Search results for: home users

Authors: Ellen Dahl Gundersen, Berit Johannessen

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Introduction: Dementia and depression are common mental disorders of nursing home residents. The care of these residents consists of providing both physical, social and mental care. Too often, the physical needs are given priority, and municipal health services are urged to focus more on the patients mental and social needs. The presence of dogs may have positive impact on the mental health of nursing home residents by improving mood, social interaction and enjoyment of the visits. The voluntary organization Red Cross, has given priority to this subject by training and certifying dogs and owners (equipages), committed for regular visits at local nursing homes. Focus of this study: How do the dog owners and employees experience the presence of a dog equipage concerning the mental health of nursing home residents? Method: Individual interviews with 8-10 certified dog owners who are volunteers from Red Cross, contributing with regular visits at local nursing homes. Focus group interviews with 10 employees working in two different nursing homes. Preliminary results: Five to seven residents and one or two employees attended weekly dog equipage visits during a period of six months. The presence of an equipage seems to have made the residents calm and more social orientated with a lighter mood and better verbal expression. Some of the residents with dementia remembered the name of the dog from one week to another. The informants also reported positive outcome for the residents by their opportunity to give and get close through physical contact with a dog. Further, the presence of an equipage affected the atmosphere at the nursing home positively by promoting joy and initiating conversations about dogs. A conscious approach by the dog owners towards the residents seems to be of significance to this matter. The positive attitude and support from employees also seem to be of crucial importance for the maintenance of these visits. Conclusion: The presence of trained dog equipages in nursing homes seems to have had an overall positive impact on the mental health of residents. A conscious approach from the dog owners as well as positive support from employees seems to have a crucial impact on the success and maintenance of the visits. These findings correspond well to former research and can thereby give implications for more extended use of dogs as a mental health promoting initiative towards geriatric consumers of municipal health care services. Further research through larger studies is needed.

Keywords: animal assisted intervention, geriatric mental health, nursing home, resident

Procedia PDF Downloads 244

Authors: Rubijesmin Abdul Latif

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This paper focuses on evaluating what are quality components of university websites in Malaysia especially the private universities. It is believed that with websites that prioritize quality, the websites will serve its intended users satisfactory. From the compiled analysis of other studies, quality components were identified and tested among 30 randomly selected respondents. Four Malaysia private university websites were compared and the highlights were better understanding of what users want for a quality university website.

Keywords: website evaluation, criteria, quality, usability, user experience, university website

Procedia PDF Downloads 346

Authors: Prashant Verma, K. K. Singh, Anjali Singh, Ujjaval Srivastava

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Contraceptive policies have been derived to achieve desired reductions in the growth rate and also, applied to the data of Uttar-Pradesh, India for illustration. Using the Lotka’s integral equation for the stable population, expressions for the proportion of contraceptive users at different ages have been obtained. At the age of 20 years, 42% of contraceptive users is imperative to reduce the present annual growth rate of 0.036 to 0.02, assuming that 40% of the contraceptive users discontinue at the age of 25 years and 30% again continue contraceptive use at age 30 years. Further, presuming that 75% of women start using contraceptives at the age of 23 years, and 50% of the remaining women start using contraceptives at the age of 28 years, while the rest of them start using it at the age of 32 years. If we set a minimum age of marriage as 20 years, a reduction of 0.019 in growth rate will be obtained. This study describes how the level of contraceptive use at different age groups of women reduces the growth rate in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The article also promotes delayed marriage in the region.

Keywords: child bearing, contraceptive devices, contraceptive policies, population growth, stable population

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Authors: R. Kanthavel, R. Yogesh Kumar, T. Narendrakumar, B. Santhosh, S. Surya Prakash

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This paper primarily focuses on developing an affordable personal assistant and the implementation of it in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create a virtual assistant/friend. The problem in existing home automation techniques is that it requires the usage of exact command words present in the database to execute the corresponding task. Our proposed work is ATOM a.k.a ‘Artificial intelligence Talking Omnipresent Machine’. Our inspiration came from an unlikely source- the movie ‘Iron Man’ in which a character called J.A.R.V.I.S has omnipresence, and device controlling capability. This device can control household devices in real time and send the live information to the user. This device does not require the user to utter the exact commands specified in the database as it can capture the keywords from the uttered commands, correlates the obtained keywords and perform the specified task. This ability to compare and correlate the keywords gives the user the liberty to give commands which are not necessarily the exact words provided in the database. The proposed work has a higher flexibility (due to its keyword extracting ability from the user input) comparing to the existing work Intelligent Home automation System (IHAS), is more accurate, and is much more affordable as it makes use of WI-FI module and raspberry pi 2 instead of ZigBee and a computer respectively.

Keywords: home automation, speech recognition, voice control, personal assistant, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Meshari Aljohani, Stephan Olariu, Ravi Mukkamala

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Data is essential for enhancing the quality of life. Its value creates chances for users to profit from data sales and purchases. Users in data marketplaces, however, must share and trade data in a secure and trusted environment while maintaining their privacy. The first main contribution of this paper is to identify enabling technologies and challenges facing the development of decentralized data marketplaces. The second main contribution is to propose a decentralized data marketplace framework based on blockchain technology. The proposed framework enables sellers and buyers to transact with more confidence. Using a security deposit, the system implements a unique approach for enforcing honesty in data exchange among anonymous individuals. Before the transaction is considered complete, the system has a time frame. As a result, users can submit disputes to the arbitrators which will review them and respond with their decision. Use cases are presented to demonstrate how these technologies help data marketplaces handle issues and challenges.

Keywords: blockchain, data, data marketplace, smart contract, reputation system

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Authors: Da Tao, Mingfu Qin, Wenkai Li, Tieyan Wang

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While the use of electronic personal health portals has gained increasing popularity in the healthcare industry, users usually experience difficulty in comprehending and correctly responding to personal health information, partly due to inappropriate or poor presentation of the information. The way personal health information is visualized may affect how users perceive and assess their personal health information. This study was conducted to examine the effects of information visualization format and visualization mode on the comprehension and perceptions of personal health information among personal health information users with eye tracking techniques. A two-factor within-subjects experimental design was employed, where participants were instructed to complete a series of personal health information comprehension tasks under varied types of visualization mode (i.e., whether the information visualization is static or dynamic) and three visualization formats (i.e., bar graph, instrument-like graph, and text-only format). Data on a set of measures, including comprehension performance, perceptions, and eye movement indicators, were collected during the task completion in the experiment. Repeated measure analysis of variance analyses (RM-ANOVAs) was used for data analysis. The results showed that while the visualization format yielded no effects on comprehension performance, it significantly affected users’ perceptions (such as perceived ease of use and satisfaction). The two graphic visualizations yielded significantly higher favorable scores on subjective evaluations than that of the text format. While visualization mode showed no effects on users’ perception measures, it significantly affected users' comprehension performance in that dynamic visualization significantly reduced users' information search time. Both visualization format and visualization mode had significant main effects on eye movement behaviors, and their interaction effects were also significant. While the bar graph format and text format had similar time to first fixation across dynamic and static visualizations, instrument-like graph format had a larger time to first fixation for dynamic visualization than for static visualization. The two graphic visualization formats yielded shorter total fixation duration compared with the text-only format, indicating their ability to improve information comprehension efficiency. The results suggest that dynamic visualization can improve efficiency in comprehending important health information, and graphic visualization formats were favored more by users. The findings are helpful in the underlying comprehension mechanism of visualized personal health information and provide important implications for optimal design and visualization of personal health information.

Keywords: eye tracking, information comprehension, personal health information, visualization

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Authors: Sheng Yu Chen, Shi-Heng Wang

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Aim: Based on human, animal experiments, and genetic studies, cysteinyl leukotrienes, LTC4, LTD4, and LTE4, are inflammatory substances that are metabolized by 5-lipooxygenase from arachidonic acid, and these substances trigger asthma. In addition, the synthetic pathway of cysteinyl leukotriene is relevant to the increase in cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial ischemia and stroke. Given the situation, we aim to investigate whether cysteinyl leukotrienes receptor antagonist (LTRA), montelukast which cures those who have asthma has potential protective effects on cardiovascular diseases. Method: We conducted a cohort study, and enrolled participants which are newly diagnosed with asthma (ICD-9 CM code 493. X) between 2002 to 2011. The data source is from Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database Patients with a previous history of myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke were excluded. Among the remaining participants, every montelukast user was matched with two randomly non-users by sex, and age. The incident cardiovascular diseases, including myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke, were regarded as outcomes. We followed the participants until outcomes come first or the end of the following period. To explore the protective effect of montelukast on the risk of cardiovascular disease, we use multivariable Cox regression to estimate the hazard ratio with adjustment for potential confounding factors. Result: There are 55876 newly diagnosed asthma patients who had at least one claim of inpatient admission or at least three claims of outpatient records. We enrolled 5350 montelukast users and 10700 non-users in this cohort study. The following mean (±SD) time of the Montelukast group is 5 (±2.19 )years, and the non-users group is 6.2 5.47 (± 2.641) years. By using multivariable Cox regression, our analysis indicated that the risk of incident cardiovascular diseases between montelukast users (n=43, 0.8%) and non-users (n=111, 1.04%) is approximately equal. [adjusted hazard ratio 0.992; P-value:0.9643] Conclusion: In this population-based study, we found that the use of montelukast is not associated with a decrease in incident MI or IS.

Keywords: asthma, inflammation, montelukast, insurance research database, cardiovascular diseases

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Authors: Florian Pfeffel, Valentin Nickolai, Christian Louis Kühner

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Digitalization has disrupted the traditional workplace environment by allowing many employees to work from anywhere at any time. This trend of working from home was further accelerated due to the COVID-19 crisis, which forced companies to rethink their workplace models. While in many companies, this shift happened out of pure necessity; many employees were left more satisfied with their job due to the opportunity to work from home. This study focuses on employees’ job satisfaction in the service sector in dependence on the different work models, which are defined as a “work from home” model, the traditional “work in office” model, and a hybrid model. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), these three work models have been analyzed based on 13 influencing factors on job satisfaction that have been further summarized in the three groups “classic influencing factors”, “influencing factors changed by remote working”, and “new remote working influencing factors”. Based on the influencing factors on job satisfaction, a survey has been conducted with n = 684 employees in the service sector. Cronbach’s alpha of the individual constructs was shown to be suitable. Furthermore, the construct validity of the constructs was confirmed by face validity, content validity, convergent validity (AVE > 0.5: CR > 0.7), and discriminant validity. Additionally, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the model fit for the investigated sample (CMIN/DF: 2.567; CFI: 0.927; RMSEA: 0.048). The SEM-analysis has shown that the most significant influencing factor on job satisfaction is “identification with the work” with β = 0.540, followed by “Appreciation” (β = 0.151), “Compensation” (β = 0.124), “Work-Life-Balance” (β = 0.116), and “Communication and Exchange of Information” (β = 0.105). While the significance of each factor can vary depending on the work model, the SEM-analysis shows that the identification with the work is the most significant factor in all three work models and, in the case of the traditional office work model, it is the only significant influencing factor. The study shows that employees who work entirely remotely or have a hybrid work model are significantly more satisfied with their job, with a job satisfaction score of 5.0 respectively on a scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied), than employees do not have the option to work from home with a score of 4.6. This comes as a result of the lower identification with the work in the model without any remote working. Furthermore, the responses indicate that it is important to consider the individual preferences of each employee when it comes to the work model to achieve overall higher job satisfaction. Thus, it can be argued that companies can profit off of more motivation and higher productivity by considering the individual work model preferences, therefore, increasing the identification with the respective work.

Keywords: home-office, identification with work, job satisfaction, new work, remote work, structural equation modeling

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Authors: Marco Frieslaar, Bing Chu, Eric Rogers

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Stroke is a devastating illness that is the second biggest cause of death in the world (after heart disease). Where it does not kill, it leaves survivors with debilitating sensory and physical impairments that not only seriously harm their quality of life, but also cause a high incidence of severe depression. It is widely accepted that early intervention is essential for recovery, but current rehabilitation techniques largely favor hospital-based therapies which have restricted access, expensive and specialist equipment and tend to side-step the emotional challenges. In addition, there is insufficient funding available to provide the long-term assistance that is required. As a consequence, recovery rates are poor. The relatively unexplored solution is to develop therapies that can be harnessed in the home and are formulated from technologies that already exist in everyday life. This would empower individuals to take control of their own improvement and provide choice in terms of when and where they feel best able to undertake their own healing. This research seeks to identify how effective post-stroke, rehabilitation therapy can be applied to upper limb mobility, within the physical context of a home rather than a hospital. This is being achieved through the design and construction of an automation scheme, based on iterative learning control and the Riener muscle model, that has the ability to adapt to the user and react to their level of fatigue and provide tangible physical recovery. It utilizes a SMART Phone and laptop to construct an iterative learning control (ILC) system, that monitors upper arm movement in three dimensions, as a series of exercises are undertaken. The equipment generates functional electrical stimulation to assist in muscle activation and thus improve directional accuracy. In addition, it monitors speed, accuracy, areas of motion weakness and similar parameters to create a performance index that can be compared over time and extrapolated to establish an independent and objective assessment scheme, plus an approximate estimation of predicted final outcome. To further extend its assessment capabilities, nerve conduction velocity readings are taken by the software, between the shoulder and hand muscles. This is utilized to measure the speed of response of neuron signal transfer along the arm and over time, an online indication of regeneration levels can be obtained. This will prove whether or not sufficient training intensity is being achieved even before perceivable movement dexterity is observed. The device also provides the option to connect to other users, via the internet, so that the patient can avoid feelings of isolation and can undertake movement exercises together with others in a similar position. This should create benefits not only for the encouragement of rehabilitation participation, but also an emotional support network potential. It is intended that this approach will extend the availability of stroke recovery options, enable ease of access at a low cost, reduce susceptibility to depression and through these endeavors, enhance the overall recovery success rate.

Keywords: home-based therapy, iterative learning control, Riener muscle model, SMART phone, stroke rehabilitation

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Authors: R. A. Qawasma, F. M. Haddad, H. O. Salhab

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Hemodialysis is a life-preserving treatment for a number of patients with kidney failure. The standard procedure of hemodialysis is three times a week during the hemodialysis procedure, the patient usually suffering from many inconvenient, exhausting feeling and effect on the heart and cardiovascular system are the most common signs. This paper provides a solution to reduce the previous problems by designing a wearable artificial kidney (WAK) taking in consideration a minimization the size of the dialysis machine. The WAK system consists of two circuits: blood circuit and dialysate circuit. The blood from the patient is filtered in the dialyzer before returning back to the patient. Several parameters using an advanced microcontroller and array of sensors. WAK equipped with visible and audible alarm system to aware the patients if there is any problem.

Keywords: artificial kidney, home dialysis, renal failure, wearable kidney

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Authors: Abdulwakeel B. Raji

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This paper introduces a concept of an intelligent virtual learning environment that involves communication between learners and an artificially intelligent teaching agent in an attempt to replicate classroom learning interactions. The benefits of this technology over current e-learning practices is that it creates a virtual classroom where real time adaptive learning interactions are made possible. This is a move away from the static learning practices currently being adopted by e-learning systems. Over the years, artificial intelligence has been applied to various fields, including and not limited to medicine, military applications, psychology, marketing etc. The purpose of e-learning applications is to ensure users are able to learn outside of the classroom, but a major limitation has been the inability to fully replicate classroom interactions between teacher and students. This study used comparative surveys to gain information and understanding of the current learning practices in Nigerian universities and how they compare to these practices compare to the use of a developed e-learning system. The study was conducted by attending several lectures and noting the interactions between lecturers and tutors and as an aftermath, a software has been developed that deploys the use of an artificial intelligent teaching-agent alongside an e-learning system to enhance user learning experience and attempt to create the similar learning interactions to those found in classroom and lecture hall settings. Dialogflow has been used to implement a teaching-agent, which has been developed using JSON, which serves as a virtual teacher. Course content has been created using HTML, CSS, PHP and JAVASCRIPT as a web-based application. This technology can run on handheld devices and Google based home technologies to give learners an access to the teaching agent at any time. This technology also implements the use of definite clause grammars and natural language processing to match user inputs and requests with defined rules to replicate learning interactions. This technology developed covers familiar classroom scenarios such as answering users’ questions, asking ‘do you understand’ at regular intervals and answering subsequent requests, taking advanced user queries to give feedbacks at other periods. This software technology uses deep learning techniques to learn user interactions and patterns to subsequently enhance user learning experience. A system testing has been undergone by undergraduate students in the UK and Nigeria on the course ‘Introduction to Database Development’. Test results and feedback from users shows that this study and developed software is a significant improvement on existing e-learning systems. Further experiments are to be run using the software with different students and more course contents.

Keywords: virtual learning, natural language processing, definite clause grammars, deep learning, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Haleh Dadgostar, Sara Kaviani, Hanieh Adib, Ali Mazaherinezhad, Masoud Solaymani-Dodaran, Fahimeh Soheilipour, Abdolreza Pazouki

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Background and Objectives: Effectiveness of various exercise protocols in weight reduction after bariatric surgery has not been sufficiently explored in the literature. We compared the effect of minimally supervised home-based and closely supervised Gym based exercise programs on weight reduction and insulin resistance after bariatric surgery. Methods: Women undergoing gastric bypass surgery were invited to participate in an exercise program and were randomly allocated into two groups. They were either offered a minimally supervised home-based (MSHB) or closely supervised Gym-based (CSGB) exercise program. The CSGB protocol constitute two sessions per week of training under ACSM guidelines. In the MSHB protocol participants received a notebook containing a list of recommended aerobic and resistance exercises, a log to record their activity and a schedule of follow up phone calls and clinic visits. Both groups received a pedometer. We measured their weight, BMI, lipid profile, FBS, and insulin level at the baseline and after 20 weeks of exercise and were compared at the end of the study. Results: A total of 80 patients completed our study (MSHB=38 and CSGB=42). The baseline comparison showed that the two groups are similar. Using the ANCOVA method of analysis the mean change in BMI (covariate: BMI at the beginning of the study) was slightly better in CSGB compared with the MSHB (between-group mean difference: 3.33 (95%CI 4.718 to 1.943, F: 22.844 p < 0.001)). Conclusion: Our results showed that both MSHB and CSGB exercise methods are somewhat equally effective in improvement of studied factors in the two groups. With considerably lower costs of Minimally Supervised Home Based exercise programs, these methods should be considered when adequate funding are not available.

Keywords: postoperative exercise, insulin resistance, bariatric surgery, morbid obesity

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Authors: Suraina Sulong

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Keyboard support is one of the main accessibility requirements for web pages and web applications for blind user. But it is not sufficient that the blind user can perform all actions on the page using the keyboard. In addition, designers of web sites or web applications have to make sure that keyboard users can use their pages with acceptable performance. We present GOMS models for navigation in web pages with specific task given to the blind user to accomplish. These models can be used to construct the user model for accessible website.

Keywords: GOMS analysis, usability factor, blind user, human computer interaction

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Authors: Paulomi Polly Burey, Mark Lynch

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It has been shown that laboratory activities can help cement understanding of theoretical concepts, but it is difficult to deliver such an activity to an online cohort and issues such as occupational health and safety in the students’ learning environment need to be considered. Chemistry, in particular, is one of the sciences where practical experience is beneficial for learning, however typical university experiments may not be suitable for the learning environment of a distance learner. Food provides an ideal medium for demonstrating chemical concepts, and along with a few simple physical and virtual tools provided by educators, analytical chemistry can be experienced by distance learners. Food chemistry experiments were designed to be carried out in a home-based environment that 1) Had sufficient scientific rigour and skill-building to reinforce theoretical concepts; 2) Were safe for use at home by university students and 3) Had the potential to enhance student learning by linking simple hands-on laboratory activities with high-level virtual science. Two main components of the resources were developed, a home laboratory experiment component, and a virtual laboratory component. For the home laboratory component, students were provided with laboratory kits, as well as a list of supplementary inexpensive chemical items that they could purchase from hardware stores and supermarkets. The experiments used were typical proximate analyses of food, as well as experiments focused on techniques such as spectrophotometry and chromatography. Written instructions for each experiment coupled with video laboratory demonstrations were used to train students on appropriate laboratory technique. Data that students collected in their home laboratory environment was collated across the class through shared documents, so that the group could carry out statistical analysis and experience a full laboratory experience from their own home. For the virtual laboratory component, students were able to view a laboratory safety induction and advised on good characteristics of a home laboratory space prior to carrying out their experiments. Following on from this activity, students observed laboratory demonstrations of the experimental series they would carry out in their learning environment. Finally, students were embedded in a virtual laboratory environment to experience complex chemical analyses with equipment that would be too costly and sensitive to be housed in their learning environment. To investigate the impact of the intervention, students were surveyed before and after the laboratory series to evaluate engagement and satisfaction with the course. Students were also assessed on their understanding of theoretical chemical concepts before and after the laboratory series to determine the impact on their learning. At the end of the intervention, focus groups were run to determine which aspects helped and hindered learning. It was found that the physical experiments helped students to understand laboratory technique, as well as methodology interpretation, particularly if they had not been in such a laboratory environment before. The virtual learning environment aided learning as it could be utilized for longer than a typical physical laboratory class, thus allowing further time on understanding techniques.

Keywords: chemistry, food science, future pedagogy, STEM education

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Authors: Beata, Bury

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Doge speak is an Internet variety with its own linguistic patterns and regularities. Doge meme contains some unconventional grammar rules which make it recognizable. With the use of doge corpus, certain characteristics of doge speak as well as reasons for its popularity are analyzed. The study concludes that doge memes can be applied to a variety of situations, for instance advertising or fashion industry. Doge users play with language and create surprising linguistic combinations. To sum up, doge meme making is a multiperson task. Doge users predict and comment on the world with the use of doge memes.

Keywords: dogespeak, internet language, language play, meme

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Authors: Mokhlisur Rahman

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The growing consensus among scientists and world leaders indicates that immediate action should be considered regarding the climate change phenomenon. However, climate change is no more a global issue but a personal one. Thus, individual participation is necessary to address such a significant issue. Studies show that individuals who perceive climate change as a personal issue are more likely to act toward it. This abstract presents augmented reality (A.R.) technology in the social media platform Facebook video advertising. The idea involves creating a video advertisement that enables users to interact with the video by navigating its features and experiencing the result uniquely and engagingly. This advertisement uses A.R. to bring changes, such as people making changes in real-life scenarios by simple clicks on the video and hearing an instant rewarding fact about their choices. The video shows three options: room, lawn, and driveway. Users select one option and engage in interaction based on while holding the camera in their personal spaces: Suppose users select the first option, room, and hold their camera toward spots such as by the windows, balcony, corners, and even walls. In that case, the A.R. offers users different plants appropriate for those unoccupied spaces in the room. Users can change the options of the plants and see which space at their house deserves a plant that makes it more natural. When a user adds a natural element to the video, the video content explains a piece of beneficiary information about how the user contributes to the world more to be livable and why it is necessary. With the help of A.R., if users select the second option, lawn, and hold their camera toward their lawn, the options are various small trees for their lawn to make it more environmentally friendly and decorative. The video plays a beneficiary explanation here too. Suppose users select the third option, driveway, and hold their camera toward their driveway. In that case, the A.R. video option offers unique recycle bin designs using A.I. measurement of spaces. The video plays audio information on anthropogenic contribution to greenhouse gas emission. IoT embeds tracking code in the video ad on Facebook, which stores the exact number of views in the cloud for data analysis. An online survey at the end collects short qualitative answers. This study helps understand the number of users involved and willing to change their behavior; It makes personalized advertising in social media. Considering the current state of climate change, the urgency for action is increasing. This ad increases the chance to make direct connections with individuals and gives a sense of personal responsibility for climate change to act

Keywords: motivations, climate, iot, personalized-advertising, action

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Authors: Khwaja Bahman Qaderi, Noorullah Rafiqee

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Background: With today's increasing Internet users, e-commerce has become a viable model for strengthening relationships between sellers, entrepreneurs, and consumers due to its speed, efficiency, and cost reduction. Agriculture is the economic backbone for 80 percent of the Afghan population. According to MCIT statistics, there are currently around 10 million internet users in Afghanistan. With this data, it was expected that Afghan people should have utilized e-commerce in their agricultural aspects, although it appears to be less used. Objective: This study examines the scope of e-commerce in Afghanistan's agriculture enterprises, how they harness the potential of internet users, and what obstacles they face in implementing e-commerce in their businesses. Method: The study distributed a 39-question questionnaire to agribusinesses in five different zones of Afghanistan. After extracting the responses and excluding the incomplete questionnaires, 280 were included in the analysis step to perform a non-parametric sign test. Result: E-commerce in Afghanistan faces four major political, economic, Internet, and technological obstacles, and no company in the country has implemented e-commerce. In addition, e-commerce is still in its infancy among agricultural companies in the country. Internet use is still primarily limited to email and sharing product images on Facebook & Instagram for advertising purposes. There are no companies that conduct international transactions via the Internet. Conclusion: This study contributes to knowing the challenges and barriers that the agriculture e-commerce faces in Afghanistan to find the effective solutions to use the capacity of internet users in the country and increase the sales rate of agricultural products through the Internet.

Keywords: E-commerce, barriers and challenges, agriculture companies, Afghanistan

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Authors: Anusha M., V. Srikanth

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Maximizing spectrum usage and numerous applications of the wireless communication networks have forced to a high interest of available spectrum. Cognitive Radio control its receiver and transmitter features exactly so that they can utilize the vacant approved spectrum without impacting the functionality of the principal licensed users. The Use of various channels assists to address interferences thereby improves the whole network efficiency. The MAC protocol in cognitive radio network explains the spectrum usage by interacting with multiple channels among the users. In this paper we studied about the architecture of cognitive wireless mesh network and traditional TDMA dependent MAC method to allocate channels dynamically. The majority of the MAC protocols suggested in the research are operated on Common-Control-Channel (CCC) to handle the services between Cognitive Radio secondary users. In this paper, an extensive study of Multi-Channel Multi-Radios or frequency range channel allotment and continually synchronized TDMA scheduling are shown in summarized way.

Keywords: TDMA, MAC, multi-channel, multi-radio, WMN’S, cognitive radios

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Authors: Nick Farid, Roghoyeh Salmeh

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The planning and operation of the power grid is becoming much more complex because of the introduction of renewable energy resources, the digitalization of the electricity industry, as well as the coupling of efficiency and greener energy trends. These changes, along with new trends, make interactions between grid users and the other stakeholders more complex. This paper focuses on the main “physical” and “logical” interactions between grid users and the grid stakeholders, both from power system equipment and information management standpoints, and proposes a new interoperability model for Smart Grids.

Keywords: user interface, interoperability layers, grid architecture framework, smart grid

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Authors: Jo Kuys, Kirsten Day

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Improving urban transportation systems requires an emphasis on users’ end-to-end journey experience, from the moment the user steps out of their home to when they arrive at their destination. In considering such end-to-end experiences, human centred design (HCD) must be integrated from the very beginning to generate viable outcomes for the public. An HCD approach will encourage innovative outcomes while acknowledging all factors that need to be understood along the journey. We provide evidence to show that when designing for public transportation, it is not just about the physical manifestation of a particular outcome; moreover, it’s about the context and human behaviours that need to be considered throughout the design process. Humans and their behavioural factors are vitally important to successful implementation of sustainable public transport systems. Through an in-depth literature review of HCD approaches for urban transportation systems, we provide a base to exploit the benefits and highlight the importance of including HCD in public transportation projects for greater patronage, resulting in more sustainable cities. An HCD approach is critical to all public transportation projects to understand different levels of transportation design, from the setting of transport policy to implementation to infrastructure, vehicle, and interface design.

Keywords: human centred design, public transportation, urban planning, user experience

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Authors: Ruhollah Heydari Sheikh Ahmad, Sara Alaie Khoraem

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Introduction: Substance use disorder is conceptualized as a chronic relapsing condition where relapse is usually defined as the return to problematic substance use following treatment. An issue of great importance is the identification of the predictors of relapse and the development of treatments that may help prevent relapse. One of the strongest predictors of relapse is craving. The purpose of the present study was to study the effect of anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and coping motives on craving. Materials and method: Participants (n=74) were male opiate users recruited from a semi-private clinic providing de-toxification and treatment services for substance users. Anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, coping motives and craving were assessed using relevant questionnaires. The addiction severity index was used to assess addiction severity. Results: All patients were methadone maintained and one year after detoxification, 36 patients (48.64%) relapsed. Stress and anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, addiction severity and coping motives predicted craving and relapse. Anxiety sensitivity specifically predicted early relapse. Conclusion: Substance use is a severe mental disorder, with high relapse rates. Substance users high in anxiety sensitivity are particularly prone to relapse during the first six months of treatment. Addiction severity and coping motives need to be taken into account when providing interventional services for substance users. Findings imply the significance of additional psychological attention to methadone maintained patients to prevent craving and relapse.

Keywords: anxiety sensitivity, coping motives, relapse, substance use craving

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Authors: Ashkan Ebadi, Adam Krzyzak

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Recommender systems, also known as recommender engines, have become an important research area and are now being applied in various fields. In addition, the techniques behind the recommender systems have been improved over the time. In general, such systems help users to find their required products or services (e.g. books, music) through analyzing and aggregating other users’ activities and behavior, mainly in form of reviews, and making the best recommendations. The recommendations can facilitate user’s decision making process. Despite the wide literature on the topic, using multiple data sources of different types as the input has not been widely studied. Recommender systems can benefit from the high availability of digital data to collect the input data of different types which implicitly or explicitly help the system to improve its accuracy. Moreover, most of the existing research in this area is based on single rating measures in which a single rating is used to link users to items. This paper proposes a highly accurate hotel recommender system, implemented in various layers. Using multi-aspect rating system and benefitting from large-scale data of different types, the recommender system suggests hotels that are personalized and tailored for the given user. The system employs natural language processing and topic modelling techniques to assess the sentiment of the users’ reviews and extract implicit features. The entire recommender engine contains multiple sub-systems, namely users clustering, matrix factorization module, and hybrid recommender system. Each sub-system contributes to the final composite set of recommendations through covering a specific aspect of the problem. The accuracy of the proposed recommender system has been tested intensively where the results confirm the high performance of the system.

Keywords: tourism, hotel recommender system, hybrid, implicit features

Procedia PDF Downloads 253

Authors: Suleiman Musa

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The utilization of CD-ROM as a storage and retrieval system by Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK) Library is crucial in preserving and dissemination of information to students and staff. This study investigated the utilization of CD-ROM Database storage and retrieval system by students of NUSK. Data was generated using structure questionnaire. One thousand and fifty two (1052) respondents were randomly selected among post-graduate and under-graduate students. Eight hundred and ten (810) questionnaires were returned, but only five hundred and ninety three (593) questionnaires were well completed and useful. The study found that post-graduate students use CD-ROM Databases more often than the under-graduate students in NSUK. The result of the study revealed that knowledge about CD-ROM Database 33.22% got it through library staff. 29.69% use CD-ROM once a month. Large number of users 45.70% purposely uses CD-ROM Databases for study and research. In fact, lack of users’ orientation amount to 58.35% of problems faced, while 31.20% lack of trained staff make it more difficult for utilization of CD-ROM Database. Major numbers of users 38.28% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, while a good number of them 27.99% are satisfied. Then 1.52% is highly dissatisfied but could not give reasons why. However, to ensure effective utilization of CD-ROM Database storage and retrieval system by students of NSUK, the following recommendations are made: effort should be made to encourage under-graduate in using CD-ROM Database. The institution should conduct orientation/induction course for students on CD-ROM Databases in the library. There is need for NSUK to produce in house databases on their CD-ROM for easy access by users.

Keywords: utilization, CD-ROM databases, storage, retrieval, students

Procedia PDF Downloads 420

Authors: Munir Rusan

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Municipal waste management (MWM) represents a cornerstone in the effort to preserve the environment, which guarantees a healthy living environment for communities. MWM is directly affected by population growth and population density, urbanization, and tourism. In Jordan, MWM is currently managed by transferring and dumping waste into landfills. Landfills are mostly saturated and cannot receive any more waste. Besides, the organic waste, which accounts for 50% of municipal waste, will be naturally fermented in the landfills creating an unpleasant odor and emits greenhouse gases as well as generate organic leachates that are harmful to the environment. Organic waste can be aerobically composted and generate organic fertilizer called compost. Compost is very beneficial to soil and plant growth and, in general, to the ecosystem. Home composting is very common in most developed countries, but unfortunately, in developing countries such as Jordan, such an approach is not practiced and is not even socially well acceptable. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical and chemical properties of home composting materials and to produce compost for further use as a soil amendment. The effect of compost soil application on the soil-plant system was evaluated. The soil application of the compost resulted in enhancing soil organic matter and soil N, P, and K content. The plant growth was also improved quantitatively and qualitatively. It was concluded that composting of municipal organic solid waste and soil application of the compost has a significant positive impact on the environment and soil-plant productivity.

Keywords: composting, organic solid waste, soil, plant

Procedia PDF Downloads 57

Authors: W. Rowan, Y. O’Connor, L. Lynch, C. Heavin

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Situation Awareness can offer the potential for conscious dynamic reflection. In an era of online health data sharing, it is becoming increasingly important that users of health social networks (HSNs) have the information necessary to make informed decisions as part of the registration process and in the provision of eConsent. This research aims to leverage an adapted Situation Awareness (SA) model to explore users’ decision making processes in the provision of eConsent. A HSN platform was used to investigate these behaviours. A mixed methods approach was taken. This involved the observation of registration behaviours followed by a questionnaire and focus group/s. Early results suggest that users are apt to automatically accept eConsent, and only later consider the long-term implications of sharing their personal health information. Further steps are required to continue developing knowledge and understanding of this important eConsent process. The next step in this research will be to develop a set of guidelines for the improved presentation of eConsent on the HSN platform.

Keywords: eConsent, health social network, mixed methods, situation awareness

Procedia PDF Downloads 260

Authors: Bishoy Abouelsoud Saad Amin

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This paper examines the use of computer and its related health hazard among computer users in South-Western zone of Nigeria. Two hundred and eighteen (218) computer users constituted the population used to evaluate association between posture, extensive computer use and related health hazard. The instruments for the study are a questionnaire on demographics, lifestyle, body features and work ability index while mean rating, standard deviation and t test were used for data analysis. Identified health related hazard include damages to the eyesight, bad posture, arthritis, musculoskeletal disorders, headache, stress and so on. The results showed that factors such as work demand, posture, closeness to computer screen and excessive working hours on computers constitute health hazards in both old and young computer users of various gender. It is therefore recommended that total number of hours spent with computer should be monitored and controlled.

Keywords: computer game, metaphor, middle school students, virtual environments computer auditing, risk, measures to prevent, information management computer-related health hazard, musculoskeletal disorders, computer usage, work ability index

Procedia PDF Downloads 37

Authors: Belkacem Benadda, Adil Benabdellah, Boutheyna Souna

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is an unprecedented creation. Electronics objects are now able to interact, share, respond and adapt to their environment on a much larger basis. Actual spread of these modern means of connectivity and solutions with high data volume exchange are affecting our ways of life. Accommodation is becoming an intelligent living space, not only suited to the people circumstances and desires, but also to systems constraints to make daily life simpler, cheaper, increase possibilities and achieve a higher level of services and luxury. In this paper we are as Internet access, teleworking, consumption monitoring, information search, etc.). This paper addresses the design and integration of a smart home, it also purposes an IoT solution that allows smart power consumption based on measurements from power-grid and deep learning analysis.

Keywords: array sensors, IoT, power grid, FPGA, embedded

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Tzu-Jung Tseng, Pei-Hsuen Han, Tsung-Hsueh Lu

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Background: Choropleth mortality map is commonly used to identify areas with higher mortality risk. However, the use of choropleth map alone might result in the misinterpretation of differences in mortality rates between areas. Two areas with different color shades might not actually have a significant difference in mortality rates. The mortality rates estimated for an area with a small population would be less stable. We suggest of bringing the 95% confidence intervals (CI) into the choropleth mortality map to help users interpret the areal mortality rate difference more properly. Method: In the first choropleth mortality map, we used only three color to indicate standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for each district in Tainan, Taiwan. The red color denotes that the SMR of that district was significantly higher than the Tainan average; on the contrary, the green color suggests that the SMR of that district was significantly lower than the Tainan average. The yellow color indicates that the SMR of that district was not statistically significantly different from the Tainan average. In the second choropleth mortality map, we used traditional sequential color scheme (color ramp) for different SMR in 37 districts in Tainan City with bar chart of each SMR with 95% CI in which the users could examine if the line of 95% CI of SMR of two districts overlapped (nonsignificant difference). Results: The all-causes SMR of each district in Tainan for 2008 to 2013 ranged from 0.77 (95% CI 0.75 to 0.80) in East District to 1.39 Beimen (95% CI 1.25 to 1.52). In the first choropleth mortality map, only 16 of 37 districts had red color and 8 districts had green color. For different causes of death, the number of districts with red color differed. In the first choropleth mortality map we added a bar chart with line of 95% CI of SMR in each district, in which the users could visualize the SMR differences between districts. Conclusion: Through the use of 95% CI the users could interpret the aral mortality differences more properly.

Keywords: choropleth map, small area variation, standardized mortality ratio (SMR), Taiwan

Procedia PDF Downloads 296

Authors: Tamas Molnar

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Electronic government systems are currently in the same development stage as e-commerce applications were about in the late 1990s. Wide adoption by the majority of population is near, as such services are not only more and more desired by the users, but also strongly advocated and pushed by the state, as a means to increase effectiveness and cut expenses at the same time. Diffusion is however hampered by the low motivation caused by usability issues which will cause more and more frustration as the general population ages. Usability centred design is essential when creating such services. Elderly users, who have statistically the least experience, have the most problems, and therefore reject unusable systems first. The goal of our research was to find a way to map the needs of the elderly and create guidelines for the design of electronic government systems which are usable for the whole population. The first phase of our research, started mid-2009, was centred on the idea to gather information about the needs of the target group, in both Germany and Hungary with over 70 participants. This was done with the help of scenarios, interviews and questionnaires. The supplied data enabled to choose an eGovernment system for tests on the target group. Tests conducted in Germany and Hungary were based on the design and functions of the German electronic ID card, in the native languages. Scenarios mirroring common, every day transactions requiring an identification procedure were used. The obtained results allowed us to develop a generalised solution, the IGUAN guideline. This guideline makes a standardised approach to the usability improvement process possible. It contains the special requirements of elderly users, and a catalogue of criteria, which helps to develop an application in line with the set requirements. The third phase of our research was used a proof of concept for the IGUAN. The guideline was evaluated and tested with an iterative prototyping. The successful completion of this phase indicates that the IGUAN can be used to measurably increase the acceptance of e-government systems by elderly users. We could therefore demonstrate that improvements in the interface make e-government application possible which are perceived useful and easy to use by elderly users. These improvements will measurably increase the user motivation and experience. This can however only be achieved with a structured design process, and requires a framework which takes the requirements of the elderly users into account.

Keywords: e-Government, usability, acceptance, guidelines

Procedia PDF Downloads 521

Authors: Amer Ali, Jessica Cecchinelli, Antonis Charalambous

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Cycling is one of the most environmentally friendly, economic and healthy modes of transport but it needs more efficient cycle infrastructure and more effective safety measures. This paper represents an investigation into the performance and operation of the London Cycle Hire Scheme which started to operate in July 2010 using 5,000 cycles and 315 docking stations and currently has more than 10,000 cycles and over 700 docking stations across London which are available 24/7, 365 days a year. The study, which was conducted during the second half of 2014, consists of two parts; namely, the longitudinal review of the hire scheme between its introduction in 2010 and November 2014, and a field survey in November 2014 in the form of face-face interviews of the users of the cycle scheme to ascertain the existing limitations and difficulties experienced by those users and how it could be improved in terms of capability and safety. The study also includes a correlation between the usage of the cycle scheme and the corresponding weather conditions. The main findings are that on average the number of users (hiring frequency) had increased from just over two millions hires in 2010 to just less than ten millions in 2014. The field survey showed that 80% of the users are satisfied with the performance of the scheme whilst 50% of the users raised concern about the safety level of using the available cycle routes and infrastructure. The study also revealed that a high percentage of the cycle trips were relatively short (less than 30 minutes). Although the weather condition had some effect on cycling, the cost of using the cycle scheme and the main events in London had more effect on the number of cycle hires. The key conclusions are that despite the safety concern and the lack of infrastructure for continuous routes there was an encouraging number of people who opted for cycling as a clean, affordable, and healthy mode of transport. There is a need to expand the scheme by providing more cycles and docking stations and to support that by more well-designed and maintained cycle routes. More details about the development of London Cycle Hire Scheme during the last five years, its performance and the key issues revealed by the surveyed users will be reported in the full version of the paper.

Keywords: cycling mode of transport, london cycle hire scheme, safety, environmental and health benefits, user satisfaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 367