bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Radiological assessment of high density shielding concrete for neutron radiography
Authors: Ekolu Stephen  , Ramushu Mokgobi A.
Published: February 2025

A radiation shield is a physical barrier placed between a source of ionizing radiation and the object to be protected from the radiation. In this research, concrete was selected as the best shielding material. An investigation was carried out to evaluate a specific concrete mixture developed in [1] for shielding of radiation energies. The high density shielding concrete (HDSC) concrete had 28-day compressive cube strength of 30 MPa, w/c (water/cementitious ratio) of 0.51 and density of 4231 kg/m3. It composed of CEM 52.5 N, silica fume, hematite aggregates, steel shots, colemanite and chemical admixtures.
Estimation of concrete properties at early age by thermal stress device
Authors: Cha Sang Lyul  , Kim Jin Keun
Published: February 2025

The properties of concrete should be estimated in order to simulate the behavior of concrete structures at early age. However, it is difficult to estimate properties of concrete at early age because they change with time, temperature history, humidity and etc. In this study, a new approach is suggested in estimation of concrete properties such as final autogenous shrinkage, final creep coefficient and thermal expansion coefficient. Properties of concrete at early age are estimated by comparing between the results of analysis and experiments considering the effects of mixing material, temperature history and humidity by using thermal stress device which is able to get stress history in a chamber with various temperature history because each step of the analysis has the best values of concrete properties which would result in similar stress results between the analysis and the experiments. The results show that properties of concrete change with time at very early age which is within 1 day and then are converged to constant values.
A study of thermal conductivity of wood ash blended cement mortar
Authors: Raheem Akeem Ayinde  , Akinteye Ibrahim Akinyemi  , Lasisi Saheed A.
Published: February 2025

This paper reports the result of research aimed at assessing the thermal conductivity of wood ash blended cement mortar. Wood ash obtained from bread bakery, was used as partial replacement for ordinary Portland cement in mortar production with replacement ranging from 5% to 25%. Mortar specimen with no wood ash content served as the control. The physical and chemical properties of fly ash were reviewed to evaluate the possible effect on cement properties. Mortar specimens were prepared using cementitious material to sand ratios 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3. The mortar specimens were air-cured for 15 days and oven-dried for 24 hours for complete removal of moisture before thermal conductivity test was carried out on them. For mix ratio 1:1, the thermal conductivity results obtained were 1.399, 1.175, 1.129, 1.040, 1.019 and 1.039 (W/m°C) for the control, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% fly ash replacement respectively. Similar trends were observed for 1:2 and 1:3 mix ratios. The results showed that the thermal conductivity decreases as the wood ash percentage increases. The thermal conductivity of the control cubes for mix ratio 1:1 gave the highest value. It was concluded that the replacement of cement by wood ash reduces the thermal conductivity of mortar.
Low-damage earthquake-resistant structures achieved through movability and ductility
Authors: Chouw Nawawi
Published: February 2025

In current seismic design, structures are typically assumed to be fixed at the base. Separation at the base during earthquakes is thus avoided, in order to avoid the possibility instability or even overturning. In contrast to this conventional approach, the structures described in this paper subscribe to a low-damage design philosophy in which the structures are indeed allowed to move and uplift while responding to earthquake loading. Whenever there is partial separation of the structure from the supporting ground, earthquake energy induced into the structure will be temporarily cut off. Consequently, the structures experience less loading and less or even zero damage can be anticipated. This paper presents an overview of current research on innovative seismic design approaches that could be implemented in low-damage earthquake-resistant structures of the future.
Optimizing coefficient of thermal expansion of concrete and its importance on concrete structures
Authors: Siddiqui Md Sarwar  , Fowler David W.
Published: February 2025

Thermal stress development in concrete structures is significantly influenced by the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of concrete. Optimizing concrete CTE can reduce the thermal stress, which will eventually reduce the cracking potential of concrete structures. At early age, when concrete has low strength, it is much more vulnerable to cracking. Early-age cracking has a detrimental effect on the durability of concrete structures. This study presents the importance of concrete CTE on the thermal stress development in concrete structures as well as three techniques to reduce the CTE of concrete. Replacing high CTE coarse aggregates with low CTE coarse aggregates is the most effective method for reducing concrete CTE. Concrete CTE can also be reduced by reducing cement paste volume. However, if the cement paste reduction increases the void content in the concrete system, saturated concrete CTE is likely to increase.
Use of self-compacting geopolymer concrete in a precast environment - a case study
Authors: McKenzie Warren
Published: February 2025

This paper serves as a case study for the potential use of geopolymer based concrete in the precast environment, paying specific attention to self-compacting properties. Based on site trials and results obtained from within the laboratory, the production of SCGC and the application thereof in the precast environment was proven feasible with positive results.
Thin spray rock liners with different concentrations of nanoclays
Authors: van Tonder P.  , Booysen C.J.
Published: February 2025

This study investigates the possibility of effectively replacing polymers in thin sprayed liners (TSL's) with nanoclay particles. In the industry Nano particles are used in many different products to enhance their properties. The strength properties was analysed to see if the addition of nanoclays improve the strengths of the TSL product. Different concentrations of nanoclay were added to a standard TSL mixture in the place of polymer particles. The different composites were tested for Tensile Strength, Compression Strength, Shear Strength and Shear Bond Strength. Though there are other parameters to be tested, the study will only focus on those mentioned above, as they were considered to be the most important. The materials used for testing these characteristics were supplied by Oxyfibre. The mixtures have consisted of four different composites that included the standard mixture, 2% nanoclays, 4% nanoclays and 6% nanoclays.
Flexural tests of Mi Panels
Authors: Bukasa G.M.  , Dundu M.
Published: February 2025

Two series of flexural tests on 2700x600x75 mm Mi Panels are presented. The inner core of these lightweight panels is made from mixing polystyrene beads called Neopor, high strength cement, and water. A chemical is used as binding agent to bond the inner core to the external fibre cement sheets of 4.5 mm thickness. The experimental programme consists of two series of tests with different loading conditions; the first series has line loads at one-third point from each end support and the second series has line loads, at quarter and three quarter span of the panels. All flexural tests are performed to simulate the behaviour of the wall, when subjected to wind loads. Although the panels failed by fracturing, the tests showed that the panels are capable of carrying the required loads.
Using data to understand the statute book as a whole system
Authors: Sheridan John
Published: February 2025

Imagine designing laws using data – quickly and easily researching, interrogating and understanding the statute book as a whole system. For the first time, the technologies needed to do this have become widely available and reasonably affordable. Moving beyond searching for legal databases for strings of text, the ‘big data for law’ project aims to provide researchers with the data, tools and methods that have the potential to transform how the statute book is conceived and managed. In this poster presentation, John Sheridan, Head of Legislation Services at The National Archives in the UK, will present the work and findings of the big data for law project.
A double closed loop to enhance the quality of life of Parkinson's Disease patients: REMPARK system
Authors: Samà Albert  , Pérez-López Carlos  , Rodríguez-Martín Daniel  , Moreno-Aróstegui J. Manuel  , Rovira Jordi  , Ahlrichs Claas  , Castro Rui  , Cevada João  , Graça Ricardo  , Guimarães Vânia  , Pina Bernardo  , Counihan Timothy  , Lewy Hadas  , Annicchiarico Roberta  , Bayés Àngels  , Rodríguez-Molinero Alejandro  , Cabestany Joan
Published: February 2025

This paper presents REMPARK system, a novel approach to deal with Parkinson's Disease (PD). REMPARK system comprises two closed loops of actuation onto PD. The first loop consists in a wearable system that, based on a belt-worn movement sensor, detects movement alterations that activate an auditory cueing system controlled by a smartphone in order to improve patient's gait. The belt-worn sensor analyzes patient's movement through real-time learning algorithms that were developed on the basis of a database previously collected from 93 PD patients. The second loop consists in disease management based on the data collected during long periods and that enables neurologists to tailor medication of their PD patients and follow the disease evolution. REMPARK system is going to be tested in 40 PD patients in Spain, Ireland, Italy and Israel. This paper describes the approach followed to obtain this system, its components, functionalities and trials in which the system will be validated.
The main issues of enhancement of the effectiveness of medical services provided to the children's population in Republic Armenia
Authors: Mardiyan M.A.  , Chopikyan A.S.  , Barseghyan A.A.  , Danielyan L.M.  , Dunamalyan R.A.
Published: February 2025

Recently the indicators characterizing health state development of population in Armenia have undergone various negative and structural changes.
PEGASO: A Personalised and Motivational ICT System to Empower Adolescents Towards Healthy Lifestyles
Authors: Carrino Stefano  , Caon Maurizio  , Angelini Leonardo  , Mugellini Elena  , Abou Khaled Omar  , Orte Silvia  , Vargiu Eloisa  , Coulson Neil  , Serrano José C.E.  , Tabozzi Sarah  , Lafortuna Claudio  , Rizzo Giovanna
Published: February 2025

Unhealthy alimentary behaviours and physical inactivity habits are key risk factors for major non communicable diseases. Several researches demonstrate that juvenile obesity can lead to serious medical conditions, pathologies and have important psycho-social consequences. PEGASO is a multidisciplinary project aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles among teenagers through assistive technology. The core of this project is represented by the ICT system, which allows providing tailored interventions to the users through their smartphones in order to motivate them. The novelty of this approach consists of developing a Virtual Individual Model (VIM) for user characterization, which is based on physical, functional and behavioural parameters opportunely selected by experts. These parameters are digitised and updated thanks to the user monitoring through smartphone; data mining algorithms are applied for the detection of activity and nutrition habits and this information is used to provide personalised feedback. The user interface will be developed using gamified approaches and integrating serious games to effectively promote health literacy and facilitate behaviour change.
Likelihood-Fuzzy Analysis of Parotid Gland Shrinkage in Radiotherapy Patients
Authors: Pota Marco  , Scalco Elisa  , Sanguineti Giuseppe  , Belli Maria Luisa  , Cattaneo Giovanni Mauro  , Esposito Massimo  , Rizzo Giovanna
Published: February 2025

In head-and-neck radiotherapy, an early detection of patients who will undergo parotid glands shrinkage during the treatment is of primary importance, since this condition has been found to be associated with acute toxicity. In this work, a recently proposed approach, here named Likelihood-Fuzzy Analysis, based on both statistical learning and Fuzzy Logic, is proposed to support the identification of early predictors of parotid shrinkage from Computed Tomography images acquired during radiotherapy. For this purpose, a set of textural image parameters was extracted and considered as candidate of parotid shrinkage prediction; for all these parameters and combinations of maximum three of them, a fuzzy rule base was extracted, gaining very good results in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. The performance of classification was also compared to a classical Fisher's Linear Discriminant Analysis and found to provide better results. Moreover, the use of Fuzzy Logic allowed obtaining an interpretable description of the relations between textural features and the shrinkage process.
Texture Descriptors Based on Dijkstra's Algorithm for Medical Image Analysis
Authors: Ghidoni Stefano  , Nanni Loris  , Brahnam Sheryl  , Menegatti Emanuele
Published: February 2025

In this paper we investigate a new approach for extracting features from a texture using Dijkstra's algorithm. The method maps images into graphs and gray level differences into transition costs. Texture is measured over the whole image comparing the costs found by Dijkstra's algorithm with the geometric distance of the pixels. In addition, we compare and combine our new strategy with a previous method for describing textures based on Dijkstra's algorithm. For each set of features, a support vector machine (SVM) is trained. The set of classifiers is then combined by weighted sum rule. Combining the proposed set of features with the well-known local binary patterns and local ternary patterns boosts performance. To assess the performance of our approach, we test it using six medical datasets representing different image classification problems. Tests demonstrate that our approach outperforms the performance of standard methods presented in the literature. All source code for the approaches tested in this paper will be available at: http://www.dei.unipd.it/node/2357.
Gendered by Design: Gender Codes in Social Robotics
Authors: Shaw-Garlock Glenda
Published: February 2025

The design of gendered sociable robots is the focus of this paper. Drawing on a communication studies perspective, culturally diverse affective sociable robotics that are inflected with feminine social codes, sometimes in function or form are examined. Communication studies, an interdisciplinary approach, shapes my inquiry of this topic through careful attendance to the social shaping dimensions of technology. The process of ascribing gender to robots makes evident that “gender belongs both to the order of the material body and to the social and discursive or semiotic systems within which bodies are embedded” (Wajcman, 2004). This work provides an overview of the way in which gender is presently researched within the field of social robotics as well as the various ways in which gender is purposefully ascribed to sociable robot projects. The implications of gendering robot is considered and some preliminary thoughts on ways in which robot design might work against adopting a simplified gender stereotyped approaches in their work.
Quadtree Segmented Wavelet Transform Image Coding
Authors: Wu Jia-Chyi  , Shih Ming-Kai
Published: February 2025

Wavelet transform has been received a great interest because it provides a multi-resolution representation of images. Wavelet transforms have been shown to achieve high compression ratios while maintaining very good image quality, due to the fact that edge characteristics of images can be well preserved by this method at low bit ratesBy way of vector quantization technique, the wavelet transformed coefficients can be further compressed. For real time image compression, achieving high data compression ratio and coding efficiency at the same time are both important. In this study, we have proposed a preprocessed quadtree segmentation method for Wavelet transform image coding. Quadtree segmentation algorithm is used to divide a given image, where regions with image detail will be segmented into blocks with smaller block size, and the background of the image will be assigned larger block size. Each image sub-block is coded by Wavelet transform scheme to gain a better compression quality. After the wavelet transform, to select appropriate size for codebook, bit allocation assignment is applied associated with the variance of each subband image block. We have also adopted rate-distortion concept to adjust the compressed bit rate. For this proposed compression scheme, simulation results show that we can achieve acceptable visual quality and high compression ratio simultaneously. Furthermore, due to the small size of the codebook, we are able to reduce the computational time. System performance analysis is demonstrated in this study.
The LOAD-BALANCED Routing In Industrial Wireless Sensor Network
Authors: Chang Ching-Lung  , Lee Hao-Ting  , Chen Chien-Chung
Published: February 2025

Wireless sensor network in industrial environment (denoted IWSN) has data delivery time constraint from sensor node to sink node. Due to the dynamic routing and transmission collision, the data delivery time in IWSN is unpredictable. Considering the power consumption, the sensor node closing to the sink node will incur more power consumption for help other data forwarding. In this paper, a proactive routing which constructs the sensor nodes into a logical circular chain topology (i.e., ring topology) to avoiding the data collision problem and to provide bounded transmission delay. We propose two schemes to construct a load-balanced logical circular chain for prolonging the network life-time. The first one is to convert IWSN circular chain construction problem to the traveling salesman problem (TSP) with genetic algorithm and heuristic algorithm, and the other one is linear programming scheme with simulated anneal algorithm. A Ping-Pong Token mechanism which can prolong the network life-time and balance residual power of each node is applied. Simulation results reveal that the linear programming scheme with Ping-Pong Token has the less data delivery time and power consumption.
Using a Novel LDA-Ensemble Framework to Classification of Motor Imagery Tasks for Brain-Computer Interface Applications
Authors: Chiu Ching-Yu  , Chen Chih-Yu  , Lin Yang-Yin  , Chen Shi-An  , Lin Chin-Teng
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we introduce a novel linear discriminate analysis (LDA) ensemble classifier utilizing the Mindo as a brain-computer interface (BCI) device to deal with the problem of motor imagery classification. With regard to the composition of the proposed system, we combine filter bank, sub-band common spatial pattern (SBCSP), LDA together for extracting features of EEG data and classifying the motor imagery with left or right states. In addition, we also employ a gradient descent (GD) algorithm to find the best weight associated with probability fusion function. This novel architecture not only boosts the accuracy of classification but maintains the computational efficiency of the system. Therefore, the proposed LDA-ensemble framework is able to be satisfied with each subject as demonstrated in Section III.
Dynamic Resource Provisioning with Hotspot Anticipation for MMOG Clouds
Authors: Chang Yenchih  , Wang Kuochen  , Hsu Yi-Huai
Published: February 2025

We propose a dynamic resource provisioning with hotspot anticipation scheme, called NN-Player+DRP-HA that employs a finite state machine model to monitor the movement of avatars in a virtual world. Furthermore, we use a finite state machine to represent possible avatar states and state transitions. By combining the state of each avatar in a game zone with a neural network (NN) predictor, we may figure out potential workload produced by hotspots, and then allocate appropriate computing resources to support the game zone. Experimental results support that the proposed NN-Player+DRP-HA scheme can avoid most of under-allocation events with an acceptable over-allocation rate. Compared with a representative dynamic resource provisioning method, called NN-Player+DRP, the proposed NN-Player+DRP-HA reduces the probability of under-allocation events from 2.16% to 0.42% (80% improvement) in terms of CPU capacity of a VM, under the premise of controlling the CPU over-allocation rate within the CPU capacity of one VM.
A Graph Structure-based Asset Retrieval System
Authors: Koh Jia-Ling  , Chiang Chia-Jung  , Chu Seng-Chih  , Huang Yi-Chi  , Peng Shao-Chun  , Wang Sz-Han  , Liu Te-Yu  , Hsiao Hui-I  , Lin Chien  , Chen Arbee L.P.
Published: February 2025

Retrieving assets for reuse is often a laborious, time-consuming, and difficult task because asset information cannot be effectively maintained. In this study, an asset searching technology was developed by using the graph structures and attributes. (1) The searching strategy based on graph structure primarily considers the structural relationships between assets to evaluate the similarity between asset graphs and the query. (2) The searching strategy based on attributes uses graph structures for fast retrievals, and performs string matching on the asset documents of the graph matching results to determine the degree of similarity between an asset solution and the query according to their content descriptions and attributes. To combine the matching results of both the structures and attributes, this study developed an overall similarity evaluation and ranking mechanism to search and identify the asset solutions that most similar to the query requirement. This study provides a comprehensive asset similarity evaluation method, which can improve the effectiveness of searching assets and usability of asset resources.
Protection of Privacy Data in a Cloud Environment
Authors: Chen Jeang-Kuo  , Chang Fang-Sheng
Published: February 2025

The application of Cloud computing on the Internet is growing popularity; it also faces a number of issues and challenges. One of the most talked about topics is data security. This paper proposes a privacy protection method for the data to be calculated, mined, or analyzed in the clouds. The raw data is confused before uploading to the clouds. The new data neither discloses personal privacy nor affects the original functions for cloud computing. Finally, an example about hospital medical electronic anamnesis is illustrated to prove the feasibility and practicality of the proposed method.
Using the NASA Task Load Index to Assess Workload in Electronic Medical Records
Authors: Hudson Darren  , Kushniruk Andre W.  , Borycki Elizabeth M.
Published: February 2025

Electronic medical records (EMRs) has been expected to decrease health professional workload. The NASA Task Load Index has become an important tool for assessing workload in many domains. However, its application in assessing the impact of an EMR on nurse's workload has remained to be explored. In this paper we report the results of a study of workload and we explore the utility of applying the NASA Task Load Index to assess impact of an EMR at the end of its lifecycle on nurses' workload. It was found that mental and temporal demands were the most responsible for the workload. Further work along these lines is recommended.
The Next Generation EMR
Authors: Keshavjee Karim  , Mirza Kashif  , Martin Ken
Published: February 2025

Electronic medical/health record (EMR) usage in North America has increased significantly in the last half decade. But there is widespread dissatisfaction with the technologies that are currently available in the market place. Our hypothesis is that EMR vendors and the market place alone cannot solve the issue of poor technology. We propose an architecture for the next generation of electronic records that solves current concerns of end users and addresses the needs of additional stakeholders, including health system funders, patients, researchers and guideline implementers. By including additional stakeholders, we believe that additional resources, competencies and functionality can be unleashed to solve the larger problems of the current generation of EMRs. The architecture also addresses future requirements that are likely to arise from technological developments such as mobile apps and PHRs and from innovations in medicine, including genomics, artificial intelligence and personalized medicine. The paper makes a call to action for informatics researchers to play a greater role in R&D on EMRs.
Workarounds to Computer Access in Healthcare Organizations: You Want My Password or a Dead Patient?
Authors: Koppel Ross  , Smith Sean  , Blythe Jim  , Kothari Vijay
Published: February 2025

Workarounds to computer access in healthcare are sufficiently common that they often go unnoticed. Clinicians focus on patient care, not cybersecurity. We argue and demonstrate that understanding workarounds to healthcare workers' computer access requires not only analyses of computer rules, but also interviews and observations with clinicians. In addition, we illustrate the value of shadowing clinicians and conducing focus groups to understand their motivations and tradeoffs for circumvention. Ethnographic investigation of the medical workplace emerges as a critical method of research because in the inevitable conflict between even well-intended people versus the machines, it's the people who are the more creative, flexible, and motivated. We conducted interviews and observations with hundreds of medical workers and with 19 cybersecurity experts, CIOs, CMIOs, CTO, and IT workers to obtain their perceptions of computer security. We also shadowed clinicians as they worked. We present dozens of ways workers ingeniously circumvent security rules. The clinicians we studied were not “black hat” hackers, but just professionals seeking to accomplish their work despite the security technologies and regulations.
Evaluation of a Portable Stress Management Device
Authors: Lee Jeon  , Finkelstein Joseph
Published: February 2025

Portable consumer health management devices are increasingly gaining attention from health consumers. StressEraser is a portable biofeedback device widely advertised as a stress reliever and cognition enhancer. However number of evaluation studies assessing effect of StressEraser on cognitive performance improvement and stress relief is very limited. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of StressEraser on cognitive performance and stress relief using a crossover design. A computerized psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) was selected as a mental stressor. The cognitive performance and stress level were measured in fourteen subjects having two 10-minute PVTs and 10-minute StressEraser intervention in between the PVTs. All main PVT metrics of cognitive performance (MeanRT, MedianRT, and Fastest 10%) became significantly worse after StressEraser application (P<0.05). On the other hand, six heart rate variability (HRV) parameters (MeanRR, SDNN, RMSSD, aLF, aHF, and LF/HF) used to assess stress level showed no significant differences between the first and the second PVTs. Furthermore, the subjective stress levels reported by the study subjects after the first and the second PVTs were not significantly different. We concluded that the StressEraser had a negative effect on cognitive performance and no effect on stress level.
Conceptual Analysis of a Diverse Set of Healthcare Quality Indicators
Authors: White Pam  , Roudsari Abdul
Published: February 2025

Computerisation of quality indicators for the English National Health Service currently relies primarily on queries and clinical coding, with little use of ontologies. We investigated attributes and relationships in a diverse set of over 200 healthcare quality indicators, categorising by clinical pathway, inclusion and exclusion criteria and Institute of Medicine purpose. Our results, some of which are described in this paper, were used to create an ontology that could reduce duplication of effort in healthcare quality monitoring.
Bridging a Divide: Architecture for a Joint Hospital-Primary Care Data Warehouse
Authors: An Jeff  , Keshavjee Karim  , Mirza Kashif  , Vassanji Karim  , Greiver Michelle
Published: February 2025

Healthcare costs are driven by a surprisingly small number of patients. Predicting who is likely to require care in the near future could help reduce costs by pre-empting use of expensive health care resources such as emergency departments and hospitals. We describe the design of an architecture for a joint hospital-primary care data warehouse (JDW) that can monitor the effectiveness of in-hospital interventions in reducing readmissions and predict which patients are most likely to be admitted to hospital in the near future. The design identifies the key governance elements, the architectural principles, the business case, the privacy architecture, future work flows, the IT infrastructure, the data analytics and the high level implementation plan for realization of the JDW. This architecture fills a gap in bridging data from two separate hospital and primary care organizations, not a single managed care entity with multiple locations. The JDW architecture design was well received by the stakeholders engaged and by senior leadership at the hospital and the primary care organization. Future plans include creating a demonstration system and conducting a pilot study.
Auditing of SNOMED CT's Hierarchical Structure using the National Drug File - Reference Terminology
Authors: Zakharchenko Aleksandr  , Geller James
Published: February 2025

With the ongoing development in the field of Medical Informatics, the availability of cross-references and the consistency of coverage between terminologies become critical requirements for clinical decision support. In this paper, we examine the possibility of developing a framework that highlights and exposes hierarchical incompatibilities between different medical terminologies in order to facilitate the process of achieving a sufficient level of consistency between terminologies. For the purpose of this research, we are working with the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine – Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) and the National Drug File - Reference Terminology (NDF-RT) – a clinical terminology focused on drugs. For discovery of inconsistencies we built an automated tool.
Outcome-driven Evaluation Metrics for Treatment Recommendation Systems
Authors: Mei Jing  , Liu Haifeng  , Li Xiang  , Yu Yiqin  , Xie Guotong
Published: February 2025

Treatment recommendation systems aim to providing clinical decision supports, e.g. with integration of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE). One of the most significant issue is the quality of recommendations which needs to be quantified, before getting the acceptance from physicians. In computer science, such evaluations are typically performed by applying appropriate metrics that provides a comparison of different systems. However, a big challenge for evaluating treatment recommendation systems is that ground truth is only partially observed. In this paper, we propose an outcome-driven evaluation methodology, and present five metrics (i.e. precision, recall, accuracy, relative risk and odds ratio) with highlight of their statistic meanings in clinical context. The experimental results are based on the comparison of two well-developed treatment recommendation systems (one is knowledge-driven and based on clinical practice guidelines, while the other is data-driven and based on patient similarity analysis), using our proposed evaluation metrics. As a conclusion, physicians are less prone to comply with clinical guidelines, but once following guideline recommendations, it is much more likely to get good outcomes than not following.
Online Pharmaceutical Care Provision: Full-Implementation of an eHealth Service Using Design Science Research
Authors: Gregório João  , Pizarro Ângela  , Cavaco Afonso  , Wipfli Rolf  , Lovis Christian  , Mira da Silva Miguel  , Lapão Luís Velez
Published: February 2025

Chronic diseases are pressing health systems to introduce reforms, focused on primary care and multidisciplinary models. Community pharmacists have developed a new role, addressing pharmaceutical care and services. Information systems and technologies (IST) will have an important role in shaping future healthcare provision. However, the best way to design and implement an IST for pharmaceutical service provision is still an open research question. In this paper, we present a possible strategy based on the use of Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM). The application of the DSRM six stages is described, from the definition and characterization of the problem to the evaluation of the artefact.
End-User Expectations During an Electronic Health Record Implementation: a Case Study in Two Academic Hospitals
Authors: Joukes Erik  , Cornet Ronald  , Abu-Hanna Ameen  , de Bruijne Martine  , de Keizer Nicolette
Published: February 2025

Implementing an Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a sociotechnical process. End-users' expectations and attitudes need to be monitored during the implementation of a new EHR. It is not clear what end-users consider the most important determinants (both barriers and enablers for a successful EHR implementation) during this process. Based on the concept mapping method and a literature search we developed a questionnaire to investigate which determinants (future) end-users of an EHR consider important. Additionally we analysed whether there are differences between a centre working with a legacy EHR and one with paper-based patient records before implementation. We identified the following determinants: usability of EHR, availability of facilities, alignment with work processes, support during implementation, training on new EHR, support after implementation, practice with new EHR, internal communication, learning from other centres, reuse of patient data, general IT skills, and patient involvement in decision making. All determinants were perceived important by end-users to successfully work with an EHR directly after its go-live. The only two significant differences between centres were knowledge about the effect of the EHR on work processes, and importance of patient involvement in decision making.
Comparing video and avatar technology for a health education application for deaf people
Authors: Chiriac Ionuţ Adrian  , Stoicu-Tivadar Lăcrămioara  , Podoleanu Elena
Published: February 2025

The article describes the steps and results of a parallel research investigating e-health systems design and implementation for deaf people both in avatar and video technology. The application translates medical knowledge and concepts in deaf sign language for impaired users through an avatar. Two types of avatar technologies are taken into consideration: Video Avatar with recorded humans interface and Animated Avatar with animated figure interface. The comparative study investigates the data collection, design, implementation and the impact study. The comparative analysis of video and animated technology for data collection shows that the video format editing requires fewer skills and results are obtained easier, quicker and less expensive. The video technology supports an easier to design and implement architecture. The impact study for 2 deaf students communities is under development and for the time being the video avatar is better perceived.
Assisting e-patients in an Ask the Doctor Service
Authors: Abdaoui Amine  , Azé Jérôme  , Bringay Sandra  , Poncelet Pascal
Published: February 2025

Ask the doctor services are personalized forums allowing patients to ask questions directly to doctors. Usually, patients must choose the most appropriate category for their question among lots of categories to be redirected to the most relevant physician. However, manual selection is tedious and error prone activity. In this work we propose to assist the patients in this task by recommending a short list of most appropriate categories.
ISO 13606 based system for biomedical parameter storage, querying and alarm detection
Authors: Ramos Naveira Miguel  , Broullón Molanes Javier  , Rimada Mora Dolores  , Llamas Gómez Daniel  , Carrajo García Lino  , Vázquez González Guillermo
Published: February 2025

ACHEGAMED is an unsupervised real-time patient monitoring system, with the goal of decreasing the exam and diagnosis time of the most prevalent diseases in today's healthcare services. We developed, as a component of ACHEGAMED, a system for storing a wide range of biomedical parameters as ISO 13606 extracts. The system is able to detect clinical alarms in those parameters and communicate them, if needed, to the appropriate medical staff. Although a component of ACHEGAMED, it can be integrated in other systems in a semantic interoperable way thanks to the ISO 13606 standard, allowing the continuity of patient care.
Usability Evaluation of a COPD Remote Monitoring Application
Authors: Smaradottir Berglind  , Gerdes Martin  , Fensli Rune  , Martinez Santiago
Published: February 2025

Telemedicine applications have the potential to enhance patient's safety at home by remote monitoring of chronic diseases. Telemedicine involves the interaction between multiple user groups through a system, making the usability aspect of such system crucial for the continuous, efficient and satisfactory use of the application. The main objective of this study was to carry out a usability evaluation in the field of a telemedicine application for remote monitoring of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients to improve the application's user interface before system deployment. A field trial was performed with six COPD patients at their homes, continuously using the system's application on a tablet for seven days. The usability evaluation identified 23 usability problems related to users' interactions and system's functionality. These problems were solved with the refinement of the system through an iterative application development process. The outcome of the study was the improved telemedicine application that was adopted by the partners of the FP7 EU project United4Health.
Applying Machine Learning to Gait Analysis Data for Disease Identification
Authors: Joyseeree Ranveer  , Abou Sabha Rami  , Mueller Henning
Published: February 2025

A machine-learning framework to identify the specific disease afflicting certain patients diagnosed with Neurological and Neuromuscular Diseases (NND) or Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) using only gait analysis data is presented. Classifying such data into disease types consumes valuable clinical time that may be better spent. Effective classification also facilitates its future retrieval. To prove the feasibility of the approach, we applied it to the simpler case of identifying the disease class of patients with a view to extending the method to specific diseases in future work. Standard clinical gait information of healthy individuals, and NND/JIA patients was sourced from hospitals participating in MD-PAEDIGREE. To classify the data into one of the three categories: healthy, NND, and JIA, certain parameters were carefully selected from the signals and used to train Random Forest (RF), boosting, Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers. Cross-validation was used to test the effectiveness of our approach and it yields a classification accuracy of 100% for RF, SVM, and MLP classifiers and 96.4% for boosting. Training and testing for all the classifiers took mere milliseconds, providing opportunities for real-time applications. To extend the method to the identification of specific illnesses, more discerning features from the gait data are currently being investigated. Moreover, a larger dataset is being gathered. Finally, we are attempting to reduce the number of features used for classification in order to further decrease computation time and algorithm complexity.
Implementation of a Cloud-based Blood Pressure Data Management System
Authors: Kuo Mu-Hsing
Published: February 2025

Regular monitoring of blood pressure of a patient can improve hypertension diagnosis and treatment. The objective of this study is to design and implement a cloud computing based blood pressure data management system that allows patients, nurses, physicians, and researchers to access data through the Internet anytime, anywhere and via any device.
Use of eye-tracking technology in clinical reasoning: a systematic review
Authors: Blondon Katherine  , Wipfli Rolf  , Lovis Christian
Published: February 2025

Achieving a better understanding of the clinical reasoning process is an important approach to improve patient management and patient safety. Although clinical psychologists have used talk-aloud or stimulated recall approaches, these methods have biases. Recently, researchers have been exploring eye-tracking technology to gain “live” insight into clinicians' reasoning processes in certain fields of medicine (radiology, dermatology, etc.). We present a systematic review of eye-tracking literature used for clinical reasoning. We performed a literature search using the terms “eye” or “gaze tracking”, “clinical” or “diagnostic reasoning”, and “physician” in Pubmed, Embase, Psychinfo, Web of Science and ACM databases. Two investigators screened the abstracts, then full-text articles to select 10 pertinent studies. The studies evaluated medical decision making in four different medical domains using mostly experimental, observational approaches. A total of 208 participants were enrolled for the selected experiments. Paths for further studies are discussed that may extend the use of eye trackers in order to improve understanding of medical decision making.
Self healing corrosion protective coatings
Authors: Mol J.M.C.  , Garcia S.J.  , Gonzalez-Garcia Y.  , Hughes A.E.
Published: February 2025

One of the most efficient and cost-effective methods for corrosion protection is the application of organic coatings as physical barriers separating metal substrates and corrosive environment. For many decades, leaching of efficient yet toxic hexavalent chromium-containing pigments have shown to enable extending the longevity of corrosion protection upon damage. The search for eco- and human-friendly alternatives as investigated in this work has shown big advances in the field, allowing for some optimism about the development of novel substitute(s) to chromate in the near future. Furthermore, advances in the direction of single reactive agents provide an important step towards the commercialization and application in real structures of a new generation of self healing corrosion protective coating systems.
Tele-Monitoring of the Rehabilitation Progress in Stroke Patients
Authors: Jagos Harald  , David Veronika  , Reichel Martin  , Kotzian Stefan  , Schlossarek Stefan  , Haller Michael  , Rafolt Dietmar
Published: February 2025

Preservation of mobility in conjunction with an independent life style is one of the major goals of rehabilitation after stroke. The Rehab@Home framework shall support the continuation of rehabilitation in the domestic area. The framework consists of instrumented insoles, wireless linked to a tablet PC, a server and a web-interface for medical experts. The rehabilitation progress is estimated via automated analysis of movement data from standardized assessment tests which are executed via the tablet PC application designed according to the needs of stroke patients. Initial evaluation of the analysis algorithms shows reproducible results for the overall time of the Timed Up & Go Test. Therefore it is assumed that the Rehab@Home framework is applicable as monitoring tool for the gait rehabilitation progress in stroke patients.
New Estimation Trial for the Soil Temperature of Morioka from the Meteorological Data of Morioka
Authors: Hara Michihiro
Published: February 2025

A new method to estimate the soil temperature of Morioka, Japan, from meteorological data for Morioka was studied with the combined use of the Fourier series and formulas for conduction of heat in solids exchanging heat through radiation with the above ground environment. The point of the advancement in this new method is a fuller use of formulas for conduction of heat in solids which exchange heat through radiation. Considered meteorological factors affecting the soil temperature are air temperature, solar radiation, snow cover, vapor pressure, cloudiness, and precipitation.
Citizens' Visions on Active Assisted Living
Authors: Gudowsky Niklas  , Sotoudeh Mahshid
Published: February 2025

People aged 65 years and older are the fastest growing section of the population in many countries. Great hopes are projected on technology to support solutions for many of the challenges arising from this trend, thus making our lives more independent, more efficient and safer with a higher quality of life. But, as research and innovation ventures are often closely linked to the market, their focus may lead to biased planning in research and development as well as in policy-making with severe social and economic consequences. Thus the main research question concerned desirable settings of ageing in the future from different perspectives. The participatory foresight study CIVISTI-AAL cross-linked knowledge of lay persons, experts and stakeholders to include a wide variety of perspectives and values into productive long-term planning of research and development. Results include citizens' visions for autonomous living in 2050, implicitly and explicitly containing basic needs towards technological, social and organizational development as well as recommendations for implementation. Conclusions suggest that personalized health and living environments play an important part in the lay persons' view of aging in the future, but only if technologies support social and organizational innovations and yet do not neglect the importance of social affiliation and inclusion.
West Midlands Health Informatics Network: A Perspective on Education and Training Needs
Authors: Lim Choi Keung Sarah N.  , Ola Bolanle  , Davies David  , Rowland Martin  , Arvanitis Theodoros N.
Published: February 2025

The growth of health informatics as a discipline has led to an increase in networks of people with similar interests for discussion, learning and sharing. Alongside these community networks, education and training are gaining interest, with more career opportunities and general public seeking information. This paper highlights the experience of the West Midlands Health Informatics Network and efforts in better understanding the educational and training needs of its members. The findings from the survey conducted reveal that while the interest in this field is high among network members, the awareness of opportunities for training and learning professionally as well as personally, remains low. The areas and levels of interest in the region should help support the creation and availability of resources.
Real-Time Classification of Exercise Exertion Levels Using Discriminant Analysis of HRV Data
Authors: Jeong In cheol  , Finkelstein Joseph
Published: February 2025

Heart rate variability (HRV) was shown to reflect activation of sympathetic nervous system however it is not clear which set of HRV parameters is optimal for real-time classification of exercise exertion levels. There is no studies that compared potential of two types of HRV parameters (time-domain and frequency-domain) in predicting exercise exertion level using discriminant analysis. The main goal of this study was to compare potential of HRV time-domain parameters versus HRV frequency-domain parameters in classifying exercise exertion level. Rest, exercise, and recovery categories were used in classification models. Overall 79.5% classification agreement by the time-domain parameters as compared to overall 52.8% classification agreement by frequency-domain parameters demonstrated that the time-domain parameters had higher potential in classifying exercise exertion levels.