (A > 80%), and BsmI‐VDR (b > 62%). Genotype distribution was in Hardy‐Weinberg equilibrium in all SNPs/populations, excepting Sp1‐COL1A1 in the Purépecha group and BsmI‐VDR in Mestizo. In terms of the presumably Sp1‐COL1A1 risk allele to low BMD (allele “s”), the Purépecha group showed the highest allele (23%) and homozygous (14.5%) frequencies. If the role of this allele as a genetic predisposing factor to low BMD were confirmed, this would mean increased susceptibility of Purépechas with regard to Europeans (14.5 vs. 6.8%).

Conclusions:

This finding presumably could influence the genetic susceptibility to low BMD in Purépechas. For the SNPs, BsmI‐VDR and A163G‐OPG, relative homogeneity was observed among the Mexican populations analyzed here. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Effects of cranial electrotherapy stimulation on resting state brain activity
Authors: Feusner Jamie D. , Madsen Sarah , Moody Teena D. , Bohon Cara , Hembacher Emily , Bookheimer Susan Y. , Bystritsky Alexander
Published: March 2012

Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)‐approved treatment for insomnia, depression, and anxiety consisting of pulsed, low‐intensity current applied to the earlobes or scalp. Despite empirical evidence of clinical efficacy, its mechanism of action is largely unknown. The goal was to characterize the acute effects of CES on resting state brain activity. Our primary hypothesis was that CES would result in deactivation in cortical and subcortical regions. Eleven healthy controls were administered CES applied to the earlobes at subsensory thresholds while being scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging in the resting state. We tested 0.5‐ and 100‐Hz stimulation, using blocks of 22 sec “on” alternating with 22 sec of baseline (device was “off”). The primary outcome measure was differences in blood oxygen level dependent data associated with the device being on versus baseline. The secondary outcome measures were the effects of stimulation on connectivity within the default mode, sensorimotor, and fronto‐parietal networks. Both 0.5‐ and 100‐Hz stimulation resulted in significant deactivation in midline frontal and parietal regions. 100‐Hz stimulation was associated with both increases and decreases in connectivity within the default mode network (DMN). Results suggest that CES causes cortical brain deactivation, with a similar pattern for high‐ and low‐frequency stimulation, and alters connectivity in the DMN. These effects may result from interference from high‐ or low‐frequency noise. Small perturbations of brain oscillations may therefore have significant effects on normal resting state brain activity. These results provide insight into the mechanism of action of CES, and may assist in the future development of optimal parameters for effective treatment.
Sustainable Development of Electrical and Electronic Equipment: User‐driven Green Design for Cell Phones
Authors: Liao Chi‐Shun , Lou Kuo‐Ren , Gao Ching‐Tzu
Published: March 2012

Communication and cooperation with consumers are key to sustainable development. This article considers the environmental and user benefits of producing a sustainable product design that enable users' involvement and encourages the use of sustainable products to enhance environmental value. Depending on users' sensitivity to ecodesign for energy‐related products, six environment evaluation criteria may structure their perceptions of cell phone attributes (monitor, panel, battery, shell, modeling, lens and fingerprint). Innovative methods are needed for effective communication, as well as to encourage consumer participation in designing sustainable products that satisfy their needs. The design of product attributes appears able to enhance the sustainable development of products, through users' awareness of various environmental characteristics. This study thus proposes a unique method to understand product design structures and make cell phone design decisions that feature individualized designs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Full dates (day, month, year) should be used in population‐based cancer survival studies
Authors: Woods Laura M. , Rachet Bernard , Ellis Libby , Coleman Michel P.
Published: March 2012

Accurate survival estimates are essential for monitoring cancer survival trends, for health care planning and for resource allocation. To obtain precise estimates of survival, full dates (day, month and year) rather than partial dates (month and year) are required. In some jurisdictions, however, cancer registries are constrained from providing full dates on the grounds of confidentiality. The bias resulting from the use of partial dates in the estimation and comparison of survival makes it impossible to determine precisely the differences in the risk of death from cancer between population groups or in successive calendar periods. Important operational arguments also exist against the use of incomplete dates for survival analysis, including increased workload for cancer registry staff and the introduction of avoidable complexity for quality control of survival data. Cancer survival is one of the most widely known outputs produced by population‐based cancer registries, and it is a crucial metric for the comparative effectiveness of health services. The bodies that set data access guidelines must take a more balanced view of the risks and benefits of using full dates for the estimation of cancer survival.
Development of polylactide and polyethylene vinyl acetate blends for the manufacture of vaginal rings
Authors: Mc Conville Christopher , Major Ian , Friend David R. , Clark Meredith R. , Woolfson A. David , Malcolm R. Karl
Published: March 2012

Vaginal rings are currently being investigated for delivery of HIV microbicides. However, vaginal rings are currently manufactured form hydrophobic polymers such as silicone elastomer and polyethylene vinyl acetate (PEVA), which do not permit release of hydrophilic microbicides such as the nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor tenofovir. Biodegradable polymers such as polylactide (PLA) may help increase release rates by controlling polymer degradation rather than diffusion of the drug through the polymer. However, biodegradable polymers have limited flexibility making them unsuitable for use in the manufacture of vaginal rings. This study demonstrates that by blending PLA and PEVA together it is possible to achieve a blend that has flexibility similar to native PEVA but also allows for the release of tenofovir. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2012.