@neurIST infrastructure for advanced disease management through integration of heterogeneous data, computing, and complex processing services

The increasing volume of data describing humandisease processes and the growing complexity of understanding, managing, and sharing such data presents a huge challenge for clinicians and medical researchers. This paper presents the@neurIST system, which provides an infrastructure for biomedical research while aiding clinical care, by bringing together heterogeneous data and complex processing and computing services. Although @neurIST targets the investigation and treatment of cerebral aneurysms, the system’s architecture is generic enough that it could be adapted to the treatment of other diseases.Innovations in @neurIST include confining the patient data pertaining to aneurysms inside a single environment that offers cliniciansthe tools to analyze and interpret patient data and make use of knowledge-based guidance in planning their treatment. Medicalresearchers gain access to a critical mass of aneurysm related data due to the system’s ability to federate distributed informationsources. A semantically mediated grid infrastructure ensures that both clinicians and researchers are able to seamlessly access andwork on data that is distributed across multiple sites in a secure way in addition to providing computing resources on demand forperforming computationally intensive simulations for treatment planning and research.

What is the value of joint processing of pilots and data in block-fading channels?

The spectral efficiency achievable with joint processing of pilot and data symbol observations is compared with that achievable through the conventional (separate) approach of first estimating the channel on the basis of the pilot symbols alone, and subsequently detecting the datasymbols. Studied on the basis of a mutual information lower bound, joint processing is found to provide a non-negligible advantage relative to separate processing, particularly for fast fading. It is shown that, regardless of the fading rate, only a very small number of pilot symbols (at most one per transmit antenna and per channel coherence interval) shouldbe transmitted if joint processing is allowed.

Some last thoughts on compositional data analysis

One of the disadvantages of old age is that there is more past than future: this,however, may be turned into an advantage if the wealth of experience and, hopefully,wisdom gained in the past can be reflected upon and throw some light on possiblefuture trends. To an extent, then, this talk is necessarily personal, certainly nostalgic,but also self critical and inquisitive about our understanding of the discipline ofstatistics. A number of almost philosophical themes will run through the talk: searchfor appropriate modelling in relation to the real problem envisaged, emphasis onsensible balances between simplicity and complexity, the relative roles of theory andpractice, the nature of communication of inferential ideas to the statistical layman, theinter-related roles of teaching, consultation and research. A list of keywords might be:identification of sample space and its mathematical structure, choices betweentransform and stay, the role of parametric modelling, the role of a sample spacemetric, the underused hypothesis lattice, the nature of compositional change,particularly in relation to the modelling of processes. While the main theme will berelevance to compositional data analysis we shall point to substantial implications forgeneral multivariate analysis arising from experience of the development ofcompositional data analysis…

Desenvolupament d'eines informàtiques per a residències geriàtriques

L’envelliment de la població demana cada cop més centres especialitzats en geriatria en els països desenvolupats. Aquests mateixos països pateixen recentment una falta de personal qualificat en infermeria. Aquests dos factors es combinen i posen en evidència la necessitat de desenvolupar eines informàtiques que modernitzin les residències geriàtriques. El projecte que s’ha desenvolupat consisteix en una aplicació de gestió d’una residència geriàtrica amb una base de dades centralitzada en un PC des de la qual s’hi pot accedir a través d’una aplicació feta per PDA. La seva funció principal és poder agilitzar tota la repartició de medicació dins la residència geriàtrica, gestionant des de les pautes de medicació corresponents a cada resident, fins a un control d’stock. Consta, per tant, d’una aplicació per PC, programada amb Visual Basic i utilitzant com a base de dades Microsoft Access, i d’una aplicació per PDA, programada amb Embedded Visual Basic i utilitzant la mateixa base de dades creada per l’aplicació per PC. L’aplicació de PC proporcionarà als usuaris una gestió ràpida i còmode i, alhora, rapidesa i estalvi de treball si es vol fer un determinat manteniment a través de l’aplicació de PDA. En el manteniment de l’aplicació, però, no s’hi inclou el manteniment dels usuaris tot i haver un control d’aquests. En aquest projecte s’estudia com es desenvolupa una aplicació per PDA i com comparteix una base de dades amb una altra aplicació a través del sistema de sincronització PC↔PDA anomenat ActiveSync.

Modelling of weather radar echoes from anomalous propagation using a hybrid parabolic equation method and NWP model data

Contamination of weather radar echoes by anomalous propagation (anaprop) mechanisms remains a serious issue in quality control of radar precipitation estimates. Although significant progress has been made identifying clutter due to anaprop there is no unique method that solves the question of data reliability without removing genuine data. The work described here relates to the development of a software application that uses a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model to obtain the temperature, humidity and pressure fields to calculate the three dimensional structure of the atmospheric refractive index structure, from which a physically based prediction of the incidence of clutter can be made. This technique can be used in conjunction with existing methods for clutter removal by modifying parameters of detectors or filters according to the physical evidence for anomalous propagation conditions. The parabolic equation method (PEM) is a well established technique for solving the equations for beam propagation in a non-uniformly stratified atmosphere, but although intrinsically very efficient, is not sufficiently fast to be practicable for near real-time modelling of clutter over the entire area observed by a typical weather radar. We demonstrate a fast hybrid PEM technique that is capable of providing acceptable results in conjunction with a high-resolution terrain elevation model, using a standard desktop personal computer. We discuss the performance of the method and approaches for the improvement of the model profiles in the lowest levels of the troposphere.

Leverage and beliefs: Personal experience and risk taking in margin lending

What determines risk-bearing capacity and the amount of leverage in financial markets? Thispaper uses unique micro-data on collateralized lending contracts during a period of financialdistress to address this question. An investor syndicate speculating in English stocks wentbankrupt in 1772. Using hand-collected information from Dutch notarial archives, we examinechanges in lenders' behavior following exposure to potential (but not actual) losses. Before thedistress episode, financiers that lent to the ill-fated syndicate were indistinguishable from therest. Afterwards, they behaved differently: they lent with much higher haircuts. Only lendersexposed to the failed syndicate altered their behavior. The differential change is remarkable sincethe distress was public knowledge, and because none of the lenders suffered actual losses ? allfinanciers were repaid in full. Interest rates were also unaffected; the market balanced solelythrough changes in collateral requirements. Our findings are consistent with a heterogeneousbeliefs-interpretation of leverage. They also suggest that individual experience can modify thelevel of leverage in a market quickly.

Gridifying IBM's Generic Log Adapter to Speed-Up the Processing of Log Data

Peer-reviewed

Desenvolupament d'eines informàtiques per a residències geriàtriques

L’envelliment de la població demana cada cop més centres especialitzats en geriatria en els països desenvolupats. Aquests mateixos països pateixen recentment una falta de personal qualificat en infermeria. Aquests dos factors es combinen i posen en evidència la necessitat de desenvolupar eines informàtiques que modernitzin les residències geriàtriques. El projecte que s’ha desenvolupat consisteix en una aplicació de gestió d’una residència geriàtrica amb una base de dades centralitzada en un PC des de la qual s’hi pot accedir a través d’una aplicació feta per PDA. La seva funció principal és poder agilitzar tota la repartició de medicació dins la residència geriàtrica, gestionant des de les pautes de medicació corresponents a cada resident, fins a un control d’stock. Consta, per tant, d’una aplicació per PC, programada amb Visual Basic i utilitzant com a base de dades Microsoft Access, i d’una aplicació per PDA, programada amb Embedded Visual Basic i utilitzant la mateixa base de dades creada per l’aplicació per PC. L’aplicació de PC proporcionarà als usuaris una gestió ràpida i còmode i, alhora, rapidesa i estalvi de treball si es vol fer un determinat manteniment a través de l’aplicació de PDA. En el manteniment de l’aplicació, però, no s’hi inclou el manteniment dels usuaris tot i haver un control d’aquests. En aquest projecte s’estudia com es desenvolupa una aplicació per PDA i com comparteix una base de dades amb una altra aplicació a través del sistema de sincronització PC↔PDA anomenat ActiveSync.

Adaptación del Índice de Bienestar Personal para adolescentes en lengua española y portuguesa

The psychometric properties of the Personal Wellbeing Index are analyzed on a Spanish and Portuguese adolescent sample. We test the reliability of the scale using Cronbach’s alpha. And complementarily we analyze the item-total correlations in the different wellbeing domains included. We execute an exploratory factor analysis (principal components) and a multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The results show that Cronbach’s alpha is 0.79 for the Chilean version and in the Brazilian version is 0.78 confirming adequate levels of reliability found in previous studies. Correlations between fields of well-being shows values ranging between 0.224 and 0.496 for Chile and from 0.24 to 0.46 for Brazil. The results are similar to those obtained in other countries. The monofactorial structure of the scale is cinfirmed, also the adjustment to the scale structure to the data of the two samples and the comparability of means of global indices. The results suggest the existence of other well-being domains that had not been considered in the original proposal of the scale