Design and Validation of a Light Inference System to Support Embedded Context Reasoning

Embedded context management in resource-constrained devices (e.g. mobile phones, autonomous sensors or smart objects) imposes special requirements in terms of lightness for data modelling and reasoning. In this paper, we explore the state-of-the-art on data representation and reasoning tools for embedded mobile reasoning and propose a light inference system (LIS) aiming at simplifying embedded inference processes offering a set of functionalities to avoid redundancy in context management operations. The system is part of a service-oriented mobile software framework, conceived to facilitate the creation of context-aware applications?it decouples sensor data acquisition and context processing from the application logic. LIS, composed of several modules, encapsulates existing lightweight tools for ontology data management and rule-based reasoning, and it is ready to run on Java-enabled handheld devices. Data management and reasoning processes are designed to handle a general ontology that enables communication among framework components. Both the applications running on top of the framework and the framework components themselves can configure the rule and query sets in order to retrieve the information they need from LIS. In order to test LIS features in a real application scenario, an ?Activity Monitor? has been designed and implemented: a personal health-persuasive application that provides feedback on the user?s lifestyle, combining data from physical and virtual sensors. In this case of use, LIS is used to timely evaluate the user?s activity level, to decide on the convenience of triggering notifications and to determine the best interface or channel to deliver these context-aware alerts.

Diseño e implementación de un algoritmo para la detección de la negación de textos clínicos en español

Vivimos en una época en la que cada vez existe una mayor cantidad de información. En el dominio de la salud la historia clínica digital ha permitido digitalizar toda la información de los pacientes. Estas historias clínicas digitales contienen una gran cantidad de información valiosa escrita en forma narrativa que sólo podremos extraer recurriendo a técnicas de procesado de lenguaje natural. No obstante, si se quiere realizar búsquedas sobre estos textos es importante analizar que la información relativa a síntomas, enfermedades, tratamientos etc. se puede refererir al propio paciente o a sus antecentes familiares, y que ciertos términos pueden aparecer negados o ser hipotéticos. A pesar de que el español ocupa la segunda posición en el listado de idiomas más hablados con más de 500 millones de hispano hablantes, hasta donde tenemos de detección de la negación, probabilidad e histórico en textos clínicos en español. Por tanto, este Trabajo Fin de Grado presenta una implementación basada en el algoritmo ConText para la detección de la negación, probabilidad e histórico en textos clínicos escritos en español. El algoritmo se ha validado con 454 oraciones que incluían un total de 1897 disparadores obteniendo unos resultado de 83.5 %, 96.1 %, 96.9 %, 99.7% y 93.4% de exactitud con condiciones afirmados, negados, probable, probable negado e histórico respectivamente. ---ABSTRACT---We live in an era in which there is a huge amount of information. In the domain of health, the electronic health record has allowed to digitize all the information of the patients. These electronic health records contain valuable information written in narrative form that can only be extracted using techniques of natural language processing. However, if you want to search on these texts is important to analyze if the relative information about symptoms, diseases, treatments, etc. are referred to the patient or family casework, and that certain terms may appear negated or be hypothesis. Although Spanish is the second spoken language with more than 500 million speakers, there seems to be no method of detection of negation, hypothesis or historical in medical texts written in Spanish. Thus, this bachelor’s final degree presents an implementation based on the ConText algorithm for the detection of negation, hypothesis and historical in medical texts written in Spanish. The algorithm has been validated with 454 sentences that included a total of 1897 triggers getting a result of 83.5 %, 96.1 %, 96.9 %, 99.7% and 93.4% accuracy with affirmed, negated, hypothesis, negated hypothesis and historical respectively.

HeartCycle: User interaction and patient education

Cardiovascular Diseases are the most prevalent and serious chronic conditions existing nowadays. They are the primary cause of death in the world and generate enormous expenditures to the health systems. Tele-monitoring and personal health systems have proven to be good options for tackling this situation; however they are still lacking many functionalities. It is necessary to find solutions that allow health professionals to follow up patients more closely and efficiently, while reducing the non-adherence of patients to the treatment regime. HeartCycle research project (partially funded by the European Commission) has developed a personal health system for cardiovascular diseases management with the aim to address this problem. This paper describes the Patient Loop of this solution, including the different components, the adopted user interaction, and the implemented patients education and coaching strategy.

ADRSpanishTool: una herramienta para la detección de efectos adversos e indicaciones

Presentamos una herramienta basada en coocurrencias de fármaco-efecto para la detección de reacciones adversas e indicaciones en comentarios de usuarios procedentes de un foro médico en español. Además, se describe la construcción automática de la primera base de datos en español sobre indicaciones y efectos adversos de fármacos.

Clinical Phenotyping in the Prediction of Pediatric Acute Kidney Injury

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Investigation of the coping antecedents to positive outcomes and distress in multiple sclerosis (MS)

This study examined relations between stress and coping predictors and distress and positive outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS). A total of 502 people with MS completed a questionnaire at Time 1 and, 3 months later, Time 2 (n= 404). Predictors included Time 1 illness (duration, number of symptoms, course), number of problems, appraisal and coping (acceptance, problem solving, emotional release, avoidance, personal health control, energy conservation). Dependent variables were Time 2 distress (anxiety, depression) and positive outcomes (life satisfaction, positive affect, benefits). Results indicated that as hypothesised, personal health control, emotional release and physical assistance were related to the positive outcomes, whereas avoidance was related to distress, and acceptance was associated with the positive outcomes and distress. Findings highlight the differential relations between coping strategies and positive and negative outcomes and the role of appraisal and coping in regulating distress and promoting positive psychological states while managing a chronic illness.

SAÚDE DOS LÍDERES RELIGIOSOS: A VOCAÇÃO EM SINTONIA COM A SAÚDE PESSOAL. UM OLHAR DE CUIDADOS SOBRE A SAÚDE DOS LÍDERES RELIGIOSOS NO CONTEXTO ATUAL

Este trabalho de pesquisa ocorre na área de concentração de Práxis Religiosa e Sociedade, no campo de conhecimento das Ciências da Religião, e versa sobre a saúde dos líderes religiosos no contexto atual, lançando um olhar de cuidados sobre este grupo, de forma que eles vivam sua vocação em sintonia com a saúde pessoal, exercendo-a em patamares seguros de saúde. Assim, no primeiro capítulo o conceito de saúde é desenvolvido através da história, abordando-o na esfera médica, teológica, filosófica e psicológica, fazendo uma avaliação da mudança de visão da saúde com o desenvolvimento da sociedade até os dias atuais. No segundo capítulo, a partir do desenvolvimento do conceito vocação, estabelece-se uma vinculação entre a preservação da saúde como preservação da vocação. Por fim, o terceiro capítulo aborda o olhar de cuidados sobre os líderes religiosos, propondo elementos para a melhora da saúde espiritual, emocional e física destes líderes, de forma a que o seu exercício vocacional seja realizado de forma plena e integral, englobando o líder religioso em toda a complexidade de seu ser.

Exploiting sensitivity of nonorthogonal joint diagonalisation as a security mechanism in steganography

We have recently proposed the framework of independent blind source separation as an advantageous approach to steganography. Amongst the several characteristics noted was a sensitivity to message reconstruction due to small perturbations in the sources. This characteristic is not common in most other approaches to steganography. In this paper we discuss how this sensitivity relates the joint diagonalisation inside the independent component approach, and reliance on exact knowledge of secret information, and how it can be used as an additional and inherent security mechanism against malicious attack to discovery of the hidden messages. The paper therefore provides an enhanced mechanism that can be used for e-document forensic analysis and can be applied to different dimensionality digital data media. In this paper we use a low dimensional example of biomedical time series as might occur in the electronic patient health record, where protection of the private patient information is paramount.

Mobile case-based decision support for intelligent patient knowledge management

Hospitals everywhere are integrating health data using electronic health record (EHR) systems, and disparate and multimedia patient data can be input by different caregivers at different locations as encapsulated patient profiles. Healthcare institutions are also using the flexibility and speed of wireless computing to improve quality and reduce costs. We are developing a mobile application that allows doctors to efficiently record and access complete and accurate real-time patient information. The system integrates medical imagery with textual patient profiles as well as expert interactions by healthcare personnel using knowledge management and case-based reasoning techniques. The application can assist other caregivers in searching large repositories of previous patient cases. Patients' symptoms can be input to a portable device and the application can quickly retrieve similar profiles which can be used to support effective diagnoses and prognoses by comparing symptoms, treatments, diagnosis, test results and other patient information. © 2007 Sage Publications.

Manager's Perspectives on the Provision of Healthy Meals in Resort Hotels

This research aimed to understand hotel managers’ attitudes toward the provision of healthy meals. The study deployed a mailing survey to assess the managers’ perceptions. A closed-ended questionnaire was developed evaluating the role of healthy food choices in Mediterranean resort hotels. The findings showed that (1) atmosphere in the restaurant, (2) appealing display of food, and (3) eating habits and lifestyle were more important than personal health when selecting a meal. In addition, this study suggested that the managers were not ready to promote healthy eating because their customers would have been critical of this new service concept

Visão dos profissionais de saúde frente à possibilidade de infecção de HIV/Aids em idosos

The HIV/Aids epidemic is today, in Brazil, a phenomenon of great magnitude and extent. The disease progresses over a physically weakened, and with more complex approach, portion of the population: the elderly. This study has the objective to know the vision of health professionals facing the possibility of HIV/Aids in the elderly. It is a cross-sectional observational study conducted in the city of Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, Brazil, from November 2013 to December 2015, with the participants Doctors, Dental Surgeons and nurses stationed in the Municipal Network of Primary Care, with a sample of 220. Using factor analysis, factors unrelated to the training of health professionals and others directly related; only the latter showed differences between the professions. The investigation of the professional view on the possibility of infection of HIV/Aids in the elderly should be crafted specifically for each type of professional, meeting the specific difficulties of training each degree course. It is crucial the need to update each professional in the health care field in order to be able to make an early diagnosis aimed at protecting the elderly patient's integrity affected by HIV/Aids.

QUALIDADE DE VIDA – UM ESTUDO REALIZADO COM DIRETORES DE ESCOLAS PÚBLICAS

A estrutura política e econômica brasileira promove uma sociedade marcada por desigualdades sociais, gerando indignações e diversos conflitos. Estresse, ansiedade, depressão, mal estar profissional, infraestrutura precária, alimentação inadequada, sedentarismo, (i)mobilidade urbana, fragilidade dos vínculos sociais, poluição, dentre outros, são fatores contemporâneos que afetam a qualidade de vida dos seres humanos. Este cenário merece atenção peculiar quando nos remetemos ao ambiente escolar. Este estudo teve por objetivo avaliar a qualidade de vida bem como identificar o grau de estresse percebido em diretores de Escolas Municipais de Educação Infantil (EMEIs) na Cidade de São Paulo. Participaram do estudo 86 Diretores de Escolas, correspondendo a 16,04% do total de diretores de EMEIs da Rede Municipal de Educação (RME). Os instrumentos utilizados foram: Questionário sociodemográfico, Instrumento de Avaliação de Qualidade de Vida-abreviado - WHOQOL-bref e a Escala de Estresse Percebido – PSS. Os resultados revelaram que, em média, 70,9% possuem uma excessiva rotina de trabalho, caracterizadas por: chegar mais cedo e/ou sair mais tarde do expediente normal; receber e/ou fazer ligações, mensagens, e-mails ou similares, relacionados à direção, fora do expediente de trabalho e levar serviços para casa e/ou se preocupar com questões relativas à direção, após encerrar o expediente. A maioria (60,05%) acredita que as condições de trabalho, enquanto Diretor de Escola influenciam negativamente na saúde pessoal. Tanto o índice geral da Qualidade de Vida quanto em relação aos domínios do WHOQOL-bref mostraram médias significativamente abaixo dos dados normativos brasileiros 12,7±3,1 (p<0,001). Quanto ao nível de estresse percebido, inicialmente analisamos as frequências referentes aos respectivos níveis. Os resultados mostraram que o nível de estresse percebido se situa entre 48,8% de “às vezes” para 41,9% de “quase sempre”. Este resultado se apresenta estatisticamente significativo (χ2 p<0,05). Com base neste estudo pudemos observar a escassez de estudos sobre QV e estresse com Diretores de Escolas e que a QV se apresentou significativamente baixa, bem como a percepção de estresse em quase metade da amostra estudada.

Behavioral Perspectives on Organizational Change: Practice Adoption, Product Culling, and Technological Search

This dissertation explores the complex process of organizational change, applying a behavioral lens to understand change in processes, products, and search behaviors. Chapter 1 examines new practice adoption, exploring factors that predict the extent to which routines are adopted “as designed” within the organization. Using medical record data obtained from the hospital’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) system I develop a novel measure of the “gap” between routine “as designed” and routine “as realized.” I link this to a survey administered to the hospital’s professional staff following the adoption of a new EHR system and find that beliefs about the expected impact of the change shape fidelity of the adopted practice to its design. This relationship is more pronounced in care units with experienced professionals and less pronounced when the care unit includes departmental leadership. This research offers new insights into the determinants of routine change in organizations, in particular suggesting the beliefs held by rank-and-file members of an organization are critical in new routine adoption. Chapter 2 explores changes to products, specifically examining culling behaviors in the mobile device industry. Using a panel of quarterly mobile device sales in Germany from 2004-2009, this chapter suggests that the organization’s response to performance feedback is conditional upon the degree to which decisions are centralized. While much of the research on product exit has pointed to economic drivers or prior experience, these central finding of this chapter—that performance below aspirations decreases the rate of phase-out—suggests that firms seek local solutions when doing poorly, which is consistent with behavioral explanations of organizational action. Chapter 3 uses a novel text analysis approach to examine how the allocation of attention within organizational subunits shapes adaptation in the form of search behaviors in Motorola from 1974-1997. It develops a theory that links organizational attention to search, and the results suggest a trade-off between both attentional specialization and coupling on search scope and depth. Specifically, specialized unit attention to a more narrow set of problems increases search scope but reduces search depth; increased attentional coupling also increases search scope at the cost of depth. This novel approach and these findings help clarify extant research on the behavioral outcomes of attention allocation, which have offered mixed results.

La protection de la vie privée au temps de la biosécurité

Cette thèse s’intéresse à la protection de la vie privée informationnelle dans le contexte de la biosécurité. La biosécurité se définit comme le processus qui vise à prendre en charge, dans une optique de sécurité nationale, les menaces et dangers que représentent les épidémies de maladies infectieuses pour la santé des populations humaines et la sécurité de l’État. Notre projet remet en question l’idée selon laquelle la conduite des activités de surveillance de la santé publique implique nécessairement une diminution de la protection offerte aux renseignements personnels sur la santé. Nos recherches tendent à démontrer que la conciliation de la surveillance de la santé et la protection de la vie privée est non seulement possible, mais qu’elle est surtout nécessaire. Nous portons plus précisément notre attention sur le cas de la collecte et de l’utilisation de renseignements dépersonnalisés sur la santé par les systèmes de surveillance syndromique. Bien calibrée et soigneusement réglementée, cette forme novatrice et particulière de surveillance offrirait le double avantage de réduire les risques d’atteintes à la vie privée des individus et d’augmenter de manière considérable l’efficacité des capacités étatiques en matière de détection des épidémies.

La construcción de una relación con los espectadores en la continuidad televisiva

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo evaluar hasta qué punto las cadenas de televisión generalista en España adoptan estrategias de comunicación coherentes, sólidas y atractivas a la hora de construir una relación con los espectadores en su continuidad. Para ello, se aplica un análisis del discurso verbal a una muestra de piezas de continuidad televisiva de La1, Antena3, Telecinco y TV3. El análisis de las características enunciativas de las piezas muestra que, más allá de sus especificidades (en relación a la proximidad con los espectadores, su grado de directividad o su vinculación con ciertas identidades), los discursos de la continuidad de las cadenas requieren mayor coherencia y capacidad de diferenciación, más aún en un contexto de pérdida de prominencia social de la televisión generalista.