Development and evaluation of an intelligent handheld insulin dose advisor for patients with Type-1 diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is an increasingly common, chronic, incurable disease requiring careful monitoring and treatment so as to minimise the risk of serious long-term complications. It has been suggested that computers used by healthcare professionals and/or patients themselves may playa useful role in the diabetes care process. Seven key systems (AIDA, ADICOL, DIABETES, DIAS, IIumaLink, T-IDDM, POIRO) in the area of diabetes decision support, and their underlying techniques and approaches are summarised and compared. The development of the Patient-Oriented Insulin Regimen Optimiser (POIRO) for insulindependent (Type-I) diabetes, and its hybrid statistical and rule-based expert system is then taken forward. The re-implementation and updating of the system for the Palm OS family of modern Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) is described. The evaluation of this new version in a seven week, randomised, open, cross-over clinical pilot study involving eight patients on short-acting plus long-acting insulin basalbolus regimens showed it to be easy-to-operate, reliable, not time consuming and well liked by patients. Following this, the characteristics and use of all currently available insulin formulations, and the corresponding insulin regimens are summarised. Algorithms to provide dose advice and decision support for patients taking the new rapid-acting, intermediate-acting and premixed insulin formulations are then developed. The user interface is improved and extended, amongst others through the development and use of a model describing individual user's meal time habits. Implementation-related issues encountered are discussed, and further work and future directions are identified and outlined. Motivated by the complex and safety-critical nature of systems such as POIRO, we also report on the use of the B abstract machine notation for the formal specification of the original POIRO system, and focusing on projects and published case studies. review the use of formal methods in the development of medical computer systems

An Open Web-Based Module Developed to Advance Data-Driven Hydrologic Process Learning

The era of ‘big data’ promises to provide new hydrologic insights, and open web-based platforms are being developed and adopted by the hydrologic science community to harness these datasets and data services. This shift accompanies advances in hydrology education and the growth of web-based hydrology learning modules, but their capacity to utilize emerging open platforms and data services to enhance student learning through data-driven activities remains largely untapped. Given that generic equations may not easily translate into local or regional solutions, teaching students to explore how well models or equations work in particular settings or to answer specific problems using real data is essential. This article introduces an open web-based module developed to advance data-driven hydrologic process learning, targeting upper level undergraduate and early graduate students in hydrology and engineering. The module was developed and deployed on the HydroLearn open educational platform, which provides a formal pedagogical structure for developing effective problem-based learning activities. We found that data-driven learning activities utilizing collaborative open web platforms like CUAHSI HydroShare and JupyterHub to store and run computational notebooks allowed students to access and work with datasets for systems of personal interest and promoted critical evaluation of results and assumptions. Initial student feedback was generally positive, but also highlighted challenges including trouble-shooting and future-proofing difficulties and some resistance to programming and new software. Opportunities to further enhance hydrology learning include better articulating the benefits of coding and open web platforms upfront, incorporating additional user-support tools, and focusing methods and questions on implementing and adapting notebooks to explore fundamental processes rather than tools and syntax. The profound shift in the field of hydrology toward big data, open data services and reproducible research practices requires hydrology instructors to rethink traditional content delivery and focus instruction on harnessing these datasets and practices in the preparation of future hydrologists and engineers

Pathways to Accountability II

This report summarises the results of the 2009-2010 review process on the One World Trust Global Accountability Framework and the piloting of the draft framework during 2011, and presents the full One World Trust Pathways to Accountability II indicator framework. Our work in this field work is motivated by a concern about the persisting weakness and insufficient effectiveness of global organisations from all sectors in responding to the challenge of delivering global public goods to citizens and communities, the very people whom they claim to serve and benefit, and who are most often dependent on them

Towards Identifying and closing Gaps in Assurance of autonomous Road vehicleS - a collection of Technical Notes Part 1

This report provides an introduction and overview of the Technical Topic Notes (TTNs) produced in the Towards Identifying and closing Gaps in Assurance of autonomous Road vehicleS (Tigars) project. These notes aim to support the development and evaluation of autonomous vehicles. Part 1 addresses: Assurance-overview and issues, Resilience and Safety Requirements, Open Systems Perspective and Formal Verification and Static Analysis of ML Systems. Part 2: Simulation and Dynamic Testing, Defence in Depth and Diversity, Security-Informed Safety Analysis, Standards and Guidelines

An Evaluation of Spatial Network Modeling To Aid Sanitation Planning In Informal Settlements Using Crowd-Sourced Data

Limited water and sanitation infrastructure in rapidly urbanising informal settlements can present significant health and environmental risks to the populations of developing nations. Where formal piped networks are not available, road-based sewage treatmenttransportation options have been cited as a viable alternative. However, little research has been undertaken to evaluate the long-term operational costs of such systems. In this paper we present an evaluation of network modelling, as a novel method to evaluate the costs of road-based sewage treatment-transport options. Such analysis is made possible using crowdsourced, open geospatial data sets that allow us to examine costs based on different spatio-topological network configurations. It is envisaged that engineers could use such a tool as part of the sanitation planning process, to evaluate sanitation network implementation options. This study provides an evaluation of the methods using a case study from the Kibera settlement in Kenya

A Tale of Evaluation and Reporting in UK Smart Cities

Global trends towards urbanisation are associated with wide-ranging challenges and opportunities for cities. Smart technologies create new opportunities for a range of smart city development and regeneration programmes designed to address the environmental, economic and social challenges concentrated in cities. Whilst smart city programmes have received much publicity, there has been much less discussion about evaluation of smart city programmes and the measurement of their outcomes for cities. Existing evaluation approaches have been criticised as non-standard and inadequate, focusing more on implementation processes and investment metrics than on the impacts of smart city programmes on strategic city outcomes and progress. To examine this, the SmartDframe project conducted research on city approaches to the evaluation of smart city projects and programmes, and reporting of impacts on city outcomes. This included the ‘smarter’ UK cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Milton Keynes and Peterborough. City reports and interviews with representative local government authorities informed the case study analysis. The report provides a series of smart city case studies that exemplify contemporary city practices, offering a timely, insightful contribution to city discourse about best practice approaches to evaluation and reporting of complex smart city projects and programmes

E-Government Evaluation: Reflections on two Organisational studies

Senior executives in public sector organisations have been charged with delivering an e-Government agenda. A key emerging area of research is that of the evaluation of e-Government, given that economic factors have traditionally dominated any traditional ICT evaluation process. In this paper the authors report the findings from two interpretive in-depth case studies in the UK public sector, which explore e-Government organisational evaluation within a public sector setting. This paper seeks to offer insights to organisational and managerial aspects surrounding the improvement of knowledge and understanding of e-Government evaluation. The findings that are elicited from the case studies are analysed and presented in terms of a framework derived from organisational analysis to improve e-Government evaluation, with key lessons learnt being extrapolated from practice. The paper concludes that e-Government evaluation is both an under developed and under managed area, and calls for senior executives to engage more with the e-Government agenda and for organisations to review e-Government evaluation to improve evaluation practice

Managing stimulation of regional innovation subjects’ interaction in the digital economy

The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project No. 18-01000204_a, No. 16-07-00031_a, No. 18-07-00975_a.Purpose: The article is devoted to solving fundamental scientific problems in the scope of the development of forecasting modeling methods and evaluation of regional company’s innovative development parameters, synthesizing new methods of big data processing and intelligent analysis, as well as methods of knowledge eliciting and forecasting the dynamics of regional innovation developments through benchmarking. Design/Methodology/Approach: For regional economic development, it is required to identify the mechanisms that contribute to (or impede) the innovative economic development of the regions. The synergetic approach to management is based on the fact that there are multiple paths of IS development (scenarios with different probabilities), although it is necessary to reach the required attractor by meeting the management goals. Findings: The present research is focused on obtainment of new knowledge in creating a technique of multi-agent search, collection and processing of data on company’s innovative development indicators, models and methods of intelligent analysis of the collected data. Practical Implications: The author developed recommendations before starting the process of institutional changes in a specific regional innovation system. The article formulates recommendations on the implementation of institutional changes in the region taking into account the sociocultural characteristics of the region’s population. Originality/Value: It is the first time, when a complex of models and methods is based on the use of a convergent model of large data volumes processing is presented.peer-reviewe