Extending the Foresight of Phillip Ein-Dor: Causal Knowledge Analytics

Phillip Ein-Dor advocated that electronic journals be more than a PDF of the established text model. He envisioned a transformation of scholarship. The need for such a transition has only grown since the first issue of JAIS in 2000 because the continuing growth and fragmentation of knowledge limits the generation of new knowledge. We propose drawing on analytics and AI to accelerate and transform scholarship, providing an appropriate tribute to a visionary IS leader

Discovering novel systemic biomarkers in photos of the external eye

External eye photos were recently shown to reveal signs of diabetic retinal disease and elevated HbA1c. In this paper, we evaluate if external eye photos contain information about additional systemic medical conditions. We developed a deep learning system (DLS) that takes external eye photos as input and predicts multiple systemic parameters, such as those related to the liver (albumin, AST); kidney (eGFR estimated using the race-free 2021 CKD-EPI creatinine equation, the urine ACR); bone & mineral (calcium); thyroid (TSH); and blood count (Hgb, WBC, platelets). Development leveraged 151,237 images from 49,015 patients with diabetes undergoing diabetic eye screening in 11 sites across Los Angeles county, CA. Evaluation focused on 9 pre-specified systemic parameters and leveraged 3 validation sets (A, B, C) spanning 28,869 patients with and without diabetes undergoing eye screening in 3 independent sites in Los Angeles County, CA, and the greater Atlanta area, GA. We compared against baseline models incorporating available clinicodemographic variables (e.g. age, sex, race/ethnicity, years with diabetes). Relative to the baseline, the DLS achieved statistically significant superior performance at detecting AST>36, calcium=300, and WBC<4 on validation set A (a patient population similar to the development sets), where the AUC of DLS exceeded that of the baseline by 5.2-19.4%. On validation sets B and C, with substantial patient population differences compared to the development sets, the DLS outperformed the baseline for ACR>=300 and Hgb<11 by 7.3-13.2%. Our findings provide further evidence that external eye photos contain important biomarkers of systemic health spanning multiple organ systems. Further work is needed to investigate whether and how these biomarkers can be translated into clinical impact

Querying a building information model for construction-specific spatial information

The design and construction community has shown increasing interest in adopting building information models (BIMs). The richness of information provided by BIMs has the potential to streamline the design and construction processes by enabling enhanced communication, coordination, automation and analysis. However, there are many challenges in extracting construction-specific information out of BIMs. In most cases, construction practitioners have to manually identify the required information, which is inefficient and prone to error, particularly for complex, large-scale projects. This paper describes the process and methods we have formalized to partially automate the extraction and querying of construction-specific information from a BIM. We describe methods for analyzing a BIM to query for spatial information that is relevant for construction practitioners, and that is typically represented implicitly in a BIM. Our approach integrates ifcXML data and other spatial data to develop a richer model for construction users. We employ custom 2D topological XQuery predicates to answer a variety of spatial queries. The validation results demonstrate that this approach provides a richer representation of construction-specific information compared to existing BIM tools

Semantic spatial interoperability framework : a case study in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) domain

The volume of disseminated digital spatial data has exploded, generating demand for tools to support interoperability and the extraction of usable knowledge. Previous work on spatial interoperability has focused on semi-automatically generating the mappings to mediate multi-modal spatial data. We present a case study in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) domain that demonstrates that even after this level of semantic interoperability has been achieved, mappings from the integrated spatial data to concepts desired by the domain experts must be articulated. We propose the Semantic Spatial Interoperability Framework to provide the next layer of semantic interoperability: GML provides the syntactic glue for spatial and non-spatial data integration, and an ontology provides the semantic glue for domain-specific knowledge extraction. Mappings between the two are created by extending XQuery with spatial query predicates.Science, Faculty ofComputer Science, Department ofGraduat

Effects of domestic violence policies, alcohol taxes and police staffing levels on intimate partner homicide in large US cities

ABSTRACT Objective To assess the relationships between intimate partner homicide (IPH) and public policies including police staffing levels in large US cities. Design The research uses a multiple time-series design to examine the effects of statutes aimed at restricting access to firearms for perpetrators of domestic violence, allowing or mandating arrest for violators of domestic violence restraining orders (DVROs), beer excise taxes, and police staffing levels on IPH in 46 of the largest US cities from 1979 to 2003. Both total IPH and IPH committed with a firearm are analysed. Generalised estimating equations using a Poisson distribution are used to regress IPH on the policies and potential confounders. Results State statutes restricting those under DVROs from accessing firearms, and laws allowing the warrantless arrest of DVRO violators, are associated with reductions in total and firearm IPH. Police staffing levels are also negatively associated with total and firearm IPH. There was no evidence that other policies to restrict firearm access to domestic violence offenders or alcohol taxes had a significant impact on IPH. Conclusions Reducing access to firearms for DVRO defendants, increasing police staffing levels and allowing the warrantless arrest of DVRO violators may reduce the city-level risk of IPH. Future research should evaluate factors that may mediate the effects of these laws and increased police staffing levels on IPH to determine whether there are opportunities to increase their protective effects. Further research is needed on firearm law implementation to determine why the other tested laws were not found effective. Intimate partner homicide (IPH) is a global problem; one review of studies from multiple countries shows that IPH accounts for up to 70% of femicides (the killing of women) and 9% of homicides of men. 2 Over 60% of IPHs in the USA from 1976 to 2005 were committed with firearms. 3 Violent events between intimates that involve firearms are more likely to end in death than those involving knives, other weapons or bodily force. 5 Numerous studies link alcohol use, particularly heavy and binge drinking, with intimate partner violence (IPV), and some studies indicate a link between alcohol use and the severity of physical aggression used in an IPV event. 6 State-level alcohol consumption is positively associated with IPH; however, causal connections between alcohol, forms of abuse and IPH are not entirely clear. 7 A meta-analysis of 112 studies that assessed the effects of alcoholic beverage taxes and prices on drinking reported that increasing taxes and prices decreases alcohol use. 10 Over 65% of intimate partner femicide victims are physically abused by their perpetrators prior to the homicide. 11 Roughly half of violent incidents between partners are reported to the police by female victims. 12 About half of all female victims of IPH and near-lethal IPV obtained a domestic violence restraining order (DVRO), had their abuser arrested, or reported stalking or threatening behaviours to the police during the year preceding the lethal or near-lethal event. 13 Furthermore, IPV perpetrators are less likely to recidivate after a police report is made regardless of whether an arrest occurred. 14 These statistics suggest that the police have opportunities to intervene in IPV and prevent future homicide. The current study is an investigation of the impacts of targeted IPV policies, alcohol taxes and police staffing levels on IPH. Movement on many of these policies occurred around the same period, the early to mid-1990s, and they could act as confounders for each other; estimating their effects on IPH simultaneously is an important contribution of this research. To the authors&apos; knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effects of police staffing levels and alcohol taxes on IPH with a multiple time-series design, to which research on policy changes is particularly suited. This research will provide advocates and policy makers with a better understanding of the impacts of targeted IPV policies, alcohol taxes and police staffing levels on IPH. METHODS Study design and population Independent variables Two sets of targeted IPV policies were examined in this research, including policies designed to limit a known IPV perpetrator &apos;s access to firearms. We examined state laws reducing access to firearms for those under DVROs; state laws reducing a domestic violence (DV) misdemeanant&apos;s access to firearms; and state laws allowing police officers to confiscate firearms from the scene of DV. To be consistent with previous research, we used data on the passage of these laws, found in Vigdor and Mercy. We also estimated the effects of laws that allow police to make warrantless arrests for DVRO violations and laws that mandate arrest when officers see evidence of a DVRO violation. Data on these laws up to the year 1996 were obtained from Dugan et al 17 and updated using the LexisNexis State Capital database. IPV-targeted laws were represented by dichotomous variables set to one if a city-year was subject to the law and zero if it was not. Data on police staffing levels were collected from the Uniform Crime Reports. 18 Consistent with prior research, police staffing levels were measured as the natural logarithm of the number of sworn officers per 1000 persons. 19 20 Because the measurement of police staffing levels occurs annually on 1 October, the variable was lagged by 1 year in the models to more accurately represent contemporary levels. Given the low cost, wide appeal, and price elasticity of beer, the beer excise tax was used in this research. 22 Data regarding the federal, state and city excise taxes on beer per gallon were originally collected by Markowitz et al. 23 The federal tax was measured as a dichotomous variable to represent its single, large increase during the study period, while state and local taxes were combined in a continuous variable and adjusted for inflation to 1983 cents. The models included as a control the prevalence of firearm ownership, measured as the percentage of suicides committed with firearms in the county in which the majority of each study city resides. The percentages of the population over 15 years of age, married and divorced, were included as controls because of their previous significant associations with IPH. 15 Statistical approach The statistical models used generalised estimating equations, clustered by city, to control for serial correlation of model errors, common in longitudinal data. Endogeneity, which can result if IPH influences the passage of the policies under study, can bias model estimates. The influence of previous levels of IPH and firearm IPH on the passage of each policy was tested; the only significant association found was the negative effect of the three-year lag of firearm IPH levels on passage of the misdemeanour firearm restriction law. To reduce any bias endogeneity might introduce into the models, each of the policies, with the exception of the beer tax variables, was lagged by 1 year in the models. The bias introduced by feedback endogeneity, however, is largely removed from the present models because of the large number of time periods under study. 39 Due to the multiple hypotheses under study, a post-hoc Bonferroni correction was used and regression estimates were considered statistically significant if the corrected p-value for a two-tailed test was less than 0.05. RESULTS On average, mean IPH and firearm IPH rates per 100 000 persons for the study cities decreased from 1979 to 2003, while the average number of sworn police officers per 1000 persons increased modestly from the early 1980s to 1999, then began a downward trend (figure 1). The number of cities in states with the laws under study also increased throughout the time period ( State laws restricting access to firearms for those under DVROs were associated with a 19% reduction in IPH risk (IRR 0.81, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.95) and a 25% reduction in firearm IPH risk (IRR 0.75, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.92). Neither the estimated effects of the state law restricting access to firearms for DV misdemeanants nor the firearm confiscation law were statistically significant or in the hypothesised direction. DVRO violation warrantless arrest laws were associated with a 16% decrease in IPH (IRR 0.84, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.94) and firearm IPH (IRR 0.84, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.96). The number of police officers per 1000 persons was negatively associated with both IPH (IRR 0.68, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.87) and firearm IPH risk (IRR 0.60, 95% CI 0.45 to 0.79). DISCUSSION This analysis suggests that state laws restricting access to firearms for those under DVROs, laws allowing the police to arrest DVRO violators, and higher police staffing levels reduce the risk of IPH. This research looked at areas of policy relevant to IPVdIPV-targeted laws, alcohol taxes and police staffing levelsdeach of which experienced change during the early to mid-1990s. By estimating their effects simultaneously, we prevented these policies from potentially confounding each other&apos;s estimated effects on IPH. The reduction in IPH in response to DVRO firearm restriction laws found here is consistent with research by Vigdor and Mercy that examined the effects of these laws on IPH at the state level. Barriers to effective enforcement of laws designed to disarm IPV offenders have been documented. Consistent with previous research, 17 laws allowing the warrantless arrest of DVRO violators were associated with decreases in IPH. The mechanism by which this policy may reduce IPH is unclear. It is unknown whether these laws result in increases in arrests and charges; however the threat of arrest may deter some perpetrators from violating DVROs and subsequently using lethal violence. We found no association between laws mandating the arrest of DVRO violators and IPH. Dugan et al reported that these statutes were associated with reduced risks for specific subgroups of IPH victims (eg, White, unmarried women). 17 If these laws only affect certain subgroups, the effects may not be detectable on the aggregated victim groups examined here. We did not disaggregate groups by gender, race or relationship type because doing so would reduce and we hypothesised that increased police staffing enhances the ability of police to arrest perpetrators of IPV, either through having more resources available or because it may indicate an ability of police jurisdictions to have specialised DV units. The effects of higher levels of police staffing on IPH may also be due to the increased incarceration of IPV offenders for non-IPV crimes. Perpetrators of IPV are more likely to commit acquaintance and stranger violence than those who do not engage in IPV, and many IPV perpetrators have non-violent criminal histories. 41 42 A decrease in IPH is expected if a sufficient amount of IPV perpetrators are in jail or prison. We found no support for the hypothesis that higher beer taxes reduce IPH risk. However, the small tax increases that occurred during the study period were possibly not large enough to change consumer behaviour to the extent needed to affect IPH. While we found significant effects of certain policies and police staffing levels on IPH, the overall fit of our models, as determined by deviance statistics, was poor, suggesting that factors not included in the models may explain variation in rates of IPH. Over the past 30 years, numerous changes occurred which may be implicated in the decrease of IPH, such as the passage of laws allowing or mandating warrantless arrest for IPV perpetration and laws increasing the availability and strength of DVROs. Increases in women&apos;s economic standing and the proliferation of social services for victims are also hypothesised to reduce the risk of IPH by providing women with options other than staying in the relationships. 28 These policies and societal changes were beyond the scope of this research. This study is limited by relying on imperfect SHR data to measure IPH. The SHR is a voluntary reporting system and, as such, many jurisdictions fail to report for a given time period. Among those reported homicides, the relationship between victim and perpetrator is sometimes unknown, excluded or miscoded, making it difficult to ascertain the true number of IPH victimisations. To account for this, the models were retested, with similar results, using the adjustment for SHR underreporting used in Dugan et al. 17 This research tested the effects of the 1-year lag of the policy variables on IPH. We also tested alternative models with nonlagged policy variables and found that the estimates of policy effects differed from those derived from our policy-lagged models. For example, while the IRR did not change considerably, in the alternative models the DVRO firearm restriction law did not have a significant impact on IPH; however in the lagged models, it did (estimates from the alternative models available on request). It is preferable to use lagged policy variables to reduce any bias that might result if the policies were passed in response to IPH levels, and also to better reflect the lag between a law going into effect and its full implementation. In the alternative models, the policy variables switched on in the year of policy adoption, measuring the effect of the policy before implementation and substantive changes in police practice could be made. For these reasons, we believe the lagged policy variable models are more trustworthy. This study adds to a small, but growing, body of research that provides evidence that state laws restricting those under DVROs from accessing firearms and allowing the warrantless arrest of DVRO violators save lives, and that increasing the number of police officers in a city may reduce IPH, as well. Laws allowing the warrantless arrest of DVRO violators are now widespread, and future research should focus on how these laws may reduce IPH so that their protective effect may be replicated in other state and local policies. Future research should also evaluate factors that may mediate the effect of state laws restricting those under DVRO laws from accessing firearms and increased police staffing levels on IPH to determine if there are opportunities to increase their protective effect. Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge Karen Bandeen-Roche and Jeffrey Wooldridge, who both provided statistical insight to this research, Jon Vernick, Guohua Li and Jackie Campbell, for their invaluable comments, guidance and suggestions, and Laura Dugan, whose research inspired this study

Improving the usability of standard schemas

Due to the development of XML and other data models such as OWL and RDF, sharing data is an increasingly common task since these data models allow simple syntactic translation of data between applications. However, in order for data to be shared semantically, there must be a way to ensure that concepts are the same. One approach is to employ commonly usedschemas—called standard schemas —which help guarantee that syntactically identical objects have semantically similar meanings. As a result of the spread of data sharing, there has been widespread adoption of standard schemas in a broad range of disciplines and for a wide variety of applications within a very short period of time. However, standard schemas are still in their infancy and have not yet matured or been thoroughly evaluated. It is imperative that the data management research community takes a closer look at how well these standard schemas have fared in real-world applications to identify not only their advantages, but also the operational challenges that real users face. In this paper, we both examine the usability of standard schemas in a comparison that spans multiple disciplines, and describe our first step at resolving some of these issues in our Semantic Modeling System. We evaluate our Semantic Modeling System through a careful case study of the use of standard schemas in architecture, engineering, and construction, which we conducted with domain experts. We discuss how our Semantic Modeling System can help the broader problem and also discuss a number of challenges that still remain

Small Heat Shock Proteins, Big Impact on Protein Aggregation in Neurodegenerative Disease

Misfolding, aggregation, and aberrant accumulation of proteins are central components in the progression of neurodegenerative disease. Cellular molecular chaperone systems modulate proteostasis, and, therefore, are primed to influence aberrant protein-induced neurotoxicity and disease progression. Molecular chaperones have a wide range of functions from facilitating proper nascent folding and refolding to degradation or sequestration of misfolded substrates. In disease states, molecular chaperones can display protective or aberrant effects, including the promotion and stabilization of toxic protein aggregates. This seems to be dependent on the aggregating protein and discrete chaperone interaction. Small heat shock proteins (sHsps) are a class of molecular chaperones that typically associate early with misfolded proteins. These interactions hold proteins in a reversible state that helps facilitate refolding or degradation by other chaperones and co-factors. These sHsp interactions require dynamic oligomerization state changes in response to diverse cellular triggers and, unlike later steps in the chaperone cascade of events, are ATP-independent. Here, we review evidence for modulation of neurodegenerative disease-relevant protein aggregation by sHsps. This includes data supporting direct physical interactions and potential roles of sHsps in the stewardship of pathological protein aggregates in brain. A greater understanding of the mechanisms of sHsp chaperone activity may help in the development of novel therapeutic strategies to modulate the aggregation of pathological, amyloidogenic proteins. sHsps-targeting strategies including modulators of expression or post-translational modification of endogenous sHsps, small molecules targeted to sHsp domains, and delivery of engineered molecular chaperones, are also discussed