bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bringing Electronic Patient Records into Health Professional Education: Software Architecture and Implementation
Authors: Joe Ronald S.  , Kushniruk Andre W.  , Borycki Elizabeth M.  , Armstrong Brian  , Otto Tony  , Ho Kendall
Published: February 2025

This paper describes the implementation of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) which has been redesigned specifically for the purposes of teaching medical and other health professional students. Currently available EMR software is designed specifically for use in actual practice settings and not for the needs of students and educators. The authors identified many unique requirements of an EMR in order to satisfy the educational goals unique to the electronic medium. This paper describes the specific architecture and many of the unique features of the EMR implemented for the University of British Columbia (UBC) Medical School program for teaching medical students. This implementation describes 200 participating students participating in a hands-on use of an EMR with a single standardized patient case. The participating students were distributed across three physical sites in the Province of British Columbia UBC curricula in December, 2007.
Foreign Currency-Related Translation Complexities in Cross-Border Healthcare Applications
Authors: Kumar Anand  , Rodrigues Jean M.
Published: February 2025

International cross-border private hospital chains need to apply the standards for foreign currency translation in order to consolidate the balance sheet and income statements. This not only exposes such chains to exchange rate fluctuations in different ways, but also creates added requirements for enterprise-level IT systems especially when they produce parameters which are used to measure the financial and operational performance of the foreign subsidiary or the parent hospital. Such systems would need to come to terms with the complexities involved in such currency-related translations in order to provide the correct data for performance benchmarking.
Supporting the Development of Medical Ontologies
Authors: Corsar David  , Moss Laura  , Sleeman Derek  , Sim Malcolm
Published: February 2025

Ontologies are widely used in the biomedical community, which has built standard reference ontologies for various aspects of medicine. These projects have produced broad descriptions of the medical domain, resulting in large, complex ontologies which can be difficult to reuse as part of a focused application. We describe four ontologies which we developed to support intelligent reasoning about a particular medical sub-domain. We also describe how concepts in these ontologies can be aligned with standard reference ontologies to promote interoperability.
The Role of Benchmarking Data in the Software Development and Enhancement Projects Effort Planning
Authors: Czarnacka-Chrobot Beata
Published: February 2025

One of the fundamental causes of low software development and enhancement projects success rate are improperly derived estimates for their costs and time. In the case of such projects the budget and time frame are determinated by the effort being spent on activities needed to deliver product, which would meet client's requirements. Objective and reliable effort estimation still appears to be a great challenge to the software engineering. In the author's opinion the main reason of that problem is effort estimation on the basis of resources, while such planning activity should ground on the required software product size, which determines work effort. But using suitable methods for software size estimation will not be sufficient as long as it does not take into account benchmarking data concerning similar projects having been completed in the past. This paper is aimed at indicating the important role of using reliable benchmarking data in order to obtain valuable effort estimates for software development and enhancement projects, including particularly the attempt to analyse usefulness of benchmarking data of general character.
Verification Support for Generative System Development
Authors: Speck Andreas  , Pulvermüller Elke
Published: February 2025

The automated generation of systems (e.g. within model-driven development) is a considerable improvement of the software development. However, besides the automated generation the verification of these generated systems needs to be supported, too. By applying generators it is not necessarily guaranteed that the generation outcome is correct. Typical problems may be, firstly, the use of a wrong operator resulting in an erroneous generation (static aspects of the generation). Secondly, the interactions between the different generated system assets (snippets) of the generated outcome might be incorrect, since the snippets might be connected in a wrong sequence (dynamic aspect of the generation). Therefore, the hierarchical dependencies of the snippets which are the input of the generator as well as the dynamic behavior resulting from the generation have to be checked. We describe the hierarchy in a version model based on Boolean logic. The temporal behavior may be checked by model checkers. For the generation we apply our XOpT concept which provides domain-specific transformation operators on the XML representation. Besides the principles of the static and dynamic elements of our checking approach the paper presents the way to map program assets to the version model and to finite state automata which are the prerequisite for the checking. Though the proposed checking is presented at the code level the approach may be applied to different kinds of assets, e.g. also on the model level.
Top Management Conducts an Enterprise System Development
Authors: Koono Zenya  , Chen Hui
Published: February 2025

This reports an in-house development of an enterprise system, directed by top management. The background is explained, and it starts from the corporate-wide business model. This top down approach is better fitted than usual bottom up approach. Various backgrounds supporting this are explained.
Evaluating Data Handling Performance of ISSEI Data Management Method
Authors: Hayashida S.  , Taniguchi N.  , Sugawara K.  , Maruta R.  , Shoji W.
Published: February 2025

A new data management method called “ISSEI” was proposed in the previous report [1], to avoid slowing down of data retrieving time for the database that has an inherent nature of ever growing data volume. The experimental evaluation showed that ISSEI had a significantly faster data retrieving time and required less CPU and RAM usages in the database server. This paper deals with additional evaluations of other data handling performances as the necessary steps towards a successful replacement of the conventional commercial DBMS by ISSEI. Experimental comparisons between MS SQL Server and ISSEI were conducted by changing the size of data volumes in the database, having revealed interesting results. One interesting result is that ISSEI shows faster updating and deleting time in large data volume sizes than MS SQL Server, but slower adding time in any data volume size than the MS SQL Server. Another interesting observed result is that while the MS SQL Server's performance depends on the size of the data volume to be handled at a time, ISSEI's performance shows no dependency on the data volume size. These two additional evaluation results are showing that the proposed ISSEI data management method has superiority in massive data handling over the conventional commercial DBMS.
Informatics and a Health Care Strategy for the Future - General Directions
Authors: Greenes Robert A.
Published: February 2025

Central problems in health care involve availability, access, quality, and cost. A major part of a health care strategy also involves disease prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyles, which go well beyond the purview of the health care system itself. Implementing any strategy involves health policy, finance, and management expertise. What then is the role of informatics? We take the position here that informatics is a key enabler both for addressing availability, access, quality, and cost, and also for supporting the work of health policy, finance, and management experts. Informatics provides the necessary information technology (IT) infrastructure, standards, tools, and data to be able to address these key topics and for carrying out the work of the experts. In that sense, we regard informatics as a means for social engineering – the availability of these capabilities brings stakeholders to the table who might otherwise not have reason to or be able to work together.
Strategies for Positive Outcomes: Can Information Technology Make a Difference in Health in Africa
Authors: Royall Julia
Published: February 2025

This chapter looks to the future through the prism of pilot projects well in progress at the time of this writing: use of a malaria electronic tutorial in Mifumi village, development of a mental health electronic tutorial in northern Uganda, and development of an electronic health management system at Tororo Hospital. Each demonstrates a strategy, rooted in African soil, whose ultimate objective is to improve health through IT and medical informatics. The projects connect users, health professionals, and decision-makers, bringing together interdisciplinary teams. These projects all seek to address the question: Can an information and communication technology (ICT) intervention make a difference in morbidity and mortality in African settings? The findings indicate that not only can these interventions be implemented but can be enhanced with community collaboration, making a positive outcome in terms of community adaptation more likely. Finally, this chapter proposes a health informatics center, a Menlo Park for innovation and entrepreneurship in East Africa in which new ICT inventions and interventions for better health can be created from around the region.
Multi-Scale Multi-Resolution Stacked Sequential Learning
Authors: Puertas Eloi  , Gatta Carlo  , Pujol Oriol
Published: February 2025

One of the most widely used assumptions in supervised learning is that data is independent and identically distributed. This assumption does not hold true in many real cases. Sequential learning is the discipline of machine learning that deals with dependent data such that neighboring examples exhibit some kind of relationship. In the literature, there are different approaches that try to capture and exploit this correlation, by means of different methodologies. In this paper we focus on meta-learning strategies and, in particular, the stacked sequential learning approach. The main contribution of this work is two-fold: first, we generalize the stacked sequential learning. This generalization reflects the key role of neighboring interactions modeling. Second, we propose two different ways of capturing and exploiting sequential correlations that takes into account long-range interactions by means of a multi-scale decompositions of the predicted labels: one using a gaussian function and another using a frequency function. Moreover, this new method subsumes the standard stacked sequential learning approach. We tested the proposed method on image classification task. Results on this task clearly show that our approach outperforms the standard stacked sequential learning. Moreover, we show that the proposed method allows to control the trade-off between the detail and the desired range of the interactions.
Contract Formation through Preemptive Normative Conflict Resolution
Authors: Vasconcelos Wamberto W.  , Norman Timothy J.
Published: February 2025

Autonomous and heterogeneous software agents must agree on how they will operate together, with a view to achieving individual and global goals. Explicit, machine-processable representations of the terms for joint work among agents – aptly named contracts – are thus required. We explore a rule-based formalisation for contracts: rules capture conditional norms describing situations arising during the enactment of a multi-agent system, and norms resulting from these situations. However, such rules may establish conflicting norms, that is, norms which simultaneously prohibit and oblige (or prohibit and permit) agents to perform particular actions. We present a mechanism to detect and resolve normative conflicts in a preemptive fashion: these mechanisms are used to analyse a contract and suggest “amendments” to the clauses of the contract. These amendments narrow down the scope of influence of norms and avoid normative conflicts. Agents propose rules and their amendments, leading to a contract in which no conflicts may arise.
Stability of Solutions in Constraint Satisfaction Problems
Authors: Climent Laura  , Salido Miguel A.  , Barber Federico
Published: February 2025

Constraint programming is a successful technology for solving combinatorial problems modeled as constraint satisfaction problems (CSP). An important extension of constraint technology involves problems that undergo changes that may invalidate the current solution. These problems are called Dynamic Constraint Satisfaction Problems (DynCSP). Previous works on dynamic problems sought methods for finding new solutions. Other works developed exploring methods for finding stable solutions. In this paper, we focus on determining, among a set of alternatives, which solution is the most stable. It is well-known that, given a set of solutions for a problem, the user desires to select the most stable solution, that is the solution that is more likely to remain valid after changes that alter the set of constraints or valid assignments. Thus, we present a tool for studying the stability of solutions of a CSP. This tool is composed by two techniques that analyze the solutions and return which solution is more stable under changes. The first technique generates a set of pseudo-random constraints and study how many constraints each original solution satisfies. The second one modifies the value of some variables of the original solutions and determines how many original constraints they satisfy. Thus, we can analyze which solution is able to absorb a large number of disturbances.
REST Web Services in Collaborative Work Environments
Authors: Oliva Luis  , Ceccaroni Luigi
Published: February 2025

Integration of heterogeneous applications offers many benefits; as a consequence, the goal is not to try and eliminate the heterogeneity, but to help developers to master it and manage it. There have been many approaches to integrate heterogeneous technologies in the context of the Web. Most of them cannot provide a common solution because they try to solve the problem using an incomplete set of proprietary technologies. To establish a holistic, commonly accepted and standardised approach would be preferable. This paper presents a case study for the development of an integration framework in the area of collaborative work environments. This framework is based on REST Web services, and has been designed and implemented as part of the Laboranova European project.
Aggregation of opinions in Multi Person Multi Attribute decision problems with judgments inconsistency
Authors: Giove Silvio  , Corazza Marco
Published: February 2025

In this paper we consider a Multi Person Multi Attribute decision problem in which a finite number of alternatives has to be scored on the basis of a finite number of criteria, using different Stakeholders' judgments. In particular, first we propose a new individual preferences aggregation method which takes possible Stakeholder's inconsistencies into account, measured by a new consistency measure we call μ-consistency, then we focus the attention on the aggregation process of the Stakeholders' preference structure about the criteria, preference structure which is represented by non additive measures defined over the space of the criteria.
Portfolio management with minimum guarantees: some modeling and optimization issues
Authors: Barro Diana  , Canestrelli Elio
Published: February 2025

In this contribution we consider a dynamic portfolio optimization problem where the manager has to deal with the presence of minimum guarantee requirements on the performance of the portfolio. We briefly discuss different possibilities for the formulation of the problem and present a quite general formulation which includes transaction costs, cardinality constraints and buy-in thresholds. The presence of realistic and operational constraints introduces binary and integer variables greatly increasing the complexity of the problem.
The treatment of fuzzy and specific information provided by experts for decision making in the selection of workers
Authors: Gil-Lafuente Jaime
Published: February 2025

Up to now, our research, based on the theory of fuzzy subsets, leads to an alternative implementation of a series of techniques arising from multivalent logics [1] to decision making in management of human resources, using known algorithms (like Hamming [2], Euclean [3], Tran y Duckstein [4] distances, adequation coefficient [5] or weighted mean hemimetric for fuzzy numbers [6]) even creating new instruments (such as the “maximum and minimum level index” [7] or “discarding by overcoming rate-distance index” [8]) which would allow us to adapt in an even more reliable manner to the always complex and unstable reality. In many cases, in order to avoid uncontrollable errors, the expert was advised, if in doubt, to work with confidence intervals in stead of crisp numbers which, allowed to limit the uncertainty to a greater degree and to do calculations that ensured that we avoided errors in estimates or valuations.
History of Health Informatics: A Global Perspective
Authors: Cesnik Branko  , Kidd Michael R.
Published: February 2025

In considering a ‘history’ of Health Informatics it is important to be aware that the discipline encompasses a wide array of activities, products, research and theories. Health Informatics is as much a result of evolution as planned philosophy, having its roots in the histories of information technology and medicine. The process of its growth continues so that today's work is tomorrow's history. A ‘historical’ discussion of the area is its history to date, a report rather than a summation.
Resource, Quality and Safety Management
Authors: Hovenga Evelyn J.S.
Published: February 2025

This chapter gives an educational overview of:
Health Supply Chain Management
Authors: Zimmerman Rolf  , Gallagher Pat
Published: February 2025

This chapter gives an educational overview of:
A Context Dependent Dynamic Interconnection Method of Heterogeneous Knowledge Bases by Interrelation Management Function
Authors: Nakanishi Takafumi  , Zettsu Koji  , Kidawara Yutaka  , Kiyoki Yasushi
Published: February 2025

This paper presents an interconnection method for heterogeneous knowledge bases depending on user's interests as a context. Various knowledge bases have been created in each field by using collaborative working environments such as Wiki. One of the important issues is how to interconnect these knowledge bases and represent the relationships between various concepts in heterogeneous fields. An event affects various aspects of an area, field, or community. In order to understand an arbitrary event or concept, it is necessary to find various relationships over heterogeneous fields. Generally, the relationships over heterogeneous fields strongly depend on contexts and situations. It is important to realize the dynamic interconnection of knowledge bases depending on contexts and situations. Therefore, we design an interrelation management function (IMF) that defines the operator for interconnection data. In this paper, we propose a framework for a context-dependent dynamic interconnection method by using the interrelation management function.
On Structure of Games
Authors: Henno Jaak
Published: February 2025

Games, MMOG-s (Massively Multiplayer On-Line Games), on-line social sites etc have become a major cultural and economic force. The main distinguishing features and attraction of these applications is their interactivity and emergent quality – participants constantly change the state of affairs with their actions. Gameplay, the resulting dynamic flow of events, is fascinating: this is like execution of an algorithm, where elementary actions are defined by game rules, but the logic, the flowchart is composed “on-the-fly” by players. Our understanding of games and gameplay is still on the level of alchemy. Search for adequate formal methods for description and classification of games and gameplay has only started. We do not have established and widely accepted models and methods; the proposed models and classifications of games are mostly subjective.
Knowledge Modeling, Management and Utilization towards Next Generation Web
Authors: Kidawara Yutaka  , Zettsu Koji  , Kiyoki Yasushi  , Jannaschk Kai  , Thalheim Bernhard  , Linna Petri  , Jaakkola Hannu  , Duží Marie
Published: February 2025

Nowadays, large amounts of Web contents are being distributed on the Internet. Conventional search engines are not useful for analyzing the relations between related knowledge since a number of Web contents may indicate a similar concept by different words.
Behavior of non-dilatant geotechnical interphase systems
Authors: Dove J.E.
Published: February 2025

This paper presents results from ongoing research on friction–sliding deformation behavior between planar, solid construction material inclusions and particulates. Data from unlubricated pin on disk friction experiments conducted at high contact stresses using glass beads and subrounded sand in contact with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) polymer sheet, polyvinylchloride polymer sheet and stainless steel are presented. An incremental wear approach is used to model friction–displacement behavior. Predictions of friction coefficients as a function of sliding distance are in good agreement with the experimental data and offer insight into mechanisms potentially responsible for the observed behavior. It is estimated that for the HDPE sheet systems, plowing contributes 40 percent to 60 percent to the peak friction coefficient during initial shear displacement. However the contribution of plowing rapidly decreases to approximately 10 percent to 15 percent as displacement continues. Plowing is only about 8 percent to 10 percent of the total measured resistance after steady state is reached with the balance consisting of adhesion. Particle interaction with wear debris is found to be a significant source of friction with metal surfaces.
Synergistic Use of Spectral and Angular Signatures from Proba/CHRIS Hyper-spectral Images in a Temporal Context
Authors: Buchhorn Marcel  , Schneider Thomas
Published: February 2025

The anisotropy of backscattering heterodyne the spectral information, which is in general deemed as main information source in remote sensing. However, the anisotropy approach enables to gather information about differences in phenotypes or stand structures, if it is possible to analyze objects with help of satellite systems with multi-angle observation possibilities. Proba/CHRIS is such a new generation satellite system. This paper deals with the synergistic usage of spectral and angular signatures for image classification in order to calculate a possible information surplus. For this, the corresponding 36° off-view angle data sets were divided from each other so that the anisotropy ratios of spectral classified objects could be extracted. The results of the analysis and visual verification substantiate the high information content of angular signature images and the sub classification of vegetation objects. The temporal analysis shows that these sub classes are stable over the vegetation period. The information surplus is visible in the 680nm wavelength band of the anisotropy quotient images.
CLC2006: Mapping Land Cover of Europe under GMES
Authors: Büttner György  , Kosztra Barbara  , Sousa Ana  , Steenmans Chris
Published: February 2025

Strategic discussions among EEA member countries and the main EU institutions responsible for environmental policy, reporting and assessment have underlined an increasing need for quantitative information on the state of the environment based on timely, quality-assured data, concerning in particular land cover and land use. Based on these requirements EEA is collaborating since 2006 with the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) on the implementation of a fast track service on land monitoring in line with the communication: “Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES): From Concept to Reality” [1]. CORINE Land Cover 2006 is the third European Land Cover inventory (1990, 2000 and 2006). The number of participating countries is increasing, at present being 39. The project is co-financed by the EEA and the member countries, and covers 5.8 Mkm2. Results will be freely available on the Internet. A Technical Team working under the ETC-LUSI (European Topic Centre Land Use and Spatial Information) is responsible for technical follow-up of the project, i.e. training of national teams and verification of results. National teams use multi-temporal SPOT-4/5 and IRS-P6 imagery to derive the minimum 5 ha land cover changes that occurred between 2000 and 2006. Particular emphasis is placed on mapping the real change processes. National teams usually have access to recent topographic maps and high-resolution digital orthophotos as in-situ data. CLC2006 is produced by combining CLC2000 and CLC-Changes in a GIS.
A Software Tool for Simulation and Retrieval of Satellite Imagery for Thermal Imaging Systems
Authors: Rahnama Peyman  , Sioris Christopher E.
Published: February 2025

Observations made by space-based thermal imaging systems have numerous applications such as environmental monitoring, disaster management, forestry, climate change monitoring and air quality studies. Development of end-to-end simulation models for thermal imaging systems is essential for defining performance requirements of space-based thermal imaging systems, preparing a preliminary mission profile, deriving the instrument design requirements and evaluating the performance of space-based thermal imaging systems. This paper describes simulation and retrieval models developed for thermal imaging systems. As an example, expected observations of space-based thermal imaging fire missions and the noise levels for different instrument characteristics, atmospheric conditions and measurement scenarios are presented. Retrieval of fire characteristics such as fire temperature and Fire Radiative Power (FRP) from the simulated mock raw data is described. Sample results of sensitivity analyses, error analyses and design optimization using the end-to-end simulation models are presented and discussed. The results of a channel selection study performed using radiative transfer modeling are presented. The simulation package is a useful tool for future space missions that are intended to generate IR/visible imagery of the Earth for various purposes such as fire detection and fire monitoring, sea/land surface temperature monitoring, and biomass burning.
Model based control at WWTP Westpoort
Authors: Korving Hans  , de Niet Arie  , Koenders Peter  , Neef Remmy
Published: February 2025

The aeration of the activated sludge tank of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) Westpoort in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) has been optimised using model based control. Discharge limits for the effluent of the treatment plant require total nitrogen (Ntot) concentrations below 10 mg/l. Ntot levels are reduced using biological nitrification-denitrification. This process is controlled by aeration which consumes a lot of energy. In order to reduce energy, the nitrification-denitrification process is optimised using a non linear regression model for the ammonium (NH4) concentration. Simulation results show that the total nitrogen concentration in the effluent can be decreased with a lower oxygen concentration, thus consuming less energy. Both nitrogen removal and energy consumption were reduced with ten percent. Currently, the model based control (MBC) is implemented in the actual process control.
Process engineering: A necessary step to a better public health system
Authors: Ross David A.
Published: February 2025

With its primary focus on community health, the public health system focuses on intervention and prevention of disease and injury to protect entire populations. As a federation of city, county and state entities operating independently under a complicated array of local, state and federal laws, public health can best be understood as a complex adaptive system. The dynamic nature of this system and the need for public health agencies to relate and respond to numerous stimuli in terms of new regulations, changing health status, emerging threats and shifting policy, can mask the commonality of underlying business processes performed within the public health sector. Heightened demand for interoperable, adaptive information systems across the broader US health system necessitates the recognition of this commonality and highlights the need for comprehensive analysis and understanding of these core business processes. In turn, this analysis paves the way for public health to apply proven systems engineering techniques to streamline, automate and facilitate those processes. Here, we look at the nature of the public health system and the evolution of a purpose-built methodology for process engineering within public health. We also present a case study based on the application of the methodology to develop requirements for public health laboratory information management systems.
Prospects for change
Authors: Cortese Denis A.  , Rouse William B.
Published: February 2025

This chapter addresses the prospects for change in health care delivery. The focus is on value – high quality, affordable care for everyone. We consider three domains that participate in the flow of value and the nature of the interfaces among these domains. We also discuss strategic priorities that should align in various ways with these domains. Finally, we address the business transformations needed to enable the provision of value by enterprises that are viable and successful.
The road to airport sustainability
Authors: Pauwels Kris J.G.A.  , van Hoeve M.
Published: February 2025

Like in many other sectors, also airports have the ambition “to become sustainable”. However, by stating this goal, airports still don't know what it exactly is that they aspire. By broadness of the definition of sustainability in the absolute sense, this ambition would better be converted to “to become more sustainable”. This way, a goal can be defined that is attainable. Adecs Airinfra has developed a method to help airports become efficiently more sustainable. An airport can follow the steps in this method to become a more sustainable airport.
Determining Hub Efficiency in Europe, Middle East and North Africa
Authors: Nenem Mehmet Şükrü  , Günay Emine Nur
Published: February 2025

Since it assists them to get beyond their natural home market, airlines are competing to get the highest share from transit passenger traffic. Airlines keep focusing on their geographical advantage on certain regions in terms of attracting maximum number of transit passengers. By employing Cost of Available Seat per Kilometer (CASK) parameter as the reference point, this study assesses the geographical attraction of existing and promising hubs in Europe, Middle East and Northern Africa. For the sake of this study, seven cities that are claimed to be existing and freshly emerging hubs are chosen to compete in terms of cost effectiveness. The nominees are determined as London, Paris, Frankfurt, Dubai, Istanbul, Cairo and Madrid. Over a sample of 4,080 distinct Origin and Destination (O&D) pairs which is a well demonstration of the overall transit market of the regions of interest, a model comparing the relative superiorities of those candidate cities over another are outlined. The model evaluates geographical distance and the associated cost of this distance that is computed through the base CASK function. The raw results without the attribution of O&D's total traffic standings showed that Cairo, Istanbul and Dubai performed the three best hub candidates respectively. In absolute numbers, Cairo is advantaged more over six other candidate cities. On the other hand, when the size of the O&D's are weighted, the best performing cities are founded as Istanbul, Frankfurt and Cairo respectively. In this case, Istanbul is determined to be the most efficient hub for the majority of the transit passengers.
Using Virtual Humans to Alleviate Social Anxiety: Preliminary Report from a Comparative Outcome Study
Authors: Robillard Genevève  , Bouchard Stéphane  , Dumoulin Stéphane  , Guitard Tanya  , Klinger Évelyne
Published: February 2025

Empirical studies have consistently shown the effectiveness of a multicomponent CBT treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Previous outcome studies on virtual reality and SAD have focused on people suffering from fear of public speaking and not full blown SAD. In this study, 45 adults receiving a DSM-IV-TR diagnostic of social anxiety were randomly assigned to traditional CBT treatment (with in vivo exposure), CBT-VR combined treatment, or a waiting list. Results show significant reduction of anxiety on all questionnaires as well as statistically significant interactions between both treatment groups and the waiting list.
Use of Immersive Virtual Reality for Treating Anger
Authors: Miyahira Sarah D.  , Folen Raymond A.  , Stetz Melba  , Rizzo Albert  , Kawasaki Michelle M.
Published: February 2025

Poorly managed anger responses can be detrimental to one's physical and psychosocial well-being. Cognitive behavior therapies (CBT) have been found to be effective in treating anger disorders. A key component of CBT treatment is exposure to the anger arousing stimuli. Virtual reality (VR) environments can elicit potent reactions and may facilitate the treatment of anger. An anger VR environment with six video vignettes was developed by this study to examine the anger arousal potential of VR. Outcome measures included assessment of emotional reactivity, state anger, and presence. The results showed that significant anger arousal occurred during exposure to the VR environment, and arousal was greater when viewed in an immersive HMD than a non-immersive flat screen. In addition, presence was found to moderate the effects of VR. Low presence resulted in low reactivity regardless of the display modality.
Getting Seamless Care Right from the Beginning – Integrating Computers into the Human Interaction
Authors: Pearce Christopher  , Kumarpeli Pushpa  , de Lusignan Simon
Published: February 2025

Background: The digital age is coming to the health space, behind many other fields of society. In part this is because health remains heavily reliant on human interaction. The doctor-patient relationship remains a significant factor in determining patient outcomes. Whilst there are many benefits to E-Health, there are also significant risks if computers are not adequately integrated into this interaction and accurate data are consequently not available on the patient's journey through the health system. Method: Video analysis of routine clinical consultations in Australian and UK primary care. We analyzed 308 consultations (141+167 respectively) from these systems, with an emphasis on how the consultation starts. Results: Australian consultations have a mean duration of 12.7mins, UK 11.8mins. In both countries around 7% of consultations are computer initiated. Where doctors engaged with computer use the patient observed the computer screen much more and better records were produced. However, there was suboptimal engagement and poor records and no coding in around 20% of consultations. Conclusions: How the computer is used at the start of the consultation can set the scene for an effective interaction or reflect disengagement from technology and creation of poor records.
An Ontology-Based Tool for the Correspondences between Specialist and Consumer Medical Lexicons for the Geriatrics Domain
Authors: Bonacina Stefano  , Pinciroli Francesco
Published: February 2025

New services devoted to improve personalized healthcare are emerging from information technology developments. Personal health record systems allow the patients to participate actively in their healthcare process. However, the dissemination and use of personal health record systems face with some barriers, for example low health literacy that leads to discrepancy in understanding medical concepts. While it is important to present health information using consumer-familiar terms in consumer applications, consistently converting medical terms to consumer-familiar ones is a challenging task. We designed and developed both an ontology-like taxonomic structure devoted to the Geriatrics domain for the outpatient and a software tool, for carrying out the matching between the medical vocabulary of the consumer and that of the doctor from the outpatient's and their family point of view.
Development of an Alarm Management System to Manage those alarms occurred during the Illness Prevention and Management inside and outside the Hospital Environment
Authors: Rodríguez Fátima  , Lamelo Alejandro  , Arnal Francisco  , Remón Camino  , Villanueva Rosa  , Vázquez Guillermo
Published: February 2025

A great amount of information is available to be exploited thanks to the use of information technologies. However, the systems that analyze this data lack the ability to alert the right clinical staff to important events, having some of the latest developments centered on the possibility of sending events from specific areas. The following system tries to solve these dependencies and offers a unique system capable of analyzing any data source and communicates the alarms through different means in an effective way.
Sustained Participatory Design and Implementation of ITHC
Authors: Simonsen Jesper
Published: February 2025

Participatory design includes engaging in large-scale information-systems development where participatory design approaches have been applied throughout design and organizational implementation. The keynote suggest to extend the iterative prototyping approach by (1) emphasizing participatory design experiments and pilot implementations as transcending traditional prototyping by evaluating fully integrated systems exposed to real work practices; (2) incorporating improvisational change management including anticipated, emergent, and opportunity-based change; and (3) extending initial design and development into a sustained and ongoing implementation that constitutes an overall technology-driven organizational change. This sustained participatory design and implementation approach is exemplified through a large-scale project in the Danish healthcare sector.
Association between Asporin, Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-2 and Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 Receptor Gene Polymorphism with Female Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
Authors: Liu Wen-jun  , Jiang Jun  , Qiu Yong  , Chen Zhi-jun  , Qian Bang-ping  , Liu Zhen  , Shu Hao  , Wang Xin-hua  , Sun Chao
Published: February 2025

Introduction: The most well accepted phenotypes of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) are relative anterior spinal overgrowth and osteopenia which might because of abnormal endochondral ossification and bone metabolism. Previous linkage studies on familial AIS revealed several candidate chromosomal regions. Asporin (ASPN), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) and insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) genes were located in these regions and contribute to bone growth.
Response of Growth Plate Explants under Static and Dynamic Loading: A Histomorphological Study
Authors: Sergerie K.  , Beauchemin P.-F.  , Moldovan F.  , Parent S.  , Villemure I.
Published: February 2025

Introduction: The effects of dynamic loading on growth are presently poorly understood. Studies investigating static/dynamic loadings do not use matched and normalized loading parameters.
Vestibulomotor Activity in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Preliminary Results
Authors: Connan Jean-François  , Blouin Jean  , Teasdale Normand  , Simoneau Martin
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is characterized by a threedimensional deviation of the vertebral column and its etiopathogenesis is unknown. Various factors cause idiopathic scoliosis, and among these a prominent role has been attributed to the vestibular system. Various studies have proposed that alteration of the vestibular or reticular formation must be implied in the generation of spine curvature (e.g., Manzoni & Miele, 2002).
Gender Difference of Curve Pattern in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis with Small Curve Magnitude
Authors: Zhu Ze-zhang  , Sun Chao  , Qiu Yong  , Shu Hao  , Liu Zhen  , Wang Xinhua  , Zhu Feng  , Wang Bing
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Studies on adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) have documented the gender differences in natural history and treatments outcome. However, there are few studies comparing the difference of curve patterns between male and female patients.
Pedicle Screw Fixation Strategies of the Thoracic Curve in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS)
Authors: Cheung Kenneth M.C.  , Samartzis Dino  , Natarajan Deepa  , Kwan Kenny  , Cheung Wai-Yuen  , Li Jingfeng  , Wong Yat-Wa  , Lenke Lawrence  , Luk Keith D.K.
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Pedicle screw fixation of the main thoracic curve in individuals with AIS provides improved curve correction in comparison to hooks and hybrid systems. However, the use of pedicle screws can be costly, carry a risk of neural injury, and potentially increase health-care costs.
Simple Technique to Evaluate Thorax Asymmetry in Scoliosis: Clinical Usefulness to Assess Deformity and Mobility
Authors: Kotwicki Tomasz  , Zielinska-Kaszubowska Iwona  , Szulc Andrzej  , Samborski Wlodzimierz
Published: February 2025

In subjects with scoliosis the thoracic cage deformity is a complex 3D phenomenon. There is a deficiency of simple clinical methods of thorax shape evaluation. The study aimed to introduce and assess an anthropometric technique measuring transverse plane deformity of the thorax in patients with idiopathic scoliosis. Thirty scoliotic girls, aged 14.4±1.5 years, thoracic scoliosis type Lenke 1, mean Cobb 54.1±24.7°, and 30 healthy volunteers matched for sex and age were examined. Using a Martin anthropometric caliper the length of the long and the short horizontal axes of the thorax were measured at the level of the xiphoid process (upper index) and of the costal arch (lower index), both on maximum inspiration and expiration. Asymmetry index, defined as difference of the length of the long and the short axes expressed as the percentage of the short one, was calculated. The upper asymmetry index in the study group was 35.2±18.6 (inspiration) while in the control group it was 13.6±13.6, difference significant, p<0.001. The lower asymmetry index in the study group was 26.2±12.9 (inspiration) while in the control group it was 12.5±11.7, difference significant, p<0.001. In conclusion, thorax asymmetry index revealed significantly higher values in scoliotic patients. Asymmetry of respiratory movements could be measured. This simple technique may be used as a helpful tool for clinicians.
In Normal Girls and Boys, Body Mass Index (BMI) Subsets Reveal Energy Priority of Trunk Width Growth and in the Limbs of Boys: Central Mechanisms May Have Enabled Human Bipedalism which, in Dysfunction, Predisposed Girls to AIS
Authors: Burwell R. Geoffrey  , Aujla Ranjit K.  , Grevitt Michael P.  , Randell Tabitha L.  , Dangerfield Peter H.  , Moulton Alan
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Skeletal growth is tightly coupled to energy balance via complex mechanisms involving leptin and hypothalamus. BMI is probably a surrogate measure for circulating leptin levels. Normal adolescent girls and boys age 11–18 years (n=555) with relatively higher BMIs show significantly greater trunk width growth, but only boys show this phenomenon also in limb lengths.
Preoperative Girls with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS): Systemic Skeletal Overgrowth Patterns Probably Hormonally-driven Revealed in Higher and Lower Body Mass Index (BMI) Subsets
Authors: Burwell R. Geoffrey  , Aujla Ranjit K.  , Grevitt Michael P.  , Randell Tabitha L.  , Dangerfield Peter H.  , Cole Ashley A.  , Kirby Alanah S.  , Polak Fran J.  , Pratt Roland K.  , Moulton Alan  , Webb John K.
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Evidence suggests that extraspinal general skeletal overgrowth in AIS girls is associated with the relative anterior spinal overgrowth (RASO) giving such overgrowth pathogenetic significance.
Shape from Stereo with Application to Scoliosis Screening
Authors: Elsafi Ahmed  , Durdle Nelson
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Most of the computer vision techniques used to analyze the scoliosis deformities are based on studying the internal deformation of the spine. The imaging techniques used in these algorithms are mostly based on MRI and Xray imaging. Repetitive exposure to these imaging techniques could yield severe side effects.
Range of Movement (ROM) of Various Segments in the Spine and Back: Normative Values from a New Marker Set
Authors: Chockalingam N.  , Larose Chevalier T.  , Ahmed E.  , Dangerfield P.
Published: February 2025

Introduction: A quantitative dynamic assessment of the spine and the back is essential for both conservative and surgical management of patients with AIS. Whilst there are several procedures described in the literature for radiological examination of patients, there is a clear paucity of information on non-invasive methodology. Optoelectronic movement analysis systems have been shown useful in previous studies examining marker placement procedures for gait analysis in scoliotic patients. This paper provides a database of “normal” ranges of movement (ROM) using one such procedure.
Recent advances in the study of candidate genes for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis
Authors: Fendri K.  , Patten S.  , Zaouter C.  , Parent S.  , Kaufman G.  , Labelle H.  , Edery P.  , Moldovan F.
Published: February 2025

We used a microarray approach to evaluate gene expression profiles in human AIS osteoblasts, and to identify genes that are differentially expressed following estrogen exposure in non-AIS and AIS human osteoblasts. We found that more than one gene is likely responsible for AIS. Furthermore, some of these genes are estrogen-regulated, suggesting a possible role of estrogens in the etiology of scoliosis.
Costs of School Scoliosis Screening: A Large Population-based Study
Authors: Lee C.F.  , Fong Daniel Y.T.  , Cheung Kenneth M.C.  , Cheng Jack C.Y.  , Ng Bobby K.W.  , Lam T.P.  , Mak K.H.  , Yip Paul S.F.  , Luk Keith D.K.
Published: February 2025

Introduction: School screening cost for scoliosis reported widely varied which mainly due to the incomplete inclusion of cost items.
C1 Lateral Mass Screw Fixation in Children: Indications, Outcomes, and Technique in 11 Consecutive Patients
Authors: Miyanji Firoz  , Mulpuri Kishore  , Saravanja Davor  , Newton Peter O.  , Reilly Christopher W.
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Upper cervical spine stabilization in children can be challenging due to anatomic abnormalities. Many authors have shown C1 lateral mass screws to be safe and effective in adults; however, no large series has been reported in the pediatric literature.
Design and Evaluation of an MRI Compatible Axial Compression Device for 3D Assessment of Spinal Deformity and Flexibility in AIS
Authors: Adam Clayton  , Izatt Maree  , Askin Geoffrey
Published: February 2025

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) offers a valuable research tool for the assessment of 3D spinal deformity in AIS, however the horizontal patient position imposed by conventional scanners removes the axial compressive loading on the spine. The objective of this study was to design, construct and test an MRI compatible compression device for research into the effect of axial loading on spinal deformity using supine MRI scans. The device was evaluated by performing unloaded and loaded supine MRI scans on a series of 10 AIS patients. The patient group had a mean initial (unloaded) major Cobb angle of 43±7°, which increased to 50±9° on application of the compressive load. The 7° increase in mean Cobb angle is consistent with that reported by a previous study comparing standing versus supine posture in scoliosis patients (Torell et al, 1985. Spine 10:425-7).