Toward Better Understanding of Task Difficulty during Physicians’ Interaction with Electronic Health Record System (EHRs)

ABSTRACT

The goal of this study was to assess the relationship of task difficulty and mental effort with performance during physicians’ interaction with electronic health records (EHRs). A total of 38 physicians were asked to identify abnormal results and take follow-up action to “close the loop” on care delivery. Task difficulty was quantified via task-flow strategies and computer mouse-click patterns. Mental effort was quantified using eye movements based on changes in pupillary dilations (task evoked pupillary response or TEPR) and blink rate. Performance was quantified based on commission errors (error vs. no-error). Results indicated that physicians had different task-flow strategies; however, with improved awareness of the patient status, they exhibited an optimal task-flow strategy. Overall, performance was related to task-flow strategies, computer mouse-click patterns, and blink rate, indicating that physicians had lower task-difficulty and experienced lower mental effort with improved awareness of patient follow-up status. This is an important finding demonstrating that task-flows are a dominant predictor of physician performance when comparing between EHR designs. On the contrary, mouse-click patterns and blink rate are both useful predictors of physician performance when assessment was done within an EHR.     

Speech authentication by semi-fragile speech watermarking utilizing analysis by synthesis and spectral distortion optimization

This paper proposes an improved semi-fragile speech watermarking scheme by quantization of linear prediction (LP) parameters, i.e., the inverse sine (IS) parameters. The spectral distortion due to watermark embedding is controlled to meet the ‘transparency’ criterion in speech coding. A modified bit allocation algorithm combined with watermarking is developed to determine the quantization step so that the ‘transparency’ requirement is satisfied. Due to the statistical nature, the LP coefficients estimated from the watermarked speech signal are different from the watermarked LP coefficients even in the absence of attacks. This effect is the cause of increase in decoding error and minimum authentication length. To tackle this problem, an Analysis by Synthesis (AbS) scheme is developed to reduce the difference between the estimated LP coefficients and the watermarked ones. The watermark detection threshold and minimum authentication length are then derived according to the probability of error and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) requirements. Experimental results show that the proposed AbS based method can effectively reduce the difference between the watermarked IS parameter and the extracted IS parameter when there is no attacks. In addition, the modified bit allocation algorithm can automatically find the appropriate quantization step used in the odd-even modulation so that the transparency requirement is satisfied.     

CAD/CAE公共服务平台中资源共享智能型系统研究

在产业技术公共服务平台的影响和带动下,随着其用户规模不断扩大和信息技术的发展,越来越要求平台服务向智能化发展,有必要对其中之一的资源共享智能型系统建设进行探讨。     

On Controllability of Switched Linear Systems

This paper investigates the number of switchings and design of switching sequences for controllability of switched linear systems. Two related results are established. One is a new constructive approach to designing switching sequences. The controllable state set of each switching sequence designed via the approach coincides with the controllable subspace of switched linear systems. The other is a well-estimated value for the minimum number of switchings required for controllability. Each state in the controllable subspace can be steered to origin within this value of switching times.     

New insights on survivability in multi-domain optical networks

With the development of intelligent optical networks and the general multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) technique, the seamless convergence between IP network and optical network is no longer be a dream but a practical reality. Similar to the Internet, current optical networks have been divided into multiple domains each of which has its own network provider and management policy. Therefore, the development of multi-domain optical networks will be the trend of new-generation intelligent optical networks, and GMPLS-based survivability for multi-domain optical networks will become a hot topic of research in the future. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the existing survivable schemes in multi-domain optical networks and analyzes the shortcomings of current research. Based on previous studies, we present possible challenges and propose new ideas to design efficient survivable schemes to guide the future work of researchers in multi-domain optical networks.     

面向业务问题求解的知识供应过程模型

为了满足企业在业务问题求解方面的实际需求,提出了一个面向业务问题求解的知识供应过程模型。该模型提出了知识供应过程中的问题空间、知识空间和流程空间的概念及其关联关系,并进一步给出了包含知识的获取、评价、存储和重用的知识供应过程的有关算法。该模型与算法将业务问题求解过程与知识供应过程进行了融合,通过关联关系实现了知识的主动供应,在优化了业务问题求解过程的同时,提高了知识积累的质量和知识重用的效率。基于该模型建立了知识管理问题求解的原型系统KMPSS,并得到了初步应用验证。     

基于LabVIEW 8.0测定纯液体蒸发焓的虚拟仪器

将常规的数字温度仪与压力计通过串行口和计算机连接,构建基于LabVIEW 8.0测定纯液体蒸发焓的虚拟仪器,实现实验数据的动态采集、实时显示、自动绘制p～T曲线并显示曲线方程、自动数据处理和写成结果报告等。应用结果表明:基于LabVIEW构建的测定纯液体蒸发焓的虚拟仪器,免除人工操作的繁琐和人为误差,测定乙醇和苯蒸发焓的相对误差分别为0.86%、-2.97%,提高了测量结果的准确度,且具有界面友好,操作简便和功能易扩展等诸多优点。     

A hybrid clustering and graph based algorithm for tagSNP selection

TagSNP selection, which aims to select a small subset of informative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to represent the whole large SNP set, has played an important role in current genomic research. Not only can this cut down the cost of genotyping by filtering a large number of redundant SNPs, but also it can accelerate the study of genome-wide disease association. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid method called CMDStagger that combines the ideas of the clustering and the graph algorithm, to find the minimum set of tagSNPs. The proposed algorithm uses the information of the linkage disequilibrium association and the haplotype diversity to reduce the information loss in tagSNP selection, and has no limit of block partition. The approach is tested on eight benchmark datasets from Hapmap and chromosome 5q31. Experimental results show that the algorithm in this paper can reduce the selection time and obtain less tagSNPs with high prediction accuracy. It indicates that this method has better performance than previous ones.     

Control of frictional dynamics of a one-dimensional particle array

Control of frictional forces is required in many applications of tribology. While the problem is approached by chemical means traditionally, a recent approach was proposed to control the system mechanically to tune frictional responses. We design feedback control laws for a one-dimensional particle array sliding on a surface subject to friction. The Frenkel-Kontorova model describing the dynamics is a nonlinear interconnected system and the accessible control elements are average quantities only. We prove local stability of equilibrium points of the un-controlled system in the presence of linear and nonlinear particle interactions, respectively. We then formulate a tracking control problem, whose control objective is for the average system to reach a designated targeted velocity using accessible elements. Sufficient stabilization conditions are explicitly derived for the closed-loop error systems using the Lyapunov theory based methods. Simulation results show satisfactory performances. The results can be applied to other physical systems whose dynamics is described by the Frenkel-Kontorova model.     

A preliminary attempt to use radiomic features in the diagnosis of extra-articular long head biceps tendinitis

Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine - This study aims to present a radiomic application in diagnosing the long head of biceps (LHB) tendinitis. Moreover, we evaluated...