1,720,995 research outputs found
The knowledge representation and algorithm for personalized infectious disease risk prediction
No full textInfectious diseases are a major cause of human morbidity. However, in the EU in 2014 more than 40 thousand deaths caused by infectious diseases were considered preventable. Information about infection risk based on personal and environmental attributes, as well as up-to-date infectious disease risk knowledge is expected to make lay people aware of their infection risks. With the emergence of APIs and GPS technology, surrounding location features and weather information can be inferred from a person\u27s position. This offers an opportunity to create a system for personalized infectious disease risk prediction.
This thesis presents research towards a system that can predict personalized infectious disease risk (IDR) based on a person\u27s attributes and geo-position by utilizing infectious disease risk knowledge (entitled PROSPECT-IDR: Personalised Prediction of Infectious Disease Risk). A knowledge representation was designed to facilitate epidemiologists to encode infectious disease risk knowledge in a form familiar to them. The generic IDR ontology represents personal and environmental risk factors for all human infectious diseases (n=234). Quantifications for the risk factors (e.g. odds ratios) are encoded using five IDR rule types. This IDR knowledge representation (ontology and rule types) allows encoding of knowledge about risk of infectious diseases prevalent in a region.
The IDR ontology can never be complete, as new risk factors for existing diseases, and new diseases, are constantly discovered. The initial generic ontology contains all risk factors found in the Atlas of Human Infectious Diseases, and in factsheets from the CDC and WHO. Each instantiation of knowledge for a specific disease in a region comprises of a subset of risk factors from the generic ontology plus any new risk factors not found there, along with a set of risk quantification rules (instantiations of the five rule types). An algorithm (entitled BN-Builder) converts the knowledge-base into a fully functioning and consistent risk prediction model, a Bayesian Network, which is the core of the PROSPECT-IDR prediction system.
The usefulness and completeness of the IDR knowledge representation (initial generic ontology and five rule types) were evaluated using 22 published case-control studies that encode infectious disease risk knowledge. Each case-control study was encoded as one evaluation knowledge-base. With regard to completeness, more than 3/4 of the ontology objects needed to encode the knowledge in the evaluation case-control studies were found in the initial generic ontology. With regard to usefulness, more than 3/5 were used to encode evaluation case-control studies. With regard to completeness and usefulness of the five rule types, all infectious disease risk knowledge in the 22 evaluation case-control studies can be encoded with just those five rule types, and all five rule types were used.
To evaluate BN-Builder algorithm, the consistency between the generated BN and the knowledge-base was measured. Chi-square tests for differences were carried out for two evaluation knowledge-bases that covered all functions of the algorithm and all data ranges allowed by the rule types. There was no significant difference between the resulting infectious disease risk prediction and the encoded knowledge (p > .05).
Evaluation results suggest that the IDR knowledge representation is useful. Further, statistical findings indicate that the BN-Builder algorithm generates infectious disease risk predictions that are consistent with the encoded risk knowledge. The PROSPECT-IDR system that this IDR-KB and BN-Builder algorithm is designed for is expected to give information about personalized infectious disease risk prediction to lay people. So, the relevant preventive actions can be tailored based on this personalized information, and thus, hopefully will reduce the incidence number of infectious diseases in the world
Developing an electronic health record (EHR) for methadone treatment recording and decision support
Full text linkBackground: in this paper, we give an overview of methadone treatment in Ireland and outline the rationale for designing an electronic health record (EHR) with extensibility, interoperability and decision support functionality. Incorporating several international standards, a conceptual model applying a problem orientated approach in a hierarchical structure has been proposed for building the EHR.Methods: a set of archetypes has been designed in line with the current best practice and clinical guidelines which guide the information-gathering process. A web-based data entry system has been implemented, incorporating elements of the paper-based prescription form, while at the same time facilitating the decision support function.Results: the use of archetypes was found to capture the ever changing requirements in the healthcare domain and externalises them in constrained data structures. The solution is extensible enabling the EHR to cover medicine management in general as per the programme of the HRB Centre for Primary Care Research.Conclusions: the data collected via this Irish system can be aggregated into a larger dataset, if necessary, for analysis and evidence-gathering, since we adopted the openEHR standard. It will be later extended to include the functionalities of prescribing drugs other than methadone along with the research agenda at the HRB Centre for Primary Care Research in Irelan
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Developing an electronic health record (EHR) for methadone treatment recording and decision support
No full textBackground: In this paper, we give an overview of methadone treatment in Ireland and outline the rationale for
designing an electronic health record (EHR) with extensibility, interoperability and decision support functionality.
Incorporating several international standards, a conceptual model applying a problem orientated approach in a
hierarchical structure has been proposed for building the EHR.
Methods: A set of archetypes has been designed in line with the current best practice and clinical guidelines
which guide the information-gathering process. A web-based data entry system has been implemented,
incorporating elements of the paper-based prescription form, while at the same time facilitating the decision
support function.
Results: The use of archetypes was found to capture the ever changing requirements in the healthcare domain
and externalises them in constrained data structures. The solution is extensible enabling the EHR to cover medicine
management in general as per the programme of the HRB Centre for Primary Care Research.
Conclusions: The data collected via this Irish system can be aggregated into a larger dataset, if necessary, for
analysis and evidence-gathering, since we adopted the openEHR standard. It will be later extended to include the
functionalities of prescribing drugs other than methadone along with the research agenda at the HRB Centre for
Primary Care Research in Ireland
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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