Informatics to support patient choice between diverse medical systems C3 - 2014 IEEE 16th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services, Healthcom 2014
- Authors: Golden, Isaac , Stranieri, Andrew , Sahama, Tony , Pilapitiya, Senaka , Siribaddana, Sisira , Vaughan, Stephen
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Full Text: false
- Description: Culturally, philosophically and religiously diverse medical systems including Western medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurvedic Medicine and Homeopathic Medicine, once situated in places and times relatively unconnected from each other, currently co-exist to a point where patients must choose which system to consult. These decisions require comparative analyses, yet the divergence in key underpinning assumptions is so great that comparisons cannot easily be made. However, diverse medical systems can be meaningfully juxtaposed for the purpose of making practical decisions if relevant information is presented appropriately. Information regarding privacy provisions inherent in the typical practice of each medical system is an important element in this juxtaposition. In this paper the information needs of patients making decisions regarding the selection of a medical system, are examined.
Decoupled modeling of gene regulatory networks using Michaelis-Menten kinetics
- Authors: Youseph, Ahammed , Chetty, Madhu , Karmakar, Gour
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Full Text: false
- Description: A set of genes and their regulatory interactions are represented in a gene regulatory network (GRN). Since GRNs play a major role in maintaining the cellular activities, inferring these networks is significant for understanding biological processes. Among the models available for GRN reconstruction, our recently developed nonlinear model [1] using Michaelis-Menten kinetics is considered to be more biologically relevant. However, the model remains coupled in the current form making the process computationally expensive, especially for large GRNs. In this paper, we enhance the existing model leading to a decoupled form which not only speeds up the computation, but also makes the model more realistic by representing the strength of each regulatory arc by a distinct Michaelis-Menten constant. The parameter estimation is carried out using differential evolution algorithm. The model is validated by inferring two synthetic networks. Results show that while the accuracy of reconstruction is similar to the coupled model, they are achieved at a faster speed. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
Opinion formation dynamics under the combined influences of majority and experts
- Authors: Das, Rajkumar , Kamruzzaman, Joarder , Karmakar, Gour
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Full Text: false
- Description: Opinion formation modelling is still poorly understood due to the hardness and complexity of the abstraction of human behaviours under the presence of various types of social influences. Two such influences that shape the opinion formation process are: (i) the expert effect originated from the presence of experts in a social group and (ii) the majority effect caused by the presence of a large group of people sharing similar opinions. In real life when these two effects contradict each other, they force public opinions towards their respective directions. Existing models employed the concept of confidence levels associated with the opinions to model the expert effect. However, they ignored the majority effect explicitly, and thereby failed to capture the combined impact of these two influences on opinion evolution. Our model explicitly introduces the majority effect through the use of a concept called opinion consistency, and captures the opinion dynamics under the combined influence of majority supported opinions as well as experts’ opinions. Simulation results show that our model properly captures the consensus, polarization and fragmentation properties of public opinion and reveals the impact of the aforementioned effects. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.