Monday, January 27, 2020

Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining

Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining Melchor Abejon With the increasing use of electronic health records (EHR), data collection in many Health Care Organizations (HCOs) has improved and accumulated at a remarkable pace. EHRs have enabled HCOs to generate and collect a vast amount of data and information from their daily encounter of patients. And this is when Health Informatics (HI) comes into play- to develop and employ computational theories, tools and techniques that can assist in extracting useful information and knowledge from these volumes of data, and use this knowledge to uncover useful patterns and to create models that can enhance decision-making and processes in the healthcare and HI industry. This process is called the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDDM). The purpose of this paper is to give an overview on why KDDM is a necessity in the healthcare and HI industry, and also to discuss how the aforementioned technique continues to improve the healthcare and HI industry. Benefits of KDDM in the Healthcare Industry The abundance of data and information in healthcare had made KDDM a necessity. According to Taranu (2015), with the growing rate of data accumulation in HCOs, there is a need for expert analysis of these vast medical data. The ability to use these data in order to extract useful information is a key factor for many health institutions to establish quality healthcare. Listed below are some of the benefits of KDDM in the healthcare industry: Increase in the accuracy of diagnoses. The use of predictive algorithms can help healthcare providers such as the physicians to make diagnosis more accurate and decide for the appropriate treatment for their patients. Prediction of patient population risk. KDDM enables the creation of programs and risk models that can be employed to recognize and detect high-risk patients and chronic diseases. Because of this, healthcare providers are able to design the right clinical intervention for their patients. Reduction in the rate of hospital admissions and readmissions. The creation of algorithm and predictive analytics can enable the identification of patients who are at high risk for hospital admissions, thus enabling providers to design more efficient clinical interventions to better treat their patients. Enhancement of clinical decision support. KDDM enables the comparison of symptoms, causes, treatments and analysis of effective clinical intervention for a group of patients. Prevention of diseases and promotion of general public health. The application of predictive analytics particularly in genomics can aid physicians to recognize their patients who are highly at risk of certain diseases. Also, through predictive analytics, pharmaceutical companies are able to develop drugs that suit the needs for specific groups of people. Better patient-related decisions and patient satisfaction. The identification of usage patterns, preferences and the current and future needs of patients can give information that will assist staff in their interaction with their patients. Patients will also be happy because they will be receiving a treatment that will really work for them. Detection of medical insurance fraud and abuse. The detection of unusual claims patterns can assist insurance companies in the detection of medical insurance fraud and abuse. Benefits of KDDM in the Health Informatics Industry According to Shukla, Patel and Sen (2014), HI can be subdivided into four main subfields which are the (a) clinical care, (b) administration of health services, (c) medical research, and (d) education and training; and that each subfield and can be extended and improved with the application of KDDM. Clinical care. One of the applications of HI in healthcare is in the aspect of clinical decision-making through the implementation of the Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). This computer program is designed to assist healthcare providers in making clinical decisions through (a) information retrieval, (b) alert systems, (c) reminders, (d) suggestion systems, and (e) prediction models. The application of KDDM techniques on the database will render health providers analytical tools and as well as predictive tools that go beyond what is evident from the surface of the data. For example, predictive models can assist physicians to decide whether a certain patient would be treated as inpatient or as an outpatient. Administration of health services. Being an administrator of a healthcare entity can be a very tough job as this position requires daily critical decision making. The quality of information that these critical decisions are based on is an essential factor for this job. The KDDM technique can help in the creation of systems that can predict disease outbreaks, and can give representation of the benefits and the costs of the different preventive measures that are effective against a disease outbreak. Medical research. The application of KDDM is very successful in the medical research. Data mining methods can be applied on the vast medical data to extract useful patterns, predictive scoring systems and cause and effect relationships. Nelson and Staggers (2014, p.56) states KDDM can also be used to patch weaknesses in clinical data that pose a barrier to research. Education and training. E-learning is one of the rapidly growing method of learning in the healthcare and even in the HI industry. The application of KDDM in e-learning can efficiently monitor the progress in the learning process and as well as enhance the learning experience of students, administrators, and educators by recommending different learning methods, resources, and study materials. For educators, it can provide objective feedback about the course and students learning patterns. For administrators, they can learn about the users behavior, so that servers can be optimized and network traffic can be distributed. Through KDDM, the effectiveness of educational programs can be efficiently assessed. Conclusion With the growing accumulation of data in healthcare, no wonder KDDM will continue to be an indispensable tool than can be utilized to extract knowledge and insightful patterns which are essential in the development of systems and models to improve the safety and quality of healthcare. And as the use of health information systems continue to grow, KDDM will continue to mend the weaknesses and imperfections in clinical data to make these data more usable for the benefit of the healthcare and HI industry. References Crockett, D., Johnson, R., Eliason, B. (2014). What is data mining in healthcare? Retrieved January 15, 2017, from https://www.healthcatalyst.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/What-is-data-mining-in-healthcare.pdf Fayyad, U., Shapiro, P., and Smyth, P. (1996). From data mining to knowledge discovering in databases. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://www.aaai.org/ojs/index.php/aimagazine/article/viewFile/1230/1131 Miner, L.A. (2014). Seven ways predictive analytics can improve healthcare. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from https://www.elsevier.com/connect/seven-ways-predictive-analytics-can-improve-healthcare Nelson, R. Staggers, N. (2014). Health Informatics: An Interprofessional Approach. St. Louis, MO.: Elsevier Mosby Shukla, D.P., Patel, S.P., Sen, A.K. (2014). A literature review in health informatics using data mining techniques. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://ijournals.in/ijshre/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/IJSHRE-2220.pdf Taranut, I.(2015). Data mining in healthcare: Decision making and precision. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0be35910-eda5-4fda-a7c2-1a72f0962ec8%40sessionmgr102vid=2hid=114 The Modeling Agency (2015). How data mining is helping healthcare. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from https://the-modeling-agency.com/how-data-mining-is-helping-healthcare/

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club Essay -- Amy Tan Joy Luck Club Essays

Amy Tan's â€Å"The Joy Luck Club† The â€Å"Joy Luck Club,† by Amy Tan, is a collection of short stories about the relationships between Chinese born mothers and their American born daughters. The story called â€Å"Four Directions† is about a woman named Waverly Jong. The story is about Waverly trying to tell her mother that she is getting married to a American man named Richard. Waverly was a chess champion as while she was a young girl and she remembers the strategy that she used in her matches, and in her life, as she tries to tell her mother about a marriage to an American man. Waverly’s mother was raised in China under Chinese traditions. Waverly’s mother wants Waverly to marry a Chinese man and dos not want Waverly to marry an American man. As Waverly brings us through her decision making process, she questions the Chinese traditions that her mother strictly follows. Since Waverly grew up in an American society, she has lost the Chinese traditions that her mother has tried to teach her and therefore has weakened the bond between Waverly and her mother.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As Waverly brings her mother through her house, Waverly lets her mom see the male items that are around to hint to her mother that she is living with a man, like his clothes around the bedroom and his barbells on the floor. Waverly goes to her closet and shows her mother the fur coat that Richard had given to her. After seeing the coat, Waverly’s mom says: â€Å"This is not so good,’ she said at last. ‘It is just leftover...

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Deviant Behaviour in the Civil Services Essay

The concern laid out a viable extraction of information that focuses on several nations outside the Commonwealth Caribbean and their history of administration together with the leading factors of deviance in the civil services. Criterion used to assess the intricacies of Public Maladministration and Bureaucratic Corruption includes: injustice, unreasonable delay, abuse of discretion, negligence, arrogance, disregarding morality, employing deception and justifying criminality, nepotism, bribes, fraud, and waste and abuse in government. Public Administration is â€Å"centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct†. The field is complex in nature due to the various sub-fields such as organizational theory, statistics, policy analysis, human resources, ethics, and budgeting. Woodrow Wilson – 1887, defined Public Administration as â€Å"the detailed and systematic execution of public law†. Therefore, it is the government’s responsibility to take rational action and manage human and capital resources to attain its goals. Wilson is known to be the father of Public Administration. He wrote an article entitled â€Å"The Study of Administration†, and stated that â€Å"it is the object of administrative study to discover, first, what government can properly and successfully do, and, secondly, how it can do these proper things with the utmost possible efficiency and at the least possible cost either of money or of energy†. He also wrote in 1887 four concepts in which he believed: * â€Å"Separation of politics and administration * Comparative analysis of political and private organizations * Improving efficiency with business-like practices and attitudes toward daily operations * Improving the effectiveness of public service through management and by training civil servants, merit-based assessment† Deviance, when looked at sociologically, describes actions or behaviors that violate social norms, including formally-enacted rules. (eg crime. Norms are rules and expectations by which members of society are guided. When there is a failure to conform to these norms and they are defied, it can be considered to be deviant behaviour. This is quite common in administrative systems around the globe. The political term maladministration however, is linked to the actions of government bodies that cause injustice. Comparative Public Administration lecturer Maukesh Basdeo, stated that â€Å" Public Maladmini stration can be interpreted as a perversion of power, extortion, discrimination, intentional misperformance or neglect of a recognized duty. He goes on affirming that â€Å" public maladministration is a term derived from a purely post-French Revolution Western notion of public office based on the theory of the administrative state, the bureaucratization of government, the separation of political and bureaucratic career structures, the professionalization of public service, and the idea of public servants as trustees of the common good†. The government according to lecture notes is a public trust that must be used in the general interest and not for the benefit of particular sectional interests. Since public officials are â€Å"servants of the people and not vice versa†, it is a necessity that such officials be dedicated, obedient, hardworking, loyal, honest, patient, respectful and must have the ability to represent the people. They must also be highly productive and efficient and should be appointed based on merit not ascription. â€Å"The Western World has accepted this public service ideology and has, with varying degrees of success, exported it to the rest of the world.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Annotated Bibliography On Personalized Medicine - 875 Words

Personalized medicine can lead to the development of great discoveries that could revolutionize the world. The research of personalized medicine is new and costly but that is not the only setback this new science must face. Personalized medicine has also presented issues of race and gender that cannot be silenced until further research is conducted. It is clear that personalized medicine could provide great benefits for fighting illness, but it can lead to issues of underrepresentation of race and concerns of gender in terms of drug safety and with the little that is known right now the cost outweigh the benefits. The need for new and more effective treatment continues to increase and personalized medicine appears to be the answer to our prayers. With further research personalized medicine could revolutionize pharmaceuticals and to go out on a limb even find a cure for aids and other cancers. But it is too early to have high expectations for a science that has not been deeply explore d. It seems that the fantasy of finding a perfect match treatment for each individual has raised support from many institutions including the White House and the FDA. There have been some recent personalized medicine treatments approved by the FDA and this has lead President Obama to bring forward the Precision Medicine Initiative (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), which would give millions in monetary support for research to be conducted on personalized medicine. The issue here is whetherShow MoreRelatedI Am Born Into A Family Of Limited Means890 Words   |  4 Pages college, and into medical school, I always thought about how I might better myself and how I might use my talents to improve the lives of those around me. In medicine, I feel as though I have a career that will provide me with both intellectual challenges and an ability to serve others. I took particular interest towards internal medicine while our clinical rotations were going on. As each day was a true revelation , and I was most fascinated with diversity of patients, mixing of acute and chronicRead MoreGenetic Testing459 Words   |  2 PagesAnnotated Bibliography: Introduction The increased understanding of genetics, largely the result of the completion of the Human Genome Project, has helped change the face of modern medicine. Genetic testing of an individual can not only help identify current diseases and disorders, but also help suggest treatment modalities and identify potential future illnesses. For example, patients with a family history of breast cancer can be tested for the breast-cancer gene, and, if positive, decide whetherRead MoreThe Marketing Research of Brainquiry33782 Words   |  136 PagesNew York have been contacted via email and by attempted phone contact. At this moment there has been one returned email from the EWGA( Executive Women s Golf Association). They have stated it is possible to advertise on their website which is annotated in the New York folder labeled EWGA Sponsor Opportunities and in the Appendix Email 1 Magazines In the folder Labeled New York there is another folder called PDF US Advertising files. These files contain all the information the magazinesRead MoreContemporary Issues in Management Accounting211377 Words   |  846 Pagestraditionally accepted that the Wrm carry out the design function, this task is being transferred to the market where viable. For instance, many online music sites allow customers to choose music tracks from diVerent albums and to compile their own personalized albums of prior sound recordings. Here the customer becomes the product designer as well as the consumer with minimal guidance or training. The transfer of the product design function has implications for the structure of product life cycles. It

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Teenage Pregnancy Is A Public Health Issue - 1637 Words

Teenage birth rates, defined as live births per one thousand 15-19-year-old US females, declined by 10% from 2012 to 2013 from 29.4 to 26.5. In fact, the birth rate has been on a steady decline over the past 20 years, from 61.8 in 1991 to 26.5 in 2013. Teenage pregnancy represents both a health and social inequality in our society. Specifically, teenage childbearing is a public health issue because teenage mothers are more likely to experience negative social outcomes such as dropping out of school. This is a self-reinforcing cycle, as children of teenage mothers face higher chances of poor academic achievement as well as getting pregnant or getting someone else pregnant in their teenage years (CDC). Although the overall rates of teenage pregnancy have dropped, ultimately, the variations in the rates reflect the intersecting disparities regarding race and ethnicity, income inequality, geography, and environmental factors, which in turn affect access to medical care, education, an d resources. According to 2013 data, 11% of females in the US will give birth before age 20. This statistic is differentially distributed by race and ethnicity—8% of white teenage females, 16% of African American teenage females, and 17% of Hispanic teenage females. While Hispanics have the highest teen birth rate, there has been a drastic decline. Since 2007, the birth rate for Hispanics has declined by 45%, whereas the birth rate for African Americans has declined by 37% and 32% for whitesShow MoreRelatedTeen Pregnancy Essay1667 Words   |  7 PagesTeenage pregnancy has long been acknowledged as an important health, social and economic problem in the United States, one that creates hardships for women and families and threatens the health and well-being of women and their infants. Unintended pregnancies span across age, race and religion, with a specific negative impact among the teenage population. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC, 2016) In 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a birth rateRead MoreTeenage Pregnancy : A Social Issue1551 Words   |  7 PagesTeenage pregnancy rates have been declining in the United States, but when compared to pregnancy rates in other industrial countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom they are still relatively high. (Office of Adolescent Health, 2016). Teenage pregnancy is defined by UNICEF, as an adolescent between the ages of thirteen to nineteen becoming pregnant. (UNICEF Malaysia Communications). Teenage pregnancy is viewed as a social issue because of the way it affects a country’s economy, the mother andRead MoreTeenage Pregnancy Sections I And II1738 Words   |  7 PagesTopic: Teenage Pregnancy Sections I and II Primary Audience: My primary audience is the citizens of the U.S.; this includes tax payers, parents, state officials, education officials and teen moms. In the U.S. we have several teens that are experiencing unprotected sex, without any knowledge of pregnancy prevention or sex education. When teen girls become pregnant, this also affects the parents. This is a huge responsibility and burden for all involved parties. Health benefits are needed forRead MoreHealth Education Reduction Of Teenage Pregnancy1647 Words   |  7 PagesHEALTH EDUCATION REDUCTION OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (2010-2015) Introduction Teenage pregnancy (known as under-18 conception) negatively affects the health and wellbeing of both the young mothers and their children. Early parenthood is prone to the risk of postnatal depression, poor health (including mental health), social exclusion and by the age of thirty (30) there are more likely to live in poverty, have limited education, career and economic prospect. There is high risk ofRead MoreA New Zealand Health Issue : Teen Pregnancies1404 Words   |  6 PagesNew Zealand health issue: Teen Pregnancies A health issue is something that affects the well-being of groups or populations in a way that causes (public) concern. In this report I will be discussing why teenage pregnancy is a health issue in New Zealand and how it links to all the determinants of health which are influenced from teen pregnancy and parenthood. I am going to be discussing three determinants of health, these being; cultural, economic and social determinants of health. I will alsoRead MoreTeen Pregnancy Essay example1750 Words   |  7 Pagesthan 2% have earned a college degree (Foreman 27). I am a child born to a teenage mother, and my mom is a part 2% of girls who had a child before the age of 19 and was able to get her college degree, before she turned 30. Girls in this present time don’t understand the risk that comes with childbearing at a young age. Focusing on how teenage girls become pregnant, ways to prevent early pregnancies, the effect that a teen pregnancy have on the people around them, and t he downfalls of becoming pregnantRead MoreIssues on Teenage Pregnancy Essay1645 Words   |  7 Pagesthe complex issues of teenage pregnancy. There are many adverse concerns that encompass teen pregnancy, to which society has even developed its own views upon. Concerns that develop from adolescent pregnancy can have negative impacts for teenage parents, children, and even society. According to Furstenberg, â€Å"In 1995, in his State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton singled out teenage childbearing as â€Å"our most serious social problem†. According to the US Department of Health and Human ServicesRead MoreEssay on Implications of Teenage Pregnancy in the United States1457 Words   |  6 Pagesincidence of teenage pregnancy has generally been in decline since 1991, the causes and effects of underage childbearing has continued to be a big burden on families, the public and government. Babies having babies is the simplistic way that some people have described t he specter of having a baby while teenager are unprepared. The United State case study which is the subject of this paper is unique, even though reflecting the same generic features with teenagers elsewhere in the world. Teenage pregnancyRead MoreThe Issue Of Teenage Pregnancy976 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction: Teenage pregnancy is a hot-button issue in the United States that has lured the attention of citizens for many years. Since its peak in 1990, teen pregnancy has declined significantly, but is still held as the center for much controversy, especially with recent reality television shows that many claim are â€Å"glorifying† teenage pregnancy (The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 2014; Henson, 2011). Although numbers of pregnant teens are down, certain areas continueRead MoreTeenage Pregnancy Amongst Blacks and Hispanic Teenagers956 Words   |  4 PagesTeenage Pregnancies among Blacks and Hispanics 11/09/2012 Tina Trent TEENAGE PREGNANCY AMONG BLACK amp; HISPANIC GIRLS Birth rates in African American and Hispanic teens are substantially higher than whites, a trend that has persisted for decades. Even though pregnancy rates among teens are at an all time low. It is still a major issue but mostly affecting the urban communities. In this research paper I will be comparing and demonstrating the relationships

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Project Management Quality Assurance Support Services

QA PROGRAM REVITALIZATION Quality Assurance Support Services State of California Department of Water Resources Division of Environmental Services Office of Water Quality Municipal Water Quality Program QA Program Revitalization Steering Committee Rose Harrelson, Project Manager, DWR QA Support Services Cindy Garcia, Chief, Municipal Water Quality Program Branch Stephani Spaar, Chief, Office of Water Quality Murage Ngatia, DWR QA Support Services Otome Lindsey, DWR QA Support Services Kristopher Jones, Consultant Karen Gehrts, Consultant DWR Mission Statement: To manage the water resources of California in cooperation with other agencies, to benefit the State s people, and to protect, restore, and†¦show more content†¦Consequently, DWR is initiating a multi-phased project to revitalize the QA Program. Phase I of the QA Program Revitalization Project entails the following: ï‚ ¼ an analysis of the historical background of the QA Program at DWR, ï‚ ¼ the identification and evaluation of QA programs at companies and agencies that collect similar environmental data, ï‚ ¼ a compilation of â€Å"Best Practices† for effective Quality Management Programs, ï‚ ¼ the performance of a Current State Assessment and Gap Analysis at DWR, ï‚ ¼ a subsequent analysis of the differences and similarities between our program at DWR and the â€Å"Best Practices† we hope to achieve, and ï‚ ¼ assembly and dissemination of key findings and recommendations for revitalizing the program. Phase II will be developed pending the findings and recommendations and will include an Implementation Plan and further assessment of the revitalized QA program. PHASE I Project Management Documents Project Charter A project charter authorizes a project, empowers the project manager, describes the reasons for undertaking the project, the objectives and constraints, directions concerning the solution, and the identities of the primary stakeholders. Responsibility Assignment Matrix A Responsibility Assignment Matrix, also known as a RACI Matrix, is useful for clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross-functional/departmental

Monday, December 9, 2019

Archetypes rough draft free essay sample

?Archetypes are used in almost every story ever told. Some may be basic, while others can be more elaborate. The most important archetypes are those used in characters. If one was to compare characters from different tales, no matter the time period in which they were created, a strong similarity would be strikingly apparent. This is because of archetypes. An archetype sets the tone for a certain thing. The archetype of the color white, for instance, is innocence. This causes one to associate the color white with innocence. The same goes for character archetype. The archetypes of characters effectively placed unto the plotline of Beowulf both make Beowulf stronger, and essentially destroy him as well. These influences, combined with the heroic archetype shown in the character of Beowulf, have set a model for some modern tales of a hero’s journey. An example of this is The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. In the hobbit, many of the character archetypes as first presented in Beowulf appear again. In Beowulf, you will see many archetypes used in characters placed into the story to move it along. Many will change the premise of stories forever. The use of archetypes in Beowulf both influence Beowulf in his quests as well as modern literature today. Out of the many archetypes shown in Beowulf, two characters show the greatest influence and biggest impact on the life and success of Beowulf. One of those characters is Wiglaf. He becomes a faithful follower of Beowulf towards the end of the tale, and in the end sets the tone for the character of a loyal sidekick. While most sidekicks accompany a hero on all of his endeavors, Wiglaf is only there for the last. The last, however, turns out to be the most important; as it is the las t thing Beowulf will do. Wiglaf is the only one to support our hero at this point, and does not give up on him even though he is well aware that Beowulf will go down in his last battle. He also knows that he is risking his own life as well, yet he goes without hesitation, â€Å"quote â€Å" ( ). This illustrates the type of character Wiglaf is, thus creating an archetype for the â€Å"sidekick† character, a common character used in most stories. An example of this is [ ] in [ ], â€Å"quote â€Å"(- ). This is an example of the sidekick archetype appearing in more modern literature, proving the impact that archetypes have. In Beowulf, Wiglaf encourages Beowulf to finish the dragon before he perishes, which he inevitably will. That is the job of a sidekick. A sidekick’s job is not to rescue the hero, or to step in and save the day, but to support and encourage the hero that he or she is so devoted to. If it had not been for Wiglaf’s support, Beowulf may have withered away without finishing what he began, killing his legacy with him. â€Å"Begin with Grendel quote†¦. † ( ). Grendel is perhaps the most important archetypal character in the tale; his archetype being â€Å"the creature from the nightmare†, shown when he savagely destroys the men in Herot; â€Å"Grendel quote† ( ). This shows that†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦