bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Preventing Technology-Induced Errors in Healthcare: The Role of Simulation
Authors: Kushniruk Andre W.  , Borycki Elizabeth M.  , Anderson James G.  , Anderson Marilyn M.
Published: February 2025

We describe a novel approach to the study and prediction of technology-induced error in healthcare. The objective of our approach is to identify and reduce the potential for error so that the benefits of introducing information technology, such as Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) or Electronic Health Records (EHRs), are maximized. The approach involves four phases. In Phase 1, we typically conduct small scale clinical simulations to assess whether or not the use of a new information technology can introduce error. (Human subjects are involved and user-system interactions are recorded.) In Phase 2, we analyze the results from Phase 1 to identify statistically significant relationships between usability issues and the occurrence of error (e.g., medication error). In Phase 3, we enter the results from Phase 2 into computer-based simulation models to explore the potential impact of the technology over time and across user populations. In Phase 4, we conduct naturalistic studies to examine whether or not the predictions made in Phases 2 and 3 apply to the real world. In closing, we discuss how the approach can be used to increase the safety of health information systems.
Application of House of Quality (HOQ) to Health Care Management
Authors: Kuo Mu-Hsing  , Lee Te-Shu
Published: February 2025

The House of Quality (HOQ) model is proposed to improve health care quality control. A hypothetical case study is given to demonstrate the applicability and benefits of using the proposed methodology. The benefit and drawback analysis of HOQ are also addressed. Concluding remarks and proposals for further research are presented at the end of this paper.
Innovation in the North: Are Health Service Providers Ready for the Uptake of an Internet-based Chronic Disease Management Platform?
Authors: Tillotson Sherri  , Lear Scott  , Araki Yuriko  , Horvat Dan  , Prkachin Ken  , Bates Joanna  , Balka Ellen
Published: February 2025

Remote and rural regions in Canada are faced with unique challenges in the delivery of primary health services. The purpose of this study was to understand how patients and healthcare professionals in northern British Columbia might make use of the Internet to manage cardiovascular diseases. The study used a qualitative methodology. Eighteen health professionals and 6 patients were recruited for a semi-structured interview that explored their experience in managing patients with cardiovascular disease and their opinions and preferences about the use of the Internet in chronic disease management. Key findings from the data suggest that a) use of the Internet helps to maintain continuity of care while a patient moves through various stages of care, b) the Internet may possibly be used as an educational tool in chronic disease self-management, c) there is a need for policy development to support Internet-based consultation processes, and d) while health providers endorse the notion of electronic advancement in their practice, the need for secure and stable electronic systems is essential.
Incorporation of Medical Informatics and Information Technology as Core Components of Undergraduate Medical Education – Time for Change!
Authors: Otto Anthony  , Kushniruk Andre
Published: February 2025

It is generally accepted that Information Technology (IT) is a highly desirable and a very necessary ingredient of modern health care. Review of available literature reveals a paucity of medical informatics and information technology courses in undergraduate medical curricula and a lack of research to assess the effectiveness of medical informatics in undergraduate medical education. The need for such initiatives is discussed and a pilot project is described that evaluated the effectiveness of education in the use of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) applications. Educational activities, for example, could be medical students conducting virtual medical encounters or interacting with EMR applications. An EMR application, which was used in several related projects, has been adapted to the educational environment: standardized patient records can be created and cloned so that individual students can interact with a “standard” patient and alter the patient's data.
Ontario's Province-wide Paediatric Electronic Health Record
Authors: Szende Andrew
Published: February 2025

The electronic Child Health Network (eCHN) is an advanced implementation of an electronic health record (EHR). This is a case study of the building of an integrated and shared EHR from multiple systems at multiple sites for the benefit of patients and clinicians. Optimal patient care requires that information about a person's overall health and interactions with the health care system be available to the appropriate providers when and where it is needed. eCHN is a pioneering response to the need for such shared records. A key to its success is that it is a flexible, scalable, open, multi-vendor solution designed to work with existing hospital systems and other networks. As Canada's largest functioning integrated EHR, eCHN is serving three million people and transforming the quality of health record keeping and clinical decision-making. eCHN enables health care providers across Ontario to share accurate patient data – in real time.
Application of Self Organizing Maps to multi-resolution and multi-spectral remote sensed images
Authors: Giacco Ferdinando  , Scarpetta Silvia  , Pugliese Luca  , Marinaro Maria  , Thiel Christian
Published: February 2025

In this paper we investigate the performance of the Kohonen's self organizing map (SOM) as a strategy for the analysis of multi-spectral and multi-resolution remote sensed images.
Estimation of the troposphere phase delay in interferometric SAR using MERIS data: experiments over the Campania area
Authors: Fornaro G.  , Serafino F.  , Paglia L.
Published: February 2025

In modern multipass DInSAR processing techniques one of the main point regards the mitigation of the atmospheric contribution. To this end we investigate the potential use of data acquired by multispectral sensors. In particular we refer to the instruments onboard the Envisat sensor and specifically to the ASAR and MERIS sensors. Such sensors have the advantage to simultaneously acquire data along the same orbit, thus imaging the scene under same conditions. In particular we carried out an experiment aimed at using the MERIS Water Vapour (W) product to estimate Atmospheric Phase Delay (APD) and to calibrate the measurements of the ASAR sensor. The W product measures the integrated amount of atmospheric water vapour by using the water absorption and non-absorption bands. The work describes preliminary results achieved by processing a dozen ASAR acquisition and MERIS data over the Campania region in Italy with descending passes. We have compared the APD estimated by MERIS data with the APD signal extracted by the multipass DInSAR analysis on long term coherent points. The final aim is to exploit the MERIS water vapour for compensating the APD signals in a long series of acquisition used in the multipass DInSAR techniques to achieve higher accuracy and/or extend the applicability of the technique to emergency cases.
Multisensor study of wind patterns and algal blooms in near-coastal gyres of the Mediterranean sea
Authors: Barale Vittorio  , Gade Martin
Published: February 2025

QuikScat and SeaWiFS data (2000–2007) covering the Mediterranean Sea were used for a multisensor study of the coupling between wind patterns and algal blooms in the Gulf of Lion and the Rhodes-Ierapetra gyre systems. In these near-coastal hotspots, atmospheric forcing creates (albeit with different mechanisms) surface conditions that cause convective processes and consequent nutrient upwelling from deeper layers. As phytoplankton growth in the otherwise oligotrophic Mediterranean basin is always nutrient-limited, the blooming triggered by these processes reflects the prevailing wind patterns. Highly dynamic features recur systematically in the pigment field of both regions, in the same periods (January to May).
Landcover degradation analysis of Mediterranean forest by means of hyperplanes obtained from mixture linear algorithms (MLA)
Authors: Martinez-Izquierdo E.  , Arquero-Hidalgo A.  , Vazquez-Sierra J.M.
Published: February 2025

The percentage alteration of the Mediterranean forest landscape is one of the primary indicators for its degradation. In this sense, the land cover abundances change analysis by using mixture linear algorithms (MLA), is presented like a good alternative to study this degradation. This research analyzes the use of two information sources like Remote Sensing (Landsat-ETM+) and Field Radiometry (GER 1500) to obtain mixture hyperplanes. These are calculated by models based on least square estimations, assuming that each pure land cover (endmember) belonging to any geographic area, behaves as a random variable which distribution function is known. The mixture hyperplanes provide spectral signatures with a suitable correlation level with regard to the supplied from remote satellite sensors once corrected, for the same geographical zone. These established hyperplanes can be used in future researches about Mediterranean forest landscape changes, because they can represent the different levels of its degradation. In this sense, it is proposed that they will feed a land cover spectral library with free accessibility.
Analysis of plant condition of the Bystrzanka catchment
Authors: Zagajewski B.  , Jarocinska A.
Published: February 2025

In natural and semi-natural environments, where the anthropopression is relatively low and natural processes are not disturbed, vegetation can be used as an indicator of other ecosystem components (soils, microclimate etc.). The main role of plant condition investigation plays remote sensing and supportive techniques within plant physiology.
A review of satellite data processing methods applied in archaeological context
Authors: Lasaponara R.  , Masini N.
Published: February 2025

During the last century, aerial photos have been the most common remote sensing data source used for archaeological investigation. Beginning from the eighties multi-spectral satellite images,such Landsat TM, ASTER, have been successfully applied in the field of cultural heritage with particular reference to landscape archeology and palaeoenvironment studies.
Architectural survey for documentation of cultural heritage with new sensor technologies
Authors: Kivilcim Cemal Özgür
Published: February 2025

Ancient Istanbul, settled on top of seven hills, was the capital of Ottoman and Eastern Roman Empire. Today, with 12.5 million inhabitants, the metropolis is still a major centre for business, culture and arts of the modern Turkish Republic. Furthermore, the old city is continuing to its mission for centuries; offering the daily basic needs for citizens. This unique ancient city is in the UNESCO World Heritage List more, Istanbul has been announced as the European Capital of Culture for the year of 2010. On the other hand, the pressure of high dense urban-commercial areas and the effects of the nature are pushing the old city into its limits. With, these challenging tasks and motivations, the expectations from the local, national and international authorities are highly increased to protect the historical areas for the next generations. Currently, numerous historical and cultural heritage documentation, restoration, reconstruction, renewal and rehabilitation projects are in progress. To provide a good base for such projects, architectural surveys are highly demanded within the limited time periods. In this paper, the needs and provided solutions for such projects with the combination of different remote sensing technologies such as photogrammetry and laser scanning are studied and example work algorithms are discussed from the point of design, needs and results.
A Future Internet Embracing the Wireless World
Authors: Abramowicz Henrik  , Niebert Norbert  , Baucke Stephan  , Johnsson Martin  , Ohlman Börje  , Kind Mario  , Wuenstel Klaus  , Woesner Hagen  , Quittek Jürgen
Published: February 2025

In this paper we describe several approaches to address the challenges of the network of the future especially from a mobile and wireless perspective. Our main hypothesis is that the Future Internet must be designed for the environment of applications and transport media of the 21st century, vastly different from the initial Internet's life space. One major requirement is the inherent support for mobile and wireless usage. A Future Internet should allow for the fast creation of diverse network designs and paradigms and must also support their co-existence at run-time. We observe that a pure evolutionary path from the current Internet design is unlikely to be the fastest way, if at all possible, to address, in a satisfactory manner, major issues like the handling of mobile users, information access and delivery, wide area sensor network applications, high management complexity and malicious traffic that hamper network performance already today. We detail the scenarios and business use cases that lead the development in the FP7 4WARD project towards a framework for the Future Internet.
Clinical decision support for ovarian tumor diagnosis using Bayesian models: Results from the IOTA study
Authors: Van Calster Ben  , Gevaert Olivier  , Van Holsbeke Caroline  , De Moor Bart  , Van Huffel Sabine  , Timmerman Dirk
Published: February 2025

Many sophisticated methods exist to develop clinical decision support systems for daily clinical practice. In the core medical community, however, researchers often stick to basic methods due to lack of expertise. The International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) study group, however, aims to explore advanced mathematical modeling options for ovarian tumor diagnosis through interdisciplinary collaborations involving clinicians, statisticians, and engineers. This resulted in several projects involving Bayesian models to distinguish between benign and adnexal ovarian tumors (binary classification). This chapter describes these projects. Major findings are that the classification of ovarian tumors appears to be a fairly linear problem, that benign and malignant tumors can be predicted with high accuracy, that complex black-box models can be further clarified using rule extraction, that input selection incorporating the cost of the available inputs leads to well-performing models with low total input cost, and that the widely used yet controversial and costly CA-125 tumor marker is not indispensable in mathematical diagnostic models. In conclusion, the interdisciplinary approach adopted by IOTA has resulted in useful clinical and technical insights concerning ovarian tumor diagnosis.
Feature Interactions in Object-Oriented Effect Systems from a Viewpoint of Program Comprehension
Authors: Kume Izuru  , Shibayama Etsuya
Published: February 2025

Many object-oriented systems, such as CASE tools manipulated by GUIs and Java Servlet applications responding to requests from internet clients, are driven by external inputs. We call such systems object-oriented effect systems. Features in an object-oriented effect system are implemented so that they can collaborate each other by effects, but sometimes defects about effects cause a kind of feature interactions, called effect interactions, specific to object-oriented effect systems.
Psychopathological Issues of Technological Addiction: New Diagnostic Criteria for Addiction
Authors: Caretti Vincenzo  , Craparo Giuseppe
Published: February 2025

All forms of addiction (drug addiction, food addiction, sexual addiction, technological addiction, work addiction) are syndromic conditions characterized by a recurrent and reiterated search for pleasure derived from a specific dependence behavior, associated with abuse, craving, clinically significant stress, and compulsive dependence actions despite the possible negative consequences. The purpose of this article is to propose a new diagnostic criteria of addiction.
Postural and Spatial Orientation Driven by Virtual Reality
Authors: Keshner Emily A.  , Kenyon Robert V.
Published: February 2025

Orientation in space is a perceptual variable intimately related to postural orientation that relies on visual and vestibular signals to correctly identify our position relative to vertical. We have combined a virtual environment with motion of a posture platform to produce visual-vestibular conditions that allow us to explore how motion of the visual environment may affect perception of vertical and, consequently, affect postural stabilizing responses. In order to involve a higher level perceptual process, we needed to create a visual environment that was immersive. We did this by developing visual scenes that possess contextual information using color, texture, and 3-dimensional structures. Update latency of the visual scene was close to physiological latencies of the vestibulo-ocular reflex. Using this system we found that even when healthy young adults stand and walk on a stable support surface, they are unable to ignore wide field of view visual motion and they adapt their postural orientation to the parameters of the visual motion. Balance training within our environment elicited measurable rehabilitation outcomes. Thus we believe that virtual environments can serve as a clinical tool for evaluation and training of movement in situations that closely reflect conditions found in the physical world.
Applying Human Factors Analysis to the Design of the Electronic Health Record
Authors: Elrod Jenny  , Androwich Ida M.
Published: February 2025

The healthcare industry is automating clinical documentation at the point of care – taking us from paper documentation to an electronic health record (EHR). Designing user-friendly, intuitive systems is challenging, and has motivated hospitals to evaluate and adopt new and safer practices to help reduce the contribution that technology plays in healthcare error. To accomplish this, healthcare is evaluating how other industries, like aviation, have successfully applied human factors to system design. Recent healthcare research has demonstrated the potential value of human factors in information technology (IT) projects. This article provides a synthesis of research on the application of human factors to the design and development of the electronic health record and makes apparent the need for human factors education for nurses and IT professionals involved in EHR design.
Building Knowledge for Poison Control: The Novel Pairing of Communication Analysis with Data Mining Methods
Authors: Poynton Mollie R.  , Ellington Lee  , Caravati E. Martin  , Crouch Barbara I.  , Bennett Heather
Published: February 2025

As information systems become increasingly integrated with health care delivery, vast amounts of clinical data are stored. Knowledge discovery and data mining methods are potentially powerful for the induction of knowledge models from this data relevant to nursing outcomes. However, an important barrier to the widespread application of these methods for induction of nursing knowledge models is that important concepts relevant to nursing outcomes are often unrepresented in clinical data. For instance, communication approaches are not necessarily consciously chosen by nurses, yet they are known to impact multiple clinical outcomes including satisfaction, pain and symptom response, recovery, physiological change (e.g., blood pressure), and adherence. Decisions about communication behaviors are likely intuitive and instantaneously made in response to cues offered by the patient. For this reason, among others, important choices and actions of nurses are not routinely documented. And so for many clinical outcomes relevant to nursing, important concepts such as communication are not represented in clinical data repositories. In studying poison control center outcomes, it is important to consider not only routinely documented clinical data, but the communication processes and verbal cues of both patient and SPI. In a novel approach, our current study of poison control center outcomes pairs a qualitative study of the communication patterns of SPIs and callers to a regional poison control center, with predictive modeling of poison control center outcomes using knowledge discovery and data mining methods. This three year study, currently in progress, pairs SPI-caller communication analysis with predictive models resulting from the application of knowledge discovery and data mining methods to three years' of archived clinical data. The results will form a hybrid model and the basis for future decision support interventions that leverage knowledge about both implicit and explicit factors that contribute to poison control center outcomes.
User Requirements for a Practice-integrated Nurse-administered Online Communication Service for Cancer Patients
Authors: Ruland Cornelia M.  , Borosund Elin  , Varsi Cecilie
Published: February 2025

This paper describes the use of participatory design methods in the development of a nurse-administered online patient-provider communication (OPPC) service that is designed to be integrated into routine clinical practice. The OPPC service let patients stay connected with expert nurses and other health care providers to ask questions and receive advice from home. Through focus groups, workshops, heuristic evaluations and usability testing, we identified patients' and clinicians' (nurses' and physicians') user requirements, factors important for successful adoption, implementation and maintenance of the OPPC service, and usability. This paper shares important insights from these participatory design processes that may be helpful for other researchers who wish to implement clinical applications into routine practice.
E-documentation as a Process Management Tool for Nursing Care in Hospitals
Authors: Rajkovič Uroš  , Šušteršič Olga  , Rajkovič Vladislav
Published: February 2025

Appropriate documentation plays a key role in process management in nursing care. It includes holistic data management based on patient's data along the clinical path with regard to nursing care. We developed an e-documentation model that follows the process method of work in nursing care. It assesses the patient's status on the basis of Henderson's theoretical model of 14 basic living activities and is aligned with internationally recognized nursing classifications. E-documentation development requires reengineering of existing documentation and facilitates process reengineering. A prototype solution of an e-nursing documentation, already being in testing process at University medical centres in Ljubljana and Maribor, will be described.
Effects of Terminology Based Documentation on Nursing
Authors: Kinnunen Ulla-Mari  , Saranto Kaija  , Miettinen Merja
Published: February 2025

The aim of this literature review was to discover what the effects are of the standardized nursing documentation. The material used for conducting was drawn from CINAHL, PubMed and Cochrane databases. The search was confined to relevant electronically retrievable studies with links to full text and published in the English language in 2007-2008. These criteria yielded 19 studies. The results indicate that there are mainly positive effects when using nursing terminologies in documenting patient care.
Enhancement on Infectious Diseases Nursing Plan Information System
Authors: Yeh Mei-Lin  , Hao Te-Hui  , Hsu Chien-Yeh
Published: February 2025

Based on researches, the most time-consuming nursing activities, in teaching hospital, are: room patrols, the blood pressure survey, the body temperature pulse breath survey, the nursing record maintenance [1]. The nursing record is one way to communicate data. It can allow the medical service team to understand what measures the nursing staff once did for sickness, as well as responses from sickness. Nevertheless, it is the key component to utilize the record with a clinical nursing plan, so as to provide a proficient health management. Since the maintenance of nursing plan is costly and time-consuming, therefore, it is essential to establish the nursing plan information system, which can effectively promote the nursing quality. This research main body comes from one infectious disease division nursing plan information system, which was developed in 1992, and its data base covers entire courtyard compatibility and various faculties characteristic nursing plan. The nursing staff often complained that this system is not user-friendly, its contents are not comprehensive, and sometimes it does not let staff choose the right diagnosis.
RAFAELA
Authors: Aschan Hanna  , Junttila Kristiina  , Fagerstrôm Lisbeth  , Kanerva Anne  , Rauhala Auvo
Published: February 2025

The RAFAELA™Patient Classification System offers tools for the managers to follow the adequacy of resourcing through the Nursing Care Intensity per Nurse (NCI/N). The basic idea of the RAFAELA™system is that the workload expressed as NCI/N is compared with the optimal NCI level for the ward. By creating systematic reporting on this indicator, managers can follow the workload level on different wards. The measurement tool is available to all nurses as well as to managers. Thus the staff can follow the results of the daily use of patient classification. Managers can use the data for staff allocation between different wards. As a result, the workload can be discussed and analyzed, and the consequences of challenging situations can be resolved. Together with the staff the managers can look for different solutions for the problems. The overall workload can be too high or too low or the variations of the workload can be too large. The overall aim is a workload on an optimal level. RAFAELA™offers a multitude of solutions finding new ways to allocate working hours, networking with different wards, discussions with the persons who guide patient flow in the hospital or changing the number of nurses in the ward.
Informatics Curriculum Integration for Quality and Safety Education for Nurses
Authors: Barton Amy J.  , Skiba Diane J.
Published: February 2025

This paper describes the creation of an informatics curricular thread in pre-licensure nursing education, using the informatics competencies defined by the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) collaborative. Several U.S. initiatives are calling for more rapid incorporation of informatics competencies into nursing curriculum. Baseline data are presented and plans to roll-out the new curricular approach discussed.
Counselling of Problem Based Learning (PBL) Groups through Videoconferencing
Authors: Indergaard Trond  , Stjern Berit
Published: February 2025

This paper addresses the teacher's use of videoconferencing in Problem Based Learning (PBL) counselling. In our paper at NI2006 we presented a study which addressed the students' experiences. This paper is based on a study in which both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used. Results from the study are presented and discussed. Our aim is to pinpoint some of the critical issues that should be met in the planning and the management of videoconferencing when used in counselling. The study shows that videoconferencing is well suited for counselling of PBL groups.
An Exploratory Study on the Health Information Terms for the Development of the Consumer Health Vocabulary System
Authors: Kim Jeongeun  , Joo Jeeyoung  , Shin Yoonju
Published: February 2025

This study is to find out the difference between consumer vocabulary and medical vocabulary. The rate of mapping between the consumer vocabulary for health information and the medical vocabulary was not to be high. The terms that consumers use should be researched to understand their morphology and features, so that it will increase the accessibility of consumers to the medical and health information they need.
Second Life: Not Your Conventional Simulation
Authors: Warren Judith J.  , Brixey Juliana J.
Published: February 2025

Second Life is a massive, multiuser, virtual environment. The University of Kansas School of Nursing has introduced SL into the health informatics curriculum as a virtual environment for students and faculty to interact and communicate. Students have successfully completed course activities in SL. Informatics faculty continue to develop simulations in SL.
Clinical Decision Support Systems to Prevent and Treat Pressure Ulcers and Under-nutrition in Nursing Homes
Authors: Fossum Mariann  , Terjesen Solbjørg  , Ødegaard Marit  , Sneltvedt Unni  , Andreassen Lene  , Ehnfors Margareta  , Ehrenberg Anna
Published: February 2025

Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) are believed to have the potential to improve care and change the behavior of health personnel. The project has focused on developing a CDSS to support prevention of pressure ulcer and undernutrition that is completely integrated in the electronic health record in nursing homes. Nursing staff have been involved in all phases in the development of the CDSS, which at present is ready to be implemented and systematically evaluated.
Observations on Sustainable and Ubiquitous Healthcare Informatics from Florence Nightingale
Authors: Betts Helen J.  , Wright Graham
Published: February 2025

As nurses around the world prepare to celebrate the centenary of the death of Florence Nightingale in 2010 this paper reviews her work on using information, especially statistics, to analyze and manage patient care and links that to current developments in informatics. It then examines assistive technologies and how they may impact on nursing practice in the future and links these developments to the writings of Florence Nightingale. The paper concludes by suggesting that in progressing towards sustainable and ubiquitous healthcare informatics we need to study history in order to learn from the lessons of Florence Nightingale and other healthcare pioneers.
A Robust Framework for Rapid Deployment of a Virtual Screening Laboratory
Authors: Shahid Mohammad  , Hofmann-Apitius Martin  , Wäldrich Oliver  , Ziegler Wolfgang
Published: February 2025

A high throughput framework for virtual screening (VS) applications has been designed which enables researchers in in-silico drug discovery to deploy large scale time-consuming virtual screening experiments on High Performance/Grid computing environments. Issues related to enabling virtual screening on grids have been addressed extensively in the past; in this paper we describe a new framework, which supports the rapid deployment of virtual screening services based on UNICORE-6 and Meta Scheduling Service (MSS). We demonstrate, how the deployment of complex virtual screening workflows is facilitated by this framework and we provide some first results of the virtual laboratory testbed established in the course of the EU project PHOSPHORUS. The flexibility of the new VS framework allows easy deployment and integration of new resources and applications, making the Grid more accessible to the users.
Conception of an Image Data Base for Cell Nuclei and Geometric Algorithms for Diagnosis and Therapy Monitoring
Authors: Schmitt Eberhard  , Stein Stefan  , Hausmann Michael
Published: February 2025

Parameters of the genome architecture of cell nuclei like copy number changes of genes or numerical and structural aberrations of chromosomes displayed by changes of size, shape, form and geometric arrangement of the related territories and domains play an important role in tumour diagnosis and monitoring of tumour therapy. We have defined data structures for such parameters, accompanied by meta data describing cell biology and microscopy protocols, and developed algorithms to deduce geometric data from microscopic raw images of fluorescently labelled cell nuclei. The statistical evaluation of nucleus geometry and architecture data is a valuable aid for diagnostic decisions and monitoring of cancer development, as indicated by several research case studies. The algorithms and data storage devices are presently administrated by different operating systems. Unification of workflow is being achieved for a local cluster, but gridification is still subject to problems of licensing, monitoring, and administrating systems, including data security.
A distributed security policy for neuroradiology data sharing
Authors: Gaignard Alban  , Montagnat Johan
Published: February 2025

Grids are key technologies to federate data distributed in multiple neuroscience centers, thus enabling large scale multi-centric studies. However, the take up of these technologies is slow due to the difficulty to manipulate sensitive neuroradiological data in an open environment and the recognized risk of federated sites to loose control over their valuable data. In this paper we propose a distributed data access control policy, enabling the federation of existing data stores, where local security policies prevail, to supports multi-centric neuroscience studies. It achieves a compromise between enabling collaborative work through data sharing and preventing unauthorized access to data in a competitive environment.
Emotion Sensors Go To School
Authors: Arroyo Ivon  , Cooper David G.  , Burleson Winslow  , Woolf Beverly Park  , Muldner Kasia  , Christopherson Robert
Published: February 2025

This paper describes the use of sensors in intelligent tutors to detect students' affective states and to embed emotional support. Using four sensors in two classroom experiments the tutor dynamically collected data streams of physiological activity and students' self-reports of emotions. Evidence indicates that state-based fluctuating student emotions are related to larger, longer-term affective variables such as self-concept in mathematics. Students produced self-reports of emotions and models were created to automatically infer these emotions from physiological data from the sensors. Summaries of student physiological activity, in particular data streams from facial detection software, helped to predict more than 60% of the variance of students emotional states, which is much better than predicting emotions from other contextual variables from the tutor, when these sensors are absent. This research also provides evidence that by modifying the “context” of the tutoring system we may well be able to optimize students' emotion reports and in turn improve math attitudes.
Structuring Learning/Instructional Strategies through a State-based Modeling
Authors: Hayashi Yusuke  , Bourdeau Jacqueline  , Mizoguchi Riichiro
Published: February 2025

This study, through the ontological engineering approach, aims at building a conceptual basis that encourages instructional designers in better understanding of learning/instructional theories, which mean that instructional designers can select and integrate appropriate strategies from theories within an instructional context. This paper proposes a methodology of structuring the theories in terms of strategies included in them, in which strategies can be structured independent of paradigms and theories.
Modeling Task-Based vs. Affect-based Feedback Behavior in Pedagogical Agents: An Inductive Approach
Authors: Robison Jennifer L.  , Mcquiggan Scott W.  , Lester James C.
Published: February 2025

Affect has been the subject of increasing attention in cognitive accounts of learning. Many intelligent tutoring systems now seek to adapt pedagogy to student affective and motivational processes in an effort to increase the effectiveness of tutorial interaction and improve learning outcomes. However, the majority of research on tutorial feedback has focused on pedagogical content, often at the expense of the affective component of the learning process. It is unclear under which circumstances it is more appropriate to focus directly on student affect and when support is best offered through task-related feedback. This paper proposes an inductive framework for modeling task-based and affect-based feedback to inform the behavior of pedagogical agents within a narrative-centered learning environment.
To Tutor or Not to Tutor: That is the Question
Authors: Razzaq Leena  , Heffernan Neil
Published: February 2025

Intelligent tutoring systems often rely on interactive tutored problem solving to help students learn math, which requires students to work through problems step-by-step while the system provides help and feedback. This approach has been shown to be effective in improving student performance in numerous studies. However, tutored problem solving may not be the most effective approach for all students. In a previous study, we found that tutored problem solving was more effective than less interactive approaches, such as simply presenting a worked out solution, for students who were not proficient in math. More proficient students benefited more from seeing solutions rather than going through all of the steps. However, our previous study controlled for the number of problems done and tutored problem solving takes significantly more time than other approaches. We wanted to determine whether tutored problem solving was worth the extra time it took or if students would benefit from practice on more problems in the same amount of time. This study compares tutored problem solving to presenting solutions while controlling for time. We found that more proficient students clearly benefit more from seeing solutions than from tutored problem solving when we control for time, while less proficient students benefit slightly more from tutored problem solving.
Predicting Learner Answers Correctness through Brainwaves Assesment and Emotional Dimensions
Authors: Heraz Alicia  , Frasson Claude
Published: February 2025

We want to explore the relation between affective states, brainwaves and the learner answers during a multi-choice test questions. 24 participants were used in our experiment. While we were measuring their brainwaves, we asked them to answer 35 questions related to the 7 texts they read, for the first time, the day before. During the experiment, the participants can rate, at any time, their emotional dimensions (pleasure, arousal and dominance) on the Self-Assessment Manikin scale (SAM). Measuring the brainwaves determines the learner mental state and the emotional dimensions indicate the learner affective state. When a participant answers, he mentions if he knows the answer or not. Each answer can be either Right or False. The hypothesis of this paper is: “We can predict the learner's answers from his emotional dimensions and his brainwaves”. By using some machine learning techniques, we reached 90.49% accuracy. In a future work, these results will be implemented in an agent to improve the pedagogical strategies and the adaptation of the content within an Intelligent Tutoring System (STI).
Can relaxation exercises improve learning?
Authors: Yusoff Mohd Zaliman  , Du Boulay Benedict
Published: February 2025

Students use both domain-dependent strategies (such as seeking specific domain help) and domain-independent strategies (such as relaxation exercises) to help regulate their affective states when learning. This paper reports a study that compared students' performance in learning data-structures across two systems. While both systems supported domain-dependent strategies, one additionally supported domain-independent strategies (relaxation exercises). The results provide some evidence that students working with both domain-dependent and domain-independent strategies performed better than those working with domain-dependent strategies only.
Building a knowledge-based recommender for inclusive eLearning scenarios
Authors: Santos Olga C.  , Boticario Jesus G.
Published: February 2025

When building a knowledge-based recommender along the eLearning life cycle, the following issues have to be considered: a) the user interface design of the tools required, b) the process to design/generate the recommendations, c) the process to select the appropriate recommendations, and d) the management of the users' interactions. We are defining a user-centered evaluation approach that copes with those issues and drives the recommender building process in three consecutive steps: 1) elicitation of pedagogically sound recommendations validated by users with a collaborative review, 2) acquisition and validation of the user features to select the appropriate recommendations for the current context, and 3) analysis of the recommendations provided and evaluation of their impact on the user.
Intelligent Coaching for Collaboration in Ill-Defined Domains
Authors: Dragon Toby  , Woolf Beverly  , Murray Tom
Published: February 2025

This research seeks to improve learning by integrating intelligent coaching with peer-to-peer collaboration. We combine advanced technologies that support student freedom and exploration, allow for collaboration and peer tutoring, and provide task advice by modeling student work and behavior. We empirically evaluated both the effect of added collaborative features that enable peer-to-peer interaction and the potential to use this collaboration to improve the intelligent coaching features of the system. We found that collaboration enhances student work and that the coaching features provide opportunities to promote collaboration.
Toward Adaptive Presentations of Student Models in eLearning Environments
Authors: Mazzola Luca  , Mazza Riccardo
Published: February 2025

In this paper we report our work on introducing adaptations of the learner model's presentation in adaptive educational systems, in order to bring a healthy balance between the understanding of Open Learner Models (OLM) and the cognitive load on the student for its interpretation. We believe that enhancing this aspect is useful to empower the learner's metacognitive processes.
The Illusion of Adaptivity as Instructional Method in Learning Environments
Authors: Vandewaetere Mieke  , Clarebout Geraldine  , Desmet Piet
Published: February 2025

The research is part of a PhD that focuses on the cognitive implications, benefits and drawbacks of learner control as a means to create adaptive learning environments.
Cohesion Relationships in Tutorial Dialogue as Predictors of Affective States
Authors: D'Mello Sidney  , Dowell Nia  , Graesser Art
Published: February 2025

We explored the possibility of predicting learners' affective states (boredom, flow/engagement, confusion, and frustration) by monitoring variations in the cohesiveness of tutorial dialogues during interactions with AutoTutor, an intelligent tutoring system with conversational dialogues. Multiple measures of cohesion (e.g., pronouns, connectives, semantic overlap, causal cohesion, coreference) were automatically computed using the Coh-Metrix facility for analyzing discourse and language characteristics of text. Cohesion measures in multiple regression models predicted the proportional occurrence of each affective state, yielding medium to large effect sizes. The incidence of negations, pronoun referential cohesion, causal cohesion, and co-reference cohesion were the most diagnostic predictors of the affective states. We discuss the generalizability of our findings to other domains and tutoring systems, as well as the possibility of constructing real-time, cohesion-based affect detectors.
Failure mechanisms of piles in liquefiable soils
Authors: Adak G.  , Bhattacharya G.  , Bhattacharya S.
Published: February 2025

Earthquakes have often caused failure of piles even when designed conforming to the latest codes of practice. The study in this paper focuses on the possible failure of piles in the event of seismic liquefaction. A pile supported building is considered for study in a cohesionless soil. The liquefaction susceptibility of cohesionless soils during earthquake of a particular magnitude and peak ground acceleration have been predicted using state-of-the-art knowledge. These predicted values have been made use of to examine the performance of the piles under seismic condition. The possibilities of failure of piles due to alternative failure mechanisms which are not explicitly mentioned in the relevant Indian codes practice have been studied and it has been observed that the piles in the example problems are potentially prone to failure by the mechanism of buckling instability of the pile in cohesionless soil.
Strengthening and underpinning the foundations of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland at Alexander Street No. 4 and 6
Authors: Avellan Kari
Published: February 2025

Strengthening and underpinning of the foundations of The Ministry of Employment and the Economy buildings in the capital Helsinki (formerly Ministry of Trade and Industry) was realised in several stages; first in 1981-83 for the building at Alexander Street No. 4, and furthermore, in two separate stages for buildings No. 6 and No. 8...10 of the same street (1985-91). For the purpose of this article the scope will be limited to the structural renovations at No. 4 and 6. The buildings were built in the 19th century, when Finland was part of the Russian Empire, and most were planned by famous architects of the time. They are located in the heart of what constitutes the Neoclassical architectural ensemble of Helsinki, and each one of them has a unique character and particular history.
Peculiarities of foundation construction during expansion of concentrating mill of integrated ore concentration plant in the city of Stary Oscol
Authors: Popsuenko I.K.  , Churilov N.G.  , Bashkatov A.V.
Published: February 2025

The main problem of constructing a new section immediately adjacent to a heavily loaded existing one is to ensure the uniformity of deformations of a new section under construction. To ensure the most reliable prediction of deformations of the existing sections of the concentrating mill and those under construction there were made test piles and carried out static load tests of all types of piles used during construction of the concentrating mil. On the basis of the test results the modulus of deformation of the soils under the tips of the piles, which was used to design the pile foundations of the fourth section and calculate the nonuniformity of the settlements between sections, was determined by inverse recomputation. The calculation of section foundation settlements, made by means of PLAXIS programme with reference to determined modulus of soil deformation under the pile tips, made it possible to get the predicted deformations, on the basis of which the optimal parameters of pile foundations were specified . Sections were fitted with observational geodetic marks and observations began to monitor the settlements.
The hydraulic conductivity of sands with dispersed oversized particles
Authors: Gutiérrez J.J.  , Vallejo L.E.  , García C.I.
Published: February 2025

Engineered fills, glacial tills, mudflows, debris flows, residual soils, and colluvial deposits have a structure consisting of a soil matrix (e.g. sand) and large dispersed particles (e.g. gravel) mixed in the matrix. Mixtures of this type have received little attention in soil mechanics. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of dispersed particles on the permeability of sand-gravel mixtures. Constant head permeability tests (ASTM D 2434-68) were conducted on samples having 63.5 mm in diameter and 155 mm in height. The samples were made of a matrix of Ottawa sand (dave= 0.725 mm) and dispersed particles with an average diameter of 11.1 mm. The percentage by volume of gravel in the mixtures was varied between 0% and 14%. The results indicated that the permeability of the mixture decreased as the volume percentage, B, of gravel in the matrix increased. It was determined that the permeability of the mixture, Km, can be obtained from the permeability of the sand matrix, Ks, and the percentage by volume, B, of the gravel in the mixture by using the relationship: Km=Ks[(1−B)/(1+B/2)]. Only Ksof the sand matrix and the percentage by volume, B, of the dispersed gravel need to be known in order to obtain the permeability of the mixture, Km. The effect of clusters of dispersed particles in the sample was also investigated. It was found that the permeability of mixtures with clusters depends on the relative location of the clusters within the mixture.