Visual Analytics for Health Monitoring and Risk Management in CARRE

With the rise of wearable sensor technologies, an increasing number of wearable health and medical sensors are available on the market, which enables not only people but also doctors to utilise them to monitor people’s health in such a consistent way that the sensors may become people’s lifetime companion. The consistent measurements from a variety of wearable sensors implies that a huge amount of data needs to be processed, which cannot be achieved by traditional processing methods. Visual analytics is designed to promote knowledge discovery and utilisation of big data via mature visual paradigms with well-designed user interactions and has become indispensable in big data analysis. In this paper we introduce the role of visual analytics for health monitoring and risk management in the European Commission funded project CARRE which aims to provide innovative means for the management of cardiorenal diseases with the assistance of wearable sensors. The visual analytics components of timeline and parallel coordinates for health monitoring and of node-link diagrams, chord diagrams and sankey diagrams for risk analysis are presented to achieve ubiquitous and lifelong health and risk monitoring to promote people’s health

MyHealthAvatar and CARRE: case studies of interactive visualisation for Internet-enabled sensor-assisted health monitoring and risk analysis

With the progress of wearable sensor technologies, more wearable health sensors have been made available on the market, which enables not only people to monitor their health and lifestyle in a continuous way but also doctors to utilise them to make better diagnoses. Continuous measurement from a variety of wearable sensors implies that a huge amount of data needs to be collected, stored, processed and presented, which cannot be achieved by traditional data processing methods. Visualisation is designed to promote knowledge discovery and utilisation via mature visual paradigms with well-designed user interactions and has become indispensable in data analysis. In this paper we introduce the role of visualisation in wearable sensor-assisted health analysis platforms by case studies of two projects funded by the European Commission: MyHealthAvatar and CARRE. The former focuses on health sensor data collection and lifestyle tracking while the latter aims to provide innovative means for the management of cardiorenal diseases with the assistance of wearable sensors. The roles of visualisation components including timeline, parallel coordinates, map, node-link diagrams, Sankey diagrams, etc. are introduced and discussed

A preliminary audit of medical and aid provision in English Rugby union clubs:compliance with Regulation 9

BackgroundGoverning bodies are largely responsible for the monitoring and management of risks associated with a safe playing environment, yet adherence to regulations is currently unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate and evaluate the current status of medical personnel, facilities, and equipment in Rugby Union clubs at regional level in England.MethodsA nationwide cross-sectional survey of 242 registered clubs was undertaken, where clubs were surveyed online on their current medical personnel, facilities, and equipment provision, according to regulation 9 of the Rugby Football Union (RFU).ResultsOverall, 91 (45. 04%) surveys were returned from the successfully contacted recipients. Of the completed responses, only 23.61% (n = 17) were found to be compliant with regulations. Furthermore, 30.56% (n = 22) of clubs were unsure if their medical personnel had required qualifications; thus, compliance could not be determined. There was a significant correlation (p = −0.029, r = 0.295) between club level and numbers of practitioners. There was no significant correlation indicated between the number of practitioners/number of teams and number of practitioners/number of players. There were significant correlations found between club level and equipment score (p = 0.003, r = −0.410), club level and automated external defibrillator (AED) access (p = 0.002, r = −0.352) and practitioner level and AED access (p = 0.0001, r = 0.404). Follow-up, thematic analysis highlighted widespread club concern around funding/cost, awareness, availability of practitioners and AED training.ConclusionThe proportion of clubs not adhering overall compliance with Regulation 9 of the RFU is concerning for player welfare, and an overhaul, nationally, is required

A visual analytics approach for visualisation and knowledge discovery from time-varying personal life data

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in ful filment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyToday, the importance of big data from lifestyles and work activities has been the focus of much research. At the same time, advances in modern sensor technologies have enabled self-logging of a signi cant number of daily activities and movements. Lifestyle logging produces a wide variety of personal data along the lifespan of individuals, including locations, movements, travel distance, step counts and the like, and can be useful in many areas such as healthcare, personal life management, memory recall, and socialisation. However, the amount of obtainable personal life logging data has enormously increased and stands in need of effective processing, analysis, and visualisation to provide hidden insights owing to the lack of semantic information (particularly in spatiotemporal data), complexity, large volume of trivial records, and absence of effective information visualisation on a large scale. Meanwhile, new technologies such as visual analytics have emerged with great potential in data mining and visualisation to overcome the challenges in handling such data and to support individuals in many aspects of their life. Thus, this thesis contemplates the importance of scalability and conducts a comprehensive investigation into visual analytics and its impact on the process of knowledge discovery from the European Commission project MyHealthAvatar at the Centre for Visualisation and Data Analytics by actively involving individuals in order to establish a credible reasoning and effectual interactive visualisation of such multivariate data with particular focus on lifestyle and personal events. To this end, this work widely reviews the foremost existing work on data mining (with the particular focus on semantic enrichment and ranking), data visualisation (of time-oriented, personal, and spatiotemporal data), and methodical evaluations of such approaches. Subsequently, a novel automated place annotation is introduced with multilevel probabilistic latent semantic analysis to automatically attach relevant information to the collected personal spatiotemporal data with low or no semantic information in order to address the inadequate information, which is essential for the process of knowledge discovery. Correspondingly, a multi-signi ficance event ranking model is introduced by involving a number of factors as well as individuals' preferences, which can influence the result within the process of analysis towards credible and high-quality knowledge discovery. The data mining models are assessed in terms of accurateness and performance. The results showed that both models are highly capable of enriching the raw data and providing significant events based on user preferences. An interactive visualisation is also designed and implemented including a set of novel visual components signifi cantly based upon human perception and attentiveness to visualise the extracted knowledge. Each visual component is evaluated iteratively based on usability and perceptibility in order to enhance the visualisation towards reaching the goal of this thesis. Lastly, three integrated visual analytics tools (platforms) are designed and implemented in order to demonstrate how the data mining models and interactive visualisation can be exploited to support different aspects of personal life, such as lifestyle, life pattern, and memory recall (reminiscence). The result of the evaluation for the three integrated visual analytics tools showed that this visual analytics approach can deliver a remarkable experience in gaining knowledge and supporting the users' life in certain aspects

Internal Controls in Small City Government

The flexible design multiple case study was performed to broaden the understanding of the possible rationale for city government officials\u27 failing to implement effective internal controls related to the global business problem of occupational fraud. The leadership of an organization should assume a stewardship attitude to reduce fraud risk by designing, implementing, monitoring internal controls, and testing their effectiveness. Asset misappropriation from occupational fraud results in the loss of assets and potential business failure. The research questions explored the internal control procedures implemented to prevent and detect property theft. Additionally, the research questions addressed the strategies implemented to establish segregation of duties and testing of internal controls for effectiveness. The stewardship theory was utilized to understand the leader\u27s responsibility to protect the assets. The fraud triangle theory was applied to evaluate if internal controls were designed to monitor each of the three components. Interviews of 25 participants involved with small city governments in the central United States were conducted, and coinciding city documents were reviewed. The researcher identified five themes as the result of coding the data collected. The findings included how the leadership failed to design internal controls to monitor the pressure and rationalization components of the fraud triangle theory, or test internal controls for effectiveness. The researcher also discovered the leaders’ have a stewardship attitude to protect the assets from misappropriation. The study was conducted to improve business practices based on Biblical precepts of exhibiting exceptional stewardship over God-given authority

A systematic literature review of data science, data analytics and machine learning applied to healthcare engineering systems

The objective of this paper is to assess and synthesize the published literature related to the application of data analytics, big data, data mining, and machine learning to healthcare engineering systems. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to obtain the most relevant papers related to the research study from three different platforms: EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and Scopus. The literature was assessed and synthesized, conducting analysis associated with the publications, authors, and content. From the SLR, 576 publications were identified and analyzed. The research area seems to show the characteristics of a growing field with new research areas evolving and applications being explored. In addition, the main authors and collaboration groups publishing in this research area were identified throughout a social network analysis. This could lead new and current authors to identify researchers with common interests on the field. The use of the SLR methodology does not guarantee that all relevant publications related to the research are covered and analyzed. However, the authors’ previous knowledge and the nature of the publications were used to select different platforms. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents the most comprehensive literature-based study on the fields of data analytics, big data, data mining, and machine learning applied to healthcare engineering systems.N/

Cyber-Physical Threat Intelligence for Critical Infrastructures Security

Modern critical infrastructures can be considered as large scale Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). Therefore, when designing, implementing, and operating systems for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), the boundaries between physical security and cybersecurity are blurred. Emerging systems for Critical Infrastructures Security and Protection must therefore consider integrated approaches that emphasize the interplay between cybersecurity and physical security techniques. Hence, there is a need for a new type of integrated security intelligence i.e., Cyber-Physical Threat Intelligence (CPTI). This book presents novel solutions for integrated Cyber-Physical Threat Intelligence for infrastructures in various sectors, such as Industrial Sites and Plants, Air Transport, Gas, Healthcare, and Finance. The solutions rely on novel methods and technologies, such as integrated modelling for cyber-physical systems, novel reliance indicators, and data driven approaches including BigData analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Some of the presented approaches are sector agnostic i.e., applicable to different sectors with a fair customization effort. Nevertheless, the book presents also peculiar challenges of specific sectors and how they can be addressed. The presented solutions consider the European policy context for Security, Cyber security, and Critical Infrastructure protection, as laid out by the European Commission (EC) to support its Member States to protect and ensure the resilience of their critical infrastructures. Most of the co-authors and contributors are from European Research and Technology Organizations, as well as from European Critical Infrastructure Operators. Hence, the presented solutions respect the European approach to CIP, as reflected in the pillars of the European policy framework. The latter includes for example the Directive on security of network and information systems (NIS Directive), the Directive on protecting European Critical Infrastructures, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Cybersecurity Act Regulation. The sector specific solutions that are described in the book have been developed and validated in the scope of several European Commission (EC) co-funded projects on Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), which focus on the listed sectors. Overall, the book illustrates a rich set of systems, technologies, and applications that critical infrastructure operators could consult to shape their future strategies. It also provides a catalogue of CPTI case studies in different sectors, which could be useful for security consultants and practitioners as well