The Role of Information Products and Presentation in Organisations

This research looks at how organisations manage that area of their activities whose function is to give essential information to their inner and outside worlds, in the form o f information products’ - print on paper or electronic - through which information is presented for use. It sets information products in a context in which they have not commonly been considered: the organisations which create them; and it seeks to illuminate them with relevant research and practice from the disciplines of information science and information design. The research was conducted by means of case studies over a five-year period in ten organisations - three for whom information products constituted the main ‘offering’ and seven where they supported other products. In the early stages it appeared that little had changed since the 1970s, when the author worked in this field. At that time, few organisations had an overall policy for their whole range of information products, related to their key strategic objectives; few made any serious attempt to assess the costs to themselves and their customers, clients or public of badly presented information products, or sought to assess the value of the products in relation to their objectives; and few employed appropriately trained staff to manage this aspect of their activities. Over the period of the study, however, the practice of all the organisations in these respects advanced in various ways. The experience of developing web sites and intranets brought about a particularly noticeable change in the approach of some organisations to their information products and their place in a strategy for information. A pilot extension of one case study into a second stage involved the application of a methodology for assessing the value of intangibles. It provided some useful indications of the value of information products in supporting a main product with which they were associated, and of the value contributed by information and knowledge to the main product. The account of the research concludes with a theory of information products modified in the light of findings from practice, and with proposals for helping organisations deal with the issues of managing information products as part of their overall management of information

Sparse Positional Strategies for Safety Games

We consider the problem of obtaining sparse positional strategies for safety games. Such games are a commonly used model in many formal methods, as they make the interaction of a system with its environment explicit. Often, a winning strategy for one of the players is used as a certificate or as an artefact for further processing in the application. Small such certificates, i.e., strategies that can be written down very compactly, are typically preferred. For safety games, we only need to consider positional strategies. These map game positions of a player onto a move that is to be taken by the player whenever the play enters that position. For representing positional strategies compactly, a common goal is to minimize the number of positions for which a winning player's move needs to be defined such that the game is still won by the same player, without visiting a position with an undefined next move. We call winning strategies in which the next move is defined for few of the player's positions sparse. Unfortunately, even roughly approximating the density of the sparsest strategy for a safety game has been shown to be NP-hard. Thus, to obtain sparse strategies in practice, one either has to apply some heuristics, or use some exhaustive search technique, like ILP (integer linear programming) solving. In this paper, we perform a comparative study of currently available methods to obtain sparse winning strategies for the safety player in safety games. We consider techniques from common knowledge, such as using ILP or SAT (satisfiability) solving, and a novel technique based on iterative linear programming. The results of this paper tell us if current techniques are already scalable enough for practical use.Comment: In Proceedings SYNT 2012, arXiv:1207.055

Changes in Hospitalization Associated with Introducing the Resident Assessment Instrument

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111190/1/j.1532-5415.1997.tb02973.x.pd

FoldIndex©: a simple tool to predict whether a given protein sequence is intrinsically unfolded

Summary: An easy-to-use, versatile and freely available graphic web server, FoldIndex© is described: it predicts if a given protein sequence is intrinsically unfolded implementing the algorithm of Uversky and co-workers, which is based on the average residue hydrophobicity and net charge of the sequence. FoldIndex© has an error rate comparable to that of more sophisticated fold prediction methods. Sliding windows permit identification of large regions within a protein that possess folding propensities different from those of the whole protein. Availability: FoldIndex© can be accessed at http://bioportal.weizmann.ac.il/fldbin/findex Contact: [email protected] Supplementary information: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/sb/faculty_pages/Sussman/papers/suppl/Prilusky_200

Formats of Winning Strategies for Six Types of Pushdown Games

The solution of parity games over pushdown graphs (Walukiewicz '96) was the first step towards an effective theory of infinite-state games. It was shown that winning strategies for pushdown games can be implemented again as pushdown automata. We continue this study and investigate the connection between game presentations and winning strategies in altogether six cases of game arenas, among them realtime pushdown systems, visibly pushdown systems, and counter systems. In four cases we show by a uniform proof method that we obtain strategies implementable by the same type of pushdown machine as given in the game arena. We prove that for the two remaining cases this correspondence fails. In the conclusion we address the question of an abstract criterion that explains the results

Parallel symbolic state-space exploration is difficult, but what is the alternative?

State-space exploration is an essential step in many modeling and analysis problems. Its goal is to find the states reachable from the initial state of a discrete-state model described. The state space can used to answer important questions, e.g., "Is there a dead state?" and "Can N become negative?", or as a starting point for sophisticated investigations expressed in temporal logic. Unfortunately, the state space is often so large that ordinary explicit data structures and sequential algorithms cannot cope, prompting the exploration of (1) parallel approaches using multiple processors, from simple workstation networks to shared-memory supercomputers, to satisfy large memory and runtime requirements and (2) symbolic approaches using decision diagrams to encode the large structured sets and relations manipulated during state-space generation. Both approaches have merits and limitations. Parallel explicit state-space generation is challenging, but almost linear speedup can be achieved; however, the analysis is ultimately limited by the memory and processors available. Symbolic methods are a heuristic that can efficiently encode many, but not all, functions over a structured and exponentially large domain; here the pitfalls are subtler: their performance varies widely depending on the class of decision diagram chosen, the state variable order, and obscure algorithmic parameters. As symbolic approaches are often much more efficient than explicit ones for many practical models, we argue for the need to parallelize symbolic state-space generation algorithms, so that we can realize the advantage of both approaches. This is a challenging endeavor, as the most efficient symbolic algorithm, Saturation, is inherently sequential. We conclude by discussing challenges, efforts, and promising directions toward this goal

Experimental Aspects of Synthesis

We discuss the problem of experimentally evaluating linear-time temporal logic (LTL) synthesis tools for reactive systems. We first survey previous such work for the currently publicly available synthesis tools, and then draw conclusions by deriving useful schemes for future such evaluations. In particular, we explain why previous tools have incompatible scopes and semantics and provide a framework that reduces the impact of this problem for future experimental comparisons of such tools. Furthermore, we discuss which difficulties the complex workflows that begin to appear in modern synthesis tools induce on experimental evaluations and give answers to the question how convincing such evaluations can still be performed in such a setting.Comment: In Proceedings iWIGP 2011, arXiv:1102.374

Tratamiento renal conservador en ancianos con enfermedad renal crónica avanzada

Fundamento. Los resultados en salud del tratamiento renal sustitutivo (TRS) en el anciano han hecho que el tratamiento renal conservador (TRC) sea una opción terapéutica en la enfermedad renal crónica avanzada. Sin embargo, se sabe poco sobre la evolución de estos pacientes, por lo que el objetivo fue analizar la supervivencia de los pacientes ancianos en TRS y TRC y evaluar el efecto de las variables relacionadas con el inicio de ambos tratamientos. Método. Estudio de cohortes prospectivo de pacientes >75 años en TRS y TRC. Se realizó un análisis de supervivencia incluyendo la valoración de la función renal y variables demográficas y clínicas, comorbilidad, fragilidad y situación funcional, cognitiva, nutricional y social. Resultados. Cohorte de 37 pacientes en TRS y 82 en TRC. Los pacientes en TRC eran significativamente más ancianos, con mayor frecuencia de evento vascular, mayor comorbilidad (Charlson>8), peor situación funcional (Barthel), mayor riesgo de deterioro cognitivo (Pfeiffer) y malnutrición (MNA-SF), y mayor fragilidad y deterioro sociofamiliar. La tasa de mortalidad fue inferior en pacientes en TRS (8, 7 vs 23/1.000 pacientes-mes; HR= 0, 37; p=0, 018) pero el ajuste por los diferentes síndromes geriátricos analizados redujo considerablemente esta ventaja de supervivencia. Conclusiones. La comorbilidad medida por el índice de Charlson fue predictor independiente de mortalidad en pacientes ancianos con enfermedad renal crónica avanzada. En aquellos pacientes ancianos con Charlson mayor de 8 puntos el TRS no mejoró la supervivencia respecto del TRC. Background. The poor health outcomes of Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) in the elderly has promoted Conservative Management (CM) as a therapeutic option in advanced chronic kidney disease. However, there is still a lack of evidence about prognosis of these patients; thus, the aim was to analyze the survival rate of elderly patients under CM and RRT and evaluate the variables related to the initiation of such treatments in clinical practice. Methods. Prospective cohort study of RRT and CM patients older than 75 years. Renal function parameters and geriatric assessments were carried out. This evaluation included: analysis of comorbidity, functional, cognitive, frailty, nutritional and socio-family status. Results. Cohort of 37 RRT and 82 CM patients. CM patients were significantly older, with more frequency of history of vascular event, more comorbility (Charlson), worse functional situation (Barthel), higher risks of cognitive impairment (Pfeiffer) and malnutrition (MNA-SF), and higher frailty and socio-familiar impairment. Mortality rate was lower in RRT patients (8.72 vs. 3/1, 000 patients/month; HR= 0.37, p=0.018), but survival advantage reduced drastically after adjustment for the different geriatric syndromes analyzed. Conclusions. Charlson’s comorbidity was found to be an independent mortality predictor in elderly patients with advanced chronic kidney disease. Dialysis did not improve survival with respect to conservative treatment in patients with Charlson higher than 8 points

Implementing goals of care conversations with veterans in VA long-term care setting: a mixed methods protocol

Abstract Background The program “Implementing Goals of Care Conversations with Veterans in VA LTC Settings” is proposed in partnership with the US Veterans Health Administration (VA) National Center for Ethics in Health Care and the Geriatrics and Extended Care Program Offices, together with the VA Office of Nursing Services. The three projects in this program are designed to support a new system-wide mandate requiring providers to conduct and systematically record conversations with veterans about their preferences for care, particularly life-sustaining treatments. These treatments include cardiac resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, and other forms of life support. However, veteran preferences for care go beyond whether or not they receive life-sustaining treatments to include issues such as whether or not they want to be hospitalized if they are acutely ill, and what kinds of comfort care they would like to receive. Methods Three projects, all focused on improving the provision of veteran-centered care, are proposed. The projects will be conducted in Community Living Centers (VA-owned nursing homes) and VA Home-Based Primary Care programs in five regional networks in the Veterans Health Administration. In all the projects, we will use data from context and barrier and facilitator assessments to design feedback reports for staff to help them understand how well they are meeting the requirement to have conversations with veterans about their preferences and to document them appropriately. We will also use learning collaboratives—meetings in which staff teams come together and problem-solve issues they encounter in how to get veterans’ preferences expressed and documented, and acted on—to support action planning to improve performance. Discussion We will use data over time to track implementation success, measured as the proportions of veterans in Community Living Centers (CLCs) and Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) who have a documented goals of care conversation soon after admission. We will work with our operational partners to spread approaches that work throughout the Veterans Health Administration.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134645/1/13012_2016_Article_497.pd