Search results for: digital interventions

Authors: Eunice H. Li

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This e-Poster presents how the ‘digital backpack’ was introduced to primary school children in Ivory Coast. The idea of a ‘digital backpack’ was initiated by Mr. Thierry N’Doufou in 2012, who later designed and presented to the rest of the world in September 2014. The motivation behind the backpack was to relieve children of the heavy-weight they carry in their school backpacks. Another motivation was to promote Ivory Coast as a country where all children are brought into the digital era. Thierry N’Doufou regards education as the means by which his nation and the entire African Continent can be developed as a prosperous territory. The ‘digital backpack’ contains the entire curriculum for each class and favours a constructivist approach to learning. The children’s notes and exercises are also included in the pack. Additionally, teachers and parents are able to monitor remotely children’s activities while they are working with the ‘backpack’. Teachers are also able to issue homework, assess student’s progress and manage the student’s coursework. This means that teachers should always think the most appropriate pedagogies that can be used to help children to learn. Furthermore, teachers, parents and fellow students are able to have conversations and discussions by using web portals. It is also possible to access more apps if children would like to have additional learning activities. From the presentation in the e-Poster, it seems reasonable to conclude that the ‘digital backpack’ has potential to reach other-level of education. In this way, all will be able to benefit from this new invention.

Keywords: pedagogy, curriculum, constructivism, social constructivism, distance learning environment, ubiquitous learning environment

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Authors: Zichao Zhang, Yifan Zhao, Samuel Court

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The carbon emission problem of the traditional construction industry has long been a pressing issue. With the growing emphasis on environmental protection and advancement of science and technology, the organic integration of digital technology and emission reduction has gradually become a mainstream solution. Among various sophisticated digital technologies, digital twins, which involve creating virtual replicas of physical systems or objects, have gained enormous attention in recent years as tools to improve productivity, optimize management and reduce carbon emissions. However, the relatively high implementation costs including finances, time, and manpower associated with digital twins have limited their widespread adoption. As a result, most of the current applications are primarily concentrated within a few industries. In addition, the creation of digital twins relies on a large amount of data and requires designers to possess exceptional skills in information collection, organization, and analysis. Unfortunately, these capabilities are often lacking in the traditional construction industry. Furthermore, as a relatively new concept, digital twins have different expressions and usage methods across different industries. This lack of standardized practices poses a challenge in creating a high-quality digital twin framework for construction. This paper firstly reviews the current academic studies and industrial practices focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the construction industry using digital twins. Additionally, it identifies the challenges that may be encountered during the design and implementation of a digital twin framework specific to this industry and proposes potential directions for future research. This study shows that digital twins possess substantial potential and significance in enhancing the working environment within the traditional construction industry, particularly in their ability to support decision-making processes. It proves that digital twins can improve the work efficiency and energy utilization of related machinery while helping this industry save energy and reduce emissions. This work will help scholars in this field to better understand the relationship between digital twins and energy conservation and emission reduction, and it also serves as a conceptual reference for practitioners to implement related technologies.

Keywords: digital twins, emission reduction, construction industry, energy saving, life cycle, sustainability

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Authors: Asmae Chraibi, Rachid Lghoul, Nabil Rhiati

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In the era of Industry 4.0, enterprises are increasingly employing digital technologies in order to improve their product development processes. This research focuses on the strategic deployment of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions during production as a key tracker of traceability and digital transformation activities. The study explores the integration of PLM within a larger organizational framework, examining its impact on product lifecycle efficiency, corporation, and innovation. Through a comprehensive analysis of a real case study from the automotive industry, this project evaluates the critical success factors and challenges associated with implementing PLM solutions for digital transformation. Moreover, it explores the synergic relationship between PLM and emerging technologies such as 3D experience and SOLIDWORKS, elucidating their combined potential in optimizing production workflows and enabling data-driven decision-making. The study's findings provide global approaches for firms looking to embark on a digital transformation journey by implementing PLM technologies. This research contributes to a better understanding of how PLM can be effectively used to foster innovation and competitiveness in the changing landscape of modern industry by shining light on best practices, critical considerations, and potential obstacles.

Keywords: product lifecyle management (PLM), industry 4.0, traceability, digital transformation, solution, innovation, 3D experience, SOLIDWORKS

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Authors: B. H. Aitchanov, Sh. K. Aitchanova, O. A. Baimuratov

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This paper is focused on dynamic pulse-frequency modulation (DPFM) control systems. Currently, the control law based on DPFM control signals is widely used in direct digital control subsystems introduced in the automated control systems of technological processes. Statistical analysis of automatic control systems is reduced to its construction of functional relationships between the statistical characteristics of the errors processes and input processes. Structural and dynamic Volterra models of digital pulse-frequency control systems can be used to develop methods for generating the dependencies, differing accuracy, requiring the amount of information about the statistical characteristics of input processes and computing labor intensity of their use.

Keywords: digital dynamic pulse-frequency control systems, dynamic pulse-frequency modulation, control object, discrete filter, impulse device, microcontroller

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Authors: Nina Kaufmans

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Traditional therapies, utilizing spoken narratives as a primary source of intervention, are proven to be limited in effectively treating post traumatic stress disorder. Following the effects of the global pandemic of COVID-19, an increasing number of mental health consumers are beginning to experience somatically-based distress in addition to existing mental health symptoms. Moreover, the aftermath of the rapid increase in demand for mental health services has caused significant burnout in mental health professionals. This paper explores the ramifications of recent changes and challenges in the mental health demands and subsequent response and its consequences for mental health workers. We will begin by investigating the neurobiological mechanisms involved in traumatic experiences, then discuss the premises for "bottom-up" or somatically oriented psychotherapy approaches, and finally offer clinical skills and interventions for clients diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. In addition, we will discuss how somatically-based psychotherapy interventions implemented in sessions may decrease burnout and improve the well-being of clinicians. We will discuss how the integration of somatically-based interventions into counseling would increase the effectiveness of mental health recovery and sustain remission while simultaneously providing opportunities for self-care for mental health professionals.

Keywords: somatic psychotherapy interventions, trauma counseling, preventing and treating burnout, adults with PTSD, bottom-up skills, the effectiveness of trauma treatment

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Authors: Tianyu Gao

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Digital architectures use computer-aided design, programming, simulation, and imaging to create virtual forms and physical structures. Today's customers want to know more about their buildings. They want an automatic thermostat to learn their behavior and contact them, such as the doors and windows they want to open with a mobile app. Therefore, the architectural display form is more closely related to the customer's experience. Based on the purpose of building informationization, this paper studies the steel structure design based on BIM. Taking the Zigan office building in Hangzhou as an example, it is divided into four parts, namely, the digital design modulus of the steel structure, the node analysis of the steel structure, the digital production and construction of the steel structure. Through the application of BIM software, the architectural design can be synergized, and the building components can be informationized. Not only can the architectural design be feedback in the early stage, but also the stability of the construction can be guaranteed. In this way, the monitoring of the entire life cycle of the building and the meeting of customer needs can be realized.

Keywords: digital architectures, BIM, steel structure, architectural design

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Authors: Magaji Zainab Musa, Nordin M. A. Rahman, Julaily Aida Jusoh

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This paper discusses the formal specification of web services applications for digital reference services (WSDRS). Digital reference service involves a user requesting for help from a reference librarian and a reference librarian responding to the request of a user all by electronic means. In most cases users do not get satisfied while using digital reference service due to delay of response of the librarians. Another may be due to no response or due to librarian giving an irrelevant solution to the problem submitted by the user. WDSRS is an informal model that claims to reduce the problems of digital reference services in libraries. It uses web services technology to provide efficient way of satisfying users’ need in the reference section of libraries. But informal model is in natural language which is inconsistent and ambiguous that may cause difficulties to the developers of the system. In order to solve this problem we decided to convert the informal specifications into formal specifications. This is supposed to reduce the overall development time and cost. Formal specification can be used to provide an unambiguous and precise supplement to natural language descriptions. It can be rigorously validated and verified leading to the early detection of specification errors. We use Z language to develop the formal model and verify it with Z/EVES theorem prover tool.

Keywords: formal, specifications, web services, digital reference services

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Authors: Reuben Kinyuru Njuguna, Martin Mabuya Njuguna

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Digital platforms, such as The Internet, and the advent of digital marketing strategies, have led to many changes in the marketing of goods and services. These have resulted in improved service quality, enhanced customer relations, productivity gains, marketing transaction cost reductions, improved customer service and flexibility in fulfilling customers’ changing needs and lifestyles. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of digital marketing practices on the financial performance of mobile network operators in the telecommunications industry in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to establish how digital customer relationship management strategies on performance of mobile network operators in Kenya. The study used an explanatory cross-sectional survey research design, while the target population was made up of from the 4 major mobile network operators in Kenya, namely Safaricom Limited, Airtel Networks Kenya Limited, Finserve Africa Limited and Telkom Kenya Limited. Sampling strategy was stratified sampling with a sample size of 97 respondents. Digital customer relationship strategies were seen to influence firm performance, through enhancing convenience, building trust, encouraging growth in market share through creating sustainable relationships, building commitment with customers, enhancing customer retention and customer satisfaction. Digital customer relationship management were seen to maximize gross profits by increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. The study recommended upscaling the use of digital customer relationship management strategies to further enhance firm performance, given their great potential in this regard.

Keywords: customer relationship management, customer service delivery, performance, customer satisfaction

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Authors: Sumiti Saharan, Pallav Patankar, Lily W. Lee

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Understanding the health-seeking behaviors and attitudes of women towards maternal health in the context of gender roles and family dynamics is tremendously crucial for designing effective and impactful interventions aimed at improving maternal and child health outcomes. Further, as the digital world becomes more accessible and affordable, it is imperative to scope the potential of digital technology in enabling access to maternal health information in different socio-economic groups (SEGs). In the summer of 2017, we conducted a study with 500 women across different SEGs in urban India who were pregnant or had had a delivery in the last year. The study was undertaken to assess their maternal health information seeking behavior with a particular focus on probing their use of digital technology for health-related information. The study also measured women's decision-making autonomy in the context of maternal health, awareness of their rights to quality and respectful maternal healthcare, and agency to voice their rights. We probed the impact of key variables including education, age, and socioeconomic status on all outcome variables. In terms of health-seeking behaviors, we found that women heavily relied on medical professionals and/or their mothers and mothers-in-law for all maternal health advice. Digital adoption was found to be high across all SEGs, with around 70% of women from all populations using the internet several times a week. On the other hand, use of the internet for both accessing maternal health information and choosing maternity hospitals were both significantly dependent on SEG. The key reasons reported for not using the internet for health purposes were lack of awareness and lack of trust on content accuracy. Decisions around health practices and type of delivery were found to be jointly made by women and other family members. Almost all women reported their husbands to play a key role in all maternal health decisions and for decisions with a clear financial implication like choice of hospital for delivery, husbands were reported to be the sole decision maker by a majority of women. The agency of women was also found to be low in interactions with maternal healthcare providers with a third of respondents not comfortable with voicing their opinions and preferences to their doctors. Interestingly, we find that this relatively low agency was prominent in both lower middle class and middle-class SEGs. Recognition of the sociocultural determinants of behavior is the first step in developing actionable strategies for improving maternal health outcomes. Our study quantifies the agency and autonomy of women in urban India and the variables that impact them. Our findings emphasize the value of gender normative approaches that factor in the key role husbands play in guiding maternal health decisions. They also highlight the power of digital approaches for catalyzing access to maternal health information. These insights into the attitude and behaviors of mothers in context of their sociocultural environments—and their relationship with digital technology—can help pave the way towards designing effective, scalable maternal and child health programs in developing nations like India.

Keywords: access to healthcare information, behavior, digital health, maternal health

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Authors: Manuela Nayantara Jeyaraj

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'Digital Divide' is a concept that has existed in this paradigm ever since the discovery of the first-generation technologies. Before the turn of the century, it was basically used to describe the gap between those with telephone communication access and those without it. At present, it is plainly descriptive in itself to illustrate the cavity among those with Internet access and those without. Though the concept of digital divide has been merely lying in sight for as long as time itself, the friction it caused has not yet been fully realized to solve major crisis situations. Unlike well-developed countries, Sri Lanka is still in the verge of moving farther away from a developing country in the race towards reaching a developed state. Access to technological resources varies from region to region, even within the island itself, with one region having a considerable percentage of its community exposed to the Internet and its related technologies, and the other unaware of such. Thus, this paper intends to analyze the roots for the still-extant gap instigated based on the concept of ‘Digital Divide’ and explores the plausible potentials that could be brought about by narrowing this prevailing percentage among the population, specifically entrenching the advantages reaped towards an economic augmentation and culture or lifestyle revolution on the path towards development.

Keywords: communication, digital divide, society, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Emily Cherono Sawe, Elisha Ondieki Makori

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Knowledge and digital economies have brought challenges and potential opportunities for universities to innovate and improve the quality of learning. Disruption technologies and information dynamics continue to transform and change the landscape in teaching, scholarship, and research activities across universities. Digital literacy is a fundamental and imperative element in higher education and training, as witnessed during the new norm. COVID-19 caused unprecedented disruption in universities, where teaching and learning depended on digital innovations and applications. Academic services and activities were provided online, including library information services. Information professionals were forced to adopt various digital platforms in order to provide information services to patrons. University libraries’ roles in fulfilling educational responsibilities continue to evolve in response to changes in pedagogy, technology, economy, society, policies, and strategies of parent institutions. Libraries are currently undergoing considerable transformational change as a result of the inclusion of a digital environment. Academic libraries have been at the forefront of providing online learning resources and online information services, as well as supporting students and staff to develop digital literacy skills via online courses, tutorials, and workshops. Digital literacy transformation and information staff are crucial elements reminiscent of the prioritization of skills and knowledge for lifelong learning. The purpose of this baseline research is to assess the implications of digital literacy transformation in institutions of higher learning in Kenya and share appropriate strategies to leverage and sustain teaching and research. Objectives include examining the leverage and preparedness of the digital literacy environment in streamlining learning in the universities, exploring and benchmarking imperative digital competence for information professionals, establishing the perception of information professionals towards digital literacy skills, and determining lessons, best practices, and strategies to accelerate digital literacy transformation for effective research and learning in the universities. The study will adopt a descriptive research design using questionnaires and document analysis as the instruments for data collection. The targeted population is librarians and information professionals, as well as academics in public and private universities teaching information literacy programmes. Data and information are to be collected through an online structured questionnaire and digital face-to-face interviews. Findings and results will provide promising lessons together with best practices and strategies to transform and change digital literacies in university libraries in Kenya.

Keywords: digital literacy, digital innovations, information professionals, librarians, higher education, university libraries, digital information literacy

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Authors: K. Ö. Kartal, L. Maul, M. Hägele

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With the development of new technologies come additional opportunities for the founding of companies and new markets to be created. The barriers to entry are lowered and technology makes old business models obsolete. Incumbent companies have to be adaptable to this quickly changing environment. They have to start the process of digital maturation and they have to be able to adapt quickly to new and drastic changes that might arise. One of the biggest barriers for organizations in order to do so is their culture. This paper shows the core elements of a corporate culture that supports the process of digital maturation in incumbent organizations. Furthermore, it is explored how ideation and innovation can be used in a strategy in order to facilitate these core elements of culture that promote digital maturity. Focus areas are identified for the design of ideation strategies, with the aim to make the facilitation and incitation process more effective, short to long term. Therefore, one in-depth case study is conducted with data collection from interviews, observation, document review and surveys. The findings indicate that digital maturity is connected to cultural shift and 11 relevant elements of digital culture are identified which have to be considered. Based on these 11 core elements, five focus areas that need to be regarded in the design of a strategy that uses ideation and innovation to facilitate the cultural shift are identified. These are: Focus topics, rewards and communication, structure and frequency, regions and new online formats.

Keywords: digital transformation, innovation management, ideation strategy, creativity culture, change

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Authors: Emmanouel Koumoulas, Aikaterini Rokkou, Marios Moschakis

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Theagenio" in Thessaloniki exists and works for three centuries now as a hospital. Since 1975, it has been operating as an Integrated Special Cancer Hospital and since 1985 it has been integrated into the National Health System. "Theagenio" Cancer Hospital is located at the central web of Thessaloniki residential complex and consists of two buildings, the "Symeonidio Research Center", which was completed in 1962 and the Nursing Ward, a project that was later completed in 1975. This paper examines the design of the Hospital Unit according to the requirements of the energy design of buildings. Initially, the energy characteristics of the Hospital are recorded, followed by a detailed presentation of the electromechanical installations. After the existing situation has been captured and with the help of the software TEE-KENAK, different scenarios for the energy upgrading of the buildings have been studied. Proposals for upgrading concern both the shell, e.g. installation of external thermal insulation, replacement of frames, addition of shading systems, etc. as well as electromechanical installations, e.g. use of ceiling fans, improvements in heating and cooling systems, interventions in lighting, etc. The simulation calculates the future energy status of the buildings and presents the economic benefits of the proposed interventions with reference to the environmental profits that arise.

Keywords: energy consumption in hospitals, energy saving interventions, energy upgrading, hospital facilities

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Authors: H. El-Kamchouchi, Heba Gaber, Fatma Ahmed, Dalia H. El-Kamchouchi

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Fault tolerance and data security are two important issues in modern communication systems. In this paper, we propose a secure and efficient digital signature scheme with fault tolerance based on the improved RSA system. The proposed scheme for the RSA cryptosystem contains three prime numbers and overcome several attacks possible on RSA. By using the Chinese Reminder Theorem (CRT) the proposed scheme has a speed improvement on the RSA decryption side and it provides high security also.

Keywords: digital signature, fault tolerance, RSA, security analysis

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Authors: Lindsey Watson

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This research is aimed at facilitating and listening to the voices of younger children, recognising their contributions to research about the things that matter to them. Digital technology increasingly impacts on the lives of young children, therefore this study aimed at increasing children’s agency through recognising and involving their perspectives to help contribute to a wider understanding of younger children’s perceptions of online safety. Using a phenomenological approach, the paper discusses how storytelling as a creative methodological approach enabled an agentic space for children to express their views, knowledge, and perceptions of their engagement with the digital world. Setting and parental informed consent were gained in addition to an adapted approach to child assent through the use of child-friendly language and emoji stickers, which was also recorded verbally. Findings demonstrate that younger children are thinking about many aspects of digital technology and how this impacts on their lives and that storytelling as a research method is a useful tool to facilitate conversations with young children. The paper thus seeks to recognise and evaluate how creative methodologies can provide insights into children’s understanding of online safety and how this can influence practitioners and parents in supporting younger children in a digital world.

Keywords: early childhood, family, online safety, phenomenology, storytelling

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Authors: Merav Hayakac, Orit Avidov-Ungarab

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The current study adopted an interpretive-constructivist approach to examine how senior academics from a large sample of Israeli teacher education colleges serving general or religious populations perceived the integration of digital games into their teacher instruction and what their policy and vision were in this regard in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Half the participants expressed a desire to integrate digital games into their teaching and learning but acknowledged that this practice was uncommon. Only a small minority believed they had achieved successful integration, with doubt and skepticism expressed by some religious colleges. Most colleges had policies encouraging technology integration supported by ongoing funding. Although a considerable gap between policy and implementation remained, the COVID-19 pandemic was viewed as having accelerated the integration of digital games into pre-service teacher instruction. The findings suggest that discussions around technology-related vision and policy and their translation into practice should relate to the specific cultural needs and academic preparedness of the population(s) served by the college.

Keywords: COVID-19, digital games, pedagogy, teacher education colleges

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Authors: Vendula Safarova

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The author describes the architectural and social research through the project, Interventions Ostrava City 2013 (the idea came from Vallo + Sadovský architects), in which she participated as an organizer and as an architect. The project invited the public to actively participate, logging their "hits" or proposals (58), and resulted in three exhibitions in Ostrava, a catalog of the exhibition called Urban interventions Ostrava 2013 (published in 2014) and the implementation of two interventions (2014), with a third intervention still in preparation. The article dealt with the public's views and reactions of local authorities. The project also engaged Ostrava City council, who began to talk about the future of the city of Ostrava, taking part in public debates (organized by Fiducia), invited new associations, civil society - city for people (workers from Cooltour), as well as more established clubs such as the Beautification Committee for beautiful Ostrava (newsletter published since 2008). Currently, the City Interventions project has taken place in more than 10 cities, including Slovakia, where it originated, and in Bratislava in 2009. The aim of this article is to inform the public about the so-called Activism in architecture, which manifests itself in the form of community projects that are organized by volunteers (sometimes financially supported by local authorities). It is a unique way to survey public relations and representatives of state and local government for a public urban area.

Keywords: architecture, community project, public urban space, society and planning

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Authors: Chih-Ping Chen

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Today, technology does not necessitate change; rather, social media has afforded a new arena and digital tools for users/individuals to be symbolized and marketed in meaningful exchanges of digital identities. We argue that these symbolic interactions may afford individuals the ability to create and present less restricted Line person-to-person (P2P) chats than would be possible in face-to-face communications. Individuals can select flexible influence strategies to market themselves, which enables them to create and present their digital identities and impressions in alternative ways within a dynamic sociocultural context. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the novel phenomenon of how individuals market themselves to manage their digital identities and impressions to connect with other users through the symbolic interactions created by new digital tools (e.g., stickers). A netnographic approach was developed by applying a triangulated methodology consisting of user self-diary reports, in-depth interviews, and observations. Totally, 20 participants (10 females and 10 males) were of Taiwanese origin, and their ages ranged from 20–47 years old. The findings of this research showed that individuals on Line P2P social media where traditional cultural gender norms have shifted. Both male and female participants market their modern digital identities by adopting a combination of flexible influence tactics/strategies when using digital stickers. Some findings showed that their influence tactics/strategies often flouted Taiwanese cultural gender norms or skirted traditional rules to fit individual or P2P needs. Finally, these findings potentially contributed to the literature regarding the consumer culture theory and symbolic interaction theory in digital marketing and social media fields.

Keywords: Consumer culture theory, Digital sticker, Self-marketing, Impression, Symbolic interaciton

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Authors: Giulia Cardoni, Francesca Fabbrii

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Living archives perform a function of social memory sharing, which contributes to building social bonds, communities, and identities. This potential lies in the ability to live archives to put together an archival function, which allows the conservation and transmission of memory with an artistic, performative and creative function linked to the present. As part of the DARE-UIA (Digital environment for collaborative alliances to regenerate urban ecosystems in middle-sized cities) project the creation of a living digital archive made it possible to create a narrative that would consolidate the cultural memory of the Darsena district of the city of Ravenna. The aim of the project is to stimulate the urban regeneration of a suburban area of a city, enhancing its cultural memory and identity heritage through digital heritage tools. The methodology used involves various digital storytelling actions necessary for the overall narrative using georeferencing systems (GIS), storymaps and 3D reconstructions for a transversal narration of historical content such as personal and institutional historical photos and to enhance the industrial archeology heritage of the neighborhood. The aim is the creation of an interactive and replicable narrative in similar contexts to the Darsena district in Ravenna. The living archive, in which all the digital contents are inserted, finds its manifestation towards the outside in the form of a museum spread throughout the neighborhood, making the contents usable on smartphones via QR codes and totems inserted on-site, creating thematic itineraries spread around the neighborhood. The construction of an interactive and engaging digital narrative has made it possible to enhance the material and immaterial heritage of the neighborhood by recreating the community that has historically always distinguished it.

Keywords: digital living archive, digital storytelling, GIS, 3D, open-air museum, urban regeneration, cultural memory

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Authors: Mukondi Esther Nethavhakone

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In 2020 World Health Organization announced the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), also known as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To curb or contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID 19), global governments implemented social distancing and lockdown regulations. Subsequently, it was no longer business as per usual, life as we knew it had changed, and so many aspects of people's lives were negatively affected, including financial and employment stability. Mainly, because companies/businesses had to put their operations on hold, some had to shut down completely, resulting in the loss of income for many people globally. Finances and employment insecurities are some of the issues that exacerbated many social issues that the world was already faced with, such as school drop-outs, teenage pregnancies, sexual assaults, gender-based violence, crime, child abuse, elderly abuse, to name a few. Expectedly the majority of the population's mental health state was threatened. This resulted in an increased number of people seeking mental healthcare services. The increasing need for mental healthcare services in Low and Middle-income countries proves to be a challenge because it is a well-known fact due to financial constraints and not well-established healthcare systems, mental healthcare provision is not as prioritised as the primary healthcare in these countries. It is against this backdrop that the researcher seeks to find viable, cost-effective, and accessible mental health solutions for low and middle-income countries amid the pressures of any pandemic. The researcher will undertake a systematic review of the technology-based mental health solutions that have been implemented/adopted by developed countries during COVID 19 lockdown and social distancing periods. This systematic review study aims to determine if low and middle-income countries can adopt the cost-effective version of digital mental health solutions for the healthcare system to adequately provide mental healthcare services during critical times such as pandemics (when there's an overwhelming diminish in mental health globally). The researcher will undertake a systematic review study through mixed methods. It will adhere to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The mixed-methods uses findings from both qualitative and quantitative studies in one review study. It will be beneficial to conduct this kind of study using mixed methods because it is a public health topic that involves social interventions and it is not purely based on medical interventions. Therefore, the meta-ethnographic (qualitative data) analysis will be crucial in understanding why and which digital methods work and for whom does it work, rather than only the meta-analysis (quantitative data) providing what digital mental health methods works. The data collection process will be extensive, involving the development of a database, table of summary of evidence/findings, and quality assessment process lastly, The researcher will ensure that ethical procedures are followed and adhered to, ensuring that sensitive data is protected and the study doesn't pose any harm to the participants.

Keywords: digital, mental health, covid, low and middle-income countries

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Authors: Batuhan Kocaoglu

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Nowadays digital transformation is a hot topic both in service and production business. For the companies who want to stay alive in the following years, they should change how they do their business. Industry leaders started to improve their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) like backbone technologies to digital advances such as analytics, mobility, sensor-embedded smart devices, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and more. Selecting the appropriate technology for the related business problem also is a hot topic. Besides this, to operate in the modern environment and fulfill rapidly changing customer expectations, a digital transformation of the business is required and change the way the business runs, affect how they do their business. Even the digital transformation term is trendy the literature is limited and covers just the philosophy instead of a solid implementation plan. Current studies urge firms to start their digital transformation, but few tell us how to do. The huge investments scare companies with blur definitions and concepts. The aim of this paper to solidify the steps of the digital transformation and offer a roadmap for the companies and academicians. The proposed roadmap is developed based upon insights from the literature review, semi-structured interviews, and expert views to explore and identify crucial steps. We introduced our roadmap in the form of 8 main steps: Awareness; Planning; Operations; Implementation; Go-live; Optimization; Autonomation; Business Transformation; including a total of 11 sub-steps with examples. This study also emphasizes four dimensions of the digital transformation mainly: Readiness assessment; Building organizational infrastructure; Building technical infrastructure; Maturity assessment. Finally, roadmap corresponds the steps with three main terms used in digital transformation literacy as Digitization; Digitalization; and Digital Transformation. The resulted model shows that 'business process' and 'organizational issues' should be resolved before technology decisions and 'digitization'. Companies can start their journey with the solid steps, using the proposed roadmap to increase the success of their project implementation. Our roadmap is also adaptable for relevant Industry 4.0 and enterprise application projects. This roadmap will be useful for companies to persuade their top management for investments. Our results can be used as a baseline for further researches related to readiness assessment and maturity assessment studies.

Keywords: digital transformation, digital business, ERP, roadmap

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Authors: Yung Gi Wu

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With the growing of computer and network, digital data can be spread to anywhere in the world quickly. In addition, digital data can also be copied or tampered easily so that the security issue becomes an important topic in the protection of digital data. Digital watermark is a method to protect the ownership of digital data. Embedding the watermark will influence the quality certainly. In this paper, Vector Quantization (VQ) is used to embed the watermark into the image to fulfill the goal of data hiding. This kind of watermarking is invisible which means that the users will not conscious the existing of embedded watermark even though the embedded image has tiny difference compared to the original image. Meanwhile, VQ needs a lot of computation burden so that we adopt a fast VQ encoding scheme by partial distortion searching (PDS) and mean approximation scheme to speed up the data hiding process. The watermarks we hide to the image could be gray, bi-level and color images. Texts are also can be regarded as watermark to embed. In order to test the robustness of the system, we adopt Photoshop to fulfill sharpen, cropping and altering to check if the extracted watermark is still recognizable. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system can resist the above three kinds of tampering in general cases.

Keywords: data hiding, vector quantization, watermark, color image

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Authors: Mukondi Nethavhakone

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The high prevalence of violence against women is a global public health problem. Our societies have become dangerous places for women. Women during their child-bearing ages are at a higher risk of experiencing emotional, physical, and sexual violence. What makes it more concerning is that these violent acts are perpetrated by family members or partners, or ex-partners. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is associated with long-lasting physical, reproductive, sexual, mental, and maternal health implications. Expectedly women’s mental health would dimmish as a result of experiencing IPV. The burden of violence against women is seen to be heavier in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared to the rest of the world. Countries have committed to eliminating all forms of violence against women through the sustainable development goal, aiming to see changes by the year 2030. As such, various countries have implemented psychosocial interventions of different levels of impact. However, little is known, especially in low- and middle-income countries, with regard to the potential of psychosocial interventions for IPV to improve the mental health outcomes for the survivors and/or victims of IPV. Analysing the risk for IPV through a social-ecological theoretical approach, low- and middle-income countries still readdressing gender inequality which is the cause of intimate partner violence. That is why it is taking time for these countries to shift psychosocial interventions to focus more on the improvement of the mental health of the survivors. It is, therefore, against this backdrop that the researcher intends to undertake a scoping review to understand the nature and characteristics of psychosocial interventions that have been implemented in low- and middle-income countries. With the findings from the scoping review, the researcher aims to develop a conceptual framework that may be a useful resource for healthcare practitioners and researchers in low- and middle-income countries. As this area of research has not been thoroughly reviewed, the results from this scoping will determine whether a systematic review will be justifiable. Additionally, the researcher will identify gaps and opportunities for future research in this area.

Keywords: mental health improvement, psychosocial interventions, intimate partner violence, LMICs

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Authors: Orestis Kasinopoulos, Maria Karekla, Vasilis Vasiliou, Evangelos Karademas

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an empirically supported intervention for treating Chronic Pain Patients, yet its effectiveness for some chronic conditions or when adapted to other languages, has not been explored. An ACT group intervention was designed to explore the effectiveness of treating a Greek speaking heterogeneous sample of Chronic Pain patients with the aim of increasing quality of life, acceptance of pain and functionality. Sixty-nine patients were assessed and randomly assigned to an ACT or control group (relaxation techniques) for eight, 90-minute, sessions. Results are currently being analysed and follow-ups (6 and 12 month) are being completed. Low adherence rates and high attrition rates observed in the study, however point to the direction of future modified interventions. Such modifications may include web-based and smartphone interventions and their benefits in being implemented in chronic pain patients.

Keywords: chronic pain, ACT, internet-delivered, digitalised intervention, adherence, attrition

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Authors: Simon Mwima, Kasule Solomon Kibirige, Evans Jennifer Mann, Bosco Mukuba, Edson Chipalo, Agnes Nzomene, Eusebius Small, Moses Okumu

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Introduction: Social workers must create, implement, and evaluate client-centered psychosocial interventions (CCPI) to reduce the impact of intersectional stigma on HIV service utilization among sexual minorities. We contribute to the scarcity of evidence about sexual minorities in Uganda by using social support theory to explore clients' perceptions that shape CCPI. Based on Focused Group Discussion (FGD) with 31 adolescents recruited from Kampala's HIV clinics in 2021, our findings reveal the positive influence of instrumental, informational, esteem, emotional, and social network support as intersectional stigma reduction interventions. Men who have sex with men, lesbians, and bisexual women used such strategies to navigate a heavily criminalized and stigmatizing setting during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda. Conclusion: This study provides evidence for the social work profession to develop and implement psychosocial interventions that reduce HIV stigma and discrimination among MSM, lesbians, and bisexual young people living with HIV in Uganda.

Keywords: pyschosocial interventions, social work, intersectional stigma, HIV/AIDS, adolescents, sexual minorities, Uganda

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Authors: H. Soltani, Kevin Laugero

Abstract:

Obesity is becoming an increasingly critical issue in the United States due to the steady and substantial increase in prevalence over the last 30 years. Existing interventions have been able to help participants achieve short-term weight loss, but have failed to show long-term results. The complex nature of behavioral change remains one of the most difficult barriers in promoting sustainable weight-loss in overweight individuals. Research suggests that the 'intention-behavior gap' can be explained by a person’s ability to regulate higher-order thinking, or Executive Function (EF). A review of 63 research articles was completed in fall of 2017 to identify the role of EF in regulating eating behavior and to identify whether there is a potential for improving dietary quality by enhancing EF. Results showed that poor EF is positively associated with obesogenic behavior, namely increased consumption of highly palatable foods, eating in the absence of hunger, high saturated fat intake and low fruit and vegetable consumption. Recent research has indicated that interventions targeting an improvement in EF can be successful in helping promote healthy behaviors. Furthermore, interventions of longer duration have a more lasting and versatile effect on weight loss and maintenance. This may present an opportunity for the increasingly ubiquitous use of mobile application technology.

Keywords: eating behavior, executive function, nutrition, obesity, weight-loss

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Authors: Yvonne Howard

Abstract:

This project currently under development is centered around current learning processes, including a thorough literature review and ongoing practical experiences gained as a deputy head in a school. These daily experiences with students engaging in animal-assisted interventions and the school therapy dog form a strong base for this research. The primary objective of this research is to comprehensively explore the impact of dog-assisted well-being interventions on student motivation and affective engagement within primary and secondary school settings. The educational domain currently encounters a significant challenge due to the lack of substantial research in this area. Despite the perceived positive outcomes of such interventions being acknowledged and shared in various settings, the evidence supporting their effectiveness in an educational context remains limited. This study aims to bridge the gap in the research and shed light on the potential benefits of dog-assisted well-being interventions in promoting student motivation and affective engagement. The significance of this topic recognizes that education is not solely confined to academic achievement but encompasses the overall well-being and emotional development of students. Over recent years, there has been a growing interest in animal-assisted interventions, particularly in healthcare settings. This interest has extended to the educational context. While the effectiveness of these interventions in these areas has been explored in other fields, the educational sector lacks comprehensive research in this regard. Through a systematic and thorough research methodology, this study seeks to contribute valuable empirical data to the field, providing evidence to support informed decision-making regarding the implementation of dog-assisted well-being interventions in schools. This research will utilize a mixed-methods design, combining qualitative and quantitative measures to assess the research objectives. The quantitative phase will include surveys and standardized scales to measure student motivation and affective engagement, while the qualitative phase will involve interviews and observations to gain in-depth insights from students, teachers, and other stakeholders. The findings will contribute evidence-based insights, best practices, and practical guidelines for schools seeking to incorporate dog-assisted interventions, ultimately enhancing student well-being and improving educational outcomes.

Keywords: therapy dog, wellbeing, engagement, motivation, AAI, intervention, school

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Authors: Tobias Wissing, Peter Burggräf, Johannes Wagner

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Cost pressure, competitiveness and the increasing turbulence of globalized saturated markets has been the driver for a variety of research activities in the field of production planning and control (PPC) during the past decades. For some time past an increasing awareness for innovative technologies in terms of Industry 4.0 can be noticed. Although there are many promising approaches a solely installation of those smart solutions will not maximize the PPC performance. To accelerate the successful digital transformation the cooperation between employee and technology also has to be adapted. The existing processes and organizational structures might be not sufficient to maximize the utilization of technological innovations. This paper presents the key results of an extensive study which was conducted by the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of the RWTH Aachen University to evaluate the current situation and examine the organizational readiness for this digital transformation.

Keywords: cyber-physical production system, digital transformation, industry 4.0, production planning and control

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Authors: Manuel Alves, Angelica Reis, Armindo Lobo, Valdemar Leiras

Abstract:

In industry 4.0, it is common to have a lot of sensor data. In this deluge of data, hints of possible problems are difficult to spot. The digital twin concept aims to help answer this problem, but it is mainly used as a monitoring tool to handle the visualisation of data. Failure detection is of paramount importance in any industry, and it consumes a lot of resources. Any improvement in this regard is of tangible value to the organisation. The aim of this paper is to add the ability to forecast test failures, curtailing detection times. To achieve this, several anomaly detection algorithms were compared with a symbolic regression approach. To this end, Isolation Forest, One-Class SVM and an auto-encoder have been explored. For the symbolic regression PySR library was used. The first results show that this approach is valid and can be added to the tools available in this context as a low resource anomaly detection method since, after training, the only requirement is the calculation of a polynomial, a useful feature in the digital twin context.

Keywords: anomaly detection, digital twin, industry 4.0, symbolic regression

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Authors: Santhani M. Selveindran

Abstract:

Background: Natural disasters are traumatic global events that are becoming increasing more common, with significant psychosocial impact on survivors. This impact results not only in psychosocial distress but, for many, can lead to psychosocial disorders and chronic psychopathology. While there are currently available interventions that seek to prevent and treat these psychosocial sequelae, their effectiveness is uncertain. The evidence-base is emerging with more primary studies evaluating the effectiveness of various psychosocial interventions for survivors of natural disasters, which remains to be synthesized. Aim of Review: To identify, critically appraise and synthesize the current evidence-base on the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in preventing or treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and/or Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in adults and children who are survivors of natural disasters. Methods: A protocol was developed as a guide to carry out this review. A systematic search was conducted in eight international electronic databases, three grey literature databases, one dissertation and thesis repository, websites of six humanitarian and non-governmental organizations renowned for their work on natural disasters, as well as bibliographic and citation searching for eligible articles. Papers meeting the specific inclusion criteria underwent quality assessment using the Downs and Black checklist. Data were extracted from the included papers and analysed by way of narrative synthesis. Results: Database and website searching returned 3777 papers where 31 met the criteria for inclusion. Additional 2 papers were obtained through bibliographic and citation searching. Methodological quality of most papers was fair. Twenty-five studies evaluated psychological interventions, five, social interventions whereas three studies evaluated ‘mixed’ psychological and social interventions. All studies, irrespective of methodological quality, reported post-intervention reductions in symptom scores for PTSD, depression and/or anxiety and where assessed, reduced diagnosis of PTSD and MDD, and produced improvements in self-efficacy and quality of life. Statistically significant results were seen in 27 studies. However, three studies demonstrated that the evaluated interventions may not have been very beneficial. Conclusions: The overall positive results suggest that any psychosocial interventions are favourable and should be delivered to all natural disaster survivors, irrespective of age, country, and phase of disaster. Yet, heterogeneity and methodological shortcomings of the current evidence-base makes it difficult to draw definite conclusions needed to formulate categorical guidance or frameworks. Further, rigorously conducted research is needed in this area, although the feasibility of such, given the context and nature of the problem, is also recognized.

Keywords: psychosocial interventions, natural disasters, survivors, effectiveness

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