Search results for: medical device security

Authors: Moatlhodi Wise Letshwenyo, Lesedi Lebogang

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Botswana is an arid country that needs to start reusing wastewater as part of its water security plan. Pilot scale slow sand filtration in combination with roughing filter was investigated for the treatment of effluent from Botswana International University of Science and Technology to meet Botswana irrigation standards. The system was operated at hydraulic loading rates of 0.04 m/hr and 0.12 m/hr. The results show that the system was able to reduce turbidity from 262 Nephelometric Turbidity Units to a range between 18 and 0 Nephelometric Turbidity Units which was below 30 Nephelometric Turbidity Units threshold limit. The overall efficacy ranged between 61% and 100%. Suspended solids, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, and Chemical Oxygen Demand removal efficiency averaged 42.6%, 45.5%, and 77% respectively and all within irrigation standards. Other physio-chemical parameters were within irrigation standards except for bicarbonate ion which averaged 297.7±44 mg L^-1 in the influent and 196.22±50 mg L^-1 in the effluent which was above the limit of 92 mg L^-1, therefore averaging a reduction of 34.1% by the system. Total coliforms, fecal coliforms, and Escherichia coli in the effluent were initially averaging 1.1 log counts, 0.5 log counts, and 1.3 log counts respectively compared to corresponding influent log counts of 3.4, 2.7 and 4.1, respectively. As time passed, it was observed that only roughing filter was able to reach reductions of 97.5%, 86% and 100% respectively for faecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, and total coliforms. These organism numbers were observed to have increased in slow sand filter effluent suggesting multiplication in the tank. Water quality index value of 22.79 for the physio-chemical parameters suggests that the effluent is of excellent quality and can be used for irrigation purposes. However, the water quality index value for the microbial parameters (1820) renders the quality unsuitable for irrigation. It is concluded that slow sand filtration in combination with roughing filter is a viable option for the treatment of secondary effluent for reuse purposes. However, further studies should be conducted especially for the removal of microbial parameters using the system.

Keywords: Irrigation, roughing filter, slow sand filter, turbidity, water quality index.

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Authors: Hisham Mortada

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Transition in the urban configuration of Arab cities has never been as radical and visible as it has been since the turn of the last century. The emergence of new cities near historical settlements of Arabia has spawned a series of developments in and around the old city precincts. New developments are based on advanced technology and conform to globally prevalent standards of city planning, superseding the vernacular arrangements based on traditional norms that guided so-called ‘city planning’. Evidence to this fact are the extant Arab buildings present at the urban core of modern cities, which inform us about intricate spatial organization. Organization that subscribed to multiple norms such as, satisfying gender segregation and socialization, economic sustainability, and ensuring security and environmental coherence etc., within settlement compounds. Several participating factors achieved harmony in such an inclusive city—an organization that was challenged and apparently replaced by the new planning order in the face of growing needs of globalized, economy-centric and high-tech models of development. Communities found it difficult to acclimatize with the new western planning models that were implemented at a very large scale throughout the Kingdom, which later experienced spatial re-structuring to suit users’ needs. A closer look the ancient city of Yanbu, now flanked with such new developments, allows us to differentiate and track the beginnings of this unprecedented transition in settlement formations. This paper aims to elaborate the Arabian context offered to both the ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ planning approaches, in order to understand challenges and solutions offered by both at different times. In the process it will also establish the inconsistencies and conflicts that arose with the shift in planning paradigm, from traditional-'cultural norms’, to modern-'physical planning', in the Arabian context. Thus, by distinguishing the two divergent planning philosophies, their impact of the Arabian morphology, relevance to lifestyle and suitability to the biophysical environment, it concludes with a perspective on sustainability particularly for in case of Yanbu.

Keywords: Yanbu, traditional architecture, Hijaz, coral building, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: Hadjira Bentoumi, Pascal Gautron, Kadi Bouatouch

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We present a method for fast volume rendering using graphics hardware (GPU). To our knowledge, it is the first implementation on the GPU. Based on the Shear-Warp algorithm, our GPU-based method provides real-time frame rates and outperforms the CPU-based implementation. When the number of slices is not sufficient, we add in-between slices computed by interpolation. This improves then the quality of the rendered images. We have also implemented the ray marching algorithm on the GPU. The results generated by the three algorithms (CPU-based and GPU-based Shear- Warp, GPU-based Ray Marching) for two test models has proved that the ray marching algorithm outperforms the shear-warp methods in terms of speed up and image quality.

Keywords: Volume rendering, graphics processors

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Authors: Kang-Hung Yang, Jin-Yuan Hsu

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In recent years, several severe large-scale influenza outbreaks happened in many countries, such as SARS in 2005 or H1N1 in 2009. Those influenza Epidemics have greatly impacts not only on people-s life and health, but medical systems in different countries. Although severe diseases are more experienced, they are not fully controlled. Governments have different policies to control the spreads of diseases. However, those policies have both positive and negative social or economical influence on people and society. Therefore, it is necessary and essential to develop an appropriate model for evaluations of policies. Consequently, a proper measure can be implemented to confront the diseases. The main goal of this study is to develop a SIR-based model for the further evaluations of the candidate policies during the influenza outbreaks.

Keywords: SIR, influenza, systems dynamic model, H1N1

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Authors: M. Sharanreddy, P. K. Kulkarni

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Brain tumor is inherently serious and life-threatening disease. Brain tumor builds the intracranial pressure in the brain, by shifting the brain or pushing against the skull, and also damaging nerves and healthy brain tissues. This intracranial pressure affects and interferes with normal brain functionality, which results in generation of abnormal electrical activities from brain. With recent development in the medical engineering and instruments, EEG instruments are able to record the brain electric activities with high accuracy, which establishes EEG as a primary tool for diagnosing the brain abnormalities. Research scholars and general physicians, often face difficulty in understanding EEG patterns. This paper presents the EEG patterns associated with brain tumor by combing medicine theory and neurologist experience. Paper also explains the pros-cons of the EEG based brain tumor identification.

Keywords: Brain tumor, Electroencephalogram (EEG).

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Authors: Bahareh Gholamzadeh, Hooman Nabovati

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Fiber optic sensor technology offers the possibility of sensing different parameters like strain, temperature, pressure in harsh environment and remote locations. these kinds of sensors modulates some features of the light wave in an optical fiber such an intensity and phase or use optical fiber as a medium for transmitting the measurement information. The advantages of fiber optic sensors in contrast to conventional electrical ones make them popular in different applications and now a day they consider as a key component in improving industrial processes, quality control systems, medical diagnostics, and preventing and controlling general process abnormalities. This paper is an introduction to fiber optic sensor technology and some of the applications that make this branch of optic technology, which is still in its early infancy, an interesting field.

Keywords: Fiber optic sensors, distributed sensors, sensorapplication, crack sensor.

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Authors: Jurij Tasinkiewicz

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The aim of this work is to present a theoretical analysis of a 2D ultrasound transducer comprised of crossed arrays of metal strips placed on both sides of thin piezoelectric layer (a). Such a structure is capable of electronic beam-steering of generated wavebeam both in elevation and azimuth. In this paper a semi-analytical model of the considered transducer is developed. It is based on generalization of the well-known BIS-expansion method. Specifically, applying the electrostatic approximation, the electric field components on the surface of the layer are expanded into fast converging series of double periodic spatial harmonics with corresponding amplitudes represented by the properly chosen Legendre polynomials. The problem is reduced to numerical solving of certain system of linear equations for unknown expansion coefficients.

Keywords: Beamforming, transducer array, BIS-expansion.

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Authors: Chuang-Chun Chiou

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Ageing population is a global trend; therefore the need of care service has been increasing dramatically. There are three basic forms of service delivered to the elderly: institution, community, and home. Particularly, the institutional service can be seen as an extension of medical service. The nursing home or so-called care home which is equipped with professional staff and facilities can provide a variety of service including rehabilitation service, short-term care, and long term care. Similar to hospital and other health care service, care home service do need to provide quality and cost-effective service to satisfy the dwellers. The main purpose of this paper is to show how lean thinking and service innovation can be applied to care home operation. The issues and key factors of implementing lean practice are discussed.

Keywords: Lean, Service improvement, SERVQUAL, Care home service.

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Authors: Vimala Balakrishnan, Mohammad R. Shakouri, Hooman Hoodeh, Loo, Huck-Soo

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Diabetes is one of the high prevalence diseases worldwide with increased number of complications, with retinopathy as one of the most common one. This paper describes how data mining and case-based reasoning were integrated to predict retinopathy prevalence among diabetes patients in Malaysia. The knowledge base required was built after literature reviews and interviews with medical experts. A total of 140 diabetes patients- data were used to train the prediction system. A voting mechanism selects the best prediction results from the two techniques used. It has been successfully proven that both data mining and case-based reasoning can be used for retinopathy prediction with an improved accuracy of 85%.

Keywords: Case-Based Reasoning, Data Mining, Prediction, Retinopathy.

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Authors: C. Virgilio, J. Carlier, P. Campistron, M. Toubal, P. Garnier, L. Broussous, V. Thomy, B. Nongaillard

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Wetting efficiency of microstructures or nanostructures patterned on Si wafers is a real challenge in integrated circuits manufacturing. In fact, bad or non-uniform wetting during wet processes limits chemical reactions and can lead to non-complete etching or cleaning inside the patterns and device defectivity. This issue is more and more important with the transistors size shrinkage and concerns mainly high aspect ratio structures. Deep Trench Isolation (DTI) structures enabling pixels’ isolation in imaging devices are subject to this phenomenon. While low-frequency acoustic reflectometry principle is a well-known method for Non Destructive Test applications, we have recently shown that it is also well suited for nanostructures wetting characterization in a higher frequency range. In this paper, we present a high-frequency acoustic reflectometry characterization of DTI wetting through a confrontation of both experimental and modeling results. The acoustic method proposed is based on the evaluation of the reflection of a longitudinal acoustic wave generated by a 100 µm diameter ZnO piezoelectric transducer sputtered on the silicon wafer backside using MEMS technologies. The transducers have been fabricated to work at 5 GHz corresponding to a wavelength of 1.7 µm in silicon. The DTI studied structures, manufactured on the wafer frontside, are crossing trenches of 200 nm wide and 4 µm deep (aspect ratio of 20) etched into a Si wafer frontside. In that case, the acoustic signal reflection occurs at the bottom and at the top of the DTI enabling its characterization by monitoring the electrical reflection coefficient of the transducer. A Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) model has been developed to predict the behavior of the emitted wave. The model shows that the separation of the reflected echoes (top and bottom of the DTI) from different acoustic modes is possible at 5 Ghz. A good correspondence between experimental and theoretical signals is observed. The model enables the identification of the different acoustic modes. The evaluation of DTI wetting is then performed by focusing on the first reflected echo obtained through the reflection at Si bottom interface, where wetting efficiency is crucial. The reflection coefficient is measured with different water / ethanol mixtures (tunable surface tension) deposited on the wafer frontside. Two cases are studied: with and without PFTS hydrophobic treatment. In the untreated surface case, acoustic reflection coefficient values with water show that liquid imbibition is partial. In the treated surface case, the acoustic reflection is total with water (no liquid in DTI). The impalement of the liquid occurs for a specific surface tension but it is still partial for pure ethanol. DTI bottom shape and local pattern collapse of the trenches can explain these incomplete wetting phenomena. This high-frequency acoustic method sensitivity coupled with a FDTD propagative model thus enables the local determination of the wetting state of a liquid on real structures. Partial wetting states for non-hydrophobic surfaces or low surface tension liquids are then detectable with this method.

Keywords: Wetting, acoustic reflectometry, gigahertz, semiconductor.

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Authors: O. F. Elkommos

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“Humour studies” is an interdisciplinary research area that is relatively recent. It interests researchers from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, medicine, nursing, in the work place, gender studies, among others, and certainly teaching, language learning, linguistics, and literature. Linguistic theories of humour research are numerous; some of which are of interest to the present study. In spite of the fact that humour courses are now taught in universities around the world in the Egyptian context it is not included. The purpose of the present study is two-fold: to review the state of arts and to show how linguistic theories of humour can be possibly used as an art and craft of teaching and of learning in EFL literature classes. In the present study linguistic theories of humour were applied to selected literary texts to interpret humour as an intrinsic artistic communicative competence challenge. Humour in the area of linguistics was seen as a fifth component of communicative competence of the second language leaner. In literature it was studied as satire, irony, wit, or comedy. Linguistic theories of humour now describe its linguistic structure, mechanism, function, and linguistic deviance. Semantic Script Theory of Verbal Humor (SSTH), General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), Audience Based Theory of Humor (ABTH), and their extensions and subcategories as well as the pragmatic perspective were employed in the analyses. This research analysed the linguistic semantic structure of humour, its mechanism, and how the audience reader (teacher or learner) becomes an interactive interpreter of the humour. This promotes humour competence together with the linguistic, social, cultural, and discourse communicative competence. Studying humour as part of the literary texts and the perception of its function in the work also brings its positive association in class for educational purposes. Humour is by default a provoking/laughter-generated device. Incongruity recognition, perception and resolving it, is a cognitive mastery. This cognitive process involves a humour experience that lightens up the classroom and the mind. It establishes connections necessary for the learning process. In this context the study examined selected narratives to exemplify the application of the theories. It is, therefore, recommended that the theories would be taught and applied to literary texts for a better understanding of the language. Students will then develop their language competence. Teachers in EFL/ESL classes will teach the theories, assist students apply them and interpret text and in the process will also use humour. This is thus easing students' acquisition of the second language, making the classroom an enjoyable, cheerful, self-assuring, and self-illuminating experience for both themselves and their students. It is further recommended that courses of humour research studies should become an integral part of higher education curricula in Egypt.

Keywords: ABTH, deviance, disjuncture, episodic, GTVH, humour competence, humour comprehension, humour in the classroom, humour in the literary texts, humour research linguistic theories, incongruity- resolution, isotopy-disjunction, jab line, longer text joke, narrative story line (macro-micro), punch line, six knowledge resource, SSTH, stacks, strands, teaching linguistics, teaching literature, TEFL, TESL.

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Authors: M. Y. Lee, D. H. Shin, S. H. Park, W.C. Ham, S.K. Ko, C. G. Song

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Photoacoustic Tomography (PAT) is a promising medical imaging modality that combines optical imaging contrast with the spatial resolution of ultrasound imaging. It can also distinguish the changes in biological features. But, real-time PAT system should be confirmed due to photoacoustic effect for tissue. Thus, we have developed a real-time PAT system using a custom-developed data acquisition board and ultrasound linear probe. To evaluate performance of our system, phantom test was performed. As a result of those experiments, the system showed satisfactory performance and its usefulness has been confirmed. We monitored the degradation of inflammation which induced on the rat’s kidney using real-time PAT.

Keywords: Photoacoustic tomography, inflammation detection, rat, kidney, contrast agent, ultrasound.

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Authors: Abhishek Soni, Bhagat Singh

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Perfect restoration of fractured distal femur has been a challenging task for the medical practitioners. In the present study, model of a fractured bone has been created using the scan data of the damaged bone. Thereafter, customized implant of Stainless Steel (SS-316L) for this fractured femur bone is modeled using the reverse engineering approach. Clinical set-up is prepared by assembling all the models together. Stress and deformation analysis of this clinical set-up has been performed in order to check the load bearing capacity and intactness of the joint. From this analysis, it has been inferred that the stresses and deformation developed due to the static load of the person is within the permissible limits.

Keywords: Biomechanical evaluations, customized implant, reverse engineering, stainless steel alloy.

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Authors: Adibah Shuib, Zati Aqmar Zaharudin

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Our study is concerned with the development of an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulance location and allocation model called the Time-based Ambulance Zoning Optimization Model (TAZ_OPT). This paper presents the framework of the study. The model is formulated using the goal programming (GP), where the goals are to determine the satellite locations of ambulances and the number of ambulances to be allocated at these locations. The model aims at maximizing the expected demand coverage based on probability of reaching the emergency location within targetted time, and minimizing the ambulance busyness likelihood value. Among the benefits of the model is the increased accessibility and availability of ambulances, thus, enhanced quality of the EMS ambulance services.

Keywords: Optimization, Ambulance Location, Location facilities.

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Authors: Antonio Di Leva, Carla Reyneri, Michele Sonnessa

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PARADIGMA (PARticipative Approach to DIsease Global Management) is a pilot project which aims to develop and demonstrate an Internet based reference framework to share scientific resources and findings in the treatment of major diseases. PARADIGMA defines and disseminates a common methodology and optimised protocols (Clinical Pathways) to support service functions directed to patients and individuals on matters like prevention, posthospitalisation support and awareness. PARADIGMA will provide a platform of information services - user oriented and optimised against social, cultural and technological constraints - supporting the Health Care Global System of the Euro-Mediterranean Community in a continuous improvement process.

Keywords: Decision Support Systems, Ontology, Healt Care, Clinical Pathway

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Authors: G. Khamooshian

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One of the main points of application of the mechanisms of the series and parallel is the subject of managing them. The control of this mechanism and similar mechanisms is one that has always been the intention of the scholars. On the other hand, modeling the behavior of the system is difficult due to the large number of its parameters, and it leads to complex equations that are difficult to solve and eventually difficult to control. In this paper, a six-linkage robot has been presented that could be used in different areas such as medical robots. Using these robots needs a robust control. In this paper, the system equations are first found, and then the system conversion function is written. A new controller has been designed for this robot which could be used in other parallel robots and could be very useful. Parallel robots are so important in robotics because of their stability, so methods for control of them are important and the robust controller, especially in parallel robots, makes a sense.

Keywords: 3-RRS, 6 linkage, parallel robot, control.

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Authors: Malek Makki

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The main purpose of this research study is to assist non-profit organizations (NPOs) to better segment a group of least developing countries and to optimally target the most needier areas, so that the provided aids make positive and lasting differences. We applied international marketing and strategy approaches to segment a sub-group of candidates among a group of 151 countries identified by the UN-G77 list, and furthermore, we point out the areas of priorities. We use reliable and well known criteria on the basis of economics, geography, demography and behavioral. These criteria can be objectively estimated and updated so that a follow-up can be performed to measure the outcomes of any program. We selected 12 socio-economic criteria that complement each other: GDP per capita, GDP growth, industry value added, export per capita, fragile state index, corruption perceived index, environment protection index, ease of doing business index, global competitiveness index, Internet use, public spending on education, and employment rate. A weight was attributed to each variable to highlight the relative importance of each criterion within the country. Care was taken to collect the most recent available data from trusted well-known international organizations (IMF, WB, WEF, and WTO). Construct of equivalence was carried out to compare the same variables across countries. The combination of all these weighted estimated criteria provides us with a global index that represents the level of development per country. An absolute index that combines wars and risks was introduced to exclude or include a country on the basis of conflicts and a collapsing state. The final step applied to the included countries consists of a benchmarking method to select the segment of countries and the percentile of each criterion. The results of this study allowed us to exclude 16 countries for risks and security. We also excluded four countries because they lack reliable and complete data. The other countries were classified per percentile thru their global index, and we identified the needier and the areas where aids are highly required to help any NPO to prioritize the area of implementation. This new concept is based on defined, actionable, accessible and accurate variables by which NPO can implement their program and it can be extended to profit companies to perform their corporate social responsibility acts.

Keywords: Developing countries, International marketing, non-profit organization, segmentation.

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Authors: Ritu Shitak

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Humans are social mammals, of the primate order. Our biology, our behaviour and our pathologies are unique to us. In our desire to understand, reduce solitary confinement one source of information is the many reports of social isolation of other social mammals, especially primates. A behavioural study was conducted in the department of pharmacology at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla in Himachalpradesh province in India using white albino mice. Different behavioural parameters were observed by using open field, tail suspension, tests for aggressive behaviour and social interactions and the effect of isolation was studied. The results were evaluated and the standard statistics were applied. The said study was done to establish facts that isolation itself impairs social behaviour and can lead to alcohol dependence as well as related drug dependence.

Keywords: Albino Mice, Drug Dependence, Social isolation.

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Authors: Najaf Hedayat

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Food and fibre production in arid and semi-arid regions has emerged as one of the major challenges for various socio-economic and political reasons such as the food security and self-sufficiency. Productive use of the renewable water resources has risen on top ofthe decision-making agenda. For this reason, efficient operation and maintenance of modern irrigation and drainage schemes become part and parcel and indispensible reality in agricultural policy making arena. The aim of this paper is to investigate the complexity of operating and maintaining such schemes, mainly focussing on challenges which enhance and opportunities that impedsustainable food and fibre production. The methodology involved using secondary data complemented byroutine observations and stakeholders views on issues that influence the O&M in the Dez command area. The SPSS program was used as an analytical framework for data analysis and interpretation.Results indicate poor application efficiency in most croplands, much of which is attributed to deficient operation of conveyance and distribution canals. These in turn, are reportedly linked to inadequate maintenance of the pumping stations and hydraulic structures like turnouts,flumes and other control systems particularly in the secondary and tertiary canals. Results show that the aforementioned deficiencies have been the major impediment to establishing regular flow toward the farm gates which subsequently undermine application efficiency and tillage operationsat farm level. Results further show that accumulative impact of such deficiencies has been the major causes of poorcrop yield and quality that deem production system in these croplands uneconomic. Results further show that the present state might undermine the sustainability of agricultural system in the command area. The overall conclusion being that present water management is unlikely to be responsive to challenges that the sector faces. And in the absence of coherent measures to shift the status quo situation in favour of more productive resource use, it would be hard to fulfil the objectives of the National Economic and Socio-cultural Development Plans.

Keywords: renewable water resources, Dez scheme, irrigationand drainage, sustainable crop production, O&M

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Authors: H. Sezgin, S. Kursun Bahadır, Y. E. Boke, F. Kalaoğlu

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By textile science incorporating with electronic industry, developed textile products start to take part in different areas such as industry, military, space, medical etc. for health, protection, defense, communication and automation. Electronic textiles (e-textiles) are fabrics that contain electronics and interconnections with them. In this study, two types of base yarns (cotton and acrylic) and three types of conductive steel yarns with different linear resistance values (14Ω/m, 30Ω/m, 70Ω/m) were used to investigate the effect of base yarn type and linear resistance of conductive yarns on thermal behavior of e-textile structures. Thermal behavior of samples was examined by thermal camera.

Keywords: Conductive yarn, e-textiles, smart textiles, thermal analysis.

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Authors: Mubina Nazmeen, Iram Rubab

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Formal Specification languages are being widely used for system specification and testing. Highly critical systems such as real time systems, avionics, and medical systems are represented using Formal specification languages. Formal specifications based testing is mostly performed using black box testing approaches thus testing only the set of inputs and outputs of the system. The formal specification language such as VDMµ can be used for white box testing as they provide enough constructs as any other high level programming language. In this work, we perform data and control flow analysis of VDMµ class specifications. The proposed work is discussed with an example of SavingAccount.

Keywords: VDM-SL, VDMµ, data flow graph, control flowgraph, testing, formal specification.

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Authors: A. Taqaddas

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Purpose: This E-survey was carried out to facilitate the implementation and Education of VMAT (Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy) in Radiotherapy-RT departments and reasons for not using IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy). VMAT Skills in demand were also identified. Method: E-Survey was distributed to NHS hospitals across UK by email. Thirty NHS and related centres in England, 21 in Scotland, 3 in Ireland and 1 in Wales were contacted. This Survey was intended for those working in RT and Medical Physics and who were responsible for Treatment Planning and training. Results: This E-survey have indicated pathways adopted by staff to acquire VMAT skills, strategies to efficiently implement VMAT in RT departments and for obtaining VMAT Education. Conclusion: Despite poor survey response this survey has managed to highlight requirements for education and implementation of VMAT that are also applicable to IMRT. Other RT centres in world can also find these results useful.

Keywords: IMRT, Radiotherapy, Treatment Planning, VMAT.

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Authors: Åsa Smedberg

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There are different kinds of online systems on the Internet for people who need support and develop new knowledge. Online communities and Ask the Expert systems are two such systems. In the health care area, the number of users of these systems has increased at a rapid pace. Interactions with medical trained experts take place online, and people with concerns about similar health problems come together to share experiences and advice. The systems are also used as storages and browsed for health information. Over the years, studies have been conducted of the usage of the different systems. However, in what ways the systems can be used together to enhance learning has not been explored. This paper presents results from a study of online health-communities and an Ask the Expert system for people who suffer from overweight. Differences and similarities in regards to posted issues and replies are discussed, and suggestions for a new holistic design of the two systems are presented.

Keywords: Learning, Ask the Expert, online community, healthcare, holistic, overweight.

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Authors: Supunmali Ahangama, Danny Chiang Choon Poo

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Health analytics (HA) is used in healthcare systems for effective decision making, management and planning of healthcare and related activities. However, user resistances, unique position of medical data content and structure (including heterogeneous and unstructured data) and impromptu HA projects have held up the progress in HA applications. Notably, the accuracy of outcomes depends on the skills and the domain knowledge of the data analyst working on the healthcare data. Success of HA depends on having a sound process model, effective project management and availability of supporting tools. Thus, to overcome these challenges through an effective process model, we propose a HA process model with features from rational unified process (RUP) model and agile methodology.

Keywords: Agile methodology, health analytics, unified process model, UML.

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Authors: Oluwaseyi Jaiyeoba, Vetria Byrd

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Systemic lupus erythematosus (aka lupus) is a chronic disease known for its chameleon-like ability to mimic symptoms of other diseases rendering it hard to detect, diagnose and treat. The heterogeneous nature of the disease generates disparate data that are often multifaceted and multi-dimensional. Musculoskeletal manifestation of lupus is one of the most common clinical manifestations of lupus. This research links disparate literature on the treatment of lupus as it affects the musculoskeletal system using the discoveries from literature-based research articles available on the PubMed database. Several Natural Language Processing (NPL) tools exist to connect disjointed but related literature, such as Connected Papers, Bitola, and Gopalakrishnan. Literature-based discovery (LBD) has been used to bridge unconnected disciplines based on text mining procedures. The technical/medical literature consists of many technical/medical concepts, each having its  sub-literature. This approach has been used to link Parkinson’s, Raynaud, and Multiple Sclerosis treatment within works of literature.  Literature-based discovery methods can connect two or more related but disjointed literature concepts to produce a novel and plausible approach to solving a research problem. Data visualization techniques with the help of natural language processing tools are used to visually represent the result of literature-based discoveries. Literature search results can be voluminous, but Data visualization processes can provide insight and detect subtle patterns in large data. These insights and patterns can lead to discoveries that would have otherwise been hidden from disjointed literature. In this research, literature data are mined and combined with visualization techniques for heterogeneous data to discover viable treatments reported in the literature for lupus expression in the musculoskeletal system. This research answers the question of using literature-based discovery to identify potential treatments for a multifaceted disease like lupus. A three-pronged methodology is used in this research: text mining, natural language processing, and data visualization. These three research-related fields are employed to identify patterns in lupus-related data that, when visually represented, could aid research in the treatment of lupus. This work introduces a method for visually representing interconnections of various lupus-related literature. The methodology outlined in this work is the first step toward literature-based research and treatment planning for the musculoskeletal manifestation of lupus. The results also outline the interconnection of complex, disparate data associated with the manifestation of lupus in the musculoskeletal system. The societal impact of this work is broad. Advances in this work will improve the quality of life for millions of persons in the workforce currently diagnosed and silently living with a musculoskeletal disease associated with lupus.

Keywords: Systemic lupus erythematosus, LBD, Data Visualization, musculoskeletal system, treatment.

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Authors: Mehtap Dursun, Zeynep Şener

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Supplier selection is considered as one of the most critical issues encountered by operations and purchasing managers to sharpen the company’s competitive advantage. In this paper, a novel fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making approach integrating quality function deployment (QFD) and decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method is proposed for supplier selection. The proposed methodology enables to consider the impacts of inner dependence among supplier assessment criteria. A house of quality (HOQ) which translates purchased product features into supplier assessment criteria is built using the weights obtained by DEMATEL approach to determine the desired levels of supplier assessment criteria. Supplier alternatives are ranked by a distance-based method.

Keywords: DEMATEL, Group decision making, QFD, Supplier selection.

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Authors: Seo Young Kim, Toshimitsu Hamasaki

Abstract:

Microarrays have become the effective, broadly used tools in biological and medical research to address a wide range of problems, including classification of disease subtypes and tumors. Many statistical methods are available for analyzing and systematizing these complex data into meaningful information, and one of the main goals in analyzing gene expression data is the detection of samples or genes with similar expression patterns. In this paper, we express and compare the performance of several clustering methods based on data preprocessing including strategies of normalization or noise clearness. We also evaluate each of these clustering methods with validation measures for both simulated data and real gene expression data. Consequently, clustering methods which are common used in microarray data analysis are affected by normalization and degree of noise and clearness for datasets.

Keywords: Gene expression, clustering, data preprocessing.

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Authors: F. A. M. Elfaki, Amar Abobakar, M. Azram, M. Usman

Abstract:

This paper discusses regression analysis of partly interval-censored failure time data, which is occur in many fields including demographical, epidemiological, financial, medical and sociological studies. For the problem, we focus on the situation where the survival time of interest can be described by the additive hazards model in the present of partly interval-censored. A major advantage of the approach is its simplicity and it can be easily implemented by using R software. Simulation studies are conducted which indicate that the approach performs well for practical situations and comparable to the existing methods. The methodology is applied to a set of partly interval-censored failure time data arising from anti D in Rhesus D negative studies.

Keywords: Anti D in Rhesus D negative, Cox’s model, EM algorithm.

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Authors: Fatema Akram, Mohammad G. Rasul, M. Masud K. Khan, M. Sharif I. I. Amir

Abstract:

Australia is a country of some 7,700 million square kilometers with a population of about 22.6 million. At present water security is a major challenge for Australia. In some areas the use of water resources is approaching and in some parts it is exceeding the limits of sustainability. A focal point of proposed national water conservation programs is the recycling of both urban stormwater and treated wastewater. But till now it is not widely practiced in Australia, and particularly stormwater is neglected. In Australia, only 4% of stormwater and rainwater is recycled, whereas less than 1% of reclaimed wastewater is reused within urban areas. Therefore, accurately monitoring, assessing and predicting the availability, quality and use of this precious resource are required for better management. As stormwater is usually of better quality than untreated sewage or industrial discharge, it has better public acceptance for recycling and reuse, particularly for non-potable use such as irrigation, watering lawns, gardens, etc. Existing stormwater recycling practice is far behind of research and no robust technologies developed for this purpose. Therefore, there is a clear need for using modern technologies for assessing feasibility of stormwater harvesting and reuse. Numerical modeling has, in recent times, become a popular tool for doing this job. It includes complex hydrological and hydraulic processes of the study area. The hydrologic model computes stormwater quantity to design the system components, and the hydraulic model helps to route the flow through stormwater infrastructures. Nowadays water quality module is incorporated with these models. Integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) with these models provides extra advantage of managing spatial information. However for the overall management of a stormwater harvesting project, Decision Support System (DSS) plays an important role incorporating database with model and GIS for the proper management of temporal information. Additionally DSS includes evaluation tools and Graphical user interface. This research aims to critically review and discuss all the aspects of stormwater harvesting and reuse such as available guidelines of stormwater harvesting and reuse, public acceptance of water reuse, the scopes and recommendation for future studies. In addition to these, this paper identifies, understand and address the importance of modern technologies capable of proper management of stormwater harvesting and reuse.

Keywords: Stormwater Management, Stormwater Harvesting and Reuse, Numerical Modeling, Geographic Information System (GIS), Decision Support System (DSS), Database.

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Authors: W. Astiata, N. Elmesrati, N. Elmesrati, A. Abo Reyana

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to survey the incidence, prevalence, types and associated impairments of CP in children at the Tripoli children hospital (T.C.H). The study covered all the cases the hospital had diagnosed in the period between (1.1.2009) and (31.12.2010), during which 38 cases of ages between 2 months to 3 years were diagnosed in the mentioned period. The incidence of CP was (17.42 per one thousand) out of (2143) of different neurological cases and came with a result of 23 cases of spastic CP which represented about (60.53%) out of the total number of cases, and the most associated impairment is convulsion. Medical information was collected from the patients’ files at the registration department from the neurology department. The data has been collected by a questionnaire, which had been set to finely organize the patient’s files.

Keywords: Physiotherapy, Rehabilitation, Libya, Cerebral Palsy, hospital, survey.

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