In criminal intelligence domain where solution discovery is often serendipitous,it demands techniques to provide transparent evidences of top-down and bottom-up analytical processes of analysts while sifting through o...In criminal intelligence domain where solution discovery is often serendipitous,it demands techniques to provide transparent evidences of top-down and bottom-up analytical processes of analysts while sifting through or transforming sourced data to provide plausible explanation of the fact.Management and tracing of such security sensitive analytical information flow originated from tightly coupled visualizations into visual analytic system for criminal intelligence that triggers huge amount of analytical information on a single click,involves design and development challenges.In this research paper,we have introduced a system called"PROV"to capture,visualize and utilize analytical information named as analytic provenance by considering such challenges.A video demonstrating its features is available online at https://streamable.com/r8mlx.Prior to develop this system for criminal intelligence analysis,we conducted a systematic research to outline the requirements and technical challenges.We gathered such information from real police intelligence analysts through multiple sessions who are the end users of a large heterogeneous event-driven modular Analyst’s User Interface(AUI)of the project VALCRI(Visual Analytics for Sensemaking in Criminal Intelligence),developed by using visual analytic technique.We have proposed a semantic analytic state composition technique to trigger new insight by schematizing captured reasoning states.To evaluate the system we carried out few subjective feedback sessions with the end-users of the project and found very positive feedback.We also have tested our event triggered analytic state capturing protocol with an external geospatial and temporal crime analysis system and found that our proposed technique works generically for both small and large complex visual analytic systems.展开更多
Background: A possible association between the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and the use of some commonly prescribed medications has been reported in recent studies. Most of these studies were carried out i...Background: A possible association between the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and the use of some commonly prescribed medications has been reported in recent studies. Most of these studies were carried out in general populations of men who were screened for prostate cancer using the PSA test. We reported on the association between the initial PSA level and the use of statins, metformin and alpha-blockers in patients who were diagnosed with prostate cancer and presented for radiation therapy. Methods: Three hundred and eighty one patients treated between the years of 2000-2005 and 2009-2012 were included in this retrospective study. The information about statin, metformin and alpha-blockers use was recorded immediately prior to treatment. Differences in PSA levels prior to treatment by medication status were estimated using univariate and multivariate linear regression on log PSA values. Results: Compared with men who were not on these medications, the PSA level at presentation was 20% lower for statin users (p = 0.002) and 33% lower for metformin users (p = 0.004). We did not observe statistically significant associations between the use of statins or metformin and cancer stage, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) risk score, or therapy outcome. A statistically significant association between the NCCN risk score and the use of alpha-blockers was observed (p = 0.002). Conclusions: We found that statins and metformin were associated with lower PSA levels in prostate cancer patients to an extent that could influence management decisions. We found no statistically significant associations between the use of these medications and treatment outcomes.展开更多
基金funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) through Project VALCRI, European Commission Grant Agreement N° FP7-IP608142, awarded to B.L. William Wong, Middlesex University and partners
文摘In criminal intelligence domain where solution discovery is often serendipitous,it demands techniques to provide transparent evidences of top-down and bottom-up analytical processes of analysts while sifting through or transforming sourced data to provide plausible explanation of the fact.Management and tracing of such security sensitive analytical information flow originated from tightly coupled visualizations into visual analytic system for criminal intelligence that triggers huge amount of analytical information on a single click,involves design and development challenges.In this research paper,we have introduced a system called"PROV"to capture,visualize and utilize analytical information named as analytic provenance by considering such challenges.A video demonstrating its features is available online at https://streamable.com/r8mlx.Prior to develop this system for criminal intelligence analysis,we conducted a systematic research to outline the requirements and technical challenges.We gathered such information from real police intelligence analysts through multiple sessions who are the end users of a large heterogeneous event-driven modular Analyst’s User Interface(AUI)of the project VALCRI(Visual Analytics for Sensemaking in Criminal Intelligence),developed by using visual analytic technique.We have proposed a semantic analytic state composition technique to trigger new insight by schematizing captured reasoning states.To evaluate the system we carried out few subjective feedback sessions with the end-users of the project and found very positive feedback.We also have tested our event triggered analytic state capturing protocol with an external geospatial and temporal crime analysis system and found that our proposed technique works generically for both small and large complex visual analytic systems.
文摘Background: A possible association between the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and the use of some commonly prescribed medications has been reported in recent studies. Most of these studies were carried out in general populations of men who were screened for prostate cancer using the PSA test. We reported on the association between the initial PSA level and the use of statins, metformin and alpha-blockers in patients who were diagnosed with prostate cancer and presented for radiation therapy. Methods: Three hundred and eighty one patients treated between the years of 2000-2005 and 2009-2012 were included in this retrospective study. The information about statin, metformin and alpha-blockers use was recorded immediately prior to treatment. Differences in PSA levels prior to treatment by medication status were estimated using univariate and multivariate linear regression on log PSA values. Results: Compared with men who were not on these medications, the PSA level at presentation was 20% lower for statin users (p = 0.002) and 33% lower for metformin users (p = 0.004). We did not observe statistically significant associations between the use of statins or metformin and cancer stage, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) risk score, or therapy outcome. A statistically significant association between the NCCN risk score and the use of alpha-blockers was observed (p = 0.002). Conclusions: We found that statins and metformin were associated with lower PSA levels in prostate cancer patients to an extent that could influence management decisions. We found no statistically significant associations between the use of these medications and treatment outcomes.
