End-user Systems Research Articles

A review on technology maturity of small scale energy storage technologies

This paper reviews the current status of energy storage technologies which have the higher potential to be applied in small scale energy systems. Small scale energy systems can be categorized as ones that are able to supply energy in various forms for a building, or a small area, or a limited community, or an enterprise; typically, they are end-user systems. Energy storage technologies are classified based on their form of energy stored. A two-step evaluation is proposed for selecting suitable storage technologies for small scale energy systems, including identifying possible technical options, and addressing techno-economic aspects. Firstly, a review on energy storage technologies at small scale level is carried out. Secondly, an assessment of technology readiness level (TRL) is conducted. The TRLs are ranked according to information gathered from literature review. Levels of market maturity of the technologies are addressed by taking into account their market development stages through reviewing published materials. The TRLs and the levels of market maturity are then combined into a technology maturity curve. Additionally, market driving factors are identified by using different stages in product life cycle. The results indicate that lead-acid, micro pumped hydro storage, NaS battery, NiCd battery, flywheel, NaNiCl battery, Li-ion battery, and sensible thermal storage are the most mature technologies for small scale energy systems. In the near future, hydrogen fuel cells, thermal storages using phase change materials and thermochemical materials are expected to become more popular in the energy storage market.

A dynamic, compiler guided DVFS mechanism to achieve energy-efficiency in multi-core processors

Continuing progress and integration levels in silicon technologies make possible complete end-user systems on a single chip. This massive level of integration makes modern multi-core chips widely adoptable in multiple domains. In the design of high-performance massive multi-core chips, power and heat are dominant constraints. The increasing power consumption is of growing concern due to several reasons, e.g., cost, performance, reliability, scalability, and environmental impact. Increased power consumption not only raises chip temperature and cooling cost, but also decreases chip reliability and performance. Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) is a popular methodology to optimize the power usage/heat dissipation of electronic systems without significantly compromising overall system performance. The recent trend towards chip-multiprocessors (CMP) executing multi-threaded workloads with heterogeneous behavior motivates the need for per-core DVFS control mechanisms. In this paper, we propose a set of algorithms that use compile-time information to achieve DVFS control at run-time. By using compile-time information, we propose suitable heuristics, which make our power management mechanism more precise at run-time. We demonstrate that the proposed compiler-based DVFS mechanism performs better than the existing history- or profile-based methods that predict the future program behavior depending on the past statistics.

Vulnerability management: not a patch on where we should be?

Effective vulnerability management, particularly in the context of end-user systems, is inextricably linked to the timely application of software updates and patches. Vulnerabilities continue to be discovered, even in established software, and so impose a continual demand for our attention. The most recent findings from Secunia indicate a 55% increase in the five-year trend, with an 18% increase on the previous year (with 15,435 vulnerabilities detected in the latter period).1 Many of these will have led to resultant updates, which must be applied if systems are to remain protected against exploitation.Many network breaches continue to occur because systems are running with known security vulnerabilities, which in turn highlights the importance of updating software.However, despite various moves to raise awareness and automate the process, many users (and indeed organisations) appear to leave themselves vulnerable as a result of lax maintenance practices. Steve Furnell examines evidence of these poor practices across both system and application software updates, as well as some of the factors that can lead to updates being delayed or ignored.

Can End-Users Develop their Own Data-Base Oriented Decision Support Systems?

End-user systems development is one of the key factors for increasing productivity in the end-user and in the MIS department environments. Model oriented Decision Support Systems (DSS) have been developed by end-users quite successfully. Surprisingly, data-base oriented DSS (that would take advantage of massive transactional data-bases created by MIS in the last decades) were not. The objective of this work is to test the ability of end-users to develop data-base oriented DSS in an experimental setting. The overall conclusion is that, given adequate data-base oriented DSS tools and training, users are quite capable of developing their own systems with a reasonably high level of effectiveness and efficiency.

Interactive Voice/Web Response System in clinical research.

Emerging technologies in computer and telecommunication industry has eased the access to computer through telephone. An Interactive Voice/Web Response System (IxRS) is one of the user friendly systems for end users, with complex and tailored programs at its backend. The backend programs are specially tailored for easy understanding of users. Clinical research industry has experienced revolution in methodologies of data capture with time. Different systems have evolved toward emerging modern technologies and tools in couple of decades from past, for example, Electronic Data Capture, IxRS, electronic patient reported outcomes, etc.

Cloud Computing Security Aspects, Vulnerabilities and Countermeasures

Security issue in cloud computing is an active area of research. Thousands of users are connecting to a cloud daily for their day to day work. Unfortunately they are ignorant about the risk involved while doing transactions on the internet. End user systems as well as cloud based data centers must be able to overcome the threats due to Viruses, Trojan and Malware etc. This paper highlights the major security threats in cloud computing system and introduce the most suitable countermeasures for these threats. Threats are classified according to different perspectives, providing a list of threats. In this article some effective countermeasures are enlisted and discussed. General Terms Network security, Cloud security.

Creating systems that work

Sengstack PP, Boicey C (2015) Mastering Informatics: A Healthcare Handbook for Success. Sigma Theta Tau, Indianapolis IN. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY is becoming so pervasive in health care it is almost impossible to find a care setting void of some type of electronic clinical system. Evaluating and managing these electronic tools require an understanding of patient care delivery and technology. They also require the knowledge to design systems with which nurses interact on a daily basis and the skills to evaluate care delivery effectiveness. Nurse informaticists are perfectly positioned to meet these requirements. The American Nursing Association recognised nursing informatics as a specialty in 1992. Some say, though, that the first nurse informaticist was Florence Nightingale back in the 1850s, when she compiled and processed data to advocate for appropriate nursing and medical protocols and to improve sanitation in military hospitals during the Crimean War. Fast forward to the 1960s, when the electronic medical record made its debut and continued to evolve as adoption increased over several decades. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, signed in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, drove even higher levels of adoption. As of June 2014, three quarters of the nation’s eligible professionals, equivalent to more than 403,000 people, and more than nine out of ten eligible hospitals, equivalent to more than 4,500 organisations, had received incentive payments (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology 2014). Add to this the increasing use of mobile technologies, the expansion of telehealth, the proliferation of health-related apps, the demand for patient-engagement tools and the drive toward interoperability of patient data, and the need for nursing informatics expertise becomes imperative. Devices developed without the expertise of someone with clinical informatics skills typically result in end-user frustration and systems that do not support clinical workflows. Workforce survey results from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) confirm that nurse informaticists play a crucial role in the development, implementation and optimisation of clinical applications including nursing clinical documentation, computerised practitioner-order entries and electronic health records (HIMSS 2014a). Other survey results show that four out of five healthcare organisations had plans to hire additional IT staff this year, with almost all vendors indicating similar plans. They also show, however, that more than one in three respondents working for a healthcare provider are scaling back or putting IT projects on hold because they cannot be fully staffed (HIMMS 2014b). Delaying IT projects to improve the support of clinician workflow and reduce system inefficiencies ultimately affect patient care. The bottom line is that nurse informaticists are needed more than ever. It is also important to engage nurses in the design, development, purchase, implementation and evaluation of medical and health devices and IT products (Institute of Medicine 2010). The education and training required to serve in the role of a nurse informaticist is not taught at the baccalaureate, or bachelor’s degree, level, nor is it learned on the job alone. Expertise requires graduate education in the field of informatics. There are universities around the world that offer nursing informatics education at master’s level and above and it is here that nurse informaticists and nursing informatics leaders are prepared. While nurses at baccalaureate level with no formal informatics training can assume informatics positions in some organisations, they will not have studied the science formally and developed the focused competencies that graduate informatics education provides. Additionally, nurses serving in informatics roles should obtain their board certification in nursing informatics offered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. A career in nursing informatics will drive clinical transformation and care delivery. Clinicians and patients count on technology that works for them, not the other way around, so nurses must be there when decisions are made. If you’ve been thinking about a career focus, consider informatics. Our patients and fellow nurses need you.

Including management and security of supply constraints for designing stand-alone electrification systems in developing countries

Hybrid wind-photovoltaic stand-alone systems have proven to be suitable to electrify isolated communities autonomously. Moreover, the use of a combination of microgrids and individual systems has been demonstrated to be very adequate. There are a few tools to assist their design but they only consider economical and technical characteristics. However, the management of the system and the security of supply, both at a community level, are key aspects to design appropriate electrification systems for end-users, thus ensuring projects' long-term sustainability, especially in rural areas of developing countries. In this context, this paper develops a mathematical model to optimise the design of wind-photovoltaic projects combining microgrids and individual systems, and including the aforesaid key issues as constraints. Thus, the aim is to minimise the cost while meeting the technical but also the management and the security of supply constraints. Finally a validation is carried out in the real community of Alto Peru (Peru), proving that the two studied aspects allow obtaining electrification solutions with some benefits that strongly compensate the obtained slight cost increases.

Incorporation of personal single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data into a national level electronic health record for disease risk assessment, part 3: an evaluation of SNP incorporated national health information system of Turkey for prostate cancer.

BackgroundA personalized medicine approach provides opportunities for predictive and preventive medicine. Using genomic, clinical, environmental, and behavioral data, the tracking and management of individual wellness is possible. A prolific way to carry this personalized approach into routine practices can be accomplished by integrating clinical interpretations of genomic variations into electronic medical records (EMRs)/electronic health records (EHRs). Today, various central EHR infrastructures have been constituted in many countries of the world, including Turkey.ObjectiveAs an initial attempt to develop a sophisticated infrastructure, we have concentrated on incorporating the personal single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data into the National Health Information System of Turkey (NHIS-T) for disease risk assessment, and evaluated the performance of various predictive models for prostate cancer cases. We present our work as a three part miniseries: (1) an overview of requirements, (2) the incorporation of SNP data into the NHIS-T, and (3) an evaluation of SNP data incorporated into the NHIS-T for prostate cancer.MethodsIn the third article of this miniseries, we have evaluated the proposed complementary capabilities (ie, knowledge base and end-user application) with real data. Before the evaluation phase, clinicogenomic associations about increased prostate cancer risk were extracted from knowledge sources, and published predictive genomic models assessing individual prostate cancer risk were collected. To evaluate complementary capabilities, we also gathered personal SNP data of four prostate cancer cases and fifteen controls. Using these data files, we compared various independent and model-based, prostate cancer risk assessment approaches.ResultsThrough the extraction and selection processes of SNP-prostate cancer risk associations, we collected 209 independent associations for increased risk of prostate cancer from the studied knowledge sources. Also, we gathered six cumulative models and two probabilistic models. Cumulative models and assessment of independent associations did not have impressive results. There was one of the probabilistic, model-based interpretation that was successful compared to the others. In envirobehavioral and clinical evaluations, we found that some of the comorbidities, especially, would be useful to evaluate disease risk. Even though we had a very limited dataset, a comparison of performances of different disease models and their implementation with real data as use case scenarios helped us to gain deeper insight into the proposed architecture.ConclusionsIn order to benefit from genomic variation data, existing EHR/EMR systems must be constructed with the capability of tracking and monitoring all aspects of personal health status (genomic, clinical, environmental, etc) in 24/7 situations, and also with the capability of suggesting evidence-based recommendations. A national-level, accredited knowledge base is a top requirement for improved end-user systems interpreting these parameters. Finally, categorization using similar, individual characteristics (SNP patterns, exposure history, etc) may be an effective way to predict disease risks, but this approach needs to be concretized and supported with new studies.

Incorporation of personal single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data into a national level electronic health record for disease risk assessment, part 2: the incorporation of SNP into the national health information system of Turkey.

BackgroundA personalized medicine approach provides opportunities for predictive and preventive medicine. Using genomic, clinical, environmental, and behavioral data, the tracking and management of individual wellness is possible. A prolific way to carry this personalized approach into routine practices can be accomplished by integrating clinical interpretations of genomic variations into electronic medical record (EMR)s/electronic health record (EHR)s systems. Today, various central EHR infrastructures have been constituted in many countries of the world, including Turkey.ObjectiveAs an initial attempt to develop a sophisticated infrastructure, we have concentrated on incorporating the personal single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data into the National Health Information System of Turkey (NHIS-T) for disease risk assessment, and evaluated the performance of various predictive models for prostate cancer cases. We present our work as a miniseries containing three parts: (1) an overview of requirements, (2) the incorporation of SNP into the NHIS-T, and (3) an evaluation of SNP data incorporated into the NHIS-T for prostate cancer.MethodsFor the second article of this miniseries, we have analyzed the existing NHIS-T and proposed the possible extensional architectures. In light of the literature survey and characteristics of NHIS-T, we have proposed and argued opportunities and obstacles for a SNP incorporated NHIS-T. A prototype with complementary capabilities (knowledge base and end-user applications) for these architectures has been designed and developed.ResultsIn the proposed architectures, the clinically relevant personal SNP (CR-SNP) and clinicogenomic associations are shared between central repositories and end-users via the NHIS-T infrastructure. To produce these files, we need to develop a national level clinicogenomic knowledge base. Regarding clinicogenomic decision support, we planned to complete interpretation of these associations on the end-user applications. This approach gives us the flexibility to add/update envirobehavioral parameters and family health history that will be monitored or collected by end users.ConclusionsOur results emphasized that even though the existing NHIS-T messaging infrastructure supports the integration of SNP data and clinicogenomic association, it is critical to develop a national level, accredited knowledge base and better end-user systems for the interpretation of genomic, clinical, and envirobehavioral parameters.

EUROPAIRS: The European project on coupling of High Temperature Reactors with industrial processes

Developers of High Temperature Reactors (HTR) worldwide acknowledge that the main asset for market breakthrough is its unique ability to address growing needs for industrial cogeneration of heat and power (CHP) owing to its high operating temperature and flexibility, adapted power level, modularity and robust safety features. A strong alliance between nuclear and process heat user industries is a necessity for developing such a nuclear system for the conventional process heat market, just as the electro-nuclear development required a close partnership with utilities. Initiating such an alliance is one of the objectives of the EUROPAIRS project (www.europairs.eu) presently on-going in the frame of the Euratom 7th Framework Programme (FP7). Although small and of short duration (21 months), EUROPAIRS is of strategic importance: it generates the boundary conditions for rapid demonstration of collocating HTR with industrial processes as proposed by the European High Temperature Reactor Technology Network (HTR-TN). This paper presents the main goals, the organization and the working approach of EUROPAIRS. It also presents the status of the viability assessment studies for coupling HTR with industrial end-user systems as one of the main pillars of the project. The main goal of the viability assessment is to identify developments required to remove the last technological and licensing barriers for a viable coupling scheme. The study is expected to result in guidelines for directing the choice of an industrial scale prototype.

Information interchange services for electronic health record databases

Healthcare information is complex and distributed in nature. Patient care and a health condition commonly require collaboration between several clinicians. Such an integration of information is important to retrieve patient history, for knowledge sharing and to formulate queries. Large scale adoption of electronic healthcare applications requires semantic interoperability because patients have become mobile, treatment and healthcare providers have increased, and also, have become more specialised. Similar to the web, information retrieval is key feature of these end-user systems. The paper analyses the role of semantic interoperability in various cross-organisational business processes in healthcare domain. The system modelling approach has been analysed with a view of supporting system-to-system and user-system interactions. The paper presents a comparison of the existing information and querying methods and studies their applicability to the dual-level electronic health records (EHRs) systems. It further discusses the best approach to build a user-friendly querying interface for these systems.

A Large-Scale Study on Predicting and Contextualizing Building Energy Usage

In this paper we present a data-driven approach to modeling end user energy consumption in residential and commercial buildings. Our model is based upon a data set of monthly electricity and gas bills, collected by a utility over the course of several years, for approximately 6,500 buildings in Cambridge, MA. In addition, we use publicly available tax assessor records and geographical survey information to determine corresponding features for the buildings. Using both parametric and non-parametric learning methods, we learn models that predict distributions over energy usage based upon these features, and use these models to develop two end-user systems. For utilities or authorized institutions (those who may obtain access to the full data) we provide a system that visualizes energy consumption for each building in the city; this allows companies to quickly identify outliers (buildings which use much more energy than expected even after conditioning on the relevant predictors), for instance allowing them to target homes for potential retrofits or tiered pricing schemes. For other end users, we provide an interface for entering their own electricity and gas usage, along with basic information about their home, to determine how their consumption compares to that of similar buildings as predicted by our model. Merely allowing users to contextualize their consumption in this way, relating it to the consumption in similar buildings, can itself produce behavior changes to significantly reduce consumption.

Energy-efficient networking: past, present, and future

The twenty-first century has witnessed major technological changes that have transformed the way we live, work, and interact with one another. One of the major technology enablers responsible for this remarkable transformation in our global society is the deployment and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment. In fact, today ICT has become highly integrated in our society that includes the dependence on ICT of various sectors, such as business, transportation, education, and the economy to the point that we now almost completely depend on it. Over the last few years, the energy consumption resulting from the usage of ICT equipment and its impact on the environment have fueled a lot of interests among researchers, designers, manufacturers, policy makers, and educators. We present some of the motivations driving the need for energy-efficient communications. We describe and discuss some of the recent techniques and solutions that have been proposed to minimize energy consumption by communication devices, protocols, networks, end-user systems, and data centers. In addition, we highlight a few emerging trends and we also identify some challenges that need to be addressed to enable novel, scalable, cost-effective energy-efficient communications in the future.

Focus on lasers and imaging

Focus on lasers and imaging

Development and evaluation of SOA-based AAL services in real-life environments: A case study and lessons learned

IntroThe proper use of ICT services can support seniors in living independently longer. While such services are starting to emerge, current proprietary solutions are often expensive, covering only isolated parts of seniors’ needs, and lack support for sharing information between services and between users. For developers, the challenge is that it is complex and time consuming to develop high quality, interoperable services, and new techniques are needed to simplify the development and reduce the development costs.This paper provides the complete view of the experiences gained in the MPOWER project with respect to using model-driven development (MDD) techniques for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) system development in the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) domain. MethodTo address this challenge, the approach of the European research project MPOWER (2006–2009) was to investigate and record the user needs, define a set of reusable software services based on these needs, and then implement pilot systems using these services. Further, a model-driven toolchain covering key development phases was developed to support software developers through this process. Evaluations were conducted both on the technical artefacts (methodology and tools), and on end user experience from using the pilot systems in trial sites. ResultsThe outcome of the work on the user needs is a knowledge base recorded as a Unified Modeling Language (UML) model. This comprehensive model describes actors, use cases, and features derived from these. The model further includes the design of a set of software services, including full trace information back to the features and use cases motivating their design. Based on the model, the services were implemented for use in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) systems, and are publicly available as open source software. The services were successfully used in the realization of two pilot applications. There is therefore a direct and traceable link from the user needs of the elderly, through the service design knowledge base, to the service and pilot implementations.The evaluation of the SOA approach on the developers in the project revealed that SOA is useful with respect to job performance and quality. Furthermore, they think SOA is easy to use and support development of AAL applications. An important finding is that the developers clearly report that they intend to use SOA in the future, but not for all type of projects. With respect to using model-driven development in web services design and implementation, the developers reported that it was useful. However, it is important that the code generated from the models is correct if the full potential of MDD should be achieved.The pilots and their evaluation in the trial sites showed that the services of the platform are sufficient to create suitable systems for end users in the domain. ConclusionsA SOA platform with a set of reusable domain services is a suitable foundation for more rapid development and tailoring of assisted living systems covering reoccurring needs among elderly users. It is feasible to realize a tool-chain for model-driven development of SOA applications in the AAL domain, and such a tool-chain can be accepted and found useful by software developers.

Developers, Decision Makers, Strategists or Just End-users? Redefining End-User Computing for the 21st Century

The acceleration of technology in business since the 1980s suggests that traditional management techniques, systems, and strategies employed in a business environment should be challenged. As a consequence of this acceleration, end-user computing (EUC) and end-user development (EUD) have also grown. Definitions of EUC developed in the 1980s continue to be used by contemporary researchers without regard to the changing technological environment, user experience, and user needs. Therefore, the authors challenge traditional definitions of EUC developed and used by researchers to ascertain whether they meet the needs of management for the 21st century. There is a conflict among traditional definitions that has not been addressed since the early 1990s (Downey & Bartczak, 2005). In this regard, the authors proffer that the management strategies for end-user (EU) systems development in the 21st century should suggest a different and proactive role for users. This paper summarises key traditional definitions from the literature and evaluates their consonance with the technology and business system environment. The impetus for researchers to rethink the traditional definition of EUC is provided through a real world management project involving the development of a university staff workload database that investigated the role of end-users in system enhancement and development.

Usability versus complexity – striking the balance in end-user security

Security has become an increasingly visible feature of end-user systems in recent years, thanks in large part to the upsurge in the range and volume of online threats. As a consequence, we have seen (for example) the functionality of Internet security suites broadening considerably beyond their origins as anti-virus tools, as well as the increased prominence of security-related functions within the wider operating system and applications. However, while the profile of security has increased, there is often a gap between those situations in which it is being used and those in which it is used well, as evidenced by cases in which the features are available, but end up being incorrectly configured.^1

전산회계교육과 회계정보시스템 운영성과 분석

본 연구는 점점 통합화 되고 있는 기업 회계정보시스템의 운영과 최종사용자의 업무처리 능력과의 관계를 분석 하였다. 또한 최종사용자의 전산회계 관련 업무의 운용능력과 교육의 경험 정도가 실무에서 반영되는 상관적 관계를 탐색하고자 하였다. 본 연구를 요약하면, 첫째로, 중규모의 기업에서 전산회계 교육의 경험 정도는 회계정보 시스템의 업무에 보다 적합한 결과를 나타낼 수 있다는 결론을 얻었다. 둘째, 최종사용자의 교육과 업무개발은 시스템을 이용한 업무 처리에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 분석되었다. 마지막으로 통합화 시스템의 도입과 지속적인 기술적용에 따라 최종사용자의 업무는 전반적으로 낮은 성과를 나타내고 있었다. 따라서 최종사용자의 업무처리 능력은 교육과 지속적인 업무개발이 중요하다는 사실을 확인 하였다. 향후 이러한 결과는 사용자 중심적 시스템의 효율적인 운영전략에 지침을 제공할 수 있으며, 더 나아가 경쟁력 강화에 응용될 수 있을 것으로 기대된다. 【This study analyzed relation with accounting information system operations of more integration and end-user's business processing capabilities. Also, Studied the correlation that has reflecting between business computer skills and training experience level of end-user in practical operation. In summary of this study, first, found out that the improvement and training level of computerized accounting training in mid-size enterprise can be processing more effectively an accounting information business. Second, the end-user training and business development of business processes using the system, the positive impact was significant. Finally, the introduction of the continuous integration system based on new technology analyzed more lower overall performance satisfaction of end-user in the tasks. Business Ability of end-user could be important factor as ongoing business development and training. The results of this study, It can support to effective strategies of end-user systems, will expected to further strengthen competitiveness in the future.】

Simulation models for the analysis of space heat consumption of buildings

This study develops and analyzes an original methodology for the simulation and prediction of space heating energy consumption in buildings connected to a district heating system, characterized by lack of individual control systems for end-users. The identification of the input parameters is based on both classical engineering equations and statistical analysis of collected data. Two main factors play important roles in the model: (i) climate and (ii) human behavior. Model validation was undertaken through the analysis of field data collected during the winter, via a monitoring system working in a partially-controlled district heating system. The comparison between the results obtained with the proposed model versus classical methods points out the possibility to implement, using the proposed methodology, management policies for a district that offer significant cost-effective energy savings opportunities.