21 research outputs found
A model on factors affecting nurses adoption of health information technology
Healthcare organisations are using Health Information Technology (HIT) to
improve efficiency, reduce cost and reduce medical errors. This study focused on
the factors that influence the acceptance of HIT among nurses in Saudi hospitals.
This research used a 6 stage mixed-methods research approach. Literature was
used to search for established models and frameworks of technology
acceptance, and the many factors that could play a role. In the field study, the
nature of practical HIT issues at the Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC)
and the Heraa Hospital were studied, and combined with literature to create a
HIT Implementation Issues Framework. The framework consolidates elements
from the Technological, Organisational, Environmental and Human dimensions.
The researcher participated in further PSMMC projects in the design and
implementation of the new Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation System and the
Nurses and Pharmacists’ Communication System. From the implementation
experience, pertinent factors were added to the Technology Acceptance Model
and the “Nurses Acceptance Model” was proposed. The proposed model has
eleven independent parameters, two dependent parameters, as well as seven
moderators of key relationships. A questionnaire with 71 entries was distributed
to over 2800 nurses in 52 wards in PSMMC. SPSS was used for data screening
and descriptive statistics. The SmartPLS software was used for analysis and
testing of the proposed hypotheses. The findings refined the “Nurses Acceptance
Model” and highlight the significance of User Involvement and Training.
The “Nurses Acceptance Model” enhances the scientific understanding of
variables that affect technology acceptance among nurses in Saudi hospitals.
The HIT Implementation Issues Framework helps hospital decision makers to
plan HIT projects to improve the likelihood of successful adoption
BriskStream: Scaling Data Stream Processing on Shared-Memory Multicore Architectures
We introduce BriskStream, an in-memory data stream processing system (DSPSs)
specifically designed for modern shared-memory multicore architectures.
BriskStream's key contribution is an execution plan optimization paradigm,
namely RLAS, which takes relative-location (i.e., NUMA distance) of each pair
of producer-consumer operators into consideration. We propose a branch and
bound based approach with three heuristics to resolve the resulting nontrivial
optimization problem. The experimental evaluations demonstrate that BriskStream
yields much higher throughput and better scalability than existing DSPSs on
multi-core architectures when processing different types of workloads.Comment: To appear in SIGMOD'1
DNA Chemical Reaction Network Design Synthesis and Compilation
The advantages of biomolecular computing include 1) the ability to interface with, monitor, and intelligently protect and maintain the functionality of living systems, 2) the ability to create computational devices with minimal energy needs and hazardous waste production during manufacture and lifecycle, 3) the ability to store large amounts of information for extremely long time periods, and 4) the ability to create computation analogous to human brain function. To realize these advantages over electronics, biomolecular computing is at a watershed moment in its evolution. Computing with entire molecules presents different challenges and requirements than computing just with electric charge. These challenges have led to ad-hoc design and programming methods with high development costs and limited device performance. At the present time, device building entails complete low-level detail immersion. We address these shortcomings by creation of a systems engineering process for building and programming DNA-based computing devices. Contributions of this thesis include numeric abstractions for nucleic acid sequence and secondary structure, and a set of algorithms which employ these abstractions. The abstractions and algorithms have been implemented into three artifacts: DNADL, a design description language; Pyxis, a molecular compiler and design toolset; and KCA, a simulation of DNA kinetics using a cellular automaton discretization. Our methods are applicable to other DNA nanotechnology constructions and may serve in the development of a full DNA computing model
Earth Observation Open Science and Innovation
geospatial analytics; social observatory; big earth data; open data; citizen science; open innovation; earth system science; crowdsourced geospatial data; citizen science; science in society; data scienc
Application of fragment-based drug discovery to membrane proteins
Membrane proteins are an interesting class due to the variety of cellular functions and their importance as pharmaceutical targets, but they pose significant challenges for fragment-based drug discovery approaches. Here we present the first successful use of biophysical methods to screen for fragment ligands to an integral membrane protein. Using the recently developed Target Immobilized NMR Screening (TINS) approach, we screened 1,200 fragments for binding to the enzyme Disulphide bond forming protein B. Biochemical and biophysical validation of the 8 most potent hits revealed an IC50 range of 7 to 200 uM, which could be categorized as cofactor binding inhibitors or mixed model inhibitors of both cofactor and substrate protein interaction. Our results establish the utility of fragment-based methods in the development of inhibitors of membrane proteins, making a wide variety3of important membrane bound pharmaceutical targets amenable to such an approach. We first tested the immobilization procedure on G protein coupled receptors and ion channels. Furthermore, we used Nanodiscs, an alternative solubilization strategy, to solubilize teh protein without detergents. This resulted in less broad NMR signals, less non-specific binding issues, and identification of the binders from the original screen, proving that the nanodisc solubilization technique is compatible with TINS.Medicinal Chemistr
Cutaneous Melanoma Classification: The Importance of High-Throughput Genomic Technologies
Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive tumor responsible for 90% of mortality related to
skin cancer. In the recent years, the discovery of driving mutations in melanoma has led to
better treatment approaches. The last decade has seen a genomic revolution in the field of
cancer. Such genomic revolution has led to the production of an unprecedented mole of
data. High-throughput genomic technologies have facilitated the genomic, transcriptomic
and epigenomic profiling of several cancers, including melanoma. Nevertheless, there are
a number of newer genomic technologies that have not yet been employed in large
studies. In this article we describe the current classification of cutaneous melanoma, we
review the current knowledge of the main genetic alterations of cutaneous melanoma and
their related impact on targeted therapies, and we describe the most recent highthroughput genomic technologies, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. We
hope that the current review will also help scientists to identify the most suitable
technology to address melanoma-related relevant questions. The translation of this
knowledge and all actual advancements into the clinical practice will be helpful in
better defining the different molecular subsets of melanoma patients and provide new
tools to address relevant questions on disease management. Genomic technologies
might indeed allow to better predict the biological - and, subsequently, clinical - behavior
for each subset of melanoma patients as well as to even identify all molecular changes in
tumor cell populations during disease evolution toward a real achievement of a
personalized medicine
Reports to the President
A compilation of annual reports for the 1999-2000 academic year, including a report from the President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as reports from the academic and administrative units of the Institute. The reports outline the year's goals, accomplishments, honors and awards, and future plans