bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Selfie Telemedicine – What Are the Legal and Regulatory Issues?
Authors: Mars Maurice  , Morris Christopher  , Scott Richard E.
Published: February 2025

Selfies, self-taken photographs using mobile phones or tablet computers, have become a way of life. People are now sending selfies to health professionals for medical advice or dermatology triage or postoperative wound assessment. These selfies may be unsolicited and sent to clinicians with whom the patient may or may not have a prior doctor-patient relationship or on the instruction of the attending doctor or even to social media groups. They may be sent by email, or by mobile phone and instant messaging applications, or sent to Websites, or telemedicine specific application sites. These photographs and accompanying information are legal documents, should form part of the patient's record, and should be securely transmitted and stored to maintain patient confidentiality and privacy. This paper reviews the legal, ethical and regulatory issues associated with the different forms of selfie telemedicine.
The Impact of Telementoring
Authors: Andreassen Hege Kristin  , Warth Line Lundvoll
Published: February 2025

Telementoring is a well-known practice in surgical training, and its impact is traditionally related to individual surgeons' performance and the quality of the procedure. The objective of this study was to explore telementoring in a wider organisational context. This paper reports on an ethnographic study carried out during 2014–2016 in Norway, combining observations, interviews, focus groups and field notes. We followed the surgical training of a specialist candidate at a medium-sized surgical ward. The training successfully took place through the use of telementoring, comprising updated standards for a surgical procedure that ensured minimum invasive surgery for a vulnerable patient group. We observed that telementoring was a necessary and important element in ongoing quality improvement processes at the ward, and its impact at the organisational level was important. In fact, a series of co-existing interwoven elements was necessary to normalise the new procedure in question. We conclude that the use of telementoring linking international expertise to local contexts is one of the factors that can facilitate and speed up quality improvement processes in small- to medium-sized surgical wards.
Computer Assisted Oswestry Disability Questionnaire Evaluation Using Fuzzy Inference Systems
Authors: Gal-Nadasan Norbert  , Crisan-Vida Mihalea  , Stoicu-Tivadar Vasile  , Gradea Alexandra  , Gal-Nadasan Emanuela
Published: February 2025

This paper proposes the evaluation of the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) using a fuzzy inference system. The ODI is used to evaluate the impact of the low back pain on the patient's quality of life. The patient grades from 0 to 5 a number of 10 questions regarding usual daily activities. At the end a mathematical formula is used to calculate the degree of the impact/disability. It has been observed that this method easily can generate false positive results due to the fact that patients purposely try to score a higher degree so that they can benefit from advantages offered by the medical system. To eliminate the false positive results a fuzzy inference system was developed which can identify the contradictory input data and warn the medical staff about a possible erroneous result.
GDPR and Health Personal Data; Tricks and Traps of Compliance
Authors: Orel Andrej  , Bernik Igor
Published: February 2025

The GDPR fixes general rules applying to any kind of personal data processing as well as specific rules applying to the processing of special categories of personal data such as health data taking place in the context of scientific research or clinical software development. A short overview of new rules about how to consider where scientific and professional projects include the processing of personal health data, genetic data or biometric data and other kinds of sensitive information whose use is strictly regulated by the GDPR is provided. Some key facts to researchers and developers to adapt their practices and ensure compliance to the EU laws are included.
Assessment of Decision Models for Hybrid Approaches
Authors: Hechte Nicole  , Wulff Antje  , Marschollek Michael
Published: February 2025

A wide range of Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) have been developed. These CDSS are based on decision models, which normally have a knowledge- or data-driven approach. In this work a structured development of potential hybrid approaches was realized by the assessment of decision models and identification of their advantages and disadvantages. For the assessment of different decision models, eight criteria were identified and three of them were chosen as main criteria for CDSS: transparency, learning aptitude and handling of uncertain and vague knowledge. The comparison of decision models in regard to the developed main criteria resulted in an identification of three groups of models with similar characteristics. Based on these groups hybrid approaches had been developed, so that different decision models could be combined in a beneficial way. Thereby this work provides an instrument for a structured development of hybrid decision models.
Educational Landscape of Biomedical Informatics in Croatia: Who Are the Teachers and What Are Their Attitudes
Authors: Fišter Kristina  , Hrabač Pero  , Relić Danko  , Išgum Berislav  , Erceg Marijan
Published: February 2025

Lack of experts with complementary competences in the field of information technology as well as medicine and health care has been recognised as an important obstacle to successful computerisation of the health care system. Using a questionnaire survey, we aimed to describe the current educational landscape of biomedical informatics in Croatia, focussing on teachers' profiles and attitudes about existing educational opportunities in the field. Our findings show that Croatian institutions of higher education should better recognise the need for education in biomedical informatics. Dedicated programs need to be established and teacher force strengthened. Joint efforts of existing teachers—institutionalised through a working group focussing on education within the Croatian Society for Medical Informatics, for which strong support exists—might contribute to recognition of the field and improvement of educational opportunities.
HIN – Health Issue Network as Means to Improve Case-Based Learning in Health Sciences Education
Authors: Ricci Fabrizio L.  , Consorti Fabrizio  , Pecoraro Fabrizio  , Luzi Daniela  , Mingarelli Valentina  , Tamburis Oscar
Published: February 2025

HIN (Health Issue Network) is introduced as a peculiar approach to enhance Case-Based Learning (CBL) methodology for health sciences education, as well as innovative tool to query problem-oriented EHRs. In this paper HIN's Petri Nets-based formalism is described, and a first example of its twofold (lower and upper) representation level is proposed.
Disparities in Population-Level Socio-Economic Factors Are Associated with Disparities in Preoperative Clinical Risk Factors in Children
Authors: Mahajan Ruhi  , Shin Eun Kyong  , Shaban-Nejad Arash  , Langham Max R.  , Martin Michelle Y.  , Davis Robert L.  , Akbilgic Oguz
Published: February 2025

African American children are more than twice as likely as white American children to die after surgery, and have increased risk for longer hospital stays, post-surgical complications, and higher hospital costs. Prior research into disparities in pediatric surgery outcomes has not considered interactions between patient-level Clinical Risk Factors (CRFs) and population-level Social, Economic, and Environmental Factors (SEEFs) primarily due to the lack of integrated data sets. In this study, we analyze correlations between SEEFs and CRFs and correlations between CRFs and surgery outcomes. We used a dataset from a cohort of 460 surgical cases who underwent surgery at a children's hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in the United States. The analysis was conducted on 23 CRFs, 9 surgery outcomes, and 10 SEEFs and demographic variables. Our results show that population-level SEEFs are significantly associated with both patient-level CRFs and surgery outcomes. These findings may be important in the improved understanding of health disparities in pediatric surgery outcomes.
The Training on Universal Design for All: A Case Study from the European Higher Education Area in Spain
Authors: Canoa Ma Carmen Martín  , Robles Alfonso Blesa  , de la Fuente Yolanda
Published: February 2025

The European Higher Education Area was a landmark in undergraduate and postgraduate training throughout the European Union. Despite the changes it led regarding the contents of all study programmes, there were two issues that remained unsolved. Firstly, gender mainstreaming, and secondly, training in universal accessibility and design for all. Our aim is to analyse the second issue that remains unresolved and share the solution that Spanish university education has drawn up supported by the tertiary sector. Therefore, any physical, social or virtual product must be based on universal design from a training approach. As teachers, our mission is to change the way in which each product is perceived, so that any design is based on universal design standards. In this article, we will explain the pioneering role of the University of Jaen regarding universal design training in Spain. It is essential to be supported by local and global organisations from the beginning, to create specific environments for discussion and design a study plan for all individuals. The main mission is to train but also to raise awareness regarding diversity, as well as training plurality ambassadors from a multidisciplinary approach. The Master's Degree previously mentioned is a pioneering education programme in Spain and it offers training opportunities to all Latin America. It has been on-going for six years and it is updated on an annual basis in order to reflect a changing social reality and provide any professional with online access to the set of subjects composing the programme. Until now, it has been carried out in two different plans: Master's Degree in Universal Design and Design for All, and Master's Degree in Accessibility for Smart City; the Global City. It has already trained more than 250 professionals and one of its main features is the diverse background of students and teachers, in which plurality and diversity converge in their interest for universal design.
The Relationship Between Housing Accessibility and Healthy Aging: The Case of Turkish Elderly Women
Authors: Afacan Yasemin
Published: February 2025

This study proposed Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) as a tool to elicitate the requirements of elderly to age well and improve the accessibility of home environments. It aims to address the accessibility issues in a case housing environment and provide guidance and design recommendations to designers and architects, who generally have difficulty to obtain information on universally designed housing environments. First, healthy aging concept is introduced. Then, the role of housing accessibility in healthy aging is explored. Later, the methodology is presented. In the findings the importance and satisfaction ratings of 100 Turkish elderly women, which are selected from an exemplary housing environment of the most dense and busiest urban area in Ankara, are analysed. According to results, IPA could be an effective tool to decide how to meet accessibility requirements and maximize home satisfaction. Thus, this study contributes to the design literature by being a first study to explore the applicability of IPA technique in design discipline while eliciting elderly women expectations and accessibility requirements for healthy aging.
The Semantic Student: Using Knowledge Modeling Activities to Enhance Enquiry-Based Group Learning in Engineering Education
Authors: Stacey Paul
Published: February 2025

This paper argues that training engineering students in basic knowledge modeling techniques, using linked data principles, and semantic Web tools – within an enquiry-based group learning environment – enables them to enhance their domain knowledge, and their meta-cognitive skills. Knowledge modeling skills are in keeping with the principles of Universal Design for instruction. Learners are empowered with the regulation of cognition as they become more aware of their own development. This semantic student approach was trialed with a group of 3rd year Computer Engineering Students taking a module on computer architecture. An enquiry-based group learning activity was developed to help learners meet selected module learning outcomes. Learners were required to use semantic feature analysis and linked data principles to create a visual model of their knowledge structure. Results show that overall student attainment was increased when knowledge modeling activities were included as part of the learning process. A recommendation for practice to incorporate knowledge modeling as a learning strategy within an overall engineering curriculum framework is described. This can be achieved using semantic Web technologies such as semantic wikis and linked data tools.
Developing a Theoretical Framework for Policy Development, Implementation and Evaluation
Authors: Brennan Marie
Published: February 2025

Three institutes ITT, ITB and DIT explored the benefits of collaborating and seeking designation as a technological university for Dublin following the publication of the Hunt Report in 2011. A high-level steering group was formed that would guide the alliance partners towards the goal of Technological University for Dublin. Support teams and working groups were set up to draw on the expertise of staff from across the 3 institutes. One workshop was set up to discuss the development of a teaching, learning and assessment strategy for a technological university. Further research carried out into the creation of a teaching, learning and assessment strategy shifted to policy formation and implementation that precede this type of strategy and discovered issues in relation to policy gaps and evaluation methods. This paper reflects on how the focus shifted to policy formation and evaluation. This work provided the motivation for a study to examine how higher education policy is formed and implemented and staff attitudes, experiences and perspectives on this. The aim of this work is to develop a theoretical framework that would inform policy formation and optimize impact on higher education practice. This paper will outline the methods used to capture the experiences of staff across these three institutes in policy development, implementation and evaluation. Grounded theory qualitative methods will be used to discover the core areas of concern of the staff across the three institutes and to develop a theoretical framework that can be used to inform policy formation particularly for a new technological university.
Understanding the Influence of High School Preparation on the Success Strategies of Canadian University Students
Authors: King Alyson E.  , Brigham Susan M.
Published: February 2025

There is a general expectation that high schools prepare students both academically and with life skills. We examine the perceptions of university students about how well-prepared for university they believed they were. The findings highlight inequities based on race, gender, and type and location of high schools, underscoring a need for further analysis using a critical theoretical framework.
Good Intentions in Universal Design: A Global Challenge for Higher Education
Authors: Harrison Jim  , Busby Kevin  , O'Shaughnessy Tessa
Published: February 2025

It is not often that a high-level edict requires higher education centres to promote universal design through their programmes; however the recent United Nations Beijing Declaration and Action Plan (UNESCAP 2017) expressly states that, “academic institutions should provide training programmes on universal design for policymakers, building inspectors and contractors, as well as integrating universal design and accessibility into curricula related to architecture, urban planning, transport, civil engineering and other relevant academic branches”. This is particularly timely in the Asia-Pacific region, where economies continue to show massive expansion of their built environments. This imperative to future-proof any development therefore is vital, especially considering the growing percentile of older people with their needs for safe and accessible living. Achieving these ends clearly implies a need both to educate professionals and to enact appropriate codes and standards, which in turn require the training of personnel to carry them out. Anticipating this need, Goal 3 of the United Nations Incheon Strategy (UNESCAP 2012) optimistically calls for “civil society involvement in conducting accessibility audits, creating guidelines and advocacy work to promote universal design” and “to enhance mechanisms for tracking its progress”. While such good intentions are admirable, they will require radical steps to be achieved. The paper describes examples, including those from the writers' own experiences, outlining a range of practical methods which academics and teachers involved in inculcating universal design principles in both European and Asian centres, through their teaching, training and technology transfer, can positively support continued cooperation towards a more inclusive World for everyone.
Universal Design Building Standard for INDIA: A Critical Inquiry
Authors: Solanki Sushil Kumar  , Khare Rachna
Published: February 2025

Universal Design is now a global term, used to design a product or an environment which will be usable by large number of people without having a specialized design. However, accessible design is a design process in which the needs of people with disabilities are specifically considered. Building standards on accessibility contains scoping and technical requirements for accessibility to sites, facilities, building and elements by individual with disability. INDIA is also following its prescriptive types of various building standards for the creation of physical environment for people with disabilities. These building standards are based on western models instead of research based standards to serve Indian needs. These standards lack contextual connect when reflects in its application in the urban and rural environment. This study focuses on critical and comparative study of various international building standards and codes, with existing Indian accessibility standards to understand problems and prospects of concept of Universal Design building standards for INDIA. The result of this study is an analysis of existing state of Indian building standard pertaining to accessibility and future need of performance based Universal Design concept.
Stroke and Universal Design
Authors: Magnusson Charlotte  , Anastassova Margarita  , Paneels Sabrina  , Rassmus-Gröhn Kirsten  , Rydeman Bitte  , Randall Gary  , Ortiz Fernandez Leire  , Bouilland Stephand  , Pager Julien  , Hedvall Per-Olof
Published: February 2025

Universal Design (UD) is usually stated to be “for all ages and abilities”. Given that stroke is a major source of disability, it is important that UD recommendations take stroke-specific problems into account. Within the framework of EU project STARR, we have investigated user requirements of stroke survivors. In this project we have used a mix of interviews, focus groups, design workshops and technology tests to come up with a set of design recommendations, which we present as a first step towards universal design recommendations which are inclusive for stroke survivors. Our general recommendations are: make it fun, do not make people fail, empower and encourage. The technology needs to be highly adaptable to different sets of abilities. Safety, but also aesthetics and simplicity is important, but it is pointed out that designs should not be “childish” – this can be felt to be degrading. It is important to be able to see and follow your progress and win small victories often. Consider social applications and activities – being able to connect to others in the same situation can enable discussions and provide peer support. More stroke consequence specific recommendations are to design to allow one-sided use (hemiplegia), avoid sensory and activity overload (fatigue), complement speech with images (aphasia), limit demand on memory, support learning and avoid errors (memory problems), and include multiple modalities in your design (reduced vision or hearing).
A Decision-Making Study on the Loading and Reinforcement Plan of Out-of-Gauge/Overweight Cargoes for Railway Transport Based on FAHP Method
Authors: Li Xiaohong  , Yang Nan
Published: February 2025

This paper proposes an evaluation index system and constructs an evaluation model for loading and reinforcement plans of out-of-gauge and overweight cargoes in railway transportation. Based on the plan effect factors as summarized from years of research and on-site experiences, the evaluation indices, their calculation methods and the confirmation of index values are proposed. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) is selected to make the decision of plan, which is more objective than other methods. At last, the method is tested by a case with three different plans. The proposed index system and model may serve as a guide in practices.
Selection of Used Piston for Remanufacturing Using Fuzzy TOPSIS Optimization
Authors: Ramachandran M.  , Ragavendran U.  , Fegade Vishal
Published: February 2025

Remanufacturing is a systematic process to recover a product to like new condition with matching warranty. It has Environmental benefits as well as significant potential to influence product economy in reverse logistic. Remanufacturing begins with identification and inspection of cores (scrap products) further disassembly, reconditioning, assembly and testing. Inspections of cores are the critical activity which leads to the effectiveness of the remanufacturing. The aim of this paper is to use fuzzy TOPSIS optimization for selection of scrap pistons for remanufacturing. TOPSIS is based on the principle that the chosen alternative should have the shortest distance from the positive ideal solution and the longest distance from the negative ideal solution. Parameters considered for the selection are length, diameter, surface roughness, Ovality, groove thickness, height and total deformation. Five pistons with different failure conditions are taken into consideration for study also compared with a new piston. Results show that above-mentioned parameters are giving a significant contribution in the process of remanufacturing which improves the efficiency of a process.
Automatic Detection and Sorting Algorithm for Checkerboard Corner Points
Authors: Wang Xiaohui
Published: February 2025

In view of the detection of checkerboard corners in camera calibration, the advantages and disadvantages of automatic detection and manual detection are analyzed. In combination with Hessian Matrix theory and Harris algorithm, dynamic self-adaptive determination is performed by calculating the image shape operator and using a circular symmetric template. Corner points and culling pseudo-corner points were used to automatically identify poles using the principle of Minimum Convex Hull, and sort corners and sub-pixel positions. Experiments show that the algorithm has a wide range of applications, high precision, and good robustness.
Cultural Spaces and Humanoid (S)Care
Authors: Schürer Oliver
Published: February 2025

Humanoid robots will become socio-cultural actors in cultural spaces—always already transgressing thresholds between culturally conditioned public, semiprivate, private and intimate spaces. How human-like should a humanoid be? Could a functional equivalent to phronēsis be programed into machines? How can we think relationships with those new artifacts in cultural spaces? Could we provide common ground to share cultural space with humanoid robots?
Advancing Telehealth Nursing Practice in Oncology: Factors Affecting Nurse Use of Electronic Symptom Management Guidelines
Authors: Borycki Elizabeth M.  , Hughes Gwenyth A.  , Griffith Janessa  , McNeal Jade
Published: February 2025

Oncology, telehealth nursing practice is growing. There has been an increased use of telehealth systems to support patients living with cancer in the community. In this study we explore the impact of integrating electronic symptom management guidelines (eSMGs) and electronic health records (EHRs) upon oncology, telehealth nursing practice. Ten nurses participated in clinical simulations and post-clinical simulation interviews. Participants' identified that several factors that influenced the use of SMGs including nursing experience and experience in using the eSMGs.
Strategies in Electronic Medical Record Downtime Planning: A Scoping Study
Authors: Walsh Joseph M.  , Borycki Elizabeth M.  , Kushniruk Andre W.
Published: February 2025

PURPOSE: This review will identify dominant themes, common to published articles that discuss downtime planning in a clinical setting. These common themes will represent key considerations for healthcare organizations' comprehensive downtime plans.
Emotion Recognition Using Electrodermal Activity Signals and Multiscale Deep Convolution Neural Network
Authors: Ganapathy Nagarajan  , Swaminathan Ramakrishnan
Published: February 2025

Automated emotion recognition plays a vital role in problem solving, decision making and social activities of human life. An emotion is a set of reactions and experience to a given conditions, which are modeled as a linear combination of arousal and valence dimensions. Emotional pattern recognition based on physiological signals is a relatively new and fast growing area of research. Several physiological signals such as ECG, EEG, and EMG have been used for emotion recognition. Analysis of Electrodermal Activity (EDA) signals is one of the popular technique for emotion state analysis. In this work, an attempt is made to discriminate arousal-valence dimensions using EDA signals and multiscale one dimensional convolution neural network (MCNN). For this, EDA signals are obtained from publically available online DEAP database. These signals are normalized using channel normalization and subjected to MCNN for event-related robust features and classification. K-fold cross validation is used to investigate the performance of classifier. The result shows that the MCNN are able to discriminate the emotional states in arousal/valence dimensions. The proposed approach obtained an overall classification accuracy of 83.75% and 81.25% for arousal and valence scale, respectively. The network yields better classification performance for arousal scale then valence diemension. This might be due to the fact that arousal represent the intensity of emotions. The result also show that the proposed approach is better than the conventional hand-crafted feature based approach. Thus, it appears that the proposed approach can be used to differentiate autonomic and clinical conditions.
A Concept for a Data Dictionary System Supporting for Clinical Research
Authors: Strickler Moritz  , Zbinden Chantal  , Saccilotto Ramon  , Denecke Kerstin
Published: February 2025

Clinical trials form the backbone of evidence-based medicine. They are indispensable tools that make it possible to compare medical interventions or test medical devices for their efficacy and safety. Each study design exactly defines which data is to be collected. Case report forms (CRFs) are used to document the collected data. Preparing CRFs is complicating, time consuming and requires extensive knowledge in the fields of medicine, data management and statistics. In addition, there are no global standards for CRF design, which means that each research institution produces CRF data definitions at its own discretion. This hampers the exchange of data definitions among different research groups and variants of CRFs might be created for a similar study design. To address these problems, we developed a concept for a freely accessible portal in the form of a web application in which definitions for CRFs, variables and tables can be created. The created data definitions can be exported from the portal to be transferred to common electronic data capture systems (EDC) that can then generate CRFs using the definition. The overall objective of the project is to develop a data dictionary system that is used during the entire workflow of a study and that enables sharing and re-use of metadata.
StudyPortal – A Novel Method to Visualize Study Research Networks
Authors: Varghese Julian  , Fujarski Michael  , Dugas Martin
Published: February 2025

International trial databases as ClinicalTrials.gov or the EU Clinical Trials Register lack geographic visualization of clinical trials. Utilizing key requirements from patient support groups and clinical researchers, an interactive online platform called StudyPortal was designed. It enables patients, health providers and clinical researchers to find and localize suitable studies or whole research networks for selected diseases in a geographic proximity. A semantic layer enables multilingual disease input and autosuggestion. Trial information is pulled and processed from ClinicalTrials.gov. In addition, author affiliations of disease-related PubMed articles are retrievable in order to boost sensitivity of visualized research networks. The integration of a geodatabase and maps enables access to geospatial study search and visualization. A preliminary implementation of the platform is already accessible on the web: https://studyportal.uni-muenster.de. It showed that over 70% of trials and over 90% of scientific articles are visualized correctly by applying expert review and using Web of Science and the WHO trial database as external sources. Publication and trial-registration bias are significant issues that limit completeness of visualization. ClinicalTrials.gov, MEDLINE and geomaps are well-maintained but disconnected sources. StudyPortal integrates these sources to render a novel geospatial view of regional or global clinical research landscapes of US and European trials in real-time. Future work will focus on extensive search filters for recruitment status and intervention characteristics.
An Extension of the i2b2 Data Warehouse to Support REDCap Dynamic Data Pull
Authors: Gabetta Matteo  , Mirabelli Marco  , Klersy Catherine  , Musella Valeria  , Rizzo Gianpiero  , Pedrazzoli Paolo  , Barbarini Nicola  , Bellazzi Riccardo  , Larizza Cristiana
Published: February 2025

i2b2 and REDCap are two widely adopted solutions respectively to facilitate data re-use for research purpose and to manage non-for-profit research studies. REDCap provides the design specifications to build a web service used to import data from an external source with a procedure called DDP. In this work we have developed a web service that implements these specifications in order to import data from i2b2. Our approach has been tested with a real REDCap study.
The Impact of Electronic Obstetric Records Using the ObsCare Software on Scientific Production
Authors: Pereira Ana Margarida  , Maranhão Priscila Alves  , Silva-Costa Tiago  , Cruz-Correia Ricardo J.
Published: February 2025

Aims: To compare the characteristics of scientific publications performed in hospitals that used with those that didn't use an obstetric electronic health record (EHR).
Adding Security and Privacy to Genomic Information Representation
Authors: Delgado Jaime  , Llorente Silvia  , Naro Daniel
Published: February 2025

Provision of security and privacy to genomic data is a key issue in current genomic information representation. Existing formats do not give a solution to these issues (or they provide a partial one), so new solutions are demanded. MPEG-G (ISO/IEC 23092, Genomic Information Representation) is an International Standard for the representation of genomic information being defined by the MPEG Committee (Moving Pictures Expert Group, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29/WG11). We provide flexible protection to the information stored inside the MPEG-G format with a combination of security techniques and privacy rules.
Towards an Information System for Sickle Cell Neonatal Screening in Senegal
Authors: Diallo Al Hassim  , Camara Gaoussou  , Lamy Jean Baptiste  , Lo Moussa  , Diagne Ibrahima  , Makalou Demba  , Diop Mamadou  , Doupa Dominique
Published: February 2025

Sickle cell disease is a major public health problem in Senegal. It is an inherited disease that affects about 300,000 births worldwide each year. There are 70 million people affected worldwide, 80% of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. In Senegal, 1 in 10 people carries the sickle cell disease gene. This disease requires follow-up from birth and for life. The patient care requires the integration and the analysis of biological, clinical, social, economic data., etc. In this paper, we propose a health information system for data management of the blood sampling from the newborn at the maternity wards and the disease screening at the Center for Research and Ambulatory Care of the Sickle Cell Disease (CERPAD).
Robust Comparison of Simultaneous EEG Recordings Using Kalman Filters and Gaussian Mixture Models
Authors: von Stein Niels  , Schulte-Coerne Jonas  , Jonas Stephan M.  , Kutafina Ekaterina
Published: February 2025

In this manuscript we propose a novel method to compare simultaneously recorded electroencephalography (EEG) signals from different devices. Although standard methods like correlation and spectral analysis give quantitative answers to this question, these methods often penalize certain artifacts such as eye blinking too strongly. In our analysis we instead utilize an unsupervised labeling technique to evaluate the matching of two signals by comparing their label sequences. The proposed method was successfully tested on artificial data, where it showed a reduced deviation from the ground truth compared to the correlation coefficient. Furthermore, the method was applied on a real use-case to assess the quality of a low-cost EEG device compared to a clinical one. Here it showed more consistent results than the correlation coefficient, while it also did not rely on outlier removal prior to the analysis. However, the proposed method still suffers from accidental matches of labels, so that unrelated data sets may be assigned an unexpectedly high matching score. This paper suggests extensions to the proposed method, which could improve this issue.
Design and Evaluation of a Smart Medication Recommendation System for the Electronic Prescription
Authors: Ghasemi Seyed Hadi  , Etminani Kobra  , Dehghan Hamidreza  , Eslami Saeid  , Hasibian Mohammad Reza  , Vakili Arki Hasan  , Saberi Mohammad Reza  , Aghabagheri Mahdi  , Namayandeh Seyedeh Mahdieh
Published: February 2025

Background: electronic prescription is shown to have many benefits in terms of reducing medication errors, improving patient safety, productivity, and resource management, but it may cause new errors and physician frustration if not designed and implemented properly. Improving usability and user-centered design is essential for physicians' adoption.
Evaluation of Deep Clustering for Diarization of Aphasic Speech
Authors: Klischies Daniel  , Kohlschein Christian  , Werner Cornelius J.  , Jonas Stephan M.
Published: February 2025

Speaker attribution and labeling of single channel, multi speaker audio files is an area of active research, since the underlying problems have not been solved satisfactorily yet. This especially holds true for non-standard voices and speech, such as children and impaired speakers. Being able to perform speaker labelling of pathological speech would potentially enable the development of computer assisted diagnosis and treatment systems and is thus a desirable research goal. In this manuscript we investigate on the applicability of embeddings of audio signals, in the form of time and frequency-band based segments, into arbitrary vector spaces on diarization of pathological speech. We focus on modifying an existing embedding estimator such that it can be used for diarization. This is mainly done via clustering the time and frequency band dependant vectors and subsequently performing a majority vote procedure on all frequency dependent vectors of the same time segment to assign a speaker label. The result is evaluated on recordings of interviews of aphasia patients and language therapists. We demonstrate general applicability, with error rates that are close to what has been previously achieved in diarizing children's speech. Additionally, we propose to enhance the processing pipelines with smoothing and a more sophisticated, energy based, voting scheme.
Towards Smart Adaptive Care Toilets
Authors: Mayer Peter  , Güldenpfennig Florian  , Panek Paul
Published: February 2025

Standard toilets in Western countries often do not meet the needs of elderly and disabled people with physical limitations. While the existing concept of barrier-free toilets and the emerging “changing places” concept offer more space and support, the fixed height of the toilet seat still imposes a major problem during all phases of toilet use and can limit the users' autonomy by requiring personal assistance. Thus, in the EU project iToilet an innovative ICT-based modular height adjustable toilet system was designed to support the autonomy, dignity and safety of older people living at home by digital technology enhancements adapting the toilet to their needs and preferences. The main requirements were: double foldable handrails, height and tilt adjustment, emergency detection and call, and ease of use. The ICT component in this approach serves a double purpose of enhancing usability of the base assistive technology while at the same time providing safety for independent use. A field test of a prototype system in real environments of a day care center and a rehabilitation clinic has been successfully finished. The application of the iToilet concept also in semi-public settings is currently studied in the Toilet4me project.
Wearable Kinematic Monitoring System Based on Piezocapacitive Sensors
Authors: Frediani Gabriele  , Botondi Bianca  , Quartini Lorenzo  , Zonfrillo Giovanni  , Bocchi Leonardo  , Carpi Federico
Published: February 2025

Measuring the kinematics of human body movements is important for several biomedical and non-biomedical uses, such as rehabilitation, sports medicine, control of virtual reality systems, etc. This is typically performed employing accelerometers, electrogoniometers, electromagnetic sensors or cameras, which however are usually bulky, or can cause discomfort to the user, or are insufficiently accurate, or require expensive instrumentation. As an alternative to those state-of-the-art systems, stretchable piezocapacitive sensors based on dielectric elastomers (DE) represent a recently described competitive technology, which might enable wearable, lightweight and cost-effective devices. DE sensors consist of stretchable capacitors whose mechanical deformation causes a change of capacitance, which can be measured and related to linear or angular motions, depending on the sensors' arrangement. Here, we present a wearable wireless system able to monitor the flexion and torsion of the lumbar region of the back. The system consists of two DE sensors arranged on shoulder straps, and a custom-made wireless electronics designed to measure the capacitance of the sensors and calibrate them when the user wears them for the first time. We describe preliminary results related to the characterisation of the sensors and the electronics.
NASA RTLX as a Novel Assessment for Determining Cognitive Load and User Acceptance of Expert and User-Based Evaluation Methods Exemplified Through a mHealth Diabetes Self-Management Application Evaluation
Authors: Georgsson Mattias
Published: February 2025

Many diabetes patients utilize mobile health applications for their personalized self-management needs, but a majority of these systems have deficient usability. To assess the usability, different evaluation methods can be used. Two such methods are the expert-based cognitive walkthrough (CW) and user-based think aloud (TA) which have different advantages and disadvantages and can lead to the detection of many types of usability problems. There is, however, a lack of research on how the evaluators experience performing these different methods; an important aspect to include due to its possible implications for the evaluation overall. In this paper the focus was on assessing the evaluators' cognitive load and method acceptance through an instrument novel for this particular purpose, the NASA RTLX, and through in-depth interviews. Six usability experts and 6 diabetes patients performed the evaluations where 18 usability problems were found with the CW and 20 with the TA and with system usability (SUS) scores of 23.75 and 59.58. Both methods had similarly high cognitive loads: the CW with a RTLX score of 56.11, and the TA of 53.47 and both were experienced as cognitively demanding. The results indicate the potential importance of these dimensions for decision-making purposes between different evaluation methods.
Information Technology System Including Patient Generated Health Data for Cancer Clinical Care and Research
Authors: Maggi Norbert  , Douglas Magnoni Luca  , Ruggiero Carmelina  , Gazzarata Roberta  , Giacomini Mauro
Published: February 2025

This paper presents the extension of a service-oriented architecture framework for precision oncology to the management of patient generated health data from wearables. The solution follows the indication provided by the Health Level 7 (HL7) and Object Management Group (OMG) initiative Healthcare Service Specification Project (HSSP) and is compliant to Retrieve Locate and Update Service (RLUS) Release 1 standard adopting Clinical Document Architecture Release 2 (CDA R2) as semantic signifier. The system which has been developed supports the management of visits, the setting up of a clinical diary and a comprehensive view of the patients from the wearables data for improve clinical care and for research. The system structure is highly modular and the parameters relating to wearables data are only present in one module. Extension of the systems to other aspects, such as genomics and immune therapy, are planned following the same modular design criteria.
Critical Appraisal of Mental Health Applications
Authors: Salehi Fatemeh  , Kermani Zahra Arab  , Khademian Fatemeh  , Aslani Azam
Published: February 2025

Background: Using mobile applications in health is progressing rapidly; hence, assessing them is essential to ensure their quality and standards. The present study was designed to critically evaluate the quality of existing applications in the field of mental health.
Technology of robotic additive manufacturing of products of complex geometric shape made of metal
Authors: Balanovskii A. E. , Konyukhov V. Yu , Khakimov R. R.
Published: February 2025

Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is replacing traditional subtractive manufacturing, where parts are manufactured by sequentially removing parts of the workpiece. In 3D printing, the material is added in layers, which makes it possible to produce parts of complex geometric shapes from expensive metals with higher productivity and economic efficiency. In order to carry out 3D printing at the industrial level, it is necessary to combine robotics with 3D printing software. This article presents the results of adaptation and programming of an industrial robot for 3D printing. Since there is currently no specialized software for 3D printing of metal products, one option is to optimize the available software for 3D printers. The slicer allows you to slice the CAD model into layers and set printing parameters. The software for autonomous programming of industrial robots allows industrial robots to be used as 3D printers. The G-code generated in the slicer is easily recognized in the program and then translated into the robot's language. According to the loaded model, the program automatically generates the trajectory of the burner. Each layer represents a normal along which the movement of the working tool (welding torch) will be carried out. Transitions between layers are also displayed as normals. As a result, a prototype carbon steel impeller was printed using a welding machine and metal wire. The developed technological process proved successful and proved that an industrial robot in conjunction with a welding machine can be used as an industrial 3D printer.
Edge AI: Revolutionizing Embedded Systems through On-Device Processing
Authors: Anushree Nagvekar
Published: February 2025

This comprehensive article explores the transformative impact of edge AI computing on embedded systems, highlighting the paradigm shift from cloud-dependent to on-device processing. The article examines the architectural foundations, performance benefits, security advantages, and implementation considerations of edge AI systems. The article demonstrates how edge computing addresses critical challenges in latency, cost efficiency, data privacy, and operational reliability across various applications, particularly in autonomous systems. The article encompasses detailed analyses of hardware accelerators, memory architectures, power management strategies, and security frameworks, providing insights into both current capabilities and future developments. By examining real-world deployments across multiple sectors, the article illustrates how edge AI technology is revolutionizing embedded systems through improved processing efficiency, reduced operational costs, enhanced security measures, and optimized resource utilization.