Knowledge will Propel Machine Understanding of Content: Extrapolating from Current Examples

Machine Learning has been a big success story during the AI resurgence. One particular stand out success relates to learning from a massive amount of data. In spite of early assertions of the unreasonable effectiveness of data, there is increasing recognition for utilizing knowledge whenever it is available or can be created purposefully. In this paper, we discuss the indispensable role of knowledge for deeper understanding of content where (i) large amounts of training data are unavailable, (ii) the objects to be recognized are complex, (e.g., implicit entities and highly subjective content), and (iii) applications need to use complementary or related data in multiple modalities/media. What brings us to the cusp of rapid progress is our ability to (a) create relevant and reliable knowledge and (b) carefully exploit knowledge to enhance ML/NLP techniques. Using diverse examples, we seek to foretell unprecedented progress in our ability for deeper understanding and exploitation of multimodal data and continued incorporation of knowledge in learning techniques.Comment: Pre-print of the paper accepted at 2017 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI). arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1610.0770

Reducing the Amount of Antipsychotic Medication among Older Adults with Dementia in Skilled Nursing Facilities in the Twin Cities Area

There are many stereotypes that older adults in nursing homes are snowed and not cared for properly by burnt out and careless nursing staff. The purpose of this project was to explore professionals in skilled nursing facilities attempting to meet the Minnesota Department of Health mandate to decrease the amount of antipsychotic medication usage among older adults with dementia. The research placed a focus on non-pharmacological interventions with an emphasis on music therapy. Using a qualitative design, six subjects were interviewed regarding their experiences, successes, challenges and non-pharmacological efforts that are being implemented in their facility. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach and then through the lens of the mandate and were categorized by theme and subthemes. The data were related back to the literature and the findings indicated that all participating facilities were having success in their attempts to meet this mandate or were beginning to make attempts to meet this mandate. These findings emphasize the importance of taking a non-pharmacological approach with older adults with behaviors related to dementia but further training, research and practice are needed for continued and future success in relation to antipsychotic medication reduction and non-pharmacological approaches for older adults with dementia in these settings

Reducing the Amount of Antipsychotic Medication among Older Adults with Dementia in Skilled Nursing Facilities in the Twin Cities Area

There are many stereotypes that older adults in nursing homes are snowed and not cared for properly by burnt out and careless nursing staff. The purpose of this project was to explore professionals in skilled nursing facilities attempting to meet the Minnesota Department of Health mandate to decrease the amount of antipsychotic medication usage among older adults with dementia. The research placed a focus on non-pharmacological interventions with an emphasis on music therapy. Using a qualitative design, six subjects were interviewed regarding their experiences, successes, challenges and non-pharmacological efforts that are being implemented in their facility. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach and then through the lens of the mandate and were categorized by theme and subthemes. The data were related back to the literature and the findings indicated that all participating facilities were having success in their attempts to meet this mandate or were beginning to make attempts to meet this mandate. These findings emphasize the importance of taking a non-pharmacological approach with older adults with behaviors related to dementia but further training, research and practice are needed for continued and future success in relation to antipsychotic medication reduction and non-pharmacological approaches for older adults with dementia in these settings

Reducing the Amount of Antipsychotic Medication among Older Adults with Dementia in Skilled Nursing Facilities in the Twin Cities Area

There are many stereotypes that older adults in nursing homes are “snowed” and not cared for properly by “burnt out” and “careless” nursing staff. The purpose of this project was to explore professionals in skilled nursing facilities attempting to meet the Minnesota Department of Health mandate to decrease the amount of antipsychotic medication usage among older adults with dementia. The research placed a focus on non-pharmacological interventions with an emphasis on music therapy. Using a qualitative design, six subjects were interviewed regarding their experiences, successes, challenges and non-pharmacological efforts that are being implemented in their facility. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach and then through the lens of the mandate and were categorized by theme and subthemes. The data were related back to the literature and the findings indicated that all participating facilities were having success in their attempts to meet this mandate or were beginning to make attempts to meet this mandate. These findings emphasize the importance of taking a non-pharmacological approach with older adults with behaviors related to dementia but further training, research and practice are needed for continued and future success in relation to antipsychotic medication reduction and non-pharmacological approaches for older adults with dementia in these settings

Health State Estimation

Life's most valuable asset is health. Continuously understanding the state of our health and modeling how it evolves is essential if we wish to improve it. Given the opportunity that people live with more data about their life today than any other time in history, the challenge rests in interweaving this data with the growing body of knowledge to compute and model the health state of an individual continually. This dissertation presents an approach to build a personal model and dynamically estimate the health state of an individual by fusing multi-modal data and domain knowledge. The system is stitched together from four essential abstraction elements: 1. the events in our life, 2. the layers of our biological systems (from molecular to an organism), 3. the functional utilities that arise from biological underpinnings, and 4. how we interact with these utilities in the reality of daily life. Connecting these four elements via graph network blocks forms the backbone by which we instantiate a digital twin of an individual. Edges and nodes in this graph structure are then regularly updated with learning techniques as data is continuously digested. Experiments demonstrate the use of dense and heterogeneous real-world data from a variety of personal and environmental sensors to monitor individual cardiovascular health state. State estimation and individual modeling is the fundamental basis to depart from disease-oriented approaches to a total health continuum paradigm. Precision in predicting health requires understanding state trajectory. By encasing this estimation within a navigational approach, a systematic guidance framework can plan actions to transition a current state towards a desired one. This work concludes by presenting this framework of combining the health state and personal graph model to perpetually plan and assist us in living life towards our goals.Comment: Ph.D. Dissertation @ University of California, Irvin

Orphan drugs : future viability of current forecasting models, in light of impending changes to influential market factors

Thesis (S.M.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-61).Interviews were conducted to establish a baseline for how orphan drug forecasting is currently undertaken by financial market and industry analysts with the intention of understanding the variables typically accounted for in such a model. A literature search formed the basis of subsequent interviews conducted with experts from industry, payers, providers, legislators, patient groups, and the FDA. Discussion then focused on elements of the market which are poised to change in the short-term, how such changes might be reflected in existing models, and/or how these models may instead need to be modified to adapt to the new environment. We hypothesized that impending changes in the healthcare sector would indeed impact the legitimacy of current forecasting models, and that significant changes would need to be introduced to account for these new market forces. Our hypothesis, however, was not confirmed, in that although much of the literature and, indeed, public outcry over rising healthcare costs in general and drug prices in particular make a strong case for implementing changes in the orphan market via payers, government, or other actors, an assessment of healthcare experts regarding market changes over the next five years revealed a general consensus that meaningful change will likely not occur during this timeframe for orphan products, with the exception of a possible increase in pharmacoeconomic requirements for drugs which are only marginally effective. Thus, current orphan drug forecasting models constructed for use by financial and industry analysts correctly avoid discounting for these potential changes, as they will likely not face significant changes in the US until closer to a ten year time horizon. Potential exceptions to this conclusion depend on implementation and regulatory treatment of the fields of personalized medicine and gene therapy, as developments in these areas may closely interact with existing orphan drug legislation. Our results have significant implications for all companies and stakeholders entering or currently operating in the orphan market, and open the door for further quantitative and qualitative analysis.by Joshua Gottlieb.S.M

12th Annual Focus on Creative Inquiry Poster Forum Program

The 2017 Focus on Creative Inquiry Poster Forum displays a selection of the projects accomplished by Clemson University students in their Creative Inquiry teams. What is Creative Inquiry? It is small-group learning for all students, in all disciplines. It is the imaginative combination of engaged learning and undergraduate research – and it is unique to Clemson University. In Creative Inquiry, small teams of undergraduate students work with faculty mentors to take on problems that spring from their own curiosity, a professor’s challenge, or the pressing needs of the world around them. Students take ownership of their projects. They ask questions, they take risks, and they get answers

Biohacking, Bodies and Do-It-Yourself

From self-help books and nootropics, to self-tracking and home health tests, to the tinkering with technology and biological particles - biohacking brings biology, medicine, and the material foundation of life into the sphere of »do-it-yourself«. This trend has the potential to fundamentally change people's relationship with their bodies and biology but it also creates new cultural narratives of responsibility, authority, and differentiation. Covering a broad range of examples, this book explores practices and representations of biohacking in popular culture, discussing their ambiguous position between empowerment and requirement, promise and prescription