Development of a maturity model for telemedicine

The original publication is available at http://sajie.journals.ac.zaCITATION: Van Dyk, L. & Schutte, C. S. 2012. Development of a maturity model for Telemedicine. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 23(2):61-72, doi:10.7166/23-2-330.For more than a decade, the South African National Department of Health (DoH) has recognised the potential benefit of information and communication technology (ICT) in the delivery of health care to rural areas. Despite generous funding and proven technology, not many telemedicine systems have proved sustainable after the pilot phase. The purpose of this paper is to develop a maturity model that can be implemented to measure and manage the capability of a health system, for use in the delivery of sustainable health care after the pilot phase of a telemedicine project. The validity of the telemedicine maturity model (TMMM) is tested within the context of the South African public health sector.Die Suid Afrikaanse Nasionale Departement van Gesondheid het reeds meer as ’n dekade gelede die voordeel besef wat inligtings- en kommunikasietegnologie kan bied ten opsigte van die lewering van gesondheidsorg in afgeleë gebiede. Ten spyte van ruim befondsing en bewese tegnologie, is daar egter min volgehoue telegeneeskundedienste in die publieke gesondheidstelsel van Suid Afrika. Die doel van hierdie artikel is om ’n volwassenheids-model te ontwikkel wat gebruik kan word om die vermoë van ’n gesondheidstelsel te bepaal en bestuur, ten einde telegeneeskunde loodsprojekte vol te hou. Die geldigheid van hierdie telegeneeskunde volwassenheidsmodel (TMMM) is getoets binne konteks van die publieke gesondheidsektor van Suid Afrika.Publisher's versio

Estimating the cumulative effects of the nature-based tourism in a coastal dolphin population from southern Kenya

Due to the growth of nature-based tourism worldwide, behavioural studies are needed to assess the impact of this industry on wildlife populations and understand their short-term effect. Tourism impact on dolphin populations remain poorly documented in developing countries. This study investigates the effects of nature-based tourism on the behaviour of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in southern Kenya. We used Markov chain models to estimate transition probabilities between behavioural states in the presence and absence of tourist boats, and assess the overall behavioural budgets. Based on these data and the tourism intensity in the area, we quantified the potential tourist boat disturbance over the period 2006-2013. Our results demonstrated that tourist boat interactions affected dolphins' behavioural budgets, with a significant decrease in the overall amount of time travelling and an increase in diving. The average duration of travelling and resting decreased significantly in the presence of boats. Although the cumulative tourism exposure was not significant for the dolphin population at their current levels, these impacts should be taken into consideration with the potential tourism growth in the area. This is particularly important if tourism reaches periods of high intensity, as we have shown that these periods could have a significant impact for the species, particularly where home-range and core areas are highly overlap by this activity. Understanding the effect of human disturbance variations from previous years may help to predict the consequences on dolphin populations, towards achieving a more ecological and economic sustainability of the activity

Orchestration of renewable generation in low energy buildings and districts using energy storage and load shaping

There is increasing penetration of renewable generation in buildings and districts. There are challenges in making the effective use of this generation. The objective of the ORIGIN project (Orchestration of Renewable Integrated Generation In Neighborhoods) is to shape loads so that the fraction of energy consumed that is from local renewable generation is maximized, and energy imported from outside sources is minimized. This paper presents the overall approach taken in the ORIGIN project and explores building physics aspects of solar thermal storage system orchestration. The case study districts are briefly introduced and characteristics of their generation, buildings, districts and shiftable loads described. The orchestration approach taken in ORIGIN is then presented. At the core of the ORIGIN system is the orchestration algorithm which generates informational and control outputs to shape future loads to best meet the objectives. The model based approach used to quantify thermal and electrical load shifting opportunities for pre-charging, coasting or avoiding loads, while meeting thermal comfort and other demands, is described using a solar thermal storage system as an example. The future steps for the ORIGIN project; retrofit of the ORIGIN system into existing districts and potential for other future applications is briefly discussed

Orchestration of renewable generation in low energy buildings and districts using energy storage and load shifting

There is increasing penetration of renewable generation in buildings and districts. There are challenges in making the effective use of this generation. The objective of the ORIGIN project (Orchestration of Renewable Integrated Generation In Neighborhoods) is to shape loads so that the fraction of energy consumed that is from local renewable generation is maximized, and energy imported from outside sources is minimized. This paper presents the overall approach taken in the ORIGIN project and explores building physics aspects of solar thermal storage system orchestration. The case study districts are briefly introduced and characteristics of their generation, buildings, districts and shiftable loads described. The orchestration approach taken in ORIGIN is then presented. At the core of the ORIGIN system is the orchestration algorithm which generates informational and control outputs to shape future loads to best meet the objectives. The model based approach used to quantify thermal and electrical load shifting opportunities for pre-charging, coasting or avoiding loads, while meeting thermal comfort and other demands, is described using a solar thermal storage system as an example. The future steps for the ORIGIN project; retrofit of the ORIGIN system into existing districts and potential for other future applications is briefly discussed

Buccal and palatal alveolar bone dimensions in the anterior maxilla

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.OBJECTIVE : Anterior maxillary immediate implant placement has become a popular procedure. It has aesthetic and functional risks. A prerequisite for success is sufficient alveolar bone for primary stability. Many cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) studies have assessed alveolar bone dimensions in the anterior maxilla, with varying results. More accurate information on the alveolar bone dimensions in the anterior maxilla is required. The objective of the present study was to evaluate bone dimensions in the anterior maxilla using micro-CT, a high-resolution imaging tool. MATERIALS AND METHODS : Seventy-two human skulls were scanned using micro-CT at the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation. Specialized software was used for 3-D rendering, segmentation, and visualization of the reconstructed volume data. Axial planes were created over each alveolus/tooth from canine to canine. Buccal and palatal bone dimensions were measured at crestal, 3 mm, 6 mm, and 9 mm levels. RESULTS : Buccal bone rarely exceeded 0.5 mm, consisting of bundle bone only for all investigated teeth at all levels. Up to a third of teeth showed buccal fenestrations. Alveolar bone on the palatal side was thicker than buccal and increased from <1 mm at crestal level up to 3.77 mm, 4.56 mm, and 5.43 mm for centrals, laterals, and canines at the 9 mm level, respectively. CONCLUSIONS : Immediate implants in the anterior maxillae has anatomical risks. Alveolar bone on the buccal aspect is very thin, with fenestrations in certain positions. Therefore, a thorough planning and individual approach are needed to avoid possible complications and achieve stable aesthetic and functional results in the long-term.The Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cidam2024Oral Pathology and Oral BiologyPeriodontics and Oral MedicineSDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein

The trade off between diversity and quality for multi-objective workforce scheduling

In this paper we investigate and compare multi-objective and weighted single objective approaches to a real world workforce scheduling problem. For this difficult problem we consider the trade off in solution quality versus population diversity, for different sets of fixed objective weights. Our real-world workforce scheduling problem consists of assigning resources with the appropriate skills to geographically dispersed task locations while satisfying time window constraints. The problem is NP-Hard and contains the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) as a sub problem. We investigate a genetic algorithm and serial schedule generation scheme together with various multi-objective approaches. We show that multi-objective genetic algorithms can create solutions whose fitness is within 2% of genetic algorithms using weighted sum objectives even though the multi-objective approaches know nothing of the weights. The result is highly significant for complex real-world problems where objective weights are seldom known in advance since it suggests that a multi-objective approach can generate a solution close to the user preferred one without having knowledge of user preferences

Modelling of Multi-Agent Systems: Experiences with Membrane Computing and Future Challenges

Formal modelling of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) is a challenging task due to high complexity, interaction, parallelism and continuous change of roles and organisation between agents. In this paper we record our research experience on formal modelling of MAS. We review our research throughout the last decade, by describing the problems we have encountered and the decisions we have made towards resolving them and providing solutions. Much of this work involved membrane computing and classes of P Systems, such as Tissue and Population P Systems, targeted to the modelling of MAS whose dynamic structure is a prominent characteristic. More particularly, social insects (such as colonies of ants, bees, etc.), biology inspired swarms and systems with emergent behaviour are indicative examples for which we developed formal MAS models. Here, we aim to review our work and disseminate our findings to fellow researchers who might face similar challenges and, furthermore, to discuss important issues for advancing research on the application of membrane computing in MAS modelling.Comment: In Proceedings AMCA-POP 2010, arXiv:1008.314

Comparative run-time performance of evolutionary algorithms on multi-objective interpolated continuous optimisation problems.

We propose a new class of multi-objective benchmark problems on which we analyse the performance of four well established multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) – each implementing a different search paradigm – by comparing run-time convergence behaviour over a set of 1200 problem instances. The new benchmarks are created by fusing previously proposed single-objective interpolated continuous optimisation problems (ICOPs) via a common set of Pareto non-dominated seeds. They thus inherit the ICOP property of having tunable fitness landscape features. The benchmarks are of intrinsic interest as they derive from interpolation methods and so can approximate general problem instances. This property is revealed to be of particular importance as our extensive set of numerical experiments indicates that choices pertaining to (i) the weighting of the inverse distance interpolation function and (ii) the problem dimension can be used to construct problems that are challenging to all tested multi-objective search paradigms. This in turn means that the new multi-objective ICOPs problems (MO-ICOPs) can be used to construct well-balanced benchmark sets that discriminate well between the run-time convergence behaviour of different solvers

Scientific discovery as a combinatorial optimisation problem: How best to navigate the landscape of possible experiments?

A considerable number of areas of bioscience, including gene and drug discovery, metabolic engineering for the biotechnological improvement of organisms, and the processes of natural and directed evolution, are best viewed in terms of a ‘landscape’ representing a large search space of possible solutions or experiments populated by a considerably smaller number of actual solutions that then emerge. This is what makes these problems ‘hard’, but as such these are to be seen as combinatorial optimisation problems that are best attacked by heuristic methods known from that field. Such landscapes, which may also represent or include multiple objectives, are effectively modelled in silico, with modern active learning algorithms such as those based on Darwinian evolution providing guidance, using existing knowledge, as to what is the ‘best’ experiment to do next. An awareness, and the application, of these methods can thereby enhance the scientific discovery process considerably. This analysis fits comfortably with an emerging epistemology that sees scientific reasoning, the search for solutions, and scientific discovery as Bayesian processes