Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Potentials And Challenges Of Big Data In Public Health, Rena N. Vithiatharan

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

The potential to use big data sources for public health increases with the broadening availability of data and improved methods of analysis. Whilst there are some well-known examples of the opportunistic use of big data, such as GoogleFlu, public health has not yet realised the full potential of such data sources. A literature review was undertaken to identify the potential of such data collections to impact public health, and to identify what challenges are currently limiting this potential. The potential include improved real-time analysis, research and development and genome studies. However, challenges listed are poor universal standardisation and classification, privacy …

Big Data In Healthcare: What Is It Used For?, Rebecca Hermon, Patricia A H Williams

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

Big data analytics is a growth area with the potential to provide useful insight in healthcare. Whilst many dimensions of big data still present issues in its use and adoption, such as managing the volume, variety, velocity, veracity, and value, the accuracy, integrity, and semantic interpretation are of greater concern in clinical application. However, such challenges have not deterred the use and exploration of big data as an evidence source in healthcare. This drives the need to investigate healthcare information to control and reduce the burgeoning cost of healthcare, as well as to seek evidence to improve patient outcomes. Whilst …

Byod In Ehealth: Herding Cats And Stable Doors, Or A Catastrophe Waiting To Happen?, Krishnun Sansurooh, Patricia A H Williams

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

The use of personal devices in the work environment has crossed the boundaries of work and socially related tasks. With cyber criminals seriously targeting healthcare for medical identity theft, the lack of control of new technologies within healthcare networks becomes an increasing vulnerability. The prolific adoption of personal mobile devices in the healthcare environment requires a proactive approach to the management of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). This paper analysed the current state of the problem and the challenges that this creates in an environment that has stringent privacy and security requirements. The discourse demonstrates that the issue is not …

3rd Australian Ehealth Informatics And Security Conference, 2014, Edith Cowan University: Conference Details, Security Research Institute, Edith Cowan University

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

No abstract provided.

Customising Doctor-Nurse Communications, Brian Cusack, Dave Parry

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

Doctor-Nurse communications are critical for patient safety and workflow effectiveness. Our research question was: What further improvements can be made to current communication systems? A variety of mobile and land based communication systems have been used and experimented with. In the study, the pager was found to be most common and more recent attempts to provide broadband capability with systems such as the iBeep. We built an alternative information system using Android phones and a software application that was customised by feedback from the medical professionals. The trial in five wards with 22 doctors and 170 nurses over one month …

Managing Wireless Security Risks In Medical Services, Brian Cusack, Akar Kyaw

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

Medical systems are designed for a range of end users from different professional skill groups and people who carry the devices in and on their bodies. Open, accurate, and efficient communication is the priority for medical systems and consequently strong protection costs are traded against the utility benefits for open systems. In this paper we assess the vulnerabilities created by the professional and end user expectations, and theorise ways to mitigate wireless security vulnerabilities. The benefits of wireless medical services are great in terms of efficiencies, mobility, and information management. These benefits may be realised by treating the vulnerabilities and …

Security Of Electronic Health Records In A Resource Limited Setting: The Case Of Smart-Care Electronic Health Record In Zambia, Keith Mweebo

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

This paper presents a case study of security issues related to the operationalization of smart-care, an electronic medical record (EMR) used to manage Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) health information in Zambia. The aim of the smart-care program is to link up services and improve access to health information, by providing a reliable way to collect, store, retrieve and analyse health data in a secure way. As health professionals gain improved access to patient health information electronically, there is need to ensure this information is secured, and that patient privacy and confidentiality is maintained. During the initial stages of the program …

Avoiding Epic Fails: Software And Standards Directions To Increase Clinical Safety, Patricia A H Williams, Vincent B. Mccauley

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

No abstract provided.

Access To Hiv Prevention And Care For Hiv-Exposed And Hiv-Infected Children: A Qualitative Study In Rural And Urban Mozambique, Caroline De Schacht, Carlota Lucas, Caterina Mboa, Michelle Gill, Eugenia Macasse, Stelio A. Dimande, Emily A. Bobrow, Laura Guay

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

Background Follow-up of HIV-exposed children for the delivery of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services and for early diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection is critical to their survival. Despite efforts, uptake of postnatal care for these children remains low in many subSaharan African countries. Methods A qualitative study was conducted in three provinces in Mozambique to identify motivators and barriers to improve uptake of and retention in HIV prevention, care and treatment services for HIV-exposed and HIV-infected children. Participant recommendations were also gathered. Individual interviews (n=79) and focus group discussions (n=32) were conducted with parents/caregivers, grandmothers, community leaders and health …

Health Professionals’ Roles In Animal Agriculture, Climate Change, And Human Health, Aysha Z. Akhtar, Michael Greger, Hope Ferdowsian, Erica Frank

Michael Greger, MD, FACLM

What we eat is rapidly becoming an issue of global concern. With food shortages, the rise in chronic disease, and global warming, the impact of our dietary choices seems more relevant today than ever. Globally, a transition is taking place toward greater consumption of foods of animal origin, in lieu of plantbased diets. With this transition comes intensification of animal agriculture that in turn is associated with the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases, environmental degradation, and the epidemics of chronic disease and obesity. Health professionals should be aware of these trends and consider them as they promote healthier and more …

First Proof Of Concept Of Sustainable Metabolite Production From High Solids Fermentation Of Lignocellulosic Biomass Using A Bacterial Co-Culture And Cycling Flush System, Wanying Yao, Sue E. Nokes

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

To improve the lignocellulose conversion for ABE in high solids fermentation, this study explored the feasibility of cycling the process through the cellulolytic or/and solventogenic phases via intermittent flushing of the fermentation media. Five different flushing strategies (varying medium ingredients, inoculum supplement and cycling through phases) were investigated. Flushing regularly throughout the cellulolytic phase is necessary because re-incubation at 65 °C significantly improved glucose availability by at least 6-fold. The solvents accumulation was increased by 4-fold using corn stover (3-fold using miscanthus) over that produced by flushing only through the solventogenic phase. In addition, cycling process was simplified by re-incubating …

Use Of Secure Messaging By United States Veterans And Significant Others, Claudia S. Derman

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

USE OF SECURE MESSAGING BY UNITED STATES VETERANS AND SIGNIFICANT OTHERS

By

Claudia S. Derman

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2014

Under the Supervision of Professor Karen H. Morin, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN

The purpose of this study was to describe the topics discussed using secure messaging (SM), the pattern of use of SM, and whether the themes discussed and/or the pattern of use varied based on gender and age of the SM user. Secure messaging is an example of a technology that focuses on patient-centered communication. Secure messaging allows patients to communicate with their clinicians using the Internet and …

Research: South Dakota State University, Winter 2014, Christie Delfanian, Eric Landwehr

Research: South Dakota State University

CONTENTS:

Weeds influence gene expression, growth in corn [Page] 2
Graduate research targets childhood obesity [Page] 3
Transmammary drug delivery system for early-stage breast cancer may reduce side effects [Page] 5
Biochemical pathways may be key to scab resistance [Page] 7
New filtration system saves water, money for City of Sioux Falls [Page] 8
Doulas ease stress, increase satisfaction with the birthing experience [Page] 9
Structure lab evaluates strength, durability of structural components [Page] 10
Device gives sunflower producers reprieve from combine fires [Page] 12
Graduate scholarship winner works on renewable energy storage [Page] 12

Prognostic Value Of Lymphocyte Vascular Density And E-Cadherin In Inflammatory Breast Cancer, Paul H. Levine, Heather J. Hoffman, Audra Macneil, Salman Hashmi, Sherry X. Yang, Stephen Hewitt, Kenneth L. Van Golen, Sandra M. Swain

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

Background: We recently evaluated four laboratory assays, vascular endothelial growth factor D (VEGF-D), E-cadherin, lymphatic vessel density (LVD) measured by podoplanin, and intra-lymphatic tumor emboli (ILTE), which showed notable differences between inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and non-inflammatory locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). In this study we investigated the potential of the three most quantitatively measured markers, E-cadherin, LVD and VEGF-D, to predict survival in the IBC patients.

Materials and Methods: This study involved the 100 cases identified in the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Registry (IBCR) whose tumors were previously evaluated for the four assays noted above. Living patients were recontacted and …

Misalignments: Challenges In Cultivating Science Faculty With Education Specialties In Your Department, Seth D. Bush, Nancy Pelaez, James A. Rudd Ii, Michael T. Stevens, Kimberly D. Tanner, Kathy S. Williams

PIBERG Publications

Science Faculty with Education Specialties (SFES) are increasingly being hired across the United States. However, little is known about the motivations for SFES hiring or the potential or actual impact of SFES. In the context of a recent national survey of US SFES, we investigated SFES perceptions about these issues. Strikingly, perceptions about reasons for hiring SFES were poorly aligned with perceptions about potential and actual contributions reported by SFES themselves, and the advice they extended to beginning SFES was varied. While preparation of future teachers and departmental teaching needs were common reasons offered for SFES hiring, the potential and …

The Effectiveness Of Teleglaucoma Versus In-Patient Examination For Glaucoma Screening: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Sera-Melisa Thomas, Maya M Jeyaraman, Maya Jeyaraman, William G Hodge, Cindy Hutnik, John Costella, Monali S Malvankar-Mehta

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

BACKGROUND: Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible visual impairment in the world affecting 60.5 million people worldwide in 2010, which is expected to increase to approximately 79.6 million by 2020. Therefore, glaucoma screening is important to detect, diagnose, and treat patients at the earlier stages to prevent disease progression and vision loss. Teleglaucoma uses stereoscopic digital imaging to take ocular images, which are transmitted electronically to an ocular specialist. The purpose is to synthesize literature to evaluate teleglaucoma, its diagnostic accuracy, healthcare system benefits, and cost-effectiveness.

METHODS: A systematic search was conducted to help locate published and unpublished studies. …

Identification And The Significance Of Selective Proteins In Bile And Plasma Of Normal And Health-Compromised Chickens, Balamurugan Packialakshmi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the last 50 years, animal breeding programs in commercial poultry have made significant progress in the bodyweight gain of broilers but led to several metabolic and skeletal disorders. Lameness associated with proximal femur known as femoral head separation (FHS) or femoral head necrosis (FHN) is one of the major metabolic disorders in poultry industry. In order to select for healthy chickens, markers that can distinguish between healthy and affected birds are required. Biomarkers from blood represent an ideal and rich source of markers which can be obtained using minimally invasive methods. The biomarkers were explored in an experimental model …

Assessing The Social And Ecological Factors That Influence Childhood Overweight And Obesity, Katie Callahan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity is increasing at an alarming rate in the United States. Currently more than 1 in 3 children aged 2-19 are overweight or obese. This is of major concern because childhood overweight and obesity leads to chronic conditions such as type II diabetes and tracks into adulthood, where more severe adverse health outcomes arise. In this study I used the premise of the social ecological model (SEM) to analyze the common levels that a child is exposed to daily; the intrapersonal level, the interpersonal level, the school level, and the community level to better …

Overview Of Inference About Roc Curve In Medical Diagnosis, Jingjing Yin

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Medical diagnosis aims to identify diseased individuals through the evaluation of the measurements of some biomarkers by performing a diagnostic test based on some biomarker measurements. Biomarkers are measured on either discrete or continuous scale and continuous biomarkers are utilized more often in medical practice. This article introduces the most popular tool for evaluating continuous biomarkers: the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve.

Tuning Responsiveness Of Polypeptide Based Block Copolymers For Drug Delivery, Ashley J. Johnson

Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation was to tune the pH response and self-assembled morphologies of amphiphilic polypeptide block copolymers for use as drug delivery vehicles. Poly(L-lysine) and poly(L-glutamtic acid) are responsive, ionizable polypeptides that undergo secondary structure transitions, from α-helix to random coil, whereby the change in conformation of the peptide chain results in changes to the global morphology of a self-assembled system. The main focus of this work was to understand how changes in the polymer composition and the local environment can lead to control over the behavior of the overall system. First, the responsive behavior of poly(L-lysine) block …

Identifying Change Points In A Covariate Effect On Time-To-Event Analysis With Reduced Isotonic Regression, Yong Ma, Yinglei Lai, John M. Lachin

GW Biostatistics Center

Isotonic regression is a useful tool to investigate the relationship between a quantitative covariate and a time-to-event outcome. The resulting non-parametric model is a monotonic step function of a covariate X and the steps can be viewed as change points in the underlying hazard function. However, when there are too many steps, over-fitting can occur and further reduction is desirable. We propose a reduced isotonic regression approach to allow combination of small neighboring steps that are not statistically significantly different. In this approach, a second stage, the reduction stage, is integrated into the usual monotonic step building algorithm by comparing …

Measuring The Role Of Inhibition In Auditory Discrimination In Mice, Tazima Nur

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how inhibitory neurons affect sensory information processing in the cerebral cortex is an ongoing goal of both neuroscience and statistical physics research. In this master's thesis research project, an experimental system has been designed and built for studying how auditory dynamic range depends on inhibitory neurons, based on observations of mouse behavior. In this thesis, firstly, the topic of inhibition and information processing has been introduced. Then two papers related to inhibition and dynamic range has been reviewed in detail. One of the papers is an experimental work that analyzes the affect of inhibition on dynamic range. The other …

Raman Microspectroscopy For The Early Detection Of Pre-Malignant Changes In Cervical Tissue, Nosheen Rashid, Haq Nawaz, Kelvin W. Poon, Franck Bonnier, Salih Bakhiet, Cara Martin, John O'Leary, Hugh Byrne, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer affecting women worldwide. The mortality associated with cervical cancer can, however, be significantly reduced if the disease is detected at the pre-malignant stage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of Raman microspectroscopy for elucidation of the biochemical changes associated with the pre-malignant stages of cervical cancer. Formalin fixed paraffin preserved tissue sections from cervical biopsies classified as negative for intraepithelial lesion and malignancy (NILM), low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) or high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) were analysed by Raman spectral mapping. Raman mapping, with K-Means Cluster …

Biomarker Discovery Of Liver Diseases Using Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics., Xue Shi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metabolomics has emerged as one of the latest of the "-omics" disciplines that can detect metabolite biomarkers in biological samples. The diverse characteristics of metabolites make the analytical platform challenging in metabolomics. Two bioanalytical platforms were developed in this study to investigate metabolite abundance changes under different biological conditions. We first developed a bioanalytical platform that coupled linear trap quadruple - Fourier transform ion cyclotron mass spectrometer (LTQ-FTICR MS) with direct infusion chip-based nano-electrospray ionization (DI-nESI) and applied it to study polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) effects on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We also employed this platform in conjunction with in …

The Phenomenon Of Outbound Medical Tourism In The United States, Tanner Douglas Cabbage

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Text Mining Of Patient Demographics And Diagnoses From Psychiatric Assessments, Eric James Klosterman

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic extraction of patient demographics and psychiatric diagnoses from clinical notes allows for the collection of patient data on a large scale. This data could be used for a variety of research purposes including outcomes studies or developing clinical trials. However, current research has not yet discussed the automatic extraction of demographics and psychiatric diagnoses in detail. The aim of this study is to apply text mining to extract patient demographics - age, gender, marital status, education level, and admission diagnoses from the psychiatric assessments at a mental health hospital and also assign codes to each category. Gender is coded …

Cardioguard: A Brassiere-Based Reliable Ecg Monitoring Sensor System For Supporting Daily Smartphone Healthcare Applications, Sungjun Kwon, Jeehoon Kim, Seungwoo Kang, Youngki Lee, Hyunjae Baek, Kwangsuk Park

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose CardioGuard, a brassiere-based reliable electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring sensor system, for supporting daily smartphone healthcare applications. It is designed to satisfy two key requirements for user-unobtrusive daily ECG monitoring: reliability of ECG sensing and usability of the sensor. The system is validated through extensive evaluations. The evaluation results showed that the CardioGuard sensor reliably measure the ECG during 12 representative daily activities including diverse movement levels; 89.53% of QRS peaks were detected on average. The questionnaire-based user study with 15 participants showed that the CardioGuard sensor was comfortable and unobtrusive. Additionally, the signal-to-noise ratio test and the washing durability …

Selective Indicators For Optical Determination Of Disease Biomarkers, Lovemore Hakuna

Dissertations and Theses

The most abundant biological thiols, homocysteine (Hcy), cysteine (Cys) and glutathione (GSH) have been the subject of intense research due to their association with a wide range of diseases. They play a key role in maintaining the redox status of biological systems. Selective detection methods for these thiols are challenging due to their similar structures and properties. Current commercially available detection methods use separations, fragile and expensive enzymatic or immunogenic materials and complex instrumentation. This has led to a global effort towards developing simple and inexpensive optical probes and indicators selective for specific biological thiols.

Highly selective chemical probes and …

Kondisi Kesehatan Lingkungan Pesantren Dan Perilaku Hidup Bersih Dan Sehat Siswa Dengan Kejadian Hepatitis, Ii Sumarni, Dewi Susanna

Kesmas

Kejadian luar biasa hepatitis A di Kabupaten Ciamis telah terjadi beberapa kali, satu di antaranya terjadi di Pondok Pesantren X. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis kondisi kesehatan lingkungan serta perilaku hidup bersih dan sehat dengan kejadian hepatitis A siswa/siswi di Pondok Pesantren X Kabupaten Ciamis. Rancangan penelitian menggunakan desain kasus kontrol dengan jumlah kasus 40 orang dan kontrol 80 orang, total sampel 120 orang. Populasi penelitian adalah siswa/siswi madrasah tsanawiyah dan madrasah aliyah negeri yang tinggal di asrama pondok pesantren. Data kasus merupakan data sekunder yang diperoleh dari Tim Surveilans Kabupaten Ciamis, dengan hasil pemeriksaan serologis positif. Sedangkan kontrol berdasarkan …

Analisis Risiko Karakteristik, Sosial Ekonomi, Perilaku Dan Kondisi Lingkungan Rumah Terhadap Kejadian Malaria, Susy Sriwahyuni Sukiswo, Rinidar Rinidar, Sugito Sugito

Kesmas

Malaria merupakan penyakit menular yang menjadi perhatian global. Kecamatan Arongan Lambalek merupakan daerah rawan malaria di Kabupaten Aceh Barat dengan kategori Medium Incidence Area dengan nilai Annual Parasite Incidence (API) 3,67 per 1000 penduduk masih di atas target API Nasional pada fase eliminasi API kurang dari 1 per 1000 penduduk tahun 2013. Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis karakteristik, sosial ekonomi, perilaku, dan kondisi lingkungan rumah yang berpengaruh terhadap kejadian malaria di Kecamatan Arongan Lambalek, Kabupaten Aceh Barat. Jenis penelitian ini adalah observasional analitik dengan pendekatan kasus kontrol dengan metode penarikan sampel yaitu purposive sampling. Jumlah sampel dalam penelitian ini terdiri 33 …