Clinical decision support for whole genome sequence information leveraging a service-oriented architecture: a prototype.

Science.gov (United States)

Welch, Brandon M; Rodriguez-Loya, Salvador; Eilbeck, Karen; Kawamoto, Kensaku

2014-01-01

Whole genome sequence (WGS) information could soon be routinely available to clinicians to support the personalized care of their patients. At such time, clinical decision support (CDS) integrated into the clinical workflow will likely be necessary to support genome-guided clinical care. Nevertheless, developing CDS capabilities for WGS information presents many unique challenges that need to be overcome for such approaches to be effective. In this manuscript, we describe the development of a prototype CDS system that is capable of providing genome-guided CDS at the point of care and within the clinical workflow. To demonstrate the functionality of this prototype, we implemented a clinical scenario of a hypothetical patient at high risk for Lynch Syndrome based on his genomic information. We demonstrate that this system can effectively use service-oriented architecture principles and standards-based components to deliver point of care CDS for WGS information in real-time.

Assured Mission Support Space Architecture (AMSSA) study

Science.gov (United States)

Hamon, Rob

1993-01-01

The assured mission support space architecture (AMSSA) study was conducted with the overall goal of developing a long-term requirements-driven integrated space architecture to provide responsive and sustained space support to the combatant commands. Although derivation of an architecture was the focus of the study, there are three significant products from the effort. The first is a philosophy that defines the necessary attributes for the development and operation of space systems to ensure an integrated, interoperable architecture that, by design, provides a high degree of combat utility. The second is the architecture itself; based on an interoperable system-of-systems strategy, it reflects a long-range goal for space that will evolve as user requirements adapt to a changing world environment. The third product is the framework of a process that, when fully developed, will provide essential information to key decision makers for space systems acquisition in order to achieve the AMSSA goal. It is a categorical imperative that military space planners develop space systems that will act as true force multipliers. AMSSA provides the philosophy, process, and architecture that, when integrated with the DOD requirements and acquisition procedures, can yield an assured mission support capability from space to the combatant commanders. An important feature of the AMSSA initiative is the participation by every organization that has a role or interest in space systems development and operation. With continued community involvement, the concept of the AMSSA will become a reality. In summary, AMSSA offers a better way to think about space (philosophy) that can lead to the effective utilization of limited resources (process) with an infrastructure designed to meet the future space needs (architecture) of our combat forces.

Development of a real-time clinical decision support system upon the Web MVC-based architecture for prostate cancer treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Hsueh-Chun; Wu, Hsi-Chin; Chang, Chih-Hung; Li, Tsai-Chung; Liang, Wen-Miin; Wang, Jong-Yi Wang

2011-03-08

A real-time clinical decision support system (RTCDSS) with interactive diagrams enables clinicians to instantly and efficiently track patients' clinical records (PCRs) and improve their quality of clinical care. We propose a RTCDSS to process online clinical informatics from multiple databases for clinical decision making in the treatment of prostate cancer based on Web Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, by which the system can easily be adapted to different diseases and applications. We designed a framework upon the Web MVC-based architecture in which the reusable and extractable models can be conveniently adapted to other hospital information systems and which allows for efficient database integration. Then, we determined the clinical variables of the prostate cancer treatment based on participating clinicians' opinions and developed a computational model to determine the pretreatment parameters. Furthermore, the components of the RTCDSS integrated PCRs and decision factors for real-time analysis to provide evidence-based diagrams upon the clinician-oriented interface for visualization of treatment guidance and health risk assessment. The resulting system can improve quality of clinical treatment by allowing clinicians to concurrently analyze and evaluate the clinical markers of prostate cancer patients with instantaneous clinical data and evidence-based diagrams which can automatically identify pretreatment parameters. Moreover, the proposed RTCDSS can aid interactions between patients and clinicians. Our proposed framework supports online clinical informatics, evaluates treatment risks, offers interactive guidance, and provides real-time reference for decision making in the treatment of prostate cancer. The developed clinician-oriented interface can assist clinicians in conveniently presenting evidence-based information to patients and can be readily adapted to an existing hospital information system and be easily applied in other chronic diseases.

A decision support system for forensic entomology

OpenAIRE

Morvan , Gildas; Jolly , Daniel; Dupont , Daniel; Kubiak , Philippe

2007-01-01

International audience; This paper presents a multiagent-based model of insect development on a dead body and a three layers Decision Support System architecture able to perform retrodictive (abductive) reasoning from multiagent-based models or more generally, complex systems models. This architecture is used in order to compute post-mortem intervals from entomological data sampled on cadavers. Knowing the exact time of a death is fundamental in criminal investigations. Thus, it is necessary ...

Employee participation in decision-making in architectural firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adedapo Oluwatayo

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In this study, the participation of employee architects in decision-making in architectural firms is investigated. This is with a view to identifying the organisational contexts that enhance employee participation in decision making. The impact of such participation on the performances of the firms was also assessed. This study was carried out through a questionnaire survey of employers of architects in Nigeria. In agreement with findings of previous studies, participation of the employees of the architectural firms in the study in decision making is low. Employee participation in decision making in the firms was dependent on the staffing strategy and proportion of junior staff in many cases. The positive impact of employee participation in decision making on firm performance varied with the nature of the decision. This study concludes that there is need for employers in architectural firms to identify the categories of decision that employees should be involved in and to modify their firm contexts to encourage participation where desired.

Development of a real-time clinical decision support system upon the web mvc-based architecture for prostate cancer treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liang Wen-Miin

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A real-time clinical decision support system (RTCDSS with interactive diagrams enables clinicians to instantly and efficiently track patients' clinical records (PCRs and improve their quality of clinical care. We propose a RTCDSS to process online clinical informatics from multiple databases for clinical decision making in the treatment of prostate cancer based on Web Model-View-Controller (MVC architecture, by which the system can easily be adapted to different diseases and applications. Methods We designed a framework upon the Web MVC-based architecture in which the reusable and extractable models can be conveniently adapted to other hospital information systems and which allows for efficient database integration. Then, we determined the clinical variables of the prostate cancer treatment based on participating clinicians' opinions and developed a computational model to determine the pretreatment parameters. Furthermore, the components of the RTCDSS integrated PCRs and decision factors for real-time analysis to provide evidence-based diagrams upon the clinician-oriented interface for visualization of treatment guidance and health risk assessment. Results The resulting system can improve quality of clinical treatment by allowing clinicians to concurrently analyze and evaluate the clinical markers of prostate cancer patients with instantaneous clinical data and evidence-based diagrams which can automatically identify pretreatment parameters. Moreover, the proposed RTCDSS can aid interactions between patients and clinicians. Conclusions Our proposed framework supports online clinical informatics, evaluates treatment risks, offers interactive guidance, and provides real-time reference for decision making in the treatment of prostate cancer. The developed clinician-oriented interface can assist clinicians in conveniently presenting evidence-based information to patients and can be readily adapted to an existing hospital

Implementation of workflow engine technology to deliver basic clinical decision support functionality.

Science.gov (United States)

Huser, Vojtech; Rasmussen, Luke V; Oberg, Ryan; Starren, Justin B

2011-04-10

Workflow engine technology represents a new class of software with the ability to graphically model step-based knowledge. We present application of this novel technology to the domain of clinical decision support. Successful implementation of decision support within an electronic health record (EHR) remains an unsolved research challenge. Previous research efforts were mostly based on healthcare-specific representation standards and execution engines and did not reach wide adoption. We focus on two challenges in decision support systems: the ability to test decision logic on retrospective data prior prospective deployment and the challenge of user-friendly representation of clinical logic. We present our implementation of a workflow engine technology that addresses the two above-described challenges in delivering clinical decision support. Our system is based on a cross-industry standard of XML (extensible markup language) process definition language (XPDL). The core components of the system are a workflow editor for modeling clinical scenarios and a workflow engine for execution of those scenarios. We demonstrate, with an open-source and publicly available workflow suite, that clinical decision support logic can be executed on retrospective data. The same flowchart-based representation can also function in a prospective mode where the system can be integrated with an EHR system and respond to real-time clinical events. We limit the scope of our implementation to decision support content generation (which can be EHR system vendor independent). We do not focus on supporting complex decision support content delivery mechanisms due to lack of standardization of EHR systems in this area. We present results of our evaluation of the flowchart-based graphical notation as well as architectural evaluation of our implementation using an established evaluation framework for clinical decision support architecture. We describe an implementation of a free workflow technology

Implementation of workflow engine technology to deliver basic clinical decision support functionality

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background Workflow engine technology represents a new class of software with the ability to graphically model step-based knowledge. We present application of this novel technology to the domain of clinical decision support. Successful implementation of decision support within an electronic health record (EHR) remains an unsolved research challenge. Previous research efforts were mostly based on healthcare-specific representation standards and execution engines and did not reach wide adoption. We focus on two challenges in decision support systems: the ability to test decision logic on retrospective data prior prospective deployment and the challenge of user-friendly representation of clinical logic. Results We present our implementation of a workflow engine technology that addresses the two above-described challenges in delivering clinical decision support. Our system is based on a cross-industry standard of XML (extensible markup language) process definition language (XPDL). The core components of the system are a workflow editor for modeling clinical scenarios and a workflow engine for execution of those scenarios. We demonstrate, with an open-source and publicly available workflow suite, that clinical decision support logic can be executed on retrospective data. The same flowchart-based representation can also function in a prospective mode where the system can be integrated with an EHR system and respond to real-time clinical events. We limit the scope of our implementation to decision support content generation (which can be EHR system vendor independent). We do not focus on supporting complex decision support content delivery mechanisms due to lack of standardization of EHR systems in this area. We present results of our evaluation of the flowchart-based graphical notation as well as architectural evaluation of our implementation using an established evaluation framework for clinical decision support architecture. Conclusions We describe an implementation of

The software architecture of the real-time on-line decision support system 'RODOS'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rafat, M.; Schuele, O.

1998-01-01

The RODOS project aims at the development of an integrated and comprehensive real-time on-line decision support system for off-site emergency management of nuclear accidents in Europe, applicable for the vicinity of the release and the early phase up to far distant areas and the later stages of an accident. The architecture of the RODOS software framework is described as a tool for processing and managing a large variety of different types of information, including those which are categorized in terms of meteorology, radiology, economy, emergency actions and countermeasures, rules, preferences, facts, maps, statistics, catalogues, models and methods. The conceptual design of the software structure based on the Client-Server model and the practical co-operation between a set of autonomous applications meeting the user requirements and objectives are discussed. Details of co-operation management are described by explaining the concepts of the inter-module communication, data exchange, control of operation and data model. (author)

Do Architectural Design Decisions Improve the Understanding of Software Architecture? Two Controlled Experiments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shahin, M.; Liang, P.; Li, Z.

2014-01-01

Architectural design decision (ADD) and its design rationale, as a paradigm shift on documenting and enriching architecture design description, is supposed to facilitate the understanding of architecture and the reasoning behind the design rationale, which consequently improves the architecting

Grand Challenges in Clinical Decision Support v10

Science.gov (United States)

Sittig, Dean F.; Wright, Adam; Osheroff, Jerome A.; Middleton, Blackford; Teich, Jonathan M.; Ash, Joan S.; Campbell, Emily; Bates, David W.

2008-01-01

There is a pressing need for high-quality, effective means of designing, developing, presenting, implementing, evaluating, and maintaining all types of clinical decision support capabilities for clinicians, patients and consumers. Using an iterative, consensus-building process we identified a rank-ordered list of the top 10 grand challenges in clinical decision support. This list was created to educate and inspire researchers, developers, funders, and policy-makers. The list of challenges in order of importance that they be solved if patients and organizations are to begin realizing the fullest benefits possible of these systems consists of: Improve the human-computer interface; Disseminate best practices in CDS design, development, and implementation; Summarize patient-level information; Prioritize and filter recommendations to the user; Create an architecture for sharing executable CDS modules and services; Combine recommendations for patients with co-morbidities; Prioritize CDS content development and implementation; Create internet-accessible clinical decision support repositories; Use freetext information to drive clinical decision support; Mine large clinical databases to create new CDS. Identification of solutions to these challenges is critical if clinical decision support is to achieve its potential and improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare. PMID:18029232

Architectural Design Support for Composition & Superimposition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gurp, Jilles van; Smedinga, Rein; Bosch, Jan

2002-01-01

The ever growing size and complexity of software systems is making it increasingly harder to build systems that both meet current and future requirements. During architecture design, a lot of important design decisions are taken. In this paper, we present an architecture design notation based on

A Planetary Defense Gateway for Smart Discovery of relevant Information for Decision Support

Science.gov (United States)

Bambacus, Myra; Yang, Chaowei Phil; Leung, Ronald Y.; Barbee, Brent; Nuth, Joseph A.; Seery, Bernard; Jiang, Yongyao; Qin, Han; Li, Yun; Yu, Manzhu;

Visualization of decision processes using a cognitive architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Livingston, Mark A.; Murugesan, Arthi; Brock, Derek; Frost, Wende K.; Perzanowski, Dennis

2013-01-01

Cognitive architectures are computational theories of reasoning the human mind engages in as it processes facts and experiences. A cognitive architecture uses declarative and procedural knowledge to represent mental constructs that are involved in decision making. Employing a model of behavioral and perceptual constraints derived from a set of one or more scenarios, the architecture reasons about the most likely consequence(s) of a sequence of events. Reasoning of any complexity and depth involving computational processes, however, is often opaque and challenging to comprehend. Arguably, for decision makers who may need to evaluate or question the results of autonomous reasoning, it would be useful to be able to inspect the steps involved in an interactive, graphical format. When a chain of evidence and constraint-based decision points can be visualized, it becomes easier to explore both how and why a scenario of interest will likely unfold in a particular way. In initial work on a scheme for visualizing cognitively-based decision processes, we focus on generating graphical representations of models run in the Polyscheme cognitive architecture. Our visualization algorithm operates on a modified version of Polyscheme's output, which is accomplished by augmenting models with a simple set of tags. We provide example visualizations and discuss properties of our technique that pose challenges for our representation goals. We conclude with a summary of feedback solicited from domain experts and practitioners in the field of cognitive modeling.

Evaluation of End-Products in Architecture Design Process: A Fuzzy Decision-Making Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serkan PALABIYIK

2012-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a study on the development of a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model for the evaluation of end products of the architectural design process. Potentials of the developed model were investigated within the scope of architectural design education, specifically an international design studio titled “Design for Disassembly and Reuse: Design & Building Multipurpose Transformable Pavilions.” The studio work followed a design process that integrated systematic and heuristic thinking. The design objectives and assessment criteria were clearly set out at the beginning of the process by the studio coordinator with the aim of narrowing the design space and increasing awareness of the consequences of design decisions. At the end of the design process, designs produced in the studio were evaluated using the developed model to support decision making. The model facilitated the identification of positive and negative aspects of the designs and selection of the design alternative that best met the studio objectives set at the beginning.

An Environment for Guideline-based Decision Support Systems for Outpatients Monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

Zini, Elisa M; Lanzola, Giordano; Bossi, Paolo; Quaglini, Silvana

2017-08-11

We propose an architecture for monitoring outpatients that relies on mobile technologies for acquiring data. The goal is to better control the onset of possible side effects between the scheduled visits at the clinic. We analyze the architectural components required to ensure a high level of abstraction from data. Clinical practice guidelines were formalized with Alium, an authoring tool based on the PROforma language, using SNOMED-CT as a terminology standard. The Alium engine is accessible through a set of APIs that may be leveraged for implementing an application based on standard web technologies to be used by doctors at the clinic. Data sent by patients using mobile devices need to be complemented with those already available in the Electronic Health Record to generate personalized recommendations. Thus a middleware pursuing data abstraction is required. To comply with current standards, we adopted the HL7 Virtual Medical Record for Clinical Decision Support Logical Model, Release 2. The developed architecture for monitoring outpatients includes: (1) a guideline-based Decision Support System accessible through a web application that helps the doctors with prevention, diagnosis and treatment of therapy side effects; (2) an application for mobile devices, which allows patients to regularly send data to the clinic. In order to tailor the monitoring procedures to the specific patient, the Decision Support System also helps physicians with the configuration of the mobile application, suggesting the data to be collected and the associated collection frequency that may change over time, according to the individual patient's conditions. A proof of concept has been developed with a system for monitoring the side effects of chemo-radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients. Our environment introduces two main innovation elements with respect to similar works available in the literature. First, in order to meet the specific patients' needs, in our work the Decision

Group Decision Process Support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gøtze, John; Hijikata, Masao

1997-01-01

Introducing the notion of Group Decision Process Support Systems (GDPSS) to traditional decision-support theorists.......Introducing the notion of Group Decision Process Support Systems (GDPSS) to traditional decision-support theorists....

Toward patient-centered, personalized and personal decision support and knowledge management: a survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Leong, T-Y

2012-01-01

This paper summarizes the recent trends and highlights the challenges and opportunities in decision support and knowledge management for patient-centered, personalized, and personal health care. The discussions are based on a broad survey of related references, focusing on the most recent publications. Major advances are examined in the areas of i) shared decision making paradigms, ii) continuity of care infrastructures and architectures, iii) human factors and system design approaches, iv) knowledge management innovations, and v) practical deployment and change considerations. Many important initiatives, projects, and plans with promising results have been identified. The common themes focus on supporting the individual patients who are playing an increasing central role in their own care decision processes. New collaborative decision making paradigms and information infrastructures are required to ensure effective continuity of care. Human factors and usability are crucial for the successful development and deployment of the relevant systems, tools, and aids. Advances in personalized medicine can be achieved through integrating genomic, phenotypic and other biological, individual, and population level information, and gaining useful insights from building and analyzing biological and other models at multiple levels of abstraction. Therefore, new Information and Communication Technologies and evaluation approaches are needed to effectively manage the scale and complexity of biomedical and health information, and adapt to the changing nature of clinical decision support. Recent research in decision support and knowledge management combines heterogeneous information and personal data to provide cost-effective, calibrated, personalized support in shared decision making at the point of care. Current and emerging efforts concentrate on developing or extending conventional paradigms, techniques, systems, and architectures for the new predictive, preemptive, and

Architecture Design of Healthcare Software-as-a-Service Platform for Cloud-Based Clinical Decision Support Service

OpenAIRE

Oh, Sungyoung; Cha, Jieun; Ji, Myungkyu; Kang, Hyekyung; Kim, Seok; Heo, Eunyoung; Han, Jong Soo; Kang, Hyunggoo; Chae, Hoseok; Hwang, Hee; Yoo, Sooyoung

2015-01-01

Objectives To design a cloud computing-based Healthcare Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Platform (HSP) for delivering healthcare information services with low cost, high clinical value, and high usability. Methods We analyzed the architecture requirements of an HSP, including the interface, business services, cloud SaaS, quality attributes, privacy and security, and multi-lingual capacity. For cloud-based SaaS services, we focused on Clinical Decision Service (CDS) content services, basic functi...

A Decision Support System for Optimum Use of Fertilizers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

R. L. Hoskinson; J. R. Hess; R. K. Fink

1999-07-01

The Decision Support System for Agriculture (DSS4Ag) is an expert system being developed by the Site-Specific Technologies for Agriculture (SST4Ag) precision farming research project at the INEEL. DSS4Ag uses state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and computer science technologies to make spatially variable, site-specific, economically optimum decisions on fertilizer use. The DSS4Ag has an open architecture that allows for external input and addition of new requirements and integrates its results with existing agricultural systems' infrastructures. The DSS4Ag reflects a paradigm shift in the information revolution in agriculture that is precision farming. We depict this information revolution in agriculture as an historic trend in the agricultural decision-making process.

A Decision Support System for Optimum Use of Fertilizers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoskinson, Reed Louis; Hess, John Richard; Fink, Raymond Keith

1999-07-01

The Decision Support System for Agriculture (DSS4Ag) is an expert system being developed by the Site-Specific Technologies for Agriculture (SST4Ag) precision farming research project at the INEEL. DSS4Ag uses state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and computer science technologies to make spatially variable, site-specific, economically optimum decisions on fertilizer use. The DSS4Ag has an open architecture that allows for external input and addition of new requirements and integrates its results with existing agricultural systems’ infrastructures. The DSS4Ag reflects a paradigm shift in the information revolution in agriculture that is precision farming. We depict this information revolution in agriculture as an historic trend in the agricultural decision-making process.

Enhanced Situational Awareness and Decision Support for Operators of Future Distributed Power Network Architectures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zaher, Ammar S. A. E.; Catterson, V. M.; Syed, M. H.

2016-01-01

This paper describes scenarios proposed for a control room decision support system aimed at future power network operators. The purpose is to consider the requirements of the future control room from the perspective of the operator under the conditions of a significant frequency excursion incident....... The control room visualisation and decision support functionality for aiding the operator in restoring the frequency to its target value will be considered. The analysis takes place within the Web-ofCells framework, adopted to deal with power system control through a web of subsystems, called cells, which...

A cognitive decision agent architecture for optimal energy management of microgrids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velik, Rosemarie; Nicolay, Pascal

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We propose an optimization approach for energy management in microgrids. • The optimizer emulates processes involved in human decision making. • Optimization objectives are energy self-consumption and financial gain maximization. • We gain improved optimization results in significantly reduced computation time. - Abstract: Via the integration of renewable energy and storage technologies, buildings have started to change from passive (electricity) consumers to active prosumer microgrids. Along with this development come a shift from centralized to distributed production and consumption models as well as discussions about the introduction of variable demand–supply-driven grid electricity prices. Together with upcoming ICT and automation technologies, these developments open space to a wide range of novel energy management and energy trading possibilities to optimally use available energy resources. However, what is considered as an optimal energy management and trading strategy heavily depends on the individual objectives and needs of a microgrid operator. Accordingly, elaborating the most suitable strategy for each particular system configuration and operator need can become quite a complex and time-consuming task, which can massively benefit from computational support. In this article, we introduce a bio-inspired cognitive decision agent architecture for optimized, goal-specific energy management in (interconnected) microgrids, which are additionally connected to the main electricity grid. For evaluating the performance of the architecture, a number of test cases are specified targeting objectives like local photovoltaic energy consumption maximization and financial gain maximization. Obtained outcomes are compared against a modified simulating annealing optimization approach in terms of objective achievement and computational effort. Results demonstrate that the cognitive decision agent architecture yields improved optimization results in

Human aspects in software architecture decision making : a literature review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tang, A.; Razavian, M.; Paech, Barbara; Hesse, T.M.

2017-01-01

Despite past efforts, we have little understanding and limited research efforts on how architects make decisions in the real-world settings. It seems that software architecture researchers make implicit assumption that decision making by software architects can be a rational and prescribed process.

A Framework for a Decision Support System in a Hierarchical Extended Enterprise Decision Context

Science.gov (United States)

Boza, Andrés; Ortiz, Angel; Vicens, Eduardo; Poler, Raul

Decision Support System (DSS) tools provide useful information to decision makers. In an Extended Enterprise, a new goal, changes in the current objectives or small changes in the extended enterprise configuration produce a necessary adjustment in its decision system. A DSS in this context must be flexible and agile to make suitable an easy and quickly adaptation to this new context. This paper proposes to extend the Hierarchical Production Planning (HPP) structure to an Extended Enterprise decision making context. In this way, a framework for DSS in Extended Enterprise context is defined using components of HPP. Interoperability details have been reviewed to identify the impact in this framework. The proposed framework allows overcoming some interoperability barriers, identifying and organizing components for a DSS in Extended Enterprise context, and working in the definition of an architecture to be used in the design process of a flexible DSS in Extended Enterprise context which can reuse components for futures Extended Enterprise configurations.

Decision support for integrated water-energy planning.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tidwell, Vincent Carroll; Malczynski, Leonard A.; Kobos, Peter Holmes; Castillo, Cesar; Hart, William Eugene; Klise, Geoffrey T.

2009-10-01

Currently, electrical power generation uses about 140 billion gallons of water per day accounting for over 39% of all freshwater withdrawals thus competing with irrigated agriculture as the leading user of water. Coupled to this water use is the required pumping, conveyance, treatment, storage and distribution of the water which requires on average 3% of all electric power generated. While water and energy use are tightly coupled, planning and management of these fundamental resources are rarely treated in an integrated fashion. Toward this need, a decision support framework has been developed that targets the shared needs of energy and water producers, resource managers, regulators, and decision makers at the federal, state and local levels. The framework integrates analysis and optimization capabilities to identify trade-offs, and 'best' alternatives among a broad list of energy/water options and objectives. The decision support framework is formulated in a modular architecture, facilitating tailored analyses over different geographical regions and scales (e.g., national, state, county, watershed, NERC region). An interactive interface allows direct control of the model and access to real-time results displayed as charts, graphs and maps. Ultimately, this open and interactive modeling framework provides a tool for evaluating competing policy and technical options relevant to the energy-water nexus.

How does Enterprise Architecture support innovation?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nardello, Marco; Lapalme, James; Toppenberg, Gustav

2015-01-01

Innovation is becoming increasingly important for Enterprise Architecture (EA) teams. Consequently, it is crucial that tools be developed to assist Enterprise Architecture teams when evaluating how (and how well) they are supporting innovation within the context of their enterprise. To date very...

Nudge or Grudge? Choice Architecture and Parental Decision-Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Blumenthal-Barby, Jennifer; Opel, Douglas J

2018-03-01

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein define a nudge as "any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives." Much has been written about the ethics of nudging competent adult patients. Less has been written about the ethics of nudging surrogates' decision-making and how the ethical considerations and arguments in that context might differ. Even less has been written about nudging surrogate decision-making in the context of pediatrics, despite fundamental differences that exist between the pediatric and adult contexts. Yet, as the field of behavioral economics matures and its insights become more established and well-known, nudges will become more crafted, sophisticated, intentional, and targeted. Thus, the time is now for reflection and ethical analysis regarding the appropriateness of nudges in pediatrics. We argue that there is an even stronger ethical justification for nudging in parental decision-making than with competent adult patients deciding for themselves. We give three main reasons in support of this: (1) child patients do not have autonomy that can be violated (a concern with some nudges), and nudging need not violate parental decision-making authority; (2) nudging can help fulfill pediatric clinicians' obligations to ensure parental decisions are in the child's interests, particularly in contexts where there is high certainty that a recommended intervention is low risk and of high benefit; and (3) nudging can relieve parents' decisional burden regarding what is best for their child, particularly with decisions that have implications for public health. © 2018 The Hastings Center.

Prospective Architectures for Onboard vs Cloud-Based Decision Making for Unmanned Aerial Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Sankararaman, Shankar; Teubert, Christopher

2017-01-01

This paper investigates propsective architectures for decision-making in unmanned aerial systems. When these unmanned vehicles operate in urban environments, there are several sources of uncertainty that affect their behavior, and decision-making algorithms need to be robust to account for these different sources of uncertainty. It is important to account for several risk-factors that affect the flight of these unmanned systems, and facilitate decision-making by taking into consideration these various risk-factors. In addition, there are several technical challenges related to autonomous flight of unmanned aerial systems; these challenges include sensing, obstacle detection, path planning and navigation, trajectory generation and selection, etc. Many of these activities require significant computational power and in many situations, all of these activities need to be performed in real-time. In order to efficiently integrate these activities, it is important to develop a systematic architecture that can facilitate real-time decision-making. Four prospective architectures are discussed in this paper; on one end of the spectrum, the first architecture considers all activities/computations being performed onboard the vehicle whereas on the other end of the spectrum, the fourth and final architecture considers all activities/computations being performed in the cloud, using a new service known as Prognostics as a Service that is being developed at NASA Ames Research Center. The four different architectures are compared, their advantages and disadvantages are explained and conclusions are presented.

A logic flowgraph-based concept for decision support and management of nuclear plant operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guarro, S.B.

1988-01-01

The architecture of an automated decision support system for nuclear plant operators is presented and discussed. The system is based on the use of 'logic flowgraph' process models and is designed in a hierarchical fashion. Its functionality spans from 'function oriented' plant status and alternative success path information displayed to the plant operators at its higher access levels to 'process oriented' diagnostic and recovery information deduced and displayed at its lowest. The design basis for this architecture is the 'defense in depth' plant safety concept. The decision support system goal is to provide plant operators, in the presence of an unforeseen transient, with the best and safest alternative between plant stabilization after shutdown and recovery of normal operation based on early diagnosis. Examples of the system capability to interpret and diagnose abnormal plant conditions and of the information that it can supply to the operators at its three access levels are presented and discussed. (author)

E-DECIDER Decision Support Gateway For Earthquake Disaster Response

Science.gov (United States)

Glasscoe, M. T.; Stough, T. M.; Parker, J. W.; Burl, M. C.; Donnellan, A.; Blom, R. G.; Pierce, M. E.; Wang, J.; Ma, Y.; Rundle, J. B.; Yoder, M. R.

2013-12-01

delivers map data products including deformation modeling results (slope change and strain magnitude) and aftershock forecasts, with remote sensing change detection results under development. These products are event triggered (from the USGS earthquake feed) and will be posted to event feeds on the E-DECIDER webpage and accessible via the mobile interface and UICDS. E-DECIDER also features a KML service that provides infrastructure information from the FEMA HAZUS database through UICDS and the mobile interface. The back-end GIS service architecture and front-end gateway components form a decision support system that is designed for ease-of-use and extensibility for end-users.

A Semantic Sensor Web for Environmental Decision Support Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Gray, Alasdair J. G.; Sadler, Jason; Kit, Oles; Kyzirakos, Kostis; Karpathiotakis, Manos; Calbimonte, Jean-Paul; Page, Kevin; García-Castro, Raúl; Frazer, Alex; Galpin, Ixent; Fernandes, Alvaro A. A.; Paton, Norman W.; Corcho, Oscar; Koubarakis, Manolis; De Roure, David; Martinez, Kirk; Gómez-Pérez, Asunción

2011-01-01

Sensing devices are increasingly being deployed to monitor the physical world around us. One class of application for which sensor data is pertinent is environmental decision support systems, e.g., flood emergency response. For these applications, the sensor readings need to be put in context by integrating them with other sources of data about the surrounding environment. Traditional systems for predicting and detecting floods rely on methods that need significant human resources. In this paper we describe a semantic sensor web architecture for integrating multiple heterogeneous datasets, including live and historic sensor data, databases, and map layers. The architecture provides mechanisms for discovering datasets, defining integrated views over them, continuously receiving data in real-time, and visualising on screen and interacting with the data. Our approach makes extensive use of web service standards for querying and accessing data, and semantic technologies to discover and integrate datasets. We demonstrate the use of our semantic sensor web architecture in the context of a flood response planning web application that uses data from sensor networks monitoring the sea-state around the coast of England. PMID:22164110

Model-centric software architecture reconstruction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stoermer, C.; Rowe, A.; O'Brien, L.; Verhoef, C.

2006-01-01

Much progress has been achieved in defining methods, techniques, and tools for software architecture reconstruction (SAR). However, less progress has been achieved in constructing reasoning frameworks from existing systems that support organizations in architecture analysis and design decisions.

Decisions at hand: a decision support system on handhelds.

Science.gov (United States)

Zupan, B; Porenta, A; Vidmar, G; Aoki, N; Bratko, I; Beck, J R

2001-01-01

One of the applications of clinical information systems is decision support. Although the advantages of utilizing such aids have never been theoretically disputed, they have been rarely used in practice. The factor that probably often limits the utility of clinical decision support systems is the need for computing power at the very site of decision making--at the place where the patient is interviewed, in discussion rooms, etc. The paper reports on a possible solution to this problem. A decision-support shell LogReg is presented, which runs on a handheld computer. A general schema for handheld-based decision support is also proposed, where decision models are developed on personal computers/workstations, encoded in XML and then transferred to handhelds, where the models are used within a decision support shell. A use case where LogReg has been applied to clinical outcome prediction in crush injury is presented.

Earth Orbiting Support Systems for commercial low Earth orbit data relay: Assessing architectures through tradespace exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Palermo, Gianluca; Golkar, Alessandro; Gaudenzi, Paolo

2015-06-01

As small satellites and Sun Synchronous Earth Observation systems are assuming an increased role in nowadays space activities, including commercial investments, it is of interest to assess how infrastructures could be developed to support the development of such systems and other spacecraft that could benefit from having a data relay service in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), as opposed to traditional Geostationary relays. This paper presents a tradespace exploration study of the architecture of such LEO commercial satellite data relay systems, here defined as Earth Orbiting Support Systems (EOSS). The paper proposes a methodology to formulate architectural decisions for EOSS constellations, and enumerate the corresponding tradespace of feasible architectures. Evaluation metrics are proposed to measure benefits and costs of architectures; lastly, a multicriteria Pareto criterion is used to downselect optimal architectures for subsequent analysis. The methodology is applied to two case studies for a set of 30 and 100 customer-spacecraft respectively, representing potential markets for LEO services in Exploration, Earth Observation, Science, and CubeSats. Pareto analysis shows how increased performance of the constellation is always achieved by an increased node size, as measured by the gain of the communications antenna mounted on EOSS spacecraft. On the other hand, nonlinear trends in optimal orbital altitude, number of satellites per plane, and number of orbital planes, are found in both cases. An upward trend in individual node memory capacity is found, although never exceeding 256 Gbits of onboard memory for both cases that have been considered, assuming the availability of a polar ground station for EOSS data downlink. System architects can use the proposed methodology to identify optimal EOSS constellations for a given service pricing strategy and customer target, thus identifying alternatives for selection by decision makers.

Home care decision support using an Arden engine--merging smart home and vital signs data.

Science.gov (United States)

Marschollek, Michael; Bott, Oliver J; Wolf, Klaus-H; Gietzelt, Matthias; Plischke, Maik; Madiesh, Moaaz; Song, Bianying; Haux, Reinhold

2009-01-01

The demographic change with a rising proportion of very old people and diminishing resources leads to an intensification of the use of telemedicine and home care concepts. To provide individualized decision support, data from different sources, e.g. vital signs sensors and home environmental sensors, need to be combined and analyzed together. Furthermore, a standardized decision support approach is necessary. The aim of our research work is to present a laboratory prototype home care architecture that integrates data from different sources and uses a decision support system based on the HL7 standard Arden Syntax for Medical Logical Modules. Data from environmental sensors connected to a home bus system are stored in a data base along with data from wireless medical sensors. All data are analyzed using an Arden engine with the medical knowledge represented in Medical Logic Modules. Multi-modal data from four different sensors in the home environment are stored in a single data base and are analyzed using an HL7 standard conformant decision support system. Individualized home care decision support must be based on all data available, including context data from smart home systems and medical data from electronic health records. Our prototype implementation shows the feasibility of using an Arden engine for decision support in a home setting. Our future work will include the utilization of medical background knowledge for individualized decision support, as there is no one-size-fits-all knowledge base in medicine.

Decision support systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, L.N.; Noe, E.; Langvad, A.M.

2007-01-01

system Crop Protection Online is widely used by advisors and as a learning tool for students. Although the system has been validated in many field trials over the years and has shown reliable results, the number of end-users among farmers has been relatively low during the last 10 years (approximately...... 1000 farmers). A sociological investigation of farmers' decision-making styles in the area of crop protection has shown that arable farmers can be divided into three major groups: (a) system-orientated farmers, (b) experience-based farmers and (c) advisory-orientated farmers. The information required...... by these three groups to make their decisions varies and therefore different ways of using decision support systems need to be provided. Decision support systems need to be developed in close dialogue and collaboration with user groups....

Tactical decision making under stress (TADMUS) decision support system

OpenAIRE

Morrison, Jeffrey G.; Kelly, Richard T.; Moore, Ronald A.; Hutchins, Susan G.

1996-01-01

A prototype decision support system (DSS) was developed to enhance Navy tactical decision making based on naturalistic decision processes. Displays were developed to support critical decision making tasks through recognition-primed and explanation-based reasoning processes and cognitive analysis of the decision making problems faced by Navy tactical officers in a shipboard Combat Information Center. Baseline testing in high intensity, peace keeping, littoral scenarios indicated...

Guiding Principles for Data Architecture to Support the Pathways Community HUB Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeigler, Bernard P; Redding, Sarah; Leath, Brenda A; Carter, Ernest L; Russell, Cynthia

2016-01-01

The Pathways Community HUB Model provides a unique strategy to effectively supplement health care services with social services needed to overcome barriers for those most at risk of poor health outcomes. Pathways are standardized measurement tools used to define and track health and social issues from identification through to a measurable completion point. The HUB use Pathways to coordinate agencies and service providers in the community to eliminate the inefficiencies and duplication that exist among them. Experience with the Model has brought out the need for better information technology solutions to support implementation of the Pathways themselves through decision-support tools for care coordinators and other users to track activities and outcomes, and to facilitate reporting. Here we provide a basis for discussing recommendations for such a data infrastructure by developing a conceptual model that formalizes the Pathway concept underlying current implementations. The main contribution is a set of core recommendations as a framework for developing and implementing a data architecture to support implementation of the Pathways Community HUB Model. The objective is to present a tool for communities interested in adopting the Model to learn from and to adapt in their own development and implementation efforts. Experience with the Community Health Access Project (CHAP) data base system (the core implementation of the Model) has identified several issues and remedies that have been developed to address these issues. Based on analysis of issues and remedies, we present several key features for a data architecture meeting the just mentioned recommendations. Presentation of features is followed by a practical guide to their implementation allowing an organization to consider either tailoring off-the-shelf generic systems to meet the requirements or offerings that are specialized for community-based care coordination. Looking to future extensions, we discuss the

Does decision documentation help junior designers rationalize their decisions? A comparative multiple-case study

OpenAIRE

Heesch, U. van; Avgeriou, P.; Tang, A.

2013-01-01

Software architecture design is challenging, especially for junior software designers. Lacking practice and experience, junior designers need process support in order to make rational architecture decisions. In this paper, we present the results of a comparative multiple-case study conducted to find out if decision viewpoints from van Heesch et al. (2012, in press) can provide such a support. The case study was conducted with four teams of software engineering students working in industrial s...

A Satellite Data-Driven, Client-Server Decision Support Application for Agricultural Water Resources Management

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Lee F.; Maneta, Marco P.; Kimball, John S.

2016-01-01

Water cycle extremes such as droughts and floods present a challenge for water managers and for policy makers responsible for the administration of water supplies in agricultural regions. In addition to the inherent uncertainties associated with forecasting extreme weather events, water planners need to anticipate water demands and water user behavior in a typical circumstances. This requires the use decision support systems capable of simulating agricultural water demand with the latest available data. Unfortunately, managers from local and regional agencies often use different datasets of variable quality, which complicates coordinated action. In previous work we have demonstrated novel methodologies to use satellite-based observational technologies, in conjunction with hydro-economic models and state of the art data assimilation methods, to enable robust regional assessment and prediction of drought impacts on agricultural production, water resources, and land allocation. These methods create an opportunity for new, cost-effective analysis tools to support policy and decision-making over large spatial extents. The methods can be driven with information from existing satellite-derived operational products, such as the Satellite Irrigation Management Support system (SIMS) operational over California, the Cropland Data Layer (CDL), and using a modified light-use efficiency algorithm to retrieve crop yield from the synergistic use of MODIS and Landsat imagery. Here we present an integration of this modeling framework in a client-server architecture based on the Hydra platform. Assimilation and processing of resource intensive remote sensing data, as well as hydrologic and other ancillary information occur on the server side. This information is processed and summarized as attributes in water demand nodes that are part of a vector description of the water distribution network. With this architecture, our decision support system becomes a light weight 'app' that

Decision support, analytics, and business intelligence

CERN Document Server

Power, Daniel J

2013-01-01

Competition is becoming more intense and decision makers are encountering increasing complexity, rapid change, and higher levels of risk. In many situations, the solution is more and better computerized decision support, especially analytics and business intelligence. Today managers need to learn about and understand computerized decision support. If a business is to succeed, managers must know much more about information technology solutions. This second edition of a powerful introductory book is targeted at busy managers and MBA students who need to grasp the basics of computerized decision support, including the following: What are analytics? What is a decision support system? How can managers identify opportunities to create innovative computerized support? Inside, the author addresses these questions and some 60 more fundamental questions that are key to understanding the rapidly changing realm of computerized decision support. In a short period of time, you'll "get up to speed" on decision support, anal...

Multilevel Flow Modeling Based Decision Support System and Its Task Organization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Xinxin; Lind, Morten; Ravn, Ole

2013-01-01

For complex engineering systems, there is an increasing demand for safety and reliability. Decision support system (DSS) is designed to offer su-pervision and analysis about operational situations. A proper model representa-tion is required for DSS to understand the process knowledge. Multilevel ...... techniques of MFM reasoning and less mature yet relevant MFM concepts are considered. It also offers an architecture design of task organization for MFM software tools by using the concept of agent and technology of multiagent software system....

Architecture Design of Healthcare Software-as-a-Service Platform for Cloud-Based Clinical Decision Support Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Sungyoung; Cha, Jieun; Ji, Myungkyu; Kang, Hyekyung; Kim, Seok; Heo, Eunyoung; Han, Jong Soo; Kang, Hyunggoo; Chae, Hoseok; Hwang, Hee; Yoo, Sooyoung

2015-04-01

To design a cloud computing-based Healthcare Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Platform (HSP) for delivering healthcare information services with low cost, high clinical value, and high usability. We analyzed the architecture requirements of an HSP, including the interface, business services, cloud SaaS, quality attributes, privacy and security, and multi-lingual capacity. For cloud-based SaaS services, we focused on Clinical Decision Service (CDS) content services, basic functional services, and mobile services. Microsoft's Azure cloud computing for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) was used. The functional and software views of an HSP were designed in a layered architecture. External systems can be interfaced with the HSP using SOAP and REST/JSON. The multi-tenancy model of the HSP was designed as a shared database, with a separate schema for each tenant through a single application, although healthcare data can be physically located on a cloud or in a hospital, depending on regulations. The CDS services were categorized into rule-based services for medications, alert registration services, and knowledge services. We expect that cloud-based HSPs will allow small and mid-sized hospitals, in addition to large-sized hospitals, to adopt information infrastructures and health information technology with low system operation and maintenance costs.

Engineering and management of IT-based service systems an intelligent decision-making support systems approach

CERN Document Server

Gomez, Jorge; Garrido, Leonardo; Perez, Francisco

2014-01-01

Intelligent Decision-Making Support Systems (i-DMSS) are specialized IT-based systems that support some or several phases of the individual, team, organizational or inter-organizational decision making process by deploying some or several intelligent mechanisms. This book pursues the following academic aims: (i) generate a compendium of quality theoretical and applied contributions in Intelligent Decision-Making Support Systems (i-DMSS) for engineering and management IT-based service systems (ITSS); (ii)  diffuse scarce knowledge about foundations, architectures and effective and efficient methods and strategies for successfully planning, designing, building, operating, and evaluating i-DMSS for ITSS, and (iii) create an awareness of, and a bridge between ITSS and i-DMSS academicians and practitioners in the current complex and dynamic engineering and management ITSS organizational. The book presents a collection of 11 chapters referring to relevant topics for both IT service systems and i-DMSS including: pr...

Life support technology investment strategies for flight programs: An application of decision analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Schlater, Nelson J.; Simonds, Charles H.; Ballin, Mark G.

1993-01-01

Applied research and technology development (R&TD) is often characterized by uncertainty, risk, and significant delays before tangible returns are obtained. Given the increased awareness of limitations in resources, effective R&TD today needs a method for up-front assessment of competing technologies to help guide technology investment decisions. Such an assessment approach must account for uncertainties in system performance parameters, mission requirements and architectures, and internal and external events influencing a development program. The methodology known as decision analysis has the potential to address these issues. It was evaluated by performing a case study assessment of alternative carbon dioxide removal technologies for NASA's proposed First Lunar Outpost program. An approach was developed that accounts for the uncertainties in each technology's cost and performance parameters as well as programmatic uncertainties such as mission architecture. Life cycle cost savings relative to a baseline, adjusted for the cost of money, was used as a figure of merit to evaluate each of the alternative carbon dioxide removal technology candidates. The methodology was found to provide a consistent decision-making strategy for development of new life support technology. The case study results provided insight that was not possible from more traditional analysis approaches.

Customer Decision Support Systems: Resources for Student Decision Making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cara Okleshen Peters, Ph.D.

2005-07-01

Full Text Available This paper highlights the potential of customer decision support systems (CDSS to assist students in education-related decision making. Faculty can use these resources to more effectively advise students on various elements of college life, while students can employ them to more actively participate in their own learning and improve their academic experience. This conceptual paper summarizes consumer decision support systems (CDSS concepts and presents exemplar websites students could utilize to support their education-related decision making. Finally, the authors discuss the potential benefits and drawbacks such resources engender from a student perspective and conclude with directions for future research.

Using a group decision support system to make investment prioritisation decisions

OpenAIRE

Read, Martin; Gear, Tony; Minkes, Leonard; Irving, Ann

2013-01-01

This paper is concerned with how decision making groups involved in making investment prioritisation decisions involving funding of technology and science projects may be supported by a group decision support system (GDSS). While interested in decision outcomes, the primary focus of this paper is the role of a group support system as an aid to developing shared understanding within a group. The paper develops the conceptual framework of decision-making, communication and group support, and de...

Implications of Decision Making Research for Decision Support and Displays

OpenAIRE

Morrison, Jeffrey G.; Kelly, Richard T.; Moore, Ronald A.; Hutchins, Susan G.

1998-01-01

To appear in J. A. Cannon-Bowers & E. Salas (Eds.), Decision Making Under Stress: Implications for Training and Simulation. A prototype decision support system (DSS) was developed to enhance Navy tactical decision making based on naturalistic decision processes. Displays were developed to support critical decision making tasks through recognition-primed and explanation-based reasoning processes, and cognitive analysis was conducted of the decision making problems faced by Navy ...

Distributed sensor architecture for intelligent control that supports quality of control and quality of service.

Science.gov (United States)

Poza-Lujan, Jose-Luis; Posadas-Yagüe, Juan-Luis; Simó-Ten, José-Enrique; Simarro, Raúl; Benet, Ginés

2015-02-25

This paper is part of a study of intelligent architectures for distributed control and communications systems. The study focuses on optimizing control systems by evaluating the performance of middleware through quality of service (QoS) parameters and the optimization of control using Quality of Control (QoC) parameters. The main aim of this work is to study, design, develop, and evaluate a distributed control architecture based on the Data-Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems (DDS) communication standard as proposed by the Object Management Group (OMG). As a result of the study, an architecture called Frame-Sensor-Adapter to Control (FSACtrl) has been developed. FSACtrl provides a model to implement an intelligent distributed Event-Based Control (EBC) system with support to measure QoS and QoC parameters. The novelty consists of using, simultaneously, the measured QoS and QoC parameters to make decisions about the control action with a new method called Event Based Quality Integral Cycle. To validate the architecture, the first five Braitenberg vehicles have been implemented using the FSACtrl architecture. The experimental outcomes, demonstrate the convenience of using jointly QoS and QoC parameters in distributed control systems.

Distributed Sensor Architecture for Intelligent Control that Supports Quality of Control and Quality of Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jose-Luis Poza-Lujan

2015-02-01

Full Text Available This paper is part of a study of intelligent architectures for distributed control and communications systems. The study focuses on optimizing control systems by evaluating the performance of middleware through quality of service (QoS parameters and the optimization of control using Quality of Control (QoC parameters. The main aim of this work is to study, design, develop, and evaluate a distributed control architecture based on the Data-Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems (DDS communication standard as proposed by the Object Management Group (OMG. As a result of the study, an architecture called Frame-Sensor-Adapter to Control (FSACtrl has been developed. FSACtrl provides a model to implement an intelligent distributed Event-Based Control (EBC system with support to measure QoS and QoC parameters. The novelty consists of using, simultaneously, the measured QoS and QoC parameters to make decisions about the control action with a new method called Event Based Quality Integral Cycle. To validate the architecture, the first five Braitenberg vehicles have been implemented using the FSACtrl architecture. The experimental outcomes, demonstrate the convenience of using jointly QoS and QoC parameters in distributed control systems.

A Semantic Sensor Web for Environmental Decision Support Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raúl García-Castro

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Sensing devices are increasingly being deployed to monitor the physical world around us. One class of application for which sensor data is pertinent is environmental decision support systems, e.g., flood emergency response. For these applications, the sensor readings need to be put in context by integrating them with other sources of data about the surrounding environment. Traditional systems for predicting and detecting floods rely on methods that need significant human resources. In this paper we describe a semantic sensor web architecture for integrating multiple heterogeneous datasets, including live and historic sensor data, databases, and map layers. The architecture provides mechanisms for discovering datasets, defining integrated views over them, continuously receiving data in real-time, and visualising on screen and interacting with the data. Our approach makes extensive use of web service standards for querying and accessing data, and semantic technologies to discover and integrate datasets. We demonstrate the use of our semantic sensor web architecture in the context of a flood response planning web application that uses data from sensor networks monitoring the sea-state around the coast of England.

Architecture Design of Healthcare Software-as-a-Service Platform for Cloud-Based Clinical Decision Support Service

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Sungyoung; Cha, Jieun; Ji, Myungkyu; Kang, Hyekyung; Kim, Seok; Heo, Eunyoung; Han, Jong Soo; Kang, Hyunggoo; Chae, Hoseok; Hwang, Hee

2015-01-01

Objectives To design a cloud computing-based Healthcare Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Platform (HSP) for delivering healthcare information services with low cost, high clinical value, and high usability. Methods We analyzed the architecture requirements of an HSP, including the interface, business services, cloud SaaS, quality attributes, privacy and security, and multi-lingual capacity. For cloud-based SaaS services, we focused on Clinical Decision Service (CDS) content services, basic functional services, and mobile services. Microsoft's Azure cloud computing for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) was used. Results The functional and software views of an HSP were designed in a layered architecture. External systems can be interfaced with the HSP using SOAP and REST/JSON. The multi-tenancy model of the HSP was designed as a shared database, with a separate schema for each tenant through a single application, although healthcare data can be physically located on a cloud or in a hospital, depending on regulations. The CDS services were categorized into rule-based services for medications, alert registration services, and knowledge services. Conclusions We expect that cloud-based HSPs will allow small and mid-sized hospitals, in addition to large-sized hospitals, to adopt information infrastructures and health information technology with low system operation and maintenance costs. PMID:25995962

Design of multilevel flow modelling-based decision support system by using multiagent platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Xinxin; Lind, Morten; Ravn, Ole

2015-01-01

For complex engineering systems, there is an increasing demand forsafety and reliability. Decision support system (DSS) is designed to offersupervision and analysis about operational situations. A proper modelrepresentation is required for DSS to understand the process knowledge.Multilevel flow...... available techniques of MFM reasoning and less matureyet relevant MFM concepts are considered. It also offers an architecture designof task organisation for MFM software tools by using the concept of agent andtechnology of multiagent software system...

INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PROVIDING BEHAVIORAL FEATURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir N. Shvedenko

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with creation of integrated information system architecture capable of supporting management decisions using behavioral features. The paper considers the architecture of information decision support system for production system management. The behavioral feature is given to an information system, and it ensures extraction, processing of information, management decision-making with both automated and automatic modes of decision-making subsystem being permitted. Practical implementation of information system with behavior is based on service-oriented architecture: there is a set of independent services in the information system that provides data of its subsystems or data processing by separate application under the chosen variant of the problematic situation settlement. For creation of integrated information system with behavior we propose architecture including the following subsystems: data bus, subsystem for interaction with the integrated applications based on metadata, business process management subsystem, subsystem for the current state analysis of the enterprise and management decision-making, behavior training subsystem. For each problematic situation a separate logical layer service is created in Unified Service Bus handling problematic situations. This architecture reduces system information complexity due to the fact that with a constant amount of system elements the number of links decreases, since each layer provides communication center of responsibility for the resource with the services of corresponding applications. If a similar problematic situation occurs, its resolution is automatically removed from problem situation metamodel repository and business process metamodel of its settlement. In the business process performance commands are generated to the corresponding centers of responsibility to settle a problematic situation.

Functional Interface Considerations within an Exploration Life Support System Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, Jay L.; Sargusingh, Miriam J.; Toomarian, Nikzad

2016-01-01

As notional life support system (LSS) architectures are developed and evaluated, myriad options must be considered pertaining to process technologies, components, and equipment assemblies. Each option must be evaluated relative to its impact on key functional interfaces within the LSS architecture. A leading notional architecture has been developed to guide the path toward realizing future crewed space exploration goals. This architecture includes atmosphere revitalization, water recovery and management, and environmental monitoring subsystems. Guiding requirements for developing this architecture are summarized and important interfaces within the architecture are discussed. The role of environmental monitoring within the architecture is described.

Integration of Automated Decision Support Systems with Data Mining Abstract: A Client Perspective

OpenAIRE

Abdullah Saad AL-Malaise

2013-01-01

Customer’s behavior and satisfaction are always play important role to increase organization’s growth and market value. Customers are on top priority for the growing organization to build up their businesses. In this paper presents the architecture of Decision Support Systems (DSS) in connection to deal with the customer’s enquiries and requests. Main purpose behind the proposed model is to enhance the customer’s satisfaction and behavior using DSS. We proposed model by extension in tradition...

Decision support for emergency management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersen, V.

1989-05-01

A short introduction will be given to the Nordic project ''NKA/INF: Information Technology for Accident and Emergency Management'', which is now in its final phase. To perform evaluation of the project, special scenarious have been developed, and experiments based on these will be fulfilled and compared with experiments without use of the decision support system. Furthermore, the succeeding European project, ''IT Support for Emergency Management - ISEM'', with the purpose of developing a decision support system for complex and distributed decision making in emergency management in full scale, will be described and the preliminary conceptual model for the system will be presented. (author)

A Customizable MR Brain Imaging Atlas of Structure and Function for Decision Support.

Science.gov (United States)

U., Sinha; S., El-Saden; G., Duckwiler; L., Thompson; S., Ardekani; H., Kangarloo

2003-01-01

We present a MR brain atlas for structure and function (diffusion weighted images). The atlas is customizable for contrast and orientation to match the current patient images. In addition, the atlas also provides normative values of MR parameters. The atlas is designed on informatics principles to provide context sensitive decision support at the time of primary image interpretation. Additional support for diagnostic interpretation is provided by a list of expert created most relevant ‘Image Finding Descriptors’ that will serve as cues to the user. The architecture of the atlas module is integrated into the image workflow of a radiology department to provide support at the time of primary diagnosis. PMID:14728244

Risk-based emergency decision support

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koerte, Jens

2003-01-01

In the present paper we discuss how to assist critical decisions taken under complex, contingent circumstances, with a high degree of uncertainty and short time frames. In such sharp-end decision regimes, standard rule-based decision support systems do not capture the complexity of the situation. At the same time, traditional risk analysis is of little use due to variability in the specific circumstances. How then, can an organisation provide assistance to, e.g. pilots in dealing with such emergencies? A method called 'contingent risk and decision analysis' is presented, to provide decision support for decisions under variable circumstances and short available time scales. The method consists of nine steps of definition, modelling, analysis and criteria definition to be performed 'off-line' by analysts, and procedure generation to transform the analysis result into an operational decision aid. Examples of pilots' decisions in response to sudden vibration in offshore helicopter transport method are used to illustrate the approach

Language-based support for service oriented architectures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Giambiagi, Pablo; Owe, Olaf; Ravn, Anders Peter

2006-01-01

The fast evolution of the Internet has popularized service-oriented architectures (SOA) with their promise of dynamic IT-supported inter-business collaborations. Yet this popularity does not reflect on the number of actual applications using the architecture. Programming models in use today make...... a poor match for the distributed, loosely-coupled, document-based nature of SOA. The gap is actually increasing. For example, interoperability between different organizations, requires contracts to reduce risks. Thus, high-level models of contracts are making their way into service-oriented architectures......, but application developers are still left to their own devices when it comes to writing code that will comply with a contract. This paper surveys existing and future directions regarding language-based solutions to the above problem....

The EVOTION Decision Support System: Utilizing It for Public Health Policy-Making in Hearing Loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Katrakazas, Panagiotis; Trenkova, Lyubov; Milas, Josip; Brdaric, Dario; Koutsouris, Dimitris

2017-01-01

As Decision Support Systems start to play a significant role in decision making, especially in the field of public-health policy making, we present an initial attempt to formulate such a system in the concept of public health policy making for hearing loss related problems. Justification for the system's conceptual architecture and its key functionalities are presented. The introduction of the EVOTION DSS sets a key innovation and a basis for paradigm shift in policymaking, by incorporating relevant models, big data analytics and generic demographic data. Expected outcomes for this joint effort are discussed from a public-health point of view.

Does decision documentation help junior designers rationalize their decisions? A comparative multiple-case study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heesch, U. van; Avgeriou, P.; Tang, A.

Software architecture design is challenging, especially for junior software designers. Lacking practice and experience, junior designers need process support in order to make rational architecture decisions. In this paper, we present the results of a comparative multiple-case study conducted to find

Decision support for customers in electronic environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

František Dařena

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Due to the rapid spread of computer technologies into day-to-day lives many purchases or purchase-related decisions are made in the electronic environment of the Web. In order to handle information overload that is the result of the availability of many web-based stores, products and services, consumers use decision support aids that help with need recognition, information retrieval, filtering, comparisons and choice making. Decision support systems (DSS discipline spreads about 40 years back and was mostly focused on assisting managers. However, online environments and decision support in such environments bring new opportunities also to the customers. The focus on decision support for consumers is also not investigated to the large extent and not documented in the literature. Providing customers with well designed decision aids can lead to lower cognitive decision effort associated with the purchase decision which results in significant increase of consumer’s confidence, satisfaction, and cost savings. During decision making process the subjects can chose from several methods (optimizing, reasoning, analogizing, and creating, DSS types (data-, model-, communication-, document-driven, and knowledge-based and benefit from different modern technologies. The paper investigates popular customer decision making aids, such as search, filtering, comparison, ­e-negotiations and auctions, recommendation systems, social network systems, product design applications, communication support etc. which are frequently related to e-commerce applications. Results include the overview of such decision supporting tools, specific examples, classification according the way how the decisions are supported, and possibilities of applications of progressive technologies. The paper thus contributes to the process of development of the interface between companies and the customers where customer decisions take place.

Architecture-based Model for Preventive and Operative Crisis Management

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Jungert, Erland; Derefeldt, Gunilla; Hallberg, Jonas; Hallberg, Niklas; Hunstad, Amund; Thuren, Ronny

2004-01-01

.... A system that should support activities of this type must not only have a high capacity, with respect to the dataflow, but also have suitable tools for decision support. To overcome these problems, an architecture for preventive and operative crisis management is proposed. The architecture is based on models for command and control, but also for risk analysis.

Marshall Application Realignment System (MARS) Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Belshe, Andrea; Sutton, Mandy

2010-01-01

The Marshall Application Realignment System (MARS) Architecture project was established to meet the certification requirements of the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) V2.0 Federal Enterprise Architecture Certification (FEAC) Institute program and to provide added value to the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Application Portfolio Management process. The MARS Architecture aims to: (1) address the NASA MSFC Chief Information Officer (CIO) strategic initiative to improve Application Portfolio Management (APM) by optimizing investments and improving portfolio performance, and (2) develop a decision-aiding capability by which applications registered within the MSFC application portfolio can be analyzed and considered for retirement or decommission. The MARS Architecture describes a to-be target capability that supports application portfolio analysis against scoring measures (based on value) and overall portfolio performance objectives (based on enterprise needs and policies). This scoring and decision-aiding capability supports the process by which MSFC application investments are realigned or retired from the application portfolio. The MARS Architecture is a multi-phase effort to: (1) conduct strategic architecture planning and knowledge development based on the DoDAF V2.0 six-step methodology, (2) describe one architecture through multiple viewpoints, (3) conduct portfolio analyses based on a defined operational concept, and (4) enable a new capability to support the MSFC enterprise IT management mission, vision, and goals. This report documents Phase 1 (Strategy and Design), which includes discovery, planning, and development of initial architecture viewpoints. Phase 2 will move forward the process of building the architecture, widening the scope to include application realignment (in addition to application retirement), and validating the underlying architecture logic before moving into Phase 3. The MARS Architecture key stakeholders are most

Architectural slicing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Henrik Bærbak; Hansen, Klaus Marius

2013-01-01

Architectural prototyping is a widely used practice, con- cerned with taking architectural decisions through experiments with light- weight implementations. However, many architectural decisions are only taken when systems are already (partially) implemented. This is prob- lematic in the context...... of architectural prototyping since experiments with full systems are complex and expensive and thus architectural learn- ing is hindered. In this paper, we propose a novel technique for harvest- ing architectural prototypes from existing systems, \\architectural slic- ing", based on dynamic program slicing. Given...... a system and a slicing criterion, architectural slicing produces an architectural prototype that contain the elements in the architecture that are dependent on the ele- ments in the slicing criterion. Furthermore, we present an initial design and implementation of an architectural slicer for Java....

Toward the Modularization of Decision Support Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Raskin, R. G.

2009-12-01

Decision support systems are typically developed entirely from scratch without the use of modular components. This “stovepiped” approach is inefficient and costly because it prevents a developer from leveraging the data, models, tools, and services of other developers. Even when a decision support component is made available, it is difficult to know what problem it solves, how it relates to other components, or even that the component exists, The Spatial Decision Support (SDS) Consortium was formed in 2008 to organize the body of knowledge in SDS within a common portal. The portal identifies the canonical steps in the decision process and enables decision support components to be registered, categorized, and searched. This presentation describes how a decision support system can be assembled from modular models, data, tools and services, based on the needs of the Earth science application.

Recommendations on future development of decision support systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

MCarthur, Stephen; Chen, Minjiang; Marinelli, Mattia

Deliverable 8.3 reports on the consolidation of experiences from visualisation, decision support prototypes experiments and recommendations on future developments of decision support systems......Deliverable 8.3 reports on the consolidation of experiences from visualisation, decision support prototypes experiments and recommendations on future developments of decision support systems...

A systematic review of decision support needs of parents making child health decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Cath; Cheater, Francine M.; Reid, Innes

2008-01-01

Abstract Objective  To identify the decision support needs of parents attempting to make an informed health decision on behalf of a child. Context  The first step towards implementing patient decision support is to assess patients’ information and decision‐making needs. Search strategy  A systematic search of key bibliographic databases for decision support studies was performed in 2005. Reference lists of relevant review articles and key authors were searched. Three relevant journals were hand searched. Inclusion criteria  Non‐intervention studies containing data on decision support needs of parents making child health decisions. Data extraction and synthesis  Data were extracted on study characteristics, decision focus and decision support needs. Studies were quality assessed using a pre‐defined set of criteria. Data synthesis used the UK Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co‐ordinating Centre approach. Main results  One‐hundred and forty nine studies were included across various child health decisions, settings and study designs. Thematic analysis of decision support needs indicated three key issues: (i) information (including suggestions about the content, delivery, source, timing); (ii) talking to others (including concerns about pressure from others); and (iii) feeling a sense of control over the process that could be influenced by emotionally charged decisions, the consultation process, and structural or service barriers. These were consistent across decision type, study design and whether or not the study focused on informed decision making. PMID:18816320

Federated health information architecture: Enabling healthcare providers and policymakers to use data for decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Manish; Mostafa, Javed; Ramaswamy, Rohit

2018-05-01

Health information systems (HIS) in India, as in most other developing countries, support public health management but fail to enable healthcare providers to use data for delivering quality services. Such a failure is surprising, given that the population healthcare data that the system collects are aggregated from patient records. An important reason for this failure is that the health information architecture (HIA) of the HIS is designed primarily to serve the information needs of policymakers and program managers. India has recognised the architectural gaps in its HIS and proposes to develop an integrated HIA. An enabling HIA that attempts to balance the autonomy of local systems with the requirements of a centralised monitoring agency could meet the diverse information needs of various stakeholders. Given the lack of in-country knowledge and experience in designing such an HIA, this case study was undertaken to analyse HIS in the Bihar state of India and to understand whether it would enable healthcare providers, program managers and policymakers to use data for decision-making. Based on a literature review and data collected from interviews with key informants, this article proposes a federated HIA, which has the potential to improve HIS efficiency; provide flexibility for local innovation; cater to the diverse information needs of healthcare providers, program managers and policymakers; and encourage data-based decision-making.

A Trustworthiness Evaluation Method for Software Architectures Based on the Principle of Maximum Entropy (POME and the Grey Decision-Making Method (GDMM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rong Jiang

2014-09-01

Full Text Available As the early design decision-making structure, a software architecture plays a key role in the final software product quality and the whole project. In the software design and development process, an effective evaluation of the trustworthiness of a software architecture can help making scientific and reasonable decisions on the architecture, which are necessary for the construction of highly trustworthy software. In consideration of lacking the trustworthiness evaluation and measurement studies for software architecture, this paper provides one trustworthy attribute model of software architecture. Based on this model, the paper proposes to use the Principle of Maximum Entropy (POME and Grey Decision-making Method (GDMM as the trustworthiness evaluation method of a software architecture and proves the scientificity and rationality of this method, as well as verifies the feasibility through case analysis.

Human Decision Processes: Implications for SSA Support Tools

Science.gov (United States)

Picciano, P.

2013-09-01

paper), one opinion shared is that the rational, economic, deliberate listing/evaluation of all options is NOT representative of how many decision are made. A framework gaining interest lately describes two systems predominantly at work: intuition and reasoning (Kahneman, 2003). Intuition is fast, automatic, and parallel contrasted with the more effortful, deliberative, and sequential reasoning. One of the issues of contention is that considerable research is stacked supporting both sides claiming that intuition is: • A hallmark of expertise responsible for rapid, optimal decisions in the face of adversity • A vulnerability where biases serve as decision traps leading to wrong choices Using seminal studies from a range of domains and tasking, potential solutions for SSA decision support will be offered. Important issues such as managing uncertainty, framing inquiries, and information architecture, and contextual cues will be discussed. The purpose is to provide awareness of the human limitations and capabilities in complex decision making so engineers and designers can consider such factors in their development of SSA tools.

Study on the construction of Guangdong coastal zone sustainable development decision support system

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Yong-zhu; Zhang, Mei-ying; Xia, Bin; Zhang, Zheng-dong

2008-10-01

Coastal zones in Guangdong province are increasingly facing an ecological, economic and social pressure due to the increasing economic utilization and human activities in these regions worldwide, which is threatening the sustainable development of human being. How to take effective measurements and adopt integrated management to ensure sustainable development in these areas is ever becoming a focus that attracts close attentions to the governmental and academic sectors recently. It is important to resolve the problem to establish an advanced decision support system for the coastal zone sustainable development to help scientific decision-making and carry out integrated coastal zone management. This paper mainly introduces the general framework of Guangdong coastal zone sustainable development decision support system (GDCZSDDSS), including its requirements, general objectives, function and structure, and key technologies etc. After expounding the basic concept and requirements of GDCZSDDSS, the paper discusses generally the three-tier architecture and six kinds of functional modules, and lays a particular emphasis on the crucial role of such key technologies as GIS, RS and GPS (3S), spatial metadata and data warehouse etc., and discusses the methods of the GCZSDDSS integration, which aims at offering a whole solution for realization of the GCZSDDSS ultimately.

Preparing for a decision support system.

Science.gov (United States)

Callan, K

2000-08-01

The increasing pressure to reduce costs and improve outcomes is driving the health care industry to view information as a competitive advantage. Timely information is required to help reduce inefficiencies and improve patient care. Numerous disparate operational or transactional information systems with inconsistent and often conflicting data are no longer adequate to meet the information needs of integrated care delivery systems and networks in competitive managed care environments. This article reviews decision support system characteristics and describes a process to assess the preparedness of an organization to implement and use decision support systems to achieve a more effective, information-based decision process. Decision support tools included in this article range from reports to data mining.

Development of the Supported Decision Making Inventory System.

Science.gov (United States)

Shogren, Karrie A; Wehmeyer, Michael L; Uyanik, Hatice; Heidrich, Megan

2017-12-01

Supported decision making has received increased attention as an alternative to guardianship and a means to enable people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to exercise their right to legal capacity. Assessments are needed that can used by people with disabilities and their systems of supports to identify and plan for needed supports to enable decision making. This article describes the steps taken to develop such an assessment tool, the Supported Decision Making Inventory System (SDMIS), and initial feedback received from self-advocates with intellectual disability. The three sections of the SDMIS (Supported Decision Making Personal Factors Inventory, Supported Decision Making Environmental Demands Inventory, and Decision Making Autonomy Inventory) are described and implications for future research, policy, and practice are discussed.

A network architecture supporting consistent rich behavior in collaborative interactive applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Marsh, James; Glencross, Mashhuda; Pettifer, Steve; Hubbold, Roger

2006-01-01

Network architectures for collaborative virtual reality have traditionally been dominated by client-server and peer-to-peer approaches, with peer-to-peer strategies typically being favored where minimizing latency is a priority, and client-server where consistency is key. With increasingly sophisticated behavior models and the demand for better support for haptics, we argue that neither approach provides sufficient support for these scenarios and, thus, a hybrid architecture is required. We discuss the relative performance of different distribution strategies in the face of real network conditions and illustrate the problems they face. Finally, we present an architecture that successfully meets many of these challenges and demonstrate its use in a distributed virtual prototyping application which supports simultaneous collaboration for assembly, maintenance, and training applications utilizing haptics.

Flexible Decision Support in Dynamic Interorganizational Networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J. Collins (John); W. Ketter (Wolfgang); M. Gini (Maria)

2008-01-01

textabstractAn effective Decision Support System (DSS) should help its users improve decision-making in complex, information-rich, environments. We present a feature gap analysis that shows that current decision support technologies lack important qualities for a new generation of agile business

WEB-GIS Decision Support System for CO2 storage

Science.gov (United States)

Gaitanaru, Dragos; Leonard, Anghel; Radu Gogu, Constantin; Le Guen, Yvi; Scradeanu, Daniel; Pagnejer, Mihaela

2013-04-01

Environmental decision support systems (DSS) paradigm evolves and changes as more knowledge and technology become available to the environmental community. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to extract, assess and disseminate some types of information, which are otherwise difficult to access by traditional methods. In the same time, with the help of the Internet and accompanying tools, creating and publishing online interactive maps has become easier and rich with options. The Decision Support System (MDSS) developed for the MUSTANG (A MUltiple Space and Time scale Approach for the quaNtification of deep saline formations for CO2 storaGe) project is a user friendly web based application that uses the GIS capabilities. MDSS can be exploited by the experts for CO2 injection and storage in deep saline aquifers. The main objective of the MDSS is to help the experts to take decisions based large structured types of data and information. In order to achieve this objective the MDSS has a geospatial objected-orientated database structure for a wide variety of data and information. The entire application is based on several principles leading to a series of capabilities and specific characteristics: (i) Open-Source - the entire platform (MDSS) is based on open-source technologies - (1) database engine, (2) application server, (3) geospatial server, (4) user interfaces, (5) add-ons, etc. (ii) Multiple database connections - MDSS is capable to connect to different databases that are located on different server machines. (iii)Desktop user experience - MDSS architecture and design follows the structure of a desktop software. (iv)Communication - the server side and the desktop are bound together by series functions that allows the user to upload, use, modify and download data within the application. The architecture of the system involves one database and a modular application composed by: (1) a visualization module, (2) an analysis module, (3) a guidelines module

On the Inevitable Intertwining of Requirements and Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Sutcliffe, Alistair

The chapter investigates the relationship between architecture and requirements, arguing that architectural issues need to be addressed early in the RE process. Three trends are driving architectural implications for RE: the growth of intelligent, context-aware and adaptable systems. First the relationship between architecture and requirements is considered from a theoretical viewpoint of problem frames and abstract conceptual models. The relationships between architectural decisions and non-functional requirements is reviewed, and then the impact of architecture on the RE process is assessed using a case study of developing configurable, semi-intelligent software to support medical researchers in e-science domains.

Big Data Analytics Embedded Smart City Architecture for Performance Enhancement through Real-Time Data Processing and Decision-Making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bhagya Nathali Silva

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The concept of the smart city is widely favored, as it enhances the quality of life of urban citizens, involving multiple disciplines, that is, smart community, smart transportation, smart healthcare, smart parking, and many more. Continuous growth of the complex urban networks is significantly challenged by real-time data processing and intelligent decision-making capabilities. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a smart city framework based on Big Data analytics. The proposed framework operates on three levels: (1 data generation and acquisition level collecting heterogeneous data related to city operations, (2 data management and processing level filtering, analyzing, and storing data to make decisions and events autonomously, and (3 application level initiating execution of the events corresponding to the received decisions. In order to validate the proposed architecture, we analyze a few major types of dataset based on the proposed three-level architecture. Further, we tested authentic datasets on Hadoop ecosystem to determine the threshold and the analysis shows that the proposed architecture offers useful insights into the community development authorities to improve the existing smart city architecture.

Decision support system for Wamakersvallei Winery

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Van Der Merwe, A

2007-09-01

Full Text Available The goal of the study is to lend decision support to management a a wine cellar in three areas of expertise, with Wamakersvallei Winery serving as a special case study. This decision support system is to be delivered in the form of Excel spreadsheet...

Low-Complexity Hierarchical Mode Decision Algorithms Targeting VLSI Architecture Design for the H.264/AVC Video Encoder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guilherme Corrêa

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In H.264/AVC, the encoding process can occur according to one of the 13 intraframe coding modes or according to one of the 8 available interframes block sizes, besides the SKIP mode. In the Joint Model reference software, the choice of the best mode is performed through exhaustive executions of the entire encoding process, which significantly increases the encoder's computational complexity and sometimes even forbids its use in real-time applications. Considering this context, this work proposes a set of heuristic algorithms targeting hardware architectures that lead to earlier selection of one encoding mode. The amount of repetitions of the encoding process is reduced by 47 times, at the cost of a relatively small cost in compression performance. When compared to other works, the fast hierarchical mode decision results are expressively more satisfactory in terms of computational complexity reduction, quality, and bit rate. The low-complexity mode decision architecture proposed is thus a very good option for real-time coding of high-resolution videos. The solution is especially interesting for embedded and mobile applications with support to multimedia systems, since it yields good compression rates and image quality with a very high reduction in the encoder complexity.

A logic flowgraph based concept for decision support and management of nuclear plant operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guarro, S.B.

1987-01-01

In the US the evolution of automated decision support tools for plant operators has spanned from ''event-oriented'' diagnostic systems to ''symptom-oriented'' computer-based emergency operating procedures. A problem common to both kind of systems is in the initial level of effort required for development of the associated models and software. In the following we will discuss some of the general issues that arise in the development and application of these decision-support systems. We will also propose and discuss an approach founded on the application of an event diagnosis and plant stabilization philosophy. This approach is based on the use of logic flowgraph process-oriented models - arranged in a modular architecture and developed with the aid of an expert-system model builder - as a possible means of achieving the development of an automated and integrated plant management system. This approach should allow the developer to achieve a high process recovery and management capability with a focused and controlled expenditure of development time and resources

Applications of Case Based Organizational Memory Supported by the PAbMM Architecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martín

2017-04-01

Full Text Available In the aim to manage and retrieve the organizational knowledge, in the last years numerous proposals of models and tools for knowledge management and knowledge representation have arisen. However, most of them store knowledge in a non-structured or semi-structured way, hindering the semantic and automatic processing of this knowledge. In this paper we present a more detailed case-based organizational memory ontology, which aims at contributing to the design of an organizational memory based on cases, so that it can be used to learn, reasoning, solve problems, and as support to better decision making as well. The objective of this Organizational Memory is to serve as base for the organizational knowledge exchange in a processing architecture specialized in the measurement and evaluation. In this way, our processing architecture is based on the C-INCAMI framework (Context-Information Need, Concept model, Attribute, Metric and Indicator for defining the measurement projects. Additionally, the proposal architecture uses a big data repository to make available the data for consumption and to manage the Organizational Memory, which allows a feedback mechanism in relation with online processing. In order to illustrate its utility, two practical cases are explained: A pasture predictor system, using the data of the weather radar (WR of the Experimental Agricultural Station (EAS INTA Anguil (La Pampa State, Argentina and an outpatient monitoring scenario. Future trends and concluding remarks are extended.

Savannah River Site computing architecture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1991-03-29

A computing architecture is a framework for making decisions about the implementation of computer technology and the supporting infrastructure. Because of the size, diversity, and amount of resources dedicated to computing at the Savannah River Site (SRS), there must be an overall strategic plan that can be followed by the thousands of site personnel who make decisions daily that directly affect the SRS computing environment and impact the site's production and business systems. This plan must address the following requirements: There must be SRS-wide standards for procurement or development of computing systems (hardware and software). The site computing organizations must develop systems that end users find easy to use. Systems must be put in place to support the primary function of site information workers. The developers of computer systems must be given tools that automate and speed up the development of information systems and applications based on computer technology. This document describes a proposal for a site-wide computing architecture that addresses the above requirements. In summary, this architecture is standards-based data-driven, and workstation-oriented with larger systems being utilized for the delivery of needed information to users in a client-server relationship.

Savannah River Site computing architecture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1991-03-29

A computing architecture is a framework for making decisions about the implementation of computer technology and the supporting infrastructure. Because of the size, diversity, and amount of resources dedicated to computing at the Savannah River Site (SRS), there must be an overall strategic plan that can be followed by the thousands of site personnel who make decisions daily that directly affect the SRS computing environment and impact the site`s production and business systems. This plan must address the following requirements: There must be SRS-wide standards for procurement or development of computing systems (hardware and software). The site computing organizations must develop systems that end users find easy to use. Systems must be put in place to support the primary function of site information workers. The developers of computer systems must be given tools that automate and speed up the development of information systems and applications based on computer technology. This document describes a proposal for a site-wide computing architecture that addresses the above requirements. In summary, this architecture is standards-based data-driven, and workstation-oriented with larger systems being utilized for the delivery of needed information to users in a client-server relationship.

Vlsi implementation of flexible architecture for decision tree classification in data mining

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, K. Venkatesh; Shewandagn, Behailu; Bhukya, Shankar Nayak

2017-07-01

The Data mining algorithms have become vital to researchers in science, engineering, medicine, business, search and security domains. In recent years, there has been a terrific raise in the size of the data being collected and analyzed. Classification is the main difficulty faced in data mining. In a number of the solutions developed for this problem, most accepted one is Decision Tree Classification (DTC) that gives high precision while handling very large amount of data. This paper presents VLSI implementation of flexible architecture for Decision Tree classification in data mining using c4.5 algorithm.

DECISIONS, METHODS AND TECHNIQUES RELATED TO DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS (DSS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boghean Florin

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Generalised uncertainty, a phenomenon that today’s managers are facing as part of their professional experience, makes it impossible to anticipate the way the business environment will evolve or what will be the consequences of the decisions they plan to implement. Any decision making process within the company entails the simultaneous presence of a number of economic, technical, juridical, human and managerial variables. The development and the approval of a decision is the result of decision making activities developed by the decision maker and sometimes by a decision support team or/and a decision support system (DSS. These aspects related to specific applications of decision support systems in risk management will be approached in this research paper. Decisions in general and management decisions in particular are associated with numerous risks, due to their complexity and increasing contextual orientation. In each business entity, there are concerns with the implementation of risk management in order to improve the likelihood of meeting objectives, the trust of the parties involved, increase the operational safety and security as well as the protection of the environment, minimise losses, improve organisational resilience in order to diminish the negative impact on the organisation and provide a solid foundation for decision making. Since any business entity is considered to be a wealth generator, the analysis of their performance should not be restricted to financial efficiency alone, but will also encompass their economic efficiency as well. The type of research developed in this paper entails different dimensions: conceptual, methodological, as well as empirical testing. Subsequently, the conducted research entails a methodological side, since the conducted activities have resulted in the presentation of a simulation model that is useful in decision making processes on the capital market. The research conducted in the present paper

Geospatial decision support systems for societal decision making

Science.gov (United States)

Bernknopf, R.L.

2005-01-01

While science provides reliable information to describe and understand the earth and its natural processes, it can contribute more. There are many important societal issues in which scientific information can play a critical role. Science can add greatly to policy and management decisions to minimize loss of life and property from natural and man-made disasters, to manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources, and in general, to enhance and protect our quality of life. However, the link between science and decision-making is often complicated and imperfect. Technical language and methods surround scientific research and the dissemination of its results. Scientific investigations often are conducted under different conditions, with different spatial boundaries, and in different timeframes than those needed to support specific policy and societal decisions. Uncertainty is not uniformly reported in scientific investigations. If society does not know that data exist, what the data mean, where to use the data, or how to include uncertainty when a decision has to be made, then science gets left out -or misused- in a decision making process. This paper is about using Geospatial Decision Support Systems (GDSS) for quantitative policy analysis. Integrated natural -social science methods and tools in a Geographic Information System that respond to decision-making needs can be used to close the gap between science and society. The GDSS has been developed so that nonscientists can pose "what if" scenarios to evaluate hypothetical outcomes of policy and management choices. In this approach decision makers can evaluate the financial and geographic distribution of potential policy options and their societal implications. Actions, based on scientific information, can be taken to mitigate hazards, protect our air and water quality, preserve the planet's biodiversity, promote balanced land use planning, and judiciously exploit natural resources. Applications using the

Nurses' Clinical Decision Making on Adopting a Wound Clinical Decision Support System.

Science.gov (United States)

Khong, Peck Chui Betty; Hoi, Shu Yin; Holroyd, Eleanor; Wang, Wenru

2015-07-01

Healthcare information technology systems are considered the ideal tool to inculcate evidence-based nursing practices. The wound clinical decision support system was built locally to support nurses to manage pressure ulcer wounds in their daily practice. However, its adoption rate is not optimal. The study's objective was to discover the concepts that informed the RNs' decisions to adopt the wound clinical decision support system as an evidence-based technology in their nursing practice. This was an exploratory, descriptive, and qualitative design using face-to-face interviews, individual interviews, and active participatory observation. A purposive, theoretical sample of 14 RNs was recruited from one of the largest public tertiary hospitals in Singapore after obtaining ethics approval. After consenting, the nurses were interviewed and observed separately. Recruitment stopped when data saturation was reached. All transcribed interview data underwent a concurrent thematic analysis, whereas observational data were content analyzed independently and subsequently triangulated with the interview data. Eight emerging themes were identified, namely, use of the wound clinical decision support system, beliefs in the wound clinical decision support system, influences of the workplace culture, extent of the benefits, professional control over nursing practices, use of knowledge, gut feelings, and emotions (fear, doubt, and frustration). These themes represented the nurses' mental outlook as they made decisions on adopting the wound clinical decision support system in light of the complexities of their roles and workloads. This research has provided insight on the nurses' thoughts regarding their decision to interact with the computer environment in a Singapore context. It captured the nurses' complex thoughts when deciding whether to adopt or reject information technology as they practice in a clinical setting.

CIM overview. (2). ; Architecture, infrastructure, information technology. CIM soron. (2). ; Architecture, infra, joho riyo shien gijutsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seryo, K [IBM Japan Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

1991-12-10

The materialization of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) requires an establishment of its systematizing system, i.e., architecturer and planning of the infrastructure to support it and basic engineering to support the informational utilization. The CIM architecture is classified into management and system structure, strategic planning method, System development introduction method, etc. The infrastructure aims at epoch-makingly heightening the productivity and speed by integrating the production planning, engineering design, accounting, sales, general business and affairs, production engineering, production activities, and activities of suppliers and clients. The informational utilization support engineering comprises the management support tool, decision making support tool, application development tool, etc. What is important is to establish a system of systematizing engineering in order not to be behind the strategic activation era of information to come. 17 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.

Decision-support tools for climate change mitigation planning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Puig, Daniel; Aparcana Robles, Sandra Roxana

. For example, in the case of life-cycle analysis, the evaluation criterion entails that the impacts of interest are examined across the entire life-cycle of the product under study, from extraction of raw materials, to product disposal. Effectively, then, the choice of decision-support tool directs......This document describes three decision-support tools that can aid the process of planning climate change mitigation actions. The phrase ‘decision-support tools’ refers to science-based analytical procedures that facilitate the evaluation of planning options (individually or compared to alternative...... options) against a particular evaluation criterion or set of criteria. Most often decision-support tools are applied with the help of purpose-designed software packages and drawing on specialised databases.The evaluation criteria alluded to above define and characterise each decision-support tool...

Layered distributed simulation architecture to support the C2 enterprise

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Duvenhage, A

2009-09-01

Full Text Available between these systems and that a capability is required to demonstrate, support and evaluate interoperability. This paper discusses the layered software architecture of a C++ software application framework for developing applications that support...

The architecture and prototype implementation of the Model Environment system

Science.gov (United States)

Donchyts, G.; Treebushny, D.; Primachenko, A.; Shlyahtun, N.; Zheleznyak, M.

2007-01-01

An approach that simplifies software development of the model based decision support systems for environmental management has been introduced. The approach is based on definition and management of metadata and data related to computational model without losing data semantics and proposed methods of integration of the new modules into the information system and their management. An architecture of the integrated modelling system is presented. The proposed architecture has been implemented as a prototype of integrated modelling system using. NET/Gtk{#} and is currently being used to re-design European Decision Support System for Nuclear Emergency Management RODOS (http://www.rodos.fzk.de) using Java/Swing.

Evaluating Ethical Responsibility in Inverse Decision Support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad M. Kabil

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Decision makers have considerable autonomy on how they make decisions and what type of support they receive. This situation places the DSS analyst in a different relationship with the client than his colleagues who support regular MIS applications. This paper addresses an ethical dilemma in “Inverse Decision Support,” when the analyst supports a decision maker who requires justification for a preconceived selection that does not correspond to the best option that resulted from the professional resolution of the problem. An extended application of the AHP model is proposed for evaluating the ethical responsibility in selecting a suboptimal alternative. The extended application is consistent with the Inverse Decision Theory that is used extensively in medical decision making. A survey of decision analysts is used to assess their perspective of using the proposed extended application. The results show that 80% of the respondents felt that the proposed extended application is useful in business practices. 14% of them expanded the usability of the extended application to academic teaching of the ethics theory. The extended application is considered more usable in a country with a higher Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (TICPI than in a country with a lower one.

Implementation of a scalable, web-based, automated clinical decision support risk-prediction tool for chronic kidney disease using C-CDA and application programming interfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Samal, Lipika; D'Amore, John D; Bates, David W; Wright, Adam

2017-11-01

Clinical decision support tools for risk prediction are readily available, but typically require workflow interruptions and manual data entry so are rarely used. Due to new data interoperability standards for electronic health records (EHRs), other options are available. As a clinical case study, we sought to build a scalable, web-based system that would automate calculation of kidney failure risk and display clinical decision support to users in primary care practices. We developed a single-page application, web server, database, and application programming interface to calculate and display kidney failure risk. Data were extracted from the EHR using the Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture interoperability standard for Continuity of Care Documents (CCDs). EHR users were presented with a noninterruptive alert on the patient's summary screen and a hyperlink to details and recommendations provided through a web application. Clinic schedules and CCDs were retrieved using existing application programming interfaces to the EHR, and we provided a clinical decision support hyperlink to the EHR as a service. We debugged a series of terminology and technical issues. The application was validated with data from 255 patients and subsequently deployed to 10 primary care clinics where, over the course of 1 year, 569 533 CCD documents were processed. We validated the use of interoperable documents and open-source components to develop a low-cost tool for automated clinical decision support. Since Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture-based data extraction extends to any certified EHR, this demonstrates a successful modular approach to clinical decision support. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Service-oriented architectural framework for support and automation of collaboration tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Sasa

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Due to more and more demanding requirements for business flexibility and agility, automation of end-to-end industrial processes has become an important topic. Systems supporting business process execution need to enable automated tasks execution as well as integrate human performed tasks (human tasks into a business process. In this paper, we focus on collaboration tasks, which are an important type of composite human tasks. We propose a service-oriented architectural framework describing a service responsible for human task execution (Human task service, which not only implements collaboration tasks but also improves their execution by automated and semi-automated decision making and collaboration based on ontologies and agent technology. The approach is very generic and can be used for any type of business processes. A case study was performed for a human task intensive business process from an electric power transmission domain.

Advanced decision support for winter road maintenance

Science.gov (United States)

2008-01-01

This document provides an overview of the Federal Highway Administration's winter Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS). The MDSS is a decision support tool that has the ability to provide weather predictions focused toward the road surface. The...

A relational approach to support software architecture analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Feijs, L.M.G.; Krikhaar, R.L.; van Ommering, R.C.

1998-01-01

This paper reports on our experience with a relational approach to support the analysis of existing software architectures. The analysis options provide for visualization and view calculation. The approach has been applied for reverse engineering. It is also possible to check concrete designs

Architectural and Algorithmic Requirements for a Next-Generation System Analysis Code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

V.A. Mousseau

2010-05-01

This document presents high-level architectural and system requirements for a next-generation system analysis code (NGSAC) to support reactor safety decision-making by plant operators and others, especially in the context of light water reactor plant life extension. The capabilities of NGSAC will be different from those of current-generation codes, not only because computers have evolved significantly in the generations since the current paradigm was first implemented, but because the decision-making processes that need the support of next-generation codes are very different from the decision-making processes that drove the licensing and design of the current fleet of commercial nuclear power reactors. The implications of these newer decision-making processes for NGSAC requirements are discussed, and resulting top-level goals for the NGSAC are formulated. From these goals, the general architectural and system requirements for the NGSAC are derived.

Integrated Decision Support for Global Environmental Change Adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, S.; Cantrell, S.; Higgins, G. J.; Marshall, J.; VanWijngaarden, F.

2011-12-01

Environmental changes are happening now that has caused concern in many parts of the world; particularly vulnerable are the countries and communities with limited resources and with natural environments that are more susceptible to climate change impacts. Global leaders are concerned about the observed phenomena and events such as Amazon deforestation, shifting monsoon patterns affecting agriculture in the mountain slopes of Peru, floods in Pakistan, water shortages in Middle East, droughts impacting water supplies and wildlife migration in Africa, and sea level rise impacts on low lying coastal communities in Bangladesh. These environmental changes are likely to get exacerbated as the temperatures rise, the weather and climate patterns change, and sea level rise continues. Large populations and billions of dollars of infrastructure could be affected. At Northrop Grumman, we have developed an integrated decision support framework for providing necessary information to stakeholders and planners to adapt to the impacts of climate variability and change at the regional and local levels. This integrated approach takes into account assimilation and exploitation of large and disparate weather and climate data sets, regional downscaling (dynamic and statistical), uncertainty quantification and reduction, and a synthesis of scientific data with demographic and economic data to generate actionable information for the stakeholders and decision makers. Utilizing a flexible service oriented architecture and state-of-the-art visualization techniques, this information can be delivered via tailored GIS portals to meet diverse set of user needs and expectations. This integrated approach can be applied to regional and local risk assessments, predictions and decadal projections, and proactive adaptation planning for vulnerable communities. In this paper we will describe this comprehensive decision support approach with selected applications and case studies to illustrate how this

Clinical Decision Support: a 25 Year Retrospective and a 25 Year Vision.

Science.gov (United States)

Middleton, B; Sittig, D F; Wright, A

2016-08-02

The objective of this review is to summarize the state of the art of clinical decision support (CDS) circa 1990, review progress in the 25 year interval from that time, and provide a vision of what CDS might look like 25 years hence, or circa 2040. Informal review of the medical literature with iterative review and discussion among the authors to arrive at six axes (data, knowledge, inference, architecture and technology, implementation and integration, and users) to frame the review and discussion of selected barriers and facilitators to the effective use of CDS. In each of the six axes, significant progress has been made. Key advances in structuring and encoding standardized data with an increased availability of data, development of knowledge bases for CDS, and improvement of capabilities to share knowledge artifacts, explosion of methods analyzing and inferring from clinical data, evolution of information technologies and architectures to facilitate the broad application of CDS, improvement of methods to implement CDS and integrate CDS into the clinical workflow, and increasing sophistication of the end-user, all have played a role in improving the effective use of CDS in healthcare delivery. CDS has evolved dramatically over the past 25 years and will likely evolve just as dramatically or more so over the next 25 years. Increasingly, the clinical encounter between a clinician and a patient will be supported by a wide variety of cognitive aides to support diagnosis, treatment, care-coordination, surveillance and prevention, and health maintenance or wellness.

Fault Isolation for Shipboard Decision Support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lajic, Zoran; Blanke, Mogens; Nielsen, Ulrik Dam

2010-01-01

Fault detection and fault isolation for in-service decision support systems for marine surface vehicles will be presented in this paper. The stochastic wave elevation and the associated ship responses are modeled in the frequency domain. The paper takes as an example fault isolation of a containe......Fault detection and fault isolation for in-service decision support systems for marine surface vehicles will be presented in this paper. The stochastic wave elevation and the associated ship responses are modeled in the frequency domain. The paper takes as an example fault isolation...... to the quality of decisions given to navigators....

Decision Support Systems for Research and Management in Advanced Life Support

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriquez, Luis F.

2004-01-01

Decision support systems have been implemented in many applications including strategic planning for battlefield scenarios, corporate decision making for business planning, production planning and control systems, and recommendation generators like those on Amazon.com(Registered TradeMark). Such tools are reviewed for developing a similar tool for NASA's ALS Program. DSS are considered concurrently with the development of the OPIS system, a database designed for chronicling of research and development in ALS. By utilizing the OPIS database, it is anticipated that decision support can be provided to increase the quality of decisions by ALS managers and researchers.

Future of electronic health records: implications for decision support.

Science.gov (United States)

Rothman, Brian; Leonard, Joan C; Vigoda, Michael M

2012-01-01

The potential benefits of the electronic health record over traditional paper are many, including cost containment, reductions in errors, and improved compliance by utilizing real-time data. The highest functional level of the electronic health record (EHR) is clinical decision support (CDS) and process automation, which are expected to enhance patient health and healthcare. The authors provide an overview of the progress in using patient data more efficiently and effectively through clinical decision support to improve health care delivery, how decision support impacts anesthesia practice, and how some are leading the way using these systems to solve need-specific issues. Clinical decision support uses passive or active decision support to modify clinician behavior through recommendations of specific actions. Recommendations may reduce medication errors, which would result in considerable savings by avoiding adverse drug events. In selected studies, clinical decision support has been shown to decrease the time to follow-up actions, and prediction has proved useful in forecasting patient outcomes, avoiding costs, and correctly prompting treatment plan modifications by clinicians before engaging in decision-making. Clinical documentation accuracy and completeness is improved by an electronic health record and greater relevance of care data is delivered. Clinical decision support may increase clinician adherence to clinical guidelines, but educational workshops may be equally effective. Unintentional consequences of clinical decision support, such as alert desensitization, can decrease the effectiveness of a system. Current anesthesia clinical decision support use includes antibiotic administration timing, improved documentation, more timely billing, and postoperative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis. Electronic health record implementation offers data-mining opportunities to improve operational, financial, and clinical processes. Using electronic health record data

Decision support for utility environmental risk management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balson, W.E.; Wilson, D.S.

1991-01-01

This paper reviews a number of decision support methods developed and applied by Decision Focus Incorporated to help utility personnel manage current environmental problems. This work has been performed for the Environmental Risk Analysis Program of EPRI's Environment Division, and also for a number of electric utilities across the country. These are two distinct types of decision support software tools that have been created: economic risk management and environmental risk analysis. These types differ primarily in the identification of who will make a decision. Economic risk management tools are directed primarily at decisions made by electric utilities. Environmental risk analysis tools are directed primarily at decisions made by legislative or regulatory agencies, about which a utility may wish to comment

Computer-supported collaborative decision-making

CERN Document Server

Filip, Florin Gheorghe; Ciurea, Cristian

2017-01-01

This is a book about how management and control decisions are made by persons who collaborate and possibly use the support of an information system. The decision is the result of human conscious activities aiming at choosing a course of action for attaining a certain objective (or a set of objectives). The act of collaboration implies that several entities who work together and share responsibilities to jointly plan, implement and evaluate a program of activities to achieve the common goals. The book is intended to present a balanced view of the domain to include both well-established concepts and a selection of new results in the domains of methods and key technologies. It is meant to answer several questions, such as: a) “How are evolving the business models towards the ever more collaborative schemes?”; b) “What is the role of the decision-maker in the new context?” c) “What are the basic attributes and trends in the domain of decision-supporting information systems?”; d) “Which are the basic...

Augmenting cognitive architectures to support diagrammatic imagination.

Science.gov (United States)

Chandrasekaran, Balakrishnan; Banerjee, Bonny; Kurup, Unmesh; Lele, Omkar

2011-10-01

Diagrams are a form of spatial representation that supports reasoning and problem solving. Even when diagrams are external, not to mention when there are no external representations, problem solving often calls for internal representations, that is, representations in cognition, of diagrammatic elements and internal perceptions on them. General cognitive architectures--Soar and ACT-R, to name the most prominent--do not have representations and operations to support diagrammatic reasoning. In this article, we examine some requirements for such internal representations and processes in cognitive architectures. We discuss the degree to which DRS, our earlier proposal for such an internal representation for diagrams, meets these requirements. In DRS, the diagrams are not raw images, but a composition of objects that can be individuated and thus symbolized, while, unlike traditional symbols, the referent of the symbol is an object that retains its perceptual essence, namely, its spatiality. This duality provides a way to resolve what anti-imagists thought was a contradiction in mental imagery: the compositionality of mental images that seemed to be unique to symbol systems, and their support of a perceptual experience of images and some types of perception on them. We briefly review the use of DRS to augment Soar and ACT-R with a diagrammatic representation component. We identify issues for further research. Copyright © 2011 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Investigation of support vector machine for the detection of architectural distortion in mammographic images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo, Q; Shao, J; Ruiz, V

2005-01-01

This paper investigates detection of architectural distortion in mammographic images using support vector machine. Hausdorff dimension is used to characterise the texture feature of mammographic images. Support vector machine, a learning machine based on statistical learning theory, is trained through supervised learning to detect architectural distortion. Compared to the Radial Basis Function neural networks, SVM produced more accurate classification results in distinguishing architectural distortion abnormality from normal breast parenchyma

Investigation of support vector machine for the detection of architectural distortion in mammographic images

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guo, Q [Department of Cybernetics, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AY (United Kingdom); Shao, J [Department of Electronics, University of Kent at Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NT (United Kingdom); Ruiz, V [Department of Cybernetics, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AY (United Kingdom)

2005-01-01

This paper investigates detection of architectural distortion in mammographic images using support vector machine. Hausdorff dimension is used to characterise the texture feature of mammographic images. Support vector machine, a learning machine based on statistical learning theory, is trained through supervised learning to detect architectural distortion. Compared to the Radial Basis Function neural networks, SVM produced more accurate classification results in distinguishing architectural distortion abnormality from normal breast parenchyma.

Architectural frameworks: defining the structures for implementing learning health systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Lessard, Lysanne; Michalowski, Wojtek; Fung-Kee-Fung, Michael; Jones, Lori; Grudniewicz, Agnes

2017-06-23

The vision of transforming health systems into learning health systems (LHSs) that rapidly and continuously transform knowledge into improved health outcomes at lower cost is generating increased interest in government agencies, health organizations, and health research communities. While existing initiatives demonstrate that different approaches can succeed in making the LHS vision a reality, they are too varied in their goals, focus, and scale to be reproduced without undue effort. Indeed, the structures necessary to effectively design and implement LHSs on a larger scale are lacking. In this paper, we propose the use of architectural frameworks to develop LHSs that adhere to a recognized vision while being adapted to their specific organizational context. Architectural frameworks are high-level descriptions of an organization as a system; they capture the structure of its main components at varied levels, the interrelationships among these components, and the principles that guide their evolution. Because these frameworks support the analysis of LHSs and allow their outcomes to be simulated, they act as pre-implementation decision-support tools that identify potential barriers and enablers of system development. They thus increase the chances of successful LHS deployment. We present an architectural framework for LHSs that incorporates five dimensions-goals, scientific, social, technical, and ethical-commonly found in the LHS literature. The proposed architectural framework is comprised of six decision layers that model these dimensions. The performance layer models goals, the scientific layer models the scientific dimension, the organizational layer models the social dimension, the data layer and information technology layer model the technical dimension, and the ethics and security layer models the ethical dimension. We describe the types of decisions that must be made within each layer and identify methods to support decision-making. In this paper, we outline

Evaluation of decision support systems for nuclear accidents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sdouz, G.; Mueck, K.

1998-05-01

In order to adopt countermeasures to protect the public after an accident in a nuclear power plant in an appropriate and optimum way, decision support systems offer a valuable assistance in supporting the decision maker in choosing and optimizing protective actions. Such decision support systems may range from simple systems to accumulate relevant parameters for the evaluation of the situation over prediction models for the rapid evaluation of the dose to be expected to systems which permit the evaluation and comparison of possible countermeasures. Since the establishment of a decision support systems obviously is also required in Austria, an evaluation of systems available or in the state of development in other countries or unions was performed. The aim was to determine the availability of decision support systems in various countries and to evaluate them with regard to depth and extent of the system. The evaluation showed that in most industrialized countries the requirement for a decision support system was realized, but in only few countries actual systems are readily available and operable. Most systems are limited to early phase consequences, i.e. dispersion calculations of calculated source terms and the estimation of exposure in the vicinity of the plant. Only few systems offer the possibility to predict long-term exposures by ingestion. Few systems permit also an evaluation of potential countermeasures, in most cases, however, limited to a few short-term countermeasures. Only one system which is presently not operable allows the evaluation of a large number of agricultural countermeasures. In this report the different systems are compared. The requirements with regard to an Austrian decision support system are defined and consequences for a possible utilization of a DSS or parts thereof for the Austrian decision support system are derived. (author)

An Intelligent Agent based Architecture for Visual Data Mining

OpenAIRE

Hamdi Ellouzi; Hela Ltifi; Mounir Ben Ayed

2016-01-01

the aim of this paper is to present an intelligent architecture of Decision Support System (DSS) based on visual data mining. This architecture applies the multi-agent technology to facilitate the design and development of DSS in complex and dynamic environment. Multi-Agent Systems add a high level of abstraction. To validate the proposed architecture, it is implemented to develop a distributed visual data mining based DSS to predict nosocomial infectionsoccurrence in intensive care units. Th...

Evaluation of selected environmental decision support software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sullivan, T.M.; Moskowitz, P.D.; Gitten, M.

1997-06-01

Decision Support Software (DSS) continues to be developed to support analysis of decisions pertaining to environmental management. Decision support systems are computer-based systems that facilitate the use of data, models, and structured decision processes in decision making. The optimal DSS should attempt to integrate, analyze, and present environmental information to remediation project managers in order to select cost-effective cleanup strategies. The optimal system should have a balance between the sophistication needed to address the wide range of complicated sites and site conditions present at DOE facilities, and ease of use (e.g., the system should not require data that is typically unknown and should have robust error checking of problem definition through input, etc.). In the first phase of this study, an extensive review of the literature, the Internet, and discussions with sponsors and developers of DSS led to identification of approximately fifty software packages that met the preceding definition

National Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Architecture Study

Science.gov (United States)

van Dyke, K.; Vicario, J.; Hothem, L.

2007-12-01

The purpose of the National Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Architecture effort is to help guide future PNT system-of-systems investment and implementation decisions. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration and the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy sponsored a National PNT Architecture study to provide more effective and efficient PNT capabilities focused on the 2025 timeframe and an evolutionary path for government provided systems and services. U.S. Space-Based PNT Policy states that the U.S. must continue to improve and maintain GPS, augmentations to GPS, and back-up capabilities to meet growing national, homeland, and economic security needs. PNT touches almost every aspect of people´s lives today. PNT is essential for Defense and Civilian applications ranging from the Department of Defense´s Joint network centric and precision operations to the transportation and telecommunications sectors, improving efficiency, increasing safety, and being more productive. Absence of an approved PNT architecture results in uncoordinated research efforts, lack of clear developmental paths, potentially wasteful procurements and inefficient deployment of PNT resources. The national PNT architecture effort evaluated alternative future mixes of global (space and non space-based) and regional PNT solutions, PNT augmentations, and autonomous PNT capabilities to address priorities identified in the DoD PNT Joint Capabilities Document (JCD) and civil equivalents. The path to achieving the Should-Be architecture is described by the National PNT Architecture's Guiding Principles, representing an overarching Vision of the US' role in PNT, an architectural Strategy to fulfill that Vision, and four Vectors which support the Strategy. The National PNT Architecture effort has developed nineteen recommendations. Five foundational recommendations are tied directly to the Strategy while the remaining fourteen individually support one of

The Flask Security Architecture: System Support for Diverse Security Policies

Science.gov (United States)

2006-01-01

Flask microkernel -based operating sys­ tem, that successfully overcomes these obstacles to pol- icy flexibility. The cleaner separation of mechanism and...other object managers in the system to en- force those access control decisions. Although the pro­ totype system is microkernel -based, the security...mecha­ nisms do not depend on a microkernel architecture and will easily generalize beyond it. The resulting system provides policy flexibility. It sup

Decision insight into stakeholder conflict for ERN.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Siirola, John; Tidwell, Vincent Carroll; Benz, Zachary O.; Stansbury, Melanie; Richards, Elizabeth H.; Turnley, Jessica Glicken (Galisteo Consulting); Warrender, Christina E.; Morrow, James Dan

2012-02-01

Participatory modeling has become an important tool in facilitating resource decision making and dispute resolution. Approaches to modeling that are commonly used in this context often do not adequately account for important human factors. Current techniques provide insights into how certain human activities and variables affect resource outcomes; however, they do not directly simulate the complex variables that shape how, why, and under what conditions different human agents behave in ways that affect resources and human interactions related to them. Current approaches also do not adequately reveal how the effects of individual decisions scale up to have systemic level effects in complex resource systems. This lack of integration prevents the development of more robust models to support decision making and dispute resolution processes. Development of integrated tools is further hampered by the fact that collection of primary data for decision-making modeling is costly and time consuming. This project seeks to develop a new approach to resource modeling that incorporates both technical and behavioral modeling techniques into a single decision-making architecture. The modeling platform is enhanced by use of traditional and advanced processes and tools for expedited data capture. Specific objectives of the project are: (1) Develop a proof of concept for a new technical approach to resource modeling that combines the computational techniques of system dynamics and agent based modeling, (2) Develop an iterative, participatory modeling process supported with traditional and advance data capture techniques that may be utilized to facilitate decision making, dispute resolution, and collaborative learning processes, and (3) Examine potential applications of this technology and process. The development of this decision support architecture included both the engineering of the technology and the development of a participatory method to build and apply the technology

A Geo-Distributed System Architecture for Different Domains

Science.gov (United States)

Moßgraber, Jürgen; Middleton, Stuart; Tao, Ran

2013-04-01

The presentation will describe work on the system-of-systems (SoS) architecture that is being developed in the EU FP7 project TRIDEC on "Collaborative, Complex and Critical Decision-Support in Evolving Crises". In this project we deal with two use-cases: Natural Crisis Management (e.g. Tsunami Early Warning) and Industrial Subsurface Development (e.g. drilling for oil). These use-cases seem to be quite different at first sight but share a lot of similarities, like managing and looking up available sensors, extracting data from them and annotate it semantically, intelligently manage the data (big data problem), run mathematical analysis algorithms on the data and finally provide decision support on this basis. The main challenge was to create a generic architecture which fits both use-cases. The requirements to the architecture are manifold and the whole spectrum of a modern, geo-distributed and collaborative system comes into play. Obviously, one cannot expect to tackle these challenges adequately with a monolithic system or with a single technology. Therefore, a system architecture providing the blueprints to implement the system-of-systems approach has to combine multiple technologies and architectural styles. The most important architectural challenges we needed to address are 1. Build a scalable communication layer for a System-of-sytems 2. Build a resilient communication layer for a System-of-sytems 3. Efficiently publish large volumes of semantically rich sensor data 4. Scalable and high performance storage of large distributed datasets 5. Handling federated multi-domain heterogeneous data 6. Discovery of resources in a geo-distributed SoS 7. Coordination of work between geo-distributed systems The design decisions made for each of them will be presented. These developed concepts are also applicable to the requirements of the Future Internet (FI) and Internet of Things (IoT) which will provide services like smart grids, smart metering, logistics and

Capturing Business Strategy and Value in Enterprise Architecture to Support Portfolio Valuation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Iacob, Maria Eugenia; Quartel, Dick; Jonkers, H.

2012-01-01

This paper investigates and enhances the suitability of the Archi Mate enterprise architecture modeling language to support the modeling of business strategy concepts and architecture-based approaches to IT portfolio valuation. It gives an overview of existing strategy and valuation concepts and

Whose decision is it anyway? How clinicians support decision-making participation after acquired brain injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Knox, Lucy; Douglas, Jacinta M; Bigby, Christine

2013-01-01

To raise professional awareness of factors that may influence the support offered by clinicians to people with acquired brain injury (ABI), and to consider the potential implications of these factors in terms of post-injury rehabilitation and living. A review of the literature was conducted to identify factors that determine how clinicians provide support and influence opportunities for individuals with ABI to participate in decision making across the rehabilitation continuum. Clinical case studies are used to highlight two specific issues: (1) hidden assumptions on the part of the practitioner, and (2) perceptions of risk operating in clinical practice. There are a range of factors which may influence the decision-making support provided by clinicians and, ultimately, shape lifetime outcomes for individuals with ABI. A multidimensional framework may assist clinicians to identify relevant factors and consider their potential implications including those that influence how clinicians involved in supporting decision making approach this task. Participation in decision making is an undisputed human right and central to the provision of person-centred care. Further research is required to understand how clinical practice can maximise both opportunities and support for increased decision-making participation by individuals with ABI. There is an increasing focus on the rights of all individuals to be supported to participate in decision making about their life. A number of changes associated with ABI mean that individuals with ABI will require support with decision making. Clinicians have a critical role in providing this support over the course of the rehabilitation continuum. Clinicians need to be aware of the range of factors that may influence the decision-making support they provide. A multidimensional framework may be used by clinicians to identify influences on the decision-making support they provide.

Biometric and intelligent decision making support

CERN Document Server

Kaklauskas, Arturas

2015-01-01

This book presents different methods for analyzing the body language (movement, position, use of personal space, silences, pauses and tone, the eyes, pupil dilation or constriction, smiles, body temperature and the like) for better understanding people’s needs and actions, including biometric data gathering and reading. Different studies described in this book indicate that sufficiently much data, information and knowledge can be gained by utilizing biometric technologies. This is the first, wide-ranging book that is devoted completely to the area of intelligent decision support systems, biometrics technologies and their integrations. This book is designated for scholars, practitioners and doctoral and master’s degree students in various areas and those who are interested in the latest biometric and intelligent decision making support problems and means for their resolutions, biometric and intelligent decision making support systems and the theory and practice of their integration and the opportunities fo...

Risk and uncertainty in the structure of management decision support

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valeca, Serban Constantin

2002-01-01

The monograph is structured into five chapters addressing the following subject matters: 1 - The risk descriptor implied by the power systems with nuclear injection; 1.1 - Concepts and operators for describing the nuclear power risk; 1.2 - Risk approach in a holistic conception; 2 - Modelling the risk in the frame of re-engineering concept; 2.1 - Defining and interpreting the power re-engineering; 2.2 - Managerial re-engineering of power production systems; 3 - Informatics system of managing the power objectives with nuclear injection; 3.1 - Informatics systems for risk at the level of CANDU - 600 nuclear plant; 3.2. - Expert function structure applicable to the management of power objectives with nuclear injection; 4 - Assisting support in the operation of nuclear facilities; 4.1 - Assisting support system for nuclear plant operation; 4.2 - Program products for dedicated drivers; 5 - The management decision activities at the level of power systems with nuclear injection; 5.1 - Preliminaries in making power decision; 5.2 - Applications of decision models of sustainable power systems with nuclear injection; 5.3 - Re-engineering of power decision in the frame of maximal utility theory. The successful application of re-engineering concept is based on knowledge and managing capacity of design leadership and its ability of dealing the error generating sources. The main stages of implementing successfully the re-engineering are: - Replacing the pollution processes instead of adjusting measures; - Raising the designer responsibility by radical innovation of processes' architecture; - Re-designing the processes by basic changes at the level of the management functions and structures; - Raising the personnel professionalism by motivation as optimal way of improving the workers mentalities; - Accurate definition of objectives in the frame of re-engineering program; - Application of re-engineering in industrial units starting from the management level; - Selecting as general

Application of a web-based Decision Support System in risk management

Science.gov (United States)

Aye, Zar Chi; Jaboyedoff, Michel; Derron, Marc-Henri

2013-04-01

Increasingly, risk information is widely available with the help of advanced technologies such as earth observation satellites, global positioning technologies, coupled with hazard modeling and analysis, and geographical information systems (GIS). Even though it exists, no effort will be put into action if it is not properly presented to the decision makers. These information need to be communicated clearly and show its usefulness so that people can make better informed decision. Therefore, communicating available risk information has become an important challenge and decision support systems have been one of the significant approaches which can help not only in presenting risk information to the decision makers but also in making efficient decisions while reducing human resources and time needed. In this study, the conceptual framework of an internet-based decision support system is presented to highlight its importance role in risk management framework and how it can be applied in case study areas chosen. The main purpose of the proposed system is to facilitate the available risk information in risk reduction by taking into account of the changes in climate, land use and socio-economic along with the risk scenarios. It allows the users to formulate, compare and select risk reduction scenarios (mainly for floods and landslides) through an enhanced participatory platform with diverse stakeholders' involvement in the decision making process. It is based on the three-tier (client-server) architecture which integrates web-GIS plus DSS functionalities together with cost benefit analysis and other supporting tools. Embedding web-GIS provides its end users to make better planning and informed decisions referenced to a geographical location, which is the one of the essential factors in disaster risk reduction programs. Different risk reduction measures of a specific area (local scale) will be evaluated using this web-GIS tool, available risk scenarios obtained from

Using Visualization in Cockpit Decision Support Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aragon, Cecilia R.

2005-07-01

In order to safely operate their aircraft, pilots must makerapid decisions based on integrating and processing large amounts ofheterogeneous information. Visual displays are often the most efficientmethod of presenting safety-critical data to pilots in real time.However, care must be taken to ensure the pilot is provided with theappropriate amount of information to make effective decisions and notbecome cognitively overloaded. The results of two usability studies of aprototype airflow hazard visualization cockpit decision support systemare summarized. The studies demonstrate that such a system significantlyimproves the performance of helicopter pilots landing under turbulentconditions. Based on these results, design principles and implicationsfor cockpit decision support systems using visualization arepresented.

Theory, Software and Testing Examples for Decision Support Systems

OpenAIRE

Lewandowski, A.; Wierzbicki, A.P.

1987-01-01

Research in methodology of Decision Support Systems is one of the activities within the System and Decision Sciences Program which was initiated seven years ago and is still in the center of interests of SDS. During these years several methodological approaches and software tools have been developed; among others the DIDAS (Dynamic Interactive Decision Analysis and Support) and SCDAS (Selection Committed Decision Analysis and Support). Both methodologies gained a certain level of popularity a...

SAMS--a systems architecture for developing intelligent health information systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Yılmaz, Özgün; Erdur, Rıza Cenk; Türksever, Mustafa

2013-12-01

In this paper, SAMS, a novel health information system architecture for developing intelligent health information systems is proposed and also some strategies for developing such systems are discussed. The systems fulfilling this architecture will be able to store electronic health records of the patients using OWL ontologies, share patient records among different hospitals and provide physicians expertise to assist them in making decisions. The system is intelligent because it is rule-based, makes use of rule-based reasoning and has the ability to learn and evolve itself. The learning capability is provided by extracting rules from previously given decisions by the physicians and then adding the extracted rules to the system. The proposed system is novel and original in all of these aspects. As a case study, a system is implemented conforming to SAMS architecture for use by dentists in the dental domain. The use of the developed system is described with a scenario. For evaluation, the developed dental information system will be used and tried by a group of dentists. The development of this system proves the applicability of SAMS architecture. By getting decision support from a system derived from this architecture, the cognitive gap between experienced and inexperienced physicians can be compensated. Thus, patient satisfaction can be achieved, inexperienced physicians are supported in decision making and the personnel can improve their knowledge. A physician can diagnose a case, which he/she has never diagnosed before, using this system. With the help of this system, it will be possible to store general domain knowledge in this system and the personnel's need to medical guideline documents will be reduced.

Applying the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) to support risk-informed decision making: The Gold Pan Fire, Bitterroot National Forest, Montana, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Erin K. Noonan-Wright; Tonja S. Opperman

2015-01-01

In response to federal wildfire policy changes, risk-informed decision-making by way of improved decision support, is increasingly becoming a component of managing wildfires. As fire incidents escalate in size and complexity, the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) provides support with different analytical tools as fire conditions change. We demonstrate the...

[Human body meridian spatial decision support system for clinical treatment and teaching of acupuncture and moxibustion].

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Dehua

2016-01-01

The spatial position and distribution of human body meridian are expressed limitedly in the decision support system (DSS) of acupuncture and moxibustion at present, which leads to the failure to give the effective quantitative analysis on the spatial range and the difficulty for the decision-maker to provide a realistic spatial decision environment. Focusing on the limit spatial expression in DSS of acupuncture and moxibustion, it was proposed that on the basis of the geographic information system, in association of DSS technology, the design idea was developed on the human body meridian spatial DSS. With the 4-layer service-oriented architecture adopted, the data center integrated development platform was taken as the system development environment. The hierarchical organization was done for the spatial data of human body meridian via the directory tree. The structured query language (SQL) server was used to achieve the unified management of spatial data and attribute data. The technologies of architecture, configuration and plug-in development model were integrated to achieve the data inquiry, buffer analysis and program evaluation of the human body meridian spatial DSS. The research results show that the human body meridian spatial DSS could reflect realistically the spatial characteristics of the spatial position and distribution of human body meridian and met the constantly changeable demand of users. It has the powerful spatial analysis function and assists with the scientific decision in clinical treatment and teaching of acupuncture and moxibustion. It is the new attempt to the informatization research of human body meridian.

Using Visualization in Cockpit Decision Support Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Aragon, Cecilia R.

2005-01-01

In order to safely operate their aircraft, pilots must make rapid decisions based on integrating and processing large amounts of heterogeneous information. Visual displays are often the most efficient method of presenting safety-critical data to pilots in real time. However, care must be taken to ensure the pilot is provided with the appropriate amount of information to make effective decisions and not become cognitively overloaded. The results of two usability studies of a prototype airflow hazard visualization cockpit decision support system are summarized. The studies demonstrate that such a system significantly improves the performance of helicopter pilots landing under turbulent conditions. Based on these results, design principles and implications for cockpit decision support systems using visualization are presented.

Space Network IP Services (SNIS): An Architecture for Supporting Low Earth Orbiting IP Satellite Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Israel, David J.

2005-01-01

The NASA Space Network (SN) supports a variety of missions using the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), which includes ground stations in White Sands, New Mexico and Guam. A Space Network IP Services (SNIS) architecture is being developed to support future users with requirements for end-to-end Internet Protocol (IP) communications. This architecture will support all IP protocols, including Mobile IP, over TDRSS Single Access, Multiple Access, and Demand Access Radio Frequency (RF) links. This paper will describe this architecture and how it can enable Low Earth Orbiting IP satellite missions.

Decision Performance Using Spatial Decision Support Systems: A Geospatial Reasoning Ability Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Erskine, Michael A.

2013-01-01

As many consumer and business decision makers are utilizing Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS), a thorough understanding of how such decisions are made is crucial for the information systems domain. This dissertation presents six chapters encompassing a comprehensive analysis of the impact of geospatial reasoning ability on…

A Decision Support System for Business Location Based on Open GIS Technology and Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cornel Ghita

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This article presents the architecture, features, and operating mode of a DSS (Decision Support System aiming to assist entrepreneurs and managers in the process of location decision making. The research assembled concepts derived from theory, findings of empirical studies, together with open GIS (Geographical Information System software and data, and modelled them into a DSS software tool, according to an original methodology and design. The users are guided step-by-step to input information on their businesses into the DSS (industry, preferences for land-use areas and facility types, weights of key location factors, and are returned two sets of results: one based on own options, and another one aggregate for the industry they operate in. The results consist in the top five locations for the user's firm, as well as for the industry, depicted both in a graphical report (map and a text report (explanation of results.

Composite decision support by combining cost-benefit and multi-criteria decision

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barfod, Michael Bruhn; Salling, Kim Bang; Leleur, Steen

2011-01-01

This paper concerns composite decision support based on combining cost-benefit analysis (CBA) with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for the assessment of economic as well as strategic impacts within transport projects. Specifically a composite model for assessment (COSIMA) is presented...

A supportive architecture for CFD-based design optimisation

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ni; Su, Zeya; Bi, Zhuming; Tian, Chao; Ren, Zhiming; Gong, Guanghong

2014-03-01

Multi-disciplinary design optimisation (MDO) is one of critical methodologies to the implementation of enterprise systems (ES). MDO requiring the analysis of fluid dynamics raises a special challenge due to its extremely intensive computation. The rapid development of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) technique has caused a rise of its applications in various fields. Especially for the exterior designs of vehicles, CFD has become one of the three main design tools comparable to analytical approaches and wind tunnel experiments. CFD-based design optimisation is an effective way to achieve the desired performance under the given constraints. However, due to the complexity of CFD, integrating with CFD analysis in an intelligent optimisation algorithm is not straightforward. It is a challenge to solve a CFD-based design problem, which is usually with high dimensions, and multiple objectives and constraints. It is desirable to have an integrated architecture for CFD-based design optimisation. However, our review on existing works has found that very few researchers have studied on the assistive tools to facilitate CFD-based design optimisation. In the paper, a multi-layer architecture and a general procedure are proposed to integrate different CFD toolsets with intelligent optimisation algorithms, parallel computing technique and other techniques for efficient computation. In the proposed architecture, the integration is performed either at the code level or data level to fully utilise the capabilities of different assistive tools. Two intelligent algorithms are developed and embedded with parallel computing. These algorithms, together with the supportive architecture, lay a solid foundation for various applications of CFD-based design optimisation. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed architecture and algorithms, the case studies on aerodynamic shape design of a hypersonic cruising vehicle are provided, and the result has shown that the proposed architecture

Tsunami early warning and decision support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Steinmetz

2010-09-01

Full Text Available An innovative newly developed modular and standards based Decision Support System (DSS is presented which forms part of the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS. The GITEWS project stems from the effort to implement an effective and efficient Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System for the coast of Indonesia facing the Sunda Arc along the islands of Sumatra, Java and Bali. The geological setting along an active continental margin which is very close to densely populated areas is a particularly difficult one to cope with, because potential tsunamis' travel times are thus inherently short. National policies require an initial warning to be issued within the first five minutes after an earthquake has occurred. There is an urgent requirement for an end-to-end solution where the decision support takes the entire warning chain into account. The system of choice is based on pre-computed scenario simulations and rule-based decision support which is delivered to the decision maker through a sophisticated graphical user interface (GUI using information fusion and fast information aggregation to create situational awareness in the shortest time possible. The system also contains risk and vulnerability information which was designed with the far end of the warning chain in mind – it enables the decision maker to base his acceptance (or refusal of the supported decision also on regionally differentiated risk and vulnerability information (see Strunz et al., 2010. While the system strives to provide a warning as quickly as possible, it is not in its proper responsibility to send and disseminate the warning to the recipients. The DSS only broadcasts its messages to a dissemination system (and possibly any other dissemination system which is operated under the responsibility of BMKG – the meteorological, climatological and geophysical service of Indonesia – which also hosts the tsunami early warning center. The system is to be seen

Logical-Rule Models of Classification Response Times: A Synthesis of Mental-Architecture, Random-Walk, and Decision-Bound Approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Fific, Mario; Little, Daniel R.; Nosofsky, Robert M.

2010-01-01

We formalize and provide tests of a set of logical-rule models for predicting perceptual classification response times (RTs) and choice probabilities. The models are developed by synthesizing mental-architecture, random-walk, and decision-bound approaches. According to the models, people make independent decisions about the locations of stimuli…

Development of SOVAT: a numerical-spatial decision support system for community health assessment research.

Science.gov (United States)

Scotch, Matthew; Parmanto, Bambang

2006-01-01

The development of numerical-spatial routines is frequently required to solve complex community health problems. Community health assessment (CHA) professionals who use information technology need a complete system that is capable of supporting the development of numerical-spatial routines. Currently, there is no decision support system (DSS) that is effectively able to accomplish this task as the majority of public health geospatial information systems (GIS) are based on traditional (relational) database architecture. On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) is a multidimensional data warehouse technique that is commonly used as a decision support system in standard industry. OLAP alone is not sufficient for solving numerical-spatial problems that frequently occur in CHA research. Coupling it with GIS technology offers the potential for a very powerful and useful system. A community health OLAP cube was created by integrating health and population data from various sources. OLAP and GIS technologies were then combined to develop the Spatial OLAP Visualization and Analysis Tool (SOVAT). The synergy of numerical and spatial environments within SOVAT is shown through an elaborate and easy-to-use drag and drop and direct manipulation graphical user interface (GUI). Community health problem-solving examples (routines) using SOVAT are shown through a series of screen shots. The impact of the difference between SOVAT and existing GIS public health applications can be seen by considering the numerical-spatial problem-solving examples. These examples are facilitated using OLAP-GIS functions. These functions can be mimicked in existing GIS public applications, but their performance and system response would be significantly worse since GIS is based on traditional (relational) backend. OLAP-GIS system offer great potential for powerful numerical-spatial decision support in community health analysis. The functionality of an OLAP-GIS system has been shown through a series of

Exploring Hardware Support For Scaling Irregular Applications on Multi-node Multi-core Architectures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Secchi, Simone; Ceriani, Marco; Tumeo, Antonino; Villa, Oreste; Palermo, Gianluca; Raffo, Luigi

2013-06-05

With the recent emergence of large-scale knowledge dis- covery, data mining and social network analysis, irregular applications have gained renewed interest. Classic cache-based high-performance architectures do not provide optimal performances with such kind of workloads, mainly due to the very low spatial and temporal locality of the irregular control and memory access patterns. In this paper, we present a multi-node, multi-core, fine-grained multi-threaded shared-memory system architecture specifically designed for the execution of large-scale irregular applications, and built on top of three pillars, that we believe are fundamental to support these workloads. First, we offer transparent hardware support for Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) to provide a large globally-shared address space with no software library overhead. Second, we employ multi-threaded multi-core processing nodes to achieve the necessary latency tolerance required by accessing global memory, which potentially resides in a remote node. Finally, we devise hardware support for inter-thread synchronization on the whole global address space. We first model the performances by using an analytical model that takes into account the main architecture and application characteristics. We describe the hardware design of the proposed cus- tom architectural building blocks that provide support for the above- mentioned three pillars. Finally, we present a limited-scale evaluation of the system on a multi-board FPGA prototype with typical irregular kernels and benchmarks. The experimental evaluation demonstrates the architecture performance scalability for different configurations of the whole system.

Supporting End of Life Decision Making: Case Studies of Relational Closeness in Supported Decision Making for People with Severe or Profound Intellectual Disability

Science.gov (United States)

Watson, Joanne; Wilson, Erin; Hagiliassis, Nick

2017-01-01

Background: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) promotes the use of supported decision making in lieu of substitute decision making. To date, there has been a lack of focus on supported decision making for people with severe or profound intellectual disability, including for end of life decisions.…

Medical Data Architecture Project Status

Science.gov (United States)

Krihak, M.; Middour, C.; Gurram, M.; Wolfe, S.; Marker, N.; Winther, S.; Ronzano, K.; Bolles, D.; Toscano, W.; Shaw, T.

2018-01-01

The Medical Data Architecture (MDA) project supports the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) risk to minimize or reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes and decrements in performance due to in-flight medical capabilities on human exploration missions. To mitigate this risk, the ExMC MDA project addresses the technical limitations identified in ExMC Gap Med 07: We do not have the capability to comprehensively process medically-relevant information to support medical operations during exploration missions. This gap identifies that the current in-flight medical data management includes a combination of data collection and distribution methods that are minimally integrated with on-board medical devices and systems. Furthermore, there are a variety of data sources and methods of data collection. For an exploration mission, the seamless management of such data will enable a more medically autonomous crew than the current paradigm. The medical system requirements are being developed in parallel with the exploration mission architecture and vehicle design. ExMC has recognized that in order to make informed decisions about a medical data architecture framework, current methods for medical data management must not only be understood, but an architecture must also be identified that provides the crew with actionable insight to medical conditions. This medical data architecture will provide the necessary functionality to address the challenges of executing a self-contained medical system that approaches crew health care delivery without assistance from ground support. Hence, the products supported by current prototype development will directly inform exploration medical system requirements.

Demand driven decision support for efficient water resources allocation in irrigated agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Schuetze, Niels; Grießbach, Ulrike Ulrike; Röhm, Patric; Stange, Peter; Wagner, Michael; Seidel, Sabine; Werisch, Stefan; Barfus, Klemens

2014-05-01

Due to climate change, extreme weather conditions, such as longer dry spells in the summer months, may have an increasing impact on the agriculture in Saxony (Eastern Germany). For this reason, and, additionally, declining amounts of rainfall during the growing season the use of irrigation will be more important in future in Eastern Germany. To cope with this higher demand of water, a new decision support framework is developed which focuses on an integrated management of both irrigation water supply and demand. For modeling the regional water demand, local (and site-specific) water demand functions are used which are derived from the optimized agronomic response at farms scale. To account for climate variability the agronomic response is represented by stochastic crop water production functions (SCWPF) which provide the estimated yield subject to the minimum amount of irrigation water. These functions take into account the different soil types, crops and stochastically generated climate scenarios. By applying mathematical interpolation and optimization techniques, the SCWPF's are used to compute the water demand considering different constraints, for instance variable and fix costs or the producer price. This generic approach enables the computation for both multiple crops at farm scale as well as of the aggregated response to water pricing at a regional scale for full and deficit irrigation systems. Within the SAPHIR (SAxonian Platform for High Performance Irrigation) project a prototype of a decision support system is developed which helps to evaluate combined water supply and demand management policies for an effective and efficient utilization of water in order to meet future demands. The prototype is implemented as a web-based decision support system and it is based on a service-oriented geo-database architecture.

An architecture for a continuous, user-driven, and data-driven application of clinical guidelines and its evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Shalom, Erez; Shahar, Yuval; Lunenfeld, Eitan

2016-02-01

Design, implement, and evaluate a new architecture for realistic continuous guideline (GL)-based decision support, based on a series of requirements that we have identified, such as support for continuous care, for multiple task types, and for data-driven and user-driven modes. We designed and implemented a new continuous GL-based support architecture, PICARD, which accesses a temporal reasoning engine, and provides several different types of application interfaces. We present the new architecture in detail in the current paper. To evaluate the architecture, we first performed a technical evaluation of the PICARD architecture, using 19 simulated scenarios in the preeclampsia/toxemia domain. We then performed a functional evaluation with the help of two domain experts, by generating patient records that simulate 60 decision points from six clinical guideline-based scenarios, lasting from two days to four weeks. Finally, 36 clinicians made manual decisions in half of the scenarios, and had access to the automated GL-based support in the other half. The measures used in all three experiments were correctness and completeness of the decisions relative to the GL. Mean correctness and completeness in the technical evaluation were 1±0.0 and 0.96±0.03 respectively. The functional evaluation produced only several minor comments from the two experts, mostly regarding the output's style; otherwise the system's recommendations were validated. In the clinically oriented evaluation, the 36 clinicians applied manually approximately 41% of the GL's recommended actions. Completeness increased to approximately 93% when using PICARD. Manual correctness was approximately 94.5%, and remained similar when using PICARD; but while 68% of the manual decisions included correct but redundant actions, only 3% of the actions included in decisions made when using PICARD were redundant. The PICARD architecture is technically feasible and is functionally valid, and addresses the realistic

Decision support frameworks and tools for conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, Mark W.; Cook, Carly N.; Pressey, Robert L.; Pullin, Andrew S.; Runge, Michael C.; Salafsky, Nick; Sutherland, William J.; Williamson, Matthew A.

2018-01-01

The practice of conservation occurs within complex socioecological systems fraught with challenges that require transparent, defensible, and often socially engaged project planning and management. Planning and decision support frameworks are designed to help conservation practitioners increase planning rigor, project accountability, stakeholder participation, transparency in decisions, and learning. We describe and contrast five common frameworks within the context of six fundamental questions (why, who, what, where, when, how) at each of three planning stages of adaptive management (project scoping, operational planning, learning). We demonstrate that decision support frameworks provide varied and extensive tools for conservation planning and management. However, using any framework in isolation risks diminishing potential benefits since no one framework covers the full spectrum of potential conservation planning and decision challenges. We describe two case studies that have effectively deployed tools from across conservation frameworks to improve conservation actions and outcomes. Attention to the critical questions for conservation project planning should allow practitioners to operate within any framework and adapt tools to suit their specific management context. We call on conservation researchers and practitioners to regularly use decision support tools as standard practice for framing both practice and research.

Decision Strategy Research: Policy Support

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hardeman, F.

2000-01-01

The objective of SCK-CEN's R and D programme on decision strategy research are (1) to support and advise the Belgian authorities on specific problems concerning existing and potential hazards from exposure to ionising radiation, both in normal and emergency situations; (2) to perform research on relevant topics that might have an important impact on decision making related to nuclear applications, including social and economic sciences. Main achievements in this area in 1999 are described

Demonstration of decision support for real time operation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Catterson, Victoria; MCarthur, Stephen; Chen, Minjiang

ELECTRA Deliverable 8.2 reports on the demonstration of decision support within the future control room in light of voltage and frequency control in the 2030+ power system. The decision support must identify key threats and vulnerabilities, and propose and prioritise appropriate interventions....

Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Inventory

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — The Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Inventory contains descriptions of past and present CDS projects across the Federal Government. It includes Federal projects,...

Using the ACT-R architecture to specify 39 quantitative process models of decision making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julian N. Marewski

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Hypotheses about decision processes are often formulated qualitatively and remain silent about the interplay of decision, memorial, and other cognitive processes. At the same time, existing decision models are specified at varying levels of detail, making it difficult to compare them. We provide a methodological primer on how detailed cognitive architectures such as ACT-R allow remedying these problems. To make our point, we address a controversy, namely, whether noncompensatory or compensatory processes better describe how people make decisions from the accessibility of memories. We specify 39 models of accessibility-based decision processes in ACT-R, including the noncompensatory recognition heuristic and various other popular noncompensatory and compensatory decision models. Additionally, to illustrate how such models can be tested, we conduct a model comparison, fitting the models to one experiment and letting them generalize to another. Behavioral data are best accounted for by race models. These race models embody the noncompensatory recognition heuristic and compensatory models as a race between competing processes, dissolving the dichotomy between existing decision models.

Solutions for decision support in university management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrei STANCIU

2009-06-01

Full Text Available The paper proposes an overview of decision support systems in order to define the role of a system to assist decision in university management. The authors present new technologies and the basic concepts of multidimensional data analysis using models of business processes within the universities. Based on information provided by scientific literature and on the authors’ experience, the study aims to define selection criteria in choosing a development environment for designing a support system dedicated to university management. The contributions consist in designing a data warehouse model and models of OLAP analysis to assist decision in university management.

Modeling Architectural Patterns Using Architectural Primitives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zdun, Uwe; Avgeriou, Paris

2005-01-01

Architectural patterns are a key point in architectural documentation. Regrettably, there is poor support for modeling architectural patterns, because the pattern elements are not directly matched by elements in modeling languages, and, at the same time, patterns support an inherent variability that

Decision support using nonparametric statistics

CERN Document Server

Beatty, Warren

2018-01-01

This concise volume covers nonparametric statistics topics that most are most likely to be seen and used from a practical decision support perspective. While many degree programs require a course in parametric statistics, these methods are often inadequate for real-world decision making in business environments. Much of the data collected today by business executives (for example, customer satisfaction opinions) requires nonparametric statistics for valid analysis, and this book provides the reader with a set of tools that can be used to validly analyze all data, regardless of type. Through numerous examples and exercises, this book explains why nonparametric statistics will lead to better decisions and how they are used to reach a decision, with a wide array of business applications. Online resources include exercise data, spreadsheets, and solutions.

Decision support to enable sustainability in development projects

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Meyer, IA

2014-10-01

Full Text Available that are not always explicitly linked to development outcomes. Throughout this process, scope exists to aid decision makers, through a simplistic set of decision models, to make better decisions. The emphasis is on decisions that support long-term value creation...

Developing a Support Tool for Global Product Development Decisions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søndergaard, Erik Stefan; Ahmed-Kristensen, Saeema

2016-01-01

This paper investigates how global product development decisions are made through a multiple-case study in three Danish engineering. The paper identifies which information and methods are applied for making decisions and how decision-making can be supported based on previous experience. The paper...... presents results from 51 decisions made in the three companies, and based on the results of the studies a framework for a decision-support tool is outlined and discussed. The paper rounds off with an identification of future research opportunities in the area of global product development and decision-making....

'My kidneys, my choice, decision aid': supporting shared decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Fortnum, Debbie; Smolonogov, Tatiana; Walker, Rachael; Kairaitis, Luke; Pugh, Debbie

2015-06-01

For patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who are progressing to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) a decision of whether to undertake dialysis or conservative care is a critical component of the patient journey. Shared decision making for complex decisions such as this could be enhanced by a decision aid, a practice which is well utilised in other disciplines but limited for nephrology. A multidisciplinary team in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) utilised current decision-making theory and best practice to develop the 'My Kidneys, My Choice', a decision aid for the treatment of kidney disease. A patient-centred, five-sectioned tool is now complete and freely available to all ANZ units to support the ESKD education and shared decision-making process. Distribution and education have occurred across ANZ and evaluation of the decision aid in practice is in the first phase. Development of a new tool such as an ESKD decision aid requires vision, multidisciplinary input and ongoing implementation resources. This tool is being integrated into ANZ, ESKD education practice and is promoting the philosophy of shared decision making. © 2014 European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association/European Renal Care Association.

Optical Access Multiservice Architecture with Support to Smart Grid

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gómez-Martínez, Alejandro; Amaya-Fernández, Ferney; Hincapié, Roberto

2013-01-01

The increasing demand of fixed and mobile applications, and considering that smart grid imposes new requirements to the access networks, in this paper we present an optical access architecture to support home multiservice including smart grid applications. We propose a migration path based in a WDM...

Specifying structural constraints of architectural patterns in the ARCHERY language

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanchez, Alejandro; Barbosa, Luis S.; Riesco, Daniel

2015-01-01

ARCHERY is an architectural description language for modelling and reasoning about distributed, heterogeneous and dynamically reconfigurable systems in terms of architectural patterns. The language supports the specification of architectures and their reconfiguration. This paper introduces a language extension for precisely describing the structural design decisions that pattern instances must respect in their (re)configurations. The extension is a propositional modal logic with recursion and nominals referencing components, i.e., a hybrid µ-calculus. Its expressiveness allows specifying safety and liveness constraints, as well as paths and cycles over structures. Refinements of classic architectural patterns are specified

Specifying structural constraints of architectural patterns in the ARCHERY language

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sanchez, Alejandro [Departamento de Informática, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Ejército de los Andes 950, D5700HHW San Luis (Argentina); HASLab INESC TEC and Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga (Portugal); Barbosa, Luis S. [HASLab INESC TEC and Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga (Portugal); Riesco, Daniel [Departamento de Informática, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Ejército de los Andes 950, D5700HHW San Luis (Argentina)

2015-03-10

ARCHERY is an architectural description language for modelling and reasoning about distributed, heterogeneous and dynamically reconfigurable systems in terms of architectural patterns. The language supports the specification of architectures and their reconfiguration. This paper introduces a language extension for precisely describing the structural design decisions that pattern instances must respect in their (re)configurations. The extension is a propositional modal logic with recursion and nominals referencing components, i.e., a hybrid µ-calculus. Its expressiveness allows specifying safety and liveness constraints, as well as paths and cycles over structures. Refinements of classic architectural patterns are specified.

Terra Harvest software architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Humeniuk, Dave; Klawon, Kevin

2012-06-01

Under the Terra Harvest Program, the DIA has the objective of developing a universal Controller for the Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) community. The mission is to define, implement, and thoroughly document an open architecture that universally supports UGS missions, integrating disparate systems, peripherals, etc. The Controller's inherent interoperability with numerous systems enables the integration of both legacy and future UGS System (UGSS) components, while the design's open architecture supports rapid third-party development to ensure operational readiness. The successful accomplishment of these objectives by the program's Phase 3b contractors is demonstrated via integration of the companies' respective plug-'n'-play contributions that include controllers, various peripherals, such as sensors, cameras, etc., and their associated software drivers. In order to independently validate the Terra Harvest architecture, L-3 Nova Engineering, along with its partner, the University of Dayton Research Institute, is developing the Terra Harvest Open Source Environment (THOSE), a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) running on an embedded Linux Operating System. The Use Cases on which the software is developed support the full range of UGS operational scenarios such as remote sensor triggering, image capture, and data exfiltration. The Team is additionally developing an ARM microprocessor-based evaluation platform that is both energy-efficient and operationally flexible. The paper describes the overall THOSE architecture, as well as the design decisions for some of the key software components. Development process for THOSE is discussed as well.

Intelligent Information System to support decision making.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathrin Rodríguez Llanes

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Making decisions is complicated in a generalized way, the materials and humans resources of the entity we belong to depends on it, such as the fulfillment of its goals. But when the situations are complex, making decisions turns into a very difficult work, due to the great amount of aspects to consider when making the right choice. To make this efficiently the administration must to consult an important volume of information, which generally, is scattered and in any different formats. That’s why appears the need of developing software that crowd together all that information and be capable of, by using powerful search engines and process algorithms improve the good decisions making process. Considering previous explanation, a complete freeware developed product is proposed, this constitutes a generic and multi-platform solution, that using artificial intelligence techniques, specifically the cases based reasoning, gives the possibility to leaders of any institution or organism of making the right choice in any situation.With client-server architecture, this system is consumed from web as a service and it can be perfectly integrated with a management system or the geographic information system to facilitate the business process.

Decision support tools for policy and planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jacyk, P.; Schultz, D.; Spangenberg, L.

1995-01-01

A decision support system (DSS) is being developed at the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The DSS will be used to evaluate alternatives for improving LANL's existing central radioactive waste water treatment plant and to evaluate new site-wide liquid waste treatment schemes that are required in order to handle the diverse waste streams produced at LANL. The decision support system consists of interacting modules that perform the following tasks: rigorous process simulation, configuration management, performance analysis, cost analysis, risk analysis, environmental impact assessment, transportation modeling, and local, state, and federal regulation compliance checking. Uncertainty handling techniques are used with these modules and also with a decision synthesis module which combines results from the modules listed above. We believe the DSS being developed can be applied to almost any other industrial water treatment facility with little modification because in most situations the waste streams are less complex, fewer regulations apply, and the political environment is simpler. The techniques being developed are also generally applicable to policy and planning decision support systems in the chemical process industry

Data Mining for Education Decision Support: A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suhirman Suhirman

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Management of higher education must continue to evaluate on an ongoing basis in order to improve the quality of institutions. This will be able to do the necessary evaluation of various data, information, and knowledge of both internal and external institutions. They plan to use more efficiently the collected data, develop tools so that to collect and direct management information, in order to support managerial decision making. The collected data could be utilized to evaluate quality, perform analyses and diagnoses, evaluate dependability to the standards and practices of curricula and syllabi, and suggest alternatives in decision processes. Data minings to support decision making are well suited methods to provide decision support in the education environments, by generating and presenting relevant information and knowledge towards quality improvement of education processes. In educational domain, this information is very useful since it can be used as a base for investigating and enhancing the current educational standards and managements. In this paper, a review on data mining for academic decision support in education field is presented. The details of this paper will review on recent data mining in educational field and outlines future researches in educational data mining.

Decision support for the definition of wind turbine systems adequacy to site specificities and weak electrical networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arbaoui, A.

2006-10-01

A decision support system for the definition of wind turbine systems is developed by taking into account the wind and site characteristics, the wind turbine components and the electrical network properties close to the site. The approach is based on functional analysis, on the investigation of the functional fluxes and on the definition of a model suitable for supporting decision at the preliminary stages of wind turbine design. The complete set of solutions derived from the model is determined using a Constraint Satisfaction Problem solver. The intrinsic capability of the model to support decision is derived from the investigation of the model parsimony, precision, exactness and specialization. The model takes into account performance criteria resulting from knowledge of manufacturers, distributors and investors. These criteria are used to discriminate design alternatives. Design alternatives correspond to choices of site (wind, electric network) and wind turbine architectures (related to 7 design variables). Performance criteria are the cost of electric kWh, the amount of energy being produced and the discounted total cost of the project. Electric network connection to wind turbines is taken into account through slow variations of the voltage and Flickers phenomenon. First, the maximal rate of penetration of the wind turbine energy production is determined. Next, two design alternatives have been investigated to improve wind turbine system integration in electric distribution networks. These alternatives are a reactive power control system and an inertial energy storage system. Inertial storage systems seem to be more expensive than reactive power control systems for this type of application. The influence of site specificities on decision making process has been established through three different sites (a Mediterranean site and two sites located in northern Europe). Profits relative to the cost of kWh appear to be high for Mediterranean sites. Most of the

Supporting multi-stakeholder environmental decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Hajkowicz, Stefan A

2008-09-01

This paper examines how multiple criteria analysis (MCA) can be used to support multi-stakeholder environmental management decisions. It presents a study through which 48 stakeholders from environmental, primary production and community interest groups used MCA to prioritise 30 environmental management problems in the Mackay-Whitsunday region of Queensland, Australia. The MCA model, with procedures for aggregating multi-stakeholder output, was used to inform a final decision on the priority of the region's environmental management problems. The result was used in the region's environmental management plan as required under Australia's Natural Heritage Trust programme. The study shows how relatively simple MCA methods can help stakeholders make group decisions, even when they hold strongly conflicting preferences.

Time to decision: the drivers of innovation adoption decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Ciganek, Andrew Paul; (Dave) Haseman, William; Ramamurthy, K.

2014-03-01

Organisations desire timeliness. Timeliness facilitates a better responsiveness to changes in an organisation's external environment to either attain or maintain competitiveness. Despite its importance, decision timeliness has not been explicitly examined. Decision timeliness is measured in this study as the time taken to commit to a decision. The research objective is to identify the drivers of decision timeliness in the context of adopting service-oriented architecture (SOA), an innovation for enterprise computing. A research model rooted in the technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework is proposed and tested with data collected in a large-scale study. The research variables have been examined before in the context of adoption, but their applicability to the timeliness of innovation decision-making has not received much attention and their salience is unclear. The results support multiple hypothesised relationships, including the finding that a risk-oriented organisational culture as well as normative and coercive pressures accelerates decision timeliness. Top management support as well as the traditional innovation attributes (compatibility, relative advantage and complexity/ease-of-use) were not found to be significant when examining their influence on decision timeliness, which appears inconsistent with generally accepted knowledge and deserves further examination.

Decision-making on olympic urban development - multi-actor decision support tool

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heurkens, E.W.T.M.

Subject of study is the possible organisation of the Olympic Games of 2028 in the Netherlands, as seen from an urban development viewpoint. The project focuses on the decision-making process in the initiative phase. Aim of the project is the development of a decision support tool for the complex,

Decision aids that support decisions about prenatal testing for Down syndrome: an environmental scan.

Science.gov (United States)

Leiva Portocarrero, Maria Esther; Garvelink, Mirjam M; Becerra Perez, Maria Margarita; Giguère, Anik; Robitaille, Hubert; Wilson, Brenda J; Rousseau, François; Légaré, France

2015-09-24

Prenatal screening tests for Down syndrome (DS) are routine in many developed countries and new tests are rapidly becoming available. Decisions about prenatal screening are increasingly complex with each successive test, and pregnant women need information about risks and benefits as well as clarity about their values. Decision aids (DAs) can help healthcare providers support women in this decision. Using an environmental scan, we aimed to identify publicly available DAs focusing on prenatal screening/diagnosis for Down syndrome that provide effective support for decision making. Data sources searched were the Decision Aids Library Inventory (DALI) of the Ottawa Patient Decision Aids Research Group at the Ottawa Health Research Institute; Google searches on the internet; professional organizations, academic institutions and other experts in the field; and references in existing systematic reviews on DAs. Eligible DAs targeted pregnant women, focused on prenatal screening and/or diagnosis, applied to tests for fetal abnormalities or aneuploidies, and were in French, English, Spanish or Portuguese. Pairs of reviewers independently identified eligible DAs and extracted characteristics including the presence of practical decision support tools and features to aid comprehension. They then performed quality assessment using the 16 minimum standards established by the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDASi v4.0). Of 543 potentially eligible DAs (512 in DALI, 27 from experts, and four on the internet), 23 were eligible and 20 were available for data extraction. DAs were developed from 1996 to 2013 in six countries (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and France). Five DAs were for prenatal screening, three for prenatal diagnosis and 12 for both). Eight contained values clarification methods (personal worksheets). The 20 DAs scored a median of 10/16 (range 6-15) on the 16 IPDAS minimum standards. None of the 20 included DAs met all 16 IPDAS minimum standards

System for selecting relevant information for decision support.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalina, Jan; Seidl, Libor; Zvára, Karel; Grünfeldová, Hana; Slovák, Dalibor; Zvárová, Jana

2013-01-01

We implemented a prototype of a decision support system called SIR which has a form of a web-based classification service for diagnostic decision support. The system has the ability to select the most relevant variables and to learn a classification rule, which is guaranteed to be suitable also for high-dimensional measurements. The classification system can be useful for clinicians in primary care to support their decision-making tasks with relevant information extracted from any available clinical study. The implemented prototype was tested on a sample of patients in a cardiological study and performs an information extraction from a high-dimensional set containing both clinical and gene expression data.

Aggregate assessments support improved operational decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bauer, R.

2003-01-01

At Darlington Nuclear aggregate assessment of plant conditions is carried out in support of Operational Decision Making. This paper discusses how aggregate assessments have been applied to Operator Workarounds leading to improved prioritisation and alignment of work programs in different departments. As well, aggregate assessment of plant and human performance factors has been carried out to identify criteria which support conservative decision making in the main control room during unit transients. (author)

Barriers to and facilitators of implementing shared decision making and decision support in a paediatric hospital: A descriptive study.

Science.gov (United States)

Boland, Laura; McIsaac, Daniel I; Lawson, Margaret L

2016-04-01

To explore multiple stakeholders' perceived barriers to and facilitators of implementing shared decision making and decision support in a tertiary paediatric hospital. An interpretive descriptive qualitative study was conducted using focus groups and interviews to examine senior hospital administrators', clinicians', parents' and youths' perceived barriers to and facilitators of shared decision making and decision support implementation. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Fifty-seven stakeholders participated. Six barrier and facilitator themes emerged. The main barrier was gaps in stakeholders' knowledge of shared decision making and decision support. Facilitators included compatibility between shared decision making and the hospital's culture and ideal practices, perceptions of positive patient and family outcomes associated with shared decision making, and positive attitudes regarding shared decision making and decision support. However, youth attitudes regarding the necessity and usefulness of a decision support program were a barrier. Two themes were both a barrier and a facilitator. First, stakeholder groups were uncertain which clinical situations are suitable for shared decision making (eg, new diagnoses, chronic illnesses, complex decisions or urgent decisions). Second, the clinical process may be hindered if shared decision making and decision support decrease efficiency and workflow; however, shared decision making may reduce repeat visits and save time over the long term. Specific knowledge translation strategies that improve shared decision making knowledge and match specific barriers identified by each stakeholder group may be required to promote successful shared decision making and decision support implementation in the authors' paediatric hospital.

Becoming a Mother: Supported Decision-Making in Context

Science.gov (United States)

Jamieson, Rhiann; Theodore, Kate; Raczka, Roman

2016-01-01

Little is known about how women with intellectual disabilities make decisions in relation to pregnancy. Social support is important for mothers with intellectual disabilities in many areas. This study explored how the support network influenced the decision-making of women with intellectual disabilities in relation to pregnancy. The study extended…

Fault Detection for Shipboard Monitoring and Decision Support Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lajic, Zoran; Nielsen, Ulrik Dam

2009-01-01

In this paper a basic idea of a fault-tolerant monitoring and decision support system will be explained. Fault detection is an important part of the fault-tolerant design for in-service monitoring and decision support systems for ships. In the paper, a virtual example of fault detection...... will be presented for a containership with a real decision support system onboard. All possible faults can be simulated and detected using residuals and the generalized likelihood ratio (GLR) algorithm....

GAUDI-Architecture design document

CERN Document Server

Mato, P

1998-01-01

98-064 This document is the result of the architecture design phase for the LHCb event data processing applications project. The architecture of the LHCb software system includes its logical and physical structure which has been forged by all the strategic and tactical decisions applied during development. The strategic decisions should be made explicitly with the considerations for the trade-off of each alternative. The other purpose of this document is that it serves as the main material for the scheduled architecture review that will take place in the next weeks. The architecture review will allow us to identify what are the weaknesses or strengths of the proposed architecture as well as we hope to obtain a list of suggested changes to improve it. All that well before the system is being realized in code. It is in our interest to identify the possible problems at the architecture design phase of the software project before much of the software is implemented. Strategic decisions must be cross checked caref...

How Decision Support Systems Can Benefit from a Theory of Change Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Will; Cruz, Jennyffer; Warburton, Bruce

2017-06-01

Decision support systems are now mostly computer and internet-based information systems designed to support land managers with complex decision-making. However, there is concern that many environmental and agricultural decision support systems remain underutilized and ineffective. Recent efforts to improve decision support systems use have focused on enhancing stakeholder participation in their development, but a mismatch between stakeholders' expectations and the reality of decision support systems outputs continues to limit uptake. Additional challenges remain in problem-framing and evaluation. We propose using an outcomes-based approach called theory of change in conjunction with decision support systems development to support both wider problem-framing and outcomes-based monitoring and evaluation. The theory of change helps framing by placing the decision support systems within a wider context. It highlights how decision support systems use can "contribute" to long-term outcomes, and helps align decision support systems outputs with these larger goals. We illustrate the benefits of linking decision support systems development and application with a theory of change approach using an example of pest rabbit management in Australia. We develop a theory of change that outlines the activities required to achieve the outcomes desired from an effective rabbit management program, and two decision support systems that contribute to specific aspects of decision making in this wider problem context. Using a theory of change in this way should increase acceptance of the role of decision support systems by end-users, clarify their limitations and, importantly, increase effectiveness of rabbit management. The use of a theory of change should benefit those seeking to improve decision support systems design, use and, evaluation.

How Decision Support Systems Can Benefit from a Theory of Change Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Will; Cruz, Jennyffer; Warburton, Bruce

2017-06-01

Decision support systems are now mostly computer and internet-based information systems designed to support land managers with complex decision-making. However, there is concern that many environmental and agricultural decision support systems remain underutilized and ineffective. Recent efforts to improve decision support systems use have focused on enhancing stakeholder participation in their development, but a mismatch between stakeholders' expectations and the reality of decision support systems outputs continues to limit uptake. Additional challenges remain in problem-framing and evaluation. We propose using an outcomes-based approach called theory of change in conjunction with decision support systems development to support both wider problem-framing and outcomes-based monitoring and evaluation. The theory of change helps framing by placing the decision support systems within a wider context. It highlights how decision support systems use can "contribute" to long-term outcomes, and helps align decision support systems outputs with these larger goals. We illustrate the benefits of linking decision support systems development and application with a theory of change approach using an example of pest rabbit management in Australia. We develop a theory of change that outlines the activities required to achieve the outcomes desired from an effective rabbit management program, and two decision support systems that contribute to specific aspects of decision making in this wider problem context. Using a theory of change in this way should increase acceptance of the role of decision support systems by end-users, clarify their limitations and, importantly, increase effectiveness of rabbit management. The use of a theory of change should benefit those seeking to improve decision support systems design, use and, evaluation.

Improving life cycle assessment methodology for the application of decision support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Herrmann, Ivan Tengbjerg

for the application of decision support and evaluation of uncertainty in LCA. From a decision maker’s (DM’s) point of view there are at least three main “illness” factors influencing the quality of the information that the DM uses for making decisions. The factors are not independent of each other, but it seems......) refrain from making a decision based on an LCA and thus support a decision on other parameters than the LCA environmental parameters. Conversely, it may in some decision support contexts be acceptable to base a decision on highly uncertain information. This all depends on the specific decision support...... the different steps. A deterioration of the quality in each step is likely to accumulate through the statistical value chain in terms of increased uncertainty and bias. Ultimately this can make final decision support problematic. The "Law of large numbers" (LLN) is the methodological tool/probability theory...

Unibot, a Universal Agent Architecture for Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saša Mladenović

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Today there are numerous robots in different applications domains despite the fact that they still have limitations in perception, actuation and decision process. Consequently, robots usually have limited autonomy, they are domain specific or have difficulty to adapt on new environments. Learning is the property that makes an agent intelligent and the crucial property that a robot should have to proliferate into the human society. Embedding the learning ability into the robot may simplify the development of the robot control mechanism. The motivation for this research is to develop the agent architecture of the universal robot – Unibot. In our approach the agent is the robot i.e. Unibot that acts in the physical world and is capable of learning. The Unibot conducts several simultaneous simulations of a problem of interest like path-finding. The novelty in our approach is the Multi-Agent Decision Support System which is developed and integrated into the Unibot agent architecture in order to execute simultaneous simulations. Furthermore, the Unibot calculates and evaluates between multiple solutions, decides which action should be performed and performs the action. The prototype of the Unibot agent architecture is described and evaluated in the experiment supported by the Lego Mindstorms robot and the NetLogo.

Decision support systems for recovery of endangered species

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Armstrong, C.E.

1995-01-01

The listing of a species as endangered under the Endangered Species Act invokes a suite of responses to help improve conditions for the recovery of that species, to include identification of stressors contributing to population loss, decision analysis of the impacts of proposed recovery options, and implementation of optimal recovery measures. The ability of a decision support system to quantify inherent stressor uncertainties and to identify the key stressors that can be controlled or eliminated becomes key to ensuring the recovery of an endangered species. The listing of the Snake River sockeye, spring/summer chinook, and fall chinook salmon species in the Snake River as endangered provides a vivid example of the importance of sophisticated decision support systems. Operational and physical changes under consideration at eight of the hydroelectric dams along the Columbia and Lower Snake River pose significant financial impacts to a variety of stakeholders involved in the salmon population recovery process and carry significant uncertainties of outcome. A decision support system is presented to assist in the identification of optimal recovery actions for this example that includes the following: creation of datamarts of information on environmental, engineering, and ecological values that influence species survival; incorporation of decision analysis tools to determine optimal decision policies; and the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to provide a context for decision analysis and to communicate the impacts of decision policies

A study of diverse clinical decision support rule authoring environments and requirements for integration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhou Li

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Efficient rule authoring tools are critical to allow clinical Knowledge Engineers (KEs, Software Engineers (SEs, and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs to convert medical knowledge into machine executable clinical decision support rules. The goal of this analysis was to identify the critical success factors and challenges of a fully functioning Rule Authoring Environment (RAE in order to define requirements for a scalable, comprehensive tool to manage enterprise level rules. Methods The authors evaluated RAEs in active use across Partners Healthcare, including enterprise wide, ambulatory only, and system specific tools, with a focus on rule editors for reminder and medication rules. We conducted meetings with users of these RAEs to discuss their general experience and perceived advantages and limitations of these tools. Results While the overall rule authoring process is similar across the 10 separate RAEs, the system capabilities and architecture vary widely. Most current RAEs limit the ability of the clinical decision support (CDS interventions to be standardized, sharable, interoperable, and extensible. No existing system meets all requirements defined by knowledge management users. Conclusions A successful, scalable, integrated rule authoring environment will need to support a number of key requirements and functions in the areas of knowledge representation, metadata, terminology, authoring collaboration, user interface, integration with electronic health record (EHR systems, testing, and reporting.

IBM’s Health Analytics and Clinical Decision Support

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, J.; Knoop, S.; Shabo, A.; Carmeli, B.; Sow, D.; Syed-Mahmood, T.; Rapp, W.

2014-01-01

Summary Objectives This survey explores the role of big data and health analytics developed by IBM in supporting the transformation of healthcare by augmenting evidence-based decision-making. Methods Some problems in healthcare and strategies for change are described. It is argued that change requires better decisions, which, in turn, require better use of the many kinds of healthcare information. Analytic resources that address each of the information challenges are described. Examples of the role of each of the resources are given. Results There are powerful analytic tools that utilize the various kinds of big data in healthcare to help clinicians make more personalized, evidenced-based decisions. Such resources can extract relevant information and provide insights that clinicians can use to make evidence-supported decisions. There are early suggestions that these resources have clinical value. As with all analytic tools, they are limited by the amount and quality of data. Conclusion Big data is an inevitable part of the future of healthcare. There is a compelling need to manage and use big data to make better decisions to support the transformation of healthcare to the personalized, evidence-supported model of the future. Cognitive computing resources are necessary to manage the challenges in employing big data in healthcare. Such tools have been and are being developed. The analytic resources, themselves, do not drive, but support healthcare transformation. PMID:25123736

Improving clinical decision support using data mining techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Burn-Thornton, Kath E.; Thorpe, Simon I.

1999-02-01

Physicians, in their ever-demanding jobs, are looking to decision support systems for aid in clinical diagnosis. However, clinical decision support systems need to be of sufficiently high accuracy that they help, rather than hinder, the physician in his/her diagnosis. Decision support systems with accuracies, of patient state determination, of greater than 80 percent, are generally perceived to be sufficiently accurate to fulfill the role of helping the physician. We have previously shown that data mining techniques have the potential to provide the underpinning technology for clinical decision support systems. In this paper, an extension of the work in reverence 2, we describe how changes in data mining methodologies, for the analysis of 12-lead ECG data, improve the accuracy by which data mining algorithms determine which patients are suffering from heart disease. We show that the accuracy of patient state prediction, for all the algorithms, which we investigated, can be increased by up to 6 percent, using the combination of appropriate test training ratios and 5-fold cross-validation. The use of cross-validation greater than 5-fold, appears to reduce the improvement in algorithm classification accuracy gained by the use of this validation method. The accuracy of 84 percent in patient state predictions, obtained using the algorithm OCI, suggests that this algorithm will be capable of providing the required accuracy for clinical decision support systems.

Formalisation for decision support in anaesthesiology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Renardel de Lavalette, G R; Groenboom, R.; Rotterdam, E; van Harmelen, F; ten Teije, A; de Geus, F.

1997-01-01

This paper reports on research for decision support for anaesthesiologists at the University Hospital in Groningen, the Netherlands. Based on CAROLA, an existing automated operation documentation system, we designed a support environment that will assist in real-time diagnosis. The core of the work

Computer-based tools for decision support at the Hanford Site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doctor, P.G.; Mahaffey, J.A.; Cowley, P.J.; Freshley, M.D.; Hassig, N.L.; Brothers, J.W.; Glantz, C.S.; Strachan, D.M.

1992-11-01

To help integrate activities in the environmental restoration and waste management mission of the Hanford Site, the Hanford Integrated Planning Project (HIPP) was established and funded by the US Department of Energy. The project is divided into three key program elements, the first focusing on an explicit, defensible and comprehensive method for evaluating technical options. Based on the premise that computer technology can be used to support the decision-making process and facilitate integration among programs and activities, the Decision Support Tools Task was charged with assessing the status of computer technology for those purposes at the Site. The task addressed two types of tools: tools need to provide technical information and management support tools. Technical tools include performance and risk assessment models, information management systems, data and the computer infrastructure to supports models, data, and information management systems. Management decision support tools are used to synthesize information at a high' level to assist with making decisions. The major conclusions resulting from the assessment are that there is much technical information available, but it is not reaching the decision-makers in a form to be used. Many existing tools provide components that are needed to integrate site activities; however, some components are missing and, more importantly, the ''glue'' or connections to tie the components together to answer decision-makers questions is largely absent. Top priority should be given to decision support tools that support activities given in the TPA. Other decision tools are needed to facilitate and support the environmental restoration and waste management mission

Computer-based tools for decision support at the Hanford Site

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Doctor, P.G.; Mahaffey, J.A.; Cowley, P.J.; Freshley, M.D.; Hassig, N.L.; Brothers, J.W.; Glantz, C.S.; Strachan, D.M.

1992-11-01

To help integrate activities in the environmental restoration and waste management mission of the Hanford Site, the Hanford Integrated Planning Project (HIPP) was established and funded by the US Department of Energy. The project is divided into three key program elements, the first focusing on an explicit, defensible and comprehensive method for evaluating technical options. Based on the premise that computer technology can be used to support the decision-making process and facilitate integration among programs and activities, the Decision Support Tools Task was charged with assessing the status of computer technology for those purposes at the Site. The task addressed two types of tools: tools need to provide technical information and management support tools. Technical tools include performance and risk assessment models, information management systems, data and the computer infrastructure to supports models, data, and information management systems. Management decision support tools are used to synthesize information at a high' level to assist with making decisions. The major conclusions resulting from the assessment are that there is much technical information available, but it is not reaching the decision-makers in a form to be used. Many existing tools provide components that are needed to integrate site activities; however, some components are missing and, more importantly, the glue'' or connections to tie the components together to answer decision-makers questions is largely absent. Top priority should be given to decision support tools that support activities given in the TPA. Other decision tools are needed to facilitate and support the environmental restoration and waste management mission.

Computer-based tools for decision support at the Hanford Site

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Doctor, P.G.; Mahaffey, J.A.; Cowley, P.J.; Freshley, M.D.; Hassig, N.L.; Brothers, J.W.; Glantz, C.S.; Strachan, D.M.

1992-11-01

To help integrate activities in the environmental restoration and waste management mission of the Hanford Site, the Hanford Integrated Planning Project (HIPP) was established and funded by the US Department of Energy. The project is divided into three key program elements, the first focusing on an explicit, defensible and comprehensive method for evaluating technical options. Based on the premise that computer technology can be used to support the decision-making process and facilitate integration among programs and activities, the Decision Support Tools Task was charged with assessing the status of computer technology for those purposes at the Site. The task addressed two types of tools: tools need to provide technical information and management support tools. Technical tools include performance and risk assessment models, information management systems, data and the computer infrastructure to supports models, data, and information management systems. Management decision support tools are used to synthesize information at a high` level to assist with making decisions. The major conclusions resulting from the assessment are that there is much technical information available, but it is not reaching the decision-makers in a form to be used. Many existing tools provide components that are needed to integrate site activities; however, some components are missing and, more importantly, the ``glue`` or connections to tie the components together to answer decision-makers questions is largely absent. Top priority should be given to decision support tools that support activities given in the TPA. Other decision tools are needed to facilitate and support the environmental restoration and waste management mission.

Text summarization as a decision support aid

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Workman T

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background PubMed data potentially can provide decision support information, but PubMed was not exclusively designed to be a point-of-care tool. Natural language processing applications that summarize PubMed citations hold promise for extracting decision support information. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of a text summarization application called Semantic MEDLINE, enhanced with a novel dynamic summarization method, in identifying decision support data. Methods We downloaded PubMed citations addressing the prevention and drug treatment of four disease topics. We then processed the citations with Semantic MEDLINE, enhanced with the dynamic summarization method. We also processed the citations with a conventional summarization method, as well as with a baseline procedure. We evaluated the results using clinician-vetted reference standards built from recommendations in a commercial decision support product, DynaMed. Results For the drug treatment data, Semantic MEDLINE enhanced with dynamic summarization achieved average recall and precision scores of 0.848 and 0.377, while conventional summarization produced 0.583 average recall and 0.712 average precision, and the baseline method yielded average recall and precision values of 0.252 and 0.277. For the prevention data, Semantic MEDLINE enhanced with dynamic summarization achieved average recall and precision scores of 0.655 and 0.329. The baseline technique resulted in recall and precision scores of 0.269 and 0.247. No conventional Semantic MEDLINE method accommodating summarization for prevention exists. Conclusion Semantic MEDLINE with dynamic summarization outperformed conventional summarization in terms of recall, and outperformed the baseline method in both recall and precision. This new approach to text summarization demonstrates potential in identifying decision support data for multiple needs.

The conceptual foundation of environmental decision support.

Science.gov (United States)

Reichert, Peter; Langhans, Simone D; Lienert, Judit; Schuwirth, Nele

2015-05-01

Environmental decision support intends to use the best available scientific knowledge to help decision makers find and evaluate management alternatives. The goal of this process is to achieve the best fulfillment of societal objectives. This requires a careful analysis of (i) how scientific knowledge can be represented and quantified, (ii) how societal preferences can be described and elicited, and (iii) how these concepts can best be used to support communication with authorities, politicians, and the public in environmental management. The goal of this paper is to discuss key requirements for a conceptual framework to address these issues and to suggest how these can best be met. We argue that a combination of probability theory and scenario planning with multi-attribute utility theory fulfills these requirements, and discuss adaptations and extensions of these theories to improve their application for supporting environmental decision making. With respect to (i) we suggest the use of intersubjective probabilities, if required extended to imprecise probabilities, to describe the current state of scientific knowledge. To address (ii), we emphasize the importance of value functions, in addition to utilities, to support decisions under risk. We discuss the need for testing "non-standard" value aggregation techniques, the usefulness of flexibility of value functions regarding attribute data availability, the elicitation of value functions for sub-objectives from experts, and the consideration of uncertainty in value and utility elicitation. With respect to (iii), we outline a well-structured procedure for transparent environmental decision support that is based on a clear separation of scientific prediction and societal valuation. We illustrate aspects of the suggested methodology by its application to river management in general and with a small, didactical case study on spatial river rehabilitation prioritization. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by

Medical Data Architecture (MDA) Project Status

Science.gov (United States)

Krihak, M.; Middour, C.; Gurram, M.; Wolfe, S.; Marker, N.; Winther, S.; Ronzano, K.; Bolles, D.; Toscano, W.; Shaw, T.

2018-01-01

The Medical Data Architecture (MDA) project supports the Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) risk to minimize or reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes and decrements in performance due to in-flight medical capabilities on human exploration missions. To mitigate this risk, the ExMC MDA project addresses the technical limitations identified in ExMC Gap Med 07: We do not have the capability to comprehensively process medically-relevant information to support medical operations during exploration missions. This gap identifies that the current in-flight medical data management includes a combination of data collection and distribution methods that are minimally integrated with on-board medical devices and systems. Furthermore, there are a variety of data sources and methods of data collection. For an exploration mission, the seamless management of such data will enable a more medically autonomous crew than the current paradigm. The medical system requirements are being developed in parallel with the exploration mission architecture and vehicle design. ExMC has recognized that in order to make informed decisions about a medical data architecture framework, current methods for medical data management must not only be understood, but an architecture must also be identified that provides the crew with actionable insight to medical conditions. This medical data architecture will provide the necessary functionality to address the challenges of executing a self-contained medical system that approaches crew health care delivery without assistance from ground support. Hence, the products supported by current prototype development will directly inform exploration medical system requirements.

Architecture Sustainability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Avgeriou, Paris; Stal, Michael; Hilliard, Rich

2013-01-01

Software architecture is the foundation of software system development, encompassing a system's architects' and stakeholders' strategic decisions. A special issue of IEEE Software is intended to raise awareness of architecture sustainability issues and increase interest and work in the area. The

Supporting Sustainability and Personalization with Product Architecture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kjeld; Jørgensen, Kaj Asbjørn; Taps, Stig B.

2011-01-01

Mass Customization, Personalization and Co-creation (MCPC) are continuously being adopted as a competitive business strategy. Consumers as well as governments are at the same time applying pressure on companies to adopt a more sustainable strategy, consumers request greener products and governments...... is a driver for MCPC and earlier research within product architecture has indicated that modularization could support sustainability. In this paper, work on the drivers for modularization with focus on sustainability and MCPC, will be presented. Several modularization methods and drivers are analyzed...

Encounter Decision Aid vs. Clinical Decision Support or Usual Care to Support Patient-Centered Treatment Decisions in Osteoporosis: The Osteoporosis Choice Randomized Trial II.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annie LeBlanc

Full Text Available Osteoporosis Choice, an encounter decision aid, can engage patients and clinicians in shared decision making about osteoporosis treatment. Its effectiveness compared to the routine provision to clinicians of the patient's estimated risk of fracture using the FRAX calculator is unknown.Patient-level, randomized, three-arm trial enrolling women over 50 with osteopenia or osteoporosis eligible for treatment with bisphosphonates, where the use of Osteoporosis Choice was compared to FRAX only and to usual care to determine impact on patient knowledge, decisional conflict, involvement in the decision-making process, decision to start and adherence to bisphosphonates.We enrolled 79 women in the three arms. Because FRAX estimation alone and usual care produced similar results, we grouped them for analysis. Compared to these, use of Osteoporosis Choice increased patient knowledge (median score 6 vs. 4, p = .01, improved understanding of fracture risk and risk reduction with bisphosphonates (p = .01 and p<.0001, respectively, had no effect on decision conflict, and increased patient engagement in the decision making process (OPTION scores 57% vs. 43%, p = .001. Encounters with the decision aid were 0.8 minutes longer (range: 33 minutes shorter to 3.0 minutes longer. There were twice as many patients receiving and filling prescriptions in the decision aid arm (83% vs. 40%, p = .07; medication adherence at 6 months was no different across arms.Supporting both patients and clinicians during the clinical encounter with the Osteoporosis Choice decision aid efficiently improves treatment decision making when compared to usual care with or without clinical decision support with FRAX results.clinical trials.gov NCT00949611.

Cyberinfrastructure for the collaborative development of U2U decision support tools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Larry L. Biehl

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the use of cyberinfrastructure to create interactive applications as part of the Useful to Usable (U2U project. These applications transform historical climate data, knowledge, and models into decision support tools for end users such as crop farmers, university Extension educators, and other agricultural advisors. In creating a cyberinfrastructure to support the U2U project, four major challenges have been addressed: designing and developing highly usable web applications with frequent feedback, establishing a software engineering environment to support iterative development, integrating and synthesizing historical and current datasets from a variety of sources (local vs. remote, different access methods, and formats, and supporting project collaboration needs of data and document sharing, project management, and public outreach. The overall goals of the cyberinfrastructure and its architecture design are described. Methods for data retrieval and synthesis, as well as the various software components utilized are discussed. The development and integration of tools into the collaborative HUBzero framework are highlighted, including the use of HUBzero’s core features to share ideas, algorithms, and results. A highly iterative development process that includes feedback from experts and end-users to feed requirement definition, design and application updates are also examined.

An ontology-based, mobile-optimized system for pharmacogenomic decision support at the point-of-care.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jose Antonio Miñarro-Giménez

Full Text Available The development of genotyping and genetic sequencing techniques and their evolution towards low costs and quick turnaround have encouraged a wide range of applications. One of the most promising applications is pharmacogenomics, where genetic profiles are used to predict the most suitable drugs and drug dosages for the individual patient. This approach aims to ensure appropriate medical treatment and avoid, or properly manage, undesired side effects.We developed the Medicine Safety Code (MSC service, a novel pharmacogenomics decision support system, to provide physicians and patients with the ability to represent pharmacogenomic data in computable form and to provide pharmacogenomic guidance at the point-of-care. Pharmacogenomic data of individual patients are encoded as Quick Response (QR codes and can be decoded and interpreted with common mobile devices without requiring a centralized repository for storing genetic patient data. In this paper, we present the first fully functional release of this system and describe its architecture, which utilizes Web Ontology Language 2 (OWL 2 ontologies to formalize pharmacogenomic knowledge and to provide clinical decision support functionalities.The MSC system provides a novel approach for enabling the implementation of personalized medicine in clinical routine.

PLM support to architecture based development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bruun, Hans Peter Lomholt

, organisation, processes, etc. To identify, evaluate, and align aspects of these domains are necessary for developing the optimal layout of product architectures. It is stated in this thesis that architectures describe building principles for products, product families, and product programs, where this project...... and developing architectures can be difficult to manage, update, and maintain during development. The concept of representing product architectures in computer-based product information tools has though been central in this research, and in the creation of results. A standard PLM tool (Windchill PDMLink...... architectures in computer systems. Presented results build on research literature and experiences from industrial partners. Verification of the theory contributions, approaches, models, and tools, have been carried out in industrial projects, with promising results. This thesis describes the means for: (1...

Making interactive decision support for patients a reality.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Evans, R.W.; Elwyn, G.; Edwards, A.

2004-01-01

Interactive decision support applications might help patients to make difficult decisions about their health care. They lie in the context of traditional decision aids, which are known to have effects on a number of patient outcomes, including knowledge and decisional conflict. The problem of

Architecture Governance: The Importance of Architecture Governance for Achieving Operationally Responsive Ground Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Kolar, Mike; Estefan, Jeff; Giovannoni, Brian; Barkley, Erik

2011-01-01

Topics covered (1) Why Governance and Why Now? (2) Characteristics of Architecture Governance (3) Strategic Elements (3a) Architectural Principles (3b) Architecture Board (3c) Architecture Compliance (4) Architecture Governance Infusion Process. Governance is concerned with decision making (i.e., setting directions, establishing standards and principles, and prioritizing investments). Architecture governance is the practice and orientation by which enterprise architectures and other architectures are managed and controlled at an enterprise-wide level

Temporal reasoning for decision support in medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Augusto, Juan Carlos

2005-01-01

Handling time-related concepts is essential in medicine. During diagnosis it can make a substantial difference to know the temporal order in which some symptoms occurred or for how long they lasted. During prognosis the potential evolutions of a disease are conceived as a description of events unfolding in time. In therapy planning the different steps of treatment must be applied in a precise order, with a given frequency and for a certain span of time in order to be effective. This article offers a survey on the use of temporal reasoning for decision support-related tasks in medicine. Key publications of the area, mainly circumscribed to the latest two decades, are reviewed and classified according to three important stages of patient treatment requiring decision support: diagnosis, prognosis and therapy planning/management. Other complementary publications, like those on time-centered information storage and retrieval, are also considered as they provide valuable support to the above mentioned three stages. Key areas are highlighted and used to organize the latest contributions. The survey of previous research is followed by an analysis of what can still be improved and what is needed to make the next generation of decision support systems for medicine more effective. It can be observed that although the area has been considerably developed, there are still areas where more research is needed to make time-based systems of widespread use in decision support-related areas of medicine. Several suggestions for further exploration are proposed as a result of the survey.

Clinical Decision Support Tools: The Evolution of a Revolution

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mould, D. R.; D'Haens, G.; Upton, R. N.

2016-01-01

Dashboard systems for clinical decision support integrate data from multiple sources. These systems, the newest in a long line of dose calculators and other decision support tools, utilize Bayesian approaches to fully individualize dosing using information gathered through therapeutic drug

A service oriented approach for guidelines-based clinical decision support using BPMN.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez-Loya, Salvador; Aziz, Ayesha; Chatwin, Chris

2014-01-01

Evidence-based medical practice requires that clinical guidelines need to be documented in such a way that they represent a clinical workflow in its most accessible form. In order to optimize clinical processes to improve clinical outcomes, we propose a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based approach for implementing clinical guidelines that can be accessed from an Electronic Health Record (EHR) application with a Web Services enabled communication mechanism with the Enterprise Service Bus. We have used Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) for modelling and presenting the clinical pathway in the form of a workflow. The aim of this study is to produce spontaneous alerts in the healthcare workflow in the diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The use of BPMN as a tool to automate clinical guidelines has not been previously employed for providing Clinical Decision Support (CDS).

Alternatives generation and analysis report for immobilized low-level waste interim storage architecture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burbank, D.A., Westinghouse Hanford

1996-09-01

The Immobilized Low-Level Waste Interim Storage subproject will provide storage capacity for immobilized low-level waste product sold to the U.S. Department of Energy by the privatization contractor. This report describes alternative Immobilized Low-Level Waste storage system architectures, evaluation criteria, and evaluation results to support the Immobilized Low-Level Waste storage system architecture selection decision process.

On developing a prospecting tool for wind industry and policy decision support

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McKeown, Charles; Adelaja, Adesoji; Calnin, Benjamin

2011-01-01

This paper presents the rudiments of a Wind Prospecting Tool designed to inform private and public decision makers involved in wind industry development in reducing transaction costs associated with identifying areas of mutual focus within a state. The multiple layer decision support framework has proven to be valuable to industry, state government and local decision makers. Information on wind resources, land availability, potential land costs, potential NIMBYism concerns and economic development potential were integrated to develop a framework for decision support. The paper also highlights implications for decision support research and the role of higher education in providing anticipatory science to enhance private and public choices in economic development. - Research Highlights: →In this paper we explore the building and value of a wind industry location decision support tool. →We examine the development process from the industry perspective. →We discuss the creation of a decision support tool that was designed for industry, state policy makers and local decision makers. →We build a model framework for wind prospecting decision support. →Finally we discuss the impact on local and state decision making as a result of being informed by science based decision support.

A Hyperknowledge Framework of Decision Support Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Ai-Mei; And Others

1994-01-01

Presents a hyperknowledge framework of decision support systems (DSS). This framework formalizes specifics about system functionality, representation of knowledge, navigation of the knowledge system, and user-interface traits as elements of a DSS environment that conforms closely to human cognitive processes in decision making. (Contains 52…

The Architecture Improvement Method: cost management and systematic learning about strategic product architectures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Weerd-Nederhof, Petronella C.; Wouters, Marc; Teuns, Steven J.A.; Hissel, Paul H.

2007-01-01

The architecture improvement method (AIM) is a method for multidisciplinary product architecture improvement, addressing uncertainty and complexity and incorporating feedback loops, facilitating trade-off decision making during the architecture creation process. The research reported in this paper

A conceptual evolutionary aseismic decision support framework for hospitals

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yufeng; Dargush, Gary F.; Shao, Xiaoyun

2012-12-01

In this paper, aconceptual evolutionary framework for aseismic decision support for hospitalsthat attempts to integrate a range of engineering and sociotechnical models is presented. Genetic algorithms are applied to find the optimal decision sets. A case study is completed to demonstrate how the frameworkmay applytoa specific hospital.The simulations show that the proposed evolutionary decision support framework is able to discover robust policy sets in either uncertain or fixed environments. The framework also qualitatively identifies some of the characteristicbehavior of the critical care organization. Thus, by utilizing the proposedframework, the decision makers are able to make more informed decisions, especially toenhance the seismic safety of the hospitals.

Intelligent decision support system for operators of the supply ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Intelligent decision support system for operators of the supply department of oil and gas extracting industry. ... PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... abnormal situations, pre-crash sensing, industrial drilling, decision-making support systems. Full Text: EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT

Architectural Debt Management in Value-oriented Architecting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, Z.; Liang, P.; Avgeriou, P.

2014-01-01

Architectural technical debt (ATD) may be incurred when making architecture decisions. In most cases, ATD is not effectively managed in the architecting process: It is not made explicit, and architecture decision making does not consider the ATD incurred by the different design options. This chapter

Towards ethical decision support and knowledge management in neonatal intensive care.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, L; Frize, M; Eng, P; Walker, R; Catley, C

2004-01-01

Recent studies in neonatal medicine, clinical nursing, and cognitive psychology have indicated the need to augment current decision-making practice in neonatal intensive care units with computerized, intelligent decision support systems. Rapid progress in artificial intelligence and knowledge management facilitates the design of collaborative ethical decision-support tools that allow clinicians to provide better support for parents facing inherently difficult choices, such as when to withdraw aggressive treatment. The appropriateness of using computers to support ethical decision-making is critically analyzed through research and literature review. In ethical dilemmas, multiple diverse participants need to communicate and function as a team to select the best treatment plan. In order to do this, physicians require reliable estimations of prognosis, while parents need a highly useable tool to help them assimilate complex medical issues and address their own value system. Our goal is to improve and structuralize the ethical decision-making that has become an inevitable part of modern neonatal care units. The paper contributes to clinical decision support by outlining the needs and basis for ethical decision support and justifying the proposed development efforts.

Decision Making Based On Management Information System and Decision Support System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Şükrü Ada

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Information hasbecome an essentialresource for managing modern organizations. This is so because today’sbusiness environment is volatile, dynamic, turbulent and necessitates the burgeoning demand for accurate, relevant, complete,timely and economical information needed to drive the decision-making process in order to accentuate organizational abilities to manage opportunities and threat. MIS work on online mode with an average processing speed. Generally, it is used by low level management. Decision support system are powerful tool that assist corporate executives, administrators and other senior officials in making decision regarding the problem. Management Information Systems is a useful tool that provided organized and summarized information in a proper time to decision makers and enable making accurate decision for managers in organizations. This paper will discuss the concept, characteristics, types of MIS, the MIS model, and in particular it will highlight the impact and role of MIS on decision making.

Simulation-based decision support for evaluating operational plans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johan Schubert

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this article, we describe simulation-based decision support techniques for evaluation of operational plans within effects-based planning. Using a decision support tool, developers of operational plans are able to evaluate thousands of alternative plans against possible courses of events and decide which of these plans are capable of achieving a desired end state. The objective of this study is to examine the potential of a decision support system that helps operational analysts understand the consequences of numerous alternative plans through simulation and evaluation. Operational plans are described in the effects-based approach to operations concept as a set of actions and effects. For each action, we examine several different alternative ways to perform the action. We use a representation where a plan consists of several actions that should be performed. Each action may be performed in one of several different alternative ways. Together these action alternatives make up all possible plan instances, which are represented as a tree of action alternatives that may be searched for the most effective sequence of alternative actions. As a test case, we use an expeditionary operation with a plan of 43 actions and several alternatives for these actions, as well as a scenario of 40 group actors. Decision support for planners is provided by several methods that analyze the impact of a plan on the 40 actors, e.g., by visualizing time series of plan performance. Detailed decision support for finding the most influential actions of a plan is presented by using sensitivity analysis and regression tree analysis. Finally, a decision maker may use the tool to determine the boundaries of an operation that it must not move beyond without risk of drastic failure. The significant contribution of this study is the presentation of an integrated approach for evaluation of operational plans.

Spill operation system decision support system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clark, R.

1992-01-01

The MSRC Spill Operation System (SOS) is a tool for the support of decision-making at the time of a catastrophic oil spill. SOS provides MSRC decision-makers with access to information about the source of the spill, the spill environment, and the availability of spill response resources. This system is designed to meet the information needs of a Response Supervisor, an Environmental Advisor, Logistics/Maintenance Supervisor, Operations Supervisor, and the MSRC Regional General Manager. The SOS project Objectives are: (1) integrate currently available data, systems, and technologies; (2) develop an application that effectively supports mobilized operations and can be adapted to support normal operations; (3) ensure that the development of computer applications is driven by user needs and not by technology; and (4) coordinate with government and other industry organizations to avoid duplication of effort. Design Objectives for SOS are: (1) centralize management information storage while decentralizing decision making capabilities; (2) boost User confidence by providing a system that is easy to learn, easy to use, and is open-quotes Sailor Proofclose quotes; and (3) use visualization technology in providing spill related information. This approach includes the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology for maps and geographically associated resource; and support MSRC's concept of operation which includes - a swift notification of response personnel; fast mobilization of response resources; and accurate tracking of resources during a spill. MSRC is organized into five responsibility regions

Checklist and Decision Support in Nutritional Care for Burned Patients

Science.gov (United States)

2016-10-01

able to construct a checklist of a clinical and physiologic model and then a computerised decision support system that will perform two functions: the...the provision of nutritional therapy, and assessment of use by nursing and physician staff KEYWORDS Nutrition, severe burn, decision support... clinical testing. Checklist and Decision Support in Nutritional Care for Burned Patients Proposal Number: 12340011 W81XWH-12-2-0074 PI: Steven E

Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Vartanian, Oshin; Navarrete, Gorka; Chatterjee, Anjan; Fich, Lars Brorson; Leder, Helmut; Modroño, Cristián; Nadal, Marcos; Rostrup, Nicolai; Skov, Martin

2013-01-01

On average, we urban dwellers spend about 90% of our time indoors, and share the intuition that the physical features of the places we live and work in influence how we feel and act. However, there is surprisingly little research on how architecture impacts behavior, much less on how it influences brain function. To begin closing this gap, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study to examine how systematic variation in contour impacts aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions, outcome measures of interest to both architects and users of spaces alike. As predicted, participants were more likely to judge spaces as beautiful if they were curvilinear than rectilinear. Neuroanatomically, when contemplating beauty, curvilinear contour activated the anterior cingulate cortex exclusively, a region strongly responsive to the reward properties and emotional salience of objects. Complementing this finding, pleasantness—the valence dimension of the affect circumplex—accounted for nearly 60% of the variance in beauty ratings. Furthermore, activation in a distributed brain network known to underlie the aesthetic evaluation of different types of visual stimuli covaried with beauty ratings. In contrast, contour did not affect approach-avoidance decisions, although curvilinear spaces activated the visual cortex. The results suggest that the well-established effect of contour on aesthetic preference can be extended to architecture. Furthermore, the combination of our behavioral and neural evidence underscores the role of emotion in our preference for curvilinear objects in this domain. PMID:23754408

Marketing Decision Making and Decision Support: Challenges and Perspectives for Successful Marketing Management Support Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

G.H. van Bruggen (Gerrit); B. Wierenga (Berend)

2009-01-01

textabstractMarketing management support systems (MMSS) are computer-enabled devices that help marketers to make better decisions. Marketing processes can be quite complex, involving large numbers of variables and mostly outcomes are the results of the actions of many different stakeholders (e.g.,

Intelligent Decision Support in Proportional–Stop-Loss Reinsurance Using Multiple Attribute Decision-Making (MADM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shirley Jie Xuan Wang

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This article addresses the possibility of incorporating intelligent decision support systems into reinsurance decision-making. This involves the insurance company and the reinsurance company, and is negotiated through reinsurance intermediaries. The article proposes a decision flow to model the reinsurance design and selection process. This article focuses on adopting more than one optimality criteria under a more generic combinational design of commonly used reinsurance products, i.e., proportional reinsurance and stop-loss reinsurance. In terms of methodology, the significant contribution of the study the incorporation of the well-established decision analysis tool multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM into the modelling of reinsurance selection. To illustrate the feasibility of incorporating intelligent decision supporting systems in the reinsurance market, the study includes a numerical case study using the simulation software @Risk in modeling insurance claims, as well as programming in MATLAB to realize MADM. A list of managerial implications could be drawn from the case study results. Most importantly, when choosing the most appropriate type of reinsurance, insurance companies should base their decisions on multiple measurements instead of single-criteria decision-making models so that their decisions may be more robust.

Big-Data Based Decision-Support Systems to Improve Clinicians' Cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Roosan, Don; Samore, Matthew; Jones, Makoto; Livnat, Yarden; Clutter, Justin

2016-01-01

Complex clinical decision-making could be facilitated by using population health data to inform clinicians. In two previous studies, we interviewed 16 infectious disease experts to understand complex clinical reasoning. For this study, we focused on answers from the experts on how clinical reasoning can be supported by population-based Big-Data. We found cognitive strategies such as trajectory tracking, perspective taking, and metacognition has the potential to improve clinicians' cognition to deal with complex problems. These cognitive strategies could be supported by population health data, and all have important implications for the design of Big-Data based decision-support tools that could be embedded in electronic health records. Our findings provide directions for task allocation and design of decision-support applications for health care industry development of Big data based decision-support systems.

Building evolutionary architectures support constant change

CERN Document Server

Ford, Neal; Kua, Patrick

2017-01-01

The software development ecosystem is constantly changing, providing a constant stream of new tools, frameworks, techniques, and paradigms. Over the past few years, incremental developments in core engineering practices for software development have created the foundations for rethinking how architecture changes over time, along with ways to protect important architectural characteristics as it evolves. This practical guide ties those parts together with a new way to think about architecture and time.

MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND INFLUENCES ON IT ARCHITECTURE DECISIONS: A CASE STUDY IN A TELECOM COMPANY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Wen Hsing

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The study aims to analyze the IT architecture management practices associated with their degree of maturity and the influence of institutional and strategic factors on the decisions involved through a case study in a large telecom organization. The case study allowed us to identify practices that led the company to its current stage of maturity and identify practices that can lead the company to the next stage. The strategic influence was mentioned by most respondents and the institutional influence was present in decisions related to innovation and those dealing with a higher level of uncertainties.

Computerized Clinical Decision Support: Contributions from 2015

Science.gov (United States)

Bouaud, J.

2016-01-01

Summary Objective To summarize recent research and select the best papers published in 2015 in the field of computerized clinical decision support for the Decision Support section of the IMIA yearbook. Method A literature review was performed by searching two bibliographic databases for papers related to clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) and computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems. The aim was to identify a list of candidate best papers from the retrieved papers that were then peer-reviewed by external reviewers. A consensus meeting between the two section editors and the IMIA editorial team was finally conducted to conclude in the best paper selection. Results Among the 974 retrieved papers, the entire review process resulted in the selection of four best papers. One paper reports on a CDSS routinely applied in pediatrics for more than 10 years, relying on adaptations of the Arden Syntax. Another paper assessed the acceptability and feasibility of an important CPOE evaluation tool in hospitals outside the US where it was developed. The third paper is a systematic, qualitative review, concerning usability flaws of medication-related alerting functions, providing an important evidence-based, methodological contribution in the domain of CDSS design and development in general. Lastly, the fourth paper describes a study quantifying the effect of a complex, continuous-care, guideline-based CDSS on the correctness and completeness of clinicians’ decisions. Conclusions While there are notable examples of routinely used decision support systems, this 2015 review on CDSSs and CPOE systems still shows that, despite methodological contributions, theoretical frameworks, and prototype developments, these technologies are not yet widely spread (at least with their full functionalities) in routine clinical practice. Further research, testing, evaluation, and training are still needed for these tools to be adopted in clinical practice and, ultimately, illustrate

ARCHITECTURE SOFTWARE SOLUTION TO SUPPORT AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT QUALITY SYSTEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milan Eric

2010-12-01

Full Text Available One of the basis of a series of standards JUS ISO 9000 is quality system documentation. An architecture of the quality system documentation depends on the complexity of business system. An establishment of an efficient management documentation of system of quality is of a great importance for the business system, as well as in the phase of introducing the quality system and in further stages of its improvement. The study describes the architecture and capability of software solutions to support and manage the quality system documentation in accordance with the requirements of standards ISO 9001:2001, ISO 14001:2005 HACCP etc.

Parametric vs. Nonparametric Regression Modelling within Clinical Decision Support

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kalina, Jan; Zvárová, Jana

2017-01-01

Roč. 5, č. 1 (2017), s. 21-27 ISSN 1805-8698 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA17-01251S Institutional support: RVO:67985807 Keywords : decision support systems * decision rules * statistical analysis * nonparametric regression Subject RIV: IN - Informatics, Computer Science OBOR OECD: Statistics and probability

The application of reduced-processing decision support systems to facilitate the acquisition of decision-making skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, Nathan C; Wiggins, Mark W; Childs, Merilyn; Fogarty, Gerard

2013-06-01

The study was designed to examine whether the availability of reduced-processing decision support system interfaces could improve the decision making of inexperienced personnel in the context of Although research into reduced-processing decision support systems has demonstrated benefits in minimizing cognitive load, these benefits have not typically translated into direct improvements in decision accuracy because of the tendency for inexperienced personnel to focus on less-critical information. The authors investigated whether reduced-processing interfaces that direct users' attention toward the most critical cues for decision making can produce improvements in decision-making performance. Novice participants made incident command-related decisions in experimental conditions that differed according to the amount of information that was available within the interface, the level of control that they could exert over the presentation of information, and whether they had received decision training. The results revealed that despite receiving training, participants improved in decision accuracy only when they were provided with an interface that restricted information access to the most critical cues. It was concluded that an interface that restricts information access to only the most critical cues in the scenario can facilitate improvements in decision performance. Decision support system interfaces that encourage the processing of the most critical cues have the potential to improve the accuracy and timeliness of decisions made by inexperienced personnel.

Real-time decision support and information gathering system for financial domain

Science.gov (United States)

Tseng, Chiu-Che; Gmytrasiewicz, Piotr J.

2006-05-01

The challenge of the investment domain is that a large amount of diverse information can be potentially relevant to an investment decision, and that, frequently, the decisions have to be made in a timely manner. This presents the potential for better decision support, but poses the challenge of building a decision support agent that gathers information from different sources and incorporates it for timely decision support. These problems motivate us to investigate ways in which the investors can be equipped with a flexible real-time decision support system to be practical in time-critical situations. The flexible real-time decision support system considers a tradeoff between decision quality and computation cost. For this purpose, we propose a system that uses the object oriented Bayesian knowledge base (OOBKB) design to create a decision model at the most suitable level of detail to guide the information gathering activities, and to produce an investment recommendation within a reasonable length of time. The decision models our system uses are implemented as influence diagrams. We validate our system with experiments in a simplified investment domain. The experiments show that our system produces a quality recommendation under different urgency situations. The contribution of our system is that it provides the flexible decision recommendation for an investor under time constraints in a complex environment.

Supporting Informed Decision Making in Prevention of Prostate Cancer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Constantino MARTINS

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Identifying and making the correct decision on the best health treatment or screening test option can become a difficult task. Therefore is important that the patients get all types of information appropriate to manage their health. Decision aids can be very useful when there is more than one reasonable option about a treatment or uncertain associated with screening tests. The decision aids tools help people to understand their clinical condition, through the description of the different options available. The purpose of this paper is to present the project “Supporting Informed Decision Making In Prevention of Prostate Cancer” (SIDEMP. This project is focused on the creation of a Web-based decision platform specifically directed to screening prostate cancer, that will support the patient in the process of making an informed decision

A Mashup Application to Support Complex Decision Making for Retail Consumers

OpenAIRE

Steven Walczak; Deborah L. Kellogg; Dawn G. Gregg

2010-01-01

Purchase processes often require complex decision making and consumers frequently use Web information sources to support these decisions. However, increasing amounts of information can make finding appropriate information problematic. This information overload, coupled with decision complexity, can increase time required to make a decision and reduce decision quality. This creates a need for tools that support these decision-making processes. Online tools that bring together data and partial ...

Big-Data Based Decision-Support Systems to Improve Clinicians’ Cognition

Science.gov (United States)

Roosan, Don; Samore, Matthew; Jones, Makoto; Livnat, Yarden; Clutter, Justin

2016-01-01

Complex clinical decision-making could be facilitated by using population health data to inform clinicians. In two previous studies, we interviewed 16 infectious disease experts to understand complex clinical reasoning. For this study, we focused on answers from the experts on how clinical reasoning can be supported by population-based Big-Data. We found cognitive strategies such as trajectory tracking, perspective taking, and metacognition has the potential to improve clinicians’ cognition to deal with complex problems. These cognitive strategies could be supported by population health data, and all have important implications for the design of Big-Data based decision-support tools that could be embedded in electronic health records. Our findings provide directions for task allocation and design of decision-support applications for health care industry development of Big data based decision-support systems. PMID:27990498

Information Architecture for Quality Management Support in Hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Rocha, Álvaro; Freixo, Jorge

2015-10-01

Quality Management occupies a strategic role in organizations, and the adoption of computer tools within an aligned information architecture facilitates the challenge of making more with less, promoting the development of a competitive edge and sustainability. A formal Information Architecture (IA) lends organizations an enhanced knowledge but, above all, favours management. This simplifies the reinvention of processes, the reformulation of procedures, bridging and the cooperation amongst the multiple actors of an organization. In the present investigation work we planned the IA for the Quality Management System (QMS) of a Hospital, which allowed us to develop and implement the QUALITUS (QUALITUS, name of the computer application developed to support Quality Management in a Hospital Unit) computer application. This solution translated itself in significant gains for the Hospital Unit under study, accelerating the quality management process and reducing the tasks, the number of documents, the information to be filled in and information errors, amongst others.

Support Vector Machines for decision support in electricity markets׳ strategic bidding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pinto, Tiago; Sousa, Tiago M.; Praça, Isabel

2015-01-01

. The ALBidS system allows MASCEM market negotiating players to take the best possible advantages from the market context. This paper presents the application of a Support Vector Machines (SVM) based approach to provide decision support to electricity market players. This strategy is tested and validated...... by being included in ALBidS and then compared with the application of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN), originating promising results: an effective electricity market price forecast in a fast execution time. The proposed approach is tested and validated using real electricity markets data from MIBEL......׳ research group has developed a multi-agent system: Multi-Agent System for Competitive Electricity Markets (MASCEM), which simulates the electricity markets environment. MASCEM is integrated with Adaptive Learning Strategic Bidding System (ALBidS) that works as a decision support system for market players...

Summary of breakout Session F3: F3, decision support systems: Requirements, architecture and innovations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1992-01-01

The discussions in breakout session F3 are summarized. The topics discussed include DSS architecture, map characteristics, database requirements, model requirements, knowledge base requirements, artificial intelligence applications, and user interface requirements. General comments, concerns, major research areas, and coordination and overlap reduction are presented

Development of transportation asset management decision support tools : final report.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-08-09

This study developed a web-based prototype decision support platform to demonstrate the benefits of transportation asset management in monitoring asset performance, supporting asset funding decisions, planning budget tradeoffs, and optimizing resourc...

Evaluation of SOVAT: an OLAP-GIS decision support system for community health assessment data analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Scotch, Matthew; Parmanto, Bambang; Monaco, Valerie

2008-06-09

Data analysis in community health assessment (CHA) involves the collection, integration, and analysis of large numerical and spatial data sets in order to identify health priorities. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) enable for management and analysis using spatial data, but have limitations in performing analysis of numerical data because of its traditional database architecture.On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) is a multidimensional datawarehouse designed to facilitate querying of large numerical data. Coupling the spatial capabilities of GIS with the numerical analysis of OLAP, might enhance CHA data analysis. OLAP-GIS systems have been developed by university researchers and corporations, yet their potential for CHA data analysis is not well understood. To evaluate the potential of an OLAP-GIS decision support system for CHA problem solving, we compared OLAP-GIS to the standard information technology (IT) currently used by many public health professionals. SOVAT, an OLAP-GIS decision support system developed at the University of Pittsburgh, was compared against current IT for data analysis for CHA. For this study, current IT was considered the combined use of SPSS and GIS ("SPSS-GIS"). Graduate students, researchers, and faculty in the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh were recruited. Each round consisted of: an instructional video of the system being evaluated, two practice tasks, five assessment tasks, and one post-study questionnaire. Objective and subjective measurement included: task completion time, success in answering the tasks, and system satisfaction. Thirteen individuals participated. Inferential statistics were analyzed using linear mixed model analysis. SOVAT was statistically significant (alpha = .01) from SPSS-GIS for satisfaction and time (p OLAP-GIS decision support systems as a valuable tool for CHA data analysis.

A Benchmark Usability Study of the Tactical Decision Making Under Stress Decision Support System

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Schmorrow, Dylan

1998-01-01

This study evaluates the usability of a U.S. Navy Decision Support System (DSS). The DSS was developed to enhance the performance of tactical decision makers within a Navy Combat Information Center...

Decision Support System for Hepatitis Disease Diagnosis using Bayesian Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shamshad Lakho

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Medical judgments are tough and challenging as the decisions are often based on the deficient and ambiguous information. Moreover, the result of decision process has direct effects on human lives. The act of human decision declines in emergency situations due to the complication, time limit, and high risks. Therefore, provision of medical diagnosis plays a dynamic role, specifically in the preliminary stage when a physician has limited diagnosis experience and identifies the directions to be taken for the treatment process. Computerized Decision Support Systems have brought a revolution in the medical diagnosis. These automatic systems support the diagnosticians in the course of diagnosis. The major role of Decision Support Systems is to support the medical personnel in decision-making procedures regarding disease diagnosis and treatment recommendation. The proposed system provides easy support in Hepatitis disease recognition. The system is developed using the Bayesian network model. The physician provides the input to the system in the form of symptoms stated by the patient. These signs and symptoms match with the casual relationships present in the knowledge model. The Bayesian network infers conclusion from the knowledge model and calculates the probability of occurrence of Hepatitis B, C and D disorders.

NASA's Earth Science Gateway: A Platform for Interoperable Services in Support of the GEOSS Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Alameh, N.; Bambacus, M.; Cole, M.

2006-12-01

Nasa's Earth Science as well as interdisciplinary research and applications activities require access to earth observations, analytical models and specialized tools and services, from diverse distributed sources. Interoperability and open standards for geospatial data access and processing greatly facilitate such access among the information and processing compo¬nents related to space¬craft, airborne, and in situ sensors; predictive models; and decision support tools. To support this mission, NASA's Geosciences Interoperability Office (GIO) has been developing the Earth Science Gateway (ESG; online at http://esg.gsfc.nasa.gov) by adapting and deploying a standards-based commercial product. Thanks to extensive use of open standards, ESG can tap into a wide array of online data services, serve a variety of audiences and purposes, and adapt to technology and business changes. Most importantly, the use of open standards allow ESG to function as a platform within a larger context of distributed geoscience processing, such as the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). ESG shares the goals of GEOSS to ensure that observations and products shared by users will be accessible, comparable, and understandable by relying on common standards and adaptation to user needs. By maximizing interoperability, modularity, extensibility and scalability, ESG's architecture fully supports the stated goals of GEOSS. As such, ESG's role extends beyond that of a gateway to NASA science data to become a shared platform that can be leveraged by GEOSS via: A modular and extensible architecture Consensus and community-based standards (e.g. ISO and OGC standards) A variety of clients and visualization techniques, including WorldWind and Google Earth A variety of services (including catalogs) with standard interfaces Data integration and interoperability Mechanisms for user involvement and collaboration Mechanisms for supporting interdisciplinary and domain-specific applications ESG

Decision support tools to support the operations of traffic management centers (TMC)

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-31

The goal of this project is to develop decision support tools to support traffic management operations based on collected intelligent transportation system (ITS) data. The project developments are in accordance with the needs of traffic management ce...

Operation and safety decision-making support expert system in NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wei Yanhui; Su Desong; Chen Weihua; Zhang Jianbo

2014-01-01

The article first reviewed three operation support systems currently used in NPP: real-time information surveillance system, important equipment surveillance system and plant process control and monitoring system, then presents the structure and function of three expert support sub-systems (intelligent alarm monitoring system, computer-based operating procedure support system, safety information expert decision support system). Finally the article discussed the meaning of a kind of operation decision making support system. (authors)

Decision support for patient care: implementing cybernetics.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozbolt, Judy; Ozdas, Asli; Waitman, Lemuel R; Smith, Janis B; Brennan, Grace V; Miller, Randolph A

2004-01-01

The application of principles and methods of cybernetics permits clinicians and managers to use feedback about care effectiveness and resource expenditure to improve quality and to control costs. Keys to the process are the specification of therapeutic goals and the creation of an organizational culture that supports the use of feedback to improve care. Daily feedback on the achievement of each patient's therapeutic goals provides tactical decision support, enabling clinicians to adjust care as needed. Monthly or quarterly feedback on aggregated goal achievement for all patients on a clinical pathway provides strategic decision support, enabling clinicians and managers to identify problems with supposed "best practices" and to test hypotheses about solutions. Work is underway at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to implement feedback loops in care and management processes and to evaluate the effects.

Web-Based Group Decision Support System: an Economic Application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion ISTUDOR

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Decision Support Systems (DSS form a specific class of computerized information systems that support business and managerial decision-making activities. Making the right decision in business primarily depends on the quality of data. It also depends on the ability to analyze the data with a view to identifying trends that can suggest solutions and strategies. A “cooperative” decision support system means the data are collected, analyzed and then provided to a human agent who can help the system to revise or refine the data. It means that both a human component and computer component work together to come up with the best solution. This paper describes the usage of a software product (Vanguard System to a specific economic application (evaluating the financial risk assuming that the rate of the economic profitability can be under the value of the interest rate.

Technology Infusion Challenges from a Decision Support Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Adumitroaie, V.; Weisbin, C. R.

2009-01-01

In a restricted science budget environment and increasingly numerous required technology developments, the technology investment decisions within NASA are objectively more and more difficult to make such that the end results are satisfying the technical objectives and all the organizational constraints. Under these conditions it is rationally desirable to build an investment portfolio, which has the highest possible technology infusion rate. Arguably the path to infusion is subject to many influencing factors, but here only the challenges associated with the very initial stages are addressed: defining the needs and the subsequent investment decision-support process. It is conceivable that decision consistency and possibly its quality suffer when the decision-making process has limited or no traceability. This paper presents a structured decision-support framework aiming to provide traceable, auditable, infusion- driven recommendations towards a selection process in which these recommendations are used as reference points in further discussions among stakeholders. In this framework addressing well-defined requirements, different measures of success can be defined based on traceability to specific selection criteria. As a direct result, even by using simplified decision models the likelihood of infusion can be probed and consequently improved.

Modem: data exchange among decision support systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baig, S.; Zaehringer, M.

2003-01-01

The aim of the European Research and Development project MODEM (Monitoring Data and Information Exchange Among Decision Support Systems) is to achieve practical improvements for data exchange among decision support systems (DSS). Hence, the results of model calculations become comparable. This is a precondition for harmonised decision making. Based on the analysis of existing procedures, it was decided to use the PUSH-PULL concept. Notifications are actively and automatically sent by the DSS (PUSH). The data can then be downloaded form an in-formation server (PULL). The format of the data is defined in XML (extended markup language). Participants of the project are the DSS: RODOS, ARGOS and RECASS. First, the data is comprised of the source term and meteorological information. Results of the prognoses and measurement data are also to be exchanged. Exercises testing and improving the pro-cedures form an integral part of the project. (orig.)

Web-service architecture for tools supporting life-long e-Learning platforms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dimov, Alexander; Stefanov, Krassen

2009-01-01

Dimov, A., & Stefanov, K. (2008). Web-service architecture for tools supporting life-long e-Learning platforms. In R. Koper, K. Stefanov & D. Dicheva (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th International TENCompetence Open Workshop "Stimulating Personal Development and Knowledge Sharing" (pp. 67-71).

What influences parents' decisions to limit or withdraw life support?

Science.gov (United States)

Sharman, Mahesh; Meert, Kathleen L; Sarnaik, Ashok P

2005-09-01

Decisions to forgo life support from critically ill children are commonly faced by parents and physicians. Previous research regarding parents' perspectives on the decision-making process has been limited by retrospective methods and the use of closed-ended questionnaires. We prospectively identified and described parents' self-reported influences on decisions to forgo life support from their children. Deeper understanding of parents' views will allow physicians to focus end-of-life discussions on factors important to parents and help resolve conflicts. Prospective, qualitative pilot study. Pediatric intensive care unit of a university-affiliated children's hospital. A total of 14 parents of ten children whose pediatric intensive care unit physician had made a recommendation to limit or withdraw life support. : In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with parents during their decision-making process. Factors influencing the parents in this study in their decision to forgo life support included their previous experience with death and end-of-life decision making for others, their personal observations of their child's suffering, their perceptions of their child's will to survive, their need to protect and advocate for their child, and the family's financial resources and concerns regarding life-long care. Parents in this study expressed the desire to do what is best for their child but struggled with feelings of selfishness, guilt, and the need to avoid agony and sorrow. Physician recommendations, review of options, and joint formulation of a plan helped parents gain a sense of control over their situation. Parents of eight children agreed to forgo life support and parents of two did not. Prospective interviews with open-ended questions identified factors influencing parents' decision making not previously described in the critical care literature such as parents' past experiences with end-of-life decisions and their anticipated emotional adjustments and

Importance of Decision Support Systems About Food Safety in Raw Milk Production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ecem Akan

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In raw milk production decision support systems for control of food safety hazards has not been developed but main points of this system are available. The decision support systems’ elements include data identification at critical points in the milk supply chain, an information management system and data exchange. Decision supports systems has been developed on the basis of these elements. In dairy sector decision support systems are significant for controlling of food safety hazards and preferred by producers. When these systems are implemented in the milk supply chain, it can be prevented unnecessary sampling and analysis. In this article it will be underlined effects of decision support system elements on food safety of raw milk.

Knowledge representation for decision support systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Methlie, L.B.

1985-01-01

This book is organized into three sections in accordance with the structure of the conference program. First section contains four major papers which were commissioned by the Programme Committee to set the tone for the conference and to provide a structured source of relevant material from contributing disciplines. The second section contains specific papers submitted to the conference, and concerned with the following topics of specific interest: epistemological issues for decision support systems (DSS), capturing organizational knowledge for DSS, complementarity between human and formal DSS, and representations for adaption. The third section contains the short papers on any topic of relevance to the theme of the conference. It is hoped that the two working conferences organized by WG 8.3 will contribute to the development of a coherent knowledge and understanding of the class of computerized information systems called Decision Support Systems. (Auth.)

Clinical Decision Support: Statistical Hopes and Challenges

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kalina, Jan; Zvárová, Jana

2016-01-01

Roč. 4, č. 1 (2016), s. 30-34 ISSN 1805-8698 Grant - others:Nadační fond na opdporu vědy(CZ) Neuron Institutional support: RVO:67985807 Keywords : decision support * data mining * multivariate statistics * psychiatry * information based medicine Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research

Group decision support system for customer-driven product design

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Zhihang; Chen, Hang; Chen, Kuen; Che, Ada

2000-10-01

This paper describes the work on the development of a group decision support system for customer driven product design. The customer driven is to develop products, which meet all customer requirements in whole life cycle of products. A process model of decision during product primary design is proposed to formulate the structured, semi-structured and unstructured decision problems. The framework for the decision support system is presented that integrated both advances in the group decision making and distributed artificial intelligent. The system consists of the product primary design tool kit and the collaborative platform with multi-agent structure. The collaborative platform of the system and the product primary design tool kit, including the VOC (Voice of Customer) tool, QFD (Quality Function Deployment) tool, the Conceptual design tool, Reliability analysis tool and the cost and profit forecasting tool, are indicated.

Adoption of Web-based Group Decision Support Systems: Conditions for Growth

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Hillegersberg, Jos; Koenen, Sebastiaan

2014-01-01

While organizations have massively adopted enterprise information systems to support business processes, business meetings in which key decisions are made about products, services and processes are usually held without much support of information systems. This is remarkable as group decision support

Assessing the quality of decision support technologies using the International Patient Decision Aid Standards instrument (IPDASi.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Glyn Elwyn

Full Text Available To describe the development, validation and inter-rater reliability of an instrument to measure the quality of patient decision support technologies (decision aids.Scale development study, involving construct, item and scale development, validation and reliability testing.There has been increasing use of decision support technologies--adjuncts to the discussions clinicians have with patients about difficult decisions. A global interest in developing these interventions exists among both for-profit and not-for-profit organisations. It is therefore essential to have internationally accepted standards to assess the quality of their development, process, content, potential bias and method of field testing and evaluation.Scale development study, involving construct, item and scale development, validation and reliability testing.Twenty-five researcher-members of the International Patient Decision Aid Standards Collaboration worked together to develop the instrument (IPDASi. In the fourth Stage (reliability study, eight raters assessed thirty randomly selected decision support technologies.IPDASi measures quality in 10 dimensions, using 47 items, and provides an overall quality score (scaled from 0 to 100 for each intervention. Overall IPDASi scores ranged from 33 to 82 across the decision support technologies sampled (n = 30, enabling discrimination. The inter-rater intraclass correlation for the overall quality score was 0.80. Correlations of dimension scores with the overall score were all positive (0.31 to 0.68. Cronbach's alpha values for the 8 raters ranged from 0.72 to 0.93. Cronbach's alphas based on the dimension means ranged from 0.50 to 0.81, indicating that the dimensions, although well correlated, measure different aspects of decision support technology quality. A short version (19 items was also developed that had very similar mean scores to IPDASi and high correlation between short score and overall score 0.87 (CI 0.79 to 0.92.This work

Decision support system for containment and release management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oosterhuis, B [Twente Univ., Enschede (Netherlands). Computer Science Dept.

1995-09-01

The Containment and Release Management project was carried out within the Reinforced Concerted Action Programme for Accident Management Support and partly financed by the European Union. In this report a prototype of an accident management support system is presented. The support system integrates several concepts from accident management research, like safety objective trees, severe accident phenomena, calculation models and an emergency response data system. These concepts are provided by the prototype in such a way that the decision making process of accident management is supported. The prototype application is demonstrated by process data taken from a severe accident scenario for a pressurized water reactor (PWR) that was simulated with the thermohydraulic computer program MAAP. The prototype was derived from a decision support framework based on a decision theory. For established and innovative concepts from accident management research it is pointed out in which way these concepts can support accident management and how these concepts can be integrated. This approach is generic in two ways; it applies to both pressurized and boiling water reactors and it applies to both in vessel management and containment and release management. The prototype application was developed in Multimedia Toolbox 3.0 and requires at least a 386 PC with 4 MB memory, 6 MB free disk space and MS Windows 3.1. (orig.).

Decision support system for containment and release management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oosterhuis, B.

1995-09-01

The Containment and Release Management project was carried out within the Reinforced Concerted Action Programme for Accident Management Support and partly financed by the European Union. In this report a prototype of an accident management support system is presented. The support system integrates several concepts from accident management research, like safety objective trees, severe accident phenomena, calculation models and an emergency response data system. These concepts are provided by the prototype in such a way that the decision making process of accident management is supported. The prototype application is demonstrated by process data taken from a severe accident scenario for a pressurized water reactor (PWR) that was simulated with the thermohydraulic computer program MAAP. The prototype was derived from a decision support framework based on a decision theory. For established and innovative concepts from accident management research it is pointed out in which way these concepts can support accident management and how these concepts can be integrated. This approach is generic in two ways; it applies to both pressurized and boiling water reactors and it applies to both in vessel management and containment and release management. The prototype application was developed in Multimedia Toolbox 3.0 and requires at least a 386 PC with 4 MB memory, 6 MB free disk space and MS Windows 3.1. (orig.)

A review of features in Internet consumer health decision-support tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwitzer, Gary

2002-01-01

Over the past decade, health care consumers have begun to benefit from new Web-based communications tools to guide decision making on treatments and tests. Using today's online tools, consumers who have Internet connections can: watch and listen to videos of physicians; watch and hear the stories of other consumers who have faced the same decisions; join an online social support network; receive estimates of their own chances of experiencing various outcomes; and do it all at home. To review currently-available Internet consumer health decision-support tools. Five Web sites offering consumer health decision-support tools are analyzed for their use of 4 key Web-enabled features: the presentation of outcomes probability data tailored to the individual user; the use of videotaped patient interviews in the final product to convey the experiences of people who have faced similar diagnoses in the past; the ability to interact with others in a social support network; and the accessibility of the tool to any health care consumers with an Internet connection. None of the 5 Web sites delivers all 4 target features to all Web users. The reasons for these variations in the use of key Web functionality--features that make the Web distinctive--are not immediately clear. Consumers trying to make health care decisions may benefit from current Web-based decision-support tools. But, variations in Web developers' use of 4 key Web-enabled features leaves the online decision-support experience less than what it could be. Key research questions are identified that could help in the development of new hybrid patient decision-support tools.

Decision Support for Flood Event Prediction and Monitoring

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mioc, Darka; Anton, François; Liang, Gengsheng

2007-01-01

In this paper the development of Web GIS based decision support system for flood events is presented. To improve flood prediction we developed the decision support system for flood prediction and monitoring that integrates hydrological modelling and CARIS GIS. We present the methodology for data...... integration, floodplain delineation, and online map interfaces. Our Web-based GIS model can dynamically display observed and predicted flood extents for decision makers and the general public. The users can access Web-based GIS that models current flood events and displays satellite imagery and digital...... elevation model integrated with flood plain area. The system can show how the flooding prediction based on the output from hydrological modeling for the next 48 hours along the lower Saint John River Valley....

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN MILITARY ACTIONS: NECESSITY, POSSIBILITIES AND CONSTRAINTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena ŞUŞNEA

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, modern organizations cannot resort to the decision-making process without relying on information and communication technology if they want to be successful. Thus, besides information as an important input of this process, the tools and techniques used by decision-makers are equally important in the support and validation of their decisions. All this is also valid for the military organizations and their specific tasks and activities. A fortiori military commanders face some of the most diff cult and high-stake decision issues meaningful not only at the level of the military, but also for the humankind. Under these circumstances and as a result of an increase in the diversity and complexity of conflict situations, in the information and technology means employed by opponents in warfare and in the amount of information needed to be processed in real time, decision support systems become a necessity. Starting from the aforementioned inevitable requirement, the aim of this article is to emphasize the possibilities and constraints in developing an intelligent decision support system that assists commanders in making scientific decisions on time, under the right circumstances, for the right costs.

Optimization-based decision support systems for planning problems in processing industries

OpenAIRE

Claassen, G.D.H.

2014-01-01

Summary Optimization-based decision support systems for planning problems in processing industries Nowadays, efficient planning of material flows within and between supply chains is of vital importance and has become one of the most challenging problems for decision support in practice. The tremendous progress in hard- and software of the past decades was an important gateway for developing computerized systems that are able to support decision making on different levels within enterprises. T...

Promoting Shared Decision Making in Disorders of Sex Development (DSD): Decision Aids and Support Tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Siminoff, L A; Sandberg, D E

2015-05-01

Specific complaints and grievances from adult patients with disorders of sex development (DSD), and their advocates center around the lack of information or misinformation they were given about their condition and feeling stigmatized and shamed by the secrecy surrounding their condition and its management. Many also attribute poor sexual function to damaging genital surgery and/or repeated, insensitive genital examinations. These reports suggest the need to reconsider the decision-making process for the treatment of children born with DSD. This paper proposes that shared decision making, an important concept in adult health care, be operationalized for the major decisions commonly encountered in DSD care and facilitated through the utilization of decision aids and support tools. This approach may help patients and their families make informed decisions that are better aligned with their personal values and goals. It may also lead to greater confidence in decision making with greater satisfaction and less regret. A brief review of the past and current approach to DSD decision making is provided, along with a review of shared decision making and decision aids and support tools. A case study explores the need and potential utility of this suggested new approach. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Reviewing model application to support animal health decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Singer, Alexander; Salman, Mo; Thulke, Hans-Hermann

2011-04-01

Animal health is of societal importance as it affects human welfare, and anthropogenic interests shape decision making to assure animal health. Scientific advice to support decision making is manifold. Modelling, as one piece of the scientific toolbox, is appreciated for its ability to describe and structure data, to give insight in complex processes and to predict future outcome. In this paper we study the application of scientific modelling to support practical animal health decisions. We reviewed the 35 animal health related scientific opinions adopted by the Animal Health and Animal Welfare Panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Thirteen of these documents were based on the application of models. The review took two viewpoints, the decision maker's need and the modeller's approach. In the reviewed material three types of modelling questions were addressed by four specific model types. The correspondence between tasks and models underpinned the importance of the modelling question in triggering the modelling approach. End point quantifications were the dominating request from decision makers, implying that prediction of risk is a major need. However, due to knowledge gaps corresponding modelling studies often shed away from providing exact numbers. Instead, comparative scenario analyses were performed, furthering the understanding of the decision problem and effects of alternative management options. In conclusion, the most adequate scientific support for decision making - including available modelling capacity - might be expected if the required advice is clearly stated. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Smart Building: Decision Making Architecture for Thermal Energy Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Uribe, Oscar Hernández; Martin, Juan Pablo San; Garcia-Alegre, María C; Santos, Matilde; Guinea, Domingo

2015-10-30

Smart applications of the Internet of Things are improving the performance of buildings, reducing energy demand. Local and smart networks, soft computing methodologies, machine intelligence algorithms and pervasive sensors are some of the basics of energy optimization strategies developed for the benefit of environmental sustainability and user comfort. This work presents a distributed sensor-processor-communication decision-making architecture to improve the acquisition, storage and transfer of thermal energy in buildings. The developed system is implemented in a near Zero-Energy Building (nZEB) prototype equipped with a built-in thermal solar collector, where optical properties are analysed; a low enthalpy geothermal accumulation system, segmented in different temperature zones; and an envelope that includes a dynamic thermal barrier. An intelligent control of this dynamic thermal barrier is applied to reduce the thermal energy demand (heating and cooling) caused by daily and seasonal weather variations. Simulations and experimental results are presented to highlight the nZEB thermal energy reduction.

Smart Building: Decision Making Architecture for Thermal Energy Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oscar Hernández Uribe

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Smart applications of the Internet of Things are improving the performance of buildings, reducing energy demand. Local and smart networks, soft computing methodologies, machine intelligence algorithms and pervasive sensors are some of the basics of energy optimization strategies developed for the benefit of environmental sustainability and user comfort. This work presents a distributed sensor-processor-communication decision-making architecture to improve the acquisition, storage and transfer of thermal energy in buildings. The developed system is implemented in a near Zero-Energy Building (nZEB prototype equipped with a built-in thermal solar collector, where optical properties are analysed; a low enthalpy geothermal accumulation system, segmented in different temperature zones; and an envelope that includes a dynamic thermal barrier. An intelligent control of this dynamic thermal barrier is applied to reduce the thermal energy demand (heating and cooling caused by daily and seasonal weather variations. Simulations and experimental results are presented to highlight the nZEB thermal energy reduction.

Cloud-Based Collaborative Decision Making: Design Considerations and Architecture of the GRUPO-MOD System

OpenAIRE

Heiko Thimm

2012-01-01

The complexity of many decision problems of today’s globalized world requires new innovative solutions that are built upon proven decision support technology and also recent advancements in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) such as Cloud Computing and Mobile Communication. A combination of the cost-effective Cloud Computing approach with extended group decision support system technology bears several interesting unprecedented opportunities for the development of suc...

Decision support system for health care resources allocation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sebaa, Abderrazak; Nouicer, Amina; Tari, AbdelKamel; Tarik, Ramtani; Abdellah, Ouhab

2017-06-01

A study about healthcare resources can improve decisions regarding the allotment and mobilization of medical resources and to better guide future investment in the health sector. The aim of this work was to design and implement a decision support system to improve medical resources allocation of Bejaia region. To achieve the retrospective cohort study, we integrated existing clinical databases from different Bejaia department health sector institutions (an Algerian department) to collect information about patients from January 2015 through December 2015. Data integration was performed in a data warehouse using the multi-dimensional model and OLAP cube. During implementation, we used Microsoft SQL server 2012 and Microsoft Excel 2010. A medical decision support platform was introduced, and was implemented during the planning stages allowing the management of different medical orientations, it provides better apportionment and allotment of medical resources, and ensures that the allocation of health care resources has optimal effects on improving health. In this study, we designed and implemented a decision support system which would improve health care in Bejaia department to especially assist in the selection of the optimum location of health center and hospital, the specialty of the health center, the medical equipment and the medical staff.

Creating and sharing clinical decision support content with Web 2.0: Issues and examples.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Adam; Bates, David W; Middleton, Blackford; Hongsermeier, Tonya; Kashyap, Vipul; Thomas, Sean M; Sittig, Dean F

2009-04-01

Clinical decision support is a powerful tool for improving healthcare quality and patient safety. However, developing a comprehensive package of decision support interventions is costly and difficult. If used well, Web 2.0 methods may make it easier and less costly to develop decision support. Web 2.0 is characterized by online communities, open sharing, interactivity and collaboration. Although most previous attempts at sharing clinical decision support content have worked outside of the Web 2.0 framework, several initiatives are beginning to use Web 2.0 to share and collaborate on decision support content. We present case studies of three efforts: the Clinfowiki, a world-accessible wiki for developing decision support content; Partners Healthcare eRooms, web-based tools for developing decision support within a single organization; and Epic Systems Corporation's Community Library, a repository for sharing decision support content for customers of a single clinical system vendor. We evaluate the potential of Web 2.0 technologies to enable collaborative development and sharing of clinical decision support systems through the lens of three case studies; analyzing technical, legal and organizational issues for developers, consumers and organizers of clinical decision support content in Web 2.0. We believe the case for Web 2.0 as a tool for collaborating on clinical decision support content appears strong, particularly for collaborative content development within an organization.

Lightweight metrics for enterprise architecture analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Singh, Prince Mayurank; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Abramowicz, Witold

2015-01-01

The role of an Enterprise Architecture model is not limited to a graphical representation of an organization and its dynamics. Rather, it is also a tool for analysis and rational decision making. If firms do not use their enterprise architecture model to aid decision making then they run the risk of

Evolution of Decision Support Systems Research Field in Numbers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana-Maria SUDUC

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The scientific production in a certain field shows, in great extent, the research interests in that field. Decision Support Systems are a particular class of information systems which are gaining more popularity in various domains. In order to identify the evolution in time of the publications number, authors, subjects, publications in the Decision Support Systems (DSS field, and therefore the scientific world interest for this field, in November 2010 there have been organized a series of queries on three major international scientific databases: ScienceDirect, IEEE Xplore Digital Library and ACM Digital Library. The results presented in this paper shows that, even the decision support systems research field started in 1960s, the interests for this type of systems grew exponentially with each year in the last decades.

Decision Support System for Fighter Pilots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Randleff, Lars Rosenberg

2007-01-01

During a mission over enemy territory a fighter aircraft may be engaged by ground based threats. The pilot can use different measures to avoid the aircraft from being detected by e.g. enemy radar systems. If the enemy detects the aircraft a missile may be fired to seek and destroy the aircraft...... and countermeasures that can be applied to mitigate threats. This work is concerned with finding proper evasive actions when a fighter aircraft is engaged by ground based threats. To help the pilot in deciding on these actions a decision support system may be implemented. The environment in which such a system must....... When new threats occur the decision support system must be able to provide suggestions within a fraction of a second. Since the time it takes to find an optimal solution to the mathematical model can not comply with this requirement solutions are sought using a metaheuristic....

Decision support system for surface irrigation design

OpenAIRE

Gonçalves, José M.; Pereira, L.S.

2009-01-01

The SADREG decision support system was developed to help decision makers in the process of design and selection of farm surface irrigation systems to respond to requirements of modernization of surface irrigation—furrow, basin, and border irrigation. It includes a database, simulation models, user-friendly interfaces, and multicriteria analysis models. SADREG is comprised of two components: design and selection. The first component applies database information, and through several si...

Computerised decision support systems for healthcare professionals: an interpretative review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathrin Cresswell

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose Computerised decision support systems are designed to support clinicians in making decisions and thereby enhance the quality and safety of care. We aimed to undertake an interpretative review of the empirical evidence on computerised decision support systems, their contexts of use, and summarise evidence on the effectiveness of these tools and insights into how these can be successfully implemented and adopted.Methods We systematically searched the empirical literature to identify systematic literature reviews on computerised decision support applications and their impact on the quality and safety of healthcare delivery over a 13-year period (1997–2010. The databases searched included: MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, The Cochrane Methodology Register, The Health Technology Assessment Database, and The National Health Service (NHS Economic Evaluation Database. To be eligible for inclusion, systematic reviews needed to address computerised decision support systems, and at least one of the following: impact on safety; quality; or organisational, implementation or adoption considerations.Results Our searches yielded 121 systematic reviews relating to eHealth, of which we identified 41 as investigating computerised decision support systems. These indicated that, whilst there was a lack of investigating potential risks, such tools can result in improvements in practitioner performance in the promotion of preventive care and guideline adherence, particularly if specific information is available in real time and systems are effectively integrated into clinical workflows. However, the evidence regarding impact on patient outcomes was less clear-cut with reviews finding either no, inconsistent or modest benefits.Conclusions Whilst the potential of clinical decision support systems in improving, in particular

Computerised decision support systems for healthcare professionals: an interpretative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Cresswell, Kathrin; Majeed, Azeem; Bates, David W; Sheikh, Aziz

2012-01-01

Computerised decision support systems are designed to support clinicians in making decisions and thereby enhance the quality and safety of care. We aimed to undertake an interpretative review of the empirical evidence on computerised decision support systems, their contexts of use, and summarise evidence on the effectiveness of these tools and insights into how these can be successfully implemented and adopted. We systematically searched the empirical literature to identify systematic literature reviews on computerised decision support applications and their impact on the quality and safety of healthcare delivery over a 13-year period (1997-2010). The databases searched included: MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, The Cochrane Methodology Register, The Health Technology Assessment Database, and The National Health Service (NHS) Economic Evaluation Database. To be eligible for inclusion, systematic reviews needed to address computerised decision support systems, and at least one of the following: impact on safety; quality; or organisational, implementation or adoption considerations. Our searches yielded 121 systematic reviews relating to eHealth, of which we identified 41 as investigating computerised decision support systems. These indicated that, whilst there was a lack of investigating potential risks, such tools can result in improvements in practitioner performance in the promotion of preventive care and guideline adherence, particularly if specific information is available in real time and systems are effectively integrated into clinical workflows. However, the evidence regarding impact on patient outcomes was less clear-cut with reviews finding either no, inconsistent or modest benefits. Whilst the potential of clinical decision support systems in improving, in particular, practitioner performance is considerable, such technology may

User-centered design to improve clinical decision support in primary care.

Science.gov (United States)

Brunner, Julian; Chuang, Emmeline; Goldzweig, Caroline; Cain, Cindy L; Sugar, Catherine; Yano, Elizabeth M

2017-08-01

A growing literature has demonstrated the ability of user-centered design to make clinical decision support systems more effective and easier to use. However, studies of user-centered design have rarely examined more than a handful of sites at a time, and have frequently neglected the implementation climate and organizational resources that influence clinical decision support. The inclusion of such factors was identified by a systematic review as "the most important improvement that can be made in health IT evaluations." (1) Identify the prevalence of four user-centered design practices at United States Veterans Affairs (VA) primary care clinics and assess the perceived utility of clinical decision support at those clinics; (2) Evaluate the association between those user-centered design practices and the perceived utility of clinical decision support. We analyzed clinic-level survey data collected in 2006-2007 from 170 VA primary care clinics. We examined four user-centered design practices: 1) pilot testing, 2) provider satisfaction assessment, 3) formal usability assessment, and 4) analysis of impact on performance improvement. We used a regression model to evaluate the association between user-centered design practices and the perceived utility of clinical decision support, while accounting for other important factors at those clinics, including implementation climate, available resources, and structural characteristics. We also examined associations separately at community-based clinics and at hospital-based clinics. User-centered design practices for clinical decision support varied across clinics: 74% conducted pilot testing, 62% conducted provider satisfaction assessment, 36% conducted a formal usability assessment, and 79% conducted an analysis of impact on performance improvement. Overall perceived utility of clinical decision support was high, with a mean rating of 4.17 (±.67) out of 5 on a composite measure. "Analysis of impact on performance

Decision Strategy Research and Policy Support

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hardeman, F.

2002-01-01

The objective of SCK-CEN's R and D programme on decision strategies and policy support is: (1) to investigate the decision making process, with all its relevant dimensions, in the context of radiation protection or other nuclear issues (with particular emphasis on emergency preparedness); (2) to disseminate knowledge on decision making and nuclear emergencies, including the organisation of training courses, the contribution to manuals or guidelines, the participation in working groups or discussion forums; (3) to assist the authorities and the industry on any topic related to radiation protection and to make expertise and infrastructure available; (4) to participate in and contribute to initiatives related to social sciences and their implementation into SCK-CEN; (5) to co-ordinate efforts of SCK-CEN related to medical applications of ionising radiation. Principal achievements in 2001 are described

An Integrated Web-based Decision Support System in Disaster Risk Management

Science.gov (United States)

Aye, Z. C.; Jaboyedoff, M.; Derron, M. H.

2012-04-01

Nowadays, web based decision support systems (DSS) play an essential role in disaster risk management because of their supporting abilities which help the decision makers to improve their performances and make better decisions without needing to solve complex problems while reducing human resources and time. Since the decision making process is one of the main factors which highly influence the damages and losses of society, it is extremely important to make right decisions at right time by combining available risk information with advanced web technology of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Decision Support System (DSS). This paper presents an integrated web-based decision support system (DSS) of how to use risk information in risk management efficiently and effectively while highlighting the importance of a decision support system in the field of risk reduction. Beyond the conventional systems, it provides the users to define their own strategies starting from risk identification to the risk reduction, which leads to an integrated approach in risk management. In addition, it also considers the complexity of changing environment from different perspectives and sectors with diverse stakeholders' involvement in the development process. The aim of this platform is to contribute a part towards the natural hazards and geosciences society by developing an open-source web platform where the users can analyze risk profiles and make decisions by performing cost benefit analysis, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) with the support of others tools and resources provided. There are different access rights to the system depending on the user profiles and their responsibilities. The system is still under development and the current version provides maps viewing, basic GIS functionality, assessment of important infrastructures (e.g. bridge, hospital, etc.) affected by landslides and visualization of the impact

Near Real-Time MOPITT Data - Its Architecture, Obstacles Overcome, and Strategic Decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Ziskin, D.; Mao, D.; Worden, H. M.; Deeter, M. N.; D'Attilo, G.; Fredrick, T.; Martinez-Alonso, S.; Francis, G.; Drews, C.

2017-12-01

Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) is an instrument that has been flying aboard NASA's Terra satellite and collecting CO data since March 2000. The standard MOPITT product uses ancillary data that can delay its production by several weeks. Furthermore, final processing does not occur until after the annual calibration event, creating a lag of up to a year. In contrast, MOPITT produces a Near Real-Time (NRT) product available through the Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) interface with a latency of less than three hours. This presentation details the architecture of the system, obstacles overcome, and strategic decisions made in order become a LANCE node.

A Multi-criterial Decision Support System for Forest Management

Science.gov (United States)

Donald Nute; Geneho Kim; Walter D. Potter; Mark J. Twery; H. Michael Rauscher; Scott Thomasma; Deborah Bennett; Peter Kollasch

1999-01-01

We describe a research project that has as its goal development of a full-featured decision support system for managing forested land to satisfy multiple criteria represented as timber, wildlife, water, ecological, and wildlife objectives. The decision process proposed for what was originally conceived of as a Northeast Decision Model (NED) includes data acquisition,...

Automation of information decision support to improve e-learning resources quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A.L. Danchenko

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose. In conditions of active development of e-learning the high quality of e-learning resources is very important. Providing the high quality of e-learning resources in situation with mass higher education and rapid obsolescence of information requires the automation of information decision support for improving the quality of e-learning resources by development of decision support system. Methodology. The problem is solved by methods of artificial intelligence. The knowledge base of information structure of decision support system that is based on frame model of knowledge representation and inference production rules are developed. Findings. According to the results of the analysis of life cycle processes and requirements to the e-learning resources quality the information model of the structure of the knowledge base of the decision support system, the inference rules for the automatically generating of recommendations and the software implementation are developed. Practical value. It is established that the basic requirements for quality are performance, validity, reliability and manufacturability. It is shown that the using of a software implementation of decision support system for researched courses gives a growth of the quality according to the complex quality criteria. The information structure of a knowledge base system to support decision-making and rules of inference can be used by methodologists and content developers of learning systems.

Strategies for memory-based decision making: Modeling behavioral and neural signatures within a cognitive architecture.

Science.gov (United States)

Fechner, Hanna B; Pachur, Thorsten; Schooler, Lael J; Mehlhorn, Katja; Battal, Ceren; Volz, Kirsten G; Borst, Jelmer P

2016-12-01

How do people use memories to make inferences about real-world objects? We tested three strategies based on predicted patterns of response times and blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses: one strategy that relies solely on recognition memory, a second that retrieves additional knowledge, and a third, lexicographic (i.e., sequential) strategy, that considers knowledge conditionally on the evidence obtained from recognition memory. We implemented the strategies as computational models within the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) cognitive architecture, which allowed us to derive behavioral and neural predictions that we then compared to the results of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which participants inferred which of two cities is larger. Overall, versions of the lexicographic strategy, according to which knowledge about many but not all alternatives is searched, provided the best account of the joint patterns of response times and BOLD responses. These results provide insights into the interplay between recognition and additional knowledge in memory, hinting at an adaptive use of these two sources of information in decision making. The results highlight the usefulness of implementing models of decision making within a cognitive architecture to derive predictions on the behavioral and neural level. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A new composite decision support framework for strategic and sustainable transport appraisals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barfod, Michael Bruhn; Salling, Kim Bang

2015-01-01

. The proposed framework is based on the use of cost-benefit analysis featuring feasibility risk assessment in combination with multi-criteria decision analysis and is supported by the concept of decision conferencing. The framework is applied for a transport related case study dealing with the complex decision....... The outcome of the case study demonstrates the decision making framework as a valuable decision support system (DSS), and it is concluded that appraisals of transport projects can be effectively supported by the use of the DSS. Finally, perspectives of the future modelling work are given.......This paper concerns the development of a new decision support framework for the appraisal of transport infrastructure projects. In such appraisals there will often be a need for including both conventional transport impacts as well as criteria of a more strategic and/or sustainable character...

Development and field testing of a decision support tool to facilitate shared decision making in contraceptive counseling.

Science.gov (United States)

Dehlendorf, Christine; Fitzpatrick, Judith; Steinauer, Jody; Swiader, Lawrence; Grumbach, Kevin; Hall, Cara; Kuppermann, Miriam

2017-07-01

We developed and formatively evaluated a tablet-based decision support tool for use by women prior to a contraceptive counseling visit to help them engage in shared decision making regarding method selection. Drawing upon formative work around women's preferences for contraceptive counseling and conceptual understanding of health care decision making, we iteratively developed a storyboard and then digital prototypes, based on best practices for decision support tool development. Pilot testing using both quantitative and qualitative data and cognitive testing was conducted. We obtained feedback from patient and provider advisory groups throughout the development process. Ninety-six percent of women who used the tool in pilot testing reported that it helped them choose a method, and qualitative interviews indicated acceptability of the tool's content and presentation. Compared to the control group, women who used the tool demonstrated trends toward increased likelihood of complete satisfaction with their method. Participant responses to cognitive testing were used in tool refinement. Our decision support tool appears acceptable to women in the family planning setting. Formative evaluation of the tool supports its utility among patients making contraceptive decisions, which can be further evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Decision support models for solid waste management: Review and game-theoretic approaches

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karmperis, Athanasios C.; Aravossis, Konstantinos; Tatsiopoulos, Ilias P.; Sotirchos, Anastasios

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► The mainly used decision support frameworks for solid waste management are reviewed. ► The LCA, CBA and MCDM models are presented and their strengths, weaknesses, similarities and possible combinations are analyzed. ► The game-theoretic approach in a solid waste management context is presented. ► The waste management bargaining game is introduced as a specific decision support framework. ► Cooperative and non-cooperative game-theoretic approaches to decision support for solid waste management are discussed. - Abstract: This paper surveys decision support models that are commonly used in the solid waste management area. Most models are mainly developed within three decision support frameworks, which are the life-cycle assessment, the cost–benefit analysis and the multi-criteria decision-making. These frameworks are reviewed and their strengths and weaknesses as well as their critical issues are analyzed, while their possible combinations and extensions are also discussed. Furthermore, the paper presents how cooperative and non-cooperative game-theoretic approaches can be used for the purpose of modeling and analyzing decision-making in situations with multiple stakeholders. Specifically, since a waste management model is sustainable when considering not only environmental and economic but also social aspects, the waste management bargaining game is introduced as a specific decision support framework in which future models can be developed

Decision support models for solid waste management: Review and game-theoretic approaches

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Karmperis, Athanasios C., E-mail: athkarmp@mail.ntua.gr [Sector of Industrial Management and Operational Research, School of Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Polytechniou 9, 15780 Athens (Greece); Army Corps of Engineers, Hellenic Army General Staff, Ministry of Defence (Greece); Aravossis, Konstantinos; Tatsiopoulos, Ilias P.; Sotirchos, Anastasios [Sector of Industrial Management and Operational Research, School of Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Polytechniou 9, 15780 Athens (Greece)

2013-05-15

Highlights: ► The mainly used decision support frameworks for solid waste management are reviewed. ► The LCA, CBA and MCDM models are presented and their strengths, weaknesses, similarities and possible combinations are analyzed. ► The game-theoretic approach in a solid waste management context is presented. ► The waste management bargaining game is introduced as a specific decision support framework. ► Cooperative and non-cooperative game-theoretic approaches to decision support for solid waste management are discussed. - Abstract: This paper surveys decision support models that are commonly used in the solid waste management area. Most models are mainly developed within three decision support frameworks, which are the life-cycle assessment, the cost–benefit analysis and the multi-criteria decision-making. These frameworks are reviewed and their strengths and weaknesses as well as their critical issues are analyzed, while their possible combinations and extensions are also discussed. Furthermore, the paper presents how cooperative and non-cooperative game-theoretic approaches can be used for the purpose of modeling and analyzing decision-making in situations with multiple stakeholders. Specifically, since a waste management model is sustainable when considering not only environmental and economic but also social aspects, the waste management bargaining game is introduced as a specific decision support framework in which future models can be developed.

Enhancing User Customization through Novel Software Architecture for Utility Scale Solar Siting Software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brant Peery; Sam Alessi; Randy Lee; Leng Vang; Scott Brown; David Solan; Dan Ames

2014-06-01

There is a need for a spatial decision support application that allows users to create customized metrics for comparing proposed locations of a new solar installation. This document discusses how PVMapper was designed to overcome the customization problem through the development of loosely coupled spatial and decision components in a JavaScript plugin architecture. This allows the user to easily add functionality and data to the system. The paper also explains how PVMapper provides the user with a dynamic and customizable decision tool that enables them to visually modify the formulas that are used in the decision algorithms that convert data to comparable metrics. The technologies that make up the presentation and calculation software stack are outlined. This document also explains the architecture that allows the tool to grow through custom plugins created by the software users. Some discussion is given on the difficulties encountered while designing the system.

Handling risk attitudes for preference learning and intelligent decision support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Franco de los Ríos, Camilo; Hougaard, Jens Leth; Nielsen, Kurt

2015-01-01

Intelligent decision support should allow integrating human knowledge with efficient algorithms for making interpretable and useful recommendations on real world decision problems. Attitudes and preferences articulate and come together under a decision process that should be explicitly modeled...

MINDS - Medical Information Network Decision Support System

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Armenian, H. K

2008-01-01

.... The increase in and complexity of medical data at various levels of resolution has increased the need for system level advancements in clinical decision support systems that provide computer-aided...

Healthcare performance turned into decision support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørup, Christian Michel; Jacobsen, Peter

2013-01-01

from the healthcare sector, the results obtained could be restricted to this sector. Inclusion of data from Arbejdsmarkedets Tillægspension (ATP) showed no deviation from the results in the healthcare sector. Practical implications – The product of the study is a decision support tool for leaders...

The design of patient decision support interventions: addressing the theory-practice gap.

Science.gov (United States)

Elwyn, Glyn; Stiel, Mareike; Durand, Marie-Anne; Boivin, Jacky

2011-08-01

Although an increasing number of decision support interventions for patients (including decision aids) are produced, few make explicit use of theory. We argue the importance of using theory to guide design. The aim of this work was to address this theory-practice gap and to examine how a range of selected decision-making theories could inform the design and evaluation of decision support interventions. We reviewed the decision-making literature and selected relevant theories. We assessed their key principles, theoretical pathways and predictions in order to determine how they could inform the design of two core components of decision support interventions, namely, information and deliberation components and to specify theory-based outcome measures. Eight theories were selected: (1) the expected utility theory; (2) the conflict model of decision making; (3) prospect theory; (4) fuzzy-trace theory; (5) the differentiation and consolidation theory; (6) the ecological rationality theory; (7) the rational-emotional model of decision avoidance; and finally, (8) the Attend, React, Explain, Adapt model of affective forecasting. Some theories have strong relevance to the information design (e.g. prospect theory); some are more relevant to deliberation processes (conflict theory, differentiation theory and ecological validity). None of the theories in isolation was sufficient to inform the design of all the necessary components of decision support interventions. It was also clear that most work in theory-building has focused on explaining or describing how humans think rather than on how tools could be designed to help humans make good decisions. It is not surprising therefore that a large theory-practice gap exists as we consider decision support for patients. There was no relevant theory that integrated all the necessary contributions to the task of making good decisions in collaborative interactions. Initiatives such as the International Patient Decision Aids Standards

Open architecture design and approach for the Integrated Sensor Architecture (ISA)

Science.gov (United States)

Moulton, Christine L.; Krzywicki, Alan T.; Hepp, Jared J.; Harrell, John; Kogut, Michael

2015-05-01

Integrated Sensor Architecture (ISA) is designed in response to stovepiped integration approaches. The design, based on the principles of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) and Open Architectures, addresses the problem of integration, and is not designed for specific sensors or systems. The use of SOA and Open Architecture approaches has led to a flexible, extensible architecture. Using these approaches, and supported with common data formats, open protocol specifications, and Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) system architecture documents, an integration-focused architecture has been developed. ISA can help move the Department of Defense (DoD) from costly stovepipe solutions to a more cost-effective plug-and-play design to support interoperability.

A Decision Support System for Corporations Cybersecurity Management

OpenAIRE

Roldán-Molina, G.; Almache-Cueva, M.; Silva-Rabadão, C.; Yevseyeva, Iryna; Basto-Fernandes, V.

2017-01-01

This paper presents ongoing work on a decision aiding software intended to support cyber risks and cyber threats analysis of an information and communications technological infrastructure. The software will help corporations Chief Information Security Officers on cyber security risk analysis, decision-making, prevention measures and risk strategies for the infrastructure and information assets protection.

Decision Strategy Research and Policy Support

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hardeman, F

2002-04-01

The objective of SCK-CEN's R and D programme on decision strategies and policy support is: (1) to investigate the decision making process, with all its relevant dimensions, in the context of radiation protection or other nuclear issues (with particular emphasis on emergency preparedness); (2) to disseminate knowledge on decision making and nuclear emergencies, including the organisation of training courses, the contribution to manuals or guidelines, the participation in working groups or discussion forums; (3) to assist the authorities and the industry on any topic related to radiation protection and to make expertise and infrastructure available; (4) to participate in and contribute to initiatives related to social sciences and their implementation into SCK-CEN; (5) to co-ordinate efforts of SCK-CEN related to medical applications of ionising radiation. Principal achievements in 2001 are described.

A multicriteria decision support methodology for evaluating airport expansion plans

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vreeker, R.; Nijkamp, P.; ter Welle, C.

2001-01-01

Rational decision-making requires an assessment of advantages and disadvantages of choice possibilities, including non-market effects (such as externalities). This also applies to strategic decision-making in the transport sector (including aviation). In the past decades various decision support and

Dashboard visualizations: Supporting real-time throughput decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Franklin, Amy; Gantela, Swaroop; Shifarraw, Salsawit; Johnson, Todd R; Robinson, David J; King, Brent R; Mehta, Amit M; Maddow, Charles L; Hoot, Nathan R; Nguyen, Vickie; Rubio, Adriana; Zhang, Jiajie; Okafor, Nnaemeka G

2017-07-01

Providing timely and effective care in the emergency department (ED) requires the management of individual patients as well as the flow and demands of the entire department. Strategic changes to work processes, such as adding a flow coordination nurse or a physician in triage, have demonstrated improvements in throughput times. However, such global strategic changes do not address the real-time, often opportunistic workflow decisions of individual clinicians in the ED. We believe that real-time representation of the status of the entire emergency department and each patient within it through information visualizations will better support clinical decision-making in-the-moment and provide for rapid intervention to improve ED flow. This notion is based on previous work where we found that clinicians' workflow decisions were often based on an in-the-moment local perspective, rather than a global perspective. Here, we discuss the challenges of designing and implementing visualizations for ED through a discussion of the development of our prototype Throughput Dashboard and the potential it holds for supporting real-time decision-making. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Economics-driven software architecture

CERN Document Server

Mistrik, Ivan; Kazman, Rick; Zhang, Yuanyuan

2014-01-01

Economics-driven Software Architecture presents a guide for engineers and architects who need to understand the economic impact of architecture design decisions: the long term and strategic viability, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of applications and systems. Economics-driven software development can increase quality, productivity, and profitability, but comprehensive knowledge is needed to understand the architectural challenges involved in dealing with the development of large, architecturally challenging systems in an economic way. This book covers how to apply economic consider

Modelling of the costs of decision support for small and medium-sized enterprises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viera Tomišová

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The support of decision-making activities in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME has its specific features. When suggesting steps for the implementation of decision-support tools in the enterprise, we identified two main ways of decision-making support based on the data analysis: ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning without BI (Business Intelligence and ERP with BI. In our contribution, we present costs models of both mentioned decision support systems and their practical interpretation.

Fault-Tolerant Onboard Monitoring and Decision Support Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lajic, Zoran

a crude and simple estimation of the actual sea state (Hs and Tz), information about the longitudinal hull girder loading, seakeeping performance of the ship, and decision support on how to operate the ship within acceptable limits. The system is able to identify critical forthcoming events and to give...... advice regarding speed and course changes to decrease the wave-induced loads. The SeaSense system is based on the combined use of a mathematical model and measurements from a set of sensors. The overall dependability of a shipboard monitoring and decision support system such as the SeaSense system can...

Assessment of modularity architecture for recovery process of electric vehicle in supporting sustainable design

Science.gov (United States)

Baroroh, D. K.; Alfiah, D.

2018-05-01

The electric vehicle is one of the innovations to reduce the pollution of the vehicle. Nevertheless, it still has a problem, especially for disposal stage. In supporting product design and development strategy, which is the idea of sustainable design or problem solving of disposal stage, assessment of modularity architecture from electric vehicle in recovery process needs to be done. This research used Design Structure Matrix (DSM) approach to deciding interaction of components and assessment of modularity architecture using the calculation of value from 3 variables, namely Module Independence (MI), Module Similarity (MS), and Modularity for End of Life Stage (MEOL). The result of this research shows that existing design of electric vehicles has the architectural design which has a high value of modularity for recovery process on disposal stage. Accordingly, so it can be reused and recycled in component level or module without disassembly process to support the product that is environmentally friendly (sustainable design) and able reduce disassembly cost.

Knowledge-Based Information Management in Decision Support for Ecosystem Management

Science.gov (United States)

Keith Reynolds; Micahel Saunders; Richard Olson; Daniel Schmoldt; Michael Foster; Donald Latham; Bruce Miller; John Steffenson; Lawrence Bednar; Patrick Cunningham

1995-01-01

The Pacific Northwest Research Station (USDA Forest Service) is developing a knowledge-based information management system to provide decision support for watershed analysis in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. The decision support system includes: (1) a GIS interface that allows users to graphically navigate to specific provinces and watersheds and display a...

On Decision Support for Sustainability and Resilience of Infrastructure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Michael Havbro Faber; Qin, J.; Miragliaa, S.

2017-01-01

in Bayesian decision analysis and probabilistic systems performance modelling. A principal example for decision support at regulatory level is presented for a coupled system comprised of infrastructure, social, hazard and environmental subsystems. The infrastructure systems is modelled as multi...

Nuclear Waste Management Decision-Making Support with MCDA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Schwenk-Ferrero

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The paper proposes a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA framework for a comparative evaluation of nuclear waste management strategies taking into account different local perspectives (expert and stakeholder opinions. Of note, a novel approach is taken using a multiple-criteria formulation that is methodologically adapted to tackle various conflicting criteria and a large number of expert/stakeholder groups involved in the decision-making process. The purpose is to develop a framework and to show its application to qualitative comparison and ranking of options in a hypothetical case of three waste management alternatives: interim storage at and/or away from the reactor site for the next 100 years, interim decay storage followed in midterm by disposal in a national repository, and disposal in a multinational repository. Additionally, major aspects of a decision-making aid are identified and discussed in separate paper sections dedicated to application context, decision supporting process, in particular problem structuring, objective hierarchy, performance evaluation modeling, sensitivity/robustness analyses, and interpretation of results (practical impact. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the application of the MCDA framework developed to a generic hypothetical case and indicate how MCDA could support a decision on nuclear waste management policies in a “small” newcomer country embarking on nuclear technology in the future.

Decision-Making Amplification under Uncertainty: An Exploratory Study of Behavioral Similarity and Intelligent Decision Support Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Merle Wayne

2013-01-01

Intelligent decision systems have the potential to support and greatly amplify human decision-making across a number of industries and domains. However, despite the rapid improvement in the underlying capabilities of these "intelligent" systems, increasing their acceptance as decision aids in industry has remained a formidable challenge.…

CorRECTreatment: a web-based decision support tool for rectal cancer treatment that uses the analytic hierarchy process and decision tree.

Science.gov (United States)

Suner, A; Karakülah, G; Dicle, O; Sökmen, S; Çelikoğlu, C C

2015-01-01

The selection of appropriate rectal cancer treatment is a complex multi-criteria decision making process, in which clinical decision support systems might be used to assist and enrich physicians' decision making. The objective of the study was to develop a web-based clinical decision support tool for physicians in the selection of potentially beneficial treatment options for patients with rectal cancer. The updated decision model contained 8 and 10 criteria in the first and second steps respectively. The decision support model, developed in our previous study by combining the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method which determines the priority of criteria and decision tree that formed using these priorities, was updated and applied to 388 patients data collected retrospectively. Later, a web-based decision support tool named corRECTreatment was developed. The compatibility of the treatment recommendations by the expert opinion and the decision support tool was examined for its consistency. Two surgeons were requested to recommend a treatment and an overall survival value for the treatment among 20 different cases that we selected and turned into a scenario among the most common and rare treatment options in the patient data set. In the AHP analyses of the criteria, it was found that the matrices, generated for both decision steps, were consistent (consistency ratiodecisions of experts, the consistency value for the most frequent cases was found to be 80% for the first decision step and 100% for the second decision step. Similarly, for rare cases consistency was 50% for the first decision step and 80% for the second decision step. The decision model and corRECTreatment, developed by applying these on real patient data, are expected to provide potential users with decision support in rectal cancer treatment processes and facilitate them in making projections about treatment options.

eDNA: A Bio-Inspired Reconfigurable Hardware Cell Architecture Supporting Self-organisation and Self-healing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boesen, Michael Reibel; Madsen, Jan

2009-01-01

This paper presents the concept of a biological inspired reconfigurable hardware cell architecture which supports self-organisation and self-healing. Two fundamental processes in biology, namely fertilization-to-birth and cell self-healing have inspired the development of this cell architecture...... to simulate our self-organisation and self-healing algorithms and the results obtained from this looks promising....

A decision support system for on-line leakage localization

OpenAIRE

Meseguer, Jordi; Mirats-Tur, Josep M.; Cembrano, Gabriela; Puig, Vicenç; Quevedo, Joseba; Pérez, Ramon; Sanz, Gerard; Ibarra, David

2014-01-01

This paper describes a model-driven decision-support system (software tool) implementing a model-based methodology for on-line leakage detection and localization which is useful for a large class of water distribution networks. Since these methods present a certain degree of complexity which limits their use to experts, the proposed software tool focuses on the integration of a method emphasizing its use by water network managers as a decision support system. The proposed software tool integr...

A generic accounting model to support operations management decisions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verdaasdonk, P.J.A.; Wouters, M.J.F.

2001-01-01

Information systems are generally unable to generate information about the financial consequences of operations management decisions. This is because the procedures for determining the relevant accounting information for decision support are not formalised in ways that can be implemented in

LC Data QUEST: A Technical Architecture for Community Federated Clinical Data Sharing.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephens, Kari A; Lin, Ching-Ping; Baldwin, Laura-Mae; Echo-Hawk, Abigail; Keppel, Gina A; Buchwald, Dedra; Whitener, Ron J; Korngiebel, Diane M; Berg, Alfred O; Black, Robert A; Tarczy-Hornoch, Peter

2012-01-01

The University of Washington Institute of Translational Health Sciences is engaged in a project, LC Data QUEST, building data sharing capacity in primary care practices serving rural and tribal populations in the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho region to build research infrastructure. We report on the iterative process of developing the technical architecture for semantically aligning electronic health data in primary care settings across our pilot sites and tools that will facilitate linkages between the research and practice communities. Our architecture emphasizes sustainable technical solutions for addressing data extraction, alignment, quality, and metadata management. The architecture provides immediate benefits to participating partners via a clinical decision support tool and data querying functionality to support local quality improvement efforts. The FInDiT tool catalogues type, quantity, and quality of the data that are available across the LC Data QUEST data sharing architecture. These tools facilitate the bi-directional process of translational research.

Toward Measures for Software Architectures

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Chastek, Gary; Ferguson, Robert

2006-01-01

.... Defining these architectural measures is very difficult. The software architecture deeply affects subsequent development and project management decisions, such as the breakdown of the coding tasks and the definition of the development increments...

Design Methodology of a Sensor Network Architecture Supporting Urgent Information and Its Evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Kawai, Tetsuya; Wakamiya, Naoki; Murata, Masayuki

Wireless sensor networks are expected to become an important social infrastructure which helps our life to be safe, secure, and comfortable. In this paper, we propose design methodology of an architecture for fast and reliable transmission of urgent information in wireless sensor networks. In this methodology, instead of establishing single complicated monolithic mechanism, several simple and fully-distributed control mechanisms which function in different spatial and temporal levels are incorporated on each node. These mechanisms work autonomously and independently responding to the surrounding situation. We also show an example of a network architecture designed following the methodology. We evaluated the performance of the architecture by extensive simulation and practical experiments and our claim was supported by the results of these experiments.

Grid Architecture 2

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taft, Jeffrey D. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2016-01-01

The report describes work done on Grid Architecture under the auspices of the Department of Electricity Office of Electricity Delivery and Reliability in 2015. As described in the first Grid Architecture report, the primary purpose of this work is to provide stakeholder insight about grid issues so as to enable superior decision making on their part. Doing this requires the creation of various work products, including oft-times complex diagrams, analyses, and explanations. This report provides architectural insights into several important grid topics and also describes work done to advance the science of Grid Architecture as well.

An expert panel approach to support risk-informed decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pulkkinen, U.; Simola, K.

2000-01-01

The report describes the expert panel methodology developed for supporting risk-informed decision making. The aim of an expert panel is to achieve a balanced utilisation of information and expertise from several disciplines in decision-making including probabilistic safety assessment as one decision criterion. We also summarise the application of the methodology in the STUK's RI-ISI (Risk-Informed In-Service Inspection) pilot study, where the expert panel approach was used to combine the deterministic information on degradation mechanisms and probabilistic information on pipe break consequences. The expert panel served both as a critical review of the preliminary results and as a decision support for the final definition of risk categories of piping. (orig.)

Management practices and influences on IT architecture decisions: a case study in a telecom company

OpenAIRE

Hsing, Chen Wen; Souza, Cesar Alexandre de

2012-01-01

The study aims to analyze the IT architecture management practices associated with their degree of maturity and the influence of institutional and strategic factors on the decisions involved through a case study in a large telecom organization. The case study allowed us to identify practices that led the company to its current stage of maturity and identify practices that can lead the company to the next stage. The strategic influence was mentioned by most respondents and the institutional in...

MOIDSS?- Mobile Online Intelligent Decision Support System, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — GRID has had a successfully completed Phase I 'Mobile Online Intelligent Decision Support System' (MOIDSS). The system developed into a total solution that supports...

Decision Support Systems: Usage And Applications In Logistics Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eyüp AKÇETİN

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Competitive advantage in logistics operations is possible by analyzing data to create information and turning that information into decision. Supply chain optimization depends on effective management of chain knowledge. Analyzing data from supply chain and making a decision creates complex operations. Therefore, these operations require benefitting from information technology. In today’s global world, businesses use outsourcing for logistics services to focus on their own field, so are seeking to achieve competitive advantage against competitors. Outsourcing requires sharing of various information and data with companies that provide logistical support. Effective strategies are based on well-analyzed the data and information. Best options for right decisions can be created only from good analysis. That’s why companies that supply logistics services achieve competitive advantage using decision support systems (DSS in industrial competition. In short, DSS has become driving force for every business in today’s knowledge-based economy.

Personalised Multi-Criterial Online Decision Support for Siblings Considering Stem Cell Donation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kaltoft, Mette Kjer; Salkeld, Glenn; Dowie, Jack

2016-01-01

Person-centred decision support combines the best available information on the considerations that matter to the individual, with the importance the person attaches to those considerations. Nurses and other health professionals can benefit from being able to draw on this support within a clinical...... of a decision. By interactive decision support within a clinical conversation, each stakeholder can gain a personalised opinion, as well as increased generic health decision literacy [2]....... conversation. A case study and storyline on four siblings facing a transplant coordinator's call to donate stem cells to their brother [1] is 'translated' and used to demonstrate how an interactive multi-criteria aid can be developed for each within a conversational mode. The personalized dialogue and decision...

Decision support systems and expert systems for risk and safety analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baybutt, P.

1986-01-01

During the last 1-2 years, rapid developments have occurred in the development of decision support systems and expert systems to aid in decision making related to risk and safety of industrial plants. These activities are most noteworthy in the nuclear industry where numerous systems are under development with implementation often being made on personal computers. An overview of some of these developments is provided, and an example of one recently developed decision support system is given. This example deals with CADET, a system developed to aid the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in making decisions related to the topical issue of source terms resulting from degraded core accidents in light water reactors. The paper concludes with some comments on the likely directions of future developments in decision support systems and expert systems to aid in the management of risk and safety in industrial plants. (author)

Optimization-based decision support systems for planning problems in processing industries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Claassen, G.D.H.

2014-01-01

Summary

Optimization-based decision support systems for planning problems in processing industries

Nowadays, efficient planning of material flows within and between supply chains is of vital importance and has become one of the most challenging problems for decision support in

Bayesian networks for clinical decision support: A rational approach to dynamic decision-making under uncertainty

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerven, M.A.J. van

2007-01-01

This dissertation deals with decision support in the context of clinical oncology. (Dynamic) Bayesian networks are used as a framework for (dynamic) decision-making under uncertainty and applied to a variety of diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment problems in medicine. It is shown that the proposed

Feasibility Risk Assessment of Transport Infrastructure Projects: The CBA-DK Decision Support Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Salling, Kim Bang; Banister, David

2010-01-01

informed decision support towards decision-makers and stakeholders in terms of accumulated descending graphs. The decision support method developed in this paper aims to provide assistance in the analysis and ultimately the choice of action, while accounting for the uncertainties surrounding any transport......This paper presents the final version of the CBA-DK decision support model for assessment of transport projects. The model makes use of conventional cost-benefit analysis resulting in aggregated single point estimates and quantitative risk analysis using Monte Carlo simulation resulting in interval...... result, and the determination of suitable probability distributions. Use is made of the reference class forecasting information, such as that developed in Optimism Bias for adjustments to investment decisions that relate to all modes of transport. The CBA-DK decision support model results in more...

Extending BPM Environments of Your Choice with Performance Related Decision Support

Science.gov (United States)

Fritzsche, Mathias; Picht, Michael; Gilani, Wasif; Spence, Ivor; Brown, John; Kilpatrick, Peter

What-if Simulations have been identified as one solution for business performance related decision support. Such support is especially useful in cases where it can be automatically generated out of Business Process Management (BPM) Environments from the existing business process models and performance parameters monitored from the executed business process instances. Currently, some of the available BPM Environments offer basic-level performance prediction capabilities. However, these functionalities are normally too limited to be generally useful for performance related decision support at business process level. In this paper, an approach is presented which allows the non-intrusive integration of sophisticated tooling for what-if simulations, analytic performance prediction tools, process optimizations or a combination of such solutions into already existing BPM environments. The approach abstracts from process modelling techniques which enable automatic decision support spanning processes across numerous BPM Environments. For instance, this enables end-to-end decision support for composite processes modelled with the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) on top of existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) processes modelled with proprietary languages.

Operator decision support system for sodium loop

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Kwang Hyeang; Park, Kyu Ho; Kim, Tak Kon; Jo, Choong Ho; Seong, Kyeong A; Lee, Keon Myeong; Kim, Yeong Dal; Kim, Chang Beom; Kim, Jong Kyu; Jo, Hee Chang; Lee, Ji Hyeong; Jeong, Yoon Soo; Chio, Jong Hyeong; Jeong, Bong Joon; Hong, Joon Seong; Kim, Bong Wan; Seong, Byeong Hak [Korea Advanced Institute Science and Technology, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1994-07-01

The objective of this study is to develop an operator decision support system by computerizing the sodium circuit. This study developed graphical display interface for the control panel which provides the safety control of equipment, the recognition of experimental process states and sodium circuit states. In this study, basic work to develop an operator decision support real-time expert system for sodium loop was carried out. Simplification of control commands and effective operation of various real-time data and signals by equipment code standardization are studied. The cost ineffectiveness of the single processor structure provides the ground for the development of cost effective parallel processing system. The important tasks of this study are (1) design and implementation of control state surveillance panel of sodium loop, (2) requirement analysis of operator support real-time expert system for sodium loop, (3) design of standard code rule for operating equipment and research on the cost effective all purpose parallel processing system and (4) requirement analysis of expert system and design of control state variables and user interface for experimental process. 10 refs., 36 figs., 20 tabs.

Prioritization of engineering support requests and advanced technology projects using decision support and industrial engineering models

Science.gov (United States)

Tavana, Madjid

1995-01-01

The evaluation and prioritization of Engineering Support Requests (ESR's) is a particularly difficult task at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) -- Shuttle Project Engineering Office. This difficulty is due to the complexities inherent in the evaluation process and the lack of structured information. The evaluation process must consider a multitude of relevant pieces of information concerning Safety, Supportability, O&M Cost Savings, Process Enhancement, Reliability, and Implementation. Various analytical and normative models developed over the past have helped decision makers at KSC utilize large volumes of information in the evaluation of ESR's. The purpose of this project is to build on the existing methodologies and develop a multiple criteria decision support system that captures the decision maker's beliefs through a series of sequential, rational, and analytical processes. The model utilizes the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), subjective probabilities, the entropy concept, and Maximize Agreement Heuristic (MAH) to enhance the decision maker's intuition in evaluating a set of ESR's.

Data warehouse based decision support system in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nadinic, B.

2004-01-01

Safety is an important element in business decision making processes in nuclear power plants. Information about component reliability, structures and systems, data recorded during the nuclear power plant's operation and outage periods, as well as experiences from other power plants are located in different database systems throughout the power plant. It would be possible to create a decision support system which would collect data, transform it into a standardized form and store it in a single location in a format more suitable for analyses and knowledge discovery. This single location where the data would be stored would be a data warehouse. Such data warehouse based decision support system could help make decision making processes more efficient by providing more information about business processes and predicting possible consequences of different decisions. Two main functionalities in this decision support system would be an OLAP (On Line Analytical Processing) and a data mining system. An OLAP system would enable the users to perform fast, simple and efficient multidimensional analysis of existing data and identify trends. Data mining techniques and algorithms would help discover new, previously unknown information from the data as well as hidden dependencies between various parameters. Data mining would also enable analysts to create relevant prediction models that could predict behaviour of different systems during operation and inspection results during outages. The basic characteristics and theoretical foundations of such decision support system are described and the reasons for choosing a data warehouse as the underlying structure are explained. The article analyzes obvious business benefits of such system as well as potential uses of OLAP and data mining technologies. Possible implementation methodologies and problems that may arise, especially in the field of data integration, are discussed and analyzed.(author)

Considering Intermittent Dormancy in an Advanced Life Support Systems Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Sargusingh, Miriam J.; Perry, Jay L.

2017-01-01

Many advanced human space exploration missions being considered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) include concepts in which in-space systems cycle between inhabited and uninhabited states. Managing the life support system (LSS) may be particularly challenged during these periods of intermittent dormancy. A study to identify LSS management challenges and considerations relating to dormancy is described. The study seeks to define concepts suitable for addressing intermittent dormancy states and to evaluate whether the reference LSS architectures being considered by the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Life Support Systems Project (LSSP) are sufficient to support this operational state. The primary focus of the study is the mission concept considered to be the most challenging-a crewed Mars mission with an extensive surface stay. Results from this study are presented and discussed.

Designing Tools for Supporting User Decision-Making in e-Commerce

Science.gov (United States)

Sutcliffe, Alistair; Al-Qaed, Faisal

The paper describes a set of tools designed to support a variety of user decision-making strategies. The tools are complemented by an online advisor so they can be adapted to different domains and users can be guided to adopt appropriate tools for different choices in e-commerce, e.g. purchasing high-value products, exploring product fit to users’ needs, or selecting products which satisfy requirements. The tools range from simple recommenders to decision support by interactive querying and comparison matrices. They were evaluated in a scenario-based experiment which varied the users’ task and motivation, with and without an advisor agent. The results show the tools and advisor were effective in supporting users and agreed with the predictions of ADM (adaptive decision making) theory, on which the design of the tools was based.

Decision support tools in conservation: a workshop to improve user-centred design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Rose

2017-09-01

Full Text Available A workshop held at the University of Cambridge in May 2017 brought developers, researchers, knowledge brokers, and users together to discuss user-centred design of decision support tools. Decision support tools are designed to take users through logical decision steps towards an evidence-informed final decision. Although they may exist in different forms, including on paper, decision support tools are generally considered to be computer- (online, software or app-based. Studies have illustrated the potential value of decision support tools for conservation, and there are several papers describing the design of individual tools. Rather less attention, however, has been placed on the desirable characteristics for use, and even less on whether tools are actually being used in practice. This is concerning because if tools are not used by their intended end user, for example a policy-maker or practitioner, then its design will have wasted resources. Based on an analysis of papers on tool use in conservation, there is a lack of social science research on improving design, and relatively few examples where users have been incorporated into the design process. Evidence from other disciplines, particularly human-computer interaction research, illustrates that involving users throughout the design of decision support tools increases the relevance, usability, and impact of systems. User-centred design of tools is, however, seldom mentioned in the conservation literature. The workshop started the necessary process of bringing together developers and users to share knowledge about how to conduct good user-centred design of decision support tools. This will help to ensure that tools are usable and make an impact in conservation policy and practice.

Cyborg practices: call-handlers and computerised decision support systems in urgent and emergency care.

Science.gov (United States)

Pope, Catherine; Halford, Susan; Turnbull, Joanne; Prichard, Jane

2014-06-01

This article draws on data collected during a 2-year project examining the deployment of a computerised decision support system. This computerised decision support system was designed to be used by non-clinical staff for dealing with calls to emergency (999) and urgent care (out-of-hours) services. One of the promises of computerised decisions support technologies is that they can 'hold' vast amounts of sophisticated clinical knowledge and combine it with decision algorithms to enable standardised decision-making by non-clinical (clerical) staff. This article draws on our ethnographic study of this computerised decision support system in use, and we use our analysis to question the 'automated' vision of decision-making in healthcare call-handling. We show that embodied and experiential (human) expertise remains central and highly salient in this work, and we propose that the deployment of the computerised decision support system creates something new, that this conjunction of computer and human creates a cyborg practice.

Research of Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique for Decision Support

Science.gov (United States)

Siregar, Dodi; Arisandi, Diki; Usman, Ari; Irwan, Dedy; Rahim, Robbi

2017-12-01

One of the roles of decision support system is that it can assist the decision maker in obtaining the appropriate alternative with the desired criteria, one of the methods that could apply for the decision maker is SMART method with multicriteria decision making. This multi-criteria decision-making theory has meaning where every alternative has criteria and has value and weight, and the author uses this approach to facilitate decision making with a compelling case. The problems discussed in this paper are classified into problems of a variety Multiobjective (multiple goals to be accomplished) and multicriteria (many of the decisive criteria in reaching such decisions).

Towards life-cycle awareness in decision support tools for engineering design

OpenAIRE

Nergård, Henrik; Sandberg, Marcus; Larsson, Tobias

2009-01-01

In this paper a decision support tool with the focus on how to generate and visualize decision base coupled to the business agreement is outlined and discussed. Decision support tools for the early design phases are few and especially tools that visualize the readiness level of activities throughout the product life-cycle. Aiming for the sustainable society there is an indication that business-to-business manufacturers move toward providing a function rather than selling off the hardware and ...

A Gaussian decision-support tool for engineering design process

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rajabali Nejad, Mohammadreza; Spitas, Christos

2013-01-01

Decision-making in design is of great importance, resulting in success or failure of a system (Liu et al., 2010; Roozenburg and Eekels, 1995; Spitas, 2011a). This paper describes a robust decision-support tool for engineering design process, which can be used throughout the design process in either

A scalable architecture for incremental specification and maintenance of procedural and declarative clinical decision-support knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatsek, Avner; Shahar, Yuval; Taieb-Maimon, Meirav; Shalom, Erez; Klimov, Denis; Lunenfeld, Eitan

2010-01-01

Clinical guidelines have been shown to improve the quality of medical care and to reduce its costs. However, most guidelines exist in a free-text representation and, without automation, are not sufficiently accessible to clinicians at the point of care. A prerequisite for automated guideline application is a machine-comprehensible representation of the guidelines. In this study, we designed and implemented a scalable architecture to support medical experts and knowledge engineers in specifying and maintaining the procedural and declarative aspects of clinical guideline knowledge, resulting in a machine comprehensible representation. The new framework significantly extends our previous work on the Digital electronic Guidelines Library (DeGeL) The current study designed and implemented a graphical framework for specification of declarative and procedural clinical knowledge, Gesher. We performed three different experiments to evaluate the functionality and usability of the major aspects of the new framework: Specification of procedural clinical knowledge, specification of declarative clinical knowledge, and exploration of a given clinical guideline. The subjects included clinicians and knowledge engineers (overall, 27 participants). The evaluations indicated high levels of completeness and correctness of the guideline specification process by both the clinicians and the knowledge engineers, although the best results, in the case of declarative-knowledge specification, were achieved by teams including a clinician and a knowledge engineer. The usability scores were high as well, although the clinicians' assessment was significantly lower than the assessment of the knowledge engineers.

The value of participatory development to support antimicrobial stewardship with a clinical decision support system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beerlage-de Jong, Nienke; Wentzel, Jobke; Hendrix, Ron; van Gemert-Pijnen, Lisette

2017-01-01

Background: Current clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) for antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are guideline- or expert-driven. They are focused on (clinical) content, not on supporting real-time workflow. Thus, CDSSs fail to optimally support prudent antimicrobial prescribing in daily

The value of participatory development to support antimicrobial stewardship with a clinical decision support system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beerlage-de Jong, Nienke; Wentzel, M.J.; Hendrix, Ron; van Gemert-Pijnen, Julia E.W.C.

Background Current clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) for antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are guideline- or expert-driven. They are focused on (clinical) content, not on supporting real-time workflow. Thus, CDSSs fail to optimally support prudent antimicrobial prescribing in daily

Decision Support Model for Introduction of Gamification Solution Using AHP

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Gamification means the use of various elements of game design in nongame contexts including workplace collaboration, marketing, education, military, and medical services. Gamification is effective for both improving workplace productivity and motivating employees. However, introduction of gamification is not easy because the planning and implementation processes of gamification are very complicated and it needs interdisciplinary knowledge such as information systems, organization behavior, and human psychology. Providing a systematic decision making method for gamification process is the purpose of this paper. This paper suggests the decision criteria for selection of gamification platform to support a systematic decision making process for managements. The criteria are derived from previous works on gamification, introduction of information systems, and analytic hierarchy process. The weights of decision criteria are calculated through a survey by the professionals on game, information systems, and business administration. The analytic hierarchy process is used to derive the weights. The decision criteria and weights provided in this paper could support the managements to make a systematic decision for selection of gamification platform. PMID:24892075

Decision support model for introduction of gamification solution using AHP.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sangkyun

2014-01-01

Gamification means the use of various elements of game design in nongame contexts including workplace collaboration, marketing, education, military, and medical services. Gamification is effective for both improving workplace productivity and motivating employees. However, introduction of gamification is not easy because the planning and implementation processes of gamification are very complicated and it needs interdisciplinary knowledge such as information systems, organization behavior, and human psychology. Providing a systematic decision making method for gamification process is the purpose of this paper. This paper suggests the decision criteria for selection of gamification platform to support a systematic decision making process for managements. The criteria are derived from previous works on gamification, introduction of information systems, and analytic hierarchy process. The weights of decision criteria are calculated through a survey by the professionals on game, information systems, and business administration. The analytic hierarchy process is used to derive the weights. The decision criteria and weights provided in this paper could support the managements to make a systematic decision for selection of gamification platform.

Decision Support Model for Introduction of Gamification Solution Using AHP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sangkyun Kim

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Gamification means the use of various elements of game design in nongame contexts including workplace collaboration, marketing, education, military, and medical services. Gamification is effective for both improving workplace productivity and motivating employees. However, introduction of gamification is not easy because the planning and implementation processes of gamification are very complicated and it needs interdisciplinary knowledge such as information systems, organization behavior, and human psychology. Providing a systematic decision making method for gamification process is the purpose of this paper. This paper suggests the decision criteria for selection of gamification platform to support a systematic decision making process for managements. The criteria are derived from previous works on gamification, introduction of information systems, and analytic hierarchy process. The weights of decision criteria are calculated through a survey by the professionals on game, information systems, and business administration. The analytic hierarchy process is used to derive the weights. The decision criteria and weights provided in this paper could support the managements to make a systematic decision for selection of gamification platform.

Relational Algebra in Spatial Decision Support Systems Ontologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Diomidous, Marianna; Chardalias, Kostis; Koutonias, Panagiotis; Magnita, Adrianna; Andrianopoulos, Charalampos; Zimeras, Stelios; Mechili, Enkeleint Aggelos

2017-01-01

Decision Support Systems (DSS) is a powerful tool, for facilitates researchers to choose the correct decision based on their final results. Especially in medical cases where doctors could use these systems, to overcome the problem with the clinical misunderstanding. Based on these systems, queries must be constructed based on the particular questions that doctors must answer. In this work, combination between questions and queries would be presented via relational algebra.

A New Perspective On Architectural Sustainability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hermund, Anders; Klint, Lars; Schipull Kauschen, Jan

2013-01-01

The research presented in this paper intends to establish a new perspective on architectural sustainability as an effect of good architectural quality. The intention is to show the importance of an actual architectural mindset in the design phase, and whether the conscious architectural material...... selection based on a balanced cost and aesthetics decision making will prove more sustainable and ensure better maintenance, as a result of architectural appeal, than cheaper standard houses....

Connecting Architecture and Implementation

Science.gov (United States)

Buchgeher, Georg; Weinreich, Rainer

Software architectures are still typically defined and described independently from implementation. To avoid architectural erosion and drift, architectural representation needs to be continuously updated and synchronized with system implementation. Existing approaches for architecture representation like informal architecture documentation, UML diagrams, and Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) provide only limited support for connecting architecture descriptions and implementations. Architecture management tools like Lattix, SonarJ, and Sotoarc and UML-tools tackle this problem by extracting architecture information directly from code. This approach works for low-level architectural abstractions like classes and interfaces in object-oriented systems but fails to support architectural abstractions not found in programming languages. In this paper we present an approach for linking and continuously synchronizing a formalized architecture representation to an implementation. The approach is a synthesis of functionality provided by code-centric architecture management and UML tools and higher-level architecture analysis approaches like ADLs.

Supporting decision-making processes for evidence-based mental health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Jané-Llopis, Eva; Katschnig, Heinz; McDaid, David; Wahlbeck, Kristian

2011-12-01

The use of evidence is critical in guiding decision-making, but evidence from effect studies will be only one of a number of factors that will need to be taken into account in the decision-making processes. Equally important for policymakers will be the use of different types of evidence including implementation essentials and other decision-making principles such as social justice, political, ethical, equity issues, reflecting public attitudes and the level of resources available, rather than be based on health outcomes alone. This paper, aimed to support decision-makers, highlights the importance of commissioning high-quality evaluations, the key aspects to assess levels of evidence, the importance of supporting evidence-based implementation and what to look out for before, during and after implementation of mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention programmes.

Evaluation of SOVAT: An OLAP-GIS decision support system for community health assessment data analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Parmanto Bambang

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Data analysis in community health assessment (CHA involves the collection, integration, and analysis of large numerical and spatial data sets in order to identify health priorities. Geographic Information Systems (GIS enable for management and analysis using spatial data, but have limitations in performing analysis of numerical data because of its traditional database architecture. On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP is a multidimensional datawarehouse designed to facilitate querying of large numerical data. Coupling the spatial capabilities of GIS with the numerical analysis of OLAP, might enhance CHA data analysis. OLAP-GIS systems have been developed by university researchers and corporations, yet their potential for CHA data analysis is not well understood. To evaluate the potential of an OLAP-GIS decision support system for CHA problem solving, we compared OLAP-GIS to the standard information technology (IT currently used by many public health professionals. Methods SOVAT, an OLAP-GIS decision support system developed at the University of Pittsburgh, was compared against current IT for data analysis for CHA. For this study, current IT was considered the combined use of SPSS and GIS ("SPSS-GIS". Graduate students, researchers, and faculty in the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh were recruited. Each round consisted of: an instructional video of the system being evaluated, two practice tasks, five assessment tasks, and one post-study questionnaire. Objective and subjective measurement included: task completion time, success in answering the tasks, and system satisfaction. Results Thirteen individuals participated. Inferential statistics were analyzed using linear mixed model analysis. SOVAT was statistically significant (α = .01 from SPSS-GIS for satisfaction and time (p Conclusion Using SOVAT, tasks were completed more efficiently, with a higher rate of success, and with greater satisfaction, than the

Supported Decision-Making from Theory to Practice: Implementing the Right to Enjoy Legal Capacity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rosie Harding

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The right to equal recognition before the law, protected by Article 12 of the United Nations (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, mandates the use of supported decision-making practices to enable disabled people, particularly those with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities, to enjoy their legal capacity. Finding ways to translate this theoretical mandate into practice poses a number of particularly challenging socio-legal issues, which this research seeks to address. The English Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA sets out a right to support with decision-making (s.1(3, underpinned by a presumption of capacity (s.1(2. Qualitative interviews with intellectually disabled people, their supporters, and care and support professionals were undertaken to explore how disabled people make decisions in their everyday lives, the kinds of support they need, and the strategies for supported decision-making used in practice. Analysis of these interviews suggests that a range of supported decision-making techniques have been developed in practice and are effective in supporting everyday preferences and some life choices. Paradoxically, it appears that as decisions become more complex, the support available to disabled people reduces. Specifically, much less support is available for more difficult decisions around finances, healthcare and legal matters. We argue that the reasons for this are due to a web of regulatory, social and policy issues. We conclude that implementing the right to enjoy legal capacity through supported decision-making will require a combination of regulatory reform, social change and policy amendment.

Investing in deliberation: a definition and classification of decision support interventions for people facing difficult health decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Elwyn, Glyn; Frosch, Dominick; Volandes, Angelo E; Edwards, Adrian; Montori, Victor M

2010-01-01

This article provides an analysis of 'decision aids', interventions to support patients facing tough decisions. Interest has increased since the concept of shared decision making has become widely considered to be a means of achieving desirable clinical outcomes. We consider the aims of these interventions and examine assumptions about their use. We propose three categories, interventions that are used in face-to-face encounters, those designed for use outside clinical encounters and those which are mediated, using telephone or other communication media. We propose the following definition: decision support interventions help people think about choices they face; they describe where and why choice exists; they provide information about options, including, where reasonable, the option of taking no action. These interventions help people to deliberate, independently or in collaboration with others, about options, by considering relevantattributes; they support people to forecast how they might feel about short, intermediate and long-term outcomes which have relevant consequences, in ways which help the process of constructing preferences and eventual decision making, appropriate to their individual situation. Although quality standards have been published for these interventions, we are also cautious about premature closure and consider that the need for short versions for use inside clinical encounters and long versions for external use requires further research. More work is also needed on the use of narrative formats and the translation of theory into practical designs. The interest in decision support interventions for patients heralds a transformation in clinical practice although many important areas remain unresolved.

Exploring the impact of a decision support intervention on vascular access decisions in chronic hemodialysis patients: study protocol

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Donnelly Sandra

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In patients with Stage 5 Chronic Kidney Disease who require renal replacement therapy a major decision concerns modality choice. However, many patients defer the decision about modality choice or they have an urgent or emergent need of RRT, which results in them starting hemodialysis with a Central Venous Catheter. Thereafter, efforts to help patients make more timely decisions about access choices utilizing education and resource allocation strategies met with limited success resulting in a high prevalent CVC use in Canada. Providing decision support tailored to meet patients' decision making needs may improve this situation. The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario has developed a clinical practice guideline to guide decision support for adults living with Chronic Kidney Disease (Decision Support for Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of implementing selected recommendations this guideline on priority provincial targets for hemodialysis access in patients with Stage 5 CKD who currently use Central Venous Catheters for vascular access. Methods/Design A non-experimental intervention study with repeated measures will be conducted at St. Michaels Hospital in Toronto, Canada. Decisional conflict about dialysis access choice will be measured using the validated SURE tool, an instrument used to identify decisional conflict. Thereafter a tailored decision support intervention will be implemented. Decisional conflict will be re-measured and compared with baseline scores. Patients and staff will be interviewed to gain an understanding of how useful this intervention was for them and whether it would be feasible to implement more widely. Quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical significance of difference between means over time for aggregated SURE scores (pre/post will be assessed using a paired t-test. Qualitative analysis

Enhanced health E-decision literacy via interactive multi-criterial support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kaltoft, Mette Kjer; Almeida, J.; Moncho Mas, Vicent

Healthcare lacks a generic language for decisional communication. We aim to enhance health decision literacy via specific e-decision support. Given the multi-criterial, preference-sensitive nature of decision-making, we implement the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) technique online...... in an interactive and visual template (Annalisa), developing decision-specific tools at the clinical/personal and group/policy levels. Our current nationally funded project on bone health caters for home-prepared, informed and preference-based consent and taps into existing e-health infrastructures towards person...

Design and realization of tourism spatial decision support system based on GIS

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Zhangbao; Qi, Qingwen; Xu, Li

2008-10-01

In this paper, the existing problems of current tourism management information system are analyzed. GIS, tourism as well as spatial decision support system are introduced, and the application of geographic information system technology and spatial decision support system to tourism management and the establishment of tourism spatial decision support system based on GIS are proposed. System total structure, system hardware and software environment, database design and structure module design of this system are introduced. Finally, realization methods of this systemic core functions are elaborated.

The analytic hierarchy process as a support for decision making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Filipović Milanka

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The first part of this text deals with a convention site selection as one of the most lucrative areas in the tourism industry. The second part gives a further description of a method for decision making - the analytic hierarchy process. The basic characteristics: hierarchy constructions and pair wise comparison on the given level of the hierarchy are allured. The third part offers an example of application. This example is solved using the Super - Decision software, which is developed as a computer support for the analytic hierarchy process. This indicates that the AHP approach is a useful tool to help support a decision of convention site selection. .

A New Architecture for Making Moral Agents Based on C4.5 Decision Tree Algorithm

OpenAIRE

Meisam Azad-Manjiri

2014-01-01

Regarding to the influence of robots in the various fields of life, the issue of trusting to them is important, especially when a robot deals with people directly. One of the possible ways to get this confidence is adding a moral dimension to the robots. Therefore, we present a new architecture in order to build moral agents that learn from demonstrations. This agent is based on Beauchamp and Childress’s principles of biomedical ethics (a type of deontological theory) and uses decision tree a...

Launching a virtual decision lab: development and field-testing of a web-based patient decision support research platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman, Aubri S; Llewellyn-Thomas, Hilary A; Tosteson, Anna N A; O'Connor, Annette M; Volk, Robert J; Tomek, Ivan M; Andrews, Steven B; Bartels, Stephen J

2014-12-12

Over 100 trials show that patient decision aids effectively improve patients' information comprehension and values-based decision making. However, gaps remain in our understanding of several fundamental and applied questions, particularly related to the design of interactive, personalized decision aids. This paper describes an interdisciplinary development process for, and early field testing of, a web-based patient decision support research platform, or virtual decision lab, to address these questions. An interdisciplinary stakeholder panel designed the web-based research platform with three components: a) an introduction to shared decision making, b) a web-based patient decision aid, and c) interactive data collection items. Iterative focus groups provided feedback on paper drafts and online prototypes. A field test assessed a) feasibility for using the research platform, in terms of recruitment, usage, and acceptability; and b) feasibility of using the web-based decision aid component, compared to performance of a videobooklet decision aid in clinical care. This interdisciplinary, theory-based, patient-centered design approach produced a prototype for field-testing in six months. Participants (n = 126) reported that: the decision aid component was easy to use (98%), information was clear (90%), the length was appropriate (100%), it was appropriately detailed (90%), and it held their interest (97%). They spent a mean of 36 minutes using the decision aid and 100% preferred using their home/library computer. Participants scored a mean of 75% correct on the Decision Quality, Knowledge Subscale, and 74 out of 100 on the Preparation for Decision Making Scale. Completing the web-based decision aid reduced mean Decisional Conflict scores from 31.1 to 19.5 (p development of a web-based patient decision support research platform that was feasible for use in research studies in terms of recruitment, acceptability, and usage. Within this platform, the web

Decision support models for natural gas dispatch

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chin, L. (Bentley College, Waltham, MA (United States)); Vollmann, T.E. (International Inst. for Management Development, Lausanne (Switzerland))

A decision support model is presented which will give utilities the support tools to manage the purchasing of natural gas supplies in the most cost effective manner without reducing winter safety stocks to below minimum levels. In Business As Usual (BAU) purchasing quantities vary with the daily forecasts. With Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Linear Programming (LP), two types of factors are used: seasonal weather and decision rule. Under current practices, BAU simulation uses the least expensive gas source first, then adding successively more expensive sources. Material Requirements Planning is a production planning technique which uses a parent item master production schedule to determine time phased requirements for component points. Where the MPS is the aggregate gas demand forecasts for the contract year. This satisfies daily demand with least expensive gas and uses more expensive when necessary with automatic computation of available-to-promise (ATP) gas a dispacher knows daily when extra gas supplies may be ATP. Linear Programming is a mathematical algorithm used to determine optimal allocations of scarce resources to achieve a desired result. The LP model determines optimal daily gas purchase decisions with respect to supply cost minimization. Using these models, it appears possible to raise gross income margins 6 to 10% with minimal additions of customers and no new gas supply.

Decision support models for natural gas dispatch

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chin, L.; Vollmann, T.E.

1992-01-01

A decision support model is presented which will give utilities the support tools to manage the purchasing of natural gas supplies in the most cost effective manner without reducing winter safety stocks to below minimum levels. In Business As Usual (BAU) purchasing quantities vary with the daily forecasts. With Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Linear Programming (LP), two types of factors are used: seasonal weather and decision rule. Under current practices, BAU simulation uses the least expensive gas source first, then adding successively more expensive sources. Material Requirements Planning is a production planning technique which uses a parent item master production schedule to determine time phased requirements for component points. Where the MPS is the aggregate gas demand forecasts for the contract year. This satisfies daily demand with least expensive gas and uses more expensive when necessary with automatic computation of available-to-promise (ATP) gas a dispacher knows daily when extra gas supplies may be ATP. Linear Programming is a mathematical algorithm used to determine optimal allocations of scarce resources to achieve a desired result. The LP model determines optimal daily gas purchase decisions with respect to supply cost minimization. Using these models, it appears possible to raise gross income margins 6 to 10% with minimal additions of customers and no new gas supply

Decision support for the definition of wind turbine systems adequacy to site specificities and weak electrical networks; Aide a la decision pour la definition d'un systeme eolien, adequation au site et a un reseau faible

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arbaoui, A

2006-10-15

A decision support system for the definition of wind turbine systems is developed by taking into account the wind and site characteristics, the wind turbine components and the electrical network properties close to the site. The approach is based on functional analysis, on the investigation of the functional fluxes and on the definition of a model suitable for supporting decision at the preliminary stages of wind turbine design. The complete set of solutions derived from the model is determined using a Constraint Satisfaction Problem solver. The intrinsic capability of the model to support decision is derived from the investigation of the model parsimony, precision, exactness and specialization. The model takes into account performance criteria resulting from knowledge of manufacturers, distributors and investors. These criteria are used to discriminate design alternatives. Design alternatives correspond to choices of site (wind, electric network) and wind turbine architectures (related to 7 design variables). Performance criteria are the cost of electric kWh, the amount of energy being produced and the discounted total cost of the project. Electric network connection to wind turbines is taken into account through slow variations of the voltage and Flickers phenomenon. First, the maximal rate of penetration of the wind turbine energy production is determined. Next, two design alternatives have been investigated to improve wind turbine system integration in electric distribution networks. These alternatives are a reactive power control system and an inertial energy storage system. Inertial storage systems seem to be more expensive than reactive power control systems for this type of application. The influence of site specificities on decision making process has been established through three different sites (a Mediterranean site and two sites located in northern Europe). Profits relative to the cost of kWh appear to be high for Mediterranean sites. Most of the

VLSI Architecture for Configurable and Low-Complexity Design of Hard-Decision Viterbi Decoding Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachmad Vidya Wicaksana Putra

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Convolutional encoding and data decoding are fundamental processes in convolutional error correction. One of the most popular error correction methods in decoding is the Viterbi algorithm. It is extensively implemented in many digital communication applications. Its VLSI design challenges are about area, speed, power, complexity and configurability. In this research, we specifically propose a VLSI architecture for a configurable and low-complexity design of a hard-decision Viterbi decoding algorithm. The configurable and low-complexity design is achieved by designing a generic VLSI architecture, optimizing each processing element (PE at the logical operation level and designing a conditional adapter. The proposed design can be configured for any predefined number of trace-backs, only by changing the trace-back parameter value. Its computational process only needs N + 2 clock cycles latency, with N is the number of trace-backs. Its configurability function has been proven for N = 8, N = 16, N = 32 and N = 64. Furthermore, the proposed design was synthesized and evaluated in Xilinx and Altera FPGA target boards for area consumption and speed performance.

Using basic geographic information systems functionality to support sustainable forest management decision making and post-decision assessments

Science.gov (United States)

Ronald E. McRoberts; R. James Barbour; Krista M. Gebert; Greg C. Liknes; Mark D. Nelson; Dacia M. Meneguzzo; et al.

2006-01-01

Sustainable management of natural resources requires informed decision making and post-decision assessments of the results of those decisions. Increasingly, both activities rely on analyses of spatial data in the forms of maps and digital data layers. Fortunately, a variety of supporting maps and data layers rapidly are becoming available. Unfortunately, however, user-...

The Setting is the Service: How the Architecture of Sober Living Residences Supports Community Based Recovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Wittman, Fried; Jee, Babette; Polcin, Douglas L; Henderson, Diane

2014-07-01

The architecture of residential recovery settings is an important silent partner in the alcohol/drug recovery field. The settings significantly support or hinder recovery experiences of residents, and shape community reactions to the presence of sober living houses (SLH) in ordinary neighborhoods. Grounded in the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, the SLH provides residents with settings designed to support peer based recovery; further, these settings operate in a community context that insists on sobriety and strongly encourages attendance at 12-step meetings. Little formal research has been conducted to show how architectural features of the recovery setting - building appearance, spatial layouts, furnishings and finishes, policies for use of the facilities, physical care and maintenance of the property, neighborhood features, aspects of location in the city - function to promote (or retard) recovery, and to build (or detract from) community support. This paper uses a case-study approach to analyze the architecture of a community-based residential recovery service that has demonstrated successful recovery outcomes for its residents, is popular in its community, and has achieved state-wide recognition. The Environmental Pattern Language (Alexander, Ishikawa, & Silverstein, 1977) is used to analyze its architecture in a format that can be tested, critiqued, and adapted for use by similar programs in many communities, providing a model for replication and further research.

Decision support for organ offers in liver transplantation.

Science.gov (United States)

Volk, Michael L; Goodrich, Nathan; Lai, Jennifer C; Sonnenday, Christopher; Shedden, Kerby

2015-06-01

Organ offers in liver transplantation are high-risk medical decisions with a low certainty of whether a better liver offer will come along before death. We hypothesized that decision support could improve the decision to accept or decline. With data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, survival models were constructed for 42,857 waiting-list patients and 28,653 posttransplant patients from 2002 to 2008. Daily covariate-adjusted survival probabilities from these 2 models were combined into a 5-year area under the curve to create an individualized prediction of whether an organ offer should be accepted for a given patient. Among 650,832 organ offers from 2008 to 2013, patient survival was compared by whether the clinical decision was concordant or discordant with model predictions. The acceptance benefit (AB)--the predicted gain or loss of life by accepting a given organ versus waiting for the next organ--ranged from 3 to -22 years (harm) and varied geographically; for example, the average benefit of accepting a donation after cardiac death organ ranged from 0.47 to -0.71 years by donation service area. Among organ offers, even when AB was >1 year, the offer was only accepted 10% of the time. Patient survival from the time of the organ offer was better if the model recommendations and the clinical decision were concordant: for offers with AB > 0, the 3-year survival was 80% if the offer was accepted and 66% if it was declined (P decision support may improve patient survival in liver transplantation. © 2015 American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

A Geospatial Decision Support System Toolkit, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We propose to build and commercialize a working prototype Geospatial Decision Support Toolkit (GeoKit). GeoKit will enable scientists, agencies, and stakeholders to...

Design document for landfill capping Prototype Decision Support System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stone, J.J.; Paige, G.; Hakonson, T.E.; Lane, L.J.

1994-01-01

The overall objective of the Prototype Decision Support System for shallow land burial project is to ''Develop a Decision Support System tool which incorporates simulation modeling and multi-objective decision theory for the purpose of designing and evaluating alternative trench cap designs for mixed waste landfill covers. The goal is to improve the quality of technical information used by the risk manager to select landfill cover designs while taking into account technological, economical, and regulatory factors.'' The complexity of the technical and non-technical information, and how the information varies in importance across sites, points to the need for decision analysis tools that provide a common basis for integrating, synthesizing, and valuing the decision input. Because the cost of remediating thousands of contaminated DOE sites is projected to be in the 10's--100's of billions of dollars, methods will be needed to establish cleanup priorities and to help in the selection and evaluation of cost effective remediation alternatives. Even at this early stage in DOE's cleanup program, it is certain that capping technologies will be heavily relied upon to remediate the 3000+ landfills on DOE property. Capping is favored in remediating most DOE landfills because, based on preliminary baseline risk assessments, human and ecological risks are considered to be low at most of these sites and the regulatory requirements for final closure of old landfills can be met using a well designed cap to isolate the buried waste. This report describes a program plan to design, develop, and test a decision support system (DSS) for assisting the DOE risk manager in evaluating capping alternatives for radioactive and hazardous waste landfills. The DOE DSS will incorporate methods for calculating, integrating and valuing technical, regulatory, and economic criteria

A game-based decision support methodology for competitive systems design

Science.gov (United States)

Briceno, Simon Ignacio

This dissertation describes the development of a game-based methodology that facilitates the exploration and selection of research and development (R&D) projects under uncertain competitive scenarios. The proposed method provides an approach that analyzes competitor positioning and formulates response strategies to forecast the impact of technical design choices on a project's market performance. A critical decision in the conceptual design phase of propulsion systems is the selection of the best architecture, centerline, core size, and technology portfolio. This selection can be challenging when considering evolving requirements from both the airframe manufacturing company and the airlines in the market. Furthermore, the exceedingly high cost of core architecture development and its associated risk makes this strategic architecture decision the most important one for an engine company. Traditional conceptual design processes emphasize performance and affordability as their main objectives. These areas alone however, do not provide decision-makers with enough information as to how successful their engine will be in a competitive market. A key objective of this research is to examine how firm characteristics such as their relative differences in completing R&D projects, differences in the degree of substitutability between different project types, and first/second-mover advantages affect their product development strategies. Several quantitative methods are investigated that analyze business and engineering strategies concurrently. In particular, formulations based on the well-established mathematical field of game theory are introduced to obtain insights into the project selection problem. The use of game theory is explored in this research as a method to assist the selection process of R&D projects in the presence of imperfect market information. The proposed methodology focuses on two influential factors: the schedule uncertainty of project completion times and

Definition of information technology architectures for continuous data management and medical device integration in diabetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hernando, M Elena; Pascual, Mario; Salvador, Carlos H; García-Sáez, Gema; Rodríguez-Herrero, Agustín; Martínez-Sarriegui, Iñaki; Gómez, Enrique J

2008-09-01

The growing availability of continuous data from medical devices in diabetes management makes it crucial to define novel information technology architectures for efficient data storage, data transmission, and data visualization. The new paradigm of care demands the sharing of information in interoperable systems as the only way to support patient care in a continuum of care scenario. The technological platforms should support all the services required by the actors involved in the care process, located in different scenarios and managing diverse information for different purposes. This article presents basic criteria for defining flexible and adaptive architectures that are capable of interoperating with external systems, and integrating medical devices and decision support tools to extract all the relevant knowledge to support diabetes care.

Advanced intelligent computational technologies and decision support systems

CERN Document Server

Kountchev, Roumen

2014-01-01

This book offers a state of the art collection covering themes related to Advanced Intelligent Computational Technologies and Decision Support Systems which can be applied to fields like healthcare assisting the humans in solving problems. The book brings forward a wealth of ideas, algorithms and case studies in themes like: intelligent predictive diagnosis; intelligent analyzing of medical images; new format for coding of single and sequences of medical images; Medical Decision Support Systems; diagnosis of Down’s syndrome; computational perspectives for electronic fetal monitoring; efficient compression of CT Images; adaptive interpolation and halftoning for medical images; applications of artificial neural networks for real-life problems solving; present and perspectives for Electronic Healthcare Record Systems; adaptive approaches for noise reduction in sequences of CT images etc.

Architecture and Functionality of the Advanced Life Support On-Line Project Information System

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, John A.; Levri, Julie A.; Morrow, Rich; Cavazzoni, Jim; Rodriguez, Luis F.; Riano, Rebecca; Whitaker, Dawn R.

2004-01-01

An ongoing effort is underway at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) to develop an On-line Project Information System (OPIS) for the Advanced Life Support (ALS) Program. The objective of this three-year project is to develop, test, revise and deploy OPIS to enhance the quality of decision-making metrics and attainment of Program goals through improved knowledge sharing. OPIS will centrally locate detailed project information solicited from investigators on an annual basis and make it readily accessible by the ALS Community via a Web-accessible interface. The data will be stored in an object-oriented relational database (created in MySQL) located on a secure server at NASA ARC. OPE will simultaneously serve several functions, including being an research and technology development (R&TD) status information hub that can potentially serve as the primary annual reporting mechanism for ALS-funded projects. Using OPIS, ALS managers and element leads will be able to carry out informed R&TD investment decisions, and allow analysts to perform accurate systems evaluations. Additionally, the range and specificity of information solicited will serve to educate technology developers of programmatic needs. OPIS will collect comprehensive information from all ALS projects as well as highly detailed information specific to technology development in each ALS area (Waste, Water, Air, Biomass, Food, Thermal, Controls and Systems Analysis). Because the scope of needed information can vary dramatically between areas, element-specific technology information is being compiled with the aid of multiple specialized working groups. This paper presents the current development status in terms of the architecture and functionality of OPIS. Possible implementation approaches for OPIS are also discussed.

Designing an Information System for Decision Support Lending

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian LUPASC

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The successful development of financial and banking activities requires a strong information support to ensure the competitive edge over the other competitors on the market. The exponential growth in the volume of lending financial operations made the use of modern information technology in banking has become fundamental to improving lending activity. Thus, the design and use of a computer system adapted to specific requirements of bank lending will provide opportunities to diversify and modernize the procedures for granting, repayment and credit guarantee to correlate products offer credit demands and customer needs. In this regard, the related objectives of this work are oriented to emphasize the positive impact of the adoption of modern information technologies in decision making in the banking field. The proposed objectives are justified by presenting solutions support system of credit decision which aims to automate ongoing operations specific to a banking allowing bank clerks to process a large number of loan applications in a time very short and to the right decisions and substantiated.

Coordinating complex decision support activities across distributed applications

Science.gov (United States)

Adler, Richard M.

1994-01-01

Knowledge-based technologies have been applied successfully to automate planning and scheduling in many problem domains. Automation of decision support can be increased further by integrating task-specific applications with supporting database systems, and by coordinating interactions between such tools to facilitate collaborative activities. Unfortunately, the technical obstacles that must be overcome to achieve this vision of transparent, cooperative problem-solving are daunting. Intelligent decision support tools are typically developed for standalone use, rely on incompatible, task-specific representational models and application programming interfaces (API's), and run on heterogeneous computing platforms. Getting such applications to interact freely calls for platform independent capabilities for distributed communication, as well as tools for mapping information across disparate representations. Symbiotics is developing a layered set of software tools (called NetWorks! for integrating and coordinating heterogeneous distributed applications. he top layer of tools consists of an extensible set of generic, programmable coordination services. Developers access these services via high-level API's to implement the desired interactions between distributed applications.

Development of an ecological decision support system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Beusekom, Frits; Brazier, Frances; Schipper, Piet; Treur, Jan; del Pobil, A.P.

1998-01-01

In this paper a knowledge-based decision support system is described that determines the abiotic (chemical and physical) characteristics of a site on the basis of in-homogeneous samples of plant species. Techniques from the area of non-monotonic reasoning are applied to model multi-interpretable

Education for Medical Decision Support at EuroMISE Centre

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Martinková, Patrícia; Zvára Jr., Karel; Dostálová, T.; Zvárová, Jana

2013-01-01

Roč. 1, č. 1 (2013), s. 40-40 ISSN 1805-8698. [EFMI 2013 Special Topic Conference. 17.04.2013-19.04.2013, Prague] Institutional support: RVO:67985807 Keywords : education * decision support * knowledge evaluation * e-learning Subject RIV: IN - Informatics, Computer Science

Decision Support Systems and the Conflict Model of Decision Making: A Stimulus for New Computer-Assisted Careers Guidance Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Ballantine, R. Malcolm

Decision Support Systems (DSSs) are computer-based decision aids to use when making decisions which are partially amenable to rational decision-making procedures but contain elements where intuitive judgment is an essential component. In such situations, DSSs are used to improve the quality of decision-making. The DSS approach is based on Simon's…

Theoretical and Experimental Impact Analysis of Decision Support Systems for Advanced MCR Operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Jun; Seong, Poong Hyun

2008-01-01

Human error is recognized as one of the main causes of nuclear power plant (NPP) accidents, and there have been efforts to reduce and prevent human errors by developing various operator support systems. Before adapting these support systems to actual NPPs, it is necessary to validate their reliability and to evaluate their effect on operator performance. Particularly for safety-critical systems such as NPPs, the validation and evaluation of support systems is as important as the design of good systems. Such evaluations may be carried out through a theoretical modelling or experimentation. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of decision support systems on operator performance by both theoretical and experimental methods. The target system is an integrated decision support system including four decision support sub-systems. In the results of both the theoretical and experimental evaluations, the decision support systems revealed positive effects, and several trends were observed. (authors)

Theoretical and Experimental Impact Analysis of Decision Support Systems for Advanced MCR Operators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Seung Jun [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 1045 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-353 (Korea, Republic of); Seong, Poong Hyun [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-703 (Korea, Republic of)

2008-07-01

Human error is recognized as one of the main causes of nuclear power plant (NPP) accidents, and there have been efforts to reduce and prevent human errors by developing various operator support systems. Before adapting these support systems to actual NPPs, it is necessary to validate their reliability and to evaluate their effect on operator performance. Particularly for safety-critical systems such as NPPs, the validation and evaluation of support systems is as important as the design of good systems. Such evaluations may be carried out through a theoretical modelling or experimentation. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of decision support systems on operator performance by both theoretical and experimental methods. The target system is an integrated decision support system including four decision support sub-systems. In the results of both the theoretical and experimental evaluations, the decision support systems revealed positive effects, and several trends were observed. (authors)

Integration issues in virtual enterprises supported by an architectural framework

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zwegers, Arian; Hannus, Matti; Tølle, Martin

2001-01-01

enterprises, especially concerning integration issues. This paper lays down an architectural framework, called VERAM, which aims to support the set-up and operation of virtual enterprises. Five different levels of integration are identified. They should all be addressed during the formation of a virtual......Nowadays, enterprises cooperate more extensively with other enterprises during the entire product life cycle. Temporary alliances between various enterprises emerge such as those in Virtual Enterprises. However, many enterprises experience difficulties in the formation and operation of virtual...

Architecture and Functionality of the Advanced Life Support On-Line Project Information System (OPIS)

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, John A.; Levri, Julie A.; Morrow, Rich; Cavazzoni, Jim; Rodriquez, Luis F.; Riano, Rebecca; Whitaker, Dawn R.

2004-01-01

An ongoing effort is underway at NASA Amcs Research Center (ARC) tu develop an On-line Project Information System (OPIS) for the Advanced Life Support (ALS) Program. The objective of this three-year project is to develop, test, revise and deploy OPIS to enhance the quality of decision-making metrics and attainment of Program goals through improved knowledge sharing. OPIS will centrally locate detailed project information solicited from investigators on an annual basis and make it readily accessible by the ALS Community via a web-accessible interface. The data will be stored in an object-oriented relational database (created in MySQL(Trademark) located on a secure server at NASA ARC. OPE will simultaneously serve several functions, including being an R&TD status information hub that can potentially serve as the primary annual reporting mechanism. Using OPIS, ALS managers and element leads will be able to carry out informed research and technology development investment decisions, and allow analysts to perform accurate systems evaluations. Additionally, the range and specificity of information solicited will serve to educate technology developers of programmatic needs. OPIS will collect comprehensive information from all ALS projects as well as highly detailed information specific to technology development in each ALS area (Waste, Water, Air, Biomass, Food, Thermal, and Control). Because the scope of needed information can vary dramatically between areas, element-specific technology information is being compiled with the aid of multiple specialized working groups. This paper presents the current development status in terms of the architecture and functionality of OPIS. Possible implementation approaches for OPIS are also discussed.

Local scale decision support systems - actual situation and trends for the future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Govaerts, P.

1993-01-01

Based on the communications presented in the session on local scale decision support systems, some common trends for those models have been identified. During the last decade the evolutionary change of those models is related with the better insight in decisions to be taken with respect to interventions, the acceptance of large uncertainties, the perceived importance of social and economic factors and shift of the identity of the user. A more revolutionary change is predicted for the near future, putting most emphasis on the predictive mode, extending the integration of monitoring data in the decision support system, and the use of pre-established scenarios. The local scale decision support system will become the key module of the off-site emergency control room. (author)

LANL Institutional Decision Support By Process Modeling and Analysis Group (AET-2)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Booth, Steven Richard [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2016-04-04

AET-2 has expertise in process modeling, economics, business case analysis, risk assessment, Lean/Six Sigma tools, and decision analysis to provide timely decision support to LANS leading to continuous improvement. This capability is critical during the current tight budgetary environment as LANS pushes to identify potential areas of cost savings and efficiencies. An important arena is business systems and operations, where processes can impact most or all laboratory employees. Lab-wide efforts are needed to identify and eliminate inefficiencies to accomplish Director McMillan’s charge of “doing more with less.” LANS faces many critical and potentially expensive choices that require sound decision support to ensure success. AET-2 is available to provide this analysis support to expedite the decisions at hand.

Developing eHealth technology for people with dementia : towards a supportive decision tool facilitating shared decision making in dementia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Span, M.; Smits, C.; Groen-van der Ven, L.; Jukema, J.; Cremers, A.H.M.; Vernooij-Dassen, M.; Eefsting, J.; Hettinga, M.

2013-01-01

People with dementia are confronted with many decisions. However, they are often not involved in the process of the decision-making. Shared Decision-Making (SDM) enables involvement of persons with dementia in the decision-making process. In our study, we develop a supportive IT application aiming

Supporting migration to services using software architecture reconstruction

OpenAIRE

O'Brien, Liam; Smith, Dennis; Lewis, Grace

2005-01-01

peer-reviewed There are many good reasons why organizations should perform software architecture reconstructions. However, few organizations are willing to pay for the effort. Software architecture reconstruction must be viewed not as an effort on its own but as a contribution in a broader technical context, such as the streamlining of products into a product line or the modernization of systems that hit their architectural borders, that is require major restructuring. In this paper we ...

A Successful Implementation Strategy to Support Adoption of Decision Making in Mental Health Services.

Science.gov (United States)

MacDonald-Wilson, Kim L; Hutchison, Shari L; Karpov, Irina; Wittman, Paul; Deegan, Patricia E

2017-04-01

Individual involvement in treatment decisions with providers, often through the use of decision support aids, improves quality of care. This study investigates an implementation strategy to bring decision support to community mental health centers (CMHC). Fifty-two CMHCs implemented a decision support toolkit supported by a 12-month learning collaborative using the Breakthrough Series model. Participation in learning collaborative activities was high, indicating feasibility of the implementation model. Progress by staff in meeting process aims around utilization of components of the toolkit improved significantly over time (p < .0001). Survey responses by individuals in service corroborate successful implementation. Community-based providers were able to successfully implement decision support in mental health services as evidenced by improved process outcomes and sustained practices over 1 year through the structure of the learning collaborative model.

The Architecture of a Complex GIS & Spreadsheet Based DSS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dinu Airinei

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The decision support applications available on today market use to combine the decision analysis of historical databased on On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP products or spreadsheet pivot tables with some new reporting facilities as alerts or key performance indicators available in portal dashboards or in complex spreadsheet-like reports, both corresponding to a new approach of the field called Business Intelligence. Moreover the geographical features of GIS added to DSS applications become more and more required by many kinds of businesses. In fact they are more useful this way than as distinctive parts.The paper tries to present a certain DSS architecture based on the association between such approaches and technologies. The particular examples are meant to support all the theoretical arguments and to complete the understanding of the interaction schemas available.

A free software tool for the development of decision support systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

COLONESE, G

2008-06-01

Full Text Available This article describes PostGeoOlap, a free software open source tool for decision support that integrates OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing and GIS (Geographical Information Systems. Besides describing the tool, we show how it can be used to achieve effective and low cost decision support that is adequate for small and medium companies and for small public offices.

Decision support for the definition of wind turbine systems adequacy to site specificities and weak electrical networks; Aide a la decision pour la definition d'un systeme eolien, adequation au site et a un reseau faible

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arbaoui, A

2006-10-15

A decision support system for the definition of wind turbine systems is developed by taking into account the wind and site characteristics, the wind turbine components and the electrical network properties close to the site. The approach is based on functional analysis, on the investigation of the functional fluxes and on the definition of a model suitable for supporting decision at the preliminary stages of wind turbine design. The complete set of solutions derived from the model is determined using a Constraint Satisfaction Problem solver. The intrinsic capability of the model to support decision is derived from the investigation of the model parsimony, precision, exactness and specialization. The model takes into account performance criteria resulting from knowledge of manufacturers, distributors and investors. These criteria are used to discriminate design alternatives. Design alternatives correspond to choices of site (wind, electric network) and wind turbine architectures (related to 7 design variables). Performance criteria are the cost of electric kWh, the amount of energy being produced and the discounted total cost of the project. Electric network connection to wind turbines is taken into account through slow variations of the voltage and Flickers phenomenon. First, the maximal rate of penetration of the wind turbine energy production is determined. Next, two design alternatives have been investigated to improve wind turbine system integration in electric distribution networks. These alternatives are a reactive power control system and an inertial energy storage system. Inertial storage systems seem to be more expensive than reactive power control systems for this type of application. The influence of site specificities on decision making process has been established through three different sites (a Mediterranean site and two sites located in northern Europe). Profits relative to the cost of kWh appear to be high for Mediterranean sites. Most of the

Joint Fire Support in 2020: Development of a Future Joint Fires Systems Architecture for Immediate, Unplanned Targets

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Gabriel, J. T; Bartel, Matthew; Dorrough, Grashawn J; Paiz, B. L; Peters, Brian; Savage, Matthew; Nordgran, Spencer

2006-01-01

... in support of the commander. In this context, the Joint Fire Support in 2020 project applied systems engineering procedures and principles to develop functional, physical, and operational architectures that maximize rapid...

Business Rules Definition for Decision Support System Using Matrix Grammar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eva Zámečníková

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with formalization of business rules by formal grammars. In our work we focus on methods for high frequency data processing. We process data by using complex event platforms (CEP which allow to process high volume of data in nearly real time. Decision making process is contained by one level of processing of CEP. Business rules are used for decision making process description. For the business rules formalization we chose matrix grammar. The use of formal grammars is quite natural as the structure of rules and its rewriting is very similar both for the business rules and for formal grammar. In addition the matrix grammar allows to simulate dependencies and correlations between the rules. The result of this work is a model for data processing of knowledge-based decision support system described by the rules of formal grammar. This system will support the decision making in CEP. This solution may contribute to the speedup of decision making process in complex event processing and also to the formal verification of these systems.

An object-oriented approach to site characterization decision support

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, R.

1995-01-01

Effective decision support for site characterization is key to determining the nature and extent of contamination and the associated human and environmental risks. Site characterization data, however, present particular problems to technical analysts and decision-makers. Such data are four dimensional, incorporating temporal and spatial components. Their sheer volume can be daunting -- sites with hundreds of monitoring wells and thousands of samples sent for laboratory analyses are not uncommon. Data are derived from a variety of sources including laboratory analyses, non-intrusive geophysical surveys, historical information, bore logs, in-field estimates of key physical parameters such as aquifer transmissivity, soil moisture content, depth-to-water table, etc. Ultimately, decisions have to be made based on data that are always incomplete, often confusing, inaccurate, or inappropriate, and occasionally wrong. In response to this challenge, two approaches to environmental decision support have arisen, Data Quality Objectives (DQOS) and the Observational Approach (OA). DQOs establish criteria for data collection by clearly defining the decisions that need to be made, the uncertainty that can be tolerated, and the type and amount of data that needs to be collected to satisfy the uncertainty requirements. In practice, DQOs are typically based on statistical measures. The OA accepts the fact that the process of characterizing and remediating contaminated sites is always uncertain. Decision-making with the OA is based on what is known about a site, with contingencies developed for potential future deviations from the original assumptions about contamination nature, extent, and risks posed