Knowledge-assisted sequential pattern analysis with heuristic parameter tuning for labor contraction prediction.

The optimal dosing regimen of remifentanil for relieving labor pain should achieve maximal efficacy during contractions and little effect between contractions. Toward such a need, we propose a knowledge-assisted sequential pattern analysis with heuristic parameter tuning to predict the changes in intrauterine pressure,which indicates the occurrence of labor contractions. This enables giving the drug shortly before each contraction starts.

Prediction of uterine contractions using knowledge-assisted sequential pattern analysis.

The usage of the systemic opioid remifentanil in relieving the labor pain has attracted much attention recently. An optimal dosing regimen for administration of remifentanil during labor relies on anticipating the timing of uterine contractions. These predictions should be made early enough to maximize analgesia efficacy during contractions and minimize the impact of the medication between contractions.

Engineering healthcare as a service system.

Engineering has and will continue to have a critical impact on healthcare; the application of technology-based techniques to biological problems can be defined to be technobiology applications. This paper is primarily focused on applying the technobiology approach of systems engineering to the development of a healthcare service system that is both integrated and adaptive. In general, healthcare services are carried out with knowledge-intensive agents or components which work together as providers and consumers to create or co-produce value.

On integration and adaptation in complex service systems.

The services sector employs a large and growing proportion of workers in the industrialized nations, and it is increasingly dependent on information and communication technologies. While the interdependences, similarities and complementarities of manufacturing and services are significant, there are considerable differences between goods and services, including the shift in focus from mass production to mass customization (whereby a service is produced and delivered in response to a customer's stated or imputed needs). In general, services can be considered to be knowledge-intensive agents or components which work together as providers and consumers to create or co-produce value.

A calculus for services innovation.

Innovation in the services area - especially in the electronic services (e-services) domain - can be systematically developed by first considering the strategic drivers and foci, then the tactical principles and enablers, and finally the operational decision attributes, all of which constitute a process or calculus of services innovation. More specifically, there are four customer drivers (i.e.

On services research and education.

The importance of the services sector can not be overstated; it employs 82.1 percent of the U. S.

Viewing urban disruptions from a decision informatics perspective.

Urban infrastructures are the focus of terrorist acts because, quite simply, they produce the most visible impact, if not casualties. While terrorist acts are the most insidious and onerous of all disruptions, it is obvious that there are many similarities to the way one should deal with these willful acts and those caused by natural and accidental incidents that have also resulted in adverse and severe consequences. However, there is one major and critical difference between terrorist acts and the other types of disruptions: the terrorist acts are willful - and therefore also adaptive, if not coordinated.