Search results for: development health information systems

Authors: Jaeyoung Lee

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Autonomous driving systems require high reliability to provide people with a safe and comfortable driving experience. However, despite the development of a number of vehicle sensors, it is difficult to always provide high perceived performance in driving environments that vary from time to season. The image segmentation method using deep learning, which has recently evolved rapidly, provides high recognition performance in various road environments stably. However, since the system controls a vehicle in real time, a highly complex deep learning network cannot be used due to time and memory constraints. Moreover, efficient networks are optimized for GPU environments, which degrade performance in embedded processor environments equipped simple hardware accelerators. In this paper, a semantic segmentation network, matrix multiplication accelerator network (MMANet), optimized for matrix multiplication accelerator (MMA) on Texas instrument digital signal processors (TI DSP) is proposed to improve the recognition performance of autonomous driving system. The proposed method is designed to maximize the number of layers that can be performed in a limited time to provide reliable driving environment information in real time. First, the number of channels in the activation map is fixed to fit the structure of MMA. By increasing the number of parallel branches, the lack of information caused by fixing the number of channels is resolved. Second, an efficient convolution is selected depending on the size of the activation. Since MMA is a fixed, it may be more efficient for normal convolution than depthwise separable convolution depending on memory access overhead. Thus, a convolution type is decided according to output stride to increase network depth. In addition, memory access time is minimized by processing operations only in L3 cache. Lastly, reliable contexts are extracted using the extended atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP). The suggested method gets stable features from an extended path by increasing the kernel size and accessing consecutive data. In addition, it consists of two ASPPs to obtain high quality contexts using the restored shape without global average pooling paths since the layer uses MMA as a simple adder. To verify the proposed method, an experiment is conducted using perfsim, a timing simulator, and the Cityscapes validation sets. The proposed network can process an image with 640 x 480 resolution for 6.67 ms, so six cameras can be used to identify the surroundings of the vehicle as 20 frame per second (FPS). In addition, it achieves 73.1% mean intersection over union (mIoU) which is the highest recognition rate among embedded networks on the Cityscapes validation set.

Keywords: edge network, embedded network, MMA, matrix multiplication accelerator, semantic segmentation network

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Authors: Babatunde Joel Todowede

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The challenges of nation building and sustainable development have continued to feature prominently in the general reckoning of problems of underdevelopment in the developing countries of the world. Thus, since the attainment of political independence from the British colonial administration in 1960, one of the critical thrusts of central governance in Nigeria has been the particular policy attention of the educational sector. Of course, education is perceived as the logical bridge between the two contrasting worlds of underdevelopment and development, hence, its fundamental importance. The various public policies and practices associated with the Nigerian educational sector are specifically elaborated and critically assessed in this paper. In the final analysis, it is concluded that the educational sector should be better configured and managed in ways that the wider challenges of nation-building and sustainable development are effectively tractable.

Keywords: Nigeria education, educational need, educational plans and policies, educational challenges, corrective measures, emerging economy

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Authors: Enojo Kennie Enojo

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The paper focuses on the contradictions of economic growth and development in Nigeria with specific reference to the plethora issues and challenges associated with the sordid situation. The broad objective is to investigate the major causes of agitation for restructuring the entire political spectrum that promote and guarantee economic growth and development with empirical intellectual standpoint. The specific aim is to surgically examine the organic linkage between weaker institutions, lack of vibrant civil society, poor governance and the agitation for restructuring. The paper adopts the secondary source of data collection as its methodological strategy. Our findings reveals that most urban and rural dwellers where goods and services are either extracted, produced, or manufactured lack infrastructural facilities, preventing economic growth and development, which has been the consequence of poverty, inequality and unemployment. There is equally the issue of disconnection of the political class from the electorate, this is evident in lack of political power base not located in the society but rather with either the elites or godfathers this and many factors are responsible for flawed electoral system from 1999 to 2023 general elections. These egregious factors and others have resulted in the subscription of religion and ethnicity thereby the devaluation of national norms, identities and values. We adopt the combination of structural-functional approach, relative deprivation; rising expectation, frustration and aggression model to enable us critically interrogate these contradictions as subterfuge with both the centrifugal and centripetal forces constantly in fatality. We recommend among others that, there should be development across the federating units without prejudice.

Keywords: restructuring, infrastructure, economic development, governance

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Authors: Amel Hannech, Mehdi Adda, Hamid Mcheick

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In computer science, the purpose of finding useful information is still one of the most active and important research topics. The most popular application of information retrieval (IR) are Search Engines, they meet users' specific needs and aim to locate the effective information in the web. However, these search engines have some limitations related to the relevancy of the results and the ease to explore those results. In this context, we proposed in previous works a Multi-Space Search Engine model that is based on a multidimensional interpretation universe. In the present paper, we integrate an additional dimension that allows to offer users new research experiences. The added component is based on creating user profiles and calculating the similarity between them that then allow the use of collaborative filtering in retrieving search results. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model, a prototype is developed. The experiments showed that the additional dimension has improved the relevancy of results by predicting the interesting items of users based on their experiences and the experiences of other similar users. The offered personalization service allows users to approve the pertinent items, which allows to enrich their profiles and further improve research.

Keywords: information retrieval, v-facets, user behavior analysis, user profiles, topical ontology, association rules, data personalization

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Authors: Amadou Fall Dia, Maurras Ulbricht Togbe, Aliou Boly, Zakia Kazi Aoul, Elisabeth Metais

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Existing RDF (Resource Description Framework) Stream Processing (RSP) systems allow continuous processing of RDF data issued from different application domains such as weather station measuring phenomena, geolocation, IoT applications, drinking water distribution management, and so on. However, processing window phase often expires before finishing the entire session and RSP systems immediately delete data streams after each processed window. Such mechanism does not allow optimized exploitation of the RDF data streams as the most relevant and pertinent information of the data is often not used in a due time and almost impossible to be exploited for further analyzes. It should be better to keep the most informative part of data within streams while minimizing the memory storage space. In this work, we propose an RDF graph summarization system based on an explicit and implicit expressed needs through three main approaches: (1) an approach for user queries (SPARQL) in order to extract their needs and group them into a more global query, (2) an extension of the closeness centrality measure issued from Social Network Analysis (SNA) to determine the most informative parts of the graph and (3) an RDF graph summarization technique combining extracted user query needs and the extended centrality measure. Experiments and evaluations show efficient results in terms of memory space storage and the most expected approximate query results on summarized graphs compared to the source ones.

Keywords: centrality measures, RDF graphs summary, RDF graphs stream, SPARQL query

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Authors: Yifan Fan, Xudong Luo, Pingping Lin

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An essential task in the field of artificial intelligence is to allow computers to interact with people through natural language. Therefore, researches such as virtual assistants and dialogue systems have received widespread attention from industry and academia. The response generation plays a crucial role in dialogue systems, so to push forward the research on this topic, this paper surveys various methods for response generation. We sort out these methods into three categories. First one includes finite state machine methods, framework methods, and instance methods. The second contains full-text indexing methods, ontology methods, vast knowledge base method, and some other methods. The third covers retrieval methods and generative methods. We also discuss some hybrid methods based knowledge and deep learning. We compare their disadvantages and advantages and point out in which ways these studies can be improved further. Our discussion covers some studies published in leading conferences such as IJCAI and AAAI in recent years.

Keywords: deep learning, generative, knowledge, response generation, retrieval

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Authors: Satish Kumar Peddapelli

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This paper presents advances in pulse width modulation techniques which refers to a method of carrying information on train of pulses and the information be encoded in the width of pulses. Pulse Width Modulation is used to control the inverter output voltage. This is done by exercising the control within the inverter itself by adjusting the ON and OFF periods of inverter. By fixing the DC input voltage we get AC output voltage. In variable speed AC motors the AC output voltage from a constant DC voltage is obtained by using inverter. Recent developments in power electronics and semiconductor technology have lead improvements in power electronic systems. Hence, different circuit configurations namely multilevel inverters have become popular and considerable interest by researcher are given on them. A fast Space-Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) method for five-level inverter is also discussed. In this method, the space vector diagram of the five-level inverter is decomposed into six space vector diagrams of three-level inverters. In turn, each of these six space vector diagrams of three-level inverter is decomposed into six space vector diagrams of two-level inverters. After decomposition, all the remaining necessary procedures for the three-level SVPWM are done like conventional two-level inverter. The proposed method reduces the algorithm complexity and the execution time. It can be applied to the multilevel inverters above the five-level also. The experimental setup for three-level diode-clamped inverter is developed using TMS320LF2407 DSP controller and the experimental results are analysed.

Keywords: five-level inverter, space vector pulse wide modulation, diode clamped inverter, electrical engineering

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Authors: Sau Kam Adeline Chan

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World Health Organization had listed ‘Communication during Patient Care Handovers’ as one of its highest 5 patient safety initiatives. Clinical handover means transfer of accountability and responsibility of clinical information from one health professional to another. The main goal of clinical handover is to convey patient’s current condition and treatment plan accurately. Ineffective communication at point of care is globally regarded as the main cause of the sentinel event. Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation (SBAR), a communication tool, is extensively regarded as an effective communication tool in healthcare setting. Nonetheless, just by scenario-based program in nursing school or attending workshops on SBAR would not be enough for freshly graduated nurses to apply it competently in a complex clinical practice. To what extend and in-depth of information should be conveyed during handover process is not easy to learn. As such, on-site coaching is essential to upgrade their expertise on the usage of SBAR and ultimately to avoid any clinical error. On-site coaching for all freshly graduated nurses on the usage of SBAR in clinical handover was commenced in August 2014. During the preceptorship period, freshly graduated nurses were coached by the preceptor. After that, they were gradually assigned to take care of a group of patients independently. Nurse leaders would join in their shift handover process at patient’s bedside. Feedback and support were given to them accordingly. Discrepancies on their clinical handover process were shared with them and documented for further improvement work. Owing to the constraint of manpower in nurse leader, about coaching for 30 times were provided to a nurse in a year. Staff satisfaction survey was conducted to gauge their feelings about the coaching and look into areas for further improvement. Number of clinical error avoided was documented as well. The nurses reported that there was a significant improvement particularly in their confidence and knowledge in clinical handover process. In addition, the sense of empowerment was developed when liaising with senior and experienced nurses. Their proficiency in applying SBAR was enhanced and they become more alert to the critical criteria of an effective clinical handover. Most importantly, accuracy of transferring patient’s condition was improved and repetition of information was avoided. Clinical errors were prevented and quality patient care was ensured. Using SBAR as a communication tool looks simple. The tool only provides a framework to guide the handover process. Nevertheless, without on-site training, loophole on clinical handover still exists, patient’s safety will be affected and clinical error still happens.

Keywords: freshly graduated nurse, competency of clinical handover, quality, clinical error

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Authors: Samuel Escandón, María J. Peñaherrera-Vélez, Signe Vargas-Rosvik, Carlos Jerves Córdova, Ximena Vélez-Calvo, Angélica Ochoa-Avilés

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Overweight and obesity are considered risk factors in childhood for developing nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. In Ecuador, 35.4% of 5- to 11-year-olds and 29.6% of 12- to 19-year-olds are overweight or obese. Globally, unhealthy food environments characterized by high consumption of processed/ultra-processed food and rapid urbanization are highly related to the increasing nutrition-related non-communicable diseases. The evidence shows that in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), fiscal policies and regulatory measures significantly reduce unhealthy food environments, achieving substantial advances in health. However, in some LMICs, little is known about the impact of governments' action to implement healthy food-environment policies. This study aimed to generate evidence on the state of implementation of public policy focused on food environments for the prevention of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents in Ecuador compared to global best practices and to target key recommendations for reinforcing the current strategies. After adapting the INFORMAS' Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food‐EPI) to the Ecuadorian context, the Policy and Infrastructure support components were assessed. Individual online interviews were performed using fifty-one indicators to analyze the level of implementation of policies directly or indirectly related to preventing overweight and obesity in children and adolescents compared to international best practices. Additionally, a participatory workshop was conducted to identify the critical indicators and generate recommendations to reinforce or improve the political action around them. In total, 17 government and non-government experts were consulted. From 51 assessed indicators, only the one corresponding to the nutritional information and ingredients labelling registered an implementation level higher than 60% (67%) compared to the best international practices. Among the 17 indicators determined as priorities by the participants, those corresponding to the provision of local products in school meals and the limitation of unhealthy-products promotion in traditional and digital media had the lowest level of implementation (34% and 11%, respectively) compared to global best practices. The participants identified more barriers (e.g., lack of continuity of effective policies across government administrations) than facilitators (e.g., growing interest from the Ministry of Environment because of the eating-behavior environmental impact) for Ecuador to move closer to the best international practices. Finally, within the participants' recommendations, we highlight the need for policy-evaluation systems, information transparency on the impact of the policies, transformation of successful strategies into laws or regulations to make them mandatory, and regulation of power and influence from the food industry (conflicts of interest). Actions focused on promoting a more active role of society in the stages of policy formation and achieving more articulated actions between the different government levels/institutions for implementing the policy are necessary to generate a noteworthy impact on preventing overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Including systems for internal evaluation of existing strategies to strengthen successful actions, create policies to fill existing gaps and reform policies that do not generate significant impact should be a priority for the Ecuadorian government to improve the country's food environments.

Keywords: children and adolescents, food-EPI, food policies, healthy food environment

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Authors: M. Ciminello, I. Dimino, S. Ameduri, A. Concilio

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Improving aircraft's efficiency is one of the key elements of Aeronautics. Modern aircraft possess many advanced functions, such as good transportation capability, high Mach number, high flight altitude, and increasing rate of climb. However, no aircraft has a possibility to reach all of this optimized performance in a single airframe configuration. The aircraft aerodynamic efficiency varies considerably depending on the specific mission and on environmental conditions within which the aircraft must operate. Structures that morph their shape in response to their surroundings may at first seem like the stuff of science fiction, but take a look at nature and lots of examples of plants and animals that adapt to their environment would arise. In order to ensure both the controllable and the static robustness of such complex structural systems, a monitoring network is aimed at verifying the effectiveness of the given control commands together with the elastic response. In order to achieve this kind of information, the use of FBG sensors network is, in this project, proposed. The sensor network is able to measure morphing structures shape which may show large, global displacements due to non-standard architectures and materials adopted. Chord -wise variations may allow setting and chasing the best layout as a function of the particular and transforming reference state, always targeting best aerodynamic performance. The reason why an optical sensor solution has been selected is that while keeping a few of the contraindication of the classical systems (like cabling, continuous deployment, and so on), fibre optic sensors may lead to a dramatic reduction of the wires mass and weight thanks to an extreme multiplexing capability. Furthermore, the use of the ‘light’ as ‘information carrier’, permits dealing with nimbler, non-shielded wires, and avoids any kind of interference with the on-board instrumentation. The FBG-based transducers, herein presented, aim at monitoring the actual shape of adaptive trailing edge. Compared to conventional systems, these transducers allow more fail-safe measurements, by taking advantage of a supporting structure, hosting FBG, whose properties may be tailored depending on the architectural requirements and structural constraints, acting as strain modulator. The direct strain may, in fact, be difficult because of the large deformations occurring in morphing elements. A modulation transducer is then necessary to keep the measured strain inside the allowed range. In this application, chord-wise transducer device is a cantilevered beam sliding trough the spars and copying the camber line of the ATE ribs. FBG sensors array position are dimensioned and integrated along the path. A theoretical model describing the system behavior is implemented. To validate the design, experiments are then carried out with the purpose of estimating the functions between rib rotation and measured strain.

Keywords: fiber optic sensor, morphing structures, strain sensor, shape reconstruction

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Authors: C. J. Rossouw, T. I. van Niekerk

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The global manufacturing industry is utilizing the internet and cloud-based services to further explore the anatomy and optimize manufacturing processes in support of the movement into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The 4IR from a third world and African perspective is hindered by the fact that many manufacturing systems that were developed in the third industrial revolution are not inherently equipped to utilize the internet and services of the 4IR, hindering the progression of third world manufacturing industries into the 4IR. This research focuses on the development of a non-invasive and cost-effective cyber-physical IoT system that will exploit a machine’s vibration to expose semantic characteristics in the manufacturing process and utilize these results through a real-time cloud-based machine condition monitoring system with the intention to optimize the system. A microcontroller-based IoT sensor was designed to acquire a machine’s mechanical vibration data, process it in real-time, and transmit it to a cloud-based platform via Wi-Fi and the internet. Time-frequency Fourier analysis was applied to the vibration data to form an image representation of the machine’s behaviour. This data was used to train a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to learn semantic characteristics in the machine’s behaviour and relate them to a state of operation. The same data was also used to train a Convolutional Autoencoder (CAE) to detect anomalies in the data. Real-time edge-based artificial intelligence was achieved by deploying the CNN and CAE on the sensor to analyse the vibration. A cloud platform was deployed to visualize the vibration data and the results of the CNN and CAE in real-time. The cyber-physical IoT system was deployed on a semi-automated metal granulation machine with a set of trained machine learning models. Using a single sensor, the system was able to accurately visualize three states of the machine’s operation in real-time. The system was also able to detect a variance in the material being granulated. The research demonstrates how non-IoT manufacturing systems can be equipped with edge-based artificial intelligence to establish a remote machine condition monitoring system.

Keywords: IoT, cyber-physical systems, artificial intelligence, manufacturing, vibration analytics, continuous machine condition monitoring

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Authors: Rahul Patel

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Ahmedabad, a city located in western India, is experiencing rapid growth due to urbanization and industrialization. It is projected to become a metropolitan city in the near future, resulting in various construction activities. Soil testing is necessary before construction can commence, requiring construction companies and contractors to periodically conduct soil testing. The focus of this study is on the process of creating a spatial database that is digitally formatted and integrated with geotechnical data and a Geographic Information System (GIS). Building a comprehensive geotechnical (Geo)-database involves three steps: collecting borehole data from reputable sources, verifying the accuracy and redundancy of the data, and standardizing and organizing the geotechnical information for integration into the database. Once the database is complete, it is integrated with GIS, allowing users to visualize, analyze, and interpret geotechnical information spatially. Using a Topographic to Raster interpolation process in GIS, estimated values are assigned to all locations based on sampled geotechnical data values. The study area was contoured for SPT N-Values, Soil Classification, Φ-Values, and Bearing Capacity (T/m2). Various interpolation techniques were cross-validated to ensure information accuracy. This GIS map enables the calculation of SPT N-Values, Φ-Values, and bearing capacities for different footing widths and various depths. This study highlights the potential of GIS in providing an efficient solution to complex phenomena that would otherwise be tedious to achieve through other means. Not only does GIS offer greater accuracy, but it also generates valuable information that can be used as input for correlation analysis. Furthermore, this system serves as a decision support tool for geotechnical engineers.

Keywords: ArcGIS, borehole data, geographic information system, geo-database, interpolation, SPT N-value, soil classification, Φ-Value, bearing capacity

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Authors: Efthymios Chondrogiannis, Vassiliki Andronikou, Efstathios Karanastasis, Theodora Varvarigou

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A large amount of data is typically stored in relational databases (DB). The latter can efficiently handle user queries which intend to elicit the appropriate information from data sources. However, direct access and use of this data requires the end users to have an adequate technical background, while they should also cope with the internal data structure and values presented. Consequently the information retrieval is a quite difficult process even for IT or DB experts, taking into account the limited contributions of relational databases from the conceptual point of view. Ontologies enable users to formally describe a domain of knowledge in terms of concepts and relations among them and hence they can be used for unambiguously specifying the information captured by the relational database. However, accessing information residing in a database using ontologies is feasible, provided that the users are keen on using semantic web technologies. For enabling users form different disciplines to retrieve the appropriate data, the design of a Graphical User Interface is necessary. In this work, we will present an interactive, ontology-based, semantically enable web tool that can be used for information retrieval purposes. The tool is totally based on the ontological representation of underlying database schema while it provides a user friendly environment through which the users can graphically form and execute their queries.

Keywords: ontologies, relational databases, SPARQL, web interface

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Authors: Ruchi Agarwal, Jake Ansell

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Austerity impacts on all aspects of society. Companies into the future will have to be more capable of dealing with the risks they face. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) has widely been accepted in recent years as an approach to manage risks within businesses. ERM attempts to tackle risk holistically with gains from opportunities in a managing risk and reduction in the risk of failure. The paper reviews merits and demerits of approaches to risk management in regard to antifragility. A qualitative study has investigated current practices and the problems with ERM implementation by interviewing over 25 chief risk officers and senior management. The findings indicate the gap in ERM description, understanding, and implementation. The paper suggests risk learning and expertise knowledge supports development of effective enterprise risk management by designing systems with inherent resilience.

Keywords: risk management, interviews, antifragility, failure

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Authors: Sekkal Nawel

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The Web of Things (WoT), integration of smart technologies from the Internet or network to Web architecture or application, is becoming more complex, larger, and dynamic. The WoT is associated with various elements such as sensors, devices, networks, protocols, data, functionalities, and architectures to perform services for stakeholders. These services operate in the context of the interaction of stakeholders and the WoT elements. Such context is becoming a key information source from which data are of various nature and uncertain, thus leading to complex situations. In this paper, we take interest in the development of intelligent Web services. The key ingredients of this “intelligent” notion are the context diversity, the necessity of a semantic representation to manage complex situations and the capacity to reason with uncertain data. In this perspective, we introduce a multi-layered architecture based on a generic intelligent Web service model dealing with various contexts, which proactively predict future situations and reactively respond to real-time situations in order to support decision-making. For semantic context data representation, we use PR-OWL, which is a probabilistic ontology based on Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks (MEBN). PR-OWL is flexible enough to represent complex, dynamic, and uncertain contexts, the key requirements of the development for the intelligent Web services. A case study was carried out using the proposed architecture for intelligent plant watering to show the role of proactive and reactive contextual reasoning in terms of WoT.

Keywords: smart web service, the web of things, context reasoning, proactive, reactive, multi-entity bayesian networks, PR-OWL

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Authors: Vesna Kirandziska, Nevena Ackovska, Ana Madevska Bogdanova

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The problem of emotion recognition is a challenging problem. It is still an open problem from the aspect of both intelligent systems and psychology. In this paper, both voice features and facial features are used for building an emotion recognition system. A Support Vector Machine classifiers are built by using raw data from video recordings. In this paper, the results obtained for the emotion recognition are given, and a discussion about the validity and the expressiveness of different emotions is presented. A comparison between the classifiers build from facial data only, voice data only and from the combination of both data is made here. The need for a better combination of the information from facial expression and voice data is argued.

Keywords: emotion recognition, facial recognition, signal processing, machine learning

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Authors: David Boyajian, Tadeh Zirakian

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Stability and performance of steel plates are characterized by geometrical buckling and material yielding. In this paper, the geometrical buckling and material yielding behaviors of low yield point (LYP) steel plates are studied from the point of view of their application in steel plate shear wall (SPSW) systems. Use of LYP steel facilitates the design and application of web plates with improved buckling and energy absorption capacities in SPSW systems. LYP steel infill plates may yield first and then undergo inelastic buckling. Hence, accurate determination of the limiting plate thickness corresponding to simultaneous buckling and yielding can be effective in seismic design of such lateral force-resisting and energy dissipating systems. The limiting thicknesses of plates with different loading and support conditions are determined theoretically and verified through detailed numerical simulations. Effects of use of LYP steel and plate aspect ratio parameter on the limiting plate thickness are investigated as well. In addition, detailed studies are performed on determination of the limiting web-plate thickness in code-designed SPSWs. Some practical recommendations are accordingly provided for efficient seismic design of SPSW systems with LYP steel infill plates.

Keywords: buckling, low yield point steel, plates, steel plate shear walls, yielding

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Authors: Vikrum Malhotra, Manpreet Kaur, Ayesha Ghotto

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Background: Cardiac registries such as ACC Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Registry require high quality data to be abstracted, including data elements such as nuclear cardiology, diagnostic coronary angiography, and PCI. Introduction: The audit tool created is used by data abstractors to provide data audits and assess the accuracy and inter-rater reliability of abstraction performed by the abstractors for a health system. This audit tool solution has been developed across 13 registries, including ACC/NCDR registries, PCI, STS, Get with the Guidelines. Methodology: The data audit tool was used to audit internal registry abstraction for all data elements, including stress test performed, type of stress test, data of stress test, results of stress test, risk/extent of ischemia, diagnostic catheterization detail, and PCI data elements for ACC/NCDR PCI registries. This is being used across 20 hospital systems internally and providing abstraction and audit services for them. Results: The data audit tool had inter-rater reliability and accuracy greater than 95% data accuracy and IRR score for the PCI registry in 50 PCI registry cases in 2021. Conclusion: The tool is being used internally for surgical societies and across hospital systems. The audit tool enables the abstractor to be assessed by an external abstractor and includes all of the data dictionary fields for each registry.

Keywords: abstraction, cardiac registry, cardiovascular registry, registry, data

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Authors: Konja Knüppel, Gerrit Meyer, Peter Nyhuis

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The increasing interconnectedness and complexity of production processes raise the susceptibility of production systems to failure. Therefore, the ability to respond quickly to failures is increasingly becoming a competitive factor. The research project "Sustainable failure management in manufacturing SMEs" is developing a methodology to identify failures in the production and select preventive and reactive measures in order to correct failures and to establish sustainable failure management systems.

Keywords: failure categorization, failure management, logistic performance, production optimization

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Authors: Obidimma Ezezika

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In light of the increasing importance of trust in development programs, the purpose of this study, was to identify how trust functions as an essential key determinant in successful innovation and technology development programs. Using projects in the agricultural sector as case studies, we determined how the concept of trust is understood. Our data collection relied on semi-structured, face-to-face interviews conducted as part of a larger study investigating the role of trust in development programs. Interview transcripts were analyzed to create a narrative on how trust is understood by the study’s participants and how trust functions in fostering innovation. We identified six themes and showed how trust plays an important factor in innovation. These themes included the practice of integrity and honesty; delivery of results in an accountable manner; capability and competency; sharing of the same objectives and interests; transparency about actions and intentions through clear communication; and the targeting of services toward the interests of the public. The results of this study can provide guidance on how to enhance implementation mechanisms and provide impetus for organizations to implement trust building activities in fostering effective innovation.

Keywords: trust, research, innovation, technology

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Authors: Marutani M, Kawajiri H, Usui C, Takai Y, Kawaguchi T

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Background: To build the inclusive society, the Japanese government provides “transition support for employment system” for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). It is, however, difficult to provide appropriate accommodations due to their changeable health conditions. Mobile phone applications (App) are useful to monitor their health conditions and their environments, and effective to improve reasonable accommodations for PWDs. Purpose: This study aimed to develop an App that PWDs input their self-assessment and make their health conditions and environment conditions visible. To attain the goal, we investigated the items of the App for the first step. Methods: Qualitative and descriptive design was used for this study. Study participants were recruited by snowball sampling in July and August 2023. They had to have had minimum of five-years of experience to support PWDs’ employment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on their assessment regarding PWDs’ conditions of daily activities, their health conditions, and living and working environment. Verbatim transcript was created from each interview content. We extracted the following items in tree groups from each verbatim transcript: daily activities, health conditions, and living and working. Results: Fourteen participants were involved (average years of experience: 10.6 years). Based on the interviews, tree item groups were enriched. The items of daily activities were divided into fifty-five. The example items were as follows: “have meals on one’s style” “feel like slept well” “wake-up time, bedtime, and mealtime are usually fixed.” “commute to the office and work without barriers.” Thirteen items of health conditions were obtained like “feel no anxiety” “relieve stress” “focus on work and training” “have no pain” “have the physical strength to work for one day.” The items of categories of living and working environments were divided into fifteen-two. The example items were as follows: “have no barrier in home” “have supportive family members” “have time to take medication on time while at work” “commute time is just right” “people at the work understand the symptoms” “room temperature and humidity are just right” “get along well with friends in my own way.” The participants also mentioned the styles to input self-assessment like that a face scale would be preferred to number scale. Conclusion: The items were enriched existent paper-based assessment items in terms of living and working environment because those were obtained from the perspective of PWDs. We have to create the app and examine its usefulness with PWDs toward inclusive society.

Keywords: occupational health, innovatiove tool, people with disability, employment

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Authors: Mattias Bergstrom

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Significance of the Study: This research will provide new insights into the risks with digital embedded infrastructure. Through this research, we will analyze each risk and its potential negation strategies, especially for AI and autonomous automation. Moreover, the analysis that is presented in this paper will convey valuable information for future research that can create more stable, secure, and efficient autonomous systems. To learn and understand the risks, a large IoT system was envisioned, and risks with hardware, tampering, and cyberattacks were collected, researched, and evaluated to create a comprehensive understanding of the potential risks. Potential solutions have then been evaluated on an open source IoT hardware setup. This list shows the identified passive and active risks evaluated in the research. Passive Risks: (1) Hardware failures- Critical Systems relying on high rate data and data quality are growing; SCADA systems for infrastructure are good examples of such systems. (2) Hardware delivers erroneous data- Sensors break, and when they do so, they don’t always go silent; they can keep going, just that the data they deliver is garbage, and if that data is not filtered out, it becomes disruptive noise in the system. (3) Bad Hardware injection- Erroneous generated sensor data can be pumped into a system by malicious actors with the intent to create disruptive noise in critical systems. (4) Data gravity- The weight of the data collected will affect Data-Mobility. (5) Cost inhibitors- Running services that need huge centralized computing is cost inhibiting. Large complex AI can be extremely expensive to run. Active Risks: Denial of Service- It is one of the most simple attacks, where an attacker just overloads the system with bogus requests so that valid requests disappear in the noise. Malware- Malware can be anything from simple viruses to complex botnets created with specific goals, where the creator is stealing computer power and bandwidth from you to attack someone else. Ransomware- It is a kind of malware, but it is so different in its implementation that it is worth its own mention. The goal with these pieces of software is to encrypt your system so that it can only be unlocked with a key that is held for ransom. DNS spoofing- By spoofing DNS calls, valid requests and data dumps can be sent to bad destinations, where the data can be extracted for extortion or to corrupt and re-inject into a running system creating a data echo noise loop. After testing multiple potential solutions. We found that the most prominent solution to these risks was to use a Peer 2 Peer consensus algorithm over a blockchain to validate the data and behavior of the devices (sensors, storage, and computing) in the system. By the devices autonomously policing themselves for deviant behavior, all risks listed above can be negated. In conclusion, an Internet middleware that provides these features would be an easy and secure solution to any future autonomous IoT deployments. As it provides separation from the open Internet, at the same time, it is accessible over the blockchain keys.

Keywords: IoT, security, infrastructure, SCADA, blockchain, AI

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Authors: S. Meguenni, A. Djahbar, K. Tounsi

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Electric railway traction systems are complex; they have electrical couplings, magnetic and solid mechanics. These couplings impose several constraints that complicate the modeling and analysis of these systems. An example of drive systems, which combine the advantages of the use of multiphase machines, power electronics and computing means, is mono convert isseur multi-machine system which can control a fully decoupled so many machines whose electric windings are connected in series. In this approach, our attention especially on modeling and independent control of two five phase synchronous machine with permanent magnet connected in series and fed by a matrix converter application to the rail traction (bogie of a locomotive BB 36000).

Keywords: synchronous machine, vector control Multi-machine/ Multi-inverter, matrix inverter, Railway traction

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Authors: Umaiza Bashir, Ushna Farukh

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The present study examined the perspective of school students regarding teacher’s behavioral pattern during a teaching in classroom and its influence on the students’ socialization particularly forming peer relationships with the development of emotional, behavioral problems in school children. To study these dimension of teacher-student classroom relationship, 210 school children (105 girls and 105 boys) within the age range of 14 to 18 years were taken from the government, private schools. The cross-sectional research design was used in which stratified random sampling was done. Teacher-student interaction scale was used to assess the teacher-student relationship in the classroom, which had two factors such as positive and negative interaction. Peer relationship scale was administered to investigate the socialization of students, and School Children Problem Scale was also given to the participants to explore their emotional, behavioral issues. The analysis of Pearson correlation showed that there is a significant positive relationship between negative teacher-student interaction and student’s emotional-behavioral as well as social problems. Another analysis of t-test revealed that boys perceived more positive interaction with teachers than girls (p < 0.01). Girls showed more emotional behavioral problems than boys (p < 0.001) Linear regression explained that age, gender, negative teacher’s interaction with students and victimization in social gathering predicts mental health problems in school children. This study suggests and highlights the need for the school counselors for the better mental health of students and teachers.

Keywords: teacher-student interaction, school psychology, student’s emotional behavioral problems

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Authors: Chandni Laddha

Abstract:

Tourism was earlier considered as an activity performed by people only for the purpose of entertainment. However, the present era demand for adding something more to the concept of tourism. Nowadays, people are more protected towards environment, so this paper focuses on the significance of ecotourism for the attainment of sustainable development. Ecotourism is a way of sustainable growth of tourist spots maintaining their natural and actual status quo. The ecotourism in India becomes all the more important because India is famous on world map. Ecotourism believe that there should be sustainable equation between tourist and tourist place. Various aspects related to environmental tourism will be highlighted in this paper. Government efforts for the promotion of ecotourism will be discussed by explaining the tourism policy of India, some acts, rules etc. will also be discussed. The study comes up with some strategies to be adopted and which will lead in promoting the concept of ecotourism for an ecologically sustainable environment.

Keywords: tourism, eco-tourism, sustainable development, tourism policy, sustainable environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 415

Authors: Ilona Mewes, Helena Jenzer, Farshideh Einsele

Abstract:

Objective: The objective of the study was to integrate two big databases from Swiss nutrition national survey (menuCH) and Swiss health national survey 2012 for data mining purposes. Each database has a demographic base data. An integrated Swiss database is built to later discover critical food consumption patterns linked with lifestyle diseases known to be strongly tied with food consumption. Design: Swiss nutrition national survey (menuCH) with approx. 2000 respondents from two different surveys, one by Phone and the other by questionnaire along with Swiss health national survey 2012 with 21500 respondents were pre-processed, cleaned and finally integrated to a unique relational database. Results: The result of this study is an integrated relational database from the Swiss nutritional and health databases.

Keywords: health informatics, data mining, nutritional and health databases, nutritional and chronical databases

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: Nawaf Alyaseen

Abstract:

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the Islamic and Western public policy and morality principles governing trademarks. The aim of this paper is to explore public policy and morality principles that affect trademark registration and protection under Shari'a by using Kuwaiti law as a case study. The findings provide a better understanding of trademark recognition from the perspective of Shari'a and the requirements demanded by Islamic Shari'a, especially of those who deal with strict Shari'a jurisdiction countries. In addition, this understanding is required for corporations or legislators that wish to take into consideration Muslim consumers. The conclusion suggests that trademarks in Western and Islamic systems are controlled by a number of public policy and morality rules that have a direct effect on the registration and protection of trademarks. Regardless of the fact that there are many commonalities between the two systems, there are still fundamental differences.

Keywords: trademark, public policy and morality, Islamic sharia, western legal systems

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Authors: Nasser Mansour, Ziad Said, Abdullah Abu-Tineh

Abstract:

STEM teachers face the challenge of possessing expertise not only in their subject disciplines but also in the pedagogical knowledge required for integrated STEM lessons. However, research reveals a lack of pedagogical competencies related to project-based learning (PBL) in the STEM context. To bridge this gap, the study examines teachers' competencies and self-efficacy in TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) and its specific integration with PBL and STEM content. Data from 245 specialized science and math teachers were collected using a questionnaire. The study emphasizes the importance of addressing gender disparities, supporting formal teacher education, and recognizing the expertise and experiences of STEM teachers in effective technology integration. The findings indicate that gender plays a role in self-efficacy beliefs, with females exhibiting higher confidence in pedagogical knowledge and males demonstrating higher confidence in technological knowledge. Teaching experience and workload factors have a limited impact on teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). These findings enhance our understanding of contextual factors impacting science and math teachers' self-efficacy in utilizing TPACK for STEM and PBL. They inform the development of targeted interventions, professional development programs, and support systems to enhance teachers' competencies and self-efficacy in TPACK for teaching science and Mathematics through STEM and PBL.

Keywords: technological pedagogical content knowledge, TPACK, STEM, project-based learning, PBL, self-efficacy, mathematics, science

Procedia PDF Downloads 54

Authors: Veronika Lesáková, Silvia Slezáková, František Štěpánek

Abstract:

Drug dosage forms consisting of multi-unit particle systems (MUPS) for modified drug release provide a promising route for overcoming the limitation of conventional tablets. Despite the conventional use of pellets as units for MUP systems, 3D printed polymers loaded with a drug seem like an interesting candidate due to the control over dosing that 3D printing mechanisms offer. Further, 3D printing offers high flexibility and control over the spatial structuring of a printed object. The final MUPS tablets include PVP and HPC as granulate with other excipients, enabling the compaction process of this mixture with 3D printed inclusions, also termed minitablets. In this study, we have developed the multi-step production process for MUPS tablets, including the 3D printing technology. The MUPS tablets with incorporated 3D printed minitablets are a complex system for drug delivery, providing modified drug release. Such structured tablets promise to reduce drug fluctuations in blood, risk of local toxicity, and increase bioavailability, resulting in an improved therapeutic effect due to the fast transfer into the small intestine, where particles are evenly distributed. Drug loaded 3D printed minitablets were compacted into the excipient mixture, influencing drug release through varying parameters, such as minitablets size, matrix composition, and compaction parameters. Further, the mechanical properties and morphology of the final MUPS tablets were analyzed as many properties, such as plasticity and elasticity, can significantly influence the dissolution profile of the drug.

Keywords: 3D printing, dissolution kinetics, drug delivery, hot-melt extrusion

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Qingying Liu, S. Liu, L. Hao, B. Zhang, J. D. Yan

Abstract:

HVDC technology is becoming increasingly popular due to its simplicity in topology and less power loss over long distance of power transmission, in comparison with HVAC technology. However, the dielectric behavior of insulators in the long term under HVDC stress is completely different from that under HVAC stress as a result of charge accumulation in a constant electric field. Insulators used in practical systems are never perfect in their structural conditions. Over time shallow cracks may develop on their surface. The presence of defects can lead to drastic change in their dielectric behaviour and thus increase the probability of surface flashover. In this contribution, experimental investigations have been carried out on the charge accumulation phenomenon on the surface of a rod insulator made of epoxy that is placed between two disk shaped electrodes at different voltage levels and in different gases (SF6, CO2 and N2). Many results obtained, such as, the two-dimensional electrostatic potential distribution along the insulator surface after the removal of the power source following a pre-defined period of application. The probe has been carefully calibrated before each test. Results show that surface charge distribution near the two disk shaped electrodes is not uniform in the circumferential direction, possibly due to the imperfect electrical connections between the embeded conductor in the insulator and the disk shaped electrodes. The axial length of this non-uniform region is experimentally determined, which provides useful information for shielding design. A charge transport model is also used to explain the formation of the long term electrostatic potential distribution under a constant applied voltage.

Keywords: HVDC, power systems, dielectric behavior, insulation, charge accumulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 214