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System Software (system + software)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Information technology supporting diabetes sel-care: a pilot study

EUROPEAN DIABETES NURSING, Issue 1 2007
A Halkoaho MSc Diabetes Nurse Specialist
Abstract Although diabetes is a lifelong, incurable disease, people can live a full and normal life, provided that they receive appropriate and well-planned care. The care of people with diabetes should be organised as flexibly as possible to suit individual lifestyles. Information technology has become a useful tool to support functional patient,professional relationships and improve care balance. The Self-Care System software tool set by ProWellness is one such tool. Users can enter blood glucose data by using a computer, modem and mobile phone and diabetes nurses can monitor the situation from their own computer and, if necessary, give instructions by sending a SMS (text) message to the patient's mobile phone. This pilot study investigated whether the Self-Care System application supports people with diabetes and can be used as a diabetes education method. The study was carried out in the municipal consortium for healthcare of Siilinjärvi and Maaninka. Nine individuals with diabetes and three diabetes nurses were selected to participate in the study. Data were collected by questionnaire and interview. People with diabetes were sent a questionnaire and the nurses were interviewed. Content analysis was carried out on the interview data. The results suggest that the Self-Care System software supports and motivates diabetes self-care. The nurses felt that the application was useful when changes, such as starting insulin treatment, were introduced. The application was further described as effective and motivating in short-term intensive diabetes education and monitoring; however, both nurses and patients disliked the mechanical nature of the software. Copyright © 2007 FEND. [source]

Altered cardiovascular vagal responses in nonelderly female patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism and no apparent cardiovascular disease

CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGY, Issue 2 2007
Renata Boschi Portella
Summary Objective Subclinical hyperthyroidism (SH) has been associated with exercise intolerance, changes in cardiac morphology, atrial arrhythmias and sympathovagal imbalance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the vagal reserve and modulation by a sympathetic stimulus in nonelderly patients with SH without cardiovascular problems. Design We carried out a cross-sectional study, comparing data of the heart rate variability (HRV) of SH patients and healthy controls at rest and after vagal and sympathetic stimulation. Patients We studied 16 female patients with at least 6 months of SH and 16 healthy female controls with the same median age (40 vs. 34·5 years). Measurements We used the tilt test, with electrocardiographic record at rest, during the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) manoeuvre and after tilting, in order to analyse HRV in the frequency domain (%high frequency (HF) and low/high frequency ratio (LF/HF) using Biopotentials Captation System software. Results The median TSH level was 0·03 mU/l in patients and 1·37 mUI/l in controls. The median free T4 was 1·37 ng/dl in patients and 1·20 ng/dl in controls. Patients demonstrated a significantly smaller difference between %HF during the RSA and %HF at rest than controls (median ,7·5 vs. 36·6, P < 0·001). There was a lower difference between LF/HF ratio after tilting and LF/HF ratio at rest in patients than in controls (1·5 vs. 5·3, P = 0·005). Conclusion Subclinical hyperthyroidism affects cardiovascular autonomic balance in otherwise apparently healthy nonelderly females by blunting vagal responses. [source]

Broadband Internet network management software platform and systems in KT

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NETWORK MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2006
Jae-Hyoung Yoo
The high penetration rate of Internet access services in Korea has created an operational environment that is different from those of other countries, and thus the level of customer needs takes on different aspects. To meet the operational environment, customer needs and rapid time to market requirements, Korea Telecom (KT) developed a scalable and flexible Internet network management system software (NMS S/W) platform, on which many NMSs have been implemented. This paper introduces KT's Internet network architecture, broadband services and operational environment. It also presents the software architecture of the NMS platform and application functions of major NMSs that are implemented on the platform. Furthermore, the future perspective of KT's network management technologies is described. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING CONSIDERATIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL-BASED MODELS

NATURAL RESOURCE MODELING, Issue 1 2002
GLEN E. ROPELLA
ABSTRACT. Software design is much more important for individual-based models (IBMs) than it is for conventional models, for three reasons. First, the results of an IBM are the emergent properties of a system of interacting agents that exist only in the software; unlike analytical model results, an IBMs outcomes can be reproduced only by exactly reproducing its software implementation. Second, outcomes of an IBM are expected to be complex and novel, making software errors difficult to identify. Third, an IBM needs ,systems software' that manages populations of multiple kinds of agents, often has nonlinear and multi-threaded process control and simulates a wide range of physical and biological processes. General software guidelines for complex models are especially important for IBMs. (1) Have code critically reviewed by several people. (2) Follow prudent release management prac-tices, keeping careful control over the software as changes are implemented. (3) Develop multiple representations of the model and its software; diagrams and written descriptions of code aid design and understanding. (4) Use appropriate and widespread software tools which provide numerous major benefits; coding ,from scratch' is rarely appropriate. (5) Test the software continually, following a planned, multi-level, exper-imental strategy. (6) Provide tools for thorough, pervasive validation and verification. (7) Pay attention to how pseudorandom numbers are generated and used. Additional guidelines for IBMs include: (a) design the model's organization before starting to write code,(b) provide the ability to observe all parts of the model from the beginning,(c) make an extensive effort to understand how the model executes how often different pieces of code are called by which objects, and (d) design the software to resemble the system being mod-eled, which helps maintain an understanding of the software. Strategies for meeting these guidelines include planning adequate resources for software development, using software professionals to implement models and using tools like Swarm that are designed specifically for IBMs. [source]