XML emerged as the (meta) mark-up language for representing, exchanging, and storing semistructured data. The structure of an XML document may be specified either through DTD (Document Type ...Definition) language or through the specific language XML Schema. While the expressiveness of XML Schema allows one to specify both the structure and constraints for XML documents, DTD does not allow the specification of integrity constraints for XML documents. On the other side, DTD has a very compact notation opposed to the complex notation and syntax of XML Schema. Thus, it becomes important to consider the issue of how to express further constraints on DTD-based XML documents, still retaining the simplicity and succinctness of DTDs. According to this scenario, in this paper we focus on a (as much as possible) simple logic, named XHyb, expressive enough to allow the specification of the most common integrity and reference constraints in XML documents. In particular, we focus on constraints on ID and IDREF(S) attributes, which are the common way of logically connecting parts of XML documents, besides the usual parent-child relationship of XML elements. Differently from other previously proposed hybrid logics, in XHyb IDREF(S) attributes are explicitly expressible by means of suitable syntactical constructors. Moreover, we propose a refinement of the usual graph representation of XML documents in order to represent XML documents in a formal and intuitive way without flatten accessibility through IDREF(S) to the usual parent-child relationship. Model checking algorithms are then proposed, to verify that a given XML document satisfies the considered constraints.
Managing temporal process constraints in a suitable way is crucial for long-running business processes in many application domains. However, proper support of time-aware processes is still missing in ...contemporary information systems. This paper tackles a particular challenge existing in this context, namely the handling of temporal constraints for modularized processes (i.e., processes comprising subprocesses), which shall enable both the reuse of process knowledge and the modular design of complex processes. In detail, this paper focuses on the representation and support of time-aware modularized processes in process-aware information systems. To this end, we present a sound and complete method to derive the duration restrictions of a time-aware (sub-)process in such a way that its temporal properties are completely specified. We then show how this characterization of a process can be utilized when reusing it as a subprocess within a modularized process. As a motivating example, we consider a compound process from healthcare. Altogether the proper handling of temporal constraints for modularized processes is crucial for the enhancement of time- and process-aware information systems.
We present a brief, nonexhaustive overview of research efforts in designing and developing time-oriented systems in medieine. The growing volume of research on time-oriented systems in medicine can ...be viewed from either an application point of view, focusing on different generic tasks (e.g. diagnosis) and clinical areas (e.g. cardiology), or from a methodological point of view, distinguishing between different theoretical approaches.
In this overview, we focus on highlighting methodological and theoretical choices, and conclude with suggestions for new research directions. Two main research directions can be noted: temporal reasoning, which supports various temporal inference tasks (e.g. temporal abstraction, time-oriented decision support, forecasting, data validation), and temporal data maintenance, which deals with storage and retrieval of data that have heterogeneous temporal dimensions. Efforts common to both research areas include the modeling of time, of temporal entities, and of temporal queries. We suggest that tasks such as abstraction of time-oriented data and the handling of different temporal-granularity levels should provide common ground for collaboration between the two research directions and fruitful areas for future research.
A Conditional Simple Temporal Network (CSTN) is a data structure for representing and reasoning about time-points and temporal constraints, some of which may apply only in certain scenarios. The ...scenarios in a CSTN are represented by conjunctions of propositional literals whose truth values are not known in advance, but instead are observed in real time, during execution. The most important property of a CSTN is whether it is dynamically consistent (DC), that is, whether there exists a strategy for executing its time-points such that all relevant constraints are guaranteed to be satisfied no matter which scenario is incrementally revealed during execution. Prior approaches to determining the dynamic consistency of CSTNs (a.k.a., solving the Conditional Simple Temporal Problem) are primarily of theoretical interest, they have not been realized in practical algorithms. This paper presents a sound-and-complete DC-checking algorithm for CSTNs that is based on the propagation of constraints labeled by propositions. The paper also presents an empirical evaluation of the new algorithm that demonstrates that it may be practical for a variety of applications. This is the first empirical evaluation of any DC-checking algorithm for CSTNs ever reported in the literature.
Querying temporal clinical databases on granular trends Combi, Carlo; Pozzi, Giuseppe; Rossato, Rosalba
Journal of biomedical informatics,
April 2012, 2012-Apr, 2012-04-00, 20120401, Letnik:
45, Številka:
2
Journal Article
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► We propose a framework considering granular temporal trends of clinical data. ► Temporal clinical data (hemodialysis data) are considered at different granularities. ► We propose a ...taxonomy for multi-granular temporal clinical trends. ► Queries detect trends over granules. ► Temporal queries are expressed by a temporal relational calculus and mapped to SQL.
This paper focuses on the identification of temporal trends involving different granularities in clinical databases, where data are temporal in nature: for example, while follow-up visit data are usually stored at the granularity of working days, queries on these data could require to consider trends either at the granularity of months (“find patients who had an increase of systolic blood pressure within a single month”) or at the granularity of weeks (“find patients who had steady states of diastolic blood pressure for more than 3 weeks”).
Representing and reasoning properly on temporal clinical data at different granularities are important both to guarantee the efficacy and the quality of care processes and to detect emergency situations. Temporal sequences of data acquired during a care process provide a significant source of information not only to search for a particular value or an event at a specific time, but also to detect some clinically-relevant patterns for temporal data.
We propose a general framework for the description and management of temporal trends by considering specific temporal features with respect to the chosen time granularity. Temporal aspects of data are considered within temporal relational databases, first formally by using a temporal extension of the relational calculus, and then by showing how to map these relational expressions to plain SQL queries. Throughout the paper we consider the clinical domain of hemodialysis, where several parameters are periodically sampled during every session.
Workflow technology has emerged as one of the leading technologies in modelling, redesigning, and executing business processes. Currently available workflow management systems (WfMS) and research ...prototypes offer a very limited support for the definition, detection, and management of temporal constraints over business processes. In this paper, we propose a new advanced workflow conceptual model for expressing time constraints in business processes and, in particular, we introduce and discuss the concept of controllability for workflow schemata and its evaluation at process design time. Controllability refers to the capability of executing a workflow for any possible duration of tasks. Since in several situations durations of tasks cannot be decided by WfMSs, even tough the minimum and the maximum durations for each task are known, checking controllability is stronger than verifying the consistency of the workflow temporal constraints.
Workflow technology has emerged as one of the leading technologies in modeling, redesigning, and executing business processes in several different application domains. Among them, the representation ...and management of health and clinical processes have been attracting a growing interest. Such processes are in general related to the way each health organization provides the required healthcare services. Health and clinical processes underlie the specification and application of clinical protocols, clinical guidelines, clinical pathways, and the most common clinical/administrative procedures. Current workflow systems are lacking in effective management of three general key aspects that are common (not only) in the clinical/health context: data dependencies, exception handling, and temporal constraints. For example, a laparoscopic intervention may need the results of the concurrent bioptic analysis to be properly concluded while exceptional recovery activities have to be performed in case of emergency evidence during standard treatment; however, the successful application of a fibrinolytic therapy requires a maximum delay of 30 min after the admission into the emergency department. In this paper, we propose TNest, a new advanced, structured, and highly modular workflow modeling language that allows one to easily express data dependencies and time constraints during process design, in addition to exception handling and compensation activities. As for temporal constraints, we focus here on temporal controllability which is the capability of executing a workflow for all possible durations of all tasks satisfying all temporal constraints. Moreover, we analyze the computational complexity of the temporal controllability problem in TNest, and we propose a general algorithm to check the controllability. All the features of TNest that have been considered to model clinical pathways from classical clinical guidelines, i.e., those features for the management of STEMI patients, published by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association, will be used throughout the paper as a motivating scenario.
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