Grid Databases for Shared Image Analysis in the MammoGrid Project

The MammoGrid project aims to prove that Grid infrastructures can be used for collaborative clinical analysis of database-resident but geographically distributed medical images. This requires: a) the provision of a clinician-facing front-end workstation and b) the ability to service real-world clinician queries across a distributed and federated database. The MammoGrid project will prove the viability of the Grid by harnessing its power to enable radiologists from geographically dispersed hospitals to share standardized mammograms, to compare diagnoses (with and without computer aided detection of tumours) and to perform sophisticated epidemiological studies across national boundaries. This paper outlines the approach taken in MammoGrid to seamlessly connect radiologist workstations across a Grid using an "information infrastructure" and a DICOM-compliant object model residing in multiple distributed data stores in Italy and the UKComment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Experiences of Engineering Grid-Based Medical Software

Objectives: Grid-based technologies are emerging as potential solutions for managing and collaborating distributed resources in the biomedical domain. Few examples exist, however, of successful implementations of Grid-enabled medical systems and even fewer have been deployed for evaluation in practice. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the use in clinical practice of a Grid-based imaging prototype and to establish directions for engineering future medical Grid developments and their subsequent deployment. Method: The MammoGrid project has deployed a prototype system for clinicians using the Grid as its information infrastructure. To assist in the specification of the system requirements (and for the first time in healthgrid applications), use-case modelling has been carried out in close collaboration with clinicians and radiologists who had no prior experience of this modelling technique. A critical qualitative and, where possible, quantitative analysis of the MammoGrid prototype is presented leading to a set of recommendations from the delivery of the first deployed Grid-based medical imaging application. Results: We report critically on the application of software engineering techniques in the specification and implementation of the MammoGrid project and show that use-case modelling is a suitable vehicle for representing medical requirements and for communicating effectively with the clinical community. This paper also discusses the practical advantages and limitations of applying the Grid to real-life clinical applications and presents the consequent lessons learned.Comment: 18 pages, 2 tables, 5 figures. In press International Journal of Medical Informatics. Elsevier publisher

The Task of Combinatorial Optimization: the Se arch for an Optimal Production and Transport Plan When Organizing Production in New Te rritories

The purpose of this article is to solve one of the tasks of production activities. A company aims to expand individual production facilities and to subsequently determine output and transportation volumes from each of the outlets (local production sites, warehouses, etc.). The hypothesis is that a solution to the production problems can be found in a set of five linear programming problems: the production problem, the center placement problem, the flow problem, the time minimization problem, and the transportation problem. The paper presents the main algorithms for finding optimal solutions, formulates a complex task, builds a model and implements an algorithm for finding optimal solutions. It was shown that such a problem can be formulated in the framework of a complex linear programming problem. The model test is produced on 38 vertices with 16 entry points, 3 exit points. It is shown that such a task can be solved and visualized by means of the Matlab package. Modifications of the model and possible solution algorithms depending on the data sample size are considered. The developed model can be applied at an enterprise or at any production facility where the main task is to search for the optimal combinatorial version of goods, provided that ,first, production costs and the costs of transportation of finished products are minimized and, second, profit is at a maximum. Third, the cost of launching opening new production facilities are kept at a minimum. Such a task corresponds exactly to the economic situation, when the enterprise has yet to expand (open new production sites), and it tries to decide where to produce items from its list of products and determine its output considering the available raw materials and decide on dispatch methods. Such a problem is non-trivial combinatorial in nature.Целью данной статьи является решение одной из нетривиальных задач производственной деятельности, возникшее на предприятии лесной направленности. Предприятие ставит целью расширение отдельных пунктов производства с последующим определением: объемов производства и транспортировки с каждой из точек (мест производства, складов и т. д.). Гипотеза заключается в том, что решение такой производственной проблемы лежит в комплексном решении пяти задач линейного программирования: производственная задача (классическая постановка), задача размещения центров, задача максимального потока, задачи минимизации времени, транспортная задача. В работе представлены основные алгоритмы поиска оптимального решения, сформулирована комплексная задача, построена модель и реализован алгоритм поиска оптимального решения. Было показано, что такую задачу возможно сформулировать в рамках комплексной задачи линейного программирования. Тест модели произведен на 38 вершинах с 16 пунктами входа, 3 пунктами выхода. Показано, что такую задачу возможно решать и визуализировать средствами пакета Matlab. Рассмотрены модификации модели и возможные алгоритмы решения в зависимости от объема выборки данных. Разработанная модель может быть применена на предприятии любой производственной направленности, где стоит главной задачей поиск оптимального комбинаторного варианта вектора товаров при условии, во-первых, минимизации производственных издержек и затрат на транспортировку готовой продукции, во-вторых, получения максимальной прибыли, в-третьих, минимальных издержек при открытии новых пунктов производства. Такая задача в точности подходит к экономической ситуации, когда предприятию еще предстоит расшириться (открыть новые пункты производства), и оно осуществляет попытки по определению мест производства из рассматриваемого списка, объема производства из имеющегося в наличии сырья, способа отправки (как можно больше товара). Такая проблема носит характер нетривиально комбинаторный

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

INTEGRATED OPTIMIZATION MODEL OF MANUFACTURING AND TRANSPORTATION PROCESSES

This paper is devoted to constructing a linear mixed-integer model, finding a method and selecting an algorithm to determine the optimal solution to the production and transportation problem. This task can be attributed to non-trivial combinatorial problems on decision-making at an enterprise. This article contains a model of generalization of three previously known linear programming problems: production problems, time accounting tasks, and service flow problems. The target setting that integrates all three of the above problems into one, applies to the case when a manufacturing facility declares itself bankrupt and tries to manufacture products from the remains of raw materials for further sale and delivery of the goods produced meeting road system features, maximizing the profit and minimizing carrying costs. It is shown that such a problem can solve and visualize the package Matlab. Possible economic situations are presented where this model could be relevant. A number of possible upgrades to the model of this problem are considered

Managing Pan-European mammography images and data using a service oriented architecture

Medical conditions such as breast cancer, and mammograms as images, are extremely complex with many degrees of variability across the population. An effective solution for the management of disparate mammogram data sources that provides sufficient statistics for complex epidemiological study is a federation of autonomous multi- centre sites which transcends national boundaries. Grid-based technologies are emerging as open-source standards-based solutions for managing and collaborating distributed resources. In the light of these new computing solutions, the MammoGrid project, as one example of a HealthGrid, is developing a Grid-aware medical application which manages a European-wide database of mammograms. The MammoGrid solution utilizes the grid technologies in seamlessly integrating distributed data sets and is investigating the potential of the Grid to support effective co-working among mammogram analysts throughout the EU

Resolving clinicians queries across a grid infrastructure

F. Estrella (1) , C. del Frate (2) , T. Hauer (1), R. McClatchey (1) , M. Odeh (1) , D. Rogulin (1) , S. R. Amendolia (3), D. Schottlander (4) , T. Solomonides (1) , R. Warren(5