Support System Model for Value based Group Decision on Roof System Selection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christiono Utomo

2011-02-01

Full Text Available A group decision support system is required on a value-based decision because there are different concern caused by differing preferences, experiences, and background. It is to enable each decision-maker to evaluate and rank the solution alternatives before engaging into negotiation with other decision-makers. Stakeholder of multi-criteria decision making problems usually evaluates the alternative solution from different perspective, making it possible to have a dominant solution among the alternatives. Each stakeholder needs to identify the goals that can be optimized and those that can be compromised in order to reach an agreement with other stakeholders. This paper presents group decision model involving three decision-makers on the selection of suitable system for a building’s roof. The objective of the research is to find an agreement options model and coalition algorithms for multi person decision with two main preferences of value which are function and cost. The methodology combines value analysis method using Function Analysis System Technique (FAST; Life Cycle Cost analysis, group decision analysis method based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP in a satisfying options, and Game theory-based agent system to develop agreement option and coalition formation for the support system. The support system bridges theoretical gap between automated design in construction domain and automated negotiation in information technology domain by providing a structured methodology which can lead to systematic support system and automated negotiation. It will contribute to value management body of knowledge as an advanced method for creativity and analysis phase, since the practice of this knowledge is teamwork based. In the case of roof system selection, it reveals the start of the first negotiation round. Some of the solutions are not an option because no individual stakeholder or coalition of stakeholders desires to select it. The result indicates

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.

Intelligent Case Based Decision Support System for Online Diagnosis of Automated Production System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ben Rabah, N; Saddem, R; Carre-Menetrier, V; Ben Hmida, F; Tagina, M

2017-01-01

Diagnosis of Automated Production System (APS) is a decision-making process designed to detect, locate and identify a particular failure caused by the control law. In the literature, there are three major types of reasoning for industrial diagnosis: the first is model-based, the second is rule-based and the third is case-based. The common and major limitation of the first and the second reasonings is that they do not have automated learning ability. This paper presents an interactive and effective Case Based Decision Support System for online Diagnosis (CB-DSSD) of an APS. It offers a synergy between the Case Based Reasoning (CBR) and the Decision Support System (DSS) in order to support and assist Human Operator of Supervision (HOS) in his/her decision process. Indeed, the experimental evaluation performed on an Interactive Training System for PLC (ITS PLC) that allows the control of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), simulating sensors or/and actuators failures and validating the control algorithm through a real time interactive experience, showed the efficiency of our approach. (paper)

ADDIS: A decision support system for evidence-based medicine

NARCIS (Netherlands)

G. van Valkenhoef (Gert); T. Tervonen (Tommi); T. Zwinkels (Tijs); B. de Brock (Bert); H.L. Hillege (Hans)

2013-01-01

textabstractClinical trials are the main source of information for the efficacy and safety evaluation of medical treatments. Although they are of pivotal importance in evidence-based medicine, there is a lack of usable information systems providing data-analysis and decision support capabilities for

Development of a Prototype Web-Based Decision Support System for Watershed Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dejian Zhang

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Using distributed hydrological models to evaluate the effectiveness of reducing non-point source pollution by applying best management practices (BMPs is an important support to decision making for watershed management. However, complex interfaces and time-consuming simulations of the models have largely hindered the applications of these models. We designed and developed a prototype web-based decision support system for watershed management (DSS-WMRJ, which is user friendly and supports quasi-real-time decision making. DSS-WMRJ is based on integrating an open-source Web-based Geographical Information Systems (Web GIS tool (Geoserver, a modeling component (SWAT, Soil and Water Assessment Tool, a cloud computing platform (Hadoop and other open source components and libraries. In addition, a private cloud is used in an innovative manner to parallelize model simulations, which are time consuming and computationally costly. Then, the prototype DSS-WMRJ was tested with a case study. Successful implementation and testing of the prototype DSS-WMRJ lay a good foundation to develop DSS-WMRJ into a fully-fledged tool for watershed management. DSS-WMRJ can be easily customized for use in other watersheds and is valuable for constructing other environmental decision support systems, because of its performance, flexibility, scalability and economy.

MODIS-Based Products for Operational Decision Support Systems, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — SMH Consulting proposes to develop a web-based decision support system to assist in Rapid Assessment, Monitoring, and Management (RAMM-DSS) on a regional scale. SMH...

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....

Knowledge bases, clinical decision support systems, and rapid learning in oncology.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Peter Paul

2015-03-01

One of the most important benefits of health information technology is to assist the cognitive process of the human mind in the face of vast amounts of health data, limited time for decision making, and the complexity of the patient with cancer. Clinical decision support tools are frequently cited as a technologic solution to this problem, but to date useful clinical decision support systems (CDSS) have been limited in utility and implementation. This article describes three unique sources of health data that underlie fundamentally different types of knowledge bases which feed into CDSS. CDSS themselves comprise a variety of models which are discussed. The relationship of knowledge bases and CDSS to rapid learning health systems design is critical as CDSS are essential drivers of rapid learning in clinical care. Copyright © 2015 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Maintenance planning support method for nuclear power plants based on collective decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, Shunichi; Sakurai, Shoji; Takaoka, Kazushi; Kanemoto, Shigeru; Fukutomi, Shigeki

1992-01-01

Inspection and maintenance planning in nuclear power plants is conducted by decision making based on experts' collective consensus. However, since a great deal of time and effort is required to reach a consensus among expert judgments, the establishment of effective decision making methods is necessary. Therefore, the authors developed a method for supporting collective decision making, based on a combination of three types of decision making methods; the Characteristic Diagram method, Interpretative Structural Modeling method, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process method. The proposed method enables us to determine the evaluation criteria systematically for collective decision making, and also allows extracting collective decisions using simplified questionnaires. The proposed method can support reaching a consensus of groups effectively through the evaluation of collective decision structural models and their characteristics. In this paper, the effectiveness of the proposed method was demonstrated through its application to the decision making problem concerning whether or not the improved ultrasonic testing equipment should be adopted at nuclear power plants. (author)

Model based decision support for planning of road maintenance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Harten, Aart; Worm, J.M.; Worm, J.M.

1996-01-01

In this article we describe a Decision Support Model, based on Operational Research methods, for the multi-period planning of maintenance of bituminous pavements. This model is a tool for the road manager to assist in generating an optimal maintenance plan for a road. Optimal means: minimising the

EMDS users guide (version 2.0): knowledge-based decision support for ecological assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Keith M. Reynolds

1999-01-01

The USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon, has developed the ecosystem management decision support (EMDS) system. The system integrates the logical formalism of knowledge-based reasoning into a geographic information system (GIS) environment to provide decision support for ecological landscape assessment and evaluation. The...

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)

Experiential Knowledge Complements an LCA-Based Decision Support Framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heng Yi Teah

2015-09-01

Full Text Available A shrimp farmer in Taiwan practices innovation through trial-and-error for better income and a better environment, but such farmer-based innovation sometimes fails because the biological mechanism is unclear. Systematic field experimentation and laboratory research are often too costly, and simulating ground conditions is often too challenging. To solve this dilemma, we propose a decision support framework that explicitly utilizes farmer experiential knowledge through a participatory approach to alternatively estimate prospective change in shrimp farming productivity, and to co-design options for improvement. Data obtained from the farmer enable us to quantitatively analyze the production cost and greenhouse gas (GHG emission with a life cycle assessment (LCA methodology. We used semi-quantitative graphical representations of indifference curves and mixing triangles to compare and show better options for the farmer. Our results empower the farmer to make decisions more systematically and reliably based on the frequency of heterotrophic bacteria application and the revision of feed input. We argue that experiential knowledge may be less accurate due to its dependence on varying levels of farmer experience, but this knowledge is a reasonable alternative for immediate decision-making. More importantly, our developed framework advances the scope of LCA application to support practically important yet scientifically uncertain cases.

The value of precision for image-based decision support in weed management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Franco de los Ríos, Camilo; Pedersen, Søren Marcus; Papaharalampos, Haris

2017-01-01

Decision support methodologies in precision agriculture should integrate the different dimensions composing the added complexity of operational decision problems. Special attention has to be given to the adequate knowledge extraction techniques for making sense of the collected data, processing...... the information for assessing decision makers and farmers in the efficient and sustainable management of the field. Focusing on weed management, the integration of operational aspects for weed spraying is an open challenge for modeling the farmers’ decision problem, identifying satisfactory solutions...... for the implementation of automatic weed recognition procedures. The objective of this paper is to develop a decision support methodology for detecting the undesired weed from aerial images, building an image-based viewpoint consisting in relevant operational knowledge for applying precision spraying. In this way...

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.

Web-Based Virtual Environments for Decision Support in Water Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhu, X.

2013-01-01

Computer graphics and scientific visualization are fields of computational science that have evolved rapidly over the past decades. Scientific visualization has become an important technology in serious gaming and science-based decision support. Water management is a complex process dealing with a

Artificial intelligence based decision support for trumpeter swan management

Science.gov (United States)

Sojda, Richard S.

2002-01-01

The number of trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) breeding in the Tri-State area where Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming come together has declined to just a few hundred pairs. However, these birds are part of the Rocky Mountain Population which additionally has over 3,500 birds breeding in Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, and Yukon Territory. To a large degree, these birds seem to have abandoned traditional migratory pathways in the flyway. Waterfowl managers have been interested in decision support tools that would help them explore simulated management scenarios in their quest towards reaching population recovery and the reestablishment of traditional migratory pathways. I have developed a decision support system to assist biologists with such management, especially related to wetland ecology. Decision support systems use a combination of models, analytical techniques, and information retrieval to help develop and evaluate appropriate alternatives. Swan management is a domain that is ecologically complex, and this complexity is compounded by spatial and temporal issues. As such, swan management is an inherently distributed problem. Therefore, the ecological context for modeling swan movements in response to management actions was built as a multiagent system of interacting intelligent agents that implements a queuing model representing swan migration. These agents accessed ecological knowledge about swans, their habitats, and flyway management principles from three independent expert systems. The agents were autonomous, had some sensory capability, and could respond to changing conditions. A key problem when developing ecological decision support systems is empirically determining that the recommendations provided are valid. Because Rocky Mountain trumpeter swans have been surveyed for a long period of time, I was able to compare simulated distributions provided by the system with actual field observations across 20 areas for the period 1988

Fuzzy Reasoning as a Base for Collision Avoidance Decision Support System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

tanja brcko

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Despite the generally high qualifications of seafarers, many maritime accidents are caused by human error; such accidents include capsizing, collision, and fire, and often result in pollution. Enough concern has been generated that researchers around the world have developed the study of the human factor into an independent scientific discipline. A great deal of progress has been made, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence. But since total autonomy is not yet expedient, the decision support systems based on soft computing are proposed to support human navigators and VTS operators in times of crisis as well as during the execution of everyday tasks as a means of reducing risk levels.This paper considers a decision support system based on fuzzy logic integrated into an existing bridge collision avoidance system. The main goal is to determine the appropriate course of avoidance, using fuzzy reasoning.

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)

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....

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

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.

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.

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.

Generating Big Data Sets from Knowledge-based Decision Support Systems to Pursue Value-based Healthcare

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arturo González-Ferrer

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Talking about Big Data in healthcare we usually refer to how to use data collected from current electronic medical records, either structured or unstructured, to answer clinically relevant questions. This operation is typically carried out by means of analytics tools (e.g. machine learning or by extracting relevant data from patient summaries through natural language processing techniques. From other perspective of research in medical informatics, powerful initiatives have emerged to help physicians taking decisions, in both diagnostics and therapeutics, built from the existing medical evidence (i.e. knowledge-based decision support systems. Much of the problems these tools have shown, when used in real clinical settings, are related to their implementation and deployment, more than failing in its support, but, technology is slowly overcoming interoperability and integration issues. Beyond the point-of-care decision support these tools can provide, the data generated when using them, even in controlled trials, could be used to further analyze facts that are traditionally ignored in the current clinical practice. In this paper, we reflect on the technologies available to make the leap and how they could help driving healthcare organizations shifting to a value-based healthcare philosophy.

Scalable software architectures for decision support.

Science.gov (United States)

Musen, M A

1999-12-01

Interest in decision-support programs for clinical medicine soared in the 1970s. Since that time, workers in medical informatics have been particularly attracted to rule-based systems as a means of providing clinical decision support. Although developers have built many successful applications using production rules, they also have discovered that creation and maintenance of large rule bases is quite problematic. In the 1980s, several groups of investigators began to explore alternative programming abstractions that can be used to build decision-support systems. As a result, the notions of "generic tasks" and of reusable problem-solving methods became extremely influential. By the 1990s, academic centers were experimenting with architectures for intelligent systems based on two classes of reusable components: (1) problem-solving methods--domain-independent algorithms for automating stereotypical tasks--and (2) domain ontologies that captured the essential concepts (and relationships among those concepts) in particular application areas. This paper highlights how developers can construct large, maintainable decision-support systems using these kinds of building blocks. The creation of domain ontologies and problem-solving methods is the fundamental end product of basic research in medical informatics. Consequently, these concepts need more attention by our scientific community.

A decision support system for planning biomass-based energy production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frombo, Francesco; Robba, Michela [DIST, Department of Communication, Computer and System Sciences, University of Genoa, Via Opera Pia 13, 16145 Genova (Italy); Renewable Energy Laboratory, Modelling and Optimization, Via A. Magliotto 2, 17100 Savona (Italy); Minciardi, Riccardo; Sacile, Roberto [DIST, Department of Communication, Computer and System Sciences, University of Genoa, Via Opera Pia 13, 16145 Genova (Italy)

2009-03-15

Environmental decision support systems (EDSS) are recognized as valuable tools for environmental planning and management. In this paper, a geographic information system (GIS)-based EDSS for the optimal planning of forest biomass use for energy production is presented. A user-friendly interface allows the creation of Scenarios and the running of the developed decision and environmental models. In particular, the optimization model regards decisions over a long-term period (e.g. years) and includes decision variables related to plant locations, conversion processes (pyrolisis, gasification, combustion), harvested biomass. Moreover, different energy products and different definitions of the harvesting and pre-treatment operations are taken into account. The correct management of the forest is considered through specific constraints, security factors, and procedures for parcel selection. The EDSS features and capabilities are described in detail, with specific reference to a case study. Discussion and further research are reported. (author)

Fuzzy Based Decision Support System for Condition Assessment and Rating of Bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Srinivas, Voggu; Sasmal, Saptarshi; Karusala, Ramanjaneyulu

2016-09-01

In this work, a knowledge based decision support system has been developed to efficiently handle the issues such as distress diagnosis, assessment of damages and condition rating of existing bridges towards developing an exclusive and robust Bridge Management System (BMS) for sustainable bridges. The Knowledge Based Expert System (KBES) diagnoses the distresses and finds the cause of distress in the bridge by processing the data which are heuristic and combined with site inspection results, laboratory test results etc. The coupling of symbolic and numeric type of data has been successfully implemented in the expert system to strengthen its decision making process. Finally, the condition rating of the bridge is carried out using the assessment results obtained from the KBES and the information received from the bridge inspector. A systematic procedure has been developed using fuzzy mathematics for condition rating of bridges by combining the fuzzy weighted average and resolution identity technique. The proposed methodologies and the decision support system will facilitate in developing a robust and exclusive BMS for a network of bridges across the country and allow the bridge engineers and decision makers to carry out maintenance of bridges in a rational and systematic way.

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.

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.

Visualization-based decision support for value-driven system design

Science.gov (United States)

Tibor, Elliott

In the past 50 years, the military, communication, and transportation systems that permeate our world, have grown exponentially in size and complexity. The development and production of these systems has seen ballooning costs and increased risk. This is particularly critical for the aerospace industry. The inability to deal with growing system complexity is a crippling force in the advancement of engineered systems. Value-Driven Design represents a paradigm shift in the field of design engineering that has potential to help counteract this trend. The philosophy of Value-Driven Design places the desires of the stakeholder at the forefront of the design process to capture true preferences and reveal system alternatives that were never previously thought possible. Modern aerospace engineering design problems are large, complex, and involve multiple levels of decision-making. To find the best design, the decision-maker is often required to analyze hundreds or thousands of combinations of design variables and attributes. Visualization can be used to support these decisions, by communicating large amounts of data in a meaningful way. Understanding the design space, the subsystem relationships, and the design uncertainties is vital to the advancement of Value-Driven Design as an accepted process for the development of more effective, efficient, robust, and elegant aerospace systems. This research investigates the use of multi-dimensional data visualization tools to support decision-making under uncertainty during the Value-Driven Design process. A satellite design system comprising a satellite, ground station, and launch vehicle is used to demonstrate effectiveness of new visualization methods to aid in decision support during complex aerospace system design. These methods are used to facilitate the exploration of the feasible design space by representing the value impact of system attribute changes and comparing the results of multi-objective optimization formulations

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

Simulation based decision support for strategic communication and marketing management concerning the consumer introduction of smart energy meters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeroen STRAGIER

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Communication and marketing professionals make strategic decisions in highly complex and dynamic contexts. These decisions are highly uncertain on the outcome and process level when, for example, consumer behaviour is at stake. Decision support systems can provide insights in these levels of uncertainty and the professional process of decision making. However, literature describing decision support tools for strategic communication and marketing management that provide clear insights in uncertainty levels is lacking. This study therefore aims at developing a consumer behaviour simulation module as an important element of such a future decision support tool. The consumer behaviour simulation we propose in this paper is based on data collected from a survey among 386 households with which a behavioural change model was calibrated. We show how various decision scenarios for strategic communication and marketing challenges can be explored and how such a simulation based decision support system can facilitate strategic communication and marketing management concerning the introduction of a smart energy meter.

Therapy Decision Support Based on Recommender System Methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Gräßer, Felix; Beckert, Stefanie; Küster, Denise; Schmitt, Jochen; Abraham, Susanne; Malberg, Hagen; Zaunseder, Sebastian

2017-01-01

We present a system for data-driven therapy decision support based on techniques from the field of recommender systems. Two methods for therapy recommendation, namely, Collaborative Recommender and Demographic-based Recommender , are proposed. Both algorithms aim to predict the individual response to different therapy options using diverse patient data and recommend the therapy which is assumed to provide the best outcome for a specific patient and time, that is, consultation. The proposed methods are evaluated using a clinical database incorporating patients suffering from the autoimmune skin disease psoriasis. The Collaborative Recommender proves to generate both better outcome predictions and recommendation quality. However, due to sparsity in the data, this approach cannot provide recommendations for the entire database. In contrast, the Demographic-based Recommender performs worse on average but covers more consultations. Consequently, both methods profit from a combination into an overall recommender system.

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.

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

The Impact of Electronic Knowledge-Based Nursing Content and Decision-Support on Nursing-Sensitive Patient Outcomes

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Behavior Observation Techniques • Clinical Nursing Research • Decision Support Systems, Clinical • Dissemination, Information • Evidence-Based...gap and getting nurses in clinical settings to use evidence to support clinical decision -making (Duffy et al. 2015; Melynk, Fineout-Overholt...patient outcomes. However, it has been shown that nurses ’ knowledge and use of best evidence for clinical decision - making is often hindered by many

Multi-criteria clinical decision support: A primer on the use of multiple criteria decision making methods to promote evidence-based, patient-centered healthcare.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolan, James G

2010-01-01

Current models of healthcare quality recommend that patient management decisions be evidence-based and patient-centered. Evidence-based decisions require a thorough understanding of current information regarding the natural history of disease and the anticipated outcomes of different management options. Patient-centered decisions incorporate patient preferences, values, and unique personal circumstances into the decision making process and actively involve both patients along with health care providers as much as possible. Fundamentally, therefore, evidence-based, patient-centered decisions are multi-dimensional and typically involve multiple decision makers.Advances in the decision sciences have led to the development of a number of multiple criteria decision making methods. These multi-criteria methods are designed to help people make better choices when faced with complex decisions involving several dimensions. They are especially helpful when there is a need to combine "hard data" with subjective preferences, to make trade-offs between desired outcomes, and to involve multiple decision makers. Evidence-based, patient-centered clinical decision making has all of these characteristics. This close match suggests that clinical decision support systems based on multi-criteria decision making techniques have the potential to enable patients and providers to carry out the tasks required to implement evidence-based, patient-centered care effectively and efficiently in clinical settings.The goal of this paper is to give readers a general introduction to the range of multi-criteria methods available and show how they could be used to support clinical decision-making. Methods discussed include the balance sheet, the even swap method, ordinal ranking methods, direct weighting methods, multi-attribute decision analysis, and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

A dynamic Bayesian network based approach to safety decision support in tunnel construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Xianguo; Liu, Huitao; Zhang, Limao; Skibniewski, Miroslaw J.; Deng, Qianli; Teng, Jiaying

2015-01-01

This paper presents a systemic decision approach with step-by-step procedures based on dynamic Bayesian network (DBN), aiming to provide guidelines for dynamic safety analysis of the tunnel-induced road surface damage over time. The proposed DBN-based approach can accurately illustrate the dynamic and updated feature of geological, design and mechanical variables as the construction progress evolves, in order to overcome deficiencies of traditional fault analysis methods. Adopting the predictive, sensitivity and diagnostic analysis techniques in the DBN inference, this approach is able to perform feed-forward, concurrent and back-forward control respectively on a quantitative basis, and provide real-time support before and after an accident. A case study in relating to dynamic safety analysis in the construction of Wuhan Yangtze Metro Tunnel in China is used to verify the feasibility of the proposed approach, as well as its application potential. The relationships between the DBN-based and BN-based approaches are further discussed according to analysis results. The proposed approach can be used as a decision tool to provide support for safety analysis in tunnel construction, and thus increase the likelihood of a successful project in a dynamic project environment. - Highlights: • A dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) based approach for safety decision support is developed. • This approach is able to perform feed-forward, concurrent and back-forward analysis and control. • A case concerning dynamic safety analysis in Wuhan Yangtze Metro Tunnel in China is presented. • DBN-based approach can perform a higher accuracy than traditional static BN-based approach

A Decision Support System Based on Genetic Algorithm (Case Study: Scheduling in Supply Chain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Ali Beheheshtinia

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, the application of effective and efficient decisions on complex issues require the use of decision support systems. This Paper provided a decision support system based on the genetic algorithm for production and transportation scheduling problem in a supply chain. It is assumed that there are number of orders that should be produced by suppliers and should be transported to the plant by a transportation fleet. The aim is to assign orders to the suppliers, specify the order of their production, allocate processed orders to the vehicles for transport and to arrange them in a way that minimizes the total delivery time. It has been shown that the complexity of the problem was related to Np-hard and there was no possibility of using accurate methods to solve the problem in a reasonable time. So, the genetic algorithm was used in this paper to solve the problem. By using this decision support system, a new approach to supply chain management was proposed. The analysis of the approach proposed in this study compared to the conventional approaches by the decision support system indicated the preference of our proposed approach

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.

Towards An Intelligent Model-Based Decision Support System For An Integrated Oil Company (EGPC)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khorshid, M.; Hassan, H.; Abdel Latife, M.A.

2004-01-01

Decision Support System (DSS) is an interactive, flexible and adaptable computer-based support system specially developed for supporting the solution of unstructured management problems [31] DSS has become widespread for oil industry domain in recent years. The computer-based DSS, which were developed and implemented in oil industry, are used to address the complex short-term planning and operational issues associated with downstream industry. Most of these applications concentrate on the data-centered tools, while the model-centered applications of DSS are still very limited up till now [20]. This study develops an Intelligent Model-Based DSS for an integrated oil company, to help policy makers and petroleum planner in improving the effectiveness of the strategic planning in oil sector. This domain basically imposes semi-structured or unstructured decisions and involves a very complex modeling process

Knowledge-based dialogue in Intelligent Decision Support Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hollnagel, E.

1987-01-01

The overall goal for the design of Intelligent Decision Support Systems (IDSS) is to enhance understanding of the process under all operating conditions. For an IDSS to be effective, it must: select or generate the right information; produce reliable and consistent information; allow flexible and effective operator interaction; relate information presentation to current plant status and problems; and make the presentation at the right time. Several ongoing R and D programs try to design and build IDSSs. A particular example is the ESPRIT project Graphics and Knowledge Based Diaglogue for Dynamic Systems (GRADIENT). This project, the problems it addresses, and its uses, are discussed here

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.

Therapy Decision Support Based on Recommender System Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felix Gräßer

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We present a system for data-driven therapy decision support based on techniques from the field of recommender systems. Two methods for therapy recommendation, namely, Collaborative Recommender and Demographic-based Recommender, are proposed. Both algorithms aim to predict the individual response to different therapy options using diverse patient data and recommend the therapy which is assumed to provide the best outcome for a specific patient and time, that is, consultation. The proposed methods are evaluated using a clinical database incorporating patients suffering from the autoimmune skin disease psoriasis. The Collaborative Recommender proves to generate both better outcome predictions and recommendation quality. However, due to sparsity in the data, this approach cannot provide recommendations for the entire database. In contrast, the Demographic-based Recommender performs worse on average but covers more consultations. Consequently, both methods profit from a combination into an overall recommender system.

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....

A risk-based model for maintenance decision support of civil structures using RAMS

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Viana Da Rocha, T. C.; Stipanovic, I.; Hartmann, A.; Bakker, J.

2017-01-01

As a cornerstone of transportation asset management, risk-based approaches have been used to support maintenance decisions of civil structures. However, ambiguous and subjective risk criteria and inconsistency on the use of risk-based approaches can lead to a fuzzy understanding of the risks

A Decision Support Framework for Science-Based, Multi-Stakeholder Deliberation: A Coral Reef Example

Science.gov (United States)

Rehr, Amanda P.; Small, Mitchell J.; Bradley, Patricia; Fisher, William S.; Vega, Ann; Black, Kelly; Stockton, Tom

2012-12-01

We present a decision support framework for science-based assessment and multi-stakeholder deliberation. The framework consists of two parts: a DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses) analysis to identify the important causal relationships among anthropogenic environmental stressors, processes, and outcomes; and a Decision Landscape analysis to depict the legal, social, and institutional dimensions of environmental decisions. The Decision Landscape incorporates interactions among government agencies, regulated businesses, non-government organizations, and other stakeholders. It also identifies where scientific information regarding environmental processes is collected and transmitted to improve knowledge about elements of the DPSIR and to improve the scientific basis for decisions. Our application of the decision support framework to coral reef protection and restoration in the Florida Keys focusing on anthropogenic stressors, such as wastewater, proved to be successful and offered several insights. Using information from a management plan, it was possible to capture the current state of the science with a DPSIR analysis as well as important decision options, decision makers and applicable laws with a the Decision Landscape analysis. A structured elicitation of values and beliefs conducted at a coral reef management workshop held in Key West, Florida provided a diversity of opinion and also indicated a prioritization of several environmental stressors affecting coral reef health. The integrated DPSIR/Decision landscape framework for the Florida Keys developed based on the elicited opinion and the DPSIR analysis can be used to inform management decisions, to reveal the role that further scientific information and research might play to populate the framework, and to facilitate better-informed agreement among participants.

Adaptive Training and Collective Decision Support Based on Man-Machine Interface

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-02

Based on Man -machine Interface The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report are those of the author(s) and should not contrued as an...ADDRESS (ES) U.S. Army Research Office P.O. Box 12211 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211 adaptive training, EEG, man -machine interface...non peer-reviewed journals: Final Report: Adaptive Training and Collective Decision Support Based on Man -machine Interface Report Title The existence of

Enhancing guideline-based decision support with distributed computation through local mobile application

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shalom, Erez; Shahar, Yuval; Goldstein, Ayelet; Ariel, Elior; Quaglini, Silvana; Sacchi, Lucia; Fung, L.S.N.; Jones, Valerie M.; Broens, T.H.F.; García-Sáez, Gema; Hernando, Elena

2014-01-01

We introduce the need for a distributed guideline-based decision support (DSS) process, describe its characteristics, and explain how we implemented this process within the European Union’s MobiGuide project. In particular, we have developed a mechanism of sequential, piecemeal projection, i.e.,

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...

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...

Integrating clinicians, knowledge and data: expert-based cooperative analysis in healthcare decision support.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibert, Karina; García-Alonso, Carlos; Salvador-Carulla, Luis

2010-09-30

Decision support in health systems is a highly difficult task, due to the inherent complexity of the process and structures involved. This paper introduces a new hybrid methodology Expert-based Cooperative Analysis (EbCA), which incorporates explicit prior expert knowledge in data analysis methods, and elicits implicit or tacit expert knowledge (IK) to improve decision support in healthcare systems. EbCA has been applied to two different case studies, showing its usability and versatility: 1) Bench-marking of small mental health areas based on technical efficiency estimated by EbCA-Data Envelopment Analysis (EbCA-DEA), and 2) Case-mix of schizophrenia based on functional dependency using Clustering Based on Rules (ClBR). In both cases comparisons towards classical procedures using qualitative explicit prior knowledge were made. Bayesian predictive validity measures were used for comparison with expert panels results. Overall agreement was tested by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient in case "1" and kappa in both cases. EbCA is a new methodology composed by 6 steps:. 1) Data collection and data preparation; 2) acquisition of "Prior Expert Knowledge" (PEK) and design of the "Prior Knowledge Base" (PKB); 3) PKB-guided analysis; 4) support-interpretation tools to evaluate results and detect inconsistencies (here Implicit Knowledg -IK- might be elicited); 5) incorporation of elicited IK in PKB and repeat till a satisfactory solution; 6) post-processing results for decision support. EbCA has been useful for incorporating PEK in two different analysis methods (DEA and Clustering), applied respectively to assess technical efficiency of small mental health areas and for case-mix of schizophrenia based on functional dependency. Differences in results obtained with classical approaches were mainly related to the IK which could be elicited by using EbCA and had major implications for the decision making in both cases. This paper presents EbCA and shows the convenience of

Integrating clinicians, knowledge and data: expert-based cooperative analysis in healthcare decision support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

García-Alonso Carlos

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Decision support in health systems is a highly difficult task, due to the inherent complexity of the process and structures involved. Method This paper introduces a new hybrid methodology Expert-based Cooperative Analysis (EbCA, which incorporates explicit prior expert knowledge in data analysis methods, and elicits implicit or tacit expert knowledge (IK to improve decision support in healthcare systems. EbCA has been applied to two different case studies, showing its usability and versatility: 1 Bench-marking of small mental health areas based on technical efficiency estimated by EbCA-Data Envelopment Analysis (EbCA-DEA, and 2 Case-mix of schizophrenia based on functional dependency using Clustering Based on Rules (ClBR. In both cases comparisons towards classical procedures using qualitative explicit prior knowledge were made. Bayesian predictive validity measures were used for comparison with expert panels results. Overall agreement was tested by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient in case "1" and kappa in both cases. Results EbCA is a new methodology composed by 6 steps:. 1 Data collection and data preparation; 2 acquisition of "Prior Expert Knowledge" (PEK and design of the "Prior Knowledge Base" (PKB; 3 PKB-guided analysis; 4 support-interpretation tools to evaluate results and detect inconsistencies (here Implicit Knowledg -IK- might be elicited; 5 incorporation of elicited IK in PKB and repeat till a satisfactory solution; 6 post-processing results for decision support. EbCA has been useful for incorporating PEK in two different analysis methods (DEA and Clustering, applied respectively to assess technical efficiency of small mental health areas and for case-mix of schizophrenia based on functional dependency. Differences in results obtained with classical approaches were mainly related to the IK which could be elicited by using EbCA and had major implications for the decision making in both cases. Discussion This

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...

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

A task-based support architecture for developing point-of-care clinical decision support systems for the emergency department.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilk, S; Michalowski, W; O'Sullivan, D; Farion, K; Sayyad-Shirabad, J; Kuziemsky, C; Kukawka, B

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to create a task-based support architecture for developing clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) that assist physicians in making decisions at the point-of-care in the emergency department (ED). The backbone of the proposed architecture was established by a task-based emergency workflow model for a patient-physician encounter. The architecture was designed according to an agent-oriented paradigm. Specifically, we used the O-MaSE (Organization-based Multi-agent System Engineering) method that allows for iterative translation of functional requirements into architectural components (e.g., agents). The agent-oriented paradigm was extended with ontology-driven design to implement ontological models representing knowledge required by specific agents to operate. The task-based architecture allows for the creation of a CDSS that is aligned with the task-based emergency workflow model. It facilitates decoupling of executable components (agents) from embedded domain knowledge (ontological models), thus supporting their interoperability, sharing, and reuse. The generic architecture was implemented as a pilot system, MET3-AE--a CDSS to help with the management of pediatric asthma exacerbation in the ED. The system was evaluated in a hospital ED. The architecture allows for the creation of a CDSS that integrates support for all tasks from the task-based emergency workflow model, and interacts with hospital information systems. Proposed architecture also allows for reusing and sharing system components and knowledge across disease-specific CDSSs.

The Research of Clinical Decision Support System Based on Three-Layer Knowledge Base Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yicheng Jiang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In many clinical decision support systems, a two-layer knowledge base model (disease-symptom of rule reasoning is used. This model often does not express knowledge very well since it simply infers disease from the presence of certain symptoms. In this study, we propose a three-layer knowledge base model (disease-symptom-property to utilize more useful information in inference. The system iteratively calculates the probability of patients who may suffer from diseases based on a multisymptom naive Bayes algorithm, in which the specificity of these disease symptoms is weighted by the estimation of the degree of contribution to diagnose the disease. It significantly reduces the dependencies between attributes to apply the naive Bayes algorithm more properly. Then, the online learning process for parameter optimization of the inference engine was completed. At last, our decision support system utilizing the three-layer model was formally evaluated by two experienced doctors. By comparisons between prediction results and clinical results, our system can provide effective clinical recommendations to doctors. Moreover, we found that the three-layer model can improve the accuracy of predictions compared with the two-layer model. In light of some of the limitations of this study, we also identify and discuss several areas that need continued improvement.

Integrated environmental decision support tool based on GIS technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doctor, P.G.; O'Neil, T.K.; Sackschewsky, M.R.; Becker, J.M.; Rykiel, E.J.; Walters, T.B.; Brandt, C.A.; Hall, J.A.

1995-01-01

Environmental restoration and management decisions facing the US Department of Energy require balancing trade-offs between diverse land uses and impacts over multiple spatial and temporal scales. Many types of environmental data have been collected for the Hanford Site and the Columbia River in Washington State over the past fifty years. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is integrating these data into a Geographic Information System (GIS) based computer decision support tool. This tool provides a comprehensive and concise description of the current environmental landscape that can be used to evaluate the ecological and monetary trade-offs between future land use, restoration and remediation options before action is taken. Ecological impacts evaluated include effects to individual species of concern and habitat loss and fragmentation. Monetary impacts include those associated with habitat mitigation. The tool is organized as both a browsing tool for educational purposes, and as a framework that leads a project manager through the steps needed to be in compliance with environmental requirements

Free and open source enabling technologies for patient-centric, guideline-based clinical decision support: a survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Leong, T Y; Kaiser, K; Miksch, S

2007-01-01

Guideline-based clinical decision support is an emerging paradigm to help reduce error, lower cost, and improve quality in evidence-based medicine. The free and open source (FOS) approach is a promising alternative for delivering cost-effective information technology (IT) solutions in health care. In this paper, we survey the current FOS enabling technologies for patient-centric, guideline-based care, and discuss the current trends and future directions of their role in clinical decision support. We searched PubMed, major biomedical informatics websites, and the web in general for papers and links related to FOS health care IT systems. We also relied on our background and knowledge for specific subtopics. We focused on the functionalities of guideline modeling tools, and briefly examined the supporting technologies for terminology, data exchange and electronic health record (EHR) standards. To effectively support patient-centric, guideline-based care, the computerized guidelines and protocols need to be integrated with existing clinical information systems or EHRs. Technologies that enable such integration should be accessible, interoperable, and scalable. A plethora of FOS tools and techniques for supporting different knowledge management and quality assurance tasks involved are available. Many challenges, however, remain in their implementation. There are active and growing trends of deploying FOS enabling technologies for integrating clinical guidelines, protocols, and pathways into the main care processes. The continuing development and maturation of such technologies are likely to make increasingly significant contributions to patient-centric, guideline-based clinical decision support.

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...

A study on spatial decision support systems for HIV/AIDS prevention based on COM GIS technology

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Kun; Luo, Huasong; Peng, Shungyun; Xu, Quanli

2007-06-01

Based on the deeply analysis of the current status and the existing problems of GIS technology applications in Epidemiology, this paper has proposed the method and process for establishing the spatial decision support systems of AIDS epidemic prevention by integrating the COM GIS, Spatial Database, GPS, Remote Sensing, and Communication technologies, as well as ASP and ActiveX software development technologies. One of the most important issues for constructing the spatial decision support systems of AIDS epidemic prevention is how to integrate the AIDS spreading models with GIS. The capabilities of GIS applications in the AIDS epidemic prevention have been described here in this paper firstly. Then some mature epidemic spreading models have also been discussed for extracting the computation parameters. Furthermore, a technical schema has been proposed for integrating the AIDS spreading models with GIS and relevant geospatial technologies, in which the GIS and model running platforms share a common spatial database and the computing results can be spatially visualized on Desktop or Web GIS clients. Finally, a complete solution for establishing the decision support systems of AIDS epidemic prevention has been offered in this paper based on the model integrating methods and ESRI COM GIS software packages. The general decision support systems are composed of data acquisition sub-systems, network communication sub-systems, model integrating sub-systems, AIDS epidemic information spatial database sub-systems, AIDS epidemic information querying and statistical analysis sub-systems, AIDS epidemic dynamic surveillance sub-systems, AIDS epidemic information spatial analysis and decision support sub-systems, as well as AIDS epidemic information publishing sub-systems based on Web GIS.

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

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.

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 system based on DPSIR framework for a low flow Mediterranean river basin

Science.gov (United States)

Bangash, Rubab Fatima; Kumar, Vikas; Schuhmacher, Marta

2013-04-01

The application of decision making practices are effectively enhanced by adopting a procedural approach setting out a general methodological framework within which specific methods, models and tools can be integrated. Integrated Catchment Management is a process that recognizes the river catchment as a basic organizing unit for understanding and managing ecosystem process. Decision support system becomes more complex by considering unavoidable human activities within a catchment that are motivated by multiple and often competing criteria and/or constraints. DPSIR is a causal framework for describing the interactions between society and the environment. This framework has been adopted by the European Environment Agency and the components of this model are: Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses. The proposed decision support system is a two step framework based on DPSIR. Considering first three component of DPSIR, Driving forces, Pressures and States, hydrological and ecosystem services models are developed. The last two components, Impact and Responses, helped to develop Bayesian Network to integrate the models. This decision support system also takes account of social, economic and environmental aspects. A small river of Catalonia (Northeastern Spain), Francoli River with a low flow (~2 m3/s) is selected for integration of catchment assessment models and to improve knowledge transfer from research to the stakeholders with a view to improve decision making process. DHI's MIKE BASIN software is used to evaluate the low-flow Francolí River with respect to the water bodies' characteristics and also to assess the impact of human activities aiming to achieve good water status for all waters to comply with the WFD's River Basin Management Plan. Based on ArcGIS, MIKE BASIN is a versatile decision support tool that provides a simple and powerful framework for managers and stakeholders to address multisectoral allocation and environmental issues in river

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

Project management in mine actions using Multi-Criteria-Analysis-based decision support system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marko Mladineo

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a Web-based Decision Support System (Web DSS, that supports humanitarian demining operations and restoration of mine-contaminated areas, is presented. The financial shortage usually triggers a need for priority setting in Project Management in Mine actions. As part of the FP7 Project TIRAMISU, a specialized Web DSS has been developed to achieve a fully transparent priority setting process. It allows stakeholders and donors to actively join the decision making process using a user-friendly and intuitive Web application. The main advantage of this Web DSS is its unique way of managing a mine action project using Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA, namely the PROMETHEE method, in order to select priorities for demining actions. The developed Web DSS allows decision makers to use several predefined scenarios (different criteria weights or to develop their own, so it allows project managers to compare different demining possibilities with ease.

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM AND REMOTE SENSING BASED DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND DECISION SUPPORT PLATFORM: AYDES

OpenAIRE

Keskin, İ.; Akbaba, N.; Tosun, M.; Tüfekçi, M. K.; Bulut, D.; Avcı, F.; Gökçe, O.

2018-01-01

The accelerated developments in information technology in recent years, increased the amount of usage of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) in disaster management considerably and the access from mobile and web-based platforms to continuous, accurate and sufficient data needed for decision-making became easier accordingly. The Disaster Management and Decision Support System (AYDES) has been developed with the purpose of managing the disaster and emergency manageme...

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.

How Feedback Can Improve Managerial Evaluations of Model-based Marketing Decision Support Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

U. Kayande (Ujwal); A. de Bruyn (Arnoud); G.L. Lilien (Gary); A. Rangaswamy (Arvind); G.H. van Bruggen (Gerrit)

2006-01-01

textabstractMarketing managers often provide much poorer evaluations of model-based marketing decision support systems (MDSSs) than are warranted by the objective performance of those systems. We show that a reason for this discrepant evaluation may be that MDSSs are often not designed to help users

A Web-Based Model for Diabetes Education and Decision Support for the Home Care Nurse

OpenAIRE

Hill, Michelle; Kirby, Judy

1998-01-01

Diabetes education for the home care population requires expert knowledge to be available at the point-of-care, the patient's home. This poster displays a model for Web-based diabetes education and decision support for the home care nurse. The system utilizes the line of reasoning (LOR) model to organize and represent expert decision-making thought processes.

Promotion of new wind farms based on a decision support system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ramirez-Rosado, Ignacio J.; Garcia-Garrido, Eduardo; Fernandez-Jimenez, L. Alfredo; Zorzano-Santamaria, Pedro J. [Department of Electrical Engineering, University of La Rioja, Logrono (Spain); Monteiro, Claudio; Miranda, Vladimiro [FEUP, Faculty of Engenharia, University of Porto, and INESC - Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores do Porto, Porto (Portugal)

2008-04-15

The integration in electric power networks of new renewable energy facilities is the final result of a complex planning process. One of the important objectives of this process is the selection of suitable geographical locations where such facilities can be built. This selection procedure can be a difficult task because of the initially opposing positions of the different agents involved in this procedure, such as, for example, investors, utilities, governmental agencies or social groups. The conflicting interest of the agents can delay or block the construction of new facilities. This paper presents a new decision support system, based on Geographic Information Systems, designed to overcome the problems posed by the agents and thus achieve a consensual selection of locations and overcome the problems deriving from their preliminary differing preferences. This paper presents the description of the decision support system, as well as the results obtained for two groups of agents useful for the selection of locations for the construction of new wind farms in La Rioja (Spain). (author)

A Decision Support Framework For Science-Based, Multi-Stakeholder Deliberation: A Coral Reef Example

Science.gov (United States)

We present a decision support framework for science-based assessment and multi-stakeholder deliberation. The framework consists of two parts: a DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses) analysis to identify the important causal relationships among anthropogenic environ...

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

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

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...

An open-loop, physiologic model-based decision support system can provide appropriate ventilator settings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karbing, Dan Stieper; Spadaro, Savino; Dey, Nilanjan

2018-01-01

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the physiologic effects of applying advice on mechanical ventilation by an open-loop, physiologic model-based clinical decision support system. DESIGN: Prospective, observational study. SETTING: University and Regional Hospitals' ICUs. PATIENTS: Varied adult ICU population...

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...

Decision Support System Requirements Definition for Human Extravehicular Activity Based on Cognitive Work Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Matthew James; McGuire, Kerry M; Feigh, Karen M

2017-06-01

The design and adoption of decision support systems within complex work domains is a challenge for cognitive systems engineering (CSE) practitioners, particularly at the onset of project development. This article presents an example of applying CSE techniques to derive design requirements compatible with traditional systems engineering to guide decision support system development. Specifically, it demonstrates the requirements derivation process based on cognitive work analysis for a subset of human spaceflight operations known as extravehicular activity . The results are presented in two phases. First, a work domain analysis revealed a comprehensive set of work functions and constraints that exist in the extravehicular activity work domain. Second, a control task analysis was performed on a subset of the work functions identified by the work domain analysis to articulate the translation of subject matter states of knowledge to high-level decision support system requirements. This work emphasizes an incremental requirements specification process as a critical component of CSE analyses to better situate CSE perspectives within the early phases of traditional systems engineering design.

A distributed clinical decision support system architecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shaker H. El-Sappagh

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an open and distributed clinical decision support system architecture. This technical architecture takes advantage of Electronic Health Record (EHR, data mining techniques, clinical databases, domain expert knowledge bases, available technologies and standards to provide decision-making support for healthcare professionals. The architecture will work extremely well in distributed EHR environments in which each hospital has its own local EHR, and it satisfies the compatibility, interoperability and scalability objectives of an EHR. The system will also have a set of distributed knowledge bases. Each knowledge base will be specialized in a specific domain (i.e., heart disease, and the model achieves cooperation, integration and interoperability between these knowledge bases. Moreover, the model ensures that all knowledge bases are up-to-date by connecting data mining engines to each local knowledge base. These data mining engines continuously mine EHR databases to extract the most recent knowledge, to standardize it and to add it to the knowledge bases. This framework is expected to improve the quality of healthcare, reducing medical errors and guaranteeing the safety of patients by helping clinicians to make correct, accurate, knowledgeable and timely decisions.

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

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.

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...

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.

Decision Support for Mental Health: Towards the Information-based Psychiatry

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kalina, Jan; Zvárová, Jana

2014-01-01

Roč. 4, č. 2 (2014), s. 53-65 ISSN 1947-3133 Grant - others:GA MŠk(CZ) ED2.1.00/03.0078 Institutional support: RVO:67985807 Keywords : big data * classification rule * decision support systems * e-health * mental health care Subject RIV: IN - Informatics, Computer Science

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...

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.

Developing an Ontology-Based Rollover Monitoring and Decision Support System for Engineering Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feixiang Xu

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The increasing number of rollover accidents of engineering vehicles has attracted close attention; however, most researchers focus on the analysis and monitoring of rollover stability indexes and seldom the assessment and decision support for the rollover risk of engineering vehicles. In this context, an ontology-based rollover monitoring and decision support system for engineering vehicles is proposed. The ontology model is built for representing monitored rollover stability data with semantic properties and for constructing semantic relevance among the various concepts involved in the rollover domain. On the basis of this, ontology querying and reasoning methods based on the Simple Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL and Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL rules are utilized to realize the rollover risk assessment and to obtain suggested measures. PC and mobile applications (APPs have also been developed to implement the above methods. In addition, five sets of rollover stability data for an articulated off-road engineering vehicle under different working conditions were analyzed to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed system.

Privacy-preserving clinical decision support system using Gaussian kernel-based classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahulamathavan, Yogachandran; Veluru, Suresh; Phan, Raphael C-W; Chambers, Jonathon A; Rajarajan, Muttukrishnan

2014-01-01

A clinical decision support system forms a critical capability to link health observations with health knowledge to influence choices by clinicians for improved healthcare. Recent trends toward remote outsourcing can be exploited to provide efficient and accurate clinical decision support in healthcare. In this scenario, clinicians can use the health knowledge located in remote servers via the Internet to diagnose their patients. However, the fact that these servers are third party and therefore potentially not fully trusted raises possible privacy concerns. In this paper, we propose a novel privacy-preserving protocol for a clinical decision support system where the patients' data always remain in an encrypted form during the diagnosis process. Hence, the server involved in the diagnosis process is not able to learn any extra knowledge about the patient's data and results. Our experimental results on popular medical datasets from UCI-database demonstrate that the accuracy of the proposed protocol is up to 97.21% and the privacy of patient data is not compromised.

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.

Dacfood: a knowledge-based system for decision support in case of radiological contamination of foodstuffs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diaz, A.; Despres, A.; Soulatges, D.

1991-01-01

In case of radiological contamination of foodstuffs, the introduction of a countermeasure has to be justified by balancing its advantages and drawbacks, as recommended by ICRP. Also, to provide authorities with information about the decision context, it has been decided to develop a Decision Support System (DSS). A knowledge-based approach is used for the DSS. Indeed, it allows: . better modelling thanks to, for instance, object oriented programming and rules, . ability to introduce more knowledge thanks to an easier consistency and validity control of the knowledge base, . handling of uncertainties (incomplete, uncertain or evolving knowledge). The present state of the system is presented. DACFOOD is a decision aiding system for contamined foodstuffs, based on a knowledge-based approach. A demonstration model has been developed in a post-Chernobyl CEC research program. It evaluates the sanitary situation, the alternative actions through costs and sanitary effects, and gives information on the decisional background

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)

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

Critical care nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists interface patterns with computer-based decision support systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Weber, Scott

2007-11-01

The purposes of this review are to examine the types of clinical decision support systems in use and to identify patterns of how critical care advanced practice nurses (APNs) have integrated these systems into their nursing care patient management practices. The decision-making process itself is analyzed with a focus on how automated systems attempt to capture and reflect human decisional processes in critical care nursing, including how systems actually organize and process information to create outcome estimations based on patient clinical indicators and prognosis logarithms. Characteristics of APN clinicians and implications of these characteristics on decision system use, based on the body of decision system user research, are introduced. A review of the Medline, Ovid, CINAHL, and PubMed literature databases was conducted using "clinical decision support systems,"computerized clinical decision making," and "APNs"; an examination of components of several major clinical decision systems was also undertaken. Use patterns among APNs and other clinicians appear to vary; there is a need for original research to examine how APNs actually use these systems in their practices in critical care settings. Because APNs are increasingly responsible for admission to, and transfer from, critical care settings, more understanding is needed on how they interact with this technology and how they see automated decision systems impacting their practices. APNs who practice in critical care settings vary significantly in how they use the clinical decision systems that are in operation in their practice settings. These APNs must have an understanding of their use patterns with these systems and should critically assess whether their patient care decision making is affected by the technology.

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

Use of decision criteria based on expected values to support decision-making in a production assurance and safety setting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aven, T.; Flage, R.

2009-01-01

We consider decision problems related to production assurance and safety. The issue is to what extent we should use decision criteria based on expected values, such as the expected net present value (E[NPV]) and the expected cost per expected number of saved lives (ICAF), to guide the decision. Such criteria are recognised as practical tools for supporting decision-making under uncertainty, but is uncertainty adequately taken into account by these criteria? Based on the prevailing practice and the existing literature, we conclude that there is a need for a clarification of the rationale of these criteria. Adjustments of the standard approaches have been suggested to reflect risks and uncertainties, but can cautionary and precautionary concerns be replaced by formulae and mechanical procedures? These issues are discussed in the present paper, particularly addressing the company level. We argue that the search for such formulae and procedures should be replaced by a more balanced perspective acknowledging that there will always be a need for management review and judgment beyond the realm of the analyses. Most of the suggested adjustments of the E[NPV] and ICAF approaches should be avoided. They add more confusion than value.

GIS-based spatial decision support system for grain logistics management

Science.gov (United States)

Zhen, Tong; Ge, Hongyi; Jiang, Yuying; Che, Yi

2010-07-01

Grain logistics is the important component of the social logistics, which can be attributed to frequent circulation and the great quantity. At present time, there is no modern grain logistics distribution management system, and the logistics cost is the high. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been widely used for spatial data manipulation and model operations and provide effective decision support through its spatial database management capabilities and cartographic visualization. In the present paper, a spatial decision support system (SDSS) is proposed to support policy makers and to reduce the cost of grain logistics. The system is composed of two major components: grain logistics goods tracking model and vehicle routing problem optimization model and also allows incorporation of data coming from external sources. The proposed system is an effective tool to manage grain logistics in order to increase the speed of grain logistics and reduce the grain circulation cost.

A decision support system based on hybrid knowledge approach for nuclear power plant operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, J.O.; Chang, S.H.

1991-01-01

This paper describes a diagnostic expert system, HYPOSS (Hybrid Knowledge Based Plant Operation Supporting System), which has been developed to support operators' decision making during the transients of nuclear power plant. HYPOSS adopts the hybrid knowledge approach which combines shallow and deep knowledge to couple the merits of both approaches. In HYPOSS, four types of knowledge are used according to the steps of diagnosis procedure: structural, functional, behavioral and heuristic knowledge. Frames and rules are adopted to represent the various knowledge types. Rule-based deduction and abduction are used for shallow and deep knowledge based reasoning respectively. The event-based operational guidelines are provided to the operator according to the diagnosed results

Decision-making support system based on MAS for emergency response to nuclear accidents of marine pressurized-water reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Dengke; Zhang Dafa; Jiang Wei; Chen Yonghong

2007-01-01

Emergency decision-making to Marine Pressurized-Water Reactor (MPWR) was severely restricted by the complex environment. To enhance the emergency decision-making ability of MPWR, reducing the effect of emergencies, an emergency Decision-making Support System (DSS) which based on Multi-agent System (MAS) was presented. In the system, the HLA/RTI was used as the support environment, and the structure and the Control Agent (SCA), Analyse Agent (AA), Countermeasure Agent (CA), Evaluation Agent (EVA) and Environment Agent (ENA) were designed. The MAS were with the characteristics of autonomy, reactivity and initiative, which were fully used in the system to make effective decision for emergencies. (authors)

Using web-based group support systems to enhance procedural fairness in administrative decision making in South Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Twinomurinzi, H

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The authors are investigating whether Web-based Group Support System (GSS) tools can support and enhance procedural fairness in administrative decision making in South Africa. They report here on work that emanates from a masters dissertation...

Semantics-based plausible reasoning to extend the knowledge coverage of medical knowledge bases for improved clinical decision support.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammadhassanzadeh, Hossein; Van Woensel, William; Abidi, Samina Raza; Abidi, Syed Sibte Raza

2017-01-01

Capturing complete medical knowledge is challenging-often due to incomplete patient Electronic Health Records (EHR), but also because of valuable, tacit medical knowledge hidden away in physicians' experiences. To extend the coverage of incomplete medical knowledge-based systems beyond their deductive closure, and thus enhance their decision-support capabilities, we argue that innovative, multi-strategy reasoning approaches should be applied. In particular, plausible reasoning mechanisms apply patterns from human thought processes, such as generalization, similarity and interpolation, based on attributional, hierarchical, and relational knowledge. Plausible reasoning mechanisms include inductive reasoning , which generalizes the commonalities among the data to induce new rules, and analogical reasoning , which is guided by data similarities to infer new facts. By further leveraging rich, biomedical Semantic Web ontologies to represent medical knowledge, both known and tentative, we increase the accuracy and expressivity of plausible reasoning, and cope with issues such as data heterogeneity, inconsistency and interoperability. In this paper, we present a Semantic Web-based, multi-strategy reasoning approach, which integrates deductive and plausible reasoning and exploits Semantic Web technology to solve complex clinical decision support queries. We evaluated our system using a real-world medical dataset of patients with hepatitis, from which we randomly removed different percentages of data (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) to reflect scenarios with increasing amounts of incomplete medical knowledge. To increase the reliability of the results, we generated 5 independent datasets for each percentage of missing values, which resulted in 20 experimental datasets (in addition to the original dataset). The results show that plausibly inferred knowledge extends the coverage of the knowledge base by, on average, 2%, 7%, 12%, and 16% for datasets with, respectively, 5%, 10%, 15

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 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....

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)

Design of nuclear emergency decision-making support system based on the results of radiation monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng Qiyan; Zhang Lijun; Huang Weiqi; Chen Lin

2010-01-01

For nuclear emergency decision-making support system based on the results of radiation monitoring, its main assignment is receiving radiation monitoring data and analyzing them, to accomplish some works such as environment influence evaluation, dose assessment for emergency responder, decision-making analyzing and effectiveness evaluation for emergency actions, etc.. This system is made up of server, communication terminal, data-analyzing terminal, GPRS modules, printer, and so on. The whole system make of a LAN. The system's software is made up of six subsystems: data-analyzing subsystem, reporting subsystem, GIS subsystem, communication subsystem, user-managing subsystem and data-base. (authors)

Development of a GIS-Based Decision Support System for Diagnosis of River System Health and Restoration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jihong Xia

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The development of a decision support system (DSS to inform policy making has been progressing rapidly. This paper presents a generic framework and the development steps of a decision tool prototype of geographic information systems (GIS-based decision support system of river health diagnosis (RHD-DSS. This system integrates data, calculation models, and human knowledge of river health status assessment, causal factors diagnosis, and restoration decision making to assist decision makers during river restoration and management in Zhejiang Province, China. Our RHD-DSS is composed of four main elements: the graphical user interface (GUI, the database, the model base, and the knowledge base. It has five functional components: the input module, the database management, the diagnostic indicators management, the assessment and diagnosis, and the visual result module. The system design is illustrated with particular emphasis on the development of the database, model schemas, diagnosis and analytical processing techniques, and map management design. Finally, the application of the prototype RHD-DSS is presented and implemented for Xinjiangtang River of Haining County in Zhejiang Province, China. This case study is used to demonstrate the advantages gained by the application of this system. We conclude that there is great potential for using the RHD-DSS to systematically manage river basins in order to effectively mitigate environmental issues. The proposed approach will provide river managers and designers with improved insight into river degradation conditions, thereby strengthening the assessment process and the administration of human activities in river management.

BIM-Based Decision Support System for Material Selection Based on Supplier Rating

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abiola Akanmu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Material selection is a delicate process, typically hinged on a number of factors which can be either cost or environmental related. This process becomes more complicated when designers are faced with several material options of building elements and each option can be supplied by different suppliers whose selection criteria may affect the budgetary and environmental requirements of the project. This paper presents the development of a decision support system based on the integration of building information models, a modified harmony search algorithm and supplier performance rating. The system is capable of producing the cost and environmental implications of different material combinations or building designs. A case study is presented to illustrate the functionality of the developed system.

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

A decision support system for mission-based ship routing considering multiple performance criteria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dong, You; Frangopol, Dan M.; Sabatino, Samantha

2016-01-01

It is crucial to evaluate the risk associated with marine vessels subjected to inclement weather and sea conditions when developing a decision support system for ship routing. The generalized decision making framework developed in this paper performs a variety of tasks, including, but not limited to quantifying the flexural and fatigue performance of ship structures and employing multi-attribute utility theory to evaluate ship mission performance. A structural reliability approach is utilized to compute the probability of failure considering the uncertainties in structural capacity and load effects; specifically, effects of flexural and fatigue damage are investigated. The expected repair cost, cumulative fatigue damage, total travel time, and carbon dioxide emissions associated with ship routing are considered as consequences within the risk assessment procedure adopted in this paper. Additionally, the decision maker’s risk attitude is integrated into the presented approach by employing utility theory. The presented methodology can assist decision makers in making informed decisions concerning ship routing. In order to illustrate its capabilities the approach is applied to the Joint High-speed Sealift Ship. - Highlights: • Multi-attribute utility theory is proposed for the ship routing decision making. • Spectral-based fatigue damage and repair loss are computed. • Travel time and CO_2 emissions are incorporated within the decision making process. • The attitude of the decision maker has significant effects on the utility value.

FEMA's Earthquake Incident Journal: A Web-Based Data Integration and Decision Support Tool for Emergency Management

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, M.; Pitts, R.

2017-12-01

For emergency managers, government officials, and others who must respond to rapidly changing natural disasters, timely access to detailed information related to affected terrain, population and infrastructure is critical for planning, response and recovery operations. Accessing, analyzing and disseminating such disparate information in near real-time are critical decision support components. However, finding a way to handle a variety of informative yet complex datasets poses a challenge when preparing for and responding to disasters. Here, we discuss the implementation of a web-based data integration and decision support tool for earthquakes developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a solution to some of these challenges. While earthquakes are among the most well- monitored and measured of natural hazards, the spatially broad impacts of shaking, ground deformation, landslides, liquefaction, and even tsunamis, are extremely difficult to quantify without accelerated access to data, modeling, and analytics. This web-based application, deemed the "Earthquake Incident Journal", provides real-time access to authoritative and event-specific data from external (e.g. US Geological Survey, NASA, state and local governments, etc.) and internal (FEMA) data sources. The journal includes a GIS-based model for exposure analytics, allowing FEMA to assess the severity of an event, estimate impacts to structures and population in near real-time, and then apply planning factors to exposure estimates to answer questions such as: What geographic areas are impacted? Will federal support be needed? What resources are needed to support survivors? And which infrastructure elements or essential facilities are threatened? This presentation reviews the development of the Earthquake Incident Journal, detailing the data integration solutions, the methodology behind the GIS-based automated exposure model, and the planning factors as well as other analytical advances that

Radwaste Decision Support System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Westrom, G.; Vance, J.N.; Gelhaus, F.E.

1989-01-01

The purpose of the Radwaste Decision Support System (RDSS) is to provide expert advice, analysis results and instructional material relative to the treatment, handling, transport and disposal of low-level radioactive waste produced in nuclear power plants. This functional specification addresses the following topics: Functions of the RDSS, Relationships and interfaces between the function, Development of the decisions and logic tree structures embodied in waste management, Elements of the database and the characteristics required to support the decision-making process, Specific User requirements for the RDSS, Development of the user interface, Basic software architecture, and Concepts for the RDSS usage including updating and maintenance

007 to the Rescue – Cognitive Fit of Operations Research and Agent-based Decision Support

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krauth, Elfriede I.; van Hillegersberg, Jos; van de Velde, Steef L.

2007-01-01

Adoption rates of traditional Operations Research (OR) based decision support systems (DSS) suffer from perceived complexity of the underlying model and its detrimental effect on user-friendliness. The mental effort required to understand abstract models can hinder adoption. This barrier may seem

Prototype of a Web-based Participative Decision Support Platform in Natural Hazards and Risk Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zar Chi Aye

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the current state and development of a prototype web-GIS (Geographic Information System decision support platform intended for application in natural hazards and risk management, mainly for floods and landslides. This web platform uses open-source geospatial software and technologies, particularly the Boundless (formerly OpenGeo framework and its client side software development kit (SDK. The main purpose of the platform is to assist the experts and stakeholders in the decision-making process for evaluation and selection of different risk management strategies through an interactive participation approach, integrating web-GIS interface with decision support tool based on a compromise programming approach. The access rights and functionality of the platform are varied depending on the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in managing the risk. The application of the prototype platform is demonstrated based on an example case study site: Malborghetto Valbruna municipality of North-Eastern Italy where flash floods and landslides are frequent with major events having occurred in 2003. The preliminary feedback collected from the stakeholders in the region is discussed to understand the perspectives of stakeholders on the proposed prototype platform.

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…

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

AngelStow: A Commercial Optimization-Based Decision Support Tool for Stowage Planning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Delgado-Ortegon, Alberto; Jensen, Rune Møller; Guilbert, Nicolas

save port fees, optimize use of vessel capacity, and reduce bunker consumption. Stowage Coordinators (SCs) produce these plans manually with the help of graphical tools, but high-quality SPs are hard to generate with the limited support they provide. In this abstract, we introduce AngelStow which...... is a commercial optimization-based decision support tool for stowing container vessels developed in collaboration between Ange Optimization and The IT University of Copenhagen. The tool assists SCs in the process of generating SPs interactively, focusing on satisfying and optimizing constraints and objectives...... that are tedious to deal with for humans, while letting the SCs use their expertise to deal with hard combinatorial objectives and corner cases....

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...

Risk-based decision analysis for groundwater operable units

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chiaramonte, G.R.

1995-01-01

This document proposes a streamlined approach and methodology for performing risk assessment in support of interim remedial measure (IRM) decisions involving the remediation of contaminated groundwater on the Hanford Site. This methodology, referred to as ''risk-based decision analysis,'' also supports the specification of target cleanup volumes and provides a basis for design and operation of the groundwater remedies. The risk-based decision analysis can be completed within a short time frame and concisely documented. The risk-based decision analysis is more versatile than the qualitative risk assessment (QRA), because it not only supports the need for IRMs, but also provides criteria for defining the success of the IRMs and provides the risk-basis for decisions on final remedies. For these reasons, it is proposed that, for groundwater operable units, the risk-based decision analysis should replace the more elaborate, costly, and time-consuming QRA

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.

Mobile Clinical Decision Support System for Acid-base Balance Diagnosis and Treatment Recommendation.

Science.gov (United States)

Mandzuka, Mensur; Begic, Edin; Boskovic, Dusanka; Begic, Zijo; Masic, Izet

2017-06-01

This paper presents mobile application implementing a decision support system for acid-base disorder diagnosis and treatment recommendation. The application was developed using the official integrated development environment for the Android platform (to maximize availability and minimize investments in specialized hardware) called Android Studio. The application identifies disorder, based on the blood gas analysis, evaluates whether the disorder has been compensated, and based on additional input related to electrolyte imbalance, provides recommendations for treatment. The application is a tool in the hands of the user, which provides assistance during acid-base disorders treatment. The application will assist the physician in clinical practice and is focused on the treatment in intensive care.

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

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.

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.

Computer-Based Decision Support for Railroad Transportation Systems: an Investment Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luminita DUTA

2009-01-01

Full Text Available In the last decade the development of the economical and social life increased the complexity of transportation systems. In this context, the role of Decision Support Systems (DSS became more and more important. The paper presents the characteristics, necessity, and usage of DSS in transportation and describes a practical application in the railroad field. To compute the optimal transportation capacity and flow on a certain railroad, specialized decision-support software which is available on the market was used.

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.

Clinic-Based Mobile Health Decision Support to Enhance Adult Epilepsy Self-Management: An Intervention Mapping Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Shegog, Ross; Begley, Charles E

2017-01-01

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder involving recurrent seizures. It affects approximately 5 million people in the U.S. To optimize their quality of life people with epilepsy are encouraged to engage in self-management (S-M) behaviors. These include managing their treatment (e.g., adhering to anti-seizure medication and clinical visit schedules), managing their seizures (e.g., responding to seizure episodes), managing their safety (e.g., monitoring and avoiding environmental seizure triggers), and managing their co-morbid conditions (e.g., anxiety, depression). The clinic-based Management Information Decision Support Epilepsy Tool (MINDSET) is a decision-support system founded on theory and empirical evidence. It is designed to increase awareness by adult patients (≥18 years) and their health-care provider regarding the patient's epilepsy S-M behaviors, facilitate communication during the clinic visit to prioritize S-M goals and strategies commensurate with the patient's needs, and increase the patient's self-efficacy to achieve those goals. The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of intervention mapping (IM) to develop, implement, and formatively evaluate the clinic-based MINDSET prototype and in developing implementation and evaluation plans. Deliverables comprised a logic model of the problem (IM Step 1); matrices of program objectives (IM Step 2); a program planning document comprising scope, sequence, theory-based methods, and practical strategies (IM Step 3); a functional MINDSET program prototype (IM Step 4); plans for implementation (IM Step 5); and evaluation (IM Step 6). IM provided a logical and systematic approach to developing and evaluating clinic-based decision support toward epilepsy S-M.

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.

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.

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.

Decision Support System Based on Computational Collective Intelligence in Campus Information Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Yoshihito; Matsuo, Tokuro

Education institutions such as universities have a lot of information including book information, equipment administrative information, student information, and several others. The institutions also have multiple information in time series. As collective intelligence in campus, integrating and reusing these preserved information regarding career and taking a class, university can effectively support students' decision making of their getting jobs and subjects choice. Our purpose of support is to increase student's motivation. In this paper, we focus on course record and job information included in students' information, and propose the method to analyze correlation between a pattern of taking class and job lined up. Afterwards, we propose a support system regarding getting a job and taking class by using our proposed method. For a student who has his/her favorite job to get, the system supports his/her decision making of lecture choice by recommending a set of appropriate lecture groups. On another hand, for a student who does not have favorite job to get, the system supports his/her decision making of getting job by presenting appropriate job families related with lecture group in which he/she has ever taken. The contribution of this paper is showing a concrete method to reuse the campus collective information, implementing a system, and user perspectives.

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...

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.

Anesthesia information management system-based near real-time decision support to manage intraoperative hypotension and hypertension.

Science.gov (United States)

Nair, Bala G; Horibe, Mayumi; Newman, Shu-Fang; Wu, Wei-Ying; Peterson, Gene N; Schwid, Howard A

2014-01-01

Intraoperative hypotension and hypertension are associated with adverse clinical outcomes and morbidity. Clinical decision support mediated through an anesthesia information management system (AIMS) has been shown to improve quality of care. We hypothesized that an AIMS-based clinical decision support system could be used to improve management of intraoperative hypotension and hypertension. A near real-time AIMS-based decision support module, Smart Anesthesia Manager (SAM), was used to detect selected scenarios contributing to hypotension and hypertension. Specifically, hypotension (systolic blood pressure 1.25 minimum alveolar concentration [MAC]) of inhaled drug and hypertension (systolic blood pressure >160 mm Hg) with concurrent phenylephrine infusion were detected, and anesthesia providers were notified via "pop-up" computer screen messages. AIMS data were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate the effect of SAM notification messages on hypotensive and hypertensive episodes. For anesthetic cases 12 months before (N = 16913) and after (N = 17132) institution of SAM messages, the median duration of hypotensive episodes with concurrent high MAC decreased with notifications (Mann Whitney rank sum test, P = 0.031). However, the reduction in the median duration of hypertensive episodes with concurrent phenylephrine infusion was not significant (P = 0.47). The frequency of prolonged episodes that lasted >6 minutes (sampling period of SAM), represented in terms of the number of cases with episodes per 100 surgical cases (or percentage occurrence), declined with notifications for both hypotension with >1.25 MAC inhaled drug episodes (δ = -0.26% [confidence interval, -0.38% to -0.11%], P 1.25 MAC inhaled drug episodes. However, since phenylephrine infusion is manually documented in an AIMS, the impact of notification messages was less pronounced in reducing episodes of hypertension with concurrent phenylephrine infusion. Automated data capture and a higher frequency of

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

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.)

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.

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

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...

Clinic-Based Mobile Health Decision Support to Enhance Adult Epilepsy Self-Management: An Intervention Mapping Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ross Shegog

2017-10-01

Full Text Available IntroductionEpilepsy is a neurological disorder involving recurrent seizures. It affects approximately 5 million people in the U.S. To optimize their quality of life people with epilepsy are encouraged to engage in self-management (S-M behaviors. These include managing their treatment (e.g., adhering to anti-seizure medication and clinical visit schedules, managing their seizures (e.g., responding to seizure episodes, managing their safety (e.g., monitoring and avoiding environmental seizure triggers, and managing their co-morbid conditions (e.g., anxiety, depression. The clinic-based Management Information Decision Support Epilepsy Tool (MINDSET is a decision-support system founded on theory and empirical evidence. It is designed to increase awareness by adult patients (≥18 years and their health-care provider regarding the patient’s epilepsy S-M behaviors, facilitate communication during the clinic visit to prioritize S-M goals and strategies commensurate with the patient’s needs, and increase the patient’s self-efficacy to achieve those goals.MethodsThe purpose of this paper is to describe the application of intervention mapping (IM to develop, implement, and formatively evaluate the clinic-based MINDSET prototype and in developing implementation and evaluation plans. Deliverables comprised a logic model of the problem (IM Step 1; matrices of program objectives (IM Step 2; a program planning document comprising scope, sequence, theory-based methods, and practical strategies (IM Step 3; a functional MINDSET program prototype (IM Step 4; plans for implementation (IM Step 5; and evaluation (IM Step 6. IM provided a logical and systematic approach to developing and evaluating clinic-based decision support toward epilepsy S-M.

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.

Adoption of web-based group decision support systems: experiences from the field and future developments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jos van Hillegersberg

2016-01-01

Full Text Available 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 systems (GDSS seems to fit for this purpose. They have existed for decades and modern versions benefit of web-based technologies, enabling low cost any-place, any time and device independent meeting support. In this exploratory case research, we study nine organizations in four different adoption categories to learn more about the reasons for the relatively slow adoption of web-based GDSS. Using the Fit-Viability adoption framework we conduct interviews with organizations that have experience with using GDSS. We conclude that adopting GDSS requires considerable and carefully planned change of processes that are deeply grounded in the organization. Existing meeting routines need to be adapted. Introduction needs to be carefully planned and room for face-to-face meetings and creativity sessions away from the keyboard need to be built in depending on the type of meeting. Not all companies find the cost level affordable. Clear and convincing business cases are lacking. Still the added value is ranked highly and there are frequent and enthusiastic user organizations that may lead the way for others. Their success stories show others how to mitigate problems.

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...

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.

Decision support system for triage management: A hybrid approach using rule-based reasoning and fuzzy logic.

Science.gov (United States)

Dehghani Soufi, Mahsa; Samad-Soltani, Taha; Shams Vahdati, Samad; Rezaei-Hachesu, Peyman

2018-06-01

Fast and accurate patient triage for the response process is a critical first step in emergency situations. This process is often performed using a paper-based mode, which intensifies workload and difficulty, wastes time, and is at risk of human errors. This study aims to design and evaluate a decision support system (DSS) to determine the triage level. A combination of the Rule-Based Reasoning (RBR) and Fuzzy Logic Classifier (FLC) approaches were used to predict the triage level of patients according to the triage specialist's opinions and Emergency Severity Index (ESI) guidelines. RBR was applied for modeling the first to fourth decision points of the ESI algorithm. The data relating to vital signs were used as input variables and modeled using fuzzy logic. Narrative knowledge was converted to If-Then rules using XML. The extracted rules were then used to create the rule-based engine and predict the triage levels. Fourteen RBR and 27 fuzzy rules were extracted and used in the rule-based engine. The performance of the system was evaluated using three methods with real triage data. The accuracy of the clinical decision support systems (CDSSs; in the test data) was 99.44%. The evaluation of the error rate revealed that, when using the traditional method, 13.4% of the patients were miss-triaged, which is statically significant. The completeness of the documentation also improved from 76.72% to 98.5%. Designed system was effective in determining the triage level of patients and it proved helpful for nurses as they made decisions, generated nursing diagnoses based on triage guidelines. The hybrid approach can reduce triage misdiagnosis in a highly accurate manner and improve the triage outcomes. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

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.

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

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

Guideline-based decision support for the mobile patient incorporating data streams from a body sensor network

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fung, L.S.N.; Jones, Valerie M.; Bults, Richard G.A.; Hermens, Hermanus J.

2014-01-01

We present a mobile decision support system (mDSS) which helps patients adhere to best clinical practice by providing pervasive and evidence-based health guidance via their smartphones. Similar to some existing clinical DSSs, the mDSS is designed to execute clinical guidelines, but it operates on

INTELLIGENT DECISION SUPPORT ON FOREX

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. A. Rybak

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A new technology of intelligent decision support on Forex, including forming algorithms of trading signals, rules for the training sample based on technical indicators, which have the highest correlation with the price, the method of reducing the number of losing trades, is proposed. The last is based on an analysis of the wave structure of the market, while the beginning of the cycle (the wave number one is offered to be identified using Bill Williams Oscillator (Awesome oscillator. The process chain of constructing neuro-fuzzy model using software package MatLab is described.

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

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 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...

Semantics-based plausible reasoning to extend the knowledge coverage of medical knowledge bases for improved clinical decision support

OpenAIRE

Mohammadhassanzadeh, Hossein; Van Woensel, William; Abidi, Samina Raza; Abidi, Syed Sibte Raza

2017-01-01

Background Capturing complete medical knowledge is challenging-often due to incomplete patient Electronic Health Records (EHR), but also because of valuable, tacit medical knowledge hidden away in physicians? experiences. To extend the coverage of incomplete medical knowledge-based systems beyond their deductive closure, and thus enhance their decision-support capabilities, we argue that innovative, multi-strategy reasoning approaches should be applied. In particular, plausible reasoning mech...

A Wireless Sensor Network-Based Approach with Decision Support for Monitoring Lake Water Quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Xiaoci; Yi, Jianjun; Chen, Shaoli; Zhu, Xiaomin

2015-11-19

Online monitoring and water quality analysis of lakes are urgently needed. A feasible and effective approach is to use a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Lake water environments, like other real world environments, present many changing and unpredictable situations. To ensure flexibility in such an environment, the WSN node has to be prepared to deal with varying situations. This paper presents a WSN self-configuration approach for lake water quality monitoring. The approach is based on the integration of a semantic framework, where a reasoner can make decisions on the configuration of WSN services. We present a WSN ontology and the relevant water quality monitoring context information, which considers its suitability in a pervasive computing environment. We also propose a rule-based reasoning engine that is used to conduct decision support through reasoning techniques and context-awareness. To evaluate the approach, we conduct usability experiments and performance benchmarks.

Adoption of web-based group decision support systems: Experiences from the field and future developments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Hillegersberg, Jos; Koenen, Sebastiaan

2016-01-01

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

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...

SU-E-J-04: A Data-Driven, Response-Based, Multi-Criteria Decision Support System for Personalized Lung Radiation Treatment Planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luo, Y; McShan, D; Schipper, M; Matuszak, M; Ten Haken, R; Kong, F

2014-01-01

Purpose: To develop a decision support tool to predict a patient's potential overall survival (OS) and radiation induced toxicity (RIT) based on clinical factors and responses during the course of radiotherapy, and suggest appropriate radiation dose adjustments to improve therapeutic effect. Methods: Important relationships between a patient's basic information and their clinical features before and during the radiation treatment are identified from historical clinical data by using statistical learning and data mining approaches. During each treatment period, a data analysis (DA) module predicts radiotherapy features such as time to local progression (TTLP), time to distant metastases (TTDM), radiation toxicity to different organs, etc., under possible future treatment plans based on patient specifics or responses. An information fusion (IF) module estimates intervals for a patient's OS and the probabilities of RIT from a treatment plan by integrating the outcomes of module DA. A decision making (DM) module calculates “satisfaction” with the predicted radiation outcome based on trade-offs between OS and RIT, and finds the best treatment plan for the next time period via multi-criteria optimization. Results: Using physical and biological data from 130 lung cancer patients as our test bed, we were able to train and implement the 3 modules of our decision support tool. Examples demonstrate how it can help predict a new patient's potential OS and RIT with different radiation dose plans along with how these combinations change with dose, thus presenting a range of satisfaction/utility for use in individualized decision support. Conclusion: Although the decision support tool is currently developed from a small patient sample size, it shows the potential for the improvement of each patient's satisfaction in personalized radiation therapy. The radiation treatment outcome prediction and decision making model needs to be evaluated with more patients and demonstrated for

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.

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...

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

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.

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.)

Pattern-based Automatic Translation of Structured Power System Data to Functional Models for Decision Support Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heussen, Kai; Weckesser, Johannes Tilman Gabriel; Kullmann, Daniel

2013-01-01

Improved information and insight for decision support in operations and design are central promises of a smart grid. Well-structured information about the composition of power systems is increasingly becoming available in the domain, e.g. due to standard information models (e.g. CIM or IEC61850......) or otherwise structured databases. More measurements and data do not automatically improve decisions, but there is an opportunity to capitalize on this information for decision support. With suitable reasoning strategies data can be contextualized and decision-relevant events can be promoted and identified....... This paper presents an approach to link available structured power system data directly to a functional representation suitable for diagnostic reasoning. The translation method is applied to test cases also illustrating decision support....

DXplain: a Web-based diagnostic decision support system for medical students.

Science.gov (United States)

London, S

1998-01-01

DXplain is a diagnostic decision support program, with a new World Wide Web interface, designed to help medical students and physicians formulate differential diagnoses based on clinical findings. It covers over 2000 diseases and 5000 clinical manifestations. DXplain suggests possible diagnoses, and provides brief descriptions of every disease in the database. Not all diseases are included, nor does DXplain take into account preexisting conditions or the chronological sequence of clinical manifestations. Despite these limitations, it is a useful educational tool, particularly for problem-based learning (PBL) cases and for students in clinical rotations, as it fills a niche not adequately covered by MEDLINE or medical texts. The system is relatively self-explanatory, requiring little or no end-user training. Medical libraries offering, or planning to offer, their users access to Web-based materials and resources may find this system a valuable addition to their electronic collections. Should it prove popular with the local users, provision of access may also establish or enhance the library's image as a partner in medical education.

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.

A Knowledge Management and Decision Support Model for Enterprises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrizia Ribino

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a novel knowledge management system (KMS for enterprises. Our system exploits two different approaches for knowledge representation and reasoning: a document-based approach based on data-driven creation of a semantic space and an ontology-based model. Furthermore, we provide an expert system capable of supporting the enterprise decisional processes and a semantic engine which performs intelligent search on the enterprise knowledge bases. The decision support process exploits the Bayesian networks model to improve business planning process when performed under uncertainty.

A Decision Support System for the Location of Naval Surface Reserve Units

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Venable, Laura

1998-01-01

.... The research suggests the feasibility of a PC based Decision Support System to assist Commander, Naval Surface Reserve Force improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the unit location decision...

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.

Performance Evaluation of the Machine Learning Algorithms Used in Inference Mechanism of a Medical Decision Support System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mert Bal

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The importance of the decision support systems is increasingly supporting the decision making process in cases of uncertainty and the lack of information and they are widely used in various fields like engineering, finance, medicine, and so forth, Medical decision support systems help the healthcare personnel to select optimal method during the treatment of the patients. Decision support systems are intelligent software systems that support decision makers on their decisions. The design of decision support systems consists of four main subjects called inference mechanism, knowledge-base, explanation module, and active memory. Inference mechanism constitutes the basis of decision support systems. There are various methods that can be used in these mechanisms approaches. Some of these methods are decision trees, artificial neural networks, statistical methods, rule-based methods, and so forth. In decision support systems, those methods can be used separately or a hybrid system, and also combination of those methods. In this study, synthetic data with 10, 100, 1000, and 2000 records have been produced to reflect the probabilities on the ALARM network. The accuracy of 11 machine learning methods for the inference mechanism of medical decision support system is compared on various data sets.

Performance evaluation of the machine learning algorithms used in inference mechanism of a medical decision support system.

Science.gov (United States)

Bal, Mert; Amasyali, M Fatih; Sever, Hayri; Kose, Guven; Demirhan, Ayse

2014-01-01

The importance of the decision support systems is increasingly supporting the decision making process in cases of uncertainty and the lack of information and they are widely used in various fields like engineering, finance, medicine, and so forth, Medical decision support systems help the healthcare personnel to select optimal method during the treatment of the patients. Decision support systems are intelligent software systems that support decision makers on their decisions. The design of decision support systems consists of four main subjects called inference mechanism, knowledge-base, explanation module, and active memory. Inference mechanism constitutes the basis of decision support systems. There are various methods that can be used in these mechanisms approaches. Some of these methods are decision trees, artificial neural networks, statistical methods, rule-based methods, and so forth. In decision support systems, those methods can be used separately or a hybrid system, and also combination of those methods. In this study, synthetic data with 10, 100, 1000, and 2000 records have been produced to reflect the probabilities on the ALARM network. The accuracy of 11 machine learning methods for the inference mechanism of medical decision support system is compared on various data sets.

CLIPS based decision support system for water distribution networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Sandeep

2011-10-01

Full Text Available The difficulty in knowledge representation of a water distribution network (WDN problem has contributed to the limited use of artificial intelligence (AI based expert systems (ES in the management of these networks. This paper presents a design of a Decision Support System (DSS that facilitates "on-demand'' knowledge generation by utilizing results of simulation runs of a suitably calibrated and validated hydraulic model of an existing aged WDN corresponding to emergent or even hypothetical but likely scenarios. The DSS augments the capability of a conventional expert system by integrating together the hydraulic modelling features with heuristics based knowledge of experts under a common, rules based, expert shell named CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System. In contrast to previous ES, the knowledge base of the DSS has been designed to be dynamic by superimposing CLIPS on Structured Query Language (SQL. The proposed ES has an inbuilt calibration module that enables calibration of an existing (aged WDN for the unknown, and unobservable, Hazen-Williams C-values. In addition, the daily run and simulation modules of the proposed ES further enable the CLIPS inference engine to evaluate the network performance for any emergent or suggested test scenarios. An additional feature of the proposed design is that the DSS integrates computational platforms such as MATLAB, open source Geographical Information System (GIS, and a relational database management system (RDBMS working under the umbrella of the Microsoft Visual Studio based common user interface. The paper also discusses implementation of the proposed framework on a case study and clearly demonstrates the utility of the application as an able aide for effective management of the study network.

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.

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 ...

A web-based tool to support shared decision making for people with a psychotic disorder: randomized controlled trial and process evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Krieke, Lian; Emerencia, Ando C; Boonstra, Nynke; Wunderink, Lex; de Jonge, Peter; Sytema, Sjoerd

2013-10-07

Mental health policy makers encourage the development of electronic decision aids to increase patient participation in medical decision making. Evidence is needed to determine whether these decision aids are helpful in clinical practice and whether they lead to increased patient involvement and better outcomes. This study reports the outcome of a randomized controlled trial and process evaluation of a Web-based intervention to facilitate shared decision making for people with psychotic disorders. The study was carried out in a Dutch mental health institution. Patients were recruited from 2 outpatient teams for patients with psychosis (N=250). Patients in the intervention condition (n=124) were provided an account to access a Web-based information and decision tool aimed to support patients in acquiring an overview of their needs and appropriate treatment options provided by their mental health care organization. Patients were given the opportunity to use the Web-based tool either on their own (at their home computer or at a computer of the service) or with the support of an assistant. Patients in the control group received care as usual (n=126). Half of the patients in the sample were patients experiencing a first episode of psychosis; the other half were patients with a chronic psychosis. Primary outcome was patient-perceived involvement in medical decision making, measured with the Combined Outcome Measure for Risk Communication and Treatment Decision-making Effectiveness (COMRADE). Process evaluation consisted of questionnaire-based surveys, open interviews, and researcher observation. In all, 73 patients completed the follow-up measurement and were included in the final analysis (response rate 29.2%). More than one-third (48/124, 38.7%) of the patients who were provided access to the Web-based decision aid used it, and most used its full functionality. No differences were found between the intervention and control conditions on perceived involvement in medical

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...

Reactivation of Reward-Related Patterns from Single Past Episodes Supports Memory-Based Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Wimmer, G Elliott; Büchel, Christian

2016-03-09

Rewarding experiences exert a strong influence on later decision making. While decades of neuroscience research have shown how reinforcement gradually shapes preferences, decisions are often influenced by single past experiences. Surprisingly, relatively little is known about the influence of single learning episodes. Although recent work has proposed a role for episodes in decision making, it is largely unknown whether and how episodic experiences contribute to value-based decision making and how the values of single episodes are represented in the brain. In multiple behavioral experiments and an fMRI experiment, we tested whether and how rewarding episodes could support later decision making. Participants experienced episodes of high reward or low reward in conjunction with incidental, trial-unique neutral pictures. In a surprise test phase, we found that participants could indeed remember the associated level of reward, as evidenced by accurate source memory for value and preferences to re-engage with rewarded objects. Further, in a separate experiment, we found that high-reward objects shown as primes before a gambling task increased financial risk taking. Neurally, re-exposure to objects in the test phase led to significant reactivation of reward-related patterns. Importantly, individual variability in the strength of reactivation predicted value memory performance. Our results provide a novel demonstration that affect-related neural patterns are reactivated during later experience. Reactivation of value information represents a mechanism by which memory can guide decision making. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/362868-13$15.00/0.

SANDS: a service-oriented architecture for clinical decision support in a National Health Information Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Adam; Sittig, Dean F

2008-12-01

In this paper, we describe and evaluate a new distributed architecture for clinical decision support called SANDS (Service-oriented Architecture for NHIN Decision Support), which leverages current health information exchange efforts and is based on the principles of a service-oriented architecture. The architecture allows disparate clinical information systems and clinical decision support systems to be seamlessly integrated over a network according to a set of interfaces and protocols described in this paper. The architecture described is fully defined and developed, and six use cases have been developed and tested using a prototype electronic health record which links to one of the existing prototype National Health Information Networks (NHIN): drug interaction checking, syndromic surveillance, diagnostic decision support, inappropriate prescribing in older adults, information at the point of care and a simple personal health record. Some of these use cases utilize existing decision support systems, which are either commercially or freely available at present, and developed outside of the SANDS project, while other use cases are based on decision support systems developed specifically for the project. Open source code for many of these components is available, and an open source reference parser is also available for comparison and testing of other clinical information systems and clinical decision support systems that wish to implement the SANDS architecture. The SANDS architecture for decision support has several significant advantages over other architectures for clinical decision support. The most salient of these are:

SU-E-J-04: A Data-Driven, Response-Based, Multi-Criteria Decision Support System for Personalized Lung Radiation Treatment Planning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Luo, Y; McShan, D; Schipper, M; Matuszak, M; Ten Haken, R [University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Kong, F [Georgia Regents University, Augusta, GA (Georgia)

2014-06-01

Purpose: To develop a decision support tool to predict a patient's potential overall survival (OS) and radiation induced toxicity (RIT) based on clinical factors and responses during the course of radiotherapy, and suggest appropriate radiation dose adjustments to improve therapeutic effect. Methods: Important relationships between a patient's basic information and their clinical features before and during the radiation treatment are identified from historical clinical data by using statistical learning and data mining approaches. During each treatment period, a data analysis (DA) module predicts radiotherapy features such as time to local progression (TTLP), time to distant metastases (TTDM), radiation toxicity to different organs, etc., under possible future treatment plans based on patient specifics or responses. An information fusion (IF) module estimates intervals for a patient's OS and the probabilities of RIT from a treatment plan by integrating the outcomes of module DA. A decision making (DM) module calculates “satisfaction” with the predicted radiation outcome based on trade-offs between OS and RIT, and finds the best treatment plan for the next time period via multi-criteria optimization. Results: Using physical and biological data from 130 lung cancer patients as our test bed, we were able to train and implement the 3 modules of our decision support tool. Examples demonstrate how it can help predict a new patient's potential OS and RIT with different radiation dose plans along with how these combinations change with dose, thus presenting a range of satisfaction/utility for use in individualized decision support. Conclusion: Although the decision support tool is currently developed from a small patient sample size, it shows the potential for the improvement of each patient's satisfaction in personalized radiation therapy. The radiation treatment outcome prediction and decision making model needs to be evaluated with more

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).

Artificial intelligence tools decision support systems in condition monitoring and diagnosis

CERN Document Server

Galar Pascual, Diego

2015-01-01

Artificial Intelligence Tools: Decision Support Systems in Condition Monitoring and Diagnosis discusses various white- and black-box approaches to fault diagnosis in condition monitoring (CM). This indispensable resource: Addresses nearest-neighbor-based, clustering-based, statistical, and information theory-based techniques Considers the merits of each technique as well as the issues associated with real-life application Covers classification methods, from neural networks to Bayesian and support vector machines Proposes fuzzy logic to explain the uncertainties associated with diagnostic processes Provides data sets, sample signals, and MATLAB® code for algorithm testing Artificial Intelligence Tools: Decision Support Systems in Condition Monitoring and Diagnosis delivers a thorough evaluation of the latest AI tools for CM, describing the most common fault diagnosis techniques used and the data acquired when these techniques are applied.

A decision support system and rule-based algorithm to augment the human interpretation of the 12-lead electrocardiogram.

Science.gov (United States)

Cairns, Andrew W; Bond, Raymond R; Finlay, Dewar D; Guldenring, Daniel; Badilini, Fabio; Libretti, Guido; Peace, Aaron J; Leslie, Stephen J

The 12-lead Electrocardiogram (ECG) has been used to detect cardiac abnormalities in the same format for more than 70years. However, due to the complex nature of 12-lead ECG interpretation, there is a significant cognitive workload required from the interpreter. This complexity in ECG interpretation often leads to errors in diagnosis and subsequent treatment. We have previously reported on the development of an ECG interpretation support system designed to augment the human interpretation process. This computerised decision support system has been named 'Interactive Progressive based Interpretation' (IPI). In this study, a decision support algorithm was built into the IPI system to suggest potential diagnoses based on the interpreter's annotations of the 12-lead ECG. We hypothesise semi-automatic interpretation using a digital assistant can be an optimal man-machine model for ECG interpretation. To improve interpretation accuracy and reduce missed co-abnormalities. The Differential Diagnoses Algorithm (DDA) was developed using web technologies where diagnostic ECG criteria are defined in an open storage format, Javascript Object Notation (JSON), which is queried using a rule-based reasoning algorithm to suggest diagnoses. To test our hypothesis, a counterbalanced trial was designed where subjects interpreted ECGs using the conventional approach and using the IPI+DDA approach. A total of 375 interpretations were collected. The IPI+DDA approach was shown to improve diagnostic accuracy by 8.7% (although not statistically significant, p-value=0.1852), the IPI+DDA suggested the correct interpretation more often than the human interpreter in 7/10 cases (varying statistical significance). Human interpretation accuracy increased to 70% when seven suggestions were generated. Although results were not found to be statistically significant, we found; 1) our decision support tool increased the number of correct interpretations, 2) the DDA algorithm suggested the correct

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.

Data assimilation in the decision support system RODOS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rojas-Palma, C.; Madsen, H.; Gering, F.

2003-01-01

. The process of combining model predictions and observations, usually referred to as data assimilation, is described in this article within the framework of the real time on-line decision support system (RODOS) for off-site nuclear emergency management in Europe. Data assimilation capabilities, based on Kalman...

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

The spatial decision-supporting system combination of RBR & CBR based on artificial neural network and association rules

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Yangge; Bian, Fuling

2007-06-01

The technology of artificial intelligence should be imported on the basis of the geographic information system to bring up the spatial decision-supporting system (SDSS). The paper discusses the structure of SDSS, after comparing the characteristics of RBR and CBR, the paper brings up the frame of a spatial decisional system that combines RBR and CBR, which has combined the advantages of them both. And the paper discusses the CBR in agriculture spatial decisions, the application of ANN (Artificial Neural Network) in CBR, and enriching the inference rule base based on association rules, etc. And the paper tests and verifies the design of this system with the examples of the evaluation of the crops' adaptability.

The conceptual definition of a crisis management decision support system CMDSS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schenker-Wicki, A G.M.

1990-01-01

The Institute for Automation and Operations Research at the University of Fribourg has been charged by the Swiss government to design a concept for a Crisis Management Decision Support System CMDSS to evaluate acceptable countermeasures to reduce ingestion dose after an accidental release of radioactivity and to implement a prototype. The study is divided in two parts. In the first part all the necessary modules and techniques for efficient decision making, based on the most recent developments in decision theory, as well as the necessary structuring of the decision making process are discussed, while in the second part the plausibility of the evaluated system is tested using a case study. For the time being no empirical research has been carried out. The decision making concept presented in this book comprehends decision making on two different levels, a technical and a political one. The division of decision power corresponds to the Swiss legal prescriptions for accidental release of radioactivity. To guarantee decisions of high quality, as many countermeasures as possible have to be presented to the decision makers. Due to the difficulty of evaluating all the possible countermeasures an expert-system is provided for the decision makers to generate the space of alternatives. The use of an expert-system should further help to reduce systematically the huge amount of information which is characteristic in crises situations. To support the comparison and ranking of the different alternatives a multi-criteria approach, the PROMETHEE method, which is based upon outranking relationships, is used. Due to the complexity of the decision making process, its poorly defined mathematical context and the unwillingness of the decision makers to use a method which requires defined substitution rates, decision methods based on utility theory will not be applied in this study. (Abstract Truncated)

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

Earthquake Data Enhanced Cyber-Infrastructure for Disaster Evaluation and Response (E-DECIDER) is a NASA-funded project developing capabilities for decision-making utilizing remote sensing data and modeling software in order to provide decision support for earthquake disaster management and response. E-DECIDER incorporates earthquake forecasting methodology and geophysical modeling tools developed through NASA's QuakeSim project in order to produce standards-compliant map data products to aid in decision-making following an earthquake. Remote sensing and geodetic data, in conjunction with modeling and forecasting tools, help provide both long-term planning information for disaster management decision makers as well as short-term information following earthquake events (i.e. identifying areas where the greatest deformation and damage has occurred and emergency services may need to be focused). E-DECIDER utilizes a service-based GIS model for its cyber-infrastructure in order to produce standards-compliant products for different user types with multiple service protocols (such as KML, WMS, WFS, and WCS). The goal is to make complex GIS processing and domain-specific analysis tools more accessible to general users through software services as well as provide system sustainability through infrastructure services. The system comprises several components, which include: a GeoServer for thematic mapping and data distribution, a geospatial database for storage and spatial analysis, web service APIs, including simple-to-use REST APIs for complex GIS functionalities, and geoprocessing tools including python scripts to produce standards-compliant data products. These are then served to the E-DECIDER decision support gateway (http://e-decider.org), the E-DECIDER mobile interface, and to the Department of Homeland Security decision support middleware UICDS (Unified Incident Command and Decision Support). The E-DECIDER decision support gateway features a web interface that

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

Is there a need for hydrological modelling in decision support systems for nuclear emergencies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raskob, W.; Heling, R.; Zheleznyak, M.

2004-01-01

This paper discusses the role of hydrological modelling in decision support systems for nuclear emergencies. In particular, most recent developments such as, the radionuclide transport models integrated in to the decision support system RODOS will be explored. Recent progress in the implementation of physically-based distributed hydrological models for operational forecasting in national and supranational centres, may support a closer cooperation between national hydrological services and therefore, strengthen the use of hydrological and radiological models implemented in decision support systems. (authors)

[Implementation of ontology-based clinical decision support system for management of interactions between antihypertensive drugs and diet].

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Jeong Eun; Kim, Hwa Sun; Chang, Min Jung; Hong, Hae Sook

2014-06-01

The influence of dietary composition on blood pressure is an important subject in healthcare. Interactions between antihypertensive drugs and diet (IBADD) is the most important factor in the management of hypertension. It is therefore essential to support healthcare providers' decision making role in active and continuous interaction control in hypertension management. The aim of this study was to implement an ontology-based clinical decision support system (CDSS) for IBADD management (IBADDM). We considered the concepts of antihypertensive drugs and foods, and focused on the interchangeability between the database and the CDSS when providing tailored information. An ontology-based CDSS for IBADDM was implemented in eight phases: (1) determining the domain and scope of ontology, (2) reviewing existing ontology, (3) extracting and defining the concepts, (4) assigning relationships between concepts, (5) creating a conceptual map with CmapTools, (6) selecting upper ontology, (7) formally representing the ontology with Protégé (ver.4.3), (8) implementing an ontology-based CDSS as a JAVA prototype application. We extracted 5,926 concepts, 15 properties, and formally represented them using Protégé. An ontology-based CDSS for IBADDM was implemented and the evaluation score was 4.60 out of 5. We endeavored to map functions of a CDSS and implement an ontology-based CDSS for IBADDM.

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)

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...

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

A Decision Support System to Compare the Transportation Modes in Logistics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eren Özceylan

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The selection of an optimal transportation mode is one of the most important factors in supply chain and logistic planning. Furthermore, the selection transportation mode is a complex, multi-criteria decision problem. The decision makers have to face and take attention with a lot of criteria; such as cost, quality, delivery time, safety, accessibility and etc while choosing the best mode. Under these criteria, there must be a selection between motorway, seaway, airway, pipeline, railway and also intermodal modes. Selection the transportation mode is very promising issue because it affects about 60-65 % of total logistic cake. There are some techniques which can be heuristics and logical approaches are used to reach the best option. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP which is one of the mathematical methods can be very useful in involving several decision makers with different conflicting objectives to arrive at a consensus decision. In this paper, the selection of an optimal transportation mode using an AHP-based model was evaluated for logistic activities. To solve this transportation mode selection problem, we developed a decision support system based AHP. By using the developed decision support system, the best transportation modes is determined and discussed.

A Decision Support Model and Tool to Assist Financial Decision-Making in Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Bhayat, Imtiaz; Manuguerra, Maurizio; Baldock, Clive

2015-01-01

In this paper, a model and tool is proposed to assist universities and other mission-based organisations to ascertain systematically the optimal portfolio of projects, in any year, meeting the organisations risk tolerances and available funds. The model and tool presented build on previous work on university operations and decision support systems…

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)

Enhanced Decision Support Systems in Intensive Care Unit Based on Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanen Jemal

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In areas of medical diagnosis and decision-making, several uncertainty and ambiguity shrouded situations are most often imposed. In this regard, one may well assume that intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFS should stand as a potent technique useful for demystifying associated with the real healthcare decision-making situations. To this end, we are developing a prototype model helpful for detecting the patients risk degree in Intensive Care Unit (ICU. Based on the intuitionistic fuzzy sets, dubbed Medical Intuitionistic Fuzzy Expert Decision Support System (MIFEDSS, the shown work has its origins in the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS standard. It is worth noting that the proposed prototype effectiveness validation is associated through a real case study test at the Polyclinic ESSALEMA cited in Sfax, Tunisia. This paper does actually provide some practical initial results concerning the system as carried out in real life situations. Indeed, the proposed system turns out to prove that the MIFEDSS does actually display an imposing capability for an established handily ICU related uncertainty issues. The performance of the prototypes is compared with the MEWS standard which exposed that the IFS application appears to perform highly better in deferring accuracy than the expert MEWS score with higher degrees of sensitivity and specificity being recorded.

Context based support for Clinical Reasoning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vilstrup Pedersen, Klaus

2004-01-01

In many areas of the medical domain, the decision process i.e. reasoning, involving health care professionals is distributed, cooperative and complex. Computer based decision support systems has usually been focusing on the outcome of the decision making and treated it as a single task....... In this paper a framework for a Clinical Reasoning Knowledge Warehouse (CRKW) is presented, intended to support the reasoning process, by providing the decision participants with an analysis platform that captures and enhances information and knowledge. The CRKW mixes theories and models from Artificial...... Intelligence, Knowledge Management Systems and Business Intelligence to make context sensitive, patient case specific analysis and knowledge management. The knowledge base consists of patient health records, reasoning process information and clinical guidelines. Patient specific information and knowledge...

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.

Selecting Products Considering the Regret Behavior of Consumer: A Decision Support Model Based on Online Ratings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xia Liang

2018-05-01

Full Text Available With the remarkable promotion of e-commerce platforms, consumers increasingly prefer to purchase products online. Online ratings facilitate consumers to choose among products. Thus, to help consumers effectively select products, it is necessary to provide decision support methods for consumers to trade online. Considering the decision makers are bounded rational, this paper proposes a novel decision support model for product selection based on online ratings, in which the regret aversion behavior of consumers is formulated. Massive online ratings provided by experienced consumers for alternative products associated with several evaluation attributes are obtained by software finders. Then, the evaluations of alternative products in format of stochastic variables are conducted. To select a desirable alternative product, a novel method is introduced to calculate gain and loss degrees of each alternative over others. Considering the regret behavior of consumers in the product selection process, the regret and rejoice values of alternative products for consumer are computed to obtain the perceived utility values of alternative products. According to the prior order of the evaluation attributes provided by the consumer, the prior weights of attributes are determined based on the perceived utility values of alternative products. Furthermore, the overall perceived utility values of alternative products are obtained to generate a ranking result. Finally, a practical example from Zol.com.cn for tablet computer selection is used to demonstrate the feasibility and practically of the proposed model.

A Web-Based Treatment Decision Support Tool for Patients With Advanced Knee Arthritis: Evaluation of User Interface and Content Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Hua; Rosal, Milagros C; Li, Wenjun; Borg, Amy; Yang, Wenyun; Ayers, David C; Franklin, Patricia D

2018-04-30

Data-driven surgical decisions will ensure proper use and timing of surgical care. We developed a Web-based patient-centered treatment decision and assessment tool to guide treatment decisions among patients with advanced knee osteoarthritis who are considering total knee replacement surgery. The aim of this study was to examine user experience and acceptance of the Web-based treatment decision support tool among older adults. User-centered formative and summative evaluations were conducted for the tool. A sample of 28 patients who were considering total knee replacement participated in the study. Participants' responses to the user interface design, the clarity of information, as well as usefulness, satisfaction, and acceptance of the tool were collected through qualitative (ie, individual patient interviews) and quantitative (ie, standardized Computer System Usability Questionnaire) methods. Participants were older adults with a mean age of 63 (SD 11) years. Three-quarters of them had no technical questions using the tool. User interface design recommendations included larger fonts, bigger buttons, less colors, simpler navigation without extra "next page" click, less mouse movement, and clearer illustrations with simple graphs. Color-coded bar charts and outcome-specific graphs with positive action were easiest for them to understand the outcomes data. Questionnaire data revealed high satisfaction with the tool usefulness and interface quality, and also showed ease of use of the tool, regardless of age or educational status. We evaluated the usability of a patient-centered decision support tool designed for advanced knee arthritis patients to facilitate their knee osteoarthritis treatment decision making. The lessons learned can inform other decision support tools to improve interface and content design for older patients' use. ©Hua Zheng, Milagros C Rosal, Wenjun Li, Amy Borg, Wenyun Yang, David C Ayers, Patricia D Franklin. Originally published in JMIR Human

Envisioning a Future Decision Support System for Requirements Engineering : A Holistic and Human-centred Perspective

OpenAIRE

Alenljung, Beatrice

2008-01-01

Complex decision-making is a prominent aspect of requirements engineering (RE) and the need for improved decision support for RE decision-makers has been identified by a number of authors in the research literature. The fundamental viewpoint that permeates this thesis is that RE decision-making can be substantially improved by RE decision support systems (REDSS) based on the actual needs of RE decision-makers as well as the actual generic human decision-making activities that take place in th...

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.

An Intelligent Fleet Condition-Based Maintenance Decision Making Method Based on Multi-Agent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bo Sun

2012-01-01

Full Text Available According to the demand for condition-based maintenance online decision making among a mission oriented fleet, an intelligent maintenance decision making method based on Multi-agent and heuristic rules is proposed. The process of condition-based maintenance within an aircraft fleet (each containing one or more Line Replaceable Modules based on multiple maintenance thresholds is analyzed. Then the process is abstracted into a Multi-Agent Model, a 2-layer model structure containing host negotiation and independent negotiation is established, and the heuristic rules applied to global and local maintenance decision making is proposed. Based on Contract Net Protocol and the heuristic rules, the maintenance decision making algorithm is put forward. Finally, a fleet consisting of 10 aircrafts on a 3-wave continuous mission is illustrated to verify this method. Simulation results indicate that this method can improve the availability of the fleet, meet mission demands, rationalize the utilization of support resources and provide support for online maintenance decision making among a mission oriented fleet.

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.

Bringing the ecosystem services concept into marine management decisions, supporting ecosystems-based management.

Science.gov (United States)

Tweddle, J. F.; Byg, A.; Davies, I.; Gubbins, M.; Irvine, K.; Kafas, A.; Kenter, J.; MacDonald, A.; Murray, R. B. O.; Potts, T.; Slater, A. M.; Wright, K.; Scott, B. E.

2016-12-01

The marine environment is under increasing use, putting pressure on marine ecosystems and increasing competition for space. New activities (e.g. renewable energy developments), evolving marine policies (e.g. implementation of marine protected areas), and climate change may drive changes in biodiversity and resulting ecosystem services (ES) that society and business utilise from coastal and marine systems. A process is needed that integrates ecological assessment of changes with stakeholder perceptions and valuation of ES, whilst balancing ease of application with the ability to deal with complex social-economic-ecological issues. The project "Cooperative participatory assessment of the impact of renewable technology on ecosystem services: CORPORATES" involved natural and social scientists, law and policy experts, and marine managers, with the aim of promoting more integrated decision making using ES concepts in marine management. CORPORATES developed a process to bring ES concepts into stakeholders' awareness. The interactive process, involving 2 workshops, employs interludes of knowledge exchange by experts on ecological processes underpinning ES and on law and policy. These enable mapping of benefits linked to activities, participatory system modelling, and deliberation of policy impacts on different sectors. The workshops were attended by industry representatives, regulatory/advisory partners, and other stakeholders (NGOs, SMEs, recreationalists, local government). Mixed sector groups produced new insights into links between activities and ES, and highlighted cross-sector concerns. Here we present the aspects of the process that successfully built shared understanding between industry and stakeholders of inter-linkages and interactions between ES, benefits, activities, and economic and cultural values. These methods provide an ES-based decision-support model for exchanging societal-ecological knowledge and providing stakeholder interaction in marine planning

Effects of computerized clinical decision support systems on practitioner performance and patient outcomes: Methods of a decision-maker-researcher partnership systematic review

OpenAIRE

Wilczynski Nancy L; Haynes R Brian

2010-01-01

Abstract Background Computerized clinical decision support systems are information technology-based systems designed to improve clinical decision-making. As with any healthcare intervention with claims to improve process of care or patient outcomes, decision support systems should be rigorously evaluated before widespread dissemination into clinical practice. Engaging healthcare providers and managers in the review process may facilitate knowledge translation and uptake. The objective of this...

Real time traffic models, decision support for traffic management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wismans, Luc Johannes Josephus; de Romph, E.; Friso, K.; Zantema, K.

2014-01-01

Reliable and accurate short-term traffic state prediction can improve the performance of real-time traffic management systems significantly. Using this short-time prediction based on current measurements delivered by advanced surveillance systems will support decision-making processes on various

Real Time Traffic Models, Decision Support for Traffic Management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wismans, L.; De Romph, E.; Friso, K.; Zantema, K.

2014-01-01

Reliable and accurate short-term traffic state prediction can improve the performance of real-time traffic management systems significantly. Using this short-time prediction based on current measurements delivered by advanced surveillance systems will support decision-making processes on various

Optimization-based decision support to assist in logistics planning for hospital evacuations.

Science.gov (United States)

Glick, Roger; Bish, Douglas R; Agca, Esra

2013-01-01

The evacuation of the hospital is a very complex process and evacuation planning is an important part of a hospital's emergency management plan. There are numerous factors that affect the evacuation plan including the nature of threat, availability of resources and staff the characteristics of the evacuee population, and risk to patients and staff. The safety and health of patients is of fundamental importance, but safely moving patients to alternative care facilities while under threat is a very challenging task. This article describes the logistical issues and complexities involved in planning and execution of hospital evacuations. Furthermore, this article provides examples of how optimization-based decision support tools can help evacuation planners to better plan for complex evacuations by providing real-world solutions to various evacuation scenarios.

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

Evidence and Obesity Prevention: Developing Evidence Summaries to Support Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Rachel; Waters, Elizabeth; Armstrong, Rebecca; Conning, Rebecca; Allender, Steven; Swinburn, Boyd

2013-01-01

Public health practitioners make decisions based on research evidence in combination with a variety of other influences. Evidence summaries are one of a range of knowledge translation options used to support evidence-informed decision making. The literature relevant to obesity prevention requires synthesis for it to be accessible and relevant to…

A generic approach for the design of organizational decision support systems (ODSS)

OpenAIRE

Chalal, Rachid; National Institute of Computer Science; Nader, Fahima; National Institute of Computer Science

2007-01-01

The paper proposes a generic approach to design and develop an Organizational Decision Support System (ODSS). This approach is based at the follows definition: the ODSS is considered as the experts' memory and their decision-taking. Therefore, the ODSS is constituted by two elements, a strategic DSS and a specific referential of the decision situation. Our generic approach for ODSS design is based on the MUSIC (Management and Use of Co-operative Information Systems) model. An illustration of ...

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.

Interactive Decision-Support Tool for Risk-Based Radiation Therapy Plan Comparison for Hodgkin Lymphoma

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brodin, N. Patrik; Maraldo, Maja V.; Aznar, Marianne C.

2014-01-01

PURPOSE: To present a novel tool that allows quantitative estimation and visualization of the risk of various relevant normal tissue endpoints to aid in treatment plan comparison and clinical decision making in radiation therapy (RT) planning for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). METHODS AND MATERIALS...... and a volumetric modulated arc therapy plan for a patient with mediastinal HL. CONCLUSION: This multiple-endpoint decision-support tool provides quantitative risk estimates to supplement the clinical judgment of the radiation oncologist when comparing different RT options....... of dose-response curves to drive the reoptimization of a volumetric modulated arc therapy treatment plan for an HL patient with head-and-neck involvement. We also use this decision-support tool to visualize and quantitatively evaluate the trade-off between a 3-dimensional conformal RT plan...

Threat evaluation and weapon assignment decision support: A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... stands within the context of a ground based air defence system (GBADS) at the turn of the twenty first century. However, much of the contents of the paper maye generalized to military environments other than a GBADS one. Keywords: Threat evaluation, weapon assignment, decision support. ORiON Vol. 23 (2) 2007: pp.

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...

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.

Efficient Design of Distribution Logistics by Using a Model-Based Decision Support System

OpenAIRE

J. Becker; R. Arnold

2016-01-01

The design of distribution logistics has a decisive impact on a company's logistics costs and performance. Hence, such solutions make an essential contribution to corporate success. This article describes a decision support system for analyzing the potential of distribution logistics in terms of logistics costs and performance. In contrast to previous procedures of business process re-engineering (BPR), this method maps distribution logistics holistically under variable distribution structure...

Functional specifications for a radioactive waste decision support system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Westrom, G.B.; Kurrasch, E.R.; Carlton, R.E.; Vance, J.N.

1989-09-01

It is generally recognized that decisions relative to the treatment, handling, transportation and disposal of low-level wastes produced in nuclear power plants involve a complex array of many inter-related elements or considerations. Complex decision processes can be aided through the use of computer-based expert systems which are based on the knowledge of experts and the inferencing of that knowledge to provide advice to an end-user. To determine the feasibility of developing and applying an expert system in nuclear plant low level waste operations, a Functional Specification for a Radwaste Decision Support System (RDSS) was developed. All areas of radwaste management, from the point of waste generation to the disposition of the waste in the final disposal location were considered for inclusion within the scope of the RDSS. 27 figs., 8 tabs

Design and Development of a Sharable Clinical Decision Support System Based on a Semantic Web Service Framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yi-Fan; Gou, Ling; Tian, Yu; Li, Tian-Chang; Zhang, Mao; Li, Jing-Song

2016-05-01

Clinical decision support (CDS) systems provide clinicians and other health care stakeholders with patient-specific assessments or recommendations to aid in the clinical decision-making process. Despite their demonstrated potential for improving health care quality, the widespread availability of CDS systems has been limited mainly by the difficulty and cost of sharing CDS knowledge among heterogeneous healthcare information systems. The purpose of this study was to design and develop a sharable clinical decision support (S-CDS) system that meets this challenge. The fundamental knowledge base consists of independent and reusable knowledge modules (KMs) to meet core CDS needs, wherein each KM is semantically well defined based on the standard information model, terminologies, and representation formalisms. A semantic web service framework was developed to identify, access, and leverage these KMs across diverse CDS applications and care settings. The S-CDS system has been validated in two distinct client CDS applications. Model-level evaluation results confirmed coherent knowledge representation. Application-level evaluation results reached an overall accuracy of 98.66 % and a completeness of 96.98 %. The evaluation results demonstrated the technical feasibility and application prospect of our approach. Compared with other CDS engineering efforts, our approach facilitates system development and implementation and improves system maintainability, scalability and efficiency, which contribute to the widespread adoption of effective CDS within the healthcare domain.

The conceptual definition of a crisis management decision support system CMDSS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schenker-Wicki, A.G.M.

1990-01-01

The Institute for Automation and Operations Research at the University of Fribourg has been charged by the Swiss government to design a concept for a Crisis Management Decision Support System CMDSS to evaluate acceptable countermeasures to reduce ingestion dose after an accidental release of radioactivity and to implement a prototype. The study is divided in two parts. In the first part all the necessary modules and techniques for efficient decision making, based on the most recent developments in decision theory, as well as the necessary structuring of the decision making process are discussed, while in the second part the plausibility of the evaluated system is tested using a case study. For the time being no empirical research has been carried out. The decision making concept presented in this book comprehends decision making on two different levels, a technical and a political one. The division of decision power corresponds to the Swiss legal prescriptions for accidental release of radioactivity. To guarantee decisions of high quality, as many countermeasures as possible have to be presented to the decision makers. Due to the difficulty of evaluating all the possible countermeasures an expert-system is provided for the decision makers to generate the space of alternatives. The use of an expert-system should further help to reduce systematically the huge amount of information which is characteristic in crises situations. To support the comparison and ranking of the different alternatives a multi-criteria approach, the PROMETHEE method, which is based upon outranking relationships, is used. Due to the complexity of the decision making process, its poorly defined mathematical context and the unwillingness of the decision makers to use a method which requires defined substitution rates, decision methods based on utility theory will not be applied in this study. The outranking approach presented in this book provides its users with more transparent and intelligible

A deep knowledge architecture for intelligent support of nuclear waste transportation decisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Batra, D.; Bowen, W.M.; Hill, T.R.; Weeks, K.D.

1988-01-01

The concept of intelligent decision support has been discussed and explored in several recent papers, one of which has suggested the use of a Deep Knowledge Architecture. This paper explores this concept through application to a specific decision environment. The complex problems involved in nuclear waste disposal decisions provide an excellent test case. The resulting architecture uses an integrated, multi-level model base to represent the deep knowledge of the problem. Combined with the surface level knowledge represented by the database, the proposed knowledge base complements that of the decision-maker, allowing analysis at a range of levels of decisions which may also occur at a range of levels

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...

ProVac Global Initiative: a vision shaped by ten years of supporting evidence-based policy decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Jauregui, Barbara; Janusz, Cara Bess; Clark, Andrew D; Sinha, Anushua; Garcia, Ana Gabriela Felix; Resch, Stephen; Toscano, Cristiana M; Sanderson, Colin; Andrus, Jon Kim

2015-05-07

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) created the ProVac Initiative in 2004 with the goal of strengthening national technical capacity to make evidence-based decisions on new vaccine introduction, focusing on economic evaluations. In view of the 10th anniversary of the ProVac Initiative, this article describes its progress and reflects on lessons learned to guide the next phase. We quantified the output of the Initiative's capacity-building efforts and critically assess its progress toward achieving the milestones originally proposed in 2004. Additionally, we reviewed how country studies supported by ProVac have directly informed and strengthened the deliberations around new vaccine introduction. Since 2004, ProVac has conducted four regional workshops and supported 24 health economic analyses in 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Five Regional Centers of Excellence were funded, resulting in six operational research projects and nine publications. Twenty four decisions on new vaccine introductions were supported with ProVac studies. Enduring products include the TRIVAC and CERVIVAC cost-effectiveness models, the COSTVAC program costing model, methodological guides, workshop training materials and the OLIVES on-line data repository. Ten NITAGs were strengthened through ProVac activities. The evidence accumulated suggests that initiatives with emphasis on sustainable training and direct support for countries to generate evidence themselves, can help accelerate the introduction of the most valuable new vaccines. International and Regional Networks of Collaborators are necessary to provide technical support and tools to national teams conducting analyses. Timeliness, integration, quality and country ownership of the process are four necessary guiding principles for national economic evaluations to have an impact on policymaking. It would be an asset to have a model that offers different levels of complexity to choose from depending on the vaccine being

Increasing Personal Value Congruence in Computerized Decision Support Using System Feedback

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bryan Hosack

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The Theory of Universals in Values (TUV, a reliable and validated conceptualization of personal values used in psychology, is used to examine the effect of system feedback delivered by a Decision Support System (DSS on personal values. The results indicate that value-based decision-making behavior can be influenced by DSS feedback to address value congruence in decision-making. User behavior was shown to follow the outcomes expected by operant theory when feedback was supportive and to follow the outcomes of reactance theory when feedback was challenging. This result suggests that practitioners and Information System (IS researchers should consider user values when designing computerized decision feedback to adjust a system’s design such that the potential user backlash is avoided or congruence between organizational and personal values is achieved.

A Web-Based Tool to Support Shared Decision Making for People With a Psychotic Disorder: Randomized Controlled Trial and Process Evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Emerencia, Ando C; Boonstra, Nynke; Wunderink, Lex; de Jonge, Peter; Sytema, Sjoerd

2013-01-01

Background Mental health policy makers encourage the development of electronic decision aids to increase patient participation in medical decision making. Evidence is needed to determine whether these decision aids are helpful in clinical practice and whether they lead to increased patient involvement and better outcomes. Objective This study reports the outcome of a randomized controlled trial and process evaluation of a Web-based intervention to facilitate shared decision making for people with psychotic disorders. Methods The study was carried out in a Dutch mental health institution. Patients were recruited from 2 outpatient teams for patients with psychosis (N=250). Patients in the intervention condition (n=124) were provided an account to access a Web-based information and decision tool aimed to support patients in acquiring an overview of their needs and appropriate treatment options provided by their mental health care organization. Patients were given the opportunity to use the Web-based tool either on their own (at their home computer or at a computer of the service) or with the support of an assistant. Patients in the control group received care as usual (n=126). Half of the patients in the sample were patients experiencing a first episode of psychosis; the other half were patients with a chronic psychosis. Primary outcome was patient-perceived involvement in medical decision making, measured with the Combined Outcome Measure for Risk Communication and Treatment Decision-making Effectiveness (COMRADE). Process evaluation consisted of questionnaire-based surveys, open interviews, and researcher observation. Results In all, 73 patients completed the follow-up measurement and were included in the final analysis (response rate 29.2%). More than one-third (48/124, 38.7%) of the patients who were provided access to the Web-based decision aid used it, and most used its full functionality. No differences were found between the intervention and control conditions

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...

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.

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

Designing decision support tools for targeted N-regulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Andreas Aagaard; Piil, Kristoffer; Andersen, Peter Stubkjær

2017-01-01

data model for land use data – the dNmark landscape model. Based on input data which is corrected and edited by workshop participants, the tool estimates the effect of potential land use scenarios on nutrient emissions. The tool was tested in 5 scenario workshops in case areas in Denmark in 2016...... in Denmark to develop and improve a functioning decision support tool for landscape scale N-management. The aim of the study is to evaluate how a decision support tool can best be designed in order to enable landscape scale strategic N-management practices. Methods: A prototype GIS-tool for capturing......, storing, editing, displaying and modelling landscape scale farming practices and associated emission consequences was developed. The tool was designed to integrate locally held knowledge with national scale datasets in live scenario situations through the implementation of a flexible, uniform and editable...

A Semantic Approach with Decision Support for Safety Service in Smart Home Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Xiaoci; Yi, Jianjun; Zhu, Xiaomin; Chen, Shaoli

2016-08-03

Research on smart homes (SHs) has increased significantly in recent years because of the convenience provided by having an assisted living environment. The functions of SHs as mentioned in previous studies, particularly safety services, are seldom discussed or mentioned. Thus, this study proposes a semantic approach with decision support for safety service in SH management. The focus of this contribution is to explore a context awareness and reasoning approach for risk recognition in SH that enables the proper decision support for flexible safety service provision. The framework of SH based on a wireless sensor network is described from the perspective of neighbourhood management. This approach is based on the integration of semantic knowledge in which a reasoner can make decisions about risk recognition and safety service. We present a management ontology for a SH and relevant monitoring contextual information, which considers its suitability in a pervasive computing environment and is service-oriented. We also propose a rule-based reasoning method to provide decision support through reasoning techniques and context-awareness. A system prototype is developed to evaluate the feasibility, time response and extendibility of the approach. The evaluation of our approach shows that it is more effective in daily risk event recognition. The decisions for service provision are shown to be accurate.

A Semantic Approach with Decision Support for Safety Service in Smart Home Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoci Huang

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Research on smart homes (SHs has increased significantly in recent years because of the convenience provided by having an assisted living environment. The functions of SHs as mentioned in previous studies, particularly safety services, are seldom discussed or mentioned. Thus, this study proposes a semantic approach with decision support for safety service in SH management. The focus of this contribution is to explore a context awareness and reasoning approach for risk recognition in SH that enables the proper decision support for flexible safety service provision. The framework of SH based on a wireless sensor network is described from the perspective of neighbourhood management. This approach is based on the integration of semantic knowledge in which a reasoner can make decisions about risk recognition and safety service. We present a management ontology for a SH and relevant monitoring contextual information, which considers its suitability in a pervasive computing environment and is service-oriented. We also propose a rule-based reasoning method to provide decision support through reasoning techniques and context-awareness. A system prototype is developed to evaluate the feasibility, time response and extendibility of the approach. The evaluation of our approach shows that it is more effective in daily risk event recognition. The decisions for service provision are shown to be accurate.

ENABLING SMART MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES FOR DECISION-MAKING SUPPORT

Science.gov (United States)

Helu, Moneer; Libes, Don; Lubell, Joshua; Lyons, Kevin; Morris, KC

2017-01-01

Smart manufacturing combines advanced manufacturing capabilities and digital technologies throughout the product lifecycle. These technologies can provide decision-making support to manufacturers through improved monitoring, analysis, modeling, and simulation that generate more and better intelligence about manufacturing systems. However, challenges and barriers have impeded the adoption of smart manufacturing technologies. To begin to address this need, this paper defines requirements for data-driven decision making in manufacturing based on a generalized description of decision making. Using these requirements, we then focus on identifying key barriers that prevent the development and use of data-driven decision making in industry as well as examples of technologies and standards that have the potential to overcome these barriers. The goal of this research is to promote a common understanding among the manufacturing community that can enable standardization efforts and innovation needed to continue adoption and use of smart manufacturing technologies. PMID:28649678

The Intelligent Ventilator Project: Application of Physiological Models in Decision Support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rees, Stephen Edward; Karbing, Dan Stieper; Allerød, Charlotte

2011-01-01

Management of mechanical ventilation in intensive care patients is complicated by conflicting clinical goals. Decision support systems (DSS) may support clinicians in finding the correct balance. The objective of this study was to evaluate a computerized model-based DSS for its advice on inspired...

Design and Implementation of Multi Agent-based Information Fusion System for Supporting Decision Making (A Case Study on Military Operation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arwin Datumaya Wahyudi Sumari

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Quick, accurate, and complete information is highly required for supporting strategically impact decision making in a Military Operation (MO in order to reduce the decision cycle and to minimize the loss. For that purpose, we propose, design and implement a hierarchical Multi Agent-based Information Fusion System for Decision Making Support (MAIFS-DMS. The information fusion is implemented by applying Maximum Score of the Total Sum of Joint Probabilities (MSJP fusion method and is done by a collection of Information Fusion Agents (IFA that forms a multiagent system. MAIFS uses a combination of generalization of Dasarathy and Joint Director’s Laboratory (JDL process models for information fusion mechanism. Information fusion products that are displayed in graphical forms provide comprehensive information regarding the MO area dynamics. By observing the graphics resulted from the information fusion, the commandant will have situational awareness and knowledge in order to make the most accurate strategic decision as fast as possible

An Exploratory Study Investigating How and Why Managers Use Tablets to Support Managerial Decision-Making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meng Xiao

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Managers are often mobile and a large proportion of their work is dealing with decisions. Although many managers currently use tablet computers in their work, there is little research on the use of tablets for managerial decision-support. This exploratory study aims to investigate the ways in which managers use tablets to support their decision-making and the reasons why they do so. Using Task-Technology Fit theory, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 managers, 17 of whom used tablets for their work-related decision-making. The study reveals managers’ tablet usage patterns in terms of location, tablet applications, decision activities and types. This study has also found that a range of tablet characteristics and decision-task characteristics affect managers’ use of tablets to support decision-making at work. This exploratory study contributes to both academia and industry by providing evidence on the tablet decision-support area, and affording organisations, tablet vendors and tablet application developers informative findings for further improvement in the provision of tablet-based decision support.

Towards Integrating the Principlist and Casuist Approaches to Ethical Decisions via Multi-Criterial Support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kaltoft, Mette Kjer; Nielsen, Jesper Bo; Salkeld, Glenn

2016-01-01

of each option, as a contribution to enhanced deliberation. As proof of concept and method an exemplar aid adds veracity and confidentiality to beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice, as the criteria, with case-based reasoning supplying the necessary inputs for the decision of whether a nurse......An interactive decision support tool based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) can help health professionals integrate the principlist (principle-based) and casuist (case-based) approaches to ethical decision making in both their training and practice. MCDA can incorporate generic ethical...

Clinical decision support must be useful, functional is not enough

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kortteisto, Tiina; Komulainen, Jorma; Mäkelä, Marjukka

2012-01-01

the use of computer-based clinical decision support (eCDS) in primary care and how different professional groups experience it. Our aim was to describe specific reasons for using or not using eCDS among primary care professionals. METHODS: The setting was a Finnish primary health care organization with 48......ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Health information technology, particularly electronic decision support systems, can reduce the existing gap between evidence-based knowledge and health care practice but professionals have to accept and use this information. Evidence is scant on which features influence...... professionals receiving patient-specific guidance at the point of care. Multiple data (focus groups, questionnaire and spontaneous feedback) were analyzed using deductive content analysis and descriptive statistics. RESULTS: The content of the guidance is a significant feature of the primary care professional...

Seminal Quality Prediction Using Clustering-Based Decision Forests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Wang

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Prediction of seminal quality with statistical learning tools is an emerging methodology in decision support systems in biomedical engineering and is very useful in early diagnosis of seminal patients and selection of semen donors candidates. However, as is common in medical diagnosis, seminal quality prediction faces the class imbalance problem. In this paper, we propose a novel supervised ensemble learning approach, namely Clustering-Based Decision Forests, to tackle unbalanced class learning problem in seminal quality prediction. Experiment results on real fertility diagnosis dataset have shown that Clustering-Based Decision Forests outperforms decision tree, Support Vector Machines, random forests, multilayer perceptron neural networks and logistic regression by a noticeable margin. Clustering-Based Decision Forests can also be used to evaluate variables’ importance and the top five important factors that may affect semen concentration obtained in this study are age, serious trauma, sitting time, the season when the semen sample is produced, and high fevers in the last year. The findings could be helpful in explaining seminal concentration problems in infertile males or pre-screening semen donor candidates.

SADA: Ecological Risk Based Decision Support System for Selective Remediation

Science.gov (United States)

Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistance (SADA) is freeware that implements terrestrial ecological risk assessment and yields a selective remediation design using its integral geographical information system, based on ecological and risk assessment inputs. Selective remediation ...

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…

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

Measuring Clinical Decision Support Influence on Evidence-Based Nursing Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Cortez, Susan; Dietrich, Mary S; Wells, Nancy

2016-07-01

To measure the effect of clinical decision support (CDS) on oncology nurse evidence-based practice (EBP).
. Longitudinal cluster-randomized design.
. Four distinctly separate oncology clinics associated with an academic medical center.
. The study sample was comprised of randomly selected data elements from the nursing documentation software. The data elements were patient-reported symptoms and the associated nurse interventions. The total sample observations were 600, derived from a baseline, posteducation, and postintervention sample of 200 each (100 in the intervention group and 100 in the control group for each sample).
. The cluster design was used to support randomization of the study intervention at the clinic level rather than the individual participant level to reduce possible diffusion of the study intervention. An elongated data collection cycle (11 weeks) controlled for temporary increases in nurse EBP related to the education or CDS intervention.
. The dependent variable was the nurse evidence-based documentation rate, calculated from the nurse-documented interventions. The independent variable was the CDS added to the nursing documentation software.
. The average EBP rate at baseline for the control and intervention groups was 27%. After education, the average EBP rate increased to 37%, and then decreased to 26% in the postintervention sample. Mixed-model linear statistical analysis revealed no significant interaction of group by sample. The CDS intervention did not result in an increase in nurse EBP.
. EBP education increased nurse EBP documentation rates significantly but only temporarily. Nurses may have used evidence in practice but may not have documented their interventions.
. More research is needed to understand the complex relationship between CDS, nursing practice, and nursing EBP intervention documentation. CDS may have a different effect on nurse EBP, physician EBP, and other medical professional EBP.

A Web-based spatial decision supporting system for land management and soil conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Terribile, F.; Agrillo, A.; Bonfante, A.; Buscemi, G.; Colandrea, M.; D'Antonio, A.; De Mascellis, R.; De Michele, C.; Langella, G.; Manna, P.; Marotta, L.; Mileti, F. A.; Minieri, L.; Orefice, N.; Valentini, S.; Vingiani, S.; Basile, A.

2015-07-01

Today it is evident that there are many contrasting demands on our landscape (e.g. food security, more sustainable agriculture, higher income in rural areas, etc.) as well as many land degradation problems. It has been proved that providing operational answers to these demands and problems is extremely difficult. Here we aim to demonstrate that a spatial decision support system based on geospatial cyberinfrastructure (GCI) can address all of the above, so producing a smart system for supporting decision making for agriculture, forestry, and urban planning with respect to the landscape. In this paper, we discuss methods and results of a special kind of GCI architecture, one that is highly focused on land management and soil conservation. The system allows us to obtain dynamic, multidisciplinary, multiscale, and multifunctional answers to agriculture, forestry, and urban planning issues through the Web. The system has been applied to and tested in an area of about 20 000 ha in the south of Italy, within the framework of a European LIFE+ project (SOILCONSWEB). The paper reports - as a case study - results from two different applications dealing with agriculture (olive growth tool) and environmental protection (soil capability to protect groundwater). Developed with the help of end users, the system is starting to be adopted by local communities. The system indirectly explores a change of paradigm for soil and landscape scientists. Indeed, the potential benefit is shown of overcoming current disciplinary fragmentation over landscape issues by offering - through a smart Web-based system - truly integrated geospatial knowledge that may be directly and freely used by any end user (www.landconsultingweb.eu). This may help bridge the last very important divide between scientists working on the landscape and end users.

A web based spatial decision supporting system for land management and soil conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Terribile, F.; Agrillo, A.; Bonfante, A.; Buscemi, G.; Colandrea, M.; D'Antonio, A.; De Mascellis, R.; De Michele, C.; Langella, G.; Manna, P.; Marotta, L.; Mileti, F. A.; Minieri, L.; Orefice, N.; Valentini, S.; Vingiani, S.; Basile, A.

2015-02-01

Today it is evident that there are many contrasting demands on our landscape (e.g. food security, more sustainable agriculture, higher income in rural areas, etc.) but also many land degradation problems. It has been proved that providing operational answers to these demands and problems is extremely difficult. Here we aim to demonstrate that a Spatial Decision Support System based on geospatial cyber-infrastructure (GCI) can embody all of the above, so producing a smart system for supporting decision making for agriculture, forestry and urban planning with respect to the landscape. In this paper, we discuss methods and results of a special kind of GCI architecture, one that is highly focused on soil and land conservation (SOILCONSWEB-LIFE+ project). The system allows us to obtain dynamic, multidisciplinary, multiscale, and multifunctional answers to agriculture, forestry and urban planning issues through the web. The system has been applied to and tested in an area of about 20 000 ha in the South of Italy, within the framework of a European LIFE+ project. The paper reports - as a case study - results from two different applications dealing with agriculture (olive growth tool) and environmental protection (soil capability to protect groundwater). Developed with the help of end users, the system is starting to be adopted by local communities. The system indirectly explores a change of paradigm for soil and landscape scientists. Indeed, the potential benefit is shown of overcoming current disciplinary fragmentation over landscape issues by offering - through a smart web based system - truly integrated geospatial knowledge that may be directly and freely used by any end user (http://www.landconsultingweb.eu). This may help bridge the last much important divide between scientists working on the landscape and end users.

A decision support system for pre-earthquake planning of lifeline networks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liang, J.W. [Tianjin Univ. (China). Dept. of Civil Engineering

1996-12-01

This paper describes the frame of a decision support system for pre-earthquake planning of gas and water networks. The system is mainly based on the earthquake experiences and lessons from the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. The objective of the system is to offer countermeasures and help make decisions for seismic strengthening, remaking, and upgrading of gas and water networks.

An Innovative Approach to Addressing Childhood Obesity: A Knowledge-Based Infrastructure for Supporting Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Decision-Making in Quebec, Canada

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nii Antiaye Addy

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs have become a widespread means for deploying policies in a whole of society strategy to address the complex problem of childhood obesity. However, decision-making in MSPs is fraught with challenges, as decision-makers are faced with complexity, and have to reconcile disparate conceptualizations of knowledge across multiple sectors with diverse sets of indicators and data. These challenges can be addressed by supporting MSPs with innovative tools for obtaining, organizing and using data to inform decision-making. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the development of a knowledge-based infrastructure to support MSP decision-making processes. The paper emerged from a study to define specifications for a knowledge-based infrastructure to provide decision support for community-level MSPs in the Canadian province of Quebec. As part of the study, a process assessment was conducted to understand the needs of communities as they collect, organize, and analyze data to make decisions about their priorities. The result of this process is a “portrait”, which is an epidemiological profile of health and nutrition in their community. Portraits inform strategic planning and development of interventions, and are used to assess the impact of interventions. Our key findings indicate ambiguities and disagreement among MSP decision-makers regarding causal relationships between actions and outcomes, and the relevant data needed for making decisions. MSP decision-makers expressed a desire for easy-to-use tools that facilitate the collection, organization, synthesis, and analysis of data, to enable decision-making in a timely manner. Findings inform conceptual modeling and ontological analysis to capture the domain knowledge and specify relationships between actions and outcomes. This modeling and analysis provide the foundation for an ontology, encoded using OWL 2 Web Ontology Language. The ontology is developed

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.…

North Slope Decision Support for Water Resource Planning and Management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schnabel, William; Brumbelow, Kelly

2013-03-31

The objective of this project was to enhance the water resource decision-making process with respect to oil and gas exploration/production activities on Alaska’s North Slope. To this end, a web-based software tool was developed to allow stakeholders to assemble, evaluate, and communicate relevant information between and amongst themselves. The software, termed North Slope Decision Support System (NSDSS), is a visually-referenced database that provides a platform for running complex natural system, planning, and optimization models. The NSDSS design was based upon community input garnered during a series of stakeholder workshops, and the end product software is freely available to all stakeholders via the project website. The tool now resides on servers hosted by the UAF Water and Environmental Research Center, and will remain accessible and free-of-charge for all interested stakeholders. The development of the tool fostered new advances in the area of data evaluation and decision support technologies, and the finished product is envisioned to enhance water resource planning activities on Alaska’s North Slope.

An exploration study to find important factors influencing on decision support systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naser Azad

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Decision Support Systems (DSSs are computer-based information systems for providing necessary supports for business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs often serve the management, operations, and planning levels of all organizations and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily achieved in advance. This paper presents an empirical investigation to find important factors influencing DSSs. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale consists of 36 questions, distributes it among 213 employees who work for different offices in municipality of Tehran, Iran. Cronbach alpha is calculated as 0.872. In addition, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy and Approx. Chi-Square are 0.782 and 1014.521, respectively. Based on the results of our survey, we have derived three factors including system, analysis and transaction.

Computer-Based Support of Decision Making Processes during Biological Incidents

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karel Antos

2010-04-01

Full Text Available The paper describes contextual analysis of a general system that should provide a computerized support of decision making processes related to response operations in case of a biological incident. This analysis is focused on information systems and information resources perspective and their integration using appropriate tools and technology. In the contextual design the basic modules of BioDSS system are suggested and further elaborated. The modules deal with incident description, scenarios development and recommendation of appropriate countermeasures. Proposals for further research are also included.

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.

A pilot study of distributed knowledge management and clinical decision support in the cloud.

Science.gov (United States)

Dixon, Brian E; Simonaitis, Linas; Goldberg, Howard S; Paterno, Marilyn D; Schaeffer, Molly; Hongsermeier, Tonya; Wright, Adam; Middleton, Blackford

2013-09-01

Implement and perform pilot testing of web-based clinical decision support services using a novel framework for creating and managing clinical knowledge in a distributed fashion using the cloud. The pilot sought to (1) develop and test connectivity to an external clinical decision support (CDS) service, (2) assess the exchange of data to and knowledge from the external CDS service, and (3) capture lessons to guide expansion to more practice sites and users. The Clinical Decision Support Consortium created a repository of shared CDS knowledge for managing hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery disease in a community cloud hosted by Partners HealthCare. A limited data set for primary care patients at a separate health system was securely transmitted to a CDS rules engine hosted in the cloud. Preventive care reminders triggered by the limited data set were returned for display to clinician end users for review and display. During a pilot study, we (1) monitored connectivity and system performance, (2) studied the exchange of data and decision support reminders between the two health systems, and (3) captured lessons. During the six month pilot study, there were 1339 patient encounters in which information was successfully exchanged. Preventive care reminders were displayed during 57% of patient visits, most often reminding physicians to monitor blood pressure for hypertensive patients (29%) and order eye exams for patients with diabetes (28%). Lessons learned were grouped into five themes: performance, governance, semantic interoperability, ongoing adjustments, and usability. Remote, asynchronous cloud-based decision support performed reasonably well, although issues concerning governance, semantic interoperability, and usability remain key challenges for successful adoption and use of cloud-based CDS that will require collaboration between biomedical informatics and computer science disciplines. Decision support in the cloud is feasible and may be a reasonable

Modelling and Decision Support of Clinical Pathways

Science.gov (United States)

Gabriel, Roland; Lux, Thomas

The German health care market is under a rapid rate of change, forcing especially hospitals to provide high-quality services at low costs. Appropriate measures for more effective and efficient service provision are process orientation and decision support by information technology of clinical pathway of a patient. The essential requirements are adequate modelling of clinical pathways as well as usage of adequate systems, which are capable of assisting the complete path of a patient within a hospital, and preferably also outside of it, in a digital way. To fulfil these specifications the authors present a suitable concept, which meets the challenges of well-structured clinical pathways as well as rather poorly structured diagnostic and therapeutic decisions, by interplay of process-oriented and knowledge-based hospital information systems.

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....

School-Based Decision-Making: The Canadian Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Frank

1997-01-01

In Canada, school-based decision making is a political expedient to co-opt public support for public education at the same time as financial resources to schools are being curtailed. School councils are advisory in nature and have no statutory position in either school or school-system decisions. (17 references) (MLF)

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,...

Supporting the personnel reliability decision-making process with artificial intelligence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harte, D.C.

1991-01-01

Recent legislation concerning personnel security has vastly increased the responsibility and accountability of the security manager. Access authorization, fitness for duty, and personnel security access programs require decisions regarding an individual's trustworthiness and reliability based on the findings of a background investigation. While these guidelines provide significant data and are useful as a tool, limited resources are available to the adjudicator of derogatory information on what is and is not acceptable in terms of granting access to sensitive areas of nuclear plants. The reason why one individual is deemed unacceptable and the next acceptable may be questioned and cause discriminatory accusations. This paper is continuation of discussion on workforce reliability, focusing on the use of artificial intelligence to support the decisions of a security manager. With this support, the benefit of previous decisions helps ensure consistent adjudication of background investigations

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.

Investment Decision Support for Engineering Projects Based on Risk Correlation Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yan Liu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Investment decisions are usually made on the basis of the subjective judgments of experts subjected to the information gap during the preliminary stages of a project. As a consequence, a series of errors in risk prediction and/or decision-making will be generated leading to out of control investment and project failure. In this paper, the variable fuzzy set theory and intelligent algorithms integrated with case-based reasoning are presented. The proposed algorithm manages the numerous fuzzy concepts and variable factors of a project and also sets up the decision-making process in accordance with past cases and experiences. Furthermore, it decreases the calculation difficulty and reduces the decision-making reaction time. Three types of risk correlations combined with different characteristics of engineering projects are summarized, and each of these correlations is expounded at the project investment decision-making stage. Quantitative and qualitative change theories of variable fuzzy sets are also addressed for investment risk warning. The approach presented in this paper enables the risk analysis in a simple and intuitive manner and realizes the integration of objective and subjective risk assessments within the decision-makers' risk expectation.

Green Decision Making: How Systemic Planning can support Strategic Decision Making for Sustainable Transport Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leleur, Steen

for Strategic Management. The book was published in 2012 by Springer-Verlag, London, as a research monograph in the publisher’s series about Decision Engineering. The intention behind this new book – with its focus upon ‘greening’ of strategic decisions – is to provide a general and less technical description......The book is based on my participation in the SUSTAIN research project 2012-2017 about National Sustainable Transport Planning funded by the Danish Research Council (Innovationsfonden). Many of the issues treated here have a backdrop in my book Complex Strategic Choices – Applying Systemic Planning...... to this application area. In fact a company relocation decision case has been used to introduce the potential of SP as regards providing decision support for strategic decision making. A main concern in this presentation of SP, which deviates from the Springer book referred to above, is to highlight that ‘greening...

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...

A Methodology for Decision Support for Implementation of Cloud Computing IT Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adela Tušanová

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the decision of small and medium-sized software companies in transition to SaaS model. The goal of the research is to design a comprehensive methodic to support decision making based on actual data of the company itself. Based on a careful analysis, taxonomy of costs, revenue streams and decision-making criteria are proposed in the paper. On the basis of multi-criteria decision-making methods, each alternative is evaluated and the alternative with the highest score is identified as the most appropriate. The proposed methodic is implemented as a web application and verified through  case studies.

A web-based decision support system to enhance IPM programs in Washington tree fruit.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Vincent P; Brunner, Jay F; Grove, Gary G; Petit, Brad; Tangren, Gerald V; Jones, Wendy E

2010-06-01

Integrated pest management (IPM) decision-making has become more information intensive in Washington State tree crops in response to changes in pesticide availability, the development of new control tactics (such as mating disruption) and the development of new information on pest and natural enemy biology. The time-sensitive nature of the information means that growers must have constant access to a single source of verified information to guide management decisions. The authors developed a decision support system for Washington tree fruit growers that integrates environmental data [140 Washington State University (WSU) stations plus weather forecasts from NOAA], model predictions (ten insects, four diseases and a horticultural model), management recommendations triggered by model status and a pesticide database that provides information on non-target impacts on other pests and natural enemies. A user survey in 2008 found that the user base was providing recommendations for most of the orchards and acreage in the state, and that users estimated the value at $ 16 million per year. The design of the system facilitates education on a range of time-sensitive topics and will make it possible easily to incorporate other models, new management recommendations or information from new sensors as they are developed.

'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.

The Role of Decision Support in the Implementation of “Sustainable Transport” Plans

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gudmundsson, Henrik; Ericsson, Eva; Tight, Miles

2012-01-01

but also the difficulty of unpicking its exact role in each case. Stockholm presented the most successful case, with a mix of academic and experience-based knowledge inputs facilitating understanding and acceptance. The cycle plan example revealed very limited influence of cycling design guidance. The UK......Improved decision support is deemed essential for the planning and implementation of sustainable transport solutions, but limited evidence exists that decision-relevant information is effectively used for these purposes. This paper applies a framework inspired by research in “knowledge utilization......” to examine to what extent various kinds of decision support are used and have become influential in three different planning situations—a local cycle plan in Copenhagen, the Stockholm congestion charging trial and the UK national transport strategy. The results reveal the extensive use of decision support...

A GIS-based decision support system for regional eco-security assessment and its application on the Tibetan Plateau.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiaodan, Wang; Xianghao, Zhong; Pan, Gao

2010-10-01

Regional eco-security assessment is an intricate, challenging task. In previous studies, the integration of eco-environmental models and geographical information systems (GIS) usually takes two approaches: loose coupling and tight coupling. However, the present study used a full coupling approach to develop a GIS-based regional eco-security assessment decision support system (ESDSS). This was achieved by merging the pressure-state-response (PSR) model and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) into ArcGIS 9 as a dynamic link library (DLL) using ArcObjects in ArcGIS and Visual Basic for Applications. Such an approach makes it easy to capitalize on the GIS visualization and spatial analysis functions, thereby significantly supporting the dynamic estimation of regional eco-security. A case study is presented for the Tibetan Plateau, known as the world's "third pole" after the Arctic and Antarctic. Results verified the usefulness and feasibility of the developed method. As a useful tool, the ESDSS can also help local managers to make scientifically-based and effective decisions about Tibetan eco-environmental protection and land use. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oblique decision trees using embedded support vector machines in classifier ensembles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Menkovski, V.; Christou, I.; Efremidis, S.

2008-01-01

Classifier ensembles have emerged in recent years as a promising research area for boosting pattern recognition systems' performance. We present a new base classifier that utilizes oblique decision tree technology based on support vector machines for the construction of oblique (non-axis parallel)

Overcoming barriers to development of cooperative medical decision support models.

Science.gov (United States)

Hudson, Donna L; Cohen, Maurice E

2012-01-01

Attempts to automate the medical decision making process have been underway for the at least fifty years, beginning with data-based approaches that relied chiefly on statistically-based methods. Approaches expanded to include knowledge-based systems, both linear and non-linear neural networks, agent-based systems, and hybrid methods. While some of these models produced excellent results none have been used extensively in medical practice. In order to move these methods forward into practical use, a number of obstacles must be overcome, including validation of existing systems on large data sets, development of methods for including new knowledge as it becomes available, construction of a broad range of decision models, and development of non-intrusive methods that allow the physician to use these decision aids in conjunction with, not instead of, his or her own medical knowledge. None of these four requirements will come easily. A cooperative effort among researchers, including practicing MDs, is vital, particularly as more information on diseases and their contributing factors continues to expand resulting in more parameters than the human decision maker can process effectively. In this article some of the basic structures that are necessary to facilitate the use of an automated decision support system are discussed, along with potential methods for overcoming existing barriers.

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

Identifying the decision to be supported: a review of papers from environmental modelling and software

Science.gov (United States)

Sojda, Richard S.; Chen, Serena H.; El Sawah, Sondoss; Guillaume, Joseph H.A.; Jakeman, A.J.; Lautenbach, Sven; McIntosh, Brian S.; Rizzoli, A.E.; Seppelt, Ralf; Struss, Peter; Voinov, Alexey; Volk, Martin

2012-01-01

Two of the basic tenets of decision support system efforts are to help identify and structure the decisions to be supported, and to then provide analysis in how those decisions might be best made. One example from wetland management would be that wildlife biologists must decide when to draw down water levels to optimise aquatic invertebrates as food for breeding ducks. Once such a decision is identified, a system or tool to help them make that decision in the face of current and projected climate conditions could be developed. We examined a random sample of 100 papers published from 2001-2011 in Environmental Modelling and Software that used the phrase “decision support system” or “decision support tool”, and which are characteristic of different sectors. In our review, 41% of the systems and tools related to the water resources sector, 34% were related to agriculture, and 22% to the conservation of fish, wildlife, and protected area management. Only 60% of the papers were deemed to be reporting on DSS. This was based on the papers reviewed not having directly identified a specific decision to be supported. We also report on the techniques that were used to identify the decisions, such as formal survey, focus group, expert opinion, or sole judgment of the author(s). The primary underlying modelling system, e.g., expert system, agent based model, Bayesian belief network, geographical information system (GIS), and the like was categorised next. Finally, since decision support typically should target some aspect of unstructured decisions, we subjectively determined to what degree this was the case. In only 23% of the papers reviewed, did the system appear to tackle unstructured decisions. This knowledge should be useful in helping workers in the field develop more effective systems and tools, especially by being exposed to the approaches in different, but related, disciplines. We propose that a standard blueprint for reporting on DSS be developed for

Observability and Decision Support for Supervision of Distributed Power System Control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pertl, Michael

in NorthernCalifornia. Two possible applications of the model are presented: peak reduction compared to uncontrolled charging, and an energy arbitrage scenario. Overall, it is shown that a combination of classical and innovative approaches can contribute to improved situation awareness of control room...... operational information, relevant to the current grid condition, need to be developed. This dissertation covers three areas where specific challenges for improved observability and decision support in future control rooms are addressed: Classical large power system stability issues, innovative data......-network-based approach for real-time voltage estimation in active distribution grids, and a modeling approach to harness the flexibility of an aggregation of electric vehicles. For improved monitoring and maintaining power system stability, a decision support tool for transient stability preventive control, based...

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

Parallel constraint satisfaction in memory-based decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Glöckner, Andreas; Hodges, Sara D

2011-01-01

Three studies sought to investigate decision strategies in memory-based decisions and to test the predictions of the parallel constraint satisfaction (PCS) model for decision making (Glöckner & Betsch, 2008). Time pressure was manipulated and the model was compared against simple heuristics (take the best and equal weight) and a weighted additive strategy. From PCS we predicted that fast intuitive decision making is based on compensatory information integration and that decision time increases and confidence decreases with increasing inconsistency in the decision task. In line with these predictions we observed a predominant usage of compensatory strategies under all time-pressure conditions and even with decision times as short as 1.7 s. For a substantial number of participants, choices and decision times were best explained by PCS, but there was also evidence for use of simple heuristics. The time-pressure manipulation did not significantly affect decision strategies. Overall, the results highlight intuitive, automatic processes in decision making and support the idea that human information-processing capabilities are less severely bounded than often assumed.

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.

Design and implementation of a decision support system for breast cancer treatment based on clinical practice guidelines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skevofilakas, M.T.; Nikita, K.S.; Templaleksis, P.H.; Birbas, K.N.; Kaklamanos, I.G.; Bonatsos, G.N.

2007-01-01

Evidence based medicine is the clinical practice that uses medical data and proof in order to make efficient clinical decisions. Information technology (IT) can play a crucial role in exploiting the huge size of raw medical data involved. In an attempt to improve clinical efficacy, health care society nowadays also utilizes a new assistant, clinical guidelines. Our research concerns the medical domain of the breast cancer disease. Our research's focus is twofold; our primary goal is to ensure consistency in clinical practice by importing clinical guidelines in an IT driven decision support system (DSS). Furthermore, we seek to improve visualization of disease specific, clinical data, providing for it's faster and more efficient use. (orig.)

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

Bidding Strategy to Support Decision-Making Based on Comprehensive Information in Construction Projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ru Liang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper develops a unified method to support contractor for bidding selection in construction projects. A cross-functional contractor with 28 candidate units distributed in the three departments (construction units, design units, and suppliers is used as an example. This problem is first formulated as a 0-1 quadratic programming problem through optimizing individual performance and collaborative performance of the candidate units based on individual information and collaborative information. Then, a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm is designed to solve this problem and a bidding selection problem for a major bridge project is used to demonstrate our proposed method. The results show that the decision-maker (DM obtains a better contractor if he pays more attention to collaborative performance.

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…

A group-based spatial decision support system for wind farm site selection in Northwest Ohio

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gorsevski, Pece V.; Cathcart, Steven C.; Mirzaei, Golrokh; Jamali, Mohsin M.; Ye, Xinyue; Gomezdelcampo, Enrique

2013-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the benefits of applying a spatial decision support system (SDSS) framework for evaluating the suitability for wind farm siting in Northwest Ohio. The multiple criteria evaluation (MCE) prototype system is intended for regional planning but also for promoting group decision making that could involve participants with different interests in the development of decision alternatives. The framework integrates environmental and economic criteria and builds a hierarchy for wind farm siting using weighted linear combination (WLC) techniques and GIS functionality. The SDSS allows the multiple participants to interact and develop an understanding of the spatial data for assigning importance values to each factor. The WLC technique is used to combine the assigned values with map layers, which are standardized using fuzzy set theory, to produce individual suitability maps. The maps created by personal preferences from the participants are aggregated for producing a group solution using the Borda method. Sensitivity analysis is performed on the group solution to examine how small changes in the factor weights affect the calculated suitability scores. The results from the sensitivity analysis are intended to aid understanding of compromised solutions through changes in the input data from the participant's perspective. - Highlights: ► We present a prototype tool that we developed for wind farm site selection. ► Multiple participants rank the factors for promoting group-based decision making. ► The factors are aggregated by WLC technique to generate maps from participants. ► Group-based solution uses Borda method to aggregate the maps from participants. ► Sensitivity analysis is performed on the group solution to examine solution affects

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....

Imaging informatics-based multimedia ePR system for data management and decision support in rehabilitation research

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ximing; Verma, Sneha; Qin, Yi; Sterling, Josh; Zhou, Alyssa; Zhang, Jeffrey; Martinez, Clarisa; Casebeer, Narissa; Koh, Hyunwook; Winstein, Carolee; Liu, Brent

2013-03-01

With the rapid development of science and technology, large-scale rehabilitation centers and clinical rehabilitation trials usually involve significant volumes of multimedia data. Due to the global aging crisis, millions of new patients with age-related chronic diseases will produce huge amounts of data and contribute to soaring costs of medical care. Hence, a solution for effective data management and decision support will significantly reduce the expenditure and finally improve the patient life quality. Inspired from the concept of the electronic patient record (ePR), we developed a prototype system for the field of rehabilitation engineering. The system is subject or patient-oriented and customized for specific projects. The system components include data entry modules, multimedia data presentation and data retrieval. To process the multimedia data, the system includes a DICOM viewer with annotation tools and video/audio player. The system also serves as a platform for integrating decision-support tools and data mining tools. Based on the prototype system design, we developed two specific applications: 1) DOSE (a phase 1 randomized clinical trial to determine the optimal dose of therapy for rehabilitation of the arm and hand after stroke.); and 2) NEXUS project from the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center(RERC, a NIDRR funded Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center). Currently, the system is being evaluated in the context of the DOSE trial with a projected enrollment of 60 participants over 5 years, and will be evaluated by the NEXUS project with 30 subjects. By applying the ePR concept, we developed a system in order to improve the current research workflow, reduce the cost of managing data, and provide a platform for the rapid development of future decision-support tools.

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 decision support system for stress only myocardial perfusion scintigraphy may save unnecessary rest studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tägil, K; Jakobsson, D; Lomsky, M

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of a computer-based decision support system (DSS) on performance and inter-observer variability of interpretations regarding ischaemia and infarction in myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS).......The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of a computer-based decision support system (DSS) on performance and inter-observer variability of interpretations regarding ischaemia and infarction in myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS)....

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.

A crisis management decision support system to reduce ingestion dose

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schenker-Wicki, A.; Gibbert, R.

1993-01-01

Environmental accidents such as extensive radioactive or chemical contamination can have more serious consequences for a population than any other kind of accidents known before. Owing to the serious consequences and the high number of people who may be affected, the selection of the best countermeasures to ameliorate the imminent impact is very difficult and the political responsibility is enormous. To help overcome such problems the National Emergency Operations Center in Zurich (Switzerland) has developed a decision support system to evaluate acceptable countermeasures for reducing ingestion dose after an accidental release of radioactive material. The system involves all the necessary modules and techniques for efficient decision making, based on the most recent developments in decision theory as well as the necessary structuring of the decision-making process. The decision-making concept comprehends decision making on two different levels, a technical and a political one. (author)

Agent-based Decision Support System for the Third Generation Distributed Dynamic Decision-making (DDD-III) Simulator

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Meirina, Candra; Ruan, Sui; Yu, Feili; Zhu, Liang; Pattipati, Krishna R; Kleinman, David L

2004-01-01

...) based on the third-generation distributed dynamic decision-making (DDD-III) simulator and contingency theory to increase the organizational cognitive capacity and to facilitate the processes of adaptation...

Development of an integrated decision support system to aid cognitive activities of operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Jun; Seong, Poong Hyun

2007-01-01

As digital and computer technologies have grown, Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) have evolved. In safety-critical systems, especially in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), HMIs are important for reducing operational costs, the number of necessary operators, and the probability of accident occurrence. Efforts have been made to improve Main Control Room (MCR) interface design and to develop automated or decision support systems to ensure convenient operation and maintenance. In this paper, an integrated decision support system to aid operator cognitive processes is proposed for advanced MCRs of future NPPs. This work suggests the design concept of a decision support system which accounts for an operator's cognitive processes. The proposed system supports not only a particular task, but also the entire operation process based on a human cognitive process model. In this paper, the operator's operation processes are analyzed according to a human cognitive process model and appropriate support systems that support each cognitive process activity are suggested

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.

An electronic decision support system to motivate people with severe mental illnesses to quit smoking.

Science.gov (United States)

Brunette, Mary F; Ferron, Joelle C; McHugo, Gregory J; Davis, Kristin E; Devitt, Timothy S; Wilkness, Sandra M; Drake, Robert E

2011-04-01

Rates of cigarette smoking are high among people with severe mental illnesses compared with the general population (45%-90% versus 20%). The authors developed a Web-based computer decision support system that is tailored for use by people with cognitive deficits and is designed to stimulate motivation to quit smoking by using evidence-based treatment. This initial study used a quasi-experimental design to test the decision support system among a convenience sample of 41 smokers with severe mental illnesses. Researchers interviewed participants at baseline and two months later to assess for behaviors indicative of motivation to quit smoking. A negative binomial regression modeled the outcome and controlled for baseline group differences. Participants who used the decision support system were significantly more likely to show any behavioral motivation to quit smoking (such as meet with a clinician to discuss cessation, initiate cessation treatment, or otherwise attempt to quit) (67% versus 35%; χ(2)=4.11, df=41, p=.04). Further, using the decision support system increased by a factor of 2.97, or about 300%, the expected number of ways that a participant showed motivation. The encouraging results of this pilot study indicate that electronic decision supports may facilitate motivation to quit smoking and use of cessation treatment among people with severe mental illnesses.

A decision support system for strategic planning on pig farms

OpenAIRE

Backus, Ge B.C.; Timmer, G. Th.; Dijkhuizen, A.A.; Eidman, V.R.; Vos, F.

1995-01-01

This paper reported on a decision support system (DSS) for strategic planning on pig farms. The DSS was based . on a stochastic simulation model of investment decisions (ISM). ISM described a farm with one loan and one building using 23 variables. The simulation model calculated the results of a strategic plan for an individual pig farm over a time horizon of a maximum of 20 years for a given scenario. For six distinct replacement strategies, regression metamodels were specified to describe t...

Communicating uncertainty in spatial decision support systems - a case study of bioenergy-crop potentials in Mozambique.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verstegen, J.A.; van der Hilst, F.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/314099905; Karssenberg, D.J.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/241557119; Faaij, A.

2011-01-01

Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSSs) are interactive, computer-based systems designed to support policy making. Important components of SDSSs are models that can be used to assess the impact of possible decisions. These models usually simulate complex spatio-temporal phenomena, with input

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.

Decision Support System to Choose Digital Single Lens Camera with Simple Additive Weighting Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tri Pina Putri

2016-11-01

Full Text Available One of the technologies that evolve today is Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR camera. The number of products makes users have difficulties to choose the appropriate camera based on their criteria. Users may utilize several ways to help them choosing the intended camera such as using magazine, internet, and other media. This paper discusses about a web based decision support system to choose cameras by using SAW (Simple Additive Weighting method in order to make the decision process more effective and efficient. This system is expected to give recommendations about the camera which is appropriate with the user’s need and criteria based on the cost, the resolution, the feature, the ISO, and the censor. The system was implemented by using PHP and MySQL. Based on the result of questionnaire distributed to 20 respondents, 60% respondents agree that this decision support system can help users to choose the appropriate camera DSLR in accordance with the user’s need, 60% of respondents agree that this decision support system is more effective to choose DSLR camera and 75% of respondents agree that this system is more efficient. In addition, 60.55% of respondents agree that this system has met 5 Es Usability Framework.

Measuring agreement between decision support reminders: the cloud vs. the local expert

OpenAIRE

Dixon, Brian Edward; Simonaitis, Linas; Perkins, Susan M; Wright, Adam; Middleton, Blackford

2014-01-01

Background: A cloud-based clinical decision support system (CDSS) was implemented to remotely provide evidence-based guideline reminders in support of preventative health. Following implementation, we measured the agreement between preventive care reminders generated by an existing, local CDSS and the new, cloud-based CDSS operating on the same patient visit data. Methods: Electronic health record data for the same set of patients seen in primary care were sent to both the cloud-based web ser...

Multi Criteria Evaluation Module for RiskChanges Spatial Decision Support System

Science.gov (United States)

Olyazadeh, Roya; Jaboyedoff, Michel; van Westen, Cees; Bakker, Wim

2015-04-01

Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) module is one of the five modules of RiskChanges spatial decision support system. RiskChanges web-based platform aims to analyze changes in hydro-meteorological risk and provides tools for selecting the best risk reduction alternative. It is developed under CHANGES framework (changes-itn.eu) and INCREO project (increo-fp7.eu). MCE tool helps decision makers and spatial planners to evaluate, sort and rank the decision alternatives. The users can choose among different indicators that are defined within the system using Risk and Cost Benefit analysis results besides they can add their own indicators. Subsequently the system standardizes and prioritizes them. Finally, the best decision alternative is selected by using the weighted sum model (WSM). The Application of this work is to facilitate the effect of MCE for analyzing changing risk over the time under different scenarios and future years by adopting a group decision making into practice and comparing the results by numeric and graphical view within the system. We believe that this study helps decision-makers to achieve the best solution by expressing their preferences for strategies under future scenarios. Keywords: Multi-Criteria Evaluation, Spatial Decision Support System, Weighted Sum Model, Natural Hazard Risk Management

Integrating conflict analysis and consensus reaching in a decision support system for water resource management.

Science.gov (United States)

Giordano, R; Passarella, G; Uricchio, V F; Vurro, M

2007-07-01

The importance of shared decision processes in water management derives from the awareness of the inadequacy of traditional--i.e. engineering--approaches in dealing with complex and ill-structured problems. It is becoming increasingly obvious that traditional problem solving and decision support techniques, based on optimisation and factual knowledge, have to be combined with stakeholder based policy design and implementation. The aim of our research is the definition of an integrated decision support system for consensus achievement (IDSS-C) able to support a participative decision-making process in all its phases: problem definition and structuring, identification of the possible alternatives, formulation of participants' judgments, and consensus achievement. Furthermore, the IDSS-C aims at structuring, i.e. systematising the knowledge which has emerged during the participative process in order to make it comprehensible for the decision-makers and functional for the decision process. Problem structuring methods (PSM) and multi-group evaluation methods (MEM) have been integrated in the IDSS-C. PSM are used to support the stakeholders in providing their perspective of the problem and to elicit their interests and preferences, while MEM are used to define not only the degree of consensus for each alternative, highlighting those where the agreement is high, but also the consensus label for each alternative and the behaviour of individuals during the participative decision-making. The IDSS-C is applied experimentally to a decision process regarding the use of treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation in the Apulia Region (southern Italy).

Ontology-based configuration of problem-solving methods and generation of knowledge-acquisition tools: application of PROTEGE-II to protocol-based decision support.

Science.gov (United States)

Tu, S W; Eriksson, H; Gennari, J H; Shahar, Y; Musen, M A

1995-06-01

PROTEGE-II is a suite of tools and a methodology for building knowledge-based systems and domain-specific knowledge-acquisition tools. In this paper, we show how PROTEGE-II can be applied to the task of providing protocol-based decision support in the domain of treating HIV-infected patients. To apply PROTEGE-II, (1) we construct a decomposable problem-solving method called episodic skeletal-plan refinement, (2) we build an application ontology that consists of the terms and relations in the domain, and of method-specific distinctions not already captured in the domain terms, and (3) we specify mapping relations that link terms from the application ontology to the domain-independent terms used in the problem-solving method. From the application ontology, we automatically generate a domain-specific knowledge-acquisition tool that is custom-tailored for the application. The knowledge-acquisition tool is used for the creation and maintenance of domain knowledge used by the problem-solving method. The general goal of the PROTEGE-II approach is to produce systems and components that are reusable and easily maintained. This is the rationale for constructing ontologies and problem-solving methods that can be composed from a set of smaller-grained methods and mechanisms. This is also why we tightly couple the knowledge-acquisition tools to the application ontology that specifies the domain terms used in the problem-solving systems. Although our evaluation is still preliminary, for the application task of providing protocol-based decision support, we show that these goals of reusability and easy maintenance can be achieved. We discuss design decisions and the tradeoffs that have to be made in the development of the system.

Intelligent Decision Support System for Bank Loans Risk Classification

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

杨保安; 马云飞; 俞莲

2001-01-01

Intelligent Decision Support System (IISS) for Bank Loans Risk Classification (BLRC), based on the way of integration Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Expert System (ES), is proposed. According to the feature of BLRC, the key financial and non-financial factors are analyzed. Meanwhile, ES and Model Base (MB) which contain ANN are designed . The general framework,interaction and integration of the system are given. In addition, how the system realizes BLRC is elucidated in detail.

Development and usability testing of a web-based decision support for users and health professionals in psychiatric services.

Science.gov (United States)

Grim, Katarina; Rosenberg, David; Svedberg, Petra; Schön, Ulla-Karin

2017-09-01

Shared decision making (SMD) related to treatment and rehabilitation is considered a central component in recovery-oriented practice. Although decision aids are regarded as an essential component for successfully implementing SDM, these aids are often lacking within psychiatric services. The aim of this study was to use a participatory design to facilitate the development of a user-generated, web-based decision aid for individuals receiving psychiatric services. The results of this effort as well as the lessons learned during the development and usability processes are reported. The participatory design included 4 iterative cycles of development. Various qualitative methods for data collection were used with potential end users participating as informants in focus group and individual interviews and as usability and pilot testers. Interviewing and testing identified usability problems that then led to refinements and making the subsequent prototypes increasingly user-friendly and relevant. In each phase of the process, feedback from potential end-users provided guidance in developing the formation of the web-based decision aid that strengthens the position of users by integrating access to information regarding alternative supports, interactivity between staff and users, and user preferences as a continual focus in the tool. This web-based decision aid has the potential to strengthen service users' experience of self-efficacy and control as well as provide staff access to user knowledge and preferences. Studies employing participatory models focusing on usability have potential to significantly contribute to the development and implementation of tools that reflect user perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Design of decision support interventions for medication prescribing.

Science.gov (United States)

Horsky, Jan; Phansalkar, Shobha; Desai, Amrita; Bell, Douglas; Middleton, Blackford

2013-06-01

Describe optimal design attributes of clinical decision support (CDS) interventions for medication prescribing, emphasizing perceptual, cognitive and functional characteristics that improve human-computer interaction (HCI) and patient safety. Findings from published reports on success, failures and lessons learned during implementation of CDS systems were reviewed and interpreted with regard to HCI and software usability principles. We then formulated design recommendations for CDS alerts that would reduce unnecessary workflow interruptions and allow clinicians to make informed decisions quickly, accurately and without extraneous cognitive and interactive effort. Excessive alerting that tends to distract clinicians rather than provide effective CDS can be reduced by designing only high severity alerts as interruptive dialog boxes and less severe warnings without explicit response requirement, by curating system knowledge bases to suppress warnings with low clinical utility and by integrating contextual patient data into the decision logic. Recommended design principles include parsimonious and consistent use of color and language, minimalist approach to the layout of information and controls, the use of font attributes to convey hierarchy and visual prominence of important data over supporting information, the inclusion of relevant patient data in the context of the alert and allowing clinicians to respond with one or two clicks. Although HCI and usability principles are well established and robust, CDS and EHR system interfaces rarely conform to the best known design conventions and are seldom conceived and designed well enough to be truly versatile and dependable tools. These relatively novel interventions still require careful monitoring, research and analysis of its track record to mature. Clarity and specificity of alert content and optimal perceptual and cognitive attributes, for example, are essential for providing effective decision support to clinicians

Detection of cyst using image segmentation and building knowledge-based intelligent decision support system as an aid to telemedicine

Science.gov (United States)

Janet, J.; Natesan, T. R.; Santhosh, Ramamurthy; Ibramsha, Mohideen

2005-02-01

An intelligent decision support tool to the Radiologist in telemedicine is described. Medical prescriptions are given based on the images of cyst that has been transmitted over computer networks to the remote medical center. The digital image, acquired by sonography, is converted into an intensity image. This image is then subjected to image preprocessing which involves correction methods to eliminate specific artifacts. The image is resized into a 256 x 256 matrix by using bilinear interpolation method. The background area is detected using distinct block operation. The area of the cyst is calculated by removing the background area from the original image. Boundary enhancement and morphological operations are done to remove unrelated pixels. This gives us the cyst volume. This segmented image of the cyst is sent to the remote medical center for analysis by Knowledge based artificial Intelligent Decision Support System (KIDSS). The type of cyst is detected and reported to the control mechanism of KIDSS. Then the inference engine compares this with the knowledge base and gives appropriate medical prescriptions or treatment recommendations by applying reasoning mechanisms at the remote medical center.

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

Decision support for natural resource management; models and evaluation methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wessels, J.; Makowski, M.; Nakayama, H.

2001-01-01

When managing natural resources or agrobusinesses, one always has to deal with autonomous processes. These autonomous processes play a core role in designing model-based decision support systems. This chapter tries to give insight into the question of which types of models might be used in which

Decision boxes for clinicians to support evidence-based practice and shared decision making: the user experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giguere Anik

2012-08-01

-making process were added with the intent of clarifying the tool’s purpose. Information about the risks and benefits according to risk levels was added to the Decision Boxes, to try to ease the adaptation of the information to individual patients. Conclusion Results will guide the development of the eight remaining Decision Boxes. A future study will evaluate the effect of Decision Boxes on the integration of evidence-based and shared decision making principles in clinical practice.

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....

Clinical decision support systems in hospital care using ubiquitous devices: Current issues and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Baig, Mirza Mansoor; GholamHosseini, Hamid; Moqeem, Aasia A; Mirza, Farhaan; Lindén, Maria

2017-11-01

Supporting clinicians in decision making using advanced technologies has been an active research area in biomedical engineering during the past years. Among a wide range of ubiquitous systems, smartphone applications have been increasingly developed in healthcare settings to help clinicians as well as patients. Today, many smartphone applications, from basic data analysis to advanced patient monitoring, are available to clinicians and patients. Such applications are now increasingly integrating into healthcare for clinical decision support, and therefore, concerns around accuracy, stability, and dependency of these applications are rising. In addition, lack of attention to the clinicians' acceptability, as well as the low impact on the medical professionals' decision making, are posing more serious issues on the acceptability of smartphone applications. This article reviews smartphone-based decision support applications, focusing on hospital care settings and their overall impact of these applications on the wider clinical workflow. Additionally, key challenges and barriers of the current ubiquitous device-based healthcare applications are identified. Finally, this article addresses current challenges, future directions, and the adoption of mobile healthcare applications.

Health decision making: lynchpin of evidence-based practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Spring, Bonnie

2008-01-01

Health decision making is both the lynchpin and the least developed aspect of evidence-based practice. The evidence-based practice process requires integrating the evidence with consideration of practical resources and patient preferences and doing so via a process that is genuinely collaborative. Yet, the literature is largely silent about how to accomplish integrative, shared decision making. for evidence-based practice are discussed for 2 theories of clinician decision making (expected utility and fuzzy trace) and 2 theories of patient health decision making (transtheoretical model and reasoned action). Three suggestions are offered. First, it would be advantageous to have theory-based algorithms that weight and integrate the 3 data strands (evidence, resources, preferences) in different decisional contexts. Second, patients, not providers, make the decisions of greatest impact on public health, and those decisions are behavioral. Consequently, theory explicating how provider-patient collaboration can influence patient lifestyle decisions made miles from the provider's office is greatly needed. Third, although the preponderance of data on complex decisions supports a computational approach, such an approach to evidence-based practice is too impractical to be widely applied at present. More troublesomely, until patients come to trust decisions made computationally more than they trust their providers' intuitions, patient adherence will remain problematic. A good theory of integrative, collaborative health decision making remains needed.

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

Assessing Sustainability of Coral Reef Ecosystem Services using a Spatially-Explicit Decision Support Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Forecasting and communicating the potential outcomes of decision options requires support tools that aid in evaluating alternative scenarios in a user-friendly context and that highlight variables relevant to the decision options and valuable stakeholders. Envision is a GIS-base...

Decision support methods for finding phenotype--disorder associations in the bone dysplasia domain.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Razan Paul

Full Text Available A lack of mature domain knowledge and well established guidelines makes the medical diagnosis of skeletal dysplasias (a group of rare genetic disorders a very complex process. Machine learning techniques can facilitate objective interpretation of medical observations for the purposes of decision support. However, building decision support models using such techniques is highly problematic in the context of rare genetic disorders, because it depends on access to mature domain knowledge. This paper describes an approach for developing a decision support model in medical domains that are underpinned by relatively sparse knowledge bases. We propose a solution that combines association rule mining with the Dempster-Shafer theory (DST to compute probabilistic associations between sets of clinical features and disorders, which can then serve as support for medical decision making (e.g., diagnosis. We show, via experimental results, that our approach is able to provide meaningful outcomes even on small datasets with sparse distributions, in addition to outperforming other Machine Learning techniques and behaving slightly better than an initial diagnosis by a clinician.

Decision support systems in nuclear emergencies: A scenario-based comparison of domestic and reference tools

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vamanu, D.; Slavnicu, S. D.; Slavnicu, E.; Vamanu, B.

2004-01-01

The article reports selective results of a comparison between RODOS - an emerging decision support system for the management of nuclear emergencies in Europe developed by an international research consortium under EEC aegis, and a resident software package developed and maintained for similar purposes at IFIN-HH, Bucharest. Reproducible similarity patterns obtained in the output data distributions provide for simple normalising procedures that may ensure convergent radiological assessments. When properly consolidated on a sufficient scenario casuistry, such procedures could lend a certain resilience to domestic decision support tools over the interim lead time required by the full implementation of RODOS, or other major league, internationally accepted reference systems. (authors)

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…

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.

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

A Cercla-Based Decision Model to Support Remedy Selection for an Uncertain Volume of Contaminants at a DOE Facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Christine E. Kerschus

1999-03-31

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) operated by the Department of Energy is challenged with selecting the appropriate remediation technology to cleanup contaminants at Waste Area Group (WAG) 6. This research utilizes value-focused thinking and multiattribute preference theory concepts to produce a decision analysis model designed to aid the decision makers in their selection process. The model is based on CERCLA's five primary balancing criteria, tailored specifically to WAG 6 and the contaminants of concern, utilizes expert opinion and the best available engineering, cost, and performance data, and accounts for uncertainty in contaminant volume. The model ranks 23 remediation technologies (trains) in their ability to achieve the CERCLA criteria at various contaminant volumes. A sensitivity analysis is performed to examine the effects of changes in expert opinion and uncertainty in volume. Further analysis reveals how volume uncertainty is expected to affect technology cost, time and ability to meet the CERCLA criteria. The model provides the decision makers with a CERCLA-based decision analysis methodology that is objective, traceable, and robust to support the WAG 6 Feasibility Study. In addition, the model can be adjusted to address other DOE contaminated sites.

A Cercla-Based Decision Model to Support Remedy Selection for an Uncertain Volume of Contaminants at a DOE Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Christine E. Kerschus

1999-01-01

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) operated by the Department of Energy is challenged with selecting the appropriate remediation technology to cleanup contaminants at Waste Area Group (WAG) 6. This research utilizes value-focused thinking and multiattribute preference theory concepts to produce a decision analysis model designed to aid the decision makers in their selection process. The model is based on CERCLA's five primary balancing criteria, tailored specifically to WAG 6 and the contaminants of concern, utilizes expert opinion and the best available engineering, cost, and performance data, and accounts for uncertainty in contaminant volume. The model ranks 23 remediation technologies (trains) in their ability to achieve the CERCLA criteria at various contaminant volumes. A sensitivity analysis is performed to examine the effects of changes in expert opinion and uncertainty in volume. Further analysis reveals how volume uncertainty is expected to affect technology cost, time and ability to meet the CERCLA criteria. The model provides the decision makers with a CERCLA-based decision analysis methodology that is objective, traceable, and robust to support the WAG 6 Feasibility Study. In addition, the model can be adjusted to address other DOE contaminated sites

Data Mining and Data Fusion for Enhanced Decision Support

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Khan, Shiraj [ORNL; Ganguly, Auroop R [ORNL; Gupta, Amar [University of Arizona

2008-01-01

The process of Data Mining converts information to knowledge by utilizing tools from the disciplines of computational statistics, database technologies, machine learning, signal processing, nonlinear dynamics, process modeling, simulation, and allied disciplines. Data Mining allows business problems to be analyzed from diverse perspectives, including dimensionality reduction, correlation and co-occurrence, clustering and classification, regression and forecasting, anomaly detection, and change analysis. The predictive insights generated from Data Mining can be further utilized through real-time analysis and decision sciences, as well as through human-driven analysis based on management by exceptions or by objectives, to generate actionable knowledge. The tools that enable the transformation of raw data to actionable predictive insights are collectively referred as Decision Support tools. This chapter presents a new formalization of the decision process, leading to a new Decision Superiority model, partially motivated by the Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) Data Fusion Model. In addition, it examines the growing importance of Data Fusion concepts.

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.

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

Stakeholder views of management and decision support tools to integrate climate change into Great Lakes Lake Whitefish management

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, Abigail J.; Taylor, William W.; McCright, Aaron M.

2016-01-01

Decision support tools can aid decision making by systematically incorporating information, accounting for uncertainties, and facilitating evaluation between alternatives. Without user buy-in, however, decision support tools can fail to influence decision-making processes. We surveyed fishery researchers, managers, and fishers affiliated with the Lake Whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis fishery in the 1836 Treaty Waters of Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior to assess opinions of current and future management needs to identify barriers to, and opportunities for, developing a decision support tool based on Lake Whitefish recruitment projections with climate change. Approximately 64% of 39 respondents were satisfied with current management, and nearly 85% agreed that science was well integrated into management programs. Though decision support tools can facilitate science integration into management, respondents suggest that they face significant implementation barriers, including lack of political will to change management and perceived uncertainty in decision support outputs. Recommendations from this survey can inform development of decision support tools for fishery management in the Great Lakes and other regions.

Participatory design of probability-based decision support tools for in-hospital nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeffery, Alvin D; Novak, Laurie L; Kennedy, Betsy; Dietrich, Mary S; Mion, Lorraine C

2017-11-01

To describe nurses' preferences for the design of a probability-based clinical decision support (PB-CDS) tool for in-hospital clinical deterioration. A convenience sample of bedside nurses, charge nurses, and rapid response nurses (n = 20) from adult and pediatric hospitals completed participatory design sessions with researchers in a simulation laboratory to elicit preferred design considerations for a PB-CDS tool. Following theme-based content analysis, we shared findings with user interface designers and created a low-fidelity prototype. Three major themes and several considerations for design elements of a PB-CDS tool surfaced from end users. Themes focused on "painting a picture" of the patient condition over time, promoting empowerment, and aligning probability information with what a nurse already believes about the patient. The most notable design element consideration included visualizing a temporal trend of the predicted probability of the outcome along with user-selected overlapping depictions of vital signs, laboratory values, and outcome-related treatments and interventions. Participants expressed that the prototype adequately operationalized requests from the design sessions. Participatory design served as a valuable method in taking the first step toward developing PB-CDS tools for nurses. This information about preferred design elements of tools that support, rather than interrupt, nurses' cognitive workflows can benefit future studies in this field as well as nurses' practice. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association 2017. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the United States.

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.,

Decision support systems in nuclear emergencies: harmonizing domestic and reference tools

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vamanu, D.; Mateescu, Gh.; Berinde, A.; Slavnicu, D.; Acasandrei, V.; Slavnicu, E.

2001-01-01

The paper addresses the issue of securing the compatibility and inter-operability of computer packages designed to perform as decision support tools in the management of radiological emergencies, over the transition times towards the implementation and uniform acceptance and uniform acceptance of internationally-shared reference tools such as the European Union's RODOS (Real Time On-Line Decision Support System for Off-Site Nuclear Emergencies in Europe). One submits that a harmonization between the currently operational, domestic, and the reference tool can be contemplated, based on extensive code comparison and benchmarking. A case in point is presented, paralleling selected RODOS applications on simulated abnormal nuclear events, and the concurrent application of a resident software package, NOTEPAD, developed to emulate RODOS-wise function at IFIH-HH Bucharest. The reproducible similarity may make domestic decision support system (DSS) facilities useful as both practical tools and factors promoting the emergency preparedness awareness, during the interim time laps till the full development and deployment of RODOS as a reference DSS in Europe. (authors)

GIS coupled Multiple Criteria based Decision Support for Classification of Urban Coastal Areas in India

Science.gov (United States)

Dhiman, R.; Kalbar, P.; Inamdar, A. B.

2017-12-01

Coastal area classification in India is a challenge for federal and state government agencies due to fragile institutional framework, unclear directions in implementation of costal regulations and violations happening at private and government level. This work is an attempt to improvise the objectivity of existing classification methods to synergies the ecological systems and socioeconomic development in coastal cities. We developed a Geographic information system coupled Multi-criteria Decision Making (GIS-MCDM) approach to classify urban coastal areas where utility functions are used to transform the costal features into quantitative membership values after assessing the sensitivity of urban coastal ecosystem. Furthermore, these membership values for costal features are applied in different weighting schemes to derive Coastal Area Index (CAI) which classifies the coastal areas in four distinct categories viz. 1) No Development Zone, 2) Highly Sensitive Zone, 3) Moderately Sensitive Zone and 4) Low Sensitive Zone based on the sensitivity of urban coastal ecosystem. Mumbai, a coastal megacity in India is used as case study for demonstration of proposed method. Finally, uncertainty analysis using Monte Carlo approach to validate the sensitivity of CAI under specific multiple scenarios is carried out. Results of CAI method shows the clear demarcation of coastal areas in GIS environment based on the ecological sensitivity. CAI provides better decision support for federal and state level agencies to classify urban coastal areas according to the regional requirement of coastal resources considering resilience and sustainable development. CAI method will strengthen the existing institutional framework for decision making in classification of urban coastal areas where most effective coastal management options can be proposed.

The application of VR-GIS to decommissioning decision support system (DDSS) of nuclear reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu Bo

2005-01-01

Advanced management technique and Decision Support System (DSS) are needed to solve the problems of the nuclear reactor decommissioning decision-making. In this study, a kind of new DSS technique for nuclear reactor decommissioning is introduced. It is based on the Virtual Reality (VR) and Geography Information System (GIS), which combine with the scientific management method, operational research, cybernetics and behavior science. The proposed DDSS (Decommissioning Decision Support System) can provide decision-maker the real time 3-D virtual Environment, GIS information and background material of the decommissioning reactor, help to ascertain the decision-making target, modify the decision module and optimize the dismantling plan. The data from three modules (VR Environment Module, VR-DOSE Management Module and Route Layout GIS Module) are used to continuously update and show the statistic at the same time, and the final advice will be given to decision-maker. (authors)

COSMO: a decision-support system for the central open space, the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Harms, W.B.; Knaapen, J.P.; Roos-Klein-Lankhorst sic, J.

1995-01-01

To evaluate scenarios for nature restoration, a landscape ecological decision-support system has been developed, a knowledge-based system integrated in a geographical information system. The grid-based application in the Central Open Space of the Netherlands (the COSMO model) is presented here. Four

Prototype development of a web-based participative decision support platform in risk management

Science.gov (United States)

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

2014-05-01

This paper discusses the proposed background architecture and prototype development of an internet-based decision support system (DSS) in the field of natural hazards and risk management using open-source geospatial software and web technologies. It is based on a three-tier, client-server architecture with the support of boundless (opengeo) framework and its client side SDK application environment using customized gxp components and data utility classes. The main purpose of the system is to integrate the workflow of risk management systematically with the diverse involvement of stakeholders from different organizations dealing with natural hazards and risk for evaluation of management measures through the active online participation approach. It aims to develop an adaptive user friendly, web-based environment that allows the users to set up risk management strategies based on actual context and data by integrating web-GIS and DSS functionality associated with process flow and other visualization tools. Web-GIS interface has been integrated within the DSS to deliver maps and provide certain geo-processing capabilities on the web, which can be easily accessible and shared by different organizations located in case study sites of the project. This platform could be envisaged not only as a common web-based platform for the centralized sharing of data such as hazard maps, elements at risk maps and additional information but also to ensure an integrated platform of risk management where the users could upload data, analyze risk and identify possible alternative scenarios for risk reduction especially for floods and landslides, either quantitatively or qualitatively depending on the risk information provided by the stakeholders in case study regions. The level of involvement, access to and interaction with the provided functionality of the system varies depending on the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders, for example, only the experts (planners, geological