Evaluation of a manufacturing task support system using the Task Technology Fit Model

This paper presents an exploratory study of a Task Support System (TSS) supporting manufacturing task operations. The study investigated the degree to which a TSS, in use in a company, actually supports the task of the shop floor personnel. The approach has been to adopt the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) instrument to measure the degree of fitness between the TSS and the associated task. The analysis gives an indication of the state of the TSS and the potential improvements that can be made. The study also shows that the instrument can be used as a foundation for the development of a hypermedia TSS and a benchmarking tool for a TSS

Extending the Decision-Making Capabilities in Remanufacturing Service Contracts by Using Symbiotic Simulation

Remanufacturing is a critical enabler of a resource efficient manufacturing industry that has long been associated with high value products. Over time, the commercial relationship between customers and service providers has been made through the fulfilment of rights and obligations under remanufacturing service contracts. Nonetheless, financial analysis to evaluate the contract terms and conditions are becoming increasingly difficult to conduct due to complex decision problems inherent in remanufacturing systems. In order to achieve better and safer decision-making to shape the business strategies, remanufacturers often employ computer-based simulation tools to assess contractual obligations and customers’ needs. This paper discusses the roles of a symbiotic simulation system (SSS) in supporting decision-making in remanufacturing systems. An industrial case study of power transformer remanufacturing illustrates how SSS can support contract remanufacturers in managing service contracts planning and execution. By linking the simulation model to the physical system, it has been demonstrated that the capabilities of the remanufacturers to make critical decisions throughout the entire service contract period can be extended

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

An interactive electronic technical manual for an advanced aerospace assembly machine.

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a pilot information system to ease the burden of document configuration management for an aerospace manufacturer. The documents that comprised the content of the system are used to control manual activities associated with a large automated machine tool, such as machine setup, test piece checking and maintenance. The information content was in the form of web pages and PDF documents, both of which were presented to users via an Internet kiosk, in order to maximise usability and system security. The system was designed using a formal task analysis and evaluated using a method based on task-technology-fit theory and the technology acceptance model. It was shown that users would accept such a system and use it in preference to other sources of similar information. The greatest financial benefit of such systems is likely to be due to a reduced mean time to repair the machine

Correlation Between Nasal Mucosal Temperature Change and Perception of Nasal Patency

Introduction – Nasal airway obstruction (NAO) is a common presentation that remains poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests that nasal mucosal temperature change, rather than airflow detection, is the primary determinant of subjective nasal patency. Thus, this study aims to examine the role of nasal mucosal temperature in the perception of nasal patency using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Methodology – Healthy adult participants were recruited. Participants completed Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) questionnaires. A temperature probe was used to measure nasal mucosal temperature at the vestibule, inferior and middle turbinates, and nasopharynx bilaterally. Participants underwent a CT scan of the paranasal sinuses, which was used to create 3D computer models of nasal anatomy to perform CFD analysis of airflow and heat transfer during inspiration. Results – Eleven participants (6 females, 54.5%) with a median age of 27 (IQR 24; 48) were recruited. No significant differences were seen in mean nasal mucosal temperature measurements obtained from temperature probe and CFD analysis (p = >0.05 for all locations). A statistically significant positive correlation was seen between higher nasal mucosal temperature and unilateral VAS, strongest at the left nasopharynx (Pearson r = 0.62; p = 0.019). A statistically significant negative correlation was seen between peak heat flux obtained from CFD simulations and unilateral VAS, stronger on the right side (Pearson r = -0.29; p = 0.0079). No statistically significant correlations were seen between wall shear stress, inspiratory nasal airway resistance or minimum cross-sectional area with unilateral VAS. Conclusion – Lower nasal mucosal temperature and higher heat flux within the nasal cavity correlates with a perception of improved nasal patency in healthy individuals. CFD simulations may prove to be a valuable modality in improving the assessment and management of patients with NAO

Mammary analogue secretory carcinoma of the parotid gland: A case report

Mammary analogue secretory carcinoma (MASC) is a recently described neoplasm characterized by the ETV6-NTRK gene translocation. It is named as such due to its morphologic, genetic and immunohistochemical similarity to secretory carcinoma of the breast. Prior to its description as a distinctive salivary gland neoplasm, MASC was classified as a ‘zymogen-poor’ acinic cell carcinoma (AciCC) given their overlapping histological features – therefore AciCC and adenoma not otherwise specified, among other primary salivary gland tumors, are the main differentials for MASC. Here we report a case of MASC in an 87-year old Caucasian lady who presented with a slow growing, painless right mandibular lump who underwent right parotidectomy and neck dissection. Upon pathological analysis of the tumor specimen, many of the classical histopathologic features of MASC are present in this case, emphasizing the importance of molecular screening of salivary gland tumors for ETV6-NTRK3 translocation. Over 100 cases of MASC have been described in the literature, and it is known to be a mostly non-aggressive tumor with good prognosis. MASC commonly occurs in the parotid gland, with a slight preponderance to males. While MASC has been extensively discussed in pathologic literature, clinical information in otolaryngology literature has been scarce. Future research should aim to elucidate its clinical behaviour, disease progression and prognosis to formulate guidelines for the appropriate treatment of this neoplasm

Tracheobronchial stents in palliative care : a case series and literature review

Objective: To evaluate the outcomes of tracheobronchial stenting in patients with malignant central airway obstruction and assist practitioners in palliative settings in understanding the indications, contraindications and management of tracheobronchial stents. Methods: This retrospective study involved a consecutive case series of palliative patients with central airway obstruction secondary to inoperable cancers who underwent tracheobronchial stenting at a single institution. The European Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) scale was used to evaluate patient functional status before and after tracheobronchial stenting. Results: Twenty-three patients underwent tracheobronchial stenting for malignant central airway obstruction. The majority of patients presented with symptoms of worsening dyspnoea (21 of 23; 91%). Postoperatively, there was a significant improvement in mean ECOG performance status from 2.88+0.34 to 1.58+0.50 (p<0.01). There was no intraoperative mortality resulting from tracheobronchial stenting. Five patients (21.74%) re-presented to hospital due to worsening symptoms and required emergency bronchoscopy. Two patients had stent migration, requiring stent replacement. One patient restenosed from tumour granulation, requiring microdebrider to debulk the mass. Two patients had stent failure secondary to external tumour compression, leading to death. Conclusion: Tracheobronchial stenting is a safe and effective procedure that offers rapid palliation of symptoms and improvement in patient functional status

The evaluation of e-learning resources as an adjunct to otolaryngology teaching : a pilot study

Background: The concept of e-Learning has been rapidly accepted as an important component of medical education and is especially adept at teaching clinical skills. However, their impact on learning, particularly in Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (OHNS) medical school curriculum, has yet to be adequately explored. The aim of this pilot study is to develop interactive e-Learning resources and evaluate their impact in enhancing OHNS teaching in medical school. Methods: This pilot study is a randomized controlled trial assessing the effectiveness of e-Learning resources in enhancing the current traditional lecture and tutorial-based teaching of OHNS in medical school. Nineteen final-year medical students from the University of Sydney were recruited for this study, who were randomly allocated into intervention group with additional e-Learning resources (Group A) and control group (Group B). Student knowledge was assessed through objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) with use of standardized forms for objective scoring. Assessors were blinded to student randomization status. A post-study questionnaire was distributed to assess student feedback on the e-Learning resources. Results: Eight students were allocated to Group A and 11 students to Group B. Group A performed significantly better than Group B in the overall examination scores (78.50 ± 13.88 v. 55.82 ± 8.23; P = < 0.01). With the minimum pass mark of 65%, the majority of students in Group A was able to pass the OSCE assessments, while the majority of students in Group B failed (87.50% v. 9.10%; P = 0.01). The post-test questionnaire on the e-Learning resources showed very favorable feedback from the students’ perspective. Conclusion: Results from our pilot study suggests that the use of interactive online e-Learning resources can be a valuable adjunct in supplementing OHNS teaching in medical school, as they are readily accessible and allow flexible on-demand learning. Future studies involving large numbers of medical students are needed to validate these results