Radiomic Analysis of Multi-parametric MR Images (MRI) for Classification of Parotid Tumors

Background: Characterization of parotid tumors before surgery using multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans can support clinical decision making about the best-suited therapeutic strategy for each patient. Objective: This study aims to differentiate benign from malignant parotid tumors through radiomics analysis of multi-parametric MR images, incorporating T2-w images with ADC-map and parametric maps generated from Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI).Material and Methods: MRI scans of 31 patients with histopathologically-confirmed parotid gland tumors (23 benign, 8 malignant) were included in this retrospective study. For DCE-MRI, semi-quantitative analysis, Tofts pharmacokinetic (PK) modeling, and five-parameter sigmoid modeling were performed and parametric maps were generated. For each patient, borders of the tumors were delineated on whole tumor slices of T2-w image, ADC-map, and the late-enhancement dynamic series of DCE-MRI, creating regions-of-interest (ROIs). Radiomic analysis was performed for the specified ROIs. Results: Among the DCE-MRI-derived parametric maps, wash-in rate (WIR) and PK-derived Ktrans parameters surpassed the accuracy of other parameters based on support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Radiomics analysis of ADC-map outperformed the T2-w and DCE-MRI techniques using the simpler classifier, suggestive of its inherently high sensitivity and specificity. Radiomics analysis of the combination of T2-w image, ADC-map, and DCE-MRI parametric maps resulted in accuracy of 100% with both classifiers with fewer numbers of selected texture features than individual images.  Conclusion: In conclusion, radiomics analysis is a reliable quantitative approach for discrimination of parotid tumors and can be employed as a computer-aided approach for pre-operative diagnosis and treatment planning of the patients

Understanding consumer adoption of mobile payment in India: Extending Meta-UTAUT model with personal innovativeness, anxiety, trust, and grievance redressal

YesMobile payments are the future as we move towards a cashless society. In some markets, cash is already being replaced by digital transactions, but consumers of many developing countries are slower in transition towards digital payments. This study aims to identify major determinants of consumer mobile payment adoption in India the country with second largest mobile subscribers in the world. Existing mobile payments adoption studies have predominantly utilised Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which was primarily developed in organisational context and criticised for having deterministic approach without much consideration for users’ individual characteristics. Therefore, this study adapted meta-UTAUT model with individual difference variable attitude as core construct and extended the model with consumer related constructs such as personal innovativeness, anxiety, trust, and grievance redressal. Empirical examination of the model among 491 Indian consumers revealed performance expectancy, intention to use, and grievance redressal as significant positive predictor of consumer use behaviour towards mobile payment. Moreover, intention to use was significantly influenced by attitude, social influence, and facilitating conditions. The major contribution of this study includes re-affirming the central role of attitude in consumer adoption studies and examining usage behaviour in contrast to most existing studies, which examine only behavioural intention

Assessing the factors that affect adoption of social research network site for collaboration by researchers using multicriteria approach

Collaboration in research continuously gains importance. Recent developments in online collaboration technology, namely social research network sites (SRNS), specifically aim to support research collaboration. SRNS allow researchers to present themselves, to network, to communicate, and to collaborate. Acceptance of this technology by researchers has received little academic attention. Understanding the relationships between a user's intention and the utilization of SRNS is an essential step in engaging the SRNS as an educational tool. Previous research focused on explaining user adoption from technology perceptions such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, interactivity, and relative advantage. However, current research models for technology acceptance can hardly explain the impact on the intention of using SRNS from the perspective of technology fit due to the lack of social constructs. However, users' adoption is determined not only by their perception of the technology but also by the task technology fit. In other words, even though a technology may be perceived as being advanced, if it does not fit users' task requirements, they may not adopt it. This study examines the impact of Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, user resistance, individual, technology, task and social characteristics on users' intentions in using SRNS by integrating the unified theory of acceptance and usage of technology (UTAUT), task-technology fit (TTF) model and social capital theory. In addition, we applied the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for ranking aforementioned factors. The TOPSIS, one of the multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDM), is developed to solve real-world decision problems that has continued to work satisfactorily across different application areas. Accordingly, we develop a new hierarchy model for TOPSIS using the aforementioned factors to assess their importance on adoption of social research network site for collaboration by researcher

Information technology adoption: a review of the literature and classification

In the information systems (IS) domain, technology adoption has been one of the most extensively researched areas. Although in the last decade various models had been introduced to address the acceptance or rejection of information systems, there is still a lack of existing studies regarding a comprehensive review and classification of researches in this area. The main objective of this study is steered toward gaining a comprehensive understanding of the progresses made in the domain of IT adoption research, by highlighting the achievements, setbacks, and prospects recorded in this field so as to be able to identify existing research gaps and prospective areas for future research. This paper aims at providing a comprehensive review on the current state of IT adoption research. A total of 330 articles published in IS ranked journals between the years 2006 and 2015 in the domain of IT adoption were reviewed. The research scope was narrowed to six perspectives, namely year of publication, theories underlining the technology adoption, level of research, dependent variables, context of the technology adoption, and independent variables. In this research, information on trends in IT adoption is provided by examining related research works to provide insights and future direction on technology adoption for practitioners and researchers. This paper highlights future research paths that can be taken by researchers who wish to endeavor in technology adoption research. It also summarizes the key findings of previous research works including statistical findings of factors that had been introduced in IT adoption studies

Academic researchers’ behavioural intention to use academic social networking sites: A case of Malaysian research universities

This study seeks to validate a comprehensive model of academic researchers’ intention in the context of academic social networking sites (ASNSs). It uses the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model with constructs of perceived security, perceived privacy, trust, attitude towards technology, and communication benefits as well as age, gender and experience as moderator variables. The survey results supported the positive relationships between the factors in the model, except effort expectancy, which had no significant effect on behavioural intention. However, the results of three moderator variables demonstrated that they had no significant effect on the adoption of ASNSs. The finding of this research will provide directions for ASNSs providers to support them in developing effective ASNSs for academic researchers

Evaluating the factors affecting the implementation of hospital information system (HIS) using AHP method

Hospital Information System (HIS) is a comprehensive, integrated information system designed to manage the administrative, financial and clinical aspects of a hospital. In this study those aspects of the implementation of HIS in two public hospitals in Malaysia is described. A quantitative study was conducted to obtain views on information system development and implementation in the Malaysian hospitals. A survey was conducted with personnel experts representing both the system providers and the end-users guided by a questionnaire. Therefore, in the current paper, a model of ranking factors of HIS implementation was developed. The findings indicated that physicians have a high perception means for the technology and showed that HIS would increase physician's performance regarding to decision making. The relevant factors prioritized and ranked by using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The aim of ranking and using this approach is to investigate which factors are more important in HIS implementation from the experts' perspectives. The result of performing AHP is as a novelty which assists HIS implementation success and also healthcare organizations to motivate their users in accepting of a new technology. The factors were categorized into few themes namely the system development, human resource, scope of implementation, support system, user-friendly, and administrative including of training, hardware and security. Quality human resource, good support system, user-friendly and adequate training of the end-user will determine the success of implementation of HIS. At the end, it is hoped that HIS will be implemented in all other hospitals with effective integration and networking

Ranking the micro level critical factors of electronic medical records adoption using topsis method

In many countries, the health care sector is entering into a time of unprecedented change. Electronic Medical Record (EMR) has been introduced into healthcare organizations in order to incorporate better use of technology, to aid decision making, and to facilitate the search for medical solution. This needs those professionals in healthcare organizations to be in the process of changing from the use of paper to maintain medical records into computerized medical recordkeeping opportunities. However, the adoption of these electronic medical records systems has been slow throughout the healthcare field. The critical users are physicians which play an important role to success of health information technology including Electronic Medical Record systems. As a result user adoption is necessary in order to understand the benefits of an EMR. Therefore, in the current paper, a model of ranking factors of micro-level in EMRs adoption was developed. Surveys distributed to physicians as this study’s respondent in two private hospitals in Malaysia. The findings indicate that physicians have a high perception means for the technology and showed that EMR would increase physician’s performance regarding to decision making. They have been and continue to be positively motivated to adopt and use the system. The relevant factors according to micro-level perspective prioritized and ranked by using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The aim of ranking and using this approach is to investigate which factors are more important in EMRs adoption from the micro-level perspectives. The results of performing TOPSIS is as a novelty which assist health information systems (HIS) success and also healthcare organizations to motivate their users in accepting of new technology

Ranking the macro-level critical success factors of electronic medical record adoption using fuzzy AHP method

Electronic Medical Record (EMR) has been introduced into healthcare organizations in order to incorporate better use of technology, to aid decision making and to facilitate searching for a medical solution. The EMR is an Information Technology (IT) tool supporting the examination, treatment and care of patients. Low adoption of the EMR persists despite the obvious benefits of centralized medical record management. The rate of EMR implementation among physician practices has been slow and limited. This needs those professionals in healthcare organizations to be in the process of changing from the use of paper to maintain medical records into computerized medical record keeping opportunities. The critical users are physicians, which play an important role in success of Health Information Technology (HIT) including EMR. Hence, study regarding individual level of adoption in EMR should be done to understand more about this issue. Hence, the objective of this paper is to finding out the imperative factors in affecting EMR adoption. The macro-level framework evaluated based on Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP). Basically, surveys distributed to physicians who has experienced with using EMR technology in three Malaysian public hospitals. Findings showed the most important factors and sub-factors in macro-level context related to adoption of EMR. The results of F-AHP showed that the most important factors are Socio-pol-economic trends and HIS standards and the most important sub-factors are economic trends, standardized data, and political trends