Prince Edward Island : information regarding its climate, soil, resources, suitability for summer visitors and tourists, &c., &c.

"Published by authority of the provincial government."

Information extraction from clinical and radiology notes for liver cancer staging

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Electronic patient records: Achieving best practice in information transfer between hospital and community providers - an integration success story

Effective healthcare integration is underpinned by clinical information transfer that is timely, legible and relevant. The aim of this study was to describe and evaluate a method for best practice information exchange. This was achieved based on the generic Mater integration methodology. Using this model the Mater Health Services have increased effective community fax discharge from 34% in 1999 to 86% in 2002. These results were predicated on applied information technology excellence involving the development of the Mater Electronic Health Referral Summary and effective change management methodology, which included addressing issues around patient consent, engaging clinicians, provision of timely and appropriate education and training, executive leadership and commitment and adequate resourcing. The challenge in achieving best practice information transfer is not solely in the technology but also in implementing the change process and engaging clinicians. General practitioners valued the intervention highly. Hospital and community providers now have an inexpensive, effective product for critical information exchange in a timely and relevant manner, enhancing the quality and safety of patient care.

Integrating science and management through collaborative learning and better information management

Achieving more sustainable land and water use depends on high-quality information and its improved use. In other words, better linkages are needed between science and management. Since many stakeholders with different relationships to the natural resources are inevitably involved, we suggest that collaborative learning environments and improved information management are prerequisites for integrating science and management. Case studies that deal with resource management issues are presented that illustrate the creation of collaborative learning environments through systems analyses with communities, and an integration of scientific and experiential knowledge of components of the system. This new knowledge needs to be captured and made accessible through innovative information management systems designed collaboratively with users, in forms which fit the users' 'mental models' of how their systems work. A model for linking science and resource management more effectively is suggested. This model entails systems thinking in a collaborative learning environment, and processes to help convergence of views and value systems, and make scientists and different kinds of managers aware of their interdependence. Adaptive management provides a mechanism for applying and refining scientists' and managers' knowledge. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Intertidal habitat conservation: identifying conservation targets in the absence of detailed biological information

1. Growing concern associated with threats to the marine environment has resulted in an increased demand for marine reserves that conserve representative and adequate examples of biodiversity. Often, the decisions about where to locate reserves must be made in the absence of detailed information on the patterns of distribution of the biota. Alternative approaches are required that include defining habitats using surrogates for biodiversity. Surrogate measures of biodiversity enable decisions about where to locate marine reserves to be made more reliably in the absence of detailed data on the distribution of species. 2. Intertidal habitat types derived using physical properties of the shoreline were used as a surrogate for intertidal biodiversity to assist with the identification of sites for inclusion in a candidate system of intertidal marine reserves for 17 463 km of the mainland coast of Queensland, Australia. This represents the first systematic approach, on essentially one-dimensional data, using fine-scale (tens to hundreds of metres) intertidal habitats to identify a system of marine reserves for such a large length of coast. A range of solutions would provide for the protection of a representative example of intertidal habitats in Queensland. 3. The design and planning of marine and terrestrial protected areas systems should not be undertaken independently of each other because it is likely to lead to inadequate representation of intertidal habitats in either system. The development of reserve systems specially designed to protect intertidal habitats should be integrated into the design of terrestrial and marine protected area systems. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Internet and other IT resources:tools for translators within a translation programme

Information technology has increased both the speed and medium of communication between nations. It has brought the world closer, but it has also created new challenges for translation — how we think about it, how we carry it out and how we teach it. Translation and Information Technology has brought together experts in computational linguistics, machine translation, translation education, and translation studies to discuss how these new technologies work, the effect of electronic tools, such as the internet, bilingual corpora, and computer software, on translator education and the practice of translation, as well as the conceptual gaps raised by the interface of human and machine.

River basin surveillance using remotely sensed data: a water resources information management system

This thesis describes the development of an operational river basin water resources information management system. The river or drainage basin is the fundamental unit of the system; in both the modelling and prediction of hydrological processes, and in the monitoring of the effect of catchment management policies. A primary concern of the study is the collection of sufficient and sufficiently accurate information to model hydrological processes. Remote sensing, in combination with conventional point source measurement, can be a valuable source of information, but is often overlooked by hydrologists, due to the cost of acquisition and processing. This thesis describes a number of cost effective methods of acquiring remotely sensed imagery, from airborne video survey to real time ingestion of meteorological satellite data. Inexpensive micro-computer systems and peripherals are used throughout to process and manipulate the data. Spatial information systems provide a means of integrating these data with topographic and thematic cartographic data, and historical records. For the system to have any real potential the data must be stored in a readily accessible format and be easily manipulated within the database. The design of efficient man-machine interfaces and the use of software enginering methodologies are therefore included in this thesis as a major part of the design of the system. The use of low cost technologies, from micro-computers to video cameras, enables the introduction of water resources information management systems into developing countries where the potential benefits are greatest.

Electrolytic processes on surfaces:contributions to eletrolytic polishing, anodising, adhesion, colour, lithography and electronic applications

DUE TO COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION AT ASTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES WITH PRIOR ARRANGEMENT

Network structures and resources for emergency communications

DUE TO COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION AT ASTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES WITH PRIOR ARRANGEMENT

The use of electronic techniques in the construction of machines which can learn

DUE TO COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION AT ASTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES WITH PRIOR ARRANGEMENT

A review of the effects of distributed energy resources and power-electronic controlled loading on distribution network stability

This paper looks at potential distribution network stability problems under the Smart Grid scenario. This is to consider distributed energy resources (DERs) e.g. renewable power generations and intelligent loads with power-electronic controlled converters. The background of this topic is introduced and potential problems are defined from conventional power system stability and power electronic system stability theories. Challenges are identified with possible solutions from steady-state limits, small-signal, and large-signal stability indexes and criteria. Parallel computation techniques might be included for simulation or simplification approaches are required for a largescale distribution network analysis.

Article Disassembly - New Ways to Handle Information in Publications

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): I.7.4.

Water resources assessment and geographic information system (GIS)-based stormwater runoff estimates for artificial recharge of freshwater aquifers in New Providence, Bahamas

The Bahamas is a small island nation that is dealing with the problem of freshwater shortage. All of the country’s freshwater is contained in shallow lens aquifers that are recharged solely by rainfall. The country has been struggling to meet the water demands by employing a combination of over-pumping of aquifers, transport of water by barge between islands, and desalination of sea water. In recent decades, new development on New Providence, where the capital city of Nassau is located, has created a large area of impervious surfaces and thereby a substantial amount of runoff with the result that several of the aquifers are not being recharged. A geodatabase was assembled to assess and estimate the quantity of runoff from these impervious surfaces and potential recharge locations were identified using a combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. This study showed that runoff from impervious surfaces in New Providence represents a large freshwater resource that could potentially be used to recharge the lens aquifers on New Providence.

Strategic positioning of Taiwan in the outsourcing market: Evidence from information technology services and electronic manufacturing outsourcing to China

In outsourcing relationships with China, the Electronic Manufacturing (EM) and Information Technology Services (ITS) industry in Taiwan may possess such advantages as the continuing growth of its production value, complete manufacturing supply chain, low production cost and a large-scale Chinese market, and language and culture similarity compared to outsourcing to other countries. Nevertheless, the Council for Economic Planning and Development of Executive Yuan (CEPD) found that Taiwan's IT services outsourcing to China is subject to certain constraints and might not be as successful as the EM outsourcing (Aggarwal, 2003; CEPD, 2004a; CIER, 2003; Einhorn and Kriplani, 2003; Kumar and Zhu, 2006; Li and Gao, 2003; MIC, 2006). Some studies examined this issue, but failed to (1) provide statistical evidence about lower prevalence rates of IT services outsourcing, and (2) clearly explain the lower prevalence rates of IT services outsourcing by identifying similarities and differences between both types of outsourcing contexts. This research seeks to fill that gap and possibly provide potential strategic guidelines to ITS firms in Taiwan. This study adopts Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) as the theoretical basis. The basic premise is that different types of outsourcing activities may incur differing transaction costs and realize varying degrees of outsourcing success due to differential attributes of the transactions in the outsourcing process. Using primary data gathered from questionnaire surveys of ninety two firms, the results from exploratory analysis and binary logistic regression indicated that (1) when outsourcing to China, Taiwanese firms' ITS outsourcing tends to have higher level of asset specificity, uncertainty and technical skills relative to EM outsourcing, and these features indirectly reduce firms' outsourcing prevalence rates via their direct positive impacts on transaction costs; (2) Taiwanese firms' ITS outsourcing tends to have lower level of transaction structurability relative to EM outsourcing, and this feature indirectly increases firms' outsourcing prevalence rates via its direct negative impacts on transaction costs; (3) frequency does influence firms' transaction costs in ITS outsourcing positively, but does not bring impacts into their outsourcing prevalence rates, (4) relatedness does influence firms' transaction costs positively and prevalence rates negatively in ITS outsourcing, but its impacts on the prevalence rates are not caused by the mediation effects of transaction costs, and (5) firm size of outsourcing provider does not affect firms' transaction costs, but does affect their outsourcing prevalence rates in ITS outsourcing directly and positively. Using primary data gathered from face-to-face interviews of executives from seven firms, the results from inductive analysis indicated that (1) IT services outsourcing has lower prevalence rates than EM outsourcing, and (2) this result is mainly attributed to Taiwan's core competence in manufacturing and management and higher overall transaction costs of IT services outsourcing. Specifically, there is not much difference between both types of outsourcing context in the transaction characteristics of reputation and most aspects of overall comparison. Although there are some differences in the feature of firm size of the outsourcing provider, the difference doesn't cause apparent impacts on firms' overall transaction costs. The medium or above medium difference in the transaction characteristics of asset specificity, uncertainty, frequency, technical skills, transaction structurability, and relatedness has caused higher overall transaction costs for IT services outsourcing. This higher cost might cause lower prevalence rates for ITS outsourcing relative to EM outsourcing. Overall, the interview results are consistent with the statistical analyses and provide support to my expectation that in outsourcing to China, Taiwan's electronic manufacturing firms do have lower prevalence rates of IT services outsourcing relative to EM outsourcing due to higher transaction costs caused by certain attributes. To solve this problem, firms' management should aim at identifying alternative strategies and strive to reduce their overall transaction costs of IT services outsourcing by initiating appropriate strategies which fit their environment and needs.

Information Discovery on Electronic Health Records Using Authority Flow Techniques

Background As the use of electronic health records (EHRs) becomes more widespread, so does the need to search and provide effective information discovery within them. Querying by keyword has emerged as one of the most effective paradigms for searching. Most work in this area is based on traditional Information Retrieval (IR) techniques, where each document is compared individually against the query. We compare the effectiveness of two fundamentally different techniques for keyword search of EHRs. Methods We built two ranking systems. The traditional BM25 system exploits the EHRs' content without regard to association among entities within. The Clinical ObjectRank (CO) system exploits the entities' associations in EHRs using an authority-flow algorithm to discover the most relevant entities. BM25 and CO were deployed on an EHR dataset of the cardiovascular division of Miami Children's Hospital. Using sequences of keywords as queries, sensitivity and specificity were measured by two physicians for a set of 11 queries related to congenital cardiac disease. Results Our pilot evaluation showed that CO outperforms BM25 in terms of sensitivity (65% vs. 38%) by 71% on average, while maintaining the specificity (64% vs. 61%). The evaluation was done by two physicians. Conclusions Authority-flow techniques can greatly improve the detection of relevant information in EHRs and hence deserve further study.