SAT based Enforcement of Domotic Effects in Smart Environments

The emergence of economically viable and efficient sensor technology provided impetus to the development of smart devices (or appliances). Modern smart environments are equipped with a multitude of smart devices and sensors, aimed at delivering intelligent services to the users of smart environments. The presence of these diverse smart devices has raised a major problem of managing environments. A rising solution to the problem is the modeling of user goals and intentions, and then interacting with the environments using user defined goals. `Domotic Effects' is a user goal modeling framework, which provides Ambient Intelligence (AmI) designers and integrators with an abstract layer that enables the definition of generic goals in a smart environment, in a declarative way, which can be used to design and develop intelligent applications. The high-level nature of domotic effects also allows the residents to program their personal space as they see fit: they can define different achievement criteria for a particular generic goal, e.g., by defining a combination of devices having some particular states, by using domain-specific custom operators. This paper describes an approach for the automatic enforcement of domotic effects in case of the Boolean application domain, suitable for intelligent monitoring and control in domotic environments. Effect enforcement is the ability to determine device configurations that can achieve a set of generic goals (domotic effects). The paper also presents an architecture to implement the enforcement of Boolean domotic effects, and results obtained from carried out experiments prove the feasibility of the proposed approach and highlight the responsiveness of the implemented effect enforcement architectur

Pankkialan operatiiviset riskit tulevaisuudessa

Opinnäytetyön tarkoitus oli kartoittaa operatiivisten riskien tulevaisuuden näkymiä pankkitoiminnassa Suomessa. Opinnäytetyön tutkimuksellisena tavoitteena oli asiantuntijoiden avustuksella selvittää tulevaisuuden näkymiä riskimaailmassa. Kehittämistavoitteena oli tuottaa konkreettisia suuntaviivoja tulevaisuuden riskien näkökulmaan ja niiden hallinnointiin. Tietoperustassa tarkasteltiin finanssialaa pankkialan näkökulmasta. Riskin, riskienhallinnan ja operatiivisen riskin määritelmiä sekä tulevaisuuden ennakointia. Tutkimuksellisessa osiossa tarkoituksena oli tuottaa tutkittavasta aiheesta sellaista tietoa ja ymmärrystä, jota voidaan hyödyntää tulevaisuudessa operatiivisten riskien tunnistamisessa ja hallinnassa. Pääaineiston keruu toteutettiin Delfoi-menetelmällä antamalla viisi tulevaisuuden väittämää panelistien arvioitavaksi. Tutkimustulokset osoittivat, että tulevaisuuden ennakoinnin ja riskienhallinnan yhdistäminen on edelleen haastavaa. Digitalisaatio tuo omat haasteet riskienhallinnalle, henkilöstön erikoisosaaminen nousee kilpailuvaltiksi, vastuullisuuteen kiinnitetään entistä enemmän huomiota asiakkaiden näkökulmasta sekä pankkitoiminta koetaan edelleen ihmisten väliseksi luottamuskaupaksi eikä sitä suhdetta voi digitalisoida. Johtopäätöksenä todetaan, että esille nousee selkeästi neljä teemaa, joihin tulee riskienhallinnan tulevaisuuden näkökulmasta reagoida. Nämä ovat digitalisaatio ja palveluiden siirtyminen verkkoon tuo haasteita verkkoturvallisuuden kannalta, yhteistyön vahvistaminen eri toimijoiden välillä noussee kilpailuvaltiksi, riskienhallinnan fokusointi vaatii robotiikan ja osaavan henkilöstön yhdistelmää sekä vastuullinen yritystoiminta vahvistuu. Opinnäytetyön tuotoksena tunnistettiin neljä mahdollista tulevaisuuden riskiä ja niiden hallintakeinot. Tutkimus antaa kokonaiskuvan tulevaisuuden näkökulmista operatiivisten riskien tunnistamisessa ja hallinnoinnissa. Opinnäytetyö on hyödynnettävissä yleisesti organisaatioissa riskienhallinnan kehittämisen tukena.The purpose of this study is to examine the future of the banking industry in Finland from the perspective of operational risks. The aim of this research is to examine with the help of experts the future views in the risk industry and to create a better insight of how the future looks and how operational risks can be managed. The theory section focuses on the financial industry from the perspective of banking, future forecasts and the definition of risk, risk management and operational risk. In the research section the aim was to produce information about the topic that can be used for identification and manage-ment of operational risks in the future. The main research data acquisition was conducted using the Delfoi-method by providing five future propositions to be evaluated by chosen panelists. The results of the study showed that combining the future perspective and risk management is still challenging. Digitalization brings its own challenges to risk management, special expertise of the employees will become a competitive asset, customers will pay increasing attention to sustainability and banking will still be considered as a confidential relationship between people, which therefore cannot be digitalized. The conclusion was that there are four clear themes that must be responded from the future perspective of risk management. These themes are digitalization and services moving online, which brings challenges from the perspective of online security, open cooperation and sharing of information will become a competitive asset, focusing of risk management will require a combination of robotics and humans, and sustainable entrepreneurship will become stronger. As an outcome of this study, a concept of possible future operational risks was gained, as well as risk management methods. The study provides an overview into the perspectives of the future of operational risk identification and management, and is also publicly available to give support to be utilized in the development of risk management in organizations

Assessment and management of iatrogenic withdrawal syndrome and delirium in pediatric intensive care units across Europe: an ESPNIC survey.

Analgesia and sedation are essential for the care of children in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU); however, when prolonged, they may be associated with iatrogenic withdrawal syndrome (IWS) and delirium. We sought to evaluate current practices on IWS and delirium assessment and management (including non-pharmacologic strategies as early mobilization), and to investigate associations between presence of an analgosedation protocol and IWS and delirium monitoring, analgosedation weaning, and early mobilization. A multicenter cross-sectional survey-based study collecting data from one experienced physician or nurse per PICU in Europe was conducted from January to April 2021. We then investigated differences among PICUs that did or did not follow an analgosedation protocol. Among 357 PICUs, 215 (60%) responded across 27 countries. IWS was systematically monitored with a validated scale in 62% of PICUs, mostly using the Withdrawal Assessment Tool-1 (53%). Main first-line treatment for IWS was a rescue bolus with interruption of weaning (41%). Delirium was systematically monitored in 58% of PICUs, mostly with the Cornell Assessment of Pediatric Delirium scale (48%) and the Sophia Observation Scale for Pediatric Delirium (34%). Main reported first-line treatment for delirium was dexmedetomidine (45%) or antipsychotic drugs (40%). Seventy-one percent of PICUs reported to follow an analgosedation protocol. Multivariate analyses adjusted for PICU characteristics showed that PICUs using a protocol were significantly more likely to systematically monitor IWS (Odds Ratio [OR ]1.92, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.01-3.67) and delirium (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.07-3.72), use a protocol for analgosedation weaning (OR 6.38, 95% CI 3.20-12.71), and promote mobilization (OR 3.38, 95% CI 1.63-7.03). Monitoring and management of IWS and delirium are highly variable among European PICUs. The use of an analgosedation protocol was associated with increased likelihood of monitoring IWS and delirium, performing a structured analgosedation weaning, and promoting mobilization. Education on this topic and interprofessional collaborations are highly needed to help reduce the burden of analgosedation-associated adverse outcomes

Organizational characteristics of European pediatric onco-critical care: An international cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND Intensified treatment protocols have improved survival of pediatric oncology patients. However, these treatment protocols are associated with increased treatment-related morbidity requiring admission to pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). We aimed to describe the organizational characteristics and processes of care for this patient group across PICUs in Europe. METHODS A web-based survey was sent to PICU directors or representative physicians between February and June 2021. RESULTS Responses were obtained from 77 PICUs of 12 European countries. Organizational characteristics were similar across the different countries of Europe. The median number of PICU beds was 12 (IQR 8-16). The majority of the PICUs was staffed by pediatric intensivists and had a 24/7 intensivist coverage. Most PICUs had a nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:1 or 1:2. The median numbers of yearly planned and unplanned PICU admissions of pediatric cancer patients were 20 (IQR 10-45) and 10 (IQR 10-30, respectively. Oncology specific practices within PICU were less common in participating centres. This included implementation of oncology protocols in PICU (30%), daily rounds of PICU physicians on the wards (13%), joint mortality and morbidity meetings or complex patients' discussions (30% and 40%, respectively) and participation of parents during clinical rounds (40%). CONCLUSION Our survey provides an overview on the delivery of critical care for oncology patients in PICU across European countries. Multidisciplinary care for these vulnerable and challenging patients remains complex and challenging. Future studies need to determine the effects of differences in PICU organization and processes of care on patients' outcome