National Korea Maritime & Ocean University researchers develop a new control method that optimizes autonomous ship navigation

The novel method accounts for the dynamic conditions in a real sea that affect the maneuvering performance of autonomous ships

 NEWS RELEASE 13-MAR-2024

NATIONAL KOREA MARITIME AND OCEAN UNIVERSITY

 

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THIS INNOVATIVE CONTROL METHOD ACCOUNTS FOR THE WAVE LOADS PRESENT IN REAL SEA CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT THE MANOEUVRING PERFORMANCE OF AUTONOMOUS SHIPS, PROVIDING AN OPTIMIZED CONTROLLER FOR TIME-EFFICIENT NAVIGATION.

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CREDIT: DAEJEONG KIM FROM KOREA MARITIME & OCEAN UNIVERSITY

The study of ship manoeuvring at sea has long been the central focus of the shipping industry. With the rapid advancements in remote control, communication technologies and artificial intelligence, the concept of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) has emerged as a promising solution for autonomous marine navigation. This shift highlights the growing need for optimal control models for autonomous ship manoeuvring.

 

Designing a control system for time-efficient ship manoeuvring is one of the most difficult challenges in autonomous ship control. While many studies have investigated this problem and proposed various control methods, including Model Predictive Control (MPC), most have focused on control in calm waters, which do not represent real operating conditions. At sea, ships are continuously affected by different external loads, with loads from sea waves being the most significant factor affecting manoeuvring performance.

 

To address this gap, a team of researchers, led by Assistant Professor Daejeong Kim from the Division of Navigation Convergence Studies at the Korea Maritime & Ocean University in South Korea, designed a novel time-optimal control method for MASS. “Our control model accounts for various forces that act on the ship, enabling MASS to better navigate and track targets in dynamic sea conditions,” says Dr. Kim. Their study was made available online on January 05, 2024, and published in Volume 293 of the journal Ocean Engineering on February 01, 2024.

 

At the heart of this innovative control system is a comprehensive mathematical ship model that accounts for various forces in the sea, including wave loads, acting on key parts of a ship such as the hull, propellers, and rudders. However, this model cannot be directly used to optimise the manoeuvring time. For this, the researchers developed a novel time optimisation model that transforms the mathematical model from a temporal formulation to a spatial one. This successfully optimises the manoeuvring time.

 

These two models were integrated into a nonlinear MPC controller to achieve time-optimal control. They tested this controller by simulating a real ship model navigating in the sea with different wave loads. Additionally, for effective course planning and tracking researchers proposed three control strategies: Strategy A excluded wave loads during both the planning and tracking stages, serving as a reference; Strategy B included wave loads only in the planning stage, and Strategy C included wave loads in both stages, measuring their influence on both propulsion and steering.

 

Experiments revealed that wave loads increased the expected manoeuvring time on both strategies B and C. Comparing the two strategies, the researchers found strategy B to be simpler with lower performance than strategy C, with the latter being more reliable. However, strategy C places an additional burden on the controller by including wave load prediction in the planning stage.

 

“Our method enhances the efficiency and safety of autonomous vessel operations and potentially reduces shipping costs and carbon emissions, benefiting various sectors of the economy,” remarks Dr. Kim, highlighting the potential of this study. “Overall, our study addresses a critical gap in autonomous ship manoeuvring which could contribute to the development of a more technologically advanced maritime industry.”

 

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Reference                                    

Title of original paper: Time-optimal control of ship manoeuvring under wave loads

Journal: Ocean Engineering

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.116627

 

 

About National Korea Maritime & Ocean University 

South Korea’s most prestigious university for maritime studies, transportation science and engineering, the National Korea Maritime & Ocean University is located on an island in Busan. The university was established in 1945 and since then has merged with other universities to currently being the only post-secondary institution that specializes in maritime sciences and engineering. It has four colleges that offer both undergraduate and graduate courses.

To know more, visit: http://www.kmou.ac.kr/english/main.do

 

About the author

Daejeong Kim is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Navigation Convergence Studies at the National Korea Maritime & Ocean University. His research interests cover a wide spectrum, including conducting CFD simulations for ship manoeuvrability, motions, and resistance in waves. Additionally, he explores the performance of ship path-following and collision avoidance at sea. He has also actively contributed to various domestic R&D projects related to Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS).

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JOURNAL

Ocean Engineering

DOI

10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.116627 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Time-optimal control of ship manoeuvring under wave load

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Ming Zhang reports financial support was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China.

 

CFOSAT wind and wave observations reveal the seasonal variations in wave-induced stress over global ocean

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

 

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GLOBAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF SEASONAL MEAN DIMENSIONLESS WAVE-INDUCED STRESS. (A)–(D) REPRESENT SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN AND WINTER, RESPECTIVELY

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CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

Recently, the study of PhD student Jing Ren from Ocean University of China and Associate Prof. Sheng Chen and Prof. Fangli Qiao from First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources was published on Science China-Earth Sciences. The firstly simultaneous observations of wind and surface waves from CFOSAT are used to reveal the modulation characteristics of wave-induced stress for different wave states combined with a wave boundary layer, and it was found that wave-induced stress has a strong modulation effect on wind stress on a seasonal scale.

Global-scale wave observations are challenging, especially in terms of wave spectra. Consequently, investigations on wind stress characteristics using measured wave spectra are scarce. The research team applied a self-developed wave boundary layer model to CFOSAT, evaluating the contribution of surface wave-induced stress to wind stress on a global scale during the boreal summer and autumn seasons. The related results were published in November 2020 in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans. However, due to the limitation of data, the seasonal variations of wave-induced stress are still unclear. Therefore, the seasonal characteristics of global sea surface wave-induced stress and wind stress were analyzed by combining one-year wind and wave observations from CFOSAT with the wave boundary layer model in the present paper. Further analysis showed that from spring to winter, larger wave-induced stress are primarily distributed in the Southern Hemisphere westerly belt and high-latitude areas of the North Atlantic, while smaller values are mainly distributed near the equator（Figure 1）. The percentage of increase or decrease in wind stress after considering the wave-induced stress showed a roughly symmetrical pattern between the NH and SH during the spring and autumn seasons, while the summer and winter seasons showed an asymmetrical feature. Wave-induced stress significantly modulated wind stress, resulting in zonal mean variations by up to ±30% (Figure 2). This finding further highlights the important modulation of surface waves on wind stress at the global scale.

Global and zonal mean distributions of the increase or decrease percentage in seasonal mean wind stress. (a)–(d) represent spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively.

CREDIT

©Science China Press

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JOURNAL

Science China Earth Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s11430-023-1208-7 

 

New EU project kicks off: SEA-Quester to investigate polar blue carbon in emerging ecosystems

Through the HorizonEurope Programme, the European Union will provide €5,5 million to fund 11 polar partners led by DTU-Aqua for 4 years, starting 1 February 2024

GRID-ARENDAL

 

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AS NOVEL MARINE ECOSYSTEMS EMERGE IN HIGH LATITUDE SEAS, PRIMARILY DUE TO REDUCED SEA-ICE COVERAGE AND CHANGES IN SPECIES DISTRIBUTION (I.E. AS MACROALGAE LIKE KELP EXPAND POLEWARD), THESE CHANGES ARE HYPOTHESIZED TO ENHANCE THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS CAPACITY TO STORE CARBON. SEA-QUESTER AIMS TO TEST THIS HYPOTHESIS BY EXAMINING CARBON CYCLING PROCESSES ALONG COASTAL MARGINS, WITHIN SHELF AREAS, AND THE PELAGIC OR OPEN OCEAN, AS WELL AS THE PATHWAYS BETWEEN THEM AND CROSS-SHELF EXCHANGE.

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CREDIT: SEA-QUESTER PROJECT CONSORTIUM

SEA-Quester is investigating carbon cycling in novel marine polar ecosystems that are expected to emerge due to climate change. Melting sea-ice, changing currents, and a warmer ocean are already changing species distributions, behaviors, and metabolism. How these will further change marine biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, like carbon sequestration, in the polar seas is not well understood. However, this has potentially large consequences for meeting targets for biodiversity and climate change mitigation.

SEA-Quester will tackle the unknowns of “polar blue carbon” through a combination of field observations, remote sensing, and modelling. Field cruises to the fjords and shelf seas around Greenland and Svalbard, in addition to the Southern Ocean, will investigate the uptake and storage of carbon as it moves from coastal ecosystems (such as kelp forests) to the open ocean, where biological processes related to plankton, fish, and bottom-dwelling organisms play an important role in determining the ultimate fate of the carbon our oceans take out of the atmosphere.

These new insights are not only helpful for improved modeling of the global ocean and EOV (essential ocean variable) monitoring, but will also be showcased in new management tools, such as a biological sequestration amplification factor and maps of blue carbon sequestration potential. These new tools will help tackle the challenges and address tradeoffs in protecting and managing Arctic marine areas, while shedding light on the mitigation potential of natural carbon sequestration processes.

Map showing 4 representative locations where SEA-Quester will document and quantify ecosystem changes associated with blue carbon storage: 1) West Greenland, 2) Norwegian sea spanning from East Greenland to Svalbard, 3) the Baltic Sea and 4) the Southern Ocean. SEA-Quester also plans to work across multiple taxa and habitats, from the benthos to the open ocean.

CREDIT

SEA-Quester project proposal

Ice breaking up under a clear blue sky, taken during an ECOTIP project cruise. Photo by Anna Törnroos from Åbo Academy University

CREDIT

Anna Törnroos, Åbo Academy University

SEA-Quester runs from February 1st, 2024 to January 31st, 2028, and is a collaboration between the following partners: Technical University of Denmark, DTU-Aqua (Denmark, Lead), University of Bremen (Germany), Greenland Climate Research Centre, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR, Greenland), Alfred-Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar & Marine Research (Germany), Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW, Germany), Åbo Akademi University (Finland), Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAN), GRID-Arendal (Norway), Hereon Helmholtz-Zentrum (Germany), Imperial College London, and Aarhus University (Denmark).

SEA-Quester received funding under Grant Agreement No: 101136480. Our sister project, Polar Ocean Mitigation Potential (POMP) was also funded under the same call HORIZON-CL6-2023-CLIMATE-01-3.

Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. The European Union cannot be held responsible for them.

 

How do viruses choose whether to become nasty or not?

Bacteria-targeting viruses improve their decision making by co-opting the defense systems built against them

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

 

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LEFT TO RIGHT: PROF. AVIGDOR ELDAR & POLINA GULER.

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CREDIT: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

Researchers from the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at Tel Aviv University have deciphered a novel complex decision-making process that helps viruses choose to turn nasty or stay friendly to their bacterial host. In a new paper, they describe how viruses co-opt a bacterial immune system, intended to combat viruses like themselves, in this decision-making process.

 

The study was led by Polina Guler, a PhD student in Prof. Avigdor Eldar's lab, in addition to other lab members, at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. The paper was published in Nature Microbiology.

 

Bacteriophages, also known as phages, are types of viruses that infect bacteria and use the infected bacteria to replicate and spread. Even though the word 'bacteriophage,' meaning 'bacteria devouring' in ancient Greek, suggests destruction, many phages can adopt a "sleeping" mode, in which the virus incorporates itself into the bacterial genome. In fact, in this mode of action, the virus can even have a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria, and its genes can help its host prosper.

 

In general, Eldar explains that phages usually prefer to stay in the “sleeping”, dormant mode, in which the bacteria "cares" for their needs and helps them safely replicate. Previous research published by the Eldar lab has shown that the phages' decision-making uses two kinds of information to decide whether to stay dormant or turn violent: the "health status" of their host and signals from outside indicating the presence of other phages around.

 

"A phage can't infect a cell already occupied by another phage. If the phage identifies that its host is compromised but also receives signals indicating the presence of other phages in the area, it opts to remain with its current host, hoping for recovery. If there is no outside signal, the phage 'understands' that there might be room for it in another host nearby and it’ll turn violent, replicate quickly, kill the host, and move on to the next target," Eldar explains.

 

The new study deciphers the mechanism that enables the virus to make these decisions. "We discovered that in this process the phage actually uses a system that the bacteria developed to kill phages," says Guler. If it does not sense a signal from other phages—indicating that it has a good chance of finding new hosts—the phage activates a mechanism that disables the defense system. "The phage switches to its violent mode, and with the defense system neutralized, it is able to replicate and kill its host," describes Guler. "If the phage senses high concentrations of the signal, instead of disabling the defense system, it utilizes its defense activity in order to turn on its dormant mode."

 

"The research revealed a new level of sophistication in this arms race between bacteria and viruses," adds Eldar. Most bacterial defense systems against phages were studied in the context of viruses that are always violent. Far less is known about the mechanisms of attacks and interaction with viruses that have a dormant mode. "The bacteria also have an interest in keeping the virus in the dormant mode, first and foremost to prevent their own death, and also because the genes of the dormant phage might even contribute to bacterial functions," says Eldar.

 

“This finding is important for several reasons. One reason is that some bacteria, such as those causing the cholera disease in humans, become more violent if they carry dormant phages inside them - the main toxins that harm us are actually encoded by the phage genome," explains Eldar. “Another reason is that phages can potentially serve as replacements to antibiotics against pathogenic bacteria. Finally, phage research may lead to better understanding of viruses in general and many human-infecting viruses can also alternate between dormant and violent modes.”

 

Link to the article:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-023-01551-3

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JOURNAL

Nature Microbiology

DOI

10.1038/s41564-023-01551-3 

SPACE

Hubble tracks Jupiter’s stormy weather

NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

 

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THESE IMAGES OF THE GAS GIANT JUPITER WERE TAKEN BY NASA'S HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IN JANUARY 2024.

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CREDIT: NASA, ESA, STSCI, AMY SIMON (NASA-GSFC)

The giant planet Jupiter, in all its banded glory, is revisited by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in these latest images, taken on January 5-6, 2024, capturing both sides of the planet. Hubble monitors Jupiter and the other outer solar system planets every year under the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program (OPAL). This is because these large worlds are shrouded in clouds and hazes stirred up by violent winds, causing a kaleidoscope of ever-changing weather patterns.

[left image] – Big enough to swallow Earth, the classic Great Red Spot stands out prominently in Jupiter's atmosphere. To its lower right, at a more southerly latitude, is a feature sometimes dubbed Red Spot Jr. This anticyclone was the result of storms merging in 1998 and 2000, and it first appeared red in 2006 before returning to a pale beige in subsequent years. This year it is somewhat redder again. The source of the red coloration is unknown but may involve a range of chemical compounds: sulfur, phosphorus, or organic material. Staying in their lanes, but moving in opposite directions, Red Spot Jr. passes the Great Red Spot about every two years. Another small red anticyclone appears in the far north.

[right image] – Storm activity also appears in the opposite hemisphere. A pair of storms, a deep red cyclone and a reddish anticyclone, appear next to each other at right of center. They look so red that at first glance, it looks like Jupiter skinned a knee. These storms are rotating in opposite directions, indicating an alternating pattern of high- and low-pressure systems. For the cyclone, there's an upwelling on the edges with clouds descending in the middle, causing a clearing in the atmospheric haze.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. Goddard also conducts mission operations with Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations for NASA.

Surprising insights about debris flows on Mars

Research pushes the presence of water on Mars further into the past

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UTRECHT UNIVERSITY

 

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SATELLITE IMAGE OF GULLY LANDSCAPES ON MARS, TAKEN BY HIRISE (HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING EXPERIMENT), A CAMERA ON BOARD THE MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (PHOTO NO.: ESP_039114_1115). THE WHITE CO2 ICE IS VISIBLE ON THE SIDES OF THE GULLIES.

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CREDIT: HIRISE (HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING EXPERIMENT), A CAMERA ON BOARD THE MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (PHOTO NO.: ESP_039114_1115)

The period  that liquid water was present on the surface of Mars may have been shorter than previously thought. Channel landforms called gullies, previously thought to be formed exclusively by liquid water, can also be formed by  the action of evaporating CO2 ice. That is the conclusion of a new study by Lonneke Roelofs, a planetary researcher at Utrecht University. “This influences our ideas about water on Mars in general, and therefore our search for life on the planet.” The results of the study are published this week in the journal Communications Earth and Environment.

“The Martian atmosphere is 95% CO2”, Lonneke Roelofs explains. “In winter, air temperatures drop below -120 degrees Celsius, which is cold enough for CO2 in the atmosphere to freeze.” In the process of freezing, CO2 gas can change directly to CO2 ice, skipping the liquid phase. The process is similar to frost on Earth, where water vapour forms ice crystals and blankets the landscape in a white film. Warmer spring temperatures, combined with the thin Martian atmosphere, causes  CO2 ice to evaporate directly back to gas, again skipping the liquid phase. “We call that ‘sublimation’. The process is extremely explosive due to Mars’ low air pressure. The created gas pressure pushes sediment grains apart causing the material to  flow, similar to debris flows in mountainous areas on Earth. These flows can reshape the Martian landscape – even in the absence of water.”

 

“The results of my research suggest that the chance of life having existed on Mars is smaller than previously thought.”

 

Scientists have long hypothesised that CO2 ice could be a driving force behind these Martian landscape structures. “But those hypotheses were mainly based on models or satellite studies”, Roelofs explains. “With our experiments in a so-called ‘Mars chamber’, we were able to simulate this process under Martian conditions. Using this specialised lab equipment we could directly study this process with our own eyes. We even observed that debris flows driven by CO2 ice under Martian conditions flow just as efficiently as the debris flows driven by water on Earth.”

Extraterrestrial life

“We know for sure that there was once water on the surface of Mars. This study does not prove the contrary”, Roelofs says. “But the emergence of life likely needs a long period where liquid water was present. Previously, we thought that these landscape structures were formed by debris flows driven by water, because  of their similarity to debris flow systems on Earth. My research now shows that, in addition to debris flows powered by water, the sublimation of frozen CO2 can also serve as a driving force behind the formation of these Martian gully landscapes. That pushes the presence of water on Mars further into the past, making the chance of life on Mars smaller.” And that makes us even more unique than we thought.

Why Mars?

But what makes someone interested in landscapes 330 million km away? “Mars is our closest neighbour. It’s the only other rocky planet close to our solar system’s ‘green zone’. The zone is precisely far enough from the sun to allow for liquid water to exist, a prerequisite for life. So Mars is a place where we possibly can find answers to questions about how life developed, including potential extraterrestrial life”, answers Roelofs. “Plus, studying the formation of landscape structures on other planets is a way for us to step outside our Earthly context. You ask different questions, which leads to new insights on processes here on Earth. For example, we can also observe the process of gas-driven debris flows in pyroclastic flows around volcanoes, here on Earth. So this research could contribute to a better understanding of terrestrial volcanic hazards.”'

Lonneke Roelofs next to the Mars chamber at the Open University, Milton Keynes (UK)

CREDIT

Mars chamber at the Open University, Milton Keynes (UK)

JOURNAL

Communications Earth & Environment

DOI

10.1038/s43247-024-01298-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

How, when and where current mass flows in Martian gullies are driven by CO2 sublimation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Mar-2024

 

Study shows potential for using AI tools to detect healthcare-associated infections

Tools such as ChatGPT may improve infection surveillance and keep patients safer in healthcare facilities

ASSOCIATION FOR PROFESSIONALS IN INFECTION CONTROL

Arlington, Va. — March 14, 2024 — A new proof-of-concept study published today in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) reports that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can accurately identify cases of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) even in complex clinical scenarios. The study, which highlights the need for clear and consistent language when using AI tools for this purpose, illustrates the potential for incorporating AI technology as a cost-effective component of routine infection surveillance programs.

According to the most recent HAI Hospital Prevalence Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were approximately 687,000 HAIs in acute care hospitals in the U.S. and 72,000 HAI-related deaths among hospital patients in 2015. About 3% of all hospital patients have at least one HAI at any given time. The implementation of infection surveillance programs and other infection-prevention protocols has reduced the incidence of HAIs, but they remain a risk, particularly to critically ill hospitalized patients with inserted devices such as central lines, catheters, or breathing tubes.

Many hospitals and other healthcare facilities have HAI surveillance programs to monitor for increased infection risk, but they require extensive resources, training, and expertise to maintain. In resource-constrained settings, a cost-effective alternative could help to enhance surveillance programs and allow for better protection of high-risk patients.

In this new study, researchers at Saint Louis University and the University of Louisville School of Medicine evaluated the performance of two AI-powered tools for accurate identification of HAIs. One tool was built using OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus and the other was developed using an open-source large language model known as Mixtral 8x7B.

The tools were tested on two types of HAIs: central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI). Descriptions of six fictional patient scenarios with varying levels of complexity were presented to the AI tools, which were then asked whether the descriptions represented a CLABSI or a CAUTI. The descriptions included information such as the patient’s age, symptoms, date of admission, and dates that central lines or catheters were inserted and removed. AI responses were compared to expert answers to determine accuracy.

For all six cases, both AI tools accurately identified the HAI when given clear prompts. Importantly, the researchers found that missing or ambiguous information in the descriptions could prevent the AI tools from producing accurate results. For example, one description did not include the date a catheter was inserted; without that detail the AI tool could not give a correct response. Abbreviations, lack of specificity, use of special characters, and dates reported in numeric format instead of with the month spelled out all led to inconsistent responses.

“Our results are the first to demonstrate the power of AI-assisted HAI surveillance in the healthcare setting, but they also underscore the need for human oversight of this technology,” said Timothy L. Wiemken, PhD, MPH, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases, allergy, and immunology at Saint Louis University and lead author of the paper. “With the rapid evolution of the role of AI in medicine, our proof-of-concept study validates the need for continued development of AI tools with real-world patient data to support infection preventionists.”

Additional details about the study include:

• Both AI tools were used with retrieval augmented generation, an approach that improves the quality of prompting through a knowledge repository that gives the AI tool additional context. In this case, the repository included material from CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network, a tracking system for HAIs.
• The ChatGPT Plus tool developed for this study, HAI Assist, is available at the OpenAI GPT Store for people with a ChatGPT Plus subscription.

“HAI surveillance is a critical responsibility for infection preventionists, and our community needs every possible tool to help us ensure the safety of our patients,” said Tania Bubb, PhD, RN, CIC, FAPIC, 2024 APIC president. “This study suggests that AI-powered tools may offer a cost-effective means of improving our surveillance programs by assisting infection preventionists in day-to-day work functions.”

About APIC

Founded in 1972, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) is the leading association for infection preventionists and epidemiologists. With more than 15,000 members, APIC advances the science and practice of infection prevention and control. APIC carries out its mission through research, advocacy, and patient safety; education, credentialing, and certification; and fostering development of the infection prevention and control workforce of the future. Together with our members and partners, we are working toward a safer world through the prevention of infection. Join us and learn more at apic.org.

About AJIC

As the official peer-reviewed journal of APIC, The American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) is the foremost resource on infection control, epidemiology, infectious diseases, quality management, occupational health, and disease prevention. Published by Elsevier, AJIC also publishes infection control guidelines from APIC and the CDC. AJIC is included in Index Medicus and CINAHL. Visit AJIC at ajicjournal.org.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

“Assisting the Infection Preventionist: Use of Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare-Associated Infection Surveillance,” by Timothy L. Wiemken and Ruth M. Carrico, was published online in AJIC on March 14, 2024. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2024.02.007

AUTHORS

Timothy L. Wiemken, PhD, MPH, CIC (corresponding author: tim.wiemken@gmail.com), Saint Louis University

Ruth M. Carrico, PhD, DNP, University of Louisville School of Medicine

# # #

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JOURNAL

American Journal of Infection Control

DOI

10.1016/j.ajic.2024.02.007 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Case study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Assisting the Infection Preventionist: Use of Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare-Associated Infection Surveillance

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Mar-2024