Soft computing agents for e-health applied to the research and control of unknown diseases

This paper presents an Ontology-based Holonic Diagnostic System (OHDS) that combines the advantages of the holonic paradigm with multi-agent system technology and ontology design, for the organization of unstructured biomedical research into structured disease information. We use ontologies as 'brain' for the holonic diagnostic system to enhance its ability to structure information in a meaningful way and share information fast. To integrate dispersed heterogeneous knowledge available on the web we use a fuzzy mechanism ruled by intelligent agents, which automatically structures the information in the adequate ontology template. Our vision of how this system implementation should be backed by a solid security shield that ensures the privacy and safety of medical information concludes the paper

Decision support framework for supply chain planning with flexible demand

The most challenging issue of today’s production management is certainly to manage networked organisations under an uncertain demand so that to provide a good service to the customer at low cost. In this article, a model of the decision making parameters involved in this management process is suggested, on the base of case studies. A mixed integer linear planning model embedded in a framework simulating a rolling horizon planning process is described on the base of this analysis. The model takes into account the capabilities of reaction of the planned system and of its environment (suppliers, subcontractors and customers), as well as the corresponding costs. The suggested simulation framework may assist the decision maker for coping with an uncertain or flexible demand, using various planning strategies. Some possible applications of this simulation framework are given in order to illustrate how it can help to solve various types of practical planning problems

Engineering design knowledge management in de-centralised virtual enterprises

The problems of collaborative engineering design and knowledge management at the conceptual stage in a network of dissimilar enterprises was investigated. This issue in engineering design is a result of the supply chain and virtual enterprise (VE) oriented industry that demands faster time to market and accurate cost/manufacturing analysis from conception. The solution consisted of a de-centralised super-peer net architecture to establish and maintain communications between enterprises in a VE. In the solution outlined below, the enterprises are able to share knowledge in a common format and nomenclature via the building-block shareable super-ontology that can be tailored on a project by project basis, whilst maintaining the common nomenclature of the ‘super-ontology’ eliminating knowledge interpretation issues. The two-tier architecture layout of the solution glues together the peer-peer and super-ontologies to form a coherent system for both internal and virtual enterprise knowledge management and product development

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Ontology based holonic diagnostic system (OHDS) for the research and control of unknown diseases

This paper presents an Ontology-based Holonic Diagnostic System (OHDS) that combines the advantages of the holonic paradigm with multi-agent system technology and ontology design, in order to realize a highly reliable, adaptive, scalable, flexible, and robust diagnostic system for diseases. We propose to use ontologies as brain for the holonic diagnostic system to enhance its ability to structure information in a meaningful way and share information quickly. We believe such a technique is expected to become the norm once existing resources (e.g. Disease databases) will have become unlocked semantically through annotation with a shared ontology

A Cooperative Approach to the Development of Expert Knowledge Bases Applied to Define Standard of Care

Abstract. In this paper we introduce a methodology for knowledge base creation based on the reconciliation of multiple expert opinions using a fuzzy measure for consensus evaluation determined based on soft competitive learning. Real-life application of our methodology to the establishment of the standard of care in glaucoma monitoring illustrates its practical power. Based on a comparative analysis of expert patterns for glaucoma follow-up and treatment we extract a core rule set on which the experts agree. This exchange of information is supported by an advanced Cyberinfrastructure which enables fast transfer of information (highly accurate image transfer and display from the most complex and sophisticated ophthalmic machines, patient charts, etc.) to enable exchange of expert opinions. 1

A socio-physical approach to systemic risk reduction in emergency response and preparedness

his paper proposes a socio-physical approach that considers jointly the interaction and integration of the social and physical views of a system to improve emergency response and preparedness. This is accomplished through a reduction of systemic risk, which refers to a risk that could be greater than the sum of the risks of the individual system constituents. Using network analysis, it is shown that the explicit socio-physical approach yields meaningful qualitative and quantitative differences when compared with approaches that focus on the social and physical views in isolation. The benefits of this proposed approach are illustrated on a case study using clustering analysis and a proof-of-concept simulation. This new approach leads to systemic risk reduction by enabling a more informed and coordinated response strategy following an incident and a better identification of possible consequences and preparation strategies prior to an incident.William Ross, Alex Gorod and Mihaela Ulier

Full-scale laboratory validation of a MEMS-based technology for post-earthquake damage assessment

In this work a new generation of long-term monitoring system, named Memscon, is presented. The Memscon system consists of a set of sensor nodes using custom-developed capacitive MEMS strain and acceleration sensors, a low power wireless network architecture and a low power readout ASIC for a battery life of up to 10 years. The aim of the system is to provide the user information about the safety of reinforced concrete buildings while in service or after a seismic event. After outlining the monitoring system operation principles at both unit and network levels, this paper reports on a validation campaign conducted under laboratory condition on a fullscale reinforced concrete three dimensional frame, instrumented with Memscon technology, undergoing a seismic-like event up to extensive damage and collapse. Finally, a comparison between the performance of Memscon technology and the performance of different tethered measurements system assumed as reference is reported