AI for IT Operations (AIOps) on Cloud Platforms: Reviews, Opportunities and Challenges

Artificial Intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) aims to combine the power of AI with the big data generated by IT Operations processes, particularly in cloud infrastructures, to provide actionable insights with the primary goal of maximizing availability. There are a wide variety of problems to address, and multiple use-cases, where AI capabilities can be leveraged to enhance operational efficiency. Here we provide a review of the AIOps vision, trends challenges and opportunities, specifically focusing on the underlying AI techniques. We discuss in depth the key types of data emitted by IT Operations activities, the scale and challenges in analyzing them, and where they can be helpful. We categorize the key AIOps tasks as - incident detection, failure prediction, root cause analysis and automated actions. We discuss the problem formulation for each task, and then present a taxonomy of techniques to solve these problems. We also identify relatively under explored topics, especially those that could significantly benefit from advances in AI literature. We also provide insights into the trends in this field, and what are the key investment opportunities

WiFi-Based Human Activity Recognition Using Attention-Based BiLSTM

Recently, significant efforts have been made to explore human activity recognition (HAR) techniques that use information gathered by existing indoor wireless infrastructures through WiFi signals without demanding the monitored subject to carry a dedicated device. The key intuition is that different activities introduce different multi-paths in WiFi signals and generate different patterns in the time series of channel state information (CSI). In this paper, we propose and evaluate a full pipeline for a CSI-based human activity recognition framework for 12 activities in three different spatial environments using two deep learning models: ABiLSTM and CNN-ABiLSTM. Evaluation experiments have demonstrated that the proposed models outperform state-of-the-art models. Also, the experiments show that the proposed models can be applied to other environments with different configurations, albeit with some caveats. The proposed ABiLSTM model achieves an overall accuracy of 94.03%, 91.96%, and 92.59% across the 3 target environments. While the proposed CNN-ABiLSTM model reaches an accuracy of 98.54%, 94.25% and 95.09% across those same environments

Analyzing Granger causality in climate data with time series classification methods

Attribution studies in climate science aim for scientifically ascertaining the influence of climatic variations on natural or anthropogenic factors. Many of those studies adopt the concept of Granger causality to infer statistical cause-effect relationships, while utilizing traditional autoregressive models. In this article, we investigate the potential of state-of-the-art time series classification techniques to enhance causal inference in climate science. We conduct a comparative experimental study of different types of algorithms on a large test suite that comprises a unique collection of datasets from the area of climate-vegetation dynamics. The results indicate that specialized time series classification methods are able to improve existing inference procedures. Substantial differences are observed among the methods that were tested

Textbook of Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management

Implementing safety practices in healthcare saves lives and improves the quality of care: it is therefore vital to apply good clinical practices, such as the WHO surgical checklist, to adopt the most appropriate measures for the prevention of assistance-related risks, and to identify the potential ones using tools such as reporting & learning systems. The culture of safety in the care environment and of human factors influencing it should be developed from the beginning of medical studies and in the first years of professional practice, in order to have the maximum impact on clinicians' and nurses' behavior. Medical errors tend to vary with the level of proficiency and experience, and this must be taken into account in adverse events prevention. Human factors assume a decisive importance in resilient organizations, and an understanding of risk control and containment is fundamental for all medical and surgical specialties. This open access book offers recommendations and examples of how to improve patient safety by changing practices, introducing organizational and technological innovations, and creating effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care systems, in order to spread the quality and patient safety culture among the new generation of healthcare professionals, and is intended for residents and young professionals in different clinical specialties

2021 Student Symposium Research and Creative Activity Book of Abstracts

The UMaine Student Symposium (UMSS) is an annual event that celebrates undergraduate and graduate student research and creative work. Students from a variety of disciplines present their achievements with video presentations. It’s the ideal occasion for the community to see how UMaine students’ work impacts locally – and beyond. The 2021 Student Symposium Research and Creative Activity Book of Abstracts includes a complete list of student presenters as well as abstracts related to their works

Practical Clinical Andrology

This open access book offers a valuable resource for understanding the correct pathways in the context of sexual disorders, couple reproduction, gender identity dysphoria, conditions for which patients commonly ask for consultation and treatment. Based on clinical evidence, international guidelines and experts experience, practical clinical management strategies are presented for each condition. Each clinical care pathway is based on updated algorithm, level of evidence, photos and video-clips that describes the clinical presentations and the best practice management through diagnostic tools and medical or surgical treatment. Leading experts from the most important center of excellence in the field of sexual medicine joined to cover the field of andrology in its entirety, each of them dealing with a single topic from the top of their recognized experience and providing a complete and update textbook that will help urologists and other physicians in their daily clinical practice. This book is thought to be a practical and valuable reference for urologists, gynecologists, endocrinologists, psychiatrics and psychologists, and residents who are not specialty trained in andrology. It is designed for both young fellows training in different specialties and coming into contact with andrological issues for the first time and also more experienced clinicians and surgeons requiring updated guidelines and clear advice on the most controversial issues. This book will represent an invaluable quick consulting tool, updated in its scientific contents and rich in tables, images and video-clips

P14.02 An electronic behaviour diary: Monitoring the effects of advanced obstetric surgical skills training

Objective: Training should lead to improvements in the quality of clinical care delivery. It is essential to follow up participants after a training intervention to monitor changes in behaviour associated with adoption of lessons learned into clinical practice. We introduced an electronic diary to facilitate monitoring whilst minimising effort for participants. Method: An electronic diary was created using a freely available on-line platform. Following a training intervention on advanced obstetric surgical skills, obstetric residents from Kenya were invited to pilot completing the diary after their labour ward shifts. Entries were anonymised. Participants were asked to enumerate the times they utilised specific skills, or to state why they had been unable to do so, using tick box options. Reflections on skills used were entered using free comments. Results: All participants reported changed behaviours, for example, improved surgical knot-tying, safer needle handling, separate closure of uterine incision angles and techniques for delivery of the impacted fetal head. 6 reported conducting vaginal breech birth and 6 performed vacuum-assisted birth. All reported improvements in use of the safe surgical checklist, obtaining consent and respectful maternity care. 7 had participated in newborn resuscitation. Reflections suggested participants experienced improved levels of confidence and satisfaction when implementing new skills. Conclusion: This pilot study has demonstrated the feasibility of monitoring clinical behaviour change following training using an electronic platform. Monitoring the effect of training is essential to prove that training results in improvements to clinical practice. We plan to roll out this intervention following future training interventions