Selected topics in information technology : series 1

This volume is devoted to the recent developments on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems and applications spread across various domain. It seeks to illustrate the potential of Information Technology for a wide range of applications via a systematic collection of recent methods, procedures, and applications designed to solve real-life problems. This book contains ten chapters that emphasize recent information technologies development. Each chapter has been carefully selected to represent a distinctive domain, each with its own unique theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments of solutions on different platforms. The content of this book is organized as follows: Chapter 1 models an assistive ICT solution for people with health concerns by monitoring the patients’ general well-being and medicine intake. In Chapter 2, a standard brick-and-mortar directory kiosk is transformed to allow a virtual walkthrough through an experiential approach. Chapter 3 details out a proof of concept for a monitoring system dedicated for air quality for upto-the-minute information that helps user optimize their decisions. Chapter 4 looks into tailoring human resource management system for home furnishing business. Apart from monitoring and management system, Chapter 5 presents a yet another management system but for facilitators in managing campus orientation programs. Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 are social systems for planning a wedding and marriage matchmaking. The online systems cater from pre-to post wedding, hence suggesting a complete chain of new business model. In Chapter 8, an online practical exam system focuses on one specific course for an undergraduate program at UTHM. Finally, Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 present interesting information systems for expecting mothers and a decision support system for promoting Korean skincare products online. The opportunities now afforded by ICT as deliberated in this book ensures that there is great potential to serve a wide range of audiences. The editors would like to thank chapters’ contributors for their valuable contributions to make this book a success. The edited research book would not have been possible without them

Analysis of Potential Standing Results from Forest Inventory: Case Study at IPPKH PT Cristian Eka Pratama, West Kutai District, East Kalimantan Province

Inventory is one of the indispensable components in forest management activities. Inventory data forests need to be analyzed so that they can produce information in the form of structure, composition, and stand potential which can be used as a basis preparation of forest regulations and plans management. The research aims to find out information on stand potential based on the type, number, and volume of trees in the lease-to-use forest area of PT. Cristian Eka Pratama West Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. This research was carried out in the Forest Area Borrow-to-Use Permit (IPPKH) area of PT Cristian Eka Pratama West Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan Province from February to April 2023 including making work plans, preparation, data collection, data management, and analysis, and reporting. The results of research with an area of 6 hectares obtained 18 types of trees and the number of trees (N) = 311 and tree volume (V) = 278.22 m3.For the number of trees per hectare, there are 52 trees and the volume of trees per hectare is 46.37 m3, the most dominant tree species is Eugenia spp with a population of 52 trees and a volume of 16.94 m3, while the fewest tree species are Litsea Blume with a population of 1 tree and a volume of 0.27 m3; and the population for the most dominant species group is the Shorea wood group with 214 trees and a tree volume of 220.70 m3, for the mixed jungle wood group there are 93 trees and a volume of 55.95 m3 and for the beautiful wood group, there are 4 trees and volume of 1.57 m3

An investigation of biases in Patient Safety Indicator score distribution among hospital cohorts

Denman Research Forum- 2nd Place, Health Professions-ClinicalThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have implemented a hospital reimbursement system that incentivizes payment proportional to the quality of care delivered and performance on certain metrics. One such metric is the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Patient Safety Indicator 90 (PSI-90). It is composed of eight individual indicators designed to flag adverse patient events that are potentially preventable, such as post-operative wound dehiscence and accidental lacerations. CMS publicly reports four of these individual PSI scores (6, 12, 14 and 15) in addition to the composite PSI-90. Previous studies question the PSIs’ validity beyond screening purposes and furthermore question the underlying administrative data’s ability to accurately and reliably flag such events. This study looks to analyze biases in PSI score distribution for hospitals depending on teaching status, differences in patient demographics and lastly, interactions between teaching status and patient demographic factors and their ability to account for differences in PSI rates. Significant differences were found between teaching and non-teaching hospitals for PSIs 6, 12, 15 and 90 (p<0.01). Inpatient volume and patient severity (p<0.01) were found to be significantly different between teaching status cohorts. Lastly, significant differences in PSI scores were found between patient severity quartiles for PSI 6, 15 and 90 (p<0.05) and between socio-economic quartiles for PSI 6, 12, 15 and 90 (p<0.05); but interaction between patient severity and teaching status was only significant for PSI 90 (p<0.05) and between socioeconomic and teaching statuses for PSI 6 (p<0.05). These results indicate current PSI score distributions may be biased against teaching hospitals for 4 out of 5 PSI measures. Further studies will involve assessing the adequacy of risk-adjustment methodology for PSI metrics. Until then, use of PSI metrics to determine federal reimbursement can lead to bias against teaching hospitals.A three-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Health Information Management and System

Risk based multi-objective security control and congestion management

Deterministic security criterion has served power system operation, congestion management quite well in last decades. It is simple to be implemented in a security control model, for example, security constrained optimal power flow (SCOPF). However, since event likelihood and violation information are not addressed, it does not provide quantitative security understanding, and so results in system inadequate awareness. Therefore, even if computation capability and information techniques have been greatly improved and widely applied in the operation support tool, operators are still not able to get rid of the security threat, especially in the market competitive environment.;Probability approach has shown its strong ability for planning purpose, and recently gets attention in operation area. Since power system security assessment needs to analyze consequence of all credible events, risk defined as multiplication of event probability and severity is well suited to give an indication to quantify the system security level, and congestion level as well. Since risk addresses extra information, its application for making BETTER online operation decision becomes an attractive research topic.;This dissertation focus on system online risk calculation, risk based multi-objective optimization model development, risk based security control design, and risk based congestion management. A regression model is proposed to predict contingency probability using weather and geography information for online risk calculation. Risk based multi-objective optimization (RBMO) model is presented, considering conflict objectives: risks and cost. Two types of method, classical methods and evolutionary algorithms, are implemented to solve RBMO problem, respectively. A risk based decision making architecture for security control is designed based on the Pareto-optimal solution understanding, visualization tool and high level information analysis. Risk based congestion management provides a market lever to uniformly expand a security VOLUME , where greater volume means more risk. Meanwhile, risk based LMP signal contracts ALL dimensions of this VOLUME in proper weights (state probabilities) at a time.;Two test systems, 6-bus and IEEE RTS 96, are used to test developed algorithms. The simulation results show that incorporating risk into security control and congestion management will evolve our understanding of security level, improve control and market efficiency, and support operator to maneuver system in an effective fashion

Management of postoperative complications may favour the centralization of distal pancreatectomies. Nationwide data on pancreatic distal resections in Finland 2012-2014

Background: Centralization of pancreatic surgery has proceeded in the last few years in many countries. However, information on the effect of hospital volume specifically on distal pancreatic resections (DP) is lacking. Aim: To investigate the effect of hospital volume on postoperative complications in DP patients in Finland. Methods: All DP performed in Finland during the period 2012-2014 were analyzed, information having been retrieved from the appropriate national registers. Hospital volumes, postoperative pancreatic fistulae (POPF) and overall complications were graded. High volume centre (HVC) was defined as performing > 10 DPs, median volume centre (MVC) 4-9 DPs and low volume centre (LVC) fewer than 4 DP annually. Results: A total of 194 DPs were performed at 18 different hospitals. Of these 42% (81) were performed in HVCs (2 hospitals), 43% (84) in MVCs (6 hospitals) and the remaining 15% (29) in LVCs (10 hospitals). Patient demographics did not differ between the hospital volume groups. The overall rate of clinically relevant POPF, Clavien-Dindo grade 3-5 complications, and 90-day mortality showed no significant differences between the different hospital volumes. Grade C POPF was found more often in LVCs, being 1.2% in HVCs, 0% in MCVs and 6.9% in LVCs, p = 0.030. More reoperations were performed in LVCs (10.3%) than in HVCs (1.2%) or MVCs (1.2%); p = 0.025. Conclusions: Even though the rate of postoperative complications after DP is not affected by hospital volume, reoperations were performed ten times more often in the low-volume centres. Optimal management of postoperative complications may favour centralization not only of PD, but also of DP. (C) 2018 IAP and EPC. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Lessons Learned: Case Studies in Sustainable Use, Conclusion

The conclusion of Lessons Learned: Case Studies in Sustainable Use summarizes the overarching lessons learned from the case studies provided in the volume. 1. Sustainability of uses of renewable natural resources is dependent on the existence of a 'sustainable society'at the local, national and global levels. 2. Successful biological conservation is a function of equity and democracy. 3. To achieve greater sustainability of uses of natural resources will likely require modification of the roles of organizations and government agencies in authority. 4. The current conservation paradigm of Protected Areas (including as applied to the 'biodiversity hotspots'concept) may not be economically viable in many developing countries, simply because the opportunitycosts often exceed the value local people receive from their existence. National and international agencies and organizations realize most of the value from designation of protected areas and 'hotspots'. 5. It is not possible to transpose directly the combination of factors that influence one case to another site, and expect the same impact or result.6. Donor agencies and/or central government policies need to consider management requirements beyond project cycles in order to promote long-term sustainability of resource uses.7. External factors such as war and natural disasters can have an over-riding influence on the sustainability of resource use. 8. Interventions on key resources by external institutions often pressure transformation of local governance systems. The impact of these changes is often overlooked. More specific observations of common features. Furthermore, the conclusion provides lessons related to policy, social processes, institutions, and information

On the integration of model-based feature information in Product Lifecycle Management systems

[EN] As CAD models continue to become more critical information sources in the product's lifecycle, it is necessary to develop efficient mechanisms to store, retrieve, and manage larger volumes of increasingly complex data. Because of their unique characteristics, 3D annotations can be used to embed design and manufacturing information directly into a CAD model, which makes models effective vehicles to describe aspects of the geometry or provide additional information that can be connected to a particular geometric element. However, access to this information is often limited, difficult, and even unavailable to external applications. As model complexity and volume of information continue to increase, new and more powerful methods to interrogate these annotations are needed. In this paper, we demonstrate how 3D annotations can be effectively structured and integrated into a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system to provide a cohesive view of product-related information in a design environment. We present a strategy to organize and manage annotation information which is stored internally in a CAD model, and make it fully available through the PLM. Our method involves a dual representation of 3D annotations with enhanced data structures that provides shared and easy access to the information. We describe the architecture of a system which includes a software component for the CAD environment and a module that integrates with the PLM server. We validate our approach through a software prototype that uses a parametric modeling application and two commercial PLM packages with distinct data models.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the FEDER Funds, through the ANNOTA project (Ref. TIN2013-46036-C3-1-R).Camba, J.; Contero, M.; Company, P.; Pérez Lopez, DC. (2017). On the integration of model-based feature information in Product Lifecycle Management systems. International Journal of Information Management. 37(6):611-621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.06.002S61162137