EVA: Laparoscopic instrument tracking based on endoscopic video analysis for psychomotor skills assessment

INTRODUCTION: The EVA (Endoscopic Video Analysis) tracking system a new tracking system for extracting motions of laparoscopic instruments based on non-obtrusive video tracking was developed. The feasibility of using EVA in laparoscopic settings has been tested in a box trainer setup. METHODS: EVA makes use of an algorithm that employs information of the laparoscopic instrument's shaft edges in the image, the instrument's insertion point, and the camera's optical centre to track the 3D position of the instrument tip. A validation study of EVA comprised a comparison of the measurements achieved with EVA and the TrEndo tracking system. To this end, 42 participants (16 novices, 22 residents, and 4 experts) were asked to perform a peg transfer task in a box trainer. Ten motion-based metrics were used to assess their performance. RESULTS: Construct validation of the EVA has been obtained for seven motion-based metrics. Concurrent validation revealed that there is a strong correlation between the results obtained by EVA and the TrEndo for metrics such as path length (p=0,97), average speed (p=0,94) or economy of volume (p=0,85), proving the viability of EVA. CONCLUSIONS: EVA has been successfully used in the training setup showing potential of endoscopic video analysis to assess laparoscopic psychomotor skills. The results encourage further implementation of video tracking in training setups and in image guided surgery.

Integration and querying of heterogeneous, autonomous, distributed database systems

Today, databases have become an integral part of information systems. In the past two decades, we have seen different database systems being developed independently and used in different applications domains. Today's interconnected networks and advanced applications, such as data warehousing, data mining & knowledge discovery and intelligent data access to information on the Web, have created a need for integrated access to such heterogeneous, autonomous, distributed database systems. Heterogeneous/multidatabase research has focused on this issue resulting in many different approaches. However, a single, generally accepted methodology in academia or industry has not emerged providing ubiquitous intelligent data access from heterogeneous, autonomous, distributed information sources. ^ This thesis describes a heterogeneous database system being developed at High-performance Database Research Center (HPDRC). A major impediment to ubiquitous deployment of multidatabase technology is the difficulty in resolving semantic heterogeneity. That is, identifying related information sources for integration and querying purposes. Our approach considers the semantics of the meta-data constructs in resolving this issue. The major contributions of the thesis work include: (i) providing a scalable, easy-to-implement architecture for developing a heterogeneous multidatabase system, utilizing Semantic Binary Object-oriented Data Model (Sem-ODM) and Semantic SQL query language to capture the semantics of the data sources being integrated and to provide an easy-to-use query facility; (ii) a methodology for semantic heterogeneity resolution by investigating into the extents of the meta-data constructs of component schemas. This methodology is shown to be correct, complete and unambiguous; (iii) a semi-automated technique for identifying semantic relations, which is the basis of semantic knowledge for integration and querying, using shared ontologies for context-mediation; (iv) resolutions for schematic conflicts and a language for defining global views from a set of component Sem-ODM schemas; (v) design of a knowledge base for storing and manipulating meta-data and knowledge acquired during the integration process. This knowledge base acts as the interface between integration and query processing modules; (vi) techniques for Semantic SQL query processing and optimization based on semantic knowledge in a heterogeneous database environment; and (vii) a framework for intelligent computing and communication on the Internet applying the concepts of our work. ^

An indexing structure and application model for vehicles moving on road networks

Moving objects database systems are the most challenging sub-category among Spatio-Temporal database systems. A database system that updates in real-time the location information of GPS-equipped moving vehicles has to meet even stricter requirements. Currently existing data storage models and indexing mechanisms work well only when the number of moving objects in the system is relatively small. This dissertation research aimed at the real-time tracking and history retrieval of massive numbers of vehicles moving on road networks. A total solution has been provided for the real-time update of the vehicles' location and motion information, range queries on current and history data, and prediction of vehicles' movement in the near future. ^ To achieve these goals, a new approach called Segmented Time Associated to Partitioned Space (STAPS) was first proposed in this dissertation for building and manipulating the indexing structures for moving objects databases. ^ Applying the STAPS approach, an indexing structure of associating a time interval tree to each road segment was developed for real-time database systems of vehicles moving on road networks. The indexing structure uses affordable storage to support real-time data updates and efficient query processing. The data update and query processing performance it provides is consistent without restrictions such as a time window or assuming linear moving trajectories. ^ An application system design based on distributed system architecture with centralized organization was developed to maximally support the proposed data and indexing structures. The suggested system architecture is highly scalable and flexible. Finally, based on a real-world application model of vehicles moving in region-wide, main issues on the implementation of such a system were addressed. ^

Database As A Tool For Hospitality Management

In his discussion - Database As A Tool For Hospitality Management - William O'Brien, Assistant Professor, School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University, O’Brien offers at the outset, “Database systems offer sweeping possibilities for better management of information in the hospitality industry. The author discusses what such systems are capable of accomplishing.” The author opens with a bit of background on database system development, which also lends an impression as to the complexion of the rest of the article; uh, it’s a shade technical. “In early 1981, Ashton-Tate introduced dBase 11. It was the first microcomputer database management processor to offer relational capabilities and a user-friendly query system combined with a fast, convenient report writer,” O’Brien informs. “When 16-bit microcomputers such as the IBM PC series were introduced late the following year, more powerful database products followed: dBase 111, Friday!, and Framework. The effect on the entire business community, and the hospitality industry in particular, has been remarkable”, he further offers with his informed outlook. Professor O’Brien offers a few anecdotal situations to illustrate how much a comprehensive data-base system means to a hospitality operation, especially when billing is involved. Although attitudes about computer systems, as well as the systems themselves have changed since this article was written, there is pertinent, fundamental information to be gleaned. In regards to the digression of the personal touch when a customer is engaged with a computer system, O’Brien says, “A modern data processing system should not force an employee to treat valued customers as numbers…” He also cautions, “Any computer system that decreases the availability of the personal touch is simply unacceptable.” In a system’s ability to process information, O’Brien suggests that in the past businesses were so enamored with just having an automated system that they failed to take full advantage of its capabilities. O’Brien says that a lot of savings, in time and money, went un-noticed and/or under-appreciated. Today, everyone has an integrated system, and the wise business manager is the business manager who takes full advantage of all his resources. O’Brien invokes the 80/20 rule, and offers, “…the last 20 percent of results costs 80 percent of the effort. But times have changed. Everyone is automating data management, so that last 20 percent that could be ignored a short time ago represents a significant competitive differential.” The evolution of data systems takes center stage for much of the article; pitfalls also emerge.

Solving satisfiability, *implication, and equivalence problems in database systems

Satisfiability, implication and equivalence problems are important and widely-encountered database problems that need to be efficiently and effectively solved. We provide a comprehensive and systematic study of these problems. We consider three popular types of arithmetic inequalities, (X op C), (X op Y), and (X op Y + C), where X and Y are attributes, C is a constant of the domain of X, and op $\in\ \{{<},\ {\le},\ {=},\ {\not=},\ {>},\ {\ge}\}.$ These inequalities are most frequently used in a database system, since the first type of inequalities represents $\theta$-join, the second type represents selection, and the third type is popular in deductive databases. We study the problems under the integer domain and the real domain, as well as under two different operator sets.^ Our results show that solutions under different domains and/or different operator sets are quite different. In this dissertation, we either report the first necessary and sufficient conditions as well as their efficient algorithms with complexity analysis, or provide improved algorithms. ^

An Indexing Structure and Application Model for Vehicles Moving on Road Networks

Moving objects database systems are the most challenging sub-category among Spatio-Temporal database systems. A database system that updates in real-time the location information of GPS-equipped moving vehicles has to meet even stricter requirements. Currently existing data storage models and indexing mechanisms work well only when the number of moving objects in the system is relatively small. This dissertation research aimed at the real-time tracking and history retrieval of massive numbers of vehicles moving on road networks. A total solution has been provided for the real-time update of the vehicles’ location and motion information, range queries on current and history data, and prediction of vehicles’ movement in the near future. To achieve these goals, a new approach called Segmented Time Associated to Partitioned Space (STAPS) was first proposed in this dissertation for building and manipulating the indexing structures for moving objects databases. Applying the STAPS approach, an indexing structure of associating a time interval tree to each road segment was developed for real-time database systems of vehicles moving on road networks. The indexing structure uses affordable storage to support real-time data updates and efficient query processing. The data update and query processing performance it provides is consistent without restrictions such as a time window or assuming linear moving trajectories. An application system design based on distributed system architecture with centralized organization was developed to maximally support the proposed data and indexing structures. The suggested system architecture is highly scalable and flexible. Finally, based on a real-world application model of vehicles moving in region-wide, main issues on the implementation of such a system were addressed.

Integration and querying of heterogeneous, autonomous, distributed database systems

Today, databases have become an integral part of information systems. In the past two decades, we have seen different database systems being developed independently and used in different applications domains. Today's interconnected networks and advanced applications, such as data warehousing, data mining & knowledge discovery and intelligent data access to information on the Web, have created a need for integrated access to such heterogeneous, autonomous, distributed database systems. Heterogeneous/multidatabase research has focused on this issue resulting in many different approaches. However, a single, generally accepted methodology in academia or industry has not emerged providing ubiquitous intelligent data access from heterogeneous, autonomous, distributed information sources. This thesis describes a heterogeneous database system being developed at Highperformance Database Research Center (HPDRC). A major impediment to ubiquitous deployment of multidatabase technology is the difficulty in resolving semantic heterogeneity. That is, identifying related information sources for integration and querying purposes. Our approach considers the semantics of the meta-data constructs in resolving this issue. The major contributions of the thesis work include: (i.) providing a scalable, easy-to-implement architecture for developing a heterogeneous multidatabase system, utilizing Semantic Binary Object-oriented Data Model (Sem-ODM) and Semantic SQL query language to capture the semantics of the data sources being integrated and to provide an easy-to-use query facility; (ii.) a methodology for semantic heterogeneity resolution by investigating into the extents of the meta-data constructs of component schemas. This methodology is shown to be correct, complete and unambiguous; (iii.) a semi-automated technique for identifying semantic relations, which is the basis of semantic knowledge for integration and querying, using shared ontologies for context-mediation; (iv.) resolutions for schematic conflicts and a language for defining global views from a set of component Sem-ODM schemas; (v.) design of a knowledge base for storing and manipulating meta-data and knowledge acquired during the integration process. This knowledge base acts as the interface between integration and query processing modules; (vi.) techniques for Semantic SQL query processing and optimization based on semantic knowledge in a heterogeneous database environment; and (vii.) a framework for intelligent computing and communication on the Internet applying the concepts of our work.

Sistema de análise de movimento para avaliação da postura vertical durante a corrida no teste de esforço máximo incremental

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Avaliação da atenção básica em saúde: uma nova proposta

Este artigo apresenta uma nova proposta de avaliação da Atenção Básica em Saúde (ABS), utilizando a abordagem sistêmica de Donabedian, com a modificação de que a avaliação desse serviço deveria iniciar pelo componente Processo, visando identificar a adequação da oferta e das relações entre os distintos procedimentos desse nível de atenção. A partir dessa análise deverá ser realizada a busca do resultado preditivo, permitindo a relação entre esses componentes. Com base nessa análise, a avaliação de estrutura ganha significado para o processo de decisão. Faz parte da abordagem a avaliação da rede de atenção, tendo como foco e imagem-objetivo a atenção básica como porta de entrada da rede. Apresenta uma concepção de rede mais dinâmica e flexível e propõe a utilização na avaliação do método misto, englobando a abordagem quantitativa baseada nos bancos de dados existentes no sistema Datasus e complementada pela abordagem qualitativa, permitindo maior compreensão do significado das relações encontradas nos serviços e na rede. Nesse desenho metodológico, será possível a identificação das variáveis de funcionamento e a organização da ABS e da rede de serviços, possibilitando direcionar a tomada de decisão para a melhoria de qualidade da atenção básica de saúde.

Sistemas informatizados de registro de imunização: uma revisão com enfoque na saúde infantil

São apresentadas diferentes experiências e metodologias empregadas por registros informatizados de imunização (RII), no enfoque da saúde infantil. O levantamento bibliográfico abrangeu publicações de 1990 a 2006, existentes nas bases MEDLINE, SciELO, PubMed e EMBASE. Outros sítios eletrônicos de organizações nacionais e internacionais de saúde foram pesquisados. Em virtude da ausência de publicações sobre RII no Brasil, as fontes de informação foram a Coordenação Nacional e as Coordenações Estaduais do Programa Nacional de Imunizações, além do Departamento de Informática do Sistema Único de Saúde. Selecionaram-se apenas artigos que abordam RII em saúde infantil. Foram localizados 109 artigos publicados em 35 revistas especializadas. São apresentados aspectos históricos e conceituais, objetivos, funções, relevância e indicadores de desempenho e de custo-efetividade, além das próprias limitações dos RII, assim como experiências em países selecionados, inclusive no Brasil. Os RII integrados a outros sistemas de informação vêm sendo aplicados como importante instrumento para a identificação de populações com menor acesso ou adesão aos programas de vacinação e em sistemas de vigilância ativa de eventos adversos pós-vacina

A study on the authentication method for TAmI in ambient intelligence (secure group decision making toolkit)

It is difficult to get the decision about an opinion after many users get the meeting in same place. It used to spend too much time in order to find solve some problem because of the various opinions of each other. TAmI (Group Decision Making Toolkit) is the System to Group Decision in Ambient Intelligence [1]. This program was composed with IGATA [2], WebMeeting and the related Database system. But, because it is sent without any encryption in IP / Password, it can be opened to attacker. They can use the IP / Password to the bad purpose. As the result, although they make the wrong result, the joined member can’t know them. Therefore, in this paper, we studied the applying method of user’s authentication into TAmI.

Disseny d'un sistema operacional que controli l'àrea de multes de tràfic d'un ajuntament.

Aquest treball consisteix en l'elaboració del disseny i la implementació d'un sistema de bases de dades relacional per a Oracle 9i. Aquest sistema ha de ser una eina de treball per a un ajuntament, concretament per a l'àrea de multes de trànsit.

Avaluació de SQL : 1999 respecte les característiques orientades a objectes que suporta i la seva implementació en sistemes de gestió de Bases de Dades

El treball realitzat analitza la manera com l'estàndard SQL:1999 ha incorporat a la seva especificació una sèrie de característiques pròpies de la tecnologia d'orientació a l'objecte. D'aquesta manera, l'estàndard mira de proporcionar als sistemes de gestió de bases de dades algunes de les funcionalitats exigides als sistemes de tercera generació. Aquests sistemes han d'incorporar altres característiques, que estan recollides a l'article Third Generation Database System Manifesto.

Gestió de multes de Tràfic

Aquest treball consisteix en l'elaboració del disseny i la implementació d'un sistema de bases de dades relacional. Aquest sistema ha de ser una eina de treball per a un ajuntament, concretament per a l'àrea de multes de trànsit.

Evaluation of PostgreSQL replication and load balancing implementations

In this final project the high availability options for PostgreSQL database management system were explored and evaluated. The primary objective of the project was to find a reliable replication system and implement it to a production environment. The secondary objective was to explore different load balancing methods and compare their performance. The potential replication methods were thoroughly examined, and the most promising was implemented to a database system gathering weather information in Lithuania. The different load balancing methods were tested performance wise with different load scenarios and the results were analysed. As a result for this project a functioning PostgreSQL database replication system was built to the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service's headquarters, and definite guidelines for future load balancing needs were produced. This study includes the actual implementation of a replication system to a demanding production environment, but only guidelines for building a load balancing system to the same production environment.