Improving Data-Driven Decision Making within the USPTO

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is working to improve its current database dashboard website, the Integrated Quality System (IQS). The goal of this project was to assist the USPTO in evaluating their current system and to develop recommendations to improve data-driven decision making within the Office of Patent Quality Assurance and Patent Operations. To achieve this goal we interviewed several representatives of the two primary user groups to identify their information needs, created mockup dashboards through an iterative design process, and developed a list of specifications to guide the future development and implementation of operational dashboards

Modellgetriebene Entwicklung inhaltsbasierter Bildretrieval-Systeme auf der Basis von objektrelationalen Datenbank-Management-Systeme

In this thesis, the model-driven software development paradigm is employed in order to support the development of Content-based Image Retrieval Systems (CBIRS) for different application domains. Modeling techniques, based on an adaptable conceptual framework model, are proposed for deriving the components of a concrete CBIRS. Transformation techniques are defined to automatically implement the derived application specific models in an object-relational database management system. A set of criteria assuring the quality of the transformation are derived from the theory for preserving information capacity applied in database design.In dieser Dissertation wird das Paradigma des modellgetriebenen Softwareentwurfs für die Erstellung von inhaltsbasierten Bildretrieval-Systemen verwendet. Ein adaptierbares Frameworkmodell wird für die Ableitung des Modells eines konkreten Bildretrieval-Systems eingesetzt. Transformationstechniken für die automatische Generierung von Implementierungen in Objektorientierten Datenbank-Management-Systemen aus dem konzeptuellen Modell werden erarbeitet. Die aus der Theorie des Datenbankentwurfs bekannten Anforderungen zur Kapazitätserhaltung der Transformation werden verwendet, um Kriterien für die erforderliche Qualität der Transformation zu definieren

A Secure Web-Based Universal Basic Educational Administrative Management System: A National Capacity Building Strategy in Education

Education in Nigeria is an instrument for effecting the development of its citizens in particular, and the nation in general. The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) established by UBE Act, 2004 is introduced in Nigeria to ensure unfettered access to nine years of formal basic education as well as reduce the incidence of drop-out from the formal school system through improved relevance and efficiency. In this paper, we design, implement and analyze a secure web-based universal basic educational administrative management system to deal with the problem of administration overload in managing pupils, students, teachers, personnel and curriculum data in both primary and junior secondary schools in Nigeria. We adopt the following sequence to accomplish our goal, requirement analysis, architectural design, application design and implementation. The study explores object-oriented database, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), Apache server pages and MySQL DBMS tools. The System prototype is built on a three-tier client server architecture to provide UBEC, primary and junior secondary institutions with broader information availability, better performance, and eliminate internal security problem, paperwork and manpower. The framework will help to improve education capacity building, reliability, robustness and quality. Keywords: Web-based Database, Formal basic Education, Curriculum Data, Object-Oriented Design, Data-Driven System, Universal Basic Education Commission.

Quality-aware model-driven service engineering

Service engineering and service-oriented architecture as an integration and platform technology is a recent approach to software systems integration. Quality aspects ranging from interoperability to maintainability to performance are of central importance for the integration of heterogeneous, distributed service-based systems. Architecture models can substantially influence quality attributes of the implemented software systems. Besides the benefits of explicit architectures on maintainability and reuse, architectural constraints such as styles, reference architectures and architectural patterns can influence observable software properties such as performance. Empirical performance evaluation is a process of measuring and evaluating the performance of implemented software. We present an approach for addressing the quality of services and service-based systems at the model-level in the context of model-driven service engineering. The focus on architecture-level models is a consequence of the black-box character of services

Incorporating Agile with MDA Case Study: Online Polling System

Nowadays agile software development is used in greater extend but for small organizations only, whereas MDA is suitable for large organizations but yet not standardized. In this paper the pros and cons of Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and Extreme programming have been discussed. As both of them have some limitations and cannot be used in both large scale and small scale organizations a new architecture has been proposed. In this model it is tried to opt the advantages and important values to overcome the limitations of both the software development procedures. In support to the proposed architecture the implementation of it on Online Polling System has been discussed and all the phases of software development have been explained.Comment: 14 pages,1 Figure,1 Tabl

Modelling Conditions and Health Care Processes in Electronic Health Records : An Application to Severe Mental Illness with the Clinical Practice Research Datalink

BACKGROUND: The use of Electronic Health Records databases for medical research has become mainstream. In the UK, increasing use of Primary Care Databases is largely driven by almost complete computerisation and uniform standards within the National Health Service. Electronic Health Records research often begins with the development of a list of clinical codes with which to identify cases with a specific condition. We present a methodology and accompanying Stata and R commands (pcdsearch/Rpcdsearch) to help researchers in this task. We present severe mental illness as an example. METHODS: We used the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, a UK Primary Care Database in which clinical information is largely organised using Read codes, a hierarchical clinical coding system. Pcdsearch is used to identify potentially relevant clinical codes and/or product codes from word-stubs and code-stubs suggested by clinicians. The returned code-lists are reviewed and codes relevant to the condition of interest are selected. The final code-list is then used to identify patients. RESULTS: We identified 270 Read codes linked to SMI and used them to identify cases in the database. We observed that our approach identified cases that would have been missed with a simpler approach using SMI registers defined within the UK Quality and Outcomes Framework. CONCLUSION: We described a framework for researchers of Electronic Health Records databases, for identifying patients with a particular condition or matching certain clinical criteria. The method is invariant to coding system or database and can be used with SNOMED CT, ICD or other medical classification code-lists

Model-driven performance evaluation for service engineering

Service engineering and service-oriented architecture as an integration and platform technology is a recent approach to software systems integration. Software quality aspects such as performance are of central importance for the integration of heterogeneous, distributed service-based systems. Empirical performance evaluation is a process of measuring and calculating performance metrics of the implemented software. We present an approach for the empirical, model-based performance evaluation of services and service compositions in the context of model-driven service engineering. Temporal databases theory is utilised for the empirical performance evaluation of model-driven developed service systems

On the Road to Better Value: State Roles in Promoting Accountable Care Organizations

Outlines how accountable care organizations can deliver value through incentives to manage utilization, improve quality, and curb cost growth. Profiles states supporting the model with data, new payment methods, accountability measures, and other efforts

A model-driven method for the systematic literature review of qualitative empirical research

This paper explores a model-driven method for systematic literature reviews (SLRs), for use where the empirical studies found in the literature search are based on qualitative research. SLRs are an important component of the evidence-based practice (EBP) paradigm, which is receiving increasing attention in information systems (IS) but has not yet been widely-adopted. We illustrate the model-driven approach to SLRs via an example focused on the use of BPMN (Business Process Modelling Notation) in organizations. We discuss in detail the process followed in using the model-driven SLR method, and show how it is based on a hermeneutic cycle of reading and interpreting, in order to develop and refine a model which synthesizes the research findings of previous qualitative studies. This study can serve as an exemplar for other researchers wishing to carry out model-driven SLRs. We conclude with our reflections on the method and some suggestions for further researc