bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Integrating A3 Reports and the House of Quality: Improving Workflow in the Recovery Room Using Information Technology
Authors: Kuo Mu-Hsing  , Borycki Elizabeth M.  , Kushniruk Andre W.  , Lee Te-Shu
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we provide a methodology for integrating the House of Quality (HOQ), a process tool, with Toyota A3 reports to effectively identify the priorities and root causes of poor efficiency in a Post Anesthesia Care Unit's (PACU) workflow. The A3 report allowed us to identify the workflow waste, and the HOQ helped us to identify and prioritize the critical root causes of poor workflow that could be improved by technology.
The Second Generation Slovenian Health Insurance Card
Authors: Bolka Anka
Published: February 2025

Ten years have passed since the design of the Slovenian health insurance card system, which has been used daily in the entire Slovenian health sector for the last eight years. Eventually, however, a growing number of business and technical reasons arose for the gradual renovation of the system. Therefore, in 2006, on the basis of a study of feasible solutions, the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia prepared a concept for renovation and began modernising several system components, including the new cards as the key security elements of the system. In September 2008, the first new professional cards were issued; in November 2008, the release of the new health insurance cards began.
Is the “International Classification for Patient Safety” a Classification?
Authors: Schulz Stefan  , Karlsson Daniel  , Daniel Christel  , Cools Hans  , Lovis Christian
Published: February 2025

The WHO has developed and is currently testing a classification for patient safety (ICPS). Analyzing the ICPS in the light of classificatory and ontology principles as well as international standards we conclude that its qualification as a classification or taxonomy is misleading. Acknowledging its merits as a standard reporting instrument for change management and process improvements we propose formal improvements.
Embedding Oncologic Protocols into the Provision of Care: The Oncocure Project
Authors: Eccher Claudio  , Seyfang Andreas  , Ferro Antonella  , Miksch Silvia
Published: February 2025

A computerized Decision Support System (CDSS) can improve the adherence of the clinicians to clinical guidelines and protocols. Integrating it within the clinical workflow can reduce the workload of the physicians, and improve the acceptance of the system. The building of a prescriptive CDSS and its integration with a legacy cancer patient management system is the aim of the Oncocure project, which implements the existing protocol for the medical treatment of breast cancer in the Asbru language, and interfaces the Asbru interpreter with the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) in use in an oncologic unit. Our work is not constrained to a specific domain or EPR implementation, but can be generalized to other fields of medicine and patient management systems. When implemented, our CDSS is expected to reduce the cost of care while improving the adherence to the guideline and the quality of the documentation.
Computer-Based Physician Order Entry: Implementation of Clinical Pathways
Authors: Tschopp Mathias  , Despond Magali  , Grauser Damien  , Staub Jean-Christophe  , Lovis Christian
Published: February 2025

Computer-based physician order entry (CPOE) is a key feature of electronic health record systems. A fully-featured CPOE system, capable of dealing with drug prescription, but also with all the other aspects of patients care, can be used to implement standardized clinical pathways. This classic design can be improved upon by using a workflow engine to drive and bring together the different tasks incorporated in a pathway, including clinical documentation.
Bringing Electronic Patient Records into Health Professional Education: Towards an Integrative Framework
Authors: Kushniruk Andre W.  , Borycki Elizabeth M.  , Armstrong Brian  , Joe Ron  , Otto Tony
Published: February 2025

In this paper we discuss our approach for integrating electronic patient records into health professional education. Electronic patient record (EPR) use is increasing globally. The EPR is considered the cornerstone of the modernization and streamlining of healthcare worldwide. However, despite the importance of the EPR, health professional education in much of the world provides health professional students (who will become the practicing health professionals of the future) with limited access or knowledge about the EPR. New ways of exposing students to EPRs will be needed in order to ensure that health professionals will adopt and use this complex technology wisely and effect the positive benefits EPRs are expected to bring to healthcare globally. In this paper we describe: (a) a framework we have developed for integrating EPRs into health professional education and (b) an innovative Web portal, known as the University of Victoria Electronic Health Record (EHR) Educational Portal (which houses a number of EPRs) that can be used to explore the integration of EPRs in health professional education. It is hoped that adoption and use of EPRs will ultimately be improved through the use of the portal to allow students virtual and ubiquitous access to example EPRs, coupled with principled educational approaches for integrating EPR technology into health professional curricula.
An ECG Analysis Interactive Training System for Understanding Arrhythmias
Authors: Lessard Yvon  , Sinteff Jean-Paul  , Siregar Pridi  , Julen Nathalie  , Hannouche Frédéric  , Rio Stéphane  , Le Beux Pierre
Published: February 2025

The ECG remains a daily diagnostic tool for the detection of numerous cardiovascular diseases. Our goal was to use a computerized qualitative model (QM) of heart in order to build cases of simple arrhythmias dedicated to initial and more advanced medical teaching. The original QM is able to generate videograms of many cardiac disturbances. A Flash player is used to view ECG, synchronous Lewis diagram and chromatic 2D cardiac animation of a specific case. OAAT is a standardized 18 yes/no answers questionnaire which allows the learner to diagnose five main types of arrhythmias that can be compared with normal sinus rhythm (NSR) analysis. This new tool has been recently used by medical students during practical sessions. Based on medical reasoning learning on NSR video and upon trying to recognize an abnormal cardiac rhythm, all users can reach the 100% winning score since they can perform as many attempts as they like. We believe that unlimited case review with questionnaire answering, ECG and Lewis diagram replay and step-by-step visualization of the abnormal propagation of the cardiac impulse on the 2D heart videos are a highly efficient means to help students understand even complex arrhythmic mechanisms.
Introducing Guidelines for Good Evaluation Practice in Health Informatics
Authors: Nykänen Pirkko  , Brender Jytte  , Ammenwerth Elske  , Talmon Jan  , de Keizer Nicolette  , Rigby Michael
Published: February 2025

Good evaluation practice guidelines have been developed through a consensus making process by a core team and the health informatics community. A set of 60 issues has been identified that is relevant for planning, implementation and execution of an evaluation study in the health informatics domain. These issues cover all phases of an evaluation study: Study exploration, first study design, operationalization of methods, detailed study design, execution and finalization of an evaluation study. Issues of risk management and project control are also addressed in the guidelines. Through application of these guidelines the general validity and generalization of evaluation studies are likely to be increased, since these guidelines aim at avoiding a number of omissions, pitfalls and risks.
Nanoinformatics: New Challenges for Biomedical Informatics at the Nano Level
Authors: de la Iglesia Diana  , Chiesa Stefano  , Kern Josipa  , Maojo Victor  , Martin-Sanchez Fernando  , Potamias George  , Moustakis Vassilis  , Mitchell Joyce A.
Published: February 2025

Over the last decades Nanotechnology has promised to advance science and technology in many areas. Within medicine, Nanomedicine promises to deliver new methods for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. As the amount of available information is rapidly growing, new Biomedical Informatics approaches have to be developed to satisfy the increasing demand on data and knowledge management. In 2007, a new sub-discipline, already named “Nanoinformatics”, was created with support from the US National Science Foundation. In Europe, a project named ACTION-Grid was launched in 2008 with support from the European Commission to analyze the challenges and agenda for developing Nanoinformatics as a discipline related to Nanotechnology, Biomedicine and Informatics. For MIE 2009, members of this consortium proposed a workshop to discuss the scientific and strategic issues associated with this topic. Nanoinformatics aims to create a bridge between Nanomedicine and Information Technology applying computational methods to manage the information created in the nanomedical domain.
Disentangling Knowledge Objects
Authors: Borgo Stefano  , Pozza Giandomenico
Published: February 2025

We discuss a framework for knowledge management based on ontological techniques. The central notion we study, called knowledge object, is provided as a first attempt to provide a new approach to model the relationship between the material, the information and the organization's perspectives. The paper comprises two parts. In the first part it gives an introduction to knowledge objects, their elements and some basic properties. In the second part, it shows how knowledge objects help in understanding and clarifying knowledge creation and evolution in the scenario of a veterinary public health institute, namely the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVE).
About Strategies to Engineer Situational Methods
Authors: Rolland Colette  , Fujita Hamido
Published: February 2025

Method engineering has emerged in response to the need to adapt methods to better fit the needs of the development task at hand. Its aim is to provide techniques for retrieving reusable method components, adapting and assembling these together to form the new method. Based on a survey of these exiting techniques, the paper proposes first, a generic process model supporting their integration in terms of four possible strategies for action. This model is aimed at helping the method engineer either selecting one strategy or combining several ones that best fit the situation of the method engineering project at hand. Second, the paper presents one of the four method engineering strategies embedded in the generic model, namely the evolution-driven strategy and illustrates it with the experiment done by the authors on a large scale project.
On the Measurement of Negotiation Dialogue Games
Authors: Marey Omar  , Bentahar Jamal  , En-Nouaary Abdeslam
Published: February 2025

Nowadays, multiagent systems became a widely used technology in everyday life. More studies are needed to evaluate these systems from different aspects such as evaluating agent dialogues, the participants to these dialogues, and the protocols governing the dialogues, etc. In this paper, we define new measures for dialogue games from an external agent's point of view. In particular, two measurement sets are proposed: in the first set, we use Shannon entropy to measure the certainty index of the dialogue. This involves i) using Shannon entropy to measure the agent's certainty about each move during the dialogue; and ii) using Shannon entropy to measure the certainty of the agents about the whole dialogue with two different ways. The first way is by taking the average of the certainty index of all moves, and the second way is by determining all possible dialogues and applying the general formula of Shannon entropy. In the second set, we introduce two metrics: i) measuring the goodness of the agents in the real dialogue (i.e. the dialogue that effectively happened between the participants); and ii) measuring the farness of the agents from the right dialogue (i.e. the best dialogue that can be produced by two agents if they know the knowledge bases of each other). Many dialogue game types have been proposed in multiagent systems. In this paper, we focus on one specific type, namely quantitative negotiation such as bargaining.
Can Consumers Cure Healthcare?
Authors: Gruber David
Published: February 2025

The U.S. healthcare delivery system is in crises. Costs are too high and increasingly becoming unaffordable to federal and state governments, employers and consumers. Americans are dissatisfied with the current system and believe it should be fundamentally altered or rebuilt. A solution needs to be found, and it is not the single-payer system espoused by many in Washington and elsewhere.
Aspect-Oriented Techniques for Web Services and their Mobile Clients
Authors: Ortiz Guadalupe  , García de Prado Alfonso
Published: February 2025

The increasing demand for services for mobile customers has resulted in the need to develop services clients that could be used from mobile devices as well as from PCs, which to date has been the main focus for developers. In this paper we propose an aspect-oriented approach which allows services to be context-aware without generating any intrusive code, as well as providing the client's adaptation as a result of the particular device model characteristics and end user preferences in a completely decoupled way.
Autonomic Provisioning for Mobile Commerce
Authors: Randles Martin  , Lamb David  , Taleb-Bendiab A.
Published: February 2025

This paper presents an agile solution to the problems of maintaining availability in e-commerce, given the unpredictability and rapidly changing circumstances that can occur in mobile settings. A major concern is resilience to ensure an adaquate provision of resources and to provide effective load balancing techniques, which must occur in an autonomic manner. It is clear that the scale and complexity of these systems makes centralized individual assignment of jobs to specific e-commerce servers infeasible; leading to the need for an effective distributed solution. This paper investigates firstly the autonomic handling of flash crowds, predominantly occurring in mobile domains, and secondly three possible distributed solutions for load balancing: Flash crowds are monitored for at the edges of the domain, with appropriate responses provided by situation-prediction-action type constructs. The subsequent load balancing and job allocation is assessed over three distributed solutions: An approach inspired by the foraging behaviour of the Honeybee, Biased Random Sampling and Active Clustering. Together these techniques provide a high level of assurance for the mobile e-commerce functions availability to ensure adherence to customer Service Level Agreements.
Location Constraints for Mobile Workflows
Authors: Decker Michael  , Stürzel Peter  , Klink Stefan  , Oberweis Andreas
Published: February 2025

The advances of mobile technologies like portable handheld-computers and wireless data transmission enabled the realization of mobile workflow management systems. In such systems workflow activities can be performed using mobile devices like PDAs or smartphones. Further, the availability of locating technologies like the Global Positioning System (GPS) allows determining the spatial position of a mobile computer and stimulated the emergence of a new class of mobile application, the so called “Location-based Services”. The novel approach presented in this paper is to define location constraints for individual workflow activities when modeling a workflow schema to restrict the location where an activity can be performed. Restricting the location of activities to particular locations can help to mitigate mobility-specific usability and security issues. We introduce several types of such location constraints and suggest ways how to define them. A special focus is on “location rules” to automatically derive dynamic location constraints based on the mobile actor's current position.
Dynamic Adaptive Case Library for Continuous Domains
Authors: Orduña Cabrera Fernando  , Sànchez-Marrè Miquel
Published: February 2025

Continuous domains are domains where cases are generated from a continuous data stream. In these domains, a lot of cases are continuously solved and learned by a CBR system. This means that many cases could be stored in the case library. Thus the efficiency of the CBR system both in size and time could be deeply worsened. In this research work a dynamic adaptive case library (DACL) is proposed. It is able to adapt itself to dynamic environments by means of a set of dynamic clusters of cases and a discriminant tree associated to each cluster. The prototype of a cluster is called a Meta-Case. The aim is to get an optimal and competent case library that works efficiently in a continuous domain. In this paper, the improvement of time efficiency in the retrieval step has been evaluated by means of testing several data bases. The result shows a good improvement using the proposed DACL approach.
A Formalization of Trust Alignment
Authors: Koster Andrew  , Sabater-Mir Jordi  , Schorlemmer Marco
Published: February 2025

We present a mathematical framework for communicating about trust in terms of interactions. We argue that sharing an ontology about trust is not enough and that interactions are the building blocks that all trust- and reputation models use to form their evaluations. Thus, a way of talking about these interactions is essential to gossiping in open heterogeneous environments. We give an overview of the formal framework we propose for aligning trust, based on the gossip agents send.
Towards a Secure, Group-oriented and Efficient Framework for Intelligent Virtual Environments
Authors: Alberola Juan M.  , Such Jose M.  , Barella Antonio  , Garcia-Fornes Ana
Published: February 2025

In this paper a Multiagent System design for Intelligent Virtual Environments using the Magentix Multiagent Platform is presented. It is based in the JGOMAS framework which is extended with agent groups, security, efficiency and scalability. The resulting framework can be used in common Intelligent Virtual Environment domains such as education, commercial games and simulation.
A Formal Model of Competence-Based Assessment
Authors: Alsinet Teresa  , Barroso David  , Béjar Ramón  , Planes Jordi
Published: February 2025

The Bologna Declaration of June 1999 has put in motion a series of reforms needed to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010. One of the most important reforms refers to the pedagogic model defining a competence-based student-centered education model. In this model, the identification of individual ability, talent, and aptitude is deemed to be very important, and the key task of education is self-actualization through recognition and cultivation of such talents and abilities in order to develop competences. Therefore both planning continuing education activities and evaluating these activities after its completion are key processes of such innovative education model. In this paper we present a robust and formal model for developing an evaluation plan of education activities and evaluating these activities after its completion. The aim of the evaluation process is to determine the degree of achievement of competences developed by students during the execution of some continuing education activity. Our approach uses ontologies as formal knowledge representation model to help teachers in developing an evaluation plan of education activities oriented to determine the degree of competence achievement. Once the ontology model of the evaluation plan of an education activity is defined, we propose to use existing reasoning tools to determine the degree of achievement of competences after the activity completion. The resulting evaluation framework is a first approach to a competence-based student-centered evaluation model and can be used as a proof-of-concept system.
A First Approach to Activity Recognition using Topic Models
Authors: Casale Pierluigi  , Pujol Oriol  , Radeva Petia  , Vitrià Jordi
Published: February 2025

In this work, we present a first approach to activity patterns discovery by mean of topic models. Using motion data collected with a wearable device we prototype, TheBadge, we analyse raw accelerometer data using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a particular instantiation of topic models. Results show that for particular values of the parameters necessary for applying LDA to a countinous dataset, good accuracies in activity classification can be achieved.
Interactive Reader Device for Visually Impaired People
Authors: Motto Ros Paolo  , Pasero Eros  , Del Giudice Paolo  , Dante Vittorio  , Petetti Erminio
Published: February 2025

In this feasibility study the design and development of an interactive reader device for blind is examined. It is designed around a character recognition engine based on artificial neural networks and has a modus operandi that elaborates a continuous stream of images, acquired by a custom hardware, at the same time the user moves the device on the text he is trying to read. Indeed the system has to guide the user to follow the text flow, in a suitable way. This makes the proposed solution interactive, since it is a complementary sensory aid that gives information about the text it reads (by means of a tactile display and a speech synthesis engine) and at the same time the user has the ability to select the right operating mode and the actual device configuration.
Face Verification Based on DCT Templates with Pseudo-Random Permutations
Authors: Grassi Marco  , Faundez-Zanuy Marcos
Published: February 2025

Biometric template security and privacy are a great concern of biometric systems, because unlike passwords and tokens, compromised biometric templates cannot be revoked and reissued. In this paper we present a protection scheme for a face verification system based on a user dependent pseudo-random ordering of the DCT template coefficients and MPL and RBF Neural Networks for classification. In addition to privacy enhancement, because a hacker can hardly match a fake biometric sample without knowing the pseudo-random ordering this scheme, the proposed system also increases the biometric recognition performance.
Health Care Ontologies: Knowledge Models for Record Sharing and Decision Support
Authors: Madsen Maria
Published: February 2025

This chapter gives an educational overview of:
Physiological Monitoring
Authors: Karunanithi Mohanraj K.
Published: February 2025

This chapter gives an educational overview of:
E-Health Records and Future Healthcare
Authors: Hovenga Evelyn J.S.  , Heard Sam
Published: February 2025

This chapter gives an educational overview of:
The Health Informatics Workforce: Unanswered Questions, Needed Answers
Authors: Hersh William
Published: February 2025

This chapter gives an educational overview of:
Clinical Terminology
Authors: Grain Heather
Published: February 2025

This chapter gives an educational overview of:
An Optimized Processing of Parent-Child Structural Join
Authors: Sikorski Andrzej  , Ciemnoczolowski Yaroslav
Published: February 2025

This paper provides a technique that enables embedding of path and twig query evaluation in an application server built on top of a small footprint data manager. The technique proposed offers increased flexibility, enabling seamless integration of business rules with low level evaluation facilities. This flexibility compares with that supported by stored procedures in SQL, not available for XML. Our method leverages deferred processing of a Structural Join (SJ) that we modify so as to achieve the minimum number of IO operations. Our recursive composition technique takes advantage of FIFO order processing, what results in a significant performance boost.
Analyzing Topic Transitions using Term Context-dependent Attractiveness
Authors: Sato Makoto  , Akaishi Mina  , Hori Koichi
Published: February 2025

The context of information when it is accumulated is different from the context when it is used. Generating a story in a new context from an enormous number of documents is difficult. Thus, we designed an information access framework that supports the decomposition/recomposition of documents by enabling the manipulation of their narrative structures. In this paper, we propose taking into account context dependency in this framework and illustrate the document recomposition procedure with context dependency.
Antenna front-ends for mobile satellite terminals: design & realisation
Authors: Baggen Rens  , Holzwarth Sybille  , Böttcher Martin
Published: February 2025

This article presents an overview of developments at IMST in the area of antenna front-ends for mobile satellite terminals. Such type of antennas has become a key area of interest because of the ever growing multimedia services provided over wireless links and satellites. Various activities in this area have been conducted in the past, and are on-going. Antenna front-ends for mobile platforms are, in general, complex systems because they have to incorporate special features in order to perform beam steering, and at the same time also be cost-effective. The complexity of the antenna systems, developed at IMST, ranges from small arrays with switch-able elements and partially mechanically and electronically steerable arrays (hybrid systems) to fully electronically steerable arrays. This article examines which kind of user requirements for the three basic mobile platforms (land, maritime and aeronautical) exist, and what kind of impact they have on the design of the front-ends. Latter aspect is critical to achieve a cost-effective design. This is illustrated by examples from past and on-going projects in L-, Ku-, and K/Ka-band. Different concepts are presented and key aspects discussed.
The onset of slip on frictional discontinuities in brittle materials
Authors: Mutlu O.  , Bobet A.
Published: February 2025

Frictional discontinuities in rock masses can be viewed as fractures and their behavior can be approximated using Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) theory. Slip along a frictional discontinuity can be approached as initiation and propagation of a mode II fracture along its own plane. Fracture mechanics theories predict that under pure mode II loading initiation will occur when the energy release rate of the fracture attains a critical value (GIIC), which is generally taken as a material property. The research conducted shows that this may not be always the case. Identification and quantification of the mechanisms for the onset and propagation of slip along frictional surfaces have been carried out by testing in biaxial compression two different sets of brittle specimens: acrylic and gypsum. The specimens consist of two or three blocks with perfectly mated contact surfaces. The contact surface between blocks is equally divided in two areas, one with a lower frictional strength (weak area) and the other one with a higher frictional strength (strong area). Experiments show that slip starts first in the weak area and progresses towards the strong area with increasing load. Once slip has reached the strong area, a sharp contact is created between the area that has slipped (weak) and the area that has not (strong). Results from the tests show that the critical energy release rate, GIIC, depends on the frictional characteristics of the surface and on the critical displacement required to decrease the frictional strength from peak to residual. Furthermore, experiments conducted on surfaces with and without cohesion indicate that cohesive debonding and frictional mobilization may not occur simultaneously. The experimental results together with an analytical formulation within the framework of fracture mechanics explain some of the inconsistencies found in the literature and provide a clear picture of how slip initiates. This paper presents the experiments, analyses and formulations carried out in support of the conclusions.
Identification of Western Corn Rootworm Larval Damage in Cornfield by Radar Data
Authors: Nádor Gizella  , Fényes Diána  , Surek György  , Vasas László
Published: February 2025

The structure of a healthy, Western Corn Rootworm (WCR) free cornfield shows straight rows in a clear order and upstanding corn-stalks. The WCR larval infection causes wilted broken corn-stalks laying randomly on the ground. That means the damage itself causes physical and visible disorder in the cornfield. Our goal is to assess and identify the disorder and structural changes caused by WCR using polarimetic radar images (ALOS PALSAR). We used 3 different individual features (Monoculture-feature, Optical-feature, Radar-feature) derived from remote sensing data to identify WCR larval damage. We carried out retrospective examinations and operational regional assessment in 2008 to test the efficiency of our remote sensing methodology. This project demonstrates the potential in the integrated assessment of optical and radar satellite images to assess and identify the disorder and structural changes caused by WCR larvae as well as other agricultural damages. Using polarimetric radar technique increased the accuracy significantly. By the successful development, this project can effectively contribute to the WCR identification, spread-monitoring and control in Hungary as well as in the European Union. This project was implemented in 2008 in the framework of our successful tender called by the Hungarian Space Office and with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Water. The ALOS PALSAR data were provided by ESA (ESA EO CAT-1 5162) and FÖMI. The reference data collection and the ground assessment were carried out by the experts of the Central Agricultural Office of Békés County.
On some elicitation procedures for distributions with bounded support – with applications in PERT
Authors: van Dorp Johan René
Published: February 2025

The introduction of the Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) dates back to the 1960's and has found wide application since then in the planning of construction projects. Difficulties with the interpretation of the parameters of the beta distribution let Malcolm et al. [1] to suggest the classical expressions for the PERT mean and variance for activity completion that follow from lower and upper bound estimates a and b and a most likely estimate θ thereof. The parameters of the beta distribution are next estimated via the method of moments technique. Despite more recent papers still questioning the PERT mean and variance approach, their use is still prevalent in operations research and industrial engineering text books that discuss these methods. In this paper an overview is presented of some alternative approaches that have been suggested, including a recent approach that allows for a direct model range estimation combined with an indirect elicitation of bound and tail parameters of generalized trapezoidal uniform distributions describing activity uncertainty. Utilizing an illustrative Monte Carlo analysis for the completion time of an 18 node activity network, we shall demonstrate a difference between project completion times that could result when requiring experts to specify a single most likely estimate rather than allowing for a modal range specification.
Dynamics of Human Movement
Authors: Koopman Bart (H.F.J.M.)
Published: February 2025

The part of (bio)mechanics that studies the interaction of forces on the human skeletal system and its effect on the resulting movement is called rigid body dynamics. Some basic concepts are presented: A mathematical formulation to describe human movement and how this relates on the mechanical loads acting on the skeletal system. These equations of motion depend on the mechanical properties of the skeletal system, such as dimensions and mass distribution. It is applied to describe and analyze human gait.
Pay for value
Authors: Smoldt Robert
Published: February 2025

Texas Bix Bender is not a known health economist. In fact, he's not an economist at all. He is the author of “Don't Squat with Yer Spurs On! The Cowboy's Guide to Life”, and in that book he provides some insight into the issues that affect improving healthcare effectiveness and efficiency. One of his guides to life is as follows: “If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging” [3].
Reform incentives to create a demand for health system reengineering
Authors: Enthoven Alain
Published: February 2025

America needs a far more efficient health care financing and delivery system than the one we have. Our present system is a serious threat to public finances and is pricing itself out of reach. At the root of the problem are incentives and organization. The present fragmented fee-for-service small practice model is filled with cost-increasing incentives. There are some relatively efficient organized delivery systems, mostly based on large multi-specialty group practices. Unfortunately, most consumers are not offered the opportunity to save money and get better care by choosing such a system. This situation presents great opportunities for improvement in performance by re-engineering the system. However, for this to happen, incentives must be fundamentally changed so that everyone is cost conscious and care is organized in accountable care systems seeking improvement.
SCOPE: A Situation Calculus Ontology of Petri Nets
Authors: Tan Xing
Published: February 2025

By axiomatizing the semantics of Petri nets as a first-order (mostly) formal ontology called SCOPE, we propose in this paper a framework for the analysis of the structural and dynamical properties of Petri nets. More precisely, SCOPE is built as a Basic Action Theory in Reiter's version of situation calculus. In addition, we show the satisfiability of SCOPE, by virtue of the Relative Satisfiability Theorem. Fundamental structural and dynamical properties of Petri nets described in SCOPE are also presented, with two example uses of SCOPE given.
Foundational Process Relations in Bio-Ontologies
Authors: Özgövde Atalay  , Grüninger Michael
Published: February 2025

This paper aims to provide rigor to the process relations in the OBO relations ontology. We present a formal axiomatization of these relations in first order logic as a definitional extension of the Process Specification Language (PSL) Ontology. In particular, we formalize the process parthood, process specialization, process instantiation and instance level parthood relations of OBO. We also present a formal characterization of the models of our axiomatization and provide representation theorems showing the correctness of our characterization.
Dispositions and the Infectious Disease Ontology
Authors: Goldfain Albert  , Smith Barry  , Cowell Lindsay G.
Published: February 2025

This paper addresses the use of dispositions in the Infectious Disease Ontology (IDO). IDO is an ontology constructed according to the principles of the Open Biomedical Ontology (OBO) Foundry and uses the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) as an upper ontology. After providing a brief introduction to disposition types in BFO and IDO, we discuss three general techniques for representing combinations of dispositions under the headings blocking dispositions, complementary dispositions, and collective dispositions. Motivating examples for each combination of dispositions is given along with a specific use case in IDO. Description logic restrictions are used to formalize statements relating to these combinations.
Business Aspects of Multipath TCP Adoption
Authors: Levä Tapio  , Warma Henna  , Ford Alan  , Kostopoulos Alexandros  , Heinrich Bernd  , Widera Ralf  , Eardley Philip
Published: February 2025

Multipath TCP (MPTCP) is a resource pooling mechanism which splits data across multiple subflows (paths) and ensures reliable data delivery. Although Multipath TCP is a relatively small technical change to the TCP protocol providing improved resilience, throughput and session continuity, it will have considerable impact on the value networks and business models of Internet access provisioning. In this paper, we evaluate the viability of different MPTCP deployment scenarios and present what new ISP business models might be enabled by the new flexibility that MPTCP brings. This allows the research community to focus on the most promising deployment scenarios.
Emotion Elicitation in Individuals During a Cognitive Task
Authors: de Boer Robert J.  , Badke-Schaub Petra  , Santema Sicco C.
Published: February 2025

In this paper we present a theoretical explanation for the relationship between Mental Models and emotions, which we have tested in a laboratory setting with engineers from industry and engineering students. The experiment shows a correlation between emotions and Mental Models such that there is a bias towards maintaining the Mental Model. Implications for this finding in practice are discussed, as well as further research that is required to ascertain these results.
Using Robotics Construction Kits as Metacognitive Tools: a Research in an Italian Primary School
Authors: La Paglia Filippo  , Caci Barbara  , La Barbera Daniele  , Cardaci Maurizio
Published: February 2025

The present paper is aimed at analyzing the process of building and programming robots as a metacognitive tool. Quantitative data and qualitative observations from a research performed in a sample of children attending an Italian primary school are described in this work. Results showed that robotics activities may be intended as a new metacognitive environment that allows children to monitor themselves and control their learning actions in an autonomous and self-centered way.
The Effects of Augmented Reality on Learning
Authors: Hsiao Kuei-Fang
Published: February 2025

In this study, a new approach to the implementation of Augmented Reality (AR) in the educational environment was taken by creating a Chemistry Augmented Reality Learning System (CARLS), using the existing teaching curriculum, together with physical activity. This system combined learning with three types of physical activity: aerobic fitness, muscle strength and flexibility fitness. This study reveals that the students using all three types of physical activity together with CARLS result in significantly higher academic performance compared to the traditional Keyboard-Mouse CAI (KMCAI). This improvement is most evident for the non-memorized knowledge component of Science. Moreover, the students in the AR group with ‘muscle strength’ physical activity had significantly more positive learning attitude change toward Science than those in the KMCAI group. A great additional benefit of our approach is that, students also obtained more physical fitness while learning.
Effectiveness of Brief VR Treatment for PTSD in War-Fighters: A Case Study
Authors: Miyahira Sarah D.  , Folen Raymond A.  , Hoffman Hunter G.  , Garcia-Palacios Azucena  , Schaper Kim M.
Published: February 2025

War-fighters exposed to combat are at high risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a complex and challenging condition to treat. Cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) have been empirically validated as effective treatments for PTSD resulting from sexual assault, vehicular accidents, and disasters. Exposure, imaginal or in vivo, to the traumatic event is a central component of successful CBT treatment. Early studies indicate that CBT with brief virtual reality exposure (VRE) is beneficial in treating PTSD. The case study examined the effectiveness of brief VRE in treating combat-related PTSD.
Neuropsychological Testing Through a Nintendo Wii
Authors: Gamberini Luciano  , Cardullo Stefano  , Seraglia Bruno  , Bordin Adalberto
Published: February 2025

In recent years, videogames have demonstrated their positive effects in the psychological treatments and cognitive training of the old population. In this paper we present a pilot study in which a group of elderly people in an old people's home was requested to play a set of cognitive tasks administered through a popular videogames console, the Nintendo Wii®. The results obtained by comparing the Wii®cognitive games with traditional paper and pencil tests are described and discussed to orient further improvements.
Seamless Care: What is it; what is its value; what does it require; when might we get it?
Authors: Hammond William Ed
Published: February 2025

The vision of a seamless care environment enabled through the use of health information technology opens the door to exciting possibilities. The first is the creation of a patient-centric Electronic Health Record that would contain all health-related data about a patient from all sources. That EHR would contribute to highest quality, safe, efficient, and low cost care. That same data would be used for multiple purposes, and, by integrating all requirements at the beginning, would meet all those multiple needs. Key to obtaining seamless care is the creation of a global master registry of data elements with attributes that would provide not only interoperability throughout seamless health care but also permit the coupling of knowledge with data. To accomplish this lofty vision will require making critical decisions, staying to the course, eliminating siloed approaches, and adopting universal, cooperative solutions to the use of HIT.
Quality Evaluation of Health Information System's Architectures Developed Using the HIS-DF Methodology
Authors: López Diego M.  , Blobel Bernd  , Gonzalez Carolina
Published: February 2025

Requirement analysis, design, implementation, evaluation, use, and maintenance of semantically interoperable Health Information Systems (HIS) have to be based on eHealth standards. HIS-DF is a comprehensive approach for HIS architectural development based on standard information models and vocabulary. The empirical validity of HIS-DF has not been demonstrated so far. Through an empirical experiment, the paper demonstrates that using HIS-DF and HL7 information models, semantic quality of HIS architecture can be improved, compared to architectures developed using traditional RUP process. Semantic quality of the architecture has been measured in terms of model's completeness and validity metrics. The experimental results demonstrated an increased completeness of 14.38% and an increased validity of 16.63% when using the HIS-DF and HL7 information models in a sample HIS development project. Quality assurance of the system architecture in earlier stages of HIS development presumes an increased quality of final HIS systems, which supposes an indirect impact on patient care.
Integrating Technology-Centric and User-Centric System Testing Methods: Ensuring Healthcare System Usability and Safety
Authors: Kushniruk Andre  , Borycki Elizabeth  , Kuo Mu-Hsing  , Kuwata Shigeki
Published: February 2025

The objective of this paper is to describe a framework for system testing in response to the need to ensure both the usability and safety of healthcare information systems. The approach includes consideration of methods that include both conventional computer software testing approaches (i.e. technology-centric approaches) and extends conventional testing to include consideration of system impact in terms of both usability and workflow (i.e. user-centric testing approaches) prior to system release. The paper describes these main approaches. It is argued that both technology and user-centered approaches should be employed before the release of a complex health information system in order to ensure that it is safe and does not inadvertently introduce error.
Patient safety, resilience and ICT. A reason for concern?
Authors: Skorve Espen
Published: February 2025

During my studies of the implementation of a new hospital wide information system for medical charts, the project's impact on patient safety emerged as a topic of interest for the clinicians involved. While Karl Weick [1] applies the law of requisite variety to illustrate the correlation between professional variety and medical errors, it is argued here that a similar notion could be applied to the variety in modes of information in hospitals. Based on this, the question is raised whether or not the introduction of standardized computer systems at the expense of existing solutions could pose a threat to this variety, and subsequently to the hospital's resilience in handling uncertainty.
Socio-technical Challenges in Implementing Safe Patient Handovers
Authors: Balka Ellen  , Tolar Marianne  , Coates Shannon  , Whitehouse Sandra
Published: February 2025

Ineffective handovers in patient care, including those where information loss occurs between care providers, have been identified as a risk to patient safety. Computerization of health information is often offered as a solution to improve the quality of care handovers and decrease adverse events related to patient safety. Drawing on three ethnographic case studies we identify and discuss socio-technical issues which must be addressed if computerized health information systems are to achieve improvements in patient safety related to handovers in care. We suggest that the contextual nature of information, ethical and medico-legal issues arising in relation to information handover and data standards and system integration warrant ongoing research in socio-technical aspects of care handovers.
Sociotechnical Changing in Healthcare
Authors: Petrakaki Dimitra  , Cornford Tony  , Klecun Ela
Published: February 2025

This paper discusses a conceptual approach to the study of the implementation of ICTs in healthcare organizations. The paper uses some fundamental concepts from sociotechnical studies to address the complex process of change – the changing – that accompanies ICT innovations. The paper argues for the importance of the perspective of changing as a way to account for the dynamics as technology and people, organizations and institutions co-constitutively work-out their future together.
Clinical Effectiveness of School Screening for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: A Large Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study
Authors: Luk Keith D.K.  , Lee C.F.  , Cheung Kenneth M.C.  , Cheng Jack C.Y.  , Ng Bobby K.W.  , Lam T.P.  , Mak K.H.  , Yip Paul S.F.  , Fong Daniel Y.T.
Published: February 2025

Introduction: School screening for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) has been criticized as resulting in over-referrals for radiography and having low predictive values.
The Value of Shoe Size for Predicting the Timing of the Pubertal Growth Spurt
Authors: Busscher I.  , Wapstra F.H.  , Bulstra S.K.  , Veldhuizen A.G.
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Knowing the timing of the pubertal growth spurt is essential for the prognosis and therapy of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Distal body parts have their growth spurt earlier in adolescence, and therefore the growth of the foot could be an early indicator for the growth spurt of total body height. Shoe size is a good alternative for foot length, since patients remember to a high extend when they bought new shoes and what size these shoes were. Therefore the clinician already has access to longitudinal data at the first visit.
A Web-based Tool for Visualizing Scoliotic Trunk Surfaces Variations
Authors: Boisvert Jonathan  , Cheriet Farida  , Shu Chang  , Xi Pengcheng  , Labelle Hubert
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Characterizing and classifying torso deformities associated with scoliosis is very challenging. One of the problems hindering the achievement of a consensus about these issues is the absence of a centralized and intuitive resource where scoliotic torso deformities can be visualized and interpreted by anyone in the spinal deformity research community.