Scheduling Protocol Research Articles

Impact on ambulatory palliative appointment lead times by standardizing scheduling protocols based on cognitive computing models.

62 Background: Although palliative care is available across the United States, access continues to remain variable. In Texas, only 52% of hospital systems have palliative services. As a result, optimizing existing systems is critical to providing timely services to this vulnerable population. The Supportive Care Services Clinic at University Health in San Antonio, TX provides ambulatory palliative services to patients including physical and psychosocial symptom management and care coordination. For the period April 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023 average lead times for new palliative patient visits (NPPV) and hospital consult discharge visits (HCDV) was 53 days and 39 days respectively. The aim of this project was to decrease the lead times for NPPV and HCDV through standardization of scheduling criteria. We hypothesized that by applying a scheduling protocol utilizing cognitive computing models (CCM) calculating readmission risk scores to prioritize referrals, we could reduce appointment lead times. Methods: During the implementation phase, we developed referral triage criteria to prioritize patients on a scheduling wait list, including patients who were at higher risk of hospitalization or rapid decline based on CCM readmission risk scores calculated within the electronic medical record. Patients were assigned to next available in template. If a cancelation occurred, patients were pulled forward and vacancy was filled based on priority score. Results: For the initial post-implementation period between September 1, 2023 and November 30, 2023 NPPV average lead time was 47 days which was a reduction of 11% from baseline. The average lead time for HCDV was 33 days which was a reduction of 15% from baseline. In a second follow-up period from February 1, 2024 to April 30, 2024, the average lead time of NPPV was 22 days, a 58% decrease from baseline. The average lead time for HCSV was 24 days which was a significant reduction (p-value = 0.011) of 38% from the pre-implementation baseline. Conclusions: Utilization of CCM risk scores to triage NPPV and HCDV significantly reduced the lead times and resulted in more timely services for critical patients. We also noted increased template utilization. Future projects aim to study the effects of scheduling protocols on template utilization, cancellation rates, no-show rates, readmission rates and other health care utilization. Palliative appointment lead times. April-June 2023 Sept-Nov 2023 Feb-Apr 2024 Total Pt Seen 292 364 534 Avg Lead Time (d) 41 38 29 New Patient New Patient New Patient Completed 66 82 74 Avg Lead Time (d) 53 47 22 Hospital Discharge Hospital Discharge Hospital Discharge Completed 27 28 25 Avg Lead Time (d) 39 33 24

Interpretation of delayed suspended sediment transport during flood events from the perspective of movement characteristics

Different velocities of flood and suspended sediment peaks during flood events result in the delayed transport of suspended sediment, which is exacerbated by reservoir impoundment. The diversity of flood events, the asynchronous pattern of suspended sediment peaks during flood formation and human activities lead to notable differences in the propagation of flood peaks and suspended sediment peaks and subsequently affect the suspended sediment lag, which poses certain problems and challenges for watershed governance, especially reservoir management. In this paper, the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) is selected as the research object, and we adopts the analysis of measured data, K-means cluster analysis, 1-D mathematical model and random forest regression. First, the flood process of the TGR from 2003 to 2020 is selected, and then flood event types with nine flood indices are identified. The influences of different flood types on flood and suspended sediment peak propagation are subsequently clarified. We then systematically analyse the factors influencing flood and suspended sediment peak propagation, explore the contributions of different influencing factors to the suspended sediment transport lag, and assess the reasons for the recent changes in the suspended sediment transport lag. The results show that (1) flood events entering the TGR can be approximately classified into six different types, the long-duration and dwarf-fat type (Type 1, 6.59 %), the sharp-thin and early-peak type (Type 2, 20.88 %), the medium-duration and conventional type (Type 3, 27.47 %), the short-duration and sharp-thin type (Type 4, 25.27 %), the long-duration and dramatic-change type (Type 5, 5.49 %), and the medium-duration and multiple-peaks type (Type 6, 14.29 %). (2) Different flood event types result in different effects on the propagation of both the flood and suspended sediment peak. Under the condition of a reservoir flood limit level of 145 m, the flood types for which Qp propagates are as follows from slowest to fastest: Type 1 > Type 5 > Type 2 > Type 3 > Type 6 > Type 4. Moreover, the flood types for which SSCp propagates are as follows from slowest to fastest: Type 4 > Type 2 > Type 3 > Type 6 > Type 1 > Type 5. (3) The initial SSCp asynchronous relationship is the most dominant factor influencing the lagged transport of suspended sediment in the reservoir area, accounting for 32.80 % to 89.40 % of the variation in suspended sediment transport lag, followed by the impacts of differences in flood types (8.2 % to 52.20 %) and reservoir scheduling (2.4 % to 15 %). (4) Human activities, particularly the damming of the cascade reservoirs in the upper reaches of the TGR area and the adjustment of the water level from 145 to 155 m in the TGR due to reservoir scheduling protocols, lead to an increase in the lagged transport time of suspended sediment peak. These findings reveal the asynchronous and differential propagation characteristics and motion mechanisms of flood and suspended sediment peaks in the reservoir area, thereby providing a solid theoretical basis for refining sediment peak discharge scheduling in the TGR.

Joint optimization for energy efficient full-duplex UAV relaying with multiple user pairs

This paper investigates an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted amplify-and-forward relaying, where a full-duplex (FD) fixed-wing UAV employs a time-division multiple access scheduling protocol to provide relay services for multiple source–destination user pairs. With the aim of maximizing energy efficiency (EE) of the system, a joint optimization problem is studied so as to jointly fulfill the communication scheduling of multiple user pairs, the transmit power control and the trajectory design of the UAV. Since the optimization variables of the problem are coupled, it is non-convex and hence hard to solve directly. To this end, the initial problem is decomposed into three subproblems corresponding to the optimization of communication scheduling, and transmit power and trajectory of the UAV, respectively. The three subproblems are solved by utilizing the linear programming, the successive convex approximation (SCA), and the Dinkelbach’s algorithm. Then an iterative algorithm based on the block coordinate descent technique is proposed to tackle the joint optimization problem by optimizing the three blocks of variables alternately. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm converges efficiently, and the EE of the joint optimization scheme can be significantly improved compared to the benchmark schemes.

Protocol-based secure guaranteed cost control of sampled-data T-S fuzzy system with denial-of-service attack and input saturation

This paper proposes a protocol-based secure guaranteed cost sampled-data controller design problem of Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy system under denial-of-service (DoS) attack and input saturation. First, in the absence of an effective description for the characteristics of received signals on controller, a novel scheduling protocol is proposed according to the characteristics of the round-robin protocol and DoS attack, which can guarantee the specific sequence characteristic for control updates. Then, via introducing input delay approach and switched system modeling method, a time-delay switched system with fixed switching sequence is introduced to describe the considered system with DoS phenomenon. Moreover, some novel control criteria are presented to ensure the resulting closed-loop system reaches a required cost level under the obtained control law. And an optimization problem is proposed to compute the optimal upper of the specified cost level. Finally, a simulation example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Master–slaves synchronization of teleoperation systems with the Try‐Once‐Discard protocol under event‐triggered communication

AbstractIn this paper, a class of single‐master‐multiple‐slaves (SMMS) bilateral teleoperation systems with the limitation of communication bandwidth is investigated. The signals are exchanged between the master and the slaves through delayed communication. Besides, to avoid data collisions, the Try‐Once‐Discard (TOD) scheduling protocol is utilized to decide which slave gets the network access at each triggered instant. A control algorithm with the event‐triggered mechanism is proposed to ensure the master–slaves synchronization. Furthermore, the closed‐loop system's stability criterion associated with the controller gains, the varying time delays' bounds, and the maximum transmission interval is established on the basis of the Lyapunov–Krasovskii analysis. Finally, the presented algorithm's performance is demonstrated by the simulation and experiment results.

Protocol-based control for semi-Markov reaction-diffusion neural networks

This paper addresses the asynchronous control problem for semi-Markov reaction–diffusion neural networks (SMRDNNs) under probabilistic event-triggered protocol (PETP) scheduling. A semi-Markov process with a deterministic switching rule is introduced to characterize the stochastic behavior of these networks, effectively mitigating the impacts of arbitrary switching. Leveraging statistical data on communication-induced delays, a novel PETP is proposed that adjusts transmission frequencies through a probabilistic delay division method. The dynamic adjustment of event trigger conditions based on real-time neural network is realized, and the responsiveness of the system is enhanced, which is of great significance for improving the performance and reliability of the communication system. Additionally, a dynamic asynchronous model is introduced that more accurately captures the variations between system modes and controller modes in the network environment. Ultimately, the efficacy and superiority of the developed strategies are validated through a simulation example.

Efficient multi-party PSI and its application in port management

Private Set Intersection (PSI) technology is a cryptographic tool that allows the parties holding private data to determine the intersection of sets in a joint computation without revealing any additional privacy information. As a critical component of secure multi-party computation, this technology has been widely used in the security domain of artificial intelligence and data mining. With the emergence of the era of multi-source data sharing, protocols for private set intersection computation applicable to multiple participants have also emerged. However, the performance of existing multi-party private set intersection (MPSI) protocols is suboptimal when some participants use devices with limited communication or computational capabilities, such as mobile devices. To overcome the above issues, we design a cloud-aided multi-party private set intersection protocol (Cloud-Aided-MPSI) based on oblivious programmable pseudorandom functions (OPPRF) and oblivious key–value stores (OKVS). Due to the protocol efficiently outsourcing partial computational and communication tasks to cloud servers, our performance has been further enhanced compared to existing work. Through the Cloud-Aided-MPSI protocol, we propose a port scheduling protocol for coordinated management scenarios of ships arriving and departing from ports. The protocol effectively addresses the privacy protection concerns of port management when scheduling the arrival and departure of ships. We analyze the performance of this protocol.

Round-robin scheduling protocol-based stabilization for discrete-time Markov jumping neural networks

This paper focuses on the stabilization problem of discrete-time Markov jumping neural networks (DMJNNs) under communication constraints between the actuators and the remote controller. To reduce the communication burden, a round-robin scheduling protocol is introduced to allocate the right to a single actuator to exclusively use the communication channel at a given time while ensuring that multiple nodes can take turns to occupy the channel for signal transmission. Two criteria for stochastic analysis of the closed-loop network model are presented based on different assumptions of the activation functions. Then, numerically tractable design methods for the required controller gains are developed. Finally, the three-mode DMJNN model is used as an example to illustrate the complementarity and effectiveness of the presented analysis results and design methods.

Privacy-Preserving Average Consensus Algorithm Under Round-Robin Scheduling Protocol

Privacy-Preserving Average Consensus Algorithm Under Round-Robin Scheduling Protocol

Evaluation of the study of control arms in randomized clinical trials of cancer.

11023 Background: Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in cancer typically compare experimental to control arm regimens. The choice of an appropriate control (ctrl) arm can have a major impact on the expected success of an RCT. The frequency with which cancer RCTs use control arms based on established dosing and scheduling protocols has not been described. Methods: The HemOnc knowledgebase (KB) was used to identify systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) regimen variants, defined as regimens with identical components that differ in dosing, scheduling, and/or route. Non-cancer, nonrandomized, and non-SACT studies were excluded. Study publication year was used to define standard variants as those evaluated in the experimental arm of a positive phase 3 RCT >1 year prior to publication as a control arm, regardless of cancer type or context of treatment. Study-variant dyads were evaluated to determine whether the variant was standard. Success rates of RCTs with standard vs non-standard control arms were evaluated with Fisher’s exact test. Results: 5221 studies were associated with ≥1 named variant in the HemOnc KB, as of 2024-02-06. After exclusions, there were 3511 study-variant dyads (2386 studies; 1714 variants). The 9 most common regimens are shown in the Table. The median (IQR) number of variants per regimen was 2 (1-3); carboplatin & paclitaxel (CP) had the most variants (n=33). Across all control arm study-variant dyads, 2228/3492 (64%) utilized non-standard variants. For example, 60/97 studies (62%) of docetaxel as control used the 75 mg/m2 q3wk variant after it was established in 2000, whereas n=27 others used 19 non-standard variants. Trials that used a standard control arm had a numerically higher success rate, 45% vs 42% (OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.92-1.32). Conclusions: Non-standard regimen variants are frequently used in cancer RCTs. Reasons for this could include toxicity, patient convenience, or emerging data from smaller studies that establish comparable efficacy or improved toxicity to standard variants. However, the a priori efficacy of non-standard control arms is less rigorously established, and trials with standard control arms might be more successful. Future directions include quantifying the granular differences between standard and non-standard variants and investigating whether certain types of non-standard variation (e.g. fewer cycles, lower doses) associate with trial success rates. [Table: see text]

Hybrid Transmission Scheduling Protocol for State Estimation Over a Constrained Channel

Hybrid Transmission Scheduling Protocol for State Estimation Over a Constrained Channel

Fixed-time interval vs on-demand oral analgesia after vaginal delivery: a randomized controlled trial

Scheduled administration of analgesics was proven superior to on-demand dosing following cesarean deliveries. However, this protocol was not compared after vaginal delivery. To compare the efficacy of a fixed- vs on-demand analgesic protocol for the management of pain in the first 24 hours after a vaginal delivery. This randomized, prospective, controlled trial was conducted at a single tertiary medical center between June 1, 2020 and June 30, 2022. Vaginally delivered patients were randomly assigned to receive oral analgesics (paracetamol 1 g + ibuprofen 400 mg) either every 6 hours for the first 24 hours postpartum (scheduled analgesia group) or as needed (on-demand group). Pain level during the first 24 hours postdelivery was measured using a 10-point visual analog scale. A total of 200 patients were randomized 1:1 to the 2 cohorts. Baseline and delivery characteristics, including oxytocin augmentation, epidural anesthesia, episiotomy rate, and neonatal birthweight, were comparable between groups. Patients in the scheduled group received more paracetamol and ibuprofen doses in the first 24 hours (2.9±1.3 and 2.9±1.2 doses vs 0.8±1.1 and 0.7±1.1 doses, respectively; P<.001). Pain score was comparable between study groups (5.31±1.92 vs 5.29±1.67; P=.626) even after subanalysis for primiparity, episiotomy, and vacuum-assisted delivery (P>.05). However, patients on a fixed treatment schedule were more likely to breastfeed their baby (98% vs 88%; P=.006) as than those receiving treatment on demand. In addition, they were more satisfied with their labor and delivery experience, as evaluated by Birth Satisfaction Scale questionnaires quality control (37.9±4.7 vs 31.1±5.2; P=.0324), patient attributes (35.0±5.1 vs 30.3±6.3; P=.0453), and stress experienced (58.1±8.5 vs 50.1±8.3; P=.0398). No side effects or adverse outcomes were reported in either group. A scheduled analgesic protocol for postpartum pain management following vaginal delivery revealed similar pain scores compared with an on-demand protocol, although it was associated with higher breastfeeding rates and higher maternal satisfaction.

A Centralized Cross-Layer Protocol for Joint Power Control, Link Scheduling, and Routing in UWSNs

A Centralized Cross-Layer Protocol for Joint Power Control, Link Scheduling, and Routing in UWSNs

Sliding Mode Control for Uncertain 2-D FMII Systems Under Stochastic Scheduling.

In this article, the sliding mode control (SMC) problem is addressed for two-dimensional (2-D) systems depicted by the second Fornasini-Marchesini (FMII) model. The communication from the controller to actuators is scheduled via a stochastic protocol modeled as Markov chain, by which only one controller node is permitted to transmit its data at each instant. A compensator for other unavailable controller nodes is introduced by means of previous transmitted signals at two most adjacent points. To characterize the features of 2-D FMII systems state recursion and stochastic scheduling protocol, a sliding function associated with the states at both the present and previous positions is constructed, and a scheduling signal-dependent SMC law is designed. By constructing token- and parameter-dependent Lyapunov functionals, both the reachability of the specified sliding surface and the uniform ultimate boundedness in the mean-square sense of the closed-loop system are analyzed and the corresponding sufficient conditions are derived. Furthermore, an optimization problem is formulated to minimize the convergent bound via searching desirable sliding matrices, meanwhile, a feasible solving procedure is provided by using the differential evolution algorithm. Finally, the proposed control scheme is further demonstrated via simulation results.

Second-Order Effects of Chemotherapy Pharmacodynamics and Pharmacokinetics on Tumor Regression and Cachexia.

Drug dose response curves are ubiquitous in cancer biology, but these curves are often used to measure differential response in first-order effects: the effectiveness of increasing the cumulative dose delivered. In contrast, second-order effects (the variance of drug dose) are often ignored. Knowledge of second-order effects may improve the design of chemotherapy scheduling protocols, leading to improvements in tumor response without changing the total dose delivered. By considering treatment schedules with identical cumulative dose delivered, we characterize differential treatment outcomes resulting from high variance schedules (e.g. high dose, low dose) and low variance schedules (constant dose). We extend a previous framework used to quantify second-order effects, known as antifragility theory, to investigate the role of drug pharmacokinetics. Using a simple one-compartment model, we find that high variance schedules are effective for a wide range of cumulative dose values. Next, using a mouse-parameterized two-compartment model of 5-fluorouracil, we show that schedule viability depends on initial tumor volume. Finally, we illustrate the trade-off between tumor response and lean mass preservation. Mathematical modeling indicates that high variance dose schedules provide a potential path forward in mitigating the risk of chemotherapy-associated cachexia by preserving lean mass without sacrificing tumor response.

An adaptive mobility-aware secure handover and scheduling protocol for Earth Observation (EO) communication using fog computing

An adaptive mobility-aware secure handover and scheduling protocol for Earth Observation (EO) communication using fog computing

Confronting combined cyber-attacks on collaborative DC microgrids using a communication protocols-based distributed unscented Kalman filter

The functioning of microgrids (MGs), which represent a contemporary arrangement of distribution networks featuring local control over generation and consumption, necessitates telecommunication infrastructure for transmitting and receiving measurement data and control commands. This reliance on telecommunication infrastructure renders MGs vulnerable to the threat of cyber-attacks. The existing methods for identifying cyber-attacks have been restricted solely to MG modeling. However, identifying and restoring a cyber-attack lack dependability and feasibility in a practical application without the concurrent modeling of MGs and their communication protocols. Therefore, this study aims to identify hybrid cyber-attacks (simultaneous false data injection and time delay attacks) to flow sensors and cyber links in direct flow MGs by considering the communication protocols between them, as well as extracting and reconstructing real measurement data. In order to achieve this objective, a generalized unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is introduced in conjunction with communication protocols incorporating an augmented state space to estimate the power of nonlinear loads. For this purpose, two measurement models have been developed to prevent data collisions and reduce the communication load. These models are based on the round-robin scheduling protocol and the try-once-discard weighted protocol. They aim to establish a specific order for data transfer from sensors to the filter. The article concludes by presenting a stability analysis of the protocol-based generalized UKF, which aims to ensure the convergence and limitation of the estimation error. The study presents simulation results on the resilient reconstruction of hybrid cyber-attacks involving unknown constant power loads and noise. The proposed approach utilizes the protocol-based generalized UKF and exhibits superior performance.

Sliding mode control for Markovian jump systems under a switched scheduling protocol

SummaryThis article is concerned with the sliding mode control for Markovian jump systems under transmission constraints. To deal with node congestions, a switched channel scheduling scheme integrating round‐robin (RR) protocol and weight try‐once‐discard (WTOD) protocol is proposed to orchestrate the priority of multiple sensor nodes. At each transmission instant, a system performance‐based detector is adopted to select one scheduling protocol between RR and WTOD in a certain event‐triggering manner, by which only one sensor node has the priority to access the network. Compared with conventional protocols, the proposed scheduling scheme establishes a dynamic coupling mechanism between channel resource and scheduling rules, aiming to strike a balance between improving system performance and reducing communication resource requirements. Then, a token‐dependent sliding mode controller is constructed, and a genetic algorithm‐based optimization problem is given to achieve smaller convergent domain. Finally, numerical examples are shown to verify the present control strategy.

Emulation-based stabilization for networked control systems with stochastic channels

This paper studies the stabilization problem of networked control systems (NCSs) with random packet dropouts caused by stochastic channels. To describe the effects of stochastic channels on the information transmission, the transmission times are assumed to be deterministic, whereas the packet transmission is assumed to be random. We first propose a stochastic scheduling protocol to model random packet dropouts, and address the properties of the proposed stochastic scheduling protocol. The proposed scheduling protocol provides a unified modelling framework for a general class of random packet dropouts due to different stochastic channels. Next, the proposed scheduling protocol is embedded into the closed-loop system, which leads to a stochastic hybrid model for NCSs with random packet dropouts. Based on this stochastic hybrid model, we follow the emulation approach to establish sufficient conditions to guarantee uniform global asymptotical stability in probability. In particular, an upper bound on the maximally allowable transmission interval is derived explicitly for all stochastic protocols satisfying Lyapunov conditions that guarantee uniform global asymptotic stability in probability. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the derived results.

Enhanced Scheduling to Improve Resident Continuity in a Family Medicine Teaching Clinic.

Continuity of care is a core concept at the heart of primary care practices. Increased patient-provider continuity of care is associated with better satisfaction scores, better clinical outcomes, decreased hospitalizations and emergency department utilization, improved completion of preventive health services, adherence to medical treatment plans, and improved show rates. Compared to traditional outpatient practices, resident teaching clinics traditionally have lower rates of continuity and face unique challenges in improving continuity given the curricular demands, complex scheduling, and high turnover of providers. The objective of our study was to assess the impact of front office training and new electronic medical record (EMR) scheduling protocols on resident continuity in a family medicine teaching clinic. From July 2021 through May 2022, optimized scheduling through a provider search function in the EMR was implemented in a family medicine teaching clinic. We compared the monthly continuity rates between corresponding months in the prior year and the intervention year. Over an 11-month implementation process, continuity for resident physicians increased from 36.4% to 64.6% (χ2=675.41, P&lt;.001) using EMR tools and scheduling search functions to improve and sustain continuity over the study period. This intervention to enhance continuity in a family medicine residency clinic led to rapid and sustained improvement in provider continuity. This result demonstrates that optimization of EMR scheduling with tools and protocols can improve overall continuity. This scheduling process can likely be applied to clinical sites for residency programs across disciplines.