Contextual crowd intelligence

Most data analytics applications are industry/domain specific, e.g., predicting patients at high risk of being admitted to intensive care unit in the healthcare sector or predicting malicious SMSs in the telecommunication sector. Existing solutions are based on "best practices", i.e., the systems' decisions are knowledge-driven and/or data-driven . However, there are rules and exceptional cases that can only be precisely formulated and identified by subject-matter experts (SMEs) who have accumulated many years of experience. This paper envisions a more intelligent database management system (DBMS) that captures such knowledge to effectively address the industry/domain specific applications. At the core, the system is a hybrid human-machine database engine where the machine interacts with the SMEs as part of a feedback loop to gather, infer, ascertain and enhance the database knowledge and processing. We discuss the challenges towards building such a system through examples in healthcare predictive analysis -- a popular area for big data analytics.

Determination of arsenic in urine by atomic absorption spectrophotometry for biological monitoring of occupational exposure to arsenic

An atomic absorption spectrophotometric (AAS) method was successfully applied to analysis of urine for arsenic (As) as a measure of biological monitoring of occupational exposure to As in Vietnam. The application of the method to urine samples from 75 non-exposed control urbanites (after 2-day abstinence from sea foods) gave a reference level of 62.4 +/- 11.6 microg/l (as mean +/- S.D.), from which the upper limit of the normal value (74 microg/l as mean +/- 1 S.D.) and the acceptable limit (100 microg/l as mean +/- 3S.D.) were deduced. Further application to urine samples from 147 workers occupationally exposed to As in Bacthai Non-ferrous Metallurgic Corporation showed significantly elevated levels of As in urine, with mean +/- S.D. of 78.5 +/- 20.2 microg/l. Improvement of working conditions to reduce As exposure resulted in substantial reduction in the ratio of those with urinary As at the level in excess of the acceptable limit. The practical importance of total arsenic determination in urine after 2-day sea food abstinence is discussed in connection with current conditions in analytical laboratories in Vietnam.

Measurement of Young's modulus in the in vivo human vocal folds

Currently, surgeons have no objective means to evaluate and optimize results of phonosurgery intraoperatively. Instead, they usually judge the vocal folds subjectively by visual inspection or by listening to the voice. This paper describes a new device that measures Young's (elastic) modulus values for the human vocal fold intraoperatively. Physiologically, the modulus of the vocal fold may be important in determining the nature of vocal fold vibration in normal and pathologic states. This study also reports the effect of recurrent laryngeal nerve stimulation on Young's modulus of the human vocal folds, measured by means of transcutaneous nerve stimulation techniques. Young's modulus increased with increases in current stimulation to the recurrent laryngeal nerve. Ultimately, Young's modulus values may assist surgeons in optimizing the results of various phonosurgeries.