Telemedicine using mobile telecommunication: towards syntactic interoperability in teleexpertise

Telemedicine allows collaborative activities between health professionals for the deployment of medical procedures carried out remotely by means of device using information and communication technologies. This article focuses on the Teleexpertise that allows collaboration between medical professionals in order to share knowledge and expert advices used as explanation elements for decision support. We propose a conceptual model integrating the FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents) Contract Net Protocol which permits to collect medical professionals’ answers for a request for teleexpertise in an efficient manner. Our model satisfies four requirements (coverage, QoS (Quality of Service) guarantees and prioritisation, mobility and roaming, service usability) on the configuration and operation of the underlying network and the services. Therefore, we provide an operational assistance by improvement of the networks quality of service via interoperable web services. Finally, we hope to bring a tangible contribution on the implementation of this suggested conceptualization that will allow to generate relevant and action-oriented finding

A framework for decision making on teleexpertise with traceability of the reasoning

This paper provides a methodological framework for decision making process to ensure its traceability generally in the context of telemedicine and particularly in the act of teleexpertise. This act permits to medical professionals and/or health professionals to collaborate in order to take suitable decisions for a patient diagnosis or treatment. The main problem dealing with teleexpertise is the following: How to ensure the traceability of the decisions making process? This problem is solved in this paper through a conceptualisation of a rigorous framework coupling semantic modelling and explicit reasoning which permits to fully support the analysis and rationale for decisions made. The logical semantic underlying this framework is the argumentative logicto provide adequate management of information with traceability of the reasoning including options and constraints. Thus our proposal will permit to formally ensure the traceability of reasoning in telemedicine and particularly in teleexpertise in order to favour the quality of telemedicine’s procedure checking. This traceability is to guarantee equitable access to the benefits of the collective knowledge and experience and to provide remote collaborative practices with a sufficient safety margin to guard against the legal requirements. An illustrative case study is provided by the modelling of a decision making process applied to teleexpertise for chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus type2

Combining conceptual graphs and argumentation for aiding in the teleexpertise

Current medical information systems are too complex to be meaningfully exploited. Hence there is a need to develop new strategies for maximising the exploitation of medical data to the benefit of medical professionals. It is against this backdrop that we want to propose a tangible contribution by providing a tool which combines conceptual graphs and Dung׳s argumentation system in order to assist medical professionals in their decision making process. The proposed tool allows medical professionals to easily manipulate and visualise queries and answers for making decisions during the practice of teleexpertise. The knowledge modelling is made using an open application programming interface (API) called CoGui, which offers the means for building structured knowledge bases with the dedicated functionalities of graph-based reasoning via retrieved data from different institutions (hospitals, national security centre, and nursing homes). The tool that we have described in this study supports a formal traceable structure of the reasoning with acceptable arguments to elucidate some ethical problems that occur very often in the telemedicine domain

Argumentation graphs with constraint-based reasoning for collaborative expertise

Collaborative processes are very important in telemedicine domain since they allow for making right decisions in complex situations with multidisciplinary staff. When modelling these collaborative processes, some inconsistencies can appear. In semantic modelling conceptual graphs), these inconsistencies are verified using constraints. In this work, collaborative processes are represented using an argumentation system modelled in a conceptual graph formalism where inconsistencies could be particular bad attack relation between arguments. To overcome these inconsistencies, two solutions are proposed. The first one is to weight the arguments evolving in the argumentation system on the basis of the competencies of the health professionals and the credibility of the sources justifying their advice (arguments), and the second one is to model some law concepts as constraints in order to check their compliance of the collaborative process

Políticas públicas de habitação e financeirização: 20 anos de produção de habitação em Azambuja (1995/2014)

As posições e ações dos decisores e responsáveis políticos, relativamente às soluções a implementar relativamente aos diferentes problemas habitacionais em Portugal, têm alternado entre o ‘apoio à pedra’, nomeadamente em situações de carências graves de habitação de estratos sociais insolventes, até ao ‘apoio à pessoa’, por exemplo na concessão de benefícios fiscais à aquisição de casa própria. As opções de políticas portuguesas conduziram à reorientação do sector financeiro português para a expansão do crédito, tanto para o financiamento à atividade da construção de habitação privada, como para a concessão de crédito para a sua aquisição, moldando a própria política pública de habitação. A produção de habitação no aglomerado urbano de Azambuja constitui o objeto para a caracterização do processo de urbanização e construção, com a recolha, análise e tratamento das múltiplas variáveis envolvidas, caracterizando-se assim o quadro da financeirização da habitação em Azambuja entre 1995 e 2014. Esta avaliação foi realizada, com a informação relativa a 688 fogos nomeadamente a que diz respeito aos valores de transação do solo e da habitação e dos montantes de crédito e respetivas taxas de juro. O nosso estudo revelou que o recurso ao crédito, com hipoteca do imóvel, constituiu a forma privilegiada de acesso à habitação e que, independentemente do momento da transação, mesmo em clima de contração económica em Portugal, esta solução foi encorajada pelas instituições financeiras, dado que, maioritariamente, o montante do crédito concedido foi superior ao valor de aquisição do fogo. Podemos concluir igualmente no nosso estudo, que a localização e distância ao centro, da urbanização e, consequentemente, do fogo, não determinam absolutamente os valores do solo e da habitação. O nosso estudo revelou ainda que a crise provocou a redução do volume da urbanização e da habitação. O fogo tipo, transacionado na vila de Azambuja no intervalo de tempo do nosso estudo, foi construído em 2002 e localiza-se em edifício multifamiliar implantado num lote resultante de alvará de loteamento. A habitação é do tipo T3, com área bruta privativa de 91,92 m2, foi adquirido por 105.274,00€ (1.145,28€ por unidade de área bruta privativa), dos quais 20.002,06 € (19%) correspondem à quota parte do valor de aquisição do solo onde está implantado. O adquirente recorreu ao crédito, tendo-lhe sido concedido 110.537,70 € (105% do valor de aquisição) com taxa de juro de 6,85%.The actions and the stances adopted by decision-makers and politicians, when pondering solutions for a variety of housing problems in Portugal, have switched between ‘support for building’ – namely when addressing a deep gap in housing among insolvent social cohorts – and ‘support for individuals’ – when granting tax waivers to first home buyers, for instance. Portuguese policy-making has redirected the Portuguese financial sector towards expanding credit, either by financing private housing developers or by financing homebuyers, thus shaping the housing public policy. The production of housing in the urban area of Azambuja is the basis for a description of building and urbanization processes, while collecting, analysing and processing multiple variables, thus characterising the framework in which housing financialisation took place in Azambuja from 1995 to 2014. This assessment includes mortgage data for 688 homes, namely land and housing transaction values, loan values and interest rates. We find that mortgage credit is the most common means of home acquisition and that, regardless of the time of transaction, even at a period of economic downturn in Portugal, this solution was encouraged by financial institutions, considering most of the loan values granted exceeded home prices. We also conclude that location and distance to the centre of residential properties do not have an absolute correlation with land and housing prices. Furthermore, we find that the economic crisis led to a decrease in new units and slowdown in new residential property developments. The standard unit sold in Azambuja within our analysis period was built in 2002 and is located in an apartment building subject to a plot allocation permit. It is a 3-bedroom unit with a gross floor area of 91.92 square meters, costing 105,274.00€ (1,145.28€ for each unit of the gross floor area), of which 20,002.06€ (19%) represent a fraction of the land value. The buyer obtained mortgage financing of 110,537.70€ (105% of the home price) at an interest rate of 6.85%

Spectral element modeling of three dimensional wave propagation in a self-gravitating Earth with an arbitrarily stratified outer core

This paper deals with the spectral element modeling of seismic wave propagation at the global scale. Two aspects relevant to low-frequency studies are particularly emphasized. First, the method is generalized beyond the Cowling approximation in order to fully account for the effects of self-gravitation. In particular, the perturbation of the gravity field outside the Earth is handled by a projection of the spectral element solution onto the basis of spherical harmonics. Second, we propose a new formulation inside the fluid which allows to account for an arbitrary density stratification. It is based upon a decomposition of the displacement into two scalar potentials, and results in a fully explicit fluid-solid coupling strategy. The implementation of the method is carefully detailed and its accuracy is demonstrated through a series of benchmark tests.Comment: Sent to Geophysical Journal International on July 29, 200

Soft Skills: how to make the young engineers aware of their new talents?

peer reviewedThe competency framework attached to the Life science engineering Master at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liege (Belgium) is composed of technical and scientific skills but also soft skills which are not connected to academic courses. For the training of these skills, university needs the collaboration of the professional world. Therefore, the role of our teachers evolves towards a guiding or mentoring role. They will help students to analyse their professional experiences in order to shape their professional identity, to bring to light their acquired skills. This article describes how the portfolio, used as internship’s report, will help students to gain the self-confidence about their abilities and how professors can use these reflexive analyses to evaluate the acquisition of these soft skills

Argumentation and graph properties

Argumentation theory is an area of interdisciplinary research that is suitable to characterise several diverse situations of reasoning and judgement in real world practices and challenges. In the discipline of Artificial Intelligence, argumentation is formalised by reasoning models based on building and evaluation of interacting arguments. In this argumentation framework, the semantics of acceptance plays a fundamental role in the argument evaluation process. The determination of accepted arguments under a given semantics (admissible, preferred, stable, etc.) can be a time-consuming and tedious (in number of steps) process. In this work we try to overcome this substantial process by providing a method to compute accepted arguments from an argumentation framework. The principle of this method is to combine mathematical properties (e.g. symmetry, asymmetry, strong connectivity and irreflexivity) of graphs built from the argumentation system to compute sets of accepted arguments. In this work, we combine several graph properties to provide three main propositions; one for identifying accepted arguments under the admissible, preferred semantics and the other to easily identify stable extension. The proofs of the suggested propositions are detailed and this is part of an approach designed to increase collaborative decision-making by improving the effectiveness of reasoning processes

αIIbβ3-integrin mediated adhesion of human platelets to a fibrinogen matrix triggers phospholipase C activation and phosphatidylinositol 3′,4′-bisphosphate accumulation

AbstractThis study focused on the variations in phosphoinositide metabolism depending upon αIIbβ3-integrin/fibrinogen interaction without previous activation of platelet agonist receptors. We found that adhesion of resting human platelets to immobilized fibrinogen stimulates phosphatidic acid production and a concomitant decrease in phosphatidylinositol 4′,5′-bisphosphate. These results, and the absence of a transphosphatidylation reaction, argue in favor of the activation of a phospholipase C. Moreover, we observed the accumulation of phosphatidylinositol 3′,4′-bisphosphate in adherent platelets as a consequence of the activation of a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. This effect was inhibited by ADP scavengers. Our results demonstrate that in adherent platelets, whereas phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activation is controlled by both αIIbβ-integrin engagement and released ADP, phospholipase C stimulation is triggered only by αIIbβ-integrin/fibrinogen interaction

Genome Analysis of Minibacterium massiliensis Highlights the Convergent Evolution of Water-Living Bacteria

Filtration usually eliminates water-living bacteria. Here, we report on the complete genome sequence of Minibacterium massiliensis, a β-proteobacteria that was recovered from 0.22-μm filtered water used for patients in the hospital. The unexpectedly large 4,110,251-nucleotide genome sequence of M. massiliensis was determined using the traditional shotgun sequencing approach. Bioinformatic analyses shows that the M. massiliensis genome sequence illustrates characteristic features of water-living bacteria, including overrepresentation of genes encoding transporters and transcription regulators. Phylogenomic analysis based on the gene content of available bacterial genome sequences displays a congruent evolution of water-living bacteria from various taxonomic origins, principally for genes involved in energy production and conversion, cell division, chromosome partitioning, and lipid metabolism. This phylogenomic clustering partially results from lateral gene transfer, which appears to be more frequent in water than in other environments. The M. massiliensis genome analyses strongly suggest that water-living bacteria are a common source for genes involved in heavy-metal resistance, antibiotics resistance, and virulence factors